The Aussie elections
posted at 10:03 am on November 24, 2007 by Michelle
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I’ve got a round-up of coverage at home base. Two videos to give you a, uh, taste of the new PM Kevin Rudd (in the second clip, Rudd’s the guy with the wandering finger seated behind the speaker):
Update (MM):
One more vid. The John Howard vs. Kevin Rudd rap battle:
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Ohhhh noooo! What have the blokes from Australia done?
Boogers? Ok, that’s gross. But electing a pansy-headed dude that eats his own EAR WAX??!!
That’s just not right.
SouthernPride on November 24, 2007 at 10:16 AM
This is bad news, we’ve just lost another ally in the GWoT. I thought they’d be MORE on our side after the beach riots last year. Dhimmistralia? Australiastan? So sad, I guess Mark Steyn was right, America’s all alone … well, at least we still have Canada … but to quote a comic whose name escapes me: “You think Canada likes us? Canada HATES us … they just *pretend* to like us so we’ll let them go to Atlantic City.”
Tony737 on November 24, 2007 at 10:26 AM
ABC radio news was positively giddy over this today. Joyous that Australia will pull out of Iraq and will sign on to the Kyoto scam.
Yippee!
JammieWearingFool on November 24, 2007 at 10:32 AM
It’s a shame. John Howard was a breath of fresh air in a world gone stupid.
Speaking of stupid…we appear to have more than our fair share of stupidity right here.
flipflop on November 24, 2007 at 10:38 AM
A comic whose name escapes me”You think Canada likes us?
Canada HATES us…they just*pretend*to like us so we’ll
let them go to Atlantic City”.
Tony737:on November 24,2007 at10:26AM.
Tony737:Well I’m one Canadian that does like the
United States,so there is hope.haha
canopfor on November 24, 2007 at 10:38 AM
Yeah… isn’t it interesting that when Australia votes out a conservative he was a “strong ally of Bush” and this is Australia telling the US how much they hate Bush… But when France votes in a conservative. Do they say its because France like’s Bush’ ideas and how much they support the US? Noooo… it’s this and that and it really wasn’t a good idea as he’s an embattled leader already…
Skywise on November 24, 2007 at 10:38 AM
Good point…the media will make much of Bush causing the downfall of his allies like Howard, Blair and Aznar, but when conservatives like Sarkozy and Merkel get elected, it’s got nothing to do with Bush.
flipflop on November 24, 2007 at 10:43 AM
It could get worse. China has been trying to cozy-up to Australia by becoming an important and valuable customer of Australia’s raw materials– maybe the most important customer (not to mention supplier of all the usual cheap crap). You don’t want to piss-off you’re most important customer. Wedge.
JiangxiDad on November 24, 2007 at 10:45 AM
sorry, “your”
JiangxiDad on November 24, 2007 at 10:46 AM
The only armies worth a damn in the world all speak English. I hope Australia stays close.
Mojave Mark on November 24, 2007 at 10:50 AM
Too funny. Betcha he does the same at the next G7 summit.
Zorro on November 24, 2007 at 10:55 AM
CanOpFor, I know, we can always count on you and Canadian-Infidel to be on our side! :-)
Skywise, how right you are!
Tony737 on November 24, 2007 at 10:58 AM
This bloody SUCKS, Mate!
tickleddragon on November 24, 2007 at 11:01 AM
I thought that’s what I saw, but it was so disgusting I didn’t want to believe.
Why, Australia, why?
LindsayK on November 24, 2007 at 11:04 AM
This is NOT good. Our list of allies grows thin…
Darksean on November 24, 2007 at 11:05 AM
Add to that we also lost Poland receintly as well. They elected a new government and will also pull their troops out soon.
William Amos on November 24, 2007 at 11:07 AM
Good grief; snacking from his ear? What, he wants to be Goldmember with his earwax box? Looks like the Aussies have as many silly voters as we do…sorry to see Howard go down. Don’t know why but I get a major Jimmy Carter vibe off this Rudd guy.
austinnelly on November 24, 2007 at 11:12 AM
BOLLOCKS!
Insomniac on November 24, 2007 at 11:26 AM
All politics is local.
bnelson44 on November 24, 2007 at 11:36 AM
Ah, yes. The MSM are already ecstatic proclaiming that the US will be the only major power now not to sign Kyoto. Of course, NONE of the countries that have signed it actually fulfill their pledge. But it’s symbolism that matters most to these deep thinkers.
Sugar Land on November 24, 2007 at 11:38 AM
Which Democratic presidential candidates are in favor of signing Kyoto?
bnelson44 on November 24, 2007 at 11:40 AM
If I was the republican nominee I would do my utmost to bring Tony Blair and John Howard to the US to campaign for me.
Both of those gentlemen are great orators and would jump at the chance to get redemption of their support for US in the WOT.
