‘Ordinary terms are inadequate to describe the horrors Israel daily perpetrates, and has perpetrated for years, against the Palestinians. The tragedy of Gaza has been described a hundred times over, as have the tragedies of 1948, of Qibya, of  Sabra and Shatila, of Jenin - 60 years of atrocity perpetrated in the name of  Judaism.

But the horror generally falls on deaf ears in most of Israel, in the US political arena, in the mainstream US (and Australian...ed) media. Those who are horrified - and there are many - cannot penetrate the shield of impassivity that protects the political and media elite in Israel, even more so in the US, and increasingly now in Canada and Europe, from seeing, from caring.

from our ABC .....

Ruddock to raise Hicks case with US counterpart

The Attorney-General, Philip Ruddock, says he will raise the David Hicks case with his United States counterpart during meetings this week.

Mr Ruddock says he will meet the US Attorney-General Alberto Gonzales for discussions on national security, but he will also follow up on recent phone conversations about Hicks.

from our ABC .....

Trujillo rejects Govt's Telstra board nomination 

Telstra's chief executive Sol Trujillo says the board cannot support the Federal Government's nominee for a director's position because investigations are yet to establish his integrity and independence.

etc.

‘The Islamists have won in Pakistan and it is desperately important for the government to get in step with its people and stop fighting civil wars with them. Musharraf is completely out on a very long and weak limb with the loathed Bush, FBI, CIA, Northern Alliance, India and all the rest. Musharraf is making lucrative book deals and no doubt all kinds of sub-rosa deals with the U.S. Big Corporations. He is building his Escape Nest, as all failing dictators need to do. If he is lucky, he will be able to escape the bullets and bombs coming his way.

After all the trouble we\ve gone to, the whole plan's gone bung.   It turns out, as some folks were warning years ago, that Australia''s new tanks, part of a mullti-nation Coalition of the Willing fleet of M1A1 Abrams, are too heavy to ride the Halliburton railway to Darwin.

Freightlink, the consortium that Cheney set up to run the line for 50 years after KBR built it. has denied, according to today's Australian, that there's a problem, saying that they're working closely with defence on military transport issues.

‘Puffed-up politicians on both sides of the House seek from new arrivals a pledge of citizenship that endorses "Australian values" at a time when our values are tangled in a global tumble-dryer. That a government should demand such endorsement is itself a violation of a core Australian value - the freedom to think what we please. To think, for example, that numerous values exemplified by our Prime Minister are crap. Like truth avoidance, flag fetishism, excessive secrecy, anti-intellectualism, witch-hunting the whistleblowers, appeasement of George Bush, boasting about this country's generosity, whitewashing black history, bribing Saddam Hussein to buy our wheat then bombing his people, toleration of US torture and its treatment of David Hicks, to name a few.

MINISTERIAL CHANGES

I have spoken to the Administrator Her Excellency Professor Marie Bashir AC CVO and secured her approval to announce the following changes to the Ministry.

The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade, the Hon Mark Vaile MP, approached me some time ago and indicated his desire to spend more time in Australia selling the Government's message, particularly in rural and regional areas.

As a consequence, Mr Vaile will become Minister for Transport and Regional Services and the Hon Warren Truss MP will become Minister for Trade. Mr Vaile does, of course, remain Deputy Prime Minister. There are no other changes to the Ministry.

"Imagine what it's like to be a young person living in a country that is not moving toward reform. You're 21 years old, and while your peers in other parts of the world are casting their ballots for the first time, you are powerless to change the course of your government.

"While your peers in other parts of the world have received educations that prepare them for the opportunities of a global economy, you have been fed propaganda and conspiracy theories that blame others for your country's shortcomings.

From our ABC .....

Downer challenges UN to follow Australia’s example

Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer has spoken of the importance of rebuilding Afghanistan and Australia's work in stabilising East Timor and the Solomon Islands in an address to the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

He says the work undertaken by Australia contrasts with the UN's failures in the Sudanese region of Darfur.

A Judge has ordered the country's wheat exporter to hand over hundreds of documents to the Cole inquiry into the oil-for-food scandal, including material suggesting it "deliberately and dishonestly" tried to defraud the United Nations.

The judge found that at least 10 documents that AWB strenuously fought to keep secret were brought into existence apparently for "an improper and dishonest purpose" and designed to "work a trickery" on the UN.

‘Vice President Dick Cheney cast the global war on terror on Tuesday as a “war of nerves,'' borrowing a phrase Harry Truman used to describe the Cold War. Cheney asserted that the hopes of the civilized world depend on a U.S. victory.

“We are not going to let down our guard,'' Cheney told a convention of automobile dealers. He said President Bush “will not relent in the effort to track the enemies of the United States with every legitimate tool at his command.''

The rodent certainly has plenty of gall …..

Straight-faced sledging of all things Muslim, whilst ignoring the lunatic Christian right, lead by bushit …..

And then more straight-faced lying when asked about the coup in Thailand …..

Prime Minister:

…… We condemn military coups. They are a throwback to a past that I had hoped Asia had emerged from, and it's a great disappointment.

Our “great besider” only has to freewheel his deceitful spin these days. 

The little fella is not only made safe by his many loyal but mindless followers, always primed & ready to do his dirty work for him, but by a sycophantic, incompetent or dishonest media.

Among his gentler media handlers is Ray Hadley, from 2GB.

Take the latest on air free kick on “radical Islam” awarded yesterday.