Right Pulse

…but not Kevin Rudd, in Foreign Policy’s ‘top 100 global thinkers’.  If I recall correctly FP rejected Rudd’s silly neo-liberalism essay for publication last year. The fact that Gordon Brown made the list, given the abysmal state of the UK, is a little strange . So Rudd misses out. It really is rather funny to see Rudd – who was meant to be a foreign policy guru – flounder on foreign policy from day one. He’s managed to annoy the Japanese, Chinese, Indians and Indonesians for no reason other than clumsy diplomacy. Is there anyone else in the region he wants to annoy?

However one Australian did make the list:

44. David Kilcullen

for writing the book on how America fights small wars.

Counterinsurgency expert | Washington

A gregarious former lieutenant colonel in the Australian Army, Kilcullen had an epiphany as a Ph.D. student in political anthropology. At root, guerrilla movements were motivated not by radical ideals, but by mundane, everyday drives; defeating them requires protecting the population and developing an in-depth knowledge of local social networks. In 2007, as the Iraqi insurgency was reaching its height, Gen. David Petraeus brought him on as a senior advisor, and many credit Kilcullen’s ideas with saving countless lives. Now, the Aussie has begun applying his out-of-the-box thinking to Afghanistan, starting with his book The Accidental Guerrilla. “If I were a Muslim,” Kilcullen told the New Yorker, “I’d probably be a jihadist.… The thing that drives these guys — a sense of adventure, wanting to be part of the moment, wanting to be in the big movement of history that’s happening now — that’s the same thing that drives me, you know?”

….

Worst idea: The notion that the West can afford to fail in Afghanistan and still have a chance of preventing the collapse and terrorist takeover of Pakistan.

Well not quite. The Council has set-up some type of consultative process to air the views of a range of Australians, and of course  who gets the most publicity. Well you figure it out by the headline appearing the the SMH:

Identity crisis: our cross to bear

These tax-payer funded community consultative processes have become veiled attempts to air the views of the radical left – because they wouldn’t get an airing any other way. You know, Australians are just a bunch of racists and so are our national symbols. Everything from the Union Jack to the Southern Cross. And of course guess who is to blame?

…the Australia Day Council launched a campaign last week to ask which symbols and images best represent our country, opinion-makers and public figures were at odds on how to answer the question – variously describing the Southern Cross as everything from ”beautiful” to ”racist”….

Tim Soutphommasane, a first-generation Australian and author of Reclaiming Patriotism: Nation-Building for Australian Progressives, said symbols such as the Southern Cross came to be associated with a new wave of patriotism under the conservative Howard government.

”Many Australians have been content to regard all expressions of national pride as thinly disguised racism,” he said. ”The result has been a surrender of all things patriotic to extreme nationalists.”

It is a bit formulaic – ‘ we are all meant to question our current symbols because clearly they are inadequate, especially after JH’. However if the Australia Day Council wants to promote this tosh they might want to consider that the only people with the identity crisis are those on the PC and radical left.

Australians for Constitutional Monarchy national convener Professor David Flint disagreed, saying critics were out of touch with the Australian people and that it was a ”pity to undermine the great symbols of the nation”.

”The fact [the symbols] have been imported doesn’t make them any less Australian.”

…the story will be inspired by global warming doom-mongering:

Thirty years on and Mad Max 4: Fury Road is about to restart the local movie industry, being filmed entirely in Sydney and Outback NSW.

The latest from Rudd’s yes man, Treasury SEC Ken Henry suggesting a congestion charge be levied on roads. Another form of big government control – punishing families that need cars and cannot take public transport.

On his gallstone condition:

Mr Rudd joked that if an operation was required he would allow it to be widely broadcast.

I don’t take that as a joke.

The AFP is probably too busy basket-weaving with middle eastern ‘youths’ or acting like glorified tax collectors – using entrapment methods on territory motorists to raise revenue:

Liberal Senator Bill Heffernan has told Parliament he received a death threat last week.

Senator Heffernan made the revelation while talking about his decision to reject a million dollar bribe offered to him by a Sydney developer last year.

…”There is a cost to not having a price. Last Thursday I got a death threat, I rang the AFP,” he said.

“They actually didn’t have enough people to put anyone on the case

I don’t see a problem with this, even though the MSM are pointing the finger:

A spokeswoman for Ms Bryce yesterday defended her decision to join the Lyceum Club.

 ”The Governor-General has no issue with men or women-only clubs or organisations,” the spokeswoman said.

