<< CHARACTER QUESTIONED ~ MAIN ~ YEARN FOR WARMENING >>
1,000 BORING AUSTRALIANS
Just look at the bunch of plonkers reportedly among those invited to RuddFest 2008. Andrew Bolt predicted this.
UPDATE. AAP reports:
More than 400 Australians who consider to be the brightest in the country sent application forms to the prime minister’s office this week.
Spot the missing word: “themselves”.
A Labor Party insider working on the conference said the fight to secure an invite had already begun.
“There’s a flood of people trying to get an invite, ringing up nonstop,” he told News Limited.
This is grotesque.
Malcolm Fraser? Mick Dodson (member of the family which, even more than the Perkins, has made vast amounts of money simply by being “indigenous”)? Red Kezza? Probably also supposedly “stolen child” Lowitje O’Donoghue.
Fiona Stanley, good. Marie Bashir I also hope will be invited. Noel Pearson too. There probably will be other worthwhile people but if this initial list is indicative of what’s considered the best and brightest, God help us.
Surely we can do better? What is Kev thinking? Or is he not, and this is simply a feeble attempt to give Kev an adoring audience?
Is it also proof that the ALP really doesn’t have any ideas other than dismantling what’s in place?
#5 Or is he not, and this is simply a feeble attempt to give Kev an adoring audience?
Got it in one. No dissent, no contrarians—just 1,000 acolytes to assure Kev he’s doing OK.
Fiona Stanley is a good and worthy woman but who gives a toss what her views are on anything outside medicine? She could be a rabid lefty for anything I know to the contrary.
Posted by walterplinge on 2008 02 10 at 03:02 AM • permalinkIs it right to say that Bolt predicted what the whole right-wing world and probably half the lefties predicted, too?
Posted by Tony.T.Teacher on 2008 02 10 at 03:17 AM • permalinkKevin obviously thinks this is part of ‘government by the people.’
As long as other people pay for it.
Of course all the public servants and staffers who are actually paid a permanent salary to come up with bright ideas when the boss is out of them, are going on a 2-day unpaid holiday whilst the summit is on.
That was great Tim. I hope that means you’re right on mending.
How quaint that this circus should receive so much credibility. Doesn’t it prove that a big bunch of Australians just don’t understand how useless talkfests are. And that they are a greater extension of the normal non productive bureaucratic meeting. A national malaise that is already sucking too much cash from taxpayers.
Chris Berg - not to be confused with Chris de Burgh or his Lady In Red - is spot on in today’s Age:
Rudd’s super summit puts the con into consensus
Nevertheless, at the end of two days, the 2020 summit will have bought off Australia’s public intellectual class. There is nothing more flattering for a self-styled opinion maker than to be approached by the federal government for ideas. With an invite list of 1000, this summit is flattery on an industrial scale.
Posted by Tony.T.Teacher on 2008 02 10 at 04:03 AM • permalinkProbably a unnecessary question: did Thomas Kenneally get an invite?
God help Lifeline if he’s allowed to speak.Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2008 02 10 at 04:12 AM • permalink#3 Ash, I couldn’t agree more. How desperate to massage their egos must they be to be champing at the bit to go to this high profile gabfest?
Where is the Joe Average among this gaggle? How are this lot of non-representative Australians going to represent our Nation’s interests?
Since when are the opinions of the glitterati worth more that the man on the street? This sense of self importance brought about by being a success in your chosen high profile field does not give you more intelligence or common sense than the average punter. Some of them should remember this before they open their mouths.
With Krudd my cynicism is skewed by the sceptics who say knowledge is impossible.
Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 02 10 at 04:17 AM • permalink#20 Bono writes interesting songs. So could be a songfest.
Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 02 10 at 04:40 AM • permalinkSo Andrew Bolt thinks that Andrew Bolt made a brilliant prediction? I’m guessing that’s not uncommon.
Posted by Jefferson Skates on 2008 02 10 at 04:48 AM • permalinkThat sick Labor “feeling” is once again coming down upon us! (Sing below to: “Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas”). With sincere apologies to the original songwriter and all who love this song, for linking horrible Labor to such a nice song…..but it just kind of came to me.
Its beginning to look a lot like Labor - everywhere you go,
In all the states and the territories - there are tales of sorrow and woe.
We were told Rudd had a plan - to save us from trouble and strife,
But now we need to chat - to find the meaning of life.
All the big stars will be there - to explain what needs to be done,
But these folk are mostly clueless - another Labor failure is going to come.
Its beginning to look a lot like Labor - everywhere you lurk,
Like Whitlam and Hawke and Keating - like Kirner and Bannon and Burke.
Rudd’s 1000 bloomin’ buds bid boomtimes bye bye?
