The Last Post

Goodbye, you miserable old has-been.

Funny Ha Ha

From an exhibition called Behind the Lines 2007. I don't know if they are really "The Year's Best Cartoons" but they are quite good mostly. And all available free online!

Merry Christmas One And All

Still looking for that perfect gift? The image above comes from The Lovely Mistresses of George W. Bush, 2008 Pin-Up Calendar. And don't forget your George W. Bush White House Christmas card - this year's theme is "all the multitudes worship you".

And something to give thanks for? Only one more year of this shit to go.

EXACTLY!

Just hearing the word "SORRY" is more important than compensation:

"The matter of compensation I think is a white man's worry - they're thinking of millions of dollars. I may be wrong, but I think that's not what the Aboriginal people are asking for."

Aboriginals have never adopted our flawed materialistic view of the universe, but we have never been able to understand that.

The real healing will begin when we start to realize that their world-view was always superior to our own polluting, destructive and selfish agenda.

Heckuva Job, George

For anyone still seeking understanding, this graph from the OPEC website shows exactly who George W. Bush's real paymasters are:

See here for background.

Trust Is Dead, Janet

If Janet Albrechtsen had even a shred of decency, she would be choking on her own hypocrisy. Pleading for her job at Teh Oz, she says anyone calling for her dismissal (and there are plenty of them) is a totalitarian who is as guilty of stifling dissent as... um... well, never mind. Sticking to the Karl Rove playbook, Janet doesn't even bother trying to defend her disgraceful record of lies and nonsense, she just goes on the attack like a terminally rabid dog.

I think this article by Phil Hoskins best addresses the issue:

Merchants cannot be trusted to deliver what they promise, employers cannot be trusted to pay on promised retirement plans, even spouses cannot be trusted to keep their vows. We live in a buyer beware culture where every person is on their own to make it through a jungle of real and perceived threats and attacks.

One cannot shop in a mall without fear of some idiot seeking fame with a rifle, cannot book a flight on an airplane without fearing being bumped because the flight was oversold. You cannot drive on the freeway without concern that the idiot racing to take your space will not pull a gun to prove his point, cannot give a toy to a child without fear of lead poisoning, cannot trust a politician on anything.

Trust is dead.

...

The followers of Milton Friedman would have us believe we can trust in the “market” to right all wrongs, despite the complete failure in each and every instance where this philosophy has been tried. Karl Marx would have had us trust in the communal conscience to deliver the ultimate good, but again, each and every instance in which it has been tried has failed.

Trust cannot be imposed, it cannot be brought into existence by faith, it is by its very nature a product of free and open communication and human interaction. Trust is not a lofty goal of perfection and honesty. Trust is the acceptance of what is with the backing of experience that what was foretells what will be. But it does require facing what is without blinders, being responsible to look beyond the bright and shiny promises and putting in the effort to know other people for who they are.

Trust requires that we stop calling each other names as a substitute for discourse and problem solving.

There is so much of our culture that shoves us away from those requirements toward a world of fast paced isolation and fantasy. There is no institution or force on the horizon to pull us in the other direction, for all have become part of the vortex of insincerity and pretense.

If trust is to be restored it is up to you and I to step away from the distractions to see who is around us, to take the time to smile and say hello, to learn to honor our word as the definition of who we are and what we do. Trust is dead, but isn’t this the season that reminds us that miracles are possible?

The Murdoch media has lost the public trust just as surely as the Bush White House has done. The road to redemption, should either choose to pursue it (and there are no signs yet), will not be easy.

As Far As These Sad, Sunken Eyes Can See

Behold Teh Murderoch Legacy! It's all yours, James.

Meanwhile, Zannino takes his $21 million and walks away...

Earlier this year, Zannino helped broker the company's $5.6 billion proposed sale to News Corp, which would add Barron's, Marketwatch.com and other media as well as the Journal to its international news empire.

All Your Prizemonies Is Mine, Kev!

