Cowboy Joe. T'was I you quoted indeed.

Off topic still mate. We don't have democracy here, just someone's version of it. Quoting other's comments is a lazy way of pursuing an issue and is indicative of your innacurate quote, mine, not David's. There is no vote on a replacement. Start a thread yourself on that.

The revelation you refer to has been government knowledge since it happened mate. It's just they didn't tell us.

David,

The three Parties I guess are Labor, Libs and Nats? ( The Greens? Not in my view) I see Libs and Nats as one despite the QLD charades. Of course nationally they do have numbers but essentially most electorates have two choices, Labor or coalition.

Agree of course on the minors and I would greatly wish there were and will be more. Anything to break the hold the 2 majors (my view) have on government. Don't forget the DLP in Victoria either. They're back!

Re minors building up in State. Not here in QLD David. Beattie has a stranglehold and we all saw what Abbott, Beattie and Howard did to remove the danger of One Nation. There's still one or two up here but it's over for them. Other States do have more too but the NT doesn't. Not sure of numbers elswhere.

I'm strongly for minors and always vote that way David. In the end it's mostly a choice at the bottom of the ticket for Labor or Coalition. No choice I see or want.

Democrats seemed to have a conscience but Meg Lees and the GSt blew that out of the water. Therefore their demise. Minors who make deals for the brief spotlight are a waste of time.

Thank goodness Family First changed the deal with Howard, after being let down of course but he has seen the light and lost what he bargained away too.

This is an interesting thread.

Anti-greens analogy of three horse carriage is apt. One would say the skill of the driver should also be the determining factor. I would hope that the driver was the electorate and if one horse tried to dominate too much the electorate use the whip hand of the ballot box, which it gets opportunity to do for the Congress, Senate and for some of the judiciary as well as the President/Vice President.

As for complaints about lack of democracy, well we have had the same comments in threads here and it is a furphy. I guess some just don’t get it. “Democracy” is the process which sees the candidates for public office competitively and regularly tested at the ballot box. That some do not like of the outcome of that process is not justification for criticisng the process, it merely identifies a churlish nature.

Cowboy Joes question is an intriguing one. I am particularly interested in the views of those who seem to be professional malcontents.

Who would they seek to replace USA as the dominant economy and political / military force in world affairs?

I, for one am happy the US (with the Western Allies in close support) prevailed over the last great test of tenacity.

Russia, it cannot feed itself, let alone lead others.
China is still recovering from years of self-imposed exile during which it went backwards.

The EU (that is who would be a runner, not France) is a parochial collection of diverse states.

South American or African States?. The only one which comes close, South Africa, is self destructing as we speak.

Australia does not have the population base to support a world-leader role, same for Canada.

The one who most closely preceded USA was UK.

The UK has a tradition, through Empire, of understanding world power in a unique way. Whether those skills and the will to exercise them remains is hard to guess and might have been discarded in the dalliance with EU; so, I doubt it.

Ultimately, Joe, there is no one else.

Apologies to other posters here. Col is following me like a pet blue heeler. Of course he's off track and needs no response.

He either tag teams with Joe or is indeed both.

Any thought of your own opinion anywhere Col? End of discussion.

RobbyH “Col is following me like a pet blue heeler”

I suppose an egoist might delude themselves to that.

In fact nearest I could come to describing such coincidence is

“It is simply SH * T before the shovel”

I just caught a whiff of the smell and there you were, RobbyH,

so here I am, shovelling.

I think alot of people are missing the point here.

I certainly don't think that we need a self appointed
world's policeman. If the US wants to appoint themselves
as such, it would be great if their leaders developed
at least a smigeon of people skills, or they will only
make things worse.

As we have seen in Afgahnistan, Iraq, Vietnam etc, owning
lots of bombs does not solve anything, it takes more then
that.

Sadly this present Bush/Cheney team, have the people skills
of a wild bush pig, so no wonder America has made so many
enemies and gone downhill so much in the last 6 years.

People such as Cheney/Armatige etc, who have nothing but
major arrogance to show, have much to learn. Threatening
to bomb Pakistan back to the stone age, refusing to even
talk to Iran, are not the way to make progress.

Bill Clinton did much to promote the US. He very nearly
solved the Middle East problem, he understood people skills.
He won respect wherever he went around the world.

This mob have become a laughing stock. Zawahiri is sitting
in the hills laughing at the US, they have been unable to
even find him. The Taliban are reforming, we have civil
war in Iraq, more Americans have been killed in Iraq then
in 911, far more are injured and maimed for life.

What democracy has shown is that if you make a mistake
and put an idiot up top, you might well pay a huge price.
Americans are learning the hard way it seems.

Iran talks to Americans

Iranian Ambassador Makes Inflammatory Remarks About Holocaust, at Columbia University
Thursday , December 07, 2006
By Catherine Donaldson-Evans

NEW YORK — The Iranian ambassador to the United Nations sparked a furor Wednesday night when he said at a speech in New York that Palestinians are suffering today because of "atrocities" that happened in World War II, specifically against the Jews.

Comments made by Javad Zarif about the Holocaust at Columbia University were met with animated protests from some students in the audience.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has repeatedly denied that the Holocaust happened and has also called for the destruction of Israel.