TIME to CARE - NOW!!

GEo 4, from the United Nations Environment Programme shows we are at crisis point environmentally.
What are we doing this Christmas about it?
selling air conditioners in the southern hemisphere, transporting raw materials around the world using precious oil and pumping greenhouse gases to make disposable products.
IT HAS GOT TO STOP

With 23% of mammals, 12% of birds in extinction danger and 70% of fish stocks in danger...WE ARE IN DANGER

Victorian Govt -enviro disaster

I am starting to realise that the State Government of Victoria Australia are an environmental disaster, making key decisions that are all undermining the environmental integrity of the state and putting at risk key long term sustainability. Witness:

• a 3b dollar desalination plant which will create 60 per cent waste product and 200 kg of greenhouse gas per Victorian
• pipeline to pipe water OUT of the Goulburn Valley, a food basket area into Metro Melbourne
• dredging of Port Philip Bay at high cost with dubious economic return
• construction of a new freeway link Eastlink with no corresponding rail link
• the consideration of $12b of additional roads and road tunnels
• the refusal to invest in additional rail capacity eg no new lines, paltry number of new trains
• failure of 2020 strategy for metropolitan Melbourne
  

Taken alone each decision is environmentally concerning. Combined together they are all evidence of 1950s type solutions which are running roughshod over serious environmental concerns.

Where is the serious responses to peak oil, greenhouse gases, water shortages and food security?

Not from the Brumby Government of Victoria. Sadly not from the opposition either.

Why desalination for Melbourne

According to Wikipedia: Large-scale desalination typically requires large amounts of energy as well as specialized, expensive infrastructure, making it very costly compared to the use of fresh water from rivers or groundwater.

What is Victoria doing? We are spending 3.1 billion on a desalination plant when we are trying to reduce our greenhouse footprint. The plant will produce annually:

• 150 billion litres of water - Thats the good news
• 250 billion litres of brine and salt
• 1 million tonnes of greenhouse gases (200 kg for every man, woman and child in Victoria)
  

It will also cost Victoria between $300 and $500 million years every year for 30 years
... cost to our sea-life?

Alternatives:

1. Make the hard decision that NO drinking water is used on gardens/parks.... only recycled or tank water....saving us at least 80 to 100 billion litres
2. Use one billion dollars to provide 1 million homes with a water tank costing $1000..at current prices. that would allow a capacity of 4.5 billion litres...most tanks are filled and refilled a few times a year...
3. use 500 million dollars to outfit major public buildings** with water tanks, waterless toilets etc
   
4. do something about the 140 billion litres of water used to generate coal fired electricity in Victoria...can we use rainwater? recycled water?
5. every year Melbourne Water pumps 300 billion litres of treated sewage into the sea and 500 billions litres of rain water falls in the metropolitan area***

OPPOSITION VOICE:
GOVERNMENT VOICE:

**Parliament House, Musuem of Victoria, MCG, Spencer St Station (yes I know it has been renamed), Flinders St Station, the various Markets, sports facilities etc etc
***The Nationals

Howard and Bruce: History repeats

In 1929 Australian Prime Minister Stanley Bruce introduced the Maritime Industries Bill - designed to do away with the Conciliation and Arbitration Court and return arbitration powers to the States. The Bill was lost 34 votes to 35 bringing down the government and sending Australians to the polls Labor won a landslide victory and Bruce was defeated in his electorate of Flinders, becoming the first Australian Prime Minister to lose his seat.

In 2005 the Australian Prime Minister John Howard introduced legislation amending the Workplace Relations Act 1996, substantially changing the role of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission, making it harder for workers to strike, making it easier for employers to require their employees to be on individual workplace agreements rather than collective agreements, and by banning clauses from workplace agreements which support unions. Opposed by half the country, it was passed and took effect in March 2006. At the following election, Labor won a landslide victory and Howard was defeated in his electorate of Bennelong becoming the second Australian Prime Minister to lose his seat.

Happy Christmas Howard

It is not considered polite to gloat at the misfortunes of others at key times but I am sure happy that Howard has to move to a new home this Christmas.
John Winston Hoard who told his first lie when he became prime minister : I govern for all Australians has not only lost government but his own seat. He is the second PM to do so (see other post).
What I will miss about JWH:

• core and non core promises
  
• demonising of people when he chose to eg refugee, iraq war detractors, Universities, ABC
  
• refusal to apologise to the nation's first peoples
• selling out Australia for the wishes of the USA
• lies over Iraq (eg documented evidence of WMD, we knew nothing about wheat)
• privatisation of everything we held core: health, education
• voluntary student unionism
• the refusal to live in the nation's capital and the waste of resources for his commute
  
• being PM during a worldwide economic boom and taking credit for it
• the GST
• workchoices
• the baby bonus - result: whole cohort of disfunctional families and high plasma TV sales
  

Adios John Winston Howard and good riddance..may we never hear from you again

Are you a citizen

The new citizenship test has arrived in Australia. ...this blog sums up how I feel about it - take a look.

