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In the Boilermaker’s last musings, he noted the travels of peripatetic Parliamentary Committee staffer, Ian "Wanderin Man" Faulks, who has taken a few of his Committee overlords to foreign fields to broaden their knowledge of road safety and anti-corruption bodies. Word has reached the Boilermaker that none other than Peter Breen had a close call regarding one of Faulks’ proposed trips.
Breen, a member of the Ombudsman oversight committee, was in Perth last September to participate in a round table on anti-corruption bodies following the Kennedy Royal Commission.
Apparently Faulks wandered up to Breen, who didn’t know him from a bar of soap, and asked him if he wanted to go to Bangladesh the following Sunday. Breen thought about it for an hour, but eventually
refused the offer. Breen headed home from Perth, and the following day, his office was raided by ICAC. Imagine the indignity – on top of accounting for your visits to Lismore, having to justify a junket to Dhaka!
Alan Jones Greek Style: What better way to have 2GB promote the Games than getting Alan to once again don the foustenalla, fessi and tsarouhi? Petition 2GB now!

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Power trip is often over a bumpy road
The who's who of influence in Australia shows how tenuous authority can be.
Power is not all it's made out to be. Last Friday The Australian Financial Review Magazine published its annual power survey - in between advertisements for Volvo cars, Rolex watches, ERC Fusion golf gear and Canturi jewellery. That evening the Power 2004 survey got a run on the Ten Network news, along with advertisements for fast food. Clearly the news judgement is that the concept of power is of interest throughout society.
• Power and Politics; [ Daniel Drezner (Chicago) and Henry Farrell (GWU): Power and Politics of Blogs (PDF Format)
• · There was too much rumour and speculation, gossip and innuendo Crime and prejudice: it's time for the authorities to lighten up turf warfare
• · · The inscriptions at American graveyards admonish the visitor to remember sacrifice, courage, and freedom; they assume somebody bad once started a war to hurt the weak, only to fail when somebody better stopped them: St. Avold: If the Dead Could Talk
• · · · Capitol Hill Blue: Bush is taking anti - depressant drugs to control his erratic behavior or perhaps his fabulous tendencies]
• · · · · Business Week: Unbearable costs of empire; [ Reinventing Hierarchy: The Political Theory of Social Ecology ]
• · · · · · Although we live in an open society, it is becoming increasingly difficult to speak out about public and private corruption, dangers to the public, threats to freedoms and other matters of vital social importance: NSW Aborigines ... Black land, white shoes with strings attached