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• YouTube – 2008 Logies – Mr G
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I’ve been in the middle of a move, change on internet access, and I’ve also damaged my back all which have kept me from blogging.

I should be up and back sometime around the middle of June when the move is complete… Tragically I’ll need to live on dial up access for two weeks… lol

Too funny… I realise he had to replace Anna Wood with Annabelle Dixon but it’s still quite funny.

YouTube – 2008 Logies – Mr G

This is so cute!!!! So yeh, I’m an animal lover and cats are some of my favourite animal friends! Too cute for words!

YouTube – funny cats

In this news tidbit I read on The Age website it appears the Alexandria branch of the ALP is looking to suspend the New South Wales Labor Premier Morris Iemma from the ALP.

It appears that Iemma wont tow the party line on the proposed $15b privatisation of the electricity industry in NSW.

This leaves Iemma’s future party membership and leadership of the party in a public row which can’t be healthy for the strength of the NSW Labor party.

Iemma faces possible suspension from ALP | The Age

I saw this on Lateline, this guy rocks, I can’t believe he’s doing this on a Ukulele. The ending is awesome and amazing!

It seems that temporary accommodation provided for the workers in the Howard governments Northern Territory intervention policy have been unduly exposed to formaldehyde.

A Chinese company supplied the units, containers and used a glue which contained formaldehyde. In the harsh heat of the NT this has led to fumes emitting from the glue and workers reporting symptoms such as extreme headaches when sleeping in the units.

Formaldehyde which has in past used as a insecticide has led to birth defects before it was banned. Defects such as missing limbs and intellectual problems. Formaldehyde research has also led to it being classified as a carcinogen – a cancer causing agent.

Approximately fifty staff have been exposed to the contaminated containers and Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin has advised staff to sleep in their swags until further notice.

There have been calls for Intervention chief Major General David Chalmers to resign after the incident however I don’t feel this is something that could’ve been predicted, foreseen and avoided.

Intervention staff possibly exposed to formaldehyde: Macklin | ABC News (Australian Broadcast Corporation)

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-confessed architect of the 9/11 attack on the US which destroyed both of the twin towers of the world trade centre in New York could be set free without punishment. According to media reports Khalid has been assigned a Navy lawyer to defend him in the first US military courts assembled since world war 2. The case is set to start soon in Guantanamo Bay.

Khalid may be set free because he was subjected to “waterboarding,” a torture method which simulates drowning and a technique which has been used by the CIA in gathering evidence. The problem being once this is revealed in court further evidence may be deemed unusable. Their is a caveat in the military court system which doesn’t allow evidence gained through torture as admissible.

The CIA revealed in late 2004 that they used “waterboarding” as a technique used against detainees to gather further evidence. US election candidate for the Republican party John McCain was recently asked if the use of waterboarding was torture he confirmed it was. McCain, a former prisoner of war was subjected to torture during the Vietnam war and when asked how did the US forces get to a system where they utilise torture techniques he replied “I don’t know.”

Perhaps the second most wanted man in the US, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed may be set free due to the fact partial evidence was gathered whilst under duress. In what may be one of the most regrettable acts by the US the use of torture may be a double edged sword in convicting this man.

Hopefully this will stop the “extraordinary rendition” programme which sees the CIA fly detainees in secret flights to countries where they are outside of the US legal system. This programme has seen countless detainees tortured in many secret CIA prisons around the world.

Ok, now links here but Chinese officials including the IOC (International Olympic Committee) are thinking of scrapping the torch run. In what appears harmful to Chinese politics at every single location people have protested against the uprising of citizens in Tibet.

It’s only natural that people want to be in power of their location. However China seems to think they need to empower more than 1 billion people. When Chinese citizens AKA Tibetans choose to take an alternate view they’re punished.

When the rest of the world looks upon this punishment China tries to relay a different picture, restricting media from entering the area and trying to control via CCP (Chinese Communist Party) transmissions.

Make up your own mind…

Following on from the UK model Australia is to offer up to 600 Iraqi citizens visa’s for permanent stay in Australia for helping out our armed forces. The UK recently gave the same offer for 2,000 Iraqi’s that had helped their forces.

I’ve only seen this reported on the channel nine news and haven’t found it on the net as yet. However keep an eye out for the public response on this issue.n

In what may be the greatest loss of face ever experienced by a nation more than 1.5 million people have signed the Avaaz petition against human rights abuse in Tibet by the Chinese Communist Party.

It would seem there torch is doing a global protest tour rather than a global peace tour in an event which has been scarred by the restriction of media by China. However if you live in China you wouldn’t know this, searches on the main Chinese search engine Baidu don’t yield any responses however the Chinese branch of Google seems to have stopped filtering for China.

As global protests continue to follow the torch route more than 1,000 French people came out to rally against the human rights abuse. The torch route was cut short and the flame was extinguished several times by French security personnel.

A day before the torch reaches San Francisco several protesters climbed the Golden Gate bridge to unveil two banners which contained the words “One World One Dream” and “Free Tibet 08.”

In what appears to be the global race for loss of face for China there is still many countries to go in the 21 country journey of the flame. Chinese officials have remained silent over the protests and I’m sure this will continue, it seems that restriction of media is still in effect in China.

If you’d like to be part of the Australian leg of this journey the torch will be in Canberra on the 24th of April ironically a day before Anzac day. The day commemorating when Australian troops joined the war and fought back against human rights abuse in Germany in World War One.

If you haven’t already signed the Avaaz petition you can click the link below, they’re looking to get 2 million people on the list. n

Avaaz petition against human rights abuse in Tibet | Avaaz
Protests build in US ahead of Olympic torch arrival | ABC News (Australian Broadcast Corporation)

keep looking »