Did they think they needed a new spin on this to keep it in the news cycle. The dumb thing is, I think the thing keeping all of this in the news cycle the most is The Oz’s (I hate to say it) excellent coverage.

“What concerns me as an Australian, and as an Australian that cares about our farmers and a wheat industry, is the damage that this pathetic political game is doing to the wheat industry,”.

That’s right Malcolm, it wasn’t mismanagement and dishonesty that has damaged the Australian wheat industry, it was the guys who tried to tell people that there is mismanagement and dishonesty.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200603/s1583000.htm
“There’s been a check made in my office and it doesn’t indicate that cable - and I get hundreds, indeed thousands, of cables a week - was ever brought to my attention and that’s my recollection,” Mr Howard said.

Alright then, John, a “check” by the most hopelessly comopromised bunch of bureacrats that ever lived in Canberra is good enough for me. Oh, and your word on your recolllection, of course. Fair enough. It only remains to issue the following public announcenment:

“Attention, fellow Australians - there’s a huge, dangerous vacuum in Canberra where the state used to be. Critical national security info is not, I repeat, not passed on to elected representatives and responsible authrotiies. The social contract is hereby terminated. Revert to a state of nature; find solace in voluntary associations. God bless, and good luck”.

Its just that some days, the tragic death of political accountability in Australia does return as farce. Who’s writing the stuff? I wanna know, cos its gold!

“A search has not shown that sending us critical national security information will result in anyone reading it”.

He can lie his head off with impunity, saving some giant lies to either befuddle or frighten 5-10 per cent of voters into giving him a majority every three years or so. There is no balance, there are no checks.

Farce? I can think of a few better words.

I haven’t done my homework. There’s no evidence that the requirement to do work was brought to my attention by teaching staff. There is no legal requirement for me to ask anybody if I have to do homework. The homework may not have been done, but an inquiry (led by the cat) will investigate the matter fully, and in due course report. Yes, the teacher may have told me that homework had to be done, but there is no evidence that I was listening, or that I wrote down the information in any meaningful manner.
Frankly, the community doesn’t care about this issue.

He’s a liar, and this time he’s been caught out.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200603/s1582782.htm

10 years of porkies, and disturbing moral relativism.

PS Listen to this lamearsed line from his staffers “A spokesman for Mr Howard says a search of office records has not shown that the document was brought to his attention and he has no recollection of it.” BAHAHHA!

A search “has not shown” it was brought to his attention! WTF does that mean? What a complete farce!

Much less media fawning than Id expected. I guess it just seems in poor taste, now that its clear that all the table-thumping ‘moral’ outrage over Saddam was so much empty cant. As if that wasnt already obvious from the victimisation of his enemies seeking refuge.

It’ll just be a quiet affair now, with the coalition standing round over drinkies and a barbie - maybe a few fights between Heff and a pissed Nat - eyeing each other up and thinking “you know, we really do suck. But hey, we’re winning. Cheers.”

Back in reality, events are moving quickly: Yesterday, Downer admitted he knew in 2000. He’s a liar, he should resign.

Today, Vaile, who said in parliament last month ‘The allegations raised came to my attention as a result of the Volker inquiry’ now admits that ‘the general issue … was certainly known to the Government at the time because DFAT were dealing with it,”

Where I come from, thats called ‘lying’. He should resign.

I wouldnt expect the moral relativists of the Right to understand this, but it once was the case that the penalty for misleading parliament was resignation from cabinet.

We asked the AWB and they said they didn’t pay bribes.

What else could you expect them to do?

Investigate such claims?

My view is that the evidence (as opposed to the inferences) leaves the Coalition squeaky clean - and that in 6 months people will remember some corrupt corporate executives and UN officials.

Let’s see who’s right.

ps Congratulations to John Howard on 10 magnificant years!

I think we need to see the UN replies, before we take Dolly’s word.

Mark, time for you to change hands. Your family name isn’t Latham, is it?

Might come back to bite me on the bum but I can’t see Kimbo winning a contest against either Howard, Costello or Abbott and I am prepared to put money on it.

DFAT asked AWB about the claims and then sent the UN, who was responsible for administering the Oil-for-Food program, the contracts to check.

The UN said there was nothing wrong with the contracts.

So, despite the UN, who was responsible for administering the Oil-for-Food program, saying the contracts were OK, and the AWB saying they were OK, the Australian Government, who was not directly responsible for the Oil-For-Food Program or making the contracts, was supposed to take the word of the direct competitor and threat to Australian Wheat Farmers markets.

Yeah, right.

I believe what AWB did was ethically wrong but that needs to be taken in context of how business was done in the Oil-For-Fraud program and in the Middle East, but I just can’t get hyped about how shocking the Federal Government is - they called the inquiry for Christ sake.

This has about as much traction as Kids overboard and all those other piddling little issues that the Opposition bangs on about that don’t really matter in the big picture.

“…an orchestrated litany of lies� comes from the royal commission into an airline crash (in NZ, I think)

The NZ Royal Commission in question investigated the Erebus Disaster when an Air NZ DC-10 crashed whilst on a sight-seeing flight in the Antarctic.

S’weird how Ed Hillary would have been on the flight except for a conflicting engagement. This echoes any number of similar stories about people who perished. A very good family friend was on that flight because her neighbour gave her a ticket that she couldn’t use because of an unexpected committment. She thought she was lucky at the time.