Confessions of a Misguided Trio

Demand It

posted by Mark @ 2:48 PM 0 comments

PHJH Turns 67

So normally I wouldn't bother mentioning that the Australian Prime Minister turn 67 today. But given some of the responses to my previous post, I believe "thanks for stating the obvious" I thought I'd aim for something a bit different today.

So this AM Prime-Minister Howard embarked upon one of his usual epic morning walk/jogs, this one I am told lasting a intense 40 minutes. I say intense because the little big guy is in Melbourne this morning and let's face it, any person intent on walking in 10 degree (Celsius) weather must be intense.

Nothing really fascinating about his walk, he was embraced by a number of young people who seemed to think he was doing a good job (courtesy of the local young Liberals chapter no doubt). Perhaps the highlight for both Mr Howard and avid readers of News.com.au was this...

Southbank resident Curtis Sinatra was walking her labradoodle dog, named Noodle, when she happened on the the press pack waiting for the PM outside his hotel.

“Good morning, Prime Minister, happy birthday,” she said as he emerged.

“Thank-you,” Mr Howard replied after she kissed his cheek.

After a brief chat, he said “very good, lovely to see you” before setting off.

So let me highlight the important part of this tale (no pun intended). A woman, in Melbourne, has a labradoodle (a cross between a labradoor and a poodle) and the most creative name she could come up with was Noodle! I've heard bad names for animals before, some would argue that I have named my pets the worst names, Arthur, Rodney and Alfred I apologise. BUT, a labradoodle named Noodle just offends me... I don't know why....

posted by Mark @ 4:38 PM 0 comments

U.S. Take Anti-Peace Message to New Level...

By now everyone should be well aware of the current state of affairs within the Middle East. If not here are a few samples of the headlines of the last 12 hours.

One dead after strike on warship.
AN Israeli sailor was killed and three were missing feared dead after Hezbollah struck a warship off Lebanon's coast in a dramatic show of the Shiite guerrilla group's military capabilities.

Turkish PM Fumes at West
TURKISH Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Western powers were "keeping mum" over mounting bloodshed in the Middle East, warning that they would "pay the bill" by facing more terrorist attacks.

Israel destroys Hezbollah chief's HQ
ISRAELI forces destroyed the Beirut headquarters of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in air strikes, after issuing a new threat to kill the Shiite Muslim guerrilla leader.

Lebanon PM demands ceasefire
LEBANESE Prime Minister Fouad Siniora called today for an immediate ceasefire, saying Israeli attacks had turned Lebanon into a disaster area in need of international aid.

Lebanon death toll mounts
ISRAEL on Saturday intensified its relentless bombardment of Lebanon, destroying the Beirut headquarters of the Hezbollah leader and pounding the country's ports as fears mounted the conflict could spiral into regional conflict.

Merchant vessel hit by rockets
AN Egyptian civilian ship off the coast of Lebanon was hit during an exchange of fire between Hezbollah and the Israeli military, Egypt's foreign ministry confirmed on overnight, but the crew of 12 survived.

Israeli troops reoccupy Gaza
Israeli forces clashed with militants in Gaza overnight as tanks moved back into the north of the Strip on an offensive that has continued even as fighting with Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas opened a second front.

British warships sent to Mid-East
BRITAIN is sending two Royal Navy ships to the Middle East amid contingency planning for a possible evacuation of British nationals from Lebanon.

Depresingly so, these aren't all of the headlines of the last 12 hours... The latest headline to appear accross News.com.au's website is perhaps one of the more disturbing.

US vetoes UN ceasefire call
Washington argued in closed-door talks that the focus for Middle East diplomacy for now should be on the weekend summit in St Petersburg of the Group of Eight industrialised nations, council diplomats said.

It was the sole member of the 15-nation UN body to oppose any council action at all at this time, they said.

"We would expect much more from the Security Council," Lebanese Foreign Ministry official Nouhad Mahmoud told reporters after the council meeting, singling out the United States for blame. While Washington has been very supportive of the Lebanese government in the past, "when it comes to Israel, it seems things changed," Mr Mahmoud said. "Destruction is still going on, people are still dying ... and here we are impotent."...

