Oh for ____’s sake! Well the Liberal Party of Australia is really focused in on the important issues.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has been accused of swearing on purpose on national television to increase his appeal to voters.

Last night on Channel 7 Mr Rudd dropped the word “shit” as he spoke to sacked Pacific Brands workers about the Government’s decision to spend billions stimulating the economy.

“People have to understand that, because there’s going to be the usual political shit storm, sorry, political storm, over that,” he said.

His comments were applauded by the audience.

But this morning Melbourne’s Liberal Mayor Robert Doyle and Opposition frontbencher Peter Dutton both accused Mr Rudd of scripting the moment

via Rudd flies into swearing storm – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation).

What a bunch of tossers. With all there is to criticise Kevin Rudd over this is the one? Or is it payback for the equally moronic carry-on about the Labor Party’s horror that Malcolm Turnbull mentioned the name of the Prime Minister’s wife and wealth in the same sentence.

Can someone inform both parties there’s an economic meltdown, bushfires and industrial relations legislation to discuss in rational and mature ways – WEE guess that’s hoping for too much.

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photo credit: whoohoo120

Jetsetter PM is losing points with voters

By Sharri Markson

September 21, 2008 12:01am

Rumblings of discontent can be heard across the nation as grumpy voters begin protesting about the extraordinary amount of time the Prime Minister spends abroad.

Jetsetter PM is losing points with voters | NEWS.com.au.

Dear Sharri seems to be making up the news now. There is absolutely no evidence presented in this article that the PM is losing points with voters. Perhaps some friends of Sharri mentioned it to her? Who knows? It’s just another case of News journalists making up the news.

The only source of dissent around the PMs travel has been the opposition leader. Well, what a surprise that he’d be making something of it. It seems that Sharri lacks the capacity for independent thought and so is just parrotting some press release from the opposition.

There is absolutely no evidence presented in the article. If she has it, why didn’t she show it? It’s because she has pulled this piece out of somewhere that the sun don’t shine.

Yet again, the standard of journalism at the Daily Telegraph reaches now lows.

I suggest perhaps Sharri wait for a poll that shows some evidence of disatisfaction with the PMs travel – then she might have an article. At the moment though, she’s making it up as she goes along.

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photo credit: Daquella manera

New kids send democracy up the spout

By Andrew Bolt

September 10, 2008 03:49am

YOU think we live in a democracy where we choose our leaders? Then wake up and check the leaders of our states and territories.

Voted for any of them?

In fact, six of the eight got their jobs without going to an election. They were picked instead by their party to replace a leader of their own side.

Five still haven’t got the voters’ nod since, which means most Australians have a premier they’ve never had the chance to vote for.

New kids send democracy up the spout | NEWS.com.au.

Poor Andrew Bolt seems not to understand how our constitution works. Perhaps he could walk across the threshold of a public school where they might deign to provide him an education about this.

He seems not to understand a basic tenet of the Westminster system of parliamentary democracy. To put it very simply, very few people in the electorate vote directly for a premier or prime minister. The voters vote for a candidate from a party or an independent. The members of the parliament then elect a leader to be premier or prime minister or oppositions leader.

This notion that people directly elect the premier or prime minister, as Bolt’s article implies is just nonsense. Do you think that dear Mr Bolt would be making such a fuss if a Liberal leader had been installed in such a fashion – and this has happened pretty commonly too? Of course not. He chooses to misrepresent the constitution for his pathetic political ends – namely, sour grapes that his team isn’t in government.

WEE all know that the current crop of Labor governments are pretty average. And in the fair state of NSW they’re rubbish. But to pretend that it’s somehow ‘not democracy’ for the parliamentary parties to elect their leaders, and as it follows, premiers and prime ministers is disingenous. Still WEE wouldn’t have expected anything else from Andrew Bolt – it’s probably all a bit complex for him to comprehend.

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photo credit: mushroom and rooster

The new Premier Nathan Rees has made a guarantee to the people of NSW – he will work every waking hour between now and the next election to give taxpayers the standard of services they deserve.

