Issssshoes....?!

Stanhope defends stance over tent embassy
ACT Chief Minister Jon Stanhope has denied charges of "political correctness" levelled by Prime Minister John Howard.
Mr Howard has criticised Mr Stanhope's defence of the Aboriginal tent embassy in Canberra in the face of plans to replace it with an educational centre.
Mr Stanhope says he is disturbed that support for reconciliation can be interpreted as political correctness.
"I think there's a live debate we can have about what's politically correct but we're not," he said.
"I find it passing strange and it has to be said that I can be accused of being politically correct for simply wishing to support reconciliation and the right of people around Australia to a fair go."

Legal lobby rejects lawyer immunity abolition plan
The Law Council of Australia (LCA) has rejected a proposal to abolish immunity for lawyers from being sued by their clients.
Victorian Attorney-General Rob Hulls will ask his state counterparts to consider the proposal at a meeting in Darwin tomorrow.
LCA president John North says the High Court made the right decision last year when it supported the protection of barristers and solicitors from being sued for negligence.
He says the immunity for lawyers against civil claims is necessary to ensure the justice system operates effectively.
"The lawyer is a person to who owes a higher duty to the court," he said.
"They are in a different position to other professional witnesses. They are part and parcel to the system and therefore advocate's immunity is a necessary thing to have."
Mr Hulls says lawyers need to be made accountable to their clients.
"From my point of view, the starting point should be that a client should be able to sue for lost caused by an advocate's negligence," he said.
"So we will be having a general discussion about advocate's immunity. I believe that it should be abolished but it may be that there are some compromises that can be reached along the way."

Labor calls for probe into AFP's 'psychic consultation' reports
Labor's homeland security spokesman Arch Bevis says the Federal Government should conduct a public investigation into reports an Australian Federal Police (AFP) officer consulted a psychic during a key investigation.
Newspaper reports claim the senior officer was suspended after allegedly disclosing classified information to a clairvoyant about a threat to assassinate Prime Minister John Howard.
The AFP has confirmed it is conducting an internal investigation into the alleged security breach.
Mr Bevis says while the use of psychics is on one level humorous, it is a very serious matter.
"It's obviously not part of standard operating procedure to consult a psychic about death threats to senior figures in Australia and the Government really needs to have an open investigation into this so the public need to have their confidence in the AFP maintained by knowing what's happened here," he said.
"You cannot have a situation where our premier crime-fighting organisation is acting in this way and expect the public just to sit back and wear it.
"This really is a B-grade movie script that's been played out in real life and one of the most serious incidents that the AFP could look into a threat against the head of government."

Hicks in solitary confinement: lawyer
A lawyer for Australian Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks says he has learned that his client has had his conditions at the prison camp altered for no reason.
Joshua Dratel understands Hicks is back in solitary confinement.
Mr Dratel, a civilian lawyer, is in Adelaide to meet potential witnesses in the Australian's case and some of his client's supporters.
He says there is no legitimate reason for keeping his client under those conditions.
"They have not provided any explanation and certainly there is not any disciplinary or security interest involved," he said.
"It's a mystery in terms of any specific reason but we think that it's part of the arbitrary and punitive nature of the way that they treat David."
Mr Dratel says the process under which changes at the jail are made is arbitrary.
"All the things that become routine are no longer available," he said.
"Certain psychological aspects of it such as solitary confinement, lack of sunlight are extremely important in keeping one's psyche in order."
A decision is still pending on Hicks's application for British citizenship, which could potentially see him freed.

Labor urges Downer, Vaile to quit
The Federal Opposition says evidence given to the Cole inquiry by the Foreign Affairs Minister and the Trade Minister shows the men are not fit to hold office.
Alexander Downer gave testimony yesterday to the inquiry into $290 million of sanction-breaking payments made by wheat exporter AWB to the regime of Saddam Hussein.
Like Mark Vaile, who appeared before the inquiry on Monday, he said he did not remember reading a series of diplomatic cables relating to allegations against AWB.
Mr Downer also said his department's ability to investigate AWB was limited.
But Labor's foreign affairs spokesman, Kevin Rudd, says Mr Downer and Mr Vaile have been neglectful.
"Mr Downer read none of the cables which were relevant to this scandal, he set up no systems in his department to honour his obligations ... and as a consequence this $300 million scandal unfolded," he said.
"That's why Mr Downer and Mr Vaile are no longer fit to hold office as Cabinet ministers in this government."
Prime Minister John Howard has provided a written statement to the inquiry.
He will find out today if he will be called to give evidence in person.
AWB challenge
Meanwhile, AWB has asked the Cole inquiry to return a draft apology by former managing director Andrew Lindberg.
AWB has told the Federal Court in Melbourne the documents are covered by legal professional privilege and should not have been given to the commission.
AWB says a decision could affect access to thousands of other documents.
The hearing has been adjourned until April 24.
In other developments:
An international relations academic says the Federal Government had an obligation to ensure Australian companies did not breach United Nations sanctions on Iraq.