Who killed the Monks?

Burma has fired on the protestors of Burma, killing monks amongst other people While it is the soldiers who have done this, the junta leaders are behind every trigger that is squeezed. But who else is helping put those shattering bullets into the bodies of civilians? Whoever sold the weapons that are being unholstered by the army. These sellers whether they are Russian, American, French or Japanese have the blood of Buddhist monks on their hands.
In the weapon selling business, the manufacturers can talk about targeted, efficient, strikes etc but at the end of the day who usually gets killed by these guns etc? It is the children, the monks and the protestors. Whether they are in Burma, Africa or Iraq.
In a 21st Century world, it is time to wipe out the manufacture, sale and use of weapons. We surely must have learnt other means of diplomacy by now?

No Kangaroos in Austria, Bush's Bad Day

President Bush’s tongue started slipping almost as soon as he started talking at a business forum on the eve of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit in Sydney.

“Mr Prime Minister, thank you for your introduction,” he told Prime Minister John Howard. “Thank you for being such a fine host for the Opec summit .”

As the audience of several hundred people erupted in laughter , Mr Bush corrected himself and joked, “He invited me to the Opec summit next year.”Australia has never been a member of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. Later in his speech, Mr Bush recounted how Mr Howard had gone to visit “Austrian troops” last year in Iraq. There are, in fact, no Austrian troops there. But Australia has about 1,500 military personnel in and around the country.

from the Economic Times

The GLUGS OF GOSH

This poem written by C.J Dennis. in 1917 has a message for us today. Thinking of our recent deals with China and Russia. Clue: change Glug to Aussies, Splosh to Howard, Tush to Downer and stones to uranium

Now, here is a tale of the Glugs of Gosh,
And a wonderful tale I ween,
Of the Glugs of Gosh and their great King Splosh,
And Tush, his virtuous Queen.
And here is a tale of the crafty Ogs,
In their neighbouring land of Podge;
Of their sayings and doings and plottings and brewings,
And something about Sir Stodge.
Wise to profundity,
Stout to rotundity,
That was the Knight, Sir Stodge.

Oh, the King was rich, and the Queen was fair,
And they made a very respectable pair.
And whenever a Glug in that peaceful land,
Did anything no one could understand,
The Knight, Sir Stodge, he looked in a book,
And charged that Glug with a crime called Crook.
And the great Judge Fudge, who wore for a hat
The sacred skin of a tortoiseshell cat,
He fined that Glug for his action rash,
And frequently asked a deposit in cash.
Then every Glug, he went home to his rest
With his head in a bag and his toes to the West;
For they knew it was best,
Since their grandpas slept with their toes to the West.

But all of the tale that is so far told
Has nothing whatever to do
With the Ogs of Podge, and their crafty dodge,
And the trade in pickles and glue.
To trade with the Glugs came the Ogs to Gosh,
And they said in seductive tones,
"We'll sell you pianers and pickels and spanners
For seventeen shiploads of stones:
Smooth 'uns or nobbly 'uns,
Firm 'uns or wobbly 'uns,
All we ask is stones."

And the King said, "What?" and the Queen said, "Why,
That is awfully cheap to the things I buy!
For that grocer of ours in the light brown hat
Asks two and eleven for pickles like that!"
But a Glug stood up with a wart on his nose,
And cried, "Your Majesties! Ogs is foes!"
But the Glugs cried, "Peace! Will you hold your jaw!
How did out grandpas fashion the law?"
Said the Knight, Sir Stodge, as he opened his Book,
"When the goods were cheap then the goods we took."
So they fined the Glug with the wart on his nose
For wearing a wart with his everyday clothes.
And the goods were brought home thro' a Glug named Ghones;
And the Ogs went home with their loads of stones,
Which they landed with glee in the land of Podge.
Do you notice the dodge?
Not yet did the Glugs, nor the Knight, Sir Stodge.

In the following Summer the Ogs came back
With a cargo of eight-day clocks,
And hand-painted screens, and sewing machines,
And mangles, and scissors, and socks.
And they said, "For these excellent things we bring
We are ready to take more stones;
And in bricks or road-metal
For goods you will settle
Indented by your Mister Ghones."
Cried the Glugs praisingly,
"Why how amazingly
Smart of industrious Ghones!"

