Quote of the week...
Stephen Colbert host of Comedy Central's "
The Colbert Report" at the White House Correspondents dinner in Washington...
"I believe that the government that governs best is a government that governs least, and by these standards we have set up a fabulous government in Iraq,"Taken from
here...
Update...For a 7 minute clip of Colbert's address check out hedonistica
here...
Senator Barney Looses the Plot...
In what could be contrasted to the ramblings of an oversized purple dinosaur, Australian Senator Barnaby Joyce has announced that Australia should mine in Antarctica...
Courtesy of news.com.au ...
"We claim 42 per cent of the Antarctic but that claim is not recognised by quite a large number of countries," Senator Joyce said. "There's minerals there, there's gold, there's iron ore, there's coal, there's huge fish resources and what you have to ask is: 'Do I turn my head and allow another country to exploit my resource ... or do I position myself in such a way as I'm going to exploit it myself before they get there'." Australia did not have the power to keep the Antarctic in a pristine state and should look at exploiting the region in a sustainable way, he said.It sounds like such an odd thing to say... 'No one recognises our claim on the land.... so let's mine anyway'... Then again given the Howard regimes history with international treaties, you could hardly find it surprising...
Senator Joyce was sent to Antarctica for a month by the PM after he "crossed the floor" to defeat a government bill...
I can't help but think he's baring a stronger resemblance to the beloved stuffed puppet like dinosaur more and more each day.
Who's that man in the Sudan
George Clooney is making a plea for international help in the Darfur region of the Sudan by lending his star power to help draw attention to the issues that have been largely ignored or dismissed by the rest of the world. George is definately not just a pretty face. With his recent movies and his trip to the Sudan I gain more respect for the man and find myself becoming a bigger fan.
Italian Election Conclusion
As you can no doubt tell from previous posts, I took a minor interest in the Italian election that was held not so long ago. I'm not sure why, so let's stick with the why not...
It only feels right that I mention this small article in Queenslands'
The Sunday Mail (April 23 p.33)
Berlusconi's SwansongItaly's outgoing Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi last night acknowledged defeat with a song composed for the occasion after a bitterly fought election and a failed recount battle."Let us go, leave everything behind, leave the newspapers, the tv, the (political) parties, leave those who don't want me any more," he sang at a meeting of his Forza Italia party.That's right folks Berlusconi sung his concession speech...
I don't know what to say... or sing for that matter...
Points of interest
Just kicking back reading one of the better Australian political journals,
The Diplomat, and stumbled across a couple of interesting stories I thought I'd pass on...
Habib Hush Money... Australian terrorism suspect Mamdouh Habib was the subject of 'rendition' to Egypt by the US Government in 2002. He claimed ASIO (Australian Secret Intelligence Organisation) officers interviewed him at the Cairo jail where he was tortured. Now it has been reported that there has been an out of court settlement with ASIO. Nobody is saying how many taxpayer dollars were handed over. Could it be best described as hush money? And was this a case of, not unlike the AWB fiasco, implausible deniability?Sandline in Iraq... concerning Tim Spicer, the boss of Sandline, the group of "security specialists" who created havoc in Papua New Guinea in the 1990's by leading mercenaries contracted to recover from secessionists a copper and gold mine on Bougainville. Foreign Minister Alexander Downer openly condemned the interference and Spicer was eventually arrested and expelled. Close ties with British intelligence may have saved him from a long jail spell. He now leads Aegis Defence Services, a London-based security company operating in Iraq, under a multi-million dollar contract with the US Government. A recent British newspaper article said Spicer's outfit is helping to facilitate communications between the pro-US coalition forces in Iraq. One of those countries is Australia. Has Canberra raised strong objections with Washington to the troublesome Mr Spicer's new role? Watch this space.For those of you that don't know about the Sandline affair that happened in PNG, Wikipedia has a pretty accurate entry
here.
Election Update
Forgot to mention a week or so ago that Thai PM Thaskin, stood down after nobody really respected his "victory" over a no vote...
Back to Italy
And it's to close to call....
At the moment it looks like Prodi will take the lower house of parliament with a lead of 51.4% compared to Berlusconi's 47.9%
The problem is in the Senate.... Where Berlusconi is leading by some 20,000 votes.
As explained by our friends at News.com.au
In order to govern, one of the coalitions has to win control of both houses of parliament. A parliament divided between the two sides would be a nightmare scenario of complete stalemate. Experts say a split could result in several possibilities, including a German-style "grand coalition", a technocrat government, or even fresh elections. I'll try to keep this updated....
UPDATE #1: The counting of ballots has now been going on in Italy for 10 hours... and not surprisingly Prodi is Pissed...
in a brief address to supporters outside his central Rome headquarters, Prodi described the delay as "absolutely incomprehensible". "We don't understand what's happening, we still don't have the results, but we are full of hope and we are waiting," he said to loud cheers from thousands of supporters anxiously waiting to claim victory.UPDATE #2: According to the BBC Prodi is declaring victory, but nobody else is saying anything....interesting...
UPDATE #3: Prodi's proclamation is only about the lower house, still no word from anybody else...
UPDATE #4: According to News.com.au Prodi has taken the lead in the Senate (upper house) by 1 seat....
