Australia’s refugee problem has attracted global attention. This from the New York Times.
2008: Dashed dreams and mouldy political compromise
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The political naturals creep up on us unawares, mostly. OK, not so much with Bob Hawke, who had managed to convey his own messianic self-belief to much of the population well before 1983. But Paul Keating was always damned as “the undertaker”, incapable of inspiring popular approval given his Treasury background, a man who needed to “throw the switch to vaudeville” to become Prime Minister. He duly managed that in 1991, keeping his job in 1993. Keating of course did throw the switch to vaudeville, well into his Prime Ministership, and it looked like a lot like a Three Stooges film. Only the diehard fans were still laughing when he was kicked out in 1996, but we still admire his capacity to inflict pain. Nobody can hold the nose of an opponent between his knuckles and belt it like Keating can. John Howard initially won because he wasn’t Keating and because, well, the guy just wouldn’t go away. He almost managed to get himself turfed out after his first term but thereafter, for a further two terms, he was Captain Zeitgeist, mystically in tune with the voters, this nasty little opportunist whom we reviled and mocked in the 1980s, whose prediction “the times will suit me” turned out to be spectacularly right. But as happens, we tired of him and, almost overnight, he could no longer do anything right. Comeuppance by ennui. Ditto Bob Carr. Before 1995 there were more than a few who thought this bookish, academic-looking MP who was more at home with a collection of Gore Vidal essays than the footy could ever be elected. “You’ve got to be suspicious of a bloke that doesn’t drive, doesn’t like kids,” said John Hewson. “When he’s up against a full-blooded Australian like John Fahey he hasn’t got a hope.”. But it was Fahey who had no hope, and once Carr was in power he was unbeatable, smashing the Coalition twice by huge margins. Unlike Howard, he knew when the mood turned against him, and left when it did, on top. As did Steve Bracks, who came from nowhere, Opposition Leader, Premier, bang, leaving Jeff Kennett as roadkill. Unbeatable until he decided to leave, on top. Who’d have picked it in early 1999? The naturals are always lucky, and luck hides their ability until it’s too late for their opponents to work out what they’re up against. They appear at the fag-end of governments that have run out of puff, or they benefit from the self-destructive tendencies of their opponents. But they use their luck, and then make more of it. Kevin Rudd is a natural as well. If you don’t like him, sorry, but you’re stuck with him until the electorate tires of him, which will probably be around 2015, or until he quits in favour of Julia Gillard, which he’ll probably do in 2014, in his third term. Yeah, I know, I’m getting a bit far ahead of the game there. Still, why not? Rudd has the keenest political instincts we’ve seen in a generation. Whereas Howard’s talent lay in coming from behind and converting bad polls into convincing election wins, Rudd’s skill is in avoiding the bad polls in the first place. Not having to come from behind each time is an altogether better strategy. And Rudd has been a very, very good student of political history. One year into the Howard Government and there were already a half-dozen ministerial corpses. That Rudd’s ministry has entirely avoided scandal of any kind in its first year is testimony not to luck, and not merely to Rudd’s control freak nature, but to his knowledge of the pitfalls of new governments, especially ones long out of power like this one, where new ministers can wander into all sorts of traps. That’s why he’s leading in the polls by a country mile, and not against Brendan Nelson, the poor bastard who volunteered for the sh-tty job of leading his party in its early period in Opposition, but Malcolm Turnbull, his real opponent, a man who wants, desires, needs the Prime Ministership every bit as much as Rudd himself wanted it, in the sort of way that means you’ll do anything to get it. Turnbull is inexperienced politically, but he is driven, and brilliant, and would make a very good Prime Minister. That Rudd ends the year with Turnbull looking painfully like Brendan Nelson is a scary indication of how politically tuned-in the Prime Minister is. What’s that George Raft line in Manpower after he’s belted some blokes with a chair leg? “I could hit home runs with this all night!” That’s Kevin Rudd. Nerdish, wonkish, bespectacled Mandarin-speaking, and a political killer. He’s been a killer since he first became leader. His polling hasn’t changed since then. And two years sort of suggests a