Obama now set to become another war president

[Peter Lemkin]

Do you think Australia ever regained their autonomy from the US after the Dismissal Maggie?

No way.
But we have been such a good little doormat. The outlook of the ruling class in Australia pretty much conforms with the out look of the ruling class in the US. So in that regard is unsurprising.

I was not in the military during those events but according to my former comrades in arms who were on duty at that time and in Canberra they were on the highest alert short of an actual outbreak of war. It was expected that the 'people would revolt' and take to the streets at the actions of the Govenor General Kerr who dismissed the government and installed Fraser by decree. The sentiment to do 'something' was certainly there and thousands of people were gathered outside the parliament in Canberra and in a very black mood. But also on the steps of the parliament was one Bob Hawke then leader of the peak Trade Union body. He calmed down the situation so that there was a nice smooth transition of power back to the people who should have it. After the Fraser government was defeated 8 years later. Bob was rewarded with the Prime Ministership. He was a 'good friend of Israel' and a 'good friend of the United Sates'. A Rhodes Scholar whose father was a poor preacher in the boondocks but he retired a multimillionaire and yet is still thought of by some as the little Aussie battler's friend because he could talk the talk. but his walk was quite different. It was his government which dismantled much of the regulations and social infrastucture. Floating the AU$, privitzing government businesses, deregulating foreign investments in Australia, restricted union activities, in other words the race to the bottom. After him was another Labor man and more of the same. Then came John Howard. He was the incompetent Treasurer in the former Fraser government and a mean spirited quiet bigot of a man with a heart of lead. He was Bush's ideological soul mate. Every Australian 'leader' has begged the US to please take them on the killing missions. It was all the way with LBJ for Vietnam even if no one even knew where it was on the map in those days. Hawke insisted we be taken along for Gulf War 1. John Howard wanted to offer our military to bomb and invade Yugoslavia until Clinton reminded him that Australia is not part of NATO but then he lucked in with 911 and the aftermath in Iraq and Afghanistan and was asked by his good freind G. WW3 Bush to come and play along with Poland and Samoa. Oh, and the UK. Now Obama wants us to stay and play in Afghanistan and we probably will as we've never ever said NO. We even recognised that illegal criminal narco-state Camp Bondsteel and there was absolutely no reason to do so and every reason not to do so if looking at our interests in complying with international law.

And at present we have the embarrassing Mark Regev, an Australian, as the public face of the Israeli death machine attempting to defend the indefensible in the wanton massacre of civilians. And a very weak response from our new government on the recent bloodbath in Gaza.

The US always threaten not to share their intelligence with us if there is a slightest possibility of an independent though from our government. But 1) they don't share it all anyway 2) a fair bit of that intelligence is gathered from US bases here and 3) their intelligence looks like a bunch of BS anyway given how incompetent the intelligence agencies seem to be there.

Don't complain...we haven't messed around with the outback, have we?! :bootyshake:

[Magda Hassan]

Actually we have quite a few in the out back and quite a few in the cities too.

[Peter Lemkin]

Actually we have quite a few in the out back and quite a few in the cities too.

'Gotta covered'.....doesn't it make you feel secure and cozy? Anyway, you down-under speak the Master Race's language, if in a rather odd dialect. Cheer-up, America is Occupied, as well. :bird: :bird:

[Mark Stapleton]

The sentiment to do 'something' was certainly there and thousands of people were gathered outside the parliament in Canberra and in a very black mood. But also on the steps of the parliament was one Bob Hawke then leader of the peak Trade Union body. He calmed down the situation so that there was a nice smooth transition of power back to the people who should have it.

Norman Gunston was also there :top:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9hZ7kjgFh4

[Myra Bronstein]

The sentiment to do 'something' was certainly there and thousands of people were gathered outside the parliament in Canberra and in a very black mood. But also on the steps of the parliament was one Bob Hawke then leader of the peak Trade Union body. He calmed down the situation so that there was a nice smooth transition of power back to the people who should have it.

Norman Gunston was also there :top:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9hZ7kjgFh4

Oh good god!
Way to make an unfunny situation even unfunnier.

[Magda Hassan]

Norman Gunston was also there :top:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9hZ7kjgFh4

Good lord, I'd quite forgotten about that Mark. :hmmmm: I shall try to forget again. LOL

[Mark Stapleton]

The sentiment to do 'something' was certainly there and thousands of people were gathered outside the parliament in Canberra and in a very black mood. But also on the steps of the parliament was one Bob Hawke then leader of the peak Trade Union body. He calmed down the situation so that there was a nice smooth transition of power back to the people who should have it.

Norman Gunston was also there :top:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9hZ7kjgFh4

Oh good god!
Way to make an unfunny situation even unfunnier.

Yeah. It wasn't really the right time and place for Norman's brand of humour.

Funny though.

[Dawn Meredith]

It just gets worse. Obama is turning into LBJ. Probably always was. I hope the "no" votes hang tough. I called my Congressman last week.

By Ryan Grim
Huffington Post

The White House is playing hardball with Democrats who intend to vote against the supplemental war spending bill, threatening freshmen who oppose it that they won't get help with reelection and will be cut off from the White House, Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.) said Friday.

"We're not going to help you. You'll never hear from us again," Woolsey said the White House is telling freshmen. She wouldn't say who is issuing the threats, and the White House didn't immediately return a call. [UPDATE: White House spokesman Nick Shapiro says Woolsey's charge is not true.]

Woolsey said she herself had not been pressured because the White House and leadership know she's a firm no vote. But she had heard from other members about the White House pressure.

"Nancy's working with it. It's going to be a very close vote," Rep. Jack Murtha (D-Penn.), a close ally of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Friday. "We don't have any Republican leeway, so far we have no Republican going to vote for it."

"We'll pass it, but it'll be a close vote. Every vote will count," Murtha said.

Woolsey and Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) are both ardent opponents of the war and no friends of the IMF, which is in line for a $100 billion extension of credit in the same bill. Both pointed out that the Democratic leadership didn't bring the bill up for a vote on Friday, indicating they weren't confident they had the votes.

"It says something that this hasn't been brought up yet," Kucinich said. "I will tell you there's a good number of members holding solid. That's why this thing hasn't passed yet."

Kucinich said he's whipping the 51 Democrats who previously voted against the war funding and also whipping Democrats who have voted against the IMF in the past. He said that tremendous pressure was being exerted on the folks leaning against it.

"This is politics, you know, there's a lot of pressure put on members," he said. "But from what I can see, people are concerned that when they go back home, they're going to have to explain why they voted for the war if their constituency' s opposed to it. People who have consistently opposed the war are going to have difficulty explaining why they switched."


"There are a lot of progressives who don't like the IMF," said Woolsey. Kucinich is making the case to colleagues that the IMF loan is merely a backdoor bailout of European banks.

Woolsey, co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said she held a meeting earlier this week among Democrats opposing the package but is not actively whipping against it.

The GOP is also objecting to the inclusion of IMF money in the war bill. Kucinich recalled that the last time progressive Democrats joined with Republicans to defeat a Democratic agenda item came in 1999, when 26 Democrats sided with Republicans to block President Clinton's continuing bombing of Serbia.

"Republicans had their own agenda," recalled Kucinich.

The White House may be forced to drop the IMF provision and fight for it another day, but it's a top administration priority.

"That may happen," said Kucinich. "But as long as it's in there, it's a force that's moving in the direction of defeat of the bill."