Alternatively, she has reverted to form after keeping up appearances for 6 years. ;)

It would seem we're not alone in feeling we're being taken for suckers by the "country shoppers".

Brand New Leather Jacket - YouTube

How long will Julia last
 

This is only my opinion and based on nothing but a "hunch", and from reading and listening to a few commentators. If the poll numbers stay below 30, and I think they will, I give her until late September, mid October at the most.

There are reports out today that the Labor party is forming a working group, to work out how to recover from the train smash that will be the next election. So given that, I think they will want to replace her far enough out from the election, not in a hope of winning it, but in a hope of making it a smaller smash.

This, as I said, is just my opinion and I could be completley wrong.

Oh, and we just found another one, with 80 onboard!!. Why dont they just build a f##kcing bridge, it would be easier.:ugh::ugh:

Why not attach a rope to them and tow them back
and release it in Indonesian Waters.

My other preferred alternative is not PC enough
for a public forum.

That is one possibility SOPS, or they could just leave her there to take all the blame for the disaster she has orchestrated, rather than hand someone a poisoned chalice?

Very true Para, I mean would anyone want the job now? I mean it would be like asking someone to volunteer to stand in front of the Indain Pacific, while is was going full speed, down hill.

Perhaps they will just leave her to stand among the carnage, and make a move from there. Time will tell.

She's reverted to 'toughing it out'. It's all she has left.

Brand ALP has been severly damaged. Moderate True Believers will turn against this Green/ALP hybrid Govt. in their droves. Many, even here, will rely upon the age old method of repeating a lie often enough that it becomes the truth. It works on them, but it just wont work on everyone else now.

The ALP probably need to get wiped out in order for the following moratorium that will allow them to return to their roots & purge the remnants of the Red Witch & Comrade Rudd from their ranks. If they get it right, they may not be out of power for too long.

The final nail in the coffin of brand labor will be the fallout from the union corruption enquiries, which I think we will find is only just starting.

I can't see Shorten avoiding it - and he is widely touted as the future messiah. Personally, when I see him on TV, I think more of Beazley, Latham, Rudd and Gillard than Hayden, Hawke or Keating.

Speaking of gut reactions, what was the general, visceral reaction to Hugh Jackman appearing with Julia Gillard yesterday? My initial thought was that it would be a negative for Jackman's reputation while not doing anything to boost Gillard's standing.

The small straw poll I've conducted today, admittedly with only female respondents, tends to bear this out with the responses unanimously being along the lines of "Hugh, how could you?".

I think it's a luvvie and pseudo-intelligentsia thing. It's probably something that they've never grown out of from year 11 or uni days. They think that they are above the hoi polloi and sneer at anyone who disagrees with the utopian leftist view and regard them as something less than human.

When that opinion triumphs occasionally you eventually see the train wreck that is currently happening in Australia. Somehow or other the raw facts and reality don't seem to have much influence on them and they retire into their corners snarling and bitching about how good it was when a leftist government was in charge.

One fully expects a post along the lines of "Inflation only 1.8% - that just shows you how well this totally misunderstood government is doing etc etc" to appear before too long.

tick, tick, tick, tick........

"Very true Para, I mean would anyone want the job now? I mean it would be like asking someone to volunteer to stand in front of the Indain Pacific, while is was going full speed, down hill."


Their is a precedent that I can remember.

In Victoria, Joan Kirner took the job of Victorian Premiere from John Cain II on a Labour train wreck that was as you described, mainly because none of the men wanted to take it.

She actually made quite a good fist of it in the 2 years until the election
and won admiration for it.

Further to my questions above, I am not sure anyone in the Federal Labor party want to take on the job if they are going to lose the election and therefore Julia might just tough it out to the end.

The comments on Hugh Jackman's (squirmworthy) appearance alongside JG are interesting.

I don't know if anyone else here watches 'Paul Murray Live' on Sky. I've only recently stumbled across it, and find it (him) refreshingly 'in yer face' on a number of issues.

He was more than a little outraged over the Gillard/Jackman love in, mainly over Gillard's giving - giving, not loaning - 12.5 million BORROWED, TAXPAYERS' dollars to the producers of the new Wolverine movie so that they would make the movie in Australia. (That's almost as much money as the same government saved in taking the free annual ticket home from single members of the defence forces.) He came up with a chart showing that the Wolverine franchise had doubled its investment with its last movie. (I think the figures were, $120 million to make it, while the movie made $230 million, but I might have those figures wrong.) Then he went on to ask whether there was any provision for the movie company to repay this money if the next movie made similar profits and the answer was NO. It's a gift from the Australian taxpayer to an American movie company, along the same lines as the muti million dollars we give to Ford, Toyota, GM and who knows whom else so they'll keep building cars here. Then, after taking the money, they don't, but let's not go there. (And before Matt/Lex et al patronisingly explain to me all the money that making the movie here will bring in to the Australian economy, let's not go there either. It's a rort.)