pattern, to all but the most obtuse, and Dennis Shanahan. Rudd’s lowest point was the election itself, which he still won comfortably. Otherwise, he’s been miles ahead since Dec 2006, no matter what the Coalition did. They’ve thrown everything at him, and it’s bounced off, straight back in their faces. Now here we are two years and three Liberal leaders and an economic crisis later and nothing has changed. Think Rudd will be a oncer? Are you kidding? By the way, a word on Brendan Nelson. Nelson is now, pretty much, a figure of fun, and maybe rightly so. That petrol speech, the one with Tarago and five kids and a wheelchair, is one of the funniest things of 2008. But the bloke had guts, and he was in politics not because he wanted from the age of eight to be Prime Minister — like Turnbull — but because he wanted to actually improve the lives of ordinary Australians. And if like all politicians he had a generous helping of hypocrisy and sanctimony and self-obsession, that’s all fine, because that’s what’s needed to make a difference in a democracy. Nelson met his end because he called on a fight to settle his future, and in doing so he not merely did the decent, honourable thing but the politically smart thing by his party. Rudd is different from his predecessors in having a genuine reform agenda. Howard’s agenda was to not be Keating. Hawke’s agenda was consensus, but in truth it became economic reform, imposed by the parlous state of the Australian economy that Fraser and Howard had ballsed up so badly. Fraser’s agenda was to replace Whitlam and work out the rest later. But Rudd arrived with a real to-do list made up of reformed federalism, infrastructure and educational investment, reversal of the previous Government’s IR reforms, and addressing climate change. It is not, however, an agenda to be pursued at all costs. It will be pursued as far as political judgement permits, and no further. If that means some things don’t get done, so be it. Like establishing a real ETS. That’s the thing about politicians, or maybe about life, really. Good politicians — like good people — can do bad things. They do them because that’s their judgement at the time, or because even if they’d prefer to do something different, they have to do them. I suspect Kevin Rudd would very much like to go further in addressing climate change, but as a politician he won’t. That doesn’t justify his failure to do so — indeed if anything it makes it worse — but it explains it. In fact politics is more or less based around people of high principles and good will discovering that the obtaining and exercising of power involves doing bad things, distasteful things, amoral things, involves unpleasant trade-offs and not just the famous half-loaves of compromise but stale, mouldy crusts. And it’s all the more that way because its symbiotic partner, its Siamese twin the media, dislikes complexity and nuance, in favour of the same simple narratives, repeated with an ever-changing cast of characters but the same plots and moral lessons over and over again. That’s what sells. And what gets votes. It’s the media’s job, or one of them, to make much of little and it has done that expertly for much of the year, as it does always. History suggests that, barring incompetence on an inordinate scale, Labor will be in power for several terms, but that’s not going to attract many eyeballs. Instead, the most minor political events are forensically analysed, with each tiny feature placed under the microscope so that it looms large to the viewer despite its irrelevance. Recall The Australian’s concerted push for Peter Costello mid-year, undoubtedly motivated not just by a sense of mischief-making but by the moderate inclinations of the obvious alternative to the failing Nelson. After more than a year on the backbench, not a scintilla of evidence has emerged that Peter Costello ever intended to do anything other than what he said, which was to remain on the backbench until he found a job outside politics. And yet we — as in all of us — devoted many pixels and column inches to his imminent ascension, or the unlikelihood thereof. Afterwards, we forgot all about that, and probably hoped our readers did too. Never forget the media has a vested interested in convincing you something is happening even when precisely nothing is happening — indeed, particularly when nothing is happening. It is thus wise – and I’m possibly not telling you anything you don’t already know here — to retain a strong scepticism about all political reportage and analysis, no matter the source. We’re all selling something. 