"THAT'S THE RULES THAT I JUST MADE UP . . . AND I'M BACKING IT UP WITH THE GUN THAT WAS LENT FROM THE NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION"
-eddie izzard

I see Bush got heckled by the leader of the Australian Greens down in Canberra.

"Security in the Asia-Pacific region will always depend on the willingness of nations to take responsibility for their neighborhood, as Australia is doing," Bush told parliament.

Australia has recently sent a peacekeeping force to the Solomon Islands to restore law and order.

But his tagging of Australia as a regional "sheriff" and staunch defense of the Iraq war angered left-leaning Green politicians whose heckling twice stopped the president's speech.

"We are not a sheriff," shouted Greens leader Bob Brown who ignored an order to leave the house.

The heckling did not rattle Bush, who is on his first trip to Australia. The last U.S. president to visit Australia was Bill Clinton in 1996 -- who was also heckled by Brown.

"I love free speech," quipped Bush, to cheers from the house, having been warned he could face politicians' protests.

But following Bush's speech, the parliament voted to suspend Brown and his Greens colleague Kerry Nettle from parliament for 24 hours, which will bar them on Friday when Chinese President Hu Jintao addresses parliament during a three-day state visit.

No comment from Bush on that procedural motion, I'm sure.

He was heckled inside the parliament building by someone else, and this is a shade more problematic:

The 18-year-old son of Mamdouh Habib, one of two Australians held at a U.S. military prison in Cuba for two years without charge after the Afghan invasion, was dragged out, arms pinned behind his back, after yelling: "Hey Bush, what about my Dad?"

Howard did raise the issue of Habib and fellow detainee David Hicks with Bush and was assured they were being properly cared for and would be dealt with according to U.S. rules and regulations. (italics TFM's)

See, this is the problem. There aren't any rules and regulations for our treatment of the Gitmo prisoners detainees combatants whatever-they-are's. Why? Because we're making it up as we go along! Rummy himself has said that we're setting some form of precedent here.

Anyway, I need a salad and a nap.