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When two senior public servants clash in the testy atmosphere of Parliament House, the fallout can get ugly. Dr June Verrier is – or was, until this week – head of the parliamentary library. Hilary Penfold QC is parliament's top bureaucrat, secretary of the Department of Parliamentary Services Quitting over parliamentary independence Strangely, I searched high and low and I only found one reference to this story. It is by Margo Kingston See the Reference in the Commentariat

Eye on Politics, Independence & Terrorism: The new Al Qaeda: local franchises
A decade ago Al Qaeda was an entrepreneurial jihadist start-up firm. Today it may have evolved into something bigger, and less tightly controlled: a worldwide franchiser of terrorist attacks.

That may be one lesson of last week's London bombings, say some terrorism experts. The British attacks were well-organized, low-tech, and prepared in great secrecy - all hallmarks of the now-decentralized Al Qaeda network. The Madrid subway attacks of 2004 were similar. So were the bombings carried out in Casablanca, Morocco, in 2003

• The lessons of London [Actions such as the war on Iraq have alienated many ordinary Muslims This is no way to wage the war on terror ; It is essential that the Muslim world wake up to the fact that it has a jihadist death cult in its midst The police's nightmare: home-grown terrorists ; These were acts of "sacred revenge" for British massacres in Afghanistan and Iraq: Blowback from Bush and Blair's incompetently pursued war on terror has hit London. When will the U.S. figure out how to fight smart? The time of revenge has come ]
• · Terrorism. No government, no population, is safe from indiscriminate terror ; Plot to scar London with 'burning cross'
• · · Rau, Alvarez force the PM to say sorry;Sweeping changes are needed to fix deep-seated problems in the Immigration Department and the detention system. A damning report
has found ; Alvarez case shows failure after failure; The Palmer report
• · · · Brian Ray was on a roll Developer's comeback after 'lost' years ; Missing: a mate with a loan for Packer In politics, hypocrisy will kill you. This is something Prime Minister John Howard should consider after identifying himself this week as either a hypocrite or not across the detail of his own department's activities. Rhetoric is out of step with reality: You only get one choice: sign the contract or don't get the job ; An open and shut case of insider trading?Steve Vizard - Insider trader
• · · · · James Cumes continues with his stimulating debate How to Deal with the Rise of China (2) ; Andrew Norton of good analysis fame Religion and politics ; US troops' direct fire or clashes have claimed 39,000 Iraqi civilians' lives
• · · · · · June Verrier's departure is a sad loss. Another vertebra removed from the backbone of parliamentary democracy Successful delivery of professional and non-partisan services ; Senator MURRAY Parliamentary Library ; Parliamentary Service Amendmentt Bill 2005 ; Parliamenatary Service Legislation

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You Know You've Made It as a Blogger When... Blog Relations... are made to grow up..
Bloggers this month will be introduced to the "King of Content" and the "King of Ping" as a new multi-tasking web software breathes fire into that internet jungle we call the blogosphere 100 Blogs in 100 Minutes: Are You Multi-blogging?

Taxing Times: The Blog, The Press, The Media mX: A new flower in Rupert's patch
This News Limited freebie already publishes a Melbourne edition, and will soon be seen in Brisbane.

But the Sydney launch last week was deemed worthy of a front-page plug in Sydney’s Daily Telegraph the following day. It’s young, free and taking Sydney by storm The Tele is also a News Limited publication, and their page 3 news story was brazen cross promotion. Launch of first new newspaper in 30 years Young, free and bursting with fun. It’s young and sexy, with a no nonsense ‘pick me up’ approach, but unlike the trains this Sydneysider promises to make your ride home enjoyable

• Foreign Investment Policy eXile Young and sexy
• · A study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project finds US online users are getting more savvy about online security Online users becoming more Web savvy
• · · The Intuitive Life Business Blog ; It's one thing to fall in love with your iPod, but would you consider sleeping with it? iPod promiscuity?
• · · · In the days before Google, search engines like Excite, Hotbot, and Altavista larded themselves up with content in a desperate effort to delay users beyond the two pages of a search activity — search box and results. The goal was stickiness How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Relinquish Control ; Should Newspapers Sponsor Blogs Written by Reporters?
• · · · · A new edition to Blogovia, the liberal hemisphere of the blogospher : Liberal or radical economists with actual credentials in the field who blog I Feel A Change In The Force ; One of the best kept secrets (or maybe not so well-kept via fullcontext : I don't know his hit count) of the blogosphere is Jonathan Edelstein's. It's an indispensable resource for those interested in contemporary events in Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and the Pacific. Jonathan's analysis is refreshingly free from ideology or ax-grinding; I don't know how he manages to keep track of all this stuff, but I'm glad he's there Head Heeb
• · · · · · Blogging up the Ladder Better jobs to people with clever blogs?

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The Puzzling Story of NATO's Secret Armies During the Cold War: After the Cold War had ended, then Italian prime minister Giulio Andreotti confirmed to the Italian Senate in August 1990 that Italy had had a secret stay-behind army, codenamed Gladio – the sword Just What Were They Up to? - Nato's Secret Armies

Eye on Politics & Taxes: The Liberal
In the early 19th century, Romantic poets Lord Byron and Percy Shelley conspired to produce a magazine that would challenge the day’s conservative publications with a selection of original poetry, prose fiction and reviews. They called it The Liberal and brought together some of the foremost influences of the Romantic movement for its inaugural release.

But before the magazine would formally launch, Shelley died and the project ultimately dissolved after the fourth issue....
What I would say is, well – Zizek gave a brilliant lecture where he spoke against human rights and he railed against the culture of liberal interventionism. He’s interested in the real and the illusory and he spoke about how America would go into a country like Iraq with the illusory language of human rights. And in creating a human rights violation, would see the real varnish staring back at them. And it’s that sort of interesting mirror image.

• Human rights [Survivors remember Srebrenica; This New York Times story about "meth orphans" is enough to make you weep A Drug Scourge Creates Its Own Form of Orphan ; Here lies the body of Jonathan Swift, where savage indignation can no longer lacerate his heart ]
• · Rich Pervert Tax Code for Themselves ; The best-laid plans of mice and men, as Robbie Burns famously said, often go awry. $1 Mil That's what it now costs to raise a child in Australia's most expenisve city. We explore the implications of paying such a hefty price to have a family How families make ends meet
• · · The stirring tale of Randy "Duke" Cunningham, congressman and bon vivant, becomes more entertaining by the day, and it is far more instructive than another case of a missing white female. In 2003, he sold his house in Del Mar, a very upscale town north of San Diego. The buyer was Mitchell Wade, a defense contractor, who paid $1.675 million. Wade later resold the house at a $700,000 loss Eaten Alive by Corruption: the only person in recent history to lose money on a San Diego real estate deal ; This is an edited version of a speech to Australian Council for Infrastructure Development on March 21, 2005 Lindsay Tanner - Infrastructure ; A rush to build a $2 billion desalination plant at Kurnell has been widely condemned, from the Prime Minister to green groups, as an expensive and environmentally harmful response to Sydney's water shortage Cold water on the salt solution ; Desalination plant 'too important to debate' The options: Pros and cons
• · · · by Desmond Tutu Much Has Been Done, But... ; For Tobias Levkovich, chief US portfolio strategist at Citigroup Smith Barney in New York, the timing of last Thursday's terrorist attacks in London could hardly have been better Markets factor in acts of terror
• · · · · Extremist recruiters Leaked No 10 dossier reveals Al-Qaeda’s British recruits ; Evan F. Kohlman: The Afghan-Bosnian Network, argues that the key to understanding Al Qaida's European cells lies in the Bosnian war of the 1990s Bosnia: The Birthplace of Al-Qaeda
• · · · · · Follow the money - A Virginia man charged with illegally wiring millions of dollars to his native Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and other nations pleaded guilty Thursday to operating an unlicensed money service business Vienna Man Pleads Guilty To Running Unlicensed Money Service ; Web Exclusive Another Lost Opportunity; Stephen E. Flynn - Interview Qaeda Attack in U.S. Likely to Be More Catastrophic Than London Bombings

