Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan has ridiculed recent comments by Opposition spokesman Joe Hockey about tax cuts.

The tax breaks promised before the election start from today.

Yesterday Mr Hockey said it would have been legitimate for the Government to scrap them because of the global financial crisis.

"There would have been a legitimate justification for the Government to say 'our economic recovery will be slower if we are running a big deficit', and I think it should have been considered as part of the mix," he said.

It began more than six years ago with a lie, followed by another lie, and another lie, and then two more, ten more, a hundred, a thousand, an avalanche of lies from heads of state and hatchet men and well-fed media types more interested in getting the interview than in getting the facts.

It began with lies like this:

"Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction."

- Dick Cheney, Vice President Speech to VFW National Convention 8/26/2002

... and this:

Malcolm Turnbull has sought refuge from negative opinion polls and the OzCar affair in the politically safer territory of Afghanistan.

The federal Opposition leader visited Australian Defence Force members in Kandahar and Tarin Kowt that they have the support of all Australians during a visit to the strife-torn country.

Today Israeli Occupation Forces attacked and boarded the Free Gaza Movement boat, the SPIRIT OF HUMANITY, abducting 21 human rights workers from 11 countries, including Noble laureate Mairead Maguire and former U.S. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney (see below for a complete list of passengers). The passengers and crew are being forcibly dragged toward Israel.

from Crikey .....

Rundle: Grech, Dickensian, Dostoyevsky-like, or, erm, something out of John Grisham

Guy Rundle writes:

Politics is a hard game, a pyramid of pain, an inferno reverso. You see someone in your local branch, social movement, chamber of commerce, union and you think "that bloke/ette's a bit of a bastard - they'll always be one stage more ruthless than I can ever be. Better stay out of their way unless the fight can't be avoided."

The Liberal Party risks being labelled weak and pathetic if it replaces Malcolm Turnbull as Opposition Leader on the back of poor opinion polls, a Coalition frontbencher says.

Opposition MPs have today rallied behind Mr Turnbull following a barrage of dreadful poll data.

Ms Julia Gillard, Deputy PM of Australia is currently visiting Apartheid Israel and the West Bank of the illegally Israeli-occupied Occupied Palestinian Territory (she will not be visiting what the Catholic Church describes as Israel's Gaza Concentration Camp to meet the Hamas Authority MPs whose party won 76 out of 132  . seats in the 2006 Occupied Palestinian elections held under racist Zionist guns - Gillard will only be talking to the minority Apartheid Israel-, US- and EU-backed Fatah "Prime Minister").

A pastor in the US state of Kentucky told his flock to bring handguns to church in what he said was an effort to promote safe gun ownership.

Pastor Ken Pagano told parishioners to bring their unloaded guns to New Bethel Church in Louisville for a service celebrating the right to bear arms.

He said he acted after church members voiced fears the Obama administration could tighten gun control laws.

The Central Intelligence Agency crucified a prisoner in Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, according to a report published in The New Yorker magazine.

The Opposition's Treasury spokesman, Joe Hockey, has dismissed claims he is jockeying for the leadership position.

An article in The Australian newspaper claims senior Liberals believe he has been too keen to distance himself from the OzCar affair, rather than stand by leader Malcolm Turnbull.

But Mr Hockey says it is a beat-up.

-------------------

How would you like a job with a six figure salary and the ability to vote yourself an additional healthy chunk of taxpayer money to be used for "expenses?"

Need millions and millions each year to run your household?

Then become a member of the Congressional royalty and you too can wallow in the pork of nearly FOUR BILLION dollars to be used for "expenses."

$3.7 billion divided by 535 members of Congress works out to a sweet $6.9 MILLION for each one of our Congressional "princes" to spend on "expenses."

The Rudd Government has buckled under pressure from the big supermarkets and abandoned its $13 million election promise to force grocery prices down.

The joint might of Woolworths and Coles has successfully blocked the Grocery Choice scheme just six days before its scheduled launch next Wednesday. The price monitoring website had promised to impose unprecedented transparency on the powerful supermarket duopoly.

And a bit of perspective is what Agriculture Minister, Tony Burke, who has a talent for getting under Turnbull's skin, gave us in question time this week.

On Tuesday, Mr Burke reminded Mr Turnbull of his decision, in the final days of his stint as environment minister, to approve a $2 million grant of federal money to the Australian Rain Corporation.

Officer Paul Abel, a veteran of counter-insurgency warfare in the Regime's illegal occupation of Iraq, was deeply drunk last June 28 when somebody punched him at a stoplight.

Abel, an eight-year veteran of the police force, "drove around the block, until he spotted [21-year-old Kaleb] Miller, whom he knew from the neighborhood," recounts the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "Witnesses said the officer hit Mr. Miller on the neck with the butt of his Glock and the gun went off, grazing Mr. Miller's hand."

Like a Fourth of July crescendo of fireworks, our gasoline prices are rising higher and higher. While this is tough on consumers, we're assured by a covey of tongue-clucking industry analysts that nothing can be done about it, for it's simply the law of supply and demand in action -- so suck it up, and pay up.