How is Rudd’s broadband plan different from any other public-private partnership?

Flash, I was under the impression that Rudd wanted to go the route of making it a government owned/operated deal rather than a more typical PPP. The funding is proposed to come out of some public bucket of money, not solely from a corporation seeking to maximise a profit return for a shareholder base.

And THAT’S why Rudd must be stopped! He’s robbing future generations by, uh… investing in their future! Yeah, that’ll stick!

Costello sure thinks it’ll stick, Flash.

The silly-wild-assed conspiracy theorist in me thinks that the gubmint finds the opposition organised online to be somewhat inconvenient already- and faster access can’t be good, at least not for the gubmint.

The pragmatist in me thinks that if Rudd said the sky was blue, Petey The C would be pointing out the pink and orangey bits at dawn and dusk.

I heard the new editor of Ruppys Bulletin on radio this morning. He claimed that the Hicks predicament only became an issue after the online world kept ringing the bells.

From there, on talkback, it soon went to ‘Gov fear of broadband’. Your view, weez ,maybe more mainstream than you imagine.

Your pragmatist is of course spot on, as well. The trouble is that such a negative portrayal of Rudd ,on everything, just looks so phony. It smacks of desperation.

joe, it wouldn’t surprise me that online activism, and by association, broadband, is a threat to the govt, but I wouldn’t have thought it was a very big one. That’s why I put on my tinfoil hat for that comment. I’m surprised such came up in talkback (commercial radio, right?).

The ‘online opinion’ is the same public opinion that’s been around all along- it’s just that there’s an awful lot more people around certain websites than around any given water cooler these days. However, social chain reactions are now starting to go critical. The activism connections that develop via the ‘net are the equivalent of a neutron cascade in a sufficiently sized lump of uranium. The critical mass of numbers is there- it’s just the connections are only now being made.

Indeed, the Hicks thing was a grand bit of organisation and facilitation of an existing public sentiment by GetUp- and is probably going to be looked back upon fondly as their coming of age as online activists in Australia. MoveOn, GetUp’s kissing cousins from the USA, punch so far above their weight that with their sort of magic, Kostya Tzu could kick Mike Tyson’s ass twice a day. GetUp floundered for a while until they got their fingers on the pulse, but they’re finally beginning to connect on Australians’ hotbutton issues.

I think Johnny & Petey have already worn out their slam & smear game on Rudd. The public’s wise and we’re all now taking their spews with about a tonne of salt. The Burke stuff went face first into the muck. Johnny’s old and tired ‘OH NOOOOOEY!- the unionists are taking over the ALP!!’ gag is falling flat… especially when you consider how many farmers, bankers, businesspeople etc. populate the Libs’ rank ranks. Pot, kettle, etc.

I’m fairly confident (80%+) that the Australian public is going to gig Johnny & the Libs over WorkChoices, if nothing else. I’m actually considering putting a wager that JWH bails out before the election. ‘Course, JWH knows just as well as I that Costello is as charismatic as radioactive pondscum, locking in a Lib loss if JWH were to bail.

Rudd’s mudproof, wasn’t drawn (much) on Burke. What rabbit do you think JWH will pull out next?

“What rabbit do you think JWH will pull out next?”

Hard to say and guess, weez. Maybe WW3, if he thinks that line will help him win an election and circumstances provide. Or as an excuse not to hold one, if he reckons he will lose.

Iran, as a large bees nest, will only take a few more pokes and we will be thrown into a war. Perfect timing to re-issue fridge magnets and take the public on another ride with J. Winston. H., on rearguard.

Hoping otherwise.

I thought WW3 was already in progress. 😕

Seems like Johnny has already played the boat-people card. That didn’t light off the electorate as it did before Children Overboard.

Maybe JWH will magically uncover some heinous terrorist plot to blow up all the Mr Whippy vans in the week before the election. ‘Course, it will be found that Fred Nile is behind the Mr Whippy bombings- after all, those vans are all PINK and CLEARLY, ice cream mustn’t be the only cream on sale from the side windows of those cryptopooftermobiles! Mr Whippy, indeed! Sounds positively Mapplethorpeish. 😀

“I thought WW3 was already in progress.”

Sorry I forgot. Since they strapped Brendan Nelson down and told him not to mention “The War”, it clearly crossed my mind.

Now this Whippy theory sounds a little bit far fetched. Though S/M has always been a tory theme and persuit. Yes, they would have to be very careful about who got caught up in the ‘drag net’,so to speak. Only to be released post-election, presumably.