divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/20252?ns=guardianpageName=World+news%3A+US+judge+orders+release+of+Guant%26aacute%3Bnamo+fivech=World+newsc3=The+Guardianc4=Guantanamo+Bay+%28News%29%2CUS+news%2CWorld+newsc5=Not+commercially+usefulc6=Duncan+Campbell%2CRichard+Norton-Taylorc7=2008_11_21c8=1121626c9=articlec10=GUc11=World+newsc12=Guant%C3%A1namo+Bayc13=c14=h2=GU%2FWorld+news%2FGuant%C3%A1namo+Bay" width="1" height="1" //divpA US judge ruled yesterday that five Algerian prisoners held in Guantaacute;namo Bay must be set free, in a decision with far-reaching implications for the remaining detainees at the base in Cuba./ppDistrict court judge Richard Leon ruled in a Washington DC court that there was no legal basis to keep the five in prison. It is the first verdict in more than 200 habeas corpus petitions being brought before the US courts. The petitions challenge the American government to prove that there is evidence to justify keeping the men in Guantaacute;namo Bay. The judge, known for his conservative views, said the US government should not appeal./pp"The decision by Judge Leon lays bare the flimsy basis on which Guantaacute;namo has been founded - at best, slim evidence of dubious quality, at worst, nothing," said Zachary Katznelson, legal director of Reprieve, the British legal action charity whose lawyers represent 33 Guantaacute;namo prisoners. "This is a tough, no-nonsense judge. If he found there wasn't evidence to justify holding the men, you can be sure it wasn't there."/ppPresident-elect Barack Obama has promised to close down the prison camp as soon as he takes office, saying that Guantaacute;namo "has done much to besmirch the reputation of the United States"./ppHis team is considering what to do with detainees. One possibility is the setting up of "security courts", but the new administration is well aware it faces major diplomatic, political, and legal problems./ppThe latest hearing involved six Algerian nationals, five of whom are also Bosnian citizens and who were originally accused of plotting to blow up the US embassy in Bosnia. The men had been acquitted on these charges in Bosnia but were seized by the US and rendered to Guantaacute;namo Bay./pp"It is an illustration of the catastrophic policies of the Bush administration - ignoring the legitimate ruling of the court of an ally, rendering these men away from their homes and families, and holding them without legal recourse in Guantaacute;namo Bay for six years," said Clive Stafford Smith, director of Reprieve. "There are plenty more cases of injustice ahead of us, including the plight of the British residents who remain in this terrible place."/ppJudge Leon's ruling on the detainees is the first since the US supreme court ruled in June that every prisoner in Guantaacute;namo had the right to contest his imprisonment in the civilian courts./ppReading his ruling as the detainees listened in Guantaacute;namo via a telephone link, Leon said the US government failed to show the five detainees had planned to travel to Afghanistan to fight US forces./ppOrdering the release of the five, Leon said the allegation was based on a single source, and he did not have enough information to judge the source's reliability or credibility. He ordered the US government to take all necessary and diplomatic steps to facilitate their release "forthwith". /ppThe judge ruled the government did provide enough evidence that the sixth detainee, Belkacem Bensayah, had planned to take up arms against the United States in Afghanistan./ppLawyers acting for Binyam Mohamed, a British resident held at Guantaacute;namo Bay, are demanding his release. They want US documents - some of which have been seen by the British government - to be disclosed, saying they will reveal that Mohamed had been tortured./pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/guantanamo"Guantánamo Bay/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/usa"United States/a/li/ul/divdiv class="guRssAdvert"a href="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/click.ng/richmedia=yessite=Newscountry=(none)spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227231854895112101441449695"img src="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/image.ng/richmedia=yessite=Newscountry=(none)spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227231854895112101441449695" border="0" //a/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/83616?ns=guardianpageName=World+news%3A+Judge%3A+Algerian+prisoners+held+in+Guant%C3%A1namo+must+be+freedch=World+newsc3=guardian.co.ukc4=Guantanamo+Bay+%28News%29%2CAlgeria+%28News%29%2CObama+White+House+%28News%29%2CUS+news%2CGeorge+Bush+%28News%29%2CWorld+news%2CUK+newsc5=Not+commercially+useful%2CUS+Electionsc6=Duncan+Campbell%2CRichard+Norton-Taylorc7=2008_11_20c8=1121498c9=articlec10=GUc11=World+newsc12=Guant%C3%A1namo+Bayc13=c14=h2=GU%2FWorld+news%2FGuant%C3%A1namo+Bay" width="1" height="1" //divpA US judge today ruled that five Algerian prisoners held in Guantánamo Bay must be set free in a decision that has far reaching implications for the remaining detainees at the base in Cuba./ppDistrict court judge Richard Leon ruled in a Washington DC court that there was no legal basis to keep the five in prison, and ordered the US government to release them./ppIt is the first verdict in more than 200 habeas corpus petitions being brought before the US courts. The petitions challenge the US government to prove that there is evidence justifying keeping the men in Guantánamo Bay./pp"The decision by Judge Leon lays bare the flimsy basis on which Guantánamo has been founded – at best, slim evidence of dubious quality, at worst, nothing," said Zachary Katznelson, legal director of Reprieve, the British legal action charity whose lawyers represent 33 Guantánamo Bay prisoners. "This is a tough, no-nonsense judge. If he found there wasn't evidence to justify holding the men, you can be sure it wasn't there." /ppThe judge, known for his conservative views, said the US government should not appeal against his ruling./ppIt is the latest setback for President George Bush's policy and will add further weight to president-elect Barack Obama's pledge to close down the prison camp as soon as he takes office. Obama has described Guantánamo Bay as "a sad chapter in American history which has been done much to besmirch the reputation of the United States around the world"./ppHe and his team are currently considering different options about what to do with the detainees and what legal process they should subject to. One possibility is the setting up of "security courts" but the new administration is well aware it faces major diplomatic, political, and legal problems./ppThe latest hearing involved six Algerian nationals, five of who are also Bosnian citizens and who were originally accused of plotting to blow up the American embassy in Bosnia. The men had already been acquitted on these charges in Bosnia but were seized by the US and rendered to Guantánamo Bay when they were released./pp"It is an illustration of the catastrophic policies of the Bush administration – ignoring the legitimate ruling of the court of an ally, rendering these men away from their homes and families, and holding them without legal recourse in Guantánamo Bay for six years," said Clive Stafford Smith, director of Reprieve./ppHe added: "There are plenty more cases of injustice ahead of us, including the plight of the British residents who remain in this terrible place."/ppThe ruling by judge Leon is the first decision since the US Supreme Court ruled in June 2008 that every prisoner in Guantánamo has the right to contest his imprisonment in the civilian courts. Leon's ruling follows the first hearings under a landmark Supreme Court ruling in June that gave Guantánamo detainees the legal right to challenge their continued confinement./ppReading his ruling as the detainees listened in Guantánamo via a telephone hook-up, Leon said the US government failed to show the five detainees who had been living in Bosnia had planned to travel to Afghanistan to fight against US forces. /ppOrdering the release of the five men, Leon said the allegation was based on a single source, and he did not have enough information to judge the source's reliability or credibility. He ordered the US government to take all necessary and diplomatic steps to facilitate their release "forthwith." /ppLawyers acting for Binyam Mohamed, a British resident behind held at Guantánamo Bay, are demanding his release and argue US documents, some of which has been seen by the British government, should be disclosed as they will reveal that he had been tortured./pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/guantanamo"Guantánamo Bay/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/algeria"Algeria/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/obama-white-house"Obama White House/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/usa"United States/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/georgebush"George Bush/a/li/ul/divdiv class="guRssAdvert"a href="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/click.ng/richmedia=yessite=Newscountry=(none)spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227213071355112020341833652"img src="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/image.ng/richmedia=yessite=Newscountry=(none)spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227213071355112020341833652" border="0" //a/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a

