Friday 29th of March 2024

inconvenient expert...

inconvenient

The Truth, Still Inconvenient


By PAUL KRUGMAN


So the joke begins like this: An economist, a lawyer and a professor of marketing walk into a room. What’s the punch line? They were three of the five “expert witnesses” Republicans called for last week’s Congressional hearing on climate science.

But the joke actually ended up being on the Republicans, when one of the two actual scientists they invited to testify went off script.

little precious .....

little precious .....

According to information released by WikiLeaks, through The Sydney Morning Herald, Mark Arbib was a 'protected source' of the American Embassy in Canberra.

Writing in The Good Weekend on 12 March, Nikki Barrowclough says in an article, "The Power of One", American diplomatic cables refer to Arbib as 'a tough political operator and evidence-based strategic thinker' who had met with embassy representatives 'repeatedly throughout his political rise'. In other words he met with US representatives over a period of time on a frequent basis over a number of years.

representing the people .....

representing the people .....

Let's judge the moderates and extremists.

Once in power in 2007 who supported in practice the US led invasion of Iraq, an invasion which has killed more than 1 million civilians? Labor.

Who supported the invasion of Afghanistan and has kept Australian killers there? Labor.

Who supported and now directs the racist Northern Territory intervention and has expanded parts of the welfare quarantining program into other areas of Australia? Labor.

What is the life expectancy gap between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians under Labor? 17 years.

where's the 'no-fly' zone .....

where's the 'no-fly' zone .....

Special flights to Dakar have ferried 167 foreigners, including French and Lebanese nationals, out of the Ivory Coast's violence-hit city of Abidjan, the French military says.

"Seventy-seven, mostly French, left overnight and 90 in the afternoon. These were not evacuations but options given to leave," French military spokesman Frederic Daguillon said on Sunday.

"Commercial flights have not restarted, these are special flights," he said.

Earlier, UN chief Ban Ki-moon demanded Mr Ouattara take action over a massacre of several hundred people blamed on his followers, a UN spokesman said.

mister transparency .....

mister transparency .....

On Monday President Obama received an award for transparency, which ironically was given to him during a closed, unannounced meeting. Bestowed upon the President from a group of transparency advocates, the ceremony took place in secret, even though - as of two weeks ago - it was supposed to be open to the press.

our most precious values .....

our most precious values .....

If I was an American lawyer who had fought for many years to secure habeas corpus rights for the prisoners held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba - in other words, the right to ask an impartial judge to rule on my captors' reasons for slinging me in a legal black hole and leaving me to rot there forever - the latest news from the Court of Appeals in Washington D.C. (also known as the D.C. Circuit Court) would make me sick in a bucket rather than believing any longer that the law - the revered law on which the United States was founded - can bring any meaningful remedy for the prisoners at Guantánamo.

blinded by the light .....

blinded by the light .....

More than any other individual - from a long list of contributors to Labor's appropriately punishing fall from grace in NSW - Edward Moses Obeid is challenged only by John Robertson, perversely the ALP's new leader, for the title of having wreaked greatest damage on the party that governed this state for 52 of the past 70 years.

from another perch of privilege .....

from another perch of privilrgr .....

from Crikey

Problems with pushing new coercive employment policies

Eva Cox writes:

from a perch of privilege .....

from the perch of privilege .....

Yesterday Prime Minister Julia Gillard opened the inaugural Gough Whitlam Oration with a few words "adopted from John Curtin, but ever identified with Gough Whitlam". Set against an increasingly hostile political environment, this speech opened with a welcome gesture - Gillard sensibly pointed to the "politics of inclusion".

Gillard pledged, that as "prime minister and federal Labor leader, it is my role to define what it means for Labor to be its best self". She promised Labor has "always understood that we must be the interpreters of the future to the present and must shape the future so it is one of fairness".

mother courage and her children...

gatesweapons
Gates Says Other Nations Can Arm Libyan Rebels


By ELISABETH BUMILLER and THOM SHANKER


WASHINGTON — President Obama’s top two national security officials signaled on Thursday that the United States was unlikely to arm the Libyan rebels, raising the possibility that the French alone among the Western allies would provide weapons and training for the poorly organized forces fighting Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s regime.

South Australian Govt Resigns, Defence Consortium To Run State

rann

Found this on a South Australian site this morning

ADELAIDE (1/4/11) Indicating that a special Defence Cabinet would now govern South Australia, Premier Mike Rann will announce this morning that he and all of State Cabinet would be presenting their resignations to the Governor later today.

"You'll hardly notice any difference." Mr Rann told onlookers at the Norwood Pie Cart last night. "The Yanks know what they want, and we've been rubberstamping their stuff for years. The bloke running the shipyard used to be a Halliburton boss, if there's anything that needs sorting out, he'll manage."

I spy .....

I spy .....

The FBI recently announced that its Next Generation Identification System (NGIS) has "reached its initial operating capacity". This vast new biometrics project, for which Lockheed Martin won a $1bn contract in 2008, encompasses not only fingerprints but also, possibly, such biometrics as iris scans, face recognition, bodily scars, marks and tattoos.

from central casting .....

from central casting .....

What does the world think? Obama has been using air strikes and drones against civilians in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, and probably Somalia. In his March 28 speech, Obama justified his air strikes against Libya on the grounds that the embattled ruler, Gadhafi, was using air strikes to put down a rebellion.

the clayton war...

The war you have when you're not having a war...

the war you have when you're not having a war...

 

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