"I can't stand him… he’s a liar!"

[onmyknees]

I thought extreme conservatism is called neoconservatism.

Nope...
Like most catch phrases used to describe a political ideology or belief, it has a completely different meaning that it did even 20 years ago, but let's deal in the here and now....To a fiscal conservative's point of view, a Neo-Con refers to an interventionist foreign policy. Paul Wolfowitz for example was a Neo-Con believing that the US should use it's influence ( both covert and overt) in all four corners of the globe. Wolfowitz was one of the leading voices to "go big" in Iraq. Neo-Cons are hawkish advocates. There are social conservatives, fiscal conservatives, and neo conservatives. Ron Paul would be and example of a fiscal conservative with no "cross over" to the Neo Cons

[Stavros]

To fine tune what you say onmyknees, I would swap the word 'interventionist' with pre-emptive. Instead of waiting for your 'enemy' to attack, you get in first and disable that ability. More fine tuning would suggest a 'conservative' -old-style- would be cautious about that kind of action (see Kissinger's review of John Lewis Gaddis's biography of George Kennan in the NYT on the 10th November). So does this mean a 'neo' conservative is a 'new form' of conservative when their attitude to action is so different? Neo-cons only works because it sounds like it came out of Star Trek.

[russtafa]

Obama just gave a strong warning to China in his speech to the Australian parliament which went down really well with the Chinese .Our stupid prime minister lapped this shit up ,we should have thrown the chump out on his ass.China is our biggest partner in trade and he starts threating them and our clown of a prime minister puts up with it! bloody hell

[onmyknees]

To fine tune what you say onmyknees, I would swap the word 'interventionist' with pre-emptive. Instead of waiting for your 'enemy' to attack, you get in first and disable that ability. More fine tuning would suggest a 'conservative' -old-style- would be cautious about that kind of action (see Kissinger's review of John Lewis Gaddis's biography of George Kennan in the NYT on the 10th November). So does this mean a 'neo' conservative is a 'new form' of conservative when their attitude to action is so different? Neo-cons only works because it sounds like it came out of Star Trek.

Interesting....swapping interventionist with pre-emptive. I'm not entirely sure I'd agree, but it certainly could be a great topic for "Firing Line with William F. Buckley" or those wonderful Fred Friendly PBS discussions. I miss measured disagrrement. Good post Stavros.

[Stavros]

Indeed -Dick Cheney or Richard Pearle against Buckley -Professor Bile meets the Acid men...

[notdrunk]

Obama just gave a strong warning to China in his speech to the Australian parliament which went down really well with the Chinese .Our stupid prime minister lapped this shit up ,we should have thrown the chump out on his ass.China is our biggest partner in trade and he starts threating them and our clown of a prime minister puts up with it! bloody hell

Psst, China is the United States second biggest trading partner. The biggest trading partner for the US is Canada. The US better not piss off lil America!

[russtafa]

Obama gave a great sword rattling speech and the Chinese did not like it one bit and our dumb Aussie politicians just sucked it up.If any one can sword rattle these days it's the Chinese

[Stavros]

If the USA is perceived to be maintaining a commitment to Japan and the Philippines, it is because the sovereignty of the small islands chains in the region is still contested by China, Japan, the Philippines, Korea, and Malaysia -the discovery of gas north of Palawan the large island to the west of Luzon has suggested more resources could be in the deep water in that area. China is unlikley to go to war unless it calculates that it can be a cost-effective manoeuvre which would not prejudice trade -and Taiwan is really the territory they want the most -they will continue to press their claims to various islands through diplomacy, I guess force majeure is not ruled out, but I don't think anyone at the moment thinks they are worth that kind of effort.

[russtafa]

yeah but the sun is going down on the American empire and the dragon is on the rise

[Stavros]

I don't know what you are worried about, Russtafa -even if you were to discount the trade Australia has with Japan and South Korea, China would still be an irreplaceable part of the Australian economy -you are an integral part of the East Asian economy, a country which in that context resembles Belgium and the Netherlands in Europe, but with fabulous mineral riches to export. Indeed, as your Embassy in Beijing points out:

The Australian and Chinese economies are strongly complementary. As a result, our trade and investment relationship is substantial and has developed well beyond its modest beginnings in the 1970s. According to Australian statistics, two-way merchandise trade has grown from A$113 million in 1973, just after the establishment of diplomatic relations, to A$78.2 billion in 2009. China is Australia's largest trading partner, with total trade (goods and services) in 2009 valued at A$85.1 billion, an increase of 15.1 per cent over the previous year.

Perhaps after a chorus of We're in the money, you will acknowledge what a colossal debt you owe to Gough Whitlam.