As the year grinds to a close and the music industry continues to collapse, it seems like a good idea to give some credit to a major label who actually went out and released a few interesting records in 2008. Someone in the A&R department at Island UK deserves something extra in their Christmas stocking this year, not because they did anything to increase sales or anything productive like that, but because they managed to convince the suits to sign some decent artists. Let’s take a look at our hero’s work….

Leon Jean-Marie - “Bring it On”
Best of this small batch is Leon Jean-Marie. His album Bent Out of Shape is a pleasing blend of Prince, Beck, Michael Jackson and a bunch of other cool stuff. Jean-Marie never just sounds like the result of a science experiment though, as he adds more than enough of an individual stamp to make the songs his own. This guy should really be huge. Watch the video here.

VV Brown - “Crying Blood”
VV Brown only has this one single to her name so far, but it’s an impressive debut. She’s cute, perky and sweet for sure, but Crying Blood is a great song that draws from lots of sources — 50’s pop chord changes in the chorus, the “Hey Ya” drum beat, Joe Meek keyboards, and girl group harmonies. Brown also has suitably tough vocals and really puts the song over. I dunno about that hairdon’t though….you can decide here.

Frankmusik - “3 Little Words”
It’s nothing new to take 80’s influenced electro pop and twist it into modern shapes. Frankmusik does it very well, though — better than most. His chipmunk vocals and hyperactive songs may rub people who like peace and calm the wrong way, but for those of us who like some clatter and day-glo nonsense in their pop music, he’s perfect. This video is deliberately awful, which makes it totally awesome.

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

 
Attic Lights - “Wendy”
After all this genre-bending and modern pop, how about some gentle guitar pop with big vocal harmonies to cool you out? Attic Lights must own every Teenage Fanclub record but, hey, so do I. Nothing wrong with that! Check the video here.

