Tuesday, November 30, 2004

Pactless

Howard is not signing the ASEAN non-aggression pact.

there's no sign that Canberra is very interested in the bill of rights at the moment, the Howard Government says that we don't need one - icij.


the High Court has decided that the Commonwealth has power under the Australian Constitution to provide for detention of non-citizens regardless of whether the conditions of detention are harsh and inhumane. - Australian Policy Online.


Not hung

Howard still is not signing the ASEAN non-aggression treaty.


"I'm not hung" he said. -smh.


"Not hung" ?


I just checked the news since my morning blog and Howard still is not signing the ASEAN no-aggression deal. There is no way he could've possibly missed my post and how eager I am about this but even if he has missed my morning news bulletin maybe he just tuned in some other how, being a man of the people, to my mood, and how thrilled I am. And that would be why he hasn't signed it yet, since this morning.

Update; Oh damnit. Forgot where I found that picture. Was going to put a link to original but got so excited I mislaid wherever I got it from and the stories moved so fast that there are like a gazillion more google news entries up since I found it. Probably ABC or Reuters or something.

Posted by Hello

Un-Conscience

Mr Howard says there is no danger of Australia being isolated by refusing to sign South-East Asia's non-aggression pact.

"I've got to say until the last few weeks I was not particularly conscious of the existence of this document."

abc

Palm Island

About 200 islanders rioted last Friday after an autopsy report showed Doomadgee, who had been arrested for being drunk, died from "an intra-abdominal haemorrhage caused by a ruptured liver and portal vein". He also had four broken ribs

Reuters


When people get mad to the point of rioting they just lash out at anyone I guess.

But does it look like rioting changed the system. I mean, one guy died in police custody and 18 others wound up in court. That's not changing the system.

"It just got out of control, they started throwing stones ... one man had a huge shifting spanner and smashed the grilles out the front of the police station.

"They threatened to kill us [journalists]. We've just done the bolt, we went to the council chambers and locked ourselves in there."

smh


The journalists left town as soon as they could. The story never ran any further.

If anyone died in police custody in this town again, would the media want to cover it?

Setting a great example

If Howard signed the ASEAN non-aggression treaty, he might at least have some moral high ground.

Angry mobs burnt down buildings and threatened to kill police and media during a riot over a death in custody on troubled Palm Island, off the north Queensland coast.

Up to 300 residents of the Aboriginal community rampaged over the death of local man Cameron Doomadgee, torching the island's police station, lobbing petrol bombs at the police residential barracks and attacking other government-owned buildings.

Palm Island resident Nicky Bull said the situation was worse than during this year's Redfern riots in Sydney.

"The atmosphere is just anger amongst the residents here but it's very, very freaky here at the moment because a lot of those people are not used to seeing our people like this," she told ABC radio.

abc

ASEAN

Howard is still not signing the ASEAN non-aggression pact. Downer has thunk up two reasons for him. Reason one; "Washington might not like it" and

The second reason advanced for not joining up is that the treaty contains a provision for non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries.

The Australian

Monday, November 29, 2004

News flow

News becomes stale so fast. It's really heart rending. I mean, a bunch of people die and the pain is no less significant a week later and yet a week later it's almost untouchable, nobody is going to be blogging it, they'll be blogging the "next big thing".

This morning whales are stranded, rioting Palm Islanders are facing court, craters are quaking, robotic spacecraft are plummeting onto the surfaces of distant moons, Ukrainians will not be moved ... and yet by 11am in the office this morning I'll probably hear someone pipe up from behind their monitor "oh, Yushchenko said such and such" and by then I'll be like (silently to myself) "didn't that happen yesterday?". Then I'll think, well it's a shame really, how fast it all moves, issues swept up one moment and the next left for flotsam.

Saturday, November 27, 2004

Handbag

There is no turning back when you start writing on serviettes and old receipts. I just found this scrawled on Thursdays muffin bag;

It happened, this morning. There I was eating my date and apple nosugar lowfat wholemeal muffin and sipping my breakfast flatwhite voodoo express, listening to canned music, and all of a sudden there were tears in my eyes. I was overcome by it all. By the wrongness of it all. Of war. Not any particular war. Just war in general overall and it's overall general wrongness all of a sudden swept over me. For an instant. Then I finished my coffee.

Maybe I've been reading too many blogs, it's warping me.

Terminology

As defined by Google;

Prisoner of War “POW” refers to a soldier who has been taken by the enemy.

Soldier an enlisted man or woman who serves in an army; "the soldiers stood at attention".

Army a large number of people united for some specific purpose.

Insurgent A person who takes part in an armed rebellion against the constituted authority (especially in the hope of improving conditions).

In summary. Insurgent = member of army = soldier = POW if captured.

Just to run that by again. Insurgent = member of army = soldier = POW if captured.

Just a reminder. (Me, harp on?)

Colour Of Joy

BAGHDAD - Wearing Guantanamo-style orange suits, young Iraqis aged between nine and 18 years sit in Iraq’s sole correction center hoping that the once-a-week permitted visit will bring them the sight of their families through the wire screen.

“I was against it, but the Americans imposed this suit for security reasons. If the detainees escape, they would be easily recognized,” said Wali al-Khafaji, director of the al-Karkh correction center in Baghdad.

“Security detainees”, who are under the US army’s sole custody, have to wear the overalls - which provide a harsh reminder of the uniform worn by detainees at the controversial US military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. A US army spokesman said the US military in Iraq detains 40 minors who fall into this category.


"Security Detainees" ? pfft. Naf marketing spin. To call these kids "Prisoner's Of War" (they are under the US army's sole custody) would mean having to comply with the Geneva Convention. Conveniently for proponents of war naf marketing spliech means the Geneva Convention is breached with clear conscience, by more then just fashion crime.

