Like the spin-off of "Laverne and Shirley" from Happy Days, Halliburton is about to float KBR on the stock exchange.

Putting in their application on Friday, Halliburton hope to sell of one-fifth of their war and government section.

The UK's Times On Sunday, pre-announcing the sale as it did the float of Carlyle's privatisation of the UK's defence research, tells us that the UK Ministry of defence is the second largest customer of KBR"s departments Government and Infrastructure, the latter of which was formerly run globaly from Adelaide.

In what capacities might Halliburton involved in the Carlyle/Qinetiq UK float?  If the advice was given so that Cheney had a "warm-up" act to prepare potential customers for his "main event' there may be some grumbling in Whitehall.

‘The fortress-like compound
rising beside the Tigris River here will be the largest of its kind in the
world, the size of Vatican City, with the population of a small town, its own
defense force, self-contained power & water, & a precarious perch at
the heart of Iraq’s
turbulent future. 

‘On a warm September day in 1920,
a few months after the arrest of his comrades Sacco and Vanzetti, a vengeful
Italian anarchist named Mario Buda parked his horse-drawn wagon near the corner
of Wall and Broad Streets, directly across from J. P. Morgan Company. He
nonchalantly climbed down and disappeared, unnoticed, into the lunchtime crowd. 

A few blocks away, a startled
postal worker found strange leaflets warning: "Free the Political
Prisoners or it will be Sure Death for All of You!" They were signed:
"American Anarchist Fighters." 

From the ABC …..

Easter prayers focus on peace, justice 

Religious leaders are calling on
Australians to embrace the values of peace and justice this Easter. 

Catholic and Anglican archbishops
say international differences can be overcome. 

a buzzflash editorial …..

What we have going on amidst the
generals, present and former, is a mutiny. It's not an armed one, not yet.

When most Americans think of a
mutiny, they think of armed crew members seizing the captain and taking over
command of a ship, as in the famed "Mutiny on the Bounty."

But, what we are seeing in the United States is a public rebuke of the
commander-in-chief, his vice president and his secretary of defense, Donald
Rumsfeld, without an active military revolt as of yet - although that can't be
ruled out. 

‘As stockholders filed into the room in April 2005, news
hadn't been good for Coke, which has steadily lost market share to rivals.
Investors were eager for reassurance from CEO Neville Isdell, a patrician
Irishman who had recently assumed the top job. Few in the room, however, were
prepared for what happened next. As Isdell stood at the podium, two long lines
formed at the microphones. When he opened the floor, the first to speak was Ray
Rogers, a veteran union organizer and head of the Campaign to Stop Killer Coke.
"I want to know what [Coke is] going to do to regain the trust and
credibility in order to stop the growing movement worldwide...banning Coke
products," boomed the 62-year-old. 

From the SMH ….. 

Mike Carlton 

‘The
sharemarket has been going gangbusters lately, although not for us mugs who
were conned into buying Telstra shares, which have tanked. 

‘My most reliable sources for articles are government
officials who do or say things that, inadvertently, reveal the vicious nature
of political systems. It is not so much that these people are too stupid to
realize the implications of their words or deeds but, rather, that they are so
convinced of the propriety of what they are doing that they see no problem in
openly expressing themselves. 

Thanks to Wendy
McElroy we now have access to the State of Virginia’s directive, to state
employees, on how to identify and deal with threats of “terrorism.” The
governor signed off on this document, declaring the state’s purpose of
“safeguarding the people of Virginia.” A close reading, however, discloses a
different purpose, namely, to protect the state from “the people of
Virginia.” 

‘This week's most terrifying remark came from the foreign
secretary, Jack Straw. He declared that a nuclear attack on Iran would be
"completely nuts" and an assault of any sort
"inconceivable". In Straw-speak, "nuts" means he's just
heard it is going to happen and "inconceivable" means certain. 

A measure of the plight of
British foreign policy is that such words from the foreign secretary are
anything but reassuring. Straw says of Iran that "there is no smoking gun,
there is no casus belli". There was no smoking gun in Iraq, only weapons
conjured from the fevered imagination of Downing Street and the intelligence
chiefs. 

‘Average Americans are struggling to keep up with persistently high gas
prices, now
approaching US$3 a gallon.  

Testifying before Congress last November, Exxon CEO Lee Raymond blamed the
problem on “global supply and demand” and assured the public that: "we're all in this
together".  

‘The definition of "failed states" is hardly
scientific. But they share some primary characteristics. 

They are unable or unwilling to
protect their citizens from violence and perhaps even destruction. They regard
themselves as beyond the reach of domestic or international law, hence free to
carry out aggression and violence. And if they have democratic forms, they
suffer from a serious "democratic deficit" that deprives their formal
democratic institutions of real substance. 

From the New York Times …..

Rumsfeld Faces Growing Revolt by Retired Generals 

By DAVID S. CLOUD, ERIC SCHMITT
and THOM SHANKER
Published: April 13, 2006
WASHINGTON, April 13 —

An expanding group of influential
former military officers is calling for Defense Secretary Donald
H. Rumsfeld's resignation in a public rebellion that has become
a significant challenge to the Pentagon's civilian leadership. 

 
On April 13 2006, Miranda Devine writes (tongue in cheek, I hope) an opinon piece in The Sydney Morning Herald:

Baby boomers' gyrating days are numbered ….. 

It's time to accept that youth culture is for the young, not the young at heart. 

From the ABC …..

Andrews moves to allay Easter sacking fears 

The Federal Government has moved
to reassure workers that they are protected from getting the sack if they
have reasonable grounds for not being able to work on public holidays over
Easter. 

Labor says Easter will be a test
for the new rules and say they are weighted in favour of the employer.