David Hicks is apparently courting media suitors. More power to him, I say. Let's all hear the truth of the story from the man who suffered it. Should he accrue a profit from the experience? I doubt he will, considering the physical, temporal and mental toll he's already paid, but in fiscal terms, why not, say I.

Frankly I don't care what Hicks nets from the telling of his tale, just as long as we get to hear, see and read it all straight from the horse's mouth.

It’s a play on words, a political mechanism, and hopefully a means of Government actually achieving something positive in policy direction for the longer term benefit of Australia.

Political opportunist, Steven Fielding, has come out claiming

"it's about time the Rudd Government really got a handle on this issue by cutting petrol tax"

The expected norm when the Reserve Bank of Australia exercises monetary policy is for banking houses to mirror the increased cost of funds by raising appropriate retail lending rates. That's 'mirror', which means to pass on whatever the rise was to customers through their contracted interest rates. Of course, anyone who has ever read a loan agreement will realise that lenders in Australia can lawfully charge whatever they please in interest rate terms. The simple fact that we expect only to bear the RBA rise in rates, doesn't mean we actually get the RBA rise in rates.

Today's rise in housing rates by the Commonfilth Bank departs from the expected norm in a somewhat troublesome manner. Clearly, what this 0.05% higher rise than that decided upon by the RBA says that the CBA under-estimated their losses during the October-November period of 2007, when the first tranche of sub-prime mortgage losses were felt by lenders in Australia, and the 0.10% increase applied by the CBA in January wasn't sufficient to recoup those losses. The question which arises is this. Is it ethical of the bank to adopt a bloody-minded attitude which says, "fuck you, borrower.....read your loan agreement!"?

The cure for such attitudes is regulation, and I seriously doubt whether any government of any persuasion would ever head down that road. The other option, which remains open to all borrowers at any time, be they business, commercial or retail home borrowers, is to fixed their lending interest rates. I did, several months ago. If you're smart, especially on a home loan, you'll do the same. Leaving one's self open to the whims and fancies of the financial marketplace is a prime example of caveat emptor.

If you are a shareholder in mining conglomerate, Rio Tinto, are you likely to be happy with 3.4 BHP shares in exchange for each of your Rio shares?

BHP seems to think you should be. Pundits are claiming that Rio is valued at 3.6 to 3.8 BHP shares per Rio share. Wouldn't you be happier being recompensed fairly, as opposed to being shafted by the Big Australian?

We'll soon see just how much Rio shareholders value their stake, and how serious BHP really is to own it's competitor.

Judging from the tone of Dennis Shanahan's column in today's Oz, one could be forgiven for believing that outside some sources in the federal Labor government, Dennis is the only other Australian to have seen the text to Kevin Rudd's 'Sorry' speech due to be delivered next Wednesday.

Polls and surveys which result in ponderous tomes, such as Yearbook Australia 2008, always provide some amusement to me.

Serial looney-tune and one-time pretender to the Prime Ministerial throne, Mark Latham, has surfaced as a pretend journalist.

...turn to paper. This is truly bizarre and one wonders whether Japanese space science took a wrong turn somewhere along the high technology road. Paper planes, it's hoped, may one day be utilised as re-entry vehicles from low-Earth orbit. Watch the video. I don't dare attempt an explanation.

I heard the news from East Timor this morning and can't honestly say I was very surprised. It's notable that while the political and social situation in that nation is far from stable, there appears to be a dedicated set of interests in train, with Ramos Horta and Gusmao swapping places over the period since independence. Clearly, the political power base which both politicians sprang from remains out of favour, either with the people of East Timor, or, and I suspect this is the more likely, those vested interests which want a non-Fretilin flavour to the Timorese government.

It's all well and good that Fretilin has condemned the assassination attempts however I'm left wondering just who was behind the attempts to begin with. I don't see Reinado being the mover & shaker, more likely to scape-goat. As events transpired, the sacrificial goat. Is Alkatiri in the mix? Who knows, but clearly being in a position of power in Timor-Leste is not a life-prolonging enterprise.

Brendan Nelson appears to have become carried away with the credibility level he believes he holds. Miffed at not being consulted by Kevin Rudd on the wording of Wednesday's apology by the government to the so-called 'Stolen Generations', Brendan is reported to have said:

"But if Mr Rudd wants it to unify Australia, to bring our nation together, the most important person he should be negotiating with is me."

Brendan Nelson - Most Important Person. In Australia, or just his own lunchtime?

The Rudd Labor government plans to extract more from our elected representatives, with Friday to become a scheduled sitting day. Joe Hockey says it's undemocratic because Question Time won't be a part of the scheduled sitting.

Listening to the opening of the 42nd Parliament this morning, I was struck by the instigation of what I trust will continue to be a part of the traditional ceremony, a 'Welcome to Country' from the traditional owners of the land upon which the seat of federal government sits.

The Prime Minister's website is back up & operational, this time with minimal flair and fancy and Kevin Rudd's rather angsty looking visage there on. The site actually looks more like the APH sites than the rather grandiose presentation provided to John Howard. Might prove to be a marker of the new PM's persona as he settles deeper into the role. Howard's site changed quite a bit over time. We'll see.

A hard landing by a Qantaslink Boeing 717-200 in Darwin last week may lead to the loss by QANTAS of it's enviable reputation of never having lost an aircraft.

It's out! It's been released!

