‘It may be that the Roman republic was doomed in any case. But the disproportionate reaction to the raid on Ostia unquestionably hastened the process, weakening the restraints on military adventurism and corrupting the political process. It was to be more than 1,800 years before anything remotely comparable to Rome’s democracy - imperfect though it was - rose again.

The Lex Gabinia was a classic illustration of the law of unintended consequences: it fatally subverted the institution it was supposed to protect. Let us hope that vote in the United States Senate does not have the same result.’

from today’s Australian …..

‘North Korea last night stepped up its nuclear blackmail with the announcement that it will test an atomic device for the first time.

Blaming an American "extreme threat of a nuclear war and sanctions", Kim Jong-il's increasingly isolated regime announced that a nuclear weapons test was essential to bolstering North Korea's defence.

‘At Nuremberg, we rejected the certainty of execution for the uncertainty of a trial. The test was one of principle over power, and the United States passed.

President Harry Truman understood that our nation's ability to bring about a world of peace and justice was rooted not in our military might but in our moral authority; not on the ability to compel people with our tanks and planes but to convince them that our values and our ideals were right. He understood that our ability to succeed in spreading American values of freedom and human rights are only as effective as our willingness to uphold them.

from Alan Ramsey …..

‘We let David Hicks rot for almost five years, without trial, in an American military hellhole in Cuba, and the Howard Government does nothing. A Melbourne court sees videos of an elite Victorian police unit obviously bashing confessions from suspects, yet all the police do is cry foul at their public "humiliation". Now a 90-plus-kilogram policeman in a remote Aboriginal community behaves so brutishly his victim's liver is torn in half and four ribs are broken after a "fall" as he is being taken from the paddy wagon and dragged, on his back, by the arms to a cell.

In July 2003, George Bush said in a speech: "The United States is committed to worldwide elimination of torture, and we are leading this fight by example. Freedom from torture is an inalienable human right. Yet torture continues to be practiced around the world by rogue regimes, whose cruel methods match their determination to crush the human spirit."

This week, former US Ambassador for War Crimes Issues, David Scheffer, said:

75 per cent of Iraqis resent the presence of the coalition troops.......

‘We have seen America’s president and vice president, sworn to uphold the Constitution, advocating exactly the same tortures techniques KGB used at the Lubyanka. They claimed beating, freezing, sleep deprivation, and drowning were necessary to prevent terrorist attacks, calling them by the euphemism, “tough interrogation.” Stalin made the same arguments, but did not stoop to euphemisms.

The White House insisted that anyone charged with vague “terrorism offenses” – including Americans – could be kidnapped, tortured, and tried in camera using “evidence” obtained by torturing other suspects. Bush & Co. reject the basic law of habeas corpus and US laws against torture. The UN says Bush’s torture plans violate international law and the Geneva Conventions. These conventions were enacted to provide basic protection to combatants and civilians in wartime, and regulate the behavior of occupying powers.

from our lovely ABC .....

US report 'devastates' Howard's credibility

The Federal Opposition says the release of a United States intelligence report torpedoes the Prime Minister's reasons for going to war in Iraq.

The White House has declassified parts of a leaked intelligence report that undermines its claims that America is safer since the war in Iraq.

from a New York Post exclusive .....

RICE BOILS OVER AT BUBBA
RIPS 'FLATLY FALSE' CLAIM ON BUSH'S BID TO GET BIN LADEN

By IAN BISHOP Post Correspondent

September 25, 2006 - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice yesterday accused Bill Clinton of making "flatly false" claims that the Bush administration didn't lift a finger to stop terrorism before the 9/11 attacks.

‘The war in Iraq is a disaster, and Rumsfeld needs to be replaced. But don't just take our word for it - this reiteration comes today from a pair of recently retired two-star army generals with more than sixty years of military experience between them. They testified today in a hearing before the Democratic Policy Committee, called in absence of adequate official hearings in Congress.

Despite an open invitation to leaders, the only elected Republican to attend the hearing was Rep. Walter Jones, a self-described conservative from North Carolina, who has become one of the strongest critics of the war after originally voting to authorize it. 

from our ABC .....

