Election 07: Australia flips a coin

Post by **Gandalf** » 2007-11-22 11:04pm

As I understand it, there's an election tomorrow morning and I'm still stumped as to who should get my vote. To steal a phrase from the immortal Leo McGarry, I'm picking between the lesser of who gives a crap.

Is anyone else in this quagmire?

Glocksman · Post by **Glocksman** » 2007-11-22 11:22pm

Speaking as an American, don't you have this lovely chap named John Howard who deserves your vote*??

*Though due to his stances on RKBA, I personally wouldn't vote the bastard in for dogcatcher, much less any important office.

Glocksman · Post by **Glocksman** » 2007-11-22 11:24pm

All bullshit aside though, in your situation I'd probably vote for Rudd (sp?) based on my limited understanding of what's going on down in Oz.

Drooling Iguana · Post by **Drooling Iguana** » 2007-11-22 11:25pm

Pick whoever has the funniest name. That way you'll at least be entertained for the next few years.

Flagg · Post by **Flagg** » 2007-11-22 11:28pm

Isn't Howard supposed to have his nose up Bush's ass? That should be enough to make your mind up on unless going along with US foreign policy benefits Australia or he has damned good domestic policy.

Post by **Gandalf** » 2007-11-22 11:30pm

Flagg wrote:Isn't Howard supposed to have his nose up Bush's ass? That should be enough to make your mind up on unless going along with US foreign policy benefits Australia or he has damned good domestic policy.

That's the thing that's got me, There's reasons to vote against Howard, but no great reasons to vote for Rudd.

Post by **Gandalf** » 2007-11-22 11:32pm

EDIT: By "no great reasons", I can't find anything aside from the broadband thing.

Drooling Iguana · Post by **Drooling Iguana** » 2007-11-22 11:33pm

Are there any particularly good reasons not to vote for him?

SilverWingedSeraph · Post by **SilverWingedSeraph** » 2007-11-22 11:37pm

I can think of plenty of reasons not to vote for Howard, none of which were fed to me by Labor Party campaign ads. On the other hand, there aren't many valid reasons to not vote for Rudd...

So yeah, I'm voting Labor. Anyway, a change is as good as a holiday. Howard's been PM for far to long.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2007-11-22 11:47pm

I'm voting Labor simply because they're going to lose anyway, but no fucking way is John fucking Howard getting my goddamn vote. When John Howard wins, I want a clear conscience.

All the better to laugh at the morons who take what he says seriously after his decade of dishonesty.

Archaic` · Post by **Archaic`** » 2007-11-23 12:16am

Trust me when I say that the broadband thing isn't a reason to vote for Rudd. It's the most poorly conceived piece of trash I've read since the last time I picked up creationist literature to pick apart. If Telstra was still a government monopoly, it might have been alright, but they're already privatised now, and basically handing over all control over any next generation FTTN or FTTH network to them is going to royally screw us over.

Plug the unions on top of that (70% of his front bench are current or former union bosses, and Rudd says he won't be influenced by the unions? Give me a break), Rudd's rabid opposition to Nuclear power, and his empty promises (Kyoto's meaningless when we've already beat our targets, and the vast majority of high school students already have access to computers at school), and as much as I might dislike Howard as a person, the Liberals are still getting my vote.

Alan Bolte · Post by **Alan Bolte** » 2007-11-23 12:18am

My personal default is to pick the challenger. If nothing else, you counter the morons who vote for who vote for the incumbent by default.

hongi · Post by **hongi** » 2007-11-23 12:39am

I'm infecting my family with evil Greens propoganda.

Archaic` · Post by **Archaic`** » 2007-11-23 01:07am

Alan Bolte wrote:My personal default is to pick the challenger. If nothing else, you counter the morons who vote for who vote for the incumbent by default.

In this election, with Howard having served for so long, it's more likely that the morons will vote for the challenger, sadly.

If anyone's not seen the clip yet, this song from ABC's Sideshow is fairly accurate, and sums up the feelings of many.

mr friendly guy · Post by **mr friendly guy** » 2007-11-23 03:46am

Howard is a tosser, and not just because he sucks Bush's cock. As always I vote for the lesser of the two evils, in which case I will have to settle for Rudd.

