Bush's Last Day 20 January 2009.

Bernie wanted me to post this - and for good reason.
Certainly the G.W> Bush Presidency was indeed an era of error.

Click to enlarge, to read the fine print of my disclaimer

Let me just say that this Blog wishes Obama all the very best for his Presidency.

No doubt it will be difficult, with huge challenges ahead - the environment for starters. Do you remember Global Warming? And all that stuff about Kyoto Protocols?

And that's not to mention the excesses of the Stock Market. My opinion on that will differ from what Obama is likely to do - he will continue to bail out the banks and stockbrokers, in order to keep the economy from collapsing totally. Personally, I think they need to charge the B"astards.
In my view, theft is theft, and ought not be rewarded.

There were other parts to the email, about the supposedly "funny" things GWB said, while President. I am afraid I do not find them funny, because, he was President (in all probablility, by fraudulent means), and he got to laugh at the rest of the world - for 8 long, miserable years.

In truth, I doubt the world will recover from the excesses and errors of the GW Bush presidency within my lifetime.

• THAT'S NO LAUGHING MATTER.

• ASK THE IRAQIS
• ASK THE PALESTINIANS
• ASK DAVID HICKS
• ASK MAMDOUH HABIB
• ASK THE PEOPLE IN TENNESSEE WHOSE HOUSESHAVE BEEN DELUGED WITH TOXIC COAL ASH
• ASK THE PEOPLE OF NEW ORLEANS -THE VICTIMS OF CYCLONE KATRINA,WHO WERE IGNORE BY THEIR PRESIDENT
• ASK THE MILLIONS OF AMERICANS WHOSE HOUSES HAVE BEEN SOLD FROM UNDER THEM BECAUSE OF THE "SUB-PRIME LOANS".
  
• AND THAT' S JUST FOR STARTERS.

NONE OF THAT IS FUNNY!

Let's hope President Obama can get on with repairing the damage done by his predecessor.

Its moments like these when I feel like praying for him, and the world at large!

American Warmongers supporting the outrages in Gaza.

This attached story comes from the Reuters UK Website.

U.S. seeks ship to move arms to Israel (see full story below).

My own perspective is that this is George W Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney's parting "gift" to Israel.

Bast*rds (Bush and Cheney, I mean).

Am I naive? Very likely!

The American War Machine is huge, and greedy and, frankly, evil to the core.

But there is another factor at play - the defeat of G.W. Bush's party in the November Elections in the USA. Remember that?

The America is supposedly the most modern nation in the world. But the American people are still living with an archaic US Constitution, with its "horse and cart era" insistence on the Presidential hand-over occurring in late January - two months after the election. That gives ample opportunity for a corrupt and evil administration to: cry "Havoc" and let slip the dogs of war".

The full quote from Marc Antony (in "Julius Caesar") is worth reading: It reads like a News report from the Gaza Strip this week:

ANTONY:
Blood and destruction shall be so in use
And dreadful objects so familiar
That mothers shall but smile when they behold
Their infants quarter'd with the hands of war;
All pity choked with custom of fell deeds:

And Caesar's spirit, ranging for revenge,
With Ate by his side, come hot from Hell,
Shall in these confines with a monarch's voice
Cry 'Havoc,' and let slip the dogs of war;

That this foul deed shall smell above the earth
With carrion men, groaning for burial.

George W. who most likely has not read much of The Bard, certainly understood the "opportunity" presented to him and his people, by this Constitutional "delay". And now we see he has used his chance to send "bucketloads", no - "shiploads", no - 2.5 million kilograms of high explosives to Israel. And that is just the first (reported) shipment. We know from today's report that there is more on the way. The Americans hardly need to tell the Israelis to "go for it - while you can", when they are making such extraordinary "special shipments".

This smacks of the behaviour of a War Criminal to me. But we more or less know that about George W, anyway, don't we?

