What if there was an energy source that could meet half our needs by 2030 (but was not coal seam gas)? A source so cheap it could halve your energy bill (but was not coal), so clean it had zero emissions (but was not wind or water), with no capital costs?

Surely such an energy source would sit at the heart of our national energy policy, argued Chris Dunstan of UTS's institute for sustainable futures at a recent forum run by the Australian Alliance to Save Energy. Stupid not to, right?

The Coalition is not discounting the Australian dollar hitting $US1.25 as it shapes policy proposals for those industries which would be most affected.

When Julia was accused of lying about the Carr affair, I decided to look at the details of the process and analyse... 

I could be totally wrong of course....

According to a documentary broadcast on BBC Radio 4 last night, the French cheated on us during the Falklands War by helping the Argies while they were pretending to help us.

No one is suggesting that President Mitterand was anything other than wholehearted in his support for the UK. He ordered an immediate and complete embargo on supplying or assisting the Argentines. Vital technical data on the French-made anti-ship Exocet missile was made available to the Ministry of Defence, the French having sold five to the Argentines before the war.

Barry and Clover...

from Crikey .....

Eventually reality will hit the opposition's fiscal frolic

Crikey Canberra correspondent Bernard Keane writes:

FISCAL POLICY, JOE HOCKEY, PAID PARENTAL LEAVE, TONY ABBOTT

As a rich, university-educated middle-class white guy, I do it tough. I am, dare I say it, oppressed. There, I said it, so I guess I do dare. Oppressed by shrill and difficult harpies like Germaine Greer, who by her own admission just the other day is only interested in my penis.

Oppressed by a horde of uppity little groups, and races and culture gangs who, having inconsiderately thrown off my rich, white forefathers' oppression of their poor, not-so-white forefathers and, er, foremothers, now seem intent on getting some payback.

"If you had free reign over classified networks ... and you saw incredible things, awful things ... things that belonged in the public domain, and not on some server stored in a dark room in Washington DC ... what would you do? ... God knows what happens now. Hopefully worldwide discussion, debates, and reforms. ... I want people to see the truth ... because without information, you cannot make informed decisions as a public."

Bradley Manning

Naturally enough it takes two astute American academics, Steve Walt and John Mearsheimer, authors of The Israel Lobby, to explain in the Financial Times that Iran isn't the real issue for Israel:

from Crikey .....

Wayne versus the lizard people: the secret history of illegitimate power

Crikey Canberra correspondent Bernard Keane writes:

ANDREW FORREST, CLIVE PALMER, WAYNE SWAN

''Never underestimate our ability to turn on ourselves,'' a senior Liberal MP said. Another said, ''We are getting away with murder'', in relation to some of the policies already in the mix.

Muslim women will have to remove face veils when having their signatures officially witnessed under the latest laws in New South Wales, Australia's most populous state.

State Attorney General Greg Smith said on Monday that officials who fail to check identities will face fines under laws recently approved by the state legislature.