It's time the UN got it's sh*t together and upgraded it's POW definition. I am so not into locking up nine year olds. Would you trust your prepubescent nine year boy with the US army after Abu Ghraib? (Warning; do not click if not in mood to face).



And why is everybody using my colour out there? Well ok, Buddist monks have been dragging around in chrysanthenum orange and saphron for centuries and it was kind of chic 30 years ago in the seventies. But it's just too weird seeing it on POW overalls (how could anyone escape wearing something so garish) AND on beheading victims AND on the headbands of Ukrainian youth. It is damn spooky. I am thinking about changing my text links to green.

Posted by Hello

Smelling A Rat II

So, how legitimate is this?

With their websites and stickers, their pranks and slogans aimed at banishing widespread fear of a corrupt regime, the democracy guerrillas of the Ukrainian Pora youth movement have already notched up a famous victory - whatever the outcome of the dangerous stand-off in Kiev.

The Guardian

It has been bothering me all week. Is Victor Yushchenko really worth revolting for, in the cold freezing snow. Why is this "popular" uprising prepared to settle for so little. Why is the only alternative to Yanukovich a pro-western candidate. If Yanukovich is "unseated" will this "mass movement" simply wither away, the populace returning to tax paying drudgery under just-another-figurehead?

Where is the real spark of independence here. Why does one have the recurrent sense that corporate marketing is appropriating certain so called "liberal" and "revolutionary" traditions for less then liberal ends. Who really are behind Otpor, Pora, Khmara and Zubr. Are ethics compromised by accepting funds from non-ethical party's for ethical purposes. How come it all looks so slick?

Opportunity knock (Smelling A Rat)

"We cannot accept this result as legitimate because it does not meet an investigation of the numerous and credible reports of fraud and abuse"

Colin Powell on Ukraine election results.


One minute.

Does anyone remember this election (USA). Or this one (AUS). Or this (AFG). How come only pro-East fraudsters get overthrown. I mean, what about the rest of us stomped on proles languishing in the West? When do we get funding and Powell endorsement to overthrow our corrupt fraudsters?

Send in your Powell funding applications ! Now ! Get on to it guys ! Strike while the iron is hot. No point wasting time blogging irony, go saddle that horse and get you's some Powell endorsements, the man is ripe for appropriation. Bet he's had a gutsfull of Bush hanging out with Leeza anyway.

Click for liberal enlucidiation. Just klick the links.

Pftundit

Omg. The survey must be broken. I am a "Pundit-Blogger", apparently. Don't Pundit Bloggers have visitors or something ?





You Are a Pundit Blogger!



Your blog is smart, insightful, and always a quality read.
Truly appreciated by many, surpassed by only a few
.



I did the political persuasion test too and I seem to be a "Liberal for Life" - terminally bleeding heart etc. I guess they don't do an Australian version. Liberal for life over here means Howard voter (ichk).

Wednesday, November 24, 2004

Not getting it - Maroney Abbot & Carr

PREMIER Bob Carr yesterday backed Police Commissioner Ken Moroney's scathing attack on moral standards, declaring: "Respect needs to be taught at home and at a young age".

"there needs to be greater respect for women in our society and respect for each other," Mr Carr said.

The Daily Telegraph


No kidding.

The Daily Telegraph yesterday reported Mr Moroney believed a drop in society's standards had encouraged men to lose "fundamental respect" for women. ...Mr Moroney said parents had to start taking more responsibility for their children's behaviour toward others.


Fine, blame it on the parents again.

"Where that respect factor begins, I believe, is not necessarily in high school -- perhaps it's not even necessarily in primary school -- it begins in the home, in the family"


Well no actually. That respect begins with not treating women like breeding machines. That respect begins with government policy. That respect begins with calling a halt to the tittish mentality that expects women to bloat around nine months pregnant with an unwanted (unable to support because she is a poor single skinflint product of capitalistic modernity) pregnancy just so it can be adopted out to appease Abbott's conscience and be raised to vote for some schtstik like Howard (local reader link) or Howard (offshore reader link) or maybe go off to fight and die in some crap crusade belonging to some futuristic Bush Dynasty. What is the goddamn point of bringing a child into the world with dolt heads like Ken Moroney bloking on about respect. Give me a break.

Anyway, I am making alterations to policy (as introduced here).

Amendment (Population policy); withholding ovaries in protest is strongly recommended. Govt can not have our bloody eggs till politicians damn well get their sh*t together. Stop endorsing war and then perhaps we'll help out with declining fertility rates.

Oh. I have rambled. What I mean to say is, respect for women begins with respecting a women's body. Respect means not dictating what a woman should do with her body. Basically if you're gonna carp on about respect for women you better let her have the right to choose. Otherwise you're gonna look like a two faced lying boob.

And another thing. If Carr is gonna take issue with violence in the home he might want to reconsider endorsing violence at an international level, however subtle those endorsements might be. One wouldn't want to look like a hypocrite. Would one.

Kiev

Interesting political system. Ballot tempered by history of popular uprising. It all seems so very democratic, so very...

peaceful

(Weather conspires to provide peaceful atmospherics for stoic civilians. It's snowing in Kiev now.)


organised

(just heard shifts arranged as snow starts in Kiev square - half of gathered protesters are going home while the other half stay, both halves swapping places in evening).


and divinely augmented.

Once more, this week, the planets from a perfect pentagram. This rare and potent alignment is deeply auspicious.

We all have opportunities now. We all have the ability to make a wish that could actually be granted. We all have something to hope for and some reason to feel that our hope is not entirely in vain.

