Today, Ms Gillard said it used to be her aspiration to see Mr Abbott lead the opposition, "and it will be my aspiration for Tony to remain in that job for a very long, long, long, long time".

Mr Abbott then jumped to his feet, clearly happy the mood had been lightened.

"It's true we have been sparring partners in quite a few different contexts," he said to Ms Gillard.

"I have even been accused from time to time of flirting with the deputy prime minister - that must cease now, of course."

Ms Gillard's sincerest remarks were reserved for the now deposed Mr Turnbull.

Politics could be uplifting, but at times it was bruising, she said.

"Mr Turnbull in his conduct in the past few days has shown himself to be a man of great honour."

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See toon at top.

Your loyalty to the earth has shown you've got cojones... Now it's time for you to show you have more balls beyond that.

Switch your allegiance away from the party of the "idiot elite"... Take at least seven of your "climate warming" followers in the Senate with you, either as independent or as Labor supporters... Sounds beyond the pale but as a committed person who understands the dangers of global warming, there is no way you can let a Tony Abbott run you down, just for political gains. The Earth needs you to take such stand. By switching away from the Libs, you will cut the oxygen off to this idiot elite.

It is your duty to do so. Global warming is real and need committed people like you to stop it... Do it.

The Australian people - of thought and reason - will have an initial shock at the apparently desperate election of the "attack dog" Tony Abbott to replace a person who wanted to honor a deal that he and his “oh so” vulnerable subjects had asked for.

Never since the years of the benevolent dictator Menzies - has the Australian people been treated with such contempt.  The “New Order” of the Howard regime was of course a move to an autocratic regime, and it almost succeeded.

I find it hard to come to terms with the Liberal/Nationalist attitude that they and they alone, are the backbone of Australian society when the days of the special voting rights of country people was intended to ensure that they have their say – even more than the city dwellers.  Have we forgotten?

Climate change has made that support untenable.  And yet, the “lets not sell Telstra” maverick and untrustworthy Barnaby Joyce has still argued for “his Senate position” on the basis that those he has betrayed will think that he really does respect their future under the unforgiveable terms of nature’s climate change.

But then, like his idol John Howard, he will lie and tell his constituents what they want to hear and then, explain that it was not a “core promise”.  Fair dinkum.

God Bless Australia.  NE OUBLIE.

Tony Abbott is smart... He knows exactly what to say to create havoc in the voters mind. He knows how to stir the mud in clear waters and hide behind the liquid cloud, ready to pounce...

This is what he says:

Mr Abbott has also flagged a generous maternity leave scheme for consideration going into the next election, but says it is not policy at this point in time.

"I really like the idea of giving a fair go to families and reversing Labor's means tests on a whole lot of family benefits, means tests that they promised they wouldn't introduce before the election and told fibs about," he said.

"I really like the idea of empowering local people when it comes to schools and hospitals. I think these are important ideas which will really improve our society."

Mr Abbott has previously said the name of WorkChoices is dead but today was coy about whether the policy itself is.

"We must have a free and flexible and fair workplace because without that we can't have a prosperous economy, and you know you can't have a community without an economy to sustain it," Mr Abbott said.

"The sad thing about what Kevin Rudd has done is that he hasn't just undone John Howard's policy but he's also undone Paul Keating's policy."

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Tony, of course, "really" cleverly constructs the twist in everything he says, including his flog-choices revisited, and — considering that Australia managed to avoid a recession under the stewardship of the Labor government during the hardest time since 1929 — Tony already plants falsities about Kevin Rudd in the ether... I can see him already mouthing off Labor about the interest hike by the Fed Reserve — which obviously indicates the economy is "booming"... But under such pinker-ing condition, our tight arse relax and our mind frolic... ready to be distracted by greener grasses and spruikers.

Tony "really" spruiks things to voters, like a pedophile gives old boiled lollies from his deep pockets lined of loose lint, to lure kiddies to his lair... Masterful. We have been through it with John Howard... Do we want to go back there? Tony would most likely deny a "return", sure... but as he jokes about it, HE IS the bastard spiritual child of Bronwyn Bishop and John Howard. Don't forget it... As he puts it, he is an opposition leader in opposition and his job is to oppose anything, no matter what... Clever quip but dangerous to reality.

... And I "really" can visualise the Murdoch press falling in love with him, not too obviously, of course, while mentioning Tony's "obvious dark side" as if it was an asset or a discount...