After five years of “mission accomplished” nonsense from the left (it never meant what they want you think it did, but the truth has now been lost in a mountain of partisan rhetoric) this is probably as close as we're ever going to get to a declaration of victory in Iraq from (...)

10 Step Method to Meeting and Dating Christian Women in Church!br / # Ever wanted a quick and easy way to meet new people, especially women?br / # Ever get tired of going to bars and nightclubs hoping to meet new people, but hate that loud and shallow environment?br / # Ever wanted to meet sweet caring women in a relaxed environment?br / # Ever wonder how to talk to that cute christian girl from church?br / # Or maybe you wanted to date christian girls because you're christian yourself?br / THEN THIS BOOK IS FOR YOU!br / br / Everything from making friendships to dating to having physical relations, this book covers it all. Whether you're Christian or not, it doesn't matter. This is a no-nonsense guide to meeting the people you want, effectively and efficiently, in Church. Whether you're specifically interested in Christian dating due to faith reasons or you just want meet Christian girls, this is the book for you.br / br / EBook: $10br / Softcover Book: $19.95+Shippingbr / br / BUY IT HERE:br / http://www.rlsocial.com/index.php?mod=productsaction=church

Filed under: Sony PlayStation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360

The reviews are in, and it looks like Ms. Croft has avoided jumping the shark - although she does shoot one in Tomb Raider: Underworld. Still, the game fared slightly worse than Tomb Raider: Legend at the hands of some of the very same media outlets. (Maybe they were experiencing a mild "Tomb Raider's back, and it doesn't suck anymore!" high back then?)

• IGN (75/100): "Only the upcoming downloadable content and achievement points make the 360 version stand out just ahead of the PS3 copy."
• 1UP (B): "Underworld is an incredibly abrupt experience, so much so that it makes me question whether content was removed from the complete game to be made available later as the previously announced downloadable content. Six levels in (seven if you count the prologue), the game just...ends. Sure, the last level is a cool showpiece, but it lacks any sense of built-up narrative and even a final boss - simply a closing cut-scene that wraps up most of the loose ends all too handily."
• Eurogamer (70/100): "At its worst, Tomb Raider: Underworld is everything that's wrong with videogames - clichéd, predictable, frustrating, inconsistent, repetitive and derivative. Legend was supposed to be the game that marked the series' return to form, and it achieved that. Underworld is better than Legend; meatier, more challenging, more atmospheric and with less silly nonsense like quick-time events. But Underworld was supposed to be the first real next-gen Tomb Raider game, and it isn't ... At its best, however, Tomb Raider: Underworld is everything that's great about videogames. It's beautiful, exciting, challenging, rewarding and absorbing. Many of the locations are stunning, and so's Lara."
• GamePro (70/100): "Overall, Underworld is a decent enough effort. It has slick controls, interesting puzzles and a story that's actually pretty interesting. However, it never fully compensates for a lack of compelling action and overall polish."

Metareview -- Tomb Raider: Underworld (Multi) originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 19 Nov 2008 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

 

