Awesome pic

[Ironduke]

Looks like we're missing a couple of our buddies though :(

[bigross86]

If you mean the Canadians, I agree with you, it's :-(
If you mean the French, than it's a very large :-)

[ChrisF202]

ahh freedom standing togeather

[bigross86]

Peace Through Superior Firepower!!!

[Lunatock]

United we stand. Divided you fall.

[bigross86]

So either way they lose?

[Ironduke]

If you mean the Canadians, I agree with you, it's :-(
If you mean the French, than it's a very large :-)

I mean the Canucks and the Kiwis.

[Ziska]

Yeah well, New Zealand has changed. They are fast forgetting who their true friends are.

I don't know much about Canada, but any country that jails a minister for preaching that other religions are wrong is in trouble in my book.

[bigross86]

Australia also arrested someone like that a while ago, didn't they? Some female politician...

[Ziska]

wow, you heard about that in Israel?

Pauline Hanson was the co-founder of Pauline Hansons One Nation Party back in '95, and ran on a strong anti-immigration ticket. Of course she was immediately accused of nine types of racism, and copped a huge amount of flack. One Nation did incredibly well for a new party, grabbing 23% of the vote in the Queensland state election (The northeastern one).

Anyway, the major political parties (The Liberals, who are very similar to the US Republicans or UK Tories, and Labour) did some fancy political manouvering and either copied One Nation policies or bullied voters away from them.

A couple of elections later, and One Nation was finished, internal divisions leaving them utterly useless. Unfortunately, they couldn't leave it at that, and Pauline and One Nation co-founder David Ettridge were sentenced to 3 years prison without parole for electoral fraud.

Boy did the SHTF when that hit the papers. People from all sides of the political divide were outraged.

See, by law in Queensland, a political party needs 500 registered members for it to get funding. Hanson and Etterige gave 500 names of people who were members of the Pauline Hanson Supporters Group.

For that, a minor technicality by anyones book, they got 3 years in jail. Rapists and armed robbers have got less.

Anyway, like I said, people went berserk, and One Nation has seen a massive jump in support. Whether it will carry over to the election at the end of next year is another thing...

Now I'm a bit of a Pauline Hanson fan, but electoral fraud carries a 3 year minimum sentence, and it is a matter for the judiciary. Neither State or Federal Government can do much about it.

Hopefully she will win her appeal, but either way she wins. If she gets out, she can really milk this newfound popularity for all its worth, if she stays in, she'll be a martyr for her cause.

[bigross86]

I heard about it a bit, but some friends of mine from Australia stayed at my house for a bit and suddenly started going "No, no. I don't like it. Never did, never will." When I asked tham about it, they explained.

[Ziska]

Pauline's easy to make fun of because she doesn't have a university education and has this really nasal voice.

Still, lots of people listen to her.

[bigross86]

It was quite funny. They talk with heavy Australian accents, and the way they talked was just really, really funny.

[Ziska]

Yeah, she does sound kinda funny, and some guy made a couple of songs with samples of her in them, bagging her out.

ie, he spliced together a heap of her speeches, and made her say pretty offensive stuff. It was funny, but unfair. She sounds very... Aussie. Like Paul Hogan or Steve Irwin, but female.

[Ironduke]

I remember when John Howard and George W. Bush had a joint conference when they were at the Texas ranch....


Anyhow, Bush talked for awhile.... then Howard talked. I thought this guy would start speaking in something like an English accent, but his accent was totally messed up. He sounded like Bugs Bunny,