picture by Gus Leonisky

Queensland is the fourth state in four years to dismiss a Labor government. Those states contain 87 per cent of Australia's population. And the federal Labor government lost its majority in the same span. Could there be a message?

from Crikey …..

Poll Bludger: the hole where Qld Labor used to be

Prime Minister Julia Gillard and US President Barack Obama will be among 53 global leaders attending the two-day Nuclear Security Summit in South Korea.

Ms Gillard said Australia would be promoting its proud record on nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament. Non-profit think tank the Nuclear Threat Initiative recently ranked Australia as No. 1 for taking action to reduce nuclear risks.

Ms Gillard and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott sponsored a statement last week calling for a world free of nuclear weapons.

By SCOTT SHANE

Former Vice President Dick Cheney had a heart transplant on Saturday after 20 months on a waiting list, and was recovering in a Virginia hospital, a statement from his office said.

Mr. Cheney, 71, who has suffered five heart attacks and was in end-stage heart failure, was recovering in the intensive care unit of Inova Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church, Va.

As for the adversarial media—forget it. This is one of Greenwald’s pet peeves, a theme that pervades his widely read column for Salon as well as this book: the coziness of the mainstream media and the power elite, with the former acting as a journalistic Praetorian Guard for the perks and privileges of the political class.

In the race to the bottom, someone comes out on top

The English are feeling the pinch in relation to recent events in Libya and have therefore raised their security level from "Miffed" to "Peeved." Soon, though, security levels may be raised yet again to "Irritated" or even "A Bit Cross."

People wearing hooded sweatshirts are often going to be perceived as a menace, Rivera said.

A new expose in Wired Magazine has revealed new details about how the National Security Agency is quietly building the largest spy centre in the country in Bluffdale, Utah, as part of a secret NSA surveillance program codenamed "Stellar Wind."

Another Taser-related death in Australia has renewed debate about the powerful weapon and whether it is a safe option for police use.

A STRUGGLING Sydney golf club with a declining membership is considering joining forces with a cemetery that is overflowing.

The reference to the lands policy was the recent decision against ringfencing prime agricultural land from mining while forcing miners to face scientific panels to gain approval to mine such areas.

They've flogged off the Tote, the state-owned bookmaker set up by Winston Churchill in 1928. They've sold the Channel Tunnel rail link to two Canadian pension funds. The NHS faces privatisation in all but name, some police services are to be carried out by private companies, and the Royal Mail, in state hands since its inception in 1516, is to be sold, with the taxpayer left paying for the company's pension fund liabilities.

And still the serial privatisers in the ConDem coalition aren't satisfied.