all the small things

VVB as rule doesn't pinch from Crikey which is a struggling subscription-based start-up alternative to the dreaded and dreadful MSM and needs to protect its IP. So, just this once. Until next time. Here's an extract from commentary on the ABC's Bastard Boys:

Julian Burnside
As reported by AAP:
I thought Rhys Muldoon did a terrific job actually.
Watching him, especially in the court scenes was uncannily like being myself. I
thought he did a great job, he picked up on my mannerisms with great accuracy.
On the factual accuracy of the show:
I thought the series overall did a very good job. In particular, I thought it made (Patrick Corporation CEO) Chris Corrigan look like the sort of guy you could sympathise with and like…And, I think that's pretty good because, after all, it was a government in a criminal conspiracy with a big company to break its own laws.
Chris Corrigan
Speaking to The Daily Telegraph, Mr Corrigan said: It's a puff for Greg Combet and it just happens to coincide with his run for Parliament. It's virtually worshipful, putting him in the most favourable light. I think the Government gets off very lightly, given that they concocted the whole scheme and John Howard personally signed off on it. We have the cabinet documents, and he signed off on the sacking of the entire workforce.

Just in case you misread that, here it is again from that impeccable source, the Daily Telegraph.

Now, what particular piece of that admittedly small snippet kind of grabs your attention?

No, not the bit about the government "concocting the whole scheme" Howard "personally signing off" on an action to break the laws of the country of which he was Prime Minister.

No, this: "We have the cabinet (sic) documents."

Cabinet documents. Really.

How.

And why.

And do the rest of us get to see documents that directly affect our well being. Like the ones on the budget figures that the Treasurer successfully defended from public view only a little while ago because they would have laid bare the logical, moral and intellectual vacuum at the centre of the government's supposedly impeccable economic management credentials.

One law for the rich.

One for the PM (although it's not really a law if a Prime Minister can kind of, you know, just override it).

And one for all of us.

You know what that means.

Just don't forget it. (Scroll down to no 6!)

Goodnight, my lovelies.

Update 16 May: Crikey has this in its corrections column today:

Thomas Hunter writes: Re. "Bastard Boys II: What the critics say" (yesterday, item 12). Yesterday we attributed the following quote to Chris Corrigan: “I think the Government gets off very lightly, given that they concocted the whole scheme and John Howard personally signed off on it. We have the cabinet documents, and he signed off on the sacking of the entire workforce.” Apologies to Mr Corrigan. That comment was in fact made by Greg Combet.

So the unions had the Cabinet documents? WTF? Looks like I've missed something, but I don't know what it is, do I, Mr Jones.