Panhandling for Freedom

Lobotomies don't come cheap y'know.

Bush plea for cash to rebuild Iraq raises $600

Mark Townsend in Houston
Sunday September 25, 2005
The Observer

An extraordinary appeal to Americans from the Bush administration for money to help pay for the reconstruction of Iraq has raised only $600 (£337), The Observer has learnt. Yet since the appeal was launched earlier this month, donations to rebuild New Orleans have attracted hundreds of millions of dollars.

The public's reluctance to contribute much more than the cost of two iPods to the administration's attempt to offer citizens 'a further stake in building a free and prosperous Iraq' has been seized on by critics as evidence of growing ambivalence over that country.

This coincides with concern over the increasing cost of the war. More than $30 billion has been appropriated for the reconstruction. Initially, America's overseas aid agency, USaid, expected it to cost taxpayers no more than $1.7bn, but it is now asking the public if they want to contribute even more.

The Guardian

After having wasted, stolen or otherwise misappropriated Iraqi money and spending more and more federal money this is lowest, most pathetic ebb of the Bush administration. Behold modern 'conservatism'. Seeing as how we keep being told this war is an undertaking on a par with WWII it would be churlish, though not inaccurate of me to point out that if this was 1941 it might be a good idea to learn how to say, "I didn't pay for this war, please don't shoot me!" in Japanese and German.

UK Fires Iraqi electorate, Picks Replacement

Now how do you say that in Arabic?

British Defense Minister John Reid says he is planning to scrap the 25,000-member police force in southern Iraq and "replace it with a new military-style unit capable of maintaining law and order."

Scotland on Sunday reported that Mr. Reid has ordered a complete "root and branch" review of security in the area, which is under British control, following last week's violent clashes between British troops and the Iraqi police.

Last week's events began when two British soldiers, dressed in Arab clothing, were confronted by Iraqi police in Basra. The soldiers shot and killed an Iraqi policeman during the confrontation. The soldiers' arrest, their subsequent violent rescue by British troops, and the explosive aftermath have sparked a new crisis for Tony Blair's Labour government. As Scotland on Sunday reported, the violence means that Mr. Blair's plans to reduce British troops levels in 2006 will have to be "scrapped." Troop cuts will have to be postponed until 2007 at the earliest.

Christian Science Monitor

Questions like, who will he replace them with and what will the old lot do, immediately spring to mind. Of course there is an instructive precedent for this decision. After invading Iraq the US disbanded the entire Iraqi army, at a time when almost no one had a job. The results of this brilliant stroke have been measured in corpses. I suppose that the Brits are going to replace the legally elected, politically popular Basra local authority with the relatives of the men they currently have issue with, or how about getting some local auxillaries to help out? Maybe some aircraft, mustard gas bombs, it'll be just like old times.

The language of colonialism never changes. One moment they're our democratically elected friends, the next we can replace them at will should they insist on quaintly requiring that we submit to their laws. Again, there are about 5,000 British troops in the Basra area, any trouble will become Dubya's problem too, and he's pretty much all out of love when it comes to Iraq. The Brits are playing a dangerous game, perhaps motivated by their conviction that Iran is controlling resistance to their occupation. When they show Basrans an iron fist, who will they look to for help? Their closest neighbours and the ones with which they already have many ties, Iran. The Brits will make real what they already fear, and then what? Action against Iran? Border raids? This pattern of escalation is alarming, one can only hope that the twits that went into Iraq at least have the brains to contain the disaster in one country.

Sandwich Politics

Is this what you pay taxes for?

Imagine you live in a house with several other people. It's a crummy house so one day you all decide to paint it, you get together, chip in and hire a painter, leaving for the afternoon after paying him. When you get back you discover that the painter hasn't painted the entire house, the bits he did do are the wrong colour and he demolished the porch because he thought it'd look better that way. Not to worry though, he's still got enough of your money to give you back enough for a sandwich, and he's got a mate who does porch repairs at cost.

Who'd stand for that? Well about 20 million people it seems. The Federal govt. has run a surplus of $13.6 billion * ($13,600,000,000) at a time when our hospitals and schools are a creaking shambles and we face skills shortage and a lack of government investment in national infrastructure. That's your money, you paid it expecting to get a service in return, not a subway sandwich a week tax cut. A few dollars extra a week won't buy you a place in a hospital queue or permanent buildings for your kid's public school. The government takes your money, doesn't do what you expect and then tells you to go pay a third party to provide what you need while it sits on a big pile of your cash. Then it tosses back a few dollars a week and as a nation we go, 'Ooooooh, shiiiiny!' and forget what we were talking about.

*This figure may be closer to $10 billion, depending on whom you ask.

Does Torture Work?

Haj Ali Al-Qaisi, guest of United States Government in Iraq.

"'My problems with the Americans began when I tried to fix up a piece of land as a playground for the children. This was precisely the place where the Americans brought rubble from the airport - and among the stuff we found there were body parts and porn magazines.' A local doctor noted that many people injured themselves when searching through the rubbish for things they could use. 'I used to think that American denocracy was like a giant playground.', says Ali, and laughs. 'Instead, we got a garbage dump with chemicals, body parts and pornographic magazines.' As the village elder, he complained to the local council. 'That was where the problems began.' ...

