Im with you Foxy...maybe a new President will change things. Maybe he will pull the troops out of Iraq and things will quieten down.

I wouldn't worry too much about Australia becoming Americanised Gibo. We watch their TV shows and movies, listen to their music, watch their politics, eat their fast food, get involved in their wars, suffer the consequences of their bad economic behaviour, follow their fashions and pick up their language and spelling, but our attitudes are totally different.

Just about any survey on just about any topic you care to name will find vast differences between Australians and Americans. America may be all around us, but it hasn't entered our hearts and minds.

I think our society is becoming more politicised because we are adopting US policies, and generally doing whatever they would want us to do. Our sovereignty is being sold by our own government..... Remember how Rudd recently killed a multi-billion dollar uranium deal between Australia and Russia?

It's a recent US policy/action.

18 September:
"The US has already shelved a civilian nuclear deal with Russia"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7623555.stm

Like John Howard, Rudd has made us something of a puppet of the USA. Our strategists and analysts must be afraid of departing from even some US policy and thinking/acting with some independence. Or they are generally idiots and cowards, afraid of their own shadows.

Also remember the debate about Georgia we had on OLO weeks ago? In the above article I linked to the USA is now acknowledging that Georgia was the initial instigator and aggressor, and "fired the first shots". Despite this our government continue to assert the opposite as if they haven't yet caught up with USA White House officials statements. This disjunction only proves that our leaders are relying on foreign powers such as the USA and UK to make decisions for them. The media of course have had ample opportunity to correct the record, but I have noticed they have not taken such an opportunity and have fallen in line with our government position. Our media are not at all honest with the Australian people.