...Separately, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert assured the United Nations that Israeli forces would not interfere in a plan by UN peacekeepers to move Lebanese villagers living along the border with Israel out of the line of fire, UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Marie Guehenno said.

One more headline before I sign off...

Jets 'incinerate' fleeing family
ELEVEN children and seven adults were killed overnight in southern Lebanon, their bodies consumed by flames when an Israeli warplane opened fire on the convoy they were in, UN peacekeepers and hospital sources said.

Their charred remains were extracted from the wreckage of the minibus and car they were travelling in and taken to hospital.

A doctor, Ali Zeineddine, said they were burned alive.

"It is very difficult to identify the bodies or to distinguish between girls or boys, as the 18 victims perished from the fire triggered by incendiary shells. They grilled," he said.

They had been among residents fleeing villages close to the Israeli border and were killed when missiles struck a car and a minibus near Shamaa, hospital sources said. The children were aged between 7 and 12.

An officer with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), who was involved in the evacuation operation, told AFP that his team removed most of the burnt bodies. "Some of them were thrown on olive trees and even on haystacks," said the officer, who declined to be named.

posted by Mark @ 6:37 PM 0 comments

Minister Mistakes 'Hogans Heroes' for Reality...

I sometimes don't understand what posseses people to say certain things at certain times. But the gaffe of the week has to go to Australian Federal Veterans Affairs Minister Bruce Billson (BB).

Whilst launching this year's Weary Dunlop Medical Research appeal yesterday BB claimed that he used to watch reruns of Hogans Heroes as a child. That's all good, I still watch reruns of Hogans Heroes, it was a great "Television show", quite comical to, I didn't think it was historically accurate though. The minister doesn't either... anymore 'men in German and Italian prison camps in World War II were wrongly perceived by many people as having had a fairly easy time, thanks to Hollywood.'

It gets better...

"I think it's likely Hogans Heroes have done a bit of a disservice, Colonel Klink and Sgt Schultz haven't done much good, really," BB proudly proclaimed.

No wonder the Howard regime is under the pressure for its standards of education around Australia. If a federal minister actually thought that a comedy series was an acurate depiction of the suffering of PoW's at the hands of the Nazi's.

Has this man ever read a text book?

Who voted for him?

source: here

posted by Mark @ 2:23 AM 0 comments

"Genocide-ravaged region of Darfur in Africa"

Because I am procrastinating, or whatever, (I wouldn't quite call it pleasure reading) I was randomly cruising the internet, and found an article on some crap entertainment site regarding everyone's favourite recent Sudan activist, George Clooney.

George Clooney Shows No Signs of Slowing Down

"Clooney has taken on a new role recently: activist. George and his father, Nick, recently went to the genocide-ravaged region of Darfur in Africa."

What struck me about this article, was the sense of nonchalance of how the reporter refers to genocide. Obviously, it's an entertainment article, and obviously it's not the focus of the piece.

But it seems like nothing more than a gimmick, the way one would write of a hobby or their pleasure from golfing. Clooney went to "the genocide-ravaged region" almost as if he's going on a safari.

We live in a world becoming increasingly desensitised to the extreme violence and consistent abuses of human rights. Abuses not solely in Sudan, but around the world. Sixty years after the world said "never again" post-Holocaust, people read, with ease, article referring to genocide-ravaged regions as if they're drinking a cup of coffee.

Is this the extent? Is this the result?

Mass genocide, receiving a passing mention in an entertainment rag?

Why doesn't the world care more about the fact that women are being mass raped. The fact young children are having their limbs chopped off with machetes. The fact that women are watching their husbands and sons killed in front of them. On a mass scale.

'Human rights' is not a vacation.

“If we turn our heads and look away and hope that it will all disappear then they will – all of them, an entire generation of people. And we will have only history left to judge us.” -George Clooney, at the Save Darfur rally in Washington.

Well, George Clooney is off somewhere, maybe Hollywood, doing something (rumours of Oceans 13.) So, it is up to us to continue to work for justice in all areas of the world.

