In other news "dog bites man".
I would come as no surprise to anyone that this author can not bring himself to say anything good about a leftist Government. It's is also no surprise that he doesn't present any realist alternative ideas either. It is very easy to pick holes in someone else’s plans, much harder to come up with one of your own, and even harder to get yourself into a position to actually execute your plan. While the author has made some attempt at the fist one, he has failed at the second and not even tried the third.

The only list Kevin Rudd should be on is "Wanted Dead or Alive."

Emperor Lu Kewan is fast becoming an embarrassment to Australia. At home we have his substantial and well implemented policies that would be an example to the rest of the developed world.

We have Er; let me see now, Ah! Yes, we have Petrol Watch, Grocery Watch, the Inflation Genie, Say Sorry, Sign Kyoto, bringing Fruit Pickers from Polynesia, then reducing skilled labor immigration, pink bats, computers for schools even if states can’t install or support them, education revolution run by the National Union of Teachers, infrastructure programs that can’t be implemented, not even started, bagging out overpaid executives (but excluding Mrs. Rudd), bringing home the troops, the ETS (after we signed Kyoto Doh!) and IR reform by stealth. Can anyone please tell me of ANY major policy development and implementation? Many of my overseas friends want to know what our Emperor has actually done to make him such a superstar. I can’t answer them.

Whilst The Emperor only represents loose change in the international arena, he is now chasing enhanced status in international politics, the IMF, UN and NATO. It seems only yesterday that little Jonny was being criticized for being up the butt of George W. Bush. The Emperors hypocrisy is breathtaking. His only measureable achievement seems to be that he has managed to get up more butts in less time than little Jonny.

How much more of this tokenistic and ideological rhetoric can we take?

Leigh

A more appropriate list would be the Not Wanted Dead or Alive List.

And I just loved the obsequious manner he cheered on Obama's bailout of all those evil neolib fundmanagers in Wall Street. Is he going to now pen a philosophical article on the merits of survival of capitalism and the dangers of Democratic Socialism and return to his Economic Conservative status?

Who knows? ... because he doesn't ... and nor do his obsequious media butt buddies in Australia.

welcome to the Ruddslide 09 version

Monday 30 March 2009.

Labor leads Coalition 58% to 42%

Labor leads on primary vote 47% - 37%

Kevin Rudd approval rating 74%

Says it all!

Gee someone from the IPA with a negative view of a Labor PM? Wonders will never cease. I wonder who compiled the list?

Saving capitalism from the capitalists will probably require those of greater global influence than Mr Rudd. If his name is absent it is not altogether surprising, just as Mr Howard would not have made the list for the same reasons.

As Kipp shows Australians continue to shout "we are all 'Ruddians' now" but it's more likely than not that this enthusiasm for Kevin will finish up as an obituary "we are all DEAD Ruddians now."

http://avant-gardestrategies.typepad.com

...

HOW ABOUT DEPUTY SHERIFF OF THE USA ?

...

The world-wide image of Australia's Prime Minister for the twelve year period leading up to the investiture of Kevin Rudd in 2007 was that of "Deputy Sheriff of the USA", a sort of number two to John Wayne or Clint Eastwood (or should I say George Bush).

Compared with the image of the heads of government of some of the African countries and others, at the time, that's not so bad. However I doubt that the image of John Howard would have ranked amongst the top fifty on the Financial Times hit parade either.

I read Kevin Rudd's article in "Le Monde" and thought it was excellent. It certainly gave a different image of Australia and the intellectual quality of its politicians than what we had been used to in the past.

I actually read it lying in my bed in Paris, not sipping my "café au lait" as John Roskam suggests. "Le Monde" is an evening newspaper and does not come out until about 2pm. It would have been more appropriate to suggest that Parisians had been sipping their "apéritif" whilst pondering upon the wisdom of an Australian politician who's ideas seemed to make a lot of good sense in the context of the financial crises as we are currently experiencing it here in Europe.

...

This piece is all over the place.

The closest thing to a point, is that our diplomats have a difficult time overseas.

He states in the same essay that the Europeans will love Rudd's essay, but diplomats have a tough job with trade promotion.

?

Aside from the US who have changed ideology, which countries are left that embrace neo-conservatism?

Just corporates, though even they're being silent with all this stimulus money being unleashed.

Before those on the right begin attacking Obama, consider this:

Obama plans to allow the market to correct itself by assisting the banks rather than nationalising them. Obama and Rudd agree.

Think of the talks occurring right now. We're taking the same stance as the US against Europes.

Where, did our diplomats get such a hard time, except perhaps due to the decline in their funding? Was it where we agree with the US government, just like the banks do?

Is it with the Europeans who Roskam says love the essay?

Clearly, our diplomats don't have a toxic reputation, the only central theme I can find in this wandering collection of cliches.

Coffee sipping French and Le Monde? Why not have them eating tofu too?

