Australia’s Opposition Leader Rudd Wins Landslide Election Victory
SYDNEY - Centre-left leader Kevin Rudd stormed to victory in Australia’s election Saturday, ending conservative Prime Minister John Howard’s 11-year rule with pledges to change course on climate change and the Iraq war.
Howard, US President George W. Bush’s closest ally in the Iraq war, conceded defeat in Sydney and admitted it was “very likely” that he also faced the rare humiliation of losing his own electoral seat.
“A few minutes ago I telephoned Mr Rudd and I congratulated him and the Australian Labor Party on a very emphatic victory,” Howard told emotional supporters in a concession speech at a Sydney hotel.
Labor’s stunning victory, in which it was expected to claim as many as 86 of the parliament’s 150 seats, means it now controls the central government and all eight state and territory administrations.
Howard wished the Labor Party leader well and told him that he was inheriting an economy that was the envy of the world.
“This is great democracy and I want to wish Mr Rudd well,” said the wily political veteran who dominated his country’s politics for more than a decade.
“He assumes the mantle of the 26th prime minister of Australia and I want to say that there is no prouder job a man can occupy than being the prime minister of Australia.”
Fresh-faced former diplomat Rudd, speaking in his hometown of Brisbane, accepted victory before an ecstatic audience of supporters with a pledge to get to get down to work immediately and “write a new page in our nation’s history.”
“The future is too important for us not to work together to embrace the challenges of the future and carve out our nation’s destiny,” Rudd said, flanked by Australia’s new first lady, Therese Rein, and their children.
To rapturous applause from his supporters, the beaming new leader called for the nation to unite and promised he would be “a prime minister for all Australians.”
“A prime minister for indigenous Australians, Australians who have been born here and Australians who have come here from afar and contributed to the great diversity that is our nation Australia.”
Rudd, who has attracted criticism from Bush for promising to pull Australian combat troops out of Iraq, where they back the US-led forces, also held out an olive branch to Washington’s increasingly isolated conservative administration.
He moved to allay fears that he may seek to step back from Canberra’s close ties with Washington and pointedly stressed that he still regarded the United States as a friend.
“I extend our greetings tonight to our great friend and ally the United States,” he said.
Rudd also spoke of the hardship being suffered by Australian farmers, who are facing the country’s worst drought in a century, a crisis that has focused national attention on the issue of climate change and Howard’s refusal to sign the Kyoto Protocol.
Rudd has pledged to ratify the protocol, which aims to curb the emission of the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.
While officials continued tallying votes, Howard, 68, accepted full responsibility for his Liberal-National coalition government’s stunning defeat, but said he had left a proud legacy.
“I want to say on behalf of the coalition that has governed this country for the last 11-and-a-half years that we bequeath to him a nation that is stronger and prouder,” said the outgoing prime minister.
Howard, known for getting himself out of political scrapes, acknowledged that he was at the end of his political career.
He has won four general elections and has presided over Australia’s booming economic growth since becoming prime minister in 1996.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s vote tally predicted that when the final vote was counted, Labor would win with 53 percent of the vote, compared to 47 for Howard’s Liberal-National coalition.
That would give Labor 86 seats in the 150-seat lower house of representatives, well above the 76 it needs to take power, while the coalition would be left with just 62, sharply down from the 86 it won in 2004.
Independents are likely to win the remaining two lower house seats.
Official figures showed Labor with 53.3 percent of the vote compared to 46.7 for the government with 73 percent of votes counted.
Howard’s seat in the Sydney area of Bennelong hung on a knife edge, with former television newscaster Maxine McKew well within range of victory.
If she wins the seat Howard has held since 1974, he would become the first sitting prime minister to lose his parliamentary seat in 78 years.
Howard had campaigned on his party’s record on the economy, which is booming on the back of China’s demand for its mineral resources, warning that a Labor victory would threaten the country’s prosperity.
But he faced strong opposition fuelled by unpopular policies such as new labour laws, which critics said cut wages, and his support for the Iraq war and opposition to the Kyoto Protocol.
Copyright © AFP 2007
About bloody time, too. I’ve discussed many times with staunch Howard supporters who claimed that the Liberals were responsible for Oz’s recent remarkable economic growth. Jeez, with 1.5 billion people in the world’s fastest growing economy needing raw materials, any flaming idiot could have presided while the Chinese lapped up Oz’s raw materials.
Good riddance to Howard. Don’t slam the door on your way out.
Nice to know that Rudd’s plan for “withdrawal” from Iraq actually leaves most of the Austrailian troops in Iraq. And of course the first thing he says when he wins includes a belly-up submission pee for Uncle Sam.
Oh, well, a milquetoast opposition to the military-industrial order is better than none at all, I suppose.
For the people of Australia, I hope Prime minister Rudd is a pro-labor progressive and removes all the Aussies from Iraq and brings them home. And if he implements beneficial policies and social programs, the US will criticize him and he will also be compared to ‘Hitler’.
The citizens of the world, including we in the USA must rise up agaist the terrorist/fascist/imperialists in Washington,D.C. Three cheers for the Australian voters who elected Kevin Rudd! May he not be another Tony Blair.
