The subtle attempts by the Howard Government to take Australia back to the White Australia Policy have led to the introduction of a test for new citizens. It is designed to make sure that prospective citizens know something about the country to which they are about to pledge loyalty. By letting them know about “Australian Values”, it might make those people who don’t support “The Australian Way of Life” think twice about moving here. (Not) 

As someone born in this country I would never have to sit the exam, but if I did I wonder if I would pass without a bit of coaching.

Follow the link, have a go and see if you have got what it takes to pass the Australian Citizenship Test.

I recently added “ClustrMaps” to my web site. It is a nifty little application that shows where all the visitors to my web site are coming from. On the first day I only had two dots. One was in the vicinity of Sydney and was obviously me visiting my own site. The second dot came right from the middle of Australia. This could mean either someone from Alice Springs visited my site very quickly or a more sinister explanation. Just outside of Alice Springs is the so-called “joint defence establishment” of Pine Gap. In reality it is a CIA station for intercepting communications. Maybe the super spies are checking to make sure I don’t start plotting the overthrow of the United States from my backroom. (Little do they know, my plans to overthrow the United States are kept in the sitting room.)

Keep defending democracy guys, oh and if you happen to be reading this, I have just checked the attic and Osama Bin Laden is not hiding there. It gives you one less place to look.

The effective workings of a democracy is not limited to the putting a piece of paper in a box every four years. It involves having an apolitical public service that carries out its duty “without fear or favour” and this is particularly importrant for organisations such as the military, police and security organisations.
“Keeping the bastards honest” as the democrats used to say is also the role of various committees and independent bodies within the government.
However, in “Silencing Dissent” Clive Hamilton and Sarah Maddison argue that in the last decade these democratic institutions have slowly been eroded by the Howard Governement and how the situation has worsened since the Liberals gained control of the Senate. A number of writers are used throughout the book writing specialist chapters on the media, the Senate, the Military and the Public Service.
It seems the complete contempt for the rule of law expressed in incidents such as the “children overboard” affair, the AWB scandal and the illegal invasion of Iraq and just the tip of the iceberg.
Of course the greatest fear is that once these institutions have been eroded or politicised they will stay that way even if there is a change of goverenment. I sincerely hope this is not the case.
Silencing Dissent is published by Allen & Urwin. I highly recommend it.

Poor old Prince Harry won’t be allowed to participate in his country’s illegal invasion of Iraq because there is an unacceptable risk to his safety. The commander of the army has prohibited him from serving a tour of duty as the Prince is likely to be targeted by the patriotic Iraqis protecting their country from foreign invaders.
But is the Prince the only one being targeted? I would have thought that any member of the “Coalition of the Gullible” who is parading around Iraq would be a potential target. Following this logic, is it is unacceptable for Prince Harry to be there because he may be killed, it is unacceptable for ANY soldier to be there on the same grounds. Six hundred years of in-breeding should not be the basis for determining the head of state of any country, but to use it as an excuse to not send someone to war is a bit rich.
The gossip mags must be tearing their hair out. Imagine all of the great cover stories they could get if Harry was over there with the lads, mixing it up with his coalition partners. Here’s a picture of Harry in a tank in Baghdad, here he is commanding his troops in the desert, here he is shooting civilians, look, now Harry is torturing some prisoners, here he is with his brains splattered all over the inside of an armoured personnel carrier, (the latter being the fault of the paparazzi who were chasing him when he drove past the improvised explosive device).
What is the point of joining the army if you aren’t allowed to fight?
How different history might have been if Henry V after giving his bold Saint Crispin’s Day speech, had then retreated out of the line of fire rather than leading his troops into battle.
Surely this is just another example of what an antiquated notion the Royal family is.
Here’s some advice Harry, quit the army, get a real job and stop being a parasite to the community like the rest of your family.

Well what we all thought would happen has happened and Morris Iemma has been voted in as Premier of New South Wales. Speedo Debnam was really on a hiding to nothing from the start since he had no rapport with the voting public and his only policy seemed to be “Don’t Vote Labor”. Interestingly enough, Morris was humbling in victory, and spoke of a “mandate with a message” and that he will now be able to finish off the work he has started. He needs to start that this week and this is what he should do.

1. Reshuffle the cabinet and get rid of the dead wood.
2. Reign in the power of Costa, Sartor and Tripodi.
3. Speed up the implementation of the state plan.
4. Sack all the spin doctors and get on with the job.

