‘To their credit, Israel, AIPAC, the Bush Regime, powerful
families (with names like Koch), the numerous multi-millionaires in Congress,
powerful lobbyists, think tanks, major corporations, and the 1% of Americans
who harbor 38% of the nation's wealth have done a phenomenal job of convincing
a majority of the poor and working class that they are fortunate to have the
privilege of fighting over the remaining crumbs of the economic pie after the
ruling elite gorge themselves. 

Despite the 13% of Americans living in poverty, 46 million
without health insurance, and approximately 3 million homeless wandering our
streets, the gallimaufry ruling the United States according to the Golden Rule
(he that hath the gold maketh the rules) has artfully convinced "Main
Street" that it "doesn't get any better than this". 

‘The American Civil Liberties Union
has released documents that prove that top Department of Defense officials
endorsed interrogation methods at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp that the
FBI described as both abusive and illegal. 

“We now possess overwhelming
evidence that political and military leaders endorsed interrogation methods
that violate both domestic and international law,” said Jameel Jaffer, an
attorney with the ACLU. “It is entirely unacceptable that no senior official
has been held accountable.”’ 

‘Okay so the UAE was one of only
three governments to recognize the Taliban, and the UAE royals have been pals
and houseguests of Osama bin Laden, and the gold that was used to finance the
9/11 attack was transfered through Dubai, and the government has a history of
giving a nod and a wink to terrorists "traveling" through the
country, and two of the 9/11 hijackers were from the UAE, and...

Oh, well, "1984" is
fiction no longer.  There is no truth in the Bushevik Administration. 

‘A decade ago we had a significant succession of truly inspirational governors general; we looked to the ABC for excellence in broadcasting, to the universities to foster critical minds and to the CSIRO for scientific research of high integrity. 

If John Howard were a true conservative, he would have sustained those traditions. Instead, he has debauched them. Today we have an invisible governor-general, universities corrupted by their scrabbling for money, an underfunded ABC and a CSIRO where those who are genuinely concerned about global warming are expected to bite their tongues. 

‘With no political opposition to speak of, Howard's
conquests have been in cultural life, with historiography thrown in. Siding
with an unchanging clique of far-right commentators, he has effectively stifled
debate about Australia's bloody colonial past while deriding the "black
armband theory of history": that is, the truth of a genocidal racism that
continues to devastate the Aboriginal people. His patriotic, or "put out
more flags," campaign is pure George W. Bush. Schools have been ordered to
erect flagpoles, and on "Australia Day," January 26th, which
"celebrates" the "settlement" of another people's country,
flags are distributed and often displayed with gormless aggression. 

UN investigator briefed Downer on AWB

Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer has confirmed he was
briefed on allegations against AWB a month before the UN oil-for-food inquiry
handed down its report.

It has been revealed Mr Downer met the UN oil-for-food
investigator Paul Volcker in New York in September last year.

----- Original Message -----

From: JR
To: Lindsay, Peter (MP)
Sent: Thursday, February 23, 2006 8:22 PM
Subject: Spam .....

‘A coalition of American churches
sharply denounced the US-led war in Iraq on Saturday, accusing Washington of
"raining down terror" and apologizing to other nations for "the
violence, degradation and poverty our nation has sown." 

The statement, issued at the
largest gathering of Christian churches in nearly a decade, also warned the
United States was pushing the world toward environmental catastrophe with a
"culture of consumption" and its refusal to back international
accords seeking to battle global warming. 

The following statement was
prepared by a group of Australian women (community workers & academics) in
response to the latest anti-Muslim comments made by the Prime Minister.  

They are seeking support from
Australian women & women's organisations to publicly express condemnation
of such bigoted views & the ongoing race baiting of the Muslim Australian
community.

’We are a group of Australian women from diverse ethnic & cultural backgrounds
who stand together in condemning the Prime Minister for the peddling of his
Islamophobic views.

After ten years of playing the race card, the Prime Minister's inflammatory comments
about Muslim Australians this week represent a new low for community relations.
Last week, it was Federal Coalition member Danna Vale demonising Muslim women as
little more than breeders. This week the Prime Minister racially sledges the
Muslim community by singling them out as antagonistic to Australian culture.
Howard is unambiguous in his racialised message when he states: 

From
the ABC ….. 

An
Australian diplomat told the Government that Iraq wanted fees outside the
oil-for-food program. 

No
AWB link in kickbacks cable: PM 

 When you finish reading this you'll wonder what other lies we're being told.

Was Terence Cole's request for those with information to step
forward a plea or a threat of revelation?  Caroline Overington's
detailing of those who received the ominous cable suggest the latter
premise is worth considering.

 [extract]

The scam was outlined in a diplomatic cable
dated April 10, 2001 from Bronte Moules, an official at Australia's permanent mission to the UN in New York.

It was widely distributed through the top echelons of government, including the Prime Minister, Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer, Trade Minister Mark Vaile and then-minister for agriculture Warren Truss.