Congratulations Aussies! We Americans need to do the same at home!
I remain skeptical. “Center-left” doesn’t mean much anywhere in any part of the anglo-phonic world that I know of.
Blair, now Brown, Bill Clinton, or even Gloria Arroyo were/are regarded as center-left too.
Richard Nixon or even Winston Churchill would be full-blown leftists by today’s standards.
Most of the key supporters of the US-led invasion of Iraq have now suffered a thorough thumping: voters in Britain, Spain, Italy and now Australia have all punished and removed the top leaders supportive of the war.
PJD; Yeah, that is an accurate description of the mentioned characters. I also remain skeptical. About a week or so after last years’ Democratic Party victory, progressive talk show radio hosts were asking the callers for their opinions. From the callers I heard, most were so jubilant about the Dems bringing ‘the troops’ home, ending our imperialistic adventure in the Middle East and Western Asia, and on and on. When I called the show, and asked my opinion, I told the host I’d wait and see. I said, if the Dems are sincere, then they should honor the oath of office they swore to and start repealing all the Bush/Cheney laws starting with the un-Constitutional (illegal) Patriot Act, and continuing forward. so on and so forth. Actions speak louder than words and the American people have been betrayed again. Good post, PJD.
Congrants, Ozzies! The fewer allies Bush has for his illegal wars, the better it is for us all!
How many more of Bush Iraqi illegal war-coalition allies are left to bite the political dust?
PJD and others, I sure do understand your skepticism! But we may not have long to wait to see if Rudd is the real deal, because he promised to ratify the Kyoto protocol, and the next Kyoto planning convention, in Bali, when he could do so, begins on Dec. 3rd!
His character and/or his spinning skills will be tested soon!
John Howard may lose his seat - sweet!
How about THAT—Making Native Australians part of the future everybody can share. Heads up USA: not a single “Aussie” died when it was officially said.
Great news for Australia … howard has been hated, like bush…. for a looooong time!
as for corvo and and other doomsday pals on this site … your negative vibes/words must please dick cheney and his doomsday pals very much …
I saw no “belly up submission” to the bush administration … Perhaps thou doth protest too much … at all times ….
How long before the Bush cabal threatens Rudd, with what we’ll never know (kill your kids?) and turns him…
Here, Here, and Hurray for Australia!
As I recall, the last (or so) time Labor was moved to the head of the class, the CIA disrupted Aussie’s gov’t rather quickly and the nasty result was loss of Labor’s majority - a political reset that appeared to me to be an externally lead revolution to reinstate the “proper” administration that was friendly with the USA’s need for very (continued) tight secrecy over Alice Springs (TRW’s spy satellite film drop zone = USA national security). This was before we had digital cameras, and could “beam” the pixs right back into USA directly, via telecomm signals (how crude and old style).
Of course, all of that (previous) ruckus was just sour grapes, right?
Namaste
@nspire
You’ve been smoking too much weed, my friend. In 1976 the Queen’s representative in Australia, the Gov’ner General, in alliance with the opposition Liberal-Country party, dissolved the Labor Government of Gough Whitlam. At the time, the Labor Govt was threatening to shut down the US OTH and Omega facilities at Pine Gap and Det 421 near Alice Springs, unless they became joint facilities (which they did), jointly manned by Aussies that shared in all the intelligence. But no CIA involved in these shenanigans.
In 1996 Labor under the much-despised Paul Keating lost to Howard’s Liberal-Nationals. No CIA there either.
Yes WTF,
I was certainly partaking of clouded judgments back then, but nonetheless could not possibly the CIA have had substantial ‘behind the scene’ manipulations going on.
I’ve always thought it was so cool to drop our spy film cans from 90 miles up, and still find them. Of course back then TRW knew substantially more than the entire world (ahem, that were even such things as spy satellites possibly, much less actually dumping data down). Remember the movie “The Falcon and the Snowman”? As I recall, the subject “spy” in that movie (based on real life) was able to manipulate the US courts so that he never served anytime (or got free at some point).
Why and How one might ask was this possible?
Well the reality, is that the gov’ts of “tight” allies USA and Australia seemed to have never fully engaged in a mutual understanding of the actual activities occurring in Alice Springs and way way above it. In other words, the spy rat knew and used to his advantage, the secret of the USA having had technology, intelligence, and apparatus that went beyond the tip toppiest secret compartments — or so I’ve heard.
What an absurd idea, the USA over-throwing the gov’t of an allied (friendly) one, just for purposes of protecting the most important secret of the decade.
Namaste
Cool, now emigrating to Australia seems like a good idea. Better get started on that, before the fascism closes the borders on BOTH sides…
…tight secrecy over Alice Springs (TRW’s spy satellite film drop zone = USA national security). This was before we had digital cameras…”
Actually, Alice Springs, and it’s antipodal sister site, Sugar Grove, West Virginia, are still very important as US NSA listening posts for satellite phone and internet communication.
as an australian, i ca tell you that Rudd is more centre-right tha left…he managed to anger aboriginal Noel Pearson:
‘Rudd ‘backtracked on Indigenous pledge’
November 23, 2007 - 5:21PM
Aboriginal leader Noel Pearson has lashed out at the Labor leader, accusing him of heartlessly abandoning his pledge to recognise Indigenous Australians in the constitution.
