Asia-Pacific Defence and Security Exhibition Remembrance Day event to be cancelled

(The source author is unknown but at best guess from the extreme right wing bias and poor journalism it is probably from the advertiser.)

This article really makes me, 1)sad at the state of the local media and 2) pissed at the state of democracy in this country (my state of South Australia to be exact) were we have a party that plunders the planet to fill their pockets, strips workers of basic rights and work cover, takes money from vital services like education and hospitals and CLAIM TO BE A LABOUR PARTY!!! 

And yet the alternative is far far worse. A two party system? More like the demon you know and the demon you knows eviler twin.

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"FERAL" rioters who wreaked havoc at 2006's G20 meeting have forced a 

Remembrance Day event to be cancelled. ---- The three-day defence expo due to 
start on November 11 has been scrapped amid fears of violence by "low-life 
anarchists". --- Organisers of the Asia-Pacific Defence and Security Exhibition, 
to be held in Adelaide, took the dramatic step after reports hundreds of 
protesters from Melbourne and Sydney planned to disrupt it. ---- In recent 
weeks, police gave several confidential briefings on the scale of the planned 
protests and the cost of countering them. ---- Police received intelligence on 
the protesters, including members of the ultra-militant group Mutiny.
Mutiny and another group called Arterial Bloc were key protesters in the riots 
at the G20 meeting in Melbourne in 2006 and last year's APEC meeting in Sydney.
Many other protest groups have been attempting to rally support for their cause 
in recent weeks.
Before the event was cancelled, OzPeace activist Jacob Grech said he anticipated 
"around 500" protesters would be at the event.
He said plans were under way for several busloads of protesters from Melbourne 
and Sydney. Many would make their own way to Adelaide.
"We have a policy of non-violent direct action," Mr Grech said.
He confirmed members of the militant Mutiny group were planning to attend.
The Group of 20 nations summit at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Melbourne in November 
2006 descended into chaos when a mob outnumbered and attacked police.
Protesters tried to break a police blockade at Collins St, pushing and hurled 
barricades at officers, and threw wheelie bins and milk crates.
They vandalised a brawler van in a riot in which glass bottles were thrown at 
police.
Acting SA Premier Kevin Foley yesterday said the Government had full confidence 
in police to manage "these feral anarchists that would be descending on 
Adelaide" if the event had proceeded.
"However, the organisers had to take into account a number of factors -- 
security issues as well as the level of support from the Defence Department," he 
said.
"The decision was taken that the cost of security, the possible threats of 
violence, were risks that the organisers of the event and the Government agreed 
were not worth proceeding with."
Mr Foley said the decision should not be seen as a "victory" by the protest 
groups because the contacts with manufacturers made so far would be followed up.
"These are feral, low-life people who want society to be in a state of near 
anarchy for their perverse pleasure," he said.
"People who say they are anti-war, but who resort to violence and destruction to 
put their case are clearly dangerous."

From http://www.ainfos.ca

The Battle Of St Paulo (Pt 2) RNC Blockaded

By Mike & James (NYC) 

New York City Independent Media Center

Stormtroopers Advance

Stormtroopers Advance

Delegates Arrive

Who Do You Serve?

Delegates Confronted by Dance Party

Made in the USA

Barricades Go Up

Blockades Go Up

Freedom or Death

Get Back!

Encircled

Taking I-94

Blockade at 7th & Wall

Car Blockade

Dance Party at St. Peters

The Cossacks Are Coming

Blockade on Kellogg

Mounted Police Charge Protesters

The Blockade Holds

The Showdown

From http://news.infoshop.org

The Battle Of St Paulo (Pt 1) Rally and Breakaway

By Mike & James (NYC) 

Thank you to the thousands of people who courageously faced 10 ton buses, concussion grenades, tear gas, pepper spray, batons, charging horses, gas masks, rubber bullets, and all of the tools of repression and intimidation that were used yesterday to repress the public in this supposed democracy.

Welcome to Saint Paul

View from the XCel Center

Rally Begins

Father and Son

Stop the War on Immigrants

Jobs, Peace & Equality

March For Our Lives

Education Not Occupation

Democracy?

Puppets vs. Capital

The World Is Watching

Funk the War

Reclaiming the Streets

Dance Dance Revolt!

Looking On

No Human Is Illegal

Weapons Come Out

Masking Up

To the Blockades

"Thank you to the thousands of people who courageously faced 10 ton buses, concussion grenades, tear gas, pepper spray, batons, charging horses, gas masks, rubber bullets, and all of the tools of repression and intimidation that were used yesterday to repress the public in this supposed democracy.

Your direct actions stand in stark contrast to the conventioneers inside the Xcel Energy Center, passively dragging the party line and the rest of this world down with it.

We are inspired by the extraordinary people who stopped buses, blocked highway ramps, and breached concrete barriers to reclaim the streets and recapture the space of downtown St Paul" - From RNC WC, September 2, 2008

From http://news.infoshop.org

Where Have I Seen Sarah Palin Before? (by Arash Kamangeer)

I grew up in Iran and immigrated to US to avoid living in a theocracy. Lately though, the trajectory of US politics is something to worry about, not only to me, but also to many others in my predicament.

Wednesday night at the Republican convention was an especially poignant moment. I was watching Sarah Palin deliver her acceptance speech. As I was watching her, her family, and her adoring fans in the Republican convention, I could not overcome a feeling that I have seen this scene before...

Right after the Revolution in Iran and the establishment of the Islamic Republic, the Iran-Iraq war was started. To be fair, Iraq started that war, but the new revolutionary leaders of Iran saw the war as a godsend. They milked it for all it was worth. They labeled anyone against the war as a traitor or unpatriotic. Anyone who suggested that there may be a negotiated settlement was ridiculed and purged from power. Even Ayatollah Khomeini once said that this war is a blessing from God himself. You may see the parallels here already, but keep reading.

One of the problems the government faced was opposition from legions of mothers whose sons had been maimed or died in the war. To confront this problem, the government-controlled TV would parade a mother whose son had died in the war in front of the TV on a regular basis. Invariably, this "show mom" would be carrying an infant child and a few other siblings with her. And invariably, she would say something to the effect that "I have given one child to this 'sacred' war, and I am ready to give the next one." Almost always, there would be an adoring crowd who would follow her statements by chants of "Allaho-Akbar" (God is Great). And again invariably, her statements would follow by a not-so-veiled threat from her and the adoring crowd. She would say something like "I and my family would not tolerate traitors and betrayals to the faith and country". Then the crowd would break into several standard chants such as "Death to traitors" or "War, war, until victory."

Sarah Palin was much better dressed than the average show mom paraded on Iranian TV more than 20 years ago. The show moms were typically dressed in a black veil. But that’s about the biggest difference. The rhetoric was eerily familiar. When she was finished, I knew I had seen her before. Only that it wasn’t her. It was her ideological predecessors at a different time in a different country.

Now, I am not a politician. I just cannot understand the need to drag a child afflicted with Down syndrome in front of national TV at 10:00pm. Is that good for him? Or does the need to rally the base trump the needs of a child? Whatever the explanation, I am sure I have seen that child when he was carried in the arms of the Iranian show moms for the cameras. So much for family values.

And then I wake the next morning and read that Sarah Palin is quoted as saying that the Iraq war is a "task that is from God." It’s like déjà-vu all over again.

From http://www.antiwar.com/