World Heritage Committee raspberrys Abbott ...

[spikepipsqueak]

... and it couldn't happen to a more deserving bloke.

I received this broadcast email from Getup this morning. [Insert cartwheels and other indications of joyful triumph here.]

This morning the World Heritage Committee emphatically rejected Prime Minister Tony Abbott's submission to have Tasmania's ancient forests stripped of their protection status and opened to logging!

It took the 21 delegate World Heritage Committee less than 7 minutes to unanimously reject the Abbott Government proposal, stating that:

"The justification presented to the reduction are, to say the least, feeble. Accepting this delisting today would be setting an unacceptable precedent...we cannot also disregard the positions voiced in this issue by the Australian Senate, by nature conservation associations and I would dare say, most of all, by Indigenous communities."

Australia is unique in ever having attempted to do this, they were saying on the radio this morning.

Abbott is a barbarian. I really want to know how he got in.

 

[bilby]

... and it couldn't happen to a more deserving bloke.

I received this broadcast email from Getup this morning. [Insert cartwheels and other indications of joyful triumph here.]

This morning the World Heritage Committee emphatically rejected Prime Minister Tony Abbott's submission to have Tasmania's ancient forests stripped of their protection status and opened to logging!

It took the 21 delegate World Heritage Committee less than 7 minutes to unanimously reject the Abbott Government proposal, stating that:

"The justification presented to the reduction are, to say the least, feeble. Accepting this delisting today would be setting an unacceptable precedent...we cannot also disregard the positions voiced in this issue by the Australian Senate, by nature conservation associations and I would dare say, most of all, by Indigenous communities."

Australia is unique in ever having attempted to do this, they were saying on the radio this morning.

Abbott is a barbarian. I really want to know how he got in.

He got in because the Australian electorate were systematically lied to by the Murdoch press, who leveraged their innate distrust of incumbents, and their inclination towards xenophobia and dog whistle politics, to make Abbott look like the lesser of two evils, despite his actually being very clearly worse even than the strife torn Rudd/Gillard/Rudd administration. Australian voters are always susceptible to calls for change, because the failings of the government are harder to hide than those of the opposition.

I am not surprised that Abbott got in; I will be mightily disappointed if he gets a second term, and I just hope that the Senate can keep him on a fairly short leash until the next election, to limit the damage.

Of course, even Murdoch couldn't have gotten him elected if he had actually told the voters his policies before the election; being prepared to repeatedly tell bald-faced lies on camera right up to the close of the polls, and to then smugly go about doing the exact opposite of his stated platform once in office without a hint of embarrassment is obviously a good 'one term' strategy.

I think he genuinely believes that God wants him to run the country in this way; that God will smile on him (and by extension, us) once he has done so, and that we will all realise how nobly he brought us (against our will) to God's grace and the blessing of the Vatican, by freeing us from the needless protections placed in the way of our obedience of God's will to use the fruits of the Earth without restraint. He is so completely convinced that he is doing Gods will (as defined by Cardinal Pell), that the ends justify any and every means he might use to bring this about.

In short, he is a dangerous zealot, who shouldn't be given responsibility for managing a popsicle stand, much less an entire nation.

 

[spikepipsqueak]

Yeah. It was pretty much a rhetorical question. Which I suspect you know, and are also just availing yourself of the opportunity for a little Abbott abuse.

Plus, I never heard of that "humble in victory, gracious in defeat" nonsense.

It is a little warped, but if I had the chance to give him a good kicking I would probably do it. There is no other human being I could say that about.

It was interesting living in those months leading up to the election because the Murdoch press weren't the only ones doing biassed reporting. The ABC seemed to climb on that bandwagon too, and I think it was in service of avoiding being called biassed. Like when Christians cry because you don't agree with them.

Semi related aside: I had a little giggle a month or so ago. Jon Faine, who you may or may not know is an ABC morning presenter down here, was in trouble some years ago for displaying his liberal bias.

When Hockey's budget hit the news, Faine interviewed someone from ACOSS about the effect the budget would have on the least well off segment of society. I believe it to have been a Dorothy Dixer.

He sounded just like a Liberal voter. Reminded me of Loren. ( Sorry Loren. :waves ) Faine was being, to all appearances, really harsh and confrontational, but her answers to his practically abusive tone gave her a chance to air stats and attitudes that needed to be aired, and he probably got brownie points with management for being even handed.

Then the poor man got abused by text and phone for betraying his roots.

Turns out you can't win.

 

[Nice Squirrel]

Agenda 21 rears its ugly head and kills freedom!

 

[Narapoia]

Yeah. It was pretty much a rhetorical question. Which I suspect you know, and are also just availing yourself of the opportunity for a little Abbott abuse.

Plus, I never heard of that "humble in victory, gracious in defeat" nonsense.

It is a little warped, but if I had the chance to give him a good kicking I would probably do it. There is no other human being I could say that about.

It was interesting living in those months leading up to the election because the Murdoch press weren't the only ones doing biassed reporting. The ABC seemed to climb on that bandwagon too, and I think it was in service of avoiding being called biassed. Like when Christians cry because you don't agree with them.

Semi related aside: I had a little giggle a month or so ago. Jon Faine, who you may or may not know is an ABC morning presenter down here, was in trouble some years ago for displaying his liberal bias.

When Hockey's budget hit the news, Faine interviewed someone from ACOSS about the effect the budget would have on the least well off segment of society. I believe it to have been a Dorothy Dixer.

He sounded just like a Liberal voter. Reminded me of Loren. ( Sorry Loren. :waves ) Faine was being, to all appearances, really harsh and confrontational, but her answers to his practically abusive tone gave her a chance to air stats and attitudes that needed to be aired, and he probably got brownie points with management for being even handed.

Then the poor man got abused by text and phone for betraying his roots.

Turns out you can't win.

Bold mine.

Hey I despise Abbott as much as the next person with half a brain but he wouldn't even be in the top ten of my list of people I'd like to give a good kicking. I'd certainly boot Murdoch before him, GWB, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Perle and I'll probably stop there before it seems like I do actually have a list somewhere.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Wait... things happen in other countries?

 

[ksen]

wait . . . there's other countries?

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

wait . . . there's other countries?

Well duh. They are the people we beat up on in the Olympics... and the umm.... World Series. But I thought that was all they ever did. Kind of the Washington Generals of sports abroad.

 

[bilby]

If someone is dealing out kickings to politicians who desperately need them, I do hope that Christopher Pyne is at the top of their list.