Australian government officials have bribed and lied and found themselves to be as untainted as newborns.

Our Prime Minister, Foreign Minister and Trade Minister are innocent. It wasn't their fault that a government agency was paying bloody money to a dictactor that Australia was about to go to war with. Anyway, if they didn't read all the cables from everybody trying to tell them what was going on, how could they possibly know.

The first Cole Inquiry stories are bouncing around the world pretty quickly... I picked up the AP version from the Houston Chronicle. You'll find that a lot of US Farmers are going to be interested in this result. The US Democrats certainly, are. They weren't running the inquiry when the Australian ambassador asked for it to be ignored in support of Howard's re-election. They are most certainly in charge now.

Opposition leader Beazley's claims that the inquiry was rigged by it's terms of reference are correct. There was no way that this inquiry was ever going to able to find a minister or a department guilty. The talented side-stepper Attorney General Ruddock made sure of this a year ago.

Our PM has been very quick to claim the proven innocence of his ministers... do you think he's had a long weekend worrying about it?

Anyway.. over to you, US Democrats. We can't serve justice upon these charlatans while they make their own rules. I hope you have better luck.