That lucid analysis I promised two posts ago will still have to wait another day. In the meantime, I have added a new “photo finish” thread below for Dickson, where Labor’s lead is an uncomfortable 389 votes, to those already existing for Swan, Solomon, McEwen, Macarthur, La Trobe, Herbert, Bowman and the Victorian Senate. It would also be remiss of me not to note the very sad passing of Matt Price, taken far too young at 46.
[ But why these incompetent soon to be MPs haven’t done this before being elected is beyond me?? ]
Yes Glen, and I’m sure you’re beloved Julie Bishop visited lots of schools before she was elected.
Alll of you need a break do this 4 your self chk vrgn/tgr/qnts look at nadi…honest…the moment u decide 2 trvl again u will hopefully be in love! what better place to find love ……………ahhhhh……………….FIJI…………………..hey sit here and ponder it!
things getting better in iraq, eh Glen?? so you libs are not is not just about deluded about your loss here.
Glen Says: “Yes Kev, let’s let Rudd bring in all the asylum seekers and let’s surrender to al-qaeda in Iraq just when things are getting better yeah what a lovely way to start your Prime Ministership lol!”
Ha Ha Ha Ha – LOL. You really ARE a wanker Glen. Back to what you know best ey, vilifying people. Keep on with that, it’s worked WONDERS for the Limp-eral party thus far!
Yes she did she was so enthusiastic about it she turned up regularly at schools without invitations she carried this trait with her up until the election lol!
read Age reeporters quote today when he interviewed Rudd just 1 week after he became Opposition Leader. He remembered one SIGNIFICANT quote from Rudd:
‘ you know I may be Peter Costello’s worst nightmare”
ie Rudd is so clever , he decided 12 months ago to knock both Howard & Costello out at the one time ! (he ‘read’ Costello perfectly)
[ #1233
marky marky Says:
November 27th, 2007 at 12:30 am
Paul K what does the cold war have to do with economic thinking? Don;t mean to be rude but you have lost it a bit.]
Can’t help it. I’m just a selfish capitalist who has private health insurance. Pity I don’t live in the Socialist paradises of France or Sweden where no one has Private Health Insurance.
The reason I bring up the Cold War is because you are the one who keeps dividing people into Left or Right.
[Yes Kev, let’s let Rudd bring in all the asylum seekers and let’s surrender to al-qaeda in Iraq just when things are getting better yeah what a lovely way to start your Prime Ministership lol!]
One of your more creative strawmen Glen… wow, the loss really hit you hard didn’t it!
Wow im really upset that Rudd is keeping most of Howard’s policies and is the most conservative ALP leader in decades yeah booohooo.
Let’s remember Kevin started this idiotic banter on pollbludger not I.
Pacific Warrior,
Go away with your Travel Brochures. Want to do something useful. Get rid of that idiot soldier and bring back democracy to Fiji.
Yes, we do have a joke of a Prime Minister, Glen. His name is John Winston Howard , and he will remain Prime Minister until about Friday, when he will be replaced by a far, far better man.
So your a lefty than Paul K? Fooled me.
Don’t worry Glen, you’ll find the right girl one of these days, settle down, have a family and forget about your hero Howard – it’ll get better with time, promise.
[ Wow im really upset that Rudd is keeping most of Howard’s policies ]
Glen,
Maybe instead of the Libs and Nats merging, the Libs should merge with Labor. You will be assimilated.
Actually France has a pretty shit-hot public health system. It’s not uncommon for people to travel there from the UK to seek treatment.
I was chatting to a Sapnish dotor last weekend who said the French system is the best in the western world. (obviously I have no idea how true that actually is).
But Paul what would happen to Julie? lol
paul k – how do we bring DMocracy to the pacific. You ignorant stupid. You no better huh? Have u ever travelled outside your shoebox?
Glen Says: “But Paul what would happen to Julie? lol”
She can help us do the magic eye pictures that can be so tricky!
Glen , I take it Howard was against work choices , for Kyoto , for more money in hospitals , against nuclear reactors , for computers in class rooms , for high speed broadband ??
[ #
1262
marky marky Says:
November 27th, 2007 at 12:46 am
So your a lefty than Paul K? Fooled me.]