And the King said, "Hum," and the Queen said, "Oo!
That curtain! What a bee-ootiful blue!"
But a Glug stood up with some very large ears,
And said, "There is more in this thing than appears!
And we ought to be taxing those goods of the Ogs,
Or our industries soon will be gone to the dogs."
And the King said, "Bosh! You're un-Gluggish and rude!"
And the Queen said, "What an absurd attitude!"
Then the Glugs cried, "Down with political quacks!
How did our grandpas look at a tax?"
So the Knight, Sir Stodge, he opened his Book.
"No tax," said he, "wherever I look."
Then they fined the Glug with the prominent ears
For being old-fashioned by several years;
And the Ogs went home with the stones, full-steam.
Did you notice the scheme?
Nor yet did the Glugs in their dreamiest dreams.

Then every month to the land of the Gosh
The Ogs, they continued to come,
With buttons and hooks, and medical books,
And rotary engines, and rum,
Large cases with labels, occasional tables,
Hair tonic and fiddles and 'phones;
And the Glugs, while concealing their joy in the dealing,
Paid promptly in nothing but stones.
Why, it was screamingly
Laughable, seemingly --
Asking for nothing but stones!

And the King said, "Haw!" and the Queen said, "Oh!
Our drawing-room now is a heavenly show
Of large overmantels, and whatnots, and chairs,
And a statue of Splosh at the head of the stairs!"
But a Glug stood up with a cast in his eye,
And he said, "Far too many baubles we buy;
With all the Gosh factories closing their doors,
And importers' warehouses lining our shores."
But the Glugs cried, "Down with such meddlesome fools!
What did our grandpas lay down in their rules?"
And the Knight, Sir Stodge, he opened his Book:
"To Cheapness," he said, "was the road they took."
Then every Glug who was not too fat
Turned seventeen handsprings, and jumped on his hat.
They fined the Glug with the cast in his eye
For looking both ways - which he did not deny -
And for having no visible precedent, which
Is a crime in the poor and a fault in the rich.

So the Glugs continued, with greed and glee,
To buy cheap clothing, and pills, and tea;
Till every Glug in the land of Gosh
Owned three clean shirts and a fourth in the wash.
But they all grew idle, and fond of ease,
And easy to swindle, and hard to please;
And the voice of Joi was a lonely voice,
When he railed at Gosh for its foolish choice.
But the great King grinned, and the good Queen gushed,
As the goods of the Ogs were madly rushed.
And the Knight, Sir Stodge, with a wave of his hand,
Declared it a happy and prosperous land.

It chanced on day in the beginning of May,
There came to the great King Splosh
A policeman, who said, while scratching his head,
"There isn’t a stone in Gosh. To throw at a dog; for the crafty Og,
Last Saturday week, at one,
took our last blue metal, in order to settle A bill for a toy pop-gun."
Said the King, jokingly, "Why, how provokingly Weird; but we have the gun."
And the King said, "Well we are stony-broke."
But the Queen could not see it was much of a joke.
And she said, "If the metal is all used up,
pray what of the costume I need for the Cup?
It all seems so dreadfully simple to me.
The stones? Why, import them from over the sea."

But a Glug stood up with a mole on his chin,
And said, with a most diabolical grin.
"Your Majesties, down in the county of Podge,
A spy has uncovered a very cute dode.
And the Ogs are determined to wage a war
On Gosh, next Friday at twenty past four."
Then the Glugs all cried, in a terrible fright,
"How did our grandfathers manage a fight?"

Then the Knight, Sir Stodge, he opened his book.
And he read, "Some very large stones they took,
And flung at the foe, with exceeding force;
Which was very effective, tho’ rude of course."
And lo, with sorrowful wails and moans,
The Glugs cried, "Where, Oh, where are the stones?"
And some rushed North, and a few ran West;
Seeking the substitute seeming the best.
And they gathered the pillows and cushions and rugs
From the homes of the rich and the middle-class Glugs.
And a hasty message they managed to send
Craving the loan of some bricks from a friend.

On the Friday, exactly at twenty past four,
Came the Ogs with triumphant glee.
And the first of their stones hit poor mister Ghones,
The captain of industry.
Then a pebble of Podge took the Knight, Sir Stodge,
In the curve of his convex vest.
He gurgled "Un-Gluggish!" His heart growing sluggish,
He solemnly sank to rest.
‘Tis inconceivable, scarcely believable, Yet he was sent to rest.

And the King said, "Ouch!" And the Queen said "Oo!
My bee-ootiful drawing-room! What shall I do?"
But the warlike Ogs, they hurled great rocks
Thru the works of the wonderful eight-day clocks
They had sold to the Glugs but a month before -
Which was very absurd: but, of course, t’was war.
And the Glugs cried, "What would our grandfathers do
if they hadn’t the stones that they one time threw?"
But the Knight, Sir Stodge, and his mystic Book
Oblivious slept in a grave-yard nook.