Did somebody tell Kev I was writing a book?

And will I have a chance at the $100,000?

"The USA Does Not Torture" - George W. Bush

It's now official. The people running the CIA are not only ass-wipes but also stupid as fuck.

Education Revolution NOW PLEASE!

It's pretty sad that this wanker is probably the most famous ex-student from the high school my kids will soon be going to.

Yes, Virginia, Wingnut Bloggers ARE Stooges

How much does Tim Blair get paid? This is from the "Say What?" quotes at Doonesbury:

"I mean, talk about a direct IV into the vein of your support. It's a very efficient way to communicate. They regurgitate exactly and put up on their blogs what you said to them. It is something that we've cultivated and have really tried to put quite a bit of focus on."
-- former WH communications director Dan Bartlett, on conservative blogs

"Cultivated" = spent money on. Full disclosure, Tim?

The Culture Wars Are Over!

Put on your Happy Feet:

"We're a very small country and we have very little culture distinct enough to call it our own.

"So why should we have a war about it? It's as ridiculous as bald men fighting over a comb, when we should be out there trying to grow hair."

INQUIRIES!

Excellent:

The Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, said yesterday that there would be an inquiry into the way the Haneef case was handled. Well done, Mick.

Warmongers R US

I see my local Liberal MP, Steven Ciobo, is now on the opposition front bench. For any researchers out there, here's some interesting background.

Ciobo's mate George Brandis, who came to the support of Ciobo's protegé Brett Mason during the "lying rodent" scandal, is also on the bench as shadow AG. I guess that means the Libs now agree that Howard really WAS a lying rodent.

Mason employed Chrenkoff to push pro-war propaganda. Ciobo lists him as a friend. That's the facebook connection in the image above. And here's Chrenkoff's connection to the Fadhil brothers, famed pro-US neocon bloggers from Iraq. Interesting that Omar is now apparently living in New York and graduating from Colombia, innit???



Meanwhile, here's some Murdoch media explanation of how Ciobo held his "safe" Golc Coast seat:

Although Miszkowski managed a swing of 5.3 per cent it was not enough to wrench the seat from Ciobo.

Miszkowski, a former president of the Gold Coast Jewish Community Council who ran a quirky campaign epitomised by a jingle, was unavailable for comment when contacted.

Miszkowski was hoping to be Queensland's first Jewish MP, but finished with 35.7 per cent of a two-party preferred vote.

Running in the blue-ribbon seat against Ciobo, Miszkowski attempted to win local Jewish support, but his rival’s record as chairman of the Parliamentary Friends of Israel proved too great a challenge.

Finally, speaking of the Murdoch media, here's Chrenkoff's link to Janet Albrechtsen...



Now I ask you, why is there a social network among all these people? Is it just a social network, or something more than that? Why are our national politicians socialising with overt war propagandists (and failed ones at that)?

I Told You So

From this blog, June 5th 2007: What Happens To The Liberals After The Rudd Landslide?

I have been waiting (in vain) for someone within the Howard Liberal Party to mount a leadership challenge. And I have slowly been realising that the reason it hasn't happened - nor even been seriously discussed - is that nobody in the Conga Line is qualified to take over. Nobody else in Howard's cabinet could possibly defeat Rudd. They all suck.

Until just now, I hadn't considered the full implications of that. But this Crikey story got me thinking. The lack of leadership capacity in the Liberal Party could actually leave them decimated for a decade to come.

Let's assume Rudd wins victory. Howard is gone in a blink. But who takes over? It's the same Conga Line queued up for a stint in opposition.

But what do I know, right?

Who's afraid of the big bad rightwing meejah?

LP's Gummo and Kimbarella want you to know that Teh Enemy has been defeated and we can all just laugh at them now. Meanwhile, the political editor of the Opposition Orifice is still writing shit like this:

OCCASIONALLY you recognise that you are in the presence of human greatness. I had that experience this week in Jerusalem when I went to interview Natan Sharansky...

