‘I am gob smacked! Australian Citizens are sitting in Lebanon .... actually more like crouched under tables and desks, waiting for this government to pull it's finger our and get them to safety, while every other government in the bloody world is scrambling to get THEIR citizens out.

Seems to me the LEAST Howard could do is ask his good buddy King George to have the US Marines pick up a few Aussies while they are evacuating their own.

Tell me again WHY the Government keeps inviting people to become Australian Citizens "...there is no better time....." if they have no intentions of caring for the ones they already have?’

“As a sovereign nation, Israel has every right to defend itself against terrorist activity,” Bush said after meeting British Prime Minister Tony Blair in Saint Petersburg.

Why then do the Iraqis not have that right? Were they not a "sovereign nation"?

Why is this right not allowed for any country that upsets the USA or Israel? They would plunge the entire WORLD into war for the "rights" of a country that takes up less than .001% of the worlds landmass and less than .5% of the worlds population!!! 

It is time for Israel to be reined in!  It is the most terrorist nation in the world, bar none, with a belief that no one but white Israelis have a right to live. Not ALL Jews, as they profess, and certainly not Christians and not black or Arab Jews, but Zionists Ashkenazim, the descendants of the European Jews.

They have suckered in the White Fundamentalist Christians, the ones who used to hate them as "Christ Killers" by making the Palestinians who were driven from their land and massacred in the same way the Midianites and Canaanites and other peoples were massacred by their "ancestors" when they stole the land the first time. (Numbers 31).

They have used the Holocaust to blackmail the world, and they are STILL using it.

As for our citizens in Lebanon, the Brits and Yanks both have war ships poised and ready to take their people out, why have they not offered their good buddy the favour of offering to take ours out with them? Why has he not asked?

For the same reason he has allowed Hicks to languish in Gitmo, for the same reason he has sold out the workers and allowed the medical system and infrastructure to fall apart. Greed. He does what his "good buddy's" corporate masters tell him to do, and that means giving us over to them, lock, stock and barrel.

He and his cronies in government don't give a toss about Aussies. After all, there are always others willing to come and BE Aussies, at lower wages. What do they care about the ones we already have?

It makes me ill, John. This country is BETTER than this!!! Why are we allowing these people to DO this to us???

I am the citizen of 2 countries, my friend. I wish I could be proud of the leaders of at least one of them.

From Al Jazeera

Lebanon toll passes 230

Tuesday 18 July 2006, 18:07 Makka Time, 15:07 GMT

At least 29 people have been killed in the latest air strikes by Israeli warplanes in Lebanon, raising the toll there to more than 230.

Israeli aircraft struck targets across Lebanon on Tuesday, hitting many areas north and east of Beirut that have so far been quiet.

Nine civilians, all from one family and including children, were killed and four wounded in an air strike that destroyed a house in the south Lebanese village of Aitarun. Four others died in strikes elsewhere in the south.

Another strike at a Lebanese army barracks at Jumhur area, east of Beirut, killed 11 Lebanese soldiers and wounded 30.

Aljazeera television reported that Israeli forces had also attacked targets around Zahle, a mainly Christian town in central Lebanon, and attacked ambulances on nearby roads.
---------

Gus: There is no two ways about it: The "Jews" who presently run Israel are Nazis... And so are the Christian presidents, prime ministers etc... who lets them get away with what they are doing... Morality? Right to defend? Bollocks! The unholy war alliance between the Jewry and the Christians against the Muslims, in which kids die, shows that the god, they all hypocritically pray to, has been a monstrous fraud.

Israel claims Iran link to crisis?

from the BBC

Hezbollah's capture of two Israeli soldiers last week was timed to divert attention from Tehran's nuclear programme, the Israeli PM has claimed.
Ehud Olmert said that the cross-border raid in which the two soldiers were taken and eight others killed was co-ordinated with Tehran.
US President George W Bush meanwhile accused Syria of trying to use the crisis to get back into Lebanon.
About 30 people died in a seventh day of conflict, most of them in Lebanon.
Lebanese PM Fouad Siniora said Israel was "opening the gates of hell and madness" on his country.
In a BBC interview, he urged Hezbollah to release the two Israeli soldiers but said Israel's response to the crisis had been disproportionate.

-------------------------

From Gus newsnetworks
Bollocks!

