Australia's government stepped up its campaign against Japanese whaling in Antarctic waters Thursday by releasing grisly surveillance pictures of the slain carcasses of a minke whale and a calf being hauled aboard a ship. 

The images were taken by an Australian customs ship that has tracked the Japanese fleet in the Antarctic Ocean for the past month gathering evidence for a diplomatic and legal battle against whaling. 

“When we lift our hearts to God, we’re all equal in his sight.  We’re all equally precious...

After the 2001 terrorist attacks, the president decided to ignore the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, and authorized wiretaps without a warrant on electronic communications between people in the United States and people abroad.

Administration lawyers ginned up a legal justification and then asked communications companies for vast amounts of data.  

By polling logic, I should be your supporter - Democrat, woman, white, liberal.

But this past summer I saw a News Hour show on farmers committing suicide in Maharastra, India, which affected me deeply.  I started learning what was happening to farmers and to food and how the Clintons are connected. 

Ludwig von Mises argues that: "There is no kind of freedom and liberty other than the kind which the market economy brings about. In a totalitarian hegemonic society the only freedom that is left to the individual, because it cannot be denied to him, is the freedom to commit suicide." 

We're "winning the battle" in Afghanistan, Gordon Brown told parliament last December.

In January, bushit told the US Congress, "Afghanistan… is now a young democracy where people are looking to the future with new hope". But now the truth is out.

If a museum were built to honour the ancestral political class, it would not look much different from the House of Commons.

Its corridors are lined with portraits of the political greats and its staircases are adorned with old Vanity Fair caricatures.‘Honourable members’ are still treated as if they were just that, with the right to jump to the top of the queue at canteens, bars and the post office.

Moving with uncommon speed, Congress gave final approval on Thursday to a $168 billion economic rescue package, including rebates for taxpayers and tax breaks for businesses, that lawmakers and President Bush hope will set off a rush of springtime spending and spark the slowing economy. 

The Treasurer, Michael Costa, has pinned his future on the sale of the state's electricity assets, saying he will "not hang around in politics if we're not doing reform". 

In a wide-ranging interview with the Herald yesterday, Mr Costa also claimed Labor's state president, Bernie Riordan, had forfeited his right to the job with his outburst against privatisation this week.  

from Crikey …. 

Romney's out, unless of course Al-Qaeda step in... 

US correspondent Guy Rundle writes from Chicago: 

France unveils super-fast train …..

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has attended the launch of a new high-speed train made by engineering giant Alstom.The AGV (Automotrice Grande Vitesse) train will travel at up to 360km/h (224mph), powered by motors placed under each carriage, the company says.

from Crikey ….. 

Which bank spent $50 million on crappy ads then raised rates? 

Jane Nethercote writes: 

Nine ways in which the Earth could be tipped into a potentially dangerous state that could last for many centuries have been identified by scientists investigating how quickly global warming could run out of control. 

The Federal Opposition says Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is creating problems for the economy by talking up the challenge of inflation. 

The official interest rate is expected to be lifted to its highest level in 12 years today and the Government warns it may be some time before homeowners get any relief. 

The spending package for the fiscal year that begins October 1 included no big surprises, especially since its key elements had already been reported in detail in recent days.