I seek enlightenment from Sharansky on two questions: why does Israel get such a bad press in the West, far worse than it deserves, and can democracy work in Arab societies?

The article is an excuse to spew racist, Zionist, pro-Fascist crap like this:

"Europe now is in a much more difficult situation ideologically than Israel. They tried to build their new society only on human rights. They believe the nation-state has human rights but no commitment to identity. They find a minority (part of the Muslim population) which has a strong identity and no commitment to human rights."

"Europeans find themselves helpless in the face of this and I believe that Europe will have to go back to national identity. Democracy must have a connection with identity. There must be a national, democratic state."

Got that, folks? Human rights must be jettisoned to ensure that people have a sense of "identity", which can only be provided by rabid nationalism. Never mind that many Europeans today see themselves as predominantly citizens of Europe, if not the world. The "One Nation" idea is much catchier, isn't it? Zig Heil!

And this is the Political Editor of a major Australian newspaper spewing such crap.

But don't worry, all you have to do is laugh and they will all go away. Right, Gummo?

UPDATE: OK, it might seem I am being a little thin-skinned and snarky here. But I want people to realise what's going on. Sharansky is an avowed Zionist, a Sharon Likud government stooge, and probably a former CIA asset.

He's also one of the people who have been loudly calling for an attack on Iran. Now, if you want an insight into the craziness to which Australia is inevitably exposed (whether Gummo sees it or not), take a look at what's being going on with Iran this week.

Bush said he only just found out that Iran doesn't have any kind of nuclear capability at all. That is a lie. So why was Bush pushing the threat so hard, when he knew it was a lie? Did he just want to drive up the oil price for his Texas and Saudi mates? Did he really want to launch an attack? On what - the oil fields? Destabilizing Iran and crippling their oil production ability would certainly have kept global oil prices high for some time!

But why are so many voices in Big Media backing Bush's anti-Iran rhetoric? If they were just being played for fools, you would expect a big backlash from them. But there is no backlash, just as there was no backlash after Iraq's WMDs turned out to be a lie. Coz they are in on the game.

Big Media is working with Big Oil to push a global agenda in favor of the Corporatocracy.

Which means, for example, that Greg Sheridan knows exactly what he is doing when he presents Natan Sharansky as an example of "human greatness". But how many of his readers know what's going on?

BRING ON THE INQUIRIES!

PM today:

Mr Rudd said he could not understand "through the $300 million `Wheat for Weapons' scandal that, whereby Australia became the largest source of illicit foreign funding to Saddam Hussein's regime, that no minister, no minister was held accountable or responsible for that gross failure."

He said advice was being prepared on whether his government would pursue the AWB Iraq wheat scandal and why former foreign minister Alexander Downer or trade minister Mark Vaile were not stood down.

UPDATE: And no, I am not back to blogging. I am just pissed off with trying to post intelligent comments on other blogs where people would rather keep slapping each other on the back and telling stupid jokes that are not even funny.

UPDATE 2: Gummo scores an own goal at LP. Sigh.

R.I.P

John Winston Howard: A timeline from MY ABC.

Phillip Adams pens a short history of Howard's racism.

And Steve Biddulph charts Howard's legacy:

The issue of the future, coming down on us now like a steam train, is of course the environment, the double hammer blows of climate change and peak oil. Energy, weather and human misery are the factors that will define our lives for decades to come. You can cancel your newspaper, those are the only four words you need to know.

Linked to this, but compounding it in frightening ways, is the imminent demise of the United States economy. In fact the whisper, the subplot in economist circles, was that this election was one to lose. That whoever inherited Australia in 2007 inherited a coming economic collapse in globalised trade that would suck Australia and much of the rest of the world down with it. For two years now the best predictions have been that the subprime meltdown would act as merely the detonator of a much larger explosive charge created long ago by US consumer debt, concealed by Chinese and Arab investment in keeping that great hungry maw that is America sucking in what it could not begin to pay for. The avalanche-like fall of US house prices will be closely followed by the same in linked economies worldwide, and presage a harsh and very different world than the one we have lived in. In short, the party is over. We are a civilisation in collapse...

