No, that’d be just too bizarre.

That’s nowhere near as bizarre as what has happened already!

“Conscription to fight The Terrorists” would be a dream campaign slogan that would surely get Der Verr….. errrr… Whatshisname re-elected on a landslide. You can just hear the shock-jocks losing their bladder-control over it “It gets all those dole-bludgers off the streets”, etc., etc., ad nauseum. …. The objections of the business community and the ADF would be as unheeded as were those of the legal community when so many of our traditional protections and safeguards were torn up.

Besides, it would give Emperor George II The Inept part of The Surge he needs to win more and more Glorious Victories in Iraq ….. for free …. and without having the bother of having to face an angry Congress over it.

Howard rushed in …. let’s hope it wasn’t “on-scriptâ€? ….. and his only way out now for Howard is to give the Americans a commitment to increase Australian troop numbers in Iraq – most likely by conscription - to replace American troops as they withdraw from Iraq.

No, that’d be just too bizarre.

However, it would be a delicious irony.

Howard thinks he’s channelling Menzies. In fact he’s channelling Billy McMahon. (He’s got the stature, pate, and voice for it, when it’s all said and done.)

Howard’s only Menzian features were his eyebrows, which he has tamed with a particularly savage plucking.

American Republicans and Democrats brawl with each other in elections but stand shoulder-to-shoulder when dealing with non-Americans.

The way in which Howard attacked Obama made absolutely no political sense whatsoever ….. unless he acted on a suggestion to do so from the White House or the G.O.P. However, if such a hint was indeed dropped to him, Howard would have been very foolish to act on it. This is an old trick and the Americans are very adept at using it ….. as, for example, Saddam Hussein found out to his cost when he THOUGHT the Americans had given him the go-ahead to invade Kuwait. What if the Republicans and Democrats, in their usual bi-partisan way of dealing with foreign governments, had lured Howard into a position from which he could not retreat without serious cost?

Republicans and Democrats both realize that the situation in Iraq is getting worse and I’ll bet the word “Stalingrad” has been spoken behind closed doors. It was bringing AMERICAN troops home – during what presumably will still be the Bush presidency – that Obama was talking about; he wasn’t talking about bringing Australian troops home, was he? He wasn’t talking about bringing Australian troops home. Howard rushed in …. let’s hope it wasn’t “on-script” ….. and his only way out now for Howard is to give the Americans a commitment to increase Australian troop numbers in Iraq – most likely by conscription – to replace American troops as they withdraw from Iraq.

Howard may be skilled at playing politics and at scaring a gullible public with phantom terrorists (what about the real ones???) ….. but he has just shown that he is a real novice when he tries to mess around with a nation of winner-takes-all poker players and cunning wheelers-and-dealers.

j-p-z said that Obama ….

chose to shoot back with a zippy one-liner.

No, not a zippy one-liner …… it looks more like good old American bi-partisanship in dealing with foreign governments …. and it looks like Howard got himself into an ambush..

Bob â€?No child will live in povertyâ€? HAWKE and that crooked snake, Paul “the big picture (Mufti Man) KEATING…

…ready to pander to every minority group and fringe dwellers (the usual whingeing long haired, soap dodging types) out there…

…Twenty Six thousand dollars to ‘develop a surfboard for women’ and paying some ‘poet’ a full time wage to go around reading poetry to workers on building sites…

And what is with GILLARD? I have seen more charisma and felt more warmth from a tent peg…

I always remember my late father use to say: “Son, what is the definition of a Canadian?â€? Answer: “An American with his brains kicked out.â€?

Have a listen to yourself, all that hate and bad vibes.

In Australia, however, Gen. Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters that he “would not sayâ€? that Iran’s leadership was aware of or condoned the attacks. “It is clear that Iranians are involved, and it’s clear that materials from Iran are involved, but I would not say by what I know that the Iranian government clearly knows or is complicit,â€? according to an account posted on the Voice of America Web site.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/13/world/middleeast/13weapons.html?hp&ex=1171342800&en=807e1132fc3d3585&ei=5094&partner=homepage

WTF is the Chairman of the JCS doing here? Cheney in a couple of weeks. What’s going on?

Oh, spring’s coming in the Northern Hemisphere. Attack season.

That would be a mistake Kim. After the appalling way he’s treated Donna, Malkin will be all over him.

Wouldn’t you say he redeems himself in Season 7?

Michael Brissenden last night on the 7.30 Report said Obama’s campaign so far has been like a script from the West Wing.

Are you sure you don’t mean a “redcoat”? You can claim that the US invaded Canada; we tend to think that we attacked the British Empire, for its outrages (impressment, tyranny over shipping, &c. &c.). While the Canadians fought tol’ably well, it was –guess what– the British Army that defeated the US, until of course that unfortunate incident down in Nawlins.

But all that’s a long time ago. I’ll offer a compromise. These days, a Canadian is like a teenage girl who comes home after her freshman year in college and says, “Daddy I hate you! You’re stupid because you’ve never read Edward Said and Paul Ricoeur.” FATHER: “If I’m so stupid, how come I’m the one who’s able to pay for your whole tuition?” “Just for that, I’m becoming a lesbian!!”

Also, do not overlook the racist aspect of Howard’s recation; Obama is not a good, ol’ Anglo-Saxon/Celtic name.

Check out the Howard ministers’ portfolios for the absence of ethnics.

Such an enlightened world!