Post #122,446
10/22/03 10:31:53 PM
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US & Chinese presidents in Australia for visits
Hu Jintao Pres of China, arrived Tues to warm (as in nice) welcome from Chinese community. Will stay for 4 days & has brought trade negotiators with him. China is Australi's 4th largest trading partner.
G Bush, flew in for a fast 21 hour visit. Both presidents will address specially convened Australian parlimentary session.
During Bush's address all citizens are barred from Parliment house, in fact barred from within 1 km. Armed US security guards will patrol the halls of the parliment bldg. Pres Bush has declined a press interview after the address. Press told they can look at the Bush arrival at parliment through binocculars. Some sections of parliment & press are not happy & grumbling loudly at the security & isolation of the US pres. Considering the potential for trouble, there probably wasn't any serious alternative.
Current govt of Australia have slid to a new low in the polls & based on current trends would lose an election if held today (& the voting patterns held up which is a bit of an if). In contrast, the Aust PM has a personal high level of popularity whilst his opposite number (leader of the opposition) has very poor personal support, it is their respective parties (Labour & Liberal) that have the reverse levels of popular voter support.
Feeling is that some crisis or event is all that may prevent current govt falling in next election. View is that Iraq is taking its toll as more scandals about dishonest assesments keep getting aired.
DSM
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Post #122,478
10/23/03 4:29:21 AM
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The unintended consequences list of W grows daily.
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Post #122,479
10/23/03 5:02:12 AM
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Bush address generally well received. But, two ...
greens senators called out whilst Pres Bush was speaking. They were eventually told to leave by the speaker of the house but they refused to go.
Sen Brown (Green party) tends to be greatly outspoken on all sorts of issues. Tomorrow (despite being banned from parliment for 24 hrs) he will turn up to hear Hu Jintau's address to parliment, wearing a Tibetan flag.
Doug M
(re Brown, He knows how to play to the peanut gallery whilst avoiding having to make hard diplomatic choices that govts in power are forced to face).
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Post #122,497
10/23/03 9:08:06 AM
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Heard this morning on the radio
As the Senate's Sgt-at-Arms lead the senator away, Bush quips, "I love free speach."
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Implicitly condoning stupidity since 2001.
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Post #122,507
10/23/03 9:42:00 AM
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Wow, you're good.
I didn't realize you could hear typos like that...
gd&r ;-)
Regards,
-scott anderson
"Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson..."
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Post #122,517
10/23/03 10:09:56 AM
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This *was* Bush speeking
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Implicitly condoning stupidity since 2001.
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Post #122,531
10/23/03 11:03:18 AM
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I think somebody forgot the sign...
[image|/forums/images/warning.png|0|This is sarcasm...]
In that final hour, when each breath is a struggle to take, and you are looking back over your life's accomplishments, which memories would you treasure? The empires you built, or the joy you spread to others?
Therin lies the true measure of a man.
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Post #122,548
10/23/03 1:38:04 PM
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See speeling in my followup, ie: I knew the sign was implied
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Implicitly condoning stupidity since 2001.
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Post #122,594
10/23/03 4:59:14 PM
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Radio fibbed a little
Bush made the quip ok & got applause but the senators never left their seats & weren't escorted out.
The Sgt-at-arms went to where they sat & asked them politely to leave - they each looked at him and said no.
Later Brown went up to Bush on the senate floor & spoke to him but then two govt senators kind of jostled him away.
Doug M
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Post #122,501
10/23/03 9:22:55 AM
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Interesting comment about that from the 7:30 report.
The Aussie media isn't allowed to film what they like in the house (why the hell not!?!), but CNN is. So the ABC had to resort to borrowed, down-converted footage of Senator Brown being, well, being Senator Brown.
I'm glad the ABC pointed that quirk out.
Wade.
Is it enough to love
Is it enough to breathe
Somebody rip my heart out
And leave me here to bleed
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Is it enough to die
Somebody save my life
I'd rather be Anything but Ordinary
Please
| -- "Anything but Ordinary" by Avril Lavigne. |
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Post #122,692
10/24/03 10:26:40 AM
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IIRC Keating introduced the 'film what I tell you to' law.
John. Busy lad.
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Post #122,642
10/23/03 11:52:19 PM
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Follow on to Bush's address (next day) ...
Radio talkback all seems to be about Senator Brown's 'bad behavior' in parliment. (Sen Brown is in his 50s & is no spring chicken, his green companion in the outburst is a woman in her mid 40s).
Community mostly against him & his companion's outbursts but about (from my listening) 25 % seem to think what he did was acceptable. The radio talkback hosts seem to be unanimously against Brown (as I am).
A good percentage of people have commented how they may not have agreed with issues related to pre-post Iraq, these people feel that Brown & sidekick had no right to behave as badly as they did.
Also today Sen Brown was stopped from entering parliment to hear Hu Jintao's address. He went quietly.
He also commeneted 'how disgraceful' it was that two Tibetans he had invited to sit in the members galley, had been redirected to the Children's gallery (where there is a glass wall between seating & the chamber). Coming from him after his grandstanding yesterday, it seems 'rich'.
Doug M
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