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STAFF COUNSELLED

Kevin Rudd rejected claims in the Sunday Telegraph that he or his office knew of plans to schedule a TV-friendly pre-dawn Anzac Day service in Vietnam:

Neither I nor anyone from my office has spoken to or had conversation with anyone whatsoever about requesting the changing of the dawn service time at Long Tan in Vietnam or anywhere else.

Further details now emerge:

The office of Kevin Rudd was warned more than two weeks ago that plans for a stage-managed pre-dawn service at Long Tan, Vietnam, in which the Labor leader was slated to take part, risked “seriously offending” veterans and others.

A series of emails obtained by the Herald also reveal Mr Rudd had booked flights and was confirmed to attend the event, which was scrapped only four days ago when it became public.

Last night Mr Rudd admitted his office had received the email which warned about the possibility of causing offence, but said it had not been brought to his attention. “My staff have informed me that in their search of the documentary record on Easter Sunday, this email was overlooked. I have now counselled my staff on this matter,” he said.

That “counselling” was likely gentle and polite.

Posted by Tim B. on 04/12/2007 at 11:26 AM
  1. I didn’t even need to click the link to know that Australia’s greatest onanist, David Koch, was behind this one.  A man who, if he were in the same position of influence in 1966, would have done everything in his power to denigrate, demonise and deligitimise the Australian troops who fought at Long Tan.

    The guy is a ignorant, jingoistic, supercilious, tacky, amoral, self-promoting, try-hard toolsqueezer.  The sooner he dies in a freak yachting accident, the better.

    Posted by murph on 2007 04 12 at 11:49 AM • permalink

  2. First it was “I and the staff knew nothing about it…”. Now it’s “I knew nothing but the staff seem to have been in on it…”.

    Any odds on next week’s “Well, yes, I did know about but…er…Kochie and Mel organised it…”?

    Posted by Villeurbanne on 2007 04 12 at 11:56 AM • permalink

  3. Say one thing - do another!

    Say you’re not involved in planning to fake a dawn service - while you’re doing it.

    Say you’re committed to cutting nasty CO2 emissions - while you drive a 4WD.

    Say you support small business - while you let the unions write your policies.

    This guy is a bloody hypocrite!!

    Posted by Vincent Gerome on 2007 04 12 at 12:03 PM • permalink

  4. Wow, I’ve never seen this before: a public figure is caught out in a lie or half-truth, so he blames his overworked and underpaid staffers. Clever. This could lead to a trend…

    Posted by Spiny Norman on 2007 04 12 at 12:04 PM • permalink

  5. A major blunder for Krudd and the dills at Sunrise.

    The Long Tan cross is one of only two foreign war memorials allowed to exist in Vietnam (the other is at Dien Bien Phu, to the French). The French aren’t allowed to conduct official services there, and it took years for Australian veterans to gain permission for any official comemmoration at Long Tan. In the 1990s, as more Australian veterans began to visit Long Tan, the local Communist officials removed the cross for “refurbishment” and only re-installed it in 2002, after delicate negotiations at government, local and veteran levels.

    There are strict rules about the form of comemmoration that can take place at Long Tan, and Australian veterans have respected those rules. Vietnam is its own nation and is entitled to its pride. Can you imagine the reaction if Krudd and the Sunrise team marched through the village (yes, it is a village) with cameras blazing, hours before sunrise, as if it was a film set?

    I’m the wife of an infantry soldier who served in that area of operation. We have been back to Long Tan, and it has been kept by both sides as a quiet, reverent memorial. I suspect the local Vietnam vets and the local cadres together snipped this harebrained Sunrise/Rudd scheme in order to preserve the dignity of Long Tan for the men who died on both sides 40 years ago.

    Let’s not make Anzac Day circus day, please.

    Posted by mareeS on 2007 04 12 at 12:10 PM • permalink

  6. Let’s not make Anzac Day circus day, please.

    I second that motion Maree, and I’m sure many, many others do too.

    Posted by Ash_ on 2007 04 12 at 12:14 PM • permalink

  7. kevni couldn’t lie straight in bed. It’s beginning to look habitual.

    Posted by eeniemeenie on 2007 04 12 at 12:30 PM • permalink

  8. This is amazing, as is this totally bizarre relationship between the Leader of Her Majesty’s Opposition and a television station. Rudd, the man who’s been saying for months that we need to get a genuine Christianity back into politics, flat-out lied to the people of Australia about this - on Easter Day, no less.

    Posted by C.L. on 2007 04 12 at 12:52 PM • permalink

  9. Note that the SMH plays this down as a mere “gaffe”.

    Posted by C.L. on 2007 04 12 at 12:59 PM • permalink

  10. #1 murph:  “The guy is a ignorant, jingoistic, supercilious, tacky, amoral, self-promoting, try-hard toolsqueezer.”

