from Buzzflash …..

‘The first and most lethal fact is that the Earth (with very minor exceptions) is a planet wide Dictatorship of the Rich. This is the number one critical variable of our species! Less than one percent of the population is now and always has been controlling effectively all of the planetary wealth. This is nothing to debate or argue about. Not to see this lose/lose reality is not to see the sun.

from the ABC …..

Meanwhile, Attorney-General Philip Ruddock says it is best that people do not comment publicly on the case.

"We would expect that in Australia, we don't expect that people would be out there arguing in relation to a person who has been charged with offences about the appropriateness of it," he said.

Qantas consortium won't guarantee jobs …..

The director of the consortium bidding to take over Qantas says he cannot give a concrete guarantee about jobs.

The consortium made up of Australian and foreign companies has voluntarily agreed to submit the deal to the Foreign Investment Review Board, despite saying for some weeks it did not need to.

PM says carbon trading part of climate change solution …..

Prime Minister John Howard has signalled that Australia is likely to be involved in a carbon trading scheme as part of tackling climate change.

Mr Howard has promised Australian workers and industries will not be unfairly disadvantaged if there is a price on carbon.

‘Zionism's drive to create a state for the Jewish people was designed to serve two purposes. The most fundamental of them was to provide a refuge that would ensure the well-being and security of the Jewish people, wherever they were endangered by the ever-recurring historical cycles of murderous global anti-Semitism - most recently, of course, the Holocaust. Beyond that, the Jewish state of Israel was to be a moral exemplar for all mankind, "a light unto the nations," the model of the kind of state that a liberal, well educated, sophisticated, and morally sensitive people - "the people of the Book" - could create.

‘In his State of the Union address to the nation, President George W. Bush made some disturbingly inaccurate statements about the fight against terrorism that distort the threat's reality. He continues to hail the break-up of the al-Qaida terror network as a major victory, and he has now conflated the Islamist Sunni and Shia terror organizations, misrepresenting them as a unified force against the United States.

from the Sydney Morning Herald …..

‘Photos & articles depicting Saddam Hussein's execution shown to inmates at Guantanamo Bay, including David Hicks, were provided for their "intellectual stimulation", the US military said.

The existence of the display of the articles & photos, & an accompanying message saying liars would meet the same fate, garnered international headlines after they were revealed by Mr Hicks's legal team on Thursday.

from the Sydney Morning Herald …..

‘John Howard’s plan to take control of the Murray-Darling Basin threatens to put him on a collision course with the mining giant BHP Billiton, which uses millions of litres of water a day without paying for it.

His plan for the Commonwealth to take control of the river system includes cracking down on the unsustainable extraction of water from the Great Artesian Basin.

from the Centre for American Progress …..

‘Three years ago, President Bush delivered the State of the Union containing the infamous 16 words that alleged Iraq was developing a nuclear program. During the following summer, the insurgency was picking up steam, the search for WMD had turned up nothing, whistleblowers like former Ambassador Joseph Wilson were beginning to question the administration's motives, and the White House was hitting back against its critics.

‘I don't think it's a question of using the corporations power, but the best and cleanest way of fixing this problem is for the states to refer their powers.

But I made it very clear last Thursday that our plan, and the payment of the money, was conditional on the power referral and I am writing to the states this week outlining in more detail what is involved in the power referral.

Bushit said on Wednesday "I don't feel abandoned" by fellow Republicans in Congress who are working with Democrats to protest his Iraq policy with a congressional resolution.

In a television interview, the great deciderarean shrugged off criticism of his plan to surge 21,500 more US troops in Iraq & said he hoped lawmakers would give US forces what they needed to get the job done.

‘A US Ambassador lashed out against a foreign official last week for standing up to the Bush administration - and it wasn't against Hugo Chavez or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or any of the other usual suspects.

It was Canadian Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day - a fundamentalist creationist, anti-abortion, anti-gay rights hawk who once spoke at a "Canadians for Bush" rally. At the onset of the Iraq war, he published a pro-Bush letter in the Wall Street Journal with Stephen Harper, who would become Canada's prime minister in 2006. Day and Harper blasted their own government's opposition to the U.S. invasion and lauded the Bush administration's "fundamental vision of civilization and human values."

from the ABC …..

Education Minister dismisses Labor's degree plan

The Federal Government has dismissed as a waste of money a Labor proposal for HECS incentives to attract students to maths and science courses.

Howard rules out independent Murray-Darling panel

Prime Minister John Howard has ruled out creating an independent body to manage the Murray-Darling Basin.

South Australian Premier Mike Rann has called for an independent panel, free from political interests.

But Mr Howard says he will not agree to it. "It's basically surrendering the responsibility that I was given by the Australian people," he said. "I was elected to try and solve the nation's problems, I'm trying to solve one of the nation's problems with this proposal."

Mr Howard says he does not think relations between the Federal Government and the states have broken down. Mr Rann and the federal Minister for Water, Malcolm Turnbull, have been exchanging verbal blows this week over who should have control over water resources. Mr Howard has called for all parties to work together. "I regret that Mr Rann made a rather personal attack on Mr Turnbull," he said. "Let's put all of that aside, let's address the substance of the issue and let's put the national interest ahead of any local interests, although in this case, the national interest promotes the local interest." But New South Wales Premier Morris Iemma says the Commonwealth should not rule out considering Mr Rann's call for an independent board to control the system.