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

pFiled under: a href="http://www.joystiq.com/category/ps3/" rel="tag"Sony PlayStation 3/a, a href="http://www.joystiq.com/category/xbox360/" rel="tag"Microsoft Xbox 360/a/pdiv align="center"a href="http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/xbox360/tombraiderunderworld"img vspace="4" hspace="0" border="1" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.joystiq.com/media/2008/10/tru_gone_fishin2.jpg" alt="" //abr / div align="left"The reviews are in, and it looks like Ms. Croft has avoided a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumping_the_shark"jumping the shark/a - although she does emshoot/em one in a href="http://www.joystiq.com/tag/tomb-raider-underworld"emTomb Raider: Underworld/em/a. Still, the game fared slightly worse than a href="http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/xbox360/tombraiderlegend?q=tomb%20raider%20legend"emTomb Raider: Legend/em/a at the hands of some of the very same media outlets. (Maybe they were experiencing a mild "emTomb Raider/em's back, and it doesn't suck anymore!" high back then?)br / ul lia href="http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/931/931786p1.html"IGN/a strong(75/100)/strong: "Only the upcoming downloadable content and achievement points make the 360 version stand out just ahead of the PS3 copy."/li lia href="http://www.1up.com/do/reviewPage?cId=3171402amp;p=4"1UP/a strong(B)/strong: "emUnderworld/em is an incredibly abrupt experience, so much so that it makes me question whether content was removed from the complete game to be made available later as the previously announced downloadable content. Six levels in (seven if you count the prologue), the game just...ends. Sure, the last level is a cool showpiece, but it lacks any sense of built-up narrative and even a final boss - simply a closing cut-scene that wraps up most of the loose ends all too handily."/li lia href="http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=309034"Eurogamer/a strong(70/100)/strong: "At its worst, emTomb Raider: Underworld/em is everything that's wrong with videogames - clicheacute;d, predictable, frustrating, inconsistent, repetitive and derivative. emLegend/em was supposed to be the game that marked the series' return to form, and it achieved that. emUnderworld/em is better than emLegend/em; meatier, more challenging, more atmospheric and with less silly nonsense like quick-time events. But emUnderworld/em was supposed to be the first real next-gen emTomb Raider/em game, and it isn't ... At its best, however, emTomb Raider: Underworld/em is everything that's great about videogames. It's beautiful, exciting, challenging, rewarding and absorbing. Many of the locations are stunning, and so's Lara."/li lia href="http://www.gamepro.com/article/reviews/207970/tomb-raider-underworld-360/"GamePro/a strong(70/100)/strong: "Overall, emUnderworld/em is a decent enough effort. It has slick controls, interesting puzzles and a story that's actually pretty interesting. However, it never fully compensates for a lack of compelling action and overall polish."/li /ul /div /divp style="padding:5px;background:#ddd;border:1px solid #ccc;clear:both;"a href="http://www.joystiq.com/2008/11/19/metareview-tomb-raider-underworld-multi/"Metareview -- Tomb Raider: Underworld (Multi) /a originally appeared on a href="http://www.joystiq.com"Joystiq/a on Wed, 19 Nov 2008 19:30:00 EST. Please see our a href="http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/"terms for use of feeds/a./pp style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"nbsp;/ppa href=http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/xbox360/tombraiderunderworldRead/anbsp;|nbsp;a href="http://www.joystiq.com/2008/11/19/metareview-tomb-raider-underworld-multi/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry"Permalink/anbsp;|nbsp;a href="http://www.joystiq.com/forward/1377360/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email"Email this/anbsp;|nbsp;a href="http://www.joystiq.com/2008/11/19/metareview-tomb-raider-underworld-multi/#comments" title="View reader comments on this entry"Comments/a/p pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/HDtEJlb7jH_-CgN_mcuaaWR9gyo/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/HDtEJlb7jH_-CgN_mcuaaWR9gyo/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/joystiq?a=69yGHIt1"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/joystiq?i=69yGHIt1" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/joystiq?a=KfveRNiA"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/joystiq?i=KfveRNiA" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/weblogsinc/joystiq/~4/Do_aBG9VEas" height="1" width="1"/

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/56905?ns=guardianpageName=Sport%3A+England+are+better+with+Wilkinson+at+10%2C+says+Whitech=Sportc3=The+Guardianc4=England+rugby+union+team%2CSouth+Africa+rugby+team%2CAutumn+internationals%2CRugby+union%2CSportc5=Not+commercially+useful%2CRugby+Unionc6=Robert+Kitsonc7=2008_11_20c8=1120730c9=articlec10=GUc11=Sportc12=England+rugby+union+teamc13=c14=h2=GU%2FSport%2FEngland+rugby+union+team" width="1" height="1" //divpJake White, the coach who guided the Springboks to their World Cup win last year, issued some no-nonsense advice to both England and South Africa yesterday. He said that Danny Cipriani was not yet a world-class fly-half and warned that the selection policies of his own successor, Peter de Villiers, were undermining the touring side's chances of victory at Twickenham on Saturday./ppWhite, who will spend next week working at Saracens alongside his old friend Eddie Jones and is poised to take up a permanent role in Europe in the new year, boarded an overnight flight to London after predicting the Boks would find England hard nuts to crack. He was equally convinced the home team would be more formidable if the injured Jonny Wilkinson was playing at No10 rather than the 21-year-old Cipriani./pp"What people are saying about Danny Cipriani and what he's done are two completely different worlds," said White, whose side beat England four times in 12 months, culminating in their 15-6 win in last October's World Cup final in Paris. /pp"I've read more about Danny Cipriani in the West End than I have on the rugby field. Everyone writes him up but I still think Jonny Wilkinson is by far the best fly-half England have had for a long time. Whether Danny's going to be good enough or not he needs to get on the field and play. He's usually there for one or two games and then he disappears, through injury or bad luck. The bottom line is we haven't really seen the best of him./pp"I'm not saying Danny Cipriani can't get there or that Danny Cipriani will never be a Jonny Wilkinson but you can never underestimate the confidence junior players get from looking around the changing room and seeing a player who can win a Test on his own. Even if he doesn't, it makes them play so much better. Look what Wilkinson did for England at the last World Cup. They were dead and buried after their 36-0 defeat to us in the pool game. All of a sudden he came back and they ended up making the final. The secret when you have those sort of players is to use them for as long as you can because it brings out the best in those around them."/ppWhite, who will coach the Barbarians against Australia at Wembley next month, has also questioned De Villiers' refusal to use European-based players to augment his injury-hit touring squad before today's team announcement. /pp"To me it doesn't make any sense," said White. "We haven't got a fly-half while Butch James has been playing unbelievable rugby at Bath. They've also flown over [the prop] Jannie du Plessis when they could have picked CJ van der Linde, who's already used to European conditions at Leinster. Winning at Twickenham is really tough. We need our goal-kicker to be on song and we need our forwards to be dominant. It's going to be a really interesting Test match because England are not just going to stand back and watch us. If the weather is really dodgy it will also favour England. /pp"I'm surprised CJ's not playing and that [the physical back-rower] Danie Rossouw is not starting because that's the way you can beat England. England must be favourites because their backs are against the wall but I think South Africa can win."/ppWhite is similarly unimpressed by De Villiers' admission this week that he is struggling to motivate a tired side - "I don't think we should be saying things like that because it doesn't help us prepare psychologically for a Test which is normally one of our toughest" - and does not agree with the decision to switch his World Cup-winning captain, John Smit, from hooker to tighthead prop. He also thinks Martin Johnson should resist calls to steer England away from their traditional forward-orientated strengths./pp"England have played in six World Cups and reached three finals. It's like Brazilian football... it's unbelievable to think a rugby-playing nation like England has done that. As much as they've been called boring, the bottom line is that it's been successful. Whoever you are you've got to stick to the things that have made you famous, not be influenced by what other people think./pp"I've never worked with Martin Johnson but coaching your country is very different to captaining or playing. If you look at the six coaches who have won the World Cup, four of them never played Test rugby. He's now realised what international rugby is all about but you can't expect every national coach to win every single Test match, whether you've coached for 20 years or not." /ppemJake White was speaking to promote the exclusive live coverage of England v South Africa this Saturday on Sky Sports 2/HD2/em/pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/englandrugbyunionteam"England rugby union team/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/southafricarugbyteam"South Africa rugby team/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/autumn-internationals"Autumn internationals/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion"Rugby union/a/li/ul/divdiv class="guRssAdvert"a href="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/click.ng/richmedia=yessite=Sportcountry=(none)spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227142268723112000542038307"img src="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/image.ng/richmedia=yessite=Sportcountry=(none)spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227142268723112000542038307" border="0" //a/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a

