Things I’ve Seen

• McCain hates kids
• McCain hates workers
• Mc Cain loves lobbyists
• McCain hates seniors
• McCain loves NAFTA
• McCain loves war
• McCain hates veterans
• McCain hates choice
• McCain loves Bush

Justin Whelan writes in (the excellent) New Matilda - a tale of Two Americans

Two very different Americans are arriving in Australia this week. The reception each will receive, and the messages they have for Australia, could not be more different

… One talks of world domination in the name of ‘Judeo-Christian values,’ the other talks about loving our enemies in the name of the crucified Jesus.

In the system of legal justice in place in the US, Dick Cheney’s alleged responsibility for war crimes goes unpunished, while John Dear’s non-violent protest against weapons of mass destruction has seen him do time in US Federal prison.

In the system of priorities in Australia, Dick Cheney will be warmly met by the Government, attract much media interest, and applauded by business leaders. John Dear will be met by Church leaders and thousands of ordinary people, but largely ignored as an irrelevant idealist by the mainstream media.

So there it is: two Americans in the same week: the ‘war criminal’ and the ‘peace criminal.’ One comes to preach war, the other comes to preach peace. The Government will listen to the man of war. Who are you going to listen to?

Hugh, of librivox fame, has a new blog, textosolvo, on

open collaborative projects, (mostly non-software) with a focus on idealism and not money-making.

Always happy to help google out…

–AZ-Sen: Jon Kyl
–AZ-01: Rick Renzi
–AZ-05: J.D. Hayworth
–CA-04: John Doolittle
–CA-11: Richard Pombo
–CA-50: Brian Bilbray
–CO-04: Marilyn Musgrave
–CO-05: Doug Lamborn
–CO-07: Rick O’Donnell
–CT-04: Christopher Shays
–FL-13: Vernon Buchanan
–FL-16: Joe Negron
–FL-22: Clay Shaw
–ID-01: Bill Sali
–IL-06: Peter Roskam
–IL-10: Mark Kirk
–IL-14: Dennis Hastert
–IN-02: Chris Chocola
–IN-08: John Hostettler
–IA-01: Mike Whalen
–KS-02: Jim Ryun
–KY-03: Anne Northup
–KY-04: Geoff Davis
–MD-Sen: Michael Steele
–MN-01: Gil Gutknecht
–MN-06: Michele Bachmann
–MO-Sen: Jim Talent
–MT-Sen: Conrad Burns
–NV-03: Jon Porter
–NH-02: Charlie Bass
–NJ-07: Mike Ferguson
–NM-01: Heather Wilson
–NY-03: Peter King
–NY-20: John Sweeney
–NY-26: Tom Reynolds
–NY-29: Randy Kuhl
–NC-08: Robin Hayes
–NC-11: Charles Taylor
–OH-01: Steve Chabot
–OH-02: Jean Schmidt
–OH-15: Deborah Pryce
–OH-18: Joy Padgett
–PA-04: Melissa Hart
–PA-07: Curt Weldon
–PA-08: Mike Fitzpatrick
–PA-10: Don Sherwood
–RI-Sen: Lincoln Chafee
–TN-Sen: Bob Corker
–VA-Sen: George Allen
–VA-10: Frank Wolf
–WA-Sen: Mike McGavick
–WA-08: Dave Reichert

Great article on religion in Australian politics from New Matilda (by someone who appears actually to have listened to the gospel reading last sunday…)

This was a time when it was easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it was for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. But times have changed. We now have heavy machinery. If you’ve got the readies, there is no longer any problem forcing large quadrupeds through any aperture. Either manufacture a needle big enough to accommodate a camel or buy an engine with enough thrust to extrude a dromedary.

Excellent news: The Norwegian Nobel Institute - Nobel Peace Prize 2006

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2006, divided into two equal parts, to Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank for their efforts to create economic and social development from below. Lasting peace can not be achieved unless large population groups find ways in which to break out of poverty. Micro-credit is one such means. Development from below also serves to advance democracy and human rights.

I’ve been a big fan of micro-credit as a tool for development, not least because it places the power and responsibility in the hands of individuals (especially women) and communities in the developing world - and not in the hands of governments or multinational NGOs.

Grameen Bank is entirely indigenous, but there are western organisations which work to support the formation of, provide seed capital and training for, similar organisations throughout the developing world. In particular I would recommend that people check out Opportunity International or Opportunity International Australia.

My first post for months ought to be something profound, I know. But it isn’t. I just found such a cool software utility for the Mac I wanted to write about it. Disk Inventory X is

a disk usage utility for Mac OS X 10.3 (and later). It shows the sizes of files and folders in a special graphical way called “treemaps”.

If you’ve ever wondered where all your disk space has gone, Disk Inventory X will help you to answer this question.

That’s it. And it does what it says. Very cool.

Which party is this guy from again?

Mike Bloomberg

Today, we are seeing hundreds of years of scientific discovery being challenged by people who simply disregard facts that don’t happen to agree with their agendas.  Some call it “pseudo-science,” others call it “faith-based science,” but when you notice where this negligence tends to take place, you might as well call it “political science.”

You can see “political science” at work when it comes to global warming.  Despite near unanimity in the science community there’s now a movement - driven by ideology and short-term economics - to ignore the evidence and discredit the reality of climate change.

I put it to you that it is when our sense of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ is overidden by our sense of ‘us’ and ‘them’ that injustice prevails in our society.

This is the essence of wedge politics, and the grease in the gears of John Howard’s success.

I used to believe that George Bush’s approval rating couldn’t drop below 40 unless there was an unprecedented scandal. According to Pollkatz it’s now spent a month below 35.

How low can he go?