    “And those are his good points!”  ;-p

    Posted by Barbara Skolaut on 2007 04 12 at 01:02 PM • permalink

  11. #1 murph:  “The guy is a ignorant, jingoistic, supercilious, tacky, amoral, self-promoting, try-hard toolsqueezer.” come on be fair- no one could ever call kow-tow Krudd jingoistic.

    Oh wait a sec- you were talking about the Kochhead-sorry, my bad.

    Posted by eeniemeenie on 2007 04 12 at 01:09 PM • permalink

  12. Little Kevni, the prefect who lied? The ALP has gone a bit TOO small in its game to outsmall its opponents. Tried to outbig them with Beazley and Latham. Poor ALP, can’t ever seem to strike a happy medium.

    Posted by mareeS on 2007 04 12 at 01:17 PM • permalink

  13. Whatever would these guys do without “staff” to blame?!

    Curious as to why Anzac Day is commemorated in Long Tan, I did a search and read all about the Battle of Long Tan. No greater friends than they who stood shoulder-to-shoulder with America in Viet Nam.

    Posted by Kyda Sylvester on 2007 04 12 at 03:00 PM • permalink

  14. When the world seem dark, I remember the Aussies and the whole situation seems brighter.  Thanks for standing by us, this American really appreciates y’all.  I just wish our Congress was as steadfast.

    Posted by rabidfox on 2007 04 12 at 03:14 PM • permalink

  15. At the risk of being tarred with the insensitive brush again,here’s my best Vietnam Vet joke.
    Q:How many Vietnam veterans does it take to change a light bulb?
    A: “You don’t know, you weren’t there!”

    Posted by CB on 2007 04 12 at 03:56 PM • permalink

  16. Krudd - a slimy, lying prick, nothing more, nothing less.

    Posted by AlphaMikeFoxtrot on 2007 04 12 at 04:17 PM • permalink

  17. #16 You took the words right off my key board!

    Posted by Gravelly on 2007 04 12 at 04:49 PM • permalink

  18. You’d have thought the ABC’s “investigative unit” would have been all over this one like a rash.

    Or are they too busy rummaging through Howard minister’s garbage cans?

    Posted by Gravelly on 2007 04 12 at 04:53 PM • permalink

  19. Rudd had the chance to knock this on the head when first approached but didn’t.

    When the Sunday Telegraph had approached his office for comment, Mr Rudd said he had directed the journalist to the Seven Network, as the broadcast was entirely a matter for the TV station.

    Smells like little Kevni’s fibbing again.

    Posted by CO² max on 2007 04 12 at 05:04 PM • permalink

  20. That’s it.  Blame the staff. What a weasel.

    It’s all John Howard’s fault, as we know.

    Posted by ann j on 2007 04 12 at 05:26 PM • permalink

  21. I’m thinking that it is easier to submit to Kevin’s will. Follow the media’s example.

    Posted by boxofmatches on 2007 04 12 at 05:51 PM • permalink

  22. The Enron defence, eh, Kevni: “whilst I was down on my knees praying, the bastards were up to no good”.

    #1 Aunty’s Brekky update ;)’
    Aunty’s Franny & Grattan made no mention of this today, despite that it was briefly mentioned in the newspaper headlines section and the wisdom of Kevni’s involvement with Sunrise was discussed earlier in the week, but without mention of the ANZAC Day issue.
    Sanitising of Labor by Our balanced ABC ... this is getting beyond a joke.

    The more meeja exposure of this KRuddy lil’ character, the better, as others have said: the longer ‘til the election, the better for the Govt ...

    Posted by egg_ on 2007 04 12 at 06:21 PM • permalink

  23. Memo to Rudd and Sunrise ‘performers’.

    WHEN YOU GET TO THE BOTTOM OF A HOLE, STOP DIGGING

    Posted by kae on 2007 04 12 at 06:21 PM • permalink

  24. #23 Koch was at it again this morning, digging himself deeper.  I’m getting sick of that man, so I switched over to Today.  I used to be a regular Sunrise viewer, but with their hectoring campaign on goreball warming and their unashamed boostering of Krudd I now watch Ten’s early news and flick between Today and Sunrise. The time spent watching Today is increasing each day as the Kochhead becomes more and more annoying.

    Posted by craigo on 2007 04 12 at 06:35 PM • permalink

  25. Sunrise staffer: “Will Kevni be OK following the troups’ marching for hours in heavy uniform, they’ll be a bit sweaty”.
    Rudd advisor: “I think so”.
    Sunrise staffer: “What about the smell?”
    Rudd advisor: “I think the Vets can deal with it”.

