From the ABC …..

Stanhope to appeal to G-G to save civil unions law 

ACT Chief Minister Jon Stanhope
will appeal to the Governor-General to try to save the Territory's civil
union legislation. 

Prime Minister John Howard and
the federal Attorney-General have announced they will advise the Governor-General
to disallow the law. 

‘“Power,” Harvard Professor Joseph Nye, Jr. tells
us “is the ability to alter the behavior of others to get what you want.
There are basically three ways to do that: coercion (sticks), payments
(carrots), and attraction (soft power).” Today’s American soft power—our
ability to influence others overseas through who we are and what we do—is
shrinking, as poll after poll shows. This loss of soft power reduces
America's ability to shape global developments in ways favorable to the
national interest. What can be done about this? 

 
Lawyers refuse to
undergo new security clearances .....

Lawyers representing a group of
men charged under the Federal Government's anti-terrorism laws say they
may go to the High Court to fight a requirement that they undergo security
clearances. 

Up to 50 lawyers representing the
men are refusing to submit to the clearances that are required under the
new laws. 

‘Something that senior officials call the "war
paradigm" is the Bush administration's central organizing principle. They
do not use the phrase publicly, just among themselves, but they bend policy to
serve it. After Sept. 11, 2001, they instantly adopted the war paradigm without
any internal discussion. George W. Bush, who proclaimed, "I'm a war
president" and insisted that he made decisions "with war on my
mind," assumed the war paradigm as his natural state and right.’ 

PM can't rule out premiums rise
with Medibank sale .....

Prime Minister John Howard says he cannot guarantee insurance premiums
will not rise when the Commonwealth sells Medibank Private. 

The major insurer is expected to be
sold in the next 12 months. 

The Federal Opposition says a
document inviting tenders for the public relations campaign shows Medibank
Private cannot guarantee premiums will not rise, and that it fears a class
action from members. 

From the ABC …..

Prominent Australians' Snowy letter given to Parliament

A letter signed by a group of prominent Australians calling for the sale
of the Snowy Hydro scheme to be suspended has been handed to Federal
Parliament. 

The signatories include former
prime minister Malcolm Fraser, actor Cate Blanchett and poets David Malouf
and Les Murray. 

From the ABC …..

US orders ethical training for troops 

A top US commander in Iraq has
ordered combat troops to be trained to abide by moral and ethical
standards on the battlefield. 

The move is an apparent reference
to allegations Marines killed civilians last year. 

Big Bonuses Still Flow, Even if Bosses Miss Goals

By Gretchen Morgenson
Published: June 1, 2006 

It was the kind of mistake that wage
slaves can only dream of.  

Because of what the company
called an "improper interpretation" of his employment contract, Sheldon
G. Adelson, chairman, chief executive and treasurer of the Las Vegas Sands
Corporation, received US$3.6 million in salary and bonus last year, almost
US$1 million more than prescribed under the company's performance plan. 

from the ABC …..

Andrews brushes off workplace survey 

The Federal Workplace Relations
Minister Kevin Andrews has dismissed a survey that shows that penalty
rates have been removed from more than 60 per cent of agreements under the
new WorkChoices legislation. 

The Office of the Employment
Advocate surveyed 250 employers and found that 63 per cent of new
agreements had no penalty rates, and a similar number had removed leave
loading. 

‘US antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan denounced the
Australian government for its participation in the Iraq war and called for the
release of David Hicks from Guantánamo Bay and the closure of the notorious US
military prison camp at a demonstration in Melbourne last Friday. 

Sheehan rejected US and
Australian government claims that Guantánamo inmates “did not deserve civil
rights” because they were “illegal enemy combatants”. The four-and-a-half-year
incarceration of Hicks, in violation of Geneva Conventions and his basic legal
rights, has been fully endorsed by the Howard government. 

 
once a pisspot …. always a
pisspot …..

May Mars lose this
fundamentalist power-drunk disciple and may Bacchus welcome him again...

 
Cole questions AWB's document
compliance ….. 

The oil-for-food Commissioner
Terence Cole says he is not fully satisfied that AWB has handed over all
the documents that his inquiry has demanded. 

Commissioner Cole is heading the
inquiry investigating almost $300 million worth of payments made by wheat
exporter AWB to the former Iraqi regime in contravention of UN sanctions
against Iraq. 

Extract from the speech of our
providores grocer in Ottawa ..........

”And I would have for those around the world who would want to see
a reduced American role in the affairs of our globe, I have some
quiet advice and that is be careful in what you wish for because
a retreating America will leave a more vulnerable world. It will
leave a world more exposed to terrorism and it will leave a more
fragile and indeed dangerous world.”

.......

Gus is furious: No Sir. I have some not so quiet advice .... What makes a
more dangerous world is the extraordinary lies that have been concocted
by you and the US and the Poms, to go to war. A war that HAS made
the world more dangerous. A war that hopefully will see a solution but it will
be NO THANKS TO YOU and your two other little porkyists. We are not
opposed to the US having an important role in managing the affairs of the
world but w do not want them to do so like a schoolyard bully with no brains
and two fists. You and your acolytes should resign in shame for having brought
the good reputation of OUR countries (note: not "yours" as when you
claimed ownership of Australia in that other porkies about uranium) ... 

Those avid readers of this site would already know that we are on top of these figures... A few months ago, we alerted the world — this little YD world at least — on the World Prison Population List coming from the International Center for Prison Studies at King's College London... These figures exposed the hypocrisy of the US on their pointing the finger at other countries human rights failures... Here Chris Floyd picks up the same pieces and elaborates.. Read more at the Moscow Times...

Global Eye
Gates of Eden

By Chris Floyd
Published: May 19, 2006

Beneath the thunder of the mighty cataclysms unleashed by the Bush administration -- the war crime in Iraq, the global torture gulag, the epic corruption, the gutting of the U.S. Constitution, the open embrace of presidential tyranny -- a quieter degradation of American society has continued apace. And this slow descent into barbarism didn't begin with President George W. Bush, although his illicit regime certainly represents the apotheosis of the dark forces driving the decay.

With the world's attention diverted by the latest scandals and shameless posturings of the Bush faction -- domestic spying, bribes and hookers at the CIA, military units roaring down to the border to scare unarmed poor people looking for work -- few noticed a small story that cast a harsh, penetrating light on the corrosion of the national character.

Earlier this month, the International Center for Prison Studies at King's College London released its annual World Prison Population List. And there, standing proudly at the head of the line, towering far above all others, is that shining city on the hill, the United States of America. But strangely enough, the Bush gang and its media sycophants failed to celebrate -- or even note -- yet another instance where a triumphant America leads the world. Where are the cheering hordes shouting "U.S.A! U.S.A!" at the news that the land of the free imprisons more people than any other country in the world, both in raw numbers and as a percentage of its population?

Yes, the world's greatest democracy now has more than 2 million of its citizens locked up in iron cages, an incarceration rate of 714 per 100,000 of the national population. The only countries within shouting distance are such bastions of penological enlightenment as China (1.55 million prisoners, plus some unsorted "administrative detainees"), Russia (a wimpy 763,000) and Brazil (330,000), whose exemplary prison management has been on such prominent display this week

read more overthere...