Israel claim "Hezbollah's capture of two Israeli soldiers last week was timed to divert attention from Tehran's nuclear programme" does not hold water. Why would Iran be involved in in the capture of two soldiers? Distract attention? Only the Israeli OVER-reaction is bringing attention to the fact that two of their soldiers were captured.

Why would Iran be involved in the capture of two soldiers? The Iranians would be very astute to know that doing so could only create the sort of crap the US and Israel are sabre-rattling about now. So they had no benefit in doing it.

Why would Iran be involved in the capture of two soldiers? Doing a stunt like that does nothing to distract the ongoing diplomacy or negotiations to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear bomb — for which there is no evidence of them doing so anyway... It might remove it from the front page of rags but it still is the pipeline of those trying to stop them doing whatever.

Hezbollah's capture of two Israeli soldiers last week was timed to divert attention from Tehran's nuclear programme...? That is crap manufactured to divert from the 250 dead that Israel has already inflicted in Nazi-style reprisals on a sovereign country — and unfortunately, it is crap that is manufactured by Israel to give the US a flimsy simpletonic reason to go and bomb the shit out of Iran (forgive the expletive, but there is no other word for the mood this concoction of hypocrisy gives me).

...... for posting the two above comments for me, but it is time that I came out into the open and spoke for myself. 

I am the New Citizen John refers to above.

You just need to be a flea against injustice. Enough committed fleas biting strategically can make even the biggest dog uncomfortable and transform even the biggest nation. ~~ Marian Wright Edelman 

I am a flea. A very vocal Citizen of BOTH the United States of America (by birth) and of Australia (by choice). I have chosen Australia as my home for many reasons. One of those reasons is that I see its potential as a GREAT NATION that could one day be the leader of the free world. I see Australia as it could and should be.

As a child growing up in a family that had grown up during two world wars, I heard the constant derisive statements spoken about the "German People" and what their government did to millions of innocent people. I heard one question over and over again, "How could the people have LET it happen?" I grew up with the Yank and Brit version of history. Unless one learned to read in other languages besides ones own, it was impossible to know that there were other versions of History. I grew up believing that "we Americans" were heroes, saviors, rescuers, good guys all. I was taught that American solders did not loot, rape, beat or murder innocents, and that our spies were all dashing fellows with "God on their side". I was taught that only the Russians and the Germans locked people up in concentration camps.

I was not taught about the Japanese interment camps in my own country. I was not taught that the United States usually sent in help to other countries to help clean up messes that our own government created. I was not taught that many of the bloodiest dictators in the world were set on their thrones by my own government. I was not taught that Hitler was elected to head of state by a majority in a fair election. I was not taught that the "nuculer" testing going on practically in my own back yard was going to poison the land and the people. I was not taught that the planes stationed at the local AF Base carried atomic bombs, or that the Atlas missile sites surrounding my home town made us a "class A" or primary target for the other guys.

Viet Nam woke me up. The murders of the President, and then his brother and the subsequent obvious cover-ups made me angry! How could my government lie to me like this! I was bombarded by images and news stories that didn't make sense! We were Americans! We didn't DO things like this! We are better than this!

It is very hard to be a happy teen when one is so disillusioned. My parents were good republicans and good Anglicans who worked as underlings in the oil industry. I was surrounded by "My Country Right or Wrong" Texans. As for my fellow New Mexicans, the US Government is the largest land owner and largest employer in the state. Who there would rock the boat?

When the final death toll came in for Viet Nam, my high school had lost the highest percentage of it's graduating classes than any other in the country.

It was then that I chose to become a flea. A flea is a little bitty speck on the back of a dog, but it can drive that dog mad, and it can invite more fleas to tea. I see the pattern that has emerged in the USA, and now in Australia under the banner of Globalization and Free Trade. I have seen both governments make pacts with devil after devil for the express purpose of lining the coffers of Multinational Corporations like Monsanto and Hallburton and Bayer and the arms manufacturers and the for profit prison industry. I see the blatant disregard for the Constitutions on which FREE nations built their foundations. I see the rights of citizens and visitors alike being trampled into the dust under the heels of Brown shirts. And I remember what my parents said about the German People. How could they have let it happen?

