President Barack Obama is losing his strong right arm. Dark days lie ahead, in which the president will lose traction with Congress, needlessly offend key constituencies, lose control of his legislative agenda. Why? His chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, is quitting the White House, maybe to try and become mayor of Chicago, certainly to cash in and make a bundle on Wall Street.

The NSW Nationals have accepted $16,500 from tobacco companies this year, exposing the Coalition to more criticism from the Labor Party, which refuses to take tobacco company donations.

According to the Nationals' latest donations and expenditure disclosure lodged with the Election Funding Authority, British American Tobacco donated $13,200 to the party in April, while Philip Morris donated $3300 in March.

The manager of Opposition business Christopher Pyne has become the first MP of the new Parliament to be booted from the chamber during Question Time.

Question Time is operating under new time limits and other rules aimed to ensure proper debate and less abuse of the process.

During an answer from Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Mr Pyne wanted to make a point of order but was denied by Speaker Harry Jenkins who had already sat Ms Gillard down.

Mr Pyne then said Ms Gillard had sat down because she was "hopeless".

He was promptly expelled from the chamber for one hour.

The Federal Government says its success in getting Coalition MP Peter Slipper up for the job of Deputy Speaker yesterday proves that it is in control of its fragile majority in the House of Representatives.

Mr Slipper was nominated by Labor and went on to win a secret ballot 78 votes to 71 over the Coalition's preferred candidate, Nationals MP Bruce Scott.

Labor backbencher Mike Symon says it shows the Federal Government can get the numbers when it counts.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/09/29/3024465.htm?section=justin

The US says it is "disappointed" by Israel's decision not to extend a ban on West Bank settlement building.

US Middle East envoy George Mitchell has been sent to the region in an attempt to salvage direct peace talks that were restarted earlier this month.

The 10-month moratorium came to an end at midnight (2200 GMT on Sunday).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-11422065

I can't understand the thinking behind the ''personal view'' of the NSW Liberal leader, Barry O'Farrell, opposing ethics classes as a complement to special religious education classes. Mr O'Farrell, please tell us how you came to this position.

Yes, ethics is already embedded in school curriculums, policies and other programs. However ethics classes for the 100,000 children who do not take part in scripture classes each week is a matter of fair play. It offers those children an opportunity to formally and explicitly explore concepts of the self, respect for others, justice, intention, problem solving and consequences for actions - just as their peers are doing in their religious education classes.

Just after Rob Oakeshott and Tony Windsor decided to back Labor, a relieved minister observed that, throughout the election campaign, Tony Abbott had reminded him of the Terminator, the Hollywood-created cyborg that made Arnold Schwarzenegger a star.

The seemingly indestructible cyborg assassin travelled back in time from 2029 to 1984 Los Angeles, programmed to kill its target, Sarah Connor.

In the kill-or-be-killed game of politics, the minister was paying Abbott a compliment with the analogy to the cold-blooded and emotionless killing machine.

Downhill With the G.O.P.

By PAUL KRUGMAN

Once upon a time, a Latin American political party promised to help motorists save money on gasoline. How? By building highways that ran only downhill.

From letters at the SMH (25/09/10)

Section 40 of the Australian constitution states that the speaker of the House of Representatives shall not have a vote on matters before it, only a casting vote in the event of a tie.

The pairing of MPs (''Gillard tries to lure Coalition defector'', September 24) in a disciplined two-party system is a practice designed to preserve the value of someone's vote when they are unavoidably absent from the House.

Pairing of the speaker has never been part of this practice because there is no deliberative vote to preserve. Indeed, if the speaker's vote was to be paired, then the speaker could effectively end up having two votes in the event of a tie.

Mural in Newtown, Sydney, now vanished as townhouses have been built in front of it. Picture by Gus, 2005.