Tony Abbott thinks he’s Margaret Thatcher
Our PM, Tony Abbott is once again the laughing stock of “the rest of the world,” with this article just published in the New York Times….
Like many Australians, Prime Minister Tony Abbott, 56, is crazy about sports. He is a passionate cyclist, an Ironman triathlete and a former boxer.
The zeal that Mr. Abbott has shown on the track and in the ring is now on display as he directs Australia’s efforts against the militants of the Islamic State, abroad and at home.
Though he has been in office only a year and has had meager experience in foreign affairs, Mr. Abbott moved quickly to send a squadron of fighter jets and 600 military personnel to the Middle East to be ready to join the fight against the militants in Iraq and Syria, even before President Obama formally rallied American allies.
Mr. Abbott followed up with sweeping counterterrorism raids in two cities, aimed at followers of the Islamic State.
The raids resulted in just two arrests, but they helped the government look tough in confronting homegrown Muslim radicals.
And in response to Mr. Obama’s call for action to deter recruitment by the extremists, legislation was passed in the lower house of Parliament on Wednesday expanding police powers to detain suspects, increasing surveillance of telecommunications and making the unauthorized reporting on intelligence matters by journalists punishable by a prison term of up to 10 years.
Relatively isolated and sparsely populated, Australia has long seen value in being one of America’s closest allies, fighting alongside the United States in World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan.
In times of crisis, Australia has kept in step with the United States, on whom it relies heavily for security guarantees.
Even in that context, though, Mr. Abbott’s action was swift — and the early deployment of the Australian squadron was appreciated in Washington, given that 22 of Washington’s 27 NATO allies have yet to contribute any forces to the effort.
But analysts in Australia are questioning how the country will benefit from joining such a risky military operation, when its contribution is unlikely to affect the outcome and the national strategic interests it has at stake seem ill defined.
“Abbott thinks of brave little Australia standing up with the United States for what is right,” said Hugh White, a former senior Australian defense official who is now a professor at the Australian National University.
“The only things that keep the world swinging on its axis, in his mind, are the men and women — mostly men — who speak English as a first language and who are willing to go out there and do the hard yards.”
For Mr. Abbott, the emergence of the Islamic State has offered an opportunity to lift his popularity at home. Political commentators say they believe the prime minister’s standing has vastly improved since May, when he introduced an unpopular first budget that cut spending on schools, hospitals and older adults.
Afterward, polls showed the opposition Labor Party ahead of Mr. Abbott’s conservative Liberal Party.
Now, with the encouragement of the country’s brash news media, dominated by Rupert Murdoch, and talk radio hosts who rail against the 500,000 Muslims living in Australia, Mr. Abbott is now widely seen as a scrappy prizefighter ready to take on the world.
And the Labor opposition, afraid of appearing soft, has backed his policy moves, including the tough new laws.
Australian intelligence officials say that about 70 Australian citizens, typically disaffected young Muslim men from immigrant families, have joined the Islamic State, often referred to as ISIS.
The passports of about 100 others have been cancelled for fear they might do the same.
Mr. Murdoch used his news media properties to back Mr. Abbott in the election last year, and the two men have a warm relationship.
After the highly publicized predawn counterterrorism raids, which were shown with police video on morning breakfast shows, one of Mr. Murdoch’s newspapers, The Sunday Telegraph, ran a headline that read, “Cage the Cowards.” A non-Murdoch competitor, The Sydney Morning Herald, took a more alarmist tack: “Sydney Under Siege.”
Critics say that Mr. Abbott is playing to the crowd with what they call flawed political and foreign policy strategies.
“The policies are designed to create and exploit an atmosphere of hysteria,” said Allan Behm, a former senior defense official who is now a risk analyst.
“Australians don’t have to be scratched too hard to find xenophobic — not to mention racist — attitudes. That’s why the government should exercise extreme caution when they may have to move against individuals on national security grounds.”
