The Wailing of the Banshees

Well, there has certainly been a great deal of wailing and
gnashing of teeth by the tories in the past 24 hrs! B^D

And no wonder after the dismal performance of their leader.

Costello was the only Liberal grinning through the whole thing;

"HE HE, He He,

NOW they wish they'd Chosen ME!

HE HE, He He

I'm as Happy as can Be!"

But look at the tirade aof bitching, whining,
bad sportsmanship, and excuse mongering from
Howard's cabinet down to the usenet tools! B^D

They hated the Worm of Truth so much they had it pulled! 8^o

# Historical interlude:
#
# In Germany 1939, after the Trade Union leaders we3re arrested and
# workers ability to organise destroyed, the media controls were
# installed.
#
# First WorkChoices, then a McCarthyist attack on Union
# Members, then we lose what freedom of the press we enjoyed! 8^o
#
# It is clear to anyone with eyes the sort of Australia
# we will be living in if Howard and his bully boys are
# re-elected.
#
# It's time to get their boots off the necks of ordinary
# Aussie workers.

It is now crystal clear why Howard wanted ONLY ONE debate,
as early in the campaign as possible, to give voters the MAXIMUM
time in which to forget how much his performance stunk! B^D

All the commentators agreed, Howard lost and Rudd won,
substantially! so the tories have been WAILING LIKE BANSHEES
ABOUT ANYTHING EXCEPT THE DEBATE ITSELF!!!!

Rudd's decisive win
- The Age 22/10/2007

"OPPOSITION Leader Kevin Rudd heads into the second week
of the election campaign after a victory in a tense televised debate
last night that focused on the economy, the Iraq war, leadership
and climate change.

Mr Howard moved to seize the initiative with new announcements
on climate change and the role of Australian forces in Iraq.
He pledged a new fund to compensate low-income earners
for higher prices under future changes to impose cleaner
energy on the nation. On Iraq, he said force commanders
would start talks next week on a broader training role to
bolster the self-sufficiency of the Iraqi army.

Mr Rudd pounced on the Iraq shift and queried why Australians
should believe Mr Howard about the troop changes, given that
he had ruled out any increase in troop numbers at the last
election — but doubled the force size straight after the poll.
His move to challenge Mr Howard's bona fides prompted an
angry clash between the two, with the Prime Minister accusing
the Labor leader of embroiling the military in a political contest.

"You chose to use it in a very political fashion. I was providing
some information to the Australian people and I was pointing
out the evolving nature of the commitment of our ground
forces in Iraq," he said.

During the 90-minute debate, the leaders laid out their
competing policy agendas for the next decade.
It covered tax, economic management, family budgets,
health, industrial relations, security and terrorism, and
climate change.

Channel Nine opted for a "worm" reaction — 65 per cent of
voters who participated scored the debate for Mr Rudd,
29 per cent for Mr Howard.

Both sparred over who laid claim to being the biggest optimist
and who was the most genuine economic conservative.
Mr Howard said Mr Rudd had a "Donald Horne 'lucky country'
view of Australia". Mr Rudd countered: "I am an optimist as
well about Australia's future, but I am also a realist."

On the economy, Mr Rudd said there was now a bipartisan
consensus on macro-economic policy issues and he played
up Mr Howard's negative record as treasurer in the Fraser
government.

Mr Howard accused Mr Rudd of voting against measures to
increase the budget surplus. "Being an economic conservative
is more than a slogan in a TV advertisement, it is believing in
things," he said. "Everyone knows Labor governments equal
budget deficits and Liberal governments mean budget surpluses."

Mr Rudd pointed to Mr Howard delivering four deficits in five
budgets in the late 1970s and early 1980s. "Let's have some
honesty on the table here. Let's get the record straight."

On industrial relations, the Prime Minister launched a vigorous
defence of his WorkChoices laws.

"Our whole design with WorkChoices was to underpin further
growth in the Australian economy. It wasn't easy. It was heavily
criticised, but the general evidence is WorkChoices has been
good for the Australian economy."

They clashed about the dominance of unions on the Labor
front bench. Responding to Mr Howard's suggestion that it
lacked balance to have 70 per cent of potential Labor ministers
being former trade union officials, Mr Rudd countered that the
Government front bench was out of whack with community
standards because it was "a cocktail of lawyers and Liberal
Party staffers". Mr Howard declared the comparison fallacious.

On climate change, Mr Howard said if re-elected he would
use his influence with US President George Bush to reach
a new global consensus. He promised his Government
would establish a new climate change fund from 2011,
with the proceeds from carbon trading which will start that
year. This would subsidise electricity bills for pensioners
and the poor.

Mr Rudd slammed the Government's 11 years of inaction.
"I don't believe, at the end of the day, he is really committed
to this," he said.

Mr Howard also moved to clear up uncertainty over who
would succeed him. "It's obvious to me and to all my
colleagues that Mr Costello would succeed me," he said.

fasgnadh wrote:

---------

Prime Minister Rip Van Winkle;

"Well, I don't, I, I, I, I don't know. I, I mean, I, I "

- John Howard asked about his plans.

Sure John we will all just go get a coffee while
you find your mind and then make it up! B^D

http://www.geocities.com/wmds_r_us/climate_coma.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGqTayhu5QM

"After a successful few years as a junior minister in
Malcolm Fraser's government, Howard was promoted to
treasury, where his five years in the job can only
be judged as an unmitigated failure.
Take a look at the statistics.

When Howard left the treasury in March 1983, the
budget deficit was forecast at $9.6 billion, inflation
was 11 per cent, unemployment was 10.2 per cent,
the economy was in recession with negative
0.4 per cent growth, and housing interest rates
were 13 per cent.

And, despite the 1982-83 recession being the worst
since the Great Depression, Howard still managed to
increase the federal tax take from 25.1 per cent of
GDP in 1977 to 27.5 per cent of GDP by 1982-83.

Howard then spent 13 years in opposition, during
which - when he wasn't leader himself - he spent
a lot of time conspiring against the three leaders
he served under: Andrew Peacock, John Hewson and
Alexander Downer."

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"THE polls show John Howard is likely to be beaten
by Labor, now under its sharpest leader in a decade.
Facing defeat, the Prime Minister yesterday changed
not only his team but its tone." -Andrew Bolt 24/1/2007

http://www.geocities.com/wmds_r_us/team_howard.htm

http://www.geocities.com/wmds_r_us/howard_backs_costello.htm

http://www.geocities.com/wmds_r_us/trust_me.htm

http://www.geocities.com/wmds_r_us/team_lieberal.htm

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