from Crikey ....

Politicians are masters at answering a different question to the one asked and, while she might have slipped up a little when referring to the member for Dobell, normally no one does it better than our trained-lawyer Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

She shows all the skills honed by chasing ambulances in pursuit of a dollar as she verbally steps around things like a promise not to introduce a carbon tax. And she was at it again in the Labor Party parliamentary caucus this week as she sought to play down calls for an enquiry into the ownership of Australian media.

In a demonstration of the kind of zero-tolerance policing of modern criminality that will no doubt impress Iran's morals police as much as Egypt's military rulers, officers outside London announced on Monday that they had arrested a man for sending text messages encouraging people to take part in a mass water fight.

farming gas...

THE world has moved into a "new and more dangerous phase" of economic uncertainty because of the European sovereign debt crisis, according to World Bank president Robert Zoellick.

In an exclusive interview with The Weekend Australian, Mr Zoellick said the European economic problems were far more intractable and serious than the US economic problems.

And he worried that the British riots could derail the British budget austerity program.

"I believe what (British Prime Minister David) Cameron is doing in the UK is really necessary. My concern would be if the politics knocked it off course."

from Crikey .....

On farming v mining, Abbott clear on the politics but not so clear on a policy

Crikey Canberra correspondent Bernard Keane writes

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has sought to clarify his comments about farmers having the right to refuse coal seam gas miners access to their land, now saying it is a matter for the states.

Under law, minerals on private property are owned by the Crown and landholders are required to allow mining companies access for exploration or mining. The states administer the laws and glean royalties from mining.

In a radio interview on Friday Mr Abbott said: "If you don't want something to happen on your land, you ought to have a right to say no."

The 2012 Republican presidential debate in Ames, Iowa, Thursday night was exciting. Really.

Sure, it was a civil discussion between conservatives in nice-looking outfits. And it took place in the most midwestern of midwestern states – Iowans' insistence on maintaining an air of middle-class normalcy is almost fanatical. Still, the two hour-long affair sparkled, thanks to the event's co-host Fox News. If bad news is good news for television ("it bleeds, it leads"), however, then this bit of good news about Fox's performance is sure to be bad news for everyone – including the media organisation itself.

The climate sceptics can finally get excited about the 2012 election: Rick Perry, their candidate of choice, is about to officially throw his hat in the ring.

Perry calls global warming "all one contrived phony mess that is falling apart under its own weight." Unlike many of the other GOP presidential candidates, he hasn't expressed concern about climate change in the past, so he won't have to do any back-pedaling. Notorious climate denier Marc Morano is a big fan: "Based on climate views alone, anyone who is holding their nose voting for Mitt Romney because there's no other viable candidate will now rejoice to have an option with Rick Perry."

The Bullingdon is an ancient dining club for undergraduate toffs at Oxford, all male, by invitation only. You need pots of money to join, partly to fork out for the uniform of white tie'n'tails with trimmings, but mostly to pay for the property damage wrought at the club's notorious orgies of drinking and destruction.

The British Prime Minister, David William Donald Cameron (Eton, Brasenose), his Tory Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Gideon Oliver Osborne (St Paul's, Magdalen, and heir to a baronetcy), and the Tory mayor of London, the blond, bicycling and batty Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (Eton, Balliol), were all Bullingdon chaps in the '80s.

Eighty-one congressmen, or about 20 percent of the US House of Representatives, will visit Israel over the next three weeks during Congress's summer recess, with the first group of 26 Democrats scheduled to arrive on Monday.

The Democratic delegation will be followed by two Republican ones, bringing a total of 55 Republicans.

Most of the representatives are freshmen congressmen, with 47 - or fully half of the freshmen Republicans voted into office in 2010 - making the trip.

For many of them, this will be their first trip to Israel.