The following letter has been circulated mostly in the United States by Just Foreign Policy. It was hand-delivered to the Embassy of Ecuador in London by Just Foreign Policy Policy Director Robert Naiman on Monday, June 25. 

Read the press release.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard says she is "open'' to further discussions with the opposition on offshore processing but is standing by the government's Malaysia solution.

In an interview with ABC TV this afternoon, Ms Gillard said that people wanted to see MPs find a solution to people risking their lives at sea. "People want to see us put the politics aside and act to get something done," she said.

When George W. Bush was president of the United States, it was an article of faith among liberals that many of his policies were not just misguided but unconstitutional as well. On issues large and small, from the conduct of foreign policy to the firing of United States attorneys, the Bush White House pushed an expansive view of executive authority, and Democrats pushed right back - accusing it of shredding the constitution, claiming near-imperial powers and even corrupting the lawyers working in its service.

Today, Andrew Bolt descended into a new abyss... He quoted Barnaby Joyce questioning of what Julia knew of her former partner's "fraud" 17 years ago... and Bolt promised to dig more dirt on this "affair"...

These days, IA is – according to online resource Alexa – probably the third most popular independent news and opinion website in Australia in terms of traffic (behind Crikey and On Line Opinion).

One hundred years ago, prelates and parsons and other assorted killjoys were up in arms against a frightful evil sweeping the Western world.

"It is revolting and disgusting. Only those persons who have lost all moral sense can endure it," thundered Cardinal Aristide Cavallari, the patriarch of Venice. "It is the shame of our days. Whoever persists in it commits a sin."

Arriving in a village in southern Vietnam, I caught sight of two children who bore witness to the longest war of the 20th century. Their terrible deformities were familiar. All along the Mekong River, where the forests were petrified and silent, small human mutations lived as best they could.