For you, though, the outlook is exceptionally encouraging. You have spent a large part of your life being intimidated by something you don't completely understand. It is half a memory, half a fear. As you overcome it now, you should start to feel very whole. - Jonathan Cainer (click here).


Picture here.


Tuesday, November 23, 2004

Kiev Revolts Only Hours After Emigre Covers Sydney Commuters !!!

Kiev a sea of orange as opposition masses against government win CNA 1 Hr ago !!!


The Commuters Are Revolting emigre almost 10 hrs ago !!!

Noting uncannily coincidental use of orange banner.

Youth Revoluting !!! Yellow The New Orange !!!

Thousands of Youth gathered !!! Defiantly !!! Yellow banner fluttering !!!

A huge yellow banner of the youth movement Pora (It is Time), which is hoping to follow the example of peaceful revolutions in fellow ex-Soviet Georgia last year and Serbia in 2000, fluttered above the square - news.com

Noting yellow. Suggest exclusive fluttering banner use only. Not very flattering for complexion.

Moscovians Counter Revoluting !!! Red The New Black !!!

Thousands of Moscovians gathered in city square !!! Boris Gryzlov endorses election results !!! Sea of Red !!!

a counter-demonstration, flying Russian flags, was staged in the pro-Moscow Black Sea city of Simferopol, were tens of thousands celebrated Mr Yanukovich's declared victory - news.com.

Noting re-emergence counter-revolutionary fashion staple. Predicting comeback for little red dress.


Kieviens Revoluting !!! Orange The New Black !!!

Thousands of Kieviens gathered in city square !!! City Council denounces election results !!! Sea of Orange !!!

Tens of thousands of Ukrainian protesters have taken over Kiev's central square and turned it into a defiant sea of orange flags to denounce the results of a presidential election. - news.com.


Noting new worldwide colour of change.

Monday, November 22, 2004

The Commuters Are Revolting

Everything and nothing to write about.

Today we (most of NSW in Australia, a whole state almost) had free public transport. All day. Because Rebecca Turner, woman of action, took it upon herself to incite the commuters.

The Premier, Bob Carr, has buckled to commuter anger over Sydney's troubled rail network and agreed to let passengers travel free on Monday, at a cost of $2 million to the Government.

Mr Carr overruled his Transport Services Minister, Michael Costa, and rail chiefs, who had warned that fare evaders would be fined if they followed the lead of the commuter campaigner Rebecca Turner.

Ms Turner, a legal secretary from Beecroft, won support from unions and the public for her proposed "no-pay day" for Monday, which she organised after almost a year of cancelled services and delayed trains - smh.


Actually the whole point isn't really free fares for a day (a few $ hardly makes up for late trains the other 364 days of the year). The point really is how fed up everyone is with cityrail. Anyway, Rebecca Turner organised a no-pay day and it freaked out the premier so much that he instructed all city rail staff to let everyone travel for free. More of an aversion technique I think then actual appeasement. You see, if there is one thing likely to tip the NSW bucket over into unruly civil chaos it is the NSW public transport system. No I really am not joking, at all. Last week angry commuters waiting for a late train barricaded station staff in a (grotty) staffroom where the poor station staff cowered till rescued several hours later.

One inner-city station master revealed that his staff had resorted to shutting themselves inside their offices during peak-hour delays because they were helpless to deal with the constant tirades of disgruntled passengers.

"It's a nightmare," he said. "We're taking a gobful on a daily basis. Some customers have resorted to swinging punches and asking questions later." - smh.


Aei, who would want to work for cityrail. Underpaid, overworked, crappy resources and constantly copping the blame for a skinflint state's public transport budget. Not to mention armed guards patrolling platforms with loaded weapons. No I do not like the guns thing on platforms and no I do not feel safer for it. I like to travel to work without firearms pacing around waitin' for trubble.

Anyway, this is just to give a picture of how potentially inflamed things could have become. Oh, did I mention countless train accidents and ensuing (unsatisfactory) enquiries? Where was I, o yes. How potentially inflamed things could have become. But thankfully didn't. Because Bob Carr even though he is a sellout affluent sham (yeah, sure, Bob's not as bad as John Howard but that's only because Bob isn't prime minister) is astute enough to sense an imminent derailment (civilian patience variety).

How would I describe the public mood today ? (as an independent witness). Just to throw round a few words;

peaceful
sturdy
stolid
air of quiet triumph
mild buthardenedbyexperience skepticism
stoic resignation - as trains arrived on platforms later then ever (left half an hour earlier then usual to catch the early train but may as well have spent the extra time blogging because the train was 25 mins late anyway).

As if a quiet and resolute air of determination pervaded every carriage. A sort of waiting. A sense of small though significant, collective, victory at the beginning of a long and possibly arduous journey. A waiting. To see. Whether the state government can really do anything more then patch and monitor public opinion. A waiting. To see if the mending of trains is tended to as attentively as the mending of poll stats.

13 mill Year Old Remains !!! Apelike Giant !!!

Pierolapithecus catalaunicus !!! The remains of Pierolapithecus catalaunicus, a 13 mill year old tree dwelling apelike giant (or something very similar) are at this very moment being repieced in a miraculous prehistoric reconstruction of prehistory !!!

See partially reconstituted skeleton in full here !!! ( read more here !!!)

Thursday, November 18, 2004

Oh great.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia is working on new nuclear missile systems that other powers do not have in order to protect itself against future security threats, President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday. - abc.


Fantastic. Just fantastic. More here (as at 8.20am Aus eastern standard time). Have to go now. Back later, perhaps.

Tuesday, November 16, 2004

Emigre Predicts Powell Resignation !!! Two Whole (Week) Days Before News Hits News !!!

We are shocked. By our prophetic prowess. Colin Powell has announced resignation. Only days after emigre imagined it.

