Indonesia spy crap..

[IQS.RLOW]

Goddamn that's a terribly naive and poorly thought out article...

How so?

It actually reinforces the rest of your post.

What we have over here at the moment is the ex-PM, on whose watch the spying took place commenting on what the now PM should do and the opposition saying the same thing and that is say "Sorry- we won't do it again"

The protocol is to understand that it happens and neither confirm nor deny.
Some seem to think that grovelling is a perfectly valid action

[Chard]

Goddamn that's a terribly naive and poorly thought out article...

How so?

I dislike dishonesty. The article paints intelligence efforts under Rudd as being endemic of something the "left" does, yet it's something that leaders at that level do or condone as a matter of policy regardless of political ideology. For example, you bolded the following from that article...

He would say only people as reckless and paranoid as then prime minister Kevin Rudd and his deputy, Gillard, would bug a president as friendly to us as Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Which is every bit as facetious as if Obama had said the same about the NSA having bugged Angela Merkel's personal cell phone. Never mind that such tapping started under Bush, the point is that Obama administration continued to allow that tap on Merkel's phone just the same as Abbot did. The only reason either program ceased has to do with the following bit of dishonesty.

Sorry, he'd tell Yudhoyono. Sorry we once had those crazier in charge. I'm here to fix it.

Bullshit. The only, and I mean ONLY, reason Abbott is even acknowledging this is for the same reason Obama acknowledges the bullshit with Merkel's phone. ASIS got caught just like the NSA got caught, that's it. As long as things like this remain behind closed doors everyone makes use of this kind of intelligence gathering, at least those that can afford th means to do so, so trying to blame this on Rudd being from a different party than Abbot is about as dishonest as it gets.

It actually reinforces the rest of your post.

No, it confuses the point in order to make a political dig at a rival political ideology. No actual talk of reform or anything, just some asshole with an obvious ax to grind using your national security as a prop to spew useless, devisive bullshit.

What we have over here at the moment is the ex-PM, on whose watch the spying took place commenting on what the now PM should do and the opposition saying the same thing and that is say "Sorry- we won't do it again"

Any political party or politician that says they would not do the exact same thing were they're in the majority in Parliament/Congress and have the PM/President's seat is either hopelessly naive or lying. Of the two I actually find the liars to be the less scary option. At least they're enough of a realist to understand how the game is played.

How can you tell when a politician is lying? Their lips are moving.

The protocol is to understand that it happens and neither confirm nor deny.
Some seem to think that grovelling is a perfectly valid action

No, protocol is to not get caught in the first place. Protocol after someone fucks up and gets caught is to find claim plausible deniability while putting forth a scapegoat (which is what Rudd gets to be now). Protocol when you get caught red-handed, can't claim plausible deniability, and the scapegoat is to obvious is to do the groveling "we're sorry, it'll never happen again" song and dance while ordering your intelligence service to renew the tap and to try not to fuck up again.

[Rorschach]

We didn't get caught... you guys allowed our intel be stolen.
I don't think it is an attack specifically on the Left about them spying at all. It is however specifically about this instance.

[Chard]

We didn't get caught... you guys allowed our intel be stolen.

Yeah, Snowden kind of pissed in everyone's Cheerios. Point remains that had this not come to light that Abbott would be gleefully using intelligence gained from tapping the Indonesian president's phone.

I don't think it is an attack specifically on the Left about them spying at all. It is however specifically about this instance.

Yeah, the article specifically praises Abbott while emphasizing that this was the result of something that happened on Rudd's watch, despite Abbott clearly not giving a fuck and being perfectly willing to use the intelligence gained by Rudd's policy making. Either Rudd was justified in doing what he did as surely as Abbott is justified in not giving a fuck about Indonesia's reaction or Rudd is a big fat poopyhead for spying on the neighbors and so is Abbott for not apologizing for unethical acts made by his country. You can't have it both ways.