Meanwhile, on the ABC's AM this morning, we hear audio grabs of Ahmed, the hapless Iranian asylum seeker, begging for assistance for him and his 70 companions from Australian authorities as his stricken vessel founders off the coast of Bali, (eh?) and how, despite being given GPS co-ordinates from Ahmed's phone, the Indonesians are unable to locate the boat - so a navy ship is hastening to the rescue.

I sincerely hope that that ship is either:
(a) an Indonesian Navy vessel, or
(b), if Australian, it takes the survivors to the nearest port and not, as I suspect it will, all the way to Christmas Island.

"Meanwhile, on the ABC's AM this morning, we hear audio grabs of Ahmed, the hapless Iranian asylum seeker, begging for assistance for him and his 70 companions from Australian authorities as his stricken vessel founders off the coast of Bali, (eh?) and how, despite being given GPS co-ordinates from Ahmed's phone, the Indonesians are unable to locate the boat - so a navy ship is hastening to the rescue.

I sincerely hope that that ship is either:
(a) an Indonesian Navy vessel, or
(b), if Australian, it takes the survivors to the nearest port and not, as I suspect it will, all the way to Christmas Island."


GPS is only useful if you have a SAR service and GPS !!!

Why are we doing SAR in Indonesian waters ?

Anyway, in answer to your questions
(a) I doubt it, they don't have enough and what they do have are not allocated to SAR
(b) Look at recent history but don't forget they have to go past centrelink to pick up all the benefits first:rolleyes:

Someone will step up - there is no ego bigger than a labor pollie's ego - to paraphrase Richo - "power at any cost".
GAGS
E86

As the ALP and the Greens are in a written agreement to form a coalition how about Christine Milne or Sara Hanson Young to take over from Gillard as PM?:E

600 more jobs to go from Caltex, 150 more lost at LCQ, my how the economy is booming down here!:mad:

The boat that asylum seeker Ahmed on board was north of Java (and Bali) when Ahmed made his distress call and it would seem the Indonesians have now found it. The interesting question now is:

"What will become of the boat and the people on board?"

In my opinion, there's a very good chance that the same people will board it to continue their journey after repairs have been completed. (Next time, they'll make sure those bungs in the pre-drilled holes in the hull don't start leaking until they are REQUIRED to start leaking - i.e., when the Australian Navy or Customs ship appears over the horizon - and they'll probably prevail upon Ahmed not to use his phone next time until south of Java.)

Whatever, my guess is we'll be "greeting" Ahmed and his 60+ travelling companions within the week.

Hey you rabble of rambling ideologues, I haven't checked in here for ages (Oz Hamster at least),.....Been a bit busy with some personal affairs, which culminated with the burial of a friends 7 yr old daughter this afternoon after a 7 month cancer battle....and

Well...it puts things in perspective for you, that's for freaking certain!!

Both sides of politics in this country are rotten to their roots, period....no arguement...but seeing what I have over this past year up to this afternoon...well, as a parent, and as a human, often forget how good we have things, often forget how much the near and dear really mean...and I pray I never have to go through another poor innocent child's funeral, after watching their sad & tragic demise

Ok, thank you, I had to get it off the chest thank you.....resume ladies & gentlemen......but don't lose sight of what you have!

Well. thats the point really isn't it Fliegs. Perspective, when you come across it, hits you right between the eyes!

Can't really begin to imagine what the last 7 months for you & your friends has been like, but my sympathies regardless.

I too lament the loss of true Statesmen & Politicians in Oz. It's just another career option now.

Struggle on Fleigs. Fight the good fight, and don't let the bastards get you down.

Buster, I'm sure we haven't always seen eye to eye in the past, if I recall correctly, but I sure do appreciate the graciousness of your response!

I don't need struggle on, I do better than I care to admit sometimes, and as for the bastards, I learnt not to let them get me down years ago, wouldn't give the bastards the satisfaction!

You are right the perspective hits you right between the eyes, and instantly you think, what are my problems??? Am I not indeed blessed not to have the problems of others!