You don't need another hobby. Be an everyday activist.

posted by Carla @ 6:51 AM 0 comments

Howard/Costello do a brilliant Hawke/Keating impersonation...

So if you are in Australia, or read Australian news, you should be fully aware of Treasurer Peter Costello's (TPC) leadership aspirations. Not surprisingly it has come out that Prime Minister John Howard(PMJH) made a promise to TPC essentially saying that after he'd served two terms with the prefix of PM, he would step aside so TPC could take the reigns and have his own little hootnanny in the great hall of Parliament.

What's that you say? Sounds familiar? That's because it is...

Former Labour PM Bob Hawke promised his treasurer the same deal back in 1988 (which eventually lead to Keating taking office). This time it's a little bit different. One of PMJH's most favoured ministers at the time Ian McLachlan witnessed the conversation, wrote it down, and kept these make shift minutes in his wallet for the last 10 years. (Well one presumes it was 11 or 12 years, the alledged meeting took place in the alledged year of 1994 and it is alledgedly 2006, now I alledgedly didn't do to well in maths A,B or C in high school, but I think I got this one right...)

So what's the issue?

Perhaps would be PM, Opposition leader Kim "bomber" Beazley summed it up best...

"What the Liberal party leadership is engaged in, is a major distraction and not in the national interest. The prime ministership of this country is not there to be traded between individuals. Every arrangement must be out there in the open and the Australian public understand that the prime minster of a nation is connected with them, holds office at their pleasure, holds office to advance their interests, not the interests of the individual who happens to be prime minister."

Oh and for the record, I'm not sure minstership is a word...

Hawkes deal with Keating was nicknamed the Kirribilli agreement... this one hasn't quite received a title yet, any suggestions out there?

Leave a comment or drop us a line misguidedtrio 'at' gmail 'dot' com , the best suggestion may score a 'Sedition... It's what's for dinner' t-shirt (no size guarantee)

posted by Mark @ 7:49 PM 1 comments

The kiss heard around the world...

So by now I am sure most of you have seen Russian Presidents Vladimir Putin's interesting, somewhat disturbing display of affection towards a little boy. If not click on the embed below...



It appears as though the kiss caused such controversy that when Putin's PR folks organised a webcast for their boss to give him 'a chance to explain his policies to a Western audience,' the quest for an eplanation of the kiss from Putin 'Shot almost to the top of a list of more than 162,000 questions sent into www.yandex.ru ,which co-hosted the event.' According to The Weekend Australian (borrowing the story from The Times, and Reuters)

Putin's response you ask? (In my view more disturbing than the actual kiss)
"People came up and I began talking to them, among them this little boy. He seemed to me very independant, sure of himself and at the same time defenceless, so to speak, an innocent boy and a very nice little boy. I tell you honestly, I just wanted to stroke him like a kitten and it came out in this gesture. There is nothing behind."

WHAT THE HELL? He thought the kid was a CAT? Ok.... I feel safer...

As mentioned by Carla, Putin is about to host the G8 summit in St Petersberg... I wonder if we are going to see a bit more raw emotion from the chosen ones when it comes time for their announcements of... well whatever they will say to appease the masses...

A focus on disease? Well given the proccess the G8 made on debt relief and the problems of Africa, the 4.1 million people who were diagnosed HIV postive in 2005 must truly be relieved*...

*denotes sarcasm, if you didn't catch on...

posted by Mark @ 5:33 PM 0 comments

Darfur combat 'worse' since deal

"The BBC's Jonah Fisher in Khartoum says Darfur's peace agreement has brought only more conflict and confusion.

Two months ago, after tortuous negotiations, Western diplomats pushed through a deal between the Sudanese government and a faction of the Sudan Liberation Army rebels. But since then Darfur has seen more violence with militias loyal to the government carrying out numerous small-scale attacks and rebel movements fighting amongst themselves."

Darfur combat 'worse' since deal [BBC]

posted by Carla @ 7:10 PM 0 comments

Media Watch...

So this weeks award for headline of the week goes to The Australian (Thursday July 6, 2006), who in their 'The World' section gave us this doozy...

