Outstanding  UK-based Australian journalist John Pilger contrasts Obama's sudden conversion to same-sex marriage with his failure to support the human rights of Bradley Manning, the Iraqis, the Palestinians, the Afghans etc etc.

Republican Mississippi state Rep. Bubba Carpenter recently gave a callous assessment of a state anti-abortion law that critics have cautioned could close down the state's only abortion clinic.

Abortion rights advocates have protested the measure, claiming that the shuttering of the facility -- brought on by potentially overwhelming certification requirements for practicing physicians -- could force women to turn to dangerous alternatives. This prospect didn't seem to concern Carpenter.

The upcoming NATO summit in Chicago must ensure that special measures are taken to protect the rights of Afghan women as US-led coalition forces prepare to pull out, UN organisations said Saturday.

There is widespread concern that gains women have made in the 10 years since the overthrow of the brutal Taliban regime could be lost in government attempts to reconcile with the hardline Islamists when NATO troops withdraw in 2014.

"Now is the time to deal with the longer-term security and protection needs of Afghan women who have long borne the brunt of the war in Afghanistan," said Jan Kubis, special representative for the UN secretary general in Afghanistan.

Chinese student in Australia: "It is easy to see why Australian youth might perceive us as wealthy. Foreign students are the cash cows of a more than $16 billion international education industry, the third-largest export industry of Australia. We also serve as a significant source of domestic economic growth. Research by my own university last year found that every Australian undergraduate student is subsidised to the tune of $1200 by international student fees. My annual tuition fee for a bachelor of arts degree is about $26,000. Books, rent, food and everything else is on top of that."

Nobel Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu: "Black South Africans and others around the world have seen the 2010 Human Rights Watch report which "describes the two-tier system of laws, rules, and services that Israel operates for the two populations in areas in the West Bank under its exclusive control, which provide preferential services, development, and benefits for Jewish settlers while imposing harsh conditions on Palestinians." This, in my book, is apartheid. It is untenable. And we are in desperate need of more rabbis joining the brave rabbis of Jewish Voice for Peace in speaking forthrightly about the corrupting decadeslong Israeli domination over Palestinians."

WASHINGTON -- The House Republican version of the new Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) would dramatically rollback confidentiality protections for abused immigrant women, make it more difficult for undocumented witnesses to work with law enforcement officials, and eliminate a pathway to citizenship for witnesses who cooperate with police on criminal cases.

The provisions are tucked into a bill that reauthorizes the act, and have received scant media attention. But the legislation is picking up steam in the House. The bill, officially sponsored by freshman Rep. Sandy Adams (R-Fla.), has the backing of the full House leadership, and is headed for a vote in the Judiciary Committee on Tuesday.

Reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act is typically a bipartisan affair lacking in contention. This year, however, Republicans are pressing for significant changes that would weaken protections for victims of domestic violence, arguing that the current law is being taken advantage of by undocumented immigrants looking for legal citizenship.

Dr Vacy Vlazna analyses Israeli military research links with  Australian universities which are accordingly tarred with the brush of illegal Israeli Occupation and horrendous Israeli human rights abuses.

Need another reason to support Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) reauthorization? Concerned Women for America (CWA) is against it.

Yes, the same group that opposes abortion and most forms of birth control [PDF], as well as all LGBT rights: marriage, civil unions, domestic partnerships, adoption and hate crimes protection. For their "dubious" anti-gay statements–including equating homosexuality with pedophilia–the Southern Poverty Law Center classifies them as a hate group.

CWA not only opposes VAWA reauthorization with the claim that is a waste of money (calling it a "boondoggle for feminists"), but also because it extends protections to lesbian victims of violence and thus, CWA says, embraces "the homosexual agenda."

There are plenty of far-fetched anti-VAWA arguments already out there. So-called "men's rights" groups (MRAs) have sought to block VAWA by labeling it a men-vs.-women issue. They say the name of the Act discriminates against men. Ironically, VAWA has always served victims of all genders–so these groups appear to be are more intent on attacking feminism than on truly helping male victims (as I've written previously). MRAs claim to speak for all men, but thousands of other men have rallied to VAWA's defense by signing pro-VAWA petitions.

The process to extradite Joran van der Sloot from Peru to the United States has begun, CNN reports. Documents obtained by Maximo Altez, van der Sloot's attorney, show a judge has approved the U.S. request for a provisional detention, the first step in sending him to America to face charges for extorting money from the mother of missing teen Natalee Holloway.
PREVIOUSLY:
Joran van der Sloot, the convicted killer of a young Peruvian woman and the prime suspect in the disappearance of missing American teen Natalee Holloway, could soon be extradited to the United States.
Van der Sloot's attorney, Maximo Altez, has confirmed Peruvian authorities are evaluating a request by the U.S. to extradite the Dutchman for extorting Holloway's mother.

NS Leader writes that the most shocking thing about anti-Muslim mass murderer Anders Breivik is that so many people agree with his Islamophobic, xenophobic and racist opinions.

Sunday’s incident [in Grand Chute, WI] comes on the heels of a firebombing at the office of Texas Sen. Wendy Davis’ (D) in March. Officials said they don’t have a motive for the attack, but the news site Think Progress pointed out that Davis is a vocal supporter of Planned Parenthood. The attack came just after Texas announced it would cut funding to Planned Parenthood clinics.

In January, the Pensacola, Fla.-based Ladies Center Clinic, which provides abortions, was similarly firebombed by a homeless man, also in the wake of antiabortion measures being pushed in the state legislature…
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Atheist humanist Dick Gross comments on the departure of Rowan Williams from the position of Archbishop of Canterbury (leading cleric of the Anglican Church).

The evil Toulouse Massacre in which 7 people, 3 of them children, were murdered in France, has shocked all decent people. However reason must prevail over emotion and must determine how the chances of a recurrence of this atrocity can be minimized. Compelling conclusions are that, in addition to having better security,  anti-Arab anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and the racist Zionist-backed War on Muslims (12 million dead since 1990) must be halted and that the genocidal racist Zionists must be sidelined from public life as has already happened to like racists such as the Nazis, neo-Nazis, Apartheiders and KKK.

Rational risk management, that is crucial for societal safety, successively involves (a) accurate information, (b) scientific analysis, this involving the critical testing of potentially falsifiable hypotheses, and (c) science- informed systemic change to minimize recurrence of adverse events. Unfortunately,  inevitably corrupt societies typically adopt a dangerously incorrect converse approach that involves (a) lying by omission and commission, propaganda, censorship and intimidation of reportage, (b) anti-science spin involving the selective use of asserted facts to support a partisan position, and (c) resort to violent blame and shame with rejection of sensible systemic change, this further preventing crucially requisite primary reportage. A rational risk management approach to the Toulouse Massacre is outlined below.  

1. There will always be a very small proportion of people who cross the line into the insanity of homicide - indeed criminologists inform us that 90% of  violence and homicide is against people personally known to the perpetrators including family members i.e. people they know or indeed love.

