The President is more than welcome here and I look forward to his visit.

He'll be able to observe first-hand how Australia's government-run, national health care scheme has, over the last 30 years, transformed the nation into an oppressive, totalitarian, communist dictatorship where babies and old-folk are routinely shovelled into death-camps by panels of socialists wearing swastikas on their tastefully fashionable Gucci black shirts.

We'll do our best to keep the billions of feral kangaroos out of the way of the presidential motorcade, too. That's why we all wear jackboots and steel helmets down here. Honestly, you have no idea how hard it is to get to work some days without being attacked by these bloody things.

(BTW, very much enjoy your commentary on our ABC radio, Steve. Cheers.)

So now the Norwegian extremist government will propagate for the Scandinavian branch of
Stalinism in Washington, via Twitter and Facebook? I have no doubt, however, that the
freedom lovers in Washington DC will forever resist the communist lies coming from rogue
states like Norway, North Korea, Cuba and Canada.

A scary thought: If not for the American Revolution, the US would probably still be a
member of the Commonwealth, and suffer under the same totalitarian health care system as
Canada and Australia - described so eloquently by Ross Sharp in the comment above.

Never believe an Ozzie. They brag terribly. I recently spent over a month there, from Sydney to Adelaide, and then across the country/continent to Darwin (by land), and then to Cairns and around. Big place.

I did see some very friendly kangaroos of various sizes (Aussies have different names for them) and lots of very colorful birds, but never once did I see anybody in jackboots. In fact I can't remember seeing one policeman in the whole time. Not one! No Americans, either. Is there a connection, ya' think?

No worries, mate. You have a wonderful country, despite your wild claims to the contrary. Cheers.

It's not just Stalinism...it's OIL stalinism!!! What kind of country uses part of its oil wealth to provide health care to its people? It's not just shocking! It's totally un-American. (I can't think of any worse epithets.)

Damn those devious Norwegians and their icy plot to infect our precious bodily fluids with pickled socialist herrings!

Paul, no matter how hard I protested, when my father had a stroke last year, our government insisted on providing his medical treatment for a whole month at absolutely no charge. He's perfectly fine now as a result (though he still needs oxygen at times, and the machine was, disgustingly, provided for zilch. Honestly, I don't know why we pay taxes if the government's going to waste them all on such ghastly frippery as that).

I kept demanding that it was his democratic right to get sick and die in agonising pain from neglect, but I was utterly ignored. Totalitarian health care system?

My God, it's positively evil.

I'm afraid I encouraged him -- sorry.

Don't mention it, Ross. I broke an arm and a shoulder in a traffic accident in
December, and have witnessed the infamous death camps on the Scandinavian peninsula
first hand. I think I've paid ca 50 US$ in total for medicines and visits to a doctor
- but they charged me nothing for staying in one of these Gulags they call hospitals.
Worst of all: I just discovered that these nuts transfer money to my bank account
every month while I'm recovering. Creepy.

Must be a Norwegian government plot to restore the hegemony of the Normans. And we thought Al-Qaeda was scary!

"... I broke an arm and a shoulder in a traffic accident in December."

No doubt while driving one of those famed Norwegian sporting roadsters. What was it, a Børsche or a Lutefiskenghini?

A Følsenkråpp GXL Turbo.

There is a video of it here, driving through Oslo - approximately the same route as Obama
took when he received the Nobel Prize:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-ZNvMbEvTM

Perhaps the Aussies will give Obama a peace price or something. The Norwegians did when he went there, the second time.

Serves you right then, Paul. I pray thanks every day to God - that is the real, American one - that we have the good sense to pay our health industry CEOs $10 million a year to keep deductibles high on crazy atheist daredevils like you, Paul.

Given the inverse impact of that Peace Prize drive on Obama, maybe we will get peace in the Middle East if the Scandinavians give Netanyahu a War Prize?

