Foreign Affairs Minister Kevin Rudd says it is "water off a duck's back" that the former US ambassador to Australia described him as a "control freak" who made significant blunders.

Writing in a live chat on The Guardian website from an undisclosed location believed to be in Britain, Assange responded to the Australian government's WikiLeaks investigating taskforce and its stated support for America's international manhunt.

The website's founder, who earlier called for the resignation of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, again took direct aim at his accusers.

Despite the aura of omnipotence most empires project, a look at their history should remind us that they are fragile organisms. So delicate is their ecology of power that, when things start to go truly bad, empires regularly unravel with unholy speed: just a year for Portugal, two years for the Soviet Union, eight years for France, 11 years for the Ottomans, 17 years for Great Britain, and, in all likelihood, 22 years for the United States, counting from the crucial year 2003.

A long list of key facilities around the world that the US describes as vital to its national security has been released by Wikileaks.

The US State Department in February 2009 asked all US missions abroad to list all installations whose loss could critically affect US national security.

The list includes pipelines, communication and transport hubs.

Several UK sites are listed, including cable locations, satellite sites and BAE Systems plants.

This is probably the most controversial document yet from the Wikileaks organisation.

It is with great sadness that we record the passing of Ernest (Ernie) William Graham, a regular & valued contributor to Your Democracy over the past three years.

Ernie is survived by Rosie, his loving wife & life companion of 35 years.

To honor his life & show our respects, Rosie has agreed to our publishing the following Eulogy for Ernie.

Ernest William Graham was born on the 20th May 1930.

He was a truly remarkable man, who displayed a fearless conviction in his pursuit of excellent principles.

Ernie always said he wanted to be loved or hated but never ignored - he was never ignored.

He was a man who had the courage to swim against the tide - to speak up for what he believed in & was always there to give encouragement & support to others.

Ernie's handshake was his word & people trusted & respected him for that.

WikiLeaks suffered the most serious blow in its struggles with corporate and official America yesterday when PayPal, the payments processing company, suspended the organisation's account. The move will have a major impact on WikiLeaks' ability to collect donations.

TITLE: Party at the Ambassador's

HIM: I can tell you, dear, there is not a word about him on Wikileaks...

HER: Poor man...

--------------------------

The Australian Labor Party (ALP) lost its majority in the Australian parliament in September this year, and had to cobble together a fragile coalition. One likely reason for this loss of power is the apparent ALP disunity when it suddenly and unexpectedly overthrew their Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, and installed Julia Gillard, only weeks before the national elections (1). To add to the suspicion surrounding this infighting, no convincing explanation was given for this foolhardy action. According to the Leader of the Opposition, Tony Abbott, this coup was conducted by "faceless men" (1).

Just as american politicians want Bradley Manning executed because he revealed crimes of the US government, they want Julian Assange executed. In the past few days the more notorious of the dumbshits that sit in the US Congress have denounced Assange as a "traitor to america."

What total ignorance. Assange is an Australian, not an american citizen. To be a traitor to america, one has to be of the nationality. An Australilian cannot be a traitor to america any more than an american can be a traitor to Australia. But don't expect the morons who represent the lobbyists to know this much.

Nigeria will file charges against former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney and officials from five foreign companies including Halliburton Co. over a $180 million bribery scandal, a prosecutor at the anti-graft agency said.