Behind the political scenery, and on the festering subject of Israel, relations between Riyadh and Washington had recently become unprecedentedly shaky. Crown Prince Abdullah had long fumed about America's apparent complacency over the plight of the Palestinians.

That spring he had pointedly declined an invitation to the White House. Three weeks before 9/11, enraged by television footage of an Israeli soldier putting his boot on the head of a Palestinian woman, he had snapped. Bandar, the crown prince's nephew, was told to deliver an uncompromising message to President Bush.

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch proved himself to be "out of touch", banging his hand on the desk and being "monosyllabic" and "cantankerous", relying on his James who proved to be an expert in the art of vague PR.

That was the British pundits' damning assessment of the media mogul's performance during a grilling from British MPs at a parliamentary hearing into the phone hacking scandal engulfing Britain.

"The House of Lords has taken the unprecedented step of publishing a "cease and desist" letter on its website demanding that Lord Christopher Monckton, a prominent climate sceptic and the UK Independence party's head of research, should stop claiming to be a member of the upper house.

OKLAHOMA CITY — As temperatures climbed into the 90s Sunday in Steele, N.D., a small window air conditioner in Paul and Betty Smokov’s ranch home just couldn’t keep up.

When you were editor of the News of the World, were you aware that more than half of your news and feature reporters were paying Whittamore to use his network of blaggers to obtain confidential information?

Were you aware that your news editor, your features editor and your Scottish news editor were among those using this network? Do you remember using him yourself? The paperwork seized from his office by the ICO records you asking him to "convert" a mobile phone number into an owner's name and address.

Were you aware that Whittamore was submitting invoices to the NoW which explicitly requested payment for apparently illegal acts?

picture by Gus

There's dumb, there's dumber and then there are the House Republicans—nearly all of them—who voted this morning to set the U.S. back on energy efficiency. By a quick voice vote, the House approved an amendment that would prevent funds from a 2012 spending bill to be used to implement federal light bulb standards. The amendment came after a similar separate bill failed to garner a two-thirds supermajority earlier this week in the House—although it did win a simple majority and all but 10 Republicans in the House voted for it, along with five Democrats.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iK7SRYp4sBc

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says he does not believe there is any need for a wide-ranging inquiry into Australia's media in the wake of the News Corp phone-hacking scandal in Britain.

Greens leader Bob Brown, who has dubbed the Murdoch press the "hate media" and accused it of bias against the Greens and Labor, has called for an inquiry. Prime Minister Julia Gillard has characterised some media reporting on the carbon price as "complete crap".

But Mr Abbott said a politician complaining about the media was in the same position as "a footballer complaining about the umpire".

What is the point in saving the planet from climate change at the cost of sacrificing democracy? A mandate doesn't give politicians the right to rule against the people's will with the excuse of reducing pollution. It is not worth saving a world where we are governed as slaves without freedom to decide our future.

We must not put climate change or anything before democracy, because liberty is the most precious value of humankind.

Juan Del Solar Mascot    For a critic of this view please read more...

sit malcolm sit...

MALCOLM Turnbull has undermined Tony Abbott's attack on the government by again exposing opposition divisions over carbon policy.

The former opposition leader, whose fall was triggered by his support for the Rudd emissions trading scheme, again effectively distanced himself from the Abbott policy. He made it clear he was staying in line because he is in shadow cabinet and loyal, rather than agreeing with the policy.

THE cost of general insurance is set to jump as insurers move to protect their profits by passing on the higher price of reinsurance to customers.

As this year's spate of natural disasters forces up reinsurance costs, analysts are forecasting the extra costs could translate into personal and general insurance increases of up to 5 per cent, The Australian reports.

In New Zealand, which has been devastated by recurring earthquakes and aftershocks in Christchurch, reinsurance costs are expected to increase by 100 per cent while local reinsurance costs could rise as much as 70 per cent.