Lawrence Lessig presents a graphic illustration of the WIPO inbalance. It’s a disgrace…

Apparently the US and Australia are buoyed by the “success” of general elections in Iraq. But the US doesn’t seem quite ready to let go…

Margo Kingston on elections in Iraq. It’s a step forward, but there are an abundance of “issues” related to it all.

spirals and butterflies: did anyone else notice……:

You’re not the only one Tahne. More thoughts still forming - I’ll try to blog them soon…

Australian Democrats : Copyright and USFTA - Our Internet Industry Sold Out.

And so it begins…

ALP News Statements: Minister fails to explain why petrol prices are still too high.

SMH: World oil price drop promises relief at the bowser.

Somewhat of a disconnect there between what’s actually happening and what we’re being told in the news?

BBC is running what they’re calling the Iraq Log: “… publishing a range of accounts here from people inside Iraq about how they, their families and friends live day to day and what the bigger events in the headlines mean to them.”

Top work. Pity there’s no RSS feed…

SMH: One last chance for Howard to join trade bloc.

I mused about the timing of the announcement that Australia would be included in discussions. Seems that perhaps there was an ulterior motive - the peace pact? It would make some sense of things - give Howard the carrot and then put the pressure on. Apart from the fact it’s questionable as to why we wouldn’t be party to the pact, there has been little discussion as to the content of the actual treaty that’s on the table. Does anyone have further detail?

It’s also interesting how ASEAN is using trade as a tool to get change in policy - perhaps this is the one lever that will get Howard to budge…

Update: Kevin Rudd puts forward his take on Howard’s objection:

The key to Mr Howard’s objection is Article 10 of the Treaty which states that parties shall not participate in “any activity which shall constitute a threat to the political and economic stability, sovereignty, or territorial integrity of another High Contracting Party“.

Mr Howard is desperately trying to save face from his doctrine of regional military pre-emption, unilaterally announced in December 2002, when he reserved the right to launch pre-emptive strikes against the sovereign territory of our neighbours.

Dave Winer:

I think we do it backwards in the US. First we should decide what our issues are, then we should go shopping for representatives to represent us. See the connection?

My feelings exactly…

Naomi Klein:

… in the country where they had absolute free reign, where there was no local government to blame, where economic reforms were introduced at their most shocking and most perfect, they created, instead of a model free market, a failed state no right-thinking investor would touch.

A (long) piece by Klein on the failure of the Bush administrations dream of an Iraqi economic turnaround. A must read…