Bush to meet Rudd - Page 2 - U.S. Politics Online: A Political Discussion Forum

daisym · #16 (**permalink**) 09-06-2007

we are not used to this. Our PM is not well liked by a sizable percentage of the population, and yet he is able to go jogging around the city.

Sure, there have been protests where people have turned violent (especially the police) however those most at risk in these events are the protesters themselves.

we don't live in a country where people take pot shots at politicians.

This is overkill - and a poor reflection on the level of esteem our prime minister holds us in.

Its a bloody insult.

Tethys · #17 (**permalink**) 09-06-2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by daisym

we are not used to this. Our PM is not well liked by a sizable percentage of the population, and yet he is able to go jogging around the city.

Sure, there have been protests where people have turned violent (especially the police) however those most at risk in these events are the protesters themselves.

we don't live in a country where people take pot shots at politicians.

This is overkill - and a poor reflection on the level of esteem our prime minister holds us in.

Its a bloody insult.

Exactly, Daisy, exactly.

This is the sentiment that has dominated the views expressed locally through letters to the editor in our newspapers, radio talk shows, blogs, etc. It's what people say when they are talking about APEC in their every day conversations.

Tethys

MattLarson · #18 (**permalink**) 09-06-2007

Damn, now this is embarrassing:

Quote:

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- Members of an Australian TV comedy show, one of them dressed as Osama bin Laden, drove through two security checkpoints Thursday before being stopped near the Sydney hotel where U.S. President George W. Bush is staying.

The stunt embarrassed Sydney police who have imposed the tightest security measures in city history for a summit of leaders from Pacific Rim countries, including Bush.

Police arrested 11 cast and crew members from the TV program, "The Chaser's War on Everything," and impounded three vehicles, the Australian Broadcasting Corp., which airs the show, said on its Web site.

Cast members put together a sham motorcade, hiring two motorcycles and three large cars on which they put Canadian flags. Police waved the motorcade through two checkpoints before pulling it over near the Intercontinental Hotel where Bush is staying.

Cast member Chas Licciardello got out of the car dressed in a white tunic and cap and wearing a long, fake, Osama bin Laden-style beard.

Fake motorcade causes summit stir - CNN.com

Tethys · #19 (**permalink**) 09-06-2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by MattLarson

Out of curiosity, do you assign any responsibility to the protesters who have in the past become violent and made security such a serious concern?

Look at the G8 / WTO / World Bank protests. I think you can understand why people would be concerned.

Matt

I’ll echo what Daisy has already said, Matt.

And a few other points.

I know our Prime Minister has cited protesters as a major reason for the hyped up security measures.

Only about 35 people were listed as potential “violent protesters” and issued special orders not to enter the city, and that’s people from all over Australia. One could argue it only takes one person to take a shot at a world leader, but even those on the restricted list do not have any charges serious enough to their name to be in custody. So 35 people on the list, but we are all told to stay away from the city.

As Daisy says, we’ve had our share of wild protests, but in general our protests are peaceful. In 2003, over 250,000 people marched in Sydney in the global protest day just prior to the invasion of Iraq. It took two hours to empty the park where the march had started, and people were lined up on the road for many blocks. Yet the march proceeded without any incident.

We are not opposed to security measures, as already stated, but there was simply no good reason to turn Sydney into Berlin.

I reckon you’d be angry too if this happened in your city.

Sydney people are not opposed to the APEC meeting. But we have been alienated from the event in every way, Mat.

Tethys

MattLarson · #20 (**permalink**) 09-06-2007

I can understand that, and I am not saying that prior violence necessarily justifies what is happening.

I was just exploring the issue, and the feedback from you folks who are there and know the history on the ground is very helpful.

Thanks.

Matt

Tethys · #21 (**permalink**) 09-06-2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by MattLarson

Damn, now this is embarrassing:

Oh, and there have been more embarrassing moments, Matt!

I'm not sure if I'll be able to track down the item. President Bush’s hotel, the Intercontinental, is in the “exclusion zone”, behind the steel and concrete fence, guarded by hundreds of police. On the night Bush arrived, he was zapped from the airport in an armoured Cadillac, motorcade and all. He arrives at his hotel, surrounded by his entourage. Well, you see…security is at the highest level. But…sitting at the bar, this bloke is trying to get a cup of coffee. He catches Bush striding past at the corner of his eye. Next thing, police pounce on the bloke, who had no clue that he was not meant to be there, and he says, “But my brother is waiting in the lobby for me”. He was; sitting on a comfy chair, waiting for his coffee, oblivious to the intrigues going around him.

They were both escorted out of the hotel…no coffee.

Tethys (Your USPOL reporter in locked down Sydney.

Tethys · #22 (**permalink**) 09-06-2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by MattLarson

I can understand that, and I am not saying that prior violence necessarily justifies what is happening.

I was just exploring the issue, and the feedback from you folks who are there and know the history on the ground is very helpful.

Thanks.

Matt

No worries. Thanks. Your USPOL reporter in Sydney is heading for bed, now.

Good night all

Tethys

moon · #23 (**permalink**) 09-06-2007

Quote:

Tethys (Your USPOL reporter locked down in Sydney)

Rofl.

