Rudd does a "me too, me too, me too" song and dance

And I must say I am really disappointed that he has decided to tow this certain bigoted party line:

Cheney ups rhetoric on nuclear Iran

Opposition leader Kevin Rudd says he would still love his three children if they were homosexual, but as prime minister he would not change the law to allow gays to marry.

Speaking on the Austereo network, Mr Rudd remained committed to his party line that marriage is between a man and woman, but admitted it was not a popular view in some circles.

*snip*

Asked if he would change his mind if one of his three children were gay and wanted to marry, Mr Rudd said, "I would love them equally and that's not the issue here, it's just not.

Link: The Age: Gay kids wouldn't worry me, Rudd says

I am sorry, but if you won't at least try to change a law which currently forbids one of your children enjoying the same rights the other children have, then you really don't love your children equally. I don't care who you are.

And that is why come election day, I will be holding my nose as I place my vote now. Kevin Rudd just managed to lose me. I will still vote for him, because I want a change in government, but all I will be doing is voting for the lesser of two evils.

Who is a Threat to Peace in the Middle East?

I must say, I had to laugh at this when I read it this morning:

Cheney ups rhetoric on nuclear Iran

US VICE-PRESIDENT Dick Cheney has issued his strongest warning yet to Iran over its nuclear program, branding the country a threat to peace in the Middle East and warning that the international community was prepared to impose "serious consequences" if it continued to pursue its nuclear ambitions.

In a speech to the Washington Institute for Near East Policy on Sunday, Mr Cheney stoked up the rhetoric just days after President George Bush warned that a nuclear-armed Iran could lead to "World War Three".

"Our country and the entire international community cannot stand by as a terror-supporting state fulfils its most aggressive ambitions," Mr Cheney said.

Link: The Age: Cheney ups rhetoric on nuclear Iran

Now, exactly who has been a threat to peace in the Middle East? I certainly wouldn't say Iran has been. After all, it wasn't Iran that invaded a sovereign nation on lies now was it?

It is just amazing to me how right wingers simple won't take any blame for things they do themselves.

So now the Liberal Party believes it has a right to censor what Australian's think!

The live worm feed from last nights debate was cut at the request of the Liberal Party, and channel nine, and Ray Martin (the host of last nights broadcast) are not happy about it. From The Age this morning:

Libs cut worm: Nine

The Nine Network has accused the Liberal Party of cutting its broadcast of the leaders' debate last night.

Nine used the controversial worm to track the reaction of 90 swinging voters in its Sydney studios to the comments of both Prime Minister John Howard and Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd.

*snip*

The Nine Network managed to secure a feed of the debate from co-broadcaster Sky News.

*snip*

"The deal was that we would take the coverage and we would have the worm, we didn't say when we'd run the worm," Martin told ABC Radio.

*snip*

The ABC technicians had bowed to pressure from the press club who had already bowed to pressure from the Liberal Party, he said.

Prime Minister John Howard said before the debate he did not want the worm, which charts reactions from 90 swinging voters in Nine's studio audience, while Mr Rudd was in favour of it.

*snip*

"Pulling feeds and threatening all sorts of dire consequences if we didn't do what the Liberal Party required, this is an outrageous act, the most outrageous act of censorship I've seen in some time,'' he said.

Link: The Age: Libs cut worm: Nine

And I have to agree with the last paragraph quoted above; it is censorship, and it is outrages that the Liberal Party thinks it has the power and authority to censor what people of Australia think.

Just like the last three years of their government have been, this is a blatant misuse of power, and the Australian people should not tolerate a government doing things like this.

As yet, I haven't read anything about what Kevin Rudd has said about this election controversy but when I do find it, I will blog about it.

The Great Australian Debate!

So last night proved to be a win for Rudd when John Howard and Kevin Rudd faced off in this year federal election debate. And what a debate it was.

I will be blogging about the debate more, later today, but figured I would share with my readers what I consider to be the highs and lows of the great Aussie debate.

Who Won: Without a shadow of doubt, Kevin Rudd. I must have stayed mesmerized to the debate worm the entire time. And for Rudd, through out the debate the worm stayed well above the central line.

Funniest Moment: When Kevin Rudd made a memorable faux pas by calling Howard "Mr Coward" in the opening moments of the debate.

Mr Rudd's Highest Moment: Talking about his Taxation Plan. Whilst most of it might be similar to the one the Howard government is offering, Rudd's has one very big difference, and that is with the high income earner. It is something every battling Aussie has wanted to hear since Australia first became, that the rich simply wouldn't be getting any richer this time around.