2. The perpetrator of the Toulouse Massacre was killed by the authorities rather than being subdued chemically, but before being killed the mass murderer  reportedly adduced the large-scale killing of Palestinians and Afghans by the Zionists  and the US Alliance as the reason for these appalling crimes (in contrast Norwegian mass murderer Breivik was a self-confessed  virulent Islamophobe and a genocidal pro-Zionist).

3. The mass murder by the West of ethnically or culturally Arab Semitic people  (Arabs and Muslims) has reached holocaust and genocidal  proportions. Thus  in the Zionist-backed US War on Muslims violent deaths plus avoidable deaths from war-imposed deprivation total 12 million since 1990, the breakdown being  4.6 million (Iraq, 1990-2012), 5.6 million (Afghanistan, 2001-2012), 2.2 million (Somalia, 1992-2012), and 0.1 million (Libya, 2011-2012). These estimates are consonant with UN-reported under-5 infant deaths in this period totalling 2.0 million (Iraq), 2.9 million (Afghanistan ) and 1.3 million (Somalia), 90% avoidable and due to Occupier war crimes in gross violation of the Geneva Convention - evidence of an Iraqi Genocide, an Afghan Genocide and a Somali Genocide (Google the terms “Muslim Holocaust” and  “Muslim Genocide”).

4.   A key part of this genocidal madness has been played by the racist Zionists who collaborated with the Nazis before and during the war (notoriously persuading  Churchill to veto the Brand Plan to save 0.7 million Hungarian Jews of whom 0.4 million subsequently perished including all but a dozen of my family). Since 1936  about 100,000 Palestinians have been violently killed as a result of racist Zionist colonization of their country (as compared to 3,700 Jews killed by Palestinians since 1920 according to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs) .  A further 1.9 million Palestinians have died avoidably from war-, expulsion- and occupation-imposed deprivation. Inspection of the latest UNICEF data reveals that race-based, racist Zionist-run Apartheid Israel deliberately murders over 2,000 Palestinian infants each year by imposed deprivation.

5. What should decent people do? Decent people - as exampled by anti-racist Jews (e.g. Google "Jews Against Racist Zionism") - must (a) demand that media inform everyone they can about the ongoing Muslim Holocaust and Muslim Genocide; (b) apply and urge sanctions against all those people, parties, countries and corporations involved in the Muslim Holocaust, the Muslim Genocide and race-based, genocidal Apartheid Israel  (e.g. Google "Boycott Apartheid  Israel"); and (c) demand arraignment before the International Criminal Court of those involved in the Muslim Holocaust (e.g. Bush, Obama, Blair, Brown, Cameron, Sarkozy,  Merkel, Harper, Howard, Rudd, Gillard and their subordinates) and the sidelining of racist Zionists from public life as has already happened to like racists such as the Nazis, neo-Nazis, Apartheiders and KKK.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday accused Israel of committing greater crimes against Palestinians during its war in the Gaza Strip than those for which Sudanese leader Omar al-Bashir had been indicted

For the most part I find myself in agreement with Bill Maher most of the time. I am not always in agreement with how he gets his points across although for the most part I do agree with the premise of his beliefs. I have no issue with being religious only religions, I believe the Democratic party has moved to far right, I believe much of the food we eat is irresponsible, and I believe the Republican party preys on fears and has no real solutions.

This week, Bill came out in defense of Rush Limbaugh and the comments he made against Ms. Fluke. I understand his concerns over free speech, I understand that he has personally been persecuted for his comments and suffered from it, and I understand that we must be vigilant in not creating artificial crusades against those that we disagree with.

On this issue however, I find myself in disagreement with him and many others. I fully believe that what Rush Limbaugh did with his comments goes beyond free speech and entered the realm of incitement. I am all for free speech and would never take on a fight against anyone just because I disagreed with them. What Rush did to Sandra Fluke is the same as putting a target on this young lady or yelling FIRE in a theatre in my opinion. This goes beyond free speech to incitement. No one is really talking about this but if you yell fire in a theatre it is a crime. Rush has a specific audience and what he did was deliberate and was giving all his listeners a license to them to treat anyone they felt were like this how ever they wished. Remember he was not satisfied with his original comments and came back for the next two days specifically calling her out in specific ways. If Bill Maher yells fire in a theatre during his show, it is somewhat expected, and it is not an issue because of the context in which it is was delivered. If you or I do so during a movie we go to with our kids, it becomes a crime. Context does matter.

If Rush Limbaugh had throughout his career described himself strictly as an entertainer as Bill Maher has done, I would be willing to accept the premise that it was just a distasteful comment. He has not. He has portrayed himself as the conservative savior of America. So once again, context matters.

Many followers of Rush Limbaugh look to him as a prophet and take his words as a license to act. Everyone in the public realm must be held to higher standard and they must have a responsibility for their actions. Bill has graciously given Rush a pass on this one as far as I am concerned. I believe that Rush put this young lady and many other women in danger through incitement.

What is your opinion? Am I giving Rush too much credit and being petty or was this a crime?

T1Truth

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Professor Martin Sevior (Physics Deoartment, University of Melbourne) : "Now Iran, of course, is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty – unlike many other Middle East nations – and thus far the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has found no direct proof of nuclear weapons development in Iran. I don’t know whether Iran is developing nuclear weapons – or, if it is, why."

This is a call for action to all of my friends, colleagues, and even those that do not have the same views as I hold. I think we can all agree that over time and especially in the last few days Rush Limbaugh has used sensationalism over ethics. It is also time to have the GOP stand up and be counted in regards to how they personally feel about Rush Limbaugh. This is a very simple thing that we can do. We have all seen how many people could be reached with the article "Green Stars For Everyone". Multiply that by everyone on our Twitter account, Face-book pages, and the other social media's that we subscribe to.

There are lines that have gotten blurred in this campaign when it comes to ethics but calling an American a slut for speaking her mind is reprehensible. This is a violation of free speach when it comes from an individual that wields as much influence as Rush. There is nothing wrong with disagreeing with Ms. Fluke, there is however something wrong in threatening her for her beliefs. Make not mistake about it, the comments by Rush were a direct threat on her and all women.

It is not enough to get a general statement from the speaker or the party. We want each and every member to on record. Who is owned by Rush and who is not is what we wish to know.

This call to action is to have Speaker Boehner request all members of the House of Representatives go on record to if they beleive Rush Limbaugh should be denounced for his remarks regarding Sandra Fluke.

Below is Mr. Bohner's twitter address and Face-book wall. Send a loud and clear message. If you have a Facebook page, twitter account or blog as I do, you may wish to add comments, polls, or other indicators of support for this movement. If we can gain critical mass we could force each and every member of the house to go on record for this.

@SpeakerBoehner

http://www.facebook.com/OfficeofSpeakerBoehner?sk=wall

Please send me all results so they may be compiled. I have been in the process of starting a blog this week and have made this the first poll to be published on it.