A little more than a week after New Zealand’s National Party swept away nine years of Labour Party rule, new Prime Minister John Key stitched together a coalition government.

At the new government's swearing in ceremony in Wellington, Key’s center-right coalition promised to boost economic growth by cutting taxes, enacting free trade policies and expanding infrastructure investment.

Outside of jump starting New Zealand’s faltering economy, one of Key’s biggest domestic challenges will be to determine how much to preserve of former Prime Minister Helen Clark’s environmental policies, especially the carbon Emissions Trading Scheme ratified earlier this year.

To build his coalition, Keys reached out to the ACT Party, which campaigned on a platform to repeal the ETS. This partnership forced the National party to vow to delay implementing the pollution-control plan. Instead, the government will create a special Parliamentary committee to investigate amendments or alternatives to the ETS “in the light of current economic circumstances and steps now being undertaken by similar nations.”

This maneuvering comes at the heels of a recent United Nations report that ranks New Zealand with one of the world's largest carbon emissions increases since 1990.

As can be expected, many of New Zealand’s left leaning (and environmental) bloggers have deplored the potential roll-back of the ETS, however imperfect some may view the legislation . New Zealand’s scheme is scheduled to begin phasing in the forestry industry this year and introduce trading to the stationary energy and industrial processes in 2010.

“Just when the New Zealand government is taking us back to square one on climate change with a denialist dog and pony show, US President-elect Barack Obama has committed his new administration to serious action, declares No Right Turn:

Dirty America has just said that they intend to make “clean and green” New Zealand look like slackers. Is that really a reputation we want? Worse than the Americans?

If John Key really was “ambitious for New Zealand”, he'd want us to be better than that. He'd cancel ACT's denier forum and commit now to a stronger ETS with legislated targets for a 75% reduction on 1990 levels by 2020. The earlier we commit, the easier it will be, and a steeper path now always gives us the option of backing off later if it looks like the problem is well in hand. But if we follow National's “plan”, and sit on our hands for another couple of years while sending the wonks back to the drawing board for a completely new policy for the fifth time in 15 years, while having no long-term plan, then it is going to be much, much harder.

toad, writing in G. Blog, a community for Green Party members, worries that the new select committee will rehash already completed work and delay progress in carbon trading.

Of course, there will be no new evidence. This whole exercise is aimed at stalling doing anything to address climate change for another three years. On National’s part, this is because addressing climate change in any meaningful manner will annoy powerful farming and roading interests that helped to get them elected. On ACT’s part, it is because their ideological position doesn’t allow them to accept anthropogenic climate change - their peculiar logic is that if the free market can’t fix it, then it must not be happening.

