from our ABC .....

Howard reassures growers on banana imports

Prime Minister John Howard has re-assured banana growers in far north Queensland that restrictions on the import of fresh fruit will not be relaxed.

The banana industry is seeking urgent talks today with the Australian Quarantine Inspection Service over the importation of frozen processed bananas from Vietnam, though authorities say these pose no quarantine risk.

From Antiwar.com

Blindly Backing Israel Against Iran
by Gordon Prather

Well, that tears it.

First we had Dick Cheney - the most powerful Vice-President we've ever had - nonchalantly tell a radio talk-show host just hours before the Bush-Cheney second inaugural: "Well, one of the concerns people have is that Israel might do it [that is, attack and destroy Iran's IAEA-safeguarded facilities] without being asked; that if, in fact, the Israelis became convinced the Iranians had significant nuclear capability - given the fact that Iran has a stated policy that their objective is the destruction of Israel - the Israelis might well decide to act first, and let the rest of the world worry about cleaning up the diplomatic mess afterwards."

‘If you control the language, you control the debate. As the Bush Administration's Middle Eastern policy sinks ever deeper into bloody incoherence, the "war on terror" has been getting a quiet linguistic makeover. It's becoming the "war on Islamic fascism." The term has been around for a while - Nexis takes it back to 1990, when the writer and historian Malise Ruthven used "Islamo-fascism" in the London Independent to describe the authoritarian governments of the Muslim world; after 9/11 it was picked up by neo-cons and pro-war pundits, including Stephen Schwartz in the Spectator and Christopher Hitchens in this magazine, to describe a broad swath of Muslim bad guys from Osama to the mullahs of Iran.

From our ABC .....

US transfers control of Abu Ghraib prison

An Iraqi government spokesman says the US military has transferred control of the notorious Abu Ghraib prison to Iraqi authorities and the "prison is now empty of any detainees or prisoners".

"The Abu Ghraib prison has been officially handed over yesterday (Friday) by the coalition forces to the Iraqi forces and the prison is currently under the Iraqi administration," spokesman Ali al-Dabaqh said.

While he predicted victory, resurrecting a word he had dropped months ago
and using it 12 times in a 44-minute speech, Mr. Bush also cautioned that the road ahead would be fraught with obstacles.

But he put particular emphasis on what he said would be the consequences of a failure to ensure Iraq's stability, saying: "If we give up the fight in the streets of Baghdad, we will face the terrorists in the streets of our own cities."

‘George W. Bush has been faulted in some quarters for taking an extended vacation while the Middle East festers. It doesn't much matter; the man running the country is Vice President Dick Cheney.

When historians look back on the multiple assaults on our constitutional system of government in this era, Cheney's unprecedented role will come in for overdue notice. Cheney's shotgun mishap, when he accidentally sprayed his host with birdshot, has gotten more media attention than has his control of the government.

When Halliburton CEO Dave Lesar and a "cast of thousands" of Australian dignitaries launched the Adelaide-Darwin in early 2004 everybody was talking about what a boon to Australian exports Mr Cheney's conquest of the Australian desert would be.  Of course, nobody was talking about uranium at the time....

Well, the inevitable has happened, and we're going to see boxcars of yellowcake trundling from Adelaide to Darwin within the next few years,   Immediately following the announcement of opening of a new Australian uranium mine (at Honeymoon in South Australia's far north east

On Wednesday S.A. MLC Sandra Kanck made a speech on assisted suiced that has been removed from the electronic version of Hansard. Read it here

What a load of bollocks.. if I reprint it I could be fined ten thousand dollars. However suicide advocate Phillip Nitschke is allowed to do so from his New Zealand website.

While writing this I have just gone on local ABC Radio and informed the rest of Adelaide that they can read a Parliamentary speech that has been effectively banned by their Government.  I hope they do so.

Sandra Kanck is right.. these laws need to be changed.  Everybody is criticising China for censoring political issues, yet the problem is obviously alive and kicking in Australia

From Our ABC .....

Westpac outsources 77 Adelaide jobs to India

A major investment company owned by Westpac has denied that the outsourcing of more than 70 South Australian jobs to India is a cost-cutting exercise.

The BT Financial Group argues the redundancies are aimed at improving customer service.

Workers at the BT office at Bedford Park, in Adelaide's south, were told yesterday that 77 administration jobs would go offshore.

‘Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Tuesday the world faces "a new type of fascism" and warned against repeating the pre-World War II mistake of appeasement.

Rumsfeld alluded to critics of the Bush administration's war policies in terms associated with the failure to stop Nazism in the 1930s, "a time when a certain amount of cynicism and moral confusion set in among the Western democracies."

Without explicitly citing Bush critics at home or abroad, he said "it is apparent that many have still not learned history's lessons." Aides to Rumsfeld said later he was not accusing the administration's critics of trying to appease the terrorists but was cautioning against a repeat of errors made in earlier eras.’

Whilst proponents & opponents of the federal government’s move to slap a restriction order on “Jihad Jack” argue up hill & down dale as to whether restricting freedom of citizens is justified on the basis that they might commit a crime, the cynic in me suspects that the majority of Australians support the government’s move, provided, of course, that the same arbitrary principles & secret processes are not used against them.

Whilst I’m just as sickened by acts of terrorism as anyone-else, irrespective of whether they are perpetrated by religious zealots, alleged patriots or armies fielded by wicked politicians, I’m more concerned by the success enjoyed by our politicians in spinning their fear meme; to the point where we seem to have totally lost our perspective.

From the ABC .....

Ruddock accused of vilifying Jack Thomas

The defence barrister for Victorian man Jack Thomas has accused the federal Attorney-General of vilifying his client in the media.

Mr Thomas had his terrorism-related conviction overturned earlier this month but was yesterday put under a 12-month control order.

‘George W. Bush has been faulted in some quarters for taking an extended vacation while the Middle East festers. It doesn't much matter; the man running the country is Vice President Dick Cheney.

When historians look back on the multiple assaults on our constitutional system of government in this era, Cheney's unprecedented role will come in for overdue notice. Cheney's shotgun mishap, when he accidentally sprayed his host with birdshot, has gotten more media attention than has his control of the government.