Take your pick NSW voters: it's Kristina Keneally for Labor or the coming Armageddon

KRISTINA Keneally yesterday:

If the Coalition gets their way, I beseech you all. Look after each other. Take care of your neighbour, because there will be fewer police to do that for you. Take care of the old, the sick and the vulnerable because when the health budget is cut there will be fewer nurses and there will be fewer community care workers. And, as grim as it is to say this: be sure to follow up on the child who has gone quiet, who is out of character, who is withdrawn, because you can no longer assume that that child is protected.

Agelaus of Naupactus urges Philip V of Macedon and his allies to make peace with the Aetolians in 221BC:

I beseech you all to be on your guard against the danger of the crisis, and above all you, O King. For even now it is evident to any one who pays even a moderate attention to public affairs, that whether the Carthaginians conquer the Romans, or the Romans the Carthaginians, it is in every way improbable that the victors will remain contented with the empire of Sicily and Italy.

Nasty card . . . Mark Dreyfus on ABC's Lateline on March 4:

I think that people in public life have a responsibility to use language wisely. When you get not one but two Liberal frontbenchers comparing the Prime Minister to the murderous Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, then you've gone over the line in terms of the language.

Nazi card . . . Dreyfus in The Age yesterday:

[Tony] Abbott's wildest claim is that he is running a "truth campaign". Leaving aside the Goebbellian cynicism of labelling a scare campaign a "truth campaign", it shows his contempt for the Australian electorate.

Deboranomics . . . Deborah Cameron on Aldi's application for a liquor licence on ABC 702 yesterday: WHERE you have Coles and Woolworths completely dominating this market, does there need to be a way of looking at the size of the pie and saying: "As a society we think the pie's big enough and so if other outlets want to operate within this pie then Coles and Woolworths will have to shave something off their share to make room for another outlet, so you don't have these ever increasing amounts of volumes of sales?"

Clive James in last week's The Weekend Australian

Some of Australia's noisier warmists -- Clive Hamilton is an especially piercing example -- pronounce the necessity of suspending democratic rights so that citizens can be punished for sinning against Gaia.

Clive Hamilton on ABC's The Drum yesterday:

The Australian continues to recycle the lie that I have advocated the "suspension of democracy" to tackle climate change. Not only have I never held such a view, I have repeatedly rejected it when it has been put to me after public lectures over several years. When I once noted that some people feel so frustrated they begin to talk about suspending democracy, The Australian's Cut & Paste section -- which specialises in verballing and misrepresenting those the newspaper has decided are its enemies -- cut and pasted my words to make it seem that I had advocated such a view. The Australian cannot stop the multiplication of the lie on the internet, but it's such a good one, they have republished it several times, most recently on Saturday in a piece by John Howard's foremost expatriate cheerleader, Clive James, who has morphed into a climate denier.

At last -- a sensible columnist in Crikey. Richard Farmer on Thursday:

At last -- a sensible columnist in The Oz with Liberal connection. A lengthy spell as press adviser to Peter Costello as treasurer and a shorter time with John Howard as prime minister have provided Niki Savva with an insight into how government works that most journalists will never have. This morning's offering, "This is no way to sell a carbon tax", should be a basic text for Labor spinners to understand.

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