Interestingly enough on the very same day...

• North Korea launched seven (7) missiles...
• British Chancellor Gordon Brown told British troops in Afghanistan they could have "anything they need" to defeat the Taliban insurgency.
• Zimbabwe opposition MP Trudy Stevenson suffered head injuries and a badly broken arm when she was beaten by members of her own party.

These stories were all taken from the same page of The Australian, perhaps most disturbingly was the positioning of the space shuttle Discovery blasting off... Directly above the 'Viagra's rub-on rival begins to firm up' headline... (which blogger is currently preventing me of posting a picture of, so you're going to have to take my word for it)

Don't get me wrong, I'm not picking on the editorial staff off The Australian, I just found it quite comical and wanted to share...

Legal Stuff...Following the advice of my crack legal team, this post, as well as the Confessions of a Misguided Trio blog, is in no way affiliated with the Australian Broadcasting Corporations Media Watch program whose website is here.

posted by Mark @ 5:20 PM 0 comments

Happy Birthday, Your Holiness and Mr. President

From two completely different sources (for obvious reasons) I learned that the Dalai Lama and U.S. President George W. Bush share the same birthday. Today, 6 July.

Happy Birthday, to two people with incredibly different views of, and effects on, peace.

posted by Carla @ 5:30 AM 0 comments

Rendition, rendition.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper travels to Washington this week for a mini love fest with George W. Bush. A meeting of conservative minds... so beautiful. Business-like, we're told. [Edit: Word on the street is that PMSH's birthday pressie for POTUS is a Calgary Stampede belt-buckle and an RCMP stetson. Lucky.]

Guess what won't be on the agenda? Human rights. Rendition. The UN Human Rights Council. Why? Because human rights are not part of the Harper agenda. PMSH is keen to advocate foster parents for pets very prominantly on the PM's official website, but human rights? Nowhere to be seen anywhere in his agenda. Well, actually it was, for one brief moment: Peter Mackay's "I think I can" press release regarding Tehran's Chief Prosecutor at the first meeting of the UN Human Rights Council.

Do it for Stephen: adopt a pet.

While I was travelling in May, Amnesty International released their annual report of the state of human rights throughout the world in 2005. In the report, the United States' rendition program [referred to by some as "outsourcing torture"] received severe criticisms.

Hypocrisy and a disregard for basic human rights principles and international legal obligations continued to mark the USA’s “war on terror”.

Thousands of detainees remained held without charge in US custody in Iraq, Afghanistan, GuantE1namo Bay in Cuba, and in secret detention centres known as “black sites” believed to exist in Europe, North Africa and elsewhere. Torture and other ill-treatment continued to be reported and further evidence emerged that the US authorities “outsourced” torture by means including “rendition” — the transfer of individuals to another country without any form of judicial or administrative process, sometimes in secret.

Around 500 detainees remained in Guantanamo Bay, where they were held in conditions amounting to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and continued to be denied their right to challenge the lawfulness of their detention.

Despite mounting evidence that the US government had sanctioned "disappearances” as well as interrogation techniques constituting torture or other ill-treatment, there was a failure to hold officials at the highest levels accountable, including individuals who may have been responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

US “war on terror” policies that undermined human rights standards were challenged during 2005. Legislation was passed prohibiting the torture and inhumane treatment of detainees anywhere in the world, despite initial objections from the Bush administration that the prohibition would hamper its ability to obtain information from detainees. However, the bill also severely limited the GuantE1namo detainees’ access to federal courts and called into question the future of some 200 pending cases in which detainees had challenged the legality of their detention.

The USA increased its military assistance programme in Colombia despite continued evidence of grave human rights violations by military personnel and paramilitary groups operating with their active or tacit support.

Americas Summary - Amnesty International Annual Report 2006

Continuing with rendition, the Maher Arar Inquiry Report is expected to be released by the end of the northern summer.

Who is Maher Arar? A Canadian victim of rendition.