While certain mainstream media announcers are announcing how unsurprised they are, it is a bloggers duty to call their bluff. Did the ABC predict it on Friday? No. Did the Sydney Morning Herald predict it on Friday? No. Did the Telegraph predict it (stop laughing)? No. Not even the Telegraph. Or CNN or Fox or any other mainstream media news outlet. This is a phenomena bloggers have long been aware of. Our astute media awareness (bloggers) and honed analytic intuition paired with our inexpensive (and accessible and unfettered by ethical journalistic laws of journalism) methods place us in the prime position to exceed major news outlets by not only reporting news AS it happens, but by reporting it BEFORE it happens.

Emigre last Friday;

I am not sure how much longer this guy is gonna last in office.

emigre.

The ABC, today, two (week) days late;

The US State Department says Colin Powell has resigned as Secretary of State.

A senior department official has told the AFP news agency that the 67-year-old former general submitted his resignation to President George W Bush last Friday.

abc


Last Friday ! The very day I posted it. As if intuitively knowing. As if somehow sensing the submission of that very resignation as it passed from the (nearly former) US Secretary of State Colin Powell to the current US President. Perhaps sensing the restless sleep of former (almost) Secretary of US State as he lay in bed turning and prepondering (bearing in mind that geographic location places me 20 to 14 hours ahead of US time zone/s). Oh wait, I predicted at 10.51pm Syd Aus time so that makes it (calculating) ... the exact same moment just before the Secretary of State (US) stepped into the President's (US) office with the "thank-you that will be all" letter !

Was that too much? I have to go and brush my teeth now.

Update; clarifying "two (week) days". In the flush of a successfully blogged pre-news scoop I bestow a generous two day weekend grace upon mainstream hacks. In summary: emigre covered it four whole days including the weekend before Reuters did (but lets them off with two).

Update Update; Not boasting. Bedtime now. Back later (with more intuits).

Friday, November 12, 2004

The Party is over

Why do I stick with blogger ? I dunno. Perhaps I am loyal. Or perhaps it is because of blockers spell check.

American Secretary of State colon Powell said last week's US election gives President Bush a clear mandate to continue what he called an aggressive foreign policy.

In his first newspaper interview since the election, Mr Powell said the President would not alter or curtail his policies overseas.

abc


I am not sure how much longer this guy is gonna last in office. Especially making statements like "aggressive foreign policy".

Nope, the man is not even bothering to apply lingual sweetener. No hint of freedom or liberty or even a meek little slice of equality. It's all "mandates" and "aggressive foreign policy" and inflexibility and not altering and not curtailing. He is fed up. He cannot even be bothered spinning. "This is what you're gonna get and I'm outa here and there's no chocolate sprinkles and fairy bread left" he might as well be saying.

Also, googol is a most excellent and prophetic tool for determining newsworthiness. Just look at those dates. Very quiet for Mr Powell. Only one reference in the last 24 hrs and only six in the last week. Blockers seem hardly more excited.

Sigh of Relief

Thanking goodness we are on the fringes are not amoung the centrist and aristocratic bloodsuckers.

(Thank you).

Reveal



This photograph appeared on the front page of An Australian Newspaper yesterday. Seeing as that Australian Newspaper has overlooked providing imagery with their online version of the article I have help-handed them with this scan, and of course with attribution;

Racism In The Ranks Revealed

AUSTRALIAN soldiers dressed as Ku Klux Klan members to intimidate young black recruits just weeks before they were sent overseas to fight in the name of freedom.

This disturbing photograph obtained by The Daily Telegraph shows Aboriginal and other dark-skinned soldiers forced to sit as white troops in hoods stood menacingly behind them.

The Daily Telegraph can reveal today these "initiation rituals" at Australia's biggest army barracks, which has sent soldiers to campaigns in Iraq and East Timor, have been the subject of a secret investigation.

The white soldiers who masterminded the cruel pranks escaped punishment and in some cases were even promoted.

By LUKE McILVEEN in Canberra November 11, 2004

The Daily Telegraph

Posted by Hello

Weather !!! Northern Lights In South !!!

As Arafat shakes the earth, in death as in life, a spectacular auroral display has been lighting up Australia's night skies. Disturbances (explosions) of electro-magnetic nature on the sun's surface have created a spectacular night time display for Australians. No we have not been able to watch. It has been raining.

spectacular light show is expected to play across Australia's southern skies as a major geomagnetic storm rages above the earth's atmosphere this week. - smh.


As for rain, El Nino is playing up again. Bad news for farmers. Drought years always follow wet ones. There is not much hope really, although CSIRO reports its getting wetter;

While the south-east of Australia has gone through years of drought, new research shows the rest of the country including the centre, is getting wetter.

not really good news because

"The overall trend in rainfall is somewhat coloured by the fact that most people tend to live around those particular regions," (Ian Smith CSIRO) - abc


Ie: it is raining where nobody lives. Well except for today, where it is raining in Sydney. Where everybody lives.

Thursday, November 11, 2004

Remembering

Remembrance Day. Because war is crap.

Live Blogging - Allawi's Relatives Kidnapped

Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's 75-year-old cousin Ghazi Allawi, the cousin's wife and their daughter-in-law were seized near their home in Baghdad on Tuesday, Allawi's spokesman said.

The previously unknown Ansar al-Jihad group said the hostages would die unless Allawi, "head of the Iraqi agents," halted the U.S.-led Falluja offensive and freed prisoners. - reuters.

Allawi's response;

"This is a terrorist act against the Iraqi people" ... " To prevent - all the tourists who have been coming to Iraq"


No I am not kidding. I swear. I am live blogging. I just heard that on the abc (paraphrased). "Tourists".