    Posted by egg_ on 2007 04 12 at 06:36 PM • permalink

  26. No doubt all the “liar liar” anti-Howard letter-writers will be penning letters to the editor about Rudd’s lying this morning…

    No doubt at all…

    Posted by Dan Lewis on 2007 04 12 at 06:39 PM • permalink

  27. Muslim extremists are recruiting young Somali refugees in Sydney and Melbourne for what a Somali community leader fears could be a terrorist attack in Australia.


    Goody goody! Create more of a re-building of Australia econmy well done.

    Posted by 1.618 on 2007 04 12 at 06:40 PM • permalink

  28. #2. Dylan

    “It wasn’t me, I wasn’t there, I didn’t do it.”

    Posted by kae on 2007 04 12 at 06:51 PM • permalink

  29. Joe Hockey was seen defending Kevni this morning on Sunrise. This regular spot seemed like a good idea at the time, but being in such close proximity to Mel, Koch and Rudd is obviously frying his brain. Get the hell out of there Joe before its too late.

    Posted by CO² max on 2007 04 12 at 06:51 PM • permalink

  30. Tucked into that bottom link is the main reason I could never vote for Krudd or his party.
    “..and he rang off with a very cheery “good day, comrade”.

    That creepy stalinist affectation of “comrade” makes my skin crawl. It is about as tasteful as signing off with a sig heil, I have seen every party leader since Whitlam use it at one stage and its foul.
    Unless you fought or served with someone in the armed forces then comrade is a throwback to the gulag era.

    Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2007 04 12 at 06:58 PM • permalink

  31. Interesting - Labor was all for attaching blame to a Minister when (during children overboard) a piece of information was allegedly provided to his office, but was not then passed on to the Minister in question.

    Indeed, the point strongly made by Labor at the time was that the Minister was responsible for - and should be taken to have received - that information.

    So is Kruddy resigning?  Or at least is he sacking any staff, like Howard did over the 1997 travel rorts? 

    I mean, if it was perfectly alright to pillory Reith and his Media Adviser not only in public and the media, but in one of the most bogus Senate withhunts ever run, then why not apply the same standards to the Opposition?

    Labor’s hypocrisy is as obvious as it is appalling, but I don’t expect the mainstream media to every call them on this. 

    Just another ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ for the Kruddmeister.

    Posted by Apparatchik on 2007 04 12 at 07:36 PM • permalink

  32. ” I used to be a regular Sunrise viewer, but with their hectoring campaign on goreball warming and their unashamed boostering of Krudd I now watch Ten’s early news and flick between Today and Sunrise. The time spent watching Today is increasing each day as the Kochhead becomes more and more annoying.”

    You know what they say, Craigo - Just say no to drugs.

    Ditch them all and do something more productive with that time. :)

    Posted by kcom on 2007 04 12 at 07:57 PM • permalink

  33. #31
    Word will still get around via the Vets’ network.
    KRuddy can’t hide his stench indefinitely; he’s already villified press members (IIRC not uncommon, but done by those in executive office, Herr Flick is a tad premature).
    The lil’ Nazi can’t help but make enemies, definitley prefers the stick to the carrot.

    Posted by egg_ on 2007 04 12 at 08:18 PM • permalink

  34. #23

    WHEN YOU GET TO THE BOTTOM OF A HOLE, STOP DIGGING

    For all our sakes Kae, you should stop giving the bastards such good advice. Some of them might be reading these words of wisdom.

    Posted by Skeeter on 2007 04 12 at 08:22 PM • permalink

  35. Isn’t it a little peculiar that Sunrise - supposedly a news programme - weren’t the ones to find these emails, but Rudd’s office? You would think that the Channel 7 wonk who discussed the idea with Mr Rudd’s office might have found his way to the newsroom to correct the record.

    I would hope that Channel 7 didn’t sit on the story to protect their relationship with the Opposition Leader.

    Posted by Ian Deans on 2007 04 12 at 08:22 PM • permalink

  36. Wow, I’ve never seen this before: a public figure is caught out in a lie or half-truth, so he blames his overworked and underpaid staffers. Clever. This could lead to a trend…

    Spiny Norman—let’s see if he has staffers carrying his handgun through the metal detectors like Murtha the Younger…

    Posted by richard mcenroe on 2007 04 12 at 08:26 PM • permalink

  37. Major congratulations to Richard for 6,000 excellent posts - now in a club of one.

    Posted by Margos Maid on 2007 04 12 at 08:32 PM • permalink

  38. At times like this I always think of the end of the play Julius Caesar - if it were interpreted by Monty Python.
    KRudd as Brutus: “Fall on my sword for me.”
    Staffer as Servant: “I’ll just hold it here for you to run on, shall I?”
    K: “No, no. I said ‘you should fall on my sword for me.’”
    S: “But what good will that do? I didn’t stab Caesar!”
    K: “Well somebody has to fall on my sword, and I don’t want to die!”