Quote:

Out of curiosity, do you assign any responsibility to the protesters who have in the past become violent and made security such a serious concern?

Look at the G8 / WTO / World Bank protests. I think you can understand why people would be concerned.

Matt

Alcatraz might make a more suitable venue, away from the real life which troubles George so much.

Daisy;

Quote:

Its a bloody insult.

An American speciality.

daisym · #24 (**permalink**) 09-06-2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by MattLarson

Damn, now this is embarrassing:

No its NOT!

EVERYTHING is fair game for the Chasers - it was an obvious thing for them to do. They are also well known - perhaps the people who let them through weren't Australians? Now THAT makes me think about how important it is to have people who know the ground employed in security. wherever it is.

The experience will just provide more fodder for the WOE, and I look forward to next weeks edition. I'd also be pretty careful about giving them a gaol term - I don't think the prison system can stand the exposure.

Tethys · #25 (**permalink**) 09-06-2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by daisym

No its NOT!

EVERYTHING is fair game for the Chasers - it was an obvious thing for them to do. They are also well known - perhaps the people who let them through weren't Australians? Now THAT makes me think about how important it is to have people who know the ground employed in security. wherever it is.

The experience will just provide more fodder for the WOE, and I look forward to next weeks edition. I'd also be pretty careful about giving them a gaol term - I don't think the prison system can stand the exposure.

LOL! So true.

This morning, half-awake listening to the ABC, I'm sure I heard on the news an official claiming that the police knew it was the Chasers and let them through for fun.

I've noticed that there is a disproportionate amount of humorous stories doing the rounds about the APEC forum. No doubt a bit of comic relief to the tension created by the over the top security measures and the disruption. But also, given there is so little news about the serious stuff going on in there, with so little direct media coverage, I guess journalists are turning to the less serious stuff.

Oh...and today is Friday, the "bonus day off". And it's pelting down with rain. It's all Bush's fault.

Tethys (Your USPOL reporter locked down in Sydney)

Tethys · #26 (**permalink**) 09-06-2007

Oh I forgot...last night, I was talking with a friend on the phone about that Chasers escapade, and we caught ourselves speaking unthinkingly about "our side of the fence" and "their side of the fence". "What are we saying," I reflected after a while, "Our side of the fence?". Goodness...doesn't take long to get conditioned!

Tethys (Your USPOL reporter locked down in Sydney - on our side of the fence)

Tethys · #27 (**permalink**) 09-07-2007

From today's Sydney Morning Herald. I don't think I need to comment.

Quote:

Prison language describes a city

Date: September 7 2007

It is all very well for those who have escaped, but it has been a trying time for the rest, writes John Huxley.

GRIDLOCK? What gridlock?

Like the effects of the infamous Y2K virus, the probability that the Sydney Olympics would be derailed by total train chaos and the chances of Lleyton Hewitt winning another tournament, the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation forum's impact on the city seems to have been hugely exaggerated.

Rather, it has been oversimplified. What emerges from a week when every trip has been a step into the unknown, when all Sydneysiders have their own great commute story, is a tale of two cities.

Surprisingly, it has been the best of times for pedestrians, most train travellers and private drivers fortunate or sensible enough to avoid the security clampdown in the central business district - especially if they have also picked their starting and finishing times wisely.

Temporary clearways on traditional car parks such as Military Road have provided an easy run into the city while, away from the Great Wall of Sydney maze, streets have been remarkably empty.

Indeed, just like the Olympics, sans excitement, the APEC experience has provided a tantalising, albeit fleeting, view of how pleasant Sydney would be if thousands of vehicles could be scared off the streets.

But it has been the worst of times for just as many. They include confused tourists, taxidrivers, bus commuters who found their stops moved or their journeys scandalously halted on the bridge, and drivers confused by the Fence and confronted by police.

They also include anyone trying to make a living close to the "ring of steel" surrounding the Opera House, where the all-singing, all-dancing, all-mountain-bike-riding "APEC: the costume drama" is being staged.

For them, the APEC experience has been one of frayed tempers, lost income, dystopic days, disturbed nights marked by the wail of sirens, the hack of choppers and the closure of roads and paths. Either way, it has sucked the life from the city.

So quiet was Maureen Diamond's fine arts gallery on Macquarie Street that she put up a sign offering free tea and coffee to the only people to be seen: "the men and women in blue".

There were no takers. "I was told that they are so busy they even have to phone in and get a replacement if they want to go to the toilet," she said.

Sydney the Dead City was created partly by poor weather but mainly by the decision of many people to stay away or go away, in a week already shortened by the declaration of today as a public holiday.

When Bush came to the city, the city went to the bush. In the thousands. Lana Willets, of the Dubbo Visitors Centre, says the city touted by some commentators as an alternative APEC venue is virtually booked out, although she admitted this may have had more to do with the annual Orana Caravan, Camping, 4WD and Boat Show.

Sydney the Dislocated City seems to have been created not so much by advance road closures, diversions and restrictions as by sudden, unscheduled changes to accommodate cavalcades of dignitaries - more than 90 in barely four hours, it was reported.