2008 also saw the emergence of a new party. I speak not of the LNP, that National Party takeover in Queensland that is busy finding a way to lose yet again to a Labor Government riddled with bullies and sociopaths, but of the Greens, who obtained party status federally this year. I picked cool newcomer Scott Ludlam as a rising talent back in June but it is the aptly-named Sarah Hanson-Young who has busied herself getting a profile on water, refugees and childcare. Both show up the quality of candidates on offer from the major parties, particularly from Labor, which installed a compelling array of party and union hacks in the new Senate this year. The Greens will continue to pick up votes, and Senate spots and, maybe, one or two seats. One of the biggest questions in 2010 — for that is when the next election will be held, as Kevin Rudd knows perfectly well the dangers of going early — will be whether Lindsay Tanner can withstand a Green surge in his seat, one fuelled by his Government’s cave-in on emissions trading. It would be a huge loss. Tanner and Julia Gillard form the core of Rudd’s team. Wayne Swan has survived the toughest possible year as Treasurer, which is much more than many predicted back in February. It is not a frontbench to match that of Hawke’s first two terms, but the trusted inner circle is quality and a key reason why the Prime Minister has not, literally, worked himself to death this year. There is also great talent waiting in the wings, in Chris Bowen and Greg Combet. The Second Rudd Ministry will likely be very good. Malcolm Turnbull would give a few of his remaining millions for similar quality on his side. His up-and-comers, apart from Greg Hunt, aren’t performing, and some of his old hands seem barely interested, or are plagued with problems. You can see why Turnbull wanted Alexander Downer to remain in politics and take the shadow Treasurership. 2009 will, assuredly, be a much tougher year for the Government. We haven’t collectively worried about unemployment for many years. Once the holidays are over, and we hit February and head back to work and face a long year of growing joblessness, the political dynamic might seem altogether different. But on the evidence so far, Rudd has the smarts to stay on top, and Turnbull hasn’t worked out what to do about it. Have an enjoyable break and see you in 09. |
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38 Comments
A big thank you to David Hicks for hijacking the thread. That gentleman is a pretty poor poster boy for any cause. Being a card-carrying - OK, gun-carrying - islamofascist, complete with the standard issue anti-semitism, tends to undermine any cause with which one might associate. A comprehensive repudiation of such views would be a good milestone in Hicks’s rehabilitation. Although in my view his worst crime was associating with GetUp.
Nevertheless, Hicks didn’t do anything to abrogate the basic right to be tried for his crimes, rather than held in indefinite detention, and he had a reasonable expectation - as does every citizen of this fair land - that his government will seek to protect his rights at the hands of foreign governments, rather than turn its back on him, which is exactly what Howard and Downer did for so long. The Coalition’s abandonment of Hicks remains entirely mysterious, given our other dear ally in the splendid romp that was Iraq, Tony Blair, successfully demanded that Britons held in similar circumstances by the Americans be returned to the UK.
I suspect Howard and Downer thought that their own view that Hicks was beneath contempt and had got what he deserved wallowing in limbo in Guantanamo was shared by mainstream Australia. Maybe it was early on, but as in many other areas, mainstream Australia’s moral compass remained in something approximating working order, unlike those of Messrs Downer and Howard.
Now, for the true political tragics, I can inform you that Alan Ramsey was busy this morning cleaning out his office. Ramsey has a spacious office (aptly numbered Room 101) to himself that is mostly filled with large - I mean large - piles of paper. He had reached Pile 6 when I last strolled past. That means another 60-odd to go.
“Venise Alstergren Toorak” at letters
http://www.theage.com.au/news/letters/higher-bills-small-price-to-pay-for-the-environment/2008/05/08/1210131164681.html?page=3
The prose is young, perhaps our crikey V.A. is related to a certain namesake artist photographer 1935 - extant:
http://www.printsandprintmaking.gov.au/catalogues/artist/13023/venise-alstergren.aspx
Whatever, got to get the press and see what latest atrocity the Israeli February election has served up in combo with Dick Cheney’s last blood thirsty war mongering before Obama sacks him on Jan 15.
Hmm….speaking of insanity….. hello Sam.
Stupidity is not a prerequisite for delusional insanity but, as your pathetic comments demonstrate so vividly, the admixture is a decidedly ugly compound.
