Friday, 22 February 2002

Excellent - Qantas says the rebirth of Ansett will lead to an "inevitable bloodbath" of cut-price fares, but vowed yesterday to see off at least one of its rivals before the end of the year. In the words of that famous American philosopher, Charles Montgomery Burns, "Excellent" 7:45:05 AM    Comments ()

Speaking of Simon Crean - I have been impressed with the preformance of the new leader of the Federal Labor Part, Simon Crean. His dogged, patient, not-overly-emotion parlimentary performance is refreshing. There have been some great one liners from Crean too: Crean's seven-word summary of the Opposition's accusations over the boat people affair last Thursday is a fine example: "They lied, they spied and they denied." "Your fig leaf is a tea leaf," he shot at the Prime Minister. [SMH] 7:41:12 AM    Comments ()

"As we've said before: yeah, sure." - Mike Seccombe has a great piece  on the truthful Air Marshal Angus Houston, head of the Air Force. Opposition Leader Simon Crean claimed he heard the Treasurer, Peter Costello, say, in an aside to Howard, the Government would have to "get rid of" Houston. Amid the ensuing tumult, Costello denied it, then added, ominously, that getting rid of Houston was not, in any case "a decision for me". Whatever, Houston's evidence was not a good career move. Barrie's was. 7:35:53 AM    Comments ()

Reith "'fesses up" - Former defence minister Peter Reith made admissions yesterday that show he covered up advice three days before the federal election that the "children overboard" claim was false. This opening paragraph comes from a story in the Sydney Morning Herald. What follows is a sentence stating the Reith failed to deny the key claim of the Acting Chief of the Defense Force that the photo's were misleading. And then there are two beautiful sentences that begin with the word "But"! But Mr Reith denied he communicated the advice to the Prime Minister, John Howard, when he spoke to him by telephone on the evening of November 7 - three days before the federal election. But Mr Howard said on Tuesday that the "whole discussion" he had with Mr Reith that day concerned "doubts" about the photos. If you are any kind of lover of language and symantics you'll love this article. 7:34:10 AM    Comments ()