Small business certificate, completed at Illawarra ITEC, 26 November, 2013.

Small business certificate, completed at Illawarra ITEC, 26 November, 2013.
My lecturer and then mentor Gillian Walker was brilliant, very supportive, and made a big difference in my life. I can never thank her enough.

PATHS NOT TAKEN

Courtesy Graffiti Freak deviantart.com

There were things that never happened, breaks in the day, hours or days gone missing. He didn't know who he was anymore. The voices finally backed off. They had given up. There was nothing of interest to be had here. It was an outrage what had happened and it was done. They could not come near him. He was finally safe. In the freaky break in the slip stream, he forgot to do things that were front and center of his life. What have you got planned for the day? Nothing. There was everything and he came out with the word nothing; because sledged from the side, he simply forgot everything. Thought he was in the same place a fortnight before. Thought things would still walk when he wouldn't, talk when they couldn't. That was a diseased form of consciousness. That was forgetfuness wrapped in hysteria wrapped in regret. And there was no explanation.

None at all for some of the things that happened; or in this case failed to happen. Blanks in the wall. A thorough, hangdog shame. A walk in the park. The desperate urgency of men, who came together so quickly, grappled and were gone. The Thais had ridiculed him, every aspect of him, with their spy cameras in his house, in his beadroom, in his bathroom, and the trauma, indeed the post traumatic stress that he sometimes continued to suffer, blurred the edges of the real, made black gaps as divinely represented as the white, caught sailors drunk with pants around their ankles, caught the shifting change of zippers, caught an infinite longing before it was all over. There was no root cause. Abstinence and absence; a long path. They had coralled him kindly enough; and that was that. They shrugged and walked away.

If he missed his followers, his pursuers, the drama, intensity, sense of meaning and full blown sense of absurdity that they imparted to his life; and he lived as dull and boring an existence as he possibly could; and forgot to do things, as if age had already defeated him, then at times in the scattering swamp there were voices of wisdom, and reason, and a land of cast offs and mouldering boots. Forests and swiftness. Men lurking. The place came alive at night. He crossed bridges he had never known existed. He made way for walkways of the soul that had never even been there when he had been born. They had risen up and applauded, but these taskforces were gone. Six days to an Australian election.

Kevin Rudd still looks as if he is "drifting", or is it diving headlong, into defeat. 

HIs bluster and verbiage fall on increasingly barren ground.

For them, at least, the campaign had fallen apart.

For Tony Abbot, it's a matter of stick to the plan, remain calm and dignified at all times, steady as she goes.

Michael commented that he thought Abbott would make a better conservative Prime Minister than Howard. It fell into a different conversational camp. He hung his head.

He hadn't done something he had meant to do; and there was no explanation.

THE BIGGER STORY:

http://www.boston.com/news/world/middle-east/2013/08/31/experts-leave-syria-edges-toward-strike/rwTDNPECpdh7JIYbRBArkN/story.html

WASHINGTON (AP) — Delaying what had loomed as an imminent strike, President Barack Obama abruptly announced Saturday he will seek congressional approval before launching any military action meant to punish Syria for its alleged use of chemical weapons in an attack that killed hundreds.

With Navy ships on standby in the Mediterranean Sea ready to launch their cruise missiles, Obama said he had decided the United States should take military action and that he believes that as commander in chief, he has ‘‘the authority to carry out this military action without specific congressional authorization.’’

At the same time, he said, ‘‘I know that the country will be stronger if we take this course and our actions will be even more effective.’’ His remarks were televised live in the United States as well as on Syrian state television with translation.

Congress is scheduled to return from a summer vacation on Sept. 9, and in anticipation of the coming debate, Obama challenged lawmakers to consider ‘‘what message will we sent if a dictator can gas hundreds of children to death in plain sight and pay no price.’’

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/election-2013/newspoll-predicts-kevin-rudd-facing-a-wipeout-in-marginals/story-fn9qr68y-1226707926995

LABOR is facing almost certain defeat next Saturday, with massive swings against the government confirmed in its strongholds of western Sydney, coastal NSW and Melbourne.

