from the ABC …..

Howard reflects on 'very bad' poll result

Prime Minister John Howard says today's Newspoll result is very negative for his Government.

Support for the Government has fallen in the Newspoll, despite last week's Budget, with Labor increasing its lead to 18 per cent on a two-party preferred basis.

The Coalition has polled 41 per cent to Labor's 59 per cent on a two-party preferred basis.

from CorpWatch …..

CorpWatch & its partners today released an alternative annual report on Halliburton titled: "Goodbye Houston" The new report was prepared in association with Halliburton Watch & the Oil & Gas Accountability Project.

from the NYT …..

Bank's Report Says Wolfowitz Violated Ethics

By STEVEN R. WEISMAN

Published: May 15, 2007

Under Howard Australia has witnessed a continuous decline not only in the protection we give to the human rights and safety of others, but also to the human rights and safety of our own citizens. When the Tampa arrived in our waters all those years ago it high-lighted a new policy of detain and deter in relation to refugees seeking protection from persecution in their homelands.

The message appears to be that individuals should subject to the law of the land they come from.

‘Cricket tours have been cancelled due to terrorism, world wars and even the French Revolution, but never before on account of a government's interventionism.

John Howard's directive sets a dangerous precedent for sport in Australia, albeit a popular one in this case. But should the Government look to broaden that ban beyond matches played exclusively in Zimbabwe, as Howard and Alexander Downer foreshadowed, it could well find itself in a heated battle with the very body it is trying to help.

Ian Barker, QC, told Downing Centre Local Court that Patrick Power, 54, had suffered from an internet addiction & depressive illness.

Barker tendered 76 references from barristers, friends & family “attesting to his integrity & contribution to society”. They said the highly regarded prosecutor had always behaved with “complete propriety” towards children - “In one sense the community is indebted to him and he’s now entitled to call in that debt,” Mr Barker said after outlining some of Power’s contributions to youth causes.

Power had suffered public humiliation & had already been punished & should be given a good behaviour bond, Mr Barker said.

‘A week or so ago the government announced changes to our workplace laws. It did so with great fanfare and at great cost to the taxpayer through widespread advertising of their new policy.

Today in the Senate we discovered that the government is so enamoured with their new changes that they are trying to ensure there is minimal opportunity for the rest of the community to check out the detail before they are rushed into law.

"The ideal set-up by the Party was something huge, terrible & glittering - a world of steel & concrete, of monstrous machines & terrifying weapons - a nation of warriors & fanatics, marching forward in perfect unity, all thinking the same thoughts & shouting the same slogans, perpetually working, fighting, triumphing, persecuting - three hundred million people, all with the same face."

George Orwell

1984

‘An Old Bailey judge yesterday imposed gagging orders on the media after jailing a civil servant and a Labour MP's researcher for disclosing the minutes of a meeting between Tony Blair and George Bush about Iraq.

Mr Justice Aikens prevented journalists from publishing a comment by David Keogh, a Whitehall communications officer, on what the minutes revealed, even though it was said in open court. He also said that allegations already in the public domain could not be repeated if there was any suggestion they related to the contents of the document.

‘Underscoring the essential objective of his Middle East tour, US Vice President Dick Cheney used the deck of the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis in the Persian Gulf Friday to deliver a bellicose threat against Iran.

‘The Government is unable to break its addiction to soaring defence spending on high-tech but unsuitable assault toys. This is money that should have been spent enhancing lives through health and education.

from the Centre for American Progress …..

The Stain Of Gitmo

Blair will stand down on 27 June

He made the announcement in a speech to party activists in his Sedgefield constituency, after earlier briefing the Cabinet on his plans.

He acknowledged his government had not always lived up to high expectations but said he had been "very blessed" to lead "the greatest nation on earth".

‘A deadly bomb attack in a once safe Kurdish city and a rocket blast in Baghdad's Green Zone have served as a violent backdrop to a surprise Iraq visit by US vice-president Dick Cheney.

Mr Cheney arrived in the war-torn capital to meet senior Iraqi leaders, as a new poll revealed 59 per cent of American voters want the White House to set a timetable for withdrawing US troops from Iraq.

The vice-president told Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki that Washington's patience with the slow pace of Iraq's political peace process is running out, even as new attacks further undermined its progress.’

from the SMH …..

PM to seize uni control from states

John Garnaut & David Crawshaw

May 10, 2007

The Federal Government is poised to take its "education revolution" an extra step by using controversial constitutional powers to strip the states of their control over universities.

In her first post-budget interview, the Education Minister, Julie Bishop, told the Herald the states had tied the universities in red tape but contributed nothing financially.