The NSW Police Minister, David Campbell, and two of his staff spent $40,000 on a 12-day, five-star, surf-and-turf romp across the United States, splashing out on steakhouses in Hollywood and oyster bars in New York. 

Their official engagements included briefings by the New York Police Department on Tasers, gangs, terrorism, identity theft and radicalisation; meetings with the FBI in Washington; and a visit to the Davis Training Facility in California. 

After 9/11, of course, George W. Bush and his top advisors almost instantly launched their crusade against Islam and then their various wars, all under the rubric of the Global War on Terror.  

from Crikey ….. 

Dubya unites the Democrats 

US correspondent Guy Rundle writes: 

"Mr. President," he was asked, "you haven't been golfing in recent years. Is that related to Iraq? 

"Yes," began perhaps the most startling reply of this nightmarish blight on our lives as Americans - on our history. 

"Get a real job, you f...... c..." - NSW Education Minister John Della Bosca sets children a good example while chatting with a photographer when riding his bike to work, after losing his driving licence for speeding. Not a pretty sight.

Whilst Kevin Rudd is clearly in-touch with community sentiment on a range of issues, he still finds time to pursue errands for lower profiled political outriders. 

"The poor tell us who we are,

The prophets tell us who we could be,

So we hide the poor,

And kill the prophets."  

Phil Berrigan

An ongoing exploration of the documents related to the Pentagon's "message force multipliers" program has unearthed a clip of former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld suggesting that America, having voted the Democrats back into Congressional power, could benefit from suffering another terrorist attack, and doing so in the presence of the very same military analysts who went on to provide commentary and analysis of the Iraq War. 

from Crikey ….. 

Liberal Party: Dead Man Walking 

Norman Abjorensen writes: 

The US, which until two weeks ago had never provided any proof for its allegations, finally handed over its "evidence" of the Iranian origin of these weapons to the Iraqi government.  

Given the presumed monolithic backing for Israel, there is a fear of being misrepresented, alienated or roundly pillaried which means the minority keep schtum.

The majority still see Jewish anti-Zionism as a perverse act of self-contradiction. For them, the idea of a state run on the paramountcy of one particular grouping, religious or otherwise, presents no problems. 

NSW Roads Minister Eric Roozendaal says Sydney's Lane Cove tunnel will remain open regardless of the financial status of its operator. 

Credit ratings agency Moody's has issued a warning that the tollway operator Connector Motorways could face a debt crisis by the end of 2009, because it is attracting insufficient traffic. 

While its propaganda machine might be sounding a little shrill lately, China's foreign policy is hitting all the right notes.  

In the past few weeks, President Hu Jintao has met twice with leading politicians from Taiwan following the election of Ma Ying-jeou. First Hu met with VP-elect Vincent Siew and then with KMT bigwig Lien Chan.  

"I'm going to be king. Women find that sort of power a real turn-on. It's like being in a roomful of all your favourite toys; you pick one up, play with it for a while then when your bored, just pick up the next one.  

Why have the power and never abuse it?  

 

 

He will soon play a major role in deciding the fate of one such bill, to help struggling homeowners, that the House passed, 266 to 154, on Thursday.