[He describes how we was interrogated in the toilets of Abu Graibh.]

'The first question was "Are you a Sunni or a Shiite?"' Ali was surprised: 'That was the first time I had ever heard such a question. Even in the [Islamic] Law of Personal Status, it used to be the case that one's religious affiliation was considered irrelevant.'

[Various Nazi-like beatings, humilations and tortures are described.]

Later, I heard that it was all part of an operation entitled "Iron Horse", which involved arresting influential people and trying to compel them to work for the occupying forces.'

After three days, Ali was brought to a foreigner, who offered to let him go free if he would work for the occupiers. 'I said I had no comment to make. The whole time, I could hear screams, from men, women and children. Every soldier that passed by me hit me in the face.'

[...]

One of the prisoners asked a female soldier, 'Why are you humiliating us like this?' She replied: 'Those are our orders.'

[...]




















Lyndie England with an unknown Iraqi victim

Haj Ali was not the only person to be mistreated like this. 'The Imam of the biggest mosque in Falluja was 75 years old', says Haj Ali. 'They didn't just strip him naked and drag him around the floor; they also put women's underclothing on him.

An unknown Iraqi chained to a bed, forced to wear ladies' underwear over his face

They forced another prisoner to urinate on a photo of his own father. And they raped another Iman.'

'In reality, these prisons are training camps for the resistance', says Haj Ali, 'because 90% of the prisoners are innocent; but after these experiences....'"

Article translated from German by a commenter on Lenin's Tomb.

Which Side Are We On Again?

Ted Rall

Good question, perhaps even more relevant as it comes to light that British soldiers attacked the duly elected authorities in Basra to free "undercover soldiers" (spies who under the Geneva Convention can be shot out of hand) who were apprehended dressed as Arabs after firing on and killing a policeman who approached them. They were subsequently arrested at which point the Brits sent in a mechaninsed infantry platoon or two to free them by destroying the prison
















(freeing 150 criminals, some of whom were no doubt involved in planting bombs and other malarkey). Despite what you hear on the news, the two out of uniform soldiers were arrested by the duly elected civil authority in Basra and held in accordance with the law. In that part of the world they get a little jumpy when people dressed in disguises roll up in a car full of explosives and weapons and fire on the police.
























A grab from footage released on September 20, 2005 shows weapons which Iraqi police said were confiscated from two undercover British soldiers after their arrest in Basra, southern Iraq, September 19, 2005. (Al-Iraqiya via Reuters television/Reuters)

There are barely 5,000 British combat troops in Iraq. They're soon to have an exciting time thanks to whoever ordered this idiotic operation.




















A British soldier jumps from a burning tank which was set ablaze after a shooting incident in the southern Iraqi city of Basra September 19, 2005. Angry crowds attacked a British tank with petrol bombs and rocks in Basra on Monday after Iraqi authorities said they had detained two British undercover soldiers in the southern city for firing on police. Two Iraqis were killed in the violence, an Interior Ministry official said. REUTERS/Atef Hassan


At the very least the last thing they need is to confirm every conspiracy theory in Iraq. The pool of resistance fighters probably just doubled.

Minister for Ideological Purity

"Today, learning is too important to be left to students.
They have neither the time, the training, nor the inclination
for strategic thought. I can no longer sit back and allow
Communist infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist
subversion and the international Communist conspiracy to
sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids."

Dear Dr Nelson

I am somewhat at a loss when it comes to understanding your various plans for higher education. While I have no problem with bearing the costs of my educational choices it seems to me somewhat, incongruous and confusing, shall we say, that while I am willing to pay back the taxpayer at some point you on the other hand are unwilling to set an example and put your money where your mouth is, ideologically.

What do I mean? Wouldn't it end the debate over how much university students should pay if you took the bold step of calculating the amount of money you owed, at current HECS rates of course, and then paid it back in full? You could even donate it to the university of your choice. Just think of what a PR coup my proposal would be, none would dare to call you a hypocrite, words like, bold, visionary and courageous would forever hasten after your name. In a single stroke you would repudiate the legacy of Gough Whitlam, the quasi-dictator who foisted such usury upon you, and stand righteous in the face of any, now feeble, criticism.

Perhaps you could forward my proposal to your colleagues in parliament who also were educationally oppressed by Whitlam, deprived of market choices that should have been rightfully theirs. What a capital use for your $85 a week pay rise. If you used only that to pay back your degree, currently worth around $100,000, it'd only take you 22 years. Think of it as 22 years to political Valhalla. It is said that a journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step, or in your case, the first of 1,176 weekly payments. I look forward to seeing you embark on your momentous journey. I give you my word sir, none will cheer louder than I once you complete it.

Yours sincerely

A tip of the helmet to the General

Hayseed Socialists

Australische Nationale Landwirtschaftliche Sozialistische Partei

Nats raise ante on student unionism

By Stephanie Peatling and AAP
September 19, 2005

Voluntary student unionism is looming as the next internal battle for the Coalition after the National Party's governing body voted to pursue a rescue package to ensure services and amenities on regional campuses are not forced to close.

