Arbib, son of a Libyan-born, Italian-speaking father, is one of the architects of a strategy to weld the votes of right-leaning federal Labor MPs from Queensland, Victoria and NSW into a solid bloc that can be delivered to Beazley as and when he needs it At first glance Mark Arbib appears an unlikely ALP powerbroker
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While having Byrnes as a big player might be poison for the share price, Sydney Gas executives have an even bigger PR disaster on their hands: a swag of celebrities campaigning to thwart the company's mining ambitions.
Leading the charge are the best-selling author Bryce Courtenay, the barrister Tony Davis and the scriptwriter-producer Gary Reilly. They say the mining will destroy the beauty of the Yarramalong and Dooralong valleys north of Sydney and seriously damage the water table. A would-be gas developer is confronting the power not of one but many
Four years ago the Premier, Bob Carr, and the Sydney Gas chief executive, Bruce Butcher, "turned on the gas" about 50 kilometres south-west of Sydney in front of 250 guests.
"NSW contains enormous coal-bed methane [natural gas] resources," the company declared. "However, to this point, no-one has been able to successfully extract methane from the geological province known as the Sydney Basin in sufficient quantities [to make] it commercially viable."
Since then Sydney Gas has gone about its business with varying degrees of success - it is yet to post a profit - and plenty of controversy.
• Get it while it is hot [Bear Pit Pollies ; I think it was John Kenneth Galbraith, speaking in the early 1960s, the high point of post-New Deal liberalism, who pronounced conservatism dead. Conservatism, he said, was "bookless," a characteristic Galbraithian, which is to say Olympian, verdict Not Much Left ; The word terrorism is on everyone's tongue but what is it? Anthony Gregory gives us his views on the subject in Targeting Civilians at Hiroshima and Nagasaki Let's assume that the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was justified to protect our political and cultural way of life then can't the same be said for the jihadists who see America and western civilization as a threat to their culture. Can you justify one and not the other? ]
• · Putin says Iran is not making nukes — One guy, at least, seems optimistic about Iran's nuclear ambitions: President...If Putin is an ally then perhaps we need a new definition of the word ally ; It hasn't been a good week for the Federal Government, under pressure over Australia's alleged involvement in the interrogation of Iraqi prisoners, the torture of Guantanamo detainee, Mamdouh Habib, and the treatment of mentally ill Australian resident, Cornelia Rau. Interview: Kim Beazley ; For the past several years, the conventional wisdom has been that the United States and Europe have grown apart, that the end of the cold war and 9/11 have produced a strategic divergence that is impossible to overcome. Tensions over Iraq, Iran, Israel, the environment and other issues purportedly demonstrated that Americans and Europeans were going their separate ways A Concrete Strategy for Mending Fences
• · · The craft of politics is expensive and requires increasingly large amounts of money to operate. But, writes Paul Williams, if democracy is to be safeguarded, political parties must resist the increasing pressure donors appear to be placing on recipients of their largesse The rising price of political donations ; Habib: The tortured truth
• · · · Well, the seven judges who we blocked, nothing has changed about them and we're going to try to block them. I mean, the charge of obstructionist is laughable. It seems like, you know, President Bush and his Republican colleagues want one-party rule. Judging Judges ; When David Boies stands up to speak today to lawyers in Miami, he won't use a text, and the odds are that he won't refer to the single-page outline that he always commits to memory when he gives a speech. The Word According to David Boies
• · · · · Ruddock met Israeli 'spy' once, at baggage carousel Only Once ; The third time this happens, I am going to to throw the wake. Ken Bruen has developed an unfortunate habit of being declared dead prematurely. The first time happened last November, when the Galway government council gave him a "vote of sympathy" for his Shamus win, an honor only accorded to the nonliving. After some embarrasment and hilarity, the matter was resolved. But now it's happened again. Phyl [ed. Ken's wife] got a letter from the Inland Revenue commiserating with her on the death of her husband but alas. if art imitates life, than is the acclaimed Galway author Ken Bruen being taken over by one of the sinister plots in his own novels? Who wants Ken Bruen dead?
• · · · · · Early last year, a bill was tabled in federal parliament proposing various changes to the proceeds of crime laws. The effect of these complex changes was that individuals who had engaged in conduct that was illegal in a foreign country but not necessarily illegal in Australia at the time it was committed would now be liable to confiscation orders. If it could be proven that their conduct was illegal in Australia at the time the government applied for a confiscation order then any income earned from notoriety associated with that conduct could be forfeited to the government Mamdouh Habib should be allowed to earn a living ; Iran and Syria declared that they would form a "common front to face threats