from Crikey ….. 

Morris Iemma is an ex-premier, bereft of life, no more, etc.  

Alex Mitchell writes: 

Blood and Oil has several important advantages over Klare’s earlier and well-researched book.  

First, the 52-minute presentation is tight, clear, and well-integrated – suitable for home use, classroom use, independent and even corporate television broadcast. 

Just two days ago, Gordon Brown was urging us all to stop wasting food and combat rising prices and a global shortage of provisions.

But yesterday the Prime Minister and other world leaders sat down to an 18-course gastronomic extravaganza at a G8 summit in Japan, which is focusing on the food crisis.

Anyone with any knowledge of Iran's history and culture will know that it will not be bribed or bullied into doing what the West wants.

It has no reason to trust Western promises, and having endured the suffering of the Iran-Iraq War, is unlikely to buckle under any pressure, military or economic, that the West would be prepared to impose.

Tony Abbott today pointed to the premiere of the ABC's The Hollowmen as an indication of how the Rudd Government has performed in its first year in office. 

Mr Abbott was sentimental about the Howard legacy and quoted Margaret Thatcher as he spoke of his plans for a new book, to be released next year under the working title Conservatism After Howard, outlining his ideas for what he calls 'evolutionary conservatism'.

from the SMH …..

Paul Borg and Barry Oakley (Letters, July 8) are worried about the various reactions to World Youth Day. The Prime Minister wants us to show respect to the Pope.  

Organisers had been expecting 150 people, but instead a rowdy crowd of about 1,000 has turned up to a meeting on the presence of convicted pedophile Dennis Ferguson in their Brisbane community. 

Police Minister Judy Spence and Acting Police Commissioner Kathy Rynders were shouted down by the crowd at the meeting in Carbrook, a suburb on Brisbane's southern fringes, last night. 

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has confirmed that he will attend the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics on 8 August. 

He was speaking after meeting Chinese President Hu Jintao at the G8 summit. 

There had been speculation that the French President would stay away in protest over Chinese actions in Tibet. 

At first sight, the G8 agreement on climate change promises much. 

Leaders are 'committed to avoiding the most serious consequences of climate change', and determined to stabilise greenhouse gases in the atmosphere at levels that would avoid 'dangerous climate change'. 

The Catholic Church's most senior figure in Australia, Cardinal George Pell, has conceded a letter he wrote to a man who had been sexually assaulted by a priest was a mistake but has defended his overall handling of the case. 

(With Apologies to AB Paterson) 

For years I brown-nosed bastards from the Centre to the Right,I fiddled with the numbers & I suck-holed day & night.

And when they wouldn't have me, waited for the next election,

The Village Chronicle 

Latest headlines ….. 

·                     Cardinal Pell accused of paedophile cover-up

The Editor,

Sydney Morning Herald.                                                                   July 8, 2008.  

‘Pell accused of sex abuse cover-up’, Herald, July 8.  

Western governments like to depict terrorism as a uniquely moral evil which democratic states do not engage in.  

But history is filled with instances in which even democratic governments have sanctioned or perpetrated acts of violence that would ordinarily be described as 'terrorist', from bombings and assassinations to black ops and 'dirty wars'.  

New South Wales Premier Morris Iemma has accused the Rail, Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) of trying to blackmail the State Government by calling a strike during World Youth Day (WYD). 

The rail union says it is planning to stop work for 24 hours on Thursday next week, when Pope Benedict has several events planned in the CBD.