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mr no goes to work...Realpolitik is less about policy than it is about messages, and sometimes messages are best delivered visually. That's why politicians stage media stunts like visiting small businesses in the outlying industrial suburbs of Canberra, and, yes, Tony Abbott, I'm looking at you. For months now the Opposition Leader has sought to lead the daily agenda, and get his face on the nightly news, by dragging gaggles of shivering (and sometimes even whimpering) journalists to fishmongers, glass pane purveyors, you name it, in order to emphasise the evil, world-as-we-know-it-slaughtering nature of the government's imminent carbon tax.
we are amused...It's obvious who's the boss, and her nationality
When David Flint asserts that the Queen is not a foreign national (Letters, June 16), is he claiming that she is Australian? If so, I would be interested to see her birth certificate. I'm not unreasonable - I'll accept the short form. Michael Cahill Summer Hill
the permanent war on terror .....from Crikey ..... Bernard Keene Crikey analysis of budget papers show that the Howard, Rudd and Gillard governments have spent just over $15 billion on the war on terror since 2001. Indexed into 2010-11 dollars, that's $16.7 billion.
presidential hopefuls...Opening a new phase in a race to define the direction of their party, the leading Republican presidential candidates gathered Monday night for the first time to begin drawing distinctions among themselves in a vibrant competition to be seen as sufficiently conservative for primary voters, but electable enough to defeat President Obama.
sophistry of the cabal...
the many faces of our precious .....The first blow came so fast, from such an unexpected angle, that Andrew Ferguson didn't know quite what had hit him after stepping into the witness box last Thursday morning. Suddenly, everyone was watching a wedding video of people dancing to Love Shack by the B-52s. There was Ferguson, shuffling about on the dance floor. Even Ferguson allowed a wan smile.
the spruikers are winning...
As the intersessional meetings of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change began with a faltering limp in Bonn last week, it was hard not to sense a grand emptiness. The giant rooms of the Maritim Hotel in Bonn have been witness to almost nothing happening, as the climate talks have barely reached a murmur. This could be the last opportunity to generate any momentum before COP 17 to be held at the end of the year in Durban but differences, great and small, have prevented crucial conversations from even getting started. Over days, even the simple content of meeting agendas cannot be agreed.
a permanent erection...THE two Americans in charge of Star City's makeover want the casino to become known as ''Sydney's Viagra''. But they admit they have a long way to go if they want to change its reputation as ''an RSL on steroids''. During an exclusive first look at the casino's revamped high-roller room, Larry Mullin, the chief executive of Echo Entertainment Group, spoke of how the almost $1 billion being spent on the site would change perceptions of it as a food court with pokies.
the courage of other's convictions .....My darkest memory from Vietnam is of a young Australian soldier lying wounded in an American hospital near Saigon. It was Christmas 1966. I was taping messages from our diggers to be broadcast back home on ABC radio. This bloke - my own age, in his early 20s - was groggy from sedation but he managed a few cheerful words for Mum and Dad in country Victoria. Don't you worry, be home soon, love to all. Out of his earshot, I asked a nurse what had happened to him. "His balls were blown off by a landmine," she said. "But he doesn't know it yet."
from the world of lost & found .....Party elder John Faulkner's speech called for an engagement in politics, and the politicians sure engaged. They stand at opposite ends of the ideological spectrum, but John Faulkner and John Hewson have come to the same conclusion about the biggest structural question of Australian politics today. That question is the future of the progressive vote in Australia. Labor used to have it, or at least enough of it to hold power. But it lost its critical mass of progressive voters to the Greens in 2010.
something to crowe about...
Russell Crowe went on an anti-circumcision tirade on Twitter late Thursday and early Friday morning (US time), later taking down his cutting Tweets and apologising for offending anyone. "Circumcision is barbaric and stupid. Who are you to correct nature? Is it real that GOD requires a donation of foreskin? Babies are perfect," Crowe tweeted. When a follower wrote, "There's actually a scientific reason for [circumcision], u should google it," Crowe replied: "My friend, 'human' science has caused too much damage, don't be a moron."
don quixbote and sancho hocka...
The Productivity Commission studied policies in China, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, the United Kingdom and the United States and found over 1,000 policies in place aimed at reducing greenhouse gas. "There are significant policies in place and planned across our trading partners," the report said. It says they range from emissions trading schemes to policies that support particular types of abatement technology. "Price-based instruments (such as the European Union ETS) appear to be relatively cost effective," it said. But the study says it provides "little guidance" as to what the starting price of carbon should be.
Achtung!... the full story is more interesting than any caricature. In the last decade, Germany has succeeded in some important ways that the United States has not. The lessons aren’t simply liberal or conservative. They are both. With our economy weakening once again — and with Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany visiting the White House this week — now seems to be a good time to take a closer look. The brief story is that, despite its reputation for austerity, Germany has been far more willing than the United States to use the power of government to help its economy. Yet it has also been more ruthless about cutting wasteful parts of government.
in the screwing business...To understand this story, you have to reel back to the birth of the IMF. In 1944, the countries that were poised to win the Second World War gathered in a hotel in rural New Hampshire to divvy up the spoils. With a few honourable exceptions, like the great British economist John Maynard Keynes, the negotiators were determined to do one thing. They wanted to build a global financial system that ensured they received the lion's share of the planet's money and resources. They set up a series of institutions designed for that purpose – and so the IMF was delivered into the world.
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