By 2014, we will have a struggle between a new left and right - Labor and Green - and the issue will be simply how green, how to balance the need for a much simpler and more communal kind of life, with the need to give people comfort and amenity now. This issue will continue to define life for the rest of this century.

Climate change will bring horrific costs this century unless a global effort is rallied in a way that has never been done before to regulate our gluttonous use of the air and water. Perhaps a billion lives are at risk, let alone 2 to 3 billion refugees, as agriculture and water supplies collapse across southern Asia and elsewhere, and producer countries, like Australia, find they can barely feed themselves.

The big lie of Liberal supremacy was economic management. In fact, they knew how to generate income, but not how to spend it. We could have been building what Europe built in this past decade - superb hospitals, bullet trains, schools and training centres, low cost public transport of luxurious quality, magnificent public housing. We pissed it all away on tax giveaways and consumer goods. On bloated homes that we will not be able to cool or heat, or sell, and cars we won't be able to afford to drive. A party based on self interest may evaporate along with our rivers and lakes, and have no role to play in a world where we co-operate or die.

Coda

I just want to close off this blog with a fitting final word. As The Independent notes:

Howard's defeat in Australia is undoubtedly part of the slow unwinding of the failed worldview that was the mistaken response to the horror of 9/11.

Of course, Howard's loss was not directly due to the Iraq War: like Bush and Blair, he won re-election even after the failings of the illegal invasion were widely known.

But consider this: like Blair's Labor party, Howard's Liberal coalition has been almost thoroughly decimated by his decision to remain in power so long. The same goes for Bush's GOP: his second term has been an unending nightmare in the polls. Meanwhile the even greater nightmare of Iraq drags on with an abandoned and discredited USA not even pretending to posit an exit strategy any more.

All three men, Bush, Blair and Howard, leave their parties a shambles. All three have virtually destroyed their own political legacies.

One can only hope that a lesson has been learned, and that no leader of a democratic country will ever pursue such reckless madness again.

Meanwhile, Australia has finally joined the 21st Century. It will be strange to see Prime Minister Kevin Rudd representing Australia in Bali next month, and not have to cringe and feel ashamed of my country. As Juan Cole says:

Hey, I want a government in the US that looks like this-- pro labor, against foreign military adventures, afraid of global warming, the leader speaks an Asia language, and a rock star is on the team.

Kevin Rudd seems like a decent man, but he does seem to have a slightly authoritarian mindset, which makes the comparisons with Tony Blair a little scary. He won't be perfect, but hopefully he will move us steadily in the right direction.

As I say, we can only hope the lesson has been learned. And not just by Kevin Rudd, but by all of us.

Cheers, folks.

Gandhi's War

Well, that's it folks. No more blogging for me. I am now working on a book, tentatively titled "Gandhi's War". Here are a few short extracts from the first draft:

If we tolerate the crimes and lies of our elected representatives, then what have we become? If the truth does not matter, then reality does not matter, and our lives are meaningless. If we allow great lies to go unchallenged, even if only for the sake of preserving the status quo, then we corrupt not only the fabric of our societies, but also the purity of our souls.

Do we really believe that by re-writing the history books we can re-write the past? If the laws which govern this reality we inhabit are deemed to be of no consequence, then we have gone beyond absurdity into nihilistic despair.

History suggests that the people with the courage and willpower to loudly oppose great powers have often suffered much in their own lifetimes. A cynic might suggest that these people’s struggle is therefore a selfish one. But there is nothing selfish about sacrificing your time, your energy, your career, your finances, your family unity and even your sanity, all for the sake of an intangible vision of truth.

The truly selfish are those who embrace such corrupt systems, who exploit inequalities for their own benefit, who shrug and say, “We all know it is wrong, but there is nothing we can do to change it, so we might as well accept it.” Ultimately, in every country and throughout history, these are the people who have granted power to those who abuse it.