I think its been proven that both of these guys are very well liked in the US
William Amos on November 24, 2007 at 11:47 AM
About all of them
http://www.ontheissues.org/News_Global_Warming.htm
William Amos on November 24, 2007 at 11:55 AM
My Aussie cousins down in Burwood are now thinking about moving here to the states. I told them to come thru Mexico, it’s easier.
Zorro on November 24, 2007 at 12:04 PM
No big deal. The lefty government will fall within a year and they will have new elections.
Sometimes the instability of party-oriented parliamentary systems is a good thing.
progressoverpeace on November 24, 2007 at 12:08 PM
And what’s with this compulsory voting in Australia? That’s a bit odd, though not as weird as their method of counting, recounting, and redistributing votes. Very strange stuff over there …
On the war side, if Australia decided to pull their combat troops out, I would tell them to pull the rest of their troops out as well.
progressoverpeace on November 24, 2007 at 12:20 PM
Yeah I’ve seen the articles claiming that the US is the only “industrialized” nation not to sign the treaty…
Guess China and India aren’t “industrialized”.
Skywise on November 24, 2007 at 12:28 PM
Messrs Howard and Blair were there when it mattered the most on the WoT. That lady has sung already and the rest is just ra, ra, ra…on the part of a supposed thinking media, and intelligentsia.
From MM’s site:
Aussies, especially the younguns, read up well on yer history, and find out why you are so free, and who your real friends have been.
I commented before that Australia is one of the most beautiful and interesting places to visit. However, the Aussies, as adorable as they are, are way more docile than I’d imagined them to be, i.e. taxes, socialism, masses rolling over…I was saddened, having expected them to be more rugged than Americans.
This is the future of the free world, until China subjugates it all. Mr. Rudd, in historic terms, will have been just the first of the ones to make nice with the new masters. The WoT will have been but a blip.
That Mr. Howard lost to someone named Maxine, for those who know, makes it very symbolic.
Entelechy on November 24, 2007 at 12:56 PM
Crikey!
The Aussie’s are going down the loo mates.
Hopefully this is a temporary brain fart on the part of our southern hemisphere brethren, and they will correct the situation soon.
conservnut on November 24, 2007 at 1:03 PM
So China got their guy elected. Interesting.
crosspatch on November 24, 2007 at 1:15 PM
What kind of a world do we live in where Global Warming is a major campaign issue?
And since when is capitulating to bloodthirsty animals an admirable quality?
reaganaut on November 24, 2007 at 1:44 PM
Australia is not a member.
Australian electoral trends suggests that if anything they could be in government for the next three or four election cycles.
aengus on November 24, 2007 at 1:48 PM
Actually entertaining the idea of banning “ho, ho, ho” and now this? *sigh* That drought must’ve really dried up the Aussie brain! I know they will regret what they’ve done, but I hope they can recover. I don’t know how often they have elections down there, but I hope it’s soon!
SouthernGent on November 24, 2007 at 1:53 PM
Yes, you are correct, but I think that Australian politics might be entering a different phase. I do realize that that might just be wishful thinking on my part. Getting a no-confidence vote out of this parliament would take something drastic (not even to address standard elections), though there are lots of issues these days that might serve that purpose.
progressoverpeace on November 24, 2007 at 2:15 PM
Oh yeah. The “What up, mah diggaz?” is cute…
mojo on November 24, 2007 at 2:23 PM
I hate to quote myself, but did I call it or what?
flipflop on November 24, 2007 at 3:04 PM
Far as I saw it had nothing to do with Bush, or the Iraq/Afghanistan issues.
In fact, the whole election was pretty damn apathetic.
Biggest issues appeared to be the 7% interest rate under the Liberal party, which has gone up about 4(?) times since the last election. When the Libs pointed out that interest rates have consistently climbed over 10% under a Labour government, people just seemed to shrug their shoulders and go ‘ehh’
The perpetual media myth about whether or not Howard would ’stay the full term’ (despite the fact that you do NOT vote for the leader of the party in an Australian election, rendering the whole thing irrelevant) was brought up again. When pointed out that Labour has consistently stabbed their leaders in the back for over a decade (Hawke, Keating, Beazley, Crean, Latham and now Rudd, and I bet I’ve forgotten a few), people once again appeared to shrug their shoulders and go ‘ehh’
Ultimately the election was, as I said, pretty apathetic and also very vapid. The whole thing appeared to be more about image and ‘change’ than… anything political.
What I have found to be an interesting observation is that when things in Iraq were not exactly going swimmingly, conservatives were elected/reelected in Australia, Japan, Poland, Germany and (albeit more recently) France. And now that things are definitively starting to come together over there, Conservatives are getting chucked out of office. Quite possibly (and somewhat ironically) because the news media appears to be reporting less about Iraq since there’s less bad news to be reported. Either that or everyone is just damn bored of it.
Another (shorter) rap battle. My personal favourite of the two, actually
Reaps on November 24, 2007 at 9:21 PM
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