Howard plays down water ministry speculation

Prime Minister John Howard is playing down claims that he wants to create a new federal ministry for water http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200609/s1748823.htm|playingdownclaims

Parliamentary Secretary Malcolm Turnbull will take charge of the new Office of Water Resources in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. 

Fighting The International Tyranny Of "We the People"

By Casey Butler

09/25/06 "Information Clearing House" -- -- Since September 11th, 2001, "We the People" have had ample opportunity for self-examination. When we look around us, "First world" vs. "Third world", if we are honest with ourselves we must recognize that the democracies comprising Western Civilization have collectively become the next world dictator. This dictator is a tyrant unforgiving in its self-righteousness because it gets its very authority from "We the People". We have, inadvertently, through our own irresponsibility and apathy towards participating in our own government, stepped into the shoes of the oppressor.

From those shoes we can see clearly: There are no "Islamic terrorists" in the Middle East.

Timothy McVeigh was a terrorist. The IRA were terrorists. Baader-Meinhoff were terrorists.

These were terrorists because they had the right to free speech... They had the right to assemble in protest and to form political parties... They had the right to vote for whom they pleased... They had the right to run for office themselves to work for peaceful change. They were terrorists because they chose violence instead of working for change within the system available to them.

The Fundamentalist Muslims of the Middle East who are fighting us now, on the other hand, have never had such rights. Our American government and the governments that support it, ie. Western Civilization, have never allowed Muslims any method other than violent resistance for addressing grievances.

The most coherent historical analogy to current Western strategies in the Middle East today is the 19th century American belief in the "Manifest Destiny" of the United States, and its impact on Native American tribes. As part of American Manifest Destiny, Native American lands were carved up by force of arms at the request of merchants, farmers, and ranchers. Native American tribes were forced onto tiny "reservations" administered by "Indian Agents". Today this process is viewed by many historians as ethnic cleansing of holocaust proportions.

As European Americans justified their violent conquest of Western North America, the Native American who fought desperately against the American military and the civilian population for his land, people, religion, and, yes, freedom, was labeled a "savage". Rebellious "Indians" were viewed as less-than-human, and not worthy of the rights shared by the rest of mankind. Said American General Philip Sheridan, "The only good Indians I ever saw were dead."

A glance at a world history book tells us that our 20th century Western Civilization carved up Islamic lands into political entities that suited our "strategic" purposes. Since that time, by supporting tyrants, "shahs", kings, and anyone else who would do our bidding, including Saddam Hussein when it was convenient, the West has, by these proxies, purposely oppressed the human rights of Muslims in the Middle East.

In fact, in its quest for a "stable" oil supply and new markets, Western Civilization has consistently denied Middle Eastern Muslims the rights and equalities shared by the rest of us in the community of nations.

When a spark of these rights does happen to be ignited, as they were in Lebanon and Palestine, with rudimentary free elections that garnered many Western compliments and promises... As soon as the Muslim people made their will known to be contrary to the will of Western Civilization, they were labeled "terrorists" and immediately crushed and denied these rights once again.

In reality, the Muslims who fight us, including Osama bin Laden and his Al-Qaeda, freedom fighters in the truest sense of the word, comparable to our own founders, who, after all, also oppressed women - even held slaves - until they enlightened themselves.

What the USA and its Western democratic counterparts actually fight today are religiously devout men and women, righteous ten-commandment-keeping people according to our own moral and religious codes - from Osama bin Laden down to the last innocent Palestinian killed simply for living in Gaza.

It is not, in the least, hyperbole to say that the Fundamentalist Muslims fighting us today are sacrificing their lives for their brothers and sisters; they are heroically defending their homelands, their cultures, and their religion, from the corruption, crime, and decadence intrinsic to Western capitalism as we know it.

They are people just like you and I. They are fighting the international tyranny of "We the People" who did not bother to follow what our governments and corporations have done to "third-world" nations in order to turn a profit. Those of us who are supposed to run our government and corporations, but who, in fact, were too lazy to care what government did on behalf of the corporate mentality.

