IT'S a tough competition to see which of Australia's political leaders can be more disliked but Tony Abbott has now clinched a big lead.

Abbott is more than twice as widely disliked as Julia Gillard, which is quite a feat; while the Prime Minister's net approval rating in today's Herald-Nielsen poll is minus 11, the opposition leader's is minus 23.

''This is the lowest for an opposition leader since August 2009, when Malcolm Turnbull was in the middle of the Godwin Grech affair and it was all falling apart for him,'' says John Stirton, of Nielsen.

Indeed, voters are looking on Turnbull with growing favour to replace Abbott.

from politicoz ….

Aesop tells the story of the North Wind and the Sun: who is the stronger?

‘Hello, my name is Andrew & I’m here to help.’

Now I know that many of you were shocked by the wicked behaviour of around 100 Muslim demonstrators in Sydney this week, but don’t worry, we have the situation under control.

Weather pushes allergy and asthma miseries to new level

Church leaders have hit back angrily at controversial claims by a prominent gay activist that Anglican archbishops of Sydney die younger than the rest of the community.

The whistleblower who exposed alleged corruption in two Reserve Bank companies told five top bank officials of his explosive concerns, only to be forced out of his job and warned to keep quiet.

from Crikey ….

Abbott's biffage par for the course in student pollie sandpit

It's not much use having good schools in Sydney if you can't get to them on buses and trains.

I was shocked earlier today when our (their) ABC headline for an article was quite out of step with what "had been said" by the US administration and by President Obama... Then a few hours later (9 hours and twenty minutes is my estimate) the headline was changed but still carries a certain smirk by placing the word "justice" between single quotes in the heading... The story is more or less the same... 

Shame on the ABC for this blatant finger pointing, whether "revenge" is the case or not. But in any case, the way the ABC headlined it ISN'T news... It is and was an "opinion"...