“Howard’s agenda was to not be Keating.” This accounts for over ten years in power?
A bit of a glib and lazy analysis, Bernard. I know you can do better (and usually do).
In respect of the media; well said Bernard. GO FORTH AND SIN NO MORE!
John Howard was shorley being the same 1980’s opportunist that he always was. I recall Keating decribing him as having all the vision of Mr. McGoo
I actually think Bernard is right Mark, although he put it a little tersely. Howard just wanted to be seen as nice Uncle Johnny, keeping us all comfortable and relaxed and making sure he didn’t say or do anything nasty and frighten the horses (or the horribly named ‘battlers’) like Keating did. The GST and Workchoices were hardly reforms - just additional encumbrances. He had ten years in power thanks to a lot of luck and some crap opposition leaders.
A flash thought! Remember all those motorists in Emo Nelson’s real world who earlier this year queued up for kilometres outside petrol stations in their 20-year-old Mitsubishis, 10 year old Commodores with three kids in the back seat, their Taragos with a wheelchair boot-side and who puzzled over whether to buy processed sausages or chops? I wonder whether this Christmas was a toss-up between seafood extender or Spam and tomato sauce. Yes….it really was one of the worst gaffes a really nice bloke could make. But we did tell him not to listen to Julie Bishop.
Why “aptly numbered Room 101”?
Shouldn’t Alan Ramsey’s office should be more suitably numbered 404?
Did his colleagues form a guard of honour-ably error-prone Dilbert’s?
Sorry …. I couldn’t resist…
Another of the Rodent Howards evil legacies is finally put to bed forever at midnight tonight. David Hicks finally has his complete freedom from the disgraceful restrictions forced upon him by the twin bastards Howard and Kelty. Yet another disgraceful act in the name of political expediancy and fully supported by the imbociles Bolt and Akerman are now history, but history written in shame in the name of this country. Whatever Kevin Rudds failings, they are a mere grain of sand compared to Howards hypocrisy and evil. Welcome back to the world David Hicks, you have paid the price over and over. Seasons Greetings.
..6. The ETS furore is being buried behind piles of political capital but it won’t save Rudd just as it couldn’t save Keating in 1996. We have Gillard piling on the Education Paper, Rudd flitting off to Afghanistan playing khaki, Albanese’s infrastructure list. But it don’t change a thing. Ask yourself why the desperately energetic PR? They just lost their electoral edge, that’s why. It took Carr 4 years to get where Rudd is in 12 months using the green movement to wedge Libs and Nats.
7. Like Carr, Rudd is daisycutting his way through his support base. Carr left a party in wreckage because he literally sucked the sustenance out of it in terms of dishonest governance leaving a husk of ALP souless hacks. The structural damage is eye watering even as his polls started even, then high, then low. Rudd is burning chunks of staff and the green movement so far. How long till critical mass with say 10x the direct casualties feeling the loathe? Green groups represent about 1 million Australians directly. You say 2014. But that doesn’t account for enzymes: Like as you say Green Party critical mass with world best practise multiplier effect from same. You can sledge Shanahan but he got it right in his column today while you were making your deadline.
8. Your values based “good” and “bad” is not right - it’s all about numbers. Each of the majors is canalised into set positions by their history and support base. Both Howard and Rudd can argue any side of an issue. It’s in their skills set. They stopped being “good” a long time ago. Amoral is the word. Howard could champion refugees if he thought it would work for him.
9. Genuine reform agenda? - oh dear. Two words … me too. Rudd is opportunism like Howard, no more or less. I can hear a sucking sound BK like a backyard pool filter over time.
10. On Costello - his timing remains quite on foot, as he said to a Sydney audience at Seymore Theatre “it’s not the goal in politics to be the Opposition Leader”. Quite.
(cont)
Since you have nothing original to contribute as per usual Daniel, perhaps you might incite an angry leftist horde to support a man trained in mass murder?
Anything so long as you ‘prove’ JamesK wrong?
