-
It’s been only twenty-five days since Craig rose to speak in parliament of the accusations against him, but in that time the shape of our democracy has altered considerably.
The Liberal Party no longer holds the high ground, as they did for nearly a year. They are seen as feral whingers, persecutors of the weak, defenders of Gina’s two million dollars an hour, fellow travellers with Murdoch’s interference in two democracies, and, lately, cheats with numbers. Two of their Premiers have gone into deficit when they said they wouldn’t, and one won’t say where his cuts will occur. Joe Hockey won’t either. They seem like amateurs, to almost everyone who cares to look them over. They are going, like their heroes the Tea Party, into a kind of self-lacerating road rage, refusing even to discuss the economy, and hiding their plans from the nation, lest they be shown up for what they are.
Labor, meanwhile, has contrived a booming economy, one quite unlike the shambles that is Europe, or the job-scarce high-debt race-to-the-boneyard that is the USA, and is envied world-wide for its numerate calm and civic good manners. It has attacked Big Tobacco, protected the Reef, made war on the big polluters, given money to pensioners and employed Bob Carr, the best Foreign Minister on earth, to free, if he can, imprisoned Australians overseas, and bring to our shores the interesting women Schapelle Corby and Aung San Suu Kyii. The Liberals’ view that Julie Bishop would do all this better seems idiotic by now, and so does the premise that Joe Hockey knows what he is doing.
That high ground, once lost, is hard to reconquer, and cannot now be regained by Tony Abbott, who is rightly regarded by most people as a busted flush and a bruised and crumbling bully. He is highly intelligent, and philosophically acute, but fatally impatient, and did not understand that his true opponent was something more than Gillard’s plasticine personality and Rudd’s pert, proud indecisiveness. It was also a hundred years of the Labor Party getting things done, and seeking, with some success, a better world.
And this, in the last few weeks, has become plain.
And the Liberal Party has been shown for what it is, and it isn’t pretty, and, failing a Turnbull resurgence, it is gone for all money.
And will never rise again.
Discuss.
Name:
Not only attempts to set up Thomson, but attempts to set up Slipper as well.
Compared to the French (Sakozy?) set-up of Strauss-Kahn, the Aussie Noalition are rank amateurs.
“French (Sakozy?) set-up of Strauss-Kahn”
and the 911 offenders are?
What are you talking about?
What other way out, whacko conspiracy theories do you ALSO believe in?
Oh, I get it; just because some conspiracy theories are absurd and indefensible, they ALL are.
Is that the logic? I suppose you think JFK was killed by a lone nutter?
I suppose you think Julius Caesar committed suicide?
Do you also think that that Anwar Sadat was unlucky?
Or that Indira Gandhi was only having a bad day?
Or that Malcolm Fraser waiting in his car for Whitlam to leave the Governor General was an accident?
Or that Guy Fawkes was acting alone in the Gunpowder Plot?
Hmmm?
Get a grip. You’re losing it.
Paying subservience to whatever you think will go down well with our esteemed blog owner doesn’t mean you have to go along with every satirical thing he says.
Your ignorance about the Strauss-Kahn matter is only matched, I suspect, by that in other matters. Unlike some who read whatever they need to know from the Daily Kos or whatever, I was fortunate to be in New York at the time and was able to read the huge amount of material a truly free press can provide.
And what did it say?
All the evidence says that the L-NP will win the next election by a large majority. And probably control the Senate.
Much can change, though to save the ALP something very large must happen.
Bob, you are not helping by this foolish optimism. If the ALP is to have any chance, they must find a rabbit.
If they take notice of you (and I doubt they will) they will sail on confidentially. And lose.
Is that what you want?
No, the evidence is changing daily Labor’s way. Pyne will be under investigation soon and Abbott’s approval in the twenties.
Wait a bit. You’ll see.
Eighty-eight billion years.
Mr Rabbitt and the Bunny Party are on life support, as the fear campaigns expire and the set-ups have been revealed for what they are. Instead of a Royal Commission into the Navy etc they would be better served with several Royal Commissions into the Howard government stuff ups and criminality; many of its ministers are still there large as life on the sorry rag-tag bunch of losers masquerading as an Opposition.
Abbott would never be out of the witness box or the dock for starters; Abetz, Brough, Brandis Robb and Hokey (a misprint, but I think I’ll keep it) would also be well occupied.
Sorry, DQ, but you are dreaming.
No, it is your coming nightmare
That Rabbit/Bunny line is so immature it’s embarrassing to read. And repeating it doesn’t help.
Suck it up.
Doug. You sound like you are sucking it up at the moment
No, just greatly amused.
To David and M Ryutin: Gentlemen, it is with great reluctance that I concede that we too, those of us on the Left side of the world, have our share of embarrassments. I don’t know about you, but I am reminded of a teenage bully with nothing more than insults and ignorance to offer.
