Death Penalty "debate" is a disgrace.

The death penalty is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.

It violates the right to life.

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The media is whipping up a feeding frenzy over Kevin Rudd supposedly "rebuking" the ALP's Foreign Affairs Spokesman, Robert McClelland for a statement he made yesterday about the Death Penalty.

The really disgusting thing is the way in which Alexander Downer has been whipping this issue up.I vividly remember Alexander Downer welcoming the announcement of the imposition of the Death Penalty on the Bali Bombers. I was appalled at the time, by Downer's statement, for it is in direct contradiction of Australia's bi-partisan stance in opposition to the Death Penalty - whether in Australia, or overseas. It is also in contradiction of Australia's ratification of the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. So much for Australia's Foreign minister representing this Government's official policy on international law. It is another example of the Government of Shame, in operation.

And Downer made feeble efforts to have the death penalty waived on an Australian citizen in Singapore (on the grounds of Australia's "high moral principle") - but let us not forget that the person concerned there was an Australian of Vietnamese origin. I would not dream of suggesting Downer is a racist bastard - you can make up your own mind on that. Hypocrite? Certainly!

As the Indonesian Lawyer Wirawan Adnan, who is defending at least one of the Australians convicted of drug charges in Indonesia (the so-called Bali 9) has said - this debate weakens Australia's arguments against executions of our citizens (abroad).

• We perceive this as a little bit inconsistent with the death penalty and makes it difficult for the Bali nine to go for a lesser sentence than death," Wirawan Adnan said.

  Another lawyer for the Bali bombers, Achmad Michdan, called Australia's position hypocritical.

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Here is a draft letter to Alexander Downer from a website about the Death penalty.

• [insert date]
• The Hon Alexander Downer MP

Minister for Foreign Affairs
Parliament House
PO Box 6022
Canberra ACT 2600
Australia

• Dear Minister
• The worldwide trend towards the abolition of capital punishment is undeniable and Australia must establish itself as a clear opponent, unafraid to express its views.
• We failed in our pleas for clemency for Van Nguyen hung in Singapore in Dec 05 by campaigning too little too late, our apparent double-standards and inconsistent stance was widely noted at this time and surely had some bearing on the outcome. Now six more young Australian citizens, three of whom were teenagers when incarcerated, face the firing squad in Indonesia for being drug mules. Australia cannot be content with the death penalty, even when courts have discretion in imposing it. We must press for better protections of human rights, and awareness throughout the world that there cannot be a justice that kills.
• We acknowledge the need to address serious crimes, but there is no convincing evidence that the death penalty deters crime more effectively than other punishments. Surely one of the principles of sentencing is rehabilitation; the death penalty renders this impossible with no opportunity to make better choices or the chance to return to society with a positive contribution, a second chance. The death sentence represents the ultimate failure of justice.
• Officially Australia has a long-standing principled opposition to capital punishment. In 1990 Australia signed the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which commits signatory nations not only to abolish the death penalty, but to undertake "an international commitment to abolish the death penalty". Australia's traditionally strong position on the death penalty has been undermined in recent years by what appears to be double standards. If we are to restore credibility when arguing for our own citizens to be spared, Australia must maintain a clear and principled stance against capital punishment in all circumstances.
• Yours sincerely
• [Insert Name and Address]

Tony Abbott is right - he WAS wrong!

Tony Abbott, the nastiest of the Howard Government Ministers (there are some contenders for that title, but let's not quibble) is right. He was wrong to attack Julia Gillard for lacking life experience.

• "FIREBRAND Health Minister Tony Abbott has accused fierce Labor rival Julia Gillard of lacking "life experience" to be Australia's deputy prime minister. "Voters expect a bit more humanity, a broader range of interests and experience than that of a political apparatchik," Mr Abbott told The Daily Telegraph yesterday. "It would be a lot easier for her to realise her ambition if there was evidence of a broader lifetime experience."

Tony Abbott is hardly the person to boast about the breadth of his "life experience" - unless he regards making a series of mistakes as qualifications for public office.

Making mistakes can be valuable, Tony. But you are meant to learn from them. In your case, you keep making them. What the point, or value, of that? How does that advantage the Australian people, who you are meant to be serving?

And what part of your background is not that of a "political apparatchik"? That's all you are, Tony, and all you will ever be.

As reported on the Channel Nine website, at the time of the debate about the Abortion Pill RU 486:"Mr Abbott, a staunch Catholic, rejected claims that his opposition to the drug was dictated by his religious beliefs. "One of the things which has very much disappointed me about this debate is the suggestion that there is a problem with ministerial decision making here, because as a Catholic I can't be trusted to make an objective decision," Mr Abbott said.

As a person raised as a Catholic, Tony, I can say the problem is not your Catholic background - it is your stupidity, and your religious bigotry, and your narrow "life view". Those are your attributes which get you into trouble. You are a disgrace to your "religious" background.

