Why I love the Aussies

Over the last couple of years, the Australians have done a lot of things that have endeared themselves to me: defending the decision to invade Iraq, telling their Muslim population to assimilate or hit the road, etc. Well, add one more to the list: trashing the Euros. From Oz:

Australian Prime Minister John Howard fired a broadside at the European Union Tuesday for criticising his climate change policy, saying it should get its own house in order before attacking others.
The counter-strike came a day after EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas accused Australia of having a "negative attitude" and refusing to sign the Kyoto Protocol on climate change for political reasons rather than economic ones.

But Howard, who is under intense domestic pressure ahead of elections later this year over what critics claim was a failure by his government to tackle climate change, would have none of it.

"You've got the spokesman for a group of countries lecturing us about not having signed Kyoto," he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

"Yet the great bulk of the countries on whose behalf he speaks are falling well behind their Kyoto targets and are doing less well in meeting them," he fumed.

"Our answer to the spokesman for the European Union is: Look to your own affairs, get your countries complying with the targets you have proclaimed," Howard said.
...
"We should be very wary of European lectures on this issue," he said.

Ouch! Nicely done, Mr. Howard! If I ever have an Alec Baldwin moment (but actually folow through with the threat) and decide to leave the country if the Hildebeast gets elected, Oz will be the first place I contemplate.