By now it has become clear why you were awarded the Nobel Peace prize -- a prize which was named after Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite. Is it any wonder that Gandhi did not receive the prize, and the likes of Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini were nominated? Mr. Obama, your Afghan announcement and your position on Iran has made you one dynamite war president.

from Crikey .....

With the Copenhagen talks almost upon us it seems like an appropriate time to launch a scoreboard on how the world is progressing in efforts to limit global warming and the not-for-profit Sustainability Institute has this week done just that.

Honestly, if it weren't so grim, despite all the upbeat benchmarks and encouraging words in the president's speech, this would certainly qualify as Monty Python in Afghanistan. 

Glenn Dyer writes:

Greedy, greedy Westpac. The bank's move in increasing its standard variable home lending rate by 0.45%, almost double the Reserve Bank's rise of 0.25%, was nothing but a grubby grab for cash, dressed up with the usual banking bullsh-t about cost pressures.

"I will promise you this, that if we have not gotten our troops out by the time I am president, it is the first thing I will do. I will get our troops home. We will bring an end to this war. You can take that to the bank." - Barack Obama, October 27, 2007

President Obama ordered top military leaders to begin carrying out his new strategy for the war in Afghanistan, a move that is believed to include the deployment of more than 30,000 additional troops into the 8-year-old conflict, the White House confirmed Monday.

from Crikey .....

Andrew Crook writes:

It was the day the Liberals and the ETS died in a head-on car crash befitting the spectacular fireworks of an ridiculous last week in Canberra. Christmas had clearly come early for hyperactive politicos who gathered around TV screens to watch the carnage unfold.

The pressure on Tony Blair is mounting. After only four days of the Chilcot inquiry, the former prime minister is reported to be furious that a succession of senior diplomats and civil servants have torn into his reputation by questioning his judgment and honesty over the decision to go to war with Iraq.

from Crikey .....

New law gives police the right to frisk anyone, anywhere

Greg Barns writes:

Do Victoria's police minister Bob Cameron and that state's police commissioner Simon Overland like policy to be evidence-based or are they more interested in political point-scoring and window-dressing?

Cometh the hour, cometh the man.

The inspiring news in a week of political strife and tumult is that Kevin Andrews stands ready to lead the Liberal Party and the nation to broad, sunlit uplands. His bold challenge to Malcolm Turnbull last Wednesday surely dispels at a stroke the unkind perception of a sneering few that the member for Menzies is a prissy, extravagantly barbered dolt with a political tin ear.

from Crikey .....

So how come an ETS was OK under John Howard? Ask the oldies .....

Canberra correspondent Bernard Keane writes:

Malcolm Turnbull has vowed to go down fighting on climate change after a flood of Liberal frontbenchers - including Nick Minchin and Tony Abbott - quit last night in a bid to pressure the Opposition Leader to reverse his support for Labor's emissions trading scheme.

As the climate change rebels dramatically escalated their campaign, the shadow treasurer and Turnbull ally, Joe Hockey, declared himself prepared to stand for the leadership should Mr Turnbull fall.

Today, almost everything has changed and has not changed.

Not so long ago, Hamid Karzai, the US-installed president of Afghanistan, used to be hailed by Washington and the US media as a noble democrat and statesman.

But as things in Afghanistan went from bad to worse, and Taliban gained strength and popularity, Washington directed its ire at Karzai, who had almost no power of his own and was forced to rely on the US, the Tajik-Uzbek-Communist Northern Alliance, and assorted drug-dealing warlords.

The first public hearings of the Iraq Inquiry began yesterday amid protests outside demanding that Tony Blair & Gordon Brown be held to account for war crimes, which led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis & 179 British troops.

Joining the protest were representatives from Military Families Against the War, reminding the inquiry committee of the anger felt by many relatives of British soldiers killed in Iraq.

Rudd Labor was elected on a promise to "tackle climate change" but after signing the Kyoto Protocol in December 2007 (10 years late) it helped the US (the stand-out non-ratifier of the Kyoto Protocol) to sabotage the Bali Climate Change Conference (December 2007) and then the Poznan Climate Change Conference (December 2008) by refusing to commit to targets.