The a Glug stood out with a pot in his hand,
And he said, "If these Ogs you desire to retard,
Then hit them quite frequent with anything hard."
So the Glugs seized anvils, and editors’ chairs,
And smote the Ogs with them unawares;
And bottles of pickles, and clocks they threw,
And books of poems, and gherkins, and glue,
Which they’d bought with the stones – as, of course, you all know –
From the Ogs but a couple of months ago.
Which was simply inane, when you reason it over,
And un-economic, but then, it was war.

When they’d fought for a night and most of a day,
The Ogs threw the last of their metal away.
Then they went back to Podge, well content with fun,
And with much satisfaction, declared they had won.
And the King of the Glugs gazed around on his land,
And saw nothing but stones strewn on every hand:
Great stones in the palace, and stones in the street,
And stones on the house-tops and under the feet.
And he said, with a desperate look on his face,
"There is nothing so ghastly as stones out of place.
And, no doubt, this Og scheme was a very smart dodge.
But whom does it profit—my people, or Podge?"

Australians now more protected

This weekend, I watched my Australian Rules football team win its Round 21 match. Aussie Rules is a unique game, centred largely in the southern states (Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania and in Western Australia. Its fast, its furious and attracts huge crowds of us.
I watched the last game with a 60 year old Greek born man on my left and a late twenties Italian man on m y right.
We had four things in common:

• we love our team, are proud of it and want the best for it
• we love out sport...aussie rules
• we are very proud of our country: Australia
• none of us have done the new Citizenship test

In order to protect our society, the government today released a 40-page draft guide detailing what it regards as the 10 essential Australian values every aspiring citizen must embrace.

Does it protect us? What a crock!

This new test will only help people who can memorise the answers. It won't stop terrorists sneaking in. How will knowing the colours of the Australian flag build a more cohesive society? How will knowing the animals on the coat of arms, stop people bringing racial conflicts with them?

Look around you Mr Andrews, we are already creating a more cohesive society. Its been happening round you for years. Look at the cross cultural marriages, the faces in our bureacracies and the foods in our supermarkets.

The people who threaten it are the yobs who bash Jews in the streets of Melbourne, threaten veiled Muslim women on the trains of Sydney and chant ching chong chinaman at the Japanese tourists visiting the Gold Coast.

The people who threaten our cohesive society are the Pauline Hansons who call for stopping of Muslim immigrants into Australia and the Howards and Andrews who speak in stereotypes or the Ruddocks who denied some a home.

War and Children

Killing the most innocent, the children, is an sin for which there can be no forgiveness. Koran [6.140]

But Jesus called for them, saying, "Permit the children to come to Me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these"

Buddha: Just as a mother would protect her only child at the risk of her own life, even so, cultivate a boundless heart towards all beings. Let your thoughts of boundless love pervade the whole world.

Iraq Not found..

America's 50 largest cities displaced.....

The Iraqi Red Crescent Organization said that the number of displaced Iraqis shot upward from 447,337 on Jan. 1 to 1.14 million on July 31, 2007. This is in addition to the two million who are refugees in Syria and Jordan. The three million displaced people and refugees represents about 15 per cent of the Iraqi pre-war population of 22,219,289.

If this was Australia and 15 per cent of our 21 million people were displaced, that would be equivalent to the entire population of the state of Tasmania plus the Australian Capital Territory plus the cities of Adelaide and Perth. Or most of the population of Sydney or Melbourne.

According to the U.S. Bureau of the Census, the resident population of the United States is about 302 million. 15 per cent of the US population is 45 million. If 45 million people were displaced or made refugees in the USA, this would be equivalent to the entire population of California plus Oregon plus Nevada plus New Mexico. It is also the same as the population of the top 50 US (see list below) Imagine if all those cities populations were displaced?. This is what has been done to Iraq. When will the US and Australia admit its been a mistake? Read and weep this blog from an Iraqi woman http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/ and this from an Iraqi teen: http://baghdadgirl.blogspot.com/ .

The top 50 US cities, population total = 45 million....