Boehner said: House Speaker John Boehner distanced himself on Friday from Rush Limbaugh, calling the conservative radio host's words toward a women's rights advocate "inappropriate." - NOT GOOD ENOUGH -

Go to work America and bring this clown and his GOP supporters to their knees! Do not let this just slide to back page of the news. Keep the pressure on everyday until every member of congress must commit!!! Do not let this be diminished or mimimized. Demand an accounting!!!

Updated: 03.02.2012 8:34PM EST - Bill O'Riley back Rush! Guess we know who owns Billy Boy!!!

T1Truth

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Relishing a political victory, President Barack Obama said Tuesday that Congress "did the right thing" by extending payroll tax cuts for millions of Americans. He urged lawmakers to push forward on more measures, from assistance to struggling homeowners to increased taxes on the wealthy, saying the looming election was no excuse for inaction in Washington.

"Don't stop here. Keep going,'" Obama said during a White House event marking the passage of the tax cuts.

"Keep taking the action that people are calling for to keep this economy growing. This may be an election year, but the American people have no patience for gridlock," he said.

Obama was celebrating a tax cut that is already in place, but due to expire at month's end. He said the extension of the tax cut for the rest of the year will have a spillover effect: More people will spend money and more businesses in turn will be prodded to hire workers, and so "the entire economy" gets a boost.

Congress overwhelmingly passed the $143 billion measure on Friday. The bill extends both a 2 percentage point reduction in the tax that funds Social Security and extends jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed. The measure also averts a big cut in the reimbursements doctors get for treating Medicare patients.

But Tuesday's event was not a bill-signing because the bill is not yet in Obama's hands. Not knowing when the legislation will come down from Capitol Hill, the White House decided to go ahead and hold its event now, while the victory is still fresh in people's minds. No major event is planned for the actual bill-signing.

The payroll tax cut was a centerpiece of the jobs plan Obama unveiled last year — and of a re-election strategy that seeks to cast his GOP foes as protectors of the rich out of touch with the worries of working families.

Obama never mentioned that a real driver of the deal Congress approved Friday was the political fallout on Republicans if they didn't give ground. Having endured a debacle in December, when they were seen as holding up the tax cut before caving, Republicans this time went along, and without demanding that the cost be paid for, either.

The White House said the average family would have lost $40 per paycheck had the tax cut not been extended. Throughout the payroll tax debate, the White House encouraged people to write in on social networking sites about how losing that money would affect their lives.

Several members of the public who submitted their thoughts were invited to join Obama at events promoting the tax cuts, including his remarks Tuesday.

"This got done because of you," Obama said. "Because you called, you emailed, you tweeted your representatives and you demanded action. You made it clear that you wanted to see some common sense in Washington."

White House officials have called the payroll tax cut the last "must-do" legislation Obama has to work with Congress on ahead of the November presidential election. Still, Obama made a push Tuesday for several other priorities outlined in his jobs bill and last month's State of the Union address, including legislation to assist small business owners and struggling homeowners.

Obama earlier this month proposed a vast expansion of government assistance to homeowners that would make lower lending rates a possibility for millions of borrowers who have not been able to get out from under burdensome mortgages. The proposal has special resonance in election battlegrounds such as Nevada and Florida that have faced record foreclosures.

Obama wants Congress to pass legislation that would make it easier for more borrowers to refinance their loans, creating a new program through the Federal Housing Administration that would have the government assume the risk for the new mortgages. The proposal faces a difficult path in Congress.

Obama also said he wants Congress to pass the so-called Buffett rule, which seeks to ensure that people making more than $1 million a year pay at least 30 percent of their incomes in taxes.

___

Associated Press writers Ben Feller and Jim Kuhnhenn contributed to this report.

Vietnam Veterans of America Enraged by FOX Network Liz Trotta's
Commentary On Sexual Assault in the Military

"Vietnam Veterans of America is enraged by the comments of FOX Network's Liz Trotta, who, in a February 12 edition of America's News HQ,, challenged the Pentagon for its increased spending on programs for victims of sexual assault," said John Rowan, VVA National President. In response to a DoD report showing a 64 percent increase in violent sexual assaults since 2006, Trotta remarked, "Well, what did they expect? These people are in close contact."...

...Said Rowan, "Ms. Trotta's despicable commentary has sent a shock wave through the ranks of our membership and beyond. No institution in America condones the disgrace of sexual assault. It is not accepted in corporate America, nor is it on the streets of our towns and communities. Why should sexual assault in the military be anything less than criminal? As the Department of Defense grapples with the problem, it must take responsibility at all levels of command, and leadership must be held accountable."

"As veterans who fought to uphold our Constitution, we hold sacred all the rights it insures, said Rowan. "As such, we are appalled that Ms. Trotta would use the Fourth Estate as a vehicle to condone the criminal acts of some by contending that sexual assault in the military is 'expected' behavior. It is a disgrace that FOX would stand behind this type of commentary. Ms. Trotta owes the men and women of our military and those in the veterans' ranks an apology, and VVA believes FOX should demand it of her."

Hat tip to Ellen at NewsHounds, who notes:

You can demand an apology from Fox News, too, by contacting the show at newshq@foxnews.com or comments@foxnews.com or by tweeting them at @ANHQDC. They’ve also got a Facebook page.

John Pilger: "The warmongering and human rights abuses of the New Labour years seem forgotten by all but the likes of Gareth Peirce. Yet Blair’s legacy lingers on in Afghanistan and Iraq and is re-emerging in Syria and Iran."

Report: "Nearly 45,000 annual deaths are associated with lack of health insurance, according to a new study published online today by the American Journal of Public Health. That figure is about two and a half times higher than an estimate from the Institute of Medicine (IOM) in 2002. The study, conducted at Harvard Medical School and Cambridge Health Alliance, found that uninsured, working-age Americans have a 40 percent higher risk of death than their privately insured counterparts, up from a 25 percent excess
death rate found in 1993."

The Obama Administration has vowed to retain close military ties to its European allies after revealing  plans to withdraw more than 11,000 troops from Germany and Italy as part of a strategic shift to Asia.

Hamish Ford: "On Australia Day in Canberra this year two stark effects of an intertwined political and mainstream media narrative were revealed. First, that protests, no matter how small, are increasingly portrayed as security threats. Second, the way the events were relayed at the time and then over ensuing days illustrates how historical and ongoing Indigenous disadvantage — despite being an international scandal — is treated here with a mix of dishonest platitudinal concern and "move-on" belligerence."

"

Doctoral scholar Farid Farid: "Last week in Baghdad, 17 men were executed. Nothing special to note here in the conflict ridden, post-US withdrawal landscape of Iraq, except that this time they were executed by an Iraqi court... the death penalty has been in process in the fragile Iraqi judicial system since 2004, and more notoriously before during Saddam’s iron-fisted rule. It was briefly suspended during 2003 only... Christian Iraqis, once a vibrant minority community in Iraq now represent more than 40% of forced migrants and refugees. This has also become a trend with Arab uprisings last year, particularly in Egypt..."

