A Blow to Democracy

So the great leaders in Washington are showing their feet of clay.

Forget the entrenched petty pilfering; the real corruption is that of democracy.
It might be bough about by the same base desires and rank arrogance, but the
diminution of freedoms and democratic rights will always be far more alarming
than the theft.

I don’t know if Hastert is guilty of petty corruption or not, I don’t
really care. I do no he is guilty of that greater corruption, subverting the
claimed equality of the people.

Believe me, this is a concern which spreads well past the US borders.

My Australian Prime Minster and my Canadian Prime Minister are currently in
the thrall of the lawless Washington push, as is the Prime Minister of my many
British friends.

When the House leaders cried foul over a DoJ on an office attached to the House,
and were backed up by a now largely ineffective President, we were told the
real truth; there are now two laws, one for the powerful and one for the rest.

True, we have suspected that was the situation for some time, but this is clear
and unassailable proof. It means that in the USA, certain groups of powerful
people exist outside the laws which govern everyone else.

My collective Prime Ministers have been traveling that road more and more frequently,
as well.

Now don’t give me any clap trap about the American Constitution, it does
not provide blanket indemnity for lawmakers, and neither should it.

If a lawmaker gets caught with their hand on the money, they, more than anyone
should be held to account. They are the ones who fashion the law, who decide
what is right or wrong for society, they are the architects of the law.

WE, as ordinary citizens of our respective countries can question, protest
or disagree with their laws, but we are bound by them in the end. So should
they be.

That one move, the sequence from the House leaders crying unfair to the President
stepping in to put a stop to justice being done, represents the saddest moment
for modern democracy.

It is the final affirmation of power corrupting totally.

ABC blogging, bloody cheek

The ABC revelations of an FBI investigation into House Speaker Dennis Hastert
raise serious issues in the journalism and blogging spheres.

The ABC and the rest of the big media players might run close to the margin
at times, to break a hot story, but they operate under a defined legal and ethical
regime.

They not only have vast resources to validate reports, they have a serious
responsibility to use those recourses honestly and transparently.

The ABC and other news organizations have every right to use the blog format
as part of their overall presentation. To use the blog to float a dodgy story
is unethical and misleading.

Of course it could be that they see blogging as a free for all, but they have
a boody cheek, joining in and adding to that perception

Tickled as I was by the Hastert revelation, something held me back from running amok
with it. The story didn’t appear in the mainstream of the ABC's site, but
on what passes for a media blog.

There is a world of difference between a large media organization and the average
web log owner.

I can, as a blogger, tell the world that I think Hastert is a first rate arsehole;
it’s my opinion worth nothing more nor less than that. I can suggest that
the FBI are probably going through Hastert garbage cans as we speak; again, that
is my opinion, for what it is worth.

If I should ever be so fortunate to have a reliable source (even a dodgy source
would do) close the action, I could blog that ‘I have heard reports that…”
or if I was fairly certain, go the whole ABC route and declare that the FBI
were investigating Hastert.

But I am not a major news organization, I don't have sources. My blog is 'my' personal outlet, my means of communicating my understanding and opinions.

As a blogger I could report breathlessly that the President has been caught
in a compromising position with his dog. I would soon gain a reputation, but
not the one I would prefer.

Of course there is always the compliment paid by a major news network joining
the ranks of bloggers. It obviously means that despite their greater resources,
access to a PC has made us simple folk competitive at last.

Lawmakers Destroying Presumption

Presumption of innocence is one of the cornerstones of most well regarded systems of law. In an age when the presumption is more and more dependent on the ability to afford a clever legal team, it is becoming more a privilege than a right.

Now, the lawmakers who have administered the shift in presumption, who have divided society for their own advantage, championed the ‘user pays’ ethos to gain kudos with ‘big money’ look set to pay for their erroneous path.

In a nationwide poll conducted last month in the US, 75 percent of those surveyed said they had less trust in government than they did five years ago. Only 3 percent, according to Zogby International, indicated they generally trusted Congress to act properly.

More…

Dispatches from Dili - Troops move in

There is confidence on all sides that peace will be returned to East Timor
quickly as troops are deployed. The current conflict appears to be three way
between splintered army faction and police.

The following are word bites from the Sydney Morning Herald reports. Full reports
can be found at: Sydney Morning Herald - The Age - The Australian (photo source)

A team of 130 commandos flew into Dili this afternoon, securing the international
airport for the evacuation of Australians and the arrival of Lieutenant-General
Ken Gillespie, who is negotiating the conditions of the mission. They arrived
amid reports of 20 Timor police being injured in the fighting.

The violence first erupted last month when 600 of East Timor's 1400 troops
were dismissed after they deserted, complaining of alleged discrimination because
they came from the western part of the country.

The commandos will soon be joined by up to 200 troops from the frigate HMAS
Adelaide, which sailed into Dili harbour today.

Malaysia says it will also send troops, with Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak
telling reporters it will send about 275 military soldiers and 200 police officers.

Australia had been waiting to sign off on the details of the mission before
sending troops in but the escalating death toll forced the government to change
plans.

Howard said the change of circumstances did not alter the legality of the mission.

"We respect the sovereignty of East Timor and we are acting in response
to a clearly articulated, properly and legally-based request," he said.

Blood-spattered bullet cases, boots and communication radios lay scattered
on the street outside the Justice Ministry as the East Timorese capital descended
into chaos.

Rivalry between army and police has been an undercurrent of the present conflict
in East Timor, with pro-government FDTL soldiers frequently accusing the police
of having collaborated with the Indonesian army which occupied East Timor between
1975 and 1999. Army commanders were largely drawn from ex-guerrilla fighters.

East Timor's Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri says the deadly clashes there between
security forces and disgruntled former soldiers are linked to a failed coup
attempt.

Many of the soldiers of the East Timor Defence Force (ETDF) were trained by
the Australian Defence Force, including the rebel leader Alfredo Reinado.

Known among the Timor military as "Major", Reinado is in fact a navy
Lieutenant Commander.

East Timor, a former Portuguese colony, was invaded in 1975 by Indonesia, which
held the territory until 1999, when a vote for independence descended into brutal
violence by Indonesia troops and pro-Jakarta militias.

UPDATE: Australian ABC

Just to add to the confusion -

The leader of the rebel military faction in East Timor says Australian soldiers
on deployment have nothing to fear from the troops he commands.

Major Alfredo Reinardo (pictured above) says he will work with troops, who have begun arriving
in the capital, Dili.

"They didn't worry about my side. Don't worry, I'm with you. I'm with
Australia. I'm with peacekeeping forces. I'm ready to cooperate with them based
on any agreement that will be reached by our President," he said.

FBI probe on Hastert?

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dennis Hastert, is under investigation by the FBI, which is seeking to determine his role in an ongoing public corruption probe into members of Congress, ABC News has learned from high level government sources.

Federal officials say the information implicating Hastert was developed from convicted lobbyists who are now cooperating with the government.

An early report. Intersting...

Hacker warning

Strange things have been happening with my blogger. I received an email from the 'blogger team' in response to a password retrieval request I had not made.

I logged in several times before I gained access to my account. I don’t know what is happening, but after recent ‘flaming’ events, I wouldn’t be surprised if the vandals are trying a different approach.

If I disappear off blogger please try my alternative sites at Galleonpoint.com

Vegemite sandwich for Men out of Work

US food giant Kraft is winning hearts and minds in Australia by axing a quarter of its Australian work force, at Port Melbourne and the country town of Strathmerton.

The company said yesterday that some specialty cheese manufacturing would move from Strathmerton to the Middle East and South Australia.

But they have assured us that they will to make Vegemite in Australia. So it is the bloody Americans who are trying to poison us Australians with the high salt yeast extract so loved downunder.

Regional Pacific Hot Spot flares

EAST TIMOR: Foreign Minister, Jose Ramos Horta, conceded intervention is needed to restore order after police defections and assaults by rebel troops yesterday, including on the home of the military chief, Brigadier-General Taur Matan Ruak.


Australia received a formal request for military assistance from Dili last night and the acting Prime Minister, Peter Costello, said cabinet's national security committee was disposed towards sending troops, subject to appropriate conditions being agreed between the two governments.