NSW new Premier says he’s short on political experience but long on life’s.

Incompetence is dead. Long live incompetence.

New Premier Nathan Reece has a huge hill to climb in convincing the people of NSW that Labor in this state is not seriously on the nose. There is nothing in this change that provides any convincing evidence that things will change. WEE have been wrong before and WEE hope we are again – Reece is another Labor party machine man – adviser to former ministers, campaign guy, his mum works for other Labor machine men. It all seems a bit more of the same. WEE hope he’s less of a cardboard cutout than Iemma was, but we suspect that he won’t be.

Come on Nathan, prove us wrong.

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See the link following…

Rudd a Haneef jellyback: Downer | NEWS.com.au

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Okay, they look incriminating given the situation, but until we hear some explanation of the comments from Haneef it’s hardly a smoking gun. And what have they edited out of the conversations? Let’s face it, Andrews has hardly covered himself in glory here, and WEE would be wise to be cautious. The question remains, why has it taken so long to get this into the public domain? And why were we told this morning this information could not be provided? Still so many questions in this poorly managed saga.

Read the latest here…

Andrews reveals Haneef details – National – theage.com.au

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Can’t really do much about that, eh? WEE do not trust this Government to make an objective assessment about this evidence, given the extreme prejudice they have shown in the case to date. Just who in this debacle has demonstrated ‘bad character’?

Please see this link for more…

Andrews to keep Haneef details under wraps | NEWS.com.au

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Now WEE have cautioned before on any early triumphalism over the excellent polls that Labor has been experiencing since Rudd’s elevation to Opposition Leader. We still would caution but even WEE have to admit that the results are starting to look sticky. And the stickier the polls look, the more Howard tries to throw some mud that will stick on Rudd.

To date that strategy seems to be an abysmal failure. First Brian Burke, then his childhood memories, a couple of other things we can’t recall, and finally Therese Rein, his wife. All of this mud, all of this hot air, and Labor remains high in the polls.

So what is going on? It seems that history is repeating itself. Howard is sounding suspiciously like Keating in the last months of his government. Tired old lines like you change government and you change the country – well, duh! I think people get that. Other lines like Rudd and Labor don’t have enough experience in government to govern – well, that’s a neat formula for a one-party state. And these lines were all tried by Keating to no effect. What should be concerning Liberal back-benchers more is this sense of history repeating itself.

The government is falling into all the same old traps of other governments on their way out. It’s extraordinary that people who have been in politics as long as John Howard has don’t recognise these signs – or maybe they do and they just don’t have any other way to respond.

Whatever the case, if the polls don’t have some shift in them soon a change of government may become a self-fulfilling prophecy. What’s very interesting is a recent poll (can’t remember whose) showing a significant majority of voters now think that Labor will win the election. Of all the polls this one should be the most concerning for the Coalition – most people are countenancing a change and that builds a momentum all its own.

From a purely personal perspective, WEE are particularly enjoying seeing Howard squirm. We enjoyed it immensely in the early part of the Latham experiment, and WEE are really enjoying the extended play version that Rudd is delivering. Rudd’s performance in the Parliament yesterday was very telling – he looked calm and measured, Howard on the other hand looked rattled and lost.

He should have gone when he had the chance last year, but as ever, Howard’s own selfishness (he loves the trappings of power) and vindictiveness (anyone but Costello) were more prominent in that decision than his oft-voiced ‘what’s best for the nation’ hubris.

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And all his crazy old cronies can all go and spend their lovely pensions in retirement while the rest of the world works out how to clean up the mess that Bush and his henchmen created in Iraq.

WEE pray for the families that have lost loved ones in this terrible debacle that started with the WTC disaster in 2001 and has ended up in a mid-east disaster in 2006.

WEE hope that it won’t be in vain. And WEE hope that future US leaders will look back on this dark period and learn that you can’t fight violence and oppression by replacing it with more violence and oppression. No more Vietnams and no more Iraqs please.

Let’s take a different approach to solving the world’s problems.

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