from the ABC ….

Boosting fertility rate 'vital' for Australia's economy Federal Treasurer Peter Costello has renewed his call for Australians to have more children.

Speaking at the launch of this year's Census, Mr Costello says boosting the country's fertility rate was vital for the economy.

Mr Costello says an increased fertility rate would balance the immigration program and make it easier to maintain the defence force and living standards.

The Flea can be found in the chat room from 12-2 pm WA time on most days, at at other times as my own schedual permits. Please join me.

Despite mounting calls from world leaders for a ceasefire, the Israel Army is adamant that it is not about to stop it's pounding of Lebanon for at least another week, and is obviously planning a ground assault. Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz said the offensive must continue until Hezbollah is pushed away from the border.

Encouraged by the support is is receiving from Washington, the army is treating southern Lebanon as it's own private shooting gallery, hitting cars and buses loaded with refugees heading for relative safety in Tyre with rockets.

As Condi sets out for the Middle East, aids have made it clear that calling for a ceasefire in not on her agenda, repeating the insistence that any ceasefire would have to be preceded by the disarming of the "Iranian backed Hezbullah". On Friday, Rice rejected international calls for an immediate ceasefire, saying the world is witnessing "the birth pangs of a new Middle East".

"A sustainable ceasefire........is sustainable only if we get to the root problem, which is Hezbullah, a terrorist organisation," according to Josh Bolten, President George W Bush's chief of staff.

Meanwhile, the UN's emergency relief coordinator, Jan Egeland, accused Israel of gross violation international humanitarian law. As he toured the devastated Haret Hreik distict of Lebanon, which has endured 11 days of bombardment, he described the scene as "horrific", going on to say, "I did not know it was block after block of houses."

Senior diplomats from Britain, Germany and France arrived in Israel to urge it towards a ceasefire or at least restraint, prompting Lt Gen Dan Halutz, Israel's chief of staff to state, "The foreign ministers do not determine our time limit. The Israeli government does that."

Washington, which supports Israel's declared aim of forcing the implementation of UN resolution 1559, brushed aside a Syrian offer of direct talks on the crisis, with senior US "Hawk" John Bolton stating, "Syria does not need dialogue to know what to do; they need to lean on Hezbullah."

With tens of thousands of foreign nationals still trying to get out, Israel continues to blast all exits out of the country.  The death toll in Lebanon is now well over 380, including three refugees who died when Israeli warplanes attacked their minibus, and Lebanese photographer Layal Nejib, 23,  who was killed when a missile hit near her taxi in southern Lebanon.

The continued attacks by Israel have displaced at least 700,000 people in Lebanon. The Lebanese town of Sidon is packed with about 35,000 refugees, with more pouring in by the hour. Essential supplies such as food, fuel and even medicines are in seriously short supply. Mayor Abdul-Rahman al-Bizri told the AP, "There are no supplies reaching us, not from other nations, nor from the Lebanese government".

 POPE Benedict XVI led an international day of prayers for peace in the Middle East yesterday, calling on the international community "to look for ways to start negotiations" between the warring parties.

Friends and Supporters, Thanks for your support over the past months. It has been almost a year since I was detained and forcibily removed from your country without explanation.

Since my return, I have moved to San Francisco, California and continued working for environmental and social justice. If anything, my experiances in Australia have firmed up my commitment to make a better world. As part of that commitment, I have campaigned to clear my name and protect others from similar treatment.

My Australian supporters, Friends of Scott Parkin, and I have done this through a variety of political, legal, media and cultural channels. Check here for details-- http://scottparkin.org/index.htm   Most importantly, I launched a court challenge to quash the security assessment that led to my detention and removal from Australia. Plus, now the court action includes Muhammad Faisal and Mohammad Sagar, 2 Iraqis that have been detained on Nauru for the past 5 years. Both have had secret security assessments made of them, are unable to leave as no country will take them and remain in detention limbo. On July 19th, we had our first day in court. Details here-- http://scottparkin.org/release13-12-05.htm Recent Sydney Morning Herald column by Adele Horin on our case http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/democracy-damned-by-secret-justice/2006/07/21/1153166583062.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1

 

 

message for clowner …..

‘The British government issued a fierce condemnation of Israel's bombing campaign in Lebanon last night as world leaders desperately sought a last-minute deal to avert a ground war.

As Israeli tanks massed on the border and troops made sporadic raids on Lebanese villages, Foreign Office minister Kim Howells claimed Israel was not inflicting "surgical strikes" but waging war on "the entire Lebanese nation".

‘Citizens of the eleventh class, really not citizens at all, have no rights citizens of the first class or their government are bound to respect.  Their residence is forbidden in nearly nine-tenths of the country, all of which they used to own.  The areas left to them are cut up into smaller and smaller portions weekly, by high walls, free fire zones and hundreds of checkpoints manned by the army of the first class citizens, so that none can travel a dozen miles in any direction to work, school, shopping, a job, a farm, a business or a hospital without several long waits, humiliating searches and often arbitrary denials of the right to pass or to return.  Posh residential settlements for the first class citizens with protecting gun towers and military bases are built with government funds and foreign aid on what used to be the villages and farms and pastures of the eleventh class citizens.  The settlers are allotted generous additional housing and other subsidies, allowed to carry weapons and use deadly force with impunity against the former inhabitants, and are connected with the rest of first class territory by a network of first-class citizen only roads.