• New York, N.Y.
• Los Angeles, Calif.
• Chicago, Ill.
• Houston, Tex.
• Philadelphia, Pa.
• Phoenix, Ariz.
• San Antonio, Tex.
• San Diego, Calif.
• Dallas, Tex.
• San Jose, Calif.
• Detroit, Mich.
• Indianapolis, Ind.
• Jacksonville, Fla.
• San Francisco, Calif.
• Columbus, Ohio
• Austin, Tex.
• Memphis, Tenn.
• Baltimore, Md.
• Fort Worth, Tex.
• Charlotte, N.C.
• El Paso, Tex.
• Milwaukee, Wis.
• Seattle, Wash.
• Boston, Mass.
• Denver, Colo.
• Louisville-Jefferson County, Ky.1
• Washington, DC
• Nashville-Davidson, Tenn.2
• Las Vegas, Nev.
• Portland, Ore.
• Oklahoma City, Okla.
• Tucson, Ariz.
• Albuquerque, N.M.
• Long Beach, Calif.
• Atlanta, Ga.
• Fresno, Calif.
• Sacramento, Calif.
• New Orleans, La.
• Cleveland, Ohio
• Kansas City, Mo.
• Mesa, Ariz.
• Virginia Beach, Va.
• Omaha, Nebr.
• Oakland, Calif.
• Miami, Fla.
• Tulsa, Okla.
• Honolulu, Hawaii
• Minneapolis, Minn.
• Colorado Springs, Colo.
• Arlington, Tex.

John Howard stands for nothing

"I mean love me or loathe me, people accept that I stand for something" John Winston Howard, ABC's 7.30 Report August 2007

The only thing Howard stands for is his own political survival.

Australia 1984

People often accuse the Prime Minister John Winston Howard of being in the 1950s.I think that there is more in parallel with our society and Orwell's 1984 with increasing: state control, propaganda and a state of perpetual war. Is John Winston Howard our Big Brother?

1. State Control over riding individual rights ...we have seen the Australian Federal Government become more involved in more issues than ever eg childbirth, local government. overturned euthanasia legislation in Northern Territory plus ACT on gay marriage. It has brought in workplace laws that some say eroded worker rights

2. Propaganda as evidenced by:

• The Federal Government spending $100 million a year on advertising making it globally the fifth biggest spender on government ads.
• the government gagging anyone who may criticise them eg Universities and CSIRO
• continual criticism of and control over the National Broadcaster (ABC)
  
• media ownership laws allowing less diverse media ownership (eg of 12 capital city and national daily newspapers, seven are owned by Murdoch's News Corporation and three by Fairfax. Two are officially independent)
  
• dismantling student unionism
  
• Wiki Scanner discovering that John Howard's staff edited entries in the online Wikipedia to remove potentially damaging details.-- boy would they love to work in the Ministry of Truth rewriting history
  

3. A state of perpetual war

PRIME Minister John Howard has warned Australians that the war on terrorism is a never-ending battle that will go on for decades,"Mr Howard said the threat posed by the “menace of Islamic fanaticism” was real, constant and insidious." He warned the nation to wake-up to the reality such “borderless assault” was a global threat to society and the carefree lifestyle that Australians cherish". Sue Neales, The Australian July 14, 2007

Baghdad's water taps running dry

According to Steven Hurst in the Seattle Times, Baghdad has a water shortage, caused by the failed electricity grid that doesn't deliver sufficient power to run purification plants and pumping stations with some parts of the city getting tap water for only one hour a day and an hour of electricity every few days. Large sections in the west of the capital had been virtually dry for six days.(picture from Associated Press)

PREV of NEXT

JOHN HOWARD & Climate change: "Well, it would be less comfortable"

On a Lateline program Broadcast: 05/February/2007 in , the presenter, Tony Jones, was interviwing the Ausyralian Prime Minister on a range of subjects including climate change....

TONY JONES: Prime Minister, what do you think living in Australia would be like by the end of this century for your own grandchildren and for the grandchildren and great grandchildren of others, if the temperatures, the average mean temperatures, around the world do rise by somewhere between four and possibly even more than six degrees celsius?

JOHN HOWARD: Well, it would be less comfortable for some than it is now,...

The PM is determined to ensure that Australians don't "adopt the doomsday scenario. There have been plenty of examples in the past where those sorts of scenarios have been embraced and they haven't been realised"

Mr Prime Minster, there have been plenty of examples where people have not adopted the doomsday scenario and it has been disastorous. Just to be clear.....

• If we get warming of two or three degrees Celsius, then I would expect that both West Antarctica and parts of Greenland would end up in the ocean, and the last time we had an ice sheet disintegrate, sea level went up at a rate of 5 metres in a century, or one metre every 20 years. Dr James Hansen, NASA Scientist
• Australia's Great Barrier Reef could lose 95 percent of its living coral
• "Australia has significant vulnerability to the changes in temperature and rainfall that are projected" Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
• more bushfires and more intense cyclones. More intense tropical cyclones would have serious implications for storm surge heights, ...CSIRO
  
• three quarters of all bird species in northeast Australia ... could become extinct WWF
  

Media dumbing down

Compare these three countries and the current affairs fare:

World Tonight: UK

• US and Iran break 30 years of silence
• How life has changed in Russia under Putin
• A new leader for Israel's Labour party.
• What does it really take to write a novel?
• As pressure on Sudan mounts we talk to the UN special envoy there.
• Anyone for whale curry?