* * * *

My sister died of cancer three months before George W. Bush was first elected President of the United States of America. B. was just thirty-four years of age. She left behind two baby boys, aged two and three. Her stomach, so recently pregnant, now swelled up again. But this time it became as hard as plastic. There was nothing the doctors could do for her, except proscribe massive doses of morphine for the pain.

Four year's later, while George W. Bush was battling for re-election, my father was also diagnosed with cancer. A cocky young surgeon at the government-run Gold Coast Hospital sent Dad home prematurely, telling him the cancer was inoperable:

“If the pain gets too bad,” he said, “Take paracetamol.”

Three days later, Dad was rushed back to hospital in great pain. Doctors diagnosed Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, a curable form of cancer. Dad started chemotherapy, but it was already too late. His stomach swelled up even larger than B’s. The cancer cells moved up through the fluid in his spinal column, then began attacking his brain.

While Dad was battling cancer, my wife and I were going through the rituals of pregnancy. Dad became terminally bed-ridden just a month before our baby was due. I used to lie awake at night wondering what I would do if I were simultaneously summoned to level 9 of the hospital for my father's death, and level 2 for my baby's arrival. Should I abandon my father on his deathbed, or abandon my wife and baby in the delivery room?

Fortunately, I never had to make that choice. Dad's long agony ended one warm summer night, while the stars twinkled silently over the sea outside his window.

On the far side of the planet, a quarter of a million Iraqis were already dead. George W. Bush was celebrating his second election victory.

Aisha arrived eleven days late, just a few weeks after Dad died. Her name means "to live". She was born with her eyes open, cautiously examining the operating theater while a nurse the wiped blood from her face.


* * * *


I had always kept my blogging identity secret. It started out as a bit of a laugh, picking odd pseudonyms for online chats. But then one day I started thinking that the best way to end the war in Iraq might be to convert supporters one by one. Soon I found myself locked into endless arguments with unbelievably stupid people, who seemed to lack the imagination, the intelligence, or maybe the willpower to understand what I was trying to say.

I adopted the online name “gandhi” as a quick way to broadcast my pacifist anti-war attitudes. The wingnuts all thought the Mahatma was nuts, of course, but at least they knew what he stood for.

You bathe in your own urine, you peacenick dickfuck. Why should I listen to you?

Back in those days, when Bush was still popular, the pro-war bloggers were extremely aggressive. They called me every name under the sun. They trawled my website searching for personal information to use against me. They even threatened violence against my family.

Some of them were just complete psychos. They routinely ignored facts and turned reality on its head. One guy wrote a poem about me:

Who can take a blog post
Sprinkle it with joos?
Cover it in bullshit
And a homonim or two
The Ghandi Man
The Ghandi Man can
The Ghandi Man can
Cause he mixes it with hate
And makes the kool aid taste good

Who can take tomorrow
Dip it in a scream?
Multiply the sorrows
And collect up all the cream
The Ghandi Man
The Ghandi Man can
The Ghandi Man can
The Ghandi Man can
Cause he mixes it with hate
And makes the kool aid taste good
And the kool aid tastes good

The worst ones were the soldiers serving in Iraq, or people who said they were their friends or family of soldiers serving in Iraq. These jerks argued that anything any non-Army person said was necessarily ill-informed and therefore bullshit. They loved citing the latest troop movements on the ground, or throwing around the code names of the various squadrons and their top-secret missions, as if that proved that their every utterance was truth. One soldier even sent me a photo of a couple of Iraqi kids holding up a sign:

“Get a life, Gandhi, or come to Iraq.”

The real Mahatma Gandhi once said: "First they laugh at you, then they hate you, then you win.”

