Well said Liam. The RightThinks are so far right that anybody who is centre is seen as a Leftie! There are very few of those left.

The fear factor has been used since time immemorial to keep the masses in check and obedient. It has always been very successful and will continue to be so. It has been used by regimes of every political persuasion and by any organisation you can think of, from unions to religions, anybody wanting to rapidly build a big power base.

The APEC security show was just that. An in your face show to convince any doubters that we live in very dangerous times. There are demons out there preying on your soul, oh no, wrong century, there are terrorists out there preying on your life style.

Just a question for this day. American presidents have been assassinated, or attempted to be assassinated, before and the US of A, or the rest of the world, never even wobbled. In the past the death of kings or their heirs on the other hand, because of inherited power and connections they forged caused conflagration. Are we now treating our elected leaders with the same awe and deference as once monarchy was treated? When did elected politicians become so precious they weren't replaceable and would cause a collapse of the nation?

Hi Liam

As basically a centrist (whose been in some really odd parts of Government) forgive me for concentrating on your US aircraft comment.

I take it you're referring to the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) slow, short range, poor paylload. I agree with you that we shouldn't buy it for the reasons you state.

The promise of local industry offsets (in marginal electorates) of more than $1 billion appears to be the main reason the Howard Government has overridden good sense for promised political goodies. So far Australia hasn't made a final decision on choosing the JSF although it has put down many millions in project entry money.

Lockheed is flogging the JSF and Lockheed has also persuaded the US Congress to withhold another Lockheed aircraft from any (non US) customers.

This aircraft is the F-22 Raptor http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-22 which has been built, tested and now being deployed. It has all the capabilities that Australia will eventually need. The F-22 is gradually being developed to also take on the bomber role.

As Lockheed and the US have a monopoly on supplying the F-22 this allows them to pressure allies to order the inferior JSF first (say in 2009) before the F-22 is released to us foreigners around 2015.

Lockheed will thus basically attempted preplanned obsolescence of the JSF thus making sucker countries like Australia, UK and Japan etc buy the JSF and THEN the F-22. This will make Lockheed, US Congressmen and the US Treasury all very happy with the extra loot.

The ALP awhile ago said it preferred the F-22. While the F-22 is from Uncle Sam I think we should go for that aircraft even if we need to knock back US offers of the JSF and wait 7 years till the F-22 is magically released by Lockheed.

Pete

POWER NAVEL GRAZERS - ALL the money spent.... all the engery directed to the purpose of .... (?) ... it is so (unjustly) sad it is "comical, speculative and even mundane' ... poor of debate and opinion (that over-ALL) is notable - such a valuable + big event with numerous opportunities for things to happen, to go wrong, and to be challenged, but with very little of substance actually materialising.

I DO appreciate the role of exchange... so much that I understand it and the way it could help humanity gain the higher things in life... if it were not traded for the sake of it.

We do need a HUMAN FACE... it START's with ALL not by ONE. ie: ONE can fall foul as we see throughout history. Equity is an equation that needs us to tolerate (the strength) of our differences and create spaces to put it face to face... this is the lean part.

On hearing of Helen Clark going after people who aint doing enough to retrive funds from those who are being diddled.... I say this has to be done from the TOP DOWN to the streets.

Become a COUNTERFEIT-DIVA... do more to make sure that those working for administrations "everywhere" actually engage - develop - plan and create... some-THING that deserves a celebration and our ongoing respectful response.

The POINT IS - we are being NULLIFED by a-no-named response except when it comes to CRISIS and WAR (anywhere).Hence the build up of FEAR!

THIS is a COMMUNITY ISSUE - OUR PREPAREDNESS - WE ARE ALL VILLAGE FARMERS

HUMAN CAPITAL is being traded-Off for POLITIC's which is why we have poor reguard for it.

I believe BUSINESS Groups WANT TO DO THE RIGHT THING...

I BELIEVE AUSTRALIAN's WANT TO DO THE THING....

WHERE IS THE REAL PROBLEM.... ARE WE ALL SO BUSY (IDOTS) THAT LIFE it-self is not worth FIGHTING FOR....?

We need to discuss ECONOMICS - the economics of everyday life...

WHO ARE WE?

http://www.miacat.com/
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Observing the same principals, one can dig back into the past to see identical (NOT similar) methods used by some very nasty people.

Liam,

Anyone who suggests that the police have PSYCHO-SEXUAL FANTASY OF DISCIPLINARY POWER clearly are sexually perverted themselves. To even suggest such a thing you cannot be interested in reasoned debate.

There are plenty of soft-left politically correct disasters. . Massacres in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia. Whitlam’s absolute mess of everything. Massive debt. Gov’t and councils who employed five supervisors for every person who did any work. The failures of Self Determination in Aboriginal communities. Nationalising the banks. Multi Culturalism.

Thanks to free trade middle classes have sprung up in India and China and hundreds of millions have been lifted out of poverty. Gov’ts don’t make wealth, business does. What the left really fears about free trade is that the unskilled work will go where the labour is cheapest( as long as there is sufficient infrastructure). These types of jobs, whilst paying less than there first world equivalents, normally pay significantly more than traditional work in the third world.What you leftists never do is ask the people who work in these factories what they think about their opportunities.

As for the JSF, its people like you who convinced gov’t to downgrade our military capabilities and left us in such a parlous state before both ww1 and ww2.

Yvonne

The far left imagines it holds mainstream views, yet it could only manage to recruit a handful of supporters for its APEC marches. If anyone was in any doubt that these people do not represent the average Australian, this was the proof.

The recent G20 and other meetings of world leaders have almost always been marred by violence and rioting by immature idiots.

The importance in the assassination of an American President isn’t just in the loss of the Head-of-Gov’t. It is in the propaganda coup for terrorists who would use this success to recruit more members and renew their desire to fight. Its in the loss of face for the host country who’s security services have been shown up. Its also in the fact that any response to such an assassination is likely to create more conflict and more death

Such erudition in describing arguably the most expensive strop-fest held in this country. And the author is right, it shows Sydney is a city to be taken seriously (World's best practice) with basically a quiescent populace and enough rough, tough, ugly policemen to make the average demonstrator think twice.

So how come the Chaser's little prank wasn't mentioned? The ABC is never exactly been flush with funds but this comedy group made it through the checkpoints and past the hotel where Dubya and his team were staying. And to think there's half a dozen or so rocket launchers still unaccounted for, probably in New South Wales.

The ABC is busy congratulating itself on this wonderful achievement. In many of the countries represented at APEC, the snipers would have taken some of the team out once it was realized that they were not genuine. By all means watch the bloody program if you have to but consider this: a grave security breach occurred and it could have ended with blood on the pavement and funerals to follow.