In an interview with The Australian newspaper, Kevin Rudd said that a referendum on Aboriginal reconciliation would not happen in the first term of a Rudd Labor government, if at all.
http://www.bigpond.com/news/election/content/20071123/2099795.asp
Im afraid, Rudd may end up being Howard-lite
I voted for Bob Browns Greens, but tho they helped labor win, they may not get any senate seats this time.
It’s a little; maybe it signals a turn of the tide . . . maybe. It is at least better than Howard being returned as PM.
God-damn, That’s beautiful…I’m more amenable to visiting Australia now.
I’m with PJD on this one. Blair was a staunch in-denial (or on-the-take?) ally of Bush. Is this rise of Labor Down Under indicative of a sea change in politics, or indicative of Labor’s co-option? Time will tell.
Hi PJD (and NSA too),
Back in the old days (ha), we used to really be amazed by the audacity and strange culpability of that super secret org NSA (No Such Agency), and as you correctly mentioned:
“Alice Springs, and it’s antipodal sister site, Sugar Grove, West Virginia, are still very important as US NSA listening posts for satellite phone and internet communication.”
The NSA didn’t even come out of the closet until the late 70s, as its very name was top secret (before that), so when I read Bamford’s “Puzzle Palace”, every page turned felt like I was breaking the law.
OK, to the point of my post here, back in those OLD days the theory of electronic interception was that “intelligible” voice, was always a BIG no no (and protected against wiretapping w/o court order). But, the tricksters had a clever twist, they built their own set of satellite dishes within line of sight and listened in on everything legally so, as those signals weren’t “intelligible”, just 1s and 0s like Morse code - so there was no expectation of legal protection against wiretapping.
The bottom line, is several decades before the shrub, our buddies within the NSA were already intercepting everything winging its way to and from satellites. But obviously they wanted more, but at that time the famous Church committee was still the bull in the China shop over Nixon’s indiscretions, so they had to wait.
We’ll likely never know when it happened, but the full access of all telecomm and internet comm lines was almost certainly completed prior to the end of 2001.
Namaste
About time! I guess the Aussies finally figured out they’re out of step with the rest of the world. Now we need to do the same! I wish Rudd and Labor the best of luck in radically changing course, esp on the Iraq war, global warming, and so much more.
Bush, you are no longer welcome in Australia! Your puppet has gone the way of Aznar and Berlusconi - in the dustbin of an awful history.
@cobrafifty: “I wish Rudd and Labor the best of luck in radically changing course, esp on the Iraq war, global warming, and so much more. Bush, you are no longer welcome in Australia! Your puppet has gone the way of Aznar and Berlusconi - in the dustbin of an awful history.”
Oh how I WISH that was true!! How is our new Prime Minister? - Think “Hillary Clinton”, or perhaps bumlicker “Tony Blair”. Zionist Rupert Murdoch controls most of our newspapers, and the rest of our MSM is not much better. I cannot predict our long term future, but the short term future is written on the wall.
We will remain a US dominated country for the foreseeable future. And we will only have puppet governments. Had Rudd made anti US noises, or loud anti war noises, he would have been destroyed. The puppet is dead. Long live the puppet.
Having said that, yes, it is indeed good to see the back of John Howard.
Indigenous leaders welcome Howard defeat
November 25, 2007 - 1:49PM
Some indigenous leaders have welcomed the end of the Howard government and expressed relief that Mal Brough has been forced out of parliament.
Mr Brough - the outgoing minister for indigenous affairs - lost his Queensland seat of Longman to Labor candidate Jon Sullivan after suffering a swing of more than 10 per cent.
With the likely exception of outgoing prime minister John Howard himself, Mr Brough was the most high-profile coalition MP to be unseated.
Mr Brough, the architect of the government’s dramatic and controversial intervention into Northern Territory indigenous communities, was a divisive figure.
His approach was supported by such high-profile Aboriginal leaders as Noel Pearson and Galarrwuy Yunupingu, but others deemed it racist, draconian and unworkable.
Mr Brough has called on Labor to continue the NT intervention, to which it gave bipartisan support earlier this year, but it will almost certainly be watered-down.
Indigenous affairs more generally also will undergo change.
etc
http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Indigenous-leaders-welcome-Howard-defeat/2007/11/25/1195947543958.html
Dont be too sure about Rudd and Bush…Rudd has pleged to work with US….what his policy on the Iraq war etc are still not clear….
Glad Australia got rid of that prick now lets find a way to change the locks at the whitehouse the next time asshole leaves
the whole world needs to isolate asshole by withdrawing their troops I mean I get tired of other citizens whose gov’t is no better by supporting a’hole by sending their troops meaning europe is in a way supportive but whenever i go over to europe i get harassed like i started the war cause of where i am from.
Anyone with access to an atlas can see for themselves why Oz seeks close military ties with the US. We will continue to ally ourselves with the US for the foreseeable future. Even with the best intentions in the world, Mr Rudd has a tricky job vis-a-vis the current administration. So cut him a little slack - geez, it’s been one day.
