Two years ago, President Bush declared that America was “addicted to oil,” and, by gosh, he was going to do something about it.

Well, now he has. Now we have the new Bush energy plan: “Get more addicted to oil.” 

from Crikey ….. 

Coalition's greenhouse denialism is a cynical disgrace 

Talk about the double standards at the United Nations.

Whereas UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon has repeatedly condemned Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad's rhetoric against Israel, expressing "shock and dismay", he has remained ominously, and inexcusably, silent about the blatant Israeli threats of military attacks on Iran, thus undermining the world's confidence in his ability to steer the global community clear of yet another major war in the Middle East caldron. 

After all, the point of the surge, as laid out by Mr. Bush, was to buy time for political reconciliation among the Iraqis. The results have been at best spotty, and even the crucial de-Baathification law celebrated by Mr Bush and Mr McCain in January remains inoperative.  

Peter Taylor introduces the Age of Terror, a BBC Two series tracing the modern history of terrorism.  

Age of Terror

the legacy of a war criminal ….. 

“No individual president can compare to the second Bush,” wrote one historian.

To be more precise: the genetic alteration of bugs – very, very small ones – so that when they feed on agricultural waste such as woodchips or wheat straw, they do something extraordinary. They excrete crude oil.

Hard on the heels of Sydney's water rates rising by 20 per cent, household electricity prices are to increase by 8.5 per cent from July 1 - more than double the rate of inflation. 

The rise will maintain the profitability of the electricity retailers – Energy Australia and Integral Energy - as the State Government moves to sell them. 

Alan Ramsey 

"We are being guided by people who have probably never even seen a proper blackfella let alone lived with them and understand the problems.

Billionaire cardboard king Richard Pratt faces jail over accusations he lied to a competition watchdog investigation into a price-fixing cartel. 

The Visy boss and Carlton Football Club president was charged on summons yesterday with giving false and misleading evidence to an Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) hearing in 2005. 

Judy Wallman, a professional genealogical researcher, discovered that Hillary Clinton's great-great uncle, Remus Rodham, was hanged for horse stealing & train robbery in Montana in 1889. 

The only known photograph of Remus shows him standing on the gallows.  

Colonel Wilkerson, in your prepared testimony, you write that “as I compiled my dossier for Secretary Powell, and as I did further research, and as my views grew firmer and firmer I had to reread that memo (of February 7, 2002), “I needed to balance in my own mind the overwhelming evidence that my own government had sanctioned abuse and torture, which at its worse had led to the murder of 25 detainees and at least 100 detainee deaths.

from Crikey ….. 

Powering Sydney with the sun? Not if the pols can help it 

Alex Mitchell writes: 

We shouldn’t be surprised to hear that George Bush dined with a group of historians on Sunday night. The president has spent much of his second term pleading with history. But however hard he lobbies the gatekeepers of memory, he will surely be judged the worst president the United States has ever had.