Well, the Australian federal elections are on Saturday and the incumbent Liberal government has been staring down the barrel of a crushing defeat for a while now. I always feel compelled to point out to overseas readers that the Liberal party are the dominant conservative party in Australia (given the generally understood meaning of “liberal” in political terms). Anyway, they’ve been trying every trick in the book but they’ve been unable to dent the popularity of the opposition Labor Leader, Kevin Rudd.
It seems desperation has set in and some really dirty tricks are coming out. The seat of Lindsay is in outer western Sydney and could easily change hands from the Liberals (who currently hold it) to Labor. So in desperation, the Liberal Campaign team decided to play to the lowest common denominator and inflame anti-Muslim sentiments.
They falsified and distributed a flyer that purported to come from a non-existent radical Muslim group. The flyer proclaimed the group unswerving support for the Labor party including quite despicable (and untrue) references to Labor supporting forgiveness for the Bali bombers. Here’s a link to a news story including a copy of the flyer.
To his credit, Liberal leader John Howard has unequivocally condemned the tactic. This is in stark contrast to, say, the conduct of GW Bush when Republican operatives have used blatant lies to slander his opponents. But this is still going to hurt him. It just reeks of desperation and for a man who’s always staked his reputation on honesty… well, this doesn’t look very honest.
Angry 365 Days a Year 
That’s awful! I never understand politics.
They use these tactics because they work. Otherwise they wouldn’t bother. Combine this with the fact that only the brain-damaged would fall for it and you arrive at a truly horrific realization:
The fucktards are everywhere. We’re doomed.
At least John Howard condemned it. That sentiment should give you some insight into the numbing effect that being steeped in US politics has on the outrage centers of the brain. The amount of doublethink (I don’t make 1984 references lightly) and crap-flinging in US politics is both awe-inspiring and terrifying. I have a hard time keeping up with every thing that should anger me. One of the big “issues” in the ’08 election will be immigration. Watch the xenophobia fly.
E0157H7, the communists are defeated, the terrorists suppressed, it’s time for a new bad guy. You need to keep people distracted, otherwise they might do something dangerous like start questioning the status quo and we can’t have that, can we?
Angry, your funny. Problem is what if they should get back in? Still, that would just give you more fuel for your “anger”. Onya mate.
Sneaky bastards. I’m constantly amazed by the new lows to which people sink in politics.
Well, I guess it didn’t work this time, did it? 😀
Achelois: I understand it it perfectly – it’s a race to the bottom!
DOA: It backfired on them badly. Their party got caned in the election and these individuals lost their seat
E0157H7: Australian politics does stay one step above US politics although I’m damn glad the Liberals lost becaus ethey seemed determined to play things like the Republicans
Karen: we can all breathe a sigh of relief, they lost!
funky: sadly I’m never surprised. However low you set the bar, one of them can go lower
starlet: hurrah!