Our Politicians and media personalities can call Fundamentalist Muslims "terrorists" or "Islamic fascists" until their faces turn blue...

But that does not change the fundamental truth that Muslims are defending their homelands, culture, and religion, using strategies already employed and legitimized by Western Civilization itself over Dresden, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Hanoi, and many other "battlefields", where the homes and businesses of innocent civilians were also considered military targets. It does not change the fundamental truth that Muslims do not fear death because, unlike most of "Western Civilization", they don't just mouth the words, but really believe they are rightfully fighting for God and the survival of their culture and religion. It does not change the fact that Western Civilization's continuing worldwide oppression of Muslims will result in the collapse of democracy everywhere, because democracy is a system based on government by the people, not the wealthy elite... A system, in the USA at least, founded on the fundamental truth of the equality of all before God.

History is clear: No oppressor who has attempted, by force of arms, to implement ideological change among a populace has ever succeeded. By claiming to believe this war is righteous and winnable, our government and the governments of Western Civilization that support it must ignore history and the very world around us. They must twist history to support their own version of "fighting terror", and constantly invent dangers which must be foisted upon their people in order that they can maintain power. In so doing, they have sold the souls of their peoples to the arms industry, to the creators and armorers of the next holocaust.

Is such a "civilization" of any real value to mankind, a civilization based on force of arms seemingly doomed to repeat the errors of its own history? If we are democracies, surely the solution to war is up to us - the people.

Today there is only one way to save our planet from never-ending war and oppression. We must withdraw all Western military and corporate interests from the Middle East. We must encourage democracy there through open, peaceful, positive methods - the types of methods that eventually brought down even the Soviet Union.

The Qur'an, the single authority for all sects of Islam, requires Muslims to accept peace - if a peace is offered that will stop the oppression and the corruption that has obligated Muslims to fight in the first place.

Continuing our present course of war only insures that more Muslims will answer the Qur'an's call for self-defense of the Islamic religion. On the other hand, reversing our course, seeking peace, and positively supporting Middle Eastern Muslim peoples as they seek democracy and self-empowerment through self-determination, will remove all motivation for Muslim resistance.

The West must stop confusing "truth", "liberty", "God", and "democracy" with the brand of secular capitalism that has served it so well. The secular capitalism that drives Western economies is not compatible with the religion of Islam. We in the West must learn to live with this fact, and allow Muslims to develop their own democratic systems and economies. In the West, secular capitalism must re-invent itself under a new paradigm. Unlimited growth, limitless resources, and unrestricted market hegemony are obsolete in today's world. Secular capitalism must evolve or face extinction.

The Muslims who fight us are not criminals. They are not evil. They are not cowards. They are not "fascists".

To bring peace to our globe, all we in the West have to do is stand strong together for what we have always claimed to stand for: The ideal that all people are created equal, with God-given rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

We cannot fight our own noble impulses for defending house and home, which, with our eyes open, we can all see reflected in the freedom fighters of Islam today.

We must stop fighting this war, stop endlessly piling war-torn bodies upon the bodies of the nearly 3,000 Americans who perished on September 11th, 2001. We must begin making their deaths meaningful for our planet, we must honor their sacrifice as of the God of Peace, and not of the god of war.

Unlike the Native Americans of the 19th century - many of whom were tribal and warred among themselves, unable to unite to fight their common foe - the Muslims of the Middle East share a powerful commonality: The Qur'an and the religion of Islam.

To have peace we must obliterate our own ignorance of the cultures, traditions, scriptures, and religions of our fellow human beings - with whom we share our planet.

United in peace humanity might stand, but divided by war we will certainly fall.

Copyright Casey Butler - http://firefighter.eyesalve.org/

from the Sydney Morning Herald ….

Not content with a review of television and junk food advertising guidelines, Christian groups and children's advocates are calling for an overhaul of children's film content as well as R-rated material.

Questions about the content of Finding Nemo and the Cat in the Hat and R-rated movies have prompted the Australian Christian Lobby to approach every state government in an attempt to put film classification guidelines on the agenda when the attorneys-general meet in March.