Australia's Labor Party has won a crushing victory that looked improbable about a year ago, and will put an end to long-time Conservative rule in the Land Down Under. Interesting from a US perspective is that it seems Labor and their leader Kevin Rudd were able to use the Conservatives' unwillingness to take action on climate change as a symbol to help advance a broader argument about John Howard being stuck in the past and unable to deal with the realities of the modern world.
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Labor for Australia
24 Nov 2007 11:11 am
Comments (22)
Yes, yes, and yes. Almost all the actions we must take to adapt to/mitigate climate change would benefit us even if there were no climate change.
You might want to lower-case that "Conservative," since the conservatives belong to the Liberal Party in Oz.
Labor will also phase out the Australian troop presence in Iraq. Bush has also lost another close personal ally, though the US-Australia relationship will broadly be unchanged.
Peter:
Considering how the Decider throws a fit when he doesn't get his way, things might change drastically for the short term(meaning another 14 months).
Good riddance to that dispicable pile of reeking human waste, John Howard -- possibly the only politician in the English-speaking world more contemptible than George Bush.
"Yes, yes, and yes. Almost all the actions we must take to adapt to/mitigate climate change would benefit us even if there were no climate change."
Maybe if you're a writers' guild member. But for the rest of us in the real world, it would mean forced conservation for naught, a shrinking economy, and a shrinking industrial base. Interesting who gets hurt by the Left's policy obsessions: both anti-industrial global warming fanaticism and open-borders unlimited unskilled immigration hurt blue collar workers, not screenwriters, hedge fund managers and other Democratic constituencies.
Interestingly, regarding Global Warming, I just read a letter to the editor of yesterday's WSJ which quotes geologist Tony Coates in The Smithsonian Magazine (December, 1996, p.114):
"We live in a warm spell between glaciations; in the past 20,000 years, water once locked in polar icecaps has raised the level of the ocean by 430 feet."
The letter writer, A. David Crown, M.D., goes on to add:
"Perhaps we should pause before the hysteria becomes a pandemic.P.S. What happened to the panic over lethal radiation through holes in the ozone layer?"
Follow the money on this one. If the government can be induced to spend, tax or regulate hundreds of billions of dollars in the direction of quixotic attempts to prevent the ocean from rising two inches in the next century, than savvy entrepreneurs such as Al Gore and his partners at Kleiner Perkins will play Chicken Little and stand in front of the river of money.
"Good riddance to that dispicable pile of reeking human waste, John Howard -- possibly the only politician in the English-speaking world more contemptible than George Bush."
John Howard's record speaks for itself; it's telling that his opponents essentially ran on his economic platform. Also, whatever your thoughts on Iraq and Afghanistan (is that one really an uncontroversial war now?), from Australia's perspective, it made perfect sense to join us in battle in both, just as they did in Vietnam. Those are, to borrow Stephen Covey's phrase, deposits by Australia in our emotional bank account. Who knows when they'll need to be redeemed?
In regard to the "panic over holes in the ozone layer," in fact the nations of the world came together to ban the human-made pollutants that caused the holes in l990s. The ozone layer has not yet healed, but the problem is not worsening at nearly the rate it was (which happens to be good news for those who want to go outside in the Southern Hemisphere). If the nations of the world had been as farsighted in l996, we would have much less to worry about now.
Australia's economic re-structuring began in the 1980s and 1990s, when Labor was last in power, and now the economy is bearing fruit. Also, Australia has benefitted enormously from a resources boom, largely due to China's demand for minerals. I'm glad Howard has gone,he'll even lose his seat most likely.
Those are, to borrow Stephen Covey's phrase, deposits by Australia in our emotional bank account. Who knows when they'll need to be redeemed?
Yes, I'm sure the Democrats are going to be oh so eager to pay back the Liberals for their support for Bush's war of aggression.
If Obama is elected, I truly hope his first act as President is to have John Howard kidnapped by the CIA, extraordinarily rendered to Abu Ghraib, waterboarded and sodomized with a chemical light.
"Labor and their leader Kevin Rudd were able to use the Conservatives' unwillingness to take action on climate change as a symbol to help advance a broader argument about John Howard being stuck in the past and unable to deal with the realities of the modern world."
That'd be a heckuva campaign approach for the Democrats,if they weren't stuck in the past and unable to deal with the realities of the modern world.
