Like ugly on a toad, banker greed just can't be rinsed off, no matter how much regulatory soap you use.

Last week, Congress enacted new rules to govern America's huge banks, thus completing Washington's response to the unbridled Wall Street greed that crashed the financial system and crushed our economy. The regulatory reforms were hailed by Democrats as possessing powerful cleansing power, while Republicans wailed that the new rules were overly caustic, imposing such a heavy-handed governmental scrub that the delicate layers of Wall Street innovation, competitiveness and profitability will be rubbed away.

At the edge of Parliament Square, Winston Churchill squints – hunched and impervious and marble – over the gothic heart of British democracy. Usually, his only company is the smoggy traffic and snapping tourists. But, for the past three months, he has been joined by another symbol, and another style of democracy.

A year before the [Iraq] war, the former MI5 chief advised Home Office officials that the direct threat posed by Iraq to the UK was "very limited and containable".

In a newly declassified document, published by the inquiry, Baroness Manningham-Buller told the senior civil servant at the Home Office in March 2002 that there was no evidence that Iraq had any involvement in the 9/11 attacks.

While there were reports of links between the regime of Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda, there was no intelligence to suggest meaningful co-operation between the two.

They're tricky; they're sneaky; and they're all together freaky; they're the Abbott Family.

The Australian Workers' Union has just launched a new television advertisement, and put the ad out on YouTube, explaining that Tony Abbott and his family of political mates belong in a museum - they are throw backs to the weird world of the early 60s.

"Just like in the 60s television series this wealthy clan just don't understand how bizarre and frightening their policies are - and how badly they would hurt the working families which my union represents," Paul Howes said.

They're The Abbott Family

From Chris Floyd...

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott must be extremely courageous - or extremely foolish.

If talkback radio and shopping centre walks haven't proved dangerous enough this campaign, he will face the perils of live television tomorrow night with an appearance on Hey Hey It's Saturday alongside Kylie Minogue, Ozzie the Ostrich, Plucka Duck, Darryl Somers and all the gang.

from Crikey .....

Keane: dead and buried, but the WorkChoices zombie dogs Abbott

Canberra correspondent Bernard Keane writes:

"You can frame that: WorkChoices, dead, buried, cremated, that's my signature," Mr Abbott said.

The stunt recalled Mark Latham's 2004 signature on an oversize cardboard statement promising a Labor government would keep interest rates low.

AAP writes: But Mr Abbott also refused to rule out any future changes to the government’s industrial laws, the Fair Work legislation.

‘Obviously I can’t give an absolute guarantee about every single aspect of workplace relations legislation,’’ Mr Abbott said.

from Crikey .....

Cox: vote 1, trust, seems to be the order of the day

Eva Cox writes:

If the Vatican is trying to restore the impression that its moral sense is intact, issuing a document that equates pedophilia with the ordination of women doesn't really do that.

The Catholic Church continued to heap insult upon injury when it revealed its long-awaited new rules on clergy sex abuse, rules that the Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said signaled a commitment to grasp the nettle with "rigor and transparency."

The church still believes in its own intrinsic holiness despite all evidence to the contrary. It thinks it's making huge concessions on the unstoppable abuse scandal when it's taking baby steps.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has given a guarantee he would keep interest rates lower than a Labor government in a move that could backfire on him as it did for former prime minister John Howard.

Mr Abbott on Sunday said Labor policies and the size of the government's debt were pushing up living costs and putting upward pressure on interest rates.

But in comments reminiscent of a promise made by Mr Howard during the 2004 election campaign, Mr Abbott suggested a coalition government would be able to keep interest rates lower.

Tony Blair waged an extraordinary two-year battle to keep secret a lucrative deal with a multinational oil giant which has extensive interests in Iraq.

The former Prime Minister tried to keep the public in the dark over his dealings with South Korean oil firm UI Energy Corporation.

Mr Blair - who has made at least £20million since leaving Downing Street in June 2007 - also went to great efforts to keep hidden a £1million deal advising the ruling royal family in Iraq's neighbour Kuwait.

Rushing like lemmings to the cliff, this rotten state government mounts yet another attack on the ordinary punter. From Monday, six mobile speed cameras will be prowling the roads, concealed in nondescript white vans, each one of them able to fine six drivers every second.

This is yet another arm of the government's long established policy of bullying and punishing motorists. I can't remember the name of this week's roads minister and nor can I be bothered to find out, but whoever it is was on TV the other day, po-faced, bleating that he would be delighted if not one extra dollar was raised.

The catastrophe confronting us is the severest that life has ever faced and incredibly its one of our own making. The scientific and technological advances that civilisation experienced in the past two centuries changed the world from a vibrant diverse ecosystem to a fragile one. It's hard to find any branch of the ecosystem that is in better condition to support human life today than it was at the beginning of the industrial revolution. This is in spite of the exponential increased in knowledge and abilities.

from Crikey .....

Our wealthy getting a free ride: time to start giving back

Daniel Petre, entrepreneur, philanthropist and former vice-president of Microsoft, writes: