I was just sent a copy of this article from the Caribbean Net News, which relates to the refugee swap deal announced by Australia and the USA. It is interesting to see how the agreement is being perceived by many in Haiti, one of the source countries cited as being possibly subject to the deal….
Continue reading →When the news came through that David Hicks had pleaded guilty to a charge of providing material support for terrorists (as well as having many allegations dropped), there was a feeling amongst at least some MPs that this would neutralise the significant political problems which Hicks’ situation had been causing for the Australian government. Indeed,…
Continue reading →The House of Representatives in the US Congress has passed a Bill to withdraw US forces from Iraq by September 2008. The Bill is unlikely to pass the Senate and would anyway be vetoed by the US President, but it certainly sends a strong message that mainstream opinion in the USA clearly recognises the need…
Continue reading →Whilst I was checking out the results of the USA Congressional elections, I also had a look at the result of what the USA often calls ‘ballot measures’ – that is referendum questions on a wide range of specific issues. By coincidence, the state of Missouri (also the location of one of the 2 critical…
Continue reading →The Stolen Wages issue – where wages and others monies owed to Indigenous Australians were misappropriated by government and other authorities over many years – is one which I have an ongoing involvement in. It is currently the subject of a Senate Inquiry. I had been unaware until recently of a parallel but much bigger…
Continue reading →I noticed a piece in the New York Times which is worth keeping handy for next time someone suggests judges should be elected. Occasionally there are calls in Australia for Judges to take more account of community opinion. Like & share:
Continue reading →A follow up to my previous post about the review of sedition laws – as noted in one of the comments on that piece, some people see community concern about the sedition laws as just a beat-up by paranoid anti-government left-wingers. Whilst there’s certainly been some exaggeration and misunderstanding about what the laws entail and…
Continue reading →There are retrospectives and introspectives all over the internet and the mainstream media marking the fifth anniversary of the attacks on New York’s World Trade Centre. The Open Democracy site has a good series of pieces asking a range of people the simple question – “what have we learned”? Like & share:
Continue reading →I wrote a little while ago about Australian Defence issues, including regular problems with cost blows in the purchasing of defence equipment. I noted a story in The Washington Post (link found though The Daily Briefing) about a defence procurement scandal in the USA. It is not only reminiscent of Australia’s failings on a larger…
Continue reading →My recent post drawing on Marion Wilkinson’s article examining what the Australian government has known about the USA’s practice of rendition – enabling people to be subjected to torture while being questioned – seemed to draw a larger than usual amount of traffic to this site (as well as a bit of comment and debate…
Continue reading →A report in the Sydney Morning Herald may finally increase the pressure on the Australian government about how willing it has been to turn a blind eye to the use of torture by our ally in the so-called ‘war on terror’. Like & share:
Continue reading →I’ve had a soft spot for Arnold Schwarzenegger for some time, but I’m afraid the celluloid generated fondness has been permanently puncutured by the real world.
Continue reading →The New Orleans situation seems literally unbelievable. When I first saw pictures on the television a couple of days ago, the scale and nature of the devastation reminded me of the footage of the tsunami, except in this case the water isn’t going away any time soon. But the media reports now, such as police…
Continue reading →Just to show that nutbars who set off bombs and kill innocent people come in a range of colours and religions, here are links to a couple of stories from the USA. The first is about a guy who set off the bomb at the Atlanta Olympics. He has been sentenced to life in prison…
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