NATIONAL
- GST

The GST has been passed by Senator Meg Lees.  Point of interest.   If Meg is seriously challenged for the Democrats' leadership as a result of her deal with the coalition, then she will have created a legend.  Under that stimulus the Democrats could grow to a significant force in Australia by the next election.

The really crucially critically important outcome will be that the Australian people will see direct democracy by voters affecting a major political party.

Thank you Mr. Howard.  Perhaps this is the straw that maybe is needed to blow open & liberalize Australian politics.

MEDIA

Prime minister Johnny Howard has complained that the Herald is biassed against the coalition.

Out here in Australian voterland it looks more like Johnny has bribed Rupert & Kerry to be on side, and the Herald, (not having been bribed) is just reporting on the scandals that the other media are not reporting (because they feel sorta friendly towards the coalition).

And hey, the next election isn't for nearly three years.  And it's a well known fact, voters can't remember most things for more than a couple of weeks.

OLYMPICS

According to unofficial leaks there were only 34,000 applications in the first two weeks for tickets to the Olympic games.  I guess there are a lot of other people beside SPIN who are not going because of disgust with the way politicians have invaded the ceremonial aspect of the games.

Seems there are not enough Prime Ministerial & Premierial Sycophants to fill buy the few seats left over after all the VIP freebies were handed out.

We can always hope that overseas visitors will buy all those extra seats.  Otherwise the NSW State government might be in a huge loss situation.  Overseas visitors might not have heard how little Australians esteem their politicians.

INTERNATIONAL
- YUGOSLAVIA

All that ordinance to hit three tanks????   We can now modernize the oft quoted "Pyrric Victory" to the more contemporary "Clinton Victory" (or perhaps "Albright Victory"?).

Cost to NATO, about $60 billion, and still counting (for the next fifty years.)  NATO troops die defusing NATO bombs in Kosovar schools?  Gain by NATO?  Well it can be supposed that NATO now knows which of their weapons systems don't work.

The concept of "provocation" is recognized as a mitigating circumstance on a personal level by our judicial system.  It will be interesting to see whether the international courts will recognize that NATO's bombing of Serbian civilians could be construed as provocation for individual Serbian atrocities.

In the meantime the KLA seem to be working through their ghastly schedule of Hitleresque evil.  Last week they held their own version of "night of the long knives".   Following Hitler, this final power consolidation follows the years long pogrom of the KLA against all who are not "purebred Albanian" in Kosovo, which includes the Gypsies, Turks, Bulgarians, Greeks & Serbs and their Albanian sympathizers.  Next we can expect Kosovar youth camps and calls for "one land. ein purpose. ein volk"

The activation of UN & world courts to indict Pinochet & Milosevic is a most impressive organization of international purposes, however until Blair & Clinton are brought before those same courts to answer for similar crimes against the Yugoslav people, the citizens of the powerless world are going to consider the court to be an exercise of power (rather than justice) by the US & Western European powers.

Good one fellahs.

About the only positive outcome of the Yugoslav might be seen if the Indonesians are persuaded to release their tight hold of east Timor.

Fat chance.
 
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