Portugal, the former colonial ruler, said yesterday it would send 120 military police, while New Zealand and Malaysia were also invited, Ramos Horta said.
He said Australia would join East Timor and the other nations to call for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council to endorse the operation.


East Timor's President, Xanana Gusmao, and Prime Minister, Mari Alkatiri, called for an international force during a meeting with the United Nations, the Australian ambassador and others. SMH Australians will lead East Timor intervention


I have been a critic of military intervention, and still have reservations. However, my main issue has been the gung ho attitude of the Australian government in the region; an attitude more likely to increase tensions rather than subdue.


At the heart of the matter is self determination – allowing identifiable and geographically defined cultures to choose the path of their own future.
East Timor was necessarily born out of a long, violent struggle against oppressive and unwanted Indonesian rule. Near neighbor, West Papua is currently undergoing the very same struggle to loose the bonds of the regional monster.


The problem for East Timor is what do you do with a generation of freedom fighters who endured years of dislocation and hardship to win independence? How do you simply integrate them into the peaceful process of building a brand new, peaceful country?


Not with the help of the US, the UN and Australia, that is obvious. The East Timorese leaders did not want a military force, did not need one. A well trained, disciplined police force was ample for their needs.


The tiny country could never effectively defend itself against an invasion, so a army, by default, becomes a policing arm or just plain restless. Using any military force for civil control is fraught with dangers all too well known.


But the powers, perhaps seeing the advantage of harnessing these former freedom fighters for their own benefit manipulated the country into establishing their army, the one which has now turned around and reverted to jungle rebels.


East Timor was never going to have an easy road to achieving their goal of stable self government. Meddling by the big powers has made the task even harder.

UPDATE:
Keeping up the proud tradition of regional policeman:

The [Australian] federal government has refused to grant a temporary visa to the last of a boatload of 43 asylum seekers from the Indonesian province of Papua.

Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone today said the man's application for asylum had been refused because he was found to be eligible to live in another country.

Bribes and kickback’s tax deductable

For all you Americans out there, don’t try this at home, at least until it has been proved through the high court.
In Australia, a signatory to the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention, businesses who engage in bribery in foreign trade are open to litigation. Although it is not clear if the Federal law would hold, State laws are effective.
At the same time, the Australian Tax Office currently deems such ‘expenses’ as a claimable cost.
I guess it is a bit like the old prostitution laws, the act was outlawed but the income was required to be reported for tax assessment.

Read more…

Political Prostitutes and Pirates

While other countries are seeking ways to control big money influence on government, Australia is preparing legislation to increase the corruption risk.
Most multi party systems tend to evolve into two major parties with the same interest in cementing their power and access to ‘entitlements’. The process generally ensures minor parties remain minor and unable to engage effectively on issues of doubtful ethics.
Using the two party rubber stamp, the Australian parliament is expected to lift the corporate donation requirement from $1500 to $10,000.
Read more at Pundit's Blog

Sooner rather than later: Iraq

THE new Iraqi Prime Minister, Nuri al-Maliki, had a surprise for his British counterpart, Tony Blair, when he announced at a joint news conference in Baghdad a much speedier and more ambitious timetable than the US and Britain have so far admitted to.

The announcement on Monday was news to Mr Blair and his team. Mr Maliki said there was an agreement with the British: but British officials said there was no agreement. And he said the withdrawals would be in June; officials say it will be July.

And the American Way

There is a very real danger for the US in assuming the role of world policeman. Extolling US values tends to look and sound like “don’t do as we do, do as we say.” More and more, these pronouncements on electoral probity, on ethics and corruption ring hollow.

In an article on Venezuelan VHeadline.com, commentarist Mary MacElveen took Bush to task for his statement that he was concerned about an "erosion of democracy" in Venezuela and Bolivia.

Message to Bush ... don't dare lecture any nation on what democracy means!

“In both Venezuela and Bolivia, people vote directly for their presidential candidate instead of having to go through an Electoral College as we do here in the United States. In the United States in any presidential election, the voter does not directly vote for his or her candidate. “

The story MacElveen commented on was: Bush decries 'erosion of democracy' in Venezuela, Bolivia

In Nigeria, where a probe is underway into bribery allegations during a parliamentary vote to extend the presidency to three terms, the US was again taken to task:

Head of the country’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, told his story to the US House of Representatives Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights, and International Operations.

Ribadu said that US legislators can help Nigeria fight corruption, "Maybe as much as 80 percent of corruption that takes place in Africa goes out, and it goes to the West.

And indeed, some of it also finds its way into the US. Shut it out. Don't allow them.

And I told them that corrupt people and corrupt leaders, particularly from Africa, are as bad as terrorists. If it is possible that a corrupt despot, a person who is looting the treasury of his own country, could be treated as a terrorist, it will make a huge difference in the fight we are waging back home. I also asked them for technical support because some of this criminal activity is very complex. We need technology that will assist us in the war."

Just looking at the headlines, you really need to ask; who are the US to be preaching on ethics and probity.

It would not be any issue to anyone else but the US, nobody else’s business, if the American way was kept at home. Globalization has made sure US business ethics impact widely, US foreign adventures impact on people in allied as well as enemy countries.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not for a moment suggesting other countries aren’t capable of concocting their own ethical and political sewers. Neither do the ordinary people of those countries have any more control over the powers than do ordinary Americans.

The point is if leaders, political or corporate, are going to preach to the world, then they need to get their own house in order first.

UPDATE:
From The Calcutta Telegraph India
If legislators in the world’s most populous democracy got caught on film taking cash for asking questions in parliament, can their counterparts in the world’s most powerful democracy be far behind?

Reminiscent of last year’s “questions for cash” scandal involving Indian MPs, a US Congressman has been videotaped accepting $100,000 from a “businesswoman”, who was, in reality, a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) informant.

So you are crooks, but were is the policy.

For Democrats, a Scandal of Their Own
Obviously the congressional Republican strategists don’t talk to Karl Rove. It would also seem that there are no decent poker players among them either.
This Jefferson thing has been around for months, well before his aide fessed up, and the cat was out of the bag.
My guess is that the Repubs are getting skittish with the polls, this current fuss smacks of a little engineering and a lot of beat-up, especially in the Repub media.
For starter, and this is no great credit to the Dems, they are not clean. Jefferson is one of a handful already under a cloud. But the approach seems to be to pull the Dems down from the greatest possible height.
Now Rove would put them straight on a few of these panicky strategies. They represent a serious case of premature ejaculation by the spooked majority. Karl would explain quietly that there is only one poll, and that is the one they should be targeting.
As a matter of fact, my guess is that Rove would sit tight on this sort of issue, refrain from beating it up, until the last possible moment. He would aim at winning that November poll in the shiftiest way possible.
As it is, this bunch have shown their hand now, leaving months for the Dems to regroup, leaving months for more Repubs to be dragged through the shit, leaving months for voters to work the whole thing out for themselves.
If voters were intelligent, and nobody is accusing them of that, they would already be saying: “Well, you are all a bunch of crooks, so what are your policies? Where am I going to benefit from choosing between you?”
But the policy cupboard seems to be as empty as the rhetoric about ethics. There is another truism: Oppositions don’t win, governments lose. That might be so, but an opposition must have a credible plan, a platform that will give at least a little confidence to potential voters.
For now, the Dems would be wise to cut loose any member or candidate who is under a cloud. Clear the decks in a positive, forthright way. Then they should get out there and tell the people what they can offer as an alternative majority. Keep it simply and keep it tidy.

Blair and Bush to discuss early Iraq exit

PRESIDENT George Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair will use talks in Washington to discuss an accelerated withdrawal of troops from Iraq, starting in July, a UK newspaper says.

The two allies, due to hold talks by the end of the week, will also call on world leaders to help with their withdrawal, according to another newspaper.

The Guardian reported that Blair and Bush's withdrawal plan would be much faster and ambitious than expected. It said officials hoped Britain's forces could be cut from about 8000 to 5000 troops and the US contingent from about 130,000 to 100,000 by the end of this year.

Britain will be out soonoer or later, depending on how long Blair can hold onto office. It might be more difficult for the US to cut and run.

Will the real Iraq please stand up?

May 22, 2006

'We have a government of national unity that crosses all boundaries. Iraqi people are able to write the next chapter of their history themselves' - Tony Blair on a visit to Iraq yesterday.