After all, the whole business of the invasion of Iraq, on an illegitimate pretext, and without the sanction of the UN, is just the largest, and most obvious of his outrages. The perversion of the US justice system, at Guantanamo is another. And there are hundreds more examples, no doubt, which "little people" like us may never hear about.

I like (personally) nearly all the Americans I have met. But goodness me, as a nation they have a lot to answer for, after allowing George to steal the Presidency in the first place - 8 years ago.

I vividly remember the frenzied response of otherwise "nice people" after the September 11 outrage. George took full advantage of that outrage, and confusion. Somebody played the American people for "Suckers" AFTER September 11, 2001 - and possibly before that date. We may never know the truth.

Our own "Little Johnnie", who was in Washington at the time, fell into line with George W. And next week he will get his beloved Medal for it. It should be an "Iron Cross" - befitting a "Man of Steel".

Bastards - all of them.

Bush ought to have been impeached. At the very least he ought face an International Court of Justice hearing for "Crimes against Humanity". But I am not holding my breath. Howard ought just go away and hide his face in shame.

These are my opinions, but don't anyone bother complaining, for I am just a "little person" living an ordinary life in the hills of NSW, Australia.

What does it matter what I think?

---

Read the full press report below. (The text is original, but the emphasis is mine).

U.S. seeks ship to move arms to Israel

Fri Jan 9, 2009 11:42pm GMT

By Stefano Ambrogi

LONDON (Reuters) - The U.S. is seeking to hire a merchant ship to deliver hundreds of tons of arms to Israel from Greece later this month, tender documents seen by Reuters show. The U.S. Navy's Military Sealift Command (MSC) said the ship was to carry 325 standard 20-foot containers of what is listed as "ammunition" on two separate journeys from the Greek port of Astakos to the Israeli port of Ashdod in mid-to-late January.

A "hazardous material" designation on the manifest mentions explosive substances and detonators, but no other details were given. "Shipping 3,000-odd tons of ammunition in one go is a lot," one broker said, on condition of anonymity.

"This (kind of request) is pretty rare and we haven't seen much of it quoted in the market over the years," he added.

The U.S. Defense Department, contacted by Reuters on Friday in Washington, had no immediate comment. The MSC transports amour and military supplies for the U.S. armed forces aboard its own fleet, but regularly hires merchant ships if logistics so require. The request for the ship was made on December 31, with the first leg of the charter to arrive no later than January 25 and the second at the end of the month.

The tender for the vessel follows the hiring of a commercial ship to carry a much larger consignment of ordnance in December from the United States to Israel ahead of air strikes in the Gaza Strip.

A German shipping firm which won that tender confirmed the order when contacted by Reuters but declined to comment further.

CHARTERS "RARE"

Shipping brokers in London who have specialized in moving arms for the British and U.S. military in the past said such ship charters to Israel were rare. Israel is one of America's closest allies and both nations regularly sell arms to each other.

A senior military analyst in London who declined to be named said that, because of the timing, the shipments could be "irregular" and linked to the Gaza offensive.

The ship hired by the MSC in December was for a much larger cargo of arms, tender documents showed. That stipulated a ship to be chartered for 42 days capable of carrying 989 standard 20-foot containers from Sunny Point, North Carolina to Ashdod.

The tender document said the vessel had to be capable of "carrying 5.8 million pounds (2.6 million kg) of net explosive weight," which specialist brokers said was a very large quantity. The ship was requested early last month to load on December 15.

In September, the U.S. Congress approved the sale of 1,000 bunker-buster missiles to Israel. The GPS-guided GBU-39 is said to be one of the most accurate bombs in the world.

The Jerusalem Post, citing defense officials, reported last week that a first shipment of the missiles had arrived in early December and they were used in penetrating Hamas's underground rocket launcher sites.

(Reporting by Stefano Ambrogi; editing by Michael Roddy)

© Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved.

.

.

Howard makes Liberal-minded Aussies hang their heads in shame

It is with great pleasure that I publish the following message which arrived tonight, in response to a Crikey bulletin which announced that President-elect Obama and his family are unable to take up the traditional residence for the President-elect, "Blair House" at 1651 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington DC. Why?

