:: Wog Blog ::

:: WHAT AM I THINKING ABOUT? ::

:: Wednesday 11 February 2004 ::

I am not well today

Home early to sweat and cough and splutter. All the way through Parliamentary Question Time.

What a stoush.

Prime Minister not backing down one inch. He let Pixie rude have it both barrel's: "If we followed your advice Saddam would still be in power. That's the uncomfortable truth for you and your ilk. I don't apologise for our action." Or something like that, only lasting a lot longer and shouting part of the time as Pixie got all bothered at having the uncomfortable truth pointed out to him.

McClelland (?) asked a bit of a silly question of Ruddock about amalgamating ASIO and other spook agencies into one big 24x7x365 agency and asking why it has to take 8 months to get that done, the implication being we are all naked in our beds til the 8 months are up. Ruddock rightly, and no shouting, pointed out that there is that cover now but the new agency will be at it from April on account it takes time to hire folks and train them and then be confident to roster them round the clock, and then get the new digs settled by July. Fair point. And kinda showed up McClelland's question as a silly one - I mean you don't set up a new agency in under 8 months. Cripes. If you do, it ain't exactly gonna be thoroughly done, eh?. These two guys are class acts in my view. Enough respect to make the real info meaningful. McClelland's the only one behaving like that on the Labor front bench but.

Vaile did some sterling swatting off of stupid Labor negativity on the Free Trade deal, pointing out that cars alone make the deal worth it. No back foot there. The question was from some Labor gone I forget, something like 'how does it feel to have settled an agreement that is worse than the deal the US has with Chile and the one with El Salvador...'. Vaile pointed out that Oz is no tinpot Latin American sinkhole of corruption and poverty circa 1980. It is Oz. G'uh. Natch we do not need a leg up from the US. We just need some doors opened for our trade.

Abbot got a question about Medicare from Gillard Labor I think and he used it to go Latham a beaut, revealing Latham has stolen his new ladder of opportunity rhetoric from George W Bush who used it in 2000, who stole it from Reagan who used it in the 80's who stole it from Churchill way back when. Nice. I can't stand how Latham paints himself as creative when he is Whitlam lite in a time of terror. The most inappropriate type of potential leader in my view.

And Costello - whooee - he got a softball question from a Liberal gone about consumer confidence being up and he used it to shoot Latham over interest rates, budget surpluses, tax, need for stability and long term planning.

I give the contest to the Gumment.

But then again, I am hopped up on goofballs and juice. What would I know.

Do. Not. Answer.

:: WB 12:11 am [link+] ::