Flagg · Post by **Flagg** » 2007-11-23 04:00am

Is Rudd the guy who was picking his ear and eating it in that one video? And if he was, is that video real?

Zablorg · Post by **Zablorg** » 2007-11-23 04:22am

Yeah, that was real.

I couldn't decide who I would vote for if I was old enough, but then I saw a three minute ad with Johnny telling us how awsome the economy is under his control.

While he made good points, he wasted three minutes of my life, and I decided for that, he would lose my hypothetical vote.

Battlehymn Republic · Post by **Battlehymn Republic** » 2007-11-23 03:59pm

Didn't Howard do good things for the economy, despite his Bush toadying? Or maybe that was Blair. Or Abe? Well, one of those slightly economically right-leaning PMs in one of those democratic socialist countries.

Dartzap · Post by **Dartzap** » 2007-11-23 04:07pm

Battlehymn Republic wrote:Didn't Howard do good things for the economy, despite his Bush toadying? Or maybe that was Blair. Or Abe? Well, one of those slightly economically right-leaning PMs in one of those democratic socialist countries.

Your thinking of Blair. Although apparently that was because of Major.

wolveraptor · Post by **wolveraptor** » 2007-11-23 06:02pm

Is Rudd the guy who was picking his ear and eating it in that one video? And if he was, is that video real?

Yeah, that was real.

i lolled

Though I can't say it's much better in the US.

Chris OFarrell · Post by **Chris OFarrell** » 2007-11-23 06:04pm

I'm thinking seriously about writing on the ballet paper a box saying 'Anubis' : Goa'uld enslavement party and ticking that...oh well, I'm off to vote now.

Winston Blake · Post by **Winston Blake** » 2007-11-23 06:25pm

I had this annoying problem last week when I voted early. I realised I really didn't know who was running and how the hell I was going to order my preferences. An hour of googling and wikipedia-ing got me enough information to know what parties I wanted to put last (ah, the wonders of compulsory voting).

Also, I was surprised to find a Climate Change Coalition party running for Senate. Non-Green environmentalism, in my Senate? It's more likely than you think.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2007-11-23 07:44pm

Battlehymn Republic wrote:Didn't Howard do good things for the economy, despite his Bush toadying? Or maybe that was Blair. Or Abe? Well, one of those slightly economically right-leaning PMs in one of those democratic socialist countries.

If by 'do good things for the economy' you mean 'sell public assets and shit on public services while a massive economic boom was happening with India and China', yeah. I've heard hilarious statements about how it would never have happened without Howard's Personal Magic in charge: clearly anyone else would have stopped them buying our shit! Used the navy to stop their cargo haulers, probably! GET AWAY FROM OUR COAL YOU CHINK BASTARDS etc etc

He ran his budgets early this century on the sale of Telstra (for instance) and then turned around and said 'look at our huge budget surplus because taxes are the same and the massive Telstra windfall wasn't entirely soaked up by the few new programs I initiated'. He's such a brilliant economic mind his government has struggled to control inflation lately, since it's a natural result of the current economic environment.

About the only think he did that was good was stretching the tax brackets up further. In the 80s AUD50k was a lot: now any idiot makes that, and the tax at that level is *48%*.

I hate him and his shiteating little toady wankers (in other words, most of the electorate whose political analysis is 'we have teh monies = must be teh howardz') but I'm not interested in Labor being in charge. I'm just keeping my conscience clean, since there's no way Rudd can actually win.

Zablorg · Post by **Zablorg** » 2007-11-23 07:47pm

The media thinks otherwise. Although they probably just want to jump on the tention...

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2007-11-23 07:54pm

The media has almost always been wrong with regard to Howard. We're doomed to having such a terrible and stupid politician become our longest serving leader, probably forever.

Remember, having a few hundred ADF troops in Iraq makes us *safer*. That's why the terrorist threats against us since then (there were like one beforehand) all focus on our presence there! John Howard is so smart!

Baldfaced lying is Howard's specialty, and it fucking sickens me. What does it say about Australians? A bunch of short-sighted, self-interested ignorant media-following whores, that's what.