As the Telegraph website reports today:

• "Mr Abbott insists he was not personally attacking Ms Gillard, who he debates on morning TV every Friday. The thing about (Ms) Gillard is that she is very bright, just uber-professional and a formidable debater," Mr Abbott said. "(But) it would be a lot easier for her to realise her ambition if there was evidence of a broader lifetime experience. It's very hard to be a leader in a democratic society if your life has been consumed by the job." Last night, Mr Abbott sought to retract his remarks.

• "I should not have said anything that could be construed by anyone as a personal attack on Gillard," he said.

I ask if that constitutes a "withdrawal" by Tony Abbott? Here is Nicholson's view of Tony Abbott on "the withdrawal method".

Howard's Intervention in the NT - will wreck a community.

How the NT intervention will devastate one East Arnhem community (as published by crikey.com.au today).

• By John Greatorex, a member of the Intervention Reform Coalition of Darwin who previously worked as a teacher in Arnhemland for around 30 years.

"I would guess that there are few people who have even a moderate understanding of the breadth of the impact that the intervention is going to have on the East Arnhem population. There has been no consultation with Yolngu. People are aware that small teams of people are visiting Yolngu towns, in some cases with no notice. Reports from some Yolngu are that the teams have been unable to answer many of the questions being asked.I'd like to comment on only one aspect of the intervention, the transference of all CDEP (Community Development Employment Program) wages to Centrelink payments.

"At the time of writing, all peoples living in Indigenous areas prescribed by the Minister will have their CDEP payments converted to Centrelink payments. Without exception all people receiving Centrelink payments (including such benefits as service pensions) will have 50 per cent of their money quarantined. This is a racist policy that unnecessarily targets the most vulnerable and marginalised peoples in Australia, and again treats them as wards of the state. This quarantined money can only be spent at designated shops.

"This will have severe ramifications for people such as the residents of Mapuru, the place where the Arnhem Weavers live. Mapuru is a small town on the mainland adjacent to Elcho Island in north-east Arnhemland. It has a population of about 150, and with about 40 children attending school every day. The residents of Mapuru have struggled to stay on their country for over 35 years because they are determined to forge a future for their children, but it now seems with the "Intervention" these struggles might have been in vain.For nearly six years the people of Mapuru have been successfully running their own community co-op. The co-op runs on a non-profit basis and benefits all community members. In the co-op people can only buy healthy foods, fishing lines, tyres and other necessities needed to stay at Mapuru. Two years ago the Mapuru co-op won a National Heart Foundation award for their initiative. In the co-op you cannot buy soft drinks, chips, lollies or many of the other foods that are bad for health.

"The co-op is not a registered organisation but is run on a trust basis by the residents. With the changes from CDEP to Centrelink payments and the compulsory quarantining of 50 per cent of people's income, people will not be able to shop at their local co-op.

"They will be forced to shop at Galiwin'ku which is a charter flight away or drive many hours to Gapuwiyak. People will not have enough money to pay for charters and food. If a solution cannot be found then implementation of this policy will force people to leave their country at Mapuru, and move them into the town of Galiwin'ku where they are unwelcome, unsafe and unrepresented. This will have a severe and detrimental effect on the health of the Mapuru residents and their children.

"These forced changes will also result in the closure of the ecotourism business that the residents have been successfully running for five years. The ecotourism business Mapuru residents operate like the co-op has been initiated and funded entirely by Mapuru residents without any external assistance"
End of quoted article from Crikey.

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So there you have it - a small community co-op - the heart of that community, does not meet the rules devised by bureaucrats in Canberra (a world away) . So, their Centrelink cheques cannot be spent in their own shop.

This is the kind of thing people have been saying for ages about the NT Intervention. But don't try to explain this to Mal Brough, or John Howard. It's too hard for them to understand.

Bob Collins's passing - and the politics of hatred.

The death of former NT Senator Bob Collins has unleashed the "Politics of Hatred".

The News.com.au webshite - the "Newspulse", the email "flier" they send out - has a foul headline "Bob Collins killed himself- Report". The article to which it links is slightly more considered - but the NEWS LIMITED website editor had no such qualms - he states Collins's death as suicide, as fact. That is outrageous.

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News.com.au states:

"FORMER Northern Territory Senator Bob Collins may have committed suicide, according to a report to be published today. The report, by Darwin-based writer Paul Toohey in The Bulletin, says the Northern Territory coroner is to investigate whether the Labor icon took a drug overdose three days before his trial for child sex offences.
The article also says Mr Collins:

• TRIED to kill himself by driving his Toyota LandCruiser into a tree at high speed in Kakadu after the child abuse charges were first laid in 2004; and also
• TOOK an overdose of pills in hospital in Adelaide while recovering from bowel cancer.

Toohey told the Northern Territory News last night: "Collins didn't die of cancer - I know that for a fact."

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The Howard Government might now be thinking that they ought allow Parliament to return for another session, which would allow the Howard "Government of Shame" team of headkickers, and haters free reign vent their collective spleen in the safety of "Coward's Castle" under Parliamentary Privilege.