The highwater mark for Labor support in Victoria at the 2010 election under Julia Gillard has dropped and at least three, possibly four, Labor-held seats are likely to be lost around Melbourne.

In NSW, Labor faces a coastal wipeout, with five marginal seats - Dobell, Robertson, Kingsford-Smith, Page and Eden-Monaro - all held by margins of 5.2 per cent or less but facing a 6 per cent swing to the Coalition that would leave it represented mostly only around Wollongong and Newcastle.

In addition to the three ALP Victorian seats that are likely to fall and the five NSW coastal seats, there are up to 10 Labor seats at risk in western Sydney. Given the two independent seats of Lyne and New England are also going strongly to the Coalition, Tony Abbott could pick up 20 seats just in NSW and Victoria.

BLACK IMAGE WAVES

Courtesy Imagekind.com

So little had been seen, or shaken. Craven is as craven was. Nothing would be the same again. So in shock, in distance, they came crawling out of the past. Nasty, yes. Disconsolate in their own mornings, before the drugs and greed took over. So they were shambles and shadows; and corporate entities and thrusting wannabes, and savage sailors lost, hanging over the side of their ships. It's in their DNA, Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey declared of Labor's gendency to run up deficits, the five biggest deficits in Australian history, Abbott declared in the debate last night; lambasting the "government" for its incompetence.

The worst government in Australian history had a certain ring; as people looked back across the wasteland of had once been a scenario full of hope and excitement.

How sick of Howard people had become. After 11 years, the man had come to seem intermidable. His faith in the people, in his God given right to be there, in his own, severely tarnished rock star status, was all misplaced in his last shambolic term. But he would not step down. "Let me tell you why I want to be Prime Minister." To which they answered: Let us tell you why we don't. And he lost his own seat.

Kevin Rudd, too, could lose his own seat of Griffith. There were shadows in the makefall. We were coming close to winning, whoever "we" were, the people. There was no "we", there never had been. There was an unforgiving place and that was that; a harsh fall, a gathering dust, replaced temporarily by lust. But whatever he had thought, it was not true. They could trail him for as long as they wanted, they trailed themselves. "I thought they were nice at first, the Thais," the intelligence officer said. "But they weren't."

No, they weren't. He could have told them that.

Their professed, sorrowful concern, was nothing but spite; a pathetic attempt to cover their own trail, their own thieving and lying, their own celebration of deceit; of one of their folk heroes. Someone they had made a folk hero at a foreigner's expense. 

The heat hit 45C every day; and as the temperature climbed past 40, most activity ceased.

He walked from one hotel fan to another. He struggled to finish a book. He walked through ancient graves. He heard the voices of the long dead, of Buddha's disciples. "You have interesting problems," the temple spirit declared. "Most of the people who have come here over the centuries have been villagers, with their own problems, sickness, death, children, love, crippling disabilities, human things. They hope I can help them and I usually don't; I am kind, but I let their lives take their course.

"I will help you, for a short time, help you to help yourself. I cannot go with you. I cannot stay with you. I am rooted in this place."

"You knew the Buddha?"

"I was one of his disciples. When I was you, when I was flesh and bone, I was always laughing."

"That is why you're images are always laughing, or smiling, as if they know some secret denied the rest of us; and we are the subject of great mirth?"

"Yes."

"What are you? Spirits."

"No, we are what we are. We are always here. You would be amazed."

And yes, no doubt he would be.

Just as he was amazed by the voices dropping out of the crowd: "You are out of conrol."

They would follow him here, to Lumbini? They were that great a travesty in their own malicious souls they would follow him to Buddha's birthplace; and think nothing of carrying a personal vendetta on to holy ground?

Of course. There is no end to the travesty of self interest.

And then these voices were gone, into the mists and shifts and shields of other places.

THE BIGGER STORY:

https://news.google.com.au/nwshp?hl=en&tab=wn

There is rising momentum among Western governments for a military intervention in the Syrian conflict over what the United States, Britain, France and others have called undeniable evidence that President Bashar al-Assad’s forces used banned chemical weapons on civilians last week, killing hundreds. Following is a brief Q. and A. about why the United States appears headed for a new involvement in the Middle East.

