From a purely political point of view, the most interesting thing about travelling to Europe (which I have just done) is the extraordinary contrast with the stopover in Singapore on the way home.

Singapore is all go; huge reclamation works, extraordinary construction projects on the same scale as the futuristic erections in Shanghai, but a good deal classier. Almost everything works and what doesn't is being ruthlessly discarded.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott articulates an alternative vision for the country with Clarke & Dawe.

Alternative Vision

Perhaps we should not be surprised by the decline of quality, original, investigative media.

from Crikey .....

Western Australians may have a penchant for the Coalition, but there are some exceptions. A WA voter is outraged to have received a personalised begging letter from Tony Abbott in the mail. "Outraged of WA", who lives in Julie Bishop's electorate, wants to know how the Liberal Party got his name and address, and if the electoral roll was used, asks if that was appropriate. "What are they doing sending unsolicited beggar mail to everyone in the district?" our contact asked.

Monsanto's history is one steeped with controversial products, deadly consequences, massive cover ups, political sleight of hand, and culminates as a modern day plague on humanity, a plague that is about to peak to biblical proportions. Created in 1901, the company started producing its first form of poison, the artificial sweetener saccharin. The rise in use of saccharin really began 70 years later. Monsanto had plenty of time for a realistic and long term study on the impact of saccharin on human health. Instead, Monsanto learned how to finagle political support and grow its empire despite the growing consensus that saccharin caused cancer.

from Crikey .....

Beecher: Corbett, the functionary, sees Fairfax die on his watch

Eric Beecher, chairman of Private Media (publisher of Crikey), writes:

FAIRFAX MEDIA, GREG HYWOOD, ROGER CORBETT

The Muslim Brotherhood has vowed to face down Egypt's ruling generals in a "life or death" struggle over the country's political future, after declaring that its candidate had won the presidential election and would refuse to accept the junta's last-ditch attempts to engineer a constitutional coup.

As final ballot results trickled in and unofficial tallies suggested that Mohamed Morsi had secured approximately 52% of the popular vote, the Brotherhood deployed its harshest language yet against the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (Scaf), promising to bring millions of Egyptians back on to the streets if attempts to rebuild the old regime continued.

The next election will be austere if the Treasury boss, Martin Parkinson, gets his way.

Dr Parkinson told the Committee for the Economic Development of Australia in Canberra last night that Australians should get real and realise they couldn't ''have it all''.

Ageing and rising expectations were likely to put ''enormous pressure'' on budgets, he said. The taxation base was ''weaker than had been imagined in the mid-noughties''.

from Crikey …..

Essential: we trust the leaders-in-waiting more than the leaders

The Coalition's latest asylum seeker plan is inhumane and lacks integrity.

Tony Abbott and Scott Morrison recently stood in front of Australia and proudly presented the Coalition's plan to ''ensure integrity and restore confidence in refugee assessment''. There is not much to be proud about in this policy. The announcement was based on misinformed and misleading information that plays straight into the unfounded public fear of asylum seekers.

Of all the things politicians can do for us, the most gratifying is to cock up something basic so we can all enjoy a satisfying little laugh.

Contrary to the deluge of corporate media lies, the recent massacres in Syria are not being carried out by the Syrian Government, but rather by the fundamentalist Free Syrian Army (FSA), backed by NATO and the Saudis, with the aim of inciting international outrage and thus support for regime change.

British authorities on Thursday unveiled an ambitious plan to log details about every Web visit, email, phone call or text message in the U.K. – and in a sharply-worded editorial the nation's top law enforcement official accused those worried about the surveillance program of being either criminals or conspiracy theorists.