Doug, I believe that Bob recently asked Marilyn to pull her head in for fear of damaging the argument of the Left. I suggest you do the same.
At least Marilyn had some background with a little more gravitas than your childish commentary.
Don’t bother telling me to “suck it up” – I am over 15 thereby indifferent to its magical force as an argument.
Don’t bother telling me to “f… off” either – it will only cement your status as a child.
On second thoughts, do.
Ah, JG Cole – yet another identity?
Given up on the teen/street aggro bit have you? Where is ‘T’?
Poor Buck on remand is “he”?
And Alice? Upset about swear words still?
What about the psychologist/therapist/semantics character – is she studying up?
Perhaps your ‘United States of Tara’ personas need a new alter to join the throng.
I’ll leave the rolling on the floor bit to you.
Do shut up.
Your idiocy is your own – don’t go looking for excuses.
Just this morning you’ve had MRyutin, Terry, David and myself cringing at your immaturity.
Not bad for a morning’s work.
You’re arguments, if one could call them that, are an embarrassment to the Labour sentiment.
Get a grip!
Well said MRyutin.
Bob, re your reference to Schapelle, has it escaped your notice that Carr and Gillard are running away (as fast as their legs will carry them), from the cast iron evidence of her innocence, exposed in the new doco at http://www.expendable.tv ? And further, since that film was put together, recently leaked minutes of a 17 October 2005 NSW Crime Commission Meeting prove it even further (they discussed listening device evidence which clearly pointed to corrupt airport insiders, but this was supressed). And New Idea women’s magazine recently printed all this info (circulation 1.2 million), including the link to movie – which was also talked about on Channel 10 (prime time news), and given air-time by top rating radio DJ Kyle Sandilands. And my local rag (The Jimboomba Times, circulation 20,000), has also reported all this (their area includes parts of the crucial seat of Forde), as did The Gold Coast Bulletin (Forde again). Further still, thousands of supporters are running off thousands of flyers all over the country – and I’ve identified several small, independent local newspapers in absolutely key Federal seats, and full page news ads (re this explosive new evidence), are in the pipeline. We’re also planning huge, graphic banners for some of the busiest motoring and tourist spots in Australia, plus hundreds of her supporters are already armed with home made business cards (for friends, rellies and colleagues), advertising the doco. There’s also bumper stickers, and (from what I’ve heard), sticky labels in the ladies powder rooms, in some of Australia’s busiest shopping malls, at peak times. To top it off, one of Australia’s leading film directors is planning a further movie, exposing the cover-up. So all in all Bob, the clock’s ticking – and it’s well time past for a few corrupt bastards to take their medicine, because NOTHING will stop this tide. Regards, Kim (Registered Nurse, mum of three and grandmother of one).
Well I won’t get to see the sticky labels I’m fairly sure, but I’m not certain what your point is exactly.
What evidence of the PM and the Foreign Minister doing a runner?
You may have to accept that diplomacy works in mysterious ways.
Granting Schapelle Corby and Aung San Suu Kyii equivalence in a shared sentence almost made me choke on my porridge this morning. Very cheeky Bob.
Both were wrongly imprisoned and innocent as charged.
Waht is your difficulty?
I’m not convinced Corby was innocent. Aung San Suu Kyii is a towering figure, perhaps in the sphere of Mandela. Corby is not.
Corby innocent
, now that’s new to me…
Rather than listen to mainstream media, which always has an agenda, it pays to look at the facts of the case.
Schapelle had her name , address and phone number written on the bag – how many drug smugglers would identify themselves so clearly if they had drugs in their bag?
The drugs were worth $40,000 in Aus but only $5,000 in Bali – why risk your life for a $35K loss?
The Indonesian police refused to fingerprint the bags containing the dope – why?
The Indonesian police refused to DNA test the drugs – why? If they had found a follicle of Schapelle’s hair in there it would have proved her guilt but testing was refused.
She was charged with trafficking, was meeting her sister Mercedes, but Meredes was never questioned to see if she was a part of this trafficking ring.
Indonesian Police refused to retrieve CCTV footage from the airport of her luggage.
Schapelle pleaded, and has maintained, innocence.
Her sentence was discriminatory, usual sentence for up 5 kgs of mj in Indonesia is 4 years, yet she got 20.
The drugs were found in her bag, but the bag had been tampered with and no real proof the drugs belonged to her.