One day a generation will ask the same question of Americans, Brits and Australians. We are all tarred with the same brush by our leaders. We are subject to the same "anti terrorism" laws, word for word, and word for word the same laws enacted by Herr Hitler to frighten the German people into keeping their mouths shut. They will ask HOW we could let it happen. They will ask WHY we kept quiet. They will ask WHO should have acted, if not us?

I cry for my home land. I cry for my family, my parents, children, grandchildren who will never again know life without fear, without war, without wretched poverty. I cry for my grandchildren who are coming of age to be taken up and sent off to die for the rights of Monsanto and British Petroleum. And I cry for my new land, as I watch the men and women who are elected to care for their own people sell this country down the same path.

I am a flea.

Katherine (Trina) Juestel
American by Birth, Australian by Choice
Carnarvon WA AU
 

‘Ruddock's idea of fairness can be seen in a case before the Administrative Appeals Tribunal where an Australian citizen has been fighting for his passport, which was cancelled because of an adverse ASIO security assessment. His lawyers applied for discovery of government documents, only to receive largely blanked-out pages and a certificate signed by Ruddock saying that disclosure of the relevant security assessment would be against the public interest and it would be against the public interest for a "person representing the applicant" being present in court when the evidence is submitted.

In other words, you are not to know why you can't keep your Australian passport and you can't turn up in court to find out. You can't get fairer than that.’

Fair Is Foul In The War On Terrorism

From the ABC

Hicks's nomination politicises father of the year contest, Ruddock says
Federal Attorney-General Philip Ruddock says the national Father of the Year contest has been politicised by the nomination of the father of Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks.

ACT Chief Minister Jon Stanhope has nominated Adelaide man Terry Hicks for the annual award.

His son, David Hicks, originally from Adelaide, has been held at Guantanamo Bay since 2002.

Mr Stanhope has compared Terry Hicks's fathering abilities to those of Steve Waugh and John Howard - who are both previous winners of the award.

But Mr Ruddock says Mr Stanhope has sought to score political points by making the nomination.

"I don't think politicisation of the program of nominating outstanding fathers of the year is a good way to go," he said.

He says the nomination is not appropriate.

"I think all of us understand the love of a parent for a child and appreciate very much why people would put a great deal of effort into securing outcomes," he said.

"Other of us have a very broad responsibility to protect the Australian community and sometimes there are issue we have to address in a broader context."

The winner will be announced on September 1.

--------------------

Gus Philip Ruddock is always wrong on his broader CON-text... No matter how many times he harps about security-this-or-that-in-the-broader-context, he forgets that his duty is not to a moronic president —that even that president's loaded ultra-conservative court gave a rebuke on his planned pseudo-assassinations of Guano Bay detainees... Philip, you have given the office of Attorney General the worse name ever by being part of that crap. Proud? You appear like a turncoat of a dancing pollie, while doing the ugly bidding for our national mean-grocer with the utmost hypocrisy there is to be cultivated in one's heart. I know we all carry a small seed of the blither, but we make sure we don't water it... I hope one day you will wake up and hate yourself for it because deep down you're a good and fair man... So show it. Now. And vote for Terry Hicks... No matter what one think his son did or not, and despite all the fancy tap-dancing by the US administration to frame David to the hilt using unlawful tricks, Terry Hicks deserves an OAM for relentlessly being a father to his son. And that takes a lot of guts.

Well said Gus.

But Terry Hicks has been more than just a "good & loyal father" to his son David. 

His quiet determination has acted as a reminder to us all of what our "core values" used to be about, before the rodent, the undertaker & their court jester suborned them & persuaded Awstraylens that the only important thing in life is the miserable & selfish pursuit of "aspirational prosperity": the sweet sounding code for financial & material greed.

Terry Hicks is an exemplar for a time when most Awstraylens instinctively believed in the right of a "fair go"; a time when Awstraylens were seen & admired for their egalitarian nature & a belief that all should be equal before the law; a time when our nation was proud of its reputation as a free & independant heritage, rather than a lapdog to US imperialistic schemes & criminal adventures; a time when self-promotion & hypocrisy were seen as crass & shallow behaviours, rather than worthy; a time when our politicians knew that their first duty was to protect & uphold the rights of Awstraylen citizens, no matter the circumstances; a time when Awstraylen citizenship was something to be valued, rather than to be ashamed of.