Outsourcing of terror? You decide:

"[Mr. Arar] had been held in the Metropolitan Detention Centre in manhattan for eleven days (September 27th to October 7th), being interrogated. He was initially denied access to a lawyer, and had little food or sleep. His request to pray during the interrogation sessions had also been denied. His interrorgators had insulted him and used "bad words", which he found deeply upsetting. At 3:00 am one morning, he was awakened and told that the Director of the US Immigation and Naturalization Service had ordered that Mr. Arar be sent, not to Canada, as he says that he constantly requested, but to Syria. He told me that at this moment he began to cry and immediately said that he would be tortured. He felt "destroyed".

....

George brought with him into the room a black cable, which might have been a shredded electrical cable. It was about two feet long. It was probably made of rubber, but was not hollow... George told Mr. Arar to open his right hand. George then raised the cable high and brought it down hard...

Sometimes he was blindfolded and left to stand in the hallway for an hour or more. The screaming continued. It is notable that the only time Mr. Arar completely broke down while I was interviewing him was when he described the screams of women being beaten and the cries of the abbies that some of the women had with them in the detention centre.

....

Day three, October 11, 2002, was the most "intensive for mr. Arar. He was questioned for sixteen to eighteen hours, with great physical and psychological abuse. The questions focussed in part on Mr. Almalki. Mr. Arar was beaten with the black cable on numerous occasions throughout the day, and threatened with electric shocks, "the chair" and "the tire". The pattern was for Mr. Arar to receive three or four lashes with the cable, then to be questioned, and then for the beating to begin again. After a while, he became so weak that he was disoriented.

....

Mr. Arar describes a similar reaction to that of Mr. Almalki. Over time, as the beatings became less intense, it was the daily horror of living in the tiny, dark and damp cell all alone and with no reading material (except later, the Koran) that came to be the most disturbing aspect of the detention. Whereas at first the cell was a refuge from the infliction of physical pain, later it became a "torture" in its own right. Mr. Arar describes nights alone in his cell where he could not sleep on the cold concrete floor. He had to turn every fifteen minutes or so. He was constantly thinking of his family, and worried about their safety. He was "bombarded by memories". He remained in this cell for ten months, ten days, and saw almost no sunlight except for when he was transferred for consular visits. His first visit to the courtyard of the prison did not take place until April 2003. Mr. Arar describes the cell as "a grave" and as a "slow death".

Arar Commission Factual Inquiry, Report of Professor Stephen J Toope, Fact Finder

posted by Carla @ 5:15 AM 0 comments

G8 St Petersburg: the Great Gatsby meets Aid for Africa

Well, what is a rock star to do?

It has been one year since the now infamous Gleneagles Summit. One year ago some people were excited and claimed victory when the problems of Africa gained unprecedented celebrity and media coverage.


We at the Misguided Trio are reminiscing about Gleneagles and the reality of the world, and the upcoming 2006 G8 Summit in St Petersburg. Yes indeed kids, your humble authors are so old we remember the olden days when it was still called Leningrad:

President Putin will host Russia's first G8 Summit this year in St Petersburg on July 15-17, 2006. Energy security, infectious diseases and education will be the G8 priorities during Russia's Presidency.

What do you think? Will the celebrity troops show their muscle again, and demand continued action on last years promises? Love is in the air! Send your thoughts and tips to misguidedtrio 'at' gmail 'dot' com.

Peace.

• Official G8 St Petersburg website
• FACTBOX-NGOs' recommendations for G8 summit [Reuters]
• PanAfrica: Report Highlights G8 Shortcomings [All Africa - UN IRIN]
• NGOs to convene in Russia ahead of G8 summit [RIA Novosti]
• UN and associated health officials welcome G-8 Summit focus on disease [UN News]
• Russia's Putin to meet with NGOs ahead of G8 summit [RIA Novosti]
• Climate change evaporates from G8 agenda [WaPo/Reuters]

posted by Carla @ 3:31 AM 0 comments

New Hollywood Protest: the Rolling Hunger Strike

Don't get me wrong, I love a good Hollywood protest. And they usually bring press to good causes. But this....