• Because our illustrious former PM, John Howard and his lovely wife - what's-her-name (?) have accepted an invitation to bunk down at Blair House, prior to receiving the (US) Presidential Medal of Freedom.

My correspondent's message is as follows:

JWH's distinguished career as PM featured the following notable contributions to the human condition as detailed by Julian Burnside QC in his excellent book - 'The Watching Brief' p. 176 (a must read for all liberal-minded men and women)

• "Our treatment of asylum-seekers, in particular: arbitrary detention involving cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of children and adults; the unregulated use of solitary confinement; and treatment amounting to torture;
• "The government's complacent acceptance of the detention in Guantanamo of two Australian citizens: Mamdouh Habib and David Hicks. Habib was tortured by Egyptian and American authorities; Australia knew about it and did nothing to help him. Hicks was held for five years and then faced a 'trial' without any features or safeguards of a proper criminal trial; the Australian government did not lift a finger to help him;
• "The 2002 amendments to the security legislation permitting the incommunicado detention of people not suspected of any offence;
• "The 2005 amendments to the security legislation permitting the imprisonment for up to 14 days without trial, house arrest for up to 12 months without trial, and deprivation of basic rights without access to the evidence used against the person."

All the above was achieved while our ex-leader trotted out platitudes about a 'fair go' and 'family values' ably assisted by an Attorney General flashing an Amnesty International badge. Lord Downer of Fishnet also minced about adding colour to each new initiative.

Australians await the obliteration of these foul laws which have heaped shame and condemnation of the land of the real fair go. Sadly, we seem to be getting the message from the citadel that owing to the current global slump, the light at the end of the tunnel has been temporarily switched off. We await further news...........

Oh! But I digress. The medal that Johnny is getting while he keeps a real Statesman waiting in a hotel?

Why, its the Presidential Medal of Freedom stupid!

Pakistan rewarded by US after Bhutto assassination

What is the point of "diplomatic protests" and "expressions of concern", following the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, if just a few days after her body has been buried, Pakistan is rewarded by the USA with a huge sale of state of the art Fighter Planes?

"LOCKHEED Martin Corp (LMT.N) was awarded a $US498.2 million ($569.53 million) contract to supply F-16 aircraft to Pakistan, as Pakistani officials mulled whether to go ahead with a January 8 election after the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto."

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22993882-1702,00.html

"The United States strongly condemns this cowardly act by murderous extremists who are trying to undermine Pakistan's democracy," President Bush said in a brief statement at his Crawford, Tex., ranch.

Yeah, right.
Cheap words, George, not worth anything, when you follow it up with a huge arms contract.

Bush is a f...ing hypocrite. But we probably knew that, before.

Sunset of a Career? D Day minus 2

Tomorrow, Saturday 24 November 2007 is Decision Day for Australia. Are we about to see the sunset of John Howard's career?If the Polls and tomorrow's headlines are any guide, it seems highly likely.

I would have to say there are good reasons.

• Iraq
• The "NT invasion" of Aboriginal communities - with fanfare, but little or no positive effect, in terms of positive outcomes for the children. Remember the children who were at risk? Invading Australian troops were supposed to bring about a change in their safety. Strangely, we have heard nothing about that since the election started. It always was a ruse. It had little or nothing to do with the safety of the children.
• The AWB Scandal - where some $30 million was sent to the Saddam Hussein regime, as kickbacks. A regime which was supposedly so awful that we needed to go to war against it - leaving Australian troops facing military forces paid for, in part, by Australian bribes. Do you remember that?
• Weapons of Mass Destruction?
• Climate Change - John Howard denied that it was real - for 10 of the last 11 years, then said it might be a real event, but we dare not risk the economy to do anything about it.
• Refusal to sign the Kyoto Agreement.
• "Clean Coal". Clean Coal is a myth. It is an oxymoron. It just gives the Government an excuse to continue allowing the Multinational Mining Companies in Australia to continue with business as usual.
• GST - remember that one? The tax we would not have.
• Rising Home Loan interest rates.
• David Hicks. Remember him? Poor bastard nearly rotted in Guantanamo until Howard eventually realised how embarrassing it was. Offenses against Human Rights, committed by the greatest "Democracy" in the world, in the name of "Freedom". And the little Toady went along with it until even he could ignore the embarrassment no longer.
  
