Guantanamo Bay, Howard’s Waterloo

Cunningham MP Michael Organ has claimed that the Howard government’s mealy-mouthed subservience to the United States has been exposed by British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s persistence. ‘While our government washes its hands of Australians David Hicks and Mamdouh Habib, Mr Blair has apparently won agreement from US President George Bush that nine British nationals detained in Camp X-Ray at Cuba’s Guantanamo Bay can be returned to the UK for trial’

White Australia Policy Alive and Well

Two days ago a boat load of Turkish Kurds arrived in Northern Australia by leaky boat. Both the foreign minister and the immigration minister stated unequivocally that ‘The passengers of the Minasa Bone did not claim asylum in Australia’. This is in spite of the fact that we can be reasonably certain that at least one of them was begging a Turkish interpreter, in Turkish, to be allowed to stay. But even if they were granted a Temporary Protection Visa, they would be forced into prison camps in inhospitable parts of Australia for years before being shipped back to their homeland to be killed

Imagine a UN-Run Internet

Small countries in the United Nations have been arguing to put the Internet under the control of the UN so that countries can more easily control Internet content. It’s on hold for now, but this could become a very real censorship problem, very soon. Some nations have gone so far as to suggest ‘monitoring boards’ for internet content

Political Compass

Tooling around with the Political Compass test today. Much like HogBlog, I guessed correctly that I would get lumped under the hard libertarian left box.

Economic Left/Right: -8.62
Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.46

I figure it would probably have been more Libertarian if I wasn’t easily bored by surveys. Regardless of that, at the outcome of the test you will be prompted to check out the writings of people of the same political persuasion and I wasn’t at all surprised to find I already have half the books on the list.

Anti-Bush Stance Carried to Grave

Gertrude Jones didn’t want flowers or cards when she died. She wanted to get rid of the retarded monkey boy. The 81-year-old woman’s obituary asked that memorial donations be given to any organisation that seeks the removal of President Bush from office. And people across the country are following her wishes

Wider Use of Navy Sonar Approved by House

Weeks after a groundbreaking scientific study said naval sonar appears to be killing marine mammals, the Bush administration yesterday won House approval to use sonar wherever Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld sees fit. Passage next week by the Senate is virtually assured

Guy Fawkes’ Explosion Would Have Devastated London

Experts at the University of Wales in Aberystwyth have worked out for the first time the true extent of the damage Guy Fawkes would have caused if his daring deed had not been foiled on 5 November 1605. They found that within a radius of about 40m, everything would have been razed to the ground. Within 110m, buildings would have been at least partially destroyed. And some windows would have been blown out even as far as 900m away

Game Board Meeting Draws Howls

Three dozen protesters howled and prowled the sidewalk outside the Alaska Board of Game meeting in Spenard on Monday, hoping to raise enough ruckus to stop the board’s planned resumption of aerial wolf kills. Nevertheless, the Game Board today is expected to authorise the first aerial predator control program in Alaska in more than 15 years, using a new state law that allows private pilots to participate