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The count begins. How long does it take to repair a huge hole, the size of Skase variety (Spanish) suitcase, on the major highway? Take care just before you turn to the Rawson Street from the Princes Highway, heading towards the SLC AquaDot Swimming Pool, as for almost three days carr and trruck drivers of all accents have been blaming the local, state and federal authorities for the unexpected Luna, Prater, Disney, Park experience. Ach, day three!

The history of human civilization has basically been the efforts of a small minority to get the majority to do things they wouldn't otherwise do, like pay taxes and fight against strangers. There is nothing intrinsically evil or oppressive in this tendency. In order to perform all of the complicated and diversified tasks involved in building a civilization, the efforts of large groups of people need to be coordinated and directed. It's just that it seems inevitable that the group of people giving the orders soon come to see themselves as inherently superior, deserving of special treatment, and feel an almost genetic drive to accumulate wealth and power to insure the reproductive success of their offspring. Ach, Power corrupts whether you fight for your existence under kommunist Czechoslovakia or some place Down Under or Up Over...

Tracking Policies & Investigative Stories: Corruption and Democracy in Australia
In this detailed study, Barry Hindess from the Democratic Audit Team argues that corruption is a more substantial problem than Australia’s impressive performance on conventional international measures would seem to indicate
• Democratic Audit of Australia, Australian National University (PDF file); [Not happy, John - Prime Minister John Howard is also the subject of a stinging attack in a Sunday feature this week, from the man who first engineered his ascent to the Liberal leadership in the mid-1980s — former party president John Valder. JOHN VALDER; About 20 will be happy because it says exactly what they think. Another group will be luke warm. A large group will want to chop my head off ; Margo Will be Based in Canberra]
• · Victory has suddenly many fathers: In the shadow of the corporate veil: James Hardie and asbestos compensation
• · · National land transport plan: The AusLink White Paper: an overview ; [ Energy White Paper: fuel excise grants reform]
• · · · Allan Fels: The problem of poorer countries not having access to knowledge can be remedied... How to bring knowledge to the entire planet
• · · · · George Williams The people need a say in selecting governors and the governor-general Troppical Ken Parish is currently being technocratied to every corner of the world with his latest salvos on so many gutsy political topics that you have to set aside plenty of time to digest them. For example, Ken reports how the mainstream media has now picked up Rob Corr's revelation that Howard said on ABC Four Corners way back in February 2002 that he spoke with Scrafton about the photos as well as the video (thus contradicting Howard's claim of only yesterday that they only spoke about the video). It's taken the journalists less than 24 hours to catch up with the blogosphere. Ach, do czech out why the Hungarian Professor Bunyip, a.k.a. Imre, tends to spin right out of control...
• · · · · · Trendy Ned Kelly of Blogging, John Quiggin, pinches an article from the WashPost Op-Ed piece by Pradeep Chhibber and Ken Kollman, claiming that the failure of third parties to do well in the US is due, not to plurality voting or other institutional factors but to excessive political centralisation. [Original story from WashPost Op-Ed piece by Pradeep Chhibber and Ken Kollman