Mark Latham’s offer of $800 million compensation to Tasmania to protect Tasmania’s old growth forests was trumped by a secret $4 million to a forestry union outfit 3 days before the last election
Senator Christine Milne gave a interesting adjournment speech about the culture of fear, intimidation and menace that currently exists in Tasmania as a means of maintaining the power of the forest industry in Tasmania, particularly by Gunns Ltd which, in fact, has become the de facto government of Tasmania and the puppet-master of the Labor Lennon government
. She specifically talks about how their conniving screwed over a young journalist, Wes Young
The retarded monkey boy has asked Congress to consider giving him powers to use the military to enforce quarantines in case of an avian influenza epidemic. He said the military, and perhaps the National Guard, might be needed to take such a role if the feared H5N1 bird flu virus changes enough to cause widespread human infection
The Australian Medical Association is backing calls for the Federal Government to consider making a drug used as an alternative to surgical abortion more readily available. The Australian Democrats are seeking to overturn a government decision to ban the use of the drug
Centrelink has barred staff from accessing a union web site as the agency’s 25,000 workers in Victoria today start three weeks of rolling national stoppages. The Community and Public Sector Union claims the agency blocked access to its web site on Friday just as it started an online survey on the latest wage offer
The leader of the Republican Party in the US House of Representatives, Tom DeLay, has been indicted on a criminal conspiracy charge over an illegal campaign finance scheme. A Texas grand jury has charged DeLay and two associates with orchestrating political donations to local Republicans, knowing the donations were illegal
Queensland Premier Peter Beattie has urged the Commonwealth to rewrite its proposed new anti-terrorism laws, saying the laws could undermine basic rights. Prime Minister John Howard will meet state and territory leaders on Tuesday to discuss the 12-point anti-terrorism package that would give police extra powers to stop and search people, and allow suspects to be held for up to 14 days without being charged. Civil libertarians and academics says the measures will unfairly target the nation’s Muslim community
Copyright terms have been continually extended since they were passed into English law by the Statute of Queen Anne. As these monopoly rights have grown, so the public domain has shrunk, greatly reducing our access to creative works, condemning vast quantities of our culture to obscurity and disappearance, and limiting the opportunities for future creators to build upon the works of the past. The 14+14 campaign has a simple goal: to restore a balance long lost by returning copyright to its original term as laid down in the Statute of 14 years with the option of a 14 year renewal — via BoingBoing
Manilla Road is a State/RTA funded road. Do not blame Tamworth City Council.
Sign seen by the side of the road during a roadworks created hold-up
The final plan for managing protected grey wolves that migrate into Oregon will prohibit ranchers from killing wolves that attack livestock and will not include compensation for losses to wolf attacks — via Tidepool
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez told a UN summit that fighting the war in Iraq without UN authorisation showed Washington did not respect the world body. He recommended moving UN headquarters to a country that has more regard for the organisation. He won rousing applause for his critique
Activist’s Arrest Prompts Questions About Security Powers
Human rights lawyer Julian Burnside QC has questioned whether the Federal Government has abused its powers by planning to deport Scott Parkin, an American peace activist. Greens Senator Bob Brown has described Mr Parkin’s detention and probable deportation as an abuse of ASIO’s powers. To add insult to injury, John Howard‘s minions have charged Scott Parkin $11,000 for sending him back to the US
Two activists in Massachusetts are planning to create an online database of all the 65,825 people who signed a recent petition calling for a ballot question to ban gay marriages in the state. The activists say that the online list — which will include the names, street addresses, hometowns and ZIP codes of all the homophobes who signed — will help gay people to determine if their friends and neighbours are secretly bigots — via BoingBoing
US authorities have backed off a proposed ban by the US military on journalists and photographers documenting the recovery of bodies in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. CNN filed a suit in the US District Court in Houston to halt government efforts to exclude the media, rejecting the official argument that the television images would not respect the privacy of the dead. A judge granted CNN a temporary restraining order, prompting the Government back off the zero access
policy
Federal Emergency Management Agency — whose three top jobs went to the retarded monkey boy‘s political cronies with no apparent experience coping with catastrophes — has been spending its time blocking relief efforts instead of helping the people of New Orleans
An offer of aid from the Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez, which included two mobile hospital units, 120 rescue and first aid experts and 50 tonnes of food, has been rejected, according to the civil rights leader, Jesse Jackson
The US government agency leading the rescue efforts after Hurricane Katrina said it does not want the news media to take photographs of the dead as they are recovered from the flooded New Orleans area. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, heavily criticised for its slow response to the devastation caused by the hurricane, rejected requests from journalists to accompany rescue boats as they went out to search for storm victims
Massachusetts has cited legal concerns over Microsoft’s software as a factor behind its decision to only use document formats based on open standards
According to the American Red Cross site: The state Homeland Security Department had requested — and continues to request — that the American Red Cross not come back into New Orleans following the hurricane. Our presence would keep people from evacuating and encourage others to come into the city. Access to New Orleans is controlled by the National Guard and local authorities and while we are in constant contact with them, we simply cannot enter New Orleans against their orders
—via Warren Ellis
The police are looting. This has been confirmed by several independent sources. Some of the looting might be legitimate
in as much as that word has any meaning in this context. They have broken into ATMs and safes: confirmed. We have eyewitnesses to this. They have taken dozens of SUVs from dealerships ostensibly for official use. They have also looted gun stores and pawn shops for all the small arms, supposedly to prevent criminals
from doing so. But who knows their true intentions. We have an inside source in the NOPD who says that command and control is in chaos — via Warren Ellis
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