America prides itself on religious freedom, the Constitution's First Amendment stating:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

WASHINGTON - Tea Party darling Christine O'Donnell's Delaware win triggered angry GOPer-vs.-GOPer backbiting Wednesday and gave Democrats new hope of avoiding disaster in November.

O'Donnell followed up her 6-point victory over veteran Rep. Mike Castle for the Republican Senate nomination by thumbing her nose at party establishment types and mocking the GOP feud with the Tea Party as "Republican cannibalism."

"There are a lot of people who are rallying behind me who are frustrated that the Republican Party has lost its way," O'Donnell said.

Malcolm Turnbull has laid out clearly why the Federal Government needs to do more to show that its planned $43 billion National Broadband Network is not a waste of taxpayer funds.

Back in the saddle as a senior Opposition frontbencher for the first time in nine months, Turnbull lost no time in carrying out the riding instructions of his leader Tony Abbott - to ''demolish'' Labor's political and policy case for the NBN.

But there is just one problem for Abbott.

RALSTON, Iowa — Piglets hop, scurry and squeal their way to the far corner of the pen, eyeing an approaching human. “It shows that they’re healthy animals,” Craig Rowles, the owner of a large pork farm here, said with pride.

Mr. Rowles says he keeps his pigs fit by feeding them antibiotics for weeks after weaning, to ward off possible illness in that vulnerable period. And for months after that, he administers an antibiotic that promotes faster growth with less feed.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says he hopes the appointment of Malcolm Turnbull as communications spokesman will help convince key independent MPs to dump Labor and switch sides.

Mr Abbott is foreshadowing his tactics for the coming months after yesterday revealing a frontbench line-up which he described as "hungry" to hold the minority Government to account.

He has flagged the Government's broadband policy - one of the areas crucial in swinging at least one independent towards supporting Labor - as a major battleground over the next 18 months.

The Opposition's new communications spokesman, Malcolm Turnbull, has wasted no time in attacking the Federal Government's management of the National Broadband Network (NBN) amid claims of a potential budget blowout.

Earlier today Opposition Leader Tony Abbott ordered Mr Turnbull to "demolish" the NBN as he brought him back to the Coalition frontbench to head up its communications portfolio.

Declaring the NBN would be the "absolute focus" of the political battle of the next 18 months, Mr Abbott said he could think of no better person to "ferociously" hold the Government to account on the issue.

Back in 1995, Benjamin Netanyahu published a scary book called Fighting Terrorism: How Democracies Can Defeat the International Terrorist Network that says that radical Islam is trying to conquer the west and extend Muslim rule. I carried a copy out with me to Jordan. From page 121:

"The best estimates at this time place Iran between three and five years away from possessing the prerequisites required for the independent production of nuclear weapons. After this time, the Iranian Islamic republic will have the ability to construct atomic weapons without the importation of materials or technology from abroad."

Terrorists' biggest bonus was gained when the US invaded Iraq

September 14, 2010

The war criminal, Tony Blair, is to receive an award for his alleged global human rights work.

The ex-Prime Minister will be presented with Liberty Medal by former US President Bill Clinton even as his newly published memoirs reignited debate on his political leadership.

The medal is given annually by the National Constitution Centre to individuals or organisations whose actions aim to bring liberty to people worldwide.

Mr Blair is being honoured for his work with the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, which promotes religious tolerance, and for his initiative to improve governance in Africa.

from Crikey .....

The day Free TV Australia didn't like a bit of free speech

Canberra correspondent Bernard Keane writes:

Political staffer:

"Hey, Rob I'm just going to the parliamentary canteen. Did you want the pasta or the salad roll?"

Rob Oakeshott:

"Well, look. I mean, yikes. I'm not pretending this is easy. It's been line ball, a points decision, six to one half a dozen the other, it really could go either way, in fact it's going right down to the wire. I mean, I like pasta. I like it a lot. Over the years I have eaten a lot of pasta, it's, you know, it's a carbohydrate, and you can have it with a variety of sauces.

Did 9/11 make us all go mad? How fitting, in a weird, crazed way, that the apotheosis of that firestorm nine years ago should turn out to be a crackpot preacher threatening another firestorm with a Nazi-style book burning of the Koran. Or a would-be mosque two blocks from "ground zero" - as if 9/11 was an onslaught on Jesus-worshipping Christians, rather than on the atheist West.

At the insistence of the Greens, we are about to get a full-scale parliamentary debate on our military involvement in Afghanistan some time soon - the only foreign policy demand in our 17 days of political haggling.

So let's hope our kinder and gentler MPs do their homework and make the best of it, instead of resorting to the usual pieties about standing behind our fighting soldiers until the job is done.

The question is: what is the job? Fortunately, some very good discussion papers are starting to come out of respected think tanks and policy groups to guide our thinking. And some bad ones too.