You could always try crafting an argument but that does require discipline and some intelligence….obviously. Perhaps you’re right…..feasibly your strength probably does lie with a lynching mob.
Ask David Hicks to join in. We already know he’s kindly disposed to indiscriminate violence to achieve his aims. Sam and David above would happily would join you in any angry leftist rabble.
Breathtaking journalism Bernard!! Australian politics in modern times all in a nutshell of sensitive, insightful poise. What a gem of line on the demise of Howard - but as happens, we tired of him and, almost overnight, he could no longer do anything right. Comeuppance by ennui!! Applause for giving us hope on the newcomers in the absence of mainstream media focus and lets hope all politcal players take a leaf from your strategy - saving the best for last.
Political machinations, personalities and the economics of greed notwithstanding, as a western offshoot in the southwest Pacific Australia has always, and is bound to remain, subject to powerful external forces, from the election of new US leadership, to the rise of China, the advancing global credit crunch and, not least, accelerating climate change.
Having betrayed its core election promise, the latter factor and its looming consequences are grossly underestimated by the current leadership.
Some comments on a small section of the comments’ writers.
JamesK: The condescension with which you deride anyone who happens to disagree with you-on the basis they are merely the lunatic left-is less than entertaining. Actually it’s unforgivably myopic and it is time you started to control your knee-jerk reactions. People are beginning to laugh. Not good! However, humour will deflate even the most pompous members of the rancid-right.
Bernard listed the year’s political events,; with precision and ‘He REASONED his points, rather than attempting to blow the people who express different views out of the water.
Where I find you quite insufferable is your never ending rehashing of the David Hicks case-on the basis that the man was, once again, a lunatic leftie. Are you really so mentally ill-equipped that you don’t know what was the real crime in the Hicks case?. It was for the Howard government to have allowed an Australian citizen to be locked up for six years in a jail run by a foreign country on foreign soil, WITHOUT A TRIAL. This
was the unspeakable crime. It seemed to illuminate the whole gamut of the existence of the sorry Howard government.
Sam: nothing deep here, but at least spoken from the heart. And you are accurate as well. Olé
Tom McLouhlin: you churn out comments which, to be be polite, show an astonishing lack of clarity. The syntax and lack of direction render them opaque. In short WTF are you ever trying to say?
Dr Harvey M Tarvydas: Another inept waffler. ‘A concluding soliloquy in a play that hasn’t finished’? More matter, less art please.
Do have a happy Christmas James, I mean it.
And an even Happier New Year to the guys who disagree with you!
2000 words, Bernard?
Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Good to see Garnaut bookend the govt’s PR peregrinations on the front of both broadsheets in Sydney. It’s some mitigation for the airbrushing of Rudd’s boganish accent over in Afghanistan.
And we heard Minister Wong clearly on abc 7pm news tonight - in effect any job is justifiable. A moral that doesn’t really bear analysis or extrapolation. Maybe she has a patent on soylent green as well?
It echoes the theoretically suspect notion in the article above of “good people do bad things” spin from BK above. It’s qualitatively very close to the totalitarian ethos of means to an end. Just following orders. All of that bunkum. BK may have been listening to too many self referential politician eulogies out selling the franchise. They would talk up their own role wouldn’t they.
hey James dipstick K, instead of blurting your ignorant one eyed rightist rubbish and abusing everyone who writes views opposite to yours, take my earlier advice and find that cliff…the space you take up in this world is too precious to be wasted on the likes of you
Thanx for proving my point, Daniel.
Eight words all your own in a ‘Comment’ of approx 110, failing as usual, to express even a single original idea.
What’s the experience of mentation at a snail’s pace actually like?
Of course, that assumes that what goes on between your ears could reasonably be described as ‘mentation’ which is in itself, admittedly, dubious in the extreme.
Quite frankly JamesK whoever you are, your ongoing critical nonsense would indicate you are the one with the insanity trait, get yourself to professional help before you run completely amok. You deserve pity as you are obviously disturbed.