• "Work Choices" - that fraudulently named program which gave all the choices and the power to the Employers, and bugger all, except an AWA Ultimatum, to the workers.
  
• Etc, etc, etc.

• The fraudulent Lindsay Election leaflets are just a symptom of the problem of a corrupt Government.
  

US "Surge" failure

Despite what General Petraeus might have told the US Congress, the BBC tells us that the "Surge" has failed. (We are talking about the boost of troops which George W sent to Iraq - to try and improve their chances of getting a result.)

Their survey results are extraordinary - just look at the top line. Something like 90% of the people surveyed (Iraqis - how novel is that?) say that the Americans ought leave NOW.
The General was quoted (by Dennis Shanahan, from "The Australian") as saying that "there had been a 75 per cent reduction in religious and ethnic killings in the capital between December last year and this month."

That article by Shanahan was taken to task by the ABC's Media Watch this week, as a complete overstatement. Despite the fact that there was apparently a correction made later, the original statement is still up on the web.

The ABC's Tony Jones has a much more sceptical report, based upon the views of a retired US Air Force Colonel, Sam Gardiner.

I'm too angry for this Blog

Tonight's posting might be the last until after Next Weekend when the men in silly shirts have gone home. Here's how I have sought to explain the preparations to a good Canadian friend of mine. And I am so angry about the extraordinary waste of money, and the potential civil disturbance which is about to be inflicted on Sydney and the political disaster which the Forces of Darkness are hoping will be unleashed on Australia. Forget the silly spellings, just read it all phonetically.

You might have seen mention that Da Shr*ub and his mates are coming to Sydney for AP*eC - one of those stupid "lets all wear silly shirts and hats" meetings - in Sydney this week.

You Cannuckistanis might not be invited, not sure (bits of your country are on the Pacific Rim, so your guy ought qualify as much as Da Shrub). Anyway, the Fe**deral Go*v*ernment is going hysterical. They are a conservative (right wing) client state Government, in bed with Da Shrub - even more than your people. Stupid thing is the State (i.e., Provincial) Government is Labor (supposedly left wing, and supposedly opposed to the Federal Govt), but they are the creatures of their own State Police Force, which has seized the opportunity to buy all this "terrific anti-t*rr*rist gear", such as a $600,000 water ca**nnon (which arms salesman saw these guys coming first?) and the harbour is full of guys on jet-skis, and Rub*ber Du**ckies, scooting around looking for b*mbs under the Opera House, and the Harbour Bridge, etc. Jet planes are zooming around overhead, and half of the city has been divided by a huge metal fence (including the main harbour ferry terminal (Circular Quay) through which multi-000s of commuters travel every day).

It is a shambles, and worse is about to occur. The State Police are effectively taunting pro**testors saying we are ready for you, your nasty aggressive, violent demo**nstrators. But nobody has done anything (yet). The psychology of this is just terrible. The Bov-ver-Boys (in uniforms) are just itching for a fight. And with a conservative Government looking likely to lose the forthcoming election (due some time in the next 2 months) there is nothing the conservative press and conservative Govr't would love more than provoking "civil unrest". And the stupid lefties look like they're going to provide the camera footage the forces of darkness want (to use against them), in order to scare the population at large.

It is a self-fulfilling prophecy of disaster.

I hope to chrissake it does not eventuate, for that outcome looks like the only thing which could save Howard from electoral disaster, if he and Georg eW become the "victims" of "nasty com**mie lefty thugs", requiring the water-cannonistas to sweep the streets clean.