    It’s a poor parallel, Brutus had more honor than the common backstabber, and showed a bit of guts (bad accidental pun) at the end; but I think it still works.

    Posted by brett_l on 2007 04 12 at 08:32 PM • permalink

  39. #24 Craigo. The Skeeter household has made the same decisions as you but we have gone even further and taken kcom’s advice at #32.
    The problem with Today lately is that Wilkins is not much better than Koch. This morning he was in the studio with Julia Gizzard while Abbott was in another studio.
    Laughing and joking with Julia in one half of the picture, Wilkins was pulling faces at the camera while Abbott was talking in the other half of the picture.

    However, we did catch Alan Jones’s very effective rebuttal of the “judicial” finding against him regarding the Cronulla affair.

    Posted by Skeeter on 2007 04 12 at 08:36 PM • permalink

  40. Geeze Margos. It took you all of six minutes to alert us to Richard’s achievement.
    Don’t tell me that you have been wasting time with other things.

    Posted by Skeeter on 2007 04 12 at 08:42 PM • permalink

  41. #30, frollicking,

    I’ll see your, “makes my skin crawl” and raise you a “disgusts me to the point of nausea”.

    Posted by Janice on 2007 04 12 at 08:58 PM • permalink

  42. This story emerged yesterday:

    A political row has erupted over a study claiming Anzac Day commemorations may offend some religious and ethnic minorities.

    No prizes for guessing which minority.
    But that’s not the point. The report was funded Labor premiers Peter Beattie and Steve Bracks. It is a golden rule in politics that you don’t commission a report without knowing what the outcome is. So Kevni wants Anzac Day modified to suit his TV time slot, Bracks and Beattie say the day is divisive.

    Is this a sign of impatience now Labor sees political domination of Australia is within its grasp. There are many people within Labor who, on the election of a Rudd government, will want to rid Australia of everything that might remind people of the world pre-Rudd - flag, anthem, monarchy, Australia Day and Anzac Day. Is Kevni one of them?

    Posted by Contrail on 2007 04 12 at 09:42 PM • permalink

  43. Contrail, it doesn’t matter whether or not Kevni is “one of them”. That little sock-puppet will only think that he is making decisions.
    As you say, the left will be hell bent on removing all remaining traces of our pre-Whitlam heritage.

    Posted by Skeeter on 2007 04 12 at 09:51 PM • permalink

  44. In Kevin’s defence, he probably couldn’t hear Kochie’s suggestion. Arse cheeks make very good ear mufflers.

    Let’s not make Anzac Day circus day, please.

    But let us expose Rudd and Koch for the Arseclowns that they are.

    Posted by Infidel Tiger on 2007 04 12 at 10:06 PM • permalink

  45. It seems that when Tintin gets angry he turns into Captain Haddock

    Posted by Big Jim on 2007 04 12 at 10:20 PM • permalink

  46. #26 Don’t hold your breath, Dan!

    Posted by kae on 2007 04 12 at 10:22 PM • permalink

  47. This sounds like a job for -MediaKoch!
    Hop to it Nanny Attard, quick sticks, else your bias is showing.
    So our Mr Goldenhair (not) is exposed slipping into foul mouthed mode - Justin Koutsoukis from the AGE no less, on the receiving end of “liberal use of the f word and several colourful references to me being very smelly, very fat, very stupid and a walking GENITAL…” Oh dear, oh dear Kevin, what a job it must be keeping that mealy mouth jammed shut while in range of a camera and or a mike.

    Posted by crash on 2007 04 12 at 10:32 PM • permalink

  48. #47
    Potty mouth from a good Christian lad, at that ... tut tut!

    KRuddy & Long Tan ... a fib-too-far?

    Posted by egg_ on 2007 04 12 at 10:55 PM • permalink

  49. I hope all the ‘progressives’ at the ABC, Sunrise, SMH et el, are not bumping too hard into each other, while running damage control for their ‘leader’. If Mr Rudd keeps having is ‘market profile’ hammered like a dud appliance/product, I wonder how long before the apparatchiks in the ALP backrooms, start looking for another ‘less of a liability’ contender for the keys at Kirribilli House. At least with Latham, you could see the guy was a boofhead, this bloke is like an over exposed chameleon.

    Posted by BJM on 2007 04 12 at 10:56 PM • permalink

  50. There was movement at the TV station
    For the word had passed around
    KanTong Kev had upset
    The Long Tan Vets

    Kochie was flabbergasted
    Mel was in a tiz
    What could they do
    To get outta this fizz?