This comes on the back of an absurd suggestion by Gillard that she would turn up to a men only club in Melbourne demanding membership.

“I’m sometimes tempted, on days when I am Acting Prime Minister, to go down to the Melbourne Club with our female Governor-General and apply for membership on the spot.

I don’t recall the former GG or Deputy PM, both men, ever threatening to go down to their local Country Women’s Association demanding membership. Childish stuff.

Tony Abbott did well on Q&A, especially considering everyone else on the panel was left-wing, although I don’t mind Lindsay Tanner and was pleased to know that he has read 1984. He should give Rudd and his megalomaniac of a climate Change Minister Penny Wong a copy of the book to read. Once again the programme featured a token Muslim, though she looked more culturally Muslim than devout. Then there was Tara June Winch, another one of these Caucasian Australians pretending to be Aboriginal so they can cash in on Aboriginal cultural prizes. Sickening. I noticed that Fairfax Press has a few photos of her on their website, suitably filtered to make her look authentically Aboriginal. Here’s one picture that that wasn’t vetted by Fairfax Press propaganda HQ.

That tattoo doesn’t look too Aboriginal. Tara is typical of so many young Australians. Completely brainwashed by the ABC and the Teachers Union. She embarrassed herself, claiming the Howard government was just full of lies. Sophisticated. As an example of her brainwashing, she just repeated Rudd’s recent line about moving on from the History Wars without realising what a retreat it is for the left. Abbott dealt with her comments in a mature and polite manner:

When you talk about a conservation Tara, don’t exclude the people that don’t agree with you. And don’t think that just because you don’t like John Howard’s politics that John Howard and those that support him ought to be kind of banished from public life.

A good teaching moment for Tara. I could see a light come there for a moment. Then we had a self proclaimed pre-eminent Australian novelist Richard Flanagan – someone I’ve never heard off – who said that he felt deeply ashamed to be called Australian during the Howard years. Well as a conservative, no matter how much I dislike Rudd, I have and never will feel deeply ashamed to call myself Australian because Rudd’s the PM. It was just an irrational and an embarrassing discussion, and once again shows the complete bias of the ABC and the general historical illiteracy of these ridiculous authours who hate their country so much because of historical events that mostly never took place.

It was also revealing that despite all the wailing and gnashing of teeth from these holier than thou authours about the state of Aborigines, of all the people on the panel the only one to have spent extensive time with genuine Aboriginals was the conservative Tony Abbott. The most hilarious part of the programme was when Tony Jones asked Tara if her first language was English, as if she spoke an Aboriginal dialect! She clearly had no idea about the issues effecting Aboriginals, and for a minute it seemed as if she would break out into a defensive monologue about how she really is Aboriginal, even though she doesn’t look it. Richard Flanagan later admitted that he had never been in an Aboriginal community.

Then the discussion went down an even further notch with a discussion about how Australian troops are supposedly going around killing innocent Afghans, as if that was their mission. And that Coalition forces were not doing any good and were invaders. At this point I started to feel intensely sorry for these authours.

The Jaguar XFR

5. Michael Jeffery 489/640

A Vietnam veteran, former commander of the SAS, Governor of Western Australia and Governor-General of Australia, Jeffery represents a seemingly by-gone era of service, integrity and traditional values. As a consequence, Jeffery has never been well liked by the main stream media and was personally attacked by the Fairfax press when his term as Governor-General came to an end. Never shy of speaking out on social issues, especially on the importance of the natural family to the nation. Jeffery has given extensive service to the community over many years without the ‘look at moiye, look at moiye’ factor typical of the current Governor ‘republican social justice president’ General.

4. Andrew Bolt 495/640

The most formidable conservative journalist in the country, thanks in large part to his ever popular and growing blog. Bolt is the primary media antagonist against the Australian left current holy of holies: the ’stolen’ generation and climate change. Rates well across all criteria, including defending the Iraq War and Australia’s role in it. Often seen on radio and TV undermining the main stream media’s narrative across a range of issues.

3. Keith Windschuttle 506/640

Windschuttle defected from the ‘dark side’ in the early 1980s. He came to national prominence with his recent book The Fabrication of Aboriginal History, Volume One: Van Diemen’s Land 1803-1847 (yes I have read the book), in which he exposes the flimsy historical evidence upon which the leftist claims about Tasmanian Aboriginal ‘genocides’ are based. He quickly became a lead actor in the history/culture wars. A more accurate history of the country is critical to conservatism, i.e. people can take the sack cloth and black-arm bands off now and be proud to call themselves Australians. History written with history in mind and not some contemporary political objective. Windschuttle is also the current editor of The Quadrant, Australia’s leading (only) conservative magazine.