Mr Howard's Highest Moment: In all honesty, for me, he never had one. He failed to impress me with anything he spoke about. Simply because he tried to sell the exact same thing he has tried in every election. It has become old news because he has had 11 years to implement every one of them, and the only things he gave us have been a pack of lies, an immoral war, legislation sending gay people to the status of second class citizen (i.e: marriage legislation which didn't include our right to marry), and work choice legislation.

Mr Rudd's Lowest Moment: Getting all screwed up when trying to answer the question regarding climate change. Whilst he has a plan which I feel is a beginning for an Australian stance on climate change, he failed to get the message across properly.

Mr Howard's Lowest Moment: At one point, I thought he was seriously going to collapse on stage. I had noticed he was slurring his words a bit, and then all of a sudden he started blinking his eyes a lot, and looked to me like he went white as a ghost.

Over all: It was a good debate. The questions were spot on from the five journalists taking part. Mr Howard as usual skirted over questions regarding his past history with broken promises etc.

If Mr Howard wants to win this year, then he truly needs to begin listening to the average Australian, and stop trying to tell us his work choices plan is what is right for Australia. It isn't him who is affected by work choices, it is us.

Mr Rudd, while a great public speaker, doesn't do enough to sell his ideas to the people. He needs to really begin pushing them so the people can see that he has good plans for the country we all love.

I found this article...

...this morning on my usual hunt for news, and admit, I had a slight chuckle about this, and thought I would share it with my readers. :)

Military inadvertently recruits gays

The Army, Navy and Air Force unwittingly advertised for recruits on a website for gays, who are barred from military service if they are open about their sexual orientation.
When informed Tuesday by USA TODAY that they were advertising on GLEE.com, a networking website for gay professionals, recruiters expressed surprise and said they would remove the job listings.

"This is the first I've heard about it," said Maj. Michael Baptista, advertising branch chief for the Army National Guard, which will spend $6.5 million on Internet recruiting this year. "We didn't knowingly advertise on that particular website," which he said does not "meet the moral standards" of the military.

Link: USA Today: Military inadvertently recruits gays

Now, the story in itself is quite amusing if you think about it. Seriously, the U.S. military has been so serious about not having queers amongst their ranks (even though the U.S. military is full of queers)even going as far as to fire much needed interpreters in recent years. SO for them to advertise on gay Web sites is indeed hilarious. But not what got me to laugh out loud this morning.

What made me laugh so hard was the five little words I have highlighted for you above. So the military claims to have moral standards huh? Can someone please explain to me how any killing machine can seriously claim to have moral standards because I really don't get it.

You go out and kill people for a living, and consider that to be moral standards? Guys, help me understand this.

What a bloody week I have had!

And to think today is Friday, and the week still isn't quite over yet.

It has just been a shit of a week, from dealing with the family crisis, to dealing with some other stuff, as well as my job, and I admit, I will be happy when this week is over and done with

This morning, I woke to find out that one of my favorite all time actresses Deborah Kerr has passed away, and I found myself thinking, how much worse will this week be?

Anyway, I am sorry I haven't been posting much this week. All I can say is hopefully things will settle down enough so that next week I can get back to my usual daily posting.

Regardless though, I have been working on an article about The Exclusive Brethren, I intend to finish and post next week, and I do have an article I am going to be posting after this. So just bare with me, while I finish sorting things out, and get some sort of normalcy back into my life.

FC

A different perspective on the Death Penalty!

I found this while reading The Age and thought I would post it here. All I ask is that you read the article in full.

Listen to the executioners before you opt for executions

A FEW weeks ago, I talked to a man called Ron McAndrew. He spoke about the death penalty, but from quite a different perspective than either Kevin Rudd or John Howard.

You see, McAndrew had served as the warden of Florida State Prison. He'd actually executed people - and it had changed his life forever.

*snip*

"When we turned on the electricity to kill this guy," he said, "flames shot out from under the helmet. We burned his head - badly. There was steam going down the side of his face, coming out of his eyes and his nose burned as well. It was horrifying. The chamber filled up with smoke. We could hardly see each other . . . but you could still smell the burning flesh."

*snip*

Let's put it like this: if the execution of even the wickedest man still traumatises the people who carry it out, what about the society that condones it?

Link: The Age: Listen to the executioners before you opt for executions

Now as you all know I am against the death penalty in any form. There won't be any changing that for me. As you also know it took a lot of work from someone once close to me to make me see the light. But what you don't know is, I have heard many times the horror stories from with in the execution chamber, and out of everything told to me, it was those horror stories I had read on the Internet and elsewhere that truly persuaded me to change my opinion.

And like the Author of this Op Ed says, before you opt for the DP perhaps you too should talk to those who will be carrying out the states orders.