Webdiary - Founded and Inspired by Margo Kingston

Reading Obama's speech on accepting the Democratic nomination, I am praying for the man to win. He appears to realise that creating global flashpoints, fronts on which to be seen as fighting the problem, is not stopping the global splattering of death and destruction.  It's a pity our own Prime Minister was not able to perceive such a fact

The real significance of yesterday's announcement is that for the first time in its history, Fairfax has made a public declaration that profits come ahead of journalism. That its role as a major custodian of Australian quality editorial is secondary to its responsibility of maximising the financial outcome. (Eric Beecher)

For some time the management team has been considering ways of taking Webdiary beyond its traditional function as a forum for the discussion of anything and everything, especially politics. Now Malcolm B Duncan has come up with the idea of a notice board - a Town Crier - and we think it's worth a try. So, over to you – when does the book club next meet?

Keep the passion burning amongst the young people and others who have been energized by your unexpected, unpredicted, against-all-odds candidacy that has ignited and inspired a nation. Make Caroline Kennedy your VP. (Michael Moore)

There is no doubt that for an export-dependent economy with a major stake in fossil fuel production and long history of reliance on cheap energy, pricing carbon is a serious risk. But Australia is not alone in taking this risk and all the other routes look considerably worse. (Henry Derwent)

Acknowledging such realities does not fit with the [Howard] government’s consistent practice of demonising asylum seekers, which now extends to children. If the parents of the Afghan boys have heard of the UN Convention on the rights of the child, they certainly could invoke it in an attempt to be reunited with their children. (Mike Steketee)

NSW Premier Iemma has seized upon a limited and deficient Auditor-General's report as grounds to proceed with electricity privatisation, planning to rush through the legislation in a special sitting this week. The sale has been consistently opposed by the NSW public and unions...

Water is a critical lubricant of the global economy. And as with oil, supplies of water—at least, the clean, easily accessible sort—are coming under enormous strain because of the growing global population and an emerging middle-class in Asia that hankers for the water-intensive life enjoyed by people in the West. (Andrew Liveris)

What I loved at the time was how Howard was given a couple of days' grace to appear distant from Bush's plans. He was in Canada when Bush announced his advance on India, and was bouncing around the globe as he launched an internal Australian debate of the country's nuclear future.

The press will run with this tomorrow; it’s sure to be the front page of all the major papers. For the moment the online editions of the newspapers are running the story on their own ‘front pages’, though most of the information seems to me to be wire copy. L’Express, a weekly newsmagazine similar to Time or Newsweek, quotes a Taliban spokesman who claims that the ambush of French soldiers was in response to air strikes that killed 5 Taliban fighters and 15 civilians. It also notes that 176 NATO soldiers have lost their lives so far this year in Afghanistan.

If you were kept in the dark, though, I would think you would want to raise holy hell—if not to hold accountable those of your former superiors and colleagues responsible for the carnage of the past five years, then at least to try to wipe the blot off your record.

From the beginning, I wanted to create a reconciliatory atmosphere in Pakistan's politics on a personal and institutional level. I talked about the three-phase transition to democracy in Pakistan. The third phase was achieved last year when I doffed my uniform and held free and fair elections in Pakistan. After the elections, people had hopes from their leaders in the government.

Indeed, Texans wearing KBR baseball caps are arriving by the planeload at Kuwait's airport. Some will support the military directly--KBR employees already handle the meal service, laundry, and garbage pickup for several military camps in Kuwait and will do the same as U.S. units establish bases in Iraq. But after the war most hope to be involved in the multibillion-dollar task of rebuilding Iraq: its roads, electrical grid, water supply, ports, airports, and, most important, oil facilities.

It’s an irony that Australian law provides for mandatory reporting of suspected child abuse by professionals – and mandatory locking up of child asylum seekers. We call both these practices government policy. One protects, the other destroys. (Jacquie Everitt)

It is commonly assumed that the live export trade in sheep and cattle to the Middle East is necessary and economically vital. Necessary because Islamic (halal) slaughter demands it, and vital because of the export income it brings to Australia. Although it is certainly in the immediate interests of those involved in the live export trade, none of the rest is true.

The US has told Russia that the Russian attacks on Georgia will damage US-Russian relations for many years. What does the US think the placing of missiles in Poland was going to do for that relationship?

As Bob Carr, Julie Bishop and Germaine Greer all proceeded to bring their prejudices to bear, backed up with stark and obvious ignorance, my interest turned to horrified fascination. Could decision makers in Australia really be so cocksure and stupid to boot?

I come from a family of warriors, and now spend my time looking after returned soldiers who have fought for their country and have often paid a big price to defend our democracy. If you enjoy your freedom spend a thought for the soldiers who have been killed or maimed to make it possible.

Australians should get ready for the crunch. The massive write-downs on balance sheets by the big banks and enormous provisioning for bad or risky loans is not over by a long shot. From my experience, we have our own sub-prime crisis that hasn’t even begun to surface yet although the first bubbles are about a millimetre below sea level.

A capacity for imagining different conditions is the hallmark of a capacity for freedom, individual and collective agency, citizenship. The absence of that capacity signifies the existence of state or other forms of terror and oppression. Worse still it can signal the internalisation or naturalisation of inequality such that those whose interests lie in change do not seek change.

According to Islamic teaching, I discovered, the foetus becomes a full human being only when it is "ensouled" at 120 days from the moment of conception, and so the research at Royan on human embryonic stem cells is not seen as playing God, as it takes place at a much earlier stage. Thus, while there is much that the west finds unpalatable about life under Islamic rule, when it comes to genetics they are not held back by their religious doctrine.

Who is this Chico? Reckon he’s on a roll or something? Well, he’s on something. Says you get a new Pope by burning paper with powder that turns the smoke white. Coke Cat obviously. Here at the Cross, we’re either on insulin or eckkys.

The Seven Network are having trouble sticking to a consistent story - first they denied GetUp had booked any ads at all, then, once we produced the confirmed booking sheets, claimed we'd booked another ad unrelated to Tibet. Now they're claiming the ads weren't shown due to time constraints. They've even accused GetUp of engineering this deliberately..

My hope is to become fully engaged with this community while learning as much as possible about the online blogging sites by the time I am finished with my studies here. However, after I am finished, I hope to remain an integral part of this community and take it with me to wherever I am headed next –the beauty of the web.

It is well known on Wall Street that some of the largest financial institutions have huge undeclared problems with Asset Backed Securities they have valued far above their worth to make their books look better than they are. ... assets where no one is willing to buy but the bank declares their worth based on "fantasy."

Resources and skills that could be used to fight climate change, develop new health-care technologies, or create environmentally responsible industries, will be channelled into a trade in death and horror that will make some very rich, and many very dead. We need to stop this nightmare vision before it begins.

It’s unconscionable that a country could and did do this thing to a child, any child. In discussion with the group I feel we should be able to try harder to find his family, a desire he expressed to me at the interview.  As much as he loves his new family, he’s only 10 and has been alone for nearly 3 years.