Lol. Those damn terrorists are responsible for every ill including jeopardising Iraq's burgeoning tourism industry. Everybody knows war is a hot attraction and has been drawing tourists to Iraq like bees to a honey pot. All war-torn tyrannised and imperially colonised populations will testify to the fantastic opportunities tourism provides for the disenfranchised. Just ask the Navaho. Or Cuba. Or half the Former Soviet Eastern Block.

You can make a killing posing with sawn-off kalashnikovs and hocking ex-regime trinketry in the streets. Ever since the wall came down tourists have been pouring into East Berlin's former Stasi headquarters.

Yes, Allawi has really hit the nail on the head. Tourism is surely the way for Iraq's economy to recover. If only those bloody terrorists would stop beheading the cash cow.

Wednesday, November 10, 2004

Juxta position

From my hot news location here, almost 24 hours ahead of the rest of the world, situated on the international date line at an undisclosed latitude, I can confidentially tell you all there is no new news today. Everything is still crap. Fallujah is still crawling with US militia, Arafat is still in a coma, Australia's drought continues (it is raining today actually). There is not really much good news at all. Except for petrol sniffers.

Nope. No new news at all today. the webesphere is probably still divided. All positions dull and tedious and boring as usual. Today, emigre takes the juxta-position.

Lt. Gen. Thomas F. Metz, commander of multinational forces in Iraq, predicted "several more days of tough urban fighting." He said insurgents were "fighting hard, but not to the death.. - washingtonpost.

"fighting hard but not to the death" ? Emigre steps out of the shower and translates; most of Fallujah is empty and US intelligence has boobed up again. Insurgency leaders bailed out days ago. Lingering civilians have died but as always, civilian deaths are unmentionable.

A U.S. federal court has ruled Osama bin Laden's driver was entitled to a hearing to determine whether he is a prisoner of war - cbs.


emigre applies moisturiser

At least 85 civilians have been killed in three days of government air strikes on rebel targets in northern Ivory Coast, rebel leader Guillaume Soro says. - abc.

emigre chooses aubergine over black from the sock drawer

"We will see what happens in the days ahead, but our commitment to the two-state solution on the basis of the road map ... remains intact." - abc (Colin Powell on Arafat).


emigre sips her coffee and reviews Hobbit development.

Tuesday, November 09, 2004

Remembering Today

Morning radio/link trawl. What I dragged myself out of bed to diarise;

Fallujah is having the stuffing belted out of it. Am listening to gunfire from other side of world via radio as we spea- , as i write. Rumours have been circulating in the press for weeks about this one. Today the "offensive" has been launched. Gee wow. I am in awe.

NEAR FALLUJAH, Iraq -- Thousands of U.S. troops, backed by armor and a stunning air barrage, attacked the toughest strongholds of Sunni insurgents in Fallujah on Monday... - newsday.com


"NEAR FALLUJAH". What is that ? Security regulations playing up again ? Like Fallujah's fate hasn't been leaked all over the news for the last few weeks already. We all know what is wrong with War but what is wrong with being more specific ?

And also, it's Kristallnacht remembrance day today. How ironically appropriate.

On November 9, 1938, the Nazis unleashed a wave of pogroms against Germany's Jews. In the space of a few hours, thousands of synagogues and Jewish businesses and homes were damaged or destroyed. This event came to be called Kristallnacht ("Night of Broken Glass") for the shattered store windowpanes that carpeted German streets. The pretext for this violence was the November 7 assassination of a German diplomat in Paris, Ernst vom Rath, by Herschel Grynszpan, a Jewish teenager whose parents, along with 17,000 other Polish Jews, had been recently expelled from the Reich.

UPDATE; "NEAR AUSTRALIA". Ghetto's in Nauru, and there is money to be made from them.

Keke says it provides cash flow on the island, economic activity, and job opportunities


I guess we won't be seeing an end to concentration camps in the pacific any time soon then, seeing as they are such lucrative opportunities.

UPDATE UPDATE; 15th anniversary of Berlin Wall fall today.

Monday, November 08, 2004

Policy

Ok. Right. Well. If I'm gonna get political I might as well get some policies of my own. I mean, tis all very well banging away on me letter buttons here crapping on about those incompetent boys up in parliament house but there comes a time, sometime after one has thrown up ones arms in dismay, when one tosses the whole towel in the ring. I mean, there are no policies out there that really do it for me. So it's high time I got some policies of me own. I've never really had policies before. In fact I'm one of those swinging voters actually, who doesn't even really have a political party let alone a policy. But anyway. Does it matter. Let's just get on with it shall we.

Policies

1. Population Policy. Contraception and the right to choose is all cool and everything but Peacelovers !!! Wake up !!! You are turning yourselves into a dead end sterile extinct demographic !!! And meanwhile all the straights are going at it like the clappers, producing little rightwing voters. You gotta have kids. And you gotta have at least three each. Maybe four. One spare, for backup. Besides, they're kinda cute those little extra backup ones. And also, there's some peacelovers who's better designed to be great alternative aunts/uncles if you get my drift. You lovin' couples are gonna have t' factor in a couple extra for them. Remember, an anklebiter today is a green voter tomor- in 18 years time.

2. Rural Policy. War is all crap and everything but seeing as our leaders seem hell bent on it we're just gonna have to come up with some kinda reality plan to deal with it. Here is the plan. Move to the countryside. Naw, not the burbs. I mean real open country. Cities are crap during war. You know what i mean, that kinda sitting duck feeling. Besides, if you gonna start creating a tribe you gotta have lotsa good clean country livin' fresh air for 'em. Look. It's fine really. You can set up some cafes and stuff and still get your cap's and macchiato's. It'll be groovy. You'll love it, I promise. And no the farmers won't mind, much, you'll be bringing extra $ into the rural economy so that's all cool too. You could probably even afford a house out there. Cool hey.