Buses have already been converted to mobile prisons, with shatter-proof glass, and steel cages inside. Extraordinary. The country's forces of darkness are itching for a civ**il whore! And we have spent an absolute fortune on all this equipment, which is just aching to be used, to justify its expenditure.

I hate everything about this sh**t.

Beam me up, Scotty. This planet is not worth wasting time on.

"Suffer the little children to come unto me".

THEN
"And they brought young children to Him, that He should touch them: and His disciples rebuked those that brought them. But when Jesus saw it, He was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God"
(Mark 10:13-14).

AND NOW:
"The head of the Police APEC Command, Superintendent Peter Lennon, confirmed that members of the Sydney Children's Choir as young as eight had to undergo security checks. The choir will perform at the Opera House during the summit. He said everyone had to go through the same accreditation process."

Fairfax Digital: "Show ID to get past Great Wall of Sydney"
Edmund Tadros August 17, 2007

WHAT HAVE WE ALLOWED TO BE DONE TO OUR SOCIETY?

How many is too many, Mr Bush?

Here is a report straight from today's edition of crikey.com.au

16. Iraq: more deaths than during the Rwandan genocide?

Jeff Sparrow writes:

Some time back, the prestigious medical journal The Lancet published a study that put the number of violent deaths attributable to the invasion and occupation of Iraq at 601,000.

While Messrs Bush, Blair and Howard – noted statisticians all – dismissed the figure with lordly waves, an impressive array of Australian scientists was less sanguine. They explained to The Age why they judged the report valid: “The cross-sectional household cluster sample survey method used is a standard, robust, well-established method for gathering health data. A copy of a death certificate was available for a high proportion (92%) of deaths. Conservative assumptions were made about deaths of uncertain cause and about the small areas not sampled.”

The Lancet study was based on data current to July 2006. Now the American group Just Foreign Policy has produced an updated figure, suggesting that to date the war and occupation have killed nearly a million Iraqis.

As Just Foreign Policy acknowledges, the number is an extrapolation and it lacks the methodological rigour of The Lancet report. Basically, it projects the earlier figures forward, using a rate based on the Iraq Body Count project’s tabulation of deaths reported in the media.

Less than perfect, sure – but the best estimate we have. And it indicates that more people have died in Iraq than during the Rwandan genocide. Now what took place in Rwanda was undoubtedly a crime. So what about Iraq?

It should be remembered that, in 2003, many – perhaps most – experts doubted that the invasion had any basis in international law. As thirty-one Canadian law professors explained in one of the many open letters circulating at the time, the Iraq war represented “a fundamental breach of international law (that) would seriously threaten the integrity of the international legal order that has been in place since the end of the Second World War."

Of course, as recent events have shown, law enforcement maintains its own priorities. Recklessly loaning a SIM card lands you in indefinite detention; devastating another country, not so much.

Whatever the legal consequences of the Iraq death toll, the moral implications are inescapable. WH Auden put it perfectly, in lines that might have been composed after reading the Just Foreign Policy report:

And the truth cannot be hid;
Somebody chose their pain,
What needn’t have happened did.

Global Warming and carbon trading

John Howard, poor guy has been a denier of global warming all along through his 11 year reign in Australia.
Last week he suddenly announced that he was a "believer". and that a policy would be introduced (after the next election) to introduce a form of Carbon Trading, sometime after 2012. Well why would that be?
Perhaps it can be explained by the fact that George W. Bush was scheduled to make a remarkably similar announcement, from Washington, just a few hours later. And, remarkably, that statement was intended to be a policy to bind China, India and Australia - the other high rating countries on the Carbon emitting scale, which had not ratified the Kyoto Protocol.
So, Howard simply had no choice. He had to act, or get steam-rollered by his mate, George Dubya.
At least Dubya tipped off his little mate, or the latter would have looked even more stupid than he currently does.
By the way, the 2012 date comes from George's policy, and it is related to the expiry of the Kyoto Protocol, to which neither Australia, nor the USA are fully ratified participants. Where it the logic in that?

