from our lovely Auntie …..

Developing countries must do more to reduce emissions: Costello

Federal Treasurer Peter Costello says there is no point in Australia reducing its greenhouse gas emissions when China and India are such major global polluters.

Mr Costello is reacting to the UK's Stern report on global warming.

from Auntie ABC …..

School chaplain call a 'cheap political stunt'

The Federal Government's plan to fund chaplains in public and private schools has been described as a "cheap political stunt".

Prime Minister John Howard says the new system will be voluntary, and not restricted to any one religion. But even so, the Greens Senator Kerry Nettle has attacked the idea.

from our ABC …..

Bush dissatisfied with 'Iraq situation', urges patience

By Washington correspondent Kim Landers

‘The US President George W Bush has expressed concern about the increased bloodshed in Iraq which has left 93 American soldiers dead so far this month.

His latest comments come with his party facing a struggle to retain control over Congress amid widespread voter dissatisfaction at his handling of the Iraq war.

‘With a flip of the wrist, Bush signed into law the anti-Habeas Corpus, pro-torture law (cleverly repackaged as the Military Commissions Act of 2006), signaling with it the end of American democracy.

For the Bush family it was simply another day - like any other day - for the entitled nobility, who take from others that which does not belong to them.

 
20 October 2006

TRANSCRIPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER
THE HON JOHN HOWARD MP
DOORSTOP INTERVIEW
ROYAL AUTOMOBILE CLUB, SYDNEY

JOURNALIST:

Mr Howard, General Cosgrove says there's been an energising of the jihadist movement through the protracted war in Iraq, that's a direct quote.  Do you agree with that?

from the SMH ...

Alan Ramsey

A few weeks ago, when John Howard and Kim Beazley, like schoolboys, were trying to outdo each other on "Australian values", a friend asked if I knew of the "must display" poster Brendan Nelson had been responsible for as John Howard's education tsar before Howard moved him, nine months ago, into Defence, to make life as miserable for the military as he had done for the nation's education industry. I didn't, so my friend mailed me one.

 
from the sydney morning herald ……

‘Richard Woolcott, a retired foreign affairs chief who advised seven prime ministers, launched a sweeping attack on the federal government, saying that Australian democracy was not functioning as it should.

"In 2006 our established ideals of decency, fairness, tolerance, justice and truth in government are under challenge," he said.

 
from the ABC …..

Howard urges calm as drought takes hold

Prime Minister John Howard says Australians need to keep a sense of perspective amid growing concerns about the drought.

The Federal Government today released the first stage of a national assessment of Australia's water resources, which found there is considerable room for improvement.

‘Here is the great discovery of the little man who doesn’t read. America is not the land of the free, nor of the brave, nor of the politically sentient. Nor is it a country of laws or of principles. It is a country of those who just do as they want. A president can do anything he chooses. Who will tell him no? Nobody has.

Today there is speculation as to whether he will make war, perhaps nuclear war, on Iran. The universal assumption seems to be that if he wants to, he will just do it. The legislature, already having given up its authority to declare war, seems to regard the military as the private guard of the president. Is it not interesting that one dim, pugnacious, ignorant little man can bring on nuclear war all by himself?

75 per cent of Iraqis resent the presence of the coalition troops.......

from our lovely ABC .....

US report 'devastates' Howard's credibility

The Federal Opposition says the release of a United States intelligence report torpedoes the Prime Minister's reasons for going to war in Iraq.

The White House has declassified parts of a leaked intelligence report that undermines its claims that America is safer since the war in Iraq.