from Crikey .....

Michael Wolff, June 20, AdWeek:

"...this really appears to be an unstoppable thing.

Our ABC was at it again the other night, when it decided to put its size 15 boot into North Korea, courtesy of an emotial but fact poor diatribe by its North Asia correspondent, Mark Willacy, called North Korean children begging, army starving.

The ABC report falsely claimed that "Footage shot inside North Korea and obtained by the ABC has revealed the extent of chronic food shortages and malnutrition inside the secretive state." Through the entire article, there is not a single statistic quoted in support of the assertions made.

The City of Sydney has voted to replace the words "European arrival" in the official record with "invasion". The deputy lord mayor, Marcelle Hoff, says it is intellectually dishonest to use any other word in describing how Aboriginal Australia was dispossessed by the British.

The total cost to America of its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, plus the related military operations in Pakistan, is set to exceed $4 trillion - more than three times the sum so far authorised by Congress in the decade since the 9/11 attacks.

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In the first months of the Arab Spring, foreign journalists got well-merited credit for helping to foment and publicise popular uprisings against the region's despots. Satellite TV stations such as Al Jazeera Arabic, in particular, struck at the roots of power in Arab police states, by making official censorship irrelevant and by competing successfully against government propaganda.

Tabloid newspapers and talkback radio have been in hysterics all week over the NRL's decision to charge Johnathan Thurston, the Queensland State of Origin halfback, with thumping a referee.

This was clearly a NSW conspiracy.

"Queensland fans rightly think it stinks," shrieked Brisbane's parish pump, The Courier-Mail. It was "a pathetic act of desperation from a state that will do anything to stop Mal Meninga's team from claiming a sixth straight series win, and grinding more salty humiliation into the Blues' gaping Origin wounds".

The Opposition Leader's bare-knuckled biffo can take him only so far before a more positive strategy is needed.

The federal Labor Party a year ago decided to follow the strategy of NSW Labor, and now it has arrived at the same destination.

The federal party cut down its leader, jettisoned its most idealistic policies, shifted to the right, relied on a negative campaign against its enemy rather than one showcasing its own positive offerings, and imported leadership by focus group.

Pulitzer-winning author and former New York Times reporter Chris Hedges has a revolutionary worldview. In the video below, his recent "Endgame Strategy" piece for AdBusters is read aloud by George Atherton.

His conclusions are chilling, but not entirely hopeless.

After a year as Prime Minister, Julia Gillard has failed to establish any sort of positive relationship with the Australian people, according to the Labor Party's own research.

Gillard is seen as cold and untrustworthy, still haunted by the way she took the job by deposing the man to whom she had endlessly pledged loyalty, Kevin Rudd.

By overthrowing Rudd, she created an emotional starting point for public assessment. This was compounded by her broken promise - "there will be no carbon tax under the government I lead" - to entrench a dominant image of dishonesty.

The Gillard government is grappling with a United Nations inquiry into its alleged failure to protect David Hicks's human rights. But it has indicated to his supporters that it accepts the United States' denial of his torture and warned the proceeds of his book may be confiscated.

A confidential, 107-page document submitted to the UN on Hicks's behalf by the Sydney barrister Ben Saul details alleged breaches of international law by the US and Australian governments, including a failure to protect his right to a fair trial and freedom from torture.

After careful thought, I have decided, like the Prime Minister, that I have no time in my busy schedule to meet Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso, aka His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama.

This may be my loss. When Tony Abbott saw the bouncy bonze on Tuesday he announced that their meeting had been "good and constructive". He had gained "an added consciousness of the importance of the spiritual dimension to life", he said, without a hint of irony.

Kevin Rudd has a two-to-one lead as preferred Labor leader over Prime Minister Julia Gillard, according to a new poll.

The latest Fairfax-Nielsen poll shows the coalition leading Labor by 59 to 41 per cent on a two-party preferred basis, worse than polling when Mr Rudd was overthrown as leader a year ago.

The poll, published in Fairfax newspapers on Saturday, also had Opposition Leader Tony Abbott tying with Ms Gillard for the first time as preferred prime minister, with both on 46 per cent.

Ms Gillard's approval rating has dropped by six percentage points to 37 per cent, her lowest level since becoming prime minister.

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.

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.