A proposed State Funeral offered to Bob Collins's family is likely to be withdrawn, or rather the family is being asked to reconsider their acceptance of a Government offer (in accordance with the Protocol Office standing rules). How gutless is that little dodge - putting pressure on the family, rather than the Government actually making a decision of its own.

So a major Politician, a former leader of the Opposition in the NT, and a former Senator for the NT, is to be buried under a slur of sexual abuse, which can never be tested in the courts.

Let me just say that from people who know some of the characters involved in this story, there are two sides to this whole business.

Let us not pretend that the Politics of the NT is above the Politic of Hatred. It is not. Lots of "respected people" in the NT resent the good things which Bob Collins did for the people of the Northern Territory. Those same people are prepared to listen to "tittle-tattle" from individuals with whom these "respected people" would not normally share the same room.

But if there is some "scuttlebutt" to be aired about Bob Collins, anything and everything is suddenly credible enough to be printed.

This is the Politics of Hatred - nothing more. It reveals the depths to which politicians and journalists will stoop.

"I Know Nothing". Howard's "Manuel" defence.

It has started. Mad political smearing, lies and innuendo. Cop this lot, from a single article in today's Fairfax Digital news feed, from the Age.

1. A gay sex allegation, initially blamed on the Labor Party, turns out to have come from the Liberals themselves.
2. The Big Business funded "Pro-Work-Choices" Ads used persons with criminal records to play the Union guys. Then Joe Hockey defended it, as "method acting"!!!
   
3. Then the Liberals claim that the Labor Party is being funded by the TWU, and demands "TWU candidates" for the Labor Party be disendorsed. It turns out that one was once a TWU worker more than 10 years ago, and the other candidate left the TWU in 2000 (7 years ago).

Read about it here:

Gay sex smear traced to Liberals

Misha Schubert and Ben Doherty
September 24, 2007

AMID an escalating brawl over political mud-slinging in the countdown to the election, the latest smear on a Liberal figure has been traced to his own party.

Claims that a married federal minister visits gay bathhouses and sexually harasses other men in political circles surfaced yesterday in News Limited papers, which said the Government blamed Labor for smearing the minister, who has children — although the articles made clear Labor was not the source.

Veteran journalist Laurie Oakes, the Nine Network's political editor, said he too was fed the same story by a Liberal as part of an internal power struggle. Prime Minister John Howard refused to comment on the innuendo, which he said he knew nothing about.

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The exchange came as big business was reeling from revelations by The Sunday Age that two actors playing "union thugs" in its pro-WorkChoices advertisement were notorious criminals with records for drug offences and violence. One had also faced sex charges. The ads were pulled on Saturday night.

ACTU president Sharan Burrow was incensed by the depiction of the unionists. But Workplace Minister Joe Hockey suggested the men were "method acting" — because "we have a number of union officials out there who have criminal records".

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In another controversy, the Transport Workers Union was accused of running a secret multimillion-dollar slush fund. Mr Howard and Mr Hockey demanded Labor leader Kevin Rudd investigate to ensure the union was accountable to its members.

Mr Hockey accused the TWU of funnelling more than $3 million to the Labor Party in recent years, and demanded scalps.

"If Kevin Rudd is fair dinkum about his zero tolerance approach to the unions' dirty tricks, he will return the TWU money and disendorse his TWU candidates — Corio candidate Richard Marles and Victorian Senate candidate David Feeney," he said.

Mr Feeney has not been employed by the TWU for more than a decade, and Mr Marles left the union in 2000.

With AAP

Source: The Age - Fairfax Digital.

Prime Minister Howard is desperate, and is relying on the defence used by "Manuel" from Fawlty Towers all those years ago - "I know nothing".

North-west Passage opens

The "legendary" North-west Passage (in the top end of the Atlantic Ocean) has apparently opened up, thanks, presumably to global warming.
The Americans are non-believers in global warming, but that does not stop them from seeing this event as an "opportunity" for both a new arena for "strategic opportunities", and also for resource exploitation.You may read more about this, courtesy of the BBC Website.

Costello's "Substance" abuse problem.

Peter Costello has a "Substance" abuse problem.

In the report in today's "Age", we find Peter Costello claiming: "Substance is what counts, you've got to have substance in politics if you are going to deliver jobs and successful businesses," he said.
Source: The Age - Fairfax Digital - 14 September 2007

Given that the main body of the article (and the Headline) is about "Rudd "arrogance" - out of control", the concluding sentence (quoted above) amounts to "substance abuse". In that report, there is not a single word of substance issued by Mr Costello, just abuse of Mr Rudd.

Costello's ideas of "Substance" apparently are limited to abusive words: Arrogance, Triumphalism, Arrogance and then a prediction that the Labor Party's new advertising campaign "will not get much traction with (sic) the electorate".

This amounts to "Substance Abuse".