Ouch.

The bumpersticker's from the same site I assume you found the We Can video. Which is why I mentioned it.

Incidentally, I hope that 'Goodbye' meant you just put me on "ignore".

See, the fucking thing I love about Aussie politics, is that we can't pull this "founding fathers" shit.

"It was our forefathers who took that first step in a new land..."

"Weren't our forefathers all, pretty much, criminals?"

"Then you can understand the irony..."

"I can understand why we don't trust you buncha cunts in power."

I've just never seen politics draw such a huge, well, "fanbase." Not down here. There's no one, other than those directly on the candidate's staff, who weeps at the rallies or the baby-holding events or the token hard-hat-wearing-I'm-just-like-you-Mr-Blue-Collar visits to building sites. I've yet to see some sort of Australian political event that involves balloons, confetti and streamers tumbling from the ceiling at the end of a speech.

I think it's because we're all cures for tall-poppy syndrome. Each of us has a pair of political secaturs in our pocket.

We don't seem place to much faith in political dynasties (Wikipedia lists, rather tenuously, the Beazley family as one, and we all know what happened to the last scion of the Burkes...) nor in the idea that some sort of G8 degree should play a part in our choice for a leader. An Indian mate of mine once commented that, for all the US's republican status, they still seem to want a king (that was in relation to the fact the USMC is under presidential control, "Such other duties as the President may direct," a force that is over twice the size of Australia's entire defence force, including our reserves.) I think it was Elizabeth Edwards (or Kerry's wife - the Democrat presidential losers tend all blur into one single mass with me) who said that the American people want a queen, not someone who plays monopoly down on the floor with her kids.

To put it simply, we don't put much faith in bullshit. Although it worked for Howard ("CHIIIIIIIILLLLLDREEEEN OOOOOOOOVVVVEEERRRBOOOOARD!!!")

Of course, with that statement, depending on who gets in down here, YMMV.

Keep in mind, though, our nation was founded in Tenterfield.

quote:

Originally posted by lithos:
(that was in relation to the fact the USMC is under presidential control, "Such other duties as the President may direct," a force that is over twice the size of Australia's entire defence force, including our reserves.)

Facing up to the risk of being called a twit by another Aussie, do you really mean that your entire defense force, including reserves, is smaller the our Marine Corp? Honestly, this is a judgment free I had no idea.
So who are you rooting for in your elections?

Yup. In all the ADF - that's RAAF, RAN and Army - there's 51504 active duty personnel, with 19400 reservists. The USMC has 186300 active duty personnel, with 40000 reservists. Like the US, we don't have National Service or something similar (any more - thanks, Gough!) We don't have any paramilitary-type force.

Sourced from Wikipedia, and I'd say it's about right. The List of Countries ranked by Number of Active Troops wiki page gives slightly different figures, though the outcome is the same. We are ranked 13th in military expenditure.

Of course China has the most, though I'm sorta biased here towards non-conscripting countries.

Having said that, you have a population that's about fifteen times the size of ours. Having said that, the US has more active troops than India (but less total, including paramilitary forces.)

Interestingly, our defence plan during WWII was startlingly similar to Russia's - except instead of withdrawn to our centre and letting the snows of winter crush our foes, we'd just let them get strung out the desert centre and let the sands and snakes do the crushin'.

Oh, and our elections? Don't you know we just had 'em?

I thought they had, though I'm not going to pretend I knew the outcome, though I did know the Howard was out. I kept reading that he was in trouble, but he was a fighter, etc. Typical FT stuff.

Then I read your post, dated Feb. 2 said, "Of course, with that statement, depending on who gets in down here, YMMV." So now I thought, "well crap, maybe they didn't have them since lithos' doesn't seem to know who got in. Maybe it was only a primary or something?" I thought I'd try to be nice and ask you about it, single handedly shattering the stereotype of the self centered American.

I could have looked it up to confirm, but I didn't. So I apologize if that pissed you off, but what the hell, at least I single handedly confirmed the stereotype. Yeah me!

quote:

Originally posted by mikethecat:
Facing up to the risk of being called a twit by another Aussie, do you really mean that your entire defense force, including reserves, is smaller the our Marine Corp? Honestly, this is a judgment free I had no idea.
So who are you rooting for in your elections?

We find that it helps national security that most of our 'enemies' are actually borrowed from America. Generally they either don't know we exist or find the belligerance we periodically throw at them mildly annoying in a patronizing sort of way.

Oh, and don't take it too hard if Lithos gives you grief, he's in Queensland, and they're like that up there. I think they've just spent too much time away from civilization.

quote:

Originally posted by RobW:
Hey, Trog, got your bumper sticker yet?

RobW with the wicked burn.

Thought I was just being cute.

RobW =

Andrew Sullivan in The Sunday Times:

"Then, all of a sudden, in the wake of South Carolina, [the Republicans] took a look at the field, saw the enormous enthusiasm building behind Barack Obama and went for their strongest electable candidate: John McCain. Mitt Romney isn’t toast yet. And the talk radio circuit – long a fervent foe of McCain – is still spluttering revolt. Some leading far righters – Michelle Malkin, the mega-blogger, and the columnist Ann Coulter, the Paris Hilton of right wingery – have even said that they would rather back Hillary Clinton than McCain."

/me applauds any and all signs of winger self-destruct

(i worry she's saying that because she thinks race will be a bigger factor in the general election than we hope, so she's ensuring the dems choose obama over hillary by pretending to support her)

If that's it, I think she's miscalculating. It's hard to judge with such a big country, so culturally divided, but my sense is that anti-black racism has been buried and its grave spat on by the children of the baby-boomers.* Towards arabs, latinos and asians, of course, is another matter, but for whatever cultural or generational reasons, I think we've turned a corner on anti-black racism.

OTOH, there's more than one American culture...


*or is it the grandchildren?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: the_Etruscan,

quote:

Originally posted by RobW:
Thought I was just being cute.

(Keep in mind that we USians have been through the wringer over Bush, being the electorate responsible for unleashing the evil on the world.)

The only way Hillary could win, would be if she dropped all the pretense, stopped lying to us all and ran as the republican we all know she is!

Bobby DeNiro backs Obama.

If anyone can take on Chuck Norris, it's Bobby D.

Pooper Tuesday - all is on

how will those parties poop?