Another of Bush’s deputy sheriffs bites the dust. Following the lead of the Spaniards and Brits, and probably just a step ahead of the Pakistanis, the Aussies have voted out, in the midst of an economic boom, Bush’s coalition partner. The coalition, mostly a fig-leaf to cover American imperialism and jingoism with a modicum of international respectability, is falling apart as the people make their displeasure at this war, and the lies, manipulations and atrocities that accompany it, clear. Let’s hope we do the same with Bush’s congressional co-conspirators.
For all you doubters on this thread, make no mistake about it this is a real generational change in Australian politics [Howard aged 68; Rudd aged 50]
And Rudd will be no lick-spittal for Bush..Plans to sign Kyoto are already under way JUST FOR STARTERS
PS: The right wing Liberal Party is in total disarray and fucked up …You little beauty..yeeh hah
Some ‘good news’, for a change [hope it does them more-good than our so-called ‘Dem-victory’, here…!].
Don’t expect too much of Rudd. He’s centre-right, if anything. But anything is better than the Howard neocons. In Australian politics these days, like elsewhere, the ideological differences are manufactured more than real. But at least this was a decisive blow to the neocons. Sweetest of all, Howard will probably lose his seat in parliament which is like driving a stake through his black heart. Its the end of a nightmare in australia. Howard took the country to the far right, using race hatred as a political weapon, demolishing ministerial accountability, privatizing national institutions, imposing a 100% pro-US/Israel foreign policy and creating a class of working poor, all under a fog of jingoism. There’s little reason to celebrate the election of Rudd but good riddance to Howard!
Well done mates! Now we can only hope Americans have the good sense to join you in taking out the garbage. Good riddance you sorry old f**k.
Congrats to Australia…
Meanwhile, Dick Cheney runs the world…
From Oil Crisis (2005) by Colin Campbell, p. 188-192
THE GRAND PLAN
One can be forgiven for seeing it as something of a house of cards built on
nothing more than faith in the continuation of a System, itself supported by
a wide spectrum of vested interests. It may indeed have been precisely the
issue of confidence that occupied the minds of the analysts in various
Washington think-tanks as they tried to define the country’s post-Cold War
foreign policy. A grand plan for American economic hegemony and support for
the dollar was needed to support the System. They soon saw the central role
of oil in the equation, recognising that the country’s growing dependence on
imports was not about to abate because domestic production had long been in
decline, mirroring an even more serious earlier decline in discovery. They
realised that the country would become ever more dependent on the Middle
East, including Iraq, where it had already fought a war, as described in
Chapter 4.
The Project for the New American Century was formulated in Washington, and a letter pressing for military action in the Middle East was sent to President
Clinton in 1998, being signed by Elliot Abrams, Richard L. Armitage, Richard
Perle, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz and Robert B. Zoellick. A further
document, Rebuilding America’s Defences, was drawn up by the same group in
September 2000, together with Dick Cheney and Jeb Bush, the new President’s
brother.8 It tellingly contains the following extract
“while the unresolved conflict with Iraq provides the immediate
justification, the need for a substantial American force presence in the
Gulf transcends the issue of the regime of Saddam Hussein”
It could hardly be stated more clearly, with the word justification being
particularly telling. The use of the term Defences in the title is also
revealing, since the country was not in any way threatened in military
terms. The strength of the dollar and its control of the economy may rather
have been the concerns. Human rights or the status of women in Muslim
society would hardly have been issues upon which to propose military
intervention. There were much more obvious objectives: namely control of oil
and support for Israel with which several of the analysts had close links,
even to the extent of dual citizenship. The influence of the Israeli
sympathisers in America is clearly colossal,’ as amply demonstrated by the
fact that US Aid to the tune of 100 billion dollars has been given to the
country for no obvious reason other than this link. Certainly, other tribal
re-settlements around the World have failed to attract similar support. It
seems that the Vice-President, Dick Cheney, was given authority by the new
administration to implement a decisive policy, based on these long years of
planning. The change of administration itself may have been significant for
the incoming members, being new to their jobs, probably found it expedient
to simply extend past policies, not having had time to develop new ones of
their own. They may also have lacked experience or knowledge of the wider
world, giving their advisers excessive new influence.10
In Chapter 1, I described what I called the Task Force Mentality which I
encountered when I went to work for Texaco in Colombia. It could be
epitomised as “Action without Thought”. Later, I came upon a variant, which
could be called the Committee System when I worked in the Standard Oil
Building in Chicago. There were committees for everything that delivered
bland analyses and recommendations, but lacked executive authority. The
Executives themselves were dynamic people but not gifted with knowledge or
insight of the conditions in the foreign countries whose governments owned
the oil rights. Their function had reduced to little more than managing the
budget as best they could. The managers on the ground were either old
retainers, put out to pasture, receiving detailed instructions on every
minor step, or more dynamic figures endowed with the Task Force mentality.
The operations themselves were normally conducted very efficiently, but
overall planning and strategy were inept. Little attempt to integrate or
understand the foreign communities, societies or cultures was made. It is
easy to picture how the Vice-President may have taken command within such a
general administration and mindset. He was evidently cast a Task Force
role, and resolved to take decisive action. In digesting the reports and
presentations from the sundry committees, he was soon able to synthesise two
clear and interwoven themes: control of foreign oil and support for Israel.