******
Ring,,,,, Ring.......
Hello? It's the middle of the night.
Who is it?
Hello?

G.W.B: "I'm going to announce that we
will have a Carbon Trading Scheme, next week".

J.W.H.: Next week?

G.W.B.: Next week?
Not next week, 2012 - pay attention!

J.W.H.: Sorry, Mr President. What that about 2012?

G.W.B.: "Oh, we will wait until this Kyoto Protocol thing,
which we do not follow,
expires,
before our new policy becomes effective."
Get it?

J.W.H.: Nope!
I've always said Global Warming was rubbish, and
Carbon Trading was bad for the economy.

G.W.B: It doesn't matter if you don't get it.
I need to do something,
to distract the detractors.

J.W.H.: Whaaa?

G.W.B.: I need something to take to the
G8 in Germany next week,
to look like I'm doing something.
Don't worry.
2012 is a long time away,
and we will all be out of office by then anyway.

J.W.H.: If you say so, George. Then that's all right then."

Good Friday in Iran?

I do not normally engage in speculation on forthcoming military strikes, as these matters are beyond my expertise. The thing about this "internet rumour" is that, unlike many Nostradamus stories, and rumours of the imminent end of the Earth, this one has a specific deadline of Good Friday: 4 am, 6 April, (Iranian time (Teheran) which is GMT +3:30 hrs). Then you will know whether or not there was anything to it.

*****

WASHINGTON DC, — The long awaited US military attack on Iran is now on track for the first week of April, specifically for 4 am on April 6, the Good Friday opening of Easter weekend, writes the well-known Russian journalist Andrei Uglanov in the Moscow weekly “Argumenty Nedeli.” Uglanov cites Russian military experts close to the Russian General Staff for his account.

The attack is slated to last for 12 hours, according to Uglanov, from 4 am until 4 pm local time. Friday is the sabbath in Iran. In the course of the attack, code named Operation Bite, about 20 targets are marked for bombing; the list includes uranium enrichment facilities, research centers, and laboratories.

The first reactor at the Bushehr nuclear plant, where Russian engineers are working, is supposed to be spared from destruction. The US attack plan reportedly calls for the Iranian air defense system to be degraded, for numerous Iranian warships to be sunk in the Persian Gulf, and for the most important headquarters of the Iranian armed forces to be wiped out.

The attacks will be mounted from a number of bases, including the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. Diego Garcia is currently home to B-52 bombers equipped with standoff missiles. Also participating in the air strikes will be US naval aviation from aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf, as well as from those of the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean. Additional cruise missiles will be fired from submarines in the Indian Ocean and off the coast of the Arabian peninsula. The goal is allegedly to set back Iran’s nuclear program by several years, writes Uglanov, whose article was reissued by RIA-Novosti in various languages, but apparently not English, several days ago. The story is the top item on numerous Italian and German blogs, but so far appears to have been ignored by US websites.

Observers comment that this dispatch represents a high-level orchestrated leak from the Kremlin, in effect a war warning, which draws on the formidable resources of the Russian intelligence services, and which deserves to be taken with the utmost seriousness by pro-peace forces around the world.

*****

For a background story from which this story came, check out:
http://www.inteldaily.com/?c=166&a=1478

Make up your own mind, or just wait and see.

Thing is, George W does need to regain the ascendency in his War on Public Opinion (sorry the "War on Terror"). So it makes sense that he would do something like this. Expect JWH to follow along, supporting Dubbya's brilliant leadership of the coalition of the stupid (willing).

The timing intrigues me: is it part of the deep cover for the "Neo-cons" in the USA, who are pretty much part of the Pro-Israel push, that they should launch this attack on Good Friday - one of the most solemn Christian holy days?

Politics

On this grey, foggy day,when I cannot see to the bottom of my garden, a wistfulness and depression overtakes me. Perhaps it is the collective consciousness of my Viking/Slavonic ancestors, in their bleak and cold environs, that is stirring within me.
Perhaps I forgot to take my pills!

