A US lawyer says thousands of Iraqi families may join a class action against Australian wheat exporter AWB because of the kickbacks it paid which helped fund Saddam Hussein's regime.

The class action against AWB, its US office and a French bank has been filed by lawyers acting for two women whose husbands were killed by Hussein's regime.

Lawyer John Murray says the case alleges AWB entered into a conspiracy to fund a Government which carried out genocide.

"We think it's a bad thing to say to our closest ally in her hour of need in Iraq that we're going to partially walk away from you."

john winston rattus

How comfy we are all in the United States, as we engage in living-room debates about the US occupation of Iraq, whether "we" are bringing them freedom and whether their freedom is really worth the sacrifice of so many of our men and women. We talk about whether war aims have really been achieved, how to exit gracefully, or whether we need a hyper-surge to finish this whole business once and for all.

It is true that the US is increasingly bellicose. The balance of power in
the Bush administration is shifting away from Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice, who favours cautious engagement with Tehran, and towards
Vice-President Dick Cheney, who urges confrontation.

If the invasion of Afghanistan had been a success, we would not still be fighting the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. If the invasion of Iraq had been a success, we would not be fighting there.

Two invasions of practically defenseless countries with obsolete weapons and decaying infrastructures have to be termed failures. Both the civilian leadership in Washington and the military's officer corps share the blame.

John Howard could stay in parliament for a very long time after he hands over the prime ministership, Workplace Relations Minister Joe Hockey says.

"I wouldn't put it past the prime minister to still be in parliament for a long period of time."

Howard Could Stay In Parliament For Years

Gus: It doesn’t even seem to occur to these arrogant bastards that the voters of Bennelong might have other ideas.

Ever wonder why the supposedly 'fiscally Conservative' Republican Party ALWAYS increases the nation's debt? Ever wonder why, in 2007, the United States will spend nearly a trillion dollars ($700 billion-plus) to fight a relatively small band of sandal-wearing thugs living in caves?

Sadly, Americans seem not to wonder about much of anything ... but they should. They should, because so-called Conservative Republicans are robbing the taxpayer blind and using the money to undermine the welfare of the American people.

The overwhelming majority of the American people are not breaking any laws.

We cannot say that about the government.

Frankfurt - Finance ministers and central bankers have long fretted that at some point, the rest of the world would lose its willingness to finance the United States' proclivity to consume far more than it produces - and that a potentially disastrous free-fall in the dollar's value would result.

But for longer than most economists would have been willing to predict a decade ago, the world has been a willing partner in American excess - until a new and home-grown financial crisis this summer rattled confidence in the country, the world's largest economy.

"A vote for me is a vote for the coalition.”

a retiring john winston rattus

Embracing Iraqi interests would mean giving up the Washington dream of a wide-open, Wild-West, virtually unregulated Iraqi economy bloated with energy revenues and ripe for the picking by international investors. Two out of three Iraqis want their energy sector -- the source of 90 percent of the country's revenues -- to be developed by the state. But the United States didn't invade Iraq just to have another Arab country with massive oil reserves controlled by a state oil company and huge subsidies propping up its citizens. So the conflict will continue.

The boy stood on the burning deck
Whence all but he had fled,
And a staggering piece of insight
Kept running around in his head.

When the flame of truth hits the ship of state
And the tides of time are turning,
They tend to bucket the captain
When the ship is what is burning.

Bruce Petty, 1972

Hockey dismisses 'flawed' WorkChoices findings

The Federal Government has rejected the findings of a new report into the impact of WorkChoices in services industries.

The study by Sydney University's Workplace Research Centre found that on average the earnings of retail workers have fallen 18 per cent and hospitality workers by 12 per cent, since the introduction of WorkChoices.

This is what they call "teamwork"?

Mr Costello said he had not spoken to any colleagues in the past week to offer his services as leader if Mr Howard stepped aside.

"The meetings didn't involve me & I didn't know they were taking place,'' he said.

"This Government is a team & the team is led by John Howard & me.”

I Started It, Says PM