Well well this is not half interesting, here we have a clone of JimmyK, the religious nutter, he who has never sinned, must have been boring as a teenager, now his other half Jack makes an appearance as if summonsed by the junky Jimmy. Its quite incredible that if the Jimmys and Jackies of the blog world were to attempt such blatant abuse on their heros blogs, Akerman and Bolt, they would be banned without notice.
Guess it says a lot for tolerance by the left, one can only hope for a quick decisive end of lung capacity for the both, or they choke on a turkey bone hehehe. Merry Christmas penis features. Incidently I’m no David or Sam or whoever, so you want a go have a go at me.
David Hicks got off very lightly……. 6 years in detention.
Ahahahaha. JamesK for troll of the year. Brilliant.
Hmmmm….The Age: “THE Rudd Government has been forced to open the $400 million detention centre on Christmas Island in an embarrassing admission it is struggling to cope with an influx of boat people”
No mention in this edition of Crikey in the midst of the very predictable drivel. It even passed Richard Farmer by……………
Perhaps in 2009?
“In fact politics is more or less based around people of high principles and good will discovering that the obtaining and exercising of power involves doing bad things, distasteful things, amoral things, involves unpleasant trade-offs and not just the famous half-loaves of compromise but stale, mouldy crusts. And it’s all the more that way because its symbiotic partner, its Siamese twin the media, dislikes complexity and nuance, in favour of the same simple narratives, repeated with an ever-changing cast of characters but the same plots and moral lessons over and over again. That’s what sells. And what gets votes.”
A superbly accurate description of western democracy, particularly as it applies in two-party systems. Bloody depressing too. Well done Bernard, I don’t agree with you every day but I always read you and when you write something this intelligent I take my hat off to you. Merry Xmas to all at Crikey and to the Crikey army too.
One more point Venise. Y
ou frequently, I notice, insult Tom McLoughlin. Tom obviously would have different views to mine but I have congratulated him on occasion.
His posts often require a re-read. They are often dense but the reader is rewarded. His contributions are nearly always original. He provides reasoned arguments.
Both characteristics conspicuously absent from the usual inane opinionated diatribes on this board.
I thank Tom for his contributions throughout the year. I enjoy reading them.
Why bother engaging a sick & deranged moll?
Well written, Bernard, although the Rudd team did take a few hits this year. Hardly invincible, I’d say. And yes, Daniel, I second that emotion…the TROLL of the year is…….Merry Christmas, everyone.
11. “It’s the media’s job …” to feed their own faces. Begging the question increasingly what job? I mean Obama just crunched ‘the media’ along with W Bush. It was called the inter web thing that Bob Carr said was and I quote “utterly irrelevant” leaving Gore Vidal dumbstruck at his buddy’s ignorance I might add. Talk about “bookish” in the dinosaur sense.
12. Sentimentality about Tanner is misplaced. Beazley is now ANU vice chancellor. Tanner will always get a feed. As will Tebbutt and/or Albanese. It’s naive to think otherwise. And they really aren’t that good. What they are is well practised.
13. It doesn’t matter what the “Opposition” does. The Opposition are already in Government just not in person!
14. You too champ, have a good break from the grindstone, only Marg Simons is right to keep blogging over the break as is Deb Cameron to Sky’s David Speers because “it isn’t slowing down”. If Rudd slows down he will have to look in the mirror and see what he has become. A stranger in his own life. Fact is the ALP don’t stand for anything much whether it be a real ETS e.g. gross feed in tariff, or Christmas Island gulags. And with that realisation comes crippling self doubt. A govt without confidence in itself no matter how good the facade or how high the polls is one step away from the cliff’s edge on a dark night.
We shall see.
David Hicks got off very lightly……. 6 years in detention.
The relatives of the innocents killed/assassinated, if not by him, then by the people he swore allegiance to and trained with, might think he got off very lightly indeed.
So common, these leftist deranged eulogisers on this board….. but never an argument in support of their insane position.
David, provide some evidence for your support of this terrorist and criminal aside from the non sequitur and evident insane hatred of one John Howard.