He probably determined that a military solution was to be preferred,
matching his own dynamic mindset. Having little sympathy for the subtleties
of foreign diplomacy, he may have asked himself what good would come from
trying to talk to all those fellows in their robes and fancy headdresses,
who barely spoke English.
His first action was to strengthen and expand the chain of military bases
around the World, many of which, including those in the Persian Gulf, had
been in place since the Cold War. The key new ones were located around the
Caspian and more recently on the islands of Sao Tome and Principe, off
oil-rich Nigeria and Angola. It proved easy to persuade the countries in
question to accept such bases with offers of loans, military assistance and
training, with no doubt special inducements for the individuals in command.
A base was established in Kosovo on the proposed route for a new pipeline
bringing oil from the Caspian region to the Adriatic, 11 and troops were
also positioned along the new pipeline from Chad to the Cameroons.12
It also probably did not take long to figure out that control of foreign oil
demanded control the Middle East and possibly the Caspian if that should
develop as hopes at the time suggested. However, a glance at the atlas
showed the latter to be a difficult landlocked place, meaning that getting
the oil out would call for special attention. A Balkan export route had
already been secured through the Kosovo War, but it was evident that a
closer presence was desirable. A further study of the atlas identified
Afghanistan as of key strategic importance, especially as it had already
played a role in undermining the Soviet regime, as discussed in Chapter 4.
The next challenge was to determine how to secure domestic political support
for a new foreign war, as it was recognised that the general public would
have little stomach for it unless galvanised into action by some extreme
event. It was soon evident that a strong pretext to move was needed, indeed
a very strong one to reach everyone’s TV screen. A further advantage was
identified in that people perceiving themselves to be threatened would be
disposed to rally to their government with a sense of loyalty, which in turn
would allow it to strengthen its grip on the country and improve its chances
of re-election, as indeed has proved to be the case.
THE DOUBLE SIMULATION
So, we may conclude that it was decided to put in hand a bold plan of
action, it took courage to do so, but they were evidently up to the
occasion, deciding to implement it on September 11th 2001. The details of
the operation remain obscure, But the many curious features of the event can
hardly be denied or easily explained. They include:
1. The normal defences being shut down that day or a simulated hijacking.13
2. The rapid identification as hijackers of a group of Egyptians and Saudis,
who had been given minimal flying training at a school in Florida, being
supervised by Intelligence minders in their apartment building.
3. Four airliners were reported as being hijacked, having exceptionally low
passenger lists.
4. Two of the airliners were filmed striking prominent buildings in New
York, which exploded in what struck some analysts as controlled demolitions,
the steel from the sites being later exported to China as scrap, preventing
forensic analysis. The death toll was held to a minimum by timing the
incident to occur before most people arrived at work, some being alerted at
the last minute by the Omega messaging service not to go their offices that
day. Some senior executives also found themselves attending a charity event
at an air base.
5. The Pentagon was depicted as another target. An explosion occurred
leaving a small hole at ground level without trace of a crashed airliner. 14
6. The passport of one of the alleged hijackers was found in the New York
rubble, despite the strength of the explosion.
7. An Israeli film crew was in position on the roof of an adjoining building
to film the event.
8. The manoeuvres undertaken by the aircraft would test the skills of an
experienced pilot, being far beyond those having no more than a brief
training in light aircraft, suggesting that the aircraft may have been flown
by remote control.
9. Within seconds of the event, a sinister figure in an Afghan cave had been
identified as the ring leader of a global organisation, now named al-Qaeda,
threatening the United States. He looked the part in his beard and
outlandish robes, making excellent TV imagery. He was easily controlled
having been previously on the CIA payroll. 15 Various videos and messages
from him declaring a holy Muslim war were broadcast. Knowing full well where
he was, may have made it easy to plan an unsuccessful search.16
10. Finally, the Vice-President took that day to be out of sight, evidently
having taken command from some control bunker, while the President found
himself reading to children at a school in [Florida], evincing no surprise
when an aide burst in to inform him of the incident.
The operation was pulled off immaculately despite a few difficulties that
were experienced when the intelligence services both at home and abroad got
wind of what was afoot, leading to many subsequent claims that the
Government had failed to take proper note of the reported threats.
For good measure, a brief anthrax scare followed to bring home to every
individual the fear that they were personally threatened. A universal sense
of fear was a critical part of the strategy.
Before long, the B52s had been armed and sent into action. Images of the new
sinister enemy in the form of Afghan tribesmen with their robes, beards and
head-dressers, astride donkeys with a musket across their backs, were soon
broadcast around the World. Within a few weeks, it was all over. The Taliban
Government fell to be replaced by a puppet regime, led by Hamid Karzai. He
was a western-oriented man, who had previously been a consultant to Union
Oil of California. The action now was depicted as having a moral objective.
Afghan women appeared before the cameras to explain how they had been
oppressed by the previous regime, which had denied them education or the
opportunity to find careers as dentists, teachers or shop-assistants.
