Monopolising Power

Isn't it eerie how the governments of Bush, Blair and Howard seem to operate so much in synch these days? The latest news from Australia will sound familiar to US readers:

Planned police and spy agency powers to tap, for the first time, the phones of people not suspected of a crime will be subject to strict controls, Attorney-General Philip Ruddock says...

Rights advocates have expressed alarm at the moves, but Mr Ruddock says they will be subject to strict controls.

"The issuing authority - that is, the judge - has to be satisfied in relation to a number of other matters - that is, the privacy of a person won't be unduly interfered with," he told ABC radio.

Sure, just like Bush's NSA wire-taps were always gong to require a court order, right?

In all three Anglophile countries - Britain, the US and Australia - the war-mongering triad members face political opposition which is strangely weakened and downright muted in its criticism, if not wholly complicit in their money-making scams.

Just look at the latest news from the US Democrats:

The Democratic blogosphere was abuzz Tuesday with the news that one of its heroes, Iraq war veteran Paul Hackett, had dropped out of the Ohio Senate race...

Hackett said Monday party leaders pressured him to leave the race and made phone calls to his donors urging them to not contribute to his campaign.

Remember, the best these Democrat "leaders" could offer in '04 was a Skull & Bonesman who hesitated way, way, way too long before criticizing the Iraq War debacle.

And now we hear that one-time Democrat VP nominee Joe Lieberman is so cosy with Bush that he goes along on a Valentines Day date!

Then we have stories like British billionaires donating a million dollars to the Australian Liberal Party - what's that all about?

Or what about this news: Bush Spent $1.6 Billion on 'Spin'. John Howard's government, by no coincidence, is the biggest spending government sponsor of advertising in Australian history. Seen those new Defence Forces ads lately???

It's all about power in the hands of multinational corporations, of course. It's all about wealth and power being concentrated in the hands of the few, not the many.

Who controls YOUR government?