A mere $5000 will buy you a seat at Mr Carr's table at the East Circular Quay restaurant ARIA on February 28. There has probably never been a more accessible Premier. The Premier will be joined by his new Treasurer, Andrew Refshauge, to discuss "infrastructure and the economy." Mr Mark Arbib said there had been a "strong response" to the dinner series. "There's a lot of interest in the new cabinet," he said.
The Greens upper house MP Lee Rhiannon slammed the dinner series as another way of "buying influence and buying favours" from the Government Lofty views and Carr access for $5000 a singing pop
Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Freedom House
The February 13 issue of Parade Magazine in the States ran contributing editor David Wallechinsky’s list of “The World’s 10 Worst Dictators,” along with Wallechinsky’s “Dishonorable Mentions” list (i.e., No.s 11-20). An explanatory note told us that he prepared his list “after consultations with Human Rights Watch, Freedom House, Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders---human-rights groups that have not hesitated to expose the policies of dictatorships on both the left and the right.” Parade Magazine‘s website even provided links to each of these four organizations. The list itself was prefaced with the following insight: “Leaders with absolute power too often abuse it.”
• The World's 10 Worst Dictators? [ ; The Premier, Bob Carr, vetoed the purchase, allowing Kerry Packer's PBL to move in Buying SuperDome was seen as cheapest option ; SOMETIMES there are perks in a premier's life -- and, if the smirk on this one's face was anything to go by, yesterday was one of Bob Carr's perkier days as six leggy showgirls greeted him at the Sydney launch of Mel Brooks' The Producers Premier's razzle-dazzle ; Bob Carr (Australian politician) Wikipedia ]
• · Federal State Relations ; The Daily Telegraph revealed yesterday that subcontractor Alstom had warned BHEgis it was failing to perform vital maintenance and was breaching its agreement with the Government. Meanwhile, Premier Bob Carr has called the M5 East manager who scheduled roadworks to avoid parliamentary sitting days a dunce ; The ALP will review the party's rules governing the conduct of councillors in local government, several ALP local government representatives having been named in corruption inquiries Tony Kelly
• · · Donald Boudreaux, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review -Wrongheaded notions about the economy are always in high supply. Most calamitous was the idea that central planning outperforms the market. The pulverizing poverty and tyranny of the former Soviet Union, North Korea, and similar Workers' Paradises have ended that particular illusion. Other less disastrous but equally mistaken notions about the economy remain on the loose -- for example, that tariffs promote prosperity. Capitalism & Slavery ; The strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must, wrote Thucydides 2500 years ago and, given the state of anarchy, distrust and chronic insecurity in which states continue to exist, that remains true today. Moral standards can and should be applied to foreign policy, but the morality that is appropriate to the soiled, selfish and dangerous world of power politics is a modest one. Its goal is not perfection - not utopian bliss - but decency. It is, more often than not, a morality of the lesser evil, of prudence. Prudence requires that one is often prepared to settle for half a loaf, rather than making the best the enemy of the good
• · · · By Debra Saunders - How does freedom slip away? It doesn't happen all of a sudden, without warning. It erodes in stages. One day, you read that an employer has fired four employees because they refused to follow the company's no-smoking policy -- including not smoking in their own homes on their own time -- and that's OK because you don't smoke. A year or two later, employers go after your pet vice -- eating, tippling, maybe snowboarding -- and then, such a policy is an outrage Where There's Smoke, You're Fired ; Warranty insurance is important for consumers and those who want to lie and thumb their noses at the requirements can expect to be rubbed out themselves. NSW Trade Union movement erasing people from existence - Freudean Slip. Who will get rid of that trader? (traitor) John the don ; Melbourne Airport's mystery leak Thousands stranded, 57 sick as gas mystery deepens
• · · · · Twenty-seven years after handing his baby boy over for adoption, Tony Abbott received the phone call that changed his life forever Discovering Daniel ; Google and Tony Abbott
• · · · · · The anti-Bush billionaire supported lawyer who aided terrorists Soros Funded Stewart Defense; Hardly... ; The bitter chill in the air will not be confined to the weather in Bratislava when the US President, George Bush, renews his acquaintance with the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, in the snow-covered Slovakian city this week Not quite Cold War, just a cool welcome