    Posted by egg_ on 2007 04 12 at 11:22 PM • permalink

  51. #42 - No prizes for guessing which minority. No prizes either, for guessing who submitted this comment on the subject -

    “Well gee, Anzac Day is premised on the pre-emptive and illegal attack on a muslim nation. What a shock that some might find it offensive. I bet the muslims in Turkey found it pretty offensive at the time as well. Will this stupid nation stop this crap.”

    Posted by Whale Spinor on 2007 04 12 at 11:47 PM • permalink

  52. No prizes for guessing which minority.

    We presbyterians aren’t all toil. Some of us like to cause trouble. You’ve been warned.

    Posted by Infidel Tiger on 2007 04 12 at 11:57 PM • permalink

  53. #51
    Sheephead? It’s got Sheephead all over it.

    Yes, I was right.

    Posted by kae on 2007 04 13 at 12:05 AM • permalink

  54. Bloody Presbyterian TROUBLEMAKERS!

    Posted by kae on 2007 04 13 at 12:08 AM • permalink

  55. Since Kev’s earliest days living out of a boot
    Self-aggrandising porkies had always been a hoot

    When he bossed around the sun, though bro, to
    grandstand from the ‘nam
    It was a fib far too far on the crossroads, an awful bloody scam

    So he rifled through his resume and he racked his Pixie brain
    He got on the phone to Burkie and he raved in Latham vein

    He thought of old Doc Evatt, who stuck up for his staff
    He thought of blaming “Dirt Unit” but that’d only make folks laugh

    When Kochy scratched his head and couldn’t gin-up an out
    When Swanny unveiled mud pies and said ‘these’ll give ya clout’

    That left Julia Gillard - but vowel-strict Kev had gone off ‘er
    He thought of asking China and said a prayer to Bonhoeffer

    Finally it dawned on him, in a Sunrise sort of way
    He’d be himself, by God - that would save this faux-clipped day

    So he rang around the journos and told those stopping by
    ‘Bloody staff’, he started grimly, and so began the whopping lie

    Posted by C.L. on 2007 04 13 at 12:16 AM • permalink

  56. Melinda Peters can get stuffed:

    I am all for honouring those that died trying to save this country, but false nationalist patriotism with its roots in right wing racism has no place in this country. We are becoming like loud mouthed Americans who because of their forced nationalism is beyond doubt the most hated nation in the world. I lived there for many years so I know it. As Aussies we need to have pride, but retain our relaxed, easy going nature so that we can be seen as just that.

    Our forced nationalism. Got it.

    The report also claimed a “climate of fear” had seized Queensland’s Muslim community, which it blamed on federal immigration and anti-terrorist policies and the media.

    The situation is so dire that some Brisbane Muslims suspected they might be sent to concentration camps, while others lived in fear of bomb attacks.

    Some refugees even told researchers they felt safer in their countries of origin than in Australia.

    Huh? What the heck are you people in Queensland doing to these poor souls?

    Posted by Kyda Sylvester on 2007 04 13 at 12:42 AM • permalink

  57. My apologies, especially to OldDigger, for misinformation I posted on the ANIMALS FORCED INLAND thread.
    The day after Dymocks accepted my money for a copy of Professor Plimer’s book, A Short History of the Planet Earth, they have emailed me to tell me that not only are they out of stock, but the suppliers (ABC Books) “are unable to provide a date for when more stock will become available”.
    I hope it has not been withdrawn from sale by ABC Books because Plimer supports GW skeptics.

    Posted by Skeeter on 2007 04 13 at 12:46 AM • permalink

  58. Some refugees even told researchers they felt safer in their countries of origin than in Australia.

    Hope this helps: Brisbane airport.

    Posted by C.L. on 2007 04 13 at 12:47 AM • permalink

  59. #55
    Great!

    Labor has come to the forked-tongue in the road ...

    What’s Julia Gizzard and new recruit Maxine McClueless make of Dear Leader’s integrity?

    Posted by egg_ on 2007 04 13 at 12:53 AM • permalink

  60. #56. On the positive side, they may all get so scared of our Judeo Christian traditions/values and sod of to their own utopia and take a few fellow travellers with them, Hilali and a former Labor PM come to mind. Talk about a ‘victim cult’, maybe the government handouts are not enough for them.

    Posted by BJM on 2007 04 13 at 01:06 AM • permalink

  61. #56- We’ve been force-feeded the local Sand Goblins XXXX, a vile malt liquor-like beverage which would make a goat gag.

    That and introducing them to the local cuties.

    There’s not that many Allah botherers up this way, but the population is growing, especially on the Gold Coast. For some reason Broadbeach is full of Arabs- possibly it’s the proximity to the casino. Pacific Fair looks like a beekeeper convention most days. Seeing as we’re widely regarded as more inbred and hostile than the inhabitants of Appalachia, they may have good reason to be wary if they start the sort of shenanigans displayed in Sydney.

