A high profile terror case was abandoned before it got to trial today after a judge found that two ASIO officers had kidnapped and falsely imprisoned a young medical student, Izhar ul-Haque. 

Mr ul-Haque's lawyer, Adam Houda, later accused authorities of launching a politically motivated and "moronic prosecution" against his client. 

We want to help Australians get ahead: PM 

Prime Minister John Howard has told the audience at the Coalition's official election launch in Brisbane that the best years of the nation lie ahead. 

'This election is about the future of our great nation, not the past,' he said. 

It’s never easy to be a Christian, but lately it’s been tough for the wrong reasons. 

Confessing Jesus Christ as the Son of God has earned folks censure, exile, dispossession, torture, and death in most times and places.  

Howard planning spending spree: Labor 

Federal Labor is warning that Prime Minister John Howard will go on an irresponsible spending spree at the Coalition's election campaign launch tomorrow. 

from Crikey ….. 

So often there is one moment in an election that becomes emblematic of that campaign.  

Howard to pitch for family vote 

The Federal Coalition will unveil measures to improve housing affordability and give extra support for carers in a range of family-friendly policies at its official campaign launch in Brisbane today. 

The whole bloody thing is turning into a fiasco. I'm still amazed that the Australian media haven't arced up more on the obvious double-violation by ASIO in that they undoubtedly used improperly held US intel to make their adverse security classification. Quick refresher time: A Defense document shows that Army analysts wrote a report on the Halliburton protest and stored it in CIFA [US Army's Counterintelligence Field Activity]] 's database. It's not clear why the Pentagon considered the protest worthy of attention--although organizer Parkin had previously been arrested while demonstrating at ExxonMobil headquarters (the charges were dropped). But there are now questions about whether CIFA exceeded its authority and conducted unauthorized spying on innocent people and organizations.

 

The neo-conservative project is crashing.  

Is it possible that Gordon Brown's United Kingdom has joined George W. Bush's United States in the questionable practice of locking up its own citizens for things that the government believes they might do sometime in the future as opposed to things they have actually done? It certainly seems like it.  

Tag-team assault by Howards 

Pime Minister John Howard and his wife, Janette, have launched a double-barrelled assault on Kevin Rudd, branding the Opposition Leader hopeless on economics, lacking strong convictions, and not as good a campaigner as Bob Hawke. 

The ABC's Faine hosts a morning radio talk program in Melbourne, and on Wednesday, after the Reserve Bank grievously upset Howard and Costello by yet again increasing the official interest rate just 2½ weeks before polling day, Faine told his listeners a very jolly story. 

Fed Chief Warns of Worse Times in the Economy

Ben S. Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, told Congress on Thursday that the economy was going to get worse before it got better, a message that received a chilly reception from both Wall Street and politicians.

 

 

vaile pounces on latham broadside 

Federal Nationals leader Mark Vaile has seized on Mark Latham's broadside against Labor's election strategy, saying it proves that the Opposition is "completely poll-driven". 

Late last night, when respectable people were fast asleep, the Senate confirmed Michael Mukasey, a pro-torture/anti-Constitution, ultra-partisan reactionary as bushit’s Attorney General. This was engineered by two people, Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA). Whatever Mukasey does wrong should be lain on their doorsteps: