Published in today's Adelaide Advertiser, written in response to the front page story yesterday. 

[excerpt] 

Premier Mike Rann wants Parliament's Upper House abolished and will ask South Australians to bring about the greatest electoral system change in the state's history in a 2010 referendum.

Labor, frustrated by legislative delays and the watering down of new laws in the Legislative Council, will begin moves to get rid of it after the March 18 election that polls suggest it is likely to win. Mr Rann said yesterday there would then be four years for the issue to be debated.

As Sydney Airport announces a trial of equipment by U.K. company Qinetiq, a financial traill is revealed that runs from the most famous plane crash in history to the runways of New South Wales.

Qinetiq, the privatised arm of the UK Ministry of Defence, have, in a financial arrangement considered as ethically questionable, the international investment firm Carlyle.  Qinetiq's wholly owned-US subsidiary build the Talon War Robot being used by the US Army in Iraq and Afghanistan.  The firm has been engaged in South Australian trials of its Zephyr 3 Unmanned Air Vehicle.  It also has a 25 year evaluation contract with the UK's MoD worth approximately $A13 billion. (read at the end of here)
 

While Rumsfeld, Zoelleck, Hill and Downer were "doing lunch" in Adelaide last week, a friend of mine, just to see if he could, came out from the cafe in the adjoining building to the town hall into a laneway that he estimates would have been about fifteen feet from the hall's main dining room. 

Eventually one of the three hundred police parked out the back came and asked him what he was doing, laughed when told it all looked like "a policeman's picnic.

My friend had simply carried out the exercise to prove a point.  He was not searched or even asked for his details.

I found this on Utterly Boring today.  Some days I know the feeling.  Click here and enjoy.

 Thanks to ABC-891 Adelaide's David Bevan for mentioning this pic on air.. made my day!

Thanks to Rove MacManus (as President Bush) for the title.

Trevor isn't with us. Trevor is against us-
From out of his playground, Trevor has fenced us !
First thing in the morning is
when Trevor looks more scarier.
We will Win The War On Trevor,
and his faithful dog, his terrier.

Where is Trevor hiding?
No-one knows for certain.
Is he under the bed? Is he in the fridge?
Look- he's hiding behind the curtain !
Curse the day that Trevor's mother
let his father marry 'er!
We will Win the War on Trevor,
and his faithful dog, his terrier

Adelaide, the Australian home of Star Wars, Halliburton, Global Hawk and the Joint Strike Fighter Project, has begun building a global-standard data transfer system that will allow local activities to be co-ordinated internationally.

Today's Adelaide Advertiser announces the commencement and construction of a major fibreoptic network, connencting defence, science and educational facilities at speeds enabling synchronisation with global projects.

[excerpt] 

SABRENet will cut the time to transfer a terabyte of data to just 17 minutes, compared with about three months using business broadband.

Interesting day at the Rumsfeld rally (nothing huge, around 600 I'd guess) particularly to watch the level of covert security.

Came into town by train at 4 o'clock... a couple of police on the platform, fifty people with backpacks heading in different directions.

Up to the main street. Immediately to the right is the Halliburton-constructed barrier blockading the Hyatt from the world, a few constabulary behind it- nothing major.

Strolling up past the Casino, you see a few more parked at the outdoor cafe, a couple across the street, three or four at the front of Parliament House.

As Prime Minister Howard does an "about face" calls for an inquiry into Australian bribes in Iraq, it appears that knowledge of suspicious financial transfers by the
Australian Wheat Board's trucking company has been available for
several months, possibly well over a year.

According to a LA Times article in June this year, U.S. Embassy offoicials were aware
before this year that Jordanian trucking company Alia may have been
acting as a "front" for bribes to the Saddam regime.

I wonder how much "unravelling" is going to occur at the Australian end of the Bush fiasco? A few more problems like the Australian Wheat Board's Bribes to Saddam, David Hicks' mistreatment "on Rumsfeld's Watch", and the "loopholing" of US foreign aid funds through Australian (specifically the Adelaide offices of Halliburton/KBR) bookwork, could show a level of inter-cabinet complicity that runs much deeper than the Ausmin meeting in Adelaide.

I wonder if Rupert Murdoch, "back home" this week to open his new SA Headquarters, will hang around Adelaide for another day to shake hands with Rummy?

 A planned Adelaide protest against U.S. Secretary of Defence has been cancelled by South Australian Authorities, and those gathering at Parliament House without permission wil be "moved on" by police.

Protest spokesman Mr Mike Khizan said in a media release tonight that “Donald Rumsfeld, a man whom many millions of people around the world see as an international war criminal is coming to Adelaide, and in the name of ‘protecting’ him, free speech is being denied and the right to dissent attacked.

 A planned Adelaide protest against U.S. Secretary of Defence has been cancelled by South Australian Authorities, and those gathering at Parliament House without permission wil be "moved on" by police

.

Protest spokesman Mr Mike Khizan said in a media release tonight that " “Donald Rumsfeld, a man whom many millions of people around the world see as an international war criminal is coming to Adelaide, and in the name of ‘protecting’ him, free speech is being denied and the right to dissent attacked.

So, the military leader of the world's only "superpower" will be in my home town next week.  I am eagerly looking looking forward to participating in democracy at this time.

If my city is being turned into an support-centre for his objectives, I would like Mr Rumsfeld to be aware of my objections to what is occurring at the behest of  his department and his country's current leadership.

 Mr Rumsfeld, I don't believe that you should be illegally occupying another country, and I don't think we should be helping you.

 I also don't believe that we should be building Star Wars warships for you under the pretext of expanding our own Navy..

Consider the prospect that the Australian labour force is being de-waged and "dumebed down" to create a cheap wage-force for the U.S. when Chinese work becomes too financially or pragmatically expensive.

That's all for now.. any takers ? 

It happened so fast that many didn't see it arrive. As the banner of Halliburton was raised over Australia's Parliament House, the few protesters who dared to attend were taken away for questioning.
Awaiting the arrival of the bulletproof Cadillac carrying President Cheney stood a proud Prime Minister, eager as usual to open the door, while a grinning Cabinet formed a line of honor to mark the auspiciousness of the occasion.

"Thanks, John," said the President, with a courteous nod and an ill-concealed wink. "i'll take it from here."

As they stood at the hour-long ceremony marking the takeover by Corporate Military Personel of Australian Defence activites, the small gallery of approved journalists waited for the response to the President's command that all non-shareholders of Halliburton resign from Cabinet
immediately. None of the Ministers were moving, although it was well-known that at least two rebels hadn't "exercised their stock options."

 First written as comment to a piece on Margo Kingston's Webdiary, in which Kerri Browne has placed the Australian Parliamentary Library's compendium of information regarding the proposed Australian terror legislatiion.  Click here.

When the Commonwealth Heads Of Government meeting was held in Melbourne (late 70's, I think) an Irish friend of our family operated a milk bar somewhere in Victoria, three hundred or so miles from the Big Smoke.