But a setback to the grand strategy came when the Kashagan prospect off
Kazakhstan, once billed as rivaling Saudi Arabia, was finally drilled with
disappointing results…
Josh wrote Most of the key supporters of the US-led invasion of Iraq have now suffered a thorough thumping: voters in Britain, Spain, Italy and now Australia have all punished and removed the top leaders supportive of the war.
So what’s the story behind the Frogs electing Bush brown-noser Sarkozy?
Regime change begins at home! One less cretin in the world who gives a hearty high five to genocide and screwing the poor.
Bush may learn that he has fewer friends in high places and unless he really does move to Paraguay with Jenna and Not Jenna, he may yet learn how much he is hated in his own country. (The media and appearing at only closed events has kept him blissfully ignorant of the 24% approval he earns at home.)
>>Most of the key supporters of the US-led invasion of Iraq have now suffered a thorough thumping: voters in Britain, Spain, Italy and now Australia have all punished and removed the top leaders supportive of the war<<
And interestingly, the great opposition to the US in the war, Germany, France and Canada have all elected conservative governments (or more conservative than the last). This situation is not as simple as all that and countries and populations don’t always vote the way their opinion runs concerning the US.
This is undoubtedly a great day for Australia and for my relatives there who worked very hard for this victory.
Everywhere it is the 2 party corporate system in place. Australians got sick and fed up with a nitwit that didn’t want to even admit that Global Warming was in effect. After all, the Ozone Hole has major impact in Australia.
But I doubt that that much has changed at all? It is about as big a change as Blair to Brown in Britain has been. And here, it may well be back to Clinton time?
We have no system changes underway at all at this time in the major world national economies. Meanwhile, the world environment is being utterly destroyed.
WTF>- actually it was Nov 11 1974 when the CIA finally forced the cessation of a Left Wing Labor Govt here in Oz. Our first venture away from right wing govt for over 27 years. (Notice even the word Labor is spelled in the American way, sans ‘U’. There was an American involved in the initial set up of the Labor party 100+ years ago.)Notice also that in the same week that Australia declared it would go to war in Iraq the bipartite talks beginning a ‘free’trade agreement were held. Co-incidence? I think not.
It is wonderful that King John the Tongue-Forked (aka the slimy little rat or the Lying little Rodent) has been deposed and his vile team of troglodytes and sycophants with him. The problem with Australian Politics is the last incarnation of a Labor Govt. (82-96) took the middle ground from the conservatives, the whole agenda moved to the right. When we have notionally socialist governments privatising healthcare and the financial sectors and our flag carrier airline and our government owned banks, there is a problem. The weekends pendulum swing may have been notionally to the left, but the Hawke/Keating Governments and the subsequent Howard disgrace moved th fulcrum far to the right. Ther is no ‘LEFT’ in Australian Politics any longer, just the illusion of it.
Wizofoz, Melbourne
Just for your information Pine Gap is still a very relevant US-tool in global missile detection and “intelligence” systems, many of which are active for conflicts in the Middle East. Read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pine_Gap -and here- http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/pine-gaps-wider-missile-role/2007/09/20/1189881684412.html
We will see about the new Labor legislations, and whether or not they pass the senate (which is still to be properly counted and announced). A small step in a progressive direction is better than no step at all. We cannot let up on our pressure for a better progressive future, nor tire from our analysis. Keep on. This is a good result.
Some CD readers might like to know that from early counting results The Greens had increased votes across the board, and had also increased their senate presence to an unprecedented level. This is quite a strong cultural statement about the evolving perspective of many Australians, and the sophistication of the party themselves. That wouldn’t have been possible in 1996, and would have been in the realm of utter fantasy in 1986. Sometimes you think this moves all too slow, but when you’re talking a nation, change is indeed afoot.
mmd, Armidale Australia.
Something about that ’south of the border’ (equatorial belt) intrigues me… whereas S. America was full of oppressive dictators 2 decades ago, now it seems to be undergoing a Renaissance while the nations north of the equator take a more fascist stance. Could Australia follow its “southern geographical cousins”?
Staying with friends (my TV already “killed”) I was watching Cspan this morning, and some new blogger who basically codifies all the bull shit “news” out there for viewers’ consumption, was shown recent ads. Mitt was using Chuck Norris for an anti-immigration style ad that had all the toughness of this macho Hollywood hero. Somewhere the conversation went to Blair and his religious beliefs coming out of the closet thanks to the “lead” by Bush. Blair walked around with a Bible! It just stuns my intellect to think of these so-called educated men truly seeing in this grand universe little more than a human style drama-continuum with god as some white haired father who has told his chosen white boys to kill darker skinned peoples for Him. Too bad Blair didn’t do his own televangelical ministry, might have saved the world from this ghastly pro-war alliance, that hides behind Jesus, the teacher of PEACE at all costs! Oxymorons each.
Thank goodness some modicum of common sense has arisen in Australia !
Wizofoz wrote actually it was Nov 11 1974 when the CIA finally forced the cessation of a Left Wing Labor Govt here in Oz.