Connect With Us on Twitter

Follow@nytimesworldfor international breaking news and headlines.

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The Obama administration has sought to reduce American military entanglements abroad, withdrawing forces from Iraq two years ago and moving to do the same in Afghanistan next year. So how has it come to pass that we are now moving toward another military entanglement, this time in Syria?

The Syrian conflict affects American foreign policy in a number of ways, but the Obama administration has approached it cautiously, not only because it wants to reduce American military engagement overseas but also because the conflict is complicated and quickly shifting. The rise of sectarianism and the slow collapse of the state in Syria poses a danger to the Middle East as a whole. Millions of refugees have fled to neighboring nations, including Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, destabilizing them and inflaming sectarian tensions. Violence has also sporadically spilled over into Iraq, Lebanon and Turkey and even Israel, raising the specter of a broader conflict.

Last week, the Syrian government is believed to have killed hundreds of civilians in a chemical attack on the Sunni-majority suburbs of the capital, Damascus, violating international law and crossing what the Obama administration has called a “red line.” It is believed to be the largest chemical weapons attack since Saddam Hussein of Iraq used a gas attack on the Kurds in 1988, and some observers, including senior Israeli officials, have argued that allowing it to go unpunished sets a dangerous precedent for Syria and its main ally, Iran, suggesting that the use of chemical agents could be tolerated in the future.

KEVIN Rudd's electorate of Griffith and a swag of marginal Brisbane seats would be the big winners from the Prime Minister's plan to relocate Australia's main east coast naval base to the Queensland capital, a move that would rip thousands of jobs and billions of dollars out of Sydney.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/election-2013/hello-sailors-kevin-rudd-calls-navy-to-save-seat/story-fn9qr68y-1226705341256

The proposed move to Brisbane, which would cost at least $6 billion and involve the transfer of 4000 jobs, was first raised in March last year in the Force Posture Review prepared for the Gillard government, but it was rejected in May this year in the Defence white paper on cost and environmental grounds.

The move to scale down Sydney's Garden Island, Australia's oldest and largest naval base, and transfer its operations to Brisbane was met with outrage in Sydney, where NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell confronted Mr Rudd and condemned him for his lack of consultation. "A phone call would have been helpful," Mr O'Farrell told the Prime Minister as they crossed paths near Mrs Macquarie's Chair at Sydney Harbour. "Four thousand jobs. Your predecessor could share, you should learn to share. Four thousand jobs are going to be thrown on the scrapheap all to try and save some Labor seats in Queensland. It's outrageous."

INCENSED, LOST

m

Courtesy Get Covers dot com 

Cool as it was, nasty as it was, here in the out falls, amidst intoxicated, lyrical dreams, far from heaven, far from hell, within the reaches of consciousnes, but barely thus. There's no justice in the land, his aging mother parrotted, but it was more than this. An ancient past, a paralysing future, all in the slipstream, the comfortable and the craven, the hallmarks of industry and shoddy product, and then a voice, reaching up out of the swirling clouds beneath his feet, lost, lost, join the lost. He could see their battered faces as they spoke. He could feel the instant memory, what should have been fun, and he could feel the aging terrors. And they were gone.

Love died in an instant, when he saw the nasty, manipulative, vicious little bastards for what they were. But it didn't stop his head going around in circles; appalled at his own gullibility and stupidity, obsessed with a sense of loss, saddened by the craven manner, the flailing whirlwind, the dangerous forces of thieves and pedophiles stalking him through myriads of corridors, so that he could not move. There on the dark side. In the dangerous shores of defeat. In places he had never dreamed existed. In ways he could never have imagined.

And then it was over and gone. And he paddled into quieter shores. Sun picked out new landscapes. Horrors eventuated. Nastiness enveloped. He came to believe. His destiny, a tragic destiny, flurried into other places. Behind the screens. Beyond the fabric of reality, the material world. Into places they could barely imagine, spaces between atoms, beings who could not be defined. Here he dwelt, in liquid, lyrical dreams, and reached up to grab someone's throat, found echoes of people he had pretended to be, forced his way through a flailing of ghosts, back to a sunlit beach.

It wasn't an easy path.

There was no way now that he could see what he had done. He knew that some of the participants were dead already, or soon would be. He knew that the crowing chorus was something the population would soon forget, engrossed in the questions of their own survival. He knew that their treachery did not haunt them the way it haunted him; that in an instant it was gone, these cloaks of convenience, the friendly smiles, the stroking fingers, the smiles, almost radiant in their force, the deep darkness of a soul that had gone to the other side, and all of it, all of it, falling away. 

There was no way back; there was only a way through, to another place.

THE BIGGER STORY:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2013/08/24/gas-attack-syria.html

Syrian state media accused rebels of using chemical arms against government troops in clashes Saturday near Damascus, while an international aid group said it has tallied 355 deaths from a purported chemical weapons attack earlier this week.

Doctors Without Borders said three hospitals it supports in the eastern Damascus region reported receiving roughly 3,600 patients with "neurotoxic symptoms" over less than three hours on Wednesday morning, when the attack in the eastern Ghouta area took place.

Of those, 355 died, said the Paris-based group.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Saturday that its estimated death toll from the alleged chemical attack had reached 322, including 54 children, 82 women and dozens of fighters. It said the dead included 16 who have not been identified.

The group said it raised its death toll from an earlier figure of 136, which had been calculated before its activists in the stricken areas met doctors, residents and saw medical reports. It said the dead "fell in the massacre committed by the Syrian regime."

'All the information we have is converging to indicate there was a chemical massacre in Syria, near Damascus, and that Bashar Assad's regime was behind it.'—Laurent Fabius, French foreign minister

Death tolls have varied wildly over the alleged attack, with Syrian anti-government activists reporting between 322 and 1,300 killed.

George Sabra, leader of the Syrian National Council, told CBC News that "logically," the only faction capable of launching such an attack would be government forces.

"Everybody knows that was not the first time which the regime used the chemical weapons," he said from Montreal, adding that the U.S., British and French governments have collected evidence to support his claims.

Sabra urged the UN to send an investigation committee to "discover the truth" in Damascus with regard to neurotoxic casualties suffered by opposition fighters.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2013/kevin-rudd-questions-tony-abbotts-temperament-on-global-affairs-20130827-2sod9.html#ixzz2dCulG6Rk

Kevin Rudd has launched an extraordinary attack on Tony Abbott, accusing him of lacking the "temperament" and experience to handle complex international situations such as the worsening crisis engulfing Syria.

Facing internal doubts over his confidence as his election campaign is perceived as bogging down, Mr Rudd sought to contrast his reputation as a foreign affairs expert with Mr Abbott's notoriety as a political hard man.

Kevin Rudd says Tony Abbott doesn't have the temperament or experience to handle complex foreign policy issues. Photo: Getty Images

Adapting a tactic from the play-book of John Howard, who once claimed then opposition leader Kim Beazley lacked the ticker to be a prime minister, the unusually direct language appeared to be a calculated move to erode confidence in his opponent's ability to stride the world stage and represent Australia in the councils of the world.

Mr Rudd spoke of his telephone discussion with US President Barack Obama on Tuesday morning, regarding the security emergency in the Middle East, more or less asking voters if they could imagine putting Mr Abbott in the same role.

Describing Mr Obama as "a good man", Mr Rudd reflected on the dangers of military action and claimed Mr Abbott was unsuited because he is inclined to be impulsive and to "rush ahead" when caution was needed.

Asked about the growing likelihood of armed conflict, Mr Rudd depicted the Liberal leader as a "pugilist" who was suppressing his combative nature and could therefore not be trusted to handle diplomacy where "words are bullets".

"You've got to sit back, think and calmly reflect, and then work through what the best decision is, and temperament and judgment and experience are quite important," he told the Seven network's Mark Riley.

"He doesn't have a background in this field and sometimes I find in him a bit of an impulsive nature, that is rushing ahead to judgment.

"You know what his background is ... he's been in Parliament for 20 years, 19 of which he was the great pugilist, you know and the last 12 months he's suddenly become the statesman, so the Tony Abbott that I know, having served 15 years in the Parliament with him, is of a different nature."

BITTER DREAMS I

Felix Vallatton 1918 Sunset

Wikipedia:

Félix Edouard Vallotton (December 28, 1865 – December 29, 1925) was a Swiss painter and printmaker associated with Les Nabis. He was an important figure in the development of the modern woodcut. He was born into a conservative middle-class family in Lausanne, and there he attended Collège Cantonal, graduating with a degree in classical studies in 1882. In that year he moved to Paris to study art under Jules Joseph Lefebvre and Gustave Boulanger at theAcadémie Julian. He spent many hours in the Louvre, where he greatly admired the works of Holbein, Dürer and Ingres; these artists would remain exemplars for Vallotton throughout his life.



The daily robbing, drugging, bashing and murdering of foreign tourists on Thai soil has led to
many predictions that the Thai Tourist industry will self-destruct.

The representatives of virtually all major governments diplomatically represented in Thailand have expressed concern over the welfare of their citizens while on Thai soil.

As the death toll rises, along with the number of injuries and robberies, and foreign embassises are forced to deal with the legacy, warnings to the Thai government have become more blunt.

For Australians, with more than a hundred of their number dying every year, Thailand is now the most dangerous destination on Earth.

The deaths of Swedes, hitting 100 a year, is now at record levels.

The deaths of British citizens is approaching 400 a year. 

But so far, and despite the tarnished image of the so-called Land of Smiles, the tides of tourists just keep on coming.

Predictions that holiday makers, Asiaphiles and retirees will choose safer destinations, have proven substantially false. While neighbouring countries, including Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos, have seen substantial rises in tourist numbers, Thailand maintains a unique allure.

Official predictions, although themselves queried by sceptics, put the number of tourist numbers
arriving at more than 20 million a year, with some forecasts forseeing the numbers soaring towards 30 million.

Such numbers, imposed on an increasingly affluent but still largely poverty stricken or rural based population, has already imposed massive strains on Thai society.

And will continue to do so.

As host of the 2015 ASEAN Summit the senior ranks of the Thai government, including Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, have woken up to the fact that they have a major political, social and economic issue on their hands. And that the frequent stories of the problems afflicitng tourists is destroying the carefully manicured image of their nation and their people's as a welcome and open society.

The advertising slogan, The Land of Smiles, has served the nation well. 

INSERT HISTORY OF SLOGAN

INSERT STATS ON THAI TOURIST INDUSTRY.

INSERT HISTORY ON THE USE OF THE WORD FALUNG

There has been a substantial failure to manage the expectations of the local population; many of whom regard foreigners with distaste.

Far from being swept up in an open, hospitable and welcoming culture, many foreigners find themselves at the brunt of hostility, ridicule and distaste. Among some elements, including the Thai police, robbing foreigners is little more than a sport. It is certainly not the subject of regret, embarrassment or guilt.

An open secret among long term foreign residents of Thailand is that the Thais actively dislike the foreigners flooding their country, do not understand them, have zero empathy for them, and find any misfortune befalling a cause for mirth. For ethnic Thais, there is little they find funnier than a "falung" having an accident.

ORIGINS: SEE THEMSELVES AS A UNIQUELY CULTURALLY ADVANCED AND SUPERIOR RACE.

While they have opened up their country to foreigners and their money, the Thais remain amongst the most racist and xenophobic people on Earth.

They not only actively dislike and speak disparagingly of Europeans, Americans and Africans, they are hostile to their neighbours.

One of the worst insults a Thai can utter is to call someone an "Indian".

"If you see an Indian and a snake, which do you kill first? The Indian."

This is a joke the Thais find endlessly funny.

Yet there are large numbers of Indians resident in Thailand.

They regard the Cambodians as backward and corrupt, and the the Vietnamese and Laotians as rice farmers.

WHITENING OF THE SKIN. FARMERS LOW CAST. FEUDAL SYSTEM. 

THE BIGGER STORY:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23830590

The UK and the US have threatened a "serious response" if it emerges Syria used chemical weapons last week.

Prime Minister David Cameron and President Barack Obama spoke on the telephone for 40 minutes on Saturday.

Both were "gravely concerned" by the "increasing signs that this was a[n]... attack carried out by the Syrian regime", Mr Cameron's office said.

