The dying days of the Fourth Reich: it's the 2007 AUSTRALIAN FEDERAL ELECTION

STOP FIGHTING OVER THE APOLOGY YOU SELF-ABSORBED FUCKS

soz

omg Julie Bishop on Lateline just then

'Labor's dot points don't contain the word sorry! Not once! Never the word sorry! It doesn't say the word sorry!'

NOT FUCKING 10 SECONDS LATER

'Well I said "deep and sincere regret!" That means sorry!'

OMG SORRY DAY

I just dug out an old TAPE WALKMAN because it's the only AM radio I have.

omg

HE SAID SORRY

THREE TIMES

I haven't even got a radio! But I've read what purports to be the text when it was posted somewhere last night/early this morning and I felt it looked quite satisfactory. Not overly fussy, good job, I think.

Definitely.

Wow, and he just brutally hacked into Howard for being the cold racist little cunt he is.

OMG NOW HE'S SAYING A PERSONAL SORRY. '*I* AM SORRY.' THREE TIMES.

Yeah I liked the text too. And I like the way my friends list on facebook is filled with 'sorry' status updates too. I know it's a little corny but the whole thing is giving me quite a buzz.

Nobody at work gives a fuck. They keep pulling me away from the broadcast to hassle me about pointless shit.

^ I am really angry about this

Now he's announcing POLICY! Getting kids into school &c.

I mean I'm not surprised, but it's wonderful to be hearing all this. THE FOURTH REICH IS DEAD.

He's just asked the opposition to cooperate with him to close the gap.

HE SAID 'CLOSE THE GAP.' EVERYONE IN THE GREAT HALL GASPED.

I am so proud to be Australian right now.

'REAL RECONCILIATION'!!

WE ARE CATCHING UP WITH THE REST OF THE WORLD MONGS.

He just finished and the hall is going sick. I cannot wait to see the vision of this tonight.

this is really, truly moving.

See, it's not that hard to say sorry.

''Let us remember the fact that the forced removal of Aboriginal children was happening as late as the early 1970s. The early 1970s is not a point in remote antiquity.

''The laws that our Parliament enacted made the stolen generations possible.

''This is not a black armband view of history, it's just the truth, the cold uncomfortable truth.''

and this

"These stories cry out to be heard, they cry out for an apology.

"Instead from the nation's Parliament there has been a stony and stubborn and deafening silence for more than a decade.

"A view that somehow we the Parliament should suspend our most basic instincts of what is right and what is wrong.

"A view that instead we should look for any pretext to push this great wrong to one side.

"To leave it languishing with the historians, the academics and the cultural warriors as if the stolen generations are little more than an interesting sociological phenomenon.

"But the stolen generations are not intellectual curiosities, they are human beings, human beings who have been damaged deeply by the decisions of parliaments and governments.

"But as of today the time for denial, the time for delay, has at last come to an end."

(addressing those who still think Howard wasn't racist)

Wow! MOST people in the great hall either turned their back on Brendan Nelson or just left.

I only just found this out.

I think Tony Abbott's about to get up and talk. I'll be surprised if the dirty little cock isn't pelted with random objects.

wait, no he's not

I didn't think they did political speeches like that (Rudd's) any more. Great stuff!

Nelson's--well, not so much. Some good bits, but he did some very weird things. He just can't get it right, can he?

He was on the back foot to begin with, having supported Johnny Cocknose for however-many-years, but when he doubted the word 'stolen' etc. he had no hope. It shows how out of touch the Coalition really is.

Fed Square in Melbourne

http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2008/02/13/nelson_narrowweb__300x450,0.jpg

ha! awesome.

FB status I just saw on my page:

R**** E**** will not apologise for something he doesnt mean.

What a tiresome reactionary turd that friend of mine is, sigh.

(You'd think, being Jewish, that he'd... oh no, no, thats a pointless strawman I suppose... anyhoo).

Speaking as a jew, I can affirm that jews are just as reasonable or unreasonable as every other social group.

I was struck by the symbolic qualities attached to formal apology in a ceremonial setting. Back turning and formal public apology have a long tradition in western and indigenous culture and law, so it's an interesting locus of communion.

I did like the back turning thing. Was that something the crowd @ fed square etc had planned on? It was pretty awesome.

What a tiresome reactionary turd that friend of mine is, sigh.

-- Trayce, Wednesday, 13 February 2008 12:45 (55 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

Fortunately none of mine have done anything like this. YET. A couple have failed to acknowledge it, preferring to say something about Sweeney Todd or whatever.

I'm staying the hell away from my father-in-law for a while.

In fact Facebook should have a 'friends' list and an 'arseholes I know' list.

