Note: I posted a slightly different version of this on my blog last night, on the eve of the Fourth of July - well, it was the eve then, it's the Fourth now (I live in Australia, so I'm a bit ahead of y'all). It was a reaction to news I read that day, and a rumination about being an expatriate American on our national holiday.

Recent events regarding civil liberties have hit the news in Australia. World Youth Day, a gathering of a quarter-million young Catholic pilgrims, will kick off here in Sydney next week, and Pope Benedict will visit. It's a big deal for a country that's 25% Catholic.

Follow below for more, including some non-gratuitous vulgarities.

Dear People of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,

It’s been a long presidential primary season. We’re all sick of it. I am, you are. Hell, my neighbours in Australia are.

You’re enduring a barrage of television ads, radio ads and automated telephone calls. People knocking on your doors and calling you to secure your vote.

All your chatter about what REALLY matters ;)

Ohio State vs. LSU in the BCS national championship game.

[Frontpaged by Hunter]

Twenty Democrats in the Senate joined Holy Joe and the Republicans to hand George Bush another blank check for Iraq, without commitments for troop withdrawals, according to The Hill.

John McCain was the only Senator-presidential candidate who voted in the affair; he voted to approve.

The Senate on Tuesday night handed President Bush a critical victory in the Iraq debate, approving billions of dollars for war operations and backing down from a months-long threat of withholding funding until the White House commits to a drawdown of troops.

After falling short on two attempts to force a change in war tactics, 20 Democrats joined one independent and a united Republican caucus to approve $70 billion for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, which will be packaged with a sprawling $516 billion omnibus spending bill that would fund most federal agencies.

Interestingly, both Carl Levin and Jim Webb voted to approve.

Look, I know our hold on the Senate is tenuous, at best, especially when you consider Joe Lieberman, but come on. This paragraph frames it all for me:

The 70-25 vote caps a year of unsuccessful Democratic attempts to sufficiently chip away at solid GOP support for the war. Ultimately, Democratic leaders declined to levy pressure on their caucus to block the latest round of unfettered Iraq money.

As Toby Ziegler said in "The West Wing": This administration doesn't even need an opposition party, we do fine ourselves.

UPDATE: Here are the votes...Dems voting "Yea":

Akaka (D-HI)
Baucus (D-MT)
Bayh (D-IN)
Carper (D-DE)
Casey (D-PA)
Conrad (D-ND)
Dorgan (D-ND)
Inouye (D-HI)
Johnson (D-SD)
Landrieu (D-LA)
Levin (D-MI)
Lincoln (D-AR)
McCaskill (D-MO)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Nelson (D-FL)
Nelson (D-NE)
Pryor (D-AR)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Salazar (D-CO)
Tester (D-MT)
Webb (D-VA)

First of all, a happy Thanksgiving to all my American brethren back home. This is my first T-day away from the USA, so it's a bit sad. (That, and it's not even Thanksgiving for you guys yet, but it is here in Sydney.) But we're having some people over to our house for turkey dinner tonight. Yippee!

Anyway ... Australians don't care about Thanksgiving, they care about the Federal elections that will be held on Saturday. (We should hold elections on Saturdays. Or make Election Day a holiday.)

Some quick background: The Liberal Party, which, despite its name, is actually the right-wing, conservative party*, is led by PM John Howard and is way behind the Labor Party (note Americanised spelling) in the polls. Labor leader Kevin Rudd is pretty much going to win.

And in the Liberals' desperation, they are beginning to look more and more like the Republican Party. (Psst, Liberals, that’s not a good thing.)

See how after the jump.

I'm an expatriate American, living in Australia, who is registered to vote in the great Lone Star State. Yesterday, I received a ballot by mail from the Texas Secretary of State. I have to admit, I didn't really realise what it would be for.

I'll set aside my nagging feeling that the wingers currently in government in Texas will somehow "lose" my ballot, since they surely know I'm a Democrat ... :)

Anyhoo, this ballot is for an election solely composed of referenda - constitutional amendments, bond proposals, etc. Not a Senate or House candidate, either state or federal, on the ballot.

Normally, you'd have to pull teeth to get most people to the polls for something like that - even political wonks like me.

Vladimir Putin arrives in Sydney tomorrow for the APEC summit. It's a historic visit - the first time a Russian president visits Australia.

While he's here, Putin is expected to sign a massive uranium deal with Australian PM John Howard -- and that's bad news for everybody.

More below.

Cross posted at Sydneysided.

"A prank." "A stunt." "Just letting off a little steam." "It’s not racist; it was a bucks party!"

I don't think this has hit the American media yet, but sometimes, it just seems like people will never learn.

A couple of Australian soldiers are (rightfully) in hot water over a video of them that appeared on YouTube, and has since been removed from the site. It portrays a party where several Army personnel are drinking and carrying on—with one of them posing in a KKK robe.

