A. Loewenstein Online Newsletter

This is modern Labor; helping disaster capitalism thrive

Posted: 24 Sep 2011

Which companies would benefit from such an arrangement? The Australian Labor Party has always been in love with helping the American war machine and here’s the latest evidence (via the Courier Mail):

She’s been called “Captain Bligh”, now the Premier wants Navy subs based in Queensland to guard the state’s rich gas and coal reserves.

With HMAS Cairns the only major naval base on Queensland’s coastline, Anna Bligh has urged the Australian Defence Force to relocate its submarines to the Port of Brisbane.

It follows Defence Minister Stephen Smith’s call for the ADF to consider “the rise of the need for energy security”.

Earlier this year Mr Smith announced a Force Posture Review to determine whether the ADF was positioned in the right places in Australia to meet current and future strategic challenges. A review panel asked for submissions by mid-September.

If Ms Bligh convinces the Navy to relocate some of its strike force, allowing them to be closer to the Asia-Pacific, millions of dollars could be injected into the state economy.

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“As Defence chiefs plan for the next 25 years, we are pointing out that there are big opportunities here particularly in Cairns, Townsville, Central Queensland and Brisbane to support the ADF’s future operations,” Ms Bligh said.

“Queensland is also the world’s largest maritime exporter of coal and has significant coal seam gas reserves and bauxite deposits. The future security of these resources should be considered by the ADF.”

The State Government’s submission also included opening up naval berths in Brisbane and Townsville, while Cairns would become a major support base.

A rare correction in Murdoch press that denies BDS is anti-Semitic

Posted: 23 Sep 2011

What a change (no doubt after legal threats?) One day, and soon, the Murdoch hacks calling BDS against Israel anti-Semitic will realise how mainstream the movement has become globally, targeting Israeli businesses complicit in the occupation. This has nothing to do with Judaism:

An article published in The Weekend Australian on August 20 (” ‘Anti-Israel bullies’ hard centre bites in chocolate shop campaign“, page 13) reported an anti-Israeli protest march on Israeli-owned Max Brenner chocolate shops.

The article reported comment from a number of people opposed to the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against the continuing occupation by Israel of the West Bank and Gaza and that some of the BDS had descended into racist generalisations.

The Australian Friends of Palestine Association (SA) has noted that Israeli companies operating in Australia are being targeted, not Jewish companies. They have no criticism of the many shops operating in Australia which happen to be owned by persons of the Jewish faith. As noted in the article: “We stress that the BDS movement is an anti-racist movement that rejects all forms of racism including anti-Semitism and Islamophobia . . . They do not target any particular religious or ethnic group.”

The Weekend Australian did not refer to nor intend any suggestion of racism or anti-Semitism on the part of the Australian Friends of Palestine Association (SA).

Assange on the mainstream media

Posted: 23 Sep 2011

A quote from the just released unauthorised autobiography:

Vanity in a newspaperman is like perfume on a whore; they wear it to conceal a dark whiff of themselves.

Theatre at the UN over Palestine, nothing to see here, move on, please

Posted: 23 Sep 2011

Unelected Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas spoke.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke (and issued every paranoid Zionist cliche in the book).

Only one man is democratically elected (and that’s Netanyahu). Both men spoke to different audiences but neither has either the ability nor interest to bring true justice to the situation. How much longer must we hear Israel has the right to illegally expand colonies in the West Bank, making a two-state solution impossible?

Democracy Now! hosted a discussion with Palestinian Ali Abunimah and Mouin Rabbani of the Institute for Palestine Studies and the webzine Jadaliyya: