‘By trying to argue that Americans should be prepared for generations of troop presence in Iraq - along the lines of peacekeeping in Korea - the Bush administration inadvertently has signalled the depths of its confusion.

The White House has no viable plan for encouraging Iraqis to take responsibility for themselves, for winning allies in the Middle East or for rallying support at home.

In honour of the KBR naval counterterrorism contract (previous entry) here's an April 2006 self-reprint. It may make more sense now.......

It's 2016, a decade after the 6/6/06 commencement of The Armageddon Conflict. Australia is at war. Naval vessels, able to stay at sea and away from the Antichrist's terrorists under technological stealth cloaks are occassionally forced, while trudging between the various global "fronts" to sail into ports for replenishments, refurbishment of armamentaria and some time off for the sailors. The boys and girls of Halliburton have every need in readiness to get the job done before there's time to become a missile target.:

‘As Jesuit schoolboys studying world history we learned that Copernicus and Galileo self-censored for many decades their proofs that the earth revolved around the sun and that a less restrained heliocentrist, Giordano Bruno, was burned alive in 1600 for the crime of sound science. With the encouragement of our professor, Father Joyce, we marveled at the capacity of human leaders to corrupt noble institutions. Lust for power had caused the Catholic hierarchy to subvert the church's most central purpose - the search for existential truths.

‘Fly into the American air base of Tallil outside Nasiriya in central Iraq and the flight path is over the great ziggurat of Ur, reputedly the earliest city on earth. Seen from the base in the desert haze or the sand-filled gloom of dusk, the structure is indistinguishable from the mounds of fuel dumps, stores and hangars. Ur is safe within the base compound. But its walls are pockmarked with wartime shrapnel and a blockhouse is being built over an adjacent archaeological site.

G-8 countries backed down yesterday from their strong global warming stance, instead embracing President Bush's proposal to move toward unspecified “substantial cuts” in carbon emissions.

The "agreement says the G-8 countries will 'seriously' consider cutting emissions in half by 2050, but it sets no mandatory goals for all."

from the Sydney morning herald

loopholes prevent action on petrol

‘The national competition watchdog will remain toothless in its attempts to tackle alleged price gouging by oil companies because of loopholes in legislation and the failure of the Federal Government to outlaw cartels, a competition and fair trading expert says.

The Prime Minister, John Howard, said the chairman of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Graeme Samuel, "only needed to ask" for more power to pursue oil firms.

While Anglo-Australians can be proud of a long-time forgotten truth of “Fair Go” Australia for the privileged, today’s Australia is an unequal & unfair society. The myth of “Fair Go” Australia is just a shield, protecting Australia against criticism of Australia’s unfair treatments of Indigenous Australians & Australians from other minority groups.

‘In 2002, Donald Rumsfeld famously called the detainees at Guantánamo "the worst of the worst." General Richard B. Myers, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, warned they were "very dangerous people who would gnaw hydraulic lines in the back of a C-17 to bring it down." These claims were designed to justify locking up hundreds of men and boys for years in small cages like animals.

from Crikey …..

Doing Rudd slowly while the economy boils over

Christian Kerr writes:

If you’ve ever watched Jamie Oliver, you’ll know how all the different people in a commercial kitchen have to work in unison. And so it is running a nation. The economic Escoffiers and political patisseriers just can’t do their own thing.

‘Neo-cons have convinced themselves that nuking Iran will show the Muslim world that Muslims have no alternative to submitting to the will of the US government. Insurgency and terrorism cannot prevail against nuclear weapons.

from the ABC …..

Minister says Pell as bad as that 'boofhead Hilaly'

Alexandra Smith and Linda Morris

June 7, 2007

The Archbishop of Sydney, George Pell, could be compared to "that serial boofhead Sheik al Hilaly", the NSW cabinet minister Nathan Rees has said in an explosive speech in Parliament.

Liberal leadership speculation absurd: Downer

Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer has described the latest bout of Liberal leadership speculation as "absurd".

With the Coalition trailing Labor in the polls, there has been renewed speculation that it is time for John Howard to hand over the leadership heading into the Federal election campaign.

Little rattus is lying when he says that his new AWA fairness test is 'no different' from the old no disadvantage test.

The deceit of the prime rodent is evidenced by his assertion that it is 'silly' for workers to go to the High Court to appeal against the loss of penalty rates or other conditions under an AWA individual contract, whilst he refuses to give workers any alternative means of appealing a 'fairness test' ruling.

The fairness test is inferior in four key ways:

from the SMH …..

Foreign debt - Australia's black hole

Jacob Saulwick

June 6, 2007

AUSTRALIA'S current account deficit improved slightly in the three months to March following a blowout at the end of last year, but the picture is marred by ballooning foreign debt.