Stern, could say that going on ninety, I am old enough to figure out that like Leigh, you are among the best or worst of the right-wing smart arses.

Might pay you both to be more middle-road, meaning you both could do with a good study of world history right up to the present date.

from BB, Buntine.

Oh stern you are a piece of fascist work! fuehrer Howard left a surplus because, thanks to China, he pocketed what was left of the tax riches from mining after filling the pockets of the greedy middle class with handouts they didnt deserve or need.
He tried to screw the working men and women with Work Choices, deprived the Universities of funds and left hospitals and infrastructure out to dry.Oh yes he did spend on the Pacific Solution some $450 millions and $650 millions on the illegal escapade in Iraq.
Recall that though he stated he would go when the party asked him , he stubbonly refused after seeking counsel from Janet and the family.
The electorate showed you what they thought of the great Howard and his era and not only chucked out the party but his own electorate dumped him. Get over it stern, he was overall a failure not the god from the right you worship. That era is gone.

for pedestrian again:

My first question was about the time over which you think the earth is warming. This is a sensible and central question, because much depends on the period. The evidence is quite clear: no change much since 1998, warming from about 1975 to 1998, cooling from about 1950 to 1975, warming before that, cooling before that, and so on. The geological (ice-core) data over the time since humans started living in settled communities (about 10,000 years) is that the planet is slowly cooling.

There are many measures of all this, and reasonable people can disagree about the inference we should draw from this or that data set. But it is very hard indeed to show either that the planet is warming in an unprecedented way, or that human activity is responsible for whatever has been happening in the last fifty years.

Minchin was the bagman for the Libs - arranging shady sponsorship deals.

My favorite was the one with Big Tobacco and as a sign of his solidarity he used to insist that passive smoking was "harmless" on his personal web site.

No doubt the Coal industry is getting the same deal with his Climate Change views.

Some trivia for Stern -

When it comes to factions, the Libs also have their "Wets" and "Dries" as well as lots of smaller sub-groups plus their own (faceless) power brokers. It's just that theirs are kept away from the public gaze.

The last time a bunch of angry "Wets" got together, they split off and became the Australian Democrats. Otherwise they're busy knifing each other in the back and changing leaders too.

When Howard was in his first 2 terms, he was safe because Costello and Reith were kept busy eyeing each other off for the top job.

When Reith quit, Howard then deliberately stacked his cabinet with Abbott supporters, much to the annoyance of Costello.

Not so warm and cuddly after all?

In the end, the only real difference between Parties and how they operate - like Religions - is marketing.

Only 12 more sleeps until Turnbull is leader of the Liberal party again people, get used to it, this whole Abbott charade is a sick joke on the gullible by the completely corrupted!

Bushbred “Stern, could say that going on ninety, I am old enough to figure out that like Leigh, you are among the best or worst of the right-wing smart arses.”

Well thanks for the advise ol’ timer but myself, having left the tender years of my fifties behind, am not inclined to stir to the views of someone who has not realised yet that
1 I do not sit in judgment over you and you do not sit in judgment over me.
2 as “smart arses” go, it is the right wing is where you are more likely to find them, than among left who err more to being “retards” and “dullards”, still needing a nanny to wipe their bums

Which reminds me of the great joke

Why are slip-on shoes more “egalitarian”?

So the leftwing politicians are not humiliated when their mummies come on the campaign trail to tie up the laces

Gazzaboy “Oh stern you are a piece of fascist work!”

Really gazzaboy – fascist eh?

Must admit my wife thinks I look good in a black shirt but “fascist” not really

As to your own dribbling inadequacies...

I suppose you wear regulation plaid and worn-out jeans, the uniform of the socialist bland, anti-individualism

But I thought the hardest thing for socialists was to find a leader – them all being so uniformly mediocre

but hey, dirty job, so just the like scum, something always manages to float to the top.

John Howard (Liberal) is the second longest serving prime minister of Australia
After Bob Menzies (Liberal)

Like you said the “Howard Era”

Well Kevin Rudd had his “moment”... so short it does not qualify as an “era” at all,
more like a momentary indiscretion, by the electorate and

Julia is not looking like an “era” either... more just a “flash in the pan”

Socialism... the politics of the expendable leader....
its power that the left is after

Howard lead this nation, Rudd and Gizzards just want to rule it.

And that, when you come done to it, is the real difference gazzaboy....

Liberal “Leadership” versus Socialist “Rule"