How can you compassionately tell the media of your faith in Australian human nature when you've been so busy destroying it?  How can you dare to say that you don't believe in underlying racial tensions when mobs are attacking minorites?   I can't work for you anymore... you never listen to me.

 Read this cabbie's blog account of working in Sydney on Sunday night, and if you don't feel at least the slightest bit of shame, you'll never feel a sense of conscience again.

[excerpt} 

Memo to the Downer-Under department.

A big Christmas Howdy to all of Alex's boy's! Our little buddies have been working their butts getting the Apocalypse Headquarters ready. Little John, with some gentle persuasion, has decided to stay with the team... thanks, Agent Gerard! You've saved us a bundle yet again!

Don't forget the date of our next party, on June 6th next year. The Sexy Six will provide the music, George will be serving the pretzels, and Osama as always will be running the chook-raffle

Halliburton Mal has always delivered our every need, and he's lived up to his reputation. The catering he\s provided for the bash is more than anyone could ask for.  Another fat Christmas bonus of Defence Research stocks are coming to stuff your stocking, Pally, hand delivered by Director Dick! Secretary Don says we won't run out of anything, and that the playground's second to none.  He was particularly impressed with the Liquor Cabinet you supplied after tasting your samples.

This is the philosophy ascribed to by conservative politicians.  They believe that anything ithat is said wil be dust within days.   

 They may be correct, but I don't think so.  We have the potential to see beyond the bullshit, but to do that we need to know that it's bullshit we're seing beyond, if you know what I mean..

I might  be wrong, but I now think that ike the pro-Yank ads being paid for in Iraqi media, Australian journalism is slanted to suit the cause of the current US regime.

LOCAL BOY MADE GOOD is the theme (yep, a really new one) that's been used to sell the militarisation of the state to the locals... it's a pity that BAE isn't "a Salisbury-based comany", and there's not a little cottage industry  winning worldwide work called Halliburon/KBR.

Costello:"If you have any inquiries into the proceedings of the tax office I
suggest you refer them to the tax office or to the taxation
commissioner."

Searle: " He wouldn't be able to tell you much at all because he would be subject to the secrecy provisions of the taxation act."

A retired senior tax officer says that the matter should have been
referred to the DPP but that he can say no more as, although retired,
he's still subject to the secrecy provisions of the income tax act. This
is much of a tune as Chris Searle can whistleblow, and it's a strong
and stirring lament.

Pre-planned, brilliant "photo-op" creation.  I reckon that ASIO didn't think the Australian protest movement would be able to think like Diane Wilson unless we went to a Scott Parkin class.

From Houston Indymedia :

Katie Heim reports from inside the Westin Oaks Hotel: This evening, as Republicans gathered in the Galleria to raise money for the GOP Diane WIlson, cofounder of Code Pink and author of An Unreasonable Woman infiltrated their ranks. Photos of the banner and arrest. Wilson, who has done work around issues such as the Bhopal distaster and against the Iraq war, got on Delay's RSVP list by donating $50 to his campaign.

After speeches by the chairman of the Republican Party and a rousing rendition of "God Bless the USA" Tom Delay himself took the stage. Delay referenced the protesters outside, citing the Socialists and the Progressive Workers parties. Then Cheney himself took the stage. WIlson was about 15 to 20 feet away from the VP when she opened up her black velvet wrap to reveal a banner which read "Corporate Greed Kills-From Bhopal to Bagdad". Conservative moralists nearby grabbed WIlson as she chanted "Corporate Greed Kills, and Iraq kills too!" One GOP member called Wilson a bitch and a whore. Police dragged Wilson out and she's still detained as of this report.

Halibucks are fake money (in the style of Halliburton) used by U..S. protesters to demonstrate the idea of dodgy transactions in street theatre.  If the idea wasn't conceived by Scott Parkin,the concept originates from his training program.. 

At a recent anti-Cheney protest in Houston , a protester was ushered behind police lines by alleged Secret Service personel to be asked questions about her use of the Halibucks.

Meanwhile, back at the Southern Ranch, Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security
Ian Carnell,in his review of  the role of the Australian Security Intelligence
Organisation (ASIO) in the Parkin deportation, found  it had  acted within
the law.

The Federal Minister of Defence, Robert Hill announced yesterday that trials that would enable Adelaide to play a key role in the U.S. MIssile Shield were successful.

Mr Hill said that the trials "might" allow Adelaide to participate.

The news follows announcements earlier this year that Adelaide to become the location of the construction of three warships equipped to participate in the "Star Wars" shield.

’Iraq, like Vietnam before it, has served to remind us that, like the war on communism, the war on terror is but a charade, a fear engendering escapade, designed to control populations and empower the elite, unleashing fear onto the citizenry while delivering enormous profit to the military-industrial complex. Using Arab men as bogeymen, hidden in the shadows, without faces, countries and, with the help of Hollywood and the corporate media, with a growing brutal reputation, dark skinned Muslims replaced white Soviet Reds as the new American enemy, the new cash cow granting the government and military industrial complex a new generation of destructive war from which to bleed the American taxpayer dry, providing misallocation of resources to the former and enormous profit to the latter.  

‘This special issue, published on-line and available to subscribers and non-subscribers, is a response to quite extraordinary and frightening measures and processes in Australian political life. In this issue we endeavor to bring you articles and comment by a wide range of writers on the Anti-Terrorism Bill (No. 2) 2005.  

 

As we write, a Senate Committee hears evidence on the impact of the Bill. Even this small amount of space for debate represents a victory over the Howard Government’s ominous attempts to close down opportunities for political comment and opposition.  

Whoops, another contract for Tenix... onya Reefeee...wonder how his second job out frm the Defence Ministry is going.  Maybe It's Time for Labor and the Democrats to match the current rounds of contracts to those of a couple of years back  (why didn't you mention the Kinaird Report Robert,? it was in your notes!).

‘Nobody but Americans celebrate Thanksgiving.  

 

It is reserved by history and the intent of “the founders

Published in today's Adelaide Advertiser, written in response to the front page story yesterday. 

[excerpt] 

Premier Mike Rann wants Parliament's Upper House abolished and will ask South Australians to bring about the greatest electoral system change in the state's history in a 2010 referendum.

Labor, frustrated by legislative delays and the watering down of new laws in the Legislative Council, will begin moves to get rid of it after the March 18 election that polls suggest it is likely to win. Mr Rann said yesterday there would then be four years for the issue to be debated.

On Monday of this week, Lateline’s Tony Jones hosted a report by journalist Tom Iggulden called Homegrown Terror Attack Likely: Expert. 

 

The “expert