Of course, being *popular* on the world stage and locked in step with those embracing markets as the way to solve this crisis is much worse for diplomacy than say... TAMPA!

Idiocy.

Rudd's hardly a raging leftie. Some describe his position as opportunistic, but I'll take an opportunist who senses what the public wants over one who ignores that completely.

Given his popularity, it'd seem he's behaving how his country wants. Shock! Horror! That's despite cutting government advertising to a third of what it was under the allegedly conservative Howard government.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25265932-26103,00.html

The IPA: honing their ability to mar their image. Maybe they are the experts.

The only worthwhile points in this childish piece were that DFAT shouldn't be distributing Rudd's essay. I concur. Also, while I think the seat on the UN council's not a bad idea, I think this anti-racism conference smells as does the silence on Zimbabwe.

Kevin will prove to be the weakess most unspiring leader in our history.The unedified masses love him now,but things will change rapidly when they realise the amount of debt they will incur.

Already our private debt due mainly to borrowing is $700 billion,add to that Kevin's soon to be $200 billion and we have $900 billion or $90,000.00 foreign debt for every working person.

We are almost in as much trouble as the Yanks.So don't kid youself that Kevin is the Messiah.

Arjay, aside from the simplicity of your comparison (check out the debt to GDP ratios and you see we're nowhere near the ballpark of the US nor even the bulk of European nations. Honestly, the ballpark's in a different damn city. They've been sliding for a long time).

At an even simpler level:

900000000000 / 23000000

= 39130. Less than half of your estimate.

TLTR,talk in real numbers that people can understand.Your analogy is like 1984 double speak.My stats speak the truth.

This is a new one. We now have the Right criticising the government on the basis of the numbers of pages of legislation.
The clear intent of course is to smear the government with the stain of inefficiency: bloated legislation.
Like many other commenters i struggled to find a spine to this article. Perhaps that's because it's incoherence overpowers its eloquence.

Just recently I compiled a list of the fifty people who make sense on this site. John Roskam isn't one of them.

JOHN ROSKAM! JOHN ROSKAM! Oh Graeme. Has OLO sunk so low, become so idiotically right wing that you give oxygen to this profanity? Sheesh.

So Graeme. I see you now publish articles by lots of IPA guys. There's quite a few by Alan Moran. And you've published this pile of s h i t by John Roskam.

One of the most depressing experiences of my Internet life has been watching OLO become the habitat of the wingnut right. OLO used to be compulsory reading. Now it's full of this sort of dross from the IPA. THE IPA! Honestly. Does anyone take you seriously now Graeme? I suppose when I next have a look at OLO (in another twelve months time, if you are still around), it will be full of articles by Andrew Bolt. You really have sunk a l-o-n-g way Graeme. Sad.

Arjay, you stated:

"TLTR,talk in real numbers that people can understand.Your analogy is like 1984 double speak.My stats speak the truth."

It took me a while to stop laughing, but now that I have, allow me to present you with a brutal truth.

My last post provided direct maths.

You said there was 900 billion worth of debt.

I took that figure. I divided it by the most recent estimates of the Australian population - 23 million.

The figure that came out was less than half of your projection of debt per person.

I've read 1984 - once in the past and once recently. The truth is, that pure mathematics is the one science that can't be disputed. It's the furthest thing from doublespeak that exists.

That's not doublespeak. That's singlespeak.

A competent 14 year old with an abacus can back that up.

However, I ought to thank you for the chuckles.

As for the rest of the post - GDP versus debt is the most common tool used to measure the economic performance of a country. At least, it is in economic circles.

Go on - google GDP, to public debt ratio. There's an entire secion of wikipedia devoted to it, but I don't think it's factored in the recent stimulus packages.

Put simply, this is the amount of debt a country has, to the amount of money it produces. (This is simplistic, but I'm wondering if such simplicity is necessary).

Australia, even with the stimulus packages, has a projected debt to GDP ratio that is below 10%. There are many estimates for the next half a dozen years. They're all below this figure.

Certain countries are well above 100% and other ones are catching up rapidly. Frankly, an internet dispute isn't worth spending hours gathering the precise statistics, though if you can find me a reputable information source that indicates Australia is anywhere near the US or other stagnant economies in terms of this ratio, then I'll take you seriously, Arjay. Otherwise, you haven't proved your comments should be anything but dismissed as hyperbole coupled with dodgy maths.

TLTR ,it was per working person,ie 10 million.Glad to see I do entertain.Cheers.

All this talk by the Prime Minister and the opposition about Australia
having close neighbours such as China and because we are in that region,
etc etc etc, I am sure you have all heard this before.

It is not generally realised that Beijing is closer to Paris than
Beijing is to Canberra. 9006 Km compared to 8215 Km !
The distance between Paris and Asia is also less than the distance
between Australia and Asia.
We are told that we are almost in range of Nth Korea's rockets when
in fact Europe is in their range.

These misconceptions largely spread by journalists, is caused by the
Mercador projections of world maps on school walls.