"

Catriona Menzies-Pike (managing editor of progressive Australian web magazine New Matilda): "Is it sexist anytime anyone ever criticises any woman? Can anything any female politician ever does be shielded from criticism on the grounds that to do so is sexist? If a female politician who happens to be a Prime Minister screws up royally and appears to make a habit of doing so, can she ignore all the slings and arrows that come her way because they’ve all been hurled by sexist bastards who want nothing more than to see a good woman fall? The answer to all of these questions should obviously be "no".

Former Australian Democrats MP Cheryl Kernot re sexism allegations over treatment of Australian  PM Julia Gillard: "The first thing I’d say is none of those other countries [Germany, US, New Zealand] has the “gotcha” media syndrome. We seem to have perfected that. American presidential campaigns have it, but the wider political discourse doesn’t have it as much as we do. We are the masters of it. The second thing I think we need to remark upon is that Angela Merkel, Julia Gillard and Helen Clark all have no children. That has been used against Julia Gillard. There have been occasional insinuations against Helen Clark [implying] her husband is a homosexual. I haven’t heard anything much about Angela Merkel. Hillary Clinton has one child, and both Clintons are power players."

Mehdi Hasan: "

How do we stop the ongoing killings in Syria? It is an urgent and important question but one that defies a simple or easy answer.

Let's be clear: Syria is a human rights disaster. The revolution's death toll now exceeds 6,000 and thousands of others have been "disappeared" into the country's mini-gulags, to be tortured and starved. Syria's third-biggest city, Homs, is under daily bombardment from shells, mortars and machine-gun fire."

"

British Zionists responding to Ben White and claiming that race-based Israel is "democratic": "BICOM has recently published articles by four experts to raise the level of discussion in the UK about the state of Israeli democracy. We are starting from a position of caring about Israel's future as both a state expressing the Jewish right to national self-determination, and a democracy for all its citizens. On that basis, we wanted to stimulate a more nuanced conversation about Israel"

Australian ABC Radio National Late Night Live presenter Phillip Adams presents a tribute to "Late Night Live's longest and most outstanding contributor, the late Christopher Hitchens, journalist, author and contrarian" (and pro-Iraq War war atheist).

Ben White: "Firstly, foundational to Israel's legal framework as a Jewish state is legislation passed in the first few years, specifically the Law of Return, the Absentee Property Law, and the Citizenship Law. These laws shaped an institutionalised regime of ethno-religious discrimination by extending Israel's 'frontiers' to include every Jew in the world (as a potential citizen), at the same time as explicitly excluding expelled Palestinians."

Dr David Slucki (Monash University, Melbourne): "Questions arise when the homeland — be it Israel/Palestine, Northern Ireland, or Sri Lanka — becomes mired in ongoing conflict. What part do their diasporas play? How do they align themselves? And how do they continue to operate in democratic third countries, to which they may or may not also feel an attachment? What happens when those third countries back the other side?"

Michael Short (a senior Age editor): "We have a duty to lead and inspire our young people, in particular. What are they, and indeed all of us, to make of a prime minister who judges it acceptable to blatantly, blithely break a written pledge in the name of base politics? This is what Julia Gillard has done by abandoning her poker-machines promise to Andrew Wilkie" [as well as her election pledge that "there will be no carbon tax under a government I lead']

Here we go again with Israeli Agent Provocateurs launching bottle rockets into open fields in Israel just to try to get world sympathy for them to launch another campaign of murder against the Palestinians.

MyStrength is a project of the California Department of Health Services and the California Coalition Against Sexual Assault (CALCASA), a statewide coalition of rape crisis centers and prevention programs founded in 1980.

Professor Robert Manne (Professor of politics at La Trobe University, Melbourne ): "There is probably no alternative to some form of offshore processing. Public opinion is opposed to the spontaneous arrival of asylum seeker boats. We now know that onshore processing will not stop the boats. We now also know that boats sailing from Indonesia to Australia will never be safe."

The Conversation: "Last weekend, an overcrowded fishing boat sank off the coast of Indonesia with more than 200 asylum seekers on board...

As we begin to come to terms with the second major refugee boat disaster in less than 12 months, The Conversation asked key experts to take a considered look at the problem of refugees who risk the journey to Australia by boat. We had two simple questions – what is the problem? And, most importantly, how can we do better?This is what they told us... "

Australian Catholic University adjunct professor and top lawyer Julian Burnside SC: "If we took 10,000 refugees each year from Indonesia, and took them in order of lodging an application in Indonesia for protection, the incentive to get on a boat would disappear. We would save many lives. But we would have to accept a larger number of refugees than we do now."

Professor Hugh White (professor of strategic studies at ANU and a visiting fellow at the Lowy Institute): "Barack Obama explained when he visited last month how America is today turning its back on its mistakes in Iraq and Afghanistan and pivoting instead to Asia. Here America is launching a new military initiative to confront and contain China. Our leaders are eagerly agreeing to join in, just as their predecessors did nine years ago over Iraq. Like them, our leaders and their advisers today are only too happy to assume that Washington knows best. Like them, they can hardly imagine saying no. But there is a difference. When our mistakes go bad in Iraq or Afghanistan we can simply give up and come home, as we have done. If we make the same mistakes this time, here in Asia, we will live with the consequences for a very long time."

Mehdi Hasan: "We can't afford the hawks to use withdrawal as an opportunity to airbrush the blood-drenched history of the invasion and occupation" (comment: 4.6 million war-related deaths, 1990-2011)

George Eaton on Hitchens: "He was wrong, badly wrong about Iraq, but for the best of reasons... It was not an attempt to ingratiate himself with the neoconservatives, whom Hitchens had fought and continued to fight with on issues from gay rights to the death penalty to Israel. But he was too casual in dismissing the civilian casualties (estimated at anything between 100,000 and a million) that resulted directly or indirectly from the invasion of the Iraq."

Report: "Australia will raise concerns with Israel about its juvenile military court system, which is accused of jailing and torturing Palestinian children as young as 12. Following a report in The Weekend Australian Magazine three weeks ago, Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd has instructed Australian diplomats to visit the juvenile military court."

Dr Anthony Billingsley (University iof NSW): "The Iraq fiasco has led to a decline in US influence across the region and to increased instability. Saudi-Iranian rivalry is sharper, communal tensions in Lebanon have increased and fear of Shiite influence throughout the region is dominating governments’ thinking. Perhaps the most hopeful aspect of the Iraqi condition is that it will be some time before Iraq is able to threaten any of its neighbours and that economic rebuilding will be at the top of the government’s priorities."

[Bellingham, Wash] According to police, William Adam Lane confronted two women after seeing them embracing romantically outside a bar early Sunday, yelling “@!$%#ing faggots. You @!$%#ing lesbians.” He then smashed the rear window of their car, according to the arrest report.

That’s when one of the women jumped into action. She went after Lane and held him down, while a bouncer from a nearby bar came to help until police arrived...

Lane...was arrested and charged with malicious harassment, a hate crime, and disorderly conduct.