Ex-PMs in attendance:

Gough Whitlam
Malcolm Fraser
Bob Hawke
Paul Keating
John Howard

So, after Rudd's declaration of intent to close the gap on indigenous health/education/housing, Howard's last-minute vote-grabbing attempt to say stuff about indigenous people in the constitution (the preamble for fuck's sake, not even in the part that matters) has been shown up for the trite gesture it was. And cynical, because he wasn't even fucking there today.

Well done, Kevin Rudd, anyway. I generally find him boring and uninspiring, like a less sincere Kim Beazley, and his "anti-politician" schtick is a bit of a fraud but.. just for today, he was a little bit magnificent. I'm a little bit proud, too. My housemate came home in a big black SORRY t-shirt and that was also fantastic. The bleeding heart lefties are having their glorious day in the sun at last.

Brendan Nelson did OK. He's not an evil man, he's just not bestowed with a lot of political acumen. In his early years he did a LOT in Aboriginal health. But that bit where he was covering his arse so as not to "offend" the hard right was not becoming of a real statesman.

The bleeding heart lefties are having their glorious day in the sun at last.

I would hope everyone is.

Brendan Nelson did OK. He's not an evil man, he's just not bestowed with a lot of political acumen.

True, but he's leading a party that captained HMS Racist Bastard for the past decade. AND, when Rudd got in he said his party would not support an apology. So not dumb, just unprincipled.

It's OK, he's just there for one term. Rudd will piss it in next time (they're disciplined, working well and the only massively sour point so far is the big-brother internet censorship plan), and the Libs will be quite electable under Turnbull if the crazies piss off and join Family First, and in any case, a strong opposition makes for a good government too.

Just watched the full speech online...I was reduced to tears, and for the first time in a long time, I was actually proud of a PM.

Nelson's speech had too many caveats, limp-wristedly reaching across the divide while taking great pains to point out that it really wasn't any one group's fault. Rudd's speech was a hard act to follow, but for god's sake, anyone could see the way that was paved for Nelson before he drove in with his backhoe and screwed it all up. I get what he was trying to say, but the bottom line is that speech was too pragmatic for it's own good. But I can't say I expected much more from that camp anyway...sadly, no surprises there.

Nelson will not last to nearly the next election. He'll be lucky to make it to Christmas.

I feel really proud to be Australian today...and fucked if I haven't felt that way for a very long time.

La Bolt is fuming because he apparently got ambushed on a Today Tonight story tonight about the stolen generation. What a great day.

"Yo yo yo check out me and my bros!"

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/44422000/jpg/_44422934_416pm_afp.jpg

"La Bolt is fuming because he apparently got ambushed on a Today Tonight story tonight about the stolen generation. What a great day."

You'd pay good money to see that. When Bolt fumes, his sense of entitlement glows in the dark and can be seen from the top of Mt Hotham.

Nice belated gesture, SETS THE TONE etc, hope its a real turning point for the first mongs.

As for Rudd being boring and uninspiring, yeah he come across a bit blah doesnt he.I find the cleancut wholesome BIG LOVE mormon thing hes got going on a bit creepy but still refreshing- and he doesnt appear too smarmy! The most UNAUSTRALIAN AUSTRALIAN PM EVER.

Yes, that's true.

Wilson Tuckey though eh? Wow.

What did he do this time?

He did an interview just before Rudd started his speech. Pathetic, whinging 'it's-all-a-fuss-ocver-nothing-blame-the-PC-crowd rabble-rousing bulldust. You wouldn't get it into a meathead like Tuckey's skull if you pounded it in with a piledriver, but the only goddam reason they interviewed him at all this morning is as a study in irrelevance.

Doubtless you all know how he got the nickname 'Ironbar'.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/the-time-has-come--for-all-australians-to-together-build-a-truly-great-nation/2008/02/13/1202760342960.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap2

Mr Rudd's speech was not greeted with unanimous approval, however, with Mr Tuckey telling Sky News shortly before 9am he doubted the speech - which has bipartisan support - would change anything.

"So the Prime Minister reads a speech, apparently some people stand up and sit down and then a miracle happens over night, there'll be no petrol sniffing ... and girls can sleep safely in the family bed at night," he said.

When asked by Sky News if he supported the apology, a technical error occurred, with Mr Tuckey telling the camera he was unable to hear the question.

It's time for that guy to go.

Tuckey dropped a major clanger with that 'wouldn't change anything' line.

It flows right in the face of all those other numbskulls who insist that today will bring its wake a truclkload of compensation claims and the end of Civilisation As We Know It by next Tuesday week at the latest.