Don, our equivalent of the Nobel Peace Prize is known as the Great Australian Floater.

It's a bronzed meat pie with mashed peas on top. Also, he gets a free double pass to the state zoo (where we keep the dropbears).

Barack's definitely in the race for this year's award, I can tell you. Last year, we gave it to Elvis (he works in the fish and chip shop across the street from me. Lovely bloke, but my, he has let himself go the last several years. That cape has definitely got to go, it's so very '70's).

Don,

regard the Nobel as a shrewd tactical move, to avoid 5 party crisis talks involving
Finnish, Swedish, Icelandic, Russian, and American diplomats - with the aim of
toppling our communist government, installing John Bolton as head of a Coalition
Provisional Authority, and stealing our oil, our salmon, and our women. It was
simply a matter of national security.

And I can assure you, Dan, that there will be no War Prize to the Israelis, as we
have decided to offer Bibi & Lieberman the 2010 Peace Prize in December, for roughly
the same reasons as mentioned above. Last year these two gentlemen frequently
accused Norway of being anti-Semitic, and as we know, they regard anti-Semites as
existential threats. Time to give them the Nobel.

Oh gawd,gawd,gawd!

So now we are going to poke China huh?
Over the posion products they send us or trade issues?
Nope over climate change and Iran as a..drum roll...SECURITY THREAT to the US.

We are all going to die if Iran gets the bomb cause China won't go along with more sanctions!

Plezze, plezze...beam me up Scotty.

What is it they say about the difference between your average nutcase and the certified insane...your average nut builds a imaginary house in his mind ...but the real lunatics actually move in and live in their imaginary houses.

That's what the US done with Iran.

I like Obama's muscular stance against China. Sure they own trillions of dollars in US Treasuries and other assets, but they cannot act recklessly against the dollar, or those investments, or China's economy tanks. Obama is flexing muscles, and China will have to back to back down.

That said, - longterm - China is ascending, while America declines. Only our hypersuperior military, weapons, and the FED prevent a real horrorshow final crushing of Pax Americana. But the writing is on the wall. We either change our wayward ways, and reign in the predatorclass abuses and criminality, - or a decade from now, unable to fund our military adequately, - China, and the rest of the world, will call our bluff, and force a real horrorshow conflict, and real crushing change on Amerika.

Norway is all about the oil!!!

I cook, and am brushing up on my haggas http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haggis recipe. Count me in!!

Surely not the salmon, Paul. Have we really abandoned our last shred of decency. I understand taking the women, of course, and I thought all the oil everywhere was put there by God for the benefit of Pat Robertson's Christo-America. But I can't support taking your salmon, or the things you do to salmon.

I don't understand why you are anti-semi. How else are you going to move goods in quantity not amenable to rail or water transport? Seems pretty self-defeating to me.

Steve, this may interest you:

"Military scaling back 'don't ask, don't tell'

"President Obama's top defense officials will tell the Senate on Tuesday that the military
will no longer aggressively pursue disciplinary action against gay service members whose
orientation is revealed against their will by third parties, sources say.

"In testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Defense Secretary Robert M.
Gates and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Michael Mullen also are expected to announce the
creation of a group to assess how to carry out a full repeal of the decades-old "don't
ask, don't tell" policy, which requires gay soldiers to keep their sexual orientation
secret.

"But Gates and Mullen are also expected to tell senators that it could take years to
integrate gay men and lesbians fully into the military, defense officials said. Two
appointees will be named to oversee a group that will draw up plans for integrating the
armed forces, according to sources familiar with the Pentagon's deliberations on the
subject. The planning effort is expected to take up to a year."

More here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/01/AR2010020103711.html?
hpid=topnews

following on pauls post is this from glenn greenwald

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/02/02/o_hanlon/index.html

As for US-China relations and selling arms to Taiwan, what does this tell us about
Obama's Iran strategy? Does he still work for multilateral sanctions including a
Chinese vote in the UN?