Posted by eeniemeenie on 2008 02 10 at 04:54 AM • permalink#23 Jefferson Skates
In case you haven’t been listening, Tim and the others on this blog also think that Andrew Bolt made a brilliant prediction, as most of us could have done once we heard of Gabfest08.
This is the policies that Kevin said he had last year. It may finally give Julia a clue as well. She is absolutely clueless.
“I forgot to mention another name on the Sunday Telegraph list:
Eddie McGuire.”
“Ahh!! the cats out of the bag.
Eddie will be giving him pointers on how to run the gabfest, tentatively called “Who wants to admire my brilliant hair”
Participants will be asked a series of successive multiple-choice questions of increasing difficulty, e.gWhat was the make of car that Chairman Rudd and his mum spend that harrowing night hiding from the murderous agents of King Joe Bjelke Peterson
A. Prius
B. Volkswagen
C. Morris Minor
D. Holden.#29 Pa Feral
Relax, I too think the gab fest is a bit of a nutso idea. Just thought Andrew Bolt agreeing with himself was amusing is all.Posted by Jefferson Skates on 2008 02 10 at 05:14 AM • permalink#7, Walter, “Fiona Stanley is a good and worthy woman… She could be a rabid lefty for anything I know to the contrary.”
Isn’t a ‘good and worthy rabid lefty’ an oxymoron?
#23, Didn’t Andrea do something about that troll?
O/T, But KRudd seems to think all us ‘Strayun’s have a ‘Blight on our Souls’. Quick someone call the Archbishop of Canterbury…
Is it illegal to talk about offing the PM, I know the Seppo’s can get arrested for it, but what about us?
Posted by The_Wizard_of_WOZ on 2008 02 10 at 05:20 AM • permalink#36, Ash, I doubt he reads all the crap people comment there. I wouldn’t if I were him.
Posted by The_Wizard_of_WOZ on 2008 02 10 at 05:22 AM • permalink#28
As expected. This gabfest is all hat, no trousers.
Funny you should mention that SandiM because I can’t see Humphrey B Bear on the list. Yet he meets all of Rudd’s stringent criteria for participation - he is well known.
See Rudd has resorted to flying in a cheer squad for his other show, The Apology. The ABC (Labor’s ABC) has suspended normal programming and all credibility to bring the apology live and then follow it up with analysis. This is beyond the pale (boom, boom).#32 That Bjelke-Peterson hit team may have missed the kid but it did knock off the old man.
...Bert Rudd had, on his own admission, consumed a very considerable amount of alcohol before the accident that ultimately claimed his life. This would all be rather beside the point, except that the death of Bert and the family’s subsequent problems have acted as a kind of foundational story for Kevin Rudd’s political career; they are there, for instance, in his maiden parliamentary speech. In Rudd’s telling, his father died because of deficiencies in the Queensland hospital system, and possibly through the incompetence of doctors who were treating his father. While journalistic enquiry has not turned up anything to substantiate these allegations ... the realities of the situation were clearly more complex than implied in Rudd’s simple political parables.
So Bert was driving while hammered, hit a post and later died. Not much to work with there for a man looking to create a poignant narrative for himself. Easily solved. First, it was the doctors wot did it to Bert - not, ultimately, Bert himself. Then make landlord Aubrey Low the villain of the story (he’s dead, so what the hell); claim evil old Aubrey evicted a grief-stricken Mum and her little mite; add accounts of living rough out of a car boot; voila! - you have a story: “Against Fantastic Odds: Kevin’s Long March to Greatness”.
Jeebus, maybe what I thought was amusing wasn’t to others, but I didn’t think I was trolling or “throwing poo.” Sorry if I offended anyone.
Has the Tele published the entirety of this list they have anywhere?
Posted by Jefferson Skates on 2008 02 10 at 05:41 AM • permalink#38, Contrail, Seems that cheer squad want compensation:
“We are also concerned that the apology is not being accompanied by reparations.”
For nearly 15 years my old man has said “as soon as they get an apology, they’ll want money. How many others here know their dad is smarter than KRudd?
#41, Skates, “So Andrew Bolt thinks that Andrew Bolt made a brilliant prediction? I’m guessing that’s not uncommon.” - from #23
Your attitude is identical to the standard twits we get here.
Prove us wrong.
Posted by The_Wizard_of_WOZ on 2008 02 10 at 06:00 AM • permalinkFor nearly 15 years my old man has said “as soon as they get an apology, they’ll want money.
I’ve thought the same thing for a long time… I’ve been around for nearly 50 years.
There’s a pattern to the “industry”, and it’s in a lot of people’s best interests to keep it going, in perpetuity.
No matter what the cost.
No matter who’s to pay.
#47, Irobot, um, thats actually the plan as far as I know. I shit you not.