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Come, woo me, woo me; for now I am in a holiday humor, and like enough to consent."
-Billy Shakespeare, As You Like It

Despite being well off by any objective standards, most Australians believe that their incomes are inadequate to meet their needs Why Australians will never be prosperous

Eye on Political Economy & Taxes: Hole in the Wall: Mountain of Debt Murmurs
A decade-long borrowing binge has left Australian families with more financial obligations than their US counterparts

Twenty years ago Australian households spent less than 11 per cent of their available income on meeting regular financial commitments, such as debt repayments, rents, council rates and insurance premiums. But this proportion has surged to 18.6 per cent, according to the financial obligations ratio. The results underscored how Australians were much more vulnerable to higher interest rates and rising unemployment than in the past

• Long shadows from the past Decade of debt eats family cash [Although ‘Super Choice’ arrived on 1 July, the overarching goal of superannuation is to constrain choice A super way to turn a vicious circle into a virtuous one ; The popular image of the welfare cheat as greedy and street-smart could not be further from the truth, new research shows. They are more likely to be poor, uninformed, "sad people" who are trying to survive Cheats turn out to be on the margins ; Over time, water prices need to move to their own level Going with the flow ; The government has control of the Senate but not of public opinion, writes John Spoehr. So the industrial relations debate is far from over Fightback revisited ]
• · In medieval art the rat symbolised evil and decay. At the Art Gallery of NSW the rat has come to symbolise either unfair dismissal or misconduct, depending on who's talking Gallery's sacked staff smell a rat ; Another long shadows from the past - Latham's former speechwriter Dennis Glover has some sound advice for the former ALP leader Second-rate rant will spoil the party
• · · As many as five Australians were on the bus that was blown apart by terrorists in London Aussies flee one blast to be caught in another ; Ruthless terrorists get their wish: public transport chaos across the globe - as planners assume attack is inevitable liberties to be thrown out of the window Security clampdown for Australian buses and trains ; State governments and public transport authorities ramped up security yesterday, deploying additional police and guards and conducting urgent reviews of counter-terrorism plans Transport security swoop
• · · · The former Chinese diplomat Chen Yonglin can stay in Australia and will be able to apply soon for citizenship after being granted permanent residency Chinese defector wins permanent residency ; Sex industry figures and brothel workers have been summonsed in an Australian Crime Commission investigation into sex slave trafficking Sex trafficking under the microscope ; The fairytale is definitely over for the Vizard of Oz - When the perfect storm engulfed Steve Vizard on Monday, the uncanny sixth sense that gives him his comic timing placed him overseas enjoying a European holiday with his family How funny money made joke of Vizard
• · · · · 137 people have signed up, 263 more needed www.pledgebank.com/justonepercent St. Francis - from tiny acorns and all... ; ICYE is an international non-profit youth exchange organisation promoting youth mobility ; Hundreds of Sydneysiders are raking in huge rents from phone companies by allowing their roofs and walls to be used for mobile phone base stations Tower to the people
• · · · · · Health Minister Gordon Nuttall has been embroiled in the so-called "Dr Death" scandal after a senior bureaucrat yesterday disputed his claim that he had never been warned about problems with overseas-trained doctors Dr Death scandal embroils minister; Immigration head Bill Farmer has been made the scapegoat for a host of monumental departmental blunders but rewarded with the high-profile job of Australian ambassador to Indonesia Immigration scapegoat given elite job ; Career public servant Paul O'Sullivan was named Dennis Richardson's successor as head of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), with Mr Richardson now Australia's ambassador to the United States. PM's adviser appointed top spy

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Al Qaeda and their affiliated groups have declared war on our civilization, and we’ve responded by being feckless and distracted. Why, 4 years after 9/11, and just hours after 7/7, are we continuing to allow Pakistan’s borders to likely harbor Bin Laden - we allow the Saudis to finance terror How many more innocent human beings have to die because our leaders refuse to hunt down these killers and end them?

Eye on Politics & Taxes: A Radical Way to Be: Full-focus attention is the next aphrodisiac
Attention captured by marketing messages and leaders who give us a sense of trust, belonging in a meaningful way.

Now we long for a quality of life that comes in meaningful connections to friends, colleagues, family that we experience with full-focus attention on relationships, etc. The next aphrodisiac is committed full-attention focus. In this new area, experiencing this engaged attention is to feel alive. Trusted filters, trusted protectors, trusted concierge, human or technical, removing distractions and managing boundaries, filtering signal from noise, enabling meaningful connections, that make us feel secure, are the opportunity for the next generation. Opportunity will be the tools and technologies to take our power back

• We Contain Multitudes [War Made Easy How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death Harsh insight into how we make war ; Tolstoy used fewer pages to sketch Napoleon's invasion of Czarist Russia - Writers of many stripes grapple with a country going off the rail Shock and awe - Five books on the war in Iraq ; Can We Fight The War On Terror Now? ]
• · Australian millionaires are reluctant to recognise themselves as well-to-do, and even the very rich still cry poor. Newly Rich: First Class, Upper Crust, Cream of Society Poor little millionaires ; History teaches us that there are two types of tyrants. Those who preserve the structures and forces that carry them to power - and those who, once they have attained their goal of unbridled domination, seek to destroy the organizations and people they had used to get to where they are Purging vs. Co-opting Tyrants
• · · The struggle against terrorism cannot be won by military means ; If the era of the Cold War is over it is, perhaps, less because one side has 'won' than because the legitimation of each political discourse found itself fundamentally challenged by material developments themselves The Betrayal of History: Dreamworld and Catastrophe ; The dumbing-down of audiences is as dangerous to newfound political and economic freedoms as are more explicit forms of repression. Both democracy and the free market will not survive long in the absence of an informed, alert, intellectually agile public. It is hard to retain one's critical faculties under the onslaught of televised conspicuous consumption and the unmitigated folly of mass entertainers Garbage in, money out
• · · · Focus groups? I thought we elected politicians to make big decisions Focus groups were almost as controversial within the Conservative Party as taxation ; The alliance between the NGO coalition Make Poverty History and the spectacular global Live8 concerts may seem a formidable challenge to the G8, but Tom Burgis in Edinburgh hears radical NGO campaigners who think it is far too close to power Insider-outsider: the NGO fracture zone ; Over the past 15 years, 'street politics' has lost its critical edge Live 8: How did protests become love-ins? ;
• · · · · Wes Boyd and Joan Blades and the formation of MoveOn.org The Internet And Democrats ; For the sake of party unity, many Democrats last year put aside their differences with John Kerry's foreign policy positions, in particular his tortured support for the war in Ira Reconnecting to the World
• · · · · · An op-ed on activist judges So Who Are the Activists? ; The libertarian case for judicial activism Unleash the Judges ; 'Electing Justice': The People's Court