Right. Well two is enough policies. Don't wanna get carried away or anything. Have to go shower. Back later.

Pissimism

Howard is still prime minister, Bush is still president, Arafat is on life supprot, Iraq is having a civil emrengecy, bloggers are giving up in disparation...

Just lsiten to this; (from The Iraq War Was Wrong Blog)

I can't explain it.

I don't know why.

It's wierd.

I can even pinpoint when it happened too. I remember it like it was . It was rather all of the sudden. A feeling of not caring so much about The Iraq War's wrongness washed over me like a spray (ocean). Spontaneously. Inexplicabley. Randomly. I'll tell you exactly when it happened too.

It was right about the (precisely) moment that I heard that Jon Kerry lost the election for the U.s. President of the United States. Yes. Now that I think about it, that's EXACTLY when it was. (Coincidentally)(of course). I just tell you here to give you a frame of time referents for when it happened. (Maybe this will help crack the mysterey)?

At that moment. For whatever reason (which we may never know), at that point the wrongness of the Iraq War (coincidencetlaly) completely lost it's improtance for me. Suddenly and spontaneously it stopped being improtant or relevant or crushial for me to say it and name that wrongness each and every day after day


And from a blogger with 33 links from 23 sources, dozens of comments and no idea how much real traffic because herhis site meter is unplugged.

But really it is REALLY wierd. Even the republicans are sounding miserable. You know, I put it down to election night excess but they've been moping round all week. I mean, you voted for your presnident. Didn't you?

Emergency

Iraq: Allawi Declares State of Emergency; U.S. Readies For Battle

The declaration by Iraqi interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi of a 60-day state of emergency was read out today by his chief spokesman, Thair Hassan al-Naqib, and translated into English by an aide - rferl.


I heard that english translated declaration of emergency early this morning, half awake as I was, on my shoddy cheap old fashioned clock-radio out here on the southern edge of the sticks. At the risk of alluding to the P-word, the stalled effect was one of ventriloquism.

If I let optimism get away on me I might have a bit of a giggle. After several decades of iron fisted despotism, various beltings from various offshore interests and a year or so on the brink of anarchy someone has finally seen fit to declare a state of emergency. I mean, where has this guy been?

Sunday, November 07, 2004

Like choosing between a ...

A woman after my own heart. Jumperless and in mid-rant.

... I'm also tired of Bush's hardcore supporters rubbing it in everyone's face and calling everyone who does not support Bush 100% a liberal. I'm not a liberal and I'm not a conservative. After being caught up in political debates these past few months, I've determined that anyone who classifies themselves liberals or conservatives are sheep. What's the point of calling yourself one or the other? So you can use that as an excuse to not look at the issues and come up with your own decisions?


She goes on

I'm not a huge Kerry supporter, this election seriously was like choosing between a giant douche and a turd sandwich.


And identifies Republican too.


I'm tired, I did not sleep well last night. I really can't wait until all this election crap is over. The more I read Bush supporters gloat, the more tired I get of them. I'm a republican, I was proud of that because republicans seem to have swift answers to problems. Not the case with the war on terror and it's a major let down to watch people try to defend that.


You Republican boys better pull your sox up.

Optimistic

Woo Hoo !!! Long Live President George Bush !!! Way Hey !!! Maiella !!! 100,000 of Iraq's Civilian Population Dead !!! Yipeee !!! Guantanamo Bay Here I Come !!! Yee Haa !!! Long Live Holiday Camps !!! Political Detainees Held Captive In The Australian Desert !!! Faantastick !!!

Now that kind of optimism is just stupid. Besides, you only thought I was being sarcastic. So why am I so optimistic? I mean in the supposed Optimism v Pessimism arena all peacelovers are supposed to wearily loathe and despise war and hang their heads in meek lament for the loss of human life and rights as war machinery grinds a jagged highway through civil liberty and disintegrating constitution, if you even have one. A constitution that is. No, Australia does not have a constitution. This is how come the Australian government can get away with concentration camps for refugees concealed in the outback, decimating the indigenous population and so called new security amendments that allow police to detain and strip search twelve year old children.

Where was I ? Oh yes, war machines grinding a jagged path through law and order in the name of security. And peacelovers hanging their heads in mild protestation. While on the other hand, in the supposed Optimism v Pessimism ring, Optimists clap their hands and wave their flags and chant their cheers and thank heaven that the big guard behind them has a belt with enough amo to fill the teeth of the entire population of some imaginary bad teeth place.

Yet here am I. Optimistic peaceloving champion of fairness and reason. Why am I so damn optimistic? Oh I don't know, perhaps the hoards of disaffected neophytes that have taken to the net in droves makes me happy. What ? Why ?! Well I get invited to election chat room parties where I can specialise in subversive low level infiltration and garnering valuable information for future plotting. Plus other reasons, as best and worst case scenarios;

Worst Case. Disillusioned masses support their favoured politician/s till the end, everything goes horribly wrong (that hasn't already) and I get to merrily crow "I told you so I told you so" from my hell cell between beatings in some holding centre especially for webloggers. Send me to the briar patch !!! Yes !!!

Best Case Scenario. We'll never be able to undo decades of patriarchal brainwashing but a bunch of rowdy Republicans online might just be an unexpected spoke in the wheels. At best it's a good way to distract the straights with cars from getting out too much, that way the streets are free'd up for more barefoot peace marches.