1975, actually. Thats not the way I remember it, and I again state that the CIA was not involved, except maybe as cheerleaders in the wings. Malcolm Frazer’s Liberal-Country Party stalemated the national budget in the Senate for several weeks which of course meant that the Govt was running out of money. Frazer was demanding that since the budget could not go through, the whole Senate should resign (Labor had the majority, but re-election may have tipped it to the LCP). On Nov 11 Whitlam suggested to Kerr the Cur (the Guv’nor General) that a half-Senate election should take place, but instead, sometime between me going into a physics exam at the Uni of Sydney and leaving the exam hall, Kerr has sacked the Govt using an archaic and never-used British law and placed Frazer and the LCP as a caretaker Govt. No CIA, ever. It was pure, BS party politics.
When I walked out of the exam hall, students were running around campus screaming bloody murder. I was politically active then, and a few of us arranged a trip downtown to the Customs House. We rounded up over a hundred students and scared the hell out of workers in the building. It took horse-mounted police to break us up.
Damn, they were the good old days!
Another memory. We watched on telly in the evening as Whitlam left the GG’s House, and he said “You may well say God Save the Queen, but nothing will save the Governor General”. Probably the best Australian political statement in 100 years.
AUSCANZUKUS Gesundheit!
Doesn’t ECHELON sound the least bit elitist?
My thanks to Wiz o OZ, and MMD for updating me, but then all of this was well moving in this direction 25 yr ago, no “surprises” here.
And I’m also thankful to the “Da Vinci Code movie” for rendering and revealing the hidden code of militaristic chevrons:
__:
_:_:
:___:
Each of these upward pointed chevrons is but another “prick” (phallus symbol) notched higher on the pole of authority. And then we can also talk about getting shafted (so well thank you, kiss kiss) when we go buying gasoline at CHEVRON.
P.S. I believe that every country should have the right to walk all over the heads of their gov’t, what sage wisdom from the Aussies (e.g. grass covered dome over their parliament houses)
Namaste
NP-complete
The above post is a math joke, sometimes a license plate holder gag line, which is a Godelean jibe into the solar plexus of science, where such elaborate theory can only be proven true for degenerate (very simple) cases.
It’s like ~ Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle is a box.
Just had to call 911 about a nasty accident, that I only heard, and it really shakes one up to feel so vulnerable.
Namaste
WTF wrote:
“1975, actually. Thats not the way I remember it, and I again state that the CIA was not involved, except maybe as cheerleaders in the wings.”
WTF, you got the year right but I question how you could “remember” the CIA was not involved - it wasn’t exactly common knowledge at the time.
If the absence of something is nothing, then
is the presence of nothing something ?
Namaste
Jan, you are free to question me all you like, but the constitutional and judicial battle that lead to the ALP’s dismissal is well documented and known.
I think that more than a few CD readers have CIA conspiracy theories on the brain.
WTF, and perhaps nonsensically related history finally begins to look ’sensical’, when the hidden hand of something else is added?
You read on this web site and nonetheless have a hard time understanding about conspiracies existence?
Namaste
so does that mean they will stop the production of the world’s 40% mined depleted uranium in northwest Australia made for smart bombs and other chemical warfare structures? I really got much info from Dr. Helen Caldicott when she did her free lecture tour with her book(a fellow australian and prominent leader in the fight against nuclear war)
DENNY: It is no longer just about: bigger, bangier, flashier, throbier, shinier, longer, farther-reaching
= = M I S S I L E _ E N V Y = = ,
we’re “ON” to BE’ing SHAFTED by radioactive, ‘kill-your-children’s-children-…’, anything that moves, and RAPING the Earth mother too.
Each time IT gets bigger, we know that those in charge must be feeling soooo much SMALLER, insignificant, impotent, DARK-side fawning, death loving DESPOTs — don’t yeah think?
I believe that Dr Helen Caldicott is our generation’s least known and most un-sung Heroine, who has made the largest contributions to SAVING our world, for our children’s future, and for the next several million years. I just wish the massively dismissive media could find an opportunity (against all the pressure and political payoffs) to let her shine for the world to see. You Aussies really got a gem there mate, and we need more!
Namaste
__ __ __ __ We must be the change
__ __ __ __ we wish to see in the world __ Gandhi
I bring great empowering and excellent N E W S:
Our belief in the systematic bought-and-paid-for inattention of the mass media may in fact be an illusion and gov’t hype to completely dis-empower us to “work the system”., as evidence points to what they’ve actually been doing - and it’s “simple” repetitive phones calls and threats to hurt circulation, not total subjugation!
OK, it might be simple, but that is hardly the same as easy, right?
Please follow this link here, for ‘Confessions of “an editor who ran Bush propaganda”‘, where in summary that editor states that:
Wow, isn’t insidiously clever to make us think we :
(1.) Have a liberal minding media, but then
(2.) Convince us that it’s really not going to speak the TRUTH, but
(3.) it still may be POSSIBLE to find truth again, if we finesse it as well as the shrub’s SHOCK troops do, as they’re clearly massively funded and organized for the ‘duration’.
(4.) The re-Thuglicans likely have a quite distributed tag-team fon tree for each media outlet ALL across the globe, and duplication of pressuring (to own editor) would only improve their (or OUR ODDs) for impact.
