Doug, the epitome of the nuanced phrase, knows the difference between Free, as in beer, and "free". 

F'rinstance, Brendan Nelson was asked if he had had a free education, by Ticky Fullerton on the Commies Own ABC 4 Corners. Nelson, a winning smile at the ready, was quick to point out that taxpayers of hard-working middle Oz had paid for his university education. In contrast, the know-nothing dickhead university chancellors coughed up that they had received a free education.  

That's why Doug can rightfully claim he does not owe Australian taxpayers a red cent (or tuppence, outside of his home state of Texas) for the cost of his rescue. And not because the Australian invaders didn't have much to do with it, it's about the principle of George Bush being absolutely right in his decisions to invade.  Cripes, how many people watched him cry with Sandra? One million? Doesn't that prove John Howard is right, too? 

From the ABC

Education vouchers considered for poorer families

A major conference on the future of education will consider the idea of a voucher system for the cost of a student's education.
A voucher system provides parents with a theoretical budget they can spend on their child's education at a private or public school.
It is designed to introduce competition and consumer choice to education.
Former ACCC chief, Professor Alan Fels, who has organised tomorrow's conference, says vouchers empower poorer families to choose their education.
"You give the money to the parents and they have to spend it on education, but they can choose what kind of education and that puts more pressure on schools to meet their wishes," he said.

Gus News
More wounds in the public education system? The food-stamp system is Ghastly in the US... Charity on a stick...

From the ABC

Ex-hostage volunteers for nuclear panel
An Australian once held hostage by Iraqi militants says he should be on the Federal Government's task force that is examining the nuclear industry.

Prime Minister John Howard yesterday announced a six-member panel, headed by former Telstra chief executive Ziggy Switkowski.

The panel also includes nuclear physicist Professor George Dracoulis and Professor Warwick McGibbon of the Australian National University.

Douglas Woods, 64, was held hostage in Iraq for more than six weeks before being released in June 2005.

The engineer says has he led the construction of new generation reactors in the United States and refitted a Soviet reactor in the Czech Republic.

He was also involved in a 1970s feasibility study into an Australian atomic project for Jervis Bay, on the south coast of New South Wales.

Mr Wood says he can deliver hands-on experience to a task force that is "long on theory".

"I think I've got a practical background in the construction of nuclear power plants that might be more useful to add more breadth to the scientific types that have been selected to date," he said.

"It's not just an academic debate on how the physics of reactor works but also what components could be manufactured in Australia as opposed to imported, what jobs it might bring to Australians in the construction and maybe even the operation."

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If Mr Wood goes on this panel then Gus should be on it too... But since Gus barely exists....

I reckon eddie maguire would be the go .... they say he's a "super salesman" & with him involved, there'd be less likelihood that the little rodent would have to do a "hydro" down the track.

Even better: given that scientist Switkowski was supposedly up to the task of running Telstra, maybe Sol Trujillo & his amigos could manage our proposed nucular industry?

Antway, based on the reactions of the state governments to the prospect of nuclear reactors being built on their "sovereign soil", the only place left to build one would be the ACT: an idea with some merit. .... 

"It is almost too late to save Iraq, and clearly drastic action must be taken. But the answer is not more US or coalition forces. The answer is not to train more security forces who turn out to be the problem.

Maliki must go. Iraq needs a leader truly interested in uniting all Iraqis, someone like the former interim prime minister Ayad Allawi."

Doug Wood (SMH)

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Gus: It appears that Doug Wood is awakening to the fact he was lucky not to be cut in small pieces and fed to the dogs of war!... In his opinion piece that appears in the Sydney Morning Herald this morning (04/01/07) Doug is even prepared to accept that his former captors could be forgiven if this could save Iraq from total destruction.

Maliki himself, the Iraqi PM, does not want to carry on being Prime Minister and will not present himself for reelection.

Wood, rescued by a Colonel Mohammed, seems to come to sadness with the mess that is Iraq, and I suspect he is starting to realise that the US having gone to war there was a mistake... a BIG mistake.

Here, in USAtralia, as we do not feel the bullets whistling at our ears, nor the loud noise of daily explosions, nor do we see the thick black smoke rising from revenge... So we do not understand the pains we have unleashed, while our jolly politician pontificate shiftily about the necessity we have to troop out-there to support our mate USABush. And most of us don't care one way or the other as long as the sun shines, as long as the the rain fills our dams and as long as we can drive to Forster for our holidays. But then we were not close to being cut up in small pieces...

May our Johnnee, Blairee and Bushee resign in disgust over their despicable actions... Then they could be forgiven. But not before they become contrite by self-exile, about their lying folly.

For the first time, a real blueprint for peace in Iraq

 

By Ali Allawi, former Iraqi Defence Minister

 

Published: 05 January 2007

 

The Iraqi state that was formed in the aftermath of the First World War has come to an end. Its successor state is struggling to be born in an environment of crises and chaos. The collapse of the entire order in the Middle East now threatens as the Iraq imbroglio unleashes forces in the area that have been gathering in virulence over the past decades.