Posted by The_Wizard_of_WOZ on 2008 02 10 at 08:00 AM • permalinkA pity that Leni Riefenstahl isn’t available to film proceedings. ‘Triumph of the Shrill’ would’ve been a good title.
Posted by eeniemeenie on 2008 02 10 at 08:11 AM • permalinkWe need to switch the mailing addresses of the invitees with the mailing list for the National Tourette’s Syndrome Association. It’ll be the smartest, most lively crowd Kevin’s ever addressed, and the invited lovelies, such as Blanchett, will have the undivided attention of some really caring and supportive people.
Posted by AlburyShifton on 2008 02 10 at 08:24 AM • permalink#51, Albury, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
<pauses for breath and wipes tear from eye>
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
Top stuff.
Posted by The_Wizard_of_WOZ on 2008 02 10 at 09:53 AM • permalink“There’s a flood of people trying to get an invite, ringing up nonstop,” he told News Limited.
Well, you know what to do: launch them first, and, er, the rest of us will follow along later…
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2008 02 10 at 11:49 AM • permalinkI recall reading a humorous, yet profound book, by C. Northcote Parkinson: Parkinson’s Law. There is a chapter on the subject of committees and their effectiveness, in which he concludes that the effectiveness of a committee is largely determined by its size. Effective committees range in size between five and twenty-seven members, with eleven or twelve as an optimum. Any committee with over 100 members has little chance of success. A committee with 1000 members, as has been proposed, is a joke.
It’s an ironic, cunning plan. Anyone who puts their hand up to go automatically self-selects themselves as an edjit.
Posted by Abu Chowdah on 2008 02 10 at 05:04 PM • permalink#49 Well Wiz, we’ll all pay for it in the end, pun intended. It’ll be a tax write off for all who attend. Should be a cheap trip though. They can set up tents alongside the tent embassy. That would look spectacular. Sitting around the 44 gallon drums, warming their hands, chewing the fat over past injustices…
What all this is about is not ideas at all.
Kevin has an obsessive NEED to be NOTICED hence to big plasma screens in every city and public convenience too, N0 DOUBTS- this is Kevin’s big day out. This is why he could not wait to get the wording right and it had to be the opening of Parliament to ‘LOOK AT MOI, LOOK AT MOI-PRIME MINISTER SUPREME of Australia, Brissie boy made good, from back of a car. China was a start, millions there to see Kevie but no one at home watching.
Who in hell watches the opening of a new session of Parliament, Kevin wants to rub our noses in it, so called for this bbc ‘sorry fest’ which will cause much more festering of fingers until they can clutch 100s of thousands of our dollars.
Gawd almighty most of these ‘stolen’ have more Irish blood than aboriginal- why not sue the Irish and British government for expelling their drunken ancesters /parents from their homeland- oh give me a break.
The same with this wank fest of the ‘100 brightest. Of course he is not looking for ideas, it is so he can stand up on stage, all cameras focused on Kevin, panning to the ‘1000 brightest’ Gazing starry eyed at their ‘Dear LEADER’
This is a man with severe delusions of grandeur and his own importance, he has shown similarities to Kim Il Jung- he is not a joke but a dangerous little man- look into his eyes- it is all there to see.At link
Welcome to the website for the Australia 2020 Summit.
It’s a big agenda, but we need to think big.Are we at timblair big enough?
Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 02 10 at 07:02 PM • permalinkFascism. This is fascism. AM I the only bastard who nkows what fascism IS?
“fascism—ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power.”
“[F]ascism is best defined as a revolutionary form of nationalism, one that sets out to be a political, social and ethical revolution, welding the ‘people’ into a dynamic national community under new elites infused with heroic values. The core myth that inspires this project is that only a populist, trans-class movement of purifying, cathartic national rebirth (palingenesis) can stem the tide of decadence”
The madness of Kevin Rudd continues
Looks like Rudd is abolishing the Westminster system now. Parliament exists to debate the here and now - bills and budgets. It is the place where ministers are expected to answer questions about the government’s present program.
But in one stroke, without any debate or referendum, Rudd has abolished parliamentary democracy. Instead parliament will be yet another talkfest, endlessly discussing his ideas while legislation is slipped through without debate or question.
What is next, the end of democracy itself? I’m truly expecting Rudd to announce that there will be no 2010 election because he knows where he is taking the country and an election would be a distraction from this grand plan.
The mask is coming off
I can’t remember who, but soon after the election result, someone here opinied that the Rudd junta would provide us mob with a heap of comedy for the next few years.
I had no idea that they would give us this much this early. Hope they keep it coming.
Kyoto, whales, sorry, dredging, pulp mills and they’ve only been here for a couple of months !
Page 1 of 1 pages
Members:
Login | Register
| Member List
Where’s Barry Jones and Phillip Adams? A lefty gab-fest wouldn’t be right without those two.