Yes, it’s amazing isn’t it, what a sustained media smear campaign can do – it can even convince otherwise intelligent Australians their countrymen smuggle this drug FROM here, TO Bali, when United Nations data (their 2007 World Drug Report), clearly tells us it sold on the streets of Indonesia (at the time Schapelle flew), for around US30 cents a gram, while the price in Australia was around $US31 a gram. Further, another extensive UN report (of 2006), into drug/crime trends within Oceania, clearly debunks the notion this “Trade” exists (now or then). This was underlined again by a FOI request to Australian Customs (2011), which confirmed this alleged “Flow” is a myth. The Sydney Morning Herald article of 2005 (conveniently printed the day before her trial), which created the bizarre notion did not cite a single identifiable source (they were all “Anonymous”), and neither did the author bother to check his “Facts” with any credible expert (law enforcement and/or academic). When the publication was challenged on this blatant “Yellow journalism,” they point blank refused to clarify or reveal their “Sources,” and point blank refused to explain their failure to check out their “Secret” info with open, expert, public institutions. Challenged further still, they just ignored the correspondence. Lastly, it’s noteworthy all the completely unsubstantiated allegations against Schapelle’s Father crawled out of the gutter only after he died. Dead men cannot sue. I suggest you check out the new doco at http://www.expendable.tv for even more background – plus the info about the recently leaked minutes of a 17 October 2005 Crime Commission meeting can be accessed here (they surfaced just after that doco went viral on the net): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pd7btZOW14M
Stop applying best practice customs and criminal practice to Indonesia and get real.
Corby was set up. Still I’m not convinced of her innocence and she’s part of the family business. Her brother should have kept his head down when he was told to.
B. Risdon, did you actually read all the factual info above, and access the links? Just wondering . . .
Bob, your prediction is touchingly reassuring but you must have wrote it pissed. The performing apes and wannabe celebrities who masquerade as journalists these days won’t let it happen. A hundred years of Labor achievement doesn’t fit the five minute news cycle or the ten second attention span of a population concentrating not on a better world but on whose dancing with the stars.
Granted a Turnbull resurgence might help the LNP.
Even some of my rabid liberal associates are saying they might return to the fold and vote for that sad bunch if he was leader.
But I remind them that although in the human sense he has a hell of a lot more appeal than Tone he is still of the merchant banker mould and a republican to boot.
You don’t have to look to far afield to see what happens when refugees from merchant banking get hold of the reins.
John Key, the smiling assassin from NZ, ex Merrill Lynch wearing his welcome thin.
Mind you the voting public seem to have more influence under the MMP system there judging by the last weeks back flips.
Firstly, a big thank you to Bob for publishing my comments above. And re Chris above, with his reply to my remarks about Schapelle, as quoted from him here:
“Well I won’t get to see the sticky labels I’m fairly sure, but I’m not certain what your point is exactly. What evidence of the PM and the Foreign Minister doing a runner? You may have to accept that diplomacy works in mysterious ways.”
Firstly, your stance is very clear. Your first concern is about the reputation of these precious pollies, than the fact an innocent young woman has spent 8 years in a Bali hell hole for a crime she did not commit, and horrific corruption and crime is endemic at Australian airports. Take it from me, Gillard and Carr have NOT acknowledged the new evidence, or taken any action re its contents. Multiple phone calls have been made, plus letters, faxes and emails – plus half page ads (asking these same questions), have been placed in independent regional newspapers (marginal seats). If you doubt this, then carry out your own research, contact them yourself re this matter. You’re most welcome to do that. Plus, where the hell is the Royal Commission, and judicial inquiry? See any evidence of that, do you? Despite the fact an innocent tourist has rotted for years in a foreign jail, as the result of highly dangerous insider corruption at Australian airports. Why are the Australians who covered this up not (publicly), facing the music? Here’s a recent You Tube clip about the recently leaked minutes of the 17 Oct 2005 NSW Crime Commission meeting: youtube.com/watch?v=Pd7btZOW14M and here’s a poster showing the evidence: issuu.com/womenforschapelle/docs/police_cover_up_poster_pdf and here’s the full report about it, compiled by the Expendable team: expendable.tv/2012/04/candidate-sources-report.html And lastly, if Gillard and Carr are doing highly “Secret” stuff re all this – here’s an unequivocal message for them, sweeties you better get off your hind quarters and start calling for a massive public inquiry into this appalling situation, before the people do it for you.
Ma’am,
You are jumping to the wrong conclusion when you say my ‘first concern is about the reputation of these precious pollies’.
But ‘Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned. Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned’ especially if there is no immediate response to an email.
Yep how silly of me Chris not to realise they’re just a bit slow answering the correspondence, and they wouldn’t dream of covering up the fact Australia’s national airline is responsible for landing an innocent tourist in hell, and employed felons with criminal records longer than your arm (and the Expendable doco team has the files to prove it).
Too subtle, sorry.
Sometimes a result may be arrived at without the need to don the bovver boots and scream loudly.