(5.) OK, don’t even bother with FauxNews, but maybe ‘the denuded emperor pix’ will leak out?
What GRASS ROOTS ACTION does it take from any of US?
_a._ Any person willing to call, and call again (watching the news wires, and being aware each day)
_b._ Heavy hitter progressive thinkers that will ACT (like STARS, Media celebrities, actors, chamber Commerce, talkers) with real influence, and or patience.
_c._ Lots of ‘cold calls’ in attempts to find each media
_d._ Attempt to convert retrenched re-Thuglicans as “double-agents” for TRUTH, as they know who to call
Like I said initially, this is SIMPLE, but it’s hardly EASY.
We ALL can Go for IT, as we deserve the best media that OUR money (remember WE are the actual circulation- right?) can influence and buy.
P.S. Thanks to inspiration posts throughout CD, and my apologies for cross-posting this to get this powerful message out, as bandwidth is likened to our CD’s very blood coursing through the ethereal veins of OUR WEB.
Namaste
__ __ __ __ We must be the change
__ __ __ __ we wish to see in the world __ Gandhi
WTF, I concede that I wrote down the wrong year, it was indeed 75, not 74. My best memory of Whitlams’ ‘Well may we say….’ speech is the vision of Norman Gunstan in the background as it is delivered and his subsequent ’stirring’ of the assembled crowd…what a hoot, only in Oz…
The real point here is this…have we elected a government of social and moral reform to clean up the mess left behind by 11 long years of regressive and divisive policy and fraud? Will they actually have the guts to call real senate or royal commissions into the fiasco’s of AWB or our entry into Iraq? Personally I would have Howard and his cohort of crooks up before every court and commission of enquiry I could think of. This is the only way I can imagine we can enforce the notion that the people will not tolerate the lies and deceit of Politicians, make them personally and criminally accountable for them. Put the bastards in GAOL! I don’t care if they are labour, Liberal, conservative, radical left or loony right wing fundamentalists…if they lie off with their metaphorical heads! I realise this is fanciful stuff under a two party ‘club’ system but if we don’t aim for real democracy, how are we ever to achieve it?
Good on ya mate!
wizofoz
Amen on the two party ‘club’ system - Oz’s just seems so much greener than the thorny pri*ks here in the US.
WTF said
“but the constitutional and judicial battle that lead to the ALP’s dismissal is well documented and known.”
Whilst I agree there is often some overly conspiratorial thinking in CD, the workings of the CIA would not rate a mention amongst those well known “constitutional and judicial” battles of the actual act of the dismissal. There were many “preconditions” to the dismissal. Earlier events and exagerated “scandals” were played for all they were worth in the media. The U.S. feared people like Jim Cairns and Lionel Murphy who the U.S. considered practically communists.
The Labor Party on coming to power had immediately withdrawn the Australian troops from Vietnam. Jim Cairns who had led the huge anti Vietnam War marches, came only one vote from becoming Prime Minister. One other very nationalist Minister was busy trying to raise money to “Buy back the farm” from foreign interests. To do that Labor attempted to get “dirty” Arab money instead of the same money through more establishment sources. A shady character Khemlani became important in the “loans scandal”. The Attorney General Lionel Murphy was being crudely attacked merely because he was helping some Philipino women get work.
It was very interesting and possibly just coincidental, but Marshall Green arrived to be the main U.S. diplomatic person in Australia after Labor came to power. The co-incidence was that Green had been in various other countries where coups had ensued a little while after his appearance on the scene. Green appears to have been a key U.S. troubleshooter sent to many nations which were trying to break away from the U.S.- Chile and Indonesia are just two of several.
No doubt the labor team was so keen to make changes after many many years out of office, that they went too far too quickly for the U.S. and also probably alienated many conservative Australians as well.
Whatever that Labor government may have done too hastily or unwisely you can’t understand the its dismissal merely by the final “constitutional” acts of that story. There are sound reasons to believe that many of the negative conditions generated against labor involved the destabilisation skills of the CIA - Australia was just too important a base and ally to let a few “commies” take it over. However it is not in the interests of any of the public figures who were involved in the actual dismissal to ever admit they were influenced in any way by the U.S… Malcolm Frazer who was brought to power through “the dismissal” has since said that in those days he was extremely concerned about “Communism”, as if to justify his part in bringing down the government.
Frazer won’t ever say any more to admit it, but in order to play his part in that 1975 constitutional coup against the “commie” Labor Party, are we to believe that Frazer had not been “encouraged” by that thoroughly combat proven CIA coup instigator Marshall Green who had gone to Australia especially to bring down the anti U.S. Labor as he had brought down Sukarno and Allende among others? As well are we to believe that Governor General Kerr had not been influenced by U.S. strong disapproval of Labor nor advised on how to deal with it by Marshall Green?
G’day Jan - I appreciate your detailed and very thought provoking analysis, and wish that my country had keep its hands to itself, but nonetheless it is quite informative of the means of the powerful few.
Namaste
__ __ __ __ We must be the change
__ __ __ __ we wish to see in the world __ Gandhi
Namaste
__ __ __ __ We must be the change
__ __ __ __ we wish to see in the world __ Gandhi