Howard apologises for forgetting candidate's name

Prime Minister John Howard has apologised to a federal Liberal candidate for forgetting her name.

Vanessa Goodwin is looking to win the southern Tasmanian seat of Franklin from Labor.

Speaking on ABC Radio this morning, Mr Howard said Ms Goodwin has his support but he could not recall her name.

Ms Goodwin says she is not disappointed.

from Crikey …..

Global warming, big oil and silicone breasts: the links

Ben Oquist, political consultant and former Greens staffer, writes:

‘The ABC's screening and treatment of The Great Global Warming Swindle documentary would be funny if it wasn’t so serious.

’Nowhere in the world, has one print media played such a dominant role in people’s lives than the Murdoch Press in Australia. Supported by the Government’s policies of serving big business and hunger for power, Australia’s print media has become the most monopolistic in the ‘Western World’. Print media monopoly constitutes great danger to free thought and democracy, a frightening reminder of fascist dictatorships in Europe.

‘If the global policing, base-building, corporate capitalists cry that if we leave now, even more innocent people will die, just remember that "more" is an awful big number. Americans have already killed a million Iraqis and Afghanis, and displaced nearly three million. And this doesn’t count the 500,000 dead Iraqi children our government justified as "worth" a decade of economic sanctions.

Farmers, grocers back Labor price inquiry call

Federal Government ministers are laughing off the plans to investigate grocery prices.

Farmers and independent grocers are calling on the Federal Government to take up Labor's plans for an inquiry into grocery pricing.

Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd says if Labor wins government, he would empower the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to find out whether supermarkets are price gouging.

‘Pope Benedict XVI reasserted the primacy of the Roman Catholic Church, approving a document released Tuesday that says other Christian communities are either defective or not true churches and Catholicism provides the only true path to salvation.

The statement brought swift criticism from Protestant leaders. "It makes us question whether we are indeed praying together for Christian unity," said the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, a fellowship of 75 million Protestants in more than 100 countries.

Flaw in Coalition defences exposed

Gerard Henderson (The Sydney Morning Herald - Opinions 10/07/07)

July 10, 2007

It's not often that an Australian defence minister makes it on to the international news bulletins. But Brendan Nelson managed to do so last week - and all for the wrong reasons - by appearing to link Australia's Iraq commitment to oil.

‘Nicolas Sarkozy was a divisive figure during his campaign for the French presidency. But he's governing as a uniter, not a divider.

George W. Bush ran for president in 2000 promising to ease partisan divisions. He has left our politics a wreck of recrimination, anger and polarization.

This weekend, the contrast between Sarkozy and Bush could not have been more conspicuous.

‘The commonly accepted knowledge in the administration and in the Pentagon is that this is a religious war, that these men blow themselves up for God. Not at all, says Brzezinski: "These are political questions. They may seen religious, but in reality they are directly related to our policies. Look at who they are against: the U.S., the Brits, the Israelis. We are seen as the new British colonialists, just as in Vietnam we were seen as the continuation of French colonialism."

Fifteen American soldiers watched over a man, shackled to a seat in the cargo bay of a C-17 Globemaster - the Air Force workhorse that usually moves Abrams tanks, Chinook helicopters or infantry vehicles. Wearing goggles that shut out all light, a soundproof headset and a mask that covered his mouth so he could not speak, spit or bite, the prisoner arrived at Ramstein Air Force Base in Kaiserslautern, Germany, under the tightest security. The plane had burned through 36,000 gallons of jet fuel and had refueled in flight. During the seventeen-hour ride, the prisoner was provided with neither food nor water. Nor was he allowed to stretch his legs or relieve himself.

‘It could be a scene from Kafka or Brazil. Imagine a government agency, in a bureaucratic foul-up, accidentally gives you a copy of a document marked "top secret." And it contains a log of some of your private phone calls.

You read it and ponder it and wonder what it all means. Then, two months later, the FBI shows up at your door, demands the document back and orders you to forget you ever saw it.

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,

Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

William Butler Yeats, The Second Coming

from the ABC .....

Iraq never about oil: Nelson

Today Dr Nelson said resource security was a separate issue.

Defence Minister Brendan Nelson has distanced himself from comments he made yesterday about a link between oil security and the need for Australian troops to stay in Iraq.

On Wednesday Dr Nelson said oil security was one of the reasons Australian forces should not leave Iraq.

‘The Bushies, it seems, like starting fights, but they don’t believe in paying any of the cost of those fights or bearing any of the risks. Above all, they don’t believe that they or their friends should face any personal or professional penalties for trivial sins like distorting intelligence to get America into an unnecessary war, or totally botching that war’s execution.