Nothing quite like a good bunch of conspiracy theories. Ha ha.

Aha Paul 1405, that I can fully understand. No doubt there is also a ghost ALP branch that meets in that very church?

No need for a conspiracy theory here samsung, this is standard ALP practice that I am quite sure Belly will happily confirm, since I get the feeling he gets a bit miffed with all the rorters and shysters in his beloved Party.

On this issue we are as one stevenlmeyer.

All the political parties are devoid of integrity, devoid of intelligence and devoid of allegiance to Australia. If you look at the reciprocal goods we get back for our coal, Iron ore etc, that is our nonrenewable, non value added resources, and that we get clothes, tools, other manufactured goods, and even food, all the goods we had been manufacturing in our facturies before the Mining companies took control of our political parties. Even the parties cannot control the economy, they have destroyed the economy by crawling on their bellies to get a brown face and make the rich richer and the poor poorer. That is the value of those great political leaders and treasurers. they are worth their weight in cow droppings - or maybe just not quite.

Although not (currently) a big fan of Rudd or Gillard (or Abbott either, for that matter) I have to say Rudd's strategy of inserting stimulus money at the bottom (to people who had to spend it) was far more successful than the US/Europe strategy of inserting it at the top.
Giving money to bankers was incredibly dumb. What did they do with the money? They 'shored up their position'.
IOW, they banked it.
Duh.
IMO bankers take 1,2,3 and fourth spots. Politicians and preachers are merely accessories to the crime.
As to Jimmy Carter's culpability, there has been endless finger pointing and one sided 'debate' about so called 'toxic' loans.
Why has no one asked: Why can't these millions of Americans afford something so basic as a roof over their heads?
The cruellest cut of all was when it was seriously suggested that all the people evicted from their homes should now be allowed to rent (from the banks) the very homes they 'can't afford' to own.

Grim, no major arguments with those points although I'm still not convinced that handouts were the best use of the money. On the other hand doing big infrastructure projects is not always easy either.

My point was more about the shallow politically biased finger pointing in that nomination of Abbott. There are plenty of way's we can point at politicians (many quite justifiable) but by any honest measure Abbott so far is a bit player for this topic.

My vote would probably go to Bush for the Iraq war but as I tried to point out even that decision has others playing significant roles in the lead up to it. Many of these things are the result of a series of people doing things in a certain way when different choices may have lead to a different scenario for person (or group) making that last decision.

R0bert