QUOTE-ABLES….

Who wants to Talk “DRUGS!”?
Bush Tries to Rally Senior Interest in Medicare Prescription Drug Plan, Saying It's 'A Good Deal'
"It doesn't cost a dime to look and you're going to save money," said Bush, who is hosting another Medicare prescription drug event on Wednesday at Northern Virginia Community College in suburban Washington.
Democrats opposed to the program (the new Medicare prescription drug benefit) claim the plan was written by lobbyists and will cost nearly double what the president first claimed $700 billion during the next decade compared with early estimates of $400 billion over 10 years.
"As seniors around the country know, a drug program written by the special interests and for the special interests is fundamentally flawed," said Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass. "It's the wrong prescription for Medicare, and seniors deserve better."
Lobbyists?
Bush is working to turn the nation's attention to his domestic agenda as his presidency continues to be dogged by ongoing violence in Iraq and persistent questions surrounding the White House's role in the leaking of sensitive prewar intelligence.
Bush's job approval rating is stuck in the 30s, which is not helping the GOP as it works to retain control of Congress in this year's midterm elections.

FAAARRRK!?
Jus tripping through this last article, has one think “?” “Faaark!?”
“….Democrats opposed to the program (the new Medicare prescription drug benefit) claim the plan was written by lobbyists and will cost nearly double….”
Lobbyists…………..

Jus’ like the foray into Australia’s health care system, and the U.S. pharmaceuticals-rah-rah-rah take-over of much of our health, young G.W. Bush, with his dumb-ya-alexer’ pharmaceutical pills like “Zyprexa” (or “Olanzapine”) from his own family’s pharma-corporation “Eli-Lily”, “lobbyists” are hard-at-it in the USA to win more already severely dumbed-down American’s minds.

Can we, the Authorities, The People, (including the meeeeedear!) manage our way through the current “virulent” (?) global crisis/crises of:
-Republican fundamentalist materialist (read-‘mammon’) consumer-christianity, (bad magical drugs) set to “wipe-out” Life-on-Earth, through either the Jewish “Mutually Assured Destruction” “M.A.D.” policies of right-wing Israeli “self defence” (?), or via their terminal-overconsumption of the air, an’ water, an’ fire, an’ oil,
-“Global” “Democrats”, principally Britain, China and their inbetween-man Vlad Putin, drugging the U.S.A., and other strategic nations with heroin, Marijuana etc., to ruin the western materialist delusions of “where-to-find-Happiness”,
-GW Bush’s apparent awakening to Earth’s need to GO GREEN! I.e., Getting the US off the dark horse of capitalist-mammon-ism (“SSSsslipping-back-in-the-field”),
-China’s Head-of-State, Wen Jiabao, after his recent visit to Astraylia, said something about having eventually to “get-off the energy-train” of western materialist consumerism-read “END-OF-PLANET!” ideology and it’s (plural) political sewerage, like our blessed-lil- Prime Miniture, Joh-[Freudian-typo]-bob-menzies-in-disguise-Winston Howard’s policies to:

ABORIGINES,
REFUGEES,
MOSLEMS,
HUMAN BEINGS (he’s a god remember!),
and DAVID HICKS,
ETCETERA ETCETERA ETCETERA,
-the “immunity” given to outright and utter-utter-utter liars-read-lawyers,
-the increasing shattering of all Human Communities by BAD political policies, materialistic ideologies-on-the-run from near-totally endarkened minds with tooooo much unearned wealth-thus-military-might, and a christian crusade to act-out,.
-the quite unbelievable stretching-out-with-extensions…., of the hiding of the RELEVANT FACTS surrounding and behind the current newsy-bits of the now globally infamous “AWB” kickbacks,

-the highly likely LINKS between the AWB funny-money business, our politicians, Liberal and Labor, Britain’s, China’s the utterly erroneous mainstream “western” approach to the Earth’s Natural resources like Iraqi oil, and the concomitant defence-by-attack-needs for uranium, and the MAIN GAME of massive global drugs prohibition-thus-marketplace?
AND…………. Mr David Hicks’ totally illegal incarceration in CUBA?
?.?.?.?.?
ETCETERA ETCETERA ETCETERA!

Yes! I reckon we can…..