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A Sad Day for London & Liberty
O THE sad day! A series of explosions ripped through London's underground system on Thursday morning. 6 Blasts Rock London, Killing at Least 30 ... At least 90 casualties in London explosions, subway closed Terrorist Explosions rock London
The world's most powerful leaders got down to talks in Gleneagles, Scotland, on Thursday on aid to Africa and climate change, but the summit was brutally overshadowed by a series of explosions that caused casualties and at least two deaths in London London blasts upstage G8 summit - Olympic bid team devastated by London blasts news
United States: September 11, 2001
Spain: March 11, 2004
England: July 7, 2005
Today, we are all Britons

Matters Arising from the Terrorist Bombing: After the joy of winning the Olympics, Evil came swiftly , however, How to verify a terrorist group's claim of responsibility

CODA: James Bond once said, ‘You only live twice.’ Once when you are born and again when you face death. He may well have been referring to my life ... My life, all of it, comes down to 7/7

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Carr's $1 billion deal to break GST deadlock

Eye on Tax & Politics: Aspirational Voters
In the lead-up to the 2004 election, Mark Latham talked much about Labor’s need to appeal to voters he called ‘aspirational’.

A Google search using the term ‘aspirational voter’ produces dozens of hits, as political commentators, pundits, and leaders grapple with explaining voters’ changing party preferences. During the election campaign, a consensus emerged that these ‘aspirationals’ would play a crucial role in determining the election outcome, especially in outer metropolitan electorates, where the Howard government held eleven seats by a margin of less than six per cent (Davies & Noonan 2004). So should we believe that those deemed ‘aspirational’ played a role in shaping the outcome of the 2004 poll?

• The Rise Of The Aspirational Voter [Red River Democracy Project ; ReCollection: a few things picked up along the way; How did I miss reading this editorial last week? The dilemmas of democracy ; With the changeover of senators on 1 July 2005, Marian Sawer looks at democratic issues posed by government control of both houses of the Australian Parliament, particularly in relation to legislative review and executive scrutiny The Senate changeover: implications for democracy ]
• · The immigration department has a cowboy culture and a contempt for human life, a lawyer for Vivian Alvarez says Cowboy culture' rules immigration department ; Cornelia Rau should have been held in jail for a week at most but instead spent six months in prison because an uninterested Immigration Department ignored its own rules for handling detainees Locked up against the rules - the Rau verdict ; In the Cornelia Rau case it looks like Immigration officials used the work of Alexander Solzhenitsyn as a guide, when they were not following Franz Kafka Cornelia Rau case a national disgrace
• · · The decision to pursue civil, rather than criminal, proceedings against Steve Vizard showed there was one law for members of the Melbourne establishment and another for Sydney eccentrics Vizard 'a true insider', says Rivkin lawyer ; The inflated rent paid by the Australian National Audit Office had probably pushed up the sale price of Labor's national headquarters in Canberra ALP sells HQ for $30m
• · · · Ian Thorpe said of the New York Olympic bid: "It is my baby." Five go to town for Olympic glory ; Anglo-French tensions heightened this week after French President Jacques Chirac delivered a series of insults to Britain as London and Paris fought to secure the 2012 Olympic Games Chirac's mad jokes sour relations ; It was intended to be a house party for well-heeled, fashion-conscious ladies in the eastern suburbs, eating nibblies, gossiping and perusing fake luxury handbags that were to be sold for cash Sale of fakes leaves heavy baggage
• · · · · Martyn Stuart Mendelsohn, an ear, nose and throat surgeon and former visiting medical officer at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, is charged with one count of aggravated sexual assault Celebrity doctor on rape charge ; Bagless ladies: the powerful new breed of politician; The escape of a billionaire suspect prompts police chief's resignation but critics say more change needed Law and Disorder
• · · · · · John and Janette Howard go overseas next week for 10 days in Washington and London. Wish them well These days it's more like a gravy plane ; Commonwealth Bank's new chief executive, Ralph Norris, left his last IT management position behind 14 years ago. But he readily acknowledges the job laid the groundwork for the success that led him to take on one of Australia's most demanding executive jobs IT helped launch CBA's new chief

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Time to worship at Hillsong Church … the Premier, Bob Carr, and pastor Brian Houston address the crowd at the SuperDome last night Politicians make a joyful noise, too

Eye on Politics & Taxes: Gang of Four
Here we go again, back to the NME's glory days.

Back to a mythology of office fist fights (true), typewriters thrown from tower blocks (untrue), drug ODs (a couple), hip young gunslingers (more than a few) and counter-cultural cool (we tried).
In the past few years, we've had Nick Hornby confessing that NME hack was the dream job he never had, Jonathan Coe featuring the paper in The Rotters' Club, obligatory mentions in every profile of those reluctant NME twins Tony (Parsons) and Julie (Burchill). Now comes an hour-long BBC documentary ostensibly covering the paper's entire 50-year history but focused on the Seventies and early Eighties, years which contain NME's so-called Golden Age when, to quote Ovid, 'men of their own accord, without laws, did what was right... a season of everlasting spring'.

• On remembering a golden age when politics and philosophy rubbed shoulders with Sex, drugs and rock'n'roll [ Open Letters, Closed Minds ; Predictions are difficult to make—especially when they’re about the future Are We at a Turning Point in History? ]
• · From the sick man of Europe to its richest, Ireland has made a remarkable transformation, writes Thomas Friedman
The luck of the Irish? No, it's just hard work and a grand plan ; Elisabeth Sexton examines this difficult question in the light of the James Hardie cas e Directors: to whom do they owe care? ; True Patriots Act You shouldn't have to surrender your liberties to prove you love the red, white and blue
• · · The office crawler would be rewarded under the Howard Government's planned industrial relations laws changes while quiet hard workers would miss out Beware the crawler: Beazley ; NSW Premier Bob Carr wants the federal government to abolish the Commonwealth Grants Commission and to stop what he says is the redistribution of NSW GST revenue to Queensland and Western Australia Carr tax cut if grants commission dumped
• · · · By Brian Toohey. 2 Jyly 2005 The Australian Financial Review: When the Howard government was elected in 1996, the Income Tax Act was about 3000 pages. It is now more than 10,000 pages. There are also innumerable interpretive guidelines and rulings issued by the Australian Taxation Office and thousands of extra pages associated with GST legislation and associated interpretations. Much of this added complexity stems from changes flowing from the 1999 Ralph report on business taxes Tax laws beg for clarity ; When the rate of capital gains tax was halved in 1999, the Prime Minister, John Howard, the Treasurer, Peter Costello, and their tax reviewer, John Ralph, promised a boon in economic benefit and efficiency. Instead, they contributed to a perilous property bubble, directed a generous tax break to the wealthiest and delivered, at best, a piddling addition to productive investment Falling short of a capital idea
• · · · · Recycling is the cheapest way to respond to Sydney's water crisis, writes Malcolm Turnbull Recycling is the cheapest way to respond to Sydney's water crisis

