"Your Honor - this is Hamdan - I am speaking to you." 

What followed was a riveting exchange between Judge Keith Allred and Hamdan - an exchange that revealed the enormous distance between the judge's good-faith and compassionate efforts to provide a fair trial in a flawed system, and Hamdan's increasing frustration with a legal system whose rules seem to change with each of his victories.

We have overthrown foreign governments, interfered with elections in foreign countries, invaded foreign lands on a regular basis, and supported all manner of dictators around the globe. The CIA once overthrew the first democratically elected leader of Iran and installed a brutal dictator. What other "black ops" have our spooks been up to over the years? 

Senator Barack Obama broke forcefully on Tuesday with his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., in an effort to curtail a drama of race, values, patriotism and betrayal that has enveloped his presidential candidacy at a critical juncture. 

For decades these self-professed saviours of the Western world helped precipitate U.S. foreign policy disasters like the Vietnam War. 

President Bush today blamed Congress for many of the nation's economic woes, charging that lawmakers have blocked his proposals for dealing with problems ranging from soaring gasoline prices to the increasing cost of food.

Any doubt that David Hicks was charged with war crimes for purely political reasons has gone, his father and his lawyer say. 

The former chief prosecutor of the US military commissions at Guantanamo Bay said overnight he would not have pursued Hicks because the case against the Australian was not serious enough.  

BP has reported a 63 percent jump in profits in the first quarter compared to the same period a year ago. The oil company on Tuesday reported a profit of $7.6 Billion compared to $4.4 billion in the first quarter of 2007. First-quarter profit was up 73 percent compared to the previous quarter.

from Crikey ….. 

Iemma's dilemma: privatise or count the Costa

 Alex Mitchell writes: 

The mortgage industry, facing the prospect of tougher regulations for its central role in the housing crisis, has begun an intensive campaign to fight back. 

Bush pokes fun at his successors …..

Referring to Republican candidate John McCain's absence, he said: "He probably wanted to distance himself from me."  

The annual dinner dates back to 1924 and is attended by media personalities, celebrities and politicians.

New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark has hailed the dedication of a statue of a Kiwi soldier on Sydney's Anzac Bridge but expatriates are angry they were barred from the ceremony.

The granddaughter of a NZ soldier who died at Gallipoli was one of about 100 expatriate New Zealanders refused entry to today's ceremony after officials closed traffic and pedestrian access for more than five hours.

Sydneysiders’ goodwill towards World Youth Day has been eroded by revelations of large-scale city road closures and an $86 million bill to taxpayers. 

A Sun-Herald/Taverner poll found that 64 per cent of Sydneysiders were in favour of World Youth Day being held in Sydney. But that number fell to 47 per cent when taking into account the disruption to traffic and road closures announced by Deputy Premier John Watkins. 

Of course, the Pentagon has long poured U.S. tax dollars into private coffers to arm and outfit the military and enable it to function.  

As many historians have written, Europeans in the Middle Ages lived with an almost childlike emotional intensity. There were stark contrasts between daytime and darkness, between summer heat and winter cold, between misery and exuberance, and good and evil. Certain distinctions were less recognized, namely between the sacred and the profane.