'Truffles' Turnbull is peeved

According to Granny Herald the Leader of the Opposition was a mite peeved last Sunday:
''The application fee for a loan from Rudd Bank will be a donation to the Labor Party, we all know that,'' said Malcolm as a precursor to his favourite line of the week about a canine returning to its chunder.''Whenever Labor governments decide to get into the business of banking or financing the private sector, it's invariably tied up with cronyism, it's tied up with political donations.''........
''Look, this is a very bad idea. It's - leaving aside the question of competence and corruption and all of that which invariably goes with incompetence and corruption, invariably goes hand in hand with Labor banking - the big problem here Barrie, the other big problem is that it will make the perceived problem worse because the minute you have Mr Dumb Money himself, Kevin Rudd, there with a big bag of taxpayers' money, ready to lend on, take on bad loans or dud loans in order, for political reasons, any member of a syndicate that wants to get out will kick up a fuss knowing that the Government will take them out...''

Which is all a bit rich coming from a man who spent tens of thousands of dollars paving his way to Liberal Party pre-selection and then election to federal parliament and only recently had a merchant bank pay to bail him out of protracted litigation.

Whatisname and I had a meeting of minds

It was an almost comic situation.
In full camera glare Kevin Rudd watched political triumph threaten to turn to smoke on the breeze, as President Obama first forgot his title and then had obvious difficulty recalling Our Kev's name in the middle of one photo opportunity for the gathered media during the Australian Prime Minister's visit to Washington this week.

Yamba named best town in Australia in March 2009

The Australian Traveller Magazine has just named Yamba, at the mouth of the Clarence River on the New South Wales North Coast, the best little town in Australia.

It heads the list of 100 towns voted on by the judging panel, when asked the question:

"Regardless of where the town is located, would you recommend a good friend drive an hour out of their way specifically to visit this town?"

Pictures found at The Daily Telegraph, The Daily Examiner and Google Images

21st century history wars U.S. style?

Former U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney may be disappointed that George W. Bush didn't hand out blanket pardons for his partners in political crime when he left the highest office in America, but he is still determined to defend the 'honour' of the administration of which he was a part.

Cheney started out on 2 April 2009 warning of fresh terrorist attacks against a weakened America.

By 15 March on CNN's State of the Nation he further fleshed out his assertion that President Obama's changes to former Bush Administration policy placed America at risk:

Former Vice President Dick Cheney on Sunday defended the Bush administration's economic record, the invasion of Iraq and the treatment of suspected terrorists, warning that reversing its anti-terrorism policies endangers Americans.

"We've accomplished nearly everything we set out to do," ex-Vice President Dick Cheney says Sunday about Iraq.

In a wide-ranging interview with CNN's "State of the Union," Cheney said the harsh interrogations of suspects and the use of warrantless electronic surveillance were "absolutely essential" to get information to prevent more attacks like the 2001 suicide hijackings that targeted New York and Washington.

"President Obama campaigned against it all across the country, and now he is making some choices that, in my mind, will, in fact, raise the risk to the American people of another attack," he said.

Critics said the Bush administration's "alternative" interrogation techniques amounted to the torture of prisoners in American custody, while the administration's warrantless surveillance program violated federal laws enacted after the Watergate scandal.

Since taking office in January, Obama has announced plans to close the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to halt the military trials of suspected terrorists there, and to make CIA officers follow the Army field manual's rules on interrogations. Cheney said the administration appears to be returning to the pre-2001 model of treating terrorism as a law enforcement issue, rather than a military problem.

"When you go back to the law enforcement mode, which I sense is what they're doing, closing Guantanamo and so forth ... they are very much giving up that center of attention and focus that's required, that concept of military threat that is essential if you're going to successfully defend the nation against further attacks," he said.

One gets the general impression that Cheney can't wait to complete his own memoirs and wants to start massaging the historical record right away.

Still, the poor man is being sorely tested by the blogosphere which saw Slate earlier this year posting 'exclusive excerpts' from these same memoirs after Cheney announced that he was writing his version of events.

Some of which were oddly prescient of his current attitude:

Mark my words: There will be another terrorist attack. Thousands will die. Millions will suffer. When it happens, America will see at last that we were right. History will vindicate us, and we'll receive the respect we rightfully deserve. Not that I would ever want that, of course.