Mr. Behm warned that Mr. Abbott should not expect to emulate Margaret Thatcher, the former British prime minister, whom Mr. Abbott has said he greatly admires.
When he completed a triathlon in 14 hours in 2010, Mr. Abbott drew a favorable comparison between himself as the “Iron Man” and Mrs. Thatcher, who was known as the Iron Lady.
“The prime minister thinks he’s Margaret Thatcher, and that he can win the next election,” Mr. Behm said, “not by invading the Falklands but by dropping bombs on Iraq.”
Mr. Abbott has taken a number of contentious positions since coming to office. To combat the flow of refugees trying to reach Australia by sea, he has ordered his coast guard to intercept migrant boats and tow them out of Australia’s territorial waters.
Asylum seekers are now held at offshore detention centers while their claims to go to countries other than Australia are processed, and journalists are barred from visiting the centers.
In July, Mr. Abbott gave Shinzo Abe, the conservative prime minister of Japan, the opportunity to address Parliament during his visit to Australia, welcoming him more warmly than Mr. Obama did in Washington.
In his introduction of Mr. Abe to Parliament, Mr. Abbott praised the “skill and sense of honor” of the Japanese sailors who attacked Sydney Harbor in 1942, killing 21 sailors.
The Australian writer Richard Flanagan, who recently published a harrowing novel about Japan’s brutal treatment of Australian prisoners of war, many of whom died, in what was then Burma, called Mr. Abbott’s praise of the Japanese submarine crews “a strange perversity.”
“Many Australians were offended,” Mr. Flanagan said, “as many were puzzled why Abe was allowed to use the Australian Parliament to broadcast what was widely understood internationally as a message of Japanese belligerence to China.”
theguttertrash.com 
‘Because of our separate US security arrangements, Australia and Japan have long been – if only in a de facto sense – the closest of military and security partners. Australia’s intelligence operations in the South Pacific complement Japan’s corresponding activities in the North Pacific. To some extent, Tony Abbott’s earlier visit to Japan and now Shinzo Abe’s stellar performance in Australia only makes explicit what was already the case – Japan, to paraphrase a previous Abbot remark, is Australia’s most important ally in Asia.’
Daryl McCann / Quadrant
Tony Abbott still insists that the Australian Defence Force military air strikes on Iraq are a “humanitarian mission”..
http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2014/oct/03/tony-abbott-warns-iraq-mission-will-be-dangerous-and-quite-lengthy?CMP=soc_567
Fact check:
It’s war, not ‘a mission’: Abbott incorrect on Iraq action…
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-10-03/war-not-a-mission-abbott-incorrect-on-iraq-action-fact-check/5772316
(‘Tis true, el g; Australia needs more trade partners in the Pacific.)
The Prime Arsehat also has delusions of imitating Winston Churchill.
I suppose it’s too late to hope that he will just fuck off back to his airs & fancies in the UK with his Tory gongbeater kin?
(Whatya got ain’t GWOT.)
‘Dr Dragovic said the Islamic State may continue to spread for years.’
Its been mooted that it will be a 100 years war, or we could follow the green line and surrender now to avoid a costly engagement.
You really are a hapless attention-seeking troll aren’t you egg. *rolls eyes*
dumpty wouldn`t have a fcuking clue what is inserted, once the battery`s are flat
””””””””””’In his introduction of Mr. Abe to Parliament, Mr. Abbott praised the “skill and sense of honor” of the Japanese sailors who attacked Sydney Harbor in 1942, killing 21 sailors.”””””’
l guess this is the groveling mr-rabbit had to do to get nippon to build cheap submarines for him #warToys
“dumpty wouldn`t have a fcuking clue what is inserted, once the battery`s are flat”
I’m sorry, but what even is that all about……..??
Science Experiment 🙂
Mooted by the Prime Fearsquirter…& disseminated by its wide open lickspittles.
Of course Islam will be around for another century, alas, so will all of the other fable clubs; most likely.
