Demand a Royal Commission into the Iraq War now.
The Australian media appears to have given up the task of asking Prime Minister John Howard hard questions about the Iraq War. This is regrettable, given that Howard has never provided a credible explanation for why our soldiers went into Iraq, what they are doing there, or how and when they will ever come home. A proper analysis of these questions reveals some hard facts about Australian society, the business of politics, and Australia’s place in the world today.
Why The USA Invaded Iraq Read more »
"It's really nice to be outside of politics so you can refer to people like John Howard as appalling."
Demand a Royal Commission into the Iraq War now.
The Reuters headline says it all: "Fed tone may send food and gasoline prices higher". See? It's not the economic realities that drive the interest rate cut, it's the tone of those who deliver it that's the problem. Talk about shooting the messenger.
The increases in food and fuel costs have triggered protests around the globe. Read more »
You too can become a World Citizen. 
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After more than five years of blood and violence, one stark, unpalatable truth remains: Australian troops invaded Iraq in contravention of international law. In the opinion of many people around the world, our nation therefore remains complicit in an on-going War Crime. Furthermore, reports have suggested that our troops and government officials in Iraq may have been complicit in the torture of captives, and the indiscriminate killing of civilians. If true, these actions are also defined as War Crimes under international laws to which Australia remains a signatory. Read more »
Just remember: we're still (always) the good guys.Demand a Royal Commission into the Iraq War now.
Another utterly disgraceful editorial in the Opposition Orifice today. It takes a cold, cruel heart to blame Hamas for fuel and food shortages in the Gaza Strip. 650,000 people are going hungry. Israel has ignored a Hamas ceasefire offer. This is part of an international media blitz by the Israeli government. Read more »
So now we know who really runs this country. Beijing has wiped its arse with the thin fabric of Australian democracy. Kevin Rudd promised that Chinese security officials would not run with the Olympic torch in Canberra, but they ran anyway. Read more »
... for John McCain:
Mrs. Clinton faces major challenges going forward: her campaign is essentially out of money, with unpaid bills piling up... Read more »
Rudd is making it easier for big foreign corporations like Wal-Mart to buy Australian land. This is supposedly going to "increase competition and drive down food prices". Oh really? Read more »
I got a visit from an Israeli government agent last night. The bastard ignored the intercom, slipped through the security gate, and came right up to my front door while my wife and kids were eating dinner. He was just a scrawny, drug-addled messenger. I told him to piss off. Sure it sounds ridiculous, but that's how things go sometimes, isn't it? Read more »
People have been literally dancing in the streets to celebrate the defeat of the Colorado Party, a "bureaucratic apparatus" which allowed the US-backed military to rule Paraguay for over 60 years. Read more »
I'm always amazed at how often a Big New Idea in politics just happens to be simultaneously canvassed in Washington, London and Canberra. Read more »
In Zimbabwe, voters face a clear choice: Mugabe or Death! Now Hillary Clinton is offering voters the same choice, with adverts featuring Osama Bin Laden. Seriously. Read more »
When I saw this BBC story about how Obama's old classmates used to call him "Barry", I thought that might be a nice antidote to the poisonous US media attacks on his name.
"At that time, here in Indonesia, all the parents pushed their kids: 'You have to become a doctor' or 'You have to become an engineer'," she told me. "But he wrote that he'd like to be a president. So we thought, 'Oh in your dreams!'" Read more »
Rupert's Zionist Crusade continues apace. Newsweek has a 5-page story on Murdoch's looming "war" with the New York Times (which they suggest New York billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg will soon buy, now that he's given up on the GOP nomination). Read more »
Australians are already being swamped with a media storm of opinions and ideas relating to this weekend's 2020 summit. But how do we move on as a nation when we still have not dealt with our recent past? Will anyone in Canberra be discussing John Howard's War Crimes, for example? So we battle on... borne back ceaselessly into the past:
SIX former top executives of wheat exporter AWB will face court in July over their alleged roles in the $126 million Iraqi kickback scandal. Read more »
Peter Hartcher has more details on Rudd's dinner at the Sydney Institute the other night. Apparently the MC, Nick Johnson, chief executive of Barclay's Capital Australia, also mis-introduced Rudd as "Mr Ludd", Was it a play on Luddite? Or was he just pissed?
