Fight no battle you are not sure of winning…
- Mao Tse Tung, from “The Present Situation and Our Tasks”, 1947

It must have been the Good Chairman’s words ringing in John Winston Howard’s ears on Tuesday when he wimped out of putting his foul Migration Amendment (Designated Unauthorised Arrivals) Bill 2006 before the Senate.

Headed for the extremely rare situation of Liberal senators abstaining or even (gasp) crossing the floor, Johnny hoisted the white flag before facing certain defeat. It was the right call, but an even better call would have been to have not dreamed up the legislation in the first place.

With that episode brushed aside, Johnny proceeded to charge full steam ahead on that other grand concept inspired by Chairman Mao - his very own Cultural Revolution.

http://www.sacbc.org.za/Pastoral_Statement.htm

The Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference has instructed its priests to stop using witchcraft in their healing masses.

A tribute to another of the industrialised world’s finest telecommunication institutions, the United Arab Emirates’ Etisalat.

(Here’s some further reading on the subject.)

Pluto’s fate as a planet will be decided this week at the 26th General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union in Prague.

The official website of the general assembly, astronomy2006.com, will be following the action this week. Monday’s Guardian has an opinion piece by the director of Harvard University’s Minor Planets Unit, arguing so it seems for the poaching of Pluto for his own organisation.

On the other hand, the current issue of Harvard’s daily newspaper, the Harvard Crimson, contains a passionate defence of Pluto’s planetary status.
Where, however, does this leave the real Pluto himself?

3 Texas Men Arraigned on Terror Charges (AP, 13.8.06)

Perhaps that should read: “Three men of Middle Eastern appearance arrested for buying 1000 mobile phones.”

I didn’t intend to go to the Stop The Bombing rally in Sydney yesterday. I was shopping in the city, and as I was finishing up, saw the march in progress further down George Street. So… I hurried on down the road, pulled out the camera, followed the march up King Street and then later met up with the rally again at Hyde Park. I’ve compiled about five minutes of video which has become my first submission to Youtube.

I’ve also placed some photos of the occasion onto Flickr, and they can be seen here, but I’ll note a few now:

I took some footage of the Stop The Bombing march and rally in Sydney this afternoon. About five minutes of video can be seen on Youtube.

I’ll add some more images tomorrow and make a few comments.

Before you buy that beach house, check out Thursday’s press release from the University of Texas Austin concerning the acceleration of the melting of Greenland’s ice cap.

http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2006/08/11/austra13964.htm

Human Rights Watch, whose Middle East arm is so busy documenting all the Israeli and Hizbollah war crimes at the moment, has had to turn its attention to Australia as the Migration Amendment (Designated Unauthorised Arrivals) Bill 2006 winds it way through Parliament.

The Bill was approved by the House of Representatives yesterday 79-62, but with three Liberal Party members voting against the motion (Petro Georgiou, Judi Moylan and Russell Broadbent). Bruce Baird abstained, as did John Forrest, who immediately resigned as National Party chief whip. The number of government members who have crossed the floor in the ten years of Howard government could, until yesterday, have been counted on one hand.

The Bill enters the Senate on Monday. There’s a very good chance that it will be voted down.

Here’s a report from today’s Sydney Morning Herald. (Parlinfoweb is down at the moment, but once it’s back, I’ll link to some of the speeches from this week’s House of Reps debate.)

It’s been an eventful week for Beazley comma B full stop. An amusing confrontation on the steps of Parliament House this morning between his Bomberness and that loosest of Liberal Party loose cannons, Wilson “Ironbar” Tuckey.

Video footage at smh.com.au - nearly as funny as George Galloway v Anna Botting.

Update: ABC Online has audio of the Tuckey v Beazley contretemps - 99 seconds worth on mp3. Tuckey was actually in the middle of a doorstop interview about the utterly appalling Migration Amendment (Designated Unauthorised Arrivals) Bill 2006 when he accosted Beazley as he walked past and started taking him to task.