Terry Hicks reminds us that there was once more to our spirit & character than the successful acquisition of possessions or the superficial & temporary glitter of public success. Terry Hicks is our "everyman". He displays the quiet modesty that was once so well regarded. He doesn't "big note" himself. He isn't part of "the special mates club", dedicated to self-interest. He isn't asking for special treatment for his son .... indeed, unlike so many other Awstraylens who push their way to the front of the crowd these days: whether in the media, in sport, in business, in politics or just in trouble, Terry Hicks asks only for his son what we would expect for ourselves.

That an Awstraylen citizen can be abandoned, not only by our political leaders, but by most of our moral & community guardians & the awful bulk of the Awstraylen people, should be a source of national shame . In that respect alone, Terry Hicks is better than all of us & certainly worthy of his nominationfor as "father of the year".

Philip Ruddock is a disgrace to his office & his behaviour succeeds only in discrediting the principles of natural justice, whilst undermining our nation's respect for the rule of law. 

hear hear!

From the ABC

Terry Hicks deserves father award nomination: Stanhope

ACT Chief Minister Jon Stanhope has rejected criticism of his nomination of Terry Hicks, the father of Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks, for the Father of the Year award.

Federal Attorney-General Philip Ruddock says Mr Stanhope is trying to politicise the awards.

Mr Stanhope has denied the claims, and says he was simply trying to acknowledge the work of a father supporting his son under difficult circumstances.

"I've nominated a person who I believe should be seriously considered as the Father of the Year," he said.

"To suggest that by nominating someone whose son is held in custody politicises an award, is essentially to suggest that only fathers of model sons should be considered."

Mr Stanhope says he has never compared Terry Hicks to Steve Waugh or the Prime Minister in regard to nominating him for the Father of the Year award.

Mr Stanhope says the media has misconstrued his nomination in which he only listed previous recipients of the award.

"To show the enduring and unconditional love and the grace that Terry Hicks has shown in supporting his son, I think is wonderful," he said.

"I think Terry Hicks is an inspiration to all fathers and to all parents and should be seriously considered for Father of the Year."

Howard tells Muslims to learn English

Richard Kerbaj

September 01, 2006

‘John Howard has singled out Muslim migrants for refusing to embrace Australian values and urged them to fully integrate by treating women as equals and learning to speak English.

The call for a shift in attitude among some Muslims infuriated community leaders last night, and comes as The Australian can reveal the Prime Minister's own Islamic advisers have already accused Mr Howard and senior ministers of fuelling hatred and mistrust by using "inflammatory and derogatory" language.

Mr Howard said: "There is a section, a small section of the Islamic population, and I say a small section ... which is very resistant to integration.

"Fully integrating means accepting Australian values, it means learning as rapidly as you can the English language if you don't already speak it," the Prime Minister said during a radio talkback discussion.

"And it means understanding that in certain areas, such as the equality of men and women ... people who come from societies where women are treated in an inferior fashion have got to learn very quickly that that is not the case in Australia."

The comments prompted a fierce reaction from young female Islamic leader Iktimal Hage-Ali, a member of the Prime Minister's advisory group. She accused Mr Howard of threatening to further marginalise Muslims. "There's no value in pointing out the minority of the Muslim group," she said.

"There's a whole lot of other ethnic communities whose parents, whose grandparents don't speak the English language, and it's never a problem in the mainstream Australian community for them to go on living their everyday life without speaking the language.

"Yet as soon as it's a person of Arab descent or a Muslim person ... politicians feel like they need to bring it to mainstream attention as the only group, like marginalising us even more then we already feel marginalised today."

As Mr Howard's Muslim reference group prepares to hand over its long-awaited report on how to tackle extremism and other problems in the community, The Australian can also reveal that the Islamic leaders the Prime Minister asked to advise him were actually gagged when they raised concerns about Government remarks demeaning the community.

According to a draft of the final report of the Prime Minister's Muslim Reference Group - to be handed to Parliamentary Secretary for Multicultural Affairs Andrew Robb later this month - among the problems identified by the community are isolation and radicalisation of converts and the treatment of women and young people.

But in the report, produced as part of the Government's $35million Muslim strategy, the group criticises "government leaders" for public comments fanning conflict and says the issue has grown worse in the context of the Israel-Hezbollah war in southern Lebanon.

While the yet-to-be-released report does not identify the Government figures, The Australian has obtained a letter the reference group wanted to release in March attacking a speech by Peter Costello, in which he said many Australian Muslims had divided loyalties.

