General Politics Discussion Topic [closed]

Originally posted by vanquish:
George Bush might be stupid, but he's not Stalin or someone. What possible benefit could the US government gain?

"There's no way that GST will ever be part of our policy.... Never ever. It's dead. It was killed by the voters in the last election."

Originally posted by haytrain:[..]

That's just him showing his true colors: Pure incompetence.

Originally posted by drewhiggins:[..]

I reckon he'd be close to it. He is the greatest disaster since our last prime minister.

John Howard swore there'd be no GST in 1995 - remember, "never, ever". In 1998, what did his party introduce? And let's not forget those wonderful workplace reforms. Weren't they a popular bag of shit, while coming very, very, very close to being illegal.

[..]

And ignoring the Australian public to not participate in the Iraq War in 2003.

Originally posted by aussiemofo:[..]

And now New Zealand has just kicked its Prime Minister out of office. There's been a real mood for change that has swept the world over the past 12 months it would seem. It doesn't seem to be along any universal party lines either as NZ PM Helen Clark was Labor and she took an anti-Iraq and Afgani war stance.

Originally posted by drewhiggins:[..]

When did that happen? You're right, we want change, regardless of what you do or don't stand for.

Originally posted by www.wikipedia.comMiriam Zenzi Makeba 1932-2008

Biography
Miriam Zenzi Makeba was born in Johannesburg in 1932. Her mother was a Swazi sangoma and her father, who died when she was six, was a Xhosa. In keeping with tradition, her full name contains the first names of her male ancestors followed by a one- or two-word description of their character. As a child, she sang at the Kilmerton Training Institute in Pretoria, which she attended for eight years.
Makeba first toured with an amateur group. Her professional career began in the 1950s with the Manhattan Brothers, before she formed her own group, The Skylarks, singing a blend of jazz and traditional melodies of South Africa.
In 1959, she performed in the musical King Kong alongside Hugh Masekela, her future husband. Though she was a successful recording artist, she was only receiving a few dollars for each recording session and no provisional royalties, and was keen to go to the US. Her break came when she starred in the anti-Apartheid documentary Come Back, Africa in 1959. She went to the premier of the film at the Venice Film Festival.
Makeba then travelled to London where she met Harry Belafonte, who assisted her in gaining entry to and fame in the United States. She released many of her most famous hits there including Pata Pata, The Click Song (Qongqothwane in Xhosa), and Malaika. In 1966, Makeba received the Grammy Award for Best Folk Recording together with Harry Belafonte for An Evening With Belafonte/Makeba. The album dealt with the political plight of black South Africans under Apartheid.
She discovered that her South African passport was revoked when she tried to return there in 1960 for her mother's funeral. In 1963, after testifying against Apartheid before the United Nations, her South African citizenship and her right to return to the country were revoked. She has had nine passports, and was granted honorary citizenship of ten countries.
Her marriage to Trinidadian civil rights activist and Black Panthers leader Stokely Carmichael in 1968 caused controversy in the United States, and her record deals and tours were cancelled. As a result of this, the couple moved to Guinea, where they became close with President Ahmed Sékou Touré and his wife. Makeba separated from Carmichael in 1973, and continued to perform primarily in Africa, South America and Europe. She was one of the African and Afro-American entertainers at the 1974 Rumble in the Jungle match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman held in Zaïre. Makeba also served as a Guinean delegate to the United Nations, for which she won the Dag Hammarskjöld Peace Prize in 1986.
After the death of her only daughter Bongi Makeba in 1985, she moved to Brussels. In 1987, she appeared in Paul Simon's Graceland tour. Shortly thereafter she published her autobiography Makeba: My Story (ISBN 0-453-00561-6).
Nelson Mandela persuaded her to return to South Africa in 1990. In the fall of 1991, she made a guest appearance in an episode of The Cosby Show, entitled "Olivia Comes Out Of The Closet". In 1992 she starred in the film Sarafina!, about the 1976 Soweto youth uprisings, as the title character's mother, "Angelina." She also took part in the 2002 documentary Amandla!: A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony where she and others recalled the days of Apartheid.
In January 2000, her album, Homeland, produced by Cedric Samson and Michael Levinsohn[4] was nominated for a Grammy Award in the "Best World Music" category. In 2001 she was awarded the Gold Otto Hahn Peace Medal by the United Nations Association of Germany (DGVN) in Berlin, "for outstanding services to peace and international understanding". In 2002, she shared the Polar Music Prize with Sofia Gubaidulina. In 2003, she started an In 2004, Makeba was voted 38th in the Top 100 Great South Africans. Makeba started a worldwide farewell tour in 2005, holding concerts in all of those countries that she had visited during her working life.
Her publicist notes that Makeba had suffered "severe arthritis" for some time.
She died in the early hours of the morning in Castel Volturno, near Caserta, Italy, on 10 November 2008, of a heart attack, shortly after taking part in a concert organized to support writer Roberto Saviano in his stand against the Camorra, a mafia-like organisation.

Originally posted by aussiemofo:[..]

NZ had their General Election over the weekend. It was a fairly resounding win for the conservatives, won by a former merchant banker - ring any bells back home?

Originally posted by drewhiggins:[..]

I'm wondering who. I'm thinking a few people.

Originally posted by aussiemofo:[..]

Our current Opposition Leader.

Originally posted by Yogi:[..]

Yes' but it's still actual.

Six hundred and seventy six thousand
Will go down in the streets of America
With a bullet in the next 20 years
20 years, these bitter tears
In a business of bitter tears

John...
(Can you hear us calling?)
More bodybags than Vietnam

Bono's refering to right by witch almost everyone can carry a gun, and now Obama promised to end with that.

Two more things about "making war on itself".

1. There is not one evidence that would relate al'Quaida to 9/11. If you watch to some documentaries (Zeitgeist for example) you'll see that bombs exploded all over the twin towers BEFORE planes hit them. Even Twins were constructed in a way so that airoplane crash could not knock them down.
Then, there was not one piece of plane found by Pentagon. Not one piece. And the hole made by crash looked more like Cesna crashed, not plane of that size.

2. USA went to war to Iraq because Saddam's role in 9/11. Not one evidence found to support that. But they hung him anyway. Years back USA supported him with money and weapons.
2.1. USA went to Iraq because some documents from 90-ies were saying that there MIGHT be nuclear weapons on some locations. No evidence found to support them.

That's it.

Originally posted by wtshnnfb01:[..]

There has never been any proof, of bombs going off in the towers prior too the planes hitting. As an American citizen, I'm appaled that you believe my country would masscre over 3,000 of its citizens for political gain.

Also, they can have my gun when they take it from my cold dead hands.

Originally posted by Yogi:[..]

You didn't read my post obviously. There are proofs such as statements of people who were in Towers and near them, it's even videotaped!

P.S. what for do you need a gun?