Professor Stephan Lewandowsky : "Hierarchical-individualistic people (HI from here on) believe rights, duties, goods, and offices should be distributed differentially and on the basis of people’s own decisions without collective interference or assistance. Egalitarian-communitarian (EC) people, by contrast, believe rights and goods should be distributed more equally and society should bear partial responsibility for securing the conditions of individual flourishing... Perhaps not surprisingly, HI individuals are more likely to resist acceptance of climate science than EC individuals."

John Armstrong (philosopher at the University of Melbourne): "

Hard though it may be to believe, there has been a long-term, very significant decline in all kinds of violence around the world. In his most recent book, The Better Angels of Our Nature, Harvard evolutionary psychologist and cognitive scientist Steven Pinker, enforces this conclusion with a battery of statistic evidence."

"

Report on German university research study findings: "During childhood and adolescence, about half of all women are molested sexually by adults, according to the findings, but even when they grow up, the abuse doesn't stop. About 30 percent of women with disabilities so severe that they must live in institutions have been abused by other adults,"

Virginia Haussegger (ABC News presenter & member of the UN Women National Committee) concludes after presenting horrific statistics that : "If Australia - and now the US - is truly serious about the Pacific, we have to get serious about ending the culture of silence and impunity that has allowed the abuse and degradation of women to go largely ignored. After all, what gives us the right to talk to China about human rights when the rights of women to be protected from violence - in our own neighbourhood - are so badly abused?"

Professor Gerry Simpson (international law, Melbourne Law School, London School of Economics): "government in Tripoli may not get the opportunity to decide whether to send Saif al-Islam to The Hague at all. His captors in Zintan, in the western mountains, are reportedly reluctant to give him up. The leader of the Zintan council was quoted as saying: "We can try him. It will not take too long; we don't need new laws."  It is a long way from Zintan to The Hague for Saif al-Islam and Senussi, and for international criminal justice."

Ben White (UK freelance journalist and author): "An analysis that makes the links between what is happening in the hills of the West Bank and the Negev desert is a necessary part of imagining a future solution "that protects the rights of both the Palestinian people and Jewish Israelis", a redefining of self-determination whereby both groups share a common homeland based on equality. It is the alternative to the separation and "ethnic purity" that disturbs even the honest among its advocates." 

Investigators reopened the case of Natalie Wood's 1981 drowning after receiving new information they deemed credible enough to warrant another look at one of Hollywood's most enduring mysteries.

A detective said Friday, however, that the three-time Oscar nominee's husband, actor Robert Wagner, was not a suspect.

Los Angeles Sheriff's Lt. John Corina said nothing has yet changed the official view that Wood's death in the chilly waters off Southern California's Santa Catalina Island was anything but an accident.

"Right now, her death is an accidental drowning," Corina said.

Corina said Friday that two detectives would delve into the case and interview witnesses, including some who have come forward since the announcement a day earlier that the actress' death is being reviewed again.

Corina declined to say whether all the new information came from Dennis Davern, who was a captain of the yacht that Wagner, Wood and actor Christopher Walken were sharing on Thanksgiving weekend in 1981. Davern said on national television Friday that he lied to investigators about events on the yacht Splendour when he was interviewed after Wood's death.

Davern accused Wagner of having a fight with Wood before she went missing and delaying the search for her after she went missing from the boat.

On Nov. 29, 1981, Wood drowned after spending several hours drinking in a yacht with Wagner, fellow actor Christopher Walken and Davern. Davern told NBC's "Today" show on Friday that he made mistakes by not telling the truth about events leading to the death and had urged Los Angeles County sheriff's homicide investigators to reopen the case.

It is Davern's latest attempt to change the official account of what happened.

"Was the fight between Natalie Wood and her husband Robert Wagner what ultimately led to her death?" show host David Gregory asked.

"Yes," Davern replied.

"How so?"

"Like I said, that's going to be up to the investigators to decide," the captain said after a long pause.

Davern said he believes Wagner had intentionally kept the investigation into Wood's death low profile and didn't do everything he could have done. When Gregory pressed Davern for supporting details, he said that was the duty of investigators.

Davern has said for years that the official account of Wood's disappearance was not what really happened, including in a 1992 appearance on a Geraldo Rivera special and in a 2000 Vanity Fair piece. He also worked with author and friend Marti Rulli on "Goodbye Natalie, Goodbye Splendour," a book released last year.

Corina said he was not concerned about a 2010 book Davern co-authored on Wood's disappearance, or that the 30-year anniversary of the actress' death.

Wagner spokesman Alan Nierob said Friday a statement he released Thursday spoke for itself. It said that Wagner's family supports investigators' efforts and trusted that they would evaluate the new information and determine whether it came from "a credible source or sources other than those simply trying to profit from the 30-year anniversary of her tragic death."

Davern denied he was motivated to speak out for profit.

Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said Thursday the renewed inquiry was prompted by unspecified new information about the case. The Los Angeles Times reported that Los Angeles Sheriff Lee Baca said detectives want to talk to Davern and that he had "made comments worthy of exploring." The paper said the agency had also received information from an unidentified third party.

In the Vanity Fair story, Davern is quoted as saying that Wood and Wagner fought in their cabin before the actress disappeared. Coroner's officials ruled her death an accidental drowning, perhaps caused by her slipping off the boat while trying to tie down a dinghy.

She was found wearing a flannel nightgown, socks and a red down jacket and Davern identified her body for authorities, according to an autopsy report. Her body had superficial bruises, according to the report, but those were considered consistent with drowning.

Her death sparked tabloid speculation that foul play was involved, but Wagner and Wood's sister have dismissed any suggestion the actress' death was anything more than an accident. Coroner's officials at the time agreed, writing that Wood was "possibly attempting to board the dinghy and had fallen into the water, striking her face."

Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter said the agency hadn't been asked to do any additional investigation into Wood's case.

Sheriff's officials are also hoping for tips from the public that may shed new light on how Wood, who was afraid of being in the water, ended up drowning.

Wood received Academy Award nominations for "Rebel Without a Cause," "Splendor in the Grass" and "Love with the Proper Stranger." She was 43 when she died. She and Wagner were twice married, first in 1957 before divorcing six years later. They remarried in 1972.

Lana Wood wrote in a biography on her sister, "What happened is that Natalie drank too much that night."

Wagner, star of the television series "Hart to Hart," wrote in a 2008 autobiography that he blamed himself for his wife's death.

He recounted the night of Wood's disappearance, during which the couple and Walken drank at a restaurant and on the boat. Wood went to the master cabin during an argument between her husband and Walken. The last time Wagner saw his wife, she was fixing her hair at a bathroom vanity and she shut the door.

Wagner wrote that despite various theories about what led Wood to the water, which she feared, it was impossible to know what exactly happened.

"Nobody knows," he wrote. "There are only two possibilities; either she was trying to get away from the argument, or she was trying to tie the dinghy. But the bottom line is that nobody knows exactly what happened."

Later in the book, Wagner wrote, "Did I blame myself? If I had been there, I could have done something. But I wasn't there. I didn't see her." He wrote that he never saw his wife after she died and has never returned to Catalina Island.

