A Rudd update: iS hE HOping to alLEviate past guilt?
I’m posting this because I now think the Heiner thing might be a beat-up, but Qld politics has always ponged like a polecat. It’s very corrupt here.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/child-gangrape- appeal/2007/12/10/1197135345386.html

P.S. Kucinich for president! (should i apologize for that? Well i’m not going to

regarding Kevin Rudd, google the Heiner affair. I’m very disappointed.

I have to add, Jon, that as i understand it, Howard was talking about the democratic candidates in general, not just Obama.

To Jon B again, Aboriginals in Australia are not second-class citizens by any system of deliberate apartheid. The problems between black and white Australia are in faulty communication and sometimes lack of trust from both sides, because there is an awful lot of pain there. If you want to focus on the skinheads at Cronulla, etc, well, all countries have their version of such idiots and usually in much worse proportions. Most Aussies are proud of our first Aussies, our magnificent first culture, one of the oldest in the world. Australia is Bama-Gnuppy-Gnuppy land (everybody and anybody’s tribe).
BTW, I hear very little on the other candidates here, the local MSM is pushing Obama, because he’s bright and shiny. If the MSM pushes anything, i stop twice to think about it. I have heard Obama speak and he’s certainly a wonderful orator, and i hope he’s as good a man as he appears. Any good candidate need to be very clear on his or her policies before he or she is elected. That’s the only fair way to get elected. If he does that with courage and forthrightness, then i will blow him a kiss for good luck. Thanks for replying to me, Jon.

Yea...I bet Howard received a nice bundle of loot from that pallet of cash that was looted in Iraq for that smear.  Ironic that he uses the same Rovian fear and smear techniques that are so wildly popular and effective here.  I guess Rove, Cheney and Bush realize that their words have zero credibility with the American people anymore, so they needed to go abroad and get a foriegn leader to chant their BS. 

Lets be clear about something.  The neocons are proping up puppets all over the world.  Canada - a far left leaning country just happens to elect a right winger?  Please. Mexico - the energy secretary becomes president in a carbon copy of our 2000 election fiasco?  Sure.  Howard uses their word-for-word propaganda to interfer in the US’s election? Gimme a break.  Blair?  I mean...Come on!  Who doesn’t see through these crude tactics.

Jon B, honey, i have never supported the war in Iraq. I am a pain in Howard’s arse in my own country. But i respect his right to speak, and he, mostly, respects my right to speak. Please note, I support Kevin Rudd politically, i liked his speech above. I just didn’t like the way you phrased your comment. And i do not support war, for any reason, unless you bring it to my house, and then all bets are off.

Kath

Hilary Clinton and John Edwards also mentioned the complete withdrawal from Iraq. Why didn’t Howard mention the other two and attack Obama?
Obama is no Aboriginee who are treated as second class citizen.

Second, there are two ways to measure a power. Militarily, aussies are nothing. Economically, aussies have no industrialized base to speak of.
Aussie’s economy centers upon mining and aussies are dirty digger if you will. Sure aussies are consumers of sophisticated electronics but they have no idea how to make them.

I am no black but I don’t like an aussie pick and choose a person to attack.

Why didn’t you volunteer to Iraq? Like they say,
“put your money where your mouth is” or put your boots to where Iraq is.

This may seem like interference from a foreign country’s leader, but if we follow the pattern of the Republican party of Bush/Cheney and how they have so often used third parties to smear and de-fame opposition, while pretending a mock dignity, above the mess---would it be too much of a flight of fantasy to see this as one more example of their slight of hand?

If there isn’t a conspircy in these governments, supposedly democratically elected going off on personal ego trips against the wish of the electors, how else can it be explained?

Delightful! Absolutely Delightful! Hearing someone speak with assurance and conviction AND in defense of the United States.

Ummmm! Where did all the Americans go?

A note to remind Jon B: Describing countries as third-rated powers and super-powers in this context is a pretty dodgy maneuvre. Does the US, in your mind, have more right to mess with the politics of other nations because it is a superpower? No, of course not. John Howard’s not planning to send an army in to unseat Obama, he simply spoke his mind. Unfortunately for Australia, it sometimes appears to be a small mind. To give him his due, sometimes he’s on the money, and he has certainly survived a long long time in politics. And I doubt that any comments he makes will seriously hurt Obama’s chances. On the other hand what Obama (or whoever) does when he gets elected can seriously hurt Australia.
Australia is a fantastic country, make no mistake, and quite a few of us down under read truthdig and sites like it, because what happens over there, will soon after happen here, while our countries are so chummy, and while your super-powerful country barges over everyone else’s borders and makes like a pig in mud for your richest citizens.
As an analogy, I have no problem with the East Timorese publicly expressing their views on Australian political candidates. I kind of like the idea, actually. Xanana Gusmao, what do you REALLY think of Howard? Of Rudd?
The thing that really hurts me is, Australia used to be a much better place to live for ordinary people like me. There was evenly distributed wealth, the workers were looked after, and there was comparatively little classism and elitist snobbery. That has been changing somewhat of late, and it’s ugly. I’m not saying it’s the fault of the close ties between our two nations, of course it isn’t, but that is what i read in your comment about third-rated and super POWERS - elitism. If that’s what being a superpower gets you, you can keep it, mate.
And you can take it from me, it’s not what any true-blue Aussie is after.

It’s been a long time since i had someone to vote for who had a snowball’s chance in hell of getting in. Mr Rudd and his deputy Julia Gillard are raising my hopes for 2008.

Howard is planning to run again next term (we have no limits on terms) and if he wins he will most likely have to deal with either Obama or Hilary. Won’t that be fun to watch?

Imagine how different our two nations, and the world, would be if that judge hadn’t ruled against Al Gore in 2000?

And G’day, Bukko. How the bloody hell are ya?

It’s first time that the leader of a third rated power tells US what to do with foreign policy and who shouldn’t be presidential candidate.

A note to remind Howard: we have a weak decider but US is no banana republic and Down Under is no superpower by any measure.