Even the pampered international media were caught in the attendant clog-ups.

Designated pool reporters had to travel only a couple of kilometres from their pick-up point at Darling Harbour to John Howard's city office for his meeting with George Bush. The journey took 100 minutes, the historic meeting missed by 25 minutes.

By this time next week, the dignitaries will have gone, the eyes of the world will have turned elsewhere and Sydneysiders can return to the quotidian challenges posed by bolshie bus drivers, late trains and clogged roads.

But APEC 2007 leaves one legacy to its host city. The word "lockdown" - without a hyphen - will appear alongside lockup and lockout with a new definition in the next Macquarie Dictionary.

Previously, the word has appeared only in its prison context, as in "confining prisoners to the cells, usually as a security measure".

But the dictionary's editor, Sue Butler, intends to add a phrasal verb, "to lock down", and a broader definition of lockdown to cover all kinds of security measures. In prisons. In schools. In cities.

"Whatever it is in relation to, it is always a security measure in the face of a perceived threat," she says. "Rather alarming, isn't it, that the prison lockdown is now extended to the whole city?"

Rather like the Olympics, except then we were inside the fence, not outside.

www.smh.com.au - Prison language describes a city

Tethys (Your USPOL reporter lockdowned in Sydney)

Tethys · #28 (**permalink**) 09-07-2007

Oh I’m having fun here! I said in an earlier post that people and the media seem to have found refuge in comedy in the midst of the APEC forum. Again today the radio and the papers are full of comic commentaries. Even the Sydney Morning Herald, normally a staid broadsheet, is just packed with lighthearted stories about APEC…too many to post here. Hope people enjoy this one:

Quote:

Police howls should be of laughter

Date: September 7 2007

"I HAVE no comment," the Chaser star Craig Reucassel told radio reporters on the steps of the Surry Hills Police Centre yesterday afternoon. "Other than to say they were the least talented members of the team, and the show will go on."

So will APEC while security crews work desperately to deal with outbreaks of comedy across the city, and police commanders such as Assistant Commissioner Dave Owens declare: "While I enjoy like everyone else a good laugh, this isn't funny."

Sorry, it is. Not even an assistant commissioner can deny the verdict of laughter. The Chaser's ratings will go through the roof next week. And maybe somewhere down the track a magistrate with a sense of humour will watch the footage and dismiss any charges laid under section 19 of the APEC Meeting (Police Powers)
Act 2007 because he gets the joke.

It happened in February. Police at a Dick Cheney demo in The Rocks did not find the antics of the Tranny Cops the least bit funny and had them arrested. They're a couple of street savvy performers with painted sideburns who make fun of police at demos by getting about in blue overalls emblazoned with the motto "Cop it sweet".

Sure, they were impersonating officers as alleged. But the magistrate dismissed all charges after pointing out to the police that this was a joke in a long tradition going back beyond the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and the Vietnam moratoriums. The magistrate explained: "Part of protest has always been challenging figures of authority."

Police were not amused then and have learnt nothing since. Demonstrations seem to have a solemn impact on senior officers, though it has to be admitted it would take a superhuman sense of humour for Dave Owens to join the laughter after his security arrangements were shown to be a bit of a farce.

But the Chaser boys got to something even sillier yesterday: motorcades. What fabulous a joke. How can anyone need all those cars and vans and trucks? If you have 20, why not 40 or 60? Why only ambulances? Why not a couple of fire engines and a Mr Whippy van?

George Bush, by the way, is just visible through the thick green glass of his moving limousine. But all you see is the silhouette of his fingers – only the fingers wave - and the ghost of a Texan smile.

Not known at this stage are police plans for dealing with another outbreak of comedy this afternoon in Hyde Park, where Justice Action proposes a "21 bum salute" to welcome the 21 heads of economies to Sydney. "Bring your friends, bring the family, bring your humour, bring a cheeky message," its flyer says. "This is one APEC protest we can all enjoy."

It sounds like a case for dog squads and the water cannon. I can already hear Owens telling the media that he enjoys a joke as much as anyone. "But this isn't funny."

www.smh.com.au - Police howls should be of laughter

Right on!

Tethys (Your USPOL reporter locked down in Sydney – cracking up!)

Tethys · #29 (**permalink**) 09-07-2007

I'm bakc!

And now to get back to the topic of this thread...

I won't cut and paste this one because it's a bit long....it's a satirical piece on the meeting between George Bush and Kevin Fudd, er, Dudd, er, Budd, er Rudd!

The media was not in on the actual meet, so you'll have to do with this take on it, moon

www.smh.com.au - Presidential drinks may be on Kevin, but he's no Budd, our Mr Rudd

Tethys (Your USPOL reporter locked down in Sydney)

moon · #30 (**permalink**) 09-07-2007

Haw haw haw

Isn't it telling, that whilst the people engage in humour, the 'authorities' strive to induce fear.

Quote:

"We have snipers deployed around the city. They weren't there for show, they mean business, that's what they are there for," Commissioner Andrew Scipione of New South Wales police said.

BBC NEWS | World | Asia-Pacific | TV show breaches fortress Sydney

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