Webdiary - Founded and Inspired by Margo Kingston

What I am getting at is the impossibility of establishing democratic conditions by fiat or by force. There needs to be a will towards that end from within the history and culture of the country and the people themselves..

Terrorism also does not appear to be a major factor when it comes to who they vote for as president in the upcoming elections. Only 12% of Americans consider it an important factor when casting their vote.

"The challenges of the 21st Century are qualitatively different from anything that we've had to face up to before...This requires a re-think of priorities in science and technology and a redrawing of our society's inner attitudes ...." - Sir David King, former UK Chief Scientist

Meanwhile, in London,various unidentified government and defence folk are apparently leaking like anonymous sieves to the Tele in order to warn Britons of the suddenly increased likelihood of a "dirty bomb" attack

The Stanhope government seems to think that their tenure and so called experience are the factors that will work in their favor during this campaign. But our shared experience of a lifetime of community values tells us otherwise for their tenure has been an abject disaster.

I'm bloody disappointed.  As someone who's campaigned against the conversion of Adelaide for a few years, I'd given up on anything ever happening.  Now, when the indoctrinated population is reinforced by national support against what it has been made to become, the focal point for the anger has been removed. 

Just in: NSW Premier Morris Iemma has resigned shortly after sacking his Treasurer, Michael Costa. Minister for Water, Nathan Rees, is expected to be the new Premier.

"We should all feel empowered that this is our parliament where the individuals trusted to make decisions on behalf of society will do so in the best interest of the community rather than pandering to big business or corporations. What do I mean by community? I mean the people and the environment in which they live." -Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, in her maiden speech to the Australian Senate.

The games impacted other aspects of daily life too. I moved cities around the time that the games started and was interested to see the differences between the effects on the two cities. In my original city, around early July, almost all the street market stalls were suddenly shut down. This was done to ‘create a culture of hygiene’. It was literally as though someone came during the night and moved them all away, out of sight. Even the large and popular night markets were shut down.

As a follow up to my last piece on the live animal exports issue Animals Australia has given permission for me to publish on Webdiary its record of major incidents in the trade. It is an appalling record.  In reading the facts relating to these incidents one can get some idea of the enormous level of suffering of large numbers of animals in this trade.

"My message to the Prime Minister is simple.  I want to work constructively with him and his government and the cross-benchers and the opposition, to eradicate this scourge from our suburbs, as well as internet gambling from our lounge rooms."- Senator Nick Xenophon, in his maiden speech to the Australian Senate.

August stats