National Party senators and MPs are continuing talks with the Education Minister, Brendan Nelson, who has refused to temper his position on abolishing compulsory student unionism by offering any hint that universities would be compensated for a loss of income.

At a meeting of the party's federal council at the weekend, members declared their "full and unequivocal support for the concept of voluntary student unionism" but called for "an alternative funding mechanism" comparable with the money now raised by union fees to "maintain the level of services and the provision of facilities on university campuses".

SMH

Translation: "We want to fuck over students in cities who've been subsidising us, but we'd like to make sure we're ok first."

Pack of whining, shiftless, forever dependent mongrels. I thought country people were supposed to be rugged and self sufficient. All you ever see is National Party voters witht their hands out demanding someone foot the bill to maintain the lifestyle they think they deserve while constantly voting to bite the hand that feeds it.

We have to pay to maintain their telecommunications, even though they voted for Telstra's sale. We have to pay to hunt the world for immigrants of an acceptable colour to prop up their dying communities, even though they voted for the stupidest set of immigration laws imaginable. We have to restrict our water use so farmers can pour it into the desert in an orgy of profligate waste to produce crops several times more expensive to the consumer than imports, despite the fact that they don't even pay market rates for the water they use. Now we'll have to pay to keep rural uni services going so that smug young Libs and Nats can tell us how rugged and self sufficient their campuses are. Bunch of fucking communists.

"Only now, at the end, do you understand."

The colour of success

``These spikes of violence are predictable around certain critical events that highlight the progress of democracy,'' said Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, the chief American military spokesman.

``Remember, democracy equals failure for the insurgency. So there has to be heightened awareness now as we work our way toward the referendum'' on Oct. 15, he said. ``That's power, that's movement toward democracy.''

Guardian

We have come to the endgame in Iraq. Our Freedom (TM) project has resulted in an Islamic Republic and her neighbours are positioning themselves for the aftermath. Reality has mugged the Bush administration. Even Bill O'reilly is asking difficult questions. Hurricane Katrina will be remembered as the fork in the road where America chose between disaster and painful recovery.

Of course for those of us who predicted that this would never succeed there is only more sadness at being right, coming at the cost of untold thousands of dead and probably irriversible changes to our way of life. Besides, we're only at the turning point. Bitter pro-war dead-enders still seethe in their enclaves, they are doomed, yes, but some will fight to the bitter end rather than quietly slink away. Something tells me that plenty more pain and dying lies in store.

Fuck the IMF*

"Thanks to the IMF I have a rewarding career bartering cardboard for food instead of going to university. Thanks IMF!"

IMF praises economy, workplace changes

By Jessica Irvine
September 14, 2005

The International Monetary Fund has weighed into Australia's politically charged industrial relations debate, throwing its support behind the Federal Government's reforms in a move that has angered unions.

Issuing a glowing report on the state of the economy, the organisation praised the Government's welfare-to-work changes, particularly moves to boost the workforce participation of Australians aged 55 to 64, which the IMF described as "middling" by international standards.

The Treasurer, Peter Costello, seized on the support to bolster the Government's case for further economic reform. "The point of all of this is that we must keep the reform process going, if we want to stay near the front of the pack as one of the lead economies of the developed world," he said.

But a spokesman for the Australian Council of Trade Unions, George Wright, said the IMF was not in a position to advise on Australian working conditions.

"Peter Costello would be better advised to listen to the Australian people on workplace issues rather than a distant and out-of-touch international agency," he said.

The IMF found that, despite improvements, Australia still ranks ninth out of OECD countries in terms of GDP income per person. "Even with the gains made in the past 14 years, per capita incomes remain some 20 per cent below those in the United States, with only part of this gap accounted for by the effects of Australia's remoteness on productivity," the report said.

Pointing to the "relatively high" minimum wage enjoyed by Australians - at 60 per cent of median full-time male earnings - the economic watchdog nominated this as an area for reform.

SMH

Wow, you mean the 15% of Americans who don't have access to healthcare, who pay several times what we do for medicine and routinely die of treatable illnesses because they don't have money to pay for treatment up front? The Americans who work for $6 and less an hour, the Americans who have inadequate health care coverage? No thanks, I'll stick to our 'low' per capita incomes, whatever that means. If I was in an elevator with Bill Gates our per capita incomes would be $4 billion a year, of course it wouldn't mean shit to me, just as a high per capita GDP means diddly squat for the poor residents of New Orleans being eaten by dogs, tens of thousands of them scattered across the country, refugees in their own nation, victims of a country obsessed with the bottom line and financial expediency. No thanks. IMF, stick to screwing Argentineans. Assholes.

*Fuck you, I'm not a hippie. There's nothing conservative about throwing away hard won living standards for a short term buck. Who's going to buy all the stuff our retail driven economy sells if we do that huh?

Schadenfreude

Petrol tops consumer worry list

By Matt Wade

September 14, 2005

The price of petrol has forced its way to the top of the list of consumer worries amid warnings that fuel costs have passed a critical economic "stress point".

Soaring petrol prices were rated the highest consumer concern, replacing terrorism, the health system and the environment, a Sensis consumer report found.

Motorists may get some relief at the bowser in the next fortnight. The international price of oil fell $US63.19 on Monday night, compared with the record of above $US70 early last week.

