With all the worry of Iraq, the Wheat Board scandal, the ten years of environmental paralysis, a newly credible opposition and the impending retirement of that great friend George, our esteemed Prime Minister is surely in need of a helping hand to get the Citizenship Examination right.

‘Democracy is supposed to be about ordinary people, common folk, having a say-so in the decisions that shape their lives; the idea that there's an "inalienable right" to certain freedoms; that the only legitimate government is one that answers to "the people." In democracies, people are not subjects, but citizens.

from our ABC …..

Mr Downer said that he's told the Bush administration there must be no defeat in Iraq, that the United States must ensure, on behalf of the Iraqi people, that there's victory, and also that there must be stability in the region. He says it may be that the Coalition has to make some policy changes here and there.

In his farewell speech as Secretary General of the UN, Kofi Annan delivered a series of "lessons" which could be read as rebukes to the Bush/Cheney doctrine. Given at the Truman Library in Independence, Missouri, Annan's speech invokes Truman throughout, while conspicuously using Bush's name exactly zero times. The lessons:

from the ether …..

Downer inciting violence, says Fiji coup leader 

Fijian military leader Commodore Frank Bainimarama has criticised Australia's Foreign Affairs Minister, saying Alexander Downer is inciting the people of Fiji to violence.

Shining brilliantly in Rolls-Royce's online media room is the two-week-old press kit for a great story that didn't even make it to Google News, let alone into Australian print. It's how Cheney's Men and Rolls Royce have signed a A$50 million deal with the Australian Navy to service and maintain the amphibious ships HMAS Success, Tobruk, Manoora and Kanimbla (links courtesy of RR)

From the home city of The Foreign Minister of Australia the Vice President of America has been coordinating his aid business into Iraq. This makes it surprising that Downer and Cheney will not be discussing the aid scandal of AWB.

It\s understandable however, that Cheney, hiding for years from his dual positions by claiming that his Halliburton fees were "deferred payments," would not be seen dead talking to somebody up to their neck in tarnish about mis-spending public money about paying bribes to Saddam. Given all the trouble that Halliburton/KBR have been getting into for overspending from the public purse (most recently including spending $600 a day per security guard at Mid East offices) Downer probably feels the same way.

Administration officials say their preliminary review of the Iraq Study Group Report "has concluded that many of its key proposals are impractical or unrealistic & a small group inside the National Security Council is now racing to come up with alternatives to the panel's ideas."

Below is an extract from the prime preanster’s press conference today, where he & Andrew Robb confirmed the government’s intention to introduce a “Citizenship Test”.

The irony of this announcement sharing the “subject” line with New South Wales lotteries says it all ….. 

11 December 2006

TRANSCRIPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER

THE HON JOHN HOWARD MP

‘What if the world's governments came together and agreed on the fundamental rights that every human being must have in order to enjoy basic dignity, opportunity, and a meaningful life?

What if their agreement was profoundly progressive, recognizing civil and political rights like free speech, due process, and non-discrimination, as well as economic and social rights like the right to health care and housing, to organize, and to receive a living wage for a hard day's work? And what if they memorialized those rights in a seminal document, from which more specific commitments and enforcement could and did flow?

from today's sydney morning herald .....

‘New evidence claiming five young Australian journalists were executed by Indonesian troops in 1975 was hearsay and might not be accepted in court, says an Indonesia expert.

A statement from a leading lawyer, George Brownbill, contravenes the official line that the five were killed inadvertently by crossfire while reporting on Indonesia's invasion of East Timor.

Mr Brownbill said that in 1977 he was shown an Australian intelligence report of monitored Indonesian military communications in which a senior Indonesian officer said the five had been shot in accordance with instructions.

PRIME MINISTER:

Well certainly things in Iraq are going very badly.

MITCHELL:

Is it sliding towards chaos?

PRIME MINISTER:

I think things are going very badly. 

By British standards, it was hardly an impertinent question, but the inquiry from the veteran correspondent was enough to make several members of the White House press corps gasp: Was George Bush, the president of the United States, "in denial" about the state of Iraq today?

The answer was as blunt & folksy as the president himself. "It's bad in Iraq. That help?" snapped Mr Bush before unloading on the man who flew in from London the night before, like many others scenting a potentially historic turning point in the bloody story of Iraq & the US' war on terrorism.