    Posted by Habib on 2007 04 13 at 01:41 AM • permalink

  62. 61 - FFS! How about a warning?

    Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2007 04 13 at 01:51 AM • permalink

  63. #62 Swinish, the warning was there at #61. It says “Habib”.

    he he

    Posted by kae on 2007 04 13 at 01:54 AM • permalink

  64. Yes, quite right, kae. I really should know better.

    Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2007 04 13 at 02:30 AM • permalink

  65. Margo—thank you.  Now excuse me while I go and get very very drunk…

    Posted by richard mcenroe on 2007 04 13 at 02:39 AM • permalink

  66. Q:How many Vietnam veterans does it take to change a light bulb?
    A: “You don’t know, you weren’t there!”

    CB—that number is seared, seared in my memory… but I won’t tell you what it is unless you elect me.

    Posted by richard mcenroe on 2007 04 13 at 02:43 AM • permalink

  67. #32 I have the TV on in the morning to listen to the news when I’m getting ready for work - I can multitask ;)

    I know that I can turn it off but the alternative is the radio and a choice between the standard leftist pap of Ross Solly on the local ABC Radio or the inane chit-chat of Chris and Sarah on FM104.7.

    Posted by craigo on 2007 04 13 at 02:54 AM • permalink

  68. I wonder if Phat Phill’s head can handle the unintentional irony of this set of subjects coming up on the same show.

    “Tim Flannery
    A conversation with Australian of the Year, Tim Flannery, about how our Australian leaders are responding to the challenge of climate change.

    Politics of Anxiety
    Fear of crime has been championed by crimiologists, policy makers and politicians to justify increasing levels of security. But how much should we really fear. In his new book, ‘Inventing Fear of Crime: criminology and the politics of anxiety’, criminologist Dr Murray Lee scrutinises the origins of the concept and reveals its invention at the hands of earnest US politicians in the 1960s, and its continuing influence through the politics of anxiety.”

    Nup, no connection there?

    Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2007 04 13 at 03:54 AM • permalink

  69. #15 CB

    At the risk of being tarred with the insensitive brush again,here’s my best Vietnam Vet joke.
    Q:How many Vietnam veterans does it take to change a light bulb?
    A: “You don’t know, you weren’t there!”

    Another one in (very) bad taste:
    Q: Why did so many blacks die in Vietnam?
    A: Because when the sergeant said “get down” they all stood up and started dancing.
    (Yeah, I know…)

    Posted by flying pigs over mecca on 2007 04 13 at 04:04 AM • permalink

  70. One has to read carefully what KRudd says. The statment “Neither I nor anyone from my office has spoken to or had conversation with anyone whatsoever about requesting the changing of the dawn service ...” is not inconsistent with his, or his office, knowing about plans for such a service and indeed agreeing to fit in with the plans.

    On the other hand, it was not fulsome statement about what at least his office knew about the matter - & its hard to believe that KRudd wopuld have made a statement6 about what his office knew without checking with them.

    Posted by ujamaa on 2007 04 13 at 04:31 AM • permalink

  71. KRudd is well known for dumping on his staff from a great height, not only as Leader of the Opposition, but as far back as when when he was a Queensland public servant.

    It’s never his fault, some poor bloody wage slave in his office did it.

    Solidarity with the working class, Comrade.

    Posted by Pedro the Ignorant on 2007 04 13 at 05:35 AM • permalink

  72. I bet the muslims in Turkey found it pretty offensive at the time as well. Will this stupid nation stop this crap.”

    The Turks are the people who find it the least offensive. It was a proud moment in their history because they won. Turkish attitudes to its former foes at gallipoli are as extraordinary as they are warm.

    No, the Muslims who would find Anzac Day offensive live a little further south. They are ones the complex because they have a worse war record than the French.

    Posted by Contrail on 2007 04 13 at 07:05 AM • permalink

  73. John Howard maybe racist and a liar but he the best Prime Minister we have ever had. He is better, in my opinion, than Menzies, Hawke or Fraser. He is a man of vision and a pragmatist. Why would anyone want to vote for that career machine man, and former bureaucrat, Rudd? He has the plastic veneer of an American newsreader, use the blowtorch and watch him melt. He has no idea how to sell himself to business. More people have an ABN than are members of the union. He has no balls, he could do so much to woo business.

    Take unfair dismissal, I would scrap all unfair dismissal laws. They were only introduced in 1993; business, big and small, would flock to him. How about increasing the threshold for the GST? I know trades people who work 7-5, Mon-Fri, making more than $50,000 a year, but have to pay GST. They work, for instance, on people’s pergolas during the weekend but as lugged with the red tape. A $50,000 threshold, when the GST was introduced in 2000, is not as much money as it used to be.