But the Sensis poll of 1500 people found respondents expected to spend even more on transport in the next 12 months.

"Australians now believe high petrol prices aren't just a short-term fluctuation," said the report's author, Christena Singh.

"We will have to wait and see whether this translates into lower levels of consumer confidence and spending behaviour."

The Sensis survey found households with incomes below $35,000 were most likely to report concern over the price of petrol.

The Commonwealth Bank said its petrol stress indicator showed petrol prices had moved well above the "critical value" that would cause economic stress.

SMH

Oil drives confidence to rough ground

By Josh Gordon
Economics Correspondent, Canberra
September 14, 2005

TREASURER Peter Costello has warned that soaring petrol prices will do "no good at all" for the economy as worried consumers pare back spending to repair battered finances.

As the world oil price yesterday edged lower on easing supply concerns, a new survey showed that the high cost of petrol is the No.1 worry for consumers — more significant than concerns about terrorism, the environment or health.

The Sensis consumer report for September says that although the terrorist attacks on London raised concerns about the terrorism threat to Australia, that threat is a long way short of fears about petrol prices.

"The cost of petrol went right to the top of consumers' concerns," report author Christena Sing said. "Unfortunately, Australians are not expecting their concerns about petrol prices to ease in the near future."

Mr Costello warned that high fuel prices would have extensive ramifications for the economy, adding to price pressures, hitting family budgets, and increasing energy and transport costs for retailers and producers.

"Mark my words, it does no good for the Australian economy," he said. "It doesn't help business, it doesn't help the economy, it doesn't help consumers, it doesn't help the consumer price index, it doesn't help other retailers who get squeezed because more of a family's budget goes on petrol."

Families are paying about $50 extra on monthly fuel bills compared with the start of the year.

A report released by Virgin Money estimates that almost 600,000 people switched from being spenders to savers between December 2004 and June 2005.

Virgin Money director Carole Donaghy said the report, based on a Nielsen poll of more than 12,000 people, raised the possibility of a "nasty end" to the recent consumption boom.

WITH AGENCIES

133t h4xx000rzzzz!!11!!

The closest either of them will ever come to a live woman.

This post has nothing to do with politics or anything really. It's vacuous and probably boring, but if you're reading this you're bored as hell anyway so...

I downloaded the demo version of Battlefield 2, a first person shooter in which the focus is on teamwork to capture various objectives etc. I played it offline and I found it to be quite entertaining, good fun, I was having a good time. Suitably fortified I decided to try out the much vaunted online multiplayer aspects of the game, in which you can join teams of other people and deal virtual death and destruction to teams of enemy people. I created an account and logged in. It was a mistake.

I got killed 4 times in about 2 minutes which wasn't unexpected. However I didn't need to be called "faget" after each kill. Onward though, my skills, er sorry, skillz, improved in a short time and before long I was pitching and they were catching, to use an unfortunate metaphor. Instantly things changed. What follows is a rough approximation of what ensued.

ENT Me in a tank, I spot another player and promptly run him over chuckling to myself at his futile attempts to flee.

Irondong (a reasonable approximation of their name, they're all a mix of strength and genitalia):
noob faget!














A reasonable portrait of 'Irondong'


Me: What?

Irondong: f4g3t!!111!

Me: You mean 'faggot' right?

Irondong: Go to bed kid, l4me n00b!

Me: Wait, you're at HOME playing a demo game on the 'net, probably because your mum won't buy it for you, and I'm lame?

I happen to kill him again, quite accidentally, I might add, he was looking the other way, I blundered into him and blazed away, go me.

Irondong: Fuck off n00b!

Me: Are you fucking serious?

Irondong: f4g3t!

Me: Jesus, This is like Counterstrike...

Irondong: i pwn j00 n00b

Me: Didn't I just kill you? Seriously dude, can't we just play the game?

We play, Irondong joins my team and kills me, a big no no. I kill him back, the rest of my team start trying to kill me now, apparently they're friends of Irondong. I quit the game in disgust.

My experience might not generalise but given the number of game servers with names like "1337 h4xxx0rz pwn j000!!" and "v15p01zn--->br1ngz 17 b17ch" I would venture that even as we speak thousands of pimply, 15 year old virgins are sitting in semen stained shorts in their dank, FHM littered rooms living out fantasies of the machismo and power sadly lacking in their lives. I suggest you learn from my experience and avoid them. If you must play this game do so at a LAN party or somewhere else you can bring a UV light to inspect the hands of the people you'll be playing against...

Terrorist attack in UK

Muslim protesters set fire to cars in London

Shia demonstrators shot at police and pelted them with homemade bombs in London some of the worst rioting seen in the UK in recent years.

Trouble flared on Saturday after a contentious parade by Shia fundamentalists near a Sunni neighbourhood on the edge of west London, and quickly spread to other parts of the city and outlying areas, continuing early yesterday.

Heavily armed riot police deployed baton rounds and water cannon after they came under fire from automatic weapons and a rain of blast bombs, petrol bombs and bricks from angry mobs several hundred strong on west London's Edgeware Road and near the flashpoint Short Strand in east London. Cars were hijacked and set alight across the city.

