The AEC has revealed that overnight, it has removed 140,000 people from the electoral roll - right before the election was called. The coincidence is a little too big to be believed. Normally removals would occur progressively over many months. People would have time to be informed that they need to get back on. Now, there is basically not enough time.

The AEC is doing Howard's dirty work. Be in no doubt. Denial stops here.

Such a blatantly dodgy act will antagonise any incoming Labor Government. Why would impartial AEC officials risk their careers like that? I believe the AEC leadership are either convinced the Coalition will win, or want the Coalition to win. Given the Government's polling, the former implies the latter.

Our moral trajectory over the Bush years could not be better dramatized than it was by a reunion of an elite group of two dozen World War II veterans in Washington this month. They were participants in a top-secret operation to interrogate some 4,000 Nazi prisoners of war. Until now, they have kept silent, but America’s recent record prompted them to talk to The Washington Post.

Pangea

from Crikey …..

first fibs from Dear Leader

Mungo MacCallum writes: 

Always start the way you intend to continue; so our Dear Leader began his official election campaign with a great big fib.

I'll help battlers, promises Howard …..

• Howard pledges to help battlers if re-elected
• Howard "trying to have it both ways", says Rudd
• Election could be called as early as today

John Howard has pledged to do more to help battlers if he is re-elected as he moved yesterday to clear the decks ahead of officially calling the election as early as today.

Ex-Commander Says Iraq Effort Is 'a Nightmare' …..

In a sweeping indictment of the four-year effort in Iraq, the former top commander of American forces there called the Bush administration's handling of the war "incompetent" and said the result was "a nightmare with no end in sight."

US stands firm on climate policy despite Gore's success …..

The Bush administration says it will not change its policy on climate change, despite the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to former US Vice President Al Gore.

US Stands Firm On Climate Policy Despite Gore's Success

US rejects Russian missile call …..

Talks between the US and Russia about a US anti-missile system in Europe have ended acrimoniously and without any sign of progress.

The US rejected Russian appeals at the talks in Moscow to halt the scheme.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said his country would take steps to neutralise the threat posed by the missile system if it went ahead.

from Crikey…..

If you do the crime, Johnnie

Chris Graham, Editor of the National Indigenous Times, writes:

Let's talk about John Winston Howard, and his 11th hour epiphany that the "Aborigine people" really aren’t that bad after all.

The main things chameleon species do have in common is their foot structure, their eyes, their lack of ears, and their tongue.

There must be some logic to building the United States' - and the world's - largest embassy in the world's 44th largest nation, coming somewhere after Nepal and Uganda.

But the logic seems apparent only to the Bush administration, so work plods forward on our Vatican-sized fortress embassy in Baghdad. The massive $600 million project is behind schedule and nearly $150 million over budget. It was conceived in the heady days when the Bush administration believed we would be welcomed as liberators, the war would pay for itself and an efficient government of pro-U.S. Iraqi exiles would have taken over.

PM does an about-face on reconciliation

Prime Minister John Howard has delivered an extraordinary election eve mea culpa to indigenous Australians, promising a referendum to recognise them formally in the constitution.

After years of refusing to apologise to Aboriginal Australians over their past treatment, Mr Howard admitted he had failed to recognise the importance of symbolism in healing the rift.