"I can understand why people are concerned about whether or not our strategy can succeed because our progress is incremental. Freedom is moving but it's in incremental steps, and the enemy's progress is almost instant on their TV screens." Bush in his first speech since the swearing in of a new government over the weekend.

Administration officials have said the establishment of a new government is a key step toward stabilizing Iraq and making discussion of an eventual American troop pullout possible.

Two car bombs explode in Baghdad, killing nine. At least 23 more die in attacks elsewhere, bringing the death toll in May to 848 as sectarian violence spreads.

Blair arrived in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, to greet the new Iraqi Prime Minister, Nuri al-Maliki, by helicopter.
Anybody entering the zone on foot has to negotiate eight checkpoints defended by heavily armed troops and guards surrounded by sandbags, razor wire, sniffer dogs and X-ray machines.

Zalmay Khalilzad, the US ambassador to Iraq, played a crucial role in getting rid of the last duly elected prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari. His officials do not conceal that the envoy has been what The New York Times described as "a tireless midwife in the birthing of the new government".

The problem for the US and Britain in Iraq is at one level quite simple. " If you have democracy in Iraq it will be in the interests of Iran, religious organisations and the Shia," said Sami Shoresh, a commentator on Iraqi affairs.

All in all there is little optimistic sign of a sovereign and independent Iraqi administration in the near future.

Various sources, including the Independent, UK

Lawmakers vocal on protecting their own

Former Speaker Newt Gingrich led the charge of loud howls over the FBI raid in a congressman’s office: "The protection of the legislative branch from the executive branch's policing powers is a fundamental principle which goes all the way back to the English Civil War."
Never mind the matter of existing evidence of a crime having been committed. Never mind that the House Ethics Committee has been asleep at the wheel for 16 long months. No, this hallowed precinct is obviously beyond the law, as Gingrich and others see it.
"The president should respond accordingly and should discipline (probably fire) whoever exhibited this extraordinary violation," he wrote.
According to reports, House officials were given short notice of the FBI's intentions Saturday, and neither Jefferson's attorney, Robert Trout, nor the general counsel of the House were allowed to monitor the search.
"The government's actions in obtaining a search warrant to search the offices of a United States congressman were outrageous," Trout said in a statement. "There were no exigent circumstances necessitating this action."
I guess Trout would be one of those holding the view that there were no exigent circumstances necessitating any action against the buildings inhabitants.
Charles Tiefer, a law professor at the University of Baltimore who served as solicitor and deputy general counsel of the House for 11 years, said the incident "raises some serious separation of powers questions when extraordinarily harsh and extreme tactics are used on the legislative branch."
Tiefer said the raid could set a chilling precedent. Like more congressmen being made to answer for their lack of probity, for their separation from reality.

Britain leaves US holding the monster

The occupation of Iraq has not been a shining example of leadership by the US. The promised to install an ‘American’ style democracy proved to be all to true, when the Bush administration jockeyed to have its own favorites take the reins of power.

These ‘favorites’ were invariably former exiles, he likes of the problematic Ahmed Chalabi. The US choices were clearly not the choice of the fragmented Iraqis, who still resent having leaders foisted on them.

Chalabi was one of the key architects of a war promoted on lies, and has since claimed that having won that war there is no need to justify the means.

Once in Iraq, the US occupation forces and administration have distinguished themselves with corruption, torture and recklessness no better than Saddam’s regime.
Bricks of US dollars, floating freely around occupation personnel, have led to every possible mischief, from petty pilfering to murder.

Bush’s occupation team have been aided and abetted in all of this by the major ally, Britain; although the latter has managed to distance itself from the worst of the excesses.

Under intense pressure of his own domestic scandals and a distinct lack of public enthusiasm for the Iraq adventure, Blair has signaled that it is time to pull out.

The opportunity for Blair comes with the final emergence of an elected government in Iraq, as though that minor miracle is enough to actually stabilize the country.

It does no such thing of course, the disastrous occupation performance only adds to the deep underlying tensions tearing Iraq asunder.

The fact is, with or without Britain, Iraq will continue to be dangerously unstable. The coalition of the willing was always going to bite off more than they could chew.

Britain will soon be out, Italy’s new centre left has said it wants out, Spain pulled out months ago, Australia are only there in a minor role, mainly trying to protect whatever spoils are left for them.
I guess that leaves George W, or more to the point, the American people, holding the baby. There is no easy exit strategy for Bush, nor will there be for his successors. The war on terror and the Iraq adventure have proved to be a brilliant example of judo politics.

A tiny group of well disciplined and committed terrorists have taken on the US and her allies and let the mighty weight of the coalition do enormous harm to itself.

So much for intelligence, planning and tactics, so much for might and fire power; in the end the terrorists best weapon has been the stupidity and greed of the US and her allies.

The awful part of it is that this out come was predicted and predictable. Those of us who spoke out were lambasted and pilloried from the outset, and no doubt will be blamed in some way for the failure of our so-called leaders.

But being right is no bonus once this enormous mess has been created. The monster is lose now and we must all pay the price.

UPDATE:
Adding to the list of endearing behaviour by the US

EVIDENCE to support controversial claims that napalm has been used by US forces in Iraq has been brought to Australia by an Iraqi doctor.

Dr Salam Ismael, of the Baghdad-based group Doctors for Iraq, said the evidence pointed to the use of napalm on civilians during the second siege of Fallujah in November 2004.

The Melbourne Age article went on to report: Dr Ismael said the napalm was a modification from the 1990s of the wind-driven napalm chemical bombs used by the US in Vietnam in the 1960s.
The US Government admits using white phosphorus in Iraq but denies using napalm.

Presumption takes second place

Presumption of innocence is an important element of the law, but it must not supercede the trust placed in lawmakers. The Democrats now have a very real challenge to show they are serious about cleaning out the stables:

Allegedly scamming a Virginia businesswoman could prove to be a major mistake for a Democratic congressman from New Orleans.

The FBI revealed Sunday that Rep. William Jefferson, under investigation for bribery, was videotaped accepting $100,000 in $100 bills from an FBI informant whose conversations with the lawmaker also were recorded. Agents later found the cash hidden in his freezer, according to a court document released Sunday.

A major mistake? At a time when his party must show a real determination to address the corruption rampant among lawmakers, even the whiff of scandal is intolerable.

The Jefferson issue has been around for some months now, overshadowed by the antics of the majority members.

Perhaps the Democrats should have moved earlier to quarantine themselves from this scandal. Presumption or not, they must hit the ejection button now.

This is about optics in a supercharged atmosphere of privilege and excess. Public trust should always come before legal niceties and game playing.

Any elected representative who would expose themselves to the degree that an enquiry is called for has crossed the line, regardless of any legal outcome.

More to the point, if the Democrats are to be seen as seriously committed to clearing out the political rot then home is a great place to begin.

As reality-based educator noted here, …at least they can say "Yeah, but once we knew he was dirty, we tossed him out."

Blair prepares Iraq pull-out

TONY Blair will use the restoration of a democratic government in Iraq to activate a pull-out programme that could see UK troops start to withdraw within weeks.
Although Iraq remains convulsed by violence and under constant threat of civil war, Blair and US President George Bush will this week thrash out the final details of their plan to leave Iraq.

Slowly, slowly the support base shrinks for Bush.

FBI First? A Raid on Congress

There are a few versions of Saturday night's events. This from -
FBI raids office of lawmaker Houston Chronicle

The FBI raided the congressional offices of Rep. William J. Jefferson, D-La., on Saturday night as part of a corruption investigation focused on him and a Kentucky businessman who has already pleaded guilty to trying to bribe the lawmaker.
The FBI said in a statement that the unusual raid on a congressional office began about 7:15 p.m., when agents entered Jefferson's suite of offices in the Rayburn House Office Building, and was being conducted as part of an "ongoing corruption investigation." The statement offered no details of what was being sought in the raid.
An FBI official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the continuing investigation, said it was the first time the agency had raided a lawmaker's office on Capitol Hill.
Jefferson, whose homes in New Orleans and Washington were raided by the FBI last year as part of the investigation, has proclaimed his innocence.