Mmm. There’s a clue for you Venise. If you go back to some of the Crikey comments by Mmm that will be my alter ego. It’s when personal security overcomes transparency of authorship. Otherwise I try to own what I say.
And yes, no doubt my comments could be alot clearer. Only, and here’s the thing Venise. I grew up on Bob Dylan. There it is. Take a lad about 7 listening to Planet Waves (1975) and the inestimably sad Girl From the North Country Far and there goes yer “syntax”. Then add some Clancey Bros blarney not to mention Bold Fenian Men, and there goes your “clarity”. I’m a bit over educated. I’ve actually been elected to official office once for 4 years, retired. I tend to have a good grasp of real politik even if my rhetoric is a bit Bob Ellis - you know crumpled. I’m a player not a voyeur.
Which means - if you don’t understand what I’m saying then it could be me, or you’re not the target or out of your depth. Which it is, is for others to judge. It’s true I do exploit crikey’s list to run my agendas (and share) and it’s a bit like snooker balls bouncing at all angles. You watch one or even just two or three and you lose perspective of the whole table.
It’s like this Venise - I read the big mainstream press SDT, SMH and Oz religiously every day. I listen to each ABC current affairs (all of them), I get my ngo sources, and my own social and professional networks, and eyes and then I synthesise it.
As for James K’s praise. Well, that’s a shark’s professional respect. He plays hard using resonating argument that annoys and reaches into the opponents camp. You can’t hope to beat him with self referential adolescent rhetoric. You have to MEET his argument. It took BK to intervene to do that. And you echoed BK. But so much better if you had got in first.
I just watched Rendition (2007) which is a study of the hopeless prospects of quality intelligence via torture, or is it? Watch it and see. MI5 did it better in the 60ies over a cup of tea and acute researc
On 2008:
Can’t understand why people are disappointed in Rudd. Real-world decisions were always going to result (regardless of pre-election hype). Easy to criticise decisions were made by Howard and every other former PM.
For 2009:
Suggest all Green supporters “Try Before They Buy”. Eg. Sample an Amish lifestyle before evangelically promoting a “Green Religion”. You will find growing your own food is time consuming (and requires pesticide), that home-made clothes are coarse & itchy, and that communication is difficult without the internet and modern transportation.
On the Crikey Army:
Sam/David/Daniel/Raymond is the same 12 yr old boy. Early bed-time until you learn to reduce your abuse, come up with an erudite arguement and understand that group-think gets you no-where fast…
To David Hicks Supporters:
A conundrum. He may indeed be a misguided adventurer. But training with others with the express purpose of murdering “non-believers” doesn’t strike me as a worthy cause. Please explain why you believe murdering in the name of religon is ? Surely a few years behind bars is more merciful than the alternative handed out by fellow his travellers - he after all is alive to tell the tale.
“Since you have nothing original to contribute as per usual Daniel, perhaps you might incite an angry leftist horde to support a man trained in mass murder?
Anything so long as you ‘prove’ JamesK wrong?
You could always try crafting an argument but that does require discipline and some intelligence….obviously. Perhaps you’re right…..feasibly your strength probably does lie with a lynching mob.
Ask David Hicks to join in. We already know he’s kindly disposed to indiscriminate violence to achieve his aims. Sam and David above would happily would join you in any angry leftist rabble.”
Lacks imagination. 5/10. Not your best work. Try harder next time.
I will point out to Glenn, Raymond and Venise that I responded to a single outrageous comment from David. I did not initiate this thread. Notice also that it is you who are guilty of name-calling a characteristic of a troll. I have asked now repeatedly now for a single argument to support David’s and your position with respect to David Hicks.
There has not been single one.
This insanity defined. All of you take a position in support of a terrorist and quite disgracefully provide not one single argument to support your position.
Happily name-call and deride me and our former PM but not one argument. Nary a one!
Who is being intolerant here?
Shame on all of you.
Venise, particularly disappointing post from you. That said I wish you a Merry Christmas.