    What about the top rate of tax? 45c In the dollar, why not drop to 40c, surely the government can afford it. How about introducing a flat income tax, people pay the same percentage of income in tax. That would removed bracket creep, stopping these shame tax cut where we only get the creep paid back. Or how about removing the GST from fuel, or even petrol excise from the GST calculation on fuel? Why not organise the states to standardise payroll tax? Proposals exist, but they are that, proposals. Companies cross state boundaries more than ever before and they need standardised taxes, stuff a national curriculum.

    But Rudd won’t do these things, he too busy measuring kindergarteners for early signs of obesity.

    Posted by cjblair on 2007 04 13 at 08:09 AM • permalink

  74. cjblair

    I honestly don’t think Howard is a racist.

    Posted by murph on 2007 04 13 at 08:14 AM • permalink

  75. He is racist, just very careful about how he goes about it. We have the Asian immigration comments from the late ‘80s and his comments today about immigrants with HIV being refused entry, only to find that most new cases are Australian citizens. Then the issues over Australian values, which no one knows what they are. His recent changes to the title of DIMA. His support for Alan Jones over the Sydney riots, although that may be fear of Jones. Finally the West Papuans, he was prepared to put Indonesia concerns over the human rights of these people. But I would never consider his brand of racism as bad as those clowns in Iraq.

    Posted by cjblair on 2007 04 13 at 09:06 AM • permalink

  76. In keeping with the Long Tan spirit, One of Kevin’s staff is about to make the “ultimate sacrifice”.

    If Kevin continues to mow down his staff, they could be characterised as “Lions led by donkeys”, or a singular donkey in this case.

    Posted by mr creosote on 2007 04 13 at 09:17 AM • permalink

  77. cjblair

    In which case he has been the worlds most singularly innefective racist.
    What he has done is articulate what a lot of people feel. Many were worried about the level of immigration from asia in the 80’s, fortunately it turned out most of those fears were baseless.
    HIV is still expensive to treat and a debilitating and often fatal condition, why select migrants with a chronic communicable, and at this stage, incurable disease?
    Multicult is dead, well overdue.
    West Papua? Will get back to you on that one when Timor sorts itself out eh?

    Keating thought he could overide unrest by denying it existed, or was so marginal it was beneath him.
    Howard has massively increased immigration (including refugee intake) to levels unheard of since WW2, this would have been politicaly impossible if people werent reassured it could be done in an orderly and “safe” manner.
    Joe Blow in the street was greatly alarmed by the apparent Muslim horde apparently being actively assisted by the large Muslim country to the north coming to Australia during the early 00’s.
    Predominantly male, unskilled, uncultured, and then to top it off a bunch of their co-religonists (aided and abbetted by the taliban, the defacto government of the country 3/4 of the refuees were coming from) attack on 9/11.
    It would have been politicaly impossible, not to mention negligent for the “no borders” brigade to have prevailed. In my opinion it still would be.

    Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2007 04 13 at 09:41 AM • permalink

  78. CJ

    I think you are a bit off track with Howard.

    If I was PM, and I was racist, I’d do the following:

    - shoot all the coons
    - stuff all the Muslim Lebs into the Tampa and then sink it as a tourist reef
    - charge all Kiwi’s with bestial rape and deport them
    - ship anyone that complained to Zimbabwe
    - make the consumption of fried rice a capital offense
    - force everyone with the name “Wong” to change it to “Smith”
    - ban all asians from driving

    Given that none of this has happened, even with a Senate majority, I’d have to say that charges of racism are tenuous at best.

    Posted by mr creosote on 2007 04 13 at 09:52 AM • permalink

  79. We have the Asian immigration comments from the late ‘80s

    That’s not racism.  It’s about protecting Australia’s culture from the shock of having too many people from another single culture arriving all at once.  Immigrant groups are absorbed more easily if they are not in large numbers.  For this reason, I would similarly be against 5 million Irishmen, Englishmen or Poles all arriving at once.

    his comments today about immigrants with HIV being refused entry, only to find that most new cases are Australian citizens

    Yes, most new cases are Australian citizens; however, it is not racist to exclude non-Australian citizens because they have a fatal transmittable disease.  It is in the national interest.

    Are non-Australians a race are they?  So an Irishman is an East Asian is an Indian is an Arab is an African is an American is a Russian?

    I’m sorry but your statement is ludicrous and reveals a misunderstanding of what constitutes racism.