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As always Peter Fitzsimons in his Fitz Files on Sunday digs deep into the memories and gives us another catchy headline: Carr Bonfire Mystery I too recall how a certain fevour swept the Parliament House when Terry Metherell gave his diary to public servant at our ABC, Quentin Dempster, so no one was surprised to learn that a number of pollies caught a disease called pyromania (an irresistible impulse to set things on fire) For a footfaller, Peter Fitzsimons, has a memory of an elephant who is able to weaves together many extraordinary stories: ‘Something is not sitting quite right. In 1992, the Herald’s Stay in Touch column reported: ‘In an orgy of pyromania, Bob Carr fed eight volumes of his secret diaries into a backyard barbie on Saturday night, cheered on by close mates. One of the politics’ most prolific diarists, Carr’s ceremonial burning resulted from a fear that hiss diaries may be subpoenaed and published by newspapers.’ Although the then Opposition Leader did not believe at the time his scratchings would have ‘induced heart failure, mass arrests, isolated suicides or hastily booked flights to Paraquay,’ they did record ‘day-to-day political comments and throw-away comments’ by political personalities. Yet now, with the Latham book, we have the second example in recent years of Bob Carr selectively planting extracts from his most recent diaries with the biographers. What gives? Was there a bonfire? Does he have a complete dairy? How big is it now? Will we ever see it in full?' (my emphassis ;-) [Ach, my spies report recent sightings of Mike Egan in Praha the city of thousand spires ;-]

Eye on Tax & Politics: Bob the Builder
Anyone who has breezed through the diaries of our Premier, Bob Carr, knows he has a healthy ego and is susceptible to a few soaring vanities that occasionally hit the middle-aged man.

And the ego was well and truly on display at the Park Hyatt 15th anniversary bash this week. Guests feasting on the spread from chief chef Danny Drinkwater could have been forgiven for thinking Emperor Carr was responsible for the swank hotel. Indeed, during his speech, Mr Carr pulled out a dog-eared sheet of paper dating back to his days as Planning Minister in 1987, showing the crowd an original concept for the waterfront site. With the stroke of a pen, Mr Carr said, with suitable theatrics, adding that he oversaw the development of the top end of town which paid for heritage restoration of the Rocks.

• What a single-handed mastermind he is! [ The Limits of 'Live 8' and the G8 in Making Poverty History ; Whenever public officials and community leaders propose a policy to make business act more responsibly — such as reduce pollution or improve working conditions — some business leaders react in horror that it will destroy the incentive to invest and hurt the business climate Call it the Chicken Little syndrome ]
• · The end of democracy? Philosopher Peter Sloterdijk talks with Marius Meller about Europe's crisis and authoritarian capitalism Damned to expertocracy ; Is That a Pool Cue in Corporate America's Pocket, Or Are They Just Excited About the Supreme Court? Story about how Corporate America is already scheming
• · · It looks more like a convention centre for God's delegates than a church, but Hillsong, with 18,000 Pentecostal Christians, represents the largest single congregation in Australia Hillsong: Songs of praise — and politics ; "The pursuit of happiness" is about more than private pleasures A Right, From the Start ; I am willing to love all mankind, except an American. They are a race of convicts, and ought to be thankful for anything we allow them short of hanging Dr. Johnson's Revolution
• · · · Decaying state of teeth in children ; $100M RSS Fund Launched ; Pliant American Press Behaving Like Pravda in Coverage of the U.S. President Replow it further? How about plowing it once?
• · · · · Some Republican lawmakers don't think George Soros should be permitted to purchase a Major League Baseball team because he's too liberal and he has some wacky notions. Political football: Taking Aim At Soros Is Hardly Politic ; Perhaps the first thing that should be said about the new edition of Main Currents of Marxism concerns the peril it presents to those with weak backs or delicate wrists. Marxism, says Leszek Kolakowski, was a stupendous fantasy: at once scientific, prophetic, fantastic, utopian, and irrational – a caricature and a bogus form of religion The anatomy of totalitarianism
• · · · · · James Cumes on VOW and Direct Democracy ; James also remembers Ray Parkin: The flowers in that area are among the most beautiful I've ever seen A Fortunate Life

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Today we hold this truth to be self-evident: We are all in this together. Are you ready, are you ready to make poverty history! We're not looking for charity, we're looking for justice. We cannot fix every problem but the ones we can, we must. Annihilating poverty is Live 8’s signature tune Rockin' all over the world: Making history to end poverty - Indeed, this was the night when the world rocked for justice. No Escape as Live 8 Saturates Google: No more excuses, cry concerts

Eye on Tax & Rock-n-Roll: Mourn on the Fourth of July
Am I the only U.S. citizen who finds the annual Fourth rituals to be cloying and deceptive? Yeah -- just me and probably tens of millions of other people.

Ever since the Vietnam War, the Fourth of July has seemed to be a celebration of the past in the midst of a distinctly un-glorious present. In 2005, as in 1965, lyrical appreciation of "bombs bursting in air" is chilling in the context of current realities ... The nation is defined as a way of life that externalizes enemies and asserts that its survival—whether economic, social or political—must expand lest the nation contract and die

A July 4th Covenant: After more than two centuries, you'd hope that more journalists would be willing to set aside fawning myths about the founding fathers. If that ever happens, the emergence of candor might even help shed some light on the ruling fathers of today
• Democracy for the Few Protecting the haves from the have-nots [Are We There Yet? 1984: The Two Georges, Orwell And Bush ; Public TV is already sinking, so why not rock the boat?Rocking Mainstream ]
• · A nation's success or failure in achieving democracy is judged in part by how well it responds to those at the bottom and the margins of the social order... The very problems that democratic change brings -- social tension, heightened expectations, political unrest -- are also strengths. Discord is a sign of progress afoot; unease is an indication that a society has let go of what it knows and is working out something better and new Court Fight: It's More Than Left-v-Right ; Was there ever a time when Congressional tax cuts for multi-millionaires were more unseemly? Millionaires and War
• · · The US war in Iraq increasingly mirrors the Vietnam tragedy Waist Deep in the Big Muddy ; The fifties were the height of the Cold War. Cold War thinking shaped the debate on and contours of even such seemingly “domestic” matters as urban and intercity transportation Cold War at a deeper cultural level
• · · · For political observers and operatives, a key benefit of blogwatching is the capacity to spot trends days, weeks, or even months in advance. One theme beginning a slow ascent to the upper echelons of the 'sphere is the invocation of the 'I' word O'Connor Retires From Supreme Court ; via Peter Daou
• · · · · The Australian economy has had an unprecedented period of uninterrupted growth since 1992, surviving disruptions from the Asian crisis of 1997, the stock market collapse of 1999, and the war in Iraq. Who is better at managing the Australian economy: Labor or the Coalition? ; Carr stands firm against Costello's GST threats ; Dreading return time? At least you don't have to factor sex into your equations Tax antics laid bare ; Editorial. 30/06/2005. The Australian Financial Review. The Australian Taxation Office doesn't know when it's onto a good thing. The new tax system took about two years to bed down but in the three years since 2002, federal tax receipts have risen by one-quarter to $203 billion, not counting the swelling goods and services tax revenue. Taxpayers have rights as well
• · · · · · Amid the vitriol there’s a potent message for Labor. If only Shakespeare had lived in the age of emai Method in his madness ; In many ways, Mark Latham was seen as a potential Messiah who would lead the Australian Labor Party out of the political wilderness and to victory in the 2004 Federal election
Mark Latham: Labor’s loner ; Beazley handing junkets to mates ; A lesson we should relearn - Stephen Loosley