But the group, led by academic Ameer Ali and made up of clerics and community leaders, was stopped by the Government from publishing the letter. It is understood the letter, which also refers to remarks made by Mr Howard, Attorney-General Philip Ruddock and backbenchers Bronwyn Bishop and Danna Vale, was sent to the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs for release, but never went past Mr Robb's office.

The advisory group was furious about the Costello remarks and the furore that focused on Muslims when Ms Bishop called for traditional Muslim dress to be banned in schools and Ms Vale said Australia was in danger of aborting itself "almost out of existence" and becoming a Muslim nation.

They were also upset that Mr Howard singled out Muslims when he told The Australian in February: "You can't find any equivalent in Italian, or Greek, or Lebanese (Christian), or Chinese or Baltic immigration to Australia. There is no equivalent of raving on about jihad, but that is the major problem."

The gagged letter says Mr Howard and the other MPs were "just a few" politicians who had made remarks against "Islam and Muslims".

"All we ask is that when Mr Costello, or any parliamentarian, wishes to have the debate about the citizenship of Australia or the 'mushy, misguided multiculturalism', they do so with the engagement of all Australians, rather than alienating any one community group," it says.

Yasmin Khan, a member of the reference body's seven sub-groups, said last night she wrote the letter on behalf of the group and sent it to a Department of Immigration employee who said she would have to send it to Mr Robb's office.

"She said ... 'We've got to release it through his (Mr Robb's) office' ... so we left it at that and I waited and waited and waited."

A spokesman for Mr Robb last night told The Australian that the Parliamentary Secretary for Multicultural Affairs, who is responsible for the reference board, had not received the letter. DIMA spokesman Sandi Logan said the department had received the letter and sent it back to members of the reference group.

Despite the dispute, the federal Government - which through DIMA has worked closely with the reference group on the final report - has already agreed to a raft of proposals.

Under the $35 million strategy, the Government has agreed to a series of programs ranging from a university for imams to issuing police with a detailed booklet explaining Islam.

In a section titled "Addressing isolation and marginalisation", the group says society must be more inclusive to keep young Muslims away from radicalism.

"A more inclusive Australian society is a key issue in making rigid thinking and possible involvement in terrorism less attractive to those at risk," the 26-page report says.

Among other proposals from the group, set up in the wake of the London Tube bombings last year, research will be conducted by University of Western Australia and the West Australian Government into why young Muslims turn to militant Islam through extreme literature.

"The project aims to develop an understanding of the pathways whereby second- and third-generation Muslim youth in Western liberal democracies move to a position of militant Islamic identity," the report says.’

jihad johnnee is up to his usual tricks again, trying to poke Australian Muslims in the eye from behind his broken-down picket-fence.

The little rodent is very good at preaching to all & sundry about the importance of “Awstraylen Values”, but never once has he bothered to define them, sniping instead via sensational headlines & generalisations.

Jihad johnnee’s “core values” are bigotry, racism, intolerance, hypocrisy, meanness, sexism, elitism, deceit, dishonesty & egotism .... & that's the short list. Had he the slightest understanding about the real Awstrayla, he’d know that, as a general rule, women are no more treated as equals by Anglo-Celtic, Greek, Italian, Yugoslavian, Japanese, German, Polish, Aboriginal or Korean Awstraylens than are Muslim women.

Instead of poking the Muslim minority in the eye, perhaps our fearless little political warrior could take a look inside his own party for first class examples of sexism?

What do they say about people living in glass houses?

Of course, as usual, our dopey Prime Meanster doesn't give a toss about Australian Muslims, any more than he cares about any Awstraylen .... it's all 'dog-whistling', a la Pauline Hanson, designed to appeal to prejudice, fear & ignorance

Whilst criticising Australian Muslims for not learning to speak English, he regularly butchers the language by dreaming-up meaningless phrases such as “Core Values”, “Aspirational Prosperity” & “Islamic Community”, whilst his very own DIMIA busies itself deporting Australian Citizens because they don’t “look & sound” like his fictional stereotype.

The only mistake the members of the Advisory Group made was to believe that their efforts would be taken seriously. Just like everyone who comes in contact with a rodent, these good citizens have been used, abused & soiled in a cynical political exercise.   

What a disgusting & dishonest little creature Howard is.