Eucalyptus Drive

White riot - I wanna riot
White riot - a riot of my own
White riot - I wanna riot
White riot - a riot of my own

Black people gotta lot a problems
But they don't mind throwing a brick
White people go to school
Where they teach you how to be thick

An' everybody's doing
Just what they're told to
An' nobody wants
To go to jail!

All the power's in the hands
Of people rich enough to buy it
While we walk the street
Too chicken to even try it

Everybody's doing
Just what they're told to
Nobody wants
To go to jail!

Are you taking over
or are you taking orders?
Are you going backwards
Or are you going forwards?

The Clash, 1977

Truth topples CNNNN chief

I missed this one but last month at the World Economic Forum in the ritzy ski town of Davos, CNN's news head Eason Jordan said the US was purposely targeting journalists in Iraq - ie, killing them.

The WEF is basically a PR stunt put on by the rich in cooperation with the media. They all turn up to be seen with other rich people and pretend to be doing things to help the developing nations - a euphemism for the exploited peoples that make them rich - and pledge chicken feed and chump change to The Poor.

Anyway, Aljazeera is reporting that Jordan has been forced to resign over the comments.

Speaking to Aljazeera from New York, Dr Fawaaz Jajis, a professor of political science at University of Lawrence said there is little room for voices of dissent in America.

"The United States is in a state of war militarily, and ideologically," Jajis said.

"Unfortunately, it seems that the 'truth' is one of war's victims, as is freedom of the media, journalism and opinion in the United States," he added.

Polluters 1, locals 0

As if South Sydney is not already polluted enough - what with the airport spewing AvGas all over the place, CityRail, StateRail and the Rail Infrastructure Corp all spewing out noise and too often diesel, and cars and trucks spewing exhaust 24/7 - the state government has given Orica the OK to begin pumping a gigantic toxic plume, seeping into Botany Bay as we speak, via a string of wells along the Foreshore Road, extract the ethylene dichloride (EDC) contaminants therein and - get this - burn it off! Release it into the atmosphere!

The go-ahead was given after the US toothless tigers Environmental Protection Agency and some local "expert" reviewed Orica's plan. As wRh mentioned a few weeks back, Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root are principal contractors on the project. The plant is expected to be up by October and, according to this Sydney Yawning Herald piece, will be treating 15 million litres of contaminated water a day. The 8c-a-day news service (which really isn't a straight clone of the BBC) quotes a Greenpeace spokesperson saying what we all already know, that the process is dodgy and will result in locals being blanketed with another layer of toxic crap, this time in the form of dioxin emissions.

End of Straya meeja madness sale

After being left abandoned by the gutless, suckhole government to be tortured for over two years in an illegal Cuban dog box and returned to the country without having had one "terrorism" charge laid by the Seps, only to be slandered by Dead Man, Ratty and their pal in Macquarie Street, we learn that, because the NSW Police told a reporter where Mamdouh Habib and his family were living, their home has been ransacked for a second time this week.

But who would do such a thing? Surely not reporters? Would an editor green-light such an act? If they had the ethical standards of this bloke they might:

"Geoff Howe, editor of The Inner Western Suburbs Courier, admitted yesterday he [twice] lied to ICAC investigators. [The former mayor of Burwood] chose not to run a story about a secretly taped video of Strathfield mayor Alfred Tsang accepting a bribe despite seeing the recording.

"Mr Howe said he lied to the commission while under oath because he wanted to protect [Strathfield ALP councillor John] Abi-Saab as a source and protect his own reputation."

Tsang's lawyer: "Mr Howe, it's hard to imagine a more dramatic story isn't it? ... A mayor is apparently accepting a bribe and you've got the evidence on tape."

Howe: I had "other stories to write.... I simply can't drop everything".

Howe's news judgment is, of course, right at home among the rest of the (mostly Pommie - or at least pathologically Anglophile) editors in this once proud nation. Every major news outlet today is splashing big - with the usual pathetic servility - on the "news" that Ponce Charles and Lady Blah-Blah Balls are to be wed. These two have a lot of style and class, in case you didn't know.

Feral abacus

The Brotherhood of St Laurence reveals that the official ABS unemployment figures released today - which showed a steady 5.1 jobless rate - are a bunch of crapola.

Its director Tony Nicholson says the current definition that one hour's work a week equals employment skewed the official rate. [One hour's work a week! What's that, a milkshake and a sanga?]

He says the 5.1 jobless rate DOUBLES when it includes underemployed workers and discouraged job seekers.

The crazy thing is it will be these cooked job figures that will convince the Reserve Bank to hike up interest rates - something the government assured voters/suckers at the last election would definitely happen under a Labor government. So what's its priority now, jobs or rates?