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Remind me: who was the greater mass murderer, Stalin or Hitler? Well, Stalin is thought to have been responsible for about 50 million deaths, and Hitler for a mere 25 million ... That is why the servants of communist tyranny get sympathetic obits, and modern British girls wear CCCP T-shirts, and that is why a Labour Government can enact a series of authoritarian measures that a Conservative government could not contemplate. Tales of hammer and sickle T-shirts laden with badges of the foremost commie creeps of history. I cannot explain this injustice: Boris Johnson merely points it out: The stuff of Kafka-esque nightmare

Eye on Taxes & Jobs: Game, set and match: a loner but not a loser
Mark Latham ended his political career by resigning on January 18. The journalist Bernie Lagan emailed Latham 17 days later:

"Dear Mark, I guess you've seen the letter I sent via Jody [Latham's sister]. It's a great shame things have ended this way, but I reckon you could make only one call for Janine and those boys, given your future health. The rubber will soon hit the road with our book. It's coming out around late May. Deadline for the words is the end of next month. At least we should set down your legacy to the Labor Party

• End of tennis match [ The problem identified - deafness ; Another field, another grasshopper Latham: my part in his downfall ]
• · Conservative Catholic leader Cardinal George Pell's concerns about the Government's workplace changes reflect widespread community concern about their impact. Pell urges caution over Senate power Pell comments reflect wider IR concerns: Labor ; Unions promise fast, loud action
• · · A memo to managers of the world: you are not paranoid. Your staff really are out to get you Bullied bosses: look out below ; A workforce revolution is on its way, as many new employees are about to find out What do we want … and does it matter? ; GST is a difficult child Businesses still adjusting to GST
• · · · The number of new homes and flats approved in Sydney has fallen to levels not seen since the last recession Property plunge exposes weak state ; The State Government has racked up $23 million of insurance claims from government vehicles since the 2003 election, according to the Opposition's latest waste watch report Money frittered away, says Coalition ; No matter what good fortune comes their way a history of conflict haunts Redfern's children Black and blue ; Since over a week has elapsed since the High Court handed down its decision, much of the initial fervour has lapsed The Fingleton result
• · · · · Why is it an American or an Australian can go and fight in the Israeli army and will not be called a terrorist when he comes back, but a Muslim who goes and fights is called a terrorist? Raided men defend their part in jihad ; Police who conduct their activity in secret, who by law force all involved to keep it a secret and don't allow journalists to talk about said secret are indeed "secret police" Second terrorism charge for handler ; On February 27th 1933, the immense Reichstag building, the focal point of Berlin’s imperial district, was set on fire and destroyed. Only the shell remained. It was a shocking act of terrorism Be alarmed, not just alert, on ASIO power extension ; Derek Maul, CS Monitor The real meaning of July 4: Power belongs to the people Are We Moving Away From The Meaning of July 4th?; Robert Pape, Chicago Tribune When death is an option The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism
• · · · · · No self-respecting politician would miss the chance these days to big-note themselves at a major extension of a beleaguered railway system, but when the western line reached Rydal in 1870, there was no pageantry All is in train, now where is the transport minister? ; Scoop: An interesting twist from the San Francisco Chronicle: Todd Wallack used state records to show that despite Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s talk of reducing state spending the Schwarzenegger administration proposes creating 6,288 jobs California State Employees - and More

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The ex-Labor leader is honest, blunt and angry, but certainly not the least bit interested in rebuilding any bridges.
Mark Latham gets angry, err, angrier
Mark Latham's splenetic comments about the Labor Party, the state premiers, the media and anyone else who got in his way received plenty of newsprint today David Roffey signed in just behind Laurie Ferguson. Why is he here? Lets hope that the rest of Bernie's book will remind us all of a more rounded picture of Mark's career: not only the disappointment, but also the excitement. Not just the acrimony, but also the inspiration Not just the risk, but the reasons we were willing to take the risk.

Eye on Tax & Tragedy: The Loner: Inside a Labor tragedy
Bernie Lagan has taken a risk himself, engaging so closely and so soon with this highly-coloured and highly dramatic story.

When Bernie Lagan asked me to launch this book, I admit I had some misgivings. I disagree with some of the analysis, and with some of the opinions in this book – including those of its subject! There is always the risk that someone, motivated by stupidity or by spite, will think launching a book equals endorsing its contents. But, on reflection, I thought this was a risk well worth taking. Loner covers a very recent and very volatile episode in Labor's history. The dust has not settled. The wounds are raw. Some would say that nowhere near enough time has passed for a reasoned (or reasonable) discussion of Mark Latham's leadership...
We value our history without caveat. The light on the hill, and the shadows beneath, are both part of Labor's past. And we struggle to accept and learn from both. We hold our history close in the Labor Party, we breathe new life into old feuds. We use our history as a guide and a justification. It is our weapon of choice in battles against foes without and within the party. It's our weapon of choice, but it's a two-edged sword. Labor's close engagement with our history risks uncomfortable truths and awkward revelations. Perhaps this is why books about Labor's history sell better than those about the conservatives.

