‘On Christmas Eve, I dropped in on Brian Haw, whose hunched, pacing figure was just visible through the freezing fog. For four and a half years, Brian has camped in Parliament Square with a graphic display of photographs that show the terror and suffering imposed on Iraqi children by British policies.  

 

The effectiveness of his action was demonstrated last April when the Blair government banned any expression of opposition within a kilometre of Parliament. 

Last night the ABC's 7.30 report revealed how an officer gave a contract to a company then changed jobs to join the firm.  Today the ABC has revealed flagrant favouritism in contract awarding.

[extract from ABC Online]

The Defence Materiel Organisation (DMO) is under fresh fire this
morning with revelations of more questionable behaviour by some of its
employees.

ABC Radio's AM
program has reported that in clear breach of Defence Department rules,
two Defence procurement officers gave money to help prop up a Defence
contractor who was struggling financially.

 

Several Adelaide-based US Defence Corporations are disguising themselves  as small businesses to "loophole" US Legislation, according to a US Survey. 

In the chase for Australian Defence contracts, some of the same companies have subsidiariaries mirroring the questionable US practices.

Defense Industry Daily reported yesterday that that the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California has ordered the U.S. Small Business Administration (USSBA) to release to the American Small Business League (ASBL) a draft report on the awarding of government contracts.

I'm beginning to understand the race to tie up Australia and the Oceania regions Liquefied Natural Gas sources. From the looks of this article on Energy Review Net, Unless you own the initial resource you'll have nothing to work with.  You also have a considerable quantity of political clout, as Russia is currently demonstrating to Europe.

The question this piece leaves me with is: how much of a percentage of control is retained by the suppliers of the technologies used to access the LNG reserves?  The answer to this question will be of importance in our near future, and I believe the answer will have Halliburton written all over it.  Can anyone advise me where to begin looking?

It is sorely tempting to accept Professor Mirko Bagaric’s thesis that Australians would not benefit from a Bill of Rights Your Right Not To Have A Bill of Rights 

 

The good Professor’s smooth but superficial arguments in support of his thesis range from the simplistic contention that we are already the happiest people in the world (whatever that is supposed to signify), through to an argument that our politicians can’t be trusted with the task anyway. 

When I wake up each Summer's morn there's this music in my head
It means that I must go outside and get a life instead
of hearing word of something new, what 's happenning in town
Now I have to listen to some cricket loving clown..

And there's cricket on the radio.

Listening to paint dry is twice as entertaining
and I nearly have an orgasm when I find out it's been raining
But sun shines on these drongos with their silly bat and ball
and the people on the ABC can't make it fun at all

and there's cricket on the radio

In case I haven't made it clear how much I find it boring
I'd rather listen to a tape of Auntie Beryl snoring
It must be me.. five million armchair experts can't be wrong
Another piece of soul will die each time I hear that song

Greetings all,

Apologies for the unscheduled downtime of Your Democracy on December 27th. It was due to our web host moving the server we are on to a new, faster machine. Hopefully it should be smooth sailing from here on in.

Nigel

Paul Sheehan’s opinion piece, Cloud Over Politics Is Pouring Scorn, Herald, December 26, must rank as one of the most superficial pieces of journalism in 2005. 

 

Sheehan opines as his central thesis that ‘Australians receive better leadership than we deserve’. But where’s the evidence to support his claim? 

‘On 19 March 2003 President Bush Jnr commenced his criminal war against Iraq by ordering a so-called decapitation strike against the President of Iraq in violation of a 48-hour ultimatum he had given publicly to the Iraqi President and his sons to leave the country.  

 

This duplicitous behaviour violated the customary international laws of war set forth in the 1907 Hague Convention on the Opening of Hostilities to which the United States is still a contracting party, as evidenced by paragraphs 20, 21, 22, and 23 of U.S. Army Field Manual 27-10 (1956).  

‘For 2005, my annual task of reviewing the past year has been complicated by an old adage: oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive. Here I sit, tangled in a web that many people began weaving way back when the Gipper was protecting us against deadly pollutants released by old-growth forests. It was a jumble out there this year — one that defies linear documentation.  

‘I'm sure there are many well-meaning Americans who agree with their president's explanation that it's all a necessary evil (and that patriotic citizens will not be spied on unless they dial up Osama bin Laden).  

 

But the nasty echoes of apartheid South Africa should at least give them pause. While Bush uses the rhetoric of "evildoers" and the "global war on terror," Pretoria talked of "total onslaught."  

‘Britain is to become the first country in the world where the movements of all vehicles on the roads are recorded. A new national surveillance system will hold the records for at least two years.  

 

Using a network of cameras that can automatically read every passing number plate, the plan is to build a huge database of vehicle movements so that the police and security services can analyse any journey a driver has made over several years.  

‘The debate regarding war and Militarization raises the broad issue of national sovereignty. 

 

I am particularly gratified as an economist to participate in this important event in the Nation’s capital, in Malaysia, a country which at a critical moment in its history, namely at the height of the 1997 Asian crisis, took the courageous stance of confronting the Washington Consensus and the international financial establishment.  

Merry Christmas to all at Your Democracy...

What are we to do with this site in the new year? My thoughts are that it should be taken off my hands. I've been inconsistent in maintaining it at best, and am only getting busier with Webdiary.

John, Richard, Gus? You are the core of the continuation here. Nigel, David? You built this site. What do you guys want to do? This thread is for that discussion.

... and a beaut new year to all.