Sarandon, Penn, Danny Glover, Willie Nelson and the Rev. Al Sharpton will join communities across America on a "rolling fast," giving up food on designated days and encouraging others to fast with them on those days.

A rolling hunger strike? I'm trying to come up with something really witty, about how stupid a rolling fast is... I just can't. I'm speechless at the stupidity. Help.

Cindy Sheehan, Stars Begin Hunger Strike
Anti-war protesters begin July 4 fast [Reuters]

posted by Carla @ 5:22 PM 0 comments

A Taxing Time...

Well July is finally here, which means tax time... Especially for the people of France who start paying there new airport tax this week. Originally spoken about here the 'tax adds a surcharge of between one and 40 euros (1.25 and 50 dollars) depending on the destination and class of seat. Money raised is to go to an international fund to buy treatments for AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.'

The money from the tax on flights from France is expected to generate 200 million euros a year for an International Drug Purchase Facility, also known as Unitaid.

The fund will be used to bulk-buy medicines for countries -- mainly in Africa -- that cannot afford them.

Under the measure, passengers flying out of French airports will pay one euro in economy class, and 10 euros in business, if their destination is in the EU. For flights outside Europe, the surcharges are between four and 40 euros, depending on the class.

Passengers who make a stopover in France of less than 12 hours, or who stay longer because of delays, are exempt.

Last night I recieved a random text message from someone in France, I don't know who it was but they are having a nice time 'looking out over the Eiffel Tower, having just walked from the Arc de Triomphe.'

It now appears that France has something more to offer the world...

Italics taken from here.

posted by Mark @ 5:24 PM 0 comments

Bits and bites.

This blog has been pretty quiet lately. No excuses. Here is a round up of random things of recent note:

• SCOTUS rules military trials for Guantanamo detainees against both US national and international law. SHOCK HORRORS! THE GENEVA CONVENTIONS APPLY TO GUANTASCHMOS! What's next? Rights for immigrants? Women?
• In funnier SCOTUS news, Justice Scalia is 17 times funnier than Justice
• Steven H. Miles asks Where were the doctors and nurses at Abu Ghraib and Bagram?
  

  Somehow Dr. Rossignol missed seeing that Mowhoush's body was bruised on the arms, legs, head, neck, pelvis, and front and back of the torso. These injuries were apparent to the criminal investigators and the pathologists who conducted an autopsy. She kept silent as the inaccurate report circulated that he had died by natural causes.

• I hate it when movies put all their funny parts in the trailer, and then it ends up being stupid.
• The UN Human Rights Council has been busy, busy, busy!
• UN rights forum adopts ban on "disappearances" [Reuters] The International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance would require states to keep registers of detainees and tell their families the truth about their disappearance, as well as paying compensation.
• A reporter in Iraq: They told me I’d be the next reporter to die [Sunday Times, London]
• "Lennon represented life, and Mr. Nixon and Mr. Bush represent death" War is over if you want it. The US vs John Lennon.
• "The new UN Human Rights Council voted Friday to make a review of alleged human rights abuses by Israel a permanent feature of every council session." [JPost]
• Judges sworn in for Khmer Rouge: [BBC] Judges for Cambodia's long-awaited Khmer Rouge genocide trials have been sworn in, a key step towards bringing former leaders to justice. Since Cambodia first asked the United Nations for help in 1997, the government has been reluctant to commit resources, and foreign donors have provided much of the funding. In 2003, Cambodia and the UN agreed jointly to convene the trials, but many analysts said the process could be undermined by the dire state of Cambodia's judicial system, which was badly debilitated by the Khmer Rouge policy of targeting the intelligentsia for extermination.
• Ever since Ana Marie Cox left, Wonkette hasn't been the same. However, funny funny, dissing Drudge seems to lift our spirits. I'd never even heard of the University of the Incarnate Word.

  The dean of library services at the University of the Incarnate Word has canceled the library’s subscription to the New York Times to protest articles exposing a secret government program that monitors international financial transactions in the hunt for terrorists.

Well, unfortunately, my break is over, and back to Evidence I go.

Peace.

posted by Carla @ 3:17 PM 0 comments