Quick shots on signs, gas tanks, patriot missiles and strykers. Alexander Downer tells Australia that North Korea could be lobbing missiles at Sydney. Taxatious and deficitial governments and Au-US trade treaties.

Shorts

• The local fitness/recreation center where I swim during the week now has a sign on the door that is the entrance to the pool, "You must shower before entering the pool". I have no idea what prompted that. I certainly don't bother showering, it seems an unnecessary step. Just fill it up with more chlorine. Reminds me of what one of the blokes on Tough Crowd said, "I had Aids, don't worry I'm clean now, I beat it with aspirin." Maybe people have been tracking Ebola into the pool. Or some Pakistani fellow has been caught taking photos of the fitness center.
• Cost of a Corvette gas tank from General Motors - $1895 USD. Cost from an internet vendor making a reproduction - $519 USD. Won on an ebay auction; $100 USD. To get the gas tank out and a new one in, the back of the car has to be taken off. I am going to have a go myself, but I have no patience for that kind of thing. I suspect the West Virginian fellows will be doing it for me after I do my block within 5 minutes of picking up a spanner(wrench).

More Shorts

• The Netherlands is buying new equipment for the Patriot Missiles from Lockheed Martin. It is expected to cost $33.9 million and will allow the Netherlands to fire the latest missiles. Australia and the Netherlands have seemed to have had similar defence views toward America lately. The support for Iraq as one example. The Netherlands also threw far more money into the JSF development program than Australia did.
• The Stryker is now bloated to the point where it doesn't fit in the original requirements. It was originally intended to be loaded into a C-130 , flown 1,000 miles and then dropped into a deployment area and be able to begin its mission immediately. Since the Stryker has gone over-weight, and requires extra equipment such as ammunition shrinks the C-130 range to 500 miles or less. The weight would also mean that a C-130 shouldn't be able to generate sufficient lift in rarefied atmospheres, such as Kabal, Afghanistan.

The Downer Comedy

Minister for Foreign Affairs, Alexander Downer made the claim on Australian talk-back radio that North Korea could launch a ballistic missile to hit Sydney. Not only was he wrong, he did it just before a visit to North Korea. Downer also made the claim, Australia had no means to defend from such a strike. Downer probably thought he was defending Australian involvement in the US Missile Shield program. North Korea is developing long range missiles, but the longest ranged one is believed to be 4000 kms and inaccurate. Some of the counter replies included;

A spokesman for the North Korean embassy in Canberra laughed when the Herald relayed the comments. "It's not true. Everybody knows that. Even a two or three year-old child."

And;

Analysts also were stunned, saying it would be decades before North Korea had missiles with such a long range. "US intelligence would say that's impossible at the moment and exceedingly unlikely in the indefinite future," said Ron Huisken, a defence analyst at the Australian National University.

And;

The Democrats foreign affairs spokeswoman, Natasha Stott Despoja, said: "Is there a North Korean version of [discredited Iraqi informant] Ahmed Chalabi providing the minister with intelligence?"

I bet that got Downer a handful of demerit points from John Howard who loves controlling the media and spin. Howard would not have said it so bluntly but in language diffuse enough that 2UE listeners would have connected the implied dots. Its effect would be found in polls later, rather than on front page of the newspapers.

This article has a breakdown of the strategic and diplomatic hopes of Downer's visit to North Korea. It is an interesting diplomatic dynamic that North Korea is forcing on a previously ambivilous North Asia. China and Japan are emerging as playing leading roles. It is inevitable that Japan will have to take a stronger role in North Asia toward ensuring stability. It is 50 years since World War II, Japan will have to emerge from the umbrella of American defence support/containment/watchful-eye eventually.

Tax and Deficits

An Australian Libertarian blog has collated some data on the performance of Australian governments in relation to deficits and taxation . Hawke and Howard both balanced budgets, the rest since (and including) Whitlam all ran deficits. In terms of spending per capita, Hawke was the only PM to reduce government spending). By comparison Whitlam and Howard have increased spending. Howard has increased spending from $880 per person to $995 per person, almost a 10% increase.

On taxes, Hawke cut taxes, while Howard and Whitlam increased taxes. By the end of Hawkes term taxes were at $730 per person, Keating brought it up to $850 per person and Howard brought that too $1050 per person. According to the data in the blog, all the governments (since and including Whitlam) other than Hawke have increased the tax load per person.

History of Australian-American Trade Treaties

Alan Ramsey has an op-ed on the Free Trade Agreement which covers some history of American approaches to Australia in the past on trade and capital agreements.

The not-too-subtle intimidation on behalf of the Howard Government is just that. Washington, of course, is long used to getting its way with "client states", which is how Zoellick's office would see Australia. Twelve years ago, indeed, when George Bush's father, George snr, was president, Washington sought a "free trade" agreement with Australia as part of a strategy to isolate Japan, then Australia's largest trading partner. Paul Keating as prime minister declined the approach.

Zoellick, then a senior White House official, in turn called in Australia's then ambassador to Washington, Michael Cook, and did a bit of verbal thugging. When Cook reported back to Canberra, Keating told his principal private secretary, Don Russell - later posted to Washington as ambassador - to write to Zoellick and to tell him, politely, to "bugger off". Russell did so. In his letter Russell actually referred to Zoellick's apparent expectation of the "complicity of client states", which was not, wrote Russell, Australia's view of its national interest. Zoellick is said to have later remarked he'd never received a "tougher" letter. But polite, of course.

Washington also approached the Menzies government twice on issues of liberalising trade and capital, it also tried with Chifley. In all cases Washington was rebuffed as the governments of the day didn't see the treaties as being in Australian interests. From World War II to the early Hawke government, Australia was largely a protectionist economy. But the Keating government wasn't, it was an economic rationalist government.

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