What else have I to be optimistic about ? I don't know. Maybe it's watching the excesses of capitalism crumble into disrepair. Perhaps watching hopeless men in parliament blundering around in the dark trying to grasp public opinion just makes me laugh. Grasp public opinion? Public opinion is a beach, a stretch of shifting sand dunes. Any attempt to measure public opinion is conducted by a hopelessly desperate little man in an uncomfortable suit with damp rolled up trouser cuffs crawling around on the shore buffeted by waves of pop sentiment as he futilely tries to gather grains of sand with a small plastic moulded bucket and faded spade. Is that man with the bucket a politician ? No, the politician is too far away to hear the waves roaring and watch the dunes shifting and to smell the salt. But he still gets to feel the sensation of public opinion slipping thorough his fingers, like sand through a sieve with a mesh too large to catch a grain of it. Oh yes, I am optimistic as I watch that guileless and imminent ship wreck with too much air in its sails pass over the finish line.

Why optimistic? Me ? Oh I don't know why. Maybe I'm just having a good hair day.

Low ranking for Australia in RSF report

Not especially comforting news from Reporters Without Borders.


Australia has ranked dismally in a global index on media freedom released today by Paris-based watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

Australia could only manage 41st position in RSF's third annual index of press freedom, lagging behind some former Eastern bloc nations, including Hungary (28), Czech Republic (19) and Poland (32).


The lowest ranking country being North Korea in 167th place.


The report pointed to the January 2002 arrest of ABC TV reporter Natalie Larkins, who was carted off and charged with trespassing on commonwealth property while trying to report on 300 hunger striking refugees at the Woomera Detention Centre in South Australia.

The report also criticised a number of other attempts by several groups to stifle press freedom.


Kind of worrying really.

Open Letter to Wonkette UPDATE !!!

Re; Quotas

Dearest Wonkette

Skip 15 kids. Revised figures. Bush elected by 3.5 million majority.

Delegate. Fit Kos and Atrios with artificial wombs. We have the technology. Just do it.

Sincerely yours

Emigre


Open Letter To Wonkette.

URGENT See plan.

Dear Wonk'

Must have 15 children.

I don't care how. Five at a time, adopted, cloned, in litters. Just do it.

We will raise funds for baby feed/nappies if you need.

Warmest regards,

Emigre

Plan !!! Cont'd !!!

See maps;

Map 1: Australia political 2004
Map 2: Where Australian Voters Mostly Live
Map 1a: US population distribution
Map 2a: US republican/democrat vote distribution

After protracted analysis and preparation (that is, half a min glance at maps in the paper on Thurs plus three days p*ssing around) I have reached a conclusion.

What do the Australian Liberal party and the US Republican party have in common? I mean apart from barbeques what do they have in common. Allowing pause to review maps and let the implications sink in. Yes. Exactly. Australia's prime minister and America's president have been elected by places where mostly nobody lives. All Australia's biggest population centres and all the US's biggest population centres voted overwhelmingly in favour of opposition parties. Look, peace lovers. There are just too many of you in the cities. You gotta spread out.

The Plan

Everyone who wishes to save the earth from the dark side must go rural and produce children. Yes, peace lovers. It is our only option. We must out breed the neo-cons who have been producing children willy nilly without contraceptives for the best part of two decades and have finally managed to breed enough right-wing voters to set us all back to 1934. There is only one thing for it. The future of our earth is at stake. Go forth and multiply peace lovers !!! And remember the golden rule !!! Four children per couple !!! One for each parent, one to tilt the vote and one spare just in case. Nothing must be left to chance !!! Our future depends on you !!!

Queue in Go West lyrics.

* emigre does not swear, much.

Plan !!! Cont'd !!!

Careful study of US and Australian election results (see maps here and here) reveals a striking similarity in USA and AUS voter distribution.

Non-Australians please note;
Red areas on the Australian map are Labour party electorates, these are the sort-of-good guys who are not really much good at all. In fact I wouldn't vote for them if you paid me to. Blue areas on the Australian map are Liberal party areas. These are the really-very-bad guys who won the election. They lock up asylum seekers and wage war and chop down trees and things. They all, red and blue, have lots of cars and use up lots of oi-er, petroleum. In other words;

Australian Red = US Blue
US Red = Australian Blue.

Oh yes. One other thing. The Liberal party in Australia is not very liberal at all (unless speaking in terms of neo-liberation). The Australian Liberal party is the most conservative mainstream Australian party, apart from a few fringe parties who all the mainstream parties swap preferences with anyway but that's another story.

Confused yet? Yes I know, Australian politics is weird. Whoever is whispering "Orwell" stage left can quit right now, hearing my own thoughts out loud is spooky.

Oh yes, I was going to outline a plan. Will deal with that in the next post...

Next post.

Map 2a



Map 2a: US Republican/Democrat Vote Distribution

Go to plan.

Click here for princeton.edu original.

Posted by Hello

Map 1a



Map 1a: US Population Distribution

Go to Map 2a.

Click here for original princeton.edu map plus data explanation.

Posted by Hello

Blasphemy

Nelson Mandela turning in his grave.

Thomas Jefferson turning in his.

Trotsky rocking the stone above his tomb.

Turf heaving over Ramsay Macdonald.

What is this...
Night of the living dead?
A zombie flick?
Judgement day?
The Resurrection?
End Of The World?

No *sigh*. It is just 2004. Orwell prematurely miscalculated by 20 years.

Olive branch

Open your arms to the love. Have a cuddle.

Prophecy trawling

Again for the third and last time all the kingdoms of christianity and even those of the infidels will tremble for the space of 25 years and there will be more grievous wars and battles and there will be towns, cities, chateaux and all other buildings burnt, desolated and destroyed with a great effusion of virgin blood, the raping of married women and widows and suckling children dashed to peices against the walls of towns and so many other evils that will be committed under the aegis of Satan the infernal Prince that almost the entire world will be found undone and desolate. Before these events many rare birds will cry in the air "Now! Now!" and sometime later will vanish - Nostradamus 1503 - 1566.


