Do We Have The Right, Part 2: What Would We Want? - Comments Page 3

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• 76 - Dr Dreadful

  Jun 21, 2009 at 10:46 pm

  Stan @ #49:
  
  (sorry for delayed response, have spent very little time BCing this weekend)
  
  Doc, Kevvie's in a bit of strife over a banged up ute given to his campaign team by a BrisVegas car dealer to cart election signage around during the Kevin '07 federal poll.
  
  The latest I read, courtesy of the Beeb, was that there was an e-mail supposedly so incriminating that it occasioned Malcolm Turnbull, the Liberal leader, to demand the resignation of everybody in the government from the tea lady upwards.
  
  Not to be outdone, Kevvo, acting entirely out of character - and not for the first time, either - apparently hefted a pair of bollocks of a size previously thought only to be possessed by that Keating bloke, declared that the e-mail was fake, and demanded Turnbull's resignation for flinging it at him.
  
  And the police have now determined that the e-mail is, indeed, fake.
  
  Turnbull's move.
  
  You're right, mate. What tremendous fun!

• 77 - Robert M. Barga

  Jun 22, 2009 at 6:38 am

  Clavos
  
  where the hell did you see any of us say anything like that

• 78 - Dan(Miller)

  Jun 22, 2009 at 12:56 pm

  Being rather tired of the "it's all America's fault" and "we have no moral right/obligation" theses, I looked around for some different insights into the current Iranian situation. Here are two. The first asks why the Iranian armed forces have not, thus far, been noticeably involved in putting down the protests.
  
  We have "security forces," Tehran police, and the Basij deploying at various intersections and plazas in order to break up anti-regime gatherings. We learn of the Basij riding around on motorbikes randomly shooting demonstrators and hitting others with batons. We have reports of Hezbollah soldiers being brought in from Lebanon.
  
  But, the streets are not filling up with Iranian soldiers. Tanks are not rolling down the boulevards. At least not yet.
  
  Is this a sign that the regime does not trust the armed forces to do its bidding against fellow Iranians?
  
  I don't know whether the author of the article is nuts, nor do I have any different explanation as to why the Iranian armed forces have been inconspicuous. It is an interesting question.
  
  The second article draws an analogy to the unrest in Poland back in the 1980:
  
  I was a young U.S. diplomat in Poland in 1980, and what I learned is that people's entire frame of reference is transformed if they can say something in public that previously could only be said in private. Among other things, freedom of speech is liberating. In Warsaw, strangers came up to me on the street to tell me all kinds of things - because they could. I imagine that many Iranians also have pent-up feelings and that they experience the same relief and intoxication in speaking out publicly, even at a high personal cost.
  
  I still wonder whether a few "mere words," expressing the perhaps hackneyed notion that the United States stands for freedom might do some good.
  
  Dan(Miller)

• 79 - Robert M. Barga

  Jun 22, 2009 at 2:38 pm

  dan, i actually touch the army in my next post, which is submitted

• 80 - STM

  Jun 23, 2009 at 1:49 am

  Doc, one of the key questions raised here is one of cronyism.
  
  As you know, it's just not done here (but seems to happen on occasion anyway). In this case it carries allegations of misleading parliament, which as you know under the Westmisnter system means resignation is a must if it's found to be true.
  
  Ford Credit were trying to secure $500 million from the government, and this Queensland car dealer (treasurer Wayne Swan later bought a car off him) who had given Kev a ute to use during his election campaign got to go to the same meeting to try to get a line of credit for his business.
  
  A memo devoted 2 paragraphs to Ford Credit's problems and 10 to the BrisVegas car dealer.
  
  The fake email implicating Kev is indeed fake, the Federal Police have found this week, which means PM isn't implicated ... however, the email trail on Mr Swan shows that the car dealer was getting some nice treatment that honestly did seem over and above. Swayne likes documents; so faxes were going to Wayne's home and it was made plain to treasury that Mr Swan was keeping an eye on the whole thing.
  
  He's now saying that he did the same for other dealers, and therefore hasn't misled parliament.
  
  All the stuff about the fake email and Turnbull has deflected some attention from Mr Swan, which means he'll probably survive.
  
  Turnbull is in strife - what he used as his basis to try to bring down the government was indeed a fake email.
  
  However, there are so many red herrings being thrown around by both the government and the opposition, it's just making the whole thing smell more and more fishy.
  
  Only in Oz could you have a government scandal springing initially from use of a battered 1996 Mazda pick-up festooned with election signange and lent to the future PM to cart his stuff around Bris Vegas during the last federal election.
  
  I'm lovin' it. Yes, it's almost better than the New York strip-club incident and the alleged layong on of hands.
  
  Almost ... :)

• 81 - Bliffle

  Jun 23, 2009 at 8:02 am

  Does anyone have any concrete evidence of vote fraud in Iran?
  

• 82 - Dr Dreadful

  Jun 23, 2009 at 10:52 am

  I'm lovin' it. Yes, it's almost better than the New York strip-club incident and the alleged layong on of hands.
  
  The marvellous things about that incident was that it seemed so out of character. It'd hardly be more surprising if Princess Anne suddenly released a gangsta rap album.

• 83 - Robert M. Barga

  Jun 23, 2009 at 1:16 pm

  the new one.

• 84 - Robert M. Barga

  Jun 23, 2009 at 1:17 pm

  @81
  noppers