At this stage, the wingnuts were moving from the first phase to the second. If they couldn’t smother you with ridicule, or contradict you with media-supported lies, or somehow dilute your words with their Bizzarro World logic, then they just called you a “troll” and banned you from their Web site altogether. I was proud to have been banned from half a dozen top-rated sites.

The book is based on my blogging experiences here and at BushOut. It explores the human cost of blogging news that is relentlessly depressing. I know I am not the only one who has suffered these "bloggers blues", and I think it's a story that should be told.

If anyone wants to contribute their own stories, or knows a good publisher, please email me: gazo a@t dodo dot com dot AU.

For Sale

Sounds good:

* Includes a $200 000 set of executive chairs (not from IKEA!)
* Plans for $500 000+ renovation of the dining room to re-enact the predicted last supper
* Uses 28 times more water than the average Sydney household – one of few properties that can be credited for creating its own mini-drought
* Current occupant considering a move even if a new lease is signed
* A million dollar garden ($1 118 000 million over 6 years) with no worms (well not the kind that gets turned of mid-debate during 60 minutes)
* Recently received a $386 500 security upgrade that unfortunately doesn’t stop fireball wielding psychos
* Price negotiable just like your Work Choices employment contract… NOT

What Can He Do? Hmmnnn....

What can you say?

Mr Howard was visibly frustrated after being asked about the leaflets a number of times.

"What more can I do?" he said.

"I've condemned it, I've dissociated myself from it, I think it is stupid, it's offensive, it's wrong, it's untrue, I mean for heaven's sake get a sense of proportion."

Mr Howard said the election campaign had not been dirty.

"There have been some silly things going on, we have talked about one a bit and there have been a few silly things said elsewhere on the other side, but overall it has not been a dirty campaign."

Mr Howard rejected suggestion the bogus campaign leaflet issue reflected racism in the Liberal Party.

"I do not think that what has happened in the past couple of days in Lindsay could be evidence at all of some underlying racism in my party," he said.

Dump. The. Candidate.

Ein Reich. Ein Fuhrer. Eine Leute.

Howard speaks to the lizard brains:

"We no longer have perpetual seminars about our national identity. We no longer agonise as to whether we're Asian or European or part-Asian or part-European or too British or not British enough or too close to the Americans or whatever. We actually rejoice in what has always been the reality and that is that we are gloriously and distinctively Australian."

Of all the Orwellian nightmare agonies the Howard government has brought us, this "we are Australian" meme is one of the most consistently irritating. It's also one of the most potentially dangerous, as the Cronulla riots showed.

Sorry, John - but this is not your country any more. It's mine.

Closing In On Kabul

Meanwhile, in that other very important war:

The conflict in Afghanistan has reached "crisis proportions", with the resurgent Taliban present in more than half the country and closing in on Kabul, a report says.

Now, NATO only really controls Kabul, and only ever really has. And the famous Coalition of the Willing is pretty thin on the ground these days. And this will be a guerrilla war through the streets. Do we Aussies really, really want to be there?

Tis is another extraordinary failure of diplomacy and foresight. All the money wasted in Iraq could have been spent on building new roads, schools and other facilities for the people of Afghanistan. That country would now be a beacon of hope to the Middle East, a shining example of Western values.

But of course, those "values" never existed anyway, except in a dream that died long ago.

Senlis said its research had established that the Taliban, driven out of Afghanistan by the US invasion in late 2001, had rebuilt a permanent presence in 54 per cent of the country and was finding it easy to recruit new followers.

It was also increasingly using Iraq-style tactics, such as roadside and suicide bombs, to powerful effect, and had built a stable network of financial support, funding its operations with the proceeds from Afghanistan's booming opium trade.

"It is a sad indictment of the current state of Afghanistan that the question now appears to be not if the Taliban will return to Kabul, but when," the report said.

"Their oft-stated aim of reaching the city in 2008 appears more viable than ever."

NATO has a little over 40,000 troops operating in Afghanistan as part of the International Security Assistance Force. The United States and Britain are the largest contributors, with 15,000 and 7,700 soldiers, respectively.

