Former Speaker Peter Slipper has already exercised his newfound power as an independent MP by voting with Labor to change standing orders against the wishes of the Coalition.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott suggested yesterday Mr Slipper should always side with the Coalition and that he would be happy to accept his vote.

On the same day it was reported that hundreds of Australian citizens were traveling to the Middle East to take part in jihadi-style terrorist attacks on Syria, Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr used national television to suggest that the ‘assassination’ of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad might be a way out of the Syrian crisis.

ROME, Oct 10, 2012 (AFP) - The captain of an Italian luxury liner which crashed in January is taking ship owner Costa Crociere to court for firing him and is demanding his job back, Italy's Repubblica newspaper said Wednesday.

When the young and ambitious Richard Nixon was accused of accepting bribes, he wheeled out a trump card: a dog named Checkers, which he said was just another gift from a constituent.

from politicoz ….

When 2GB suspended advertising from Alan Jones' show, its flagship program, it signalled something major and new in the national public debate.

In it together: Australia and Indonesia since the Bali bombings

speech in support of wikileaks & against 11 years of war in Afghanistan ….

This month is the 11th an­niver­sary of the Afghan war, a dis­as­trous con­flict that has achieved noth­ing more than de­struc­tion for Afghans and for­eign­ers.