The long time festering issue of land rights in Australia has again been greeted by hysteria. Native title to land has been something the mining sector in Australia is dark on as what gets done on any acre of the continent can often be decided by indigenous groupings who possess title over the intended hole in the ground.

But in a landmark ruling the Australian Federal Court on September 19 granted to the Nyoongar people of Western Australia one of the nation’s largest native title claims. Covering more than 193,000 square kilometre from Hopetoun in the south to north of Jurien Bay, including metropolitan Perth, the decision has sparked a response reminiscent of the hysteria generated by the historic 1992 Mabo ruling.

Given the weight the resources industry carries both politically and economically in this country the whole issue of land rights is sure to be reviewed by a seeming bipartisan federal parliament. The standard ‘legal’ view had been that Australia was Terra Nullius — “empty” — when it was invaded by Britain in the late 18th century.The federal opposition leader, the ALP’s Kim Beazley (a Western Australian)has sided with the government on the issue.

Good review of the debate here on my blog by Russell Pickering.

Indigenous Australians don’t have a treaty with their white colonizers and the debate these last 40 years has centred on what constitutes their rights under the Australian constitution. It wasn’t until 1967 –as a result of a federal referendum — that aborigines were allowed to vote or were counted in the national statistics.

Folk interested in the topic may want to background themselves with such excellent films such as The Tracker. The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith, and the newly released, Ten Canoes. before they hit the books. Green Left Weekly will be covering the issue.Also there’s a quick review of the genocide and relations between Indigenous and migloos (as whites are called in my area by local Murris) here.

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It’s the new Weird Al video, and it’s a hoot!

His MySpace site

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There will be a nationally organized and coordinated march and rally in support of the Cuban Five tomorrow in D.C.

Lefti on the News is there, helping to organize it, with on the ground blog coverage. Several ANSWER LA organizers are there too.

The Free the Five website has complete details, with press conference coverage, photos, and more.

A well-attended press conference held today [9/21] at the National Press Club in Washington, D..C., sponsored by the National Committee to Free the Cuban Five, heard powerful testimony from a number of important speakers, calling for freedom for the Cuban Five and the extradition of Luis Posada Carriles. The press conference took place on the 30th anniversary of the car-bombing assassination of Orlando Letelier and Ronni Moffitt on Embassy Row, Washington DC, Sept. 21, and the 30th anniversary of the blowing up of Cuban Airlines flight 455, that killed 73 people on Oct. 6. Posada and his accomplice Orlando Bosch are widely known as the architects of the plane bombing.

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Officials from All Saints Church in Pasadena CA voted unanimously to fight an IRS demand to turn over documents related to an antiwar sermon made by a retired minister in 2004.

This noxious political attack by the IRS against dissent, coming as it does right before an election, should be opposed by all. Let’s show solidarity towards All Saints for their courageous and principled stand.

Their website has full details, including appeals for contributions for the expensive court battles to come.

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WaPo has obtained emails sent by HP Chair Patricia Dunn saying CEO Mark Hurd approved a ’sting’ against a reporter, the first documents linking Hurd to the mushrooming scandal.

Congress holds hearings on this next week, which actually seems way early, as no one has yet been charged. So maybe’s there’s more going on here than we know.

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I guess he is the flavour of the month but I can’t stop tasting.New interview and video documentary on Venezuela and its president by Greg Palast here. Catch it. Sourced out of Link TV. Burn a copy of it as DVD and use it in outreach work. And don’t forget to catch the weekly audio reports I edit from Venezuela here.. We have a conference here in Australia next weekend on Latin America and in its wake I’m keen to foster a broader coverage of the Venezuelan and Cuban solidarity movement world wide. Record a report here (easy sign up) and send me the url to this email address.

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Even that band of thugs and murderers called the CIA (well, what do you think the CIA does?) is now refusing to obey Bush. Not that they’re bothered by any ethical consideration. Hey, if they were, they wouldn’t have tortured in the past, right? Their quite justifiable concern is they now may get the sorry asses tossed into prison,.

George “More torture, all the time” Bush then transferred all the prisoners away from the CIA to Gitmo where I’m sure US solidiers will have a rollicking good time torturing them in the name of freedom.

This kind of debased behavior does have a way of coming home. A formerly loving husband returns home to his wife after serving military duty which included several months of waterboarding prisoners. She disagrees with something he says so he beats her. The incidence of spousal abuse soars among soldiers returning from war zones, and will be even higher for the alleged humans who tortured prisoners at Gitmo.

Meanwhile, our equally debased Congress debates what kind of torture we should allow, rather than saying the whole subject is abhorrent and torture should never be used period. Then they can’t understand why the rest of the planet sees the US as massively hypocritical. The response from the “loyal opposition”, the Democrats, on opposing torture continues to be more crickets.

We need to protest, make some noise, stop this insanity. Molly Ivins says get arrested if you have to, but this madness has to end. Since most of our legislators are too compromised and mentally diseased to oppose torture, then the people must force them to do so. Not by the ballot, but by people in the streets. Most of Congress initially strongly opposed civil rights. Then millions marched in favor of civil rights - and Congress was forced to act. That’s how you bring real change.

History will not be kind to those who debated how much torture is permissible, and will be even less kind to those who did nothing.

“The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in time of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality.”

– Dante Alighieri

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So I said to Sue, “We have five computers, that’s crazy, that’s too many computers.”

She said, “Well, I only have one computer.”

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