It would appear that the Italian Government has paid $1.4 mil ransome to get Simona Torretta and Simona Pari released from their Iraqi kidnappers. Despite an official government denial, a leading parliament member said he believed Italy had handed over about $US1 million ($1.4 million) to secure their freedom. $1.4 million buys a hell of [...]

Terrorist Ivan Molloy gets ALP preselection for the seat of Fairfax (Sunshine Coast). LABOR candidate Ivan Molloy posed with a machine gun supplied by Muslim extremists and has said Australia should be turning its military on both itself and the US. (the ‘machine gun’ is actually an M16 assualt rifle) Dr Molloy has also claimed [...]

This article from the Australian grabs my interest and suggests a solution for a lot of problems suffered by Infantry and defence forces generally THE Pentagon is excited about research at a Queensland university showing that soldiers injured on the battlefield can be put into hibernation until specialist medical treatment becomes available. It is estimated [...]

Philip Adams does a quick take on Howard’s surplus allocation. And there’s Howard, acting as if all that accumulated moolah belongs to him and that we should be immensely grateful if he gives some of it back. Moreover, we should express our gratitude by voting for him. Actually, I see it as Howard acting as [...]

A Ms Luke joins the Conga line of Fools who blame Howard for Bali. Like Brian Deegan, she lost someone close and in her grief and confusion forgets to blame the people who detonated the bomb, the terrorists. Ms Luke, who recently joined the Greens and does not rule out a future political career, is [...]

The dark forces have conjured up another Leading Somebody who has an opinion contrary to the PM’s and in doing so expect the voters to instantly connect the Leading Somebody’s opinion as gospel handed down from Mount Kosciusko and the PM as ignoring said gospel. Aware of the imminence of war based on a false [...]

The ALP has announced its defence policy. Mark Latham has vowed to make Australia “impregnable” by expanding the army by one battalion. Well, that’s what it says here They promise; * a new light infantry battalion with about 750 troops to be based in Townsville * the parachute battalion group at Holsworthy in Sydney to [...]

What began as a benign Sunday morning chat on television between Howard and veteran Canberra interviewer Laurie Oakes has become a religion with John Quiggin, Tim Dunlop and Chris Shiels. What Howard said; What Howard said in reply to Oakes’ question was quite equivocal, full of “ifs”: “If you believed somebody was going to launch [...]

In a national ACNielsen Poll fifty-four per cent nominated Mr Costello as the treasurer they would prefer, compared with 32 per cent who named Mr Crean. Labor has targeted Mr Costello by saying a vote for John Howard is a vote for a Costello government. Now this is only conjecture but what isn’t, what is [...]

Too much going on at home to blog but some reading has brought to light two excellent political blogs. Look to the left sidebar and if you don’t have to waste a whole day as ‘Mr Fixit’ around the home like I do, then go read some non-emotive analysis of the Aussie election. Particularly of [...]