Other reports were more circumspect, particulary on the actual office raided, also suggesting Ney's digs as a possible target. The claims against Jefferson should be investigated, but then so should all those under a cloud of suspicion, regardless of party.

Is the writing on the wall?

Self interest apart there seems little that will the excesses of many politicians. So often, confronted with unassailable evidence of questionable practices, our elected representatives will simply shrug, lie or otherwise brush the issue off.
The incredible thing is, for an assortment of reasons, voters will let them. Let them for a while, that is, until the weight of dubious behavior becomes too much to ignore.
The self-interest cuts in when opinion polls start to show the voters getting restless. The thing about ethical behavior, regardless of codes or any other formula is that it is only really defined by voter acceptance or rejection of certain behaviours.
If the electorate is content to overlook gross attacks on public trust; lies, theft, abuse of liberties and democratic rights, even murder, then they don’t effectively constitute corruption.
Which brings us to the previous post - Lawmakers in corruption spotlight.
An AP-Ipsos poll conducted at the beginning of this month showed a 71 percent disapproved of the way Congress is handling its job, while only 25 percent of those surveyed approved.
The House Ethics Committee has risen from a 16 month coma to address what is now becoming a worrying (to them now) public opinion of the behavior of members.
One of the obvious worries, beyond just losing power, is losing control of the potential to investigate and prosecute corruption among their number. A power shift from the Republicans to the Democrats in November will open up vest opportunities for outing unethical members.
Given recent episodes we can be certain that no amount of shredding will destroy evidence which pure arrogance has allowed to be spread wide and deep. Yes, they should be worried.
The White House, like Congress, is embroiled in its own ethical mess, which is even more curious. I’m not sure of the historic probability of a party to dominate beyond a couple of presidential terms.
The probability is clear for presidents. Apart from the bundle of Republicans who held the White House through 1896 to 1912 and the marathon 12 years for Franklin D. Roosevelt, a party is lucky to come unscathed through two terms, never mind holding the crown for a third.
I would like to think that corrupt representatives of any party, indeed any country, had nowhere to run and nowhere to hide. We know that is a pipe dream, but to dream that this one bunch of ethically challenged politicians will soon be pulled up short.
At the very least their destructive, divisive self serving policies will be bought to an end. It is time the people, like the House Ethics Committee, woke from their slumber and acted.

Lawmakers in corruption spotlight

With the Lazarus like rising of Congresses House Ethics Committee come a flow of names of those facing investigation now or in the near future.
Full-blown investigations have been announced into Representatives Bob Ney, R-Ohio, and William Jefferson, D-La.
After a technology company executive has pleaded guilty to bribing Jefferson and a former Jefferson aide has pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting bribery of the congressman.
There is a preliminary inquiry into whether other House members were bribed by the defense contractors who corrupted former Republican Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham of California.
Authorities want to know whether Representative Alan B. Mollohan, a West Virginia Democrat and Appropriations Committee member, used his clout to hand government contracts to nonprofit groups run by his friends; whether disgraced former GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff bribed Representative Bob Ney, Republican of Ohio; and whether the House Appropriations Committee chairman, Jerry Lewis of California, also a Republican, improperly awarded contracts sought by a lobbyist who has been linked to Cunningham.
Rep. Katherine Harris received $32,000 in campaign funds from Mitchell Wade, court documents say. Virgil Goode of Virginia has also been implicated in the Wade saga.
There is no indication that Harris or Goode are targets in the investigation, but when asked whether it was safe to presume that Goode's statement confirms that he's one of the unnamed congressmen mentioned in the Wade charges, a Goode aide who furnished the statement said, “I don't feel comfortable answering that.” Neither, it appears to federal prosecutors, is the House ethics committee.
Rep. Alan B. Mollohan (D-W.Va.) stepped down as the ethics committee's ranking Democrat after his business dealings with recipients of federal funds that he appropriated became the subject of a federal investigation.

A report, entitled "Beyond DeLay: The 13 Most Corrupt Members of Congress", was released in September 2005 by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington says in its report that the 13 members, among them Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and House Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), might have violated a variety of congressional ethics rules.The bipartisan list includes three Californians: Reps. Richard W. Pombo (R-Tracy), Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) and Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Rancho Santa Fe).Others on the list include:Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.), and Reps. Bob Ney (R-Ohio) and Tom Feeney (R-Fla.).
The Ethics committee, it seems, has just scratched the surface of an issue which cannot possibly be addressed before the November elections.

Former Senator in Oil for Food probe

The chairman of a Senate investigative panel said on Friday that it was looking into the actions of former Senator Robert G. Torricelli of New Jersey in connection with the United Nations oil-for-food program for Iraq.

"We've received allegations about Torricelli and oil-for-food," said Senator Norm Coleman of Minnesota, the chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. "We take this very seriously. We are pursuing the matter at this point." Mr. Coleman, in a telephone interview, declined to say what the allegations were. He said they had come from the United Nations' Independent Inquiry Committee.

Senator Coleman's committee have finally got someone they can get their teeth into with the UN scandal. They have had to drop their investigations into the Australian angle, but hey! They have themselves a Democrat to pillory now. I guess George might just let them go ahead with this one.

It's all Rumsfeld's fault after all

Here we go! According to General Michael Hayden: A special intelligence unit set up by the US Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, before the invasion of Iraq selectively used intelligence to support the White House's claim of clear links between Saddam Hussein's regime and al-Qaeda.

Hayden's comment came during his confirmation hearing and was the first time a senior Bush Administration official has said intelligence was selectively used to support the view that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction and close links with al-Qaeda.

Asked by Senator Carl Levin, the committee's ranking Democrat, whether he felt comfortable with the approach to intelligence by Mr Rumsfeld's Office of Special Plans, General Hayden replied "No, sir, I wasn't … No sir, I wasn't comfortable."

I wonder if he feels more comfortable, now he’s shot himself in the foot?

If Bullshit were music…

(Disclaimer: If you find shit offensive then you will probably find this rant offensive. Read on at your own risk.)

Australia's mission to the Solomon Islands has a long way to go to ensure corruption does not flourish in the Pacific nation, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer says.

So there you go! Piggy Downer, the bloke who couldn’t lie straight in bed, the one up to his shiny pink earlobes in the Oil for Food corruption, has become the champion of anti-corruption.

Of course, given his track record as a lying sleaze bag, the Solomon Islands political establishment is really going to sit up and take notice.

This is the very same maggot who is crapping over the self determination aspirations of the Solomon’s Melanesian mates over in West Papua. The same net stockinged nitwit who is covering the international but of the toad supreme, PM John Howard, as he sends the gun boats off to East Timor, against that country’s wishes.

This is the Australian version of Wolfowitz and his World Bank attack on corruption. Talk about ‘set a thief to catch a thief!” The only credible thing about these self proclaimed, international, ethics police, is that they have a wealth of first hand experience.

Doesn’t it just break you up when Bush or one of his flakes starts preaching to the world about ethics? When the US send of a team of specialists to some downtrodden country to conduct seminars on ethics and probity? It has me rolling around the floor!

The funny thing is, despite obvious perceptions curiously held by the ‘creationist’ types in our Christian society, these underdeveloped nations so subject to corruption are not populated by near relatives of the apes.

Melanesians, Africans, South Americans and all those assorted non whites actually exhibit a similar ratio of intelligence to imbecility as the US national capital. Perhaps that is a bad analogy, especially as an example for the Southern Baptists.

Quote of the week

“John Howard can be such a toad.”

Alan Ramsey Senior political writer for the Sydney Morning Herald

Dreams of a psephologist

Like every boy, I dreamed of being a psephologist when I grew up. I found out later that it is one of those niches where many might be called, but few are chosen. Needless to say, I was not one of those few, but still have enduring fascination with the political election process.
Okay, I will come clean. I was discouraged in my aim by the fact that everyone of my acquaintance thought that psephology was either a) an exotic sexual preference b) an obscure religion.
To my delight, I did discover that it was an interest, a passion, available to the ‘gentleman amateur’, although interest in things electoral still carries the perception of perversion.
That is a quick way of saying the impending, and wonderfully extended, vote fest in the USA will probably generate more than a few observations, in this blog, which are only marginally related to corruption.

