Loose Cannons

Maaate!

"Federal Workplace Relations Minister Tony Abbott last night seized on a Queensland government report by [former Labor PM] Bob Hawke recommending a time limit for protected industrial action by the state's 200,000 public sector workers." — report in September 19 Australian.

No evidence required

"And so, they — the burden of proof is — must be place [sic] squarely on their shoulders. But there's no negotiations about whether or not they've been telling the truth or not." — George "The Crusader" Bush, speaking about Iraq, September 19.

Kingmaker

"[Senator Fred Thompson has] still got some — he's got a task ahead there on the floor of the Senate, and that's to make sure I get a homeland security department that is unfettered from government rules and bureaucracies, a homeland security department that will allow this president and future presidents to move people to the right place at the right time, in order to protect the homeland from an enemy which still hates us." — George the Crusader, September 17.

Little Johnnie learns Dubyaspeak I

"I mean nobody is perfect and support for multilateral institutions doesn't mean that we believe that the United Nations should always be regarded as the United Nations, whether it is right or wrong." — Prime Menzies John Howard, 3LO interview, September 13.

Little Johnnie learns Dubyaspeak II

"The [US] hasn't thrown any bombs. The only bombs that have been thrown, if I can use that in a generic sense, over the last year are the ones that started it and the ones that happened just over a year ago today." — Howard, same source as above. As of September 20, the US has carried out 31 bombing raids on Iraq this year. See <http://www.ccmep.org/us_bombing_watch.html>.

From Green Left Weekly, September 25, 2002.

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From GLW issue 510