But intervention would have serious consequences and the US case was weak, the Syrian information minister warned.

In an interview with Lebanese TV, Omran Zoabi said: "If the US leads a military intervention, this will have dangerous consequences. It will bring chaos and the region will burn."

The Syrian government has denied any use of chemical weapons, blaming rebel fighters instead.

 Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2013/kevin-rudd-denies-delaying-syria-briefing-for-annabel-crabb-show-20130824-2sj2y.html#ixzz2d1TbDL5d

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has defended recording an appearance on an ABC TV show before being briefed on the unfolding crisis in Syria on Saturday.

He said his department head had advised him the earliest a briefing could be held was on Saturday night or on Sunday, so he honoured a pre-existing commitment to tape the show before flying to Canberra for the briefing.

He said he had ‘‘absolutely not’’ suspended his campaigning on Saturday after announcing in the morning he would seek briefings in Canberra on the crisis later that day – despite holding no other media or public events that day.

‘‘I think given the escalation of developments in Syria ... that had I not been in the business yesterday of saying to the Australian people that this crisis is developing at a pace of knots then legitimately I would have been criticised for not doing so,’’ he said on Sunday.

The Prime Minister’s campaign headquarters put out a statement late on Saturday denying News Corporation suggestions that he delayed the Syria security briefing for a recording of the ABC’s Kitchen Cabinet.

The statement said: "We understand that the Sunday Telegraph is intending to report that the Prime Minister delayed a national security briefing on Syria in Canberra today because of a previously arranged media commitment in Brisbane.

"This is wrong."

ABC TV host and Fairfax Media columnist Annabel Crabb confirmed that Mr Rudd did film a pre-arranged episode of her show Kitchen Cabinet, from 12.30pm to 2.30pm on Saturday.

News Corporation reported that the Prime Minister had "taken a taxpayer funded VIP jet to fly home to Brisbane" to appear on the cooking show. The story said: "In a bungle reminiscent of his infamous Dawn Service scandal on the Sunrise show, he made no reference to his afternoon-long commitment."

Twitter was running hot with speculation about whether or not the briefing in Canberra was delayed to film the segment and how the story has been covered by the media.

News Corporation published a story on Saturday evening that contained a headline saying Kevin Rudd had abandoned his security briefing in Canberra to record the show,  and Mr Rudd then released a statement saying he did not delay the briefing to appear on the show.

THE LAND OF SMILES

Courtesy Mark Brassington

Many things happened.

The land of Smiles is one of the most successful advertising history has ever seen.

And like many advertising slogans, it is a lie.

Thailand has painted itself as a welcoming country.

In reality it is one of the world's most dangerous countries.

The idea that the Thai people embrace strangers is a marketing myth.

In reality they dislike foreigners, have little empathy for them and rejoice in their misfortune. Their deaths are often unlamented; even unrecorded. Murders of foreigners often do not make the newspapers. 

"Mai chop falang," I don't like foreigners, is a phrase often spoken, and often enough right in front of tourists; who the Thais assume cannot understand a word of their language.

And often enough, that is true.

As a tonal language, Thai is uniquely complex, difficult for Westerners to understand. It's syntax bares little or no resemblance to European languages and its often vivid imagery is patterened in a way difficult for novices to take in.

The word falung, pronounced farang the closer to the Laotian border one ventures, is used widely and frequently; and with little if any respect for those it is being directed towards or, often enough, against.

In the West, particularly in countries which have embraced the ideology of multiculturalism, reference to an individual's physical appearance is considered rude, if not racist. In some jurisdictions, making derogatory comments based on someone's race is actionable as a hate crime.

No such niceties exist in Thailand; where foreigners are almost inevitably observed as if they were large, ugly, smelly elephants with no grace, charm or common sense. The fact that they have money, and usually being on holidays and therefore willing to spend it, is seen as tasteless, crude, offensive, unfair and yet another sign of the world's multiple injustices.

Taught from birth to regard themselves as superior, with eleaborate manners and conventions, exaggerated respect for the elderly and for those in high status positions, the feudal nature of Thai society, to which most tourists are entirely immune and ignorant, all play into the intense dislike with which foreigners are greeted.