2. Alexander Downer 512/640

Now at this point you are all probably wondering how an earth Downer made runner-up on my list. Let me explain. I think I am accurate in saying that he is one of only two Australian politicians ever mentioned on conservative US talk-back radio in a positive manner (I’ve heard Rush Limbaugh groan on about Rudd). From the Hugh Hewitt Show, which is one of the better talk back radio shows in the USA:

Hugh Hewitt: Well, I was reading Bill Bryson’s Notes From A Sunburned Country, and he says that Australian politics are the most vicious in the world in terms of the debate that goes on within the Parliament. Do you agree with that?

Mark Steyn: I think so. I think they’re so splendidly magnificently robust. When I was there, I went into the chamber during question time, Prime Minister’s question time, and the Prime Minister let the foreign minister, Alexander Downer, answer a couple of questions. And the then-leader of the opposition said, asked a question about Iraq. And Foreign Minister Downer just thwackted back at him, saying that this was the politics of surrender and appeasement, and that Australians would never march under that shabby banner.

Unless your name is Kevin Rudd. For me that settles it, runner up status granted.

1. John Howard 522/640

Now to the other Australian politician mentioned on US talk-back radio. Yes I know, no surprises here. I think at this juncture I’ll revisit the ranking methodology. The purpose of the list is not too rank the best full spectrum conservatives alone – otherwise I’d top the list – but to also consider in a general manner the impact these people have had on the country. So I don’t want to hear from the peanut gallery about Howard’s programme of middle class welfare. His fiscal short-coming has been taken into account along with the rest of the criteria. Note that 522 marks out of 640 is still only 82 per cent – not even a high distinction mark. Unlike the peanut gallery, Howard faced political realities that at times constrained his action – if he wanted to get reelected that is.

The facts remain that Howard ran a strong fiscal surplus with regular tax cuts and with funds set aside to pay for many of the Commonwealth’s future liabilities. That by itself is a major achievement and looks positively herculean given the mess the Federal budget is in now thanks to Rudd. He achieved this while at the same time giving people the ability to access private health care and private education – in other words exercise private choice. All of this was consistent with fiscal conservatism.

On Defence there can be no question that Howard based his policy decisions on what are becoming more and more uniquely conservatives values: freedom and democracy. He didn’t appease Indonesia over East Timor or Saddam Hussein, Russia and China over the fate of the Iraqi people. Both decisions have been to the benefit of of the world as both East Timor and Iraq have begun to find their feet as democratic and free nations. All of this was met of course with bizarre and hysterical reactions from the left.

On all the other criteria, social conservatism, history and law, Howard had more than enough marks to put him over the top. Compare the balanced and fair manner in which Howard and Minchin organised the Constitutional Convention in the lead up to the 1999 Republican Referendum, and the way in which Rudd stacked the 2020 Summit in a way that would have made the leaders of the Chinese Communist Party proud.

Those that missed out

No Malcolm Turnbull, despite his recent speech to the Australian Christian Lobby in which he espoused his social conservative credentials. The problem with MT is that he hasn’t done enough in the public domain yet to justify inclusion in the list. What he has done, carbon reduction policies and Australian becoming a republic, are hardly critical conservative issues. This leads to the next group that missed out, business leaders.

The main problem here is tracking down the views and actions of business leaders. I’m sure there are many conservative business leaders, but trying to verify their views against the criteria is a challenge I couldn’t overcome.

There were also a few other journalists, think tank persons and former ministerial staff that missed out. The list can only be so long, and once again there is the challenge of verifying views against the criteria.

A Final Note

I’ll leave that to Canadian columnist Mark Steyn:

In a geopolitical scene not noted for its sympathies to America, we should all give thanks for Australia’s John Howard. On 9/11, the French headline that got all the attention read: “Nous sommes tous Americains.” With far less fanfare, Mr Howard told a radio interviewer: “This is no time to be an 80 per cent ally.” The French didn’t mean it. The Prime Minister did, and he’s been a 100 per cent ally to the United States throughout the last six years. On Saturday, he faces the toughest election of his life. He deserves to win.

Well he didn’t, but like Mark Steyn and despite Howard’s short comings, this blog remains a 100 per cent ally of Howard.