Matt Davidson's cartoon with Grattan's Facing up to unfinished business is three arch-Tories on a camel. The camel motif could be the emblem of the Aussie way in Afghanistan - slow, methodical and blended with the cultural setting.

The old Ghan railway had a rich history. If the memory of my only journey from Alice to Port Augusta is correct, the average velocity was 20mph. Some of the stretches had to be covered at walking pace. It was quite an experience, edging alongside a vast dry floodplain, in the dead of night with a full moon, and hardly a sound. It may as well have been on the moon. The new south-north railway is linked to Australia's military alliance with the US,  lunatics, star wars and coke-powered visions of full-spectrum dominance.

Our Australian history, largely about progress by peaceful transition, could not be further from the American heritage of violent overthrow and bloody conquest.

Doug Wood gave the game away, and gave the lie to Bush's Fort Bragg speech, in Wood tells of business in Baghdad. Bush said, "We will stay in Iraq as long as we are needed, and not a day longer." Whatever that means, they will make sure the Iraqis want them to stay, and building new bases will ensure they have to stay a long time.

When Doug joins with his brothers-in-arms today, over free-flowing beer and bullshit, they will sing about "rockets red glare, bombs bursting in air" in Iraq, as the US extends its imperial reach. Australians have to make up their minds pretty quickly whether we want to keep saluting Old Glory, because every day we stay on in Iraq puts a nail in the coffin of our mission to Kabul. It is inevitable we will be back in Afghanistan, hopefully as part of a broader mix dedicated to establishment of order, and building up social infrastructures.

We need to think about our immigration policies, in relation to Afghanis. I can imagine a well-spoken Afghani, in gold-trimmed cap and bejeweled cloak, requesting a favour from Lord Downer. "Remember how my nephew's boy fagged for your son at St Peter's? Well, my cousin and his family want to move to Australia. He is an orthopedic surgeon. Can you get them in?" Distressed nations like Afghanistan need all the trained and skilled indigenous personnel they can retain and attract back. We do not want to be party to skimming off the cream of their society, for our gain and their great loss. We ought to have another look at the skilled migrant scheme, and remove the control from partisan interests.

A long-term, bipartisan committment to reconstruction in Afghanistan seems to be a natural pathway for Australia. Will our mission there be symbolised by the felt hat, or will it be buggered by another of Rumsfeld's full-metal, catastrophic delusions?

Thom Hartmann: Supreme Court - Media Ignore Possible "Fascist" Play

He [Alberto Gonzales] also wrote a Presidential Order saying that terror suspects could be tried by secret military tribunals and sentenced to death, and enthusiastically pushed for passage of the USA PATRIOT Act just as Democratic Senate Leader Tom Daschle and Democratic Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy - the two men in the Senate who could have shot down the PATRIOT Act - were receiving anthrax in the mail. Today, as Attorney General, the investigation of that terrorist incident is entirely in his hands.

Reichstag fire (Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

URL: http://www.dest.gov.au/Ministers/Media/Hardgrave/2005/07/h001150705.asp
SNIPPET: The Howard Government today announced the first 12 Australian Technical Colleges to be established in Australia. This is a major step towards meeting the Australian Governments election commitment to establish Australian Technical Colleges in 24 regions across Australia. In fact, two very strong proposals were received for Adelaide so the Australian Government has decided to build on our commitment to Adelaide and establish two Colleges in the region, Mr Hardgrave said.

The Halliburton School for Corporate Rapine, and the KBR College of Imperial Predation, perhaps.

Young Tim Howard is advancing his education, too. He's learning from some of his dad's idols, like Karl Rove, how to prove that absolute power does not corrupt. It's easy. When nosey-parkers sniff around, get the Office to examine its own orifices, and find no evidence of evil deeds. Everyone knows the PM, or the President, is sworn to uphold justice and decency. So, if they can't find anything, there must be nothing to find. QED.

Extract from "Genesis of an American Gestapo" by Mike Whitney The freshly minted National Security Service, which has been dubbed the New SS, will operate under the authority of former ambassador to Iraq, John Negroponte, whose involvement in overseeing the terrorist activities of death squads in Nicaragua will provide him with the necessary experience for his new task. Negroponte, the new Intelligence czar, will report directly to the President, who in turn will carefully monitor the violations of civil liberties that will naturally evolve from unsupervised investigations.

A lying thief, who corrupted a position of power, who has sought absolution by public repentance without the taking the burden of restitution, would seem to be an ideal candidate for head of OzSS. Is there anyone like that on the radar? Ruined shareholders? Caveat emptor - tough luck! This guy has bipartisan support, and he's a popular media personality.

 T.G. You are quickly becoming an Obi-Wan.  My father was born in Box Hill Hospital..  Halliburton apparently wants to build a new Defence Force Headquarters in Canberra.  The same bloke who is now chief public infrastructure consulant for S.A. (Andrew Fletcher, former Global Vice President, Infrastructure, Halliburton KBR) raised his hopes in this profile last year.

 I've been happily bereft of TV and offline down at Lake Alexandrina for a week.  The KBR PPP proposal for the water was news to a few people to which it should not have been.  Perhaps the locals should have been consulted with at more than Premier/Council level.

As for our appointment of  a Halliburton mouthpiece for S.A. Infrastructure.  Let me reiterate that this state is in dire trouble.

 When Port Adelaide goes bang, don't say I didn't tell you so.