It began as a dirty open secret and is now Chicago lore: From the 1970s into the 1990s, African American men in the city of Chicago were routinely arrested, taken into police custody, and tortured, during interrogations lasting hours on end.  

An estimated 150 black men endured abuse that included savage beatings, suffocation with bags and typewriter covers, and in many instances, electrical shocks applied to their genitals.  

With the final week of campaigning ahead, Senator Barack Obama redoubled his efforts to tie Senator John McCain to the Bush administration by seizing on Mr. McCain’s remark Sunday that he shared a “common philosophy” with the president. 

The Federal Government is attempting to silence critics of its controversial plan to censor the internet, which experts say will break the internet while doing little to stop people from accessing illegal material such as child pornography. 

The Federal Government and Opposition have both given the thumbs down to calls to change or abandon the Lord's Prayer recited at the beginning of each day of federal Parliament. 

But the Greens want the prayer replaced with a period of reflection and a conscience vote in both houses on the issue. 

US President George W. Bush assured Georgia and Ukraine of US support for both former Soviet states to join the NATO alliance despite Russia's fierce opposition. 

"Other nations seek a path to NATO membership, and they have the full support of the United States government," Bush said Friday as he signed NATO accession protocols for Albania and Croatia, bringing them one step closer to membership. 

World leaders vowed today to overhaul the global financial system in the face of recession fears, but US President George Bush urged nations to 'recommit' to free markets despite economic turmoil. 

After a week of growing economic gloom and plunging stock markets, Asian and European leaders meeting in Beijing promised wide-ranging reforms, while UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also called for quick change. 

The NSW Government will take a chainsaw to its own advertising, ordering a 25percent cut in spending at next week's mini-budget. 

In a bid to save about $31million and reinforce his "no spin" message, Premier Nathan Rees has told government departments to get smart about the way they inform the community about big events and law changes and issue public safety and health warnings. 

Democratic Sen. Barack Obama reported spending $82 million on advertising during the first two weeks of October - more than half of what Sen. John F. Kerry spent on television commercials for the entire 2004 presidential campaign. 

The money raised and spent to elect a new US president and members of Congress is likely to pass $US5.3billion ($8.3billion) next week, shattering previous records, with Wall Street firms dominating the donor list of the most expensive White House race in history. 

Iraq: a potted history (full version: in various places, including this one, not the official history records that are bullshitting us) 

Who was the highest paid individual in Senator John McCain’s presidential campaign during the first half of October as it headed down the homestretch? 

Not Randy Scheunemann, Mr. McCain’s chief foreign policy adviser; not Nicolle Wallace, his senior communications staffer. It was Amy Strozzi, Gov. Sarah Palin’s travelling makeup artist, according to a new filing with the Federal Election Commission on Thursday night. 

from Crikey ….. 

Acquittal of Thomas another blow for the war on terror  

from Crikey ….. 

NT intervention: Macklin ignores review board in favour of anecdotes  

Professor Jon Altman from the Australian National University writes:  

Even before the spectacular presidential election campaign became a national obsession, and the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression crowded out other news, coverage of the Iraq War had dwindled to next to nothing.  

National newspapers had long since discontinued their daily feasts of multiple - usually front page – reports on the country, replacing them with meager meals of mostly inside-the-fold summary stories.  

This November, Americans face a choice. But the choice not between John McCain or Barak Obama; it is between submitting to the will of the corporate-military establishment or taking a moral stand in boycotting their rigged institutions of fake democracy.