Today Tonight Australia

• woman steals daughter's trust fund
• man appears on two quiz shows simulataneously
• after death experiences

Insider CBS Los Angeles

• Brad Pitt is interviewed
• a look at the film "Knocked Up.

Solar v Nuclear

It is like the stuff of Science Fiction! Seville in Spain has opened a 4O storey solar tower, the first of a series...The Sanlucar la Mayor Solar Platform will eventually comprise nine towers by 2013, requiring a total investment of [euro]1.2bn. The towers will produce enough energy to power 180,000 homes, equivalent to the needs of the whole of Seville but without producing the 160 000 tonnes of greenhouse gas that is currently released in bringing power to the citizens of Seville.

To do the same for Australia's estimated 7.4 million households would require the country to build 370 of these towers at a total cost of 67 billion US dollars. A massive investment.

It has been proposed that Australia move down a nuclear path, instead. 25 nuclear power stations would be built across Australia to provide one third of the country's power needs.

25 power stations at 1.5 t0 2 billion US dollars each is between 37 and 50 billion US dollars.
The differences between the solar option and the nuclear options are:

• annual running costs for solar would be much less
• australia could start building the solar plants now..nuclear plants will take at least a decade to come on stream
• the amount of water required to run the nuclear plants would be much much less
• solar tower collectors would be less likely to be a terrorist target
  
• there would be no waste products from solar towers - compared to waste which would last thousands of years from nuclear
• if something went "wrong" with a solar plant, the damage is minimal - from nuclear the damage could be catastrophic ala 3 mile island

How about it Howard and Turnball??? Solar not nuclear.

Virginia a Tragedy overshadowing other tragedies

Not going to belittle the anguish, nightmare and cruelty of what has happened in Virginia.
However, lets remember that equally innocent civilians have died in shootings and bombings across Iraq since the US invasion there. They don't seem to generate the same anguish?
Every year 25 000 people die in the US from gun related deaths.

They are two tragedies that deserve the pages devoted to this latest shooting.

Australia now leading the fight against climate change?

The Minister for the Environment, Malcolm Turnbull, said the prognosis was already "well known to us". "We know that there is the possibility or the probability of a hotter and drier future in southern Australia … We have to recognise there are changes to our climate likely to occur and we have to adapt to them."

Mr Turnbull said there was "no government in the world, not one, that has done more to adapt to climate change than the Australian Government".

Sorry?

• This is the government that denied it's existence?
• the Prime Minister has not even read the International Panel of Climate Change report despite having an advance copy last year
• refused to sign Kyoto even with AN 8% INCREASE in emissions over 1990 for Australia?
• the government has refused to set up an emissions trading scheme
• rubbished the Stern Report ("Don't get mesmerised by a single report")
• made the forestry deal in Tasmania to continue old growth logging?
• a government that has not supported solar options despite our climate advantages?
• rubbished anyone who warned about the possibility of global warming for a decade?
• how does our actions compare with the British who have put the issue on the table with the Stern report?
• the Swedes who have committed themselves to a 100% reduction in greenhouse emissions?

Britain's drugs laws driven by "moral panic" - Yahoo! News UK

Britain's drugs laws driven by "moral panic" - Yahoo! News UK: "Britain's drugs laws are driven by 'moral panic' and should be replaced by a more flexible approach that recognises most drug users harm neither themselves nor those around them, a two-year study concluded on Thursday.

Drug use should be treated as a health issue and not just as a matter for police and courts, said a commission formed by the Royal Society of Arts"

Dixie Chicks shut out

Surely politics would have nothing to do with the fact the Dixie Chicks with a five grammy haul have got NO nominations for the American Country Music Awards this year.
People do have the freedom in a democracy to declare they are ashamed of their President's invasion of Iraq? Don't they?

To be a Aussie Uni student...not!

The 21st Century Austalian univeristy student attends universities which have:

• steadily lost funding over a decade; class sizes are large and resources run down
• been silenced on speaking out on controversial issues
• lost many student student supports through voluntary student unionism
• had to charge fees
  

These students no longer recieve the financial supports that they used to with cuts to student bursaries. Austudy (previously known as TEAS) pays $348.20 per fortnight to eligible students...that would barely pay rent in Sydney. They also go to uni in an era when there is more pressure on their families with their own high working hours.
Reports are suggesting that things are tough for students.

Education Minister Julie Bishop argues Australia is more generous to students than many other developed countries, and that with a tight labour market students can earn more than in the past.

This is a woman who did her degree in the early 70s..a law degree no less ..so paid no fees for it and probably got government financial help to do it.