Those numbers pale in comparison to Iraq where at the peak of operations there were nearly 200,000 troops on the ground and where around 160,000 remain.

There are around 970 Australian troops serving in Afghanistan.

Who are we? Where do we come from? Where are we going?

"I am very proud of the fact that we are now spending 47 per cent more in real terms on our defence forces."

That was John Howard today, reflecting on his 11 years in power. Yeah, that's called "the defence of Australia", what we are doing in Afghanistan and Iraq. Tell that to the kids in those countries, John.

Hey, Schmuck!

Guess who is going to be footing the bill for the US sub-prime crisis? Now sit back and watch while the banks which created the problem with irresponsible lending start repossessing houses.

Coalition "Values" On Display

In all the hype about the latest Coalition smear campaign, not many people have notices that the last one died a very quiet death:

The Herald Sun last night confirmed the Liberal Party claims were based on scouring websites, and did not involve any checks or phone calls to the respective boards, authorities and agencies involved.

This is classic Karl Rove tactics: the big smear, followed by the quiet retraction. You can bet there are people who think the latest smear will also work out in the Coalition's favor, bringing racist issues to the fore at just the right time for their "Base" top hear the dog whistle.

If you are in on the sense of humor, that sort of thing is just hilarious. More decent people would think it's about as funny as Caroline Overington's warped attempts at media seduction.

Howard says he doesn't want to be associated with this. But obviously, as leader of the Coalition, and as the man whose own lack of ministerial accountability has set the benchmark for such "values", he is right at the very heart of it.

Bastards, one and all.

Wanker Of The Day

The GG's Greg Sheridan gives up the election for lost and goes back to fighting the culture wars:

I predict that the Robert Manne-Left, the political force in this country most inclined to misrepresent facts and do them violence by shoe-horning them into a predetermined ideological cast, will try to take possession of the Howard loss. The Left has long understood that controlling the past is a key to controlling the future. They will argue that the Howard defeat marks the repudiation of the Howard Government's lies on Iraq, racism on Aborigines, hostility to multiculturalism, construction of a national security state, un-Australian subservience to Washington, hostility to Muslims and so on. In fact, this is almost wholly untrue, as Rudd's embrace of the Government's position on almost all this stuff indicates...

Greg's probably wishing he applied for that job at Quadrant. What's he going to do now? Ghost-write the JHo autobiography: "I Did It Bush's Way"?

Sheridan devotes much of his article to pimping Tony Abbott's chances for the post-election leadership shitfight:

In opposition, Peter Costello will inherit the Liberal leadership. Abbott is the natural choice as his deputy...recent history does show us that a new government, led by a party long in opposition, can be vulnerable after one term... So the Liberals might have an outside chance in three years' time.

Yes Folks! ABBOTT AND COSTELLO IN 2010!!! What a vision for the future! And what a fitting epitaph for the Howard Conga Line Cabinet.

Two More Sleeps, Two Final Sprays

Bob Hawke today launches a massive final spray at JHo, as does News Ltd's Tim Dunlop.

Hawke attempts to demolish three myths: the union bogeyman myth, the myth of Howard's economic capabilities, and (very briefly) the myth that the Iraq War and GWOT make us safer. He is at his best on the second point:

Who, as treasurer, had responsibility for economic management for more than five years before I was elected on March 5, 1983? John Winston Howard. I knew that he was handing me the worst legacy in terms of unemployment and inflation in Australia's history; both were at 11%. But I didn't know exactly how bad the projected budget deficit was, because he had refused to come clean on this during the campaign.

On Sunday, March 5, I called in the secretary of the Treasury, John Stone, who told me that the projected figure for 1983-4 was $9.6 billion, the largest in our history; equivalent today as a percentage of GDP to more than $40 billion. Stone pointed out that "the budget balance is projected to deteriorate from near zero to more than 6% of GDP in a two-year period. The speed and magnitude of that deterioration is almost without precedent among the major OECD countries in the postwar period". Stone was no Labor stooge — he went on to become a Nationals senator — and his written judgement was that Howard's performance was virtually the worst anywhere in the developed world since 1945.

