The Sunday Times - Britain July 10, 2005 UK in talks to hand Iraq role to Australia Michael Smith BRITAIN is negotiating with Australia to hand over military command of southern Iraq to free up British troops for redeployment to the front line in Afghanistan. An announcement is expected within weeks that several thousand British soldiers are to be sent to Afghanistan. The prospect of Australia taking command at the Basra headquarters will be a key item in talks that John Howard, the Australian prime minister, will be holding next weekend with Tony Blair and President George W Bush.

[Extract from ‘Underground’, by Haruki Murakami, pages 197-203.]

2 Why Did I Look Away from the Aum Cult?

What alternative is there to the media's "Us" versus "Them"? The danger is that if it is used to prop up this "righteous" position of "ours" all we will see from now on are ever more exacting and minute analyses of the "dirty" distortions in "their" thinking. Without some flexibility in our definitions we'll remain forever stuck with the same old knee-jerk reactions, or worse, slide into complete apathy.

This takes the cake at eliminating dissent.

I have battled with this word for months now, and I still can’t understand, why it is so much used in a negative way in the media.

Maybe one of you people can help.

For me a Surgeon is someone who performs delicate procedures (like operations) to save human life, which is threatened by disease.

So an Insurgeon to me is someone who has even greater knowledge of the procedures to get rid of disease, for the simple reason s/he is ‘in’ (in my youth the word ‘in’ meant ‘up-to-date’ or ‘popular’).

On this day the most representative house in the federal parliament lost three great members. I would especially like to take this opportunity to thank Senator Aiden Ridgeway for his efforts in relation to Aboriginal issues. I would also like to thank John Cherry for being a tireless advocate for regional Australia. I also thank Brian Greig for his efforts to make Australia more equal in terms of recognition of same sex relationships.

Without these fine individuals we not sink into the political equivilant of what Winston Churchill described as "A new Dark Age".

New US move to spoil climate accord

Mark Townsend in New York
Sunday June 19, 2005
The Observer

Extraordinary efforts by the White House to scupper Britain's attempts to tackle global warming have been revealed in leaked US government documents obtained by The Observer.

These papers - part of the Bush administration's submission to the G8 action plan for Gleneagles next month - show how the United States, over the past two months, has been secretly undermining Tony Blair's proposals to tackle climate change.

Hey all,

This item in the Courier Mail grabbed my attention, a story about :

"Mehidi Mohammadi, 34, a Canadian national born in Iran, was alleged to have joined sailors Daniel Christopher Maio, 36, and Andrew Lester Labanon, 39, to bring the drugs into Australia using the warship USS Boxer."

It started me thinking about the true motives for the US military aggression world wide. What were they really looking for in Iraq? Was it WMD or something else?

Hey all,

Speaking of bad policy. And about the dead and dying. The ALP seems to have no idea at all. Either on policy or talent. 

Beazley expresses "full confidence" in Swan.

Hey all, more turncoats are rumoured in the news. Barnaby Joyce, Senator elect from Queensland, said he could not support unfair dismissal provisions that extend exemptions from the law from firms with 20 employees to those with 100.

Also Queensland State Opposition Leader Lawrence Springborg has publicly criticised Prime Minister John Howard's industrial relations reforms.

Although his reasons for his opposition are rather different:

A couple of items, again in the Courier Mail this morning highlight more the plight of most Australians under Howard.

St Vinnies says poor are losing. Link : http://www.couriermail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,15445423%255E953,00.html

Interest rates forecast to rise to 9% by the end of 2006. Link : http://www.couriermail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,15445991%255E953,00.html

Hey all, I heard an item on this mornings news which I didn't believe, so I looked up the papers online and found the story in both the Telegraph and the Courier Mail.

Here's the story from the Courier Mail, Private coastal road link mooted.

The Telly link is, Shortcut from Sydney to Brisbane for $50.

Private coastal road link mooted

Extract
A PRIVATE motorway between Sydney and Brisbane with a toll of up to $50 is being investigated by the New South Wales and Federal Governments.

This is from the SMH Heckler column, If Heartlessness is Hip, Count Me Out

Here's an extract:

As in that famous final scene in Invasion of the Bodysnatchers, I feel like I should be running through the middle of the traffic on George Street, screaming, "They're here! They're here!" Only this time it wouldn't be our fellow citizens being taken over by emotionless aliens from outer space we'd need to be alerted to, but the arrival in our society of something much worse. It is the dawning of the cool conservatives, as lovely an oxymoron as you are likely to find. Suddenly it is "cool" not to care.

I seem to surprise myself with what I find. I heard about the IPA's campaign against NGOs. I visited their website and am absolutley surprised at what I saw. Living in a small country town, I was under the impression that rednecks and hard core conservatives hated the environment and academics (going to the "People and Associates" section I was surprised at the alleged academic credentials possessed by some members of the IPA!).

Furthermore I am stunned by what the IPA preaches (It accuses the environmental, women's and labour movements of moral preaching!). I am astonished at the stupidity of the Director of the IPA's environment unit, Dr Jennifer Marohasy. This would have to be an extremist minority view of climate change (The fact that we are living in one of the worst droughts on record ought to be enough evidence itself!) I would shudder to think what the rest of what would have to be described as Howard's elite have to say.

Hi everyone, thank God for the Media Watch program on the ABC for revealing what has been going on with regards to the Bali 9.

It would appear that for the sake of ratings and the ability to get a bit of oneupmanship on the board, Channel 9 journalists have just about condemned the Bali 9 to death by exploiting the financial circumstances and desparation of their families. According to what I have seen on Media Watch Channel 9 have locked the families of some of the accused into exclusive deals in exchange for airfares and "modest accomodation". In doing this they wired up one family and primed them with questions presumably written by Mike Munro and sent them in to question their son. They even have gone to the length of posing as family members to get interviews. Some of the accused have even co-operated with this and in one case turned a visit to a dentist into a chance for a media interview.

As usual I have no clue where to put my intentions since, as you all know, I think it is difficult to navigate this site.

However, I paste it here since it looks like Murdoch does not like Blogs. On the other hand maybe Murdoch just don't like to be edited.

We ignore internet at our peril, Murdoch warns editors

Murdoch speech: full text

Chris Tryhorn, City correspondent

Thursday April 14 2005

The Guardian

Rupert Murdoch has admitted he "didn't do as much as [he] should have" to confront the digital challenges faced by his newspaper business, which owns the Sun, Times and News of the World in the UK as well as titles in the US and Australia.