Gunns takes control of Auspine …..

The Tasmanian timber company Gunns Limited now holds more than 50 per cent of the South Australian-based sawmiller Auspine.

It gives Gunns a controlling interest in Auspine's sawmills in south-eastern SA and two at Scottsdale in north-east Tasmania.

‘In a just-published article in the New Yorker magazine entitled "The Black Sites: A Rare Look Inside the CIA's Secret Interrogation Program," Jane Mayer documents what only those in hopeless denial can avoid knowing: the United States has tortured people in the so-called CIA "black sites".

Demagogue: one who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots.

H.L. Mencken

‘Reports that the Bush Administration will put Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on the terrorism list can be read in one of two ways: it's either more bluster or, ominously, a wind-up for a strike on Iran. Officials I talk to in Washington vote for a hit on the IRGC, maybe within the next six months. And they think that as long as we have bombers and missiles in the air, we will hit Iran's nuclear facilities. An awe and shock campaign, lite, if you will. But frankly they're guessing; after Iraq the White House trusts no one, especially the bureaucracy.

‘Sapped by nearly six years of war, the Army has nearly exhausted its fighting force and its options if the Bush administration decides to extend the Iraq build-up beyond next spring.

The Army's 38 available combat units are deployed, just returning home or already tapped to go to Iraq, Afghanistan or elsewhere, leaving no fresh troops to replace five extra brigades that President Bush sent to Baghdad this year, according to interviews and military documents reviewed by The Associated Press.

That presents the Pentagon with several painful choices if the U.S. wants to maintain higher troop levels beyond the spring of 2008:

‘The second cricket Test match of the recently concluded test series between India and England played at Trent Bridge was important as it went on to underline the success that the Indian cricket team has been enjoying on foreign trips in the recent past.

APEC Public Holiday …..

The NSW Government has announced details of a public holiday to coincide with the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) Summit to be held in Sydney in September 2007.

The public holiday on the 7 September 2007 has been declared for the Sydney metropolitan area only, including Penrith, Camden and Campbelltown. (see full LCA list below).

"The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy: that is the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness."

John Kenneth Galbraith

'The Bush administration has leaped toward war with Iran by, in essence, declaring war with the main branch of Iran's military, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), which it plans to brand as a terrorist organization.

A logical evolution of US President George W Bush's ill-defined, boundless "war on terror", the White House's move is dangerous to the core, opening the way for open confrontation with Iran. Thismay begin in Iraq, where the IRGC is reportedly most active and, ironically, where the US and Iran have their largest common denominators.

Nelson admits strip visit as Rudd fallout continues …..

Defence Minister Brendan Nelson has admitted visiting a strip club when he was younger.

As Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd comes under fire for a night at a strip club in New York four years ago, Dr Nelson has admitted visiting one almost 30 years ago.

"I remember being at one when I was 20, in Adelaide," he told ABC radio in Adelaide.

ben eltham writes …..

Defence Minister Brendan Nelson: shopaholic

When it comes to problem shoppers, one Australian is in a class of his own: our Defence Minister, Dr Brendan Nelson. There aren't too many of us wealthy enough to shell out $6 billion on a whim. Brendan Nelson is. And he's not afraid to slap the plastic down on the spur of the moment.

This week rattus announced the sale of uranium yellowcake to India & that it was also considering sales to Russia.

The rodent solemnly declared that no yellowcake will be sold to India, unless the Indian Government agreed to a set of strict conditions aimed at preventing that uranium from being used in nuclear weapons. Of course the little trickster ignored the obvious fact that India’s current uranium supplies would be able to be redirected into its nuclear weapons programs, as they are replaced with uranium from Australia.

‘Someday, we will undoubtedly discover that, in the term "surge" - as in the President's "surge" plan (or "new way forward") announced to the nation in January - was the urge to avoid the language (and experience) of the Vietnam era.

Wall St up and down as Aust dollar slumps …..

It has been another testing night on global financial markets.

Stock prices on Wall Street have slumped, then recovered, while the Australian dollar has been subjected to another drubbing.

Wall St Up & Down As Aust Dollar Slumps