‘In Geneva today, at the new review of the conventional weapons treaty, the British government will be using the full force of its diplomacy to ensure that civilians continue to be killed, by blocking a ban on the use of cluster bombs. Sweden, supported by Austria, Mexico and New Zealand, has proposed a convention making their deployment illegal, like the Ottawa treaty banning anti-personnel landmines.

But the UK, working with the US, China and Russia, has spent the past week trying to prevent negotiations from being opened. Perhaps this is unsurprising. Most of the cluster bombs dropped during the past 40 years have been delivered by Britain's two principal allies - the US and Israel - in the "war on terror". And the UK used hundreds of thousands of them during the two Gulf wars.

8 November 2006

TRANSCRIPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER
THE HON JOHN HOWARD MP
PRESS CONFERENCE
PARLIAMENT HOUSE, CANBERRA 

JOURNALIST:

Do you think there is a case though for lifting the level of foreign aid?

PRIME MINISTER: 

I think there is a case for increasing it, which we have done. We have increased it a lot and the increases have yet to be paid, so let's just, at this stage, leave it on that basis.

America Votes 2006

‘During national crises, the United States government often reacts overzealously. It takes actions that curtail the constitutionally guaranteed rights of the people. These laws, executive orders and government measures have been in reaction to public fears and public demands for a swift response. Yet the flames of fear have also been fanned for political advantage. Federal agencies have acted to intimidate, harass, alienate, deport, and silence organizations and individuals. Historically, dissenting voices included advocates as diverse as labor and peace activists, immigrant-rights groups, political opponents, and civil-rights leaders.

 
"There is something heroic in my mind for a country that is suffering all that Iraq is suffering, yet it still strove to conduct the trial, to have an embrace of the rule of law which is so fundamental to the establishment of a democracy."

John Howard

‘Every single commercial fishery in the world will be wiped before 2050 and the oceans may never recover if over-fishing continues at its current rate, a four-year scientific investigation has found.

"By the time my nine-year-old son is my age, there would be no wild seafood left," said Emmett Duffy, a scientist at the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences in the United States.

‘A ship said to be the world's largest container vessel has arrived in a Suffolk port to unload 45,000 tonnes of Christmas goods from China. Hundreds of spectators lined the shore to watch the Emma Maersk as it was guided into Felixstowe by three tugs.

read more at the BBC

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Gus: this is ugly consumerism that may make the Chinese headquarters laugh a bit...

‘On November 14 a group of lawyers and other experts will come before the German federal prosecutor and ask him to open a criminal investigation targeting Donald Rumsfeld, Alberto Gonzales and other key Bush Administration figures for war crimes. The recent passage of the Military Commissions Act provides a central argument for the legal action, under the doctrine of universal jurisdiction: It demonstrates the intent of the Bush Administration to immunize itself legally from prosecution in the United States, even for the most serious crimes.

from the New York Times .....

Where Plan A Left Ahmad Chalabi 

By Dexter Filkins

November 5, 2006

‘Many miles away in a more dangerous place the dream is ending badly. The bodies pile up. Good people stream to the borders. Leaders pile money onto planes. The center is giving way.

Law and Justice Address by
The Right Hon Malcolm Fraser AC CH  

2006 Justice Awards

Parliament House, Sydney
Tuesday 31 October

No matter how "badly" our water is managed, water HAS TO BE and stay a public utility... Any fool can privatise anything, but water HAS TO STAY in the hands of the public. It does not matter if the Poms have decided to sell their waters to some AUSSIE banks here and there, the crux of the matter is that water SHOULD BE FREE and regulated against pollution like the air we breathe... and protected for over-usage... OTHERWISE some some clever bastard will come and sell you your life... YOU already buy it in many forms from education to heath, but WATER? No way!...
Save our democracy... Protest at the privatisation of water... even if private enterprise can deliver it "better"...It is a public democratic and animalistic right.

It is an interesting coincidence that the offices of the Australian Electoral Commission's "Project Genesis" is right next door to Crosby Textor, Liberal Party lobbyists and pollsters.

The two offices are in the Engineers Australia building in Canberra, not far from the Liberal Party HQ in Barton.

Project Genesis involves updating the software used to hold the electoral roll and manage the logistics of election day.

AEC Annual Report 2005–06

‘Bechtel, the giant engineering company, is leaving Iraq. Its mission - to rebuild power, water and sewage plants - wasn't accomplished: Baghdad received less than six hours a day of electricity last month, and much of Iraq's population lives with untreated sewage and without clean water. But Bechtel, having received $2.3 billion of taxpayers' money and having lost the lives of 52 employees, has come to the end of its last government contract.

As Bechtel goes, so goes the whole reconstruction effort. Whatever our leaders may say about their determination to stay the course complete the mission, when it comes to rebuilding Iraq they've already cut and run. The $21 billion allocated for reconstruction over the last three years has been spent, much of it on security rather than its intended purpose, and there's no more money in the pipeline.

Somebody named FOSP added this to my Houston Indymedia version of the Parkin story.

Yep, if people start getting organised in their protests, the Bush Regime in both countries might indeed have something to fear.

I've just received this from Friends Of Scott Parkin:

Dear Friends-- Very exciting news!  Yesterday, Justice Ross Sundberg granted my lawyers access to the contents of the Australian Security Intelligence Organization's security assessment  which resulted in me being removed from Melbourne in September last year.  Furthermore, it grants access to the security assessments of my 2 co-plaintiffs, Iraqi asylum seekers Mohammad Sagar and Muhammad Faisal, who have been in an Australian detention centre for the past 5 years.