Bishop also fails to understand that "evidence shows–consistently, and over time–that countries ...invest heavily in education and skills benefit economically and socially from that choice. For every euro invested in attaining high-skilled qualifications, tax payers get even more money back through economic growth. Moreover, this investment provides tangible benefits to all of society" (Andreas Schleicher, OECD Education Directorate)

She also neglects to mention that many countries are indeed more generous than Australian eg Sweden, Norway and Finland. There are other models for student funding which may work better for society. The cost per annum for a student and their family of studying away from home in Australia is between $US 7000 and $US 38 000 compared with $US6000 to $21 000 in France, $US 4352 to $US 10 379 in Norway and $7312 to $US12 317 in Sweden. And we have a lower cost of living?
Thank heavens The Labor leader Rudd is taking education seriously.

Military Strikes against Iran to create a safe world?

"The United States ...left open... possibility of military strike against Iran ...Cheney: 'But I have made the point, and the president (George W Bush) has made the point, that all options are still on the table. 'The next step is now being debated.'

Who would a military strike do?

• more deaths in Iran and for the USA
  
• damage any possibility of peace and dialogue with Iran
• create more haters of the West in Iran
  

To safeguard the world from rogue states possessing nuclear weapons, lets get rid OF ALL OF THEM. Thats right! No nukes in France, USA, Russia, Israel, India, Pakistan, UK. No state will have the right to nuclear weapons. Nuclear weapons are an immorality in the 21st century.

(Pictured: the Trident ballistic missile.. Range: 12000 km (7000 miles), eight warheads -- a yield of up to 3.8 megatons. Impact : Many more times Hiroshima creating a crater of 2 sq km (1.2 sq miles), levelling everything for several kilometres --destroying concrete bunkers 300 metres/ 1000 feet underground.)

(Oh these missiles cost $30m each)

Australia's US relationship: too close?

Poll in The Age: "Too special? : Is Australia's special relationship with the US too close?

Yes - 70%
No - 30%
Total Votes: 781 Poll date: 20/02/07"

Enough said.

Howard out!! The Tide IS Turning!!

McKew challenge steels PM to work harder - Yahoo!7 News: "McKew challenge steels PM to work harder

Prime Minister John Howard says the challenge of high profile media personality Maxine McKew will only steel him to work harder in his seat of Bennelong."
With a mere 4% lead..the PM could become the longest serving Prime Minister ever AND the second to lose his own seat...
Howard is of course is also the most dishonest, destructive and evil Prime Minister we have known in Australia.

The USA is violent

Entrez PubMed: "the United States, which has extraordinarily high homicide rates in comparison with other highly industrialized countries"...
How is this violence manifested?

1. Children's cartoons have for years shown extraordinary levels of violence with characters shooting at, blowing up, suffocating, running over, burying. True the characters are not real and immediately start running and shooting again but what message does that send when the killing is accompanied by canned laughter? Would we let kids watch it if the characters were real people?
2. US business regulalry uses the language of violence eg "we will squash our opposition", "we will take no prisoners"
3. US churches use the language of violence: "we will conquer the land", "we will destroy the enemy" etc etc
4. US diplomacy is based around the fact that violence and violent threats are a part of the landscape. Negotition rarely seems to be between two equal nations
5. the USA has a gun culture responsible for 29,573 deaths per year this includes over 16 000 suicides, 8 times more suicide every year in the USA using guns than all of the people who died in September 11....(notice the USA has not declared war on suicide yet!)
6. the US uses violence to stem violence eg police carry and use guns, citizens carry weapons for self defenceand, prisoners are executed (sometimes wrongfully)
7. The US has the biggest cache of weapons of mass destruction and is responsible for the two single largest acts of nuclear violence (ie Hiroshima and Negasaki)

This is a country that was birthed in violence, united by violence and survives through violence. A disappointly grim picture of a nation that offers so much.

Howard 'knew about UK troop reduction' | | The Australian

Howard 'knew about UK troop reduction' | | The Australian:

AUSTRALIA has known for six months that Britain would reduce its troop numbers in Iraq, Defence Minister Brendan Nelson said today."

If Howard and Nelson knew, why did they increase our troop presence?
What are we doing there? Is this a coalition of the willing? or a Coalition of the USA and a couple of toadying nations desperate for positive US`attention?

We should not have gone in. We should not be there. Sadly, Howard will be dead when the world reaps the destructive angry force that will emerge from Iraq to challenge the world in the future.

Howard attacks Obama

Howard: "If I were running al Qaeda in Iraq, I would put a circle around March 2008, and pray, as many times as possible, for a victory not only for Obama, but also for the Democrats."