• Nightmare on Beazley Street: Latham bites back ... The Tsunami and the Mad End John Faulkner, Labor's leading historian, on 'Loner' [Sour Grapes: Latham book hot property: Costello A-list: Carr gives Latham an F for grade A insult ; A-Humour Preacher of Practicer: a Politician or a Priest ; Bernie Lagan; Labor got the leader it truly deserves - It’s beyond repair, beyond reform Google: Latham biography reopens wounds in ALP]
• · One of Australia's largest transport companies, Lindsay Australia, moved from New South Wales (NSW) to Queensland two years ago. Director, Tom Lindsay, says the company will never return, describing NSW as a "Gestapo state". By moving, he says the company has reduced the cost of payroll tax, worker's compensation premiums and vehicle registration. The savings paid for the cost of the move within 12 months. Other key businesses have also left the state because of higher taxes and charges How tax drove a company north ; Freedom in the Market
• · · The New Yorker: Did AIPAC lobbyists and a Pentagon analyst pass secrets to Israel? Real Insiders ; Ari Sharp John Howard's ten worst ministers ; Yearning for Great Men without too much of Executive Power Presidential Powers
• · · · The Australian goods and services tax (GST) has been successful overall. Lachlan Wolfers, of accounting firm KPMG, said that GST revenues had been higher than predicted, administration presented few problems, and it had been widely accepted. It had not dealt with the problem of the black market, but it had brought many businesses within the tax net. However, there were several problems. The treatment of property, financial services and non-profit operations was very complex. The GST also created problems for foreign buyers of goods and services in Australia, Wolfers argued GST a 'stunning success'. ; Taxing but 'relatively painless' - the GST rakes it in ; Attempts by the Australian Taxation Office to tighten the rules covering political advocacy and lobbying have left non-profit organisations fearful they could lose their charity status and some tax exemptions Charities fear losing tax-free status
• · · · · Tory David Davis said Labour's legacy would be "surveillance from cradle to grave" ... We can see no benefits, huge cost and serious risks to civil liberties and privacy The Good the Bad and the Ugly; MPs narrowly back ID cards plan ; The Blair government competes with the US for the prize of world's most intellectually bankrupt Western ruling party: the costly, redundant new ID legislation Rebels halve Blair's majority in vote on ID cards ; Let’s hope that it gets mauled in committee and then dropped Ministers plan to sell your ID card details to raise cash
• · · · · · No one knows yet whether William Rehnquist plans to resign this week. But if he does, the stage will be set for the most contentious nomination battle since the Clarence Thomas hearings of 1991. That battle will in all likelihood provide Washington's primary political drama of the summer Court Gestures ; In his 1802 letter to the Danbury Baptist Association, then-President Thomas Jefferson made it clear that the intent of the founders was to maintain a "wall of separation between church and state." Reinforcing the Wall ; If life tenure is a good idea, then why has it been shunned by all of the world's other democracies? Life Tenure Is Too Long For Supreme Court Justices ; Is it possible to square judicial review with democracy? Just where do judges derive the democratic credentials to overturn laws enacted by elected officials? The ideal of self-government constrained by law ; Rehnquist in the minority on a number of big rulings A season of dissent for the chief justice

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Recent raids show that the taxman's negotiations with wrongdoers will be of the bare-knuckle kind. A veteran tax consultant, Gordon Cooper, compares Trevor Boucher and Michael Carmody and parallels the Commissioner’s term in the office with a long term behind bars in the BRW article dated 23 June 2005. According to Cooper, Michael Carmody will be unlikely to accept a third seven-year term. ‘You do not necessarily do 14 years for murder; it is a tough job.’ And he predicts Carmody’s post-ATO role could be a finance post with the OECD. The article suggests that Michael D’Ascenzo or Jennie Granger who occupy the offices next to Carmody’s could be the likely Commissioners. [Locally and globally, Assistant Commissioner with the initials of JC is growing in popularity: Some men are destined to be gentle giants] Tax cheats beware: No Mercy

Eye on Taxes & Culture of Fear: What’s legal? What’s ethical?
What can we get away with? How do you measure up?

Like John, I decided that in approaching this task I had better do some research. Having done that it soon became obvious that ethics and taxation has been the subject of intermittent debate over many years, and I have to say without any general resolution. Views are generally polarised, each premised on what is said to be good public policy principles. Thus on the one hand, you have the view that derives from the role of taxation and its important community nature. This view is reflected in the often quoted notion of taxes being 'the price we pay for a civilised society'. On the other hand you have and equally principled rule of law view. Our society is based on the rule of law. To overlay any other measure, so this school of though goes is to introduce inappropriate subjectivity to this guiding principle. Continuing this line of logic leads to the conclusion that its people’s rights and advises responsibilities to minimise tax, including it seems taking advantage of loopholes provided by the courts and legislation.

• The integrity of the tax-system [Tax Commissioner Michael Carmody learnt some painful lessons from his old boss Trevor Boucher, who lacked delicacy when pursuing rich and well-connected tax avoiders. Boucher was hounded mercilessly until he eventually retired Carmody's softly, softly approach delivers windfall ; It's being billed as the most sweeping tax fraud investigation ever conducted in Australia Probe uncovers $300m in unpaid taxes ; The Tax Office is preparing to triple the size of a data-matching program that makes it far harder for taxpayers to cheat on their capital gains tax declarations Tax Office will target capital gains cheats ; A celebrity lawyer has launched an 11th hour bid to avoid being questioned over an alleged multi-million dollar tax fraud involving tax havens, false documents and prominent sportspeople and entertainers Stars' lawyer faces tax scam trial ]
• · Listening to Paul Keating recently and listening to Malcolm Fraser last night one has to wonder why politicians start to talk sense only when they can no longer make a difference: Former prime minister Malcolm Fraser has criticised the federal Government's anti-terrorism policies, saying they have created a "secret police" and a culture of fear Australia 'secret police' state; In his Fulbright Public Lecture, delivered earlier this week at the University of Melbourne, George Williams looks at the lessons of Australia’s response to terrorism Balancing national security and human rights ; Mr Carr said NSW Police was working "hand-in-glove" with ASIO and the Australian Federal Police on counter-terrorism ASIO raids have Carr's full support ; Melbourne criminal lawyer Rod Stary today accused federal Attorney-General Philip Ruddock's office of cowardly leaking defamatory information about anti-terrorism raid Ruddock accused of raid leak: Terror leaks run deep; It's rattling the cages at this stage More raids, still no arrests; Google: Web Wide World Watching Wild Invaders
• · · Labor is preparing for more internal bloodletting with former leader Mark Latham set to dump on his replacement Kim Beazley and the entire party - Loner: Inside a Labor tragedy Labor waits as Latham locks and loads ; Mark's career – short, spectacular and Labor through and through - world of self-made umpires ALP hits back at 'rat' Latham ; Staff in the Federal Workplace Relations Minister's own department have used a protest to accuse their boss of "hypocrisy" Workplace Minister's staff in IR protest: PM brushes off dissent on industrial law ; Bradon Ellem and Russell Lansbury: The gap between high- and low-income workers is about to widen Tough times ahead as proposed workplace reforms miss the boat
• · · · I live in # 20 Sydney, but I visited if ever so briefly # 3, 4, 6, 7, 11, 12, 15, 16, 17, 21 and both Budapest and Amsterdam at 24 [What # is Prague I wonder ...] Top 25 World's Most Expensive Cities ; Millionaire mile record topples; In 10 years, Glenwood has gone from cabbages, cauliflowers and tomatoes to houses, backyards and garages; from productive agricultural land popular with Maltese immigrants to a suburb chock-full of families Productive land lost for good under creeping suburban tide ; Corridors of Power Your money, ill spent ; Then, in a dramatic 11th-hour gesture, the Polish Prime Minister, Marek Belka, and his Czech counterpart, Jiri Paroubek, led a group of former Communist nations in offering to forgo some of their countries' cash in the interests of a deal 'Pathetic. Tragic. Embarrassing.' And then things got really nasty ; Applying the theories of the enlightenment may not be so enlightened More to the poverty trap than money
• · · · · Is it futile, or useful, to compare such punishments? The future of criminal law, by Michael Kirby ; The tax office and corporate regulators have signalled a softly-softly approach to businesses that have trouble with the new superannuation choice laws that start from Friday ATO, ASIC to go softly on new super laws
• · · · · · Police Commissioner Ken Moroney has given one of the state's top officers until the end of the week to respond to allegations concerning a $6000 desk and other furniture purchased for his police office Explain table purchase, Moroney tells top cop ; THE senior leadership of the NSW Police is in disarray with yet another executive officer at the centre of a corruption investigation that could destroy his career.
Senior Assistant Commissioner Dick Adams – touted as a successor to Commissioner Ken Moroney Moroney's crisis ; Moroney denies NSW police in crisis