No reason for the matter not to be drawn to the attention of those that can and should be doing what is possible, but short of declaring war what else do you want?
Already with the loud noise from here jeopardising recent developments consider what your actions are achieving.
Accept that the other side don’t think as you do.
Indonesia’s legal system is based on Dutch colonial law, Adat law and national law.
It’s complicated.
Of course Chris. No need at all to inform the World QANTAS employed chronic criminals like Norman Niass, Easton Barrington James and the felon given the code name “Tom” (by police), to handle our luggage. Google their names for more info. Then let’s consign to the memory hole the fact “Tom” was paid nearly $1.6 million of public money after he threatened to blow the whistle on corrupt police, and then stayed out of jail (despite his major crimes) – as per the memoirs of Clive Small (former Assistant Commissioner of the NSW Police). Needless to say, the aforementioned “Corrupt police” were never investigated after that largesse, and “Tom” kept his mouth zipped. And no need whatever to tell all and sundry Schapelle’s boogie board bag was corruptly diverted away from the legally mandated x-ray screening after she checked it in. And why earth should anyone want to know that minutes of a 17 Oct 2005 NSW Crime Commission mentions evidence which fully exonerates Schapelle, and points to the guilt of (amongst others), a criminal mate of corrupt cop Christopher John Laycock, now jailed. Laycock’s also the son of a retired police commissioner, and there was an unexplained 7 year delay in charging him, after a damning report was handed down by the NSW Police Integrity Commission. All in all Chris, not only should all this info be publicly conveyed to Indonesia – it should be publicly conveyed to the Australian people, and a Royal Commission instigated forthwith. Do you remember Lockerbie of course?
Assuming that people don’t know, cant read etc is pretty dumb actually.
And Lockerbie?
Really?
Get a grip.
Good luck with your project.
Chris no public announcement (re a high level, open inquiry into this appalling Australian corruption), has been made, even though an innocent tourist has rotted in a foreign jail (for nearly 8 years), as a result. Further, if you’re of the opinion the gross security failings at Australian airports (that I’ve documented above), having nothing to do with the Lockerbie aviation disaster, may I suggest it’s you that needs a reality check, and you that needs to “Get a grip.” Criminal insiders and lack of x-ray screening were major factors identified in that tragedy.
A very big thank you to Bob Ellis, published on my blog:
womenforschapelle.blogspot.com.au/2012/06/schapelle-corby-big-thank-you-to-bob.html
Re B. Risdon’s comments:
“Granting Schapelle Corby and Aung San Suu Kyii equivalence in a shared sentence almost made me choke on my porridge this morning. Very cheeky Bob.”
Actually B. Risdon, I also think Schapelle’s a very “Interesting woman,” given that, despite 8 years in hell (and unimaginable pressure), she steadfastly maintains her innocence. How would you fare, in similar circumstances?
Schapelle was tried and convicted in Indonesia. The Australian government has no jurisdiction over the Indonesian legal system. What would a legal enquiry or Royal Commission achieve when her life is in the hands of another country?
Ruby, read all of my above comments – plus the references to the Lockerbie aviation disaster. The need for an Australian Commission of inquiry into this airport corruption is self evident, or do you have no objection to getting blown up in mid-air, and/or ending up in the same position as Schapelle? Plus it also sends a clear message to Indonesia about Schapelle’s innocence that would be very hard to ignore.
And we still have the Liberal leadership challenge to play out. Abbott is the preferred Liberal leader by a margin of 0 in the party rooms.
Someone ( probably Turnbull ) is going to make a run before the election.
If the Liberals win they will be a shambles if they lose they will need to do some serious re thinking.
Mrs. Kim Bax:
Fascinating.
Consider the fact that your blog is about supporting Schapelle Corby.
In my worthless opinion you and your 158 followers are sadly misguided if you imagine that it is helpful doing a noisy haka, alarming the Indonesians who may react differently to your expectation, and screaming about every other thing but her potential freedom.
That is all.
Actually Chris, the number is nearer 4,000: http://www.facebook.com/PeopleForSchapelleCorby
And I guess we’ll just have to agree to disagree re keeping silent about the truth. If the truth hadn’t been covered up and silenced for the last 7 years, I’m sure Ms. Corby would have been home by now.
Speaking of being sidetracked, Syria is dangerously close to a genuine bloodbath over the rebel city of Homs in particular, and Douma near Damascus.
The deaths so far may be merely a prelude.
Give the labor party another 6 months and all of the Travelling Tony Show will prove to be just another scare campaign, as people work out that their electricity bills are not as bad as predicted. The only remains of the LNP will require dental records to prove evidence of their existence.
Learn what really happened to Schapelle Corby the day she flew from Brisbane to Bali at http://www.expendable.tv