The US federal electoral system is largely a mystery to me, sort of a psephologist’s ‘Karma Sutra’ in scope and weird details and arrangements. I can, from the outset, thank the Republican Party for simplifying the process somewhat, in that they seem to have found the key to registering votes many months ahead of e-day.
It is the mini-elections, a strange concept to me, that I will probably enjoy most, given early indications. News of these primary battles already has my saliva dripping obscenely.
Take this headline for example: Primary shakeout bodes ill for incumbents.
Okay, it was my headline, but the gist of the story is: Seventeen legislators, including the top two Senate leaders, were ousted Tuesday (May 16) in the biggest upheaval in a Keystone State primary in more than a quarter century.
Let’s put Joe Lieberman’s upcoming battle in Connecticut aside, I realize his case is different, and American’s deal out swift justice for those perceived to be traitors, political or otherwise.
The general, albeit early, trend of dumping incumbents raises questions in the mind of this observer. Is this where democracy actually occurs in the US federal system, or is it just ‘shuffling the deck chairs’ because voters can, or is a genuine exercise of democracy?
If primaries voters choose to dump their chosen parties incumbent, an obvious protest at something, will they throw their vote behind the usurper, switch parties along the process or simply not bother come November?

Throwing state races into the mix must present a high degree of confusion in the electorate. In civilized, Westminster type systems, elections for the various tiers of government are clearly separated.
The result of that separation is generally a sort of electoral schizophrenia, like in Australia with a conservative (Liberal) federal government and notionally leftist (Labor) state governments; or Britain where voters ten to punish the government of the day at the mid term municipal elections, as we recently witnessed.
I will be watching closely to determine if, when all the batter is thrown in one bowl, the buns come out of the oven uniform or reconstituted into their separate parts.
The Lieberman episode is throwing up one interesting observation on the efficacy of mixing elections in one pot. There should be a ‘battle royal’ in Connecticut to choose a successor to the corrupt (we managed linkage!) former governor Rowland.
By staging the big fight at the same time as the gubernatorial fight, promoters are failing to focus voter attention on the vital local bout. These are the primaries and already there is observable electoral overload.
I assume things well get even more difficult for the local support bouts as the major tussle, the presidential primaries, begin to bight.
I still hear the tired old catchphrase, “all politics is local.” I expect the big party steamrollers killed that notion off long ago. True there are pockets of resistance, pockets of special interests, but the ‘one size fits all’ campaign seems destined to swamp real local issues.

Excuse me while I puke

THE Prime Minister [Australia, John Howard] has launched a tirade against anti-Americanism, saying the world needs US influence as much as it ever did, if not more.

In an address to the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations John Howard aimed his comments at those inside and outside the US unhappy with the Bush Administration's foreign policy direction.

It is not my responsibility

Discussion of probity, or lack of it, in public life inevitably comes down to who, in the end, is responsible.

Under English parliamentary convention, which in this instance extends to the US, as well as British Commonwealth legislatures; final responsibility rests with elected officials and leaders.

To underscore the US aspect of this code, or convention is the famous Truman precedent; The Buck Stops Here.

Sadly, given the obviously loose interpretation of ‘buck’, Truman might have been better advised to use the word responsibility.

Legislators now argue that the size and complexity of the public services is such that they can no longer bear the responsibility for wrongdoing under their watch.

That is akin to saying their jobs are now redundant because the expectations are impossible to fill.
That might be so, but that does not stop people stepping forward to accept these impossible missions.

But is it impossible to implement and administer an effectively functioning public sector? Certainly the corporate giants don’t seem to have any great difficulty doing so, even if aspects of corruption are, at times, seen as the price of doing business.

But duck shoving (or buck shoving?) responsibility is rife throughout most government administrations. I was partly spurred to these thoughts by a blog post: Kvatch Kvetches 10 states including New York and California are suing the EPA

But Kvatch, of course, would never accept full responsibility, and nor should he with so many ripe examples available.
That example is one where the EPA and every other agency involved in various environmental issues all claim to lack the responsibility to act.

The recent Congress in Vietnam threw up a prime example when members discussed the rampant corruption in that state controlled country. In that regime, like governments of all colours, party membership obviously implies entitlement, but not responsibility. ODA corruption talk riles National Assembly

While speakers were unable to dismiss the level of corruption throughout the country, no one was willing to actually take the responsibility for effectively addressing the problem. Probity, it seems, is always someone else’s issue.

In the USA the potentially powerful Congressional Committee on Standards of Official Conduct has reneged on its vital role. Apparently the members of that body see their responsibility as protecting fellow lawmakers rather than the interests of the people who elected them (‘them’ in both senses).

Equally, the ongoing saga of corruption in the White House is not seen as a responsibility of the Administration to abide by the law, but as the responsibility of the media and others not to destabilize government.

In keeping with shifting responsibility to self-interest rather than community interest, the Australian government has gone through a blatantly transparent process of shifting both blame and ultimate responsibility in that countries ‘oil for food’ scandal.

Having consistently proclaimed his faith in the final outcome of the judicial inquiry, after facing the commission himself PM John Howard turned around and blamed the country’s wheat exporter, AWB, for the whole issue.

Meanwhile, Howard’s Foreign Minister was busy sheeting blame back to the UN who were busily deflecting it elsewhere.

We elect them, deputize them as it where, to act on out behalf. Even the most honest starters seem to be seduced by personal interest and party imperatives. And we let them continue to screw us, with little more than the odd show of disgust.

Sixteen months of shame

Seasoned corruption watchers have long since sidelined the House Ethics Committee as an effective or even relevant body. After 16 months of political gridlock – no, that is far too polite – of political game playing, this committee is finally getting down to action.
Not meaningful action, or effective action, but a sideshow contrived to limit damage on both sides.
Throughout one of the worst periods of public corruption in the country’s history, a good deal of it related to members of congress, these buffoons have shown the real depth of the ethical cancer in Washington.
With five members from each party, the committee has been committed to protecting their respective team rather than protecting the people from the greedy bastards who use high office to rob them blind.
Finally, with Louisiana Democrat, William Jefferson under a corruption cloud there is room to move. “Tell you what buddy! We are going to have to give up Jefferson, and you don’t have much room to move with Ney. How abouts we just concentrate on them, that way we are even.”
Well why not? The august committee is as useless as an ashtray on a motor bike. Ney and Jefferson will face public prosecutors if there is a case against them. Nothing lost.
Nothing lost, except the useless drongos might as well maintain their usual moribund state.
Where, out of that 16 months, are the ethical guideline to which members are expected to adhere? Where are the ‘please explain?’ letters to members who are apparently falling short of expectations? Where are the investigations into numerous complaints against members?
Don’t trouble yourselves now; the people will hardly miss your continued inactivity.  
The shame rests not just with these ten clowns, but with congress as a whole. But in the end, what sort of respect can these people really expect now?

Who are these people?
COMMITTEE ON STANDARDS OF OFFICIAL CONDUCT
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES WASHINGTON, D.C. 20515
Republicans:
Doc Hastings, Washington, Chairman
Judy Biggert, Illinois
Lamar Smith, Texas
Melissa Hart, Pennsylvania
Tom Cole, Oklahoma
Democrats:
Howard L. Berman, California Ranking Minority Member
Stephanie Tubbs Jones, Ohio
Gene Green, Texas
Lucille Roybal-Allard, California
Michael F. Doyle, Pennsylvania

Why indict Rove...

I don’t really want to travel down the Rove indictment line. There is plenty of great commentary on the Fitzgerald, Leopold, Luskin thread.
What fascinates me is that Karl Rove is seen, universally, as the creator of politically effective lies. That is his job, to be the dishonest trench fighter of the Bush administration.
It is a job for which he either hailed or vilified, depending on your political persuasion, but is never treated as an irrelevance.
Now most of us would claim to be the mythical, piano player in a brothel, before we would admit to be an institutional cheat and liar. Not our Karl and his supporters, they are quite candid about this otherwise disreputable role.
The fact is, give the man’s reputation, there should simply be no place for him near the top of the International power house.
What kind of men and women are these elected representatives who would sit with and be persuaded on policy by such a man? Where are their ethical considerations?
What of those who claim to be Christian leaders, who so readily see virtue in the man where no definable Christian virtue exists?
What of the national leader, the President? What kind of man is he that he would even allow the likes of Rove into the District of Columbia, let alone into his confidence?
Karl Rove seems to me, no matter how guilty or otherwise on one specific issue, to represent the malaise which is bringing the US and her close allies into disrepute internationally.
Washington has been described, back in Lincoln’s time, as a fetid, stinking swamp. For all the surface charm, that description seems just as true today. Why just indict Rove, he is just one man. Even without him loathsome power games will continue.

