Pacific Highway a priority, PM tells Vic

Victoria will not miss out on funding in any pre-election road-funding blitz, Prime Minister John Howard said.

Responding to a News Ltd report that his government would next week announce a $5 billion roads package that snubs Victoria, Mr Howard said Victoria would be "fairly treated".

But he refused to commit to any new roads funding for the state, instead nominating the Pacific Highway, linking Sydney and Brisbane, as being a priority.

A bill introduced this week by Australia's Parliament would give the Australian federal police the power to control which sites can and cannot be viewed by Australian Web surfers.

Introduced on Thursday, the bill--titled the Communications Legislation Amendment (Crime or Terrorism Related Internet Content) Bill 2007 - would empower the federal police to alter the "blacklist" of sites that are currently prohibited by the Australian Communications and Media Authority.

Lomborg is at it again...

actually he never stopped.

Let's take a trip down memory lane.

Dirt files 'having little impact'

So-called dirt files have shown no indication of doing damage to political parties in the lead up to this year's federal election, Newspoll chief executive
Martin O'Shannessy said today.

To date most people were very much listening to which party had the best plan for the future, hesaid.

Mr O'Shannessy was speaking as another poll showed a slight strengthening of the coalition vote, but still leaving it well behind Labor.

Bow your heads and raise the white flags.

After facing down the Third Reich, the Japanese Empire, the U.S.S.R., Manuel Noriega and Saddam Hussein, the United States has met an enemy it dares not confront - the American private health insurance industry.

With the courageous exception of Dennis Kucinich, the Democratic candidates have all rolled out health "reform" plans that represent total, Chamberlain-like, appeasement. Edwards and Obama propose universal health insurance plans that would in no way ease the death grip of Aetna, Unicare, MetLife, and the rest of the evildoers.

THE PRESIDENT:

“Good evening. In the life of all imperialistic military empires, there come brief, fleeting moments that decide the direction of a multinational corporation masquerading as a democratic nation, and reveal the character of its blue-blooded aristocrats, conniving religious hucksters and corrupt, back-slapping robber barons.

We have now been suspended in such a moment for over six calendar years.

When the insurgency started in the summer of 2003, it was made up primarily of the same class of alienated Sunnis who are now part of the tribal Anbar Awakening.

The insurgents I spent time with in 2003 and 2004 were, in essence, nationalists who didn’t like the U.S. Army driving around their villages, kicking down their doors and shooting their cousins at checkpoints. They were also deeply suspicious of American plans for democracy, because they feared it would lead to Iran taking over the government.

from alan ramsey …..

You probably read about Kim Beazley's valedictory speech two days ago. What you would not have read was how good it was. After 27 years Beazley, too, is quitting politics this election.

This is yet another of those sneaky programs blindly authorized under the screaming banner of "homeland security." It has received practically no mass-media coverage, but I'm sure you'll be excited to learn that the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) sets up a whole new surveillance program to defend you and yours from a rather odd national security threat: terrorist chickens. And terrorist cows, horses, pigs, sheep, llamas ... and so on. Advanced under the benign guise of protecting public health from outbreaks of animal-borne diseases, this program is intended to tag and track every farm animal in America from birth to death.

Israel, US Shared Data On Suspected Nuclear Site

Bush Was Told of North Korean Presence in Syria, Sources Say

Israel's decision to attack Syria on Sept. 6, bombing a suspected nuclear site set up in apparent collaboration with North Korea, came after Israel shared intelligence with President Bush this summer indicating that North Korean nuclear personnel were in Syria, U.S. government sources said.

President Bush today called on Congress to make permanent a law that gives the government broad authority to eavesdrop without warrants on phone calls, e-mail and other communication between people in the United States and suspected terrorists abroad.

The president wants Congress to extend the law, set to expire in February, that allows spy agencies to intercept the communications of suspected terrorists that pass through U.S. switching facilities.