That the Thai industry has built itself into a multi-billion dollar enterprise equivalent to, on some counts, seven per cent of GDP, is a miracle of form over substance.

But this triumph of modern marketing does not stretch far beyond the upmarket hotels, the beach chair littered beaches and the beautifully designed shopping precincts in which most tourists dwell.

Beyond the rim, beyond the world in which most visitors inhabit, lies another, darker, more mysterious, more violent and all together more dangerous place indeed.

THE BIGGER STORY:

http://www.latimes.com/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-syria-us-kerry-20130826,0,4680728.story

WASHINGTON -- Secretary of State John F. Kerry on Monday condemned Syria’s reported chemical weapons attacks as a “moral obscenity” and declared that the Obamaadministration intends to move quickly to hold the Syrian government accountable.

Citing “undeniable” evidence that the government of President Bashar Assad used nerve gas against its population last week, Kerry said that the world must respond to the use of weapons that have long been outlawed by international agreement.

President Obama “believes there must be accountability for those who would use the world’s most heinous weapons against the world’s most vulnerable people,” Kerry said in a brief appearance at the State Department.

Although Kerry made no mention of military action, he strongly implied that the United States is ready to embark on direct military action for the first time in a more than 2-year-old war that it has sought to keep at a distance. U.S. officials and foreign diplomats say they are privately discussing military options, including a possible cruise missile attack on Syria’s military complex that could begin in days.

“The indiscriminate slaughter of civilians, the killing of women and children and innocent bystanders by chemical weapons is a moral obscenity,” Kerry said. “By any standard, it is inexcusable. And despite the excuses and equivocations that some have manufactured, it is undeniable.”

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/election-2013/kevin-rudds-syria-briefing-could-have-been-by-phone/story-fn9qr68y-1226703809451

KEVIN Rudd could have been briefed on the apparent chemical weapons atrocity in Syria by secure phone hook-up or travelling officials, raising new questions about whether he manipulated the crisis for political gain.

As Foreign Minister Bob Carr warned that "everything points" to poison gas being used by the Assad regime against civilians in Damascus last week, the Prime Minister said the timing of a national security briefing in Canberra on Saturday night had been advised by his departmental head.

Mr Rudd has denied playing up the crisis in Syria at a time when Labor is trailing in the polls and its campaign strategy is under pressure, saying media reports that he had suspended campaigning on Saturday were wrong.

While Labor did not correct media reports on Saturday that Mr Rudd had "suspended" the campaign to deal with the Syrian issue, he furiously rejected claims he had delayed the briefing to fly to Brisbane on the RAAF VIP jet to film a segment for the ABC's Kitchen Cabinet cooking show before returning to Canberra.

RECOMMENDED COVERAGE

Drums of war sound as UN probes Syria

The Australian has been told that Mr Rudd did not need to fly from Brisbane to Canberra on Saturday afternoon because the national security briefing could have been conducted by secure telephone hook-up or the officials concerned could have travelled to him. "It could all have been done in Brisbane," a senior source said.

It also emerged yesterday that a "picture opportunity" set up for television cameras and showing several ministers and their senior staffers - but with no defence, security or foreign affairs officials in sight - was arranged to convey the gravitas of the situation and the fact that the Prime Minister was in control.

"The officials would not have wanted to be props in something that was clearly quite political," the source said.

The government has indicated the picture opportunity with Mr Rudd and Senator Carr before the full national security briefing was set up in response to pressure from media organisations for material to illustrate their stories.

When Mr Rudd was asked at a media conference in Sydney on Saturday morning - before his departure for Brisbane for the Kitchen Cabinet segment and another private appointment - whether his decision to go to Canberra could be regarded as a temporary suspension of his campaign, Mr Rudd did not dispute the proposition. "I regard it as a necessary practical step to make sure that we are fully briefed on developments," he said.

Coalition foreign affairs spokeswoman Julie Bishop said yesterday Mr Rudd's travel on Saturday was odd. "It would be a very poor reflection on Kevin Rudd if it emerged that he was using the issue for domestic political gain or to distract from his failing campaign," she said.