Tim Blair

Tim! Go to bed!

Uh, is Kerry trying to say that if the French and the UN had agreed, that the terrorists wouldn't be mad about it and wouldn't be bombing?

Thank you for noticing John Kerry is insulting Australia, Poland, Great Britian, etc.

He's an arrogant, condescending a** who seems to hold EVERYONE in contempt.

BTW, does that smell of intelligence or intellectual rigor to you? Australians generally?

Arrr! That truly be loathsome scurvy ridden bilge rat!

PQ : Arr, but it do be the twentieth 'ere in the South Seas, me lad, so bayn't you be a-talking' in Pirate-fashion no more, matey. Tis next year fer ye, Jim lad. So avast and off to the poop-deck. The poop-deck be below the crow's nest, that why it do be called the poop-deck. Arr.

I did celebrate TLAP day, but it is no more. Sigh, here in China, it was Beijing Huarrrr day :).

As an American, I'm very happy that Australia is with us in the War on Terror. Sorry about getting you involved in that whole Viet Nam thing, but thanks for being there.

Arrrrrrr.

I wish I could say it was that easy, and that Australians could just turn their backs on the horrid U.S. and be safe. But it won't work. For anyone.

Did I already say how embarrassed I am by John Kerry? Yes, I did, and now may I include his whole juiceless, joyless family.

The interesting thing is that Kerry/Edwards got all hot and bothered about a statement of Cheney's which was Dowdified to make it sound like "If you vote for Kerry, you'll die," and yet Kerry's surrogates go to Australia and say "If those Yanks don't vote for Kerry, you'll die," and that's somehow okay. Fascinating.

Alan E Brain — AArrr, but it do be the twenty-first century everywhere else in the world... except the Democratic Party, where it is forever 1974...

Ye gods, Kerry's sister is as clueless as he is. Embarrassing doesn't begin to cover my feelings right now.

All you good Australians -- ignore this elitist wench. She only speaks for John Kerry, who only speaks for Americans with their brains locked in a time warp to 1968 (not 1974, Richard, I gotta disagree with you on that....but I agree with the general era).

The part that caught my eye was where the Bali bombing was included in Kerry's statement.

1) Bali bombing happened before Iraq.

2) If the bombers were upset by any action of Australia, then it would have been over East Timor because they believed it should be a part of Islam.

3) In East Timor we weren't following the US; if anything we were asking for the US's help.

The War on Terror is not about troops in Iraq.

“Support America and Die.” This sounds more like a Muslim fanatic than Kerry’s sophisticated nuance. Maybe Kerry’s nuance is not so sophisticated.

As an american when I first heard Kerry refer to the coalition as a "trumped-up, so-called coalition of the bribed, the coerced, the bought and the extorted". I thought oh boy more BS from a candidate.

Then I thought "Hey Kerry, screw you for pissing on people who have the fortitude and good will to stand by us."

Then, a little later, I thought "What a terribly bad polictican. Good idea, dumbass, alienate the allies we do have. Oh yeah cause France will stick by us. I'll take australia over france any day"

Now I see this instilling of fear into another country's elections. Its disgusting. Meddling in another country's elections and bad mouthing your own country in the process is wrong and stupid.

What magic wand will Kerry wave to make Islamist fanatics suddenly lose the will to kill?

I saw a similar photo of Diana Kerry in the Weekend Oz and my first thought was "Someone's pulled a fast one on the Murdoch Orcs -- that supposedly 'genuine 1973' photo of DK is really that 2004 photoshopped version" (you know, of JFK with THK's hairstyle and clothes, Dubya with Laura's, etc -- frightening stuff before breakfast).

OTOH, with the name Diana there's every chance the skin is really a rubber mask that she'll soon rip off as she devours a hamster.

The Real JeffS — Nah, I plump for the 70's. They'd dumped Nixon, betrayed the South Vietnamese and elected Jimmy "Lowered Expectations' Carter... the high-water decade for the Left...

Thank god you upside down people got her and we starving 3rd world Canadians got a pass. I guess its too freekin cold for her. Arrrg, shiver me timbers!

hey doodz can i get some of those 0day war3z here!!11 kthxbye

What?

Oh, that kind of pirate.

Oops.

Australia will be facing HUGE problems with indonesia if the rise of fundamentalists maddrassa schools and extremist islamic jihad groups are allowed to go unchecked by weak indonesian governments such as the one currently in office.
The Djarkata bombing may just be the start of things to come.
Already untold thousands of christians have been ethnically cleansed from regions and there will soon be hundreds more Bashirs to ferment terror against Australians .
By turning a blind eye to the slaughters of indonesian christians, Australia is setting itself up for "next in line".
The oil rich middle eastern islamic states will exploit the new indonesian weaknesses to the hilt to establish sharia law and brainwash young indonesians into jihadist warriors.
This is a serious problem which the Australians must tackle in close partnership with indonesia itself.
the old dictatorial regimes however despised did keep the fundamentalists at bay.

What about a counter, Number of Days Since Bob Brown Failed to Rebuke Miss Kerry".

in a gigantic stroke of stupidity, the feelie-feelies of the left are, one again, trying to impune the US abroad. As is they vote here!
The Idiots. they're what validated the like of Bin Laden and his ilk.

Personally I am caught between an image of (not bloody likely) of an elected Kerry forcing Australia to speak French and practice surrending, and an alternative of Kerry spending his entire term doing absolutely NOTHING at all bathed in indecision: Rather like he did in the senate, for 20 years.

hmmm

American Democrat types tend to assume that only the US has extranational interests.

