America veers left (by a few degrees)

Democrats have taken control of the US House of Reps, and have a good show of seizing the Senate. This is a promising sign.

If our electoral results follow theirs as surely as the ASX follows Wall Street; Howard follows Bush; and a dog returneth to its own vomit, then it augurs very well for next year.

We've just got to survive long enough to get there...

This morning, our Prime Minister said this:

Quite honestly if we have to face the possibility of, for a temporary period, closing down a wetland in order to give people drinking water then I will support closing down a wetland.

and this:

I said yesterday and I repeat, for the electricity this nation needs, it’s still fossil fuels cleaned up and therefore dearer to use and nuclear power. But you won’t run power stations on windmills.

On Monday, our foreign minister is expected to sign the Indonesia and Australia Framework Agreement for Security Cooperation, which (amongst other things) will facilitate the development of a nuclear power industry in Indonesia. Indonesia, Mr Downer has possibly forgotten, is geographically unstable.