Yeah, a KKK robe. That’s fucking smart.

More below the jump, including PM John Howard and Defence Minister Brendan Nelson eerily echoing the rhetoric of Rush Limbaugh during the Abu Ghraib scandal.

Krazypuppy already diaried about the national anthem issue, about the "Spanish version" that's come about.

I want to expand on this and say we should use it as a wedge issue to pin Bush and the Republicans against the wall.

I hope you're an avid listener of This American Life, either via your local public radio station or via podcast. It's an amazing collection of humorous, sad, interesting and sometimes shocking stories.

Regular listeners will know that they choose a single theme for each show, and bring us two, three, or four (or more) stories on that theme, some real, some fiction, some poetry, whatever.

This week, the program will devote a full hour to interviewing two former Guantanamo detainees. More below.

Yet again, President Bush is screwing our first line of defense for terrorist attacks, for natural disasters, for, well, just about anything.

From the subscription-only CQ:

Grants for police, firefighters and other first-responders would be sacrificed again in the Bush administration's fiscal 2007 Homeland Security Department budget request, a now-annual trend that has left local government officials fuming.

The steady decline of first-responder funding reflects a sharp turn in federal homeland security spending policy since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

In fiscal 2004, the year of the first appropriations bill for the Department of Homeland Security, Congress appropriated $4.4 billion in state and local homeland security grants.

If Congress meets Bush's request for the upcoming fiscal year, funding will fall to $2.6 billion, a cut of 13 percent from last year but a decline of 42 percent for the Homeland Department since fiscal 2004.

According to CQ.com (subscription), "Larry E. Craig of Idaho, a senior Senate Republican, said Thursday he is considering lining up with those threatening a filibuster of a tentative conference report on a bill that would reauthorize expiring provisions of the 2001 anti-terrorism law known as the Patriot Act."

Further, up to six GOP senators might join the filibuster, if there is one.

More on the flip side.

We've all seen the reports out of Italy of a new documentary that lays out allegations of the American use of chemical weapons on Fallujah. Has any of you seen it in your local newspaper? In a national newspaper?

I was going to ask this of the Washington Post, on one of their routine Web chat sessions, but someone beat me to it. Here's what they said: Update [2005-11-9 17:9:29 by AggieDemocrat]: According to Steven D's diary, the Army is now admitting it used WP in Fallujah...

I'm back in DC today from doing some GOTV efforts in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, over the weekend. It was great to get back out into the field, roll up my sleeves, lace up my walking shoes and pound the pavement for Kerry/Edwards.

Let me just say that this county is fired up for Kerry -- in a traditionally Republican county, we found tons of KE04 support. All the Dems and I's we talked to (1s and 2s) are rabidly supporting Kerry/Edwards. They knew when to vote, where to vote, I'll be first in line.

More...

Anyone have a quick tick-list of all the shit republicans are doing to undermine this election? Has someone compiled this in a diary?

Need to respond to some winger family members who think: "It's unfortunate that Kerry is trying to win an election with lawyers. Republicans, contrary to what you donks say, don't play ugly. They just get accused of it by those who truly DO play ugly."

Muchas gracias

Sorry for the short diary, but can we call it quits on the "I got a reply to my Sinclair letter!" diaries -- UNLESS you get something completely unique and earth-shattering, like PepsiCo is going to join DailyKos' crusade?

That is all.

From CQ (subscription only):

CQ TODAY
Sept. 29, 2004 - 2:21 p.m.
Federal Court Strikes Down Part of Patriot Act
By Keith Perine, CQ Staff

A federal district judge in New York has ruled that part of the sweeping 2001 anti-terrorism law know as the Patriot Act is unconstitutional.

From CQ (subscription only):

HOUSE Report on Military Detention Operations
House Armed Services Committee
Full Committee Hearing
House Armed Services Committee (Chairman Hunter, R-Calif.) will hold a hearing on the final report of the Independent Panel to Review Department of Defense Detention Operations. The panel was charged with investigating the treatment of prisoners by U.S. personnel.

Date Thursday, Sept. 9, 9 a.m.
Place 2118 Rayburn Bldg.
Witnesses Scheduled James R. Schlesinger - chairman, Independent Panel to Review department of Defense Detention Operations

------ SENATE Report on Military Detention Operations Senate Armed Services Committee Full Committee Hearing Senate Armed Services Committee (Chairman Warner, R-Va.) will hold a hearing on the final report of the Independent Panel to Review Department of Defense Detention Operations. The panel was charged with investigating the treatment of prisoners by U.S. personnel. Contact: 202-224-3871 Note: The House Armed Services Committee will hold a hearing on the same subject at 9 a.m. Date Thursday, Sept. 9, 2:30 p.m. Place 216 Hart Bldg. Witnesses Scheduled James R. Schlesinger - chairman, Independent Panel to Review Department of Defense Detention Operations