Yesterday, Nick Johnson said he might have been misunderstood. Read more »
From TPM:
In a speech yesterday, leader of the Israeli opposition, Binyamin Netanyahu, said that Israel faces many problems but that not everything is bleak."We are benefiting from one thing that happened, which is the terror attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and the Americans' battle in Iraq. This changed US public opinion significantly in our favor." Read more »
Another over-hyped media case headed for the dustbin of history:
A former associate of the men, Izzydeen Atik, began giving evidence for the prosecution yesterday.He testified that the alleged leader, Abdul Nacer Benbrika said the 2005 AFL Grand Final was the original target for a terrorist attack. Read more »
East Timor buys boats from China, sparking growing "alarm" in the Murdoch media:
A DFAT spokesman said it had no public comment to make about the deal. But respected defence strategist Paul Dibb said if the patrol boats came armed, it would be a concern for Canberra, which is expected to provide more than $72 million in foreign aid to East Timor this year. Read more »
OMFG is Bush going GREEN? Potus is about to "spell out a strategy for long-term goals for curbing emissions". But don't worry, Timmeh - he's not serious. It's just a tepid response to the threat of legal action against the thoroughly politicised US Environmental Protection agency.Demand a Royal Commission into the Iraq War now.
“Anyone who steals our fortunes, then we must destroy their economy."- Osama Bin Laden, 2002
Demand a Royal Commission into the Iraq War now.
Brought to you by Quadrant and the Murdoch media:
Yes, indigenous Europeans could yet rediscover their Christian faith, make more babies and again cherish their heritage. Yes, they could encourage non-Muslim immigration and acculturate Muslims already living in Europe. Yes, Muslim could accept historic Europe. But not only are such developments not under way, their prospects are dim. In particular, young Muslims are cultivating grievances and nursing ambitions at odds with their neighbours. Read more »
Wouldn't it be nice if the NYT front page was written by Mike Whitney:
The Bush administration has decided to pursue a strategy that is unprecedented in US history. It has decided to continue to prosecute a war that has already been lost morally, strategically, and militarily. But fighting a losing war has its costs. America is much weaker now than it was when Bush first took office in 2000; politically, economically and militarily. Read more »
But Bush doesn't want to know about any potential diplomatic breakthroughs.Demand a Royal Commission into the Iraq War now.
Thanks to a reader for reminding me that Tom Switzer, former Opinion pages editor of The Murdochian, left his job at the end of February 2008 to take up work with... Brendan Nelson's office. Read more »
"The time has come for me to open a new chapter in my life. I will be looking to build a career post-politics in the commercial world." Read more »
AP picks up on the ABC story about those White House torture meetings, noting that the participants "took care to insulate President Bush". Furthermore, the executive meetings synch up with the legal memos:
"If you looked at the timing of the meetings and the memos you'd see a correlation," the former intelligence official said.
In other words, Cheney and Rumsfeld gave the thumbs-up to the CIA, then told their DOJ lackeys to go and make it all legal. Read more »
Demand a Royal Commission into the Iraq War now.
"I have heard cynics who say he’s a very political old monk shuffling around in Gucci shoes." Read more »
Latest news from LA Times:
In the early afternoon, the “first flame bearer left the podium near downtown and, surrounded by security, dashed into a massive pier-side building less than 300 feet away, leaving stunned onlookers shaking their heads,” Los Angeles Times staff writer John Glionna reported today. Read more »
Spare a thought for my good US blogging buddy Winter Patriot, whose wife's best friend has just been murdered. Like WP says, multiply by a million all the grief and agony his family and friends are experiencing right now, and you start to get some idea of what we have done in Iraq. Read more »
Christopher Kin says the USA can’t leave Iraq because it needs the oil. And he expects Teh People to be OK with that:
...the US will not only endeavour to remain in control of Iraqi oil, but will also attempt to seize Iran’s oilfields and that, moreover, the US people will support this in order to preserve their living standard... Read more »
A WTF??? moment in Paris: 
Read more »
Maliki threatens to bar Sadr from vote:
"They no longer have a right to participate in the political process or take part in the upcoming elections unless they end the Mehdi Army."
Does the same rule apply to all political parties and private militia in Iraq? This could be a very quiet election! Or maybe al-Maliki is just trying to scare people off the streets ahead of tomorrow's big anti-US demonstrations? Hmmn? Read more »
And he told me to piss off and die:
President George W Bush's last ever summit with Vladimir Putin ended in failure last night when the Russian president stood firm in his opposition to Washington's controversial missile defence shield.
I would have thought there was a good opportunity here to use the scaling down of NATO as a bargaining tool with Moscow. But what do I know, right?Demand a Royal Commission into the Iraq War now.
Howard' first post-election public speech in Australia will be in front of the QLD Liberals in Brisbane
The Queensland Liberal Party is charging guests up to $250 a head to hear Mr Howard speak at a "testimonial" dinner at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre on April 14."It's getting bigger than Ben Hur. It was supposed to be an intimate thing but we've been inundated (with interest)," Liberal Party deputy state director Peter Epstein said. Read more »
Great stuff, WP. If only I had a few weeks to digest it all! :-)Demand a Royal Commission into the Iraq War now.