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AP reporters Alicia Rancilio and Joe White contributed to this report.

According to a letter to MPs from the Ger,man Foreign Affairs and Defence Minisitries, under the drawdown  (which the opposition Green and Left parties said didn’t go far enough) Germany would reduce its contingent of 5,350 soldiers to 4,900 beginning in February. Then, by 2013 the number would reduced by 500 more to 4,400 and thence to 0 in 2014.

Produced by the Channel 4 in Britain, the shocking "Sri Lanka's Killing Fields" program forensically investigates allegations that up to 40,000 Tamil civilians were killed as Sri Lankan Government forces moved in to destroy the Tamil Tiger army (Apartheid Israel supplied the aircraft used in bombing hospitals and refugee camps) .

Article quotes leading German weekly Die Zeit : "In Sri Lanka, 40 000 unarmed civilians were killed, which is 80 times My Lai, and five times Srebrenica. We read in 2009 that there was a terrible final battle against the "terrorists" and talk of civilian casualties from cross-fire. Only now the real truth is being revealed by the documentary by Channel-4. The documentary shows mainly mobile phone recordings of eye witnesses, combined with so-called trophy pictures that were taken from offenders. The Government of Sri Lanka was able, for two years to hide their war crimes before the world."

Sarkozy to Obama about Israeli PM Netanyahu: ""I can't stand him anymore, he's a liar".

Obama's reply: "You may be sick of him, but me, I have to deal with him every day ".

Sarah Burnside: "Politicians regularly invoke an authoritative sounding History-with-a-capital-H in order to legitimise or attack present day positions. Although patriotism retains its status as the first refuge of the scoundrel, history clocks in at perhaps a close second."

Report: "The Wall Street Journal reports today that Black people have been emptied from the City of Tawergha [formerly 30,000 inhabitants] in Libya, their homes razed, and that the words "slaves" and "negroes" are scribbled on their abandoned buildings in the now ghost town  by the NATO-backed rebels.The chilling account of ethnic cleansing  of Black people in Libya, occurring right before our eyes, appears under the headline "Revenge Feeds Instability in Libya."

Seumas Milne (UK Guardian columnist and associate editor): "What is now known, however, is that while the death toll in Libya when Nato intervened was perhaps around 1,000-2,000 (judging by UN estimates), eight months later it is probably more than ten times that figure. Estimates of the numbers of dead over the last eight months – as Nato leaders vetoed ceasefires and negotiations – range from 10,000 up to 50,000. The National Transitional Council puts the losses at 30,000 dead and 50,000 wounded."

Report quote: "Seumas Milne wrote in the October 27 Guardian: “While the death toll in Libya when Nato intervened was perhaps around 1,000-2,000 (judging by UN estimates), eight months later it is probably more than ten times that figure. Estimates of the numbers of dead over the last eight months … range from 10,000 up to 50,000. The National Transitional Council puts the losses at 30,000 dead and 50,000 wounded.Of those, uncounted thousands will be civilians, including those killed by Nato bombing and Nato-backed forces on the ground. These figures dwarf the death tolls in this year’s other most bloody Arab uprisings, in Syria and Yemen” ... About 1 million Sub-Saharan Africans are estimated to have fled Libya since the conflict started."

Cheryl Abbarno was the most excited she's ever been about a presidential election when Barack Obama was on the ballot in 2008, but she isn't sure she'll vote for him again.

"It's discouraging to me that he's not doing what he said he's going to do. When he was campaigning, it was change, change, change, and I don't see any change," she said.

Abbarno is a Walmart mom — women with children under 18 at home who shop at the discount superstore — and two polling firms, one Democratic, one Republican, are following women like her because they believe they'll play a key role in next year's presidential election.

Their No. 1 concern is the economy. They're split fairly evenly by party affiliation, but more important, they are persuadable voters who will decide late in the election cycle whether they'll support Obama or the eventual Republican nominee.

Or, as Neil Newhouse of the Republican polling firm Public Opinion Strategies said, they're the new soccer moms — about 14 percent to 17 percent of the electorate, predominantly white and a key swing group.

In 2008, Walmart moms supported Obama, but in 2010 they voted Republican, though not enthusiastically, according to Public Opinion Strategies and Momentum Analysis, a firm that works with Democratic candidates and groups.

A poll the firms released Wednesday shows 43 percent of Walmart moms approve of Obama's job performance while 54 percent disapprove. That compares to 46 percent of all voters that approve of Obama and 49 percent who disapprove. Yet 57 percent of the moms said they are still hopeful about the president compared to 42 percent who have given up on him. And three times as many of the moms, 22 percent, blame President George W. Bush for the nation's economic problems rather than Obama, who 7 percent of the moms say is to blame.

"There are good lessons from this data for both Democrats and Republicans," said Margie Omero of Momentum Analysis. "The bottom line from these results is that this is a group that can be persuaded either way in the presidential contest."

The Obama campaign wouldn't comment on Walmart moms.

Steve Schale, who ran Obama's Florida operation in 2008, said that the president needs to show the women that his economic plan is better than the alternative.

During the focus groups in Florida, New Hampshire and Iowa, the Walmart moms repeatedly named the economy as the most important issue in the election. Nearly all said they've had to make sacrifices, including opening new credit cards for the no-interest promotions, cutting back on meals out and other activities and cancelling cable television. One woman said she and her son had to move in with her parents. Another told her kids that Santa is poor this year. Many either had gone through layoffs or had husbands who lost jobs. While other jobs were found, often times it was for less money.

While not blaming Obama, many feel like he hasn't shown strong enough leadership to build consensus in Congress on how to help middle-class families.

"These voters have clearly lost their passion for President Obama and there's a sense that he's kind of lost his passion as well. Some of these voters might vote for him again, but boy, there's no enthusiasm," said Newhouse, whose clients include GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney. "It does mean these voters are still up for grabs for the 2012 election."

He said Republican candidates are focused first on the primary, but the eventual nominee would be wise to win over Walmart moms and talk about kitchen table issues these women care about.

"Not just jobs, but health and housing issues," Newhouse said, noting that Obama, with the luxury of not having a primary, is already focused on those issues.

Omero said that just because Walmart moms are late deciders, it doesn't mean that candidates shouldn't begin reaching out to them.

"Candidates that wait too long to try to reach out to these voters, whether you're talking about the presidential level or congressional and statewide level, does so at their peril," she said. "These moms are going to need more contact, they're going to need more exposure, they're going to need advertising, even more campaign events."

What Omero saw in the focus groups was sympathy for the president and a willingness to give him another chance. Because they don't directly blame him for the nation's economic woes means he can still persuade them that he cares more about the middle class than his eventual Republican challenger.

"What we heard a lack of is animosity toward Obama, or that he's gone too far or that he's taken the country in the wrong direction," said Omero. "I think it puts Obama at an advantage over other candidates who are offering a different set of policies altogether.'"

Not that it's going to be easy.