Police said six officers had been wounded in bomb blasts and several others injured, and said the number of casualties was likely to rise significantly.

Two civilians were also injured, one of them with serious gunshot wounds.

"Police officers and soldiers have come under sustained attack. … [from] missiles, petrol bombs, blast bombs, and pipe bombs. They have been shot at," said London Metropolitan Police Chief Constable, Hugh Orde, who largely blamed the Shia Hizb-ut-Allah for the disorder.

"Hizb-ut-Allah … publicly called people on to the streets. I think if you do that you cannot then abdicate responsibility. That is simply not good enough," Mr Orde said in a statement.

The Shia protesters and their supporters had been angered by a decision last week by the UK's independent Parades Commission to re-route their planned march away from a Sunni enclave on the Springfield Road because of objections from residents. Trouble started as they approached the contested section of the march, which had been postponed from earlier in the year.

Every year thousands of Shia fighters, wearing colourful regalia and playing music, engage in "a marching season" to comemmorate the 6th-century defeat in battle of the Shia Hero Hussein by the Sunni Yazid.

Most Sunni in the province regard the marches as an offensive display.

Last week the Ahl al bayt leader said the decision to reroute Saturday's march was the latest in a series of attempts to "erode Shia culture" and deny Shia their rights, and called on its followers to support the parade.

Reuters

I can only assume laws are being investigated to detain such troublemakers indefinately and deport those who refuse to accept British cultural values such as peace and freedom. Some rights may need to be given up to contain the threat, but it's worth it.

Justice

4 Years. Still not caught.


















Beaten in 5 years.

Q: But don't you believe that the threat that bin Laden posed won't truly be eliminated until he is found either dead or alive?

BUSH: Well, as I say, we haven't heard much from him. And I wouldn't necessarily say he's at the center of any command structure. And, again, I don't know where he is. I -- I'll repeat what I said. I truly am not that concerned about him.

George W Bush - March 13, 2002.

Vantanamo

Let them go Amanda, there'll still be enough to eat.

Detainees driven to suicide, say advocates

September 11, 2005 - 4:36PM

Horrific conditions inside the Baxter detention centre in South Australia are driving more detainees to suicide, refugee advocates said today.

A 24-year-old man, believed to be from Zimbabwe, tried to kill himself yesterday by slitting his wrists and throat with broken glass from the door to his cell.

You remember Zimbabwe right?

""Australia calls upon the government of Zimbabwe to immediately halt the operation which continues to inflict suffering on Zimbabwe's most vulnerable people and allow all willing organisations to provide assistance to those in need,"

We care, we care a lot, just so long as we don't actually have to do anything to help.

"These things are very common when people have lost all hope and it makes the conditions very much worse," a Baxter inmate, who did not wish to be identified, told AAP.

The latest incident brings the total number of attempted suicides at Baxter to four in the past fortnight, according to the Rural Australians for Refugees (RAR) advocacy group.

"That's the estimated number of attempted suicides but there could be others we're not aware of," RAR spokeswoman Bernadette Wauchope said.

Ms Wauchope said conditions inside detention centres around Australia, including Baxter, were horrific and there was growing concern about the mental health of detainees.

Pamela Curr, spokeswoman for the Asylum Seekers Resource Centre, said the suicide problem in detention centres in Australia needed urgent attention by the federal government.

"There have been five suicide attempts on the mainland in detention in past week, I think it's a shocking indictment on the system," she said.

"Detainees are so distressed that they're attempting suicide, they see no way out."

Last week, a Bangladeshi man in the Perth detention centre overdosed on 20 tablets, possibly sleeping tablets.

Ms Curr said refugees become depressed after signing for visas then being forced to wait up to five years in detention.

"There needs to be faster processing of visas, people are waiting far too long for approvals," Ms Curr said.

A spokesman for the Immigration Minister, Amanda Vanstone, said moves were underway to get as many people out of detention in Australia as was practical.

However, the spokesman refused to comment about the spate of recent suicides.

The Department of Immigration Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs (DIMIA) today said the man who attempted suicide at Baxter was in a stable condition in Port Augusta hospital.

"The department has a duty of care towards detainees [which] it takes seriously," a DIMIA spokesman said.

Presumably with a straight face.

The man, who was severely depressed, was found unconscious in his cell about 10.30pm (CST) and was still bleeding badly from his wrists when he was taken by ambulance to hospital, Ms Wauchope said.

"There were reports that he attempted to hang himself as well," she said.
"They knew how bad he was, so why wasn't he in hospital - they should've helped him sooner."

The man is believed to be the same person that last month accused a guard of breaking his ankle after standing up for a fellow inmate to protest about the quality of food at Baxter.

AAP

We take suicide very seriously we do. But only if you attempt it after sexually assaulting two women in front of witnesses and directing racist slurs at people and then watch your political career gurgle down the toilet. If you do that then no one'll describe your suicide attempt as "innapropriate behaviour" and imply you're an attention seeker. Fleeing torture or death just won't cut it I'm afraid.