Meanwhile, it seems that we all sit around for another three years doing nothing about climate change. Meanwhile, repealing the moratorium on further thermal power generation is one of National’s and ACT’s highest priorities.

Many bloggers from the left pointed to Tim Watkin’s (of the Pundit) tough questions he posed concerning the new coalition government:

Have we wasted the whole last decade debating climate change policy, if we need to go back and start from scratch with a select committee review of ETS? No party was happy with the scheme that was finally passed in September. It took years of negotiation and huge political compromise from those who voted for it. Now National will consider “any amendments or alternatives to it, including carbon taxes”. Are we just starting again then? Given that US president-elect Barack Obama is committed to a cap and trade scheme and even the United Nations is working on plans for a “Green New Deal“, why on earth are we choosing to give up our competitive advantage (ie years of policy work)?

Calling the Act party’s climate change policy a “friggin’ joke,” Tumeke saves most of the vitriol for the National party.

what are National actually going to do now in Government, and seeing as this means actually having to read National’s policy, it’s becoming quickly apparent the spin that mACTional is moderate is nonsense and that NZers have been sold a change lemon. It’s fascinating that National who drove a bloody tractor up the steps of parliament to fight the ‘fart tax’ are now so eager to bring in a carbon tax as a cop out from the emissions trading scheme, what a sick joke.

Richard Hurst writing in NZ Right Wing Leftie argues neither Labour or the Green parties are willing to admit the ETS will not deter global warming and make the government too poor to build necessary infrastructure like wind farms, dams and sustainable urban centers:

They’ve both invested far too much political capital into the ETS insanity to backtrack now. Who cares if it won’t actually stop climate change, who cares if NZ’s emissions total just 0.2% of total emissions, who cares if infrastructure that we will need like wind farm Project Hayes, the Central Plains Water dam and irrigation scheme, new hydro on the West coast etc etc are being stopped by the RMA and a hostile Labour govt, who cares if the ETS will cost NZ billions and lower our standard of living while achieving nothing...power, pride and deep unwillingness to admit their wrong is far more important to Labour and the Greens than doing what’s best for New Zealanders and the environment.

By the time New Zealanders realize what a horrible mistake the ETS is it may well be much too late. Of course neither Labour, the Greens or New Zealand First have actually asked us if we want it or not their just going to shove it through anyway. Kind of thing an election should decide surely? Instead of rushing it through under urgency before anyone can pause for thought. Reminds me of the way certain changes were made in the 1980s....some things in Labour don’t change I guess.

New committee aside, not all right-leaning bloggers believe the Key government will bring change to the country’s climate policy. Susie the Libertarian argues in a guest post at Not PC that incoming environmental minister Nick Smith’s environmental values “would not be out of place in the Green Party.”

And that alone should worry any working New Zealander with at least half a functioning brain.

Before going off on a scathing review of rural life in England under new Labour of Tony Blair, she returns to her critique of what life in New Zealand would be like under Minister Smith:

..the essence and ramifications of interference by central planners upon YOUR property and, perhaps, YOUR livelihood under the banner of protecting the environment. And with the weasel having been given the added portfolio of Climate Change in addition to that of The Environment, you can bet your ever decreasing dollar that Nick Smith has every intention of stamping his mark upon New Zealand, both rural and urban.

Others argue that Smith’s appointment proves it is politics-as-usual at the environmental portfolio.
A commenter to the Not PC blog, Mark Hubbard, argues: 

With Smith also in charge of, snort, Climate Change, I think the farmers who were foolish enough to vote National are about to get a rude awakening over the ETS - which I assume Smith will have a big say in. You're right, he will take, if anything, the Green hard line.

Indeed, many of the new National Cabinet, including the much touted Paula Bennett, would be just as at home on Labour's front bench.

Same old, same old.

I can't see how I'm going to have any more freedom from Big Old Nosy Nanny State at the end of this three years; indeed, I suspect this will finally prove the absolute ascendancy of Big Statism, and the further pounding and hounding back of individual freedom to only the tiniest of flickering lights.

Another commenter, LGM argues:

Those of you who supported the pragmatic let's-not-waste-votes option of supporting ACT or National, now is your chance. Time to lobby your ACT and National Parties. Write some letters. Call up the talkback. Call up your MP's electorate office. Let them know what you do NOT want is carbon tax or ETS or any other climate change nonsense. Are you not bearing enough of a burden supporting govt rorts already? Surely you do not want to accept more?

We’ll end here with a more general piece on a new form of religion from Dark Brightness — Bleak Theology: hopeful science — in a post called “Climate Heresy”:

…I’m becoming more and more irritated with the new Green state religion. My Anglo-Saxon forebears occaisionally sacrificed a noble to Odin one-eye, and the Romans (who were not by any means saints) were disgusted by the Druidic habit of bone fires.

The current Greens want to sacrifice humankind. Moreover, knowing that adults can think, can see when they are speaking shite (it is hard to talk about global warming after a cool northern summer, and snow in November in the South Island).

