The main French opposition party, the Socialists - delighted to have an issue to distract from their own internal back-stabbing - have accused the President of "scandalous collusion" with parts of the media.

The Elysée Palace, dismissing calls for a parliamentary inquiry, has rejected the cries of scandal as far-fetched. "We order opinion polls. If newspapers buy the same ones, what can we do?" said M. Sarkozy's chief aide and secretary general, Claude Guéant.

In South Australia the Liberal Party has just elected its third leader in as many years. In the lead up to the ballot there was much discussion as to which of the three candidates would make the better leader, but few asked the question whether or not there was anyone in State Parliament who was worthy to lead their party, let alone be premier. Reflecting further I cast my eyes beyond the state and asked the question: where are our political leaders?

Former vice-president Dick Cheney could be forced to testify to Congress over allegations that a secret hit squad was set up on his orders, as Democrats press for inquiries into the conduct of the "war on terror". Paul Harris reports from New York.

America is bracing itself for a series of investigations that could see top officials from the administration of President George W Bush hauled in front of Congress, grilled by a special prosecutor and possibly facing criminal charges.

The US spends $100 million a day on the war effort in Afghanistan and a further $7 million a day goes into reconstruction. It has committed to spend $2.4 trillion over the next ten years. Big, expensive buildings have been constructed in Kabul, now "owned by the war lords". Illegal drugs going from Afghanistan into the US and Europe generate about $500 million a year.

From the green left

He occupied a (somewhat self-appointed) position as a hero of Australia's environment and Indigenous rights movements for decades. Yet these days, former Midnight Oil frontman and current ALP environment minister Peter Garrett works overtime to prove his credentials as a defender of big business and the big polluters.

In the early 1960s, Senator William J. Fulbright fought to force the American Zionist Council to register as agents of a foreign government. The Council eluded registration by reorganizing as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. AIPAC has since become what Fulbright most feared: a foreign agent dominating American foreign policy while disguised as a domestic lobby.

When the Honduran military overthrew the democratically elected government of Manuel Zelaya two weeks ago, there might have been a sigh of relief in the corporate boardrooms of Chiquita. Earlier this year, the Cincinnati-based fruit company joined Dole in criticizing the government in Tegucigalpa that had raised the minimum wage by 60%.

Most libertarians agree that the American government is colossal, oppressive and a slayer of freedom and liberty.  There are certainly domestic influences and causes for the enormous growth in the statist tilt of American governance and concentration of power. 

It's hard not to feel sorry for this giant, iconic mammal.

So trusting! So vulnerable! So easily harpooned!

If you listen closely, the traces of the threatened behemoth's famous eerie song are still audible.

But the hunters care nothing, as they draw alongside with their cruel barbs.

It's like shooting fish in a barrel, and the hunters have no mercy.

I write, of course, of the brutal, thriving industry that is the modern Garrett hunt.

Was ever a politician easier to skewer?

Glenys Kinnock has done her old friend Tony Blair no favours by announcing he is ready to stand as President of Europe and has Gordon Brown's backing. The 'Stop Blair' campaign in both Britain and Europe will now move into top gear.

from Crikey .....

Turnbull's leadership is clawing back to terminal

Canberra correspondent Bernard Keane writes:

If this were the democracy that the Founding Fathers thought they were creating, word from CIA Director Leon Panetta that his agency had lied to Congress and specifically that it had lied repeatedly from 9-11-2001 through the end of 2008 concerning an as-yet undisclosed secret program, would have virtually every member of Congress in a state of rebellion, demanding answers.

After all, the CIA is required by law to report to at least the majority and minority leaders of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees and to the majority and minority leaders of both houses of Congress about such things.

It has been touted as a successful treatment for everything from insomnia and depression to Parkinson's disease and multiple sclerosis. Now supporters of legalised marijuana are making perhaps their most extravagant claim yet: that the drug can solve California's spiralling financial crisis.

A series of television ads was launched yesterday supporting a bill by Democratic assemblyman Tom Ammiano that would regulate and tax the sale of marijuana in the Golden State, where Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration is in a $26bn (£15.9bn) black hole.