Couldn’t agree more on your viewpoint on this whole saga.
Sri Lanka is is one hell of a mess, I saw a post from a socialist party on Indymedia Sydney, they said a few political activists, even an MP, have been harassed by police, that there is a huge climate of political repression there, not enough coverage of it.
Indonesia has said today they would take them back to Sri Lanka, believing their ‘reassurances’.
I just wrote a very angry letter to the UNHCR, who were quoted on ABC news online saying they ‘accepted the government’s assurances’ the asylum-seekers would not be harmed(Aust. govt. of course).
I told them I wouldn’t believe a word that came out of Australia’s mouth on refugees. I also said much the same about the convention on torture and the same legislation as you mention above. I don’t expect a response, they would be too embarrassed at their ‘lack of elementary research’ as I put it.
With friends like those, who needs enemies!
Brilliant blog btw…ggrrr!

Thanks for the compliment, Matthew.

Of course, I’ve written my own flurry of letters to those who will (and to those who won’t) do something about this ‘Pacific Solution’ debacle.

If it wasn’t for people like you & I raising a little necessary hell, these Sri Lankan asylum seekers would presently be on an Indonesian aircraft, winging their way to Colombo.

I’m so absorbed in the war-mongering in Iran at the moment

(See http://www.campaigniran.org/casmii/ if you’re interested, it’s very detailed)

But I agree this issue is too important to be sidetracked without something to say!

I am wondering if you are worried about copyright on the cartoons, etc. I’m just curious because I’ve just started a blog myself ;0)

Thankyou for your reply. I think Howard’s ego is getting more bruised than usual, so I expect him to crank up the racism in response.

I am wondering if you are worried about copyright on the cartoons, etc.

No, not worried in the least. mgk is based on servers in the USA and functions under US copyright law, which has a ‘fair use’ exemption. A single citation of a certain artwork, particularly for non-profit, non-business republishing or discussion of current events qualifies as ‘fair use.’

As a courtesy, I always credit the source of cartoon citations and also link to the publication where I found the image. I do on occasion receive thank-you notes from cartoonists who have noticed their work cited on mgk.

You’re right- Howard is RATtled. 😉

I’ve been counting on Howard ramping up up fears of ‘terrorist asylum seekers.’ In fact, I predicted a solid week before this most recent event that Johnny may even have a few rusty boats full of brown people ready to head for Xmas Is.

Thanks for the information on ‘fair use’. I’ll check out my options.

The stock markets really took a hammering today, New York and Asian stock markets in particular, poor value of US real estate and China beginning to slow down.

I also expect that a recession will just increase Howard’s racialism at the polls. I think they are goners but;

I’m a bit worried of a 1969/1998 type election, where the strength of the swing against the tories is not good enough given the large majority they won last election. :0(

The workings of Australian elections are a bit odd- I’m still trying to work out how AEC tabulates all the preferences. I’ve had 10 years to get used to it, though. I’ll be doing some historical reading on the 1969 and 1998 elections (I was temporarily out of Australia for the ’98 poll) to see what you mean.

The Coalition only won by 4.72% in 2004; does that count as a large majority?

The current 2-party preferred PM polls recently have Labor at some 57-59% compared to their primary vote in 2004 of about 47% to the Coalition’s 52%. You’d think that 57% would be enough to put Labor in government.

I’ve been wondering about the impact of the market ‘correction.’ Will be interesting to see the reaction from the Rudd camp.

Yes, 4.72% is a biggish margin. But I too would expect Labor to win more than that. With Greens preferences I think two-party preferred they would look pretty hard to beat, unless Labor shits in it’s own nest, which is always possible as you can see from recent corruption inquires here in Perth.

Lenin once said you can’t really know the state of the economy without having a revolution. Industry figures from Howard, Bush, China – are really just median average extrapolations from “model” factories and offices.

It is true Wall Street rallied in 1987, after 9/11 back in 2002, even after the collapse of the Thai Bhat sent the once “invincible tiger economies” Japan and South Korea into 10% unemployment, etc.

“Recession” technically means three successive periods of negative economic growth. News South Wales has been in recession since last year, and Tasmania satisify that criterion. But not so Queensland or WA, which are booming if you are lucky enough to share in that growth!

I expect a general recession given the energy prices will pick up again before years’ out. But as they say, who could really know?

Financial Slump Links:

(Satirical)

(Serious)

[…] From Machine Gun Keyboard: In terms of actual numbers of undocumented or ‘illegal’ migrants, Anglos who arrive by plane and overstay their tourist visas outnumber Asian boat people transported by people smugglers by a very significant margin. It’s a lot easier for an Anglo to blend in with the general Australian herd. Even in terms of the actual headcount of illegal migrants to Australia by boat, the numbers are miniscule, certainly in comparison to the overall numbers of all ‘illegal’ migrants. […]