She's baaack !

Earlier we joked that surely the Institute of Public Affairs ( The Sydney Morning Herald's legal writer Richard Akland says the IPA is often referred to as the "Institute of Paid Advocacy ") should admire Ayn Rand,  just as US Republicans on the hard right have rediscovered the woman who exhibited all the traits of a text book psychopath.

We spoke too soon. For there she is on the IPA's website with her book The Fountainhead  promoted as one of the "100 Great Books Of Liberty" that must be read by all. They claim that Rand's book is one of the books that " laid the foundation for the modern world". Alarmingly, they are right.

Rand described Howard Roark, the hero of her novel The Fountainhead thus: "He was born without the ability to consider others."

To Rand this was an admirable trait. In an interview with Mike Wallace in 1959 she said "you only love those who deserve it". Those who expressed altruism or a love of their fellow man were weaklings according to Rand who abhorred all religions and in particular Christianity which she considered akin to Communism.

Writing in 1927 about a ghastly killer  named William Hickman who strangled a 12 year old girl he had kidnapped and then sadistically set about dismembering her body with a pocket knife, Rand said this :
 "Other people do not exist for him, and he does not see why they should," he has "no regard whatsoever for all that society holds sacred, and with a consciousness all his own. He has the true, innate psychology of a Superman. He can never realize and feel 'other people.'".

She could have been describing the ideals of her weird philosophy 'objectism'.

When she died in 1982 Rand was discovered-as an advocate for the demolition  of social security and government health programmes, to be receiving both.

Her funeral was paid for by an admirer Alan Greenspan who hung on her every word. Greenspan became the Chairman of the US Federal Reserve and as an exponent of the 'free market' like Rand actively promoted the dismantling of financial controls that in turn set-up the USA for the sub-prime financial crisis of 2007 that has wrecked thousands of lives in the US.
Be afraid. Very afraid.

# Fresh from his demolition of Noam Chomsky in that organ of intellectual discussion-the Daily Telegraph, a missive arrives from IPA fellow Ted Lapkin to inform us that the term "enemy combatant" is indeed a legal concept-and he is right. Except an enemy combatant is a fighter for a state that a country is at war with.

Unfortunately it defeats Lapkin's claim that former Guantanamo Bay inmate David Hicks was an enemy combatant as no legal declaration of war has been made against the 'state' of Al Qaeda, Afghanistan or indeed, Iraq.

No problem there for Lapkin though : "the US has fought many armed conflicts without the benefit of a formal declaration of war", he says. So that's all right then. Might is right.

 Here is Mike Wallace's 1959 "I'm Alright Jack' interview with Ayn Rand :

Has PM Julia Gillard Gone Bonkers ?

Whether you vote for Labor or the Coalition parties in Australia (both right of centre parties), the latest announcements by Prime Minister Julia Gillard and the Federal Attorney General Robert McClelland should ring alarm bells and raise questions not only about their fitness to lead but whether these 2 lawyers really understand  the law.

The number of trained lawyers in the Australian Parliament is estimated to be around 60% of the elected representatives. Government is about making and producing law. But if those making the law do not understand it, where do we stand ?.

The case of Julian Assange goes beyond the usual rhetoric and daily news cycle that we are all subject to and which our politicians hopelessly play to.

Assange-whatever anyone thinks of him , is no different to the dozens of journalists from the New York Times. De Spiegel and Australia's New Ltd publications who have published the Wikileak's material. Indeed, most of the world's newspapers and media outlets published before Wilkileaks did.

In a country that usually stands up for the underdog and the so-called 'fair go', for Gillard to publicly and ignorantly announce that Assange has committed 'illegal' acts ( of which she now refuses to reveal what she thinks those acts are) and for McClelland, who time and time again has proven himself to be the Labor Party's greatest disappointment after the Howard years of lawlessness with his "business a usual" attitude, to call for an Australian Federal Police investigation into 'illegal' acts (not one of which he can think of)  really is beyond the pale.

(Does anyone remember how during the Howard years the Australian Wheat Board paid over $200M in bribes to Saddam Hussein -money undoubtedly used to purchase weapons to kill Australian and Allied soldiers and how former Foreign Minister Alexander Downer professed ignorance of dozens of emails informing him of these illegal bribes for which not one single person has been charged ?)

Numerous media pundits and US politicians have called for Assange's assassination.

The Wilkileaks cables reveal that US Secretary Of State Hillary Clinton, a recent guest in Australia, called for US diplomats to illegally steal UN Officials (including Australian diplomats) credit card details. These are admissions of a conspiracy to commit the crimes of theft and  murder.

Of course we all know that Gillard and McClelland are gutlessly parroting the US line. And that is what is so depressing. Is it any wonder that former Prime Minister Paul Keating once refered to us as the "arse end of the world".

In about 1 hour The Australian newspaper will publish a special editorial penned by Julian Assange. The following letter has been sent to  Prime Minister Gillard and appeared tonight on the ABC TV website.

 Dear Prime Minister,

We note with concern the increasingly violent rhetoric directed towards Julian Assange of WikiLeaks.

Noam Chomsky

Jeffrey T Kuhner- "Kill Him!"

Julian Burnside QC

“We should treat Mr Assange the same way as other high-value terrorist targets: Kill him,” writes conservative columnist Jeffrey T Kuhner in the Washington Times.

William Kristol, former chief of staff to vice president Dan Quayle, asks, “Why can’t we use our various assets to harass, snatch or neutralize Julian Assange and his collaborators, wherever they are?”

“Why isn’t Julian Assange dead?” writes the prominent US pundit Jonah Goldberg.

“The CIA should have already killed Julian Assange,” says John Hawkins on the Right Wing News site.

Sarah Palin, a likely presidential candidate, compares Assange to an Al Qaeda leader; Rick Santorum, former Pennsylvania senator and potential presidential contender, accuses Assange of “terrorism”.

And so on and so forth.

Such calls cannot be dismissed as bluster. Over the last decade, we have seen the normalisation of extrajudicial measures once unthinkable, from ‘extraordinary rendition’ (kidnapping) to ‘enhanced interrogation’ (torture).

In that context, we now have grave concerns for Mr Assange’s wellbeing.

Irrespective of the political controversies surrounding WikiLeaks, Mr Assange remains entitled to conduct his affairs in safety, and to receive procedural fairness in any legal proceedings against him.

As is well known, Mr Assange is an Australian citizen.

We therefore call upon you to condemn, on behalf of the Australian Government, calls for physical harm to be inflicted upon Mr Assange, and to state publicly that you will ensure Mr Assange receives the rights and protections to which he is entitled, irrespective of whether the unlawful threats against him come from individuals or states.

                                                                                             .....continued at The Real News