We sit around grumbling about our politicians. We write blogs.
Do we really identify what it is that we are dissatisfied with about politics locally and elsewhere.
I believe we need to examine not only the local politics but also the situation in the world.
We need to identify the terminology and research history of politics.
All that in good time. Later.
Today I am giving in to the basic feelings about local (Australian) politics.

I believe that we elect politicians (our representatives in Parliament) for their: wisdom; ideas that resonate with our own; their ability to speak for us; willingness to consult with us; their individual leadership qualities; ability to think creatively; strong belief in a civil and democratic society, freedom of speech and thought; transparent justice system;

Sadly I am very disappointed in most of our politicians, who, I believe, fail to live up to most of the above qualities.

Our representatives, once the election is over, no longer represent their electors. They mostly follow the party line. They learn verbiage, and the art of saying nothing in many words.
Our PM, John Howard, no longer leads. He follows and obeys his mentor overseas - G.W Bush. It appears that Bush and his puppeteers can do no wrong. In fact, I believe that JH has become a puppet of the USA administration.
I do not perceive JH as a person of vision of a future society. Instead, on "his watch" we have seen workers' rights eroded; civil rights limited; justice system becoming very opaque; each one of us may be picked up in the middle of the night, held incommunicado, not told of our alleged crimes, perhaps even rendered to another country and held in a secret prison and tortured.. All legal.
Shades of USSR, Communist China, and of course Fascist Germany.
John Howard of course says: "trust me".
What is happening to development of the indefinables - arts - fine, film, theatre, opera..... Not really accessible to the masses.
The Australian film industry is in doldrums; actors are going overseas, etc....

David Hicks is lingering in an USA military concentration camp situated outside USA. He is subjected to physical and psychological torture and inhuman treatment. He has been in the concentration camp for 5 years without a charge. The process is rejected as unsafe and illegal by most civilized democracies. In fact USA will not subject its own citizens to this. Uder JH "watch" this treatment is fine for an Australian citizen. After all GWB and Rumsfeld said Hicks is fine and the torture is OK.
GOOD STUFF JOHNNIE!
Who created politics of fear?
I believe it is the height of hypocrisy when JH and his cardboard cut-out Attorney General - P. Ruddock, stand and mouth words about democracy.
What shit.

How utterly sad that JH had a chance to lead Australia into a better future. Instead, under false pretences he followed USA into an unjust war. He condoned killing of many innocent people. TO BRING THEM DEMOCRACY?!!! Etc, etc, etc.
Ignore the corruption in USA administration. Ignore that Dick Cheney ran the Halliburton Corporation - the biggest vulture in Iraq! What happened to Iraq's USA$20 billion allocated for reconstruction? According to the USA ambassador in Iraq: This is water under the bridge".

All of this are my personal beliefs and feelings.

I also recognize that the polity, the grey masses, seem to like the status quo and have elected JH and his cronies to govern this country.
I have to accept this.

I love Australia and love living here.
As a result of geographical quirk and accident, Australia is physically isolated from the other continents and the shit that is going in these.
I am ashamed of our federal politicians and their sycophantic relationship with USA.
I am ashamed of our PM who I believe, overdoes the kissing and rimming of George Bush's backside.
I perceive JH as a mediocre little person and not a leader of a major state.

I am ashamed of our government's treatment of David Hicks, Australian citizen.

Enough for today.

War expenses - an obscenity.

The Daily Telegraph has reported this morning that George "W" will ask the US Congress for a cool US$245 billion (Aus$316 billion) to fund his war campaigns. This is an obscenity.

PRESIDENT George W. Bush will ask Congress today for an extra $US245 billion ($316 billion) to cover war costs, even as he faces a knife-edge vote of no confidence in the Senate on his plan for a troop surge in Iraq.

Will George's Little Pal offer to kick in with some extra finding of his own, (our own)?

More significantly, how could that money be better used? It could be used to remove 3rd world debt, or to directly fight poverty, or to provide a bore in every village in Asia, South America and Africa which currently does not have one.