    Posted by murph on 2007 04 13 at 11:44 AM • permalink

  80. It’s always good to remind people of the words of modern Turkey’s founding father, Kemal Ataturk:

    Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives… you are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets where they lie side by side here in this country of ours… You the mothers who sent their sons from far away countries, wipe away your tears. Your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. Having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well.

    btw, he fought at Gallipoli

    Posted by duncanm on 2007 04 13 at 05:42 PM • permalink

  81. About the only racism displayed by Howard has been his extra benefits for Aborigines.
    All other races are treated equally.

    Posted by Skeeter on 2007 04 13 at 06:10 PM • permalink

  82. And as some anthropologists believe that Australian aborigines have Caucasian origins, their special treatment may be more accurately described as cultural based, rather than racist.

    Posted by Skeeter on 2007 04 13 at 06:13 PM • permalink

  83. Australia is of course one of the most brutally racist nations in the entire history of the human race. Muslims and Asians and a fair number of our dispossessed indigenous tribes can be found camped around the docks and airports in staggering numbers. They’re utterly desperate to get out.

    [/sarcasm]

    Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2007 04 13 at 06:25 PM • permalink

  84. #68
    tfm
    Heard the intro, will have to catch the prog on-line: that’ll be a golden Moonbat-fest of vast proportions.

    Modest Phil in a recent column stated that Duffy’s ABC radio program Counterpoint is intended to neutralise this columnist’s left-wing whingeing.
    Rewriting ABC policy now, are we?
    It’s supposed to be a counterpoint to the mainstream view - how can one be a self-described progressive and yet mainstream, Pillock?

    Posted by egg_ on 2007 04 13 at 07:30 PM • permalink

  85. btw, he fought at Gallipoli

    Yes, but he was allegedly just icky to Armenians so we must yell at him for Nancy Pelosi, never mind that he was Turkey’s equivalent to Washington, Lincoln and Oliver Cromwell in one man…

    Posted by richard mcenroe on 2007 04 13 at 07:35 PM • permalink

  86. Heavy Kevvie is now living up to his name, driving a 4WD/SUV Ford Territory, yet advocating signing on to Kyoto ...

    I’m sure that many Oz families would join you, Kevvie, in that they wouldn’t mind a Territory or equivalent in the driveway.

    Per Pillock Adams: “Ford not Ferrari” as JWH’s aspirations for the common man ...

    Posted by egg_ on 2007 04 13 at 07:41 PM • permalink

  87. KRuddy the Axeman:

    Let me tell you how Kyoto will be
    There’s one for you, nineteen for me
    ‘cause I’m the axeman,
    yeah, I’m the axeman

    We gotta make our footprint appear to be small
    Be thankful I don’t take it all
    ‘cause I’m the axeman,
    yeah, I’m the axeman

    If you drive a car, I’ll tax the street
    If you try to sit, I’ll tax your seat
    If you get too cold, I’ll tax the heat
    If you take a walk, I’ll tax your feet
    axeman

    ‘Cause I’m the axeman,
    Yeah, I’m the axeman

    Don’t ask me if I know what it’s good for
    We gotta pay up ‘cos of Al Gore
    ‘cause I’m the axeman,
    yeah, I’m the axeman

    Now my advice before you die
    We gotta live up to the big lie
    ‘cause I’m the axeman,
    yeah, I’m the axeman
    And you’re working for no one but me

    Posted by egg_ on 2007 04 13 at 08:33 PM • permalink

  88. When I joined the workforce back in 1968, it used to amaze me that there were so many women’s clothing stores in central Sydney, all stuffed racks of frocks but totally devoid of customers. Wondered how they could all stay in businesses when it was obvious they rarely made a sale.

    Later found out that the proprietors of these shops were the idle wives of Sydney’s rich and the shops little more than hobbies. The husbands indulged the wives by paying the bills and collecting the tax write-offs.

    Conspicuous consumer Fillup Adams reminds me of this. But instead of a frock shop, Mrs Adams has a climate change political party to keep her busy between dinner parties. Just to show he is interested, Fillup uses his alloted column inches in the Australian to give her cause some support. The tax break is the chance to vent his enormous spleen on John Howard

    Posted by Contrail on 2007 04 13 at 08:55 PM • permalink

  89. #88
    What Pillock is not declaring in his most recenct column is that Matt Noffs is a member of Pillock’s missus’ political party.

    Sad ole miscreant ...

    What’s ABC’s meejawatch program up to these days?

    Posted by egg_ on 2007 04 13 at 09:36 PM • permalink

  90. egg asks What’s ABC’s meejawatch program up to these days? Chasing after “rioter” Alan Jones?

    Posted by stackja1945 on 2007 04 13 at 09:55 PM • permalink

  91. The unkeep on a trophy wife is pretty steep.

    Posted by Contrail on 2007 04 14 at 06:49 AM • permalink

  92. Page 1 of 1 pages

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