"With the economy such that it is and with these voters that are swing to begin with, it is going to be difficult for the president. These were not enthusiastic hardcore Democrats, so they are going to sound a little bit less engaged, but they haven't made up their mind to vote for somebody else, and they're not studying up on the other candidates right now either. There's still plenty of opportunity for the president to solidify this group."

Valerie Herrera, a 30-year-old insurance writer with 1- and 2-year-old daughters, said she is willing to give Obama another chance. She voted for McCain in 2008, but she feels Obama is more focused on helping middle- and lower-class families, and that Republicans tend to be upper middle-class and above and look out for their own interests.

Herrera and her husband, who live in Apopka, Fla. sold one of their cars to save money and now get by on one. She says the economy is her most important issue. But she doesn't blame Obama.

"He is trying. He's trying to do the best that he can with what he was given," Herrera said. "He really is trying to understand what the everyday person is going through."

Professor Noam Chomsky, 2011 Sydney Peace Prize lecture: "pacifist thinker and social activist A.J. Muste: what he called ''revolutionary pacifism''. Muste disdained the search for peace without justice. He urged that ''one must be a revolutionary before one can be a pacifist'', by which he meant that we must deal ''honestly and adequately with this 90 per cent of our problem'' - ''the violence on which the present system is based, and all the evil - material and spiritual - this entails for the masses of men throughout the world''.

Late last week, a subcommittee unanimously voted to update the FBI's definition of rape, which has not been altered since 1929. The current definition is laughably archaic, defining rape as “the carnal knowledge of a female forcibly and against her will.”

Men are explicitly excluded. The FBI clarifies: "By definition, sexual attacks on males are excluded from the rape category and must be classified as assaults or other sex offenses depending on the nature of the crime and the extent of injury.” Statutory rape and rape with inanimate objects, like the one Abner Louima endured at the hands of police officers, don't count either. This language has been used to excuse the slew of rapes that occur when a victim is intoxicated and unable to consent.

...

If the entire All Points Bulletin votes yes to this wording in December, and FBI director Robert Mueller makes it official, the Uniform Crime Report may reflect what rape actually is, and therefore cause crime rates to skyrocket. Because of the narrow definition currently on the books, the FBI's reporting of rapes nationwide are hopelessly inaccurate. States and cities report other kinds of rape locally, but the FBI neglects to include them in their annual crime reports. The FBI didn't include any of Chicago's 1,400 rapes last year because the city uses a definition that doesn't line up with the FBI's language. 

Mehdi Hasan: "according to figures released by the Israel Prison Service, there are 164 Palestinian children aged between 12 and 17 incarcerated in Israeli jails, including 35 minors aged between 12 and 15. As many as 700 Palestinian children are prosecuted each year in Israel's military courts; more than 7,000 have been detained since 2000."

Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young: "More Australians need to know of an editorial in The Saturday Age, which points out it costs an average $10,400 to assess the claims of asylum seekers while they live in the community. Compare that to the $137,317 it costs to keep someone in immigration detention. Then there are the additional millions of dollars in compensation taxpayers have already forked out for people damaged by their time in a detention centre."

Mehdi Hasan: "For the past decade, western governments have repeatedly claimed that the war in Afghanistan was justified by the Taliban's refusal to hand over Osama Bin Laden for trial. This is a lie... A secret plan to put Osama Bin Laden on trial in Pakistan has been blocked after President Musharraf said he could not guarantee his safety, it was disclosed... Suggested by the Taliban's closest allies in Pakistan, it was a last-ditch attempt to satisfy Western demands for Bin Laden's surrender while averting a war and ensuring the fanatical regime's survival."

Jewish British MP and former UK Foreign Secretary David Milliband: "The people who suffer are those who most need the attention of the world. This is notably true of the 1.5 million people crowded into the Gaza Strip, locked between Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean sea... There are houses riddled with bullet holes. The electricity supply cuts out for up to eight hours a day. There are not enough schools or teachers, so there are classes of 50 or 60 and the school day is restricted to a few hours to allow for two or even three shifts... Save the Children, obviously, is most concerned about the 53% of the Gaza population under 18. The statistics say 10% of children are "stunted" – so undernourished before the age of two that they never grow to their full potential."

Reviewer: "The Second World War was the most terrible event in human history, killing roughly 60 million people, most of them non-combatants, an average of about 27,000 for each day of the war. More people were slaughtered by their fellow human beings than ever before."

It doesn't matter how hard I study Facebook's terms and conditions, I still can't find the bit where it says: "Like Humpty Dumpty, Facebook is at complete liberty to interpret the words used in this document in any way it sees fit." And yet that's obviously what Facebook executives have been doing: making words mean what they want them to mean, or else they'd have removed the pages that promote rape and other forms of violence against women months ago.

The specific clause in Facebook's statement of rights and responsibilities that's supposed to protect groups against violence and hate speech instructs the user: "You will not post content that: is hateful, threatening, or pornographic; incites violence; or contains nudity or graphic or gratuitous violence." However, Facebook has now defended the numerous pages that clearly violate these terms by claiming: "Groups that express an opinion on a state, institution, or set of beliefs – even if that opinion is outrageous or offensive to some – do not by themselves violate our policies." Which is strange, because if a page entitled "Roses are red, violets are blue, I've got a knife, get in the van" isn't hateful, threatening or gratuitously violent, I don't for the life of me know what is.

It was back in August that feminists first began to notice the proliferation of pro-rape pages on the popular social networking site. Two months later over 176,000 people have signed a US-based petition calling on Facebook to take them down, and nearly 4,000 people have signed a UK-based petition calling for the same. The Facebook pages, such as the one cited above and others that include "You know she's playing hard to get when your [sic] chasing her down an alleyway" still remain.

Dick Gross: "John the Baptist and Jesus didn't deserve to suffer as they did and their pious mothers hardly deserved to suffer the most atrocious fate of any parent, to have their children die before them and in pain." [comment: About 10 million infants die each year today] 

Facebook has been accused of promoting rape and ‘rape culture’ by British and American women’s rights activists.

The claims came after the social networking site refused to remove pages that feature jokes and apparent confessions of sexual assault posted by users.

Pages such as ‘You know she’s playing hard to get when your [sic] chasing her down an alley’ have been featured on a petition for removal, signed by more than 3,600 people in the UK and 175,000 in the US.
The petition titled ‘demand Facebook remove pages that promote sexual violence’ was set up on US website Change.org.

Here's a link to the petition: Demand Facebook Remove Pages That Promote Sexual Violence

The following are actual pages on Facebook:  "Raping your mates girlfriend to see if she can put up a fight", “Kicking Sluts in the Vagina,” “I know a silly little bitch that needs a good slap,” and “Riding your Girlfriend softly, Cause you dont want to wake her up.” These clearly are in violation of Facebook's own policies and need to be removed.

Facebook’s own Terms of Service prohibit content that is “hateful, threatening,” or contains “graphic or gratuitous violence” Moreover, users are specifically barred from posting content that aims to “bully, intimidate, or harass” any user.

