'The charging of Dr Haneef means that the anti-terror laws passed by my government, & supported by the ALP, are “completely appropriate”.'

John Winston Howard

‘Terror generally kills innocent people, something no decent-minded person can accept, but what is always forgotten in the press and government treatment of terror as something alien and unimaginably bad is that war in the contemporary world does precisely the same thing."

Ministers accused of 'driving' Haneef case …..

Civil libertarians say any inquiry into the bungled prosecution of Dr Mohamed Haneef should focus squarely on the actions of Attorney-General Phillip Ruddock and Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews.

The terrorism-related charge against Dr Haneef was dropped yesterday after prosecutors abandoned their case amid revelations of mistakes in the case against him.

The president of the United States just issued a public pronouncement declaring, as a matter of U.S. policy, that a single man has the authority to detain any person anyplace in the world and subject him or her to secret interrogation techniques that aren't torture but that nonetheless can't be revealed, as long as that person is thought to be a "supporter" of an organization "associated" in some unspecified way with the Taliban or Al Qaeda, and as long he thinks that person might know something that could "assist" us.

Defence recruitment drive 'offensive' …..

Military recruitment material featuring alluring cartoon characters is offending some service personnel.

Posters approved by the office of Chief of Army Lieutenant-General Peter Leahy send the wrong message, according to some military women, News Limited newspapers report.

An advertisement for the Royal Australian Army Dental Corps depicts the modern woman digger as a buxom, full-lipped wonder woman wearing a tight-fitting white nursing outfit, complete with dog tag.

This week Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Australia might sell uranium to India, despite the country not signing up to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Federal Cabinet is to consider the issue in the next few weeks.

In the second quarter, refiners bought crude oil at lower prices and sold gasoline at record high prices. As a result, companies like Exxon Mobil, Chevron, and Valero could see record profits when the industry reports earnings this week.

Exxon (Charts, Fortune 500), which actually refines more barrels of oil than it pumps, could see over $11 billion in earnings, which would be the biggest quarterly profit in corporate history.

Australian anger as Greer attacks 'slow-witted and neurotic' Diana …..

Germaine Greer's fellow Australians will be choking on their breakfast cereal this morning as they read her latest piece of invective: an excoriating attack on the late Diana, Princess of Wales, whom she describes as devious, neurotic and stupid.

In an essay in today's Weekend Australian Magazine, the Melbourne-born author and academic claims that Diana was nicknamed Brian by her siblings after the slow-witted snail on The Magic Roundabout.

Yes Gus, the rats are all scurrying away …..

Rattus & Ruddock repeatedly claimed that they had no responsibility for Haneef’s treatment & that the case was simply in the hands of the police & the courts.

Time & again, however, Rattus, Darth Ruddock, & other rodents from the government made prejudicial comments against Haneef & declared that his arrest was a “wake-up call” to the Australian public that the “war on terror” must be continued indefinitely.

As astronauts fly drunk, as the case against Dr Haneef falls down, as the stock market feels the jitters of a 3 per cent wipe off, as some people have sabotaged computers for the international space station, as a private space port explodes in the Mojave desert, as more bombs explodes in wherever, the US president is steadfast.

He wants more bullets to shoot willy-nilly at sumpthin' but congress is not forthcoming with the dough & has cut his budget for European fancy footwork.

This TV soap plot was brought to you by the cat that smells death in a US nursing home.

‘The House Judiciary Committee did its duty yesterday, voting to cite Harriet Miers, the former White House counsel, and Joshua Bolten, the White House chief of staff, for contempt. The Bush administration has been acting lawlessly in refusing to hand over information that Congress needs to carry out its responsibility to oversee the executive branch and investigate its actions when needed. If the White House continues its obstruction, Congress should use all of the contempt powers at its disposal.

‘Behind all this is a perception that nuclear power is needed to help fight climate change. But there's little chance that nuclear plants could be built quickly enough to make much difference. The existing 104 nuclear plants in the U.S., which supply roughly 20% of the nation's electricity, are old and nearing the end of their useful lives. Just to replace them would require building a new reactor every four or five months for the next 40 years. To significantly increase the nation's nuclear capacity would require far more.

There is a proverb in Europe that goes along the line that: "The Neanderthal with the biggest stick shall win the philosophical contest", meaning that "force shall prevail upon reason".

‘Cheney's inability to tap Iran's resources has long been a source of frustration. During the administration of Gerald Ford, Cheney pushed a reluctant Ford to sell Tehran Westinghouse technology that would have allowed Iran to reprocess plutonium and obtain uranium for a nuclear energy programme. The deal foundered in 1979 under the Carter administration, when the Shah was overthrown.