For Australia, events in SE Asia and then S & E Asia are a matter of imminent national survival.

That some Asians would like to conquer this resource and space-rich southern landmass, and that with our smaller population we would not be able to withstand an invasion has been assumed throughout Australian history. Complacency and skepticism about this has grown in recent decades, but the rise of Islamic terrorism in the region shows the continued relevance.

After the fall of Singapore in 1942, the US stopped us being invaded by Japan. The Vietnam War, won or lost, stopped Communism spreading thru SE Asia to threaten Aust (our Menzies Govt in 1964 may have requested US military involvement before the Pentagon thought of it). Events in Indonesia, such as today's presidential election, are of prime importance to Aust.

Some of us Aussies are extremely grateful for US assistance in all this.

Since Kerry is a Senator and represents the United States (as, of course, does the President), Bush should apologize to the Australian people on behalf of the U.S. for Kerry's insult and grotesque attempt to influence Australia's election. If the shoe were on the other foot, the United States would -- and should -- be outraged.

(A Bush apology for Kerry's outrage should finally sink the pompous Senator from Massachusetts, an unintended (but very welcome) consequence.)

I find the current situation stupid beyond belief, but consider it typical of sKerry. After all, didn't he consort with our enemies in North Vietnam to undermine the US position there? Why do we find it surprising that the traitorous scumbag would try to do it elsewhere? sKerry and all his "pals" should be forced to live in Myanmar for the rest of their lives, without support or pensions from the United States. The longer this "political" campaign runs, the more disgusted I get with US politics in general, and Democratic party politics specifically. We should have hanged sKerry in 1973 - it would have saved the entire nation a lot of headaches. I don't see why we continue to put it off - the man is a traitorous leftist scumbag.

I want to thank all the Australians that supported us in Vietnam (I knew several of them personally - GREAT people), and who continue to support us in Iraq. Please just consider the source of the BS being dumped in your fair country by the loonely left in the United States.

Arrrrgh. Since aye be havin' sumtin' ta say on da wench's spoutin' er blower, aye be pimpin' me blag if'n ye don' mine:

That terrorist's would respond to the US invasion of Afghanistan is something that just can't be said in certain circles, like the Democratic National Committee and the Kerry Campaign.

But what if Diana Kerry and/or Roy Eccleston is/are correct, that Jemaah Islamiyah (Indonesia's version/offshoot/associates of al-Qaeda) bombed Paddy's Bar and the Sari Club because Australia was standing with the US on the issue of Iraq? Would things have been any different if we were following brother John's direction?

Did John Kerry vote to authorize the use of force to overthrow the Taliban and attack al-Qaeda? Yes.

Was John Kerry in favor of using the Security Council to threaten force against Iraq to get weapons inspectors back in? Yes.

Did John Kerry later vote for the use of force resolution against Iraq? Yes. Of course he would have had the French and Germans along with him, having told them it was only a bluff to get Hussein to back down. But would JI have known it was only a bluff?

Looks like, Bush or Kerry, JI still would have carried out the Bali bombing unless the Australians had told a President Kerry to get stuffed if he asked for their support in attacking Afghanistan and forging a coalition to pressure Hussein.

Looking at the picture of Diana Kerry in the Weekend Arse-stralian, I was struck by her strong resemblance to Norman Gunston. Has anyone heard whether Garry Macdonald is doing something this election?

"Thank god you upside down people got her and we starving 3rd world Canadians got a pass. I guess its too freekin cold for her. Arrrg, shiver me timbers!"

Actually she was in Vancouver B.C. stumping for her brother (the Democrats have a solid lead in Vancouver. Bush should take notice and spend more time campaigning in Moosejaw and Dildo).

Found this article about Kerry's visit to Vancouver at indymedia and funny enough it's not very supportive of Kerry.

DK In Vancouver

I have lived many decades among my fellow Americans and know them fairly well. It is not possible that the ANZACS could be attacked and that USA not respond with great violence. Any other response is not even comprehensible. Ditto the rest of the Commonwealth (or what's left of it, anyway). We have some other friends around: Taiwan, the Phillipines, much of Eastern Europe, and the like.

I only announce this because this particular question has come up in Aussie sources. I'll grant you that NZ lives in 'la-la' land. That would cause some pause - - but then who would want to invade NZ??? Surely not for the sheep, though possibly to seize Queenstown (now that's a thought!). The "QT" would make such a nice holiday spa for the Leninist apparachiks, eh?

It's possible Kerry and Latham's camp (which I suspect is coordinating with each other) have already made a deal, and it involves the announcement of an immediate troop pullout in October if Latham wins.

The main criticism that Kerry and Latham have of Iraq is that it increased the terrorist danger by provoking them, we can therefore extrapolate the following:

Latham and Kerry will let their foreign and security policies be dictated to them by terrorists, because terrorists will decide what provokes them and what doesn't.

From the ACTIONS of President Bush and Prime Mininster Howard, we can see that they will do what they believe is right, and screw what terrorists think.

Can anyone show me a more important issue in the US Presidential and Australian Federal Elections?

Sheriff,
you've hit the nail right on the head.

I think Marvin, Neil and Jeb need to post a rejoinder!

Gerry,
I believe that the main reason Aust would prefer not to let NZ get invaded is because it would make a great air base from which to launch attacks against the Aust mainland.
However, I'm only a grunt and not not supposed to know anythnig about tactics so dont quote me on this.