FINAL UPDATE #5: Berlusconi refuses to accept his defeat thanks to News.com.au...
Mr Berlusconi's centre-right alliance contested Mr Prodi's claim of triumph, saying it wanted to check reports that half a million votes had been annulled.
"This is intolerable. What is this? A coup? It reminds me of South America. Auto proclamation (of victory) is constitutionally illegitimate," said Industry Minister Claudio Scajola, a member of Mr Berlusconi's Forza Italia (Go Italy) party.
Italy Votes.... Intimidation Alleged
Italy went to the polls this weekend, over 2 days the citizens of Italy were asked to elect 945 members to parliament.
The
International Herald Tribune reports that Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi did an extraordinary political performance over the last few days, with the PM speaking of
communists boiling babies in China; [saying] Italy needed United Nations election observers to prevent fraud; [and calling] anyone who voted for Prodi (Berlusconi's main rival) or his allies a vulgar name that newscasters stuttered over.' When it came to Berlusconi's time to vote he turned up to the polling booth with his much beloved 95 year old mother. As she entered the polling area Berlusconi was heard to "instruct her" to 'mark a cross on the symbol of Forza Italia'.
Not surprisingly an opposition election observer informed him that his statement had violated a ban on public campaigning.
Needless to say, the predictions are that Berlusconi will loose the election to Prodi, who believes Italy needs to reconnect with Europe instead of continuing with Berlusconi's close friendship with Washington.
Then again, political predictions over the last year or so haven't exactly been reliable...
It appears as though the people voting for Prodi are doing so because they have developed a great dislike with Berlusconi, the man who just recently infamously declared himself the Jesus of European politics.
Results are expected Monday evening... Prodi has said that he will withdraw Italian troops from Iraq, which could make for interesting times ahead if he wins.
A rather fitting quote....
In my recent writing on the new UN Human Rights Council, I found this quote (credit: in the material Mark has lent me.)
"Human rights are as fundamental to the poor as to the rich, and their protection is as important to the security and prosperity of the developed world as it is to that of the developing world. It would be a mistake to treat human rights as thought there were a trade-off between human rights and such goals as security or development. We only weaken our hand in fighting the horrors of extreme poverty or terrorism if, in our efforts to do so, we deny the very human rights that these scourges take away from citizens. Strategies based on the protection of human rights are vital for both our moral standing and the practical effectiveness of our actions."
UN General Assembly
Report of the Secretary-General
In larger freedom: towards development, security and human rights for all21 March 2005
Details on US Rendition Program Alleged
Amnesty accuses US on rendition [BBC]
"The report, based on interviews with former detainees, also links the US practice of "rendition" to the torture or ill-treatment of terror suspects.
Washington has insisted it would never send detainees to places where they would be at risk of torture.
The CIA said it was aware of the report but declined to comment.
...
The report also accused the US of using front companies to transfer individuals to countries where they have faced torture or ill-treatment.
Amnesty said it has records of nearly 1,000 flights, mostly using European airspace, which were made by planes that appear to have been permanently operated by the CIA through front companies.
It also said it had records of about 600 other flights made by planes confirmed as having been used at least temporarily by the CIA.
The US government has said that the transfer of terror suspects is carried out according to US and international law."
Amnesty International:
USA: The secretive and illegal US programme of 'rendition'AI Report:
United States of America - Below the radar: Secret flightsto torture and ‘disappearance’And, in case anyone has forgotten,
Real lives - Maher Arar
Vote 1.... None of the Above
When I was first made aware of this I was astounded at such a brilliant idea, what better way to discover what the voters are really thinking...
Over the last 24 hours the citizens of Thailand have been participating in an election to rival all other elections. So why should the Thai election receive such high praise from this blogger?
Well the answer is simple... at the bottom of the ballot paper was one more option....
No Vote.... or None of the Above...
The results?Well they're still coming in at the moment I will update the site regularly however within Bangkok.... Prime Minister Thaskin's Thai Rak Thai Party, acquired 45.9% of the vote... The No Vote acquired 50.1%...
The people have spoken.... whether they are heard.... remains to be seen
More information as it comes to hand...
Simply, watching it happen.
From this weekend's New York Times:
"The Hague has become a symbol of both the promise of international law and its stunning shortcomings. We have reached a point in world affairs at which we learn about genocide even as it unfolds, and yet it is practically a given that the international community will not use military intervention to stop it. Militias called janjaweed, recruited from Arab tribes in Darfur and Chad and supported by the Sudanese government, continue to attack, rape and kill villagers from African tribes — more than 200,000 people have been killed in Darfur, and two million have fled their homes. For more than two years, politicians and activists have been shouting to the world that a genocide is unfolding in Darfur, calling it a slow-motion Rwanda in the hope that the shock of remembering the nearly one million people slaughtered in that African country in 1994 would prompt action. Coalitions of students, religious leaders and human rights groups have lobbied in Washington, have set up SaveDarfur.org and have made green rubber bracelets, now worn all over the United States, that quote George Bush recalling Rwanda and promising, "Not on my watch." Yet the killing rolls on, and no one intervenes to bring it to an end, as if the genocide in Darfur were already history." If Not Peace, Then Justice [NYT]
