From the ABC

A new report has found pests cost Australia's agriculture industry more than $740 million a year.

Rabbits are considered the nation's biggest feral animal problem, causing $200 million worth of damage every year.

Birds cost the horticulture industry about $300 million annually.

Tony Peacock from the Invasive Animal Cooperative Research Centre says the total estimated cost is a conservative estimate, which does not include environmental or social impacts.

"Sure, I, I always seemed to have faith in the government and honestly, I didn't really care (laugh).  Umm, I had other things going on - ya know, getting married, having children - it just, it wasn't a priority in my life, and, ya know I really didn't start even watching the news at all I think until maybe 1991.

Suddenly they were all over the place, arriving not as singles but in battalions. Many, like Maryland's 5th District Rep. Steny Hoyer had been to Israel nearly a dozen times; career stalwarts once more showing fealty to Israel's brutal occupation of Palestine while lamely telling their constituents that they were on a legitimate 'fact finding mission.' For many, their real purpose was to signal their President that there must be no change in the US policy of coddling Israel's increasingly Apartheid regime.

This week's presidential election in Afghanistan will be an elaborate piece of political theater designed to show increasingly uneasy Western voters that progress is being made in the war-torn nation after seven years of US-led occupation.

Most Afghans already believe they know who will win the vote: the candidate chosen by the United States and its NATO allies.

Voting will mostly be held in urban areas, under the guns of US and NATO troops.

The Environment Minister, Peter Garrett, has warned that money to save endangered wildlife is limited and some species may have to be abandoned when funding decisions are made.

In one of the strongest speeches of his ministerial career he told an international conference of ecologists in Brisbane that the Government will shift its focus to protecting ''ecosystems'', rather than putting money into individual projects for endangered animals.

...

Mr Gibbons added that Mr Garrett and the Rudd Government had not yet been prepared to have a debate about ''the links between economic growth and the damage we are doing to our natural ecosystems''.

It's nice that the great lumping discussion paper on freshening up security laws, the 60th birthday of the Geneva Conventions and a new round of official finger-wagging about plea bargaining have all arrived on our doorstep at the same thrilling moment.

It's always good to have a discussion paper. It just depends who does the discussing and what laws ultimately settle on the books.

The most significant voices in this discussion, although you may not hear them, will come from the security agencies, such as the Australian Federal Police and Australian Security Intelligence Organisation.

from Crikey .....

Clive Hamilton: our parliament sabotages our future

Clive Hamilton writes:

Is parliamentary democracy capable of responding adequately to the climate crisis?

Wait a minute. Is it just me or does anyone else see the inherent absurdity of this headline from the August 10 edition of the New York Times: "U.S. to Hunt Down Afghan Drug Lords Tied to Taliban."

DATELINE JUDEA, A.D. 26 - Pontius Pilate to Jesus: "Look you seem to be a nice Jewish kid from ... where izzit? ... Nazareth? But you gotta quit fuckin wid da moneychangers, cause I get a piece of dat action, see? So stop dickin' with 'em. And especially you gotta swear off this Son of God, King of the Jews shtick. Ain't but one king aroun jeer, and you're lookin' at him. So lay off that stuff, and we can put this whole thing behind us, you and me. On the other hand, I got a couple of thieves I'm gonna do in tomorrow; and you can join 'em if you want. Your call kid. Now who's yer daddy?"

The Federal Environment Minister has toured the West Australian Government's preferred site for a gas hub in the Kimberley.

Peter Garrett yesterday met traditional owners at James Price Point, 60 kilometres north of Broome, as part of a two-day stopover.

Mr Garrett will have ultimate responsibility for signing off on the development after reviewing Aboriginal heritage and environmental impact studies.

He says an impartial approvals process will occur, irrespective of the demands of the State Government or industry.

Politicians are particularly fond of claiming battler status. I was reminded of this when, about a week ago, the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, who has previously told childhood stories of being evicted from a farm and living in a car, spoke on radio about the menial jobs he did after finishing school.

Early on the morning of June 12, the Liberal senator Eric Abetz and his chief of staff, Brad Stansfield, boarded a plane from Hobart to Sydney. Of several Abetz meetings in Sydney that day, one would go down in political infamy.

Already it has severely wounded Malcolm Turnbull's leadership, although the extent of the injury is still to unravel.

Gus: Of course, if one believes Malcolm Turnbull, "he was conned" by a great puppet-meister — who, we all know, is a very sick public servant who has been a mole of the Liberal Party for years. Thus the Malcolm stance does not make sense, even if Grech was a complete dummy or a very devilish man.

Yet Malcolm and Abetz are pouring as much rubbish on Grech as they can put their hands on for the fake Ozcar email debacle...

In 2007 an extreme right wing, pro-US, pro-war, pro-coal, pro-Zionist Labor Party was elected to government under Kevin Rudd with the promise to stop involvement in Occupied Iraq (Australia still has troops there), to remove draconian workplace legislation (key draconian provisions remain) and to act on climate change (Australia's world leading per capita greenhouse gas pollution continues unabated and Labor is now on the verge of destroying the renewable energy industry).

US says hunt still on for bin Laden

As the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks approaches, the Obama administration is publicly staking out its strategy to defeat extremists.

It says it will use diplomatic, political and economic strategies to try to defeat Al Qaeda and maintain pressure on terrorist havens in Afghanistan, Yemen and Somalia.

President Barack Obama's senior counter-terrorism adviser is also warning that Al Qaeda's intent to carry out attacks in the United States remains undiminished.