According to the calendar that John Howard uses as a clock, it would never be time to change... Now or never, the timing would be always wrong...

Like placing the economy in the hands of "inexperienced" Labor blokes rather that leaving it to the road-tested porkyists, warmongers, insensitive failed priests, floggers and professional fudgers... His timepiece — made in pure Canberra Kirribilli fudge by Smirk and Smug, the specialists who do not give you the time of day — does not work.

Rudd has got more experience than necessary to run the country, plus Rudd has youth on his side, good vision and he does not tell whoppers like John Howard does. I think John Howard is getting old, like me... But as I keep stimulating my mind with many interests, from pure science, including negative time and "strings", and from drawing silly toons to extensive organic gardening, John Howard walks like a sweatshirt on steroids and practice the daily "put another porky on the pollie barbie" — a dangerous tarred burn-off designed to stimilate his rancid vision of what you should swallow.

So now is the time to change. Throw John Howard out...

From Bob Ellis, ABC

The Right's dirty tricks are many and cunning and foul and they stink in the nostrils of our neighbourly democracy - disfranchising 200,000 students, vagrants and people between addresses for instance, disqualifying George Newhouse, pretending Hicks, Habib, Haneef and Tony Tranh have somehow, somewhere imperilled Australia, pretending interest payments under Hawke and Keating weren't half, in real terms, of what they are now. But their most remarkable success, I think, has been to abolish - or terminally diminish - the concepts of 'better' and 'worse', and 'right' and 'wrong'.

We're not allowed to use them any more. We can't say, for instance, that many, many Russians are worse off now than they were under Gorbachev Communism, even those that beg on the streets now, as they never used to, or get hunted down and shot for dissident journalism. We can't say that four million Iraqis, those that have fled their homes and can't go back, are worse off now than they were under Saddam. We can't say Cubans are better off than they were under Batista, though 97 percent of them can read now versus 3 percent then, and no-one starves or lacks hospital treatment, even American tourists, even Michael Moore.

--------------

Gus: Yes, Mr Ellis... The Rateous Rightists have "terminally diminish - the concepts of 'better' and 'worse', and 'right' and 'wrong'." They have formulated greed at any cost, war for oil, and countless lies to stay in power. Under the grubby atmosphere the Rateous Rightists have created, one is stupid if one is not greedy, one is a terrorist if one is not a warrior for Bush, and one is a communist for not believing in their porkies... The debate has been reframed to suit the fascist-capitalism paradym.

Get rid of John Howard now. Vote his team last on the ballot papers. And make sure you vote those groups giving preference to his perverse ideology in second last position... OUT!

The Prime Minister's Department's annual report reveals a jump in executive salaries, and delays processing Freedom of Information (FOI) requests.

The Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet snapshot shows the cost of senior executive salaries rose by more than $2 million with one person getting paid almost $500,000 while performance bonuses came in at $1.5 million.

The report also reveals a surge of 20 per cent in staff numbers mainly because of APEC.

The Department was kept busy processing 185,000 items of correspondence, most on controversial issues from convicted terrorism supporter David Hicks, to industrial relations, climate change and troops in Iraq.

Processing of Freedom of Information requests slowed down a little, with only 28 per cent being dealt with in line with deadlines.

Labor leader Kevin Rudd has accused the Treasurer of double standards in his attack on the Opposition for submitting policies for official costings late.

Peter Costello says Labor has engaged in an elaborate ruse by handing in more than 120 of its policies after the Department of Finance deadline.

But Mr Rudd has returned fire, saying the Coalition has not submitted its hospital boards plan for costing.

"Not one element of that submitted by Mr Costello to Treasury and Finance for costings, why?" he said.

"And the absolute double standard of the Treasurer to turn around and make those sorts of statements about us is extraordinary.

"All of our costings, as I indicated in statements at the end of last week, were submitted in the early part of this week."