Marky,
I’m an ex-Liberal supporter who supported Labor in this election. I don’t see politics as being about Left or Right anymore. Those things don’t mean much in the new century. I follow who has what I think is the best team and the best policies and for now that’s Labor. I consider myself a moderate. I like some of the left’s policies and I like some of the right’s.
[Glen , I take it Howard was against work choices , for Kyoto , for more money in hospitals , against nuclear reactors , for computers in class rooms , for high speed broadband ??]
Steady on Ron… you’ll confuse him if you are just going to use logic
I think Glen is Dolly Downer in disguise….all talk but no substance
Yep i vote according to what best helps my hip pocket.. is that right Paul K?
Mr Downer is a great Australian someone who has accomplished more in his professional life than you ever will Ron, steady on here you’ve won the election but you don’t need to still be an asshole about it.
Glen seems to see the funny side in everything….everything is ‘a joke’ to him.
Funny when one looks back toward him, all one sees is tragedy.
Unpickle yourself ya prune.
You must have missed Dolly Downer in his black stockings .Do you also wear them
Glen Says:
“Mr Downer is a great Australian someone who has accomplished more in his professional life than you ever will Ron, steady on here you’ve won the election but you don’t need to still be an asshole about it.”
F*ck, it just gets better and better from Glen! Just gold! Downer, great Australian? Sweet Jesus!
[ But Paul what would happen to Julie? ]
The Libs could raise money by hiring her out at halloween as “the Zombie Princess” with eyes that will startle children.
Go easy George , Dolly Downer’s place in history is solely his black stockings , and Glen is paying tribute to this feat
get off your fence paul…are you left or right…east or west…divisive? oops sorry that was the howard lib years. New Day new week fresh start.
No Pacific Warrior , glen is with Dolly Downer at the Boutique
Ron, Downer will go down in History as the longest serving FM and one who brought Australia and Asia closer together.
More than Evans can say.
[ #1267
Pacific Warrior Says:
November 27th, 2007 at 12:50 am
paul k – how do we bring DMocracy to the pacific. You ignorant stupid. You no better huh? Have u ever travelled outside your shoebox? ]
PW,
I’ve traveled all over the world. I’ve even been to Fiji. I have no objection to you’re commenting on this site but you should not be trying to sell things. We’re not here to shop. So take your travel brochures away.
Ah, Downer! I’ve posted over on Possum’s site about him:
Howard’s lot is not a happy one: killed the thing he professed to love. Necrophilia comes to mind, but let’s not go there.
As to leadership, well it’s now pretty plain that Costello was Howard’s ‘beard’, a ruse, a pretend heir, the heir you have when you aren’t having a bar of one, a Clayton’s heir. For all of the last 13 years, Howard has had Costello’s balls in a jar on his desk, and only under the impending head-on collision with Kevin Rudd did Howard ever begrudgingly offer to give them back. But hey, he wasn’t ever going to give Costello his testicles back, and so we’ve seen the great castrasto of the Liberal party sing his final aria and piss off stage right, to the alluring tune of the cash register.
Which raises some very interesting questions about what really happened in the APEC faux putsch, to which, let’s remember, Costello was not invited. How then do you go to the cabinet for a straw poll on whether the old man has totally lost it, agree that he has, and then go to Howard and ask for Costello’s balls back? Downer told Red Kezza tonight that Costello never really had the numbers.
Intriging question coming up: so who did? If Downer is telling it correctly, and Costello NEVER had the numbers, then who did they offer up as heir? Yep, Johnny, we’ve decided you should go, take Cossie’s balls with you, but we don’t know who will replace you?
Nup, it was NEVER Cossie, (Bridesmaid Regurgitated). So who?
If you’ve been following the bouncing ball, it leads right back to the guy who was always Johnny’s ‘mate’, his defender, his confidant, his gopher, and his numbers ‘man’, none other than the Fishnet Folly: Lord Downer of Baghdad, born to rule and the most ‘experienced’ minister in the party after Howard, (and remembering that Costello was neutered.)
A ten minute advertisement for his CV was dished up on the 7.30 Report tonight, and it just didn’t smell right. Dolly is not going to sit on the back bench for three years, and after swanning around the world for a decade the last place he wants to be is doddering around at home between parliamentary sittings, so my hunch is that he was fishing (yep, in suitable stockings).
