Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorius triumphs, even though checkered by failure... than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.
- Theodore Rooseve
It might feel like a quagmire now but shortly the dust will start to settle on the state election, which up until now has been dominated by the great canal debate. Whatever the result, there's one certainty: Western Australians will get a new Opposition Leader
Voting has begun in Western Australia in the first test of Labor's hold on power at a state level since last year's federal election Like the old Amerikan western movie: the choice is between a lesser bully
Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Spread of the Cancer of A Mates Club
Cancer terror wars: Looks at arguments over awarding of cancer research funds.
There's more to the resignation of Professor David Morris as director of surgery at St George Hospital we've discovered. He's quit saying it is ethically, if not criminally, wrong to force cancer patients to wait on surgery lists for up to six months. While these remarks caused a predictable political row this week, Professor Morris, the Australian pioneer of radical and apparently successful surgical procedures on certain types of cancers, has also blasted the Carr government's new Cancer Institute and its director Professor Jim Bishop. He's alleging there's a mates club operating behind the provision of desperately needed cancer research funds. As you are will see, the Cancer Institute rejects this saying funds are allocated after rigorous merit assessment
• Political Incompetence and Corruption Worse than Terrorism [Cancer patients are unnecessarily losing out in the workplace Workplace failing cancer patients ]
• · Bush and Putin met in Bratislava on Thursday. And survived! US President Bush's love fest with Europe continued on Thursday in Bratislava. Sort of Could Bush Be Right? -- Take Two ; At Thursday's mini-summit at a castle in Slovakia, George Bush and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, called each other 'George' and 'Vladimir...' But their body language spoke volumes ... Google: Bush-Putin tensions palpable
• · · A new book argues John Curtin never received his due for courageous and enduring reforms to the Australian economy Behind the curtain ; Statutes in Australia Laws and Sausages
• · · · Prosecutors are following a new lead that might shed more light on last year's dioxin poisoning of the Ukrainian President, Viktor Yushchenko. The Prosecutor-General, Svyatoslav Piskun, has acquired audiotapes of what appeared to be a conversation between Russian secret service officials discussing the alleged role of a Moscow political analyst in Mr Yushchenko's poisoning, said Vyacheslav Astapov. The man at the centre of the allegation - Gleb Pavlovsky, the head of a pro-Kremlin Moscow think tank - denied the suggestion he had the idea of giving Mr Yushchenko the Mark of the beast ; There has always been a fine line between art and pornography, but now the family snaps have been dragged into the debate Paranoia of the Sand
• · · · · Strathfield's bad apples ripe for picking Big state thieves always hang the little local thieves ; Google: On Bush and Putin
• · · · · · Bush meeting with Putin; praises Slovaks for democracy, fighting in Fighting in freedom's cause ; [President Bush's European charm offen sive continues apace, yesterday leap ing a most difficult potential hurdle: Russian President Vladimir Putin. To be sure, differences between the two remain — as was obvious during their joint press conference in Bratislava: Putin doesn't like being reminded by Bush (and other western leaders) that Russia is backsliding on democracy Bushtin ; President Bush told thousands of people in Hviezdoslavovo Square on Thursday that they and the United States are "allies and friends and brothers in the cause of freedom." Bush trip ends, but not all Euros are won over ]