quick hits

Not only did Dick Cheney shoot someone whilst out hunting, but it turns out it wasn't even hunting. He goes to one of those private game reserves where they raise the birds in cages, then release them for the hunters to shoot. What a fucking pussy.

Via dr_nic, the android replica of Phillip K. Dick has gone missing. If I was the guy who'd built it, I'd feel totally terrified right now. You know it's coming for you, and your eyeballs are gonna get squished.

And finally, Tony Abbott is still a dick.

KERRY O'BRIEN: But doctors are subject to rules and regulations, too. They are using all kinds of dangerous drugs all the time, and they're applying appropriate supervision, aren't they?

TONY ABBOTT: That's correct.

KERRY O'BRIEN: Why wouldn't they do that with RU486?

TONY ABBOTT: But an official who decides in his or her wisdom that a particular level of supervision is fine is not going to be called to account in the same way that a politician or a minister will be called to account if that decision turns out to be wrong.

... because if there's one thing the Howard government is rock-solid on, it's Ministerial responsibility. In particular, the avoidance of same. I mean, really, Vanstone could be found chowing down on a big bowl of refugee-kiddy-stew, and Howard would still let her hide behind some unnamed bureaucrat - "obviously the minister was unaware that the children in the stew were actually refugees".

I think someone should ask every single MP who voted in favour of Abbott if they would be happy to pass every single medical decision that affects their lives across Abbott's desk for him to sign-off before they begin treatment. It seems only fair.

scandal? what scandal?

From today's Crikey mailout

January 2000 – UN customs expert warns Australia's UN mission that the Iraqi government was demanding some $US700,000 from the Canadian Wheat Board to cover suspect trucking fees in Iraq, and that AWB was already paying such fees.

March 2000 – Austrade commissioner Alistair Nicholas briefs AWB executives in Washington, telling them a UN official had asked him "quietly/informally about payments AWB was making to Iraq."

June 2000 – Trade Minister Mark Vaile apparently met AWB chiefs Flugge and Lindberg over the kickback claims (Vaile says he can't recall the meeting).

September 2000 – An email sent by a former BHP executive Norman Davidson Kelly tells senior AWB manager Charles Stott that Tigris Petroleum, a company set up by BHP, "enjoys the support of our friends at DFAT who, as I told you, are interested in the outcome of the discussions to recover the obligation."

November 2000 – AWB Iraqi executive Andrew Long passes on information to DFAT that AWB was paying a Jordanian trucking company money for trucking Australian wheat in Iraq.

July 2002 – Prime Minister Howard writes to AWB head Andrew Lindberg: "In view of the importance of the matter, I suggest the government and AWB remain in close contact in order that we can jointly attempt to achieve a satisfactory outcome in the longer term."

August 2002 – When grain merchant Ray Brooks alerts then Agriculture Minister Warren Truss to allegations by international traders that AWB was paying kickbacks that breached UN regulations, he was told to stop "peddling stories like that around".

May/June 2003 – An AWB employee forwards a memo from the Coalition Provisional Authority to DFAT asking him to clarify which contracts contained kickbacks and which ones didn't.

July 2003 – The UN tells AWB to cut $28 million from two contracts because it correctly assumed there was an extra 10% kickback to Saddam Hussein's regime. AWB told the Howard Government, via DFAT's Iraq taskforce, that it had agreed to the price reduction.

October 2003 – Australian Treasury officials forward concerns about details of the oil-for-food kickbacks under the old regime to DFAT and Australia's aid agency AusAID, stating that before the US-led Iraq invasion a 10% surcharge was added on to any oil-for-food contract.

Mid-2004 – Wheat Export Authority Chairman Tim Besley admits the government authority knew about possible kickbacks to Iraq through trucking company Alia.

October 2004 – After an investigation, the Wheat Export Authority clears AWB over kickback allegations in a secret report to then Agriculture Minister Warren Truss.

October 2004 – Australian US Ambassador Michael Thawley convinces US Senator Norm Coleman to drop his committee's investigation into the AWB because the allegations are untrue.