Still, the threat is disgustingly overstated…& the perpetual nature of the overstatement is attempted carte blanche for liberty inhibiting overseers everywhere.
#as this is a rightwingnutjob thread #phobeAlert
””””””””The evidence is too great to deny it,” the memo stated.
ALEC classified all gay people into six categories: “the blatant, the secret lifer, the desperate, the adjusted, the bisexual and the situational.
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/newly-uncovered-documents-expose-alec-s-anti-gay-past
””””””””””””’
””’situationally gay””’ #guffaw, by that type of teabag reckoning, half the population are `situationally-female`, while other folks are `situationally-short` #dumbfcuks
**Google chairman Eric Schmidt
”””””””’And the facts of climate change are not in question anymore,” **Schmidt went on. “Everyone understands climate change is occurring, and the people who oppose it are really hurting our children and our grandchildren and making the world a much worse place. And so we should not be aligned with such people—they’re just, they’re just literally lying.”
**Schmidt’s announcement comes on the heels of Microsoft’s announcement last month that it was parting ways with ALEC; the two companies had both been on ALEC’s task force for communications and technology. Confronted by mounting public pressure, companies like Coca-Cola, General Motors, Bank of America, and Proctor & Gamble have also severed ties with the group.
http://www.salon.com/2014/09/22/google_becomes_latest_company_to_abandon_right_wing_alec/
””””””””””””””
#while teh-usa corporations are starting to flee from these cranks, l wouldn`t be at all surprised if mr-rabbit and friends join-up with `alec` to peddle free-hate-speech #teabags
Lets face it what did we expect… Abbott was a radical religious tory Whore from day one..he is no more concervative and moderate as Egg id humble as PJK said he is an intellectual nobody.
PJK warned all you teabag fucktards in no uncertain terms…
i didnt vote for this wanker who is scare mongering the public to get his policies through, dont believe a word he says.
Except on infrastructure.
‘There was a lot of talk from members opposite for six years about building infrastructure. They talked; we act. The time for talking has passed; the time for building is here.’
Tony Abbott
Including infrastructure.
The self indulgent fantasy reminds me of the Mitty of Crapperville.
Fantasyland
Crapperville will be located south west of Darwin, connected by a Japanese bullet train.
Crapperville
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-08-31/lake-argyle-future-development-of-australia-north/5708436
Abe has spoken to Abbott about the Maglev and if the Americans continue to sit on their hands then Australia has ‘a window of opportunity’ to get the ball rolling. The money sits on the table and the Japanese are desperate.
http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2014/09/japans-spending-5-billion-to-fast-track-maglev-trains-in-the-us/
Miners move into Agribusiness
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-07-02/gina-rinehart-buys-kimberley-cattle-liveringa-station-beef/5567098
The future is now and Abbott is well placed to take advantage.
‘TOURING an abattoir in western China last month, the managing director of cattle exporter Frontier International Agri Hamish Browning was surprised. The facility, which has the capacity to process 800 head of cattle per day, had not a beast in sight.
“I was told it hadn’t been used since 2010,” Mr Browning says, “they just haven’t been able to get cattle.”
‘The murmurings that China’s beef processing facilities are sitting at 30 per cent utilisation must surely give some indication of the bright future Australian beef exporters to China have.’
18 September 2014
Matthew Cranston
Queensland Country Life
can always count on the yolk of delusion to spam us with dream weaving bullshit,,,
I heard (again) that most stupid of analogies on ABC Insiders this morning – that the Nazis were the Christian version of ISIS.
Did the Nazis ever claim to be engaging in their brutality to further the Christian cause?
No, but Hitler was raised a Catholic and hated Jews.
“and hated Jews”
So did the Irish. I am amazed how few people know the Irish were neutral in WW2.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2092138/Irish-minister-admits-time-Jews-fleeing-Nazis-denied-visas-1930s-morally-bankrupt-regime.html
“Ireland has admitted for the first time that its ‘morally bankrupt’ regime of the 1930s denied visas to desperate Jews trying to escape from Nazi persecution.
