Tuesday 13th February 1996
Search news archive by day | Search archive by text (NB - News Index) |
Definitive Guide to Aussie webs | Global Web Builders Gold |
The Kid's Locker Room | World Wide Websters |
Personally I find it strange that we are playing "the mates game" with the Indonesians when their people are having to apply for refugee status in Australia because of human rights abuses. Makes a bit of a joke of our stand against these sort of actions by foreign governments!
In federal politics it is now generally accepted that Labor Prime Minister Paul Keating is on the ropes. If this was a boxing match he would be down for the second count in only the third round. It seems like the Liberals are far better organised in their campaign leading up to the election. Their release yesterday of their Health Policy almost mirrored that of Labor (by way of financial incentives) but concentrated on getting Private Health Care going again. Since Labor came into power in 1983 private health cover has dropped from covering 60% of the population to 37% placing enormous pressures on the public health system and Medicare.
The Coalition has continued to increase its lead over Labor with a 9% gap according to the latest Newspoll.
There is no doubt that absolute power corrupts. The lobby groups within the US Congress who fund the political campaigns of Senators and senior bureaucrats in the US government system are as about manipulative and corrupt as you can get. I wouldn't feel so strongly about the failing of the US Congress if it didn't have repercussions around the world. The US senators are effecting our freedom and our lifestyle here in Australia. We did not vote them in as our representatives!
It is a scandal that the political power-broking antics of US lobby groups have this effect on us.
Take, for example, the bill passed by Bill Clinton late last week which effectively censored the Internet. The Net represented the ultimate form of free speech that the average man in
the street can use to express his point of view. (Apologies if I am not politically correct here, but bureaucratic thinking has never been my strong point). Let's investigate
that decision by the US Congress. Even a cursory glance exposes that the claim by Congress that the decision had **anything** to do with morality and pornography is complete bull****.
It had EVERYTHING to do with the political manipulation by the media lobby groups who fund the political campaigns of key senators. The enormous pressure that the
extraordinary influential media barons can put on the US senators is the greatest scandal of the 20th century. "If you don't support us our papers will ensure your political
demise through our opinions placed before the people when they read "the news", is a powerful incentive which does not even have to be stated. It is understood in the halls of power.
So why has the Net been censored? When the bandwidth increases and more and more small businesses publish everything from the news to the trials of OJ to the
global classifieds the media barons will have their ultimate power dissipated. The large media groups are frought, like any large organisation, with petty politics
within that organisation which makes fast decision making (the great strength of small business) impossible. The media barons have realised that unless they start
putting the reigns on the Internet now their businesses and ultimate power NOT the public's morality will be challenged....
If morality was such a big issue for Congress why don't they tackle some of the really major problems they face in the streets of New York, in the bars of Harlem, the
Adult shops throughout the land and the dealings of the casinos in San Francisco?
Quite simply - there is no political advantage for the Senators as their funding masters - the lobby groups - have turned a
blind eye to the real moral outrages destroying the fabric of American society. There is also no financial gain or threat to the faceless men behind these power brokers.
Shame on you Bill Clinton, shame on you Senators, shame on you the public of the US in allowing your politicians to abuse the system!
Return to Australian National News of the Day