“Oh yes, some of my collegues…” etc etc, you know the code. If he really wanted to be out of it he’d leave an answer phone message. Nup, Dolly Downer is still in this race, and I think he nearly got it during APEC. If Costello NEVER had the numbers, then they were not going to ask Howard to step down for him.
All those protestations of undying allegiance to a guy who’s nuts sat in a jar for all those years?
Don’t believe it folks, they were pulling your leg.
Watch Dolly. The hot young turks (with a silent ‘j’), like Pyne and Turnbull to some extent, have dived in with the Bradfield Spiv and the Mad Monk, all keen for the scrum, but watch out for Dolly, he’s now an ‘important’ man of the party, a patriach, a patrician, and greatness may yet be there for the asking.
The Malvolio of Mayo is not yet done.
Glen Says:
November 27th, 2007 at 12:59 am
Ron, Downer will go down in History as the longest serving FM and one who brought Australia and Asia closer together
So Dolly Downer in his black stockings brought the 2 oceans together
Nice summary Kirribilli Removals.
Does everyone remember this from the Great Australian Downer?
“I think, on the basis of all that I have seen in the Cole inquiry, I think that its conclusions will be very, very interesting and there is certainly going to be humble pie eaten somewhere. There is going to be a big meal of humble pie eaten by somebody at some time after this report comes down. Let’s just wait and see.”
Mmmm, I think Kevin Rudd is brushing up on his pie-making skills… better jump while you can Alexander, like your other partner in crime, Vaile.
[Mr Downer is a great Australian]
“The things that batter”
Truly a ‘great’ Australian… if you are a brainless fool
“1274
Glen Says:
November 27th, 2007 at 12:53 am
Mr Downer is a great Australian someone who has accomplished more in his professional life than you ever will Ron, steady on here you’ve won the election but you don’t need to still be an asshole about it.”
Yep, that’s Dolly alright. I can even hear the voice.
Ron, claim your spotters fee now.
Paul K . With respect you have travelled the world and been to Fiji – please which places
Grand kids will say Dolly Downer had 11 years as FM and he wore black stockings but NEVER signed Kyoto or acknowledged climate change
“1282
Glen Says:
November 27th, 2007 at 12:59 am
Ron, Downer will go down in History as the longest serving FM …”
I don’t know how you could have typed that. I mean, ‘M’ and ‘W’ aren’t even near each other on the keyboard.
My mum is going to go down in history as the longest serving Office Manager at St Mary’s Bendigo. She wears stockings too.
I find it interesting to read many of the posts on here. People are so passionate about what they are against. For the most part they’re against Howard and the Tories, but it is very hard to discern what actually it is that they are for. There was a time when people supported Labor because of the program, because of the ideas, because of the ideals. Not anymore it seems. There are plenty on here, who are deriding the Tories and and Howard and Costello and Pyne and all the rest, who would just as quickly jump ship and vote Tory, if Labor got serious again and introduced some real Labor economic policies. I’m imagining that in maybe three or six years a good many of the Labor cheerleaders on here will be voting Tory. and guess what, they will support them with an equal passion!
[I don’t know how you could have typed that. I mean, ‘M’ and ‘W’ aren’t even near each other on the keyboard.]
lol
More gold from the Great Australian:
CATHERINE MCGRATH: Well, but we also know that the next year after that Bronte Moules was writing to you again in 2001. So the concern continued.
ALEXANDER DOWNER: Well, there were, as you know, allegations. I mean, this has all been canvassed, by the way, ad infinitum in the Parliament and in the Estimates Committees and elsewhere last year, but there were concerns raised from time to time over a long period of time and…
CATHERINE MCGRATH: But you’ve said that you knew nothing about this, you knew nothing about AWB’s involvement until Volcker.
ALEXANDER DOWNER: Well, we… well, can I just say, it’s very important in this whole debate that when people like Mr Beazley and Mr Rudd make allegations against the Government that they follow what is going on in both…
CATHERINE MCGRATH: Yeah, but we can follow it in the cables…
ALEXANDER DOWNER: …the Commission and, and… in the cables and in the media.
CATHERINE MCGRATH: …You were being warned, you were being warned.
