grodscorp@grods.comOpposition opposes moral flexibility (and then un-opposes it)
 | Posted by The Editor on Tuesday 9 October 2007, 11:05 am Categories: Australia Decides '07 Tags: ALP, BaliBombers, DeathPenalty, Liberal |
I’ve long banged on about the government’s moral flexibility and hypocrisy when it comes to the issue of the death penalty. They don’t support it in this country, they don’t support other countries executing Australian citizens, but they do support other countries executing their own citizens or deposed leaders.
So I have nothing but praise for the ALP’s announcement that it will be morally consistent in opposing the death penalty across our region, even if that means opposing the execution of the Bali bombers. A gutsy and principled move.
UPDATE (12:30pm): Oh, for fuck’s sake. No sooner had I posted this piece of praise for the ALP…
Federal Labor leader Kevin Rudd has criticised his foreign affairs spokesman Robert McClelland over a speech which was critical of the Government’s approach to the death penalty.
Mr McClelland last night said Prime Minister John Howard supported capital punishment for an Indonesian terrorist, but he pushed for Singapore to spare the life of an Australian drug trafficker in 2005.
Kevin Rudd says terrorists should rot in jail and a Government led by him would only intervene diplomatically to try to save the lives of Australians sentenced to death overseas.
“I think as we approach the fifth anniversary of the Bali bombings I believe that the speech delivered last night was insensitive in terms of its timing,” he said.
“I’ve indicated that to Mr McClelland this morning and he concurs with that judgement.”
GrodsThink Ep.31 (16/9/08)
Tuesday 9 October 2007, 12:36 pm #Dave from Albury
That lasted all of about three hours.
Tuesday 9 October 2007, 3:28 pm #silpheed
Off topic and a cheesey timewaster: http://www.news.com.au/feature/0,,5012863,00.html
I got the Democrats, with the Greens as runners up.
Tuesday 9 October 2007, 6:52 pm #Jangari
Oh come on, Ed. I’m sure you can spin this around as a plus for Rudd, no matter what your original post said about ‘gutsy and principled’ moral consistency.
I mean, doublethink can’t be that hard, just look at how a pro does it.
Tuesday 9 October 2007, 9:40 pm #Mikey
Yep a bit annoyed at Kruddy on this one. He could have let it slide. Fact is it’s ALP policy and he as leader has to accept it. I find pandering to right wing fucktards and morons who have a limited understanding due to their diet of tabloid TV and print quite annoying.
Tuesday 9 October 2007, 10:36 pm #Bridgit Gread
No doubt that Kruddy has caved in, however he’s a victim of the press here. Taking a stand on a moral principle is something that should be applauded but this morning’s tabloid headlings (e.g. “Rudd wants to save Bali bombers”) were poisonously loaded; from that point forward he was damned regardless of what he did or said.
Capital punishment is a wedge issue for populists and good politicians usually avoid speculating about it. Hopefully he’s learned his lesson.
Wednesday 10 October 2007, 12:42 pm #GrodsCorp » News Limited’s limited vote calculator
[...] yesterday alerted me to News Ltd’s Vote-a-matic calculator. I was going to post about its uselessness, [...]