Just a quick one from me today. Too damn busy to expound on all the thoughts in the mind.

I find listening to Parliamentary broadcasts while working away to be both informative, and strangely relaxing.

Valentines Day, and while out having a quiet smoke, I had a promotional card with heart-shaped chocolate shoved into my hand, promoting It's Just Lunch.

I'd have thought the 'busy professional' wouldn't want to waste their time on blind dating. Yet another truly bizarre concept from the land of bizarre concepts, the USA.

Now this is an interesting turn of events. WPS Motorsport has been shutdown, and will not be taking part in this years V8 Supercar Championship. The Level One licences have been sold off, as have the teams two cars and all equipment. Drivers Jason Bargwanna and Max Wilson remain contracted to the WPS organisation, in some for or other which Gore declined to detail.

Equally interesting is the vow by Gore to continue racing in the U.S. I would postulate that Gore is under the fiscal gun presently. I think this because a week ago, I received a call from a finance broker looking to refinance and/or extract equity from some of Gore's assets at Sanctuary Cove. A LOT of equity. My employer declined to be involved. Apparently, Craig Gore isn't well thought of in the finance game. So I'm told, anyway.

Watch the finance and business pages, I'd say.

Thirteen months ago, China used anti-satellite technology to destroy a redundant weather satellite. Now, in an act of tit-for-tat, it has been reported that the U.S. military will use similar technology to destroy a malfunctioning econ (read 'spy') satellite.

When questioned on the subject of retirement, Mark Skaife had this to say:

“I wouldn’t see this as my last year, but let’s just see how things go along”

While I will be watching Four Corners this evening, it's of interest to me to read Paul Kelly's precis of the events of APEC week in September 2007 in today's Oz.

Shanahan, that is. He's right when he says that Wayne Swan should take extra care about which door way he chooses to leave televised press conferences through.

Who do we hate now? A question posed - according to Gerard Henderson - by Catherine Deveny, a Fairfax and by direct inference, 'leftist' journalist.

The circus is back in town and this time around, for the first punt in 2008, it's back to the City of Churches for the annual tilt on the former Grand Prix track. Here's a brief review and track layout from Dick Johnson Racing.

As is my wont, I take in Question Time daily. Today I heard Julia Gillard opining the enormous waste created by the Howard government in it's desperation to promote WorkChoices. Thousands of mousemats, pens, fridge magnets and the like are due to be trashed with the impending repeal of those divisive laws. I thought, "there has to be a better option..."

Janet Albrechtsen in today's Oz.

Last week I postulated that Craig Gore's withdrawal of WPS Racing from the V8 Supercar Championship might have had more to do with money than time.

This is an interesting article and harkens back to past posts I've made on the credit crunch and finance industry in Australia.

Round one, race one and all went very well, I thought.

There's little else I'd like to say about race two, except that I believe the sport's administrators have much to answer for.

"And who the fuck is this Garnaut dude anyway. He’s an economist, or at least purports to be. Since when did he become a climate scientist?"

This appears in the open forum blab on Catallaxy. No linkage as it's not worth a punt in my view, but surely, given his performance on Insiders this morning, this comment just has to have come from Andrew Bolt!

Come out, JC, and admit to just who you really are!!!

Spotted this story in the Daily Telegraph. It seems a senior Boeing delivery pilot decided to perform what we are led to believe is a replica of the 'fly-by' stunt pulled by Tom Cruise playing the hot-shot F-14 pilot 'Maverick'. The pics clearly show the massive Boeing 777-300ER swooping extremely low over the runway at Snohomish County/Paine Field Airport (KPAE) which is the home field for the Boeing 747, 767, 777 and 787 production line. The comments make interesting reading, but at least one indicates that the pilot-in-charge was a 'don't-come-Monday' waiting to happen. Striking aircraft, just the same.

It's not the first time a Boeing employee has pulled a stunt in a large airliner, but the company doesn't smile kindly on such activities, for obvious reasons.

Just to prove that I'm not a dyed-in-the-wool 'progressive leftie', I'll happily put into text that I'm in agreement with Dennis Shanahan's perspective as noted in today's Oz.

There's a group of chaps indulging in a little harmless academic study into why bloggers blog, the left -v- right dichotomy, pissing contests fuelled by hit counts and all the usual paraphenalia one finds in the 'sphere if one hang's around long enough. I'd encourage having a read, following the links, not taking any of it at all seriously, and generally educating one's self about blogger's per se. An interesting breed, in general. In certain cases, excellent fodder for a psychiatric convention.

Consider this report from colleagues Jamie Walker and Jeremy Roberts last week which indicates, again, that Hicks was no innocent abroad.

Despite all the pontification over what David Hicks was or wasn't doing in Afghanistan, what he or his family are in denial about, what defines a 'terrorist' and what doesn't, the simple fact remains that his incarceration both in Guantanamo Bay and Yatala jail were politically oriented. The only irony, if indeed any exists, lies in the fact that despite the political manouvering, nothing has been proven one way or another regarding 'guilt' and a government has been thrown out, if not as a direct result, at least partially.

Personally, I don't see Geoff Elliott's point.

I heard this issue being bandied about on AM this morning, and frankly thought it all a bit funny.

Having already declared myself to be a complete artistic philistine, I thought to further reveal my complete lack of appreciation by nominating my selections from the Archibald Prize entrants.

It's pretty clear from skimming through today's MSM, that Friday 29 February 2008 is a slow news day.