A Brush with the Tar Baby

Prior to the “who is going to replace McClellan” chatter I had never heard of Tony Snow. Well, as much as I’m a news junkie I am fairly selective on the sources.

Having been involved at various times, as a journalist and a mouthpiece, I think I have a reasonable understanding of the dynamics of his situation.

Mind you, I don’t see Snow so much a journalist and an entertainer, which is probably what Bolton/Bush wanted out in front. That makes the job for Snow, lacking in essential ‘gravitas’, all the more problematic.

So, to be as fair as possible, we went and found the video and transcript of Tony’s big day out. Suzanne Malveaux, of CNN described him thusly: obviously a sense of humility, a sense of humor and a really kind of a bluntness, a sense of honesty that is refreshing to many people in the room.

That summary seems, to my perception at least, as ‘gilding the lily’. An open and freewheeling, ‘look, I’m one of you’ approach is fraught with dangers.

The most obvious are the verbal asides one might use among trusted friends, and he is trying to convey the ‘trusted friend’ approach; but ‘tar babies’? Or raising issues, like poll driven policies, then backtracking when questioners make the obvious connections.

The bottom line is that Snow is required to say absolutely nothing in the most entertaining, diverting and credible way.

The media, on the other hand, have a duty to their audience to get under the issues and winkle out facts. Perhaps White House briefings aren’t the place to do that, but they must be more than captive PR sessions for the President.

Snow has obviously found some ready sycophants among the press core. The aforementioned Malveaux has been quick to brand properly inquiring reporters as ‘class bullies’.

Fox’s Wendell Goler attacked the tenacious Helen Thomas; a foolish move on his part. She has freely subjected herself to satire, raising her status enormously in the process. Even Americans can appreciate someone who is willing to laugh at their own expense.

Faced with the tony Snow Show, in place of informative briefings, the White House press corps will need to develop a healthy cynicism. Snow’s use of the yellow wrist band has shown he’s not afraid of a bit of cynicism.

Let’s face it; he’s the mouthpiece, not the subject of these briefings. Seeking some respite through personal misfortune is a sham. If he only got one testicle it is his problem. If the lack of a testicle gets in the way of doing his job, then he shouldn’t do it. Bugger the tears for Tony, even if he has got balls he’ll never be allowed to demonstrate the fact from that podium.

For everyone else’s sake, let us hope the majority of the press core has the metaphorical balls to demand more than pure entertainment. Let Tony really ‘meet the press’ and find out what being a tar baby really means.

Still on spying

While we are on this spying business, you really have to wonder how good they are when they can’t even defend themselves against the ‘big lie’.
The nonsense of the Pentagon’s much trumped video release, the one designed to kill off conspiracy theories, the one carrying the wrong date, (see Kvatch Whoops! What was that date again?), underscores the incompetence.
When the shit hit the fan over failure of security services to head off 9/11 the CIA took the hit. Why, you might ask, should the country’s foreign spy service take the blame for failing to detect activities which are the responsibility of the internal service, the FBI?
The probable answer is that the administration wants to diminish the CIA’s role, or kill it off entirely, to be replaced by their own hand moulded organization.
Given that the CIA has been reduced to a state where they can no longer effectively defend themselves, there is no doubt argument that it is ‘past its use by date.’
Given the level of incompetence demonstrated by most of the Bush administration, and particularly Homeland Security, any replacement might be more at home as a prime time TV sitcom.

There is no real democracy

The Bush administration isn’t the only ones caught out spying on their own citizens. More to the point German spies, like their US counterparts, have been caught phone tapping journalists in an effort to trace their sources.
The defence of these type of activities has always been, ‘if you are innocent you have nothing to worry about.’ Innocent of what; innocent of seeking truth and exposing crooked corrupt governments and officials?
The other side of the coin is ‘if you haven’t done anything wrong, you don’t have anything to hide’. Well Mr President, I guess your snooping on citizens, and on journalist to plug those nasty leaks make it abundantly clear that you have something to hide.
Unlike the American administration, the German government, in fact the German body politic, is highly embarrassed by revelations of internal spying by their Federal Intelligence Service (BND). According to leaked report, the BND spied on far more journalists than previously known as well as hired some as informants in order to find out the source of leaks from the BND to the press. The story sounds familiar so far.
Hamburg-based news magazine Stern reported in its edition due out on Thursday that a bugging device had been found in the apartment of one of its journalists, Peter Schütz, who often covered arms deals and BND activities.
The magazine said that although the complete bugging mechanism could not be found, experts concluded it "bore all the hallmarks of the secret services."
Some members of parliament have threatened to widen an ongoing probe into the BND's activities abroad. The Federal Intelligence Service is already subject to an inquiry over the role two of its agents played in helping the US in the invasion of Iraq.
The whole concept of modern democracies spying on their citizens, journalists or otherwise, belies the vision of mature homogenous societies. In place of the transparency, which western democracies try to force on less developed economies, we seem stuck in the same old ‘dog eat dog’ rut.
The problem is, we are electing, or allowing the election of, vicious dogs that have no problem with eating the rest of us and pissing on the bones. Our governments are no better than the old Soviet governments they so soundly vilified. There is no real democracy, just a sham, a PR trick to keep the rest of us in order.

Rupert the political meddler

Media baron Rupert Murdoch says it might be time for Prime Minister John Howard to resign, while he is at the top of his game.


Speaking to ABC radio outside a White House dinner to honour Mr Howard, the News Corp chairman said he was not privy to the Prime Minister's thoughts.


But asked if he agreed with comments by President Bush that Mr Howard may outlast him, Mr Murdoch hinted that the Prime Minister may choose to go sooner.


Australian Financial Review journalist Neil Chenoweth, a biographer of Mr Murdoch, said Mr Murdoch's comments were highly significant.



Chenoweth said Mr Murdoch had a record of switching his support for political leaders when he senses change was inevitable.

I must admit, if it was anyone other than Murdoch putting the skids under Howard I would be cheering. As it is, I resent rapacious media bastards pulling the political strings.

As they say in Australia, "get a dog up you Rupert!"

Bush: we do not listen to domestic phone calls

At a news conference with [Australian] Prime Minister John Howard, Mr Bush again defended phone and e-mail monitoring as necessary to "connect dots to protect the American people" against Al-Qaeda terrorists.
"I’ve also been clear about the fact that we do not listen to domestic phone calls without court approval and that this Government will continue to guard the privacy of the American people," he said.
But Mr Bush responded carefully when asked about reports of a controversial program run by the National Security Agency (NSA) to compile a database with tens of millions of phone records supplied by US phone companies.
A reporter asked: "You’ve said that the Government is not trolling through the lives of innocent Americans, but why shouldn’t ordinary people feel that their privacy is invaded by the NSA compiling a list of their telephone calls?"
The President responded, "The program he’s asking about is one that has been fully briefed to members of the United States Congress in both political parties. They’re very aware of what is taking place."
From: Bush admits anti-terror data base

Book burning comes next

Don't trust books either, according to Mark Vaile.


Australia’s Deputy Prime, Minister Mark Vaile, is seeking a review of sedition laws that have been unable to outlaw books glorifying suicide bombings and espousing hatred of the West.

Vaile said that federal law agencies would be asked for advice on how to change sedition laws after an investigation spearheaded by the Australian Federal Police failed to lead to prosecution against inflammatory literature on sale in Sydney's west.

The Australian Federal Police and the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions ruled that the books under question did not contravene sedition laws.

"Nothing in the books fell under anything in those laws," said a federal police spokeswoman, who added that the potential dangers in the books' violent messages were negated in terms of the context and the time in which they were written.


Vaile says, “We’re seeking further advice from our agencies as to whether there is any appropriate additional safeguards which are needed to protect the community from material which incites violence”.

He said that if further changes were recommended, the Prime Minister would broach the issue at the next Council of Australian Governments meeting, seeking a joint response to changing Commonwealth, state and territory criminal codes.