Fred,
A little perspective, please. How are those stupid European countries that care about global warming and climate change doing ecnonomically right now? The answer - largely pretty well and in terms of research and innovation, they are quickly passing us by. The U.S. has its head stuck in the sand while the technologies of the future are coming from the UK, Britain, France, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, etc. You seem to be of the view that government regulation is, per se, economy-shrinking. By that logic, America's most powerful and dynamic economy probably existed sometime in the mid-1800s and today's is only a weak shell of its former self. Fact is, regulation spurs innovation, new industries and new ways to make money.
As for Howard's economic policies, it seems that much of Australia's recent economic growth is due largely to China's insatiable demand for nearly every extractable natural resource, wherever they might exist. It doesn't take a genius to sell what you are sitting on to a country of a billion plus people desparate to buy from you.
Lastly, regarding Howard, it should speak volumes that he wasn't even reelected to his parliamentary post, the first time that's happened since 1929.
Fred,
A little perspective, please. How are those stupid European countries that care about global warming and climate change doing ecnonomically right now? The answer - largely pretty well and in terms of research and innovation, they are quickly passing us by. The U.S. has its head stuck in the sand while the technologies of the future are coming from the UK, Britain, France, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, etc. You seem to be of the view that government regulation is, per se, economy-shrinking. By that logic, America's most powerful and dynamic economy probably existed sometime in the mid-1800s and today's is only a weak shell of its former self. Fact is, regulation spurs innovation, new industries and new ways to make money.
As for Howard's economic policies, it seems that much of Australia's recent economic growth is due largely to China's insatiable demand for nearly every extractable natural resource, wherever they might exist. It doesn't take a genius to sell what you are sitting on to a country of a billion plus people desparate to buy from you.
Lastly, regarding Howard, it should speak volumes that he wasn't even reelected to his parliamentary post, the first time that's happened since 1929.
What happened to the panic over lethal radiation through holes in the ozone layer?"
-A. David Crown
Well, you know, we're always buying Maggie vaccinations for diseases she doesn't even have.
-Homer Simpson
"Perhaps we should pause before the hysteria becomes a pandemic. P.S. What happened to the panic over lethal radiation through holes in the ozone layer?"
The ban on CFCs worked?
But 'Fred' is just as big a fuckwit as A. David Crown, graduate of Hollywood Upstairs Medical College.
Good riddance to the rodent. That he's likely to lose his own seat in Bennelong adds a cherry on top. He reaped the benefits of Paul Keating's reforms, and feasted off them for a decade.
How are those stupid European countries that care about global warming and climate change doing ecnonomically right now? The answer - largely pretty well and in terms of research and innovation, they are quickly passing us by.
Not that your statement is true by any stretch of the imagination, but even if it were, European countries are not meeting their own emissions goals. So the argument that economic growth is unhindered by climate controls is not really supported empirically.
Also, I love to read vitriol directed towards opposition politicians. I always remember it when I see finger-wagging from liberals about hate.
I don't know what all this "finger-wagging from liberals about hate" is supposed to be. The only people I see talking about hate lately are Republican trolls, for whom it is a tediously predictable talking point.
Speaking of hate, interesting how John Howard singled out Obama of all the candidates to attack?
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/obama-blasts-howard-on-iraq/2007/02/12/1171128843178.html
"it seems that much of Australia's recent economic growth is due largely to China's insatiable demand for nearly every extractable natural resource"
A fair point, though Howard's prudent policies were also a factor.
A little perspective is in order here: 11 years in power in a democracy is a long time. That's the rough equivalent of an American President being popular enough to win two terms and get his VP elected to a term after him. The last President to do that here was Reagan.
No, Reagan was the last one who was able to have his VP take office.
Fred,
Labor was in power for 13 years before Howard's tenure as PM. Now he is the first PM to lose his seat in parliament since 1929, and his deputy, Peter Costello, announced that he won't be seeking the Liberal Party leadership. Another rat leaving the sinking ship.
A little perspective is in order here: 11 years in power in a democracy is a long time. That's the rough equivalent of an American President being popular enough to win two terms and get his VP elected to a term after him.
actually it's nothing like that. australia is a parliamentary democracy, without term limits. and you could certainly mount an argument that terms limits wouldn't be a bad idea, given how rare changes of government have been since ww2.
Comments closed December 08, 2007.
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Heads in the Sand
You mean in some countries that's a liability?
Posted by aleks | November 24, 2007 11:25 AM