from Crikey ….. 

Reality check: Honey, I doomed the universe 

Richard Farmer writes: 

The U.S. Military is demanding that thousands of wounded service personnel give back signing bonuses because they are unable to serve out their commitments. 

To get people to sign up, the military gives enlistment bonuses up to $30,000 in some cases. 

So on this Thanksgiving week as stomachs are stuffed and the cacophony of credit card transactions deafens and defies the reality of global economic meltdown, I will celebrate that we are now closer to the total collapse of civilization than we have ever been, and that for all the rampant suffering it will evoke around the world, the soul-murdering, mind-numbing, body obliterating culture of empire is terminally ill and on life-support.  

Gordon Brown suffered a seismic shock to his premiership yesterday, as it was revealed that the privacy of half the UK's citizens had been compromised.  

The Prime Minister listened solemnly as his Chancellor, Alistair Darling, laid bare a bureaucratic bungle on an unprecedented scale.  

We're not faking it: Howard 

Commentators who think Prime Minister John Howard and Treasurer Peter Costello are faking their friendship are wrong, Mr Howard says. 

from Crikey ….. 

John Winston Howard, political extremist 

Norman Abjorensen writes: 

According to bushit: "Whatever political party you belong to, whatever your position on Iraq, we should be able to agree that America has a vital interest in preventing chaos and providing hope in the Middle East."  

Turnbull under fire for million dollar water deal 

MalcolmTurnbull is fighting for his political life and now another battle is brewing. 

Greens astounded as Flannery backs Turnbull

Greens leader Bob Brown has attacked environmental scientist Dr Tim Flannery for endorsing Federal Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull. 

Hundreds of defendants sitting in prisons nationwide have been convicted with the help of an FBI forensic tool that was discarded more than two years ago.  

BuzzFlash wants to know why Bush fought tenaciously for powers to arrest anyone thought to be aiding a terrorist group, on his lone discretion, when he lets off an American corporation who admits to financing a group classified as a terrorist organization by, you guessed it, the Bush Administration. 

In short, if you are an individual and look at a Bushevik cross-eyed, they can arrest you for suspicion of aiding terrorism. 

God likes Liberal policies: Howard 

God is not a Liberal, but he sure likes Liberal policies, Prime Minister John Howard has told Korean churchgoers in his marginal Sydney electorate. 

from Crikey ….. 

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report was released over the weekend. Without urgent, aggressive steps to stop greenhouse gas emissions, climate change, it argues, will cause devastating heat waves, floods, starvation and disease.