The Federal Opposition has criticised the sedition laws introduced last year for being too draconian on freedom of speech, yet narrow in that they appear to only criminalise acts viewed as undermining a government.


Now here is one of the few advantages of having a foreign head of state; The Queen of England isn’t all that interested in any prerogative to interpret Australian law for political ends and a Prime Minister doesn’t have the same grunt as a President.

I would have thought Mark Vaile had enough on his plate interpreting tacit approval of bribery and kickbacks to Saddam’s war machine without worrying about what constitutes seditious literature.

We seem doomed to be plagued by ignorant, paranoid conservatives who see evil in books rather than in actions, including their own.

Corrupting the language

It is a while since we’ve had a look at corruption language. I was reminded by a story doing the press rounds, headlined: Ney, Ensnared in Scandal, Avers Innocence. To be fair, Nay was not quoted Averring. Doubtless the word came from the keyboard of an overenthusiastic journalist.
So does ‘to aver innocence’ make Ney’s position better or worse?

AVER:

1. To assert formally as a fact.


2. To justify or prove.

Ney reportedly spoke to fellow Republicans because "he thought it was important, especially in light of the recent news, for members (of the House) to hear directly from him instead of reading about it in the newspapers."
He told fellow Republican lawmakers Wednesday he is innocent of wrongdoing and determined to seek a new term this fall, according to GOP sources.
Oh! Innocent, that is not quite the same as aver. In fact the anonymous source reporting on this closed door meeting did not use the word aver, at least not in the report. So I guess we can safely wait for an investigation finding now.

The Skinny on the Ney drama:
Bob Ney is the Republican congressman from Ohio's 18th District.
Neil Volz is the man who spent seven years on Mr. Ney's staff as press secretary and later chief of staff, admitted his role in conspiring to corrupt his boss with gratuities in return for official acts performed.
Jack Abramoff is the lobbyist who was brazen enough to get caught buying US lawmakers.
In court documents filed by federal prosecutors, Volz cites more than a dozen actions his old boss took on behalf of Abramoff clients in exchange for a "stream of things of value" supplied to the congressman.

White House Entertainment Network Review

Or trying to stay on top of the endless Washington scandals (For those who don’t immediately recognize the fact, this is satire!)

The Terror Show
Format: Based on proven past performers, this show was developed by VPOTUS aka The smoking Pen and produced by POTUS aka The Decider.
A special production team, Homeland Security was quickly assembled to get this show launched, but rating went through the roof when the war episodes Afghanistan - get Bin laden, and Iraq – American Democracy Everywhere, where introduced.
Ratings are slipping as other shows claim the limelight. The producers might need to pull teams from this show to bolster ratings with another war episode. Iran, No you can’t have the Bomb is a possible theme for the next series.
I can hear You! – This show is really starting to rate.
Another spinoff from Intrigue Central and original concept reality show by the remarkable POTUS, The Decider. What makes this reality show different is that contestants, drawn from the audience, are included in the game without their knowledge.
Early feedback suggests viewers are not particularly keen on the candid camera (or secret cell phone) format delving into their lives.

The Plame Affair had it’s beginnings in the Terror Show, Iraq – American Democracy Everywhere episodes. It proved so popular and enduring a spin-off series quickly resulted. The cast is monumental although the lead role, surprisingly, is being avoided by most of the top players:
Scooter Libby wants out of this show. He’s trying to hand over to;
Karl Rove. Did he know? Did he tell? Is he the next big star to feature in this series, or is he about to dump it like a hot potato? Who would catch the roll?
VPOTUS aks The Smoking Pen is content with his job as producer, but serious reviewers are keen to see him take the lead in the Plame Affair.
Abramoff Gang
Too much drama in the early days of this show. Abramoff and friends are busy talking about future plots for the program’s inevitable return. Some reviewers believe Abramoff’s greed, in capturing the lead role, distracts attention from some far more worthy players.
One player able to rest some attention from the star is Tom DeLay. However reviewers suggest that he damaged his high profile potential by dumping his other main role ‘leader of the house majority – The Hammer’.
For serious viewers, the Abramoff Gang promises to deliver sporadic, high quality episodes.


To catch a Spy
This is a spin-off of a show most of us thought dead and buried, Top Shot, the Randy Duke Show. Talk about bringing the murdered star back to life. This plot is right out of Dallas, with a little bit of Elliot Ness stirred in.
After the original series ended, entrepreneurs extraordinary, FBI Inc sat down and did a complete rewrite. The ‘Defense Contractor’ from the first show became the Washington Pimp. Writers took the brave step of writing in even more congressmen, as well as CIA operatives and arms buyers.
It is hard to say where the writers will take this plot. It is already in the realms of the ‘fantastic’. The inclusion of prostitutes gave a wonderfully titillating touch, but that was positively explosive when they were revealed as gay prostitutes.
The show also includes cheeky references to POTUS – The Decider. The latest episode includes scenes where POTUS nominates his favourite general to lead the CIA, only to have the hapless soldier named in dispatches by FBI Inc.

The Mexicans are Coming is a show aimed directly at a minority audience – the filthy rich. Unfortunately this show suffers from a sense that ‘The Mexicans are already here,’ relieving it of much of its potential drama.
S&M at the Bay
Lots of hideously gruesome torture and abuse in this one for those who enjoy that something special. Obviously the core audience is very small and the concept hasn’t caught fire in the US. Some suggest that many of the names in this show are just too difficult for the average viewer.Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, for example, don’t roll off the tongue. Many of the main players are foreigners, which also works against the shows success.

Horsies, with Katherine Harris. This has been a largely failed attempt to lift rating by introducing sex, We all know sex sells, but reviewers have consistently panned this show because it lacks the vital ingredient; sex. “The whole thing is over-inflated,” one unnamed reviewer said. “Well both of them, actually,” he added.
The show is said to be a big hit in the male recreation rooms of Florida aged care homes.


Intrigue Central keeps trying to improve interest and ratings in its flagging formats. The difficulty of signing up new talent, in the face of so much high rating competition in the new lineup is obvious.
A few of the bit players have been given larger roles, but fail to create excitement. The much anticipated introduction of new star, Fox’s Tony Snow, is stirring up a little excitement. However viewers doubt that he will have the same ‘stone wall’ presence of the man he replaces.
Intrigue Centrals new producer, ‘Lightning’ Bolton still needs to pull something out of the bag here.
Side Show – Love the Decider. The concept here was to drive the main shows popularity by lifting the public visibility of POTUS, then feeding back the popularity ratings. The difficulty arose, once the process began, and the popularity of The Decider turned out to be negligible. Once the show was announced, producers have been unable to withdraw it from an audience hungry for the discomfort of others.

User Pays, subtitles Gas through the Roof. Nervous sponsors of Intrigue Central have been keen to maximize their profits now, in case the show really flops. As these are mainly oil interests, they have decided on a user pays system. If you choose to support POTUS’s programs then you can pay more for your gas. Not popular perhaps, but viewers seem too addicted to the network to be able to break the habit.

Katrina – The network is still having problems from the intrusion of the whirlwind Katrina show. This one off show swamped ratings and totally surprised the network when it hit. Intrigue Central hired contactor, Flaky Brown Leaves, in what has been described as a humanitarian gesture, to recover funs lost by Katrina.
VPOTUS – The Smoking Pen, rather than claim kudos for this move, leaked a memo detailing how orphans and cripples would benefit from the good works. Such a nice man.

Giving You the Break – Another spin-off, with minority appeal – the filthy rich. POTUS has focused on potential investors to save the network from financial ruin. “Here is how it works,” POTUS announced. “I give you two buckets of money, then you bring one back later and leave it on the doorstep.” The wider audience watched ‘bemused’ according to reports. “It’s all just over their heads,” a smiling POTUS claimed.

Planting ceremony

The australian PM, Howard, points out his preferred plot.

UPDATE:

IS there nothing George W. Bush won't do for John Howard? Not only has the US President laid on an official state visit, complete with a black-tie soiree at the White House, he was even prepared to miss the final episode of the TV series The West Wing to dine with his Aussie mate.
From Rupert's The Australian

Rupert et al attack sedition laws

Major media proprietors, including Rupert Murdoch, are pushing for the abolition or amendment to Australia’s sedition laws. The laws were part of the anti-terrorism legislation rushed through parliament last year.

