...not as "daily" as the name suggests...
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| The Daily Oh Really ...not as "daily" as the name suggests... |
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Friday, May 23, 2003 The "average civilian casualty episode" Found on cursor: a CNN journalist has coined the phrase "average civilian casualty episode". Also on cursor: the Christian Scientist Monitor is estimating that the number of Iraq civilan deaths may be between 5000 and 10000 - the highest level of civilian deaths in a conflict since Vietnam. posted by Jojo | 1:37 PM Department of the Fourth Reich I saw in the SMH Online today, that the "Homeland Security" concept (disturbingly similar to "fatherland" or "motherland", the creatures of certain well-known dictatorships of the past), may well be spreading from the USA to Australia: The Prime Minister, John Howard, will set up a new office of security and counter-terrorism to co-ordinate his Government's actions on homeland security. ...snip... The decision follows calls by the Opposition for the establishment of an equivalent to the Department of Homeland Security in the United States. Meanwhile, the Onion this week announces that the US Department of Homeland Security has deputised a real mean dog. And in real life (full story here, again via Cursor): the Homeland Security department's visa crackdown on journalists snares six French TV reporters on their way to cover a video game expo in Los Angeles. They never made it out of LAX before being sent back to France. posted by Jojo | 8:53 AM Tuesday, May 20, 2003 The "future-and-it-sucks" is now Back in 1993 we were all warned about the dangers inherent in contracting a private corporation to run the prison system -- in the movie Fortress, starring Christopher Lambert -- where a greedy and amoral private corporation owned and ran the prison system for profit, even gaining title to the prisoners themselves once they were sentenced to incarceration. Obviously nothing has been learnt from this. Last night on ABC television, the Four Corners program aired revelations of systematic cover-ups of child abuse within the Woomera Detention Centre, by ACM, the private corporation contracted by the federal government to run the detention centre. (Woomera detention centre is a prison for "unlawful entrants" to Australia. "Unlawful entrants" used to be known as "refugees"). Natasha Stott-Despoja is calling for an investigation to determine how much the government knew of these, and other very serious allegations. Nice to hear her voice again. You can see a synopsis of the movie Fortress at Rotten Tomatoes, which places Fortress in the "future-and-it-sucks" genre. Meanwhile, an "escape from Woomera" video game received a federal development grant a couple of months back....which our lovely immigration minister Phillip Ruddock wanted to stop but wasn't able to. I don't know which is better. This: "...a computer game in which players try to escape from Australian detention centres has received $25,000 in federal funding.The game, Escape from Woomera, will be modelled on four of the country's most contentious detention centres. It received the money from the Australia Council, the federal arts funding body, last month." or this: "A ministerial spokeswoman added that [Ruddock's] office would be contacting the council to "express a fairly firm view about the allocation of [its] resources. But she said the minister did not have the power to withdraw the funding." ...damn that pesky democracy...tarnation! Full story on the SMH Online, as usual. posted by Jojo | 7:02 PM Other news Ari Fleischer, Whitehouse press guy, has resigned. I'm sure he won't have any trouble talking his way into another job: he can say anything with a straight face. Maybe he could use George W's resume as a template. UPDATE: I didn't notice this before, but: eewwww: Mr Fleischer, who has enjoyed a close relationship with Mr Bush despite the fact that he is not from the president's band of Texas advisers, said he told Mr Bush last Friday of his decision in an emotional meeting at the end of which Mr Bush kissed him on his bald head.
UPDATE: Tony Blair's spokesman resigns on same day, describes this as "spooky" coincidence. posted by Jojo | 9:02 AMGood news Jill Jones, who's part of a few poetry projects I'm also working on - has won the Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry for her book Screens Jets Heaven: New and Selected Poems (part of the NSW Premiers award). Hopefully she can still find time to work with us after this, because now she'll be even busier. It's a good book! Read the book! Read the book! posted by Jojo | 8:58 AM Monday, May 19, 2003 Australia now "safer" (Part II) I for one was thrilled to learn that Australia's army reserve will be brought in to protect Australian landmarks like the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. I went to uni with some very nice people who were in the army reserve. Probably senior partners in law firms by now, but I'm sure they won't mind taking some time away from their lucrative gigs. I remember one guy who was widely admired for his ability to shotgun an entire case of beer in one afternoon. Alternatively he could polish off a full 750 ml bottle of vodka, and follow up by sculling a large bowl of french onion dip. Beat that, al-Quaeda! posted by Jojo | 9:13 AM Australia now "safer" after Iraq war In the SMH Online today, check out the first paragraph of this story: Australia and its interests were safer after the Iraq war, the Government said yesterday, despite a week of international terrorist outrages. And when you've stopped laughing, proceed to the second para: ...the Minister for Defence, Robert Hill, said he was not surprised by the bombings in Saudi Arabia, Morocco and Israel. The war in Iraq had little to do with al-Qaeda. Oh that's right, I keep forgetting. The war was always about bringing democracy to Iraq, not about weapons of mass destruction, not about the role of Iraq in September 11. Of course! (slaps forehead). But hey, it wasn't as if they were lying in the lead up to the war (when it was all about wmds and al-Qaeda). No, they weren't lying: it was just a matter of emphasis. Check this report in the NY Times: |
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