ALEXANDER DOWNER: No, but we’ve been through all of this, we’ve been through all of this. Nobody’s said we never heard, we never heard that the Canadians had been concerned or that there weren’t concerns very occasionally raised.
CATHERINE MCGRATH: What we have learnt now is the depth of their concerns, the Canadians had told…
ALEXANDER DOWNER: Can I just say, we have investigated…
CATHERINE MCGRATH: No, well, can I finish here that…
ALEXANDER DOWNER: …these were investigated and the whole point of this issue…
CATHERINE MCGRATH: But clearly not investigated enough?
ALEXANDER DOWNER: Well, you know, you’re saying… because you know what, and we all know…
CATHERINE MCGRATH: Well, I can read the cables which you could read back then?
ALEXANDER DOWNER: No, we all know… No, the cables don’t show that AWB was paying kickbacks. The cables show that the Canadians expressed concerned to the UN and the UN wanted information.
CATHERINE MCGRATH: They were offered because the Canadians were asked themselves for kickbacks to conduct business and they said no. We know that now.
ALEXANDER DOWNER: Yeah, and the UN said, and the UN therefore raised this with us, these allegations with us, and quite rightly raised them with us.
We investigated the allegations. We… they weren’t satisfied with the initial investigation, we provided them with the additional information that they thought was central to the investigation and were satisfied. Now…
CATHERINE MCGRATH: And you’ve indicated, can I…
ALEXANDER DOWNER: Can I just make this point? The UN, the UN was responsible for the administration of this program and they conducted the investigations. We provided information to assist them with their investigations.
You see, the central issue here is that AWB Ltd continually, right up, by the way, until October last year was vigorously denying that they had ever been involved in kickbacks.
CATHERINE MCGRATH: However, you’ve indicated to us today that by late 2000 the UN was satisfied, however Bronte Moules wrote to you…
ALEXANDER DOWNER: No, not late 2000, by – without labouring it too much – the 5th of April.
CATHERINE MCGRATH: Alright, but by the 10th of April 2001, Bronte Moules was writing again the next year: “there is evidence that Iraqi purchasers and agents are demanding fees and commissions in association with the import of humanitarian supplies.”
There is the evidence and yet, well why didn’t… I mean, it still… doesn’t answer questions why it didn’t…
ALEXANDER DOWNER: No, but look it’s terribly…Can I just say and I’m sure your listeners would agree with me, it’s terribly complicated, but there are issues relating to port fees and whether they could be paid in US dollars or Iraqi Dinars.
Look, the simple point is AWB Ltd had consistently denied any involvement, we had no evidence, we had no evidence that they were lying to us.
Now the Cole Commission, which we’ve set up hopefully will get to the truth.
CATHERINE MCGRATH: Mr Downer, thankyou for speaking to us this morning.
ALEXANDER DOWNER: It’s a pleasure.
Gary, If you’ve been reading this site throughout the campaign, you will know that contributors on both sides of the fence have been arguing their side, with passion and not a little policy detail. The election is now over, and we’re relaxing with some good natured sledging. Once again, Glen has gracefully volunteered to be the pinata. (Thanks, Glen.) But no one can accuse people on this site – Labor or Liberal – as being naysayers, flip-floppers, and hacks who don’t believe in anything.
Gary i am a Labor member and agree with you totally.
I do not like the current labor party.
correction
I left out Dolly Downer’s greatest achievement.
Then I thought it was the non signing of Kyoto …No
Then I thought it was no serious recognition of climate change…No
I thought it was the black stockings..NO , not completely
Dolly Downer will be remembered in the history books wearing hi black stockings as he oversaw $300 million in bribes to Sadam Hussein at the same time as our war ships were circling to invade
[ Paul K . With respect you have travelled the world and been to Fiji – please which places ]
Why? Let me guess you’ve got a deal on Tickets or Accomadation.
I spent a couple of weeks in Fiji a long time ago. Spent a week at the Golf Course at Pacific Harbour and then travelled around Fiji. Got in trouble with the Police for riding a motor bike without a helmet. But it’s a nice place to visit
Before i go, while you insult a person who has spent decades in public life you forget that Mr Downer did that ‘stunt’ for charity!
Give it a rest, I think this is just a waste of bandwidth…