Fairfax's (Sydney Morning Herald – Age) corporate affairs director, Bruce Wolpe, said: "We think that the law is poorly written, will not contribute to law enforcement and absolutely threatens to gag robust political coverage."

The sedition offence includes "urging the use of force or violence" to overthrow the government, to interfere with an election, or to urge others to assist an organisation or country engaged in armed hostilities with Australia or to urge others to engage in violence against particular groups in the community.

The publishers warn that they risk court for reporting, for example, comments supportive of the defeat of US and Australian goals in Iraq on the grounds that it amounted to support for terrorists.

They say such a report might fall foul of the new offence of "urging" communal violence that threatens the peace, order and good government of the Commonwealth, if it was seen to cause friction between groups here.

Under the sedition measures, anyone convicted of urging a group to use force or violence against another group could be jailed for up to seven years.

Civil libertarians, artists and a Senate committee have also called for the sedition laws to be scrapped. The Government insists that they will not stifle fair comment.

The laws seem to have more to do with creating fear in the country than providing protective measures against potential terrorism.

While a number of suspected terrorists have been detained since the provisions were rushed into law, none of the investigations or arrests have relied on any aspect of the new code. In every case the standing criminal code has been sufficient to deal with these situations.

The proprietors say there is no real reason for sedition laws that are a threat to journalists, cartoonists, commentators filmmakers and TV hosts alike.

The laws are nothing more than an abuse of power by the Australian government; an abuse which has already triggered unnecessary community trouble.

Making waves in Paradise

The Australian government is determined to play bully in the Asia-Pacific region. If East Timor does not have sufficient troubles, John Howard is more than ready to add more.

IT WAS not unusual that the East Timorese Government was unaware of the Australian military deployment towards its shores, the Prime Minister, John Howard, said yesterday.

East Timor's Foreign Minister, Jose Ramos Horta, complained at the weekend that the Australian Government had not informed him of the deployment of ships and troops.

PM Howard said there was no reason to tell the Timorese.
"Naturally, what happens in relation to Australian military assets is a matter for Australia," he said.

Fitzgerald: Enter Cheney...

THE US prosecutor in the CIA leak case has told a court his evidence will include a newspaper article with handwritten notes by the Vice-President, Dick Cheney, referring to Valerie Plame shortly before she was exposed as a CIA operative.
The special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald said in the pre-trial filing on Friday that the notes showed Mr Cheney and his former chief-of-staff Lewis Libby were "acutely focused" on the July 6, 2003, article written by Ms Plame's husband, Joseph Wilson, a Bush Administration critic and former US ambassador.
"Have they done this sort of thing before?" Mr Cheney wrote. "Send an amb[assador] to answer a question? Do we ordinarily send people out pro bono to work for us? Or did his wife send him on a junket?"

Out of fairness to the newspaper I will leave the rest of this story to the Sydney Morning Herald.

Seasprite down

A friend recently asked me why the US or Australia did not deploy helicopters in Tonga after their recent 6+ magnitude earthquake. The issue for the Tongans was that many outlying, low lying islands in the group are difficult to monitor in a major disaster.

A week later, Australia was asked by the UN to deploy urgently needed helicopters in Sudan, to help the plight of the people of Dafur. Australia’s UN ambassador Robert Hill responded:

The UN was "always after air transport and helicopters", he said, but warned that Australia would find it particularly difficult to meet any requests for its Blackhawk choppers.

"We've got helicopters in Afghanistan now, but it would be quite a big decision to deploy Blackhawks to Africa,"

Effectively equipping a military force, to cover a multitude of operational needs, is always plagued with difficulties.

Helicopters seem to be one of the constant areas of difficulty. Smaller forces like Canada and Australia have been vital elements in world peace keeping. Both are constantly confounded by the problems with aging or unsuitable helicopter fleets.

The Blackhawk issues are common to all the military forces using them. AS urgently as these machines might be needed in Sudan or Tonga or in other emergencies, there are simply not the available resources to deploy.

Now the Australian navy's trouble-plagued Super Seasprite helicopter fleet has been grounded and the $1 billion program is at risk of being scrapped amid concerns the aircraft is unsafe to fly.

Nearly six years after they were due to enter service, the Seasprites, a vital anti-submarine and anti-shipping aircraft for the Navy's Anzac-class frigates, have been banned indefinitely from operational flying.

Ten of the contracted aircraft have been delivered to the navy's HMAS Albatross base at Nowra but none has been accepted into full operational service. A senior Defence source said last night that the cheapest solution was to finish the Seasprite program.

If the aircraft is scrapped as a ship-borne war-fighting machine, the Government could turn to the US Seahawk helicopter or the European NH-90, at a replacement cost of more than $1 billion.

The grounding of the Seasprites is a particular blow for the navy's 805 squadron, which has been working to train aircrew and ready the aircraft for service on the Anzac frigates. Defence sources say the squadron will now almost certainly have to be downsized.

More to the point, a blowout in the cost of maintaining a helicopter fleet must also reduce Australia’s capacity to respond to emergencies.

As I pointed out to my friend as to why Tonga wasn't given helicopter assistance, even if they cared, Australia did not have the capacity to respond to the need.

Iraq Update

More than 30 people were killed in a spate of attacks in Iraq today, including 14 dead in a double suicide bombing near Baghdad airport, Iraqi and US security officials said.

Yesterday, two British soldiers were killed and one other wounded in a roadside bombing in the southern port city of Basra, the defence ministry in London said.

Melbourne Age

Stretched for disaster at home

From the point of view of the Australian Defence Association, the country’s current military commitments underscore their belief that the military is under-resourced.
For those of us concerned at the potential for new conflicts, such as the US hard line on Iran, seeing the military with their hands full is great news.

(picture: Reserve Group Captain George Merridew on disaster preparedness)

A Sydney Morning Herald report gives some more insight into the constraints on any further commitment to Bush’s plans.
Australia's defence force is being stretched to the limit by the current deployment of warships to northern waters, according to the Australia Defence Association.

Amphibious transport ships HMAS Kanimbla and HMAS Manoora are currently heading north, ready to be called into service if East Timor requests assistance.
Prime Minister Howard has refused to confirm whether Australia could send 1,000 troops into East Timor, its biggest deployment since leading a peace mission in the fledgling country in 1999.
With a total of about 2,500 Australian troops currently stationed in the Middle East, Afghanistan and the Solomon Islands, Australia Defence Association executive director Neil James claims Australia's defence force was running at full capacity.
James is quoted as saying: "There's no doubt that elements of the defence force are stretched, particularly, for example, capabilities like infantry.
"But they're not yet overstretched and we're certainly not in the area of operational strain."

Despite the Howard government’s rhetoric on Australia’s vulnerability to terror attacks, the real under-resourcing issue in a potential inability to cope with a disaster situation.
Group Captain George Merridew told a scientific meeting in Adelaide that the nation's civilian medical services were critically under-resourced.
Dr Merridew, an Australian Defence Force reservist was medical director of intensive care at a US Air Force hospital north of Baghdad in Iraq last year.
He says injured people would be left to die because of Australia's lack of preparedness for a major terrorist attack or tsunami-level disaster.
He called for formal agreements involving state and federal governments to be put in place to pay private hospitals to provide excess capacity at short notice.
Private hospital surgeons and staff also would have to be compensated because in a major disaster significant numbers would be uninsured or non-national.
"Instead of total chaos and no way of knowing how any of this could be done, suddenly there is a way. You have half-a-dozen to start with, put them on the first train and off they go. Over the next week it would be easy in principle to send up another 50."

More enthusiasm please

A lone protester has heckled Australia's prime minister as he returned from lunch with US Vice-President Dick Cheney in Washington.

Construction worker Jay Marx, 36, repeatedly shouted "John Howard, get out of Iraq. The Bush administration is a sinking ship" as Howard spoke to waiting Australian journalists outside Blair House, the official residence where he and his wife Janette are guests of US President George W Bush.


Just one lone protester? That is pathetic. Well perhaps it is because no one in the US recognises him.

Well there he is on the right, which is appropriate. Now how about getting out there in some decent numbers and give hin the shit he deserves!