Justice Minister Alan Shatter said that, following Adolf Hitler’s rise to power, Ireland’s anti-semitic Berlin ambassador Charles Bewley ensured ‘the doors to this state were kept firmly closed to German Jewish families trying to flee’.
The admission came as he apologised for the way brave soldiers who ‘deserted’ the Irish Army to fight with the Allies during the Second World War were treated…………..He added: ‘We should no longer be in denial that, in the context of the Holocaust, Irish neutrality was a principle of moral bankruptcy. He said the ‘shameful position’ was further compounded by de Valera’s visit to the German Ambassador in 1945 to express his condolences on the death of Hitler.
(It’s okay, Neil, the early 20th Century Eurocentric world was enamoured with applied eugenics; the Jews were just another degenerate race, like the dark fauna of Australia; doomed to extinction and best detained in holding camps; and we shall not deign to mention the Bog Irish in polite company.)
ToM is correct, the analogy is pathetic and typical of Aunty’s green bias.
Nils fuck off your an idiot.. like I said print that out and go into A Paddy Bar on st Pats day and call the paddies Nazi sympathisers if you think you are so brave and right…
Egg you are just a fucking attention seeking fanjina troll
This is why I hate this government … they are contemptuous beyond belief
http://m.brisbanetimes.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/tax-increases-to-pay-for-iraq-mission-not-ruled-out-cormann-20141005-10qki0.html
Low life heavy grifters
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-10-05/government-looks-for-budget-savings-to-fund-iraq-mission/5791202
Abbott Booed and jeered at the Footy yesterday..
ToM is correct, the analogy is pathetic and typical of Aunty’s green bias.
… the comment I heard was from that fawning, Uriah Heep, cut-out, Gerard Henderson who said that Nazis were secular …
… the fkn Party was run on religious and semi-religious notions, occult and mythology … although Hitler claimed the Nazi Party was based upon “science” while in fact it was based on the Thule Society(?) …
I do recall reading that while Hitler was brought up as a catlik he did not particularly like the christian churches and especially of course the jews …
I also recall that one of the Nazi plans was to purge the churches and replace it with a new “pure” christian religion …
It weren’t Aunty … in fact, Henderson, (as usual), made a complete twit of himself … particularly trying to defend the indefensible LNP Government …
TB, I find it tedious and annoying when that bulls**t is repeated – that Nazis were the Christian equivalent or ISIS.
I’m not sure which Insiders panellist said this – I was listening to a radio repeat. Do you know? I’ll send them an email!
But there is no record of the Nazis saying their slaughter was in the interests of advancing Christianity. The comment was just a fabrication and the other panellists should have taken it on, rather than just saying Nazis were secular.
The inadequately unchallenged stupidity was the type some prefer on mindless blogs, it shouldn’t be on the publically funded ABC.
You say mindless blogs like it’s a bad thing.
The inadequately unchallenged stupidity was the type some prefer on mindless blogs, it shouldn’t be on the publically funded ABC.
Christ, ToM! If “the ABC” challenged all the mindless things that LNP supporters said on the ABC, they’d have to start up ABC II (there’s already ABC 2 … 3 … 24 News).
My, my ToM, your beginning to sound like one of the rusted’s (Fifi knock ya back?)
And as I’m sure you know Dog was on the side of the Allies AND the Axis … even those “honourable”* little blokes that also went around lopping off people’s heads …
* Gospel according to St Tony … (apparently)
Sorry to hear you find it tedious … I know just what you mean …
Next someone will tell us that the Nazis were really Communists …
“Gerard Henderson who said that Nazis were secular … “
I believe the comment was something like the Nazi’s were the Christian equivalent of ISIS. The comment was made by the leftist Seccombe. Henderson said Seccombes comment was rubbish. Although i do believe the nazi’s were into occult and mythology.
