Dingo bytes
The Murdoch press know how to promote militarism. The front page headline on an issue of The Australian last week ran: "Diggers to get 59 US tanks", with a pulled quote that said, "Despite reservations from some military experts, Army chief Peter Leahy says the Abrams is a 'big attractive tank'". As the Government runs down Medicare, prepares to sell Telstra, cuts deeper into public education and slashes welfare, and at the same time spends more than $50 billion on the military, people are bound to get hot under the collar. That can't be good in an election year, and Mr Murdoch, a Howard Government supporter, clearly wants a positive spin on it all, hence the "big attractive tank".* * * Institutionalised racism, poverty and unemployment are what Aboriginal people face from the day they are born. These have been further entrenched by the policies of the Howard Government, which among many other things has gutted the Native Title Act. This means that Indigenous Australians have been blocked from seeking some form of justice even through the whitefella's legal system. And so it was that last week the Kimberley Land Council announced that due to inadequate resources it cannot represent Kimberley traditional owners in their native title litigation in the courts. There's more than one way to dispossess a people.* * * Anything that Hugh Morgan, the fascist-minded former head of the Western Mining Corporation, champions you just know has got to be bad news for working people. Now president of the Business Council of Australia, Morgan attacked critics of the Free Trade Agreement with the US saying they were "all looking after their own protected self-interest" and that they "should get on board with the future". Morgan's "future" is one where unions are wiped out, wage labour is slave labour and profits are endless. Good reasons to join the campaign against the FTA.* * * Private policing is big business, and growing. But even the NSW Government — a big promoter of the use of private security companies — has had to act after it was revealed last week that during the past 12 months 300 security guards have had their licences revoked after being convicted of serious crimes, including theft, drug dealing and assault.* * * CAPITALIST HOG OF THE WEEK: is that dangerous halfwit that our government has tied our country to, George W Bush. The Mars space program has been on the agenda for some time. Here's Bush doing a promo for it in 1994: "Mars is essentially in the same orbit. Mars is somewhat the same distance from the Sun, which is very important. We have seen pictures where there are canals, we believe, and water. If there is water, that means there is oxygen. If oxygen, that means we can breathe."