We’re squeezed in, hundreds of sweaty bodies pressed against one another in the aptly named Greenhouse tent. It’s 30 December 2014, and two days of tropical downpours have been followed by a full day’s searing heat. We’re at Woodford Folk Festival, north-west of Brisbane, waiting to hear a speaker. It’s either deliciously tropical or downright disgusting in here, depending on your frame of mind.

Our politicians have paltry ideas and express them poorly ….

The response of Tony Abbott's colleagues to his latest wilful overreach at the dispatch box in parliament was unmistakable.

By the time the punchy Prime Minister was on his feet again just minutes later, the air had been sucked from the government balloon. Rarely have iPhones, tablets, and even constituent mail been so universally compelling.

The US's first attempt to export the Tea Party has all but imploded. Angry voters have hit back at the Australian Liberal Party's doctrinaire adoption of brutal right-wing policies. Nial McLaren from Truthout warns there is a larger message in this antipodean squabble.

Lord John Prescott admitted that he and Tony Blair “were wrong” to invade Iraq.

The vast majority of Americans have been the victims of one of the biggest and longest-lasting robberies in history. Danny Katch investigates - and uncovers the culprits.

Officially termed an “incident” (as opposed to a “massacre”), the events of March 16, 1968, at My Lai - a hamlet in South Vietnam - are widely portrayed and accepted to this day as an aberration. While the record of U.S. war crimes in Southeast Asia is far too sordid and lengthy to detail here, it’s painfully clear this was not an isolated “incident.”

The International Court of Justice (CIJ) ruled Thursday a prior ruling by an Ecuadorean court that fined the U.S.-based oil company Chevron US $9.5 billion in 2011 should be upheld.

from Crikey …..

Not the most important part of the story, but terrible Tony is back. Or is he?

The "lifestyle choice" remarks are either a new disaster come from speaking his true mind or a calculated insult, designed to get an effect.

On Saturday, 7th March, Richard Denniss joined Alan Jones and Peter Martin in speaking at a rally of more than 1200 people at Bowral, NSW. The crowd were gathered to show their concern over consequences of coal mining operations proposed in the Southern Highlands.

Once again Tony Abbott kicks an own-goal with all the aplomb of a determined suicide-bomber.