Besides, we've sunk billions of dollars into our desert prisons, we can't stop doing it just because people are killing themselves. I mean it's not like we could be doing other things with that money. Look at it from the point of view of John Voter. He may not have actually seen an illegal immigrant in his life, but that doesn't mean the potential threat of 1000 foreigners isn't so great that he'll be willing to exchange cheaper healthcare or better schools for a pointless solution to a non existent threat. It makes him feel better. Then when we let them in, as we do with 98% of people in detention anyway, it'll all have been worth it.

United States of Nepotism

“In any future administrations, I challenge you as members of Congress to never let a director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency be appointed and confirmed without having the background of emergency management and that experience.” -Bill Clinton























Michael D Brown

When Brown left the iaha four years ago, he was, among other things, a failed former lawyer--a man with a 20-year-old degree from a semi-accredited law school who hadn't attempted to practice law in a serious way in nearly 15 years and who had just been forced out of his job in the wake of charges of impropriety. At this point in his life, returning to his long-abandoned legal career would have been very difficult in the competitive Colorado legal market. Yet, within months of leaving the IAHA , he was handed one of the top legal positions in the entire federal government: general counsel for a major federal agency. A year later, he was made its number-two official, and, a year after that, Bush appointed him director of FEMA.

It's bad enough when attorneys are named to government jobs for which their careers, no matter how distinguished, don't qualify them. But Brown wasn't a distinguished lawyer: He was hardly a lawyer at all. When he left the IAHA , he was a 47-year-old with a very thin resume and no job. Yet he was also what's known in the Mafia as a "connected guy." That such a person could end up in one of the federal government's most important positions tells you all you need to know about how the Bush administration works--or, rather, doesn't.

Lou Dubose






















"Who says you can't go far by appointing cronies?"

Somewhere out there a Nigerian cabinet minister is cringing in shame at the bad name Michael Brown has given to cronyism.

Czarina Bush visits Potemkin Village

With thanks to the Daily Show

Few Americans feel that any top official in the agencies responsible for handling emergencies should be dismissed from office -- just 29% say someone should be fired, while 63% disagree.

Gallup Poll

Firefighters say they want to brave the heat, the debris-littered roads, the poisonous cottonmouth snakes and fire ants and travel into pockets of Louisiana where many people have yet to receive emergency aid. But as specific orders began arriving to the firefighters in Atlanta, a team of 50 Monday morning quickly was ushered onto a flight headed for Louisiana. The crew's first assignment: to stand beside President Bush as he tours devastated areas."

Salt Lake City Tribune, September 7, 2005

Fire is now a growing concern. Several blazes have been left to burn themselves out because the city water supply has failed and fire-fighters have no way to reach the scene. Several gas leaks have also been reported.

New Scientist, 05 September 2005

In New Orleans, fires have broken out and gas leaks are numerous. In at least one case, a fire in a building in the central part of the city this afternoon was being fought by New York City firefighters, who are among thousands of emergency personnel from around the nation to volunteer their expertise to a beleaguered city.

New York Times, 07 September 2005

This is apparently the standard of disaster relief TWO THIRDS of Americans are satisfied with.

Communists

"This communism lark isn't so bad when you're the communist, viva la revolucion!"

Communism is bad because the government can take your property whenever it wants. Liberals hate communists for this very reason, they revere property rights. However what they mean is property rights for certain classes of people.

The Northern Territory News has reported that traditional owners might lose their absolute rights to veto development projects on their land, under the proposed reforms to the Aboriginal Land Rights Act.

It said territory and federal governments would be allowed to compulsorily acquire land if traditional owners "unreasonably refused" an application for a private lease.

Senator Brown said he could not believe the government was considering doing this in this day and age.

"I can't think of a greater insult to Australia as a nation than to further deprive the first Australians of their right to make decisions about their land," he told reporters.

AAP

Believe it Bob, evidently communism isn't dead. The only point of difference John Howard and other Marxists have is whose property they're allowed to sieze and give to other people for the 'common good'. Of course one day when the government gives itself the right to take our land and give it to whoever made the biggest campaign donation we'll wish we'd done something about it now.

Vaseline anyone?

"Oh God!.... I really should.... argh! pay attention next election..."

Petrol hikes tougher than rate rises, says Wizard

September 5, 2005 - 4:34PM

The rising cost of petrol is having a bigger impact on household finances than movements in official interest rates, a financial expert says.

A survey commissioned by mortgage financiers Wizard Home Loans showed 82 per cent of Australian home owners said rising fuel costs had hurt their hip pockets more than higher mortgage payments triggered by the interest rate rise in March, Wizard chairman Mark Bouris said.

The survey comes as the Reserve Bank prepares to meet again to consider monetary policy, although most analysts predict the rate will not change from 5.50 per cent.

The March interest rate rise of .25 per cent increased the average monthly mortgage payment by $33 a month or $396 a year, he said.

"Mortgage repayments used to be the major concern for Australian homeowners," Mr Bouris said.

"Now, rising fuel costs hold the title with a massive majority.
"What's more, while half of Australian homeowners think an interest rate cut is not on the cards, meaning no reduction in their mortgage repayments, they still say higher fuel costs will continue to be the biggest drag on family finances."

AAP

So what to do about high oil prices? Let's consult the brains trust.

Oil producers must boost petrol production: Costello

September 5, 2005 - 4:16PM

There was little the government could do to cut soaring petrol prices except pressure oil exporting nations to boost production, Treasurer Peter Costello said today.