Hot Chip has teamed up with Soft Machine’s Robert Wyatt to record new versions of “Made In The Dark,” “Whistle For Will,” and “We’re Looking For A Lot Of Love.” The songs comprise 75% of an upcoming EP, which fans can download for free starting December 15. [NME.com]

Taylor Swift’s Fearless went gold during its first week of release, moving over 500,000 units and swiftly doubling the sales of the No. 2 artist, David Archuleta. The album’s first-week performance is the best of any country record since the Eagles’ Long Road Out of Eden, which sold 711,000 copies upon its release in November 2007. [Billboard.com]

?uestlove recently announced the Roots’ decision to retire from extensive touring. Instead, the group plans to serve as the house band for Jimmy Fallon’s “Late Night” show on NBC. Although the video containing ?uestlove’s statement has been removed from the internet, a transcript of the interview confirms his intentions to take up near-permanent residence at 30 Rock. [VH1.com]

Britney Spears will discuss her public meltdown and attempted comeback during For The Record, an MTV documentary that airs on November 30th. [Guardian.co.uk]

Upset with the confusion regarding his band’s latest single, “Human,” the Killers’ Brandon Flowers continues to defend such grammatically challenged lyrics as “Are we human, or are we dancer?” Talking to Rolling Stone, the singer lamented that “people don’t seem to understand “Human.” They think it’s nonsense. But I was aching over those lyrics for a very long time to get them right.” [RollingStone.com]

div class="image"a href="http://pixhost.ws/avaxhome/big_show.php?/avaxhome/98/c8/0009c898.jpeg" target="_blank"img src="http://pixhost.ws/avaxhome/98/c8/0009c898_medium.jpeg" id="external_img_641176" border="0"//a/divbr/ div class="center"bÐнтон Орех, Ðиколай ÐлекÑандров. Самые нелепые преÑÑ‚ÑƒÐ¿Ð»ÐµÐ½Ð¸Ñ Ð¼Ð¸Ñ€Ð°/bbr/ РоÑмÑн | 2007 | 978-5-353-02967-0 | 64 pages | PDF | 5 Mb | rar | RS.combr/ The most ridiculous crimes of the world by Anton Oreh, Nikolay Aleksandrovbr/ Ð­Ð½Ñ†Ð¸ÐºÐ»Ð¾Ð¿ÐµÐ´Ð¸Ñ Ð³Ð»ÑƒÐ¿Ð¾Ñти | The nonsense encyclopaedia/div