“go into A Paddy Bar on st Pats day and call the paddies Nazi sympathisers”
But the Irish were Nazi sympathisers. I am surprised how few people know the the Irish were neutral in WW2. After the fall of France they were desperately needed but they refused to help. When the USA entered the war they were no longer needed.
Yes, I suppose mindless blogs have their place- the refuge of mindless people- the types that self ban from here if they’re (intelligently) challenged.
========
Thanks! I’ve emailed Mike Sercombe, I’ve no doubt he’s now chastened and embarrassed.
(All I pretend to know is that generating a ‘Third Reich’ is/was a curious political ambition for National Socialists actively drawing on a(n) pre-)existing wellspring of volkisch (anti-)sentiments to propel a programme of lebensraum; still, I guess, it’s ideal for any demagogic movement to have some rational ‘founding father(s)’ myths to arrogate to a good cause.
Otherwise, on actual matters at hand: yep; we were surprised at just how quickly Daesh transformed from some rebellious regional ragtags, intent on causing some inconsequential general mayhem in a deliberately destabilised and deemed governmentless Syria, into a mighty army of 30000, a subdivision of which was threatening our personnel and interests in Erbil, necessitating a humanitarian mission to protect our interests and personnel in Erbil and to half-rescue some Yazidis; and here we now are, confronting an existential threat worse than the worst of Cold War Communism and Second World War Naziism combined, with everything we can bravely muster at short-invitation.)
TB, I’m not sure how a discussion of the Nazis/christian vs ISIS/islam reflects some left/right/rusted on political orientation (in your mind). Perhaps you would explain.
ROTFL or what?
Oh your upset sweetheart? Is it that time of the month? Is science raining on your little attenuation seeking parade? Or maybe people in king up to the fact that you are an incredulously inane derailing troll
So you are being annoyed for being targeted as a girly troll?
TB, I’m not sure how a discussion of the Nazis/christian vs ISIS/islam reflects some left/right/rusted on political orientation (in your mind). Perhaps you would explain.
It doesn’t … I was simply replying to comment from scrambled, egg … as far as I’m concerned the Nazis and IS have only one thing in common … a murderous bunch of criminals who need to be wiped out …
I did take advantage of the moment to have a go at that snivelling excuse for a LNP lap dog, Henderson, and his mistaken statement that the Nazis were secular … they were not …
Had anyone else asked me, ToM, I would have simply said … “no” 🙂
Just arrived in my “inbox”
TB Angry Aussie nailed it
Sorry wrong vid,, the contrast across the divide…
Wow, check out the ads for Crapperville, back up the thread.
A certain pillock has been chatting to a certain rock handler.
No surprises there then
I wonder if just one, or both, think they have the ears of the powerful?
“You have caught me at a bad time cunt, I strongly suggest you back off. ”
How quaint.
“Crapperville will be located south west of Darwin, connected by a Japanese bullet train.”
“will be”….?
Sounds like wishful chicken counting by someone who thinks Gina’s bitches will be in power forever.
Luckily “south west of Darwin” is such a precise location as to validate Mitty & Acolyte’s wankfever.
Chuckle … dat WT talks big, T … Crapperville – Flyville …
Cravingrecognitionville…
Failtown
A while back I did one of those “where are you on the political spectrum” quizes. The results said I was to the right of the vertical centre line on economic issues, and below the horizontal centre line on social issues.
Q. Which famous person did the quiz say my answers were most aligned to?
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
A. Maggie Thatcher.
I just took another one of those quizes. The results were similar …
Who wants to try?
http://www.gotoquiz.com/politics/political-spectrum-quiz.html
I haven’t been able to look in here much in the last few days. I’ve had 40 job applications to fill out.
#gladthatsover
http://www.news.com.au/finance/work/canberra-is-the-best-city-in-the-world-because-the-oecd-says-so-well-see-about-that/story-e6frfm9r-1227082915965
What a lot of crap!! Canberra s a hole, it’s full of public servants, the restaurants are generally upmarket cafeterias, the entertainment is mainly acts that didn’t get a gig at the St Georges Leagues Club, it is unbearably hot in summer (without a beach) and generally freezes in winter.