Mr Costello, speaking in Jakarta where he was due to meet Indonesian government officials later today, said he would be pushing nations such as Indonesia to boost production as one way of taking pressure off high prices.

He warned high prices were not only a risk to net oil importing nations such as Australia but to exporters themselves because of what might happen to the global economy.

Wait, so oil producers should do themselves out of incredible, and sustainable (medium term) profits, at a time when most of them are just recovering from record low oil prices of the 90s? Sure Peter, we've got the upper hand there. Take Saudi Arabia, please, practically the only thing keeping Al Qaida out of power is massive amounts of government spending, fuelled by increased oil revenue, the idea that the Saudis would make themselves vulnerable to militants, even if they had the extra infrastructure to physically get more oil out of and even if we had the increased refinery capacity to process it, is a laugh.

Mr Costello said he would raise with Indonesia, a member of OPEC, and at meeting of Asia
Pacific finance ministers later this week, the need to boost oil production globally.

"We would like to see those oil exporting countries that can do so lift production," he told reporters.

"We don't think it's in the interest of oil importers, and Australia is a net oil importer, the high prices.

"We don't think long term it's in the interests of the exporter themselves, because what they need is reliable customers to be assured of reliable prices.

Because otherwise we'll get our oil from somewhere else, like MARS!

"I don't think it's in the long term interests to have wild fluctuations in the the world oil price."

Gee Pete, should have thought about that before you turned off the world's fourth largest producer of the black stuff. What's that? You can't burn 'freedom'? That's too bad, now pay the man in the robes.

Mr Costello said high oil prices could affect nations such as China, upon which Australia's economy is increasingly dependant.

He said high oil prices could precipitate a recession, which would be good for no one.

"If the world went into recession then prices would come back down, but we do not want to go into reccssion," Mr Costello said.

AAP

Thanks for looking out for the economic security of the country Peter, really great job. So how about taking this opportunity to subsidise other energy sources, you know, ones we can control the price of, like you already do with coal? Hello? Peter?











I'll come back when you're done negotiating with OPEC.

Apocalypse Then

"Vietnam? Shit dude, I so thought this was Iraq, you uh, got any weed though?"


Time for something non Katrina related. On Sunday Sept 4 US troops 'assaulted' the Northern Iraqi town of Tal Afar for the second time in two years, only to find... no "insurgents"! Imagine that!

"We expected them to fight back more than they did today, especially given some of the neighborhoods we were moving through,"

said Capt. Alan Blackburn, 30, of Mooresville, Ind., commander of Eagle Troop, 2nd Squadron of the Army's 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, presumably before yelling into the desert, "Come out and fight us like the best equipped army in the world!" After that he went back to reading his copy of Guerilla War for Dummies.

Although they didn't make the trip for nothing,

In one of the few pockets of fighting, insurgents fired seven rocket-propelled grenades at U.S. tanks from adjacent buildings in the western neighborhood of Qadisiyah. A U.S. jet destroyed much of the block with a 500-pound satellite-guided bomb, commanders said.

I'm sure the surviving residents will be overjoyed at having their homes demolished for them. Maybe they'll rain flowers and sweets on the next American they see. Oh and they also confiscated some brass knuckles they found in the city, along with a few AKs. Brass knuckles, very deadly in the right hands, some terrorist could punch out a soldier and drag their unconscious body on top of an IED and then blow him up.

Miserable Failure

"I think it's important for me to be thoughtful and sensitive to those who have got something to say. But I think it's also important for me to go on with my life, to keep a balanced life ... I think the people want the president to be in a position to make good, crisp decisions and to stay healthy. And part of my being is to be outside exercising. So I'm mindful of what goes on around me. On the other hand, I'm also mindful that I've got a life to live and will do so."

George W Bush Aug 11 2005






















A victim of executive branch incompetence.

It appears obvious now that the Bush administration has woefully mishandled the preparation and response to the devastation caused in New Orleans by hurricane Katrina. NO is in the midst of a total collapse of law and order. Relief efforts are hampered by breaucratic wrangling and a lack of resources, partly as a result of so many national guardsmen being deployed in Iraq. Days after Katrina killed hundreds if not thousands, people are still living in misery and squalor, armed gangs roam the streets and no one appears to know where help is coming from. Tens of thousands of refugees are being bounced around between neighbouring states and of course they are largely poor and black.

"If we can't respond faster than this to an event we saw coming across the Gulf for days, then why do we think we're prepared to respond to a nuclear or biological attack?" Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Republican.

Republican Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts called the government's response "an embarrassment."

Rep. Mark Foley Republican-Florida, called upon Bush to recall National Guardsmen stationed in Iraq whose homes and families were in the path of Katrina's destruction. The president said there were enough Guard troops for Iraq and recovery efforts.
















New Orleans today

Americans have just had a small taste of life for the average Iraqi. Mercifully most of Katrina's victims have already died, that may not be the case for Iraq. I can only hope that Americans can make the connection and see that the people of New Orleans, like Iraqis, means absolutely nothing to George W Bush. Nothing, not even the deaths of thousands of his countrymen, moved him to cut short his five week vacation. He took days to actually visit New Orleans. Once he got there his first act was to start buck passing. In any other country this would bring down a government.