The electorate has given you another chance, not because we think you are up to the task, but because we knew Peter Debnam wasn’t up to the task. If you stuff us around any more, the people of the state will not be happy. Now get to work fixing this state.

We have just had the inconvenience of having our city visitied by US Vice President Dick Cheney.

The hassle started a few days ago when there was a deafening sound out my office window and all of the windows were shaking. Looking out I saw an army blackhawk helicopter hovering above the building across the road. It flew off, did a lap of the city and came back again. This continued for well over an hour.

Last night the police started gathering in the city. At the last minute they revoked the permission for a protest march to walk from the Town Hall to the US Consulate and threatened to arrest anyone who attempted to leave the area. (And I thought that we were living in a democracy. Surely the deputy head of the “world’s greatest democracy” would be happy to see how actively we embrace the concept.)

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Blundstone, the Tasmanian manufacturer of the iconic Australian boot has decided to pack up shop and move its manufacturing plant to India and Taiwan Thailand, where “manufacturing costs” (read wages) are cheaper.

I have worn Blundstones in the past and they are a quality boot. There was also a sense of pride that I was wearing something that had been made in my country, and for that I was prepared to pay a little bit more. In fact the Australianess of the product was one of its biggest selling points.

Now the boots will be made in far away lands where the concepts of OH&S, workers rights and unionism are all fantasies.

The company is yet another victim of the economic rationalist approach of the current government who feels that tariffs on imported products are unfair and should be gradually lowered. Lowered to the point where it destroys our own textile and footwear industries.

I hope that the 300 workers who will now be looking for work elsewhere will realised the prime cause of there unemployment and help to vote out the current goverenment who like a Robin Hood in reverse continues to take from the poor and give to the rich.

Not than anyone in their right mind would want to, but it may shortly be harder to become a US citizen if a new citizenship exam is introduced. The people wishing to apply for citizenship would have to pass this test before becoming a citizen.
However, one has to wonder what the point of such a test is. Is it merely to ensure that new citizens know how the country works? Fair enough, however many of the questions would not even be able to be answered by people who had been born in the US.
For example,

• What is the rule of law?
• How many justices are on the Supreme Court?
• What did Susan B. Anthony do?

Perhaps the test is meant to weed out would-be terrorists or traitors, by analysing their answers.

For example:

Question: What do the 13 stripes on the US flag represent?

Correct Answer: The original 13 colonies

Terrorist Answer: The red and white stripes depict the blood soaked desert sand of the Middle East resulting from US imperialist aggression.

Question: What do the 50 stars on the US flag represent?

Correct Answer: There is one star for each state of the United States.

Terrorist Answer: The stars represent the bursting shells of the shock and awe attacks that have characterised the militaristic expansion of the United States from the original 13 colonies.

But of course, all of the questions on the test show the USA in a good light, as you would expect, but this ignores a vast part of the history of the USA.

Here are some other questions they should include in the test.

Question: The eighth Amendment to the Constitution prohibits “cruel and unusual punishment”. Is punishment allowed if it is cruel but not unusual or unusual but not cruel?

Answer: Yes

Question: Abraham Lincoln supported the abolition of slavery. Was it his intention that blacks should become citizens and be given the same rights in law as whites?

Answer: No

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So Saddam Hussein has been hanged for committing “crimes against humanity”. This arises from the murder of 148 people in Dujail in 1982 following an assassination attempt on Saddam.

I am opposed to the death penalty, and even for people as nasty as Saddam is said to have been. To me this form of state-sanctioned murder is no different to the state-sanctioned murder carried out in Dujail. Well, there is a slight difference, Saddam Hussein did get a trial before execution, but the fairness and legality of such a trial is always going to be under question. After all, he was being tried by a governement installed after an illegal invasion looking for weapons of mass destruction that offered no threat to the US even if they had of existed.

But if we are looking at Saddam’s crimes wouldn’t you pick one of the worst crimes to try him on such as the gassing of the Kurds in 1988? Well, probably not. Since the chemical weapons were supplied by Western companies with the full knowledge and support of the USA, it would have given Saddam an opportunity to call former US government officals as witnesses for the defence. This would not have been for the yanks.

But of course, when it comes to war criminals, it must be time to indict George W Bush for crimes against humanity for the 650,000 Iraqi civilians killed during his illegal invasion. Add John Hoawrd and Tony Blair to the list while you are at it. But they should not be put to death when they are found guilty, it would be sufficient to lock them up in little cages in Guantánamo Bay for an indeterminant amount of time.