Mick, past all our alpha male bravado (which must also be prevalent down under), there really are a lot of Americans smarter than the Cro-McCainons who snatch the microphones at town hall appearances.

It's makes for more salacious copy to write and record and film the fifth of the population who say pathetic things with their teeth and belly out than to report on the four-fifths who care about getting their information sorted internally, with some manner of reasonable filter, before it slithers out.

i was kidding about abortions (kind of) and i do agree with rolling back the bush tax cuts at the top brackets

In his defense, how bad do Americans look when "Chihuahua" is the #1 movie 2 weeks in a row?

Any worse than the japanese and their tv game shows? Or Germans and Hasselhoff? You could do this forever.

it's only cause the Mexi's took over.

¡Yo quiero Taco Bell!

But they don't speak English, and they don't know any better.

Is the world really paying attn to what Americans are watching?

hows that ozone hole

Thorpe had to retire 'cause he was gay, or something.

It's just really annoying watching from afar the lynch mob / Amway convention that is the Republican party garner support with the kind of shit that they wouldn't get away with anywhere else in the "rich white consumer world".

So yeah, you've got problems. A large portion of your country is very fucking dumb. And I'm gonna keep pointing it out until you have education and literacy on par with the other rich consumer cultures.

You should know that we know that and are not untroubled by it.

I bet there are fucking dumb large swaths of people in every single nation.

Our trouble is our election is eternal and the consequences to the greater world more significant, relatively speaking, than the electoral consequences reverberating from many other nations.

Sure there are dumb people everywhere, but it's the smart people who are meant to have the power.

Need we talk about the "White Australia" immigrations policies?

whatchu talkin bout willis

While abhorrent, it's really not relevant here. May I bring up your racial segregation policies?

I'm talking about the modern world. Australia is as multi-culturally diverse and racially harmonious as any place I've been to. The white Australia policy hardly stemmed the influx of immigrants even back then.

Ahem... strict "racialist" quotas were in place until the 1980's. As recently as 2006-2007 the Liberal Party was having a hard time agreeing on open immigration policies for Africa. May I also point to Ms. Hansen and the One Nation Party? (Totally as crackpot as our evangelical American right). And don't even make me talk about John Howard and the Coalition of the Willing and Witless.

Then I said damn are you sure it's mine
Cause I know you been tossed plenty of times
She said that day no I wasn't whoring
Your ass is mine that's when the sweat started pouring
Cause all I saw was Barack in court
Paying a gang on child support
Then I thought deep about giving up the money
What I need to do is kick the bitch in the tummy
Naw cause then I'd really get faded
That's murder one cause it was premeditated

I commend your knowledge, but Pauline Hanson while controversial, failed to win a single seat. Her support was tiny tiny tiny. Less than a per cent of the population.

I'm not defending Australia's immigration policies regarding Africa, we're copping a lot of flack from Scandinavian countries especially for not taking enough African refugees. If I had my way the doors would be wide open to anyone, it's not like we're running out of space any time soon...

John Howard & Peter Costello were the greatest fiscal leaders this country ever had. I'll leave it at that.

Separated at birth:

if you're making more than a comparison on their looks, you're way off. Even then, it's a stretch. Bald, grey, glasses. I guess.

I could imagine the frustration of being so sophisticated but so dependent on the backwards. Amazing that you're so awesome and so irrelevant in the scheme of things.

Don't ask him to think, Charlie.