To get to the federal government's position on the asylum seeker question takes time. This sort of political and policy mess is built on much talking, manoeuvring and internal confusion, and its gestation period is long.

The confusion about values and direction was on display very early in Julia Gillard's time as Prime Minister. On the day she assumed the Labor leadership in June last year, Gillard expressed solidarity with Australians who favoured a hard line. ''I am full of understanding of the perspective of the Australian people that they want strong management of our borders, and I will provide it,'' she said.

Parliamentary privilege is used as the WikiLeaks of sex scandals more than anything else. Under its banner, Craig Thomson was named as the misuser of his union credit card on brothels. Senator Bill Heffernan falsely accused the great High Court judge Michael Kirby of using his Commonwealth car to pick up rent boys. Kirby accepted the ungracious apology and held out his hand in the ''spirit of reconciliation''. Deirdre Grusovin named the late John Marsden as a paederast when it was clear the accuser was more saucy than source, causing Channel Seven to pay lawyers more money than they did in the network's failed Foxtel case.

Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner delivered an unusually direct plea for action to his counterparts in Europe on Friday, urging leaders to move with more unity to head off a potential new wave of financial crisis on the continent.

But he got a chilly response. There was no accord on new steps to address the debt crisis that started in Greece and has spread to the much bigger economies of Spain and Italy. And many of the European finance ministers who heard from Geithner in a session in Poland on Friday seemed to bristle at him intruding on their affairs.

The two independents who were once thought to be weak props to Julia Gillard's minority government are no longer holding weekly meetings with Tony Abbott, and both have denounced his political conduct.

Tony Windsor has criticised Mr Abbott for exploiting a "redneck" politics that is "damaging our institutions".

Rob Oakeshott has described the Liberal leader's political style as based on "fear and loathing" and said he was encouraging "nutjob" elements.

FRANCIS BOYLE, fboyle at law.uiuc.edu

Professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of Law in Champaign and author of Palestine, Palestinians, and International Law, Boyle said today: "This week, President Obama has attacked the Palestinian UN membership bid as a 'distraction' and Secretary of State Clinton has claimed the U.S. 'strongly supports' the two-state solution but that the 'way of getting a lasting solution is through direct negotiations between the parties.'

Britain has amended a law that allowed for issuing arrest warrants against Israeli politicians who visit the country, British Ambassador Matthew Gould announced Thursday.

Gould called opposition leader Tzipi Livni, against whom an arrest warrant was issued in 2009 & told her the Queen has signed the amendment "to ensure that the UK's justice system can no longer be abused for political reasons."

The Queen Has Lost Her Royal Marbles

Defence Minister Stephen Smith said this week that Afghanistan would be high on the agenda at top-level talks in the United States marking the 60th year of the Australia-US alliance.

The AUSMIN talks will be held in San Francisco, where Australia and the US signed the ANZUS treaty in September 1951, binding Australia to cooperate with the US on defence matters in the Pacific.

"It's the 60th anniversary of our alliance with the United States - the US alliance continues to be the pillar and the bedrock of our strategic, security and defence arrangements," Mr Smith told reporters in Sydney.

Ray Finkelstein QC's media inquiry may not pursue bias in the media, but The Power Index hears that broadcasting regulator ACMA has already got Alan Jones and 2GB in its sights.

ACMA has confirmed with The Power Index it is investigating three separate complaints of bias or factual inaccuracy against Jones, and another two complaints relating to fellow 2GB presenter Chris Smith.

Since the complaints were made up to six months ago, it's likely that some or all are close to resolution.

from Crikey ....

Thomson allegations pick long-standing wounds at HSU

Crikey senior journalist Andrew Crook writes:

To put it bluntly, every single chapter in the history of the extension of U.S. power has opened with the same sentence: "Innocent Americans were treacherously attacked..."

- Remember theMainein Havana harbor in 1898(274 dead)?

- TheLusitaniatorpedoed by a German U-boat in 1915(1,198 drowned, including 128 Americans)?

- Pancho Villa's raid on Columbus, New Mexico, in 1916 (18 U.S citizens killed)?

- Pearl Harbor (2,402 dead)?

Same sneak attack, same righteous national outrage. Same pretext for clandestine agendas.

... And this is the central point. It isn't enough just to be "the Leader". There has to be a point to leadership. 'The Leader' has to have a plan, to inspire her or his followers with that plan and to reach out to a broader section of the community as a leader of conviction.

Sure, things can go wrong. They did for me [Alexander Downer] when I was opposition leader in 1994-95. A bad joke and a couple of gaffes and down went my approval ratings. In January 1995 my approval rating in Newspoll was 24 per cent. I thought that was pretty terminal.

I had a plan, I had my convictions but I worried. At this rate my plan would turn to dust because I'd lose the upcoming general election.

ITALY has turned to the China Investment Corp, one of the world's largest sovereign wealth funds, to ease its debt crisis, according to a report in the Financial Times.

Things look pretty bad for Labor at the moment.

Indeed most commentators say defeat is inevitable and it's just a matter of time, with pokies early next year as the possible alliance-breaker.

For true believers like me it's heartbreaking. Much has changed in party politics but it still matters which party is in power. As Paul Keating said it defines the nation.

One thing is for certain, every Labor MP will be on edge and full of advice for party and faction leaders. Those of a conservative disposition will be calling for calm and the risk-takers will be contemplating if not advocating change.

David Cameron has raised the Alexander Litvinenko case at the start of his bridge-building visit to Russia.

Relations between the UK and Russia have been strained since the Russian dissident was murdered in London in 2006, and Russia then refused to extradite the prime suspect.

The PM said in Moscow that the UK would continue to push for Mr Litvinenko's killer to be brought to justice.

The one-day trip is the first by a UK leader for talks in Russia since 2005.

Fears about Europe’s deteriorating finances intensified on Sunday as new doubts about the health of French banks, as well as Germany’s willingness to help Greece avert default, left investors bracing for another global stock market downturn this week.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/12/business/global/german-dissent-magnifies-uncertainty.html?hp