September 29, 9:08 pm.
http://www.empirenotes.org/#29sep041
September 29, 9:08 pm. Obsidian Wings has an important post about "extraordinary rendition" and a bill that may be on the floor of Congress as early as next week to legalize it (action suggestions at the end of this post). Extraordinary rendition is the lovely practice the United States has of outsourcing torture. When stripping detainees naked, threatening them with dogs, beating them savagely, ...
Bono Watch: The lad got a gig as guest speaker at the UK Labour Party conference on Wednesday. He addressed the party faithful with his DATA hat on, describing Tony Blair and Gordon Brown as the John Lennon and Paul McCartney of world development. I don't remember Paul secretly plotting for John's place in the Beatles.
We need a Prime Minister who trusts the people, who tells them the truth about the great issues of war and peace. And when things go wrong, a Prime Minister who is big enough to take responsibility and not blame others.
We need a Prime Minister who will take the people into his confidence, not least about his own intentions. It's urgent to bring a new energy, a new accountability to Australia's biggest job. And that's the difference between Labor and the Liberals.
September 27, 10:40 am.
http://www.empirenotes.org/#27sep041
September 27, 10:40 am. Yesteday, the Times ran what is, all things considered, a remarkable editorial, Iraq's Disappearing Election. It makes the points that I made a few days ago. Not only does it mention "Mr. Rumsfeld's curiously undemocratic remark that if some substantial portion of Iraqis cannot vote, 'so be it,'" far more surprising, it even says, Yet the six political parties that Washingt ...
Last night I was at Petersham Town Hall for a "Meet The Candidates" forum. Organised by the Marrickville Council for the first time, the five candidates for Grayndler were invited to put their cases to the public and answer questions from the floor.
Sitting member Anthony Albanese (ALP), Philip Myers of The Greens and Sue Johnson (Socialist Alliance) were present. Jen Harrison of the Democrats and Stephanie Kokkolis of the Liberal Party didn't attend. Marrickville mayor Morris Hanna (Independent) chaired the forum. About a hundred people were present, mostly middle-aged. The non-appearance of the Liberal Party gave the forum a decidedly left-wing skew, but in this part of the world that reflects the demographics. Not being a regular at political meetings I only recognised a handful of people in the audience, the ABC's Antony Green being one of them.
Bahrain: Activist Jailed After Criticizing Prime Minister
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2004/09/29/bahrai9413.htm
Bahrain should immediately release prominent human rights activist `Abd al-Hadi al-Khawaja from detention, Human Rights Watch said today. Al-Khawaja was summoned to a police station and detained on Saturday, September 25, a day after he criticized Prime Minister Shaikh Khalifa Al Khalifa for the country?s current economic problems and past human rights abuses.
The Chicago Cubs are now one game ahead of the San Francisco Giants in the National League wildcard race with six games to play. The Cubs beat the Reds 12-5 on Monday and are now 88-68. The Giants didn't play Monday, they are 87-69 after going down to the Dodgers 7-4 on Sunday.
Recapping on the Cubs' progress since my last post:
I haven't had time to write on the weekend, but hearty congratulations to Port Adelaide on their first AFL premiership.
It was good to see an all-non-Victorian grand final for the first time, but even better to see Brisbane, who have prospered under preferential treatment in the salary cap rules, having their colours lowered before winning four in a row.
Oops! Bot that I was installing for the Jabber -> WordPress gateway made a break for it like the proverbial runaway horse.
Something like 52 articles posted as the result of a bit of sloppiness on my part. Any bit of garbage hitting one of my jabber addresses was put straight to print.
The message posted at 4.26pm is a classic (which I have now deleted). That is a posting of the updates to the RSS feed of this website after the garbage started coming :-)
KERRY O'BRIEN: ...your reference to Tony Abbott and the Queen in June last year where you described Tony Abbott as, quote, "Basically hanging out of the backside of the British monarch whenever he can."
What is this obsession you have with bottoms?
MARK LATHAM: I've no particular obsession with bottoms, it's a figure of speech --
KERRY O'BRIEN: Howard the arse-licker and the brown nose kissing bums, as you put it, Abbott hanging out of the Queen's backside, the conga line of suckholes.
