Re: Man, Mr. bush Jr. sure is wicked evil eh?

Bill Hobba wrote:
> >Being an Australian and working for the government I have been assured by
> >people who are in a position to know that John Howard did not really have
> >much choice in the matter (no I can not name my source - he would be most
> >offended if I did - rest assured he is highly placed and in a job that
would
> >be privy to such information).
>

Thom replied:
> None of us have any doubt that Howard is depending on the USA for
> defence against the "threat" north of us.  I have no doubt that his
> involvment in ET, Afghanistan and Iraq is to create a debt the
> Americans owe us.
>
> BUT can they pay off?  With the delivery of the Sukhoi SU-27's and
> 30MK's the Indonesian AF now has more advanced aircraft than the
> Australia Defence Forces' FB-111 and F-18 or the American F-18 and
> F-14.  Add to that the Russian S-300 missile system which was
> specfically designed to take out the American F-111's and air
> superiority in the region is lost to the bad guys.

Valid point.  However my understanding is that Americans are still in front
technologically - they are working on unmanned aircraft that will run rings
around the other stuff.  But your point is well taken - we have no guarantee
that America can deliver - but a point to consider is what alternative do we
have (other then taxing us out of existence by going on our own).

Bill Hobba wrote:
> > Our opposition can babble all it wants that
> >we can still be Americas friend without supporting it 100% but if
Australia
> >ever really got into trouble it is America we would turn to -
>

Thom replied:
> Again can the USN Navy pay off?  Given the positioning of the SU's I
> see their role in the very near future as an air weapon that will be
> used to stabilize Indonesian occupation of West Papua and when and if
> all hell breaks loose with another serious war they will move on to
> take Papua NG and retake East Timore and there is nothing we can do
> about it.

Again - valid point.

Bill Hobba wrote:
> >I have no
> >doubt that if the current opposition was in power they would have done
the
> >same thing - and if John Howard was in opposition he probably would have
> >made similar statements to Simon Crean (not always of case - Kim Beasley
> >fully supported our involvement in East Timor - but that is a rareity
that
> >bucks the odds).
>

Thom replied
> Most Australians are not against America or Americans but can't stand
> George Bush, especially the VN Veterans.  Even the Greens temper their
> criticism to Bush and not the USA in most cases.  However the latest
> insult to Australia by Bush has really got all the parties up in arms,
> that being the fact he gave a press conference to the Indonesians but
> refuses to give one to the media of his ally.

True no one I know of is against America per se.  However are you sure most
Australians do not like George bush?  I would say some, not most.  I am
rather ambivalent to him - but I think he is somewhat 'gung ho'.

Thom replied
> I'd like to turn the clock back to 1985-88 thank you.  Answer your
> question?

Housing prices?  Yes a problem.  But I suspect the main contributing factors
were lower interest rates making it more affordable and driving up prices.
Medicare - another problem - but we need to look at that carefully.  The
cost of health care is escalating wildly.  I read an article in the
Financial Review about Shepard, the former AMA president.  Evidently he and
a group of other highly paid specialists believe they should be able to
squeeze the public for whatever they want - however they ignore the fact
that they have a legal monopoly.  To me the way to fix them up - what they
are allowed to charge must be capped - as the article said it is
unbelievable the amount of government support the medical profession gets -
they seem to want all the advantages of that and not concede the government
has any right to regulate them.  If any other profession tried that they
would not get away with it.  However the approach of the health funds of
seeking agreements on 'no gap' payments might be more productive.  It is a
scandal that doctors in the first hospital to sign up for this had tomatoes
etc thrown at them.  Unbelievable.

Thom replied
> also communism and capitalism are both failed economic systems,
> neither has produced a universal standard of living and given the
> highs and lows of existance its not much different than medevil Europe
> with the "Me Lords" in the castles and the surfs around them.

Come now - life expectancy?  If capitalism is a failure what system is
better?

Thanks
Bill