Only a mob of time wasting, form filling public servants (ie the OECD) could find a city made up of time wasting, form filling public servants a desirable place to live.
(it pains me to admit it, but even Brisbane and Perth are better than Canberra)
Tony that quiz is utter leading bullshit… 🙄
It turns out I’m a left of centre libertarian. Who knew?
What a lot of crap!! Canberra s a hole, it’s full of public servants, the restaurants are generally upmarket cafeterias, the entertainment is mainly acts that didn’t get a gig at the St Georges Leagues Club, it is unbearably hot in summer (without a beach) and generally freezes in winter.
Agree, ToM, when I first drove into the ACT I commented to The Minister, “Doesn’t this remind you of Europe? No wonder they can’t make decisions for Australia”
Apart from the Science Museum and the War Museum (ours is one of the best in the world) … its just a cold, miserable town as you describe above … the exec units we stayed in were quite noice but you get them all over the world too …
Canberra = bland … in every way …
(Pains me to admit it but even Melbourne has more vibrancy … )
ToSY …
You are a left social moderate.
Bit more accurate than, eggles, I’d say … but then I suppose I understood the questions …
I got “left moderate social libertarian”…
But the folks at the café used to call me an Abbott lover….. What went wrong?
That Quiz is Crap !
What the Fuck is a “”center-right moderate social authoritarian”” ?
”center-right moderate social authoritarian”
A paler shade of the hard-right aggressive social authoritarian’s we have “running” the country now? 🙂
“”A paler shade of the hard-right aggressive social authoritarian’s we have “running” the country now? “”
You mean a fucking………………………Wimp ?
Canberra………………………….it has the wide boulevards and green areas of the World’s greatest cities and yet is adorned with the captivation and emotive feel of the architecture that inspired the design of Sydney’s Olympic Stadium’s Mens Toilet ‘Blocks.
You mean a fucking………………………Wimp ?
I do, but you spelt “………….Chump” wrong 😉
Tony Abbott:
“We will ensure that preachers of hate can’t come to Australia”…
Does that include the World Congress of Families?
Tony Abbott is a wonderful leader and a pillar of intellect……
Yes..
No… X
The Fiberal government should be allowed to lie about anything and never be questioned
Yes..
No… X
Rupert Murdoch runs Australia and Abbot sucks his dick
Yes.. X
No…
Like Abbot Adolf Hitler was just misunderstood……
Yes..
No… X
Basic Human rights are overrated
Yes..
No… X
All Muslims are terrorists
Yes..
No… X
People who voted for this government are ashamed they were conned and lied to
Yes.. X
No…
Will you blindly follow Tony Abbot accepting his lies as truth without question
Yes..
No… X
Did you vote for brobdingnagian incompetence and neocon social engineering
Yes..
No… X
Is labor to blame for everything in history including killing baby Azaria?
Yes..
No… X
Is George Brandis the equivalent of political Ebola?
Yes.. X
No…
Congratulations you are a tree hugging leftie and should be shot 🙄
‘What went wrong?’
Something to do with the weather, presumably.
You mean a fucking………………………Wimp ?
er … Wally?
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Tony Abbott:
“We will ensure that preachers of hate can’t come to Australia”…
Does that include the World Congress of Families?
I can think of a couple more too … where is Fred Niles these days? Still polluting parliament?
I can think of a couple more too
alan jones
scot morriscum
rupert murdoch
tony abbott
it’s quite a list
“I got “left moderate social libertarian”…
Same here.
Graph (pronounced grarf) was a mirror image of ToSy’s…ie, below the line but to the left slightly.
Just goes to show, I don’t prostrate myself before the flag & martial emotional manipulation quite so much. haha
“Does that include the World Congress of Families?”
Excellent point!
Not only dressed up religious hatespeech, but all kinds of ideological mistruths masquerading as fact via regularly debunked studies from half a century ago.