Dunlop covers a whole host of issues, including WorkChoices, Iraq, interest rates, Aboriginal reconciliation, pork-barrelling, Health and the presumed handover to $mirky.

I have to say that Tim has put in a lot of good, hard work at Blogocracy and hopefully he has won over a few voters with his hard-hitting and well-supported analysis. It remains unfortunate that he has allowed his criticism of the Murdoch stable to be muzzled, and in that sense he reminds me a lot of Peter Garrett. Will it have been worth it, after all, when and if JHo get's his come-uppance? Let's just note that Rupert Murdoch has never lost an election, News Ltd continues raking in massive profits, and media reform is not on the Rudd agenda. I hope Tim will have something more to say about that after Saturday.

UPDATE: Well, whaddaya know? Labor says media reform is on the agenda, well... sorta:

Labor is expected to reveal details of its media policy today, including its stance on the definition of Channels A and B, the niche datacasting and mobile spectrum to be auctioned off next year, and the possible introduction of a children's ABC channel.

Senator Conroy flagged Labor will have a firm switch-off date in the move from analogue to digital television. Following the switch-off, he said the analogue spectrum could be used for the fourth licence to enhance competition - a move long coveted by Rupert Murdoch, who has indicated he'd like to expand into free-to-air television in Australia.

"This is not about keeping Murdoch happy," Senator Conroy said. "This is about diversity."

Don't hold your breath waiting for the magic laws of market attrition to smite down the GG staffers...

Hell On Earth

Welcome to Fallujah:

The city that was routed in November 2004 is still suffering the worst humanitarian conditions under a siege that continues. Although military actions are down to the minimum inside the city, local and US authorities do not seem to be thinking of ending the agonies of the over 400,000 residents of Fallujah.

"You, people of the media, say things in Fallujah are good," Mohammad Sammy, an aid worker for the Iraqi Red Crescent in Fallujah, told Inter Press Service (IPS). "Then why don't you come and live in this paradise with us? It is so easy to say things for you, isn't it?"

His anger is due to the fact that the embattled city is still completely closed and surrounded by military checkpoints... Since the November 2004 US-led attack on the city, named Operation Phantom Fury, which left approximately 70% of the city destroyed, the US military has required residents to undergo retina scans and finger-printing to gain a bar-code for identification...

All of the residents interviewed by IPS were extremely angry with the media for recent reports that the situation in the city is good. Many refused to be quoted for different reasons.

"Fallujah is probably the city that has had the most media coverage in the history of the occupation," Hatam Jawad, a school headmaster in Fallujah, told IPS. "People are tired of shouting and appearing on TV to complain, without feeling any change in their sorrowful living situation. Some of them are afraid of police revenge for telling the truth."

Many residents told IPS that US-backed Iraqi police and army personnel have detained people who have spoken to the media.

"I am not going to tell you whether it is good or bad to be a Fallujah resident," 55-year-old lawyer, Shakir Naji, told IPS. "Why don't you just ask what the prices of essential materials are and judge for yourself?"

As I've said before, Iraq is a war of SPIN, and Falluja is stranded on the Front Line.

But what is the plan here? The longer this injustice persists, the more the occupiers are hated, the worse conditions get, the more spin is needed.... Where does it end?

Teh Five Point Plan

I, John Winston Howard, do hereby promise that if re-elected I will:

1. Work out how to blame Labor for the coming global recession.

2. Keep inflaming Muslim radicals around the globe. Hang tight with Pervez and El Busho Loco. Pretend it makes sense.

3. Don't forget, um... What was it? Oh yeah - election promises!

4. Pour $10 billion into the Murray-Darling. See what happens.

5. Be nice to, err... what is it they call them these days, Janet? Oh, yes: the indigenes.