Steve Gilliard's News Blog is performing an admirable job covering and interpreting unfolding events in the disaster affected areas. I suggest the three people who actually read this blog head over there if you want a fuller picture of what's going on.

Birds of a feather

A younger Pope Panzerfaust I

"I might not have been a Nazi for long
but I sure learned a lot about racism
and accomodating other religions!"

Anti-Muslim writer, Pope meet in secret

By John Hooper in Rome
September 2, 2005

Oriana Fallaci, the controversial Italian journalist and author who is awaiting trial on charges of vilifying Islam, has been granted a secret audience with Pope Benedict.

Fallaci's diatribes against Muslims' persuasions have turned her into a hate figure for the Italian left and a heroine for the anti-immigrant right. The Pope's decision to grant her the privilege of a private meeting came after he appeared to reach out to Muslims on his first trip abroad as pontiff.

Benedict's discussions with Fallaci are bound to fuel concern among liberal Catholics, already dismayed by discussions on Monday between the Pope and leaders of an ultra-conservative group of breakaway Catholics. The Society of St Pius X, whose founder, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, was excommunicated in 1988, rejects many of the progressive initiatives taken by the Second Vatican Council.

One of the society's main objections is that the council opened a dialogue with other religions.

Vatican sources were embarrassed by disclosure of the meeting with Fallaci. The Italian news agency APcom reported that the Pope had received Fallaci on Saturday at his summer residence near Rome.

Castelgandolfo, Pope's summer residence

Matt. 11:7-8; Lk. 7:25 "As they departed, Jesus began to say
to the multitudes concerning John: "What did you go out into the
wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind?" But what did you
go out to see? A man clothed in soft garments?
Indeed those who are gorgeously appareled and live in luxury
are in kings' courts."

Fallaci repeatedly berated the Pope's predecessor for pursuing talks with Muslims. But she has been more positive about the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. However, after the London bombings, she said she had been astonished by his insistence on the need for dialogue. "Do you really think that they can change, mend their ways and give up planting bombs?"

In June, a judge in the northern Italian city of Bergamo ordered that the 76-year-old Fallaci should stand trial next year on charges of slandering Islam in her book The Strength of Reason, one of three polemical works published since the September 11 attacks on the US.

On his first visit to his native Germany since his election, the Pope last month made a point of meeting Muslim officials, addressing them as "my dear Muslim friends".

The Guardian

SMH

Little man, big man

"Thanks for the decades of coups and instability America,
we got a little something for you too..."

CARACAS (AFP) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez offered to send food and fuel to the United States after the powerful Hurricane Katrina pummeled the US south, ravaging US crude production.

"We place at the disposition of the people of the United States in the event of shortages -- we have drinking water, food, we can provide fuel," Chavez told reporters.

Chavez said fuel could be sent to the United States via a Citgo refinery that has not been affected by the hurricane. Citgo is owned by Venezuela's state-owned oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA).

In the Gulf of Mexico, which accounts for a quarter of total US oil output, 92 percent of crude and 83 percent of natural gas production were shut down due to Hurricane Katrina, which slammed Louisiana and Mississippi, according to US government data.

Venezuela is the fourth-largest provider of oil to the United States, supplying some 1.5 million barrels a day.

Last week, Chavez offered discount gasoline to poor Americans suffering from high oil prices and on Sunday offered free eye surgery for Americans without access to health care.

Yahoo News

Venezuela coup linked to Bush team

Specialists in the 'dirty wars' of the Eighties encouraged the plotters who tried to topple President Chavez

Observer Worldview

Ed Vulliamy in New York
Sunday April 21, 2002
The Observer

The failed coup in Venezuela was closely tied to senior officials in the US government, The Observer has established. They have long histories in the 'dirty wars' of the 1980s, and links to death squads working in Central America at that time.

Washington's involvement in the turbulent events that briefly removed left-wing leader Hugo Chavez from power last weekend resurrects fears about US ambitions in the hemisphere.

It also also deepens doubts about policy in the region being made by appointees to the Bush administration, all of whom owe their careers to serving in the dirty wars under President Reagan.

One of them, Elliot Abrams, who gave a nod to the attempted Venezuelan coup, has a conviction for misleading Congress over the infamous Iran-Contra affair.

The Bush administration has tried to distance itself from the coup. It immediately endorsed the new government under businessman Pedro Carmona. But the coup was sent dramatically into reverse after 48 hours.

Now officials at the Organisation of American States and other diplomatic sources, talking to The Observer, assert that the US administration was not only aware the coup was about to take place, but had sanctioned it, presuming it to be destined for success.

The visits by Venezuelans plotting a coup, including Carmona himself, began, say sources, 'several months ago', and continued until weeks before the putsch last weekend. The visitors were received at the White House by the man President George Bush tasked to be his key policy-maker for Latin America, Otto Reich.

Reich is a right-wing Cuban-American who, under Reagan, ran the Office for Public Diplomacy. It reported in theory to the State Department, but Reich was shown by congressional investigations to report directly to Reagan's National Security Aide, Colonel Oliver North, in the White House.

The Observer, links by gam.