Planet J. is not the only Murdoch hack reinventing herself as a close friend of Kev. Today she defends Rudd's demeaning salute to Bush: Read more »
Does this mean no new money/troops for Afghanistan? Or is Dubya just racing back to Crawford for another colonic? From WaPo *:
Enough is enough, it seems. With the NATO summit meetings consistently running two hours over schedule most of the day, President Bush abruptly got up and left the last formal session of the day, not bothering to wait for an official summit photograph of all the leaders. Read more »
Retired US General William Odom calls for a quick withdrawal, ridiculing the idea that Bush is building a democratic nation in Iraq:
I challenge you to press the administration’s witnesses this week to explain this absurdity. Ask them to name a single historical case where power has been aggregated successfully from local strong men to a central government except through bloody violence leading to a single winner, most often a dictator. Read more »
Ever wondered how Islamic fundamentalists came to be labeled "Islamofascists"? Read more »
The first year of Fox TV’s dramatic series 24 came to a conclusion in spring 2002, and the second year of the series began that fall. An inescapable message of the program is that torture works. “We saw it on cable,” Beaver recalled. “People had already seen the first series. It was hugely popular.” Jack Bauer had many friends at Guantánamo, Beaver added. Read more »
Juan Cole looks at various reasons why al-Maliki attacked Basra, but doesn't even mention Cheney's name. Nevertheless he notes:
John McCain said he was surprised that Nuri al-Maliki would abruptly launch an operation against Basra. It seems to me that there are only two possibilities here. Read more »
Iraqi Prime Minister Left Politically Battered And Humbled:
Republican Sen. Read more »
The black posters started cropping up on university campuses early this month. A gagged, wide-eyed youth stares out from the top corner. "Record biased lecturers," the posters scream. "Scan biased textbooks. Report incidents of bias. Education. Not Indoctrination."It sounds like something from George Orwell's 1984. Read more »
Greg Sheridan says it's important we listen to our enemies. Read more »
Ever more disgraceful journamilism from the Murdoch stable:
FOR the second time this month, nuclear-armed submarines from China and India have toyed with an Australian navy frigate, keeping it in their gunsights and "sinking" it regularly as it made its way up the NSW coast. Read more »
It's very sad to see how little real reporting is being done on the current situation. As Joshua Holland and Raed Jarrar say:
The conflict is one that the U.S. media appears incapable of describing in a coherent way.
Joshua and Raed highlight 5 things you need to know. Read more »
So maybe you heard that JP Morgan was buying out Bear Stearns for a miserly $2 a share. And maybe you heard that the figure was later revised upwards to $6 a share. And maybe you even noticed that it's now up to $9.32 a share. Read more »
John Pilger farewells Philip Jones Griffiths:
My favourite was of a large GI in a crowd of busy, opaque Vietnamese faces including a young woman photographed in the act of picking his pocket artfully, elegantly, little finger extended. Read more »
I ask the question after noting that Howard will be addressing the Yorkshire Business Conference in June. Read more »
But Miranda Devine is reduced to taking pot-shots at indigenous museum directors. Read more »
They write letters:
Hey baby. If you’re reading this, then something has happen to me and I am sorry. I promised you I would come back to you, but I guess it was a promise I could not keep. Read more »
”The colonial invasion of Iraq and the ugliest of lies of the lie machine that propagated and justified these barbarous acts will forever remain among the greatest and unpardonable crimes against humanity.” Read more »
I spend a fair bit of time at the local Tip Shop, where goods scavenged by the local contractors (you need a license from Council these days) are on sale for next to nothing. Over the past few years I have bought a canoe, a surf ski, several mirrors, doors and other renovation items, furniture, kids toys, gardening tools, and more. Read more »
But he's still not sure he wants to talk. Well, what would YOU do? As soon as Hicks opens his mouth, certain sections of the media (and possibly the AFP) will come down on him like a ton of bricks. Since Howard has already been dumped, what's the incentive to talk? Read more »
Bruce Haigh is only halfway there:
As a result of John Howard's wilfully selfish desire to use the instruments of state to maintain his hold on power, what was once a reasonably functional Commonwealth Public Serv Read more »
Yesterday's protest could be just the start:
The torch's journey to Beijing is the longest ever, lasting 130 days and covering 137,000 kilometres (85,000 miles) worldwide. Most of it will be on Chinese soil. Read more »
That's my thought for the day.If you find this post useful, why not subscribe to the feed?
Demand a Royal Commission into the Iraq War now.
