Sunday, September 12, 2004



The worm returns
To whom do we tell what happened on the
Earth, for whom do we place everywhere huge
Mirrors in the hope that they will be filled up
And will stay so?
This is, charmingly enough, from Czeslaw Milosz's poem Annalena

Kafka’s creature opens whole new can of worms, an animated illustration of audience reaction to both leaders' statements during the hour-long debate, gave the contest to Mr Latham with 67 per cent to Mr Howard's 33.Latham wins battle of the worm

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Terrorists target Australia
Outside the bomb-damaged Australian embassy in Jakarta, mourners left bouquets of flowers for the victims of Thursday's terrorist attack. One bouquet read: Today Indonesia is crying, another said: Curse the terrorists. And it was with a mixture of sadness and anger that Indonesians reacted to the bombing of the embassy, which killed at least nine locals and injured at least 180 others. Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, who made a quick visit to Jakarta to survey the scene, said it was a miracle no one in the embassy was killed in the blast. Jemaah Islamiah, the Asian terror group with links to al-Qaeda, claimed responsibility on an Islamic Internet site, saying the bomb was designed to punish Australia for supporting the war in Iraq. JI has also been blamed for the 2002 Bali bombings which killed 202 people, including 88 Australians, and the Marriott Hotel bombing last year in Jakarta, only a few blocks from the embassy, which killed 12 people. The timing was crucial, with the bombing coming a month before the Australian election, 11 days before the final round of Indonesia's presidential election, and two days before the third anniversary of the September 11 attacks.
• Curse the terrorists Today Indonesia is crying [link first seen at ]
• · Sunday with Janka Wendt Swinging voters: week 2
• · · Campbell Reid the armchair warrior with the Daily Terror Declared WW3 and bodly predicting a win for the good guys; [The Hack, Iain Lygo ]
• · · · An urban myth that when Whitlam was told by a taxi driver that Kennedy had been shot, he responded by speculating on who might now host "In Melbourne Tonight") Boilermaker Bill's Jakarta jottings
• · · · · A vote for the Greens is double-value Blogging Revolution 2004 AD ; It’s foolish to fight people who want death; that’s what they are looking for Inner-city poster battle ; [ Minister Craig Knowles's top aide, Sarah Taylor, a former Westfield executive, to face inquiry]
• · · · · · Christopher Hitchens writes about Czeslaw Milosz's politics for Slate When my book appeared in 1953, it displeased practically everybody. The admirers of Soviet Communism found it insulting, while anti-Communists accused it of lacking a clear-cut political stance and suspected that its author was a Marxist at heart