picture by Gus

There's dumb, there's dumber and then there are the House Republicans—nearly all of them—who voted this morning to set the U.S. back on energy efficiency. By a quick voice vote, the House approved an amendment that would prevent funds from a 2012 spending bill to be used to implement federal light bulb standards. The amendment came after a similar separate bill failed to garner a two-thirds supermajority earlier this week in the House—although it did win a simple majority and all but 10 Republicans in the House voted for it, along with five Democrats.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iK7SRYp4sBc

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says he does not believe there is any need for a wide-ranging inquiry into Australia's media in the wake of the News Corp phone-hacking scandal in Britain.

Greens leader Bob Brown, who has dubbed the Murdoch press the "hate media" and accused it of bias against the Greens and Labor, has called for an inquiry. Prime Minister Julia Gillard has characterised some media reporting on the carbon price as "complete crap".

But Mr Abbott said a politician complaining about the media was in the same position as "a footballer complaining about the umpire".

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MALCOLM Turnbull has undermined Tony Abbott's attack on the government by again exposing opposition divisions over carbon policy.

The former opposition leader, whose fall was triggered by his support for the Rudd emissions trading scheme, again effectively distanced himself from the Abbott policy. He made it clear he was staying in line because he is in shadow cabinet and loyal, rather than agreeing with the policy.

THE cost of general insurance is set to jump as insurers move to protect their profits by passing on the higher price of reinsurance to customers.

As this year's spate of natural disasters forces up reinsurance costs, analysts are forecasting the extra costs could translate into personal and general insurance increases of up to 5 per cent, The Australian reports.

In New Zealand, which has been devastated by recurring earthquakes and aftershocks in Christchurch, reinsurance costs are expected to increase by 100 per cent while local reinsurance costs could rise as much as 70 per cent.

Former Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull has accused the man who replaced him as leader, Tony Abbott, of changing his position twice on climate change.

Mr Turnbull says Mr Abbott moved from supporting a carbon tax, to supporting a market-based emissions trading scheme and then opposing both policies outright.

And he says having done that, Mr Abbott resigned from shadow cabinet in 2009 to challenge him for the leadership.

But he says he has given Mr Abbott "consistency and loyalty" that he, himself, did not enjoy as leader.

Tony Abbott has vowed to fight Labor's carbon tax to his "last breath". But as he takes his campaign on the road, facts are taking the wind out of some of his arguments.

On Monday, touring a Peabody-owned coalmine in the Hunter Valley, he insisted that the Gillard government should apologise for the tax that would "badly damage" the future of coalmining in Australia and "discourage investment" in it.

Just hours later Peabody Energy and ArcelorMittal launched the biggest-yet takeover offer for an Australian coalmine with a $4.7 billion bid for Macarthur Coal. Yesterday share prices rose for most Australian coalminers.

HOUSTON, Oct. 22, 2007 – Wearing a portable instrument to monitor metabolism in the fight against obesity and its related health consequences may be on the horizon thanks to collaborative research being performed at the University of Houston and The Methodist Hospital.

LONDON — Shortly after Scotland Yard began its initial criminal inquiry of phone hacking by The News of the World in 2006, five senior police investigators discovered that their own mobile phone messages had been targeted by the tabloid and had most likely been listened to.

Mr Abbott declined to detail how he would pay for the tax cut and pension increases without the money stream from a carbon price.

"In good time, before the next election, we will announce our fiscal position and we will pay for tax cuts out of spending reductions," he said.

"The thing is, a tax cut that is paid for by tax increase, it is not a cut. It is a con. These are mirage tax cuts."

Treasurer Wayne Swan attacked Mr Abbott's tax cut promise, saying he did not have any way to fund it and claiming the Coalition's "direct action" climate policy would cost households $720 per year.

Ian Widdup has the bluntness of the terminally ill. He is counting the cost of his days as a money-launderer: ''I've been punished for my sins in quite a profound way. I'm poor. My wife left me. And my health has left me.''

He has leukaemia, and doctors told him he should expect to die in the first half of this year. Which means he should be dead, not sipping a Dubonnet in the lounge of the Westin Hotel in Martin Place. ''I fertilised corruption for a decade and a half,'' he told me, ''and I sincerely regret that.''