Yes we know this statement was all about positioning Howard for the forthcoming Australian election run but:
1. who is our alliance with? The USA or the Republican party?
2. this statement drew attention to our continuing lone support for a US decision that was flawed at its best and stupid, dangerous and destructive at its worst
3. the statement drew attention that we have only a handful of troops compared to our larger ally (though I was interested we immediately sent more troops).
4. it suggests to me the good news that if Obama gets in, then Howard is not planning to be around to work with him...yay the end of Howard's reign is nearing!
5. it suggests we live in a new world where if you dont like another leader, you criticse them and inetrefere in their domestic policies or invade them ...eg the US` ambassador commented on an opposition leader in Australia's last election..wait is that such a new action?

Laurie Oakes says the whole thing is bad politics.

Some good news on the environment Yahoo!7 News

Labor welcomes govt's light bulb plan - "The opposition has welcomed the federal government's plan to phase out incandescent light bulbs by 2009-10 but says the government has stolen the idea.

Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull has said he'll announce a commitment to phase out the bulbs within three years, which he said could save up to two million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.

Labor environment spokesman Peter Garrett said the environmental group Planet Ark had been in discussions with the federal government about phasing out the standard inefficient light bulbs.

'We do think it is a good idea, even if it is somebody else's idea, and not the government's,' Mr Garrett told ABC Radio."

Rudd is now challenging Howard

Rudd plays down favourable Newspoll -

while very early days....
who would make a b etter Australian prime minister than Howard...well anyone really...history will one day show how truly awful he is...but Rudd is an excellent move!!! GO RUDD GO!!

U.S. leadership as ``El Diablo.

From letters to the editor in the Pantagraph
Venezuela's Hugo Chavez referred to U.S. leadership as ``El Diablo.'' Consider the record.

We were in bed with Stalin who murdered more people than Hitler. German scientists were spirited away from potential war crime trials to create nasty WMDs for our side. Panama's Noriega and the brutal Shah of Iran were embraced. We supported Castro early in his revolution. We trained/supplied the Taliban and Osama bin Laden. We provided Saddam Hussein with anthrax, botulinin toxin, West Nile fever virus and cluster bombs. People - some innocent - are being renditioned to selected countries for torture.

Our leaders attack Castro, Chavez and Kim Jung Il while sending 3 million manufacturing jobs to China, the biggest communist country, while adding jobs here minus health care or pensions.

So, beat up small-time socialists and communist but fast-track hundreds of billions to China as they steal or buy our military technology. Shoot the moon - er, umm satellites!

Our government: devils or angels?

Global warming & PM: "sceptical about gloomy predictions"

Does Mr Howard still stand by his statement made late last year re global warming: " I am sceptical about a lot of the more gloomy predictions."

With the release of the The report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change — a group of hundreds of scientists and representatives of 113 governments — what specific knowledge does the Prime minister of Australia have that would make us not feel gloomy? What scientific resources does the Prime Minister have access to that would reassure us that we can continue to do what we are currently doing?......

UN issues sea level warning

Climate models may have underestimated the rate of sea level rise caused by Greenhouse gas emissions, new research suggests.

The study, co-authored by a leading Australian researcher, found sea levels could rise by as much as 88cm by 2100 - about 30cm higher than previous highest forecasts.

Published in the journal Science, the research comes ahead of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (ICPP) report which is expected to find humans are the likely cause of climate change.

The IPCC report, to be released in Paris, will deliver the UN climate panel's strongest warning yet, that human activities are causing global warming that may bring more drought, heatwaves and rising sea levels.

The international team from six institutions cautioned against suggestions that the IPCC had previously overestimated the rate of climate change, saying the situation could, in fact, be quite the opposite.

They reviewed observations of carbon dioxide, temperature and sea level from 1990 to 2006 and compared them with projected changes for the same period.

Researchers warned the relatively short review period of 16 years meant it was premature to conclude that all sea levels would continue to rise at the same rate in the future.

However, they said their findings showed previous projections had not exaggerated the rate of change and may have underestimated it.

Delegates said IPCC scientists agreed it was "very likely" that human activities were the main cause of warming in the past 50 years.

The panel, grouping 2,500 scientists from 130 countries, is also expected to say that oceans will keep rising for more than 1,000 years even if governments stabilise greenhouse gas emissions.

Sea levels were likely to rise by between 28 and 43cm this century.

Temperatures are predicted to rise by three degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels BY 2100.

Passed USA CLEAN Energy Act of 2007

H.R. 6: CLEAN Energy Act of 2007

To reduce our Nation's dependency on foreign oil by investing in clean, renewable, and alternative energy resources, promoting new emerging energy technologies, developing greater efficiency, and creating a Strategic Energy Efficiency and Renewables Reserve to invest in alternative energy, and for other purposes.