Good summary Bernard, its not easy to summarise a political year in the space you have allotted, thought you did extremely well without including the Bishop inadequecies, the buffoons in the Senate, notably Barnabus stupiditus and Fielding the Flop. But there will be a brand new year bringing more absurd performances and the entree will be delectable as the Senate squable over carbon emission, planet warming and the like, while Malcolm works out how to control his wayward children. Thanks for your contributions, I usually read your columns first when Crikey hits my email, unlike some other political correspondents, yours makesa good deal of sense. Have a great Christmas/ New Year.
Are you kidding?
Rudd is a phony egotistical tyranical strutting pretender - and now has us in early deficit - Howard messed up the economy??
Perleeeeese - take off the Canberra blinkers!
I/Me and Myself is the Rudd credo - jump on a plane every five minutes and pretend I’m a stateman -
I suspect he is a loathed little laughing stock in world diplomatic circles - always circling looking to poke his head in and look valued. Reminds me of the manipulative and cloying teacher’s pet in Boys Own.
Any pollie can be popular handing out generous bonuses to pensioners at Christmas.
When it’s all boiled down - people would vote fro Dracula if they thought their own pockets would benefit!
(And speaking of Bracks - why NOT a peep from media when he and his deputy suddenly up and left on a Fiday afternoon - cleared their desks and off, only recently re- elected. If Kennett had done the same - you’d still hear the screaming) It’s be Kerr/Hawke all over again! Yet Bracks just up and walked out overnight???? AND his mate?? And not a peep of criticism.
It’s all in the eye - and the political predjucides - of the media.
And boy do they collectively love the Labor Party.
2008 - The apogee of the delusional belief in the modern version of the fairytale “The Emperor’s New Clothes” aka AGW?
JamesK do us all a favour , go find a very very high cliff and jump off.
I am please that you can see the nastiness of JH’s opportunism.
His very dishonety and very cynical negativism has damaged the Australian psyche and his total lack of vision led him to so cynically not bother to build any Australia.
A shocking example of that was the belly laugh spontaneously emanating from him when he responded on TV to questions on Latham’s ‘Medicare Gold’ with “well where are you going to get the Dr’s you will need” when he’d been in office longer than any university Medical course.
So we’ve forgiven him as a war criminal it seems.
A concluding soliliquy in a play that hasn’t finished? And given Rudd’s fear of death will never rest?
I do so feel the need to yang to this ying above. Allowing for the framework of holiday recess for dear Crikey.
1. I remember 1993. The machine guys on mobile phones at a Mosman polling booth. The crestfallen north shore types on the bus next Monday morning. Sullen is not the word. Keating did to the country what Laurie Brereton did for him via motorbike to save his preselection right at the start. He played the numbers as hard and and tricky as he possibly could - because it was all about him. Whatever the actual script it was about him. So far that fits your thesis that Rudd is actually for an agenda by comparison.
2. Carr - there is a pathological inability in NSW for the big parties/media feeder fish to understand the greenies electing Carr. From Metherell going indy over wilderness forest to Greiner’s ICAC self immolation in 91-92, to Carr leveraging the forest debate and the 3 cross sympathetic cross benchers to get a very narrow 3 seat victory on 25 March 1995. Carr screwed the greens with a tv advertising campaign in 1999 ‘jobs and forests’ even on the side of buses, got his safe majority and promptly turned shit brown for 6 years.
3. Carr created the NSW Green Party by contradistinction. The irony being there are no NSW Green federal MPs today.
4. Keating was on the skids when the green ngo’s withdrew their social consent in 1996. He knows it. We know it. It was sincerely meant and it wrought havoc on Australia for the next 12 years. Sorry Kimbo, I should have accepted your invitation to help in 2000 or so. Too bad the ALP kill so much forest then and now.
5. Rudd is stock standard egoist like all party leaders. A natural? Is this irony? He wedged the Libs and Nats leaching their self confidence using …nature ie climate change as proxy as Carr did in March 95. But even greenies learn, 6 years to wise up to Carr, 12 months in Rudd’s case.
(cont)