Facebook could and should do more to stop them from popping up in the first place and to swiftly remove those that do exist. First, Facebook needs to clarify that pages that encourage or condone rape --like the ones mentioned above-- are in violation of their existing standards. Secondly, they need to make a statement that all pages that describe sexual violence in a threatening way will be immediately taken down upon being reported. Finally, Facebook must include specific language in their Terms of Service that make it clear that pages promoting any form of sexual violence will be banned.

Demand that Facebook took a stronger stand in enforcing its own policies and stop promoting rape and rape culture.

According to immigrant advocates, a new immigration enforcement bill being considered in Congress would undermine existing immigration law by removing prosecutorial discretion and deferred action, two components that protect undocumented victims of domestic violence.

Michelle Ortiz — the supervising attorney of Lucha, a unit within the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center — says that Rep. Lamar Smith’s Hinder the Administration Legalization Temptation Act (better known as the HALT Act) would force immigration authorities to deport victims of domestic violence who reach out for help.

Smith, R-Texas, has said the HALT Act is necessary because President Obama is seeking “backdoor amnesty” for millions of undocumented immigrants. The bill is cosponsored by Florida Republicans Vern Buchanan, Richard Nugent and C.W. Bill Young.

Australian writer David Marr writing after the High Court banned the sending of refugees from Australia to Malaysia : "Every way out of this mess seems to lead to another quagmire. And in the opinion of Stephen Gageler, SC, the past is looking as messy as the future."

Julian Burnside AO, QC (prominent Australian barrister and human rights advocate): "Asylum seekers who come by plane outnumber boat arrivals about three to one. Asylum seekers who arrive by boat are, historically, very likely to be assessed as genuine refugees; those who come by plane are, historically, unlikely to be assessed as genuine refugees. However, asylum seekers who come by boat are held in detention, whereas those who come by plane are not."

The last 17 of 33 Australian troops who were guarding the Australian embassy in Iraq have been withdrawn and a Dubai-based private security firm Unity Resources Group (URG) has taken over. URG , with around 60 Chilean military veterans, was involved in the shooting of 72-year-old Australian Professor Kays Juma in March 2006.

Dr Dvir Abramovich (director of the Centre for Jewish History and Culture at The University of Melbourne): "For some reason, Facebook seems to be impervious to their own Statement of Rights and Responsibilities   which prohibits the posting of hateful material. Of course, they will remove sexual content or pictures of mothers breast feeding, but do not feel hate speech is worthy of the same treatment."

Wokkapedia: "Breivik took his rant and shaped it into a grostesquery. Did he hate his victims so much that he had to take their lives? This is the hardest thing. In fact, he didn’t viscerally hate his victims. They died because they were cargo."

"

Gilad Atzmon: "Western intelligence agencies must immediately crackdown on Israeli and Zionist operators in our midst, and regarding the terrible events of the weekend, it must be made absolutely clear who it was that spread such hate and promoted such terror, and for what exact reasons."

Jerusalem Post: "1,500 page manifesto credited to Breivik, accused of killing spree, lays out worldview including extreme screed of Islamophobia, far-right Zionism"

Anthony Browne : "Given Norway's homogenous insularity, the impact of such different cultures has been even bigger than it was in Britain in the 1960s. Casual racism is rife. Only in Norway have I heard someone order a taxi and request that the driver be white. News reports can display an unwitting racism that is shocking to foreign ears."

Carmel Lobello: "Do you want to boycott Murdoch’s media empire but don’t know where to start? There’s an app for that."

Edward Santow (chief executive of the Public Interest Advocacy Centre): "The ADF [Australian Defence Force] and the Australian government have systematically tried to avoid Australia's obligations under the Geneva Conventions and international law in Iraq and Afghanistan."

Cynthia Banham (SMH columnist): "Last week Barack Obama announced the US was withdrawing 10,000 military personnel from Afghanistan by the end of this year and 33,000 by the next northern summer... Australians want out of Afghanistan; a Lowy Institute poll this week found 59 per cent are opposed to our continued involvement."

Professor Gerry Simpson  Melbourne Law School , Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics): "international criminal justice is embedded in a system of governance that forecloses the prosecution of officials of the great powers (in particular the US, Britain, China, Russia and France). Not a single official from one of these states has been indicted before an international criminal court since 1945. From this perspective, the Libyan arrest warrants look like business as usual."

Raoul Heinrichs (doctoral scholar at the Australian National University, former research associate with the Lowy Institute): "Australia should pull out of Afghanistan, a futile war lost long ago."

Dan Oakes (Age and Sydney Morning Herald defence correspondent): "Only the Greens have consistently questioned the need for our troops to be in Afghanistan, and their policy is instinctive and ingrained, not necessarily built on a careful analysis of the issues. Is there not one parliamentarian from the Labor Party or the Coalition who believes the Australian public should be fully informed about our rationale for being in Afghanistan? Surely it is time for somebody to speak up."

Brilliant Indian writer Arundhati Roy interviewed on new book, Broken Republic, which brings together three essays about the Maoist guerrilla movement in the forests of central India that is resisting the government's attempts to develop and mine land on which tribal people live.

Join the Ms. No More Excuses campaign

Last month, Ms. reported on a woman who had been fined $500 for “false rape reporting.” Police said the details of her story were “inconsistent.” Three years later, among an accused serial rapist’s snapshots of assaults in progress, her photo was found. Her account fit the M.O. of the other attacks.

The Lynnwood, Wa., police department reopened her case and returned the fee, but Ms. didn’t think that was good enough. So we started a Change.org petition demanding a public apology and assurances that the department would better handle rape cases in the future.

We received this response from the Lynnwood Commander of Police right away:

UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay: "I come from South Africa and lived under this, and am every way attuned to seeing racial discrimination. There is a racial discriminatory element here [in Australia] which I see as rather inhumane treatment of people, judged by their differences, racial, colour or religions."

Professor Sandy Gifford, Dr Ignacio Correa-Velez, Dr Celia McMichael (La Trobe Refugee Research Centre) say Australia's "trading in people" asylum seeker swap with Malaysia is shameful. 

Cynthia Banham: "Some people question whether his assassination without trial is worthy of the values the US has extolled since the end of World War II. And our willingness to countenance torture indicates that September 11 did have a lasting legacy. Today, our values are weaker."

The U.S. envoy to the United Nations told the Security Council on Thursday that troops loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi were increasingly engaging in sexual violence and some had been issued the impotency drug Viagra, diplomats said.

Several U.N. diplomats who attended a closed-door Security Council meeting on Libya told Reuters that U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice raised the Viagra issue in the context of increasing reports of sexual violence by Gaddafi's troops.

"Rice raised that in the meeting but no one responded," a diplomat said on condition of anonymity. The allegation was first reported by a British newspaper.

Pfizer Inc's drug Viagra is used to treat impotence.

Diplomats said if it were true that Gaddafi's troops were being issued Viagra, it could indicate they were being encouraged by their commanders to engage in rape to terrorize the population in areas that have supported the rebels. That would constitute a war crime.