Alan Jone's ill-chosen comments about the Prime Minister's father have erupted into a commercial, political and broadcasting disaster for the talkback radio king.

Sponsors started lining up to withdraw advertising as more than 36,000 people signed an online campaign targeting companies such as Harvey Norman, Big W and Mercedes-Benz, urging them to boycott Jones and his employer, 2GB.

Alan Jones has been recorded at a Sydney University Liberals’ Club nosh up saying that Julia Gillard’s dad died of shame about his lying daughter. Here is what The AGE reports he said:

from Crikey ….

Get Fact: will Abbott's formula deliver jobs and growth?

Last year punters lost $130 million gambling at the Catholic Clubs of Sydney, writes Wendy Carlisle. How can this fact be reconciled with the tenets of the Catholic faith?

For about eight days now, Tony Abbott has been in worsening trouble, and he has no hope any more of being Prime Minister.

Not all of it is his fault, some of it was coincidence, but the overall effect has been a perfect storm whose hail and lightning is beating him senseless and consuming him.

from politicoz ….

PM Sells Security Credentials To UN

When the so-called "Jesus rifle" came to light in Jan. 2010, it sparked constitutional and security concerns, and a maelstrom of media coverage. The Pentagon ordered the removal of the secret code referring to Bible passages that the manufacturer had inscribed on the scopes of the standard issue rifles carried by U.S. soldiers into battle in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Former Australian prime minister Malcolm Fraser has urged Australia to become independent of the world's super powers.

"I don't want to be a puppy dog to the United States as we have been over the last 10 or 15 years, just doing what America wants," Mr Fraser said.

from Crikey …

from politicoz …

what’s wrong with the ALP

On the surface it was another political ''gotcha'' - Tony Abbott uses morning radio to lambast Julia Gillard for ''swanning'' around New York ''talking to Africans'' about her bid for a seat on the United Nations Security Council when she should be in Jakarta talking border security with the Indonesian President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Australian politics reached a new point last week when the handbag hit squad and the reverse handbag hit squad slugged it out in 30 frenetic minutes before parliamentary question time. If you missed the encounter - and it was easy to miss given everything hurtles through the national affairs universe with the force of water from a fire hose - let's recap.

What is the greater danger to society? Is it the penises of some priests or the placards of some protesters?