The Iraq Study Group met with President Bush this morning to present its 79 recommendations, which include moving "most U.S. troops out of combat roles by early 2008."

from somewhere in the ether …..

Greens criticise Navy engagement rules for illegal fishers

The Greens have raised concerns for the safety of illegal fishermen operating in Australian waters following a Federal Government move to allow the Navy to fire on illegal boats.

‘Remember when narrow-minded Republican know-nothings launched a hate campaign against French President Jacques Chirac and everything French because Paris would not go along with George Bush’s jolly little war in Iraq?

Well, it turns out that Chirac’s warnings in 2003 that a US invasion of Iraq would set the Mideast on fire, encourage terrorism, and produce a disaster have been tragically born out by events.

an opinion piece in the Sydney morning herald by federal Health Minister & purveyor of smelly fish, Tony Abbott …..

‘Australians are fair-minded people and for a few months will give Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard a chance to prove themselves. Whether they will ultimately warm to this odd couple flung together by ambition and the main chance is open to doubt.

Why are Britain and Australia both planning their own missile shields when they have the nuclear Hadrian's Wall being built by the Americans? I believe the apparent diplomatic message being sent to the Bush Administration, that the senior members of the Coalition Of The Willing are providing themselves with opportunities to disengage if necessary belies the enactment of another scene in the profit-making script.

Would you be surprised if the whole missile sales plan was cooked up by a defence corporation's psych department? After watching the way that Raytheon and Halliburton have gorged themselves on Adelaide the leak of a revealing memo wouldn't surprise me in the least. Australian Defence Minister Hill, now Australian Ambassador to the United Nations, was either lying or brainwashed when he told us Son Of Star Wars was all we'd ever need. Now new Defence Minister Nelson say that the system was the reason we needed extra missile launchers. This all screams used car salesmanship.

‘Britain would be prepared to use nuclear weapons against countries who allowed their own nuclear technology to fall into the hands of terrorists, Tony Blair said yesterday.

The Gates of Change

from the Centre for American Progress …..

‘The carnage continues to intensify in Baghdad, but the long national nightmare of Donald Rumsfeld's tenure as Secretary of Defense is almost over. Tomorrow, the Senate will consider the nomination of Rumsfeld's presumptive replacement, Robert Gates. The desire to replace Rumsfeld, who will serve until his successor is confirmed, is so great that "no senator has indicated opposition to Gates' nomination," and his nomination is expected to easily clear the Senate. The hope is that Gates "would boost morale at the Pentagon, where outgoing defense chief Donald Rumsfeld often clashed with the top brass." But the AP reports that Gates "may bring more of a change in style than substance to the Pentagon and the fractious debate over Iraq." His hearings present an important opportunity to ensure that's not the case by pressing Gates on his approach to Iraq and other critical problems facing the Pentagon.

John “moustache” Bolton, who had to be appointed UN Ambassador while even a rubber stamp republican congress was out of session, won't be back after his term ends. Both Democrats & Republicans opposed him & bushit "accepted" Bolton's resignation because he knows he can't win.

Bolton was an arrogant loony toon, who was meant to be the ambassador to an institution he loathed. He was an American triumphalist & brat.

‘"They sow the wind and reap the whirlwind" ~ Hosea 8

President George W. Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister al-Maliki met in Jordan to discuss the steadily deteriorating situation in Iraq; neither has faced the reality that as far as controlling future events in Iraq are concerned, both are irrelevant. Bush, like many other factional leaders in Iraq, has his own militia, arguably no longer the largest, but is in the unenviable position of being the one all the others see as occupiers and targets of opportunity. Prime Minister al-Maliki has nothing but his status as a puppet for the most hated entity currently involved in the debacle that is Iraq.

‘Amidst all the comparisons of the Vietnam War with the occupation of Iraq, people seem to be ignoring an important question: Why not invade Vietnam too?

After all, everyone knows that Vietnam is not a democracy. In fact, unlike Saddam Hussein’s dictatorial regime in Iraq, the Vietnam dictatorship is communist, and as U.S. officials reminded us throughout the Vietnam War, communists are committed to burying America. Moreover, let’s not forget that the Vietnamese communists killed almost 60,000 American men – that is, many more Americans than Saddam ever killed and, in fact, 20 times the number of Americans killed on 9/11.

‘The same legal scholars who established beyond doubt earlier this year that the vast majority of Guantanamo Bay detainees are not threats to our national security after all are back with comprehensive new findings -- again from our own military's official records -- that obliterate the main premise of the White House's efforts to block judicial review for the terror suspects being held in Cuba.

"It may seem odd for me, a military man to adopt such a comparison. Truthfulness compels me to. I spent thirty-three years and four months in active military service in this country’s most agile military force, the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major General. And during that period, I spent most of my time being a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism."