The model for the treatment of the Arabs was the strategy adopted to wipe out the indigenous peoples of America. The mad ideas about racial and cultural superiority prevalent at the time knew no bounds.  

There really isn't any doubt any more about whether the Deputy Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, has the killer instinct. 

The problem tends more to be how to drag her off the victim's body. 

The Art Gallery of NSW will sell two paintings by famous Australians to raise funds towards the $16.2 million purchase price of Paul Cezanne's landscape Bords De La Marne.

Brett Whiteley's Balmoral and John Perceval's Pleasure Craft will be auctioned by Sotheby's in Melbourne on November 24.

So far, so good. 

The first week of Barack Obama's transition to the presidency has gone about as well as anyone could imagine. His few public appearances have been gaffe-free, and his initial decisions in setting up his administration have been strongly reassuring.

As you know, the Empire has selected a new emperor. The Mafia has chosen a new don. The corporation has hired a new CEO. Are you brimming with hope yet?

Read on… 

According to Reuters, (Nov. 11, 2008), President-Elect Barack Obama has urged President-Select George W. Bush to take “measures to help the ailing (automobile) industry on top of a $25 billion loan packaged approved in September.” 

Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull has also been criticised for questioning whether Mr Henry would be sacked if it was revealed he misled Treasury over advice given by regulators prior to the release of the Government's economic stimulus package.

But today in the Coalition party room meeting, one MP warned against attacking public servants.

from Crikey….. 

Liberals play spot the hypocrite on political accountability 

Canberra correspondent Bernard Keane writes: 

Opposition frontbencher Andrew Robb says the Treasury's latest economic figures have got "the smell of manipulation" about them because they differ from the Reserve Bank's. 

The Reserve Bank yesterday released figures which show it expects growth to slow to 1.5 per cent, compared to Treasury's prediction of 2 per cent.  

The Federal Reserve is refusing to identify the recipients of almost $2 trillion of emergency loans. 

Apparently Bernanke, that wonderful bipartisan soul who is so competent and wonderful that everyone in the village thinks Obama should leave him in charge is refusing to identify who got almost 2 trillion dollars of Fed cash. Bloomberg News is suing to find out. Personally I really, really, really want to know.

When Barack Obama met George Bush for the first time four years ago, it proved an unhappy encounter.  

Matters were not helped at the start when a presidential aide squirted sanitiser on George Bush's hands before they shook. 

When Barack Obama takes the oath of office on January 20, Americans won't just get a new president; they might finally learn the full extent of George W. Bush's warrantless domestic wiretapping.  

The international financial crisis has given world leaders a unique opportunity to create a truly global society, Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown will say in a keynote foreign policy speech today. 

In his annual speech at the Lord Mayor's Banquet, Brown - who has spearheaded calls for the reform of international financial institutions - will say Britain, the United States and Europe are key to forging a new world order. 

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has obtained evidence suggesting that documents which have been described as technical studies for a secret Iranian nuclear weapons-related research program may have been fabricated.

Barack Obama will move swiftly to unpick many of what he sees as the most egregious acts of the Bush administration when he enters the White House in January, including restrictions on stem cell research and moves to allow oil drilling in wilderness areas, a leading member of his transition team said yesterday. 

John Podesta, a former chief of staff to Bill Clinton whom Obama has put in joint charge of his transition process, indicated the incoming president would use extraordinary powers to force through rapid change.

An op-ed in the conservative Wall Street Journal (June, 2008) provides another example of how there isn’t a dime’s worth of difference between Republicans and Democrats, especially when it comes to foreign policy.

The op-ed, entitled “Don’t Expect a Big Change in US Foreign Policy” by Timothy J. Lynch and Robert S. Singh, argues that no matter who is elected president — McCain, Obama, or Clinton — foreign interventionism will continue to be the order of the day.