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Shouting, interjections, hurled documents, missing closed-circuit TV footage - not just another day in State Parliament but the last day before MPs took an 11-week holiday Pollies muck up on last day of term

Comedian in training,, screams one of the headers of The Fitz Files by Peter Fitzsimons, in the Sun Herald. One of the TFF’s friends was on a platform at Sutherland station last Friday afternoon and heard the following announcement croaking through the speakers: ‘The 4:30 train to Dapto has been cancelled [audible groan from those on the platform] ... for today only ... For today, anyway. The train to Central due on platform one at 4.20 is approximately 10 minutes late ....[resigned sighs] The train to Waterfall due on platform four at 4.30 is ... on time! [The travellers look at each other, stunned] Hold on, I’ll just czech (sic) that ... Yes, that’s right, the 4.30 train to Waterfall is on time ...[Audible laughter from the long-suffering travelling public.] Ed. The entire Sydney is in comedy training ;-)

Eye on Tax and Comedy of Errors: 'Two Iraqis were shot while I was there'
A blindfolded Douglas Wood heard two Iraqi hostages being executed - one at his feet - during his 47 day ordeal at the hands of his captors in Iraq.

The freed Australian hostage has told how he heard the two executions at the second house in which he was held.
"Over a period of about five days three Iraqis turned up, the first of which was the only one that got out alive," he told the Ten network.
"He came out with me and the other two were shot while I was there."
Mr Wood said his captors came into his room one night, tapped one of the Iraqi men on the shoulder, and gave him a karate chop.

• Rescuing Wood 'put off to save ransom' ["Ye have the poor with you always”, said Jesus (Mark 14: 7) From TLS, a review of books on poverty ; What's the difference between an Antipodean wet and moderate? Moderates win preselections: Wets are still drips ]
• · To the great growth industries of America such as health care and home building add one more: influence peddling ... Lobbying Firms Hire More, Pay More, Charge More to Influence Government The Road to Riches Is Called K Street ; It's sweeps week for corporate crooks How to Deter White-Collar Crime ; Only two Australian universities rank in the world’s top 100. Staff-student ratios have shot up nearly 30 per cent in 10 years. It’s not only quality that’s suffering. As students pay more and more for overcrowded courses, equality of opportunity is becoming a timeworn slogan The Degree Factories: a degree mill
• · · NSW Police Commissioner Ken Moroney denies ignoring a report two years ago warning that Sydney airport had become a haven for criminals. I didn't ignore airport crime report: Moroney ; Airport crime report ignored for two years ; Unscrupulous practices by shonky tour operators: As Australians we pride ourselves on our egalitarian nature, our love of the great outdoors and the fact that we are the only island continent in the world that can boast its own uninterrupted coastline. And so it is that our sweeping coast, beautiful beaches and magnificent harbour have become an integral part of our national identity as well as our greatest tourist assets. We also take a certain amount of pride in the fact that they are free, unlike many beaches that line the tourist-rich coasts of Europe, Africa and parts of north and south America. Anyone from any nation, no matter how affluent or impecunious they may be, can step on to our golden sands and enjoy the gifts of our national icons. Tourists charged $25 to walk on Bondi
• · · · Webdiarist Darlene Taylor says protesters should move beyond 1917 Anatomy of a rally ; The cords of collegiality that used to bind the members of Congress to one another - and to the president - haven't just frayed, they've snapped. This descent into enmity is not just one party's fault. There is blame to distribute among all The Best of Enemies ; Founding a democracy, rather like living in a democracy, can be very tough on friendship. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson began as friends
• · · · · Insurgent unionists have the right goals. But leaving the AFL-CIO may make them harder to achieve Big Labor, Big Choices ; Dozens of members of Congress have accepted trips from non-profits with registered lobbyists on their boards Congressional Non-Profit Travel ; State officials travel free as invited guests - Ethics law says gifts under $250 a day can go unreported Alabama Private Trips
• · · · · · Scoop: Buffalo Gun Traficking ; Australian Story tells the untold personal story of the nurse who lifted the lid on a medical scandal making front page news, not just in Australia, but around the world. Toni Hoffman is nurse in charge of the Intensive Care Unit at the Bundaberg Base Hospital in Queensland. For two years she tried to raise concerns about the lethal activities of a surgeon called Jayant Patel, a man now accused of murder Death Doctor: At Death's Door ; State revenue agencies across the nation are hunting for tax evaders with new high-tech tools: computer programs that mine an increasing number of databases for clues on the finances of people and businesses. Tax cheats beware - how the IRS will catch you

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WELCOME NUDE & SEMI NUDE PAJAMAHADEENS OF TECHNORATI FAME who have stumbled across the Media Dragon via top 100 Naked Conversations
Michael might be moving a house, but still he manages to blog forward about a few websites of note: Rant or BIF?
Pay it forward is all about a notion of transformation and what drives us to cross to all kinds of wise and thoughtful blogs. It is also an opportunity for us to explore less known blogs or give an extra link to blogs that deserve wider attention ...
Czech out a creative Barista David Tiley
Get swept off your feet by a kind legal eagle David Starkoff
Invade Alan at Southerly Buster
... An answer came directed in a writing unexpected Perry Middlemiss
Ach, New Matilda.com is a place for you to speak out about the Australia you want New Walzing Matilda

CODA: Shel Israel and Robert Scoble have moved to Chapter 9 and kindly quote Media Dragon ... We, of course, believe your decision not to blog will hurt your company in the long run. “Sunlight is the best disinfectant -- all great CEOs encourage transparency and openness as long as sensitive data is not leaked,” Cold River author Jozef Imrich told us Naked Thorns in the Roses

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I am such a complete atheist that I am afraid God will punish me. Such is the pithy wisdom of Jára Cimrman - Existence cannot not exist. Fictional Cimrman is so beloved because he is that most prickly of ironies: a Czech who was greater than all the world’s greats, but who for some hiccup of chance has never been recognized for his achievements. I like to think that the vote for Cimrman says something about the country’s rousing enthusiasm for blowing raspberries in the face of authority. Czech out the two things about the Czech nation: “that it is skeptical about those who are major figures and those who are supposedly ‘the greatest.’ And that the only certainty that has saved the nation many times throughout history is its humour.” When optimists should be shot: Jára Cimrman: the Greatest Czech of All Time

As in so many other countries and in so many other times, the rise of a newly educated intellectual class in the 19th century polarized the society with ethnic identity politics. All over Bohemia, the new Czech intelligentsia urged Czechs to think of themselves as Czechs, not Bohemians or Budweisers or anything else that would transcend their ethnic identity We Are All Budweisers [If only the grievances of past centuries had been left in the past! If only they had all remained Budweisers or Bohemians]

Eye on Tax and Irony: Move Over, Boomers
Contributing Editor Adam Werbach asks if the baby boomers are to blame for the sad state of affairs. "What should these leaders do now?" he asks. "Die?"

