Thank You and Good Night, John Howard

Yesterday saw the Rudd Labor Government sworn in. The transition from the previous Government to the "new" one has been near-enough seamless. But the smooth change belies the realities of a new world, as veteran journalist and observer Mungo MacMullan records in this piece "Thank you and good night, John Howard" in Crikey yesterday:

"If you have any doubt that the election of a Rudd Labor government has changed the country, consider this: a year ago, did you imagine that the Prime Minister would be sending an openly gay woman of Chinese ancestry to Bali, to ratify the Kyoto protocol on Australia’s behalf?

Because that’s exactly what Climate Change Minister Penny Wong will be doing – after she’s finished reporting on her visits to a couple of schools and a homeless centre, and any other homework Kevin Rudd finds it necessary to set before giving them all a day off for Christmas. The break with the past eleven years spent behind John Howard’s white picket fence could hardly be more dramatic."

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#1 Prize for a bizarre story.....and lying!

No comment called for in this piece from CommonDreams: Another young black man: The strange sad case of 21-year-old Chavis Carter. Police in Jonesboro, Arkansas stopped him and two friends, found some marijuana, searched put Carter, then put him handcuffed behind his back into their patrol car, where they say he shot himself in the head with a gun they failed to find. The FBI is investigating. Police Chief Michael Yates, who stands behind his officers' story, says in an interview that the death is "definitely bizarre and defies logic at first glance." You think?

Mahler's Prodigal Son

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