‘A chief prosecutor of Nazi war crimes at Nuremberg has said George W. Bush should be tried for war crimes along with Saddam Hussein. Benjamin Ferenccz, who secured convictions for 22 Nazi officers for their work in orchestrating the death squads that killed more than 1 million people, told OneWorld both Bush and Saddam should be tried for starting "aggressive" wars-Saddam for his 1990 attack on Kuwait and Bush for his 2003 invasion of Iraq.

"Nuremberg declared that aggressive war is the supreme international crime," the 87-year-old Ferenccz told OneWorld from his home in New York. He said the United Nations charter, which was written after the carnage of World War II, contains a provision that no nation can use armed force without the permission of the UN Security Council.

The six o'clock news is showing cartoons of the Hezbollah missiles flying over the border into Israel, and the planes flying back to retaliate, Israeli troops invading Lebanese villages.  Meanwhile George and Condi are pointing the finger at Syria, even as the US donated smart-bombs are destroying underground bunkers in Lebanon.

Condi says that this is the "birth pangs of a new Middle East" but so close to 6/6/06, from a local point of view, it must look a little like the beginings of Armageddon.  Especially if you live in Har Mageddon 

It must be painful for Dubya, though, to have to work through his summer hols.  The sacrifices one must make to achieve global domination !

Isreal claims a "measued response" to Hezbullah, with no intentions of hurting the innocent people of Lebanon. 

 

Here is the results of that so called "measuered Response.

 

http://fromisraeltolebanon.info/ 

 

Someone, anyone, please STOP THIS MADNESS!!!!!!! 

From: The Sunday Telegraph

TWO Sydney schoolboys are missing, feared dead, after the south Lebanon
village in which they were trapped was destroyed by Israeli missiles.
The father of Ali Sayed, 11, and his brother Abbas, 8, said yesterday he
held little hope the Bexley Public School students had survived Friday's
attack, which destroyed 30 homes in Aitaroun.

"It is very bad news. It is with God now," Rockdale excavator Fadel
Sayed said.

If his worst fears are realised, Ali and Abbas - who were born in Sydney
and on their first visit to Lebanon - would be the first known
Australian casualties of the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in
southern Lebanon.

According to the New York Times, "The Bush administration is rushing a delivery of precision-guided bombs to Israel, which requested the expedited shipment last week after beginning its air campaign against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon."

The Times article states that "The decision to quickly ship the weapons to Israel was made with relatively little debate within the Bush administration."

 Report raps Pentagon for equipment sales

By ANDREW MIGA, Associated Press WriterFri Jul 21, 11:10 PM ET

Undercover government investigators purchased sensitive surplus military equipment such as launcher mounts for shoulder-fired missiles and guided missile radar test sets from a Defense Department contractor.

Much of the equipment could be useful to terrorists, according to a draft report by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress.

In June, two GAO investigators spent $1.1 million on such equipment at two excess property warehouses. Their purchases included several types of body armor inserts used by troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, an all-band antenna used to track aircraft, and a digital signal converter used in naval surveillance.

"The body armor could be used by terrorists or other criminal activity," noted the report, obtained Friday by The Associated Press. "Many of the other military items have weapons applications that would also be useful to terrorists."

Thousands of items that should have been destroyed were sold to the public, the report said. Much of the equipment was sold for pennies on the dollar.

The list included circuit cards used in computerized Navy systems, a cesium technology timing unit with global positioning capabilities, and 12 digital microcircuits used in F-14 Tomcat fighter aircraft.

At least 2,669 sensitive military items were sold to 79 buyers in 216 sales transactions from November 2005 to June 2006.

"DOD has not enforced security controls for preventing sensitive excess military equipment from release to the public," the report concluded. "GAO was able to purchase these items because controls broke down at virtually every step in the excess property turn-in and disposal process."

In the report, the GAO said it had briefed Pentagon officials on its findings but that the Pentagon had no response because it had not had time to perform a detailed review.

Rep. Christopher Shays (news, bio, voting record), R-Conn., chairman of the House Government Reform Committee's national security panel, will hold a hearing on the matter Tuesday. Earlier GAO reports also had found lax security controls over sensitive excess military equipment.

"During previous hearings we learned DOD was a bargain basement for would-be terrorists due to lax security screening of excess military equipment," Shays said in a statement Friday. "Based on GAO's most recent undercover investigation it looks like the store is still open."

Shays added: "We've seen partial changes that have resulted in over $34 million savings, but they still have a long way to go to make this system functional."

The GAO findings were first reported by CBS News and ABC News.