From a letter to The Guardian, via Antony Lowenstein:
We cannot celebrate the birthday of a state founded on terrorism, massacres and the dispossession of another people from their land. Read more »
Remember Dick Honan, the Manildra CEO who in 2003 secured government subsidies for ethanol production after donating more than $300,000 to the Liberal Party? Alan Ramsey called it "the ultimate in old-fashioned driveway service: $30.86 million of public money in 16 months". Read more »
I mean what sort of loser even reads Mike Whitney:
Jeremiah Wright is 5' 10" of tightly-packed explosives. He may be the best public speaker since Martin Luther King. He is bright, passionate, insightful and erudite. When he speaks, the sparks fly and the ground shakes. Yesterday, when Wright took the podium at the National Press Club, he knew he'd be taken to task no matter what he said. Read more »
Thanks to an anonymous reader for the following email:
Gandhi,Your repeated demands for accountability are not likely to see much response until the next election comes into play. Across government departments, new Rudd appointees are warehousing evidence that may incriminate former Howard ministers (or themselves?) but nothing is going to be announced in a hurry. Read more »
Australia's out-going governor-general Michael Jefferey attended the opening of a war monument in Israel yesterday. The Park of the Australian Soldier in Beersheba is a gift from the Pratt Foundation:
Asked at the end of the military ceremony how he felt, Richard Pratt - who had been thanked many times over by many people - told The Jerusalem Post that he was flattered. Read more »
China Daily covers the torch relay in Japan:
I could spot no Tibetan on the pro-separatist side, which comprised a purely Japanese-speaking community. Aside from the "snow-lion" flags, there were a lot of Japanese right-wing flags and anti-China slogans.When a Chinese youth with a five-star red flag mark painted on his cheek passed by the anti-Chinese protestors, several of them screamed and pounced on the lad, covering him with fists and kicks. Read more »
It appears an Australian soldier has been killed in Afghanistan. And no wonder: things there have been going from bad to worse for a long time. Read more »
Former President Jimmy Carter says Condi Rice is lying, as Walmart starts rationing food.Demand a Royal Commission into the Iraq War now.
From Jacob Hornberger:
Ecuador’s president Rafael Correa may not be long for this world, both in a political sense and in genuine life-or-death sense. He recently fired his defense minister, army chief of intelligence, and commanders of the army, air force, and joint chiefs. Read more »
Why I (Still) Hate John Howard.Demand a Royal Commission into the Iraq War now.
When George W. Bush took office in 2000, oil was $28 per barrel, the euro was $.87 on the dollar, gold was $274 per ounce, and the national debt was $5.9 trillion. Today, oil is a record $114 per barrel, the euro is nudging $1.60 on the dollar, gold is $945 per ounce, and the National Debt is $9 trillion. The country is presently engaged in a $2 trillion war in Iraq with no end in sight. The federal government has expanded over 30% under Bush. Read more »
News Corp closes in on another NYC asset:
For Murdoch, gaining Newsday would allow News Corp to greatly pare down persistent losses at the New York Post, partly by combining back-office and production operations... Read more »
As a liberal voter in QLD i can see the similaraities between nelson and flegg. He does nothing but bore me and bring down the dwindling reputation of the coalition.
Ah! I love the smell of defeat in the evening...Demand a Royal Commission into the Iraq War now.
The US has the world's largest penal population with some 10 per cent of the adult population behind bars.
Can you believe that? One in ten US adults is in jail! That's just absurd. No, it's worse that absurd - it's criminal! How do you boast of having a functioning Democracy when one in ten adults is in jail?Demand a Royal Commission into the Iraq War now.
How's this for an offer you can't refuse:
Last year the US Army granted waivers to allow 511 convicted criminals to join up, almost double the number from the year before.Almost 250 Army and Marine recruits had convictions for burglary while 130 had been charged with drug offences, excluding marijuana. Read more »
It's hard to take the official military figures on suicide seriously, but there are evidently a lot of them. Read more »
Surprise? No mention of the Iraq War in any of the 2020 Summit news items, and the initial report (pdf) only talks of our need to succeed in a global ‘war for talent’. It would appear that this critically important issue was not even discussed, despite the fact that the Security discussions included people like Peter Cosgrove. Read more »
Stephen Smith says our bid for a non-permanent UN seat is at the heart of Australian foreign policy:
"The United Nations is not a perfect institution, but the United Nations and the Security Council remain the premier international institutions so far as international security and peacekeeping are concerned."
Also as far as international law is concerned.Demand a Royal Commission into the Iraq War now.
So much for all that feel-good pro-UN talk and Kyoto back-slapping. Sixty countries just signed a UN document calling for more eco-friendly agricultural production techniques. Australia was one of just four countries which refused to sign, "citing concerns over trade". Read more »