Raised during the heyday of ecological activism and the rise of a post-industrial networked society, practivists are steeped in systems thinking. Having come of age during the fall of the Berlin Wall, they are suspicious of nationalism and artificial dualities, a mistrust further informed by academic and political training in deconstructing absolute identity categories like race or gender. Practivists prefer to emphasize similarities rather than dwell in the "silos" of various "isms."

The old era of political party identification is giving way to a disaggregated thunderdome of cause-based politics, distributed democracy, MoveOn house parties and do-it-yourself politics
• MoveOn ; Stephen Matchett's article shows much more than the usual superficial understanding of Kokoda and the fascination it has for so many of us The Digger Legend: James Cumes ; [American political parties, as we have known them for two centuries, are disintegrating Are the Parties Over? ; Why do those who stand to gain the least from virtually every policy of George W. Bush, support him the most? Let Them Eat War; What else could war dollars buy? Six billion dollars a month can pay for a lot of stuff, and we've got the T-shirts, tickers and widgets to prove it. Tim Grieve, in Salon ; The scale of the theft indulged in over the last forty years by the Nigerian ruling-class is almost unbelievable £220bn stolen by Nigeria's corrupt rulers ; Bulgarians vote, seen ending reign of ex-king PM - Bulgaria's ex-communists claim election victory Bulgaria's election lottery ]
• · Scary Stuff: Revolutionary Communist Party, a statement on the battle for the future ; Cathy Young on the hypocrisy of Hollywood leftists Bolshywood Revisited
• · · The False Problem of Free Will and Determinism Getting the Fly Out of the Bottle; Ever since the first Jew arrived on American shores 350 years ago, one question has persistently been asked but never definitively answered The Great Jewish-American Synthesis
• · · · What follows is a blatant intrusion into private grief. Well, very nearly private grief. The Tory party has not quite diminished to a level of importance at which its affairs are of concern only to members of its dwindling associations. But it has certainly declined to a point that is dangerously close to effective disappearance The Tory party faces an unenviable choice of leadership candidates ; Regime Change and Its Limits ; Senator Norm Coleman, New York Tax Cheats at the Government Trough ; Christopher Hitchens, Slate The Da Vinci Code vs. The Downing Street Memo
• · · · · We need a serious book about Hillary Clinton. Ed Klein's isn't it Eine Kleine Biographie ; Kathleen Parker, Townhall There's Something (Else) About Hillary; Amity Shlaes, Financial Times Don't Ignore Blue Dog Wisdom
• · · · · · via Tim Dunlop: In George Orwell's classic novel '1984', a central theme was the absolute control of information through the Ministry of Truth - a misnomer, if ever there was one. In a contemporary reality twist, control of information has become an integral part of the response of Western Governments to the so-called war on terror. Sledgehammer Politics ; Lionel Tiger, WSJ
An Anthropological Debunking Of The "Housing Bubble"

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The Australian Tax Commissioner, Michael Carmody, received an Order of Australia (AO) medal in the Queen’s Birthday honours list. In addition he is highly respected by his international peers and the ATO is recognised as one of the world’s best tax administrations. It was only a few months ago he was rated number six of the most influential members of the tax industry globally, in the UK magazine Tax Business: Gong for Michael Carmody Coup de Commish

Swoops by the Australian Crime Commission and the Tax Office on a clutch of law and accountancy firms, plus numerous others of "interest" around town, have given rise to much indignity, not to mention indignation. This is the first phase in a bold operation by these agencies to track down the players in various offshore schemes and to recover up to $300 million that should have been paid in tax, but wasn't At last, the Tax Office is on the front foot
Michael Carmody has been Commissioner of Taxation since January 1993, his seven-year appointment having been renewed in January 2000 Raids tip of the iceberg: tax chief doing his bit for Australia

Eye on Tax & Power: ID crime Sages, spooks and scions
News that one MP has had 26 mistresses shouldn't surprise us. Power-hungry alpha males are always more likely to stray Mind of an Adulterer

Fellow-author Karl May - who'd earlier been imprisoned for impersonating German secret service agents and policemen - gained fame for 'wild west' genre novellas, presented as autobiographical although he didn't venture west to the English Channel. Adoption of a false persona didn't inhibit sales, which were above 50 million copies after 1912.
'Louis de Rougemont' (1847-1921), aka Louis Grin, gained fame for journalism about his travels - which apparently did not extend much beyond the Reading Room of the British Museum. He was exposed after enthusing over the marvellous "flight of the wombat", implausible given that wombats are burrowing creatures with the aerodynamic qualities of a bag of cement. He was more successful than Jean Christoph de Lancourt de Brenil, supposed companion of Jack London, master of 25 languages, war hero, equestrian, aviator and long distance walker.
Across the Atlantic 'Yellow Kid' Weill successfully posed as a major investor from Chicago, borrowing executive offices in several banks. His victims were then invited to the bank to meet that institution's CEO, duly being impressed by the surroundings and handing over large amounts of cash.
Perhaps more sadly, is the story of Jean-Claude Romand, who murdered his family when he could no longer maintain the fiction - as he had assiduously done for most of his adult life - that he was a senior World Health Organization bureaucrat.

• The Tax Office has shown its fangs ID theft and fraud before the dot [Crime Czechlist: Timeline; Princeton's Andrew Moravcsik explains the meaning of the European "no" A category error; the law has an even bigger ass ... ]
• · Federal Treasurer Peter Costello is preparing to crack down on the NSW and West Australian governments over their refusal to cut state taxes in return for the GST revenue Costello in GST crackdown on states ; Seemingly innocent requests over boozy lunches has ended in a jail term for a 25-year veteran of the Australian Taxation Office Fall of a veteran tax man ; Ten Stories the World Should Hear More About ; Human rights investigators cite "Persistent and credible" reports of torture at Guantanamo
• · · Que? Carr 'risking environmental legacy' ; Peter Slipper visited Thailand and Laos just weeks after the federal election for a fortnight-long taxpayer-funded trip that included just three days of official meetings Junket justified, MP says ; VIRGIN Money is set to shake up the $750 billion superannuation industry, offering its signature low- frills product aimed at the youth market Virgin puts sizzle into super ; A bold solution to Japan's floundering economy: 68 American-style law schools. Small world, big ripples
• · · · NSW Liberal leader John Brogden has accused John Howard of being too cosy with the nation's Labor premiers and creating the "perfect storm" where federal and state governments can successfully blame each other for their problems. Mr Brogden says the Prime Minister is letting down his state colleagues as they toil away in opposition by praising Labor leaders, especially NSW Premier Bob Carr PM letting state Libs down: Brogden ; More from presidential candidate and actor Michael Moriarty ; DNC finds no evidence of widespread election fraud in Ohio. In Ohio Vote, Woes, Yes, Fraud, No
• · · · · The Great Live 8 Debate ; Live 8 ; to Be Largest Global Broadcast' ; Every year the State of Israel goes into hysterics when the water level of Lake Kinneret dips below the red line Will water be the crude oil
• · · · · · The CIA says Iraq is now a terrorist training ground ; But not to worry: Evangelicals are building a base in Iraq ; Terrorism globally is big business. It also is rapidly becoming a new science; How thinking of terrorists as pirates can help win the war on terror