The battle for this leadership had nothing to do with the ETS or global warming. Nothing to do with "style of leadership" either, except Tony might cleverly rule by fear of uncertainty, with Hail Marys of born-to-rule conviction... This leadership battle had to do with the Australian Liberal philosophy becoming truly liberal and not being stuffy-conservative-fuedal enough under Malcolm, although Tony would deny it and wrap the shitty truth in a honeyed package... Meanwhile, the planet burns and, between you and me, I don't care anymore, especially if it takes Tony's jockstrap in a whiff of flames... But Malcolm, if you still stand on two legs, can you convince enough liberal senators to cross the floor and vote for the ETS as negotiated? Your job would have been done... Then, the greater battle to save the planet starts.

But run Mr Turnbull did.

This bamboozled Mr Hockey's supporters, who had assumed that Mr Turnbull would be out of the running and who - seeing Mr Turnbull nominate - split more or less down the middle, with Mr Turnbull picking up three more votes than Mr Hockey, which had the effect of punting Mr Hockey from the contest.

Even Senator Nick Minchin, the convenor of the climate sceptics, professed disbelief. After the ballot, he approached Mr Hockey, saying if he had known it was going to be so close he would have flicked Mr Hockey a few votes.

And Mr Turnbull himself, having survived into the second round when few had thought he would make it so far, was eventually beaten by just one vote.

Like all the great battles of his life, this one turned into Turnbull Against The World, in the end.

He is no longer the leader of the Liberal Party, but he leaves the job strangely intact, having settled on a position, stuck to it, and martyred himself accordingly.

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A couple less smart-arses and Malcolm, you would have made it... Good on you for sticking to your guns. My hat to you... for what it's worth.

From the Guardian

The scientist who convinced the world to take notice of the looming danger of global warming says it would be better for the planet and for future generations if next week's Copenhagen climate change summit ended in collapse.

In an interview with the Guardian, James Hansen, the world's pre-eminent climate scientist, said any agreement likely to emerge from the negotiations would be so deeply flawed that it would be better to start again from scratch.

"I would rather it not happen if people accept that as being the right track because it's a disaster track," said Hansen, who heads the Nasa Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York.

"The whole approach is so fundamentally wrong that it is better to reassess the situation. If it is going to be the Kyoto-type thing then [people] will spend years trying to determine exactly what that means." He was speaking as progress towards a deal in Copenhagen received a boost today, with India revealing a target to curb its carbon emissions. All four of the major emitters – the US, China, EU and India – have now tabled offers on emissions, although the equally vexed issue of funding for developing nations to deal with global warming remains deadlocked.

Hansen, in repeated appearances before Congress beginning in 1989, has done more than any other scientist to educate politicians about the causes of global warming and to prod them into action to avoid its most catastrophic consequences. But he is vehemently opposed to the carbon market schemes – in which permits to pollute are bought and sold – which are seen by the EU and other governments as the most efficient way to cut emissions and move to a new clean energy economy.

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My good man... I am deeply shocked but not surprised. It has been my view for sometimes (see the lemming syndrome) that we're just tinkering on the edges of the problem. BUT by doing such tinkering, we are nonetheless RECOGNISING there is a problem... And I would have bet a scoop of moondust that within a couple of years, say three may be, world governments would recognise the need to do plenty more. We could press for that...

By basically abdicating the solutions, as fizzy as they are, we are but saying the problem of global warming does not exists. I suppose we can do "a Galileo" — that is, as we, the global warming knowledgelators, bend the knees to recant our belief to the church of the deniers, we discreetly tell ourselves "but it spins around the sun, though..."

The difference with Galileo and the present predicament is that discovering the earth spins around the sun had no impact whatsoever on the ordinary lives of people, apart from having to readjust their belief system under the carefully crafted bullshit of the catholic church. Three and a half centuries later, there are still people who believe Galileo was wrong... The science of Evolution is in the same boat: nearly 60 per cent of the planet's humans don't "believe" in evolution and, of the rest, about 30 per cent don't understand the meaning of it...

Knowing that global warming will have a devastating (not a "doomsday") impact on the earth's surface is a LOCAL problem. No impact whatsoever on the price of the universe, just an influence on the inflated value we place on ourselves versus the rest of our fellow travellers in nature, on this little peeble — alone.

To publicly bend the knees, to my mind, is deferring a worse problem to the twittering class of the future... There is a chance that on the sum of dumbing probability they would not have much of a clue about the world, passed their two thumbs... Capitulating now would show we were never genuine, while opening the door for the deniers to notch a victory on our corpses, while the earth notches another degree, discreetly... We need to be less smart and more drudgingly moronic... We need to show we care, even if it's not enough. Soon we will have to care far more but that will be for sooner than later. Should the deniers win now, it will make the caring so much harder — impossible, in fact.

We have the science, we have the proofs. We don't have the guts. Whether we can do something about it is worth a try... So deeply flawed?...

Flawed... I shall remain obsessed.