Richard Kingsford recalls surveying Australia by air in the 1980s for waterbirds, flying over flocks of ducks, swans and pelicans so thick they were like clouds below the Cessna.

But nearly a quarter of a century since the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service embarked on its annual waterbird count, Dr Kingsford has discovered a terrible truth: the birds are disappearing.

Dr Kingsford, principal research scientist with the NSW Department of Environment and Conservation, said they had not gone elsewhere. They were dead - James Woodford 06/11/ 2004.


Uh-oh.

Friday, November 05, 2004

Very Supe-mhm, Writings On The Wall

Have been hearing the most peculiar rumour. Appears to be a perception that George Bush's election (wouldn't go so far as saying re-election. This is the first time he's been president with an actual apparent majority) has given him a mandate to bomb and blithe his way to world presidency.

Never have I heard such utter tripe. I am going out on a limb. Here, you will hear what no other poll has the gumption to say. George Bush has been elected on one premise alone; "you got us into this, you get us out of it".

Bush has been elected by a vocal, suspicious and perhaps more politicaly aware coven of rantbags then any president has ever been. He has been elected on the margins by swinging and first time voters. He has been elected by a handfull of webloggers who pride themselves on independence and chose their target on a whim. He has been elected by a rural and working population who may not tolerate a pomped up return to excess and foreign venturing while they languish underpaid and overworked with an infrastructure on the point of collapse. He is a president who faces the twinheaded spectre of overblown domestic and foreign policy, not to mention budget. He is a president who presides in a world with more media scrutiny then, I would venture, this world has ever seen. He is a president who has bluffed his way through a campaign with words like "Peace" and "Liberation". His minders have painted themselves into a corner by brewing forward thinking catch phrases such as "Unity" with the incremental obliteration of America's constitution. Should the Bush Administration's rhetoric prove little more then artificially generated wind... one can only imagine the impact on those turbines in the Sou'west when spin outmills itself. Damn, I'll be using extra hair product on the gusty days.

If I were George Bush I would be pissing myself with trepidation because if there is one thing a return to conservatism hails it is an insideous backlash to the contrary. George Bush is a president walking on a knife edge and he doesn't have the smarts to walk it alone. If he slips up, misses an advisors que, gaffs, makes too much money (for himself), spends too much money (other peoples) or affords too much bloodshed he runs the risk of incurring more fired up political wrath then has been seen in almost a century of global excess.

Ha sucker. Got elected did you? Welcome to the beggining of the end.

Thursday, November 04, 2004

Quote Of Week 3

Location; kwtx.com following quote from Kerry "that every vote count and that every vote be counted";

Kerry held off on his concession until aides analyzed uncounted ballots in Ohio.


Aids analyzing uncounted ballots? And I thought blogs were riddled with inaccuracy and speculation.

Quote Of Week 2

Location; deviant rightwing election junkies den (American);

"it's kind of a shame so much money was spent just for things to stay the same"


(or something like that, rest of crowing drowned out details).



Quote Of Week

Location; undisclosed. (Oh ok, seedy bar).

Military Personnel (of undisclosed rank);
so, how to you find what you do ?

Emigre (in only slighted newted disguise);
ok (changing topic) and you ?

Mil Pers;
Crap.

Then something else happened. Not concealing info. Just can't quite remember details.

Acceptance

GWB - thanked too many people. Has he learnt nothing from observing oscar speeches? I mean come on, only just over 50% of the vote went Republican.

Concession

Did/does Kerry propose a clear alternative to war and baseless patriotism? No. He still wakes up in the morning An American, a strange concept for me. I wake up in the morning needing coffee. Then I grope about in the shower without glasses looking for soap. I'm sure waking up in Australia has nothing to do with this. I wake up the same way at almost any latitude.

"I wish I could wrap .... each and everyone of you in my arms... for the next morning, we still wake up, as Americans" - Kerry.

Thankfully I live far away.

Wednesday, November 03, 2004

Winning !!!

I Won !!! I Won !!! I Won !!! Woohoo !!! Wahey !!! Kaloo !!! Kalay !!! $60 bucks in the office sweep !!! Spent it all !!! Wa Haeyy !!! What an election !!! What a campaign !!! It was in the hands of the people !!! What a turn out !!! Yoo Hooo !!! Go Makybe !!! You gave it your all !!! We got the job done !!! Love democracy !!! Fantaastic'a !!!

Australians splurged a record $126 million on the TAB on the Cup, and perhaps as much again through office sweeps and internet betting. And while bookmakers cried poor after Makybe Diva was heavily backed into 5-2 favouritism.


Oh, wait. New info. That was not a ballot form?

Tuesday, November 02, 2004

New Map !!! New Country Discovered !!! Middle Eastern !!!



Forget whole new species !!! Intrepid web explorer has discovered whole new landmass !!! Cradled between The borders of Syria, Turkey, Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Jordan rests an entire landmass which has survived completely beneath the radar !!! Dozens of generations of camel mounted prospectors are astonished by the discovery of this new country in a region hither-too considered thoroughly mapped !!! CPA !!! Raised as it is in pale lime base relief !!! A fourth dimension hovering only millimeters above a khaki landscape !!!

Web explorers say they stumbled across the new area while hunting for the cradle of civilisation and were confounded to find this new entity, CPA, where they had expected to find Iraq !!! The CP of A !!! Long live it !!!

Forgive me, but where the hell is Iraq? Can't see the name on the map any damn where. Help. Can't seem to unstick foot from mouth.

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