pimg class="float_right" src="/~~/f?id=49243b3414b9b9e500c2c074maxX=400maxY=137" border="0" alt="Everyone.jpg" title="Everyone.jpg" width="400" height="137" /Read up on what everyone is saying about who should or inevitibly will be Yahoo's next CEO. Then a href="http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/11/choose-yahoo-s-new-ceo-round-2-vote-here-"go vote for your choice/a or write-in a name in the comments./p p /p p /p hr / pimg class="float_left" src="http://static.10gen.com/www.alleyinsider.com/~~/f?id=49243b6914b9b9e500c2c15b" border="0" alt="AllthingsD.gif" title="AllthingsD.gif" width="231" height="34" /Writes a href="http://kara.allthingsd.com/20081118/yahoos-peter-chernin-principle-and-other-ceo-choices/"BoomTown/a's Kara Swisher: "Obviously, the dream CEO for Yahoo is News Corp. President and COO Peter Chernin. Chernin has the right resume: Experienced at running large and complex organizations; savvier than most in media about the Internet; able to make the kinds of dramatic decisions needed; and, perhaps best of all, signaling-a href="http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-chernin14-2008nov14,0,6268401.story"via the Los Angeles Times/a-just this past week that he was open to leaving the powerful media and entertainment conglomerate for something new./p hr / pimg class="float_left" src="http://static.10gen.com/www.alleyinsider.com/~~/f?id=49243b7914b9b9e500c2c1a0" border="0" alt="NewYorkTimes.gif" title="NewYorkTimes.gif" width="163" height="29" //p pWrites a href="http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/18/yahoo-doesnt-need-a-ceo-as-much-as-an-editor-in-chief/"Bits/a's Saul Hansell: "Yahoo doesn't need a chief executive so much as an editor in chief. And I mean the sort of imperial editor who has a vision of how to create an environment that lures in both readers and advertisers, like Tina Brown, Clay Felker or Adam Moss."/p hr / pimg class="float_left" src="http://static.10gen.com/www.alleyinsider.com/~~/f?id=49243b8e14b9b9e500c2c1fe" border="0" alt="paidcontent.gif" title="paidcontent.gif" width="246" height="54" /Writes a href="http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-yahoo-ceo-search-some-possible-names-miller-chernin-freston/"PaidContent/a's Rafat Ali: "Whether it wants a Silicon Valley-engineering-culture-steeped executive; or a media-business-New York-centric executive who will be the ad-industry bridge; or for that matter, an entertainment executive from LA, who would help build Yahoo's brand reach and bring in the big bucks (Terry Semel experience will make it wary, though). That decision would help define the future of Yahoo, and whether it survives as an independent company"/p hr / pimg class="float_left" src="http://static.10gen.com/www.alleyinsider.com/~~/f?id=49243b6114b9b9e500c2c141" border="0" alt="Gigaom.gif" title="Gigaom.gif" width="176" height="41" /Writes a href="http://gigaom.com/2008/11/17/after-yang-what-should-yahoo-do/"GigaOm/a's Om Malik: "Hopefully they will bring on a no-nonsense, [HP CEO] Mark Hurd-style executive who can stabilize and revive the company by making it leaner, simpler and have it focus on its core competencies. For PE investors, there is also comfort in the fact that Yahoo can at anytime sell its Asian holdings for a ton of cash. They might be able to find some takers for their European properties as well."/p hr / pimg class="float_left" src="http://static.10gen.com/www.alleyinsider.com/~~/f?id=49243b6d14b9b9e500c2c16c" border="0" alt="Valleywag.gif" title="Valleywag.gif" width="276" height="49" /Writes a href="http://valleywag.com/5033522/maggie-wilderotter-for-yahoo-ceo"Valleywag/a's Owen Thomas: "[Frontier CEO Maggie Wilderotter] has several pluses: She's actually been a Silicon Valley CEO, unlike Yang, previous to his current run in the position, and Decker, who's long aspired to a top job somewhere, but now looks farther than ever from getting it. With media, advertising, computing, and telecommunications merging into a single business, it strikes me that most of Yahoo's board and management are ill-equipped for the transition. Not Wilderotter, who's worked for Microsoft and ATT and run Wink Communications, an interactive-TV company which she took from startup to IPO, through boom and bust."/p hr / pimg class="float_left" src="http://static.10gen.com/www.alleyinsider.com/~~/f?id=49243b8714b9b9e500c2c1e0" border="0" alt="CNET.gif" title="CNET.gif" width="80" height="71" /Writes a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10101620-93.html?tag=newsFeaturedBlogArea.0"CNET/a's Stephen Shankland: "Analysts also believe it's better to hire a new CEO whose experience tilts more toward the advertising and media realm than the technology realm. Yahoo still has a powerfully large audience, and it's not going to outdo Google when it comes to letting the robots rule the roost."/p hr / pimg class="float_left" src="http://static.10gen.com/www.alleyinsider.com/~~/f?id=49243b7214b9b9e500c2c184" border="0" alt="TheDailyBeast.gif" title="TheDailyBeast.gif" width="99" height="119" /Writes a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2008-11-18/why-sue-decker-will-be-yahoos-next-ceo/"the Daily Beast/a's Eric Jackson, picking Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer: "The best outcome for Yahoo! shareholders of course would be if the new search committee never selected a CEO. This company should use this change in leadership to go back and open discussions with Microsoft about selling the company. This made sense when Microsoft made its initial offer last January at $31 and it makes sense (triply so) now."/p p /p hr / pimg class="float_left" src="http://static.10gen.com/www.alleyinsider.com/~~/f?id=49243b3814b9b9e500c2c086" border="0" alt="TechCrunch.gif" title="TechCrunch.gif" width="173" height="32" //p pWrites a href="http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/17/yang-to-step-down-from-yahoo/"TechCrunch/a's Michael Arrington: "Who will be the next CEO? We a href="http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/06/15/nytimes-article-reverberates-through-yahoo-whos-their-next-ceo/"speculated back in June/a that Jeff Mallet or Dan Rosensweig were possible candidates. Mallet wouldn't consider the job, we've heard. But Rosensweig would probably take it if offered. Whoever ends up with the job, let's just hope it's an outsider. Yahoo is being clear that they are considering internal candidates. President Sue Decker is likely being considered. But ex-execs we've spoken with say she was a big part of the problem at Yahoo, and if she takes over as CEO it will likely be more of the same."/p pstrongSee Also:/stronga href="../../2008/11/choose-yahoo-s-new-ceo-round-2-vote-here-"br /Choose Yahoo's New CEO: Round 2 (Vote Here!)/a/p pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/KlXpO91hhm-ZPYtKgkUsw50ECR0/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/KlXpO91hhm-ZPYtKgkUsw50ECR0/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=RPQb7f0U"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?i=RPQb7f0U" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=Gk3EknvO"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=52" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=xwts7g60"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=80" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=d3ititOV"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?i=d3ititOV" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=vsT9feGa"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=131" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=26R00QWI"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=336" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=SF7gwJYC"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=41" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=SfjSjCXM"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=50" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider/~4/RDc3bipoFXs" height="1" width="1"/