The Invincible
can never defeat
the powerless
- Guy Rundle
The Invincible |
Bleeding Hearts with Balls "Make no mistake, my friends, Australia's esteem and respect around the world is higher now than it's ever been in its history." Sounding like Nicolai Ceaucescu in the last days of his self-adoring madness before being summarily executed, John Howard is exhibiting similar delusional behaviour. His rock solid inability to distinguish right from wrong has made him the most successful self-believing liar in Australian political history. His cunning little hoodwink at the last election has apparently caused him to think so highly of himself that we can expect to see his rodent-shaped skull beaming down to us from billboards any day now. Swept away by the glory bestowed upon him by Janette and his colleagues, he is unaware that when the rest of us hear snippets of his daily denials of reality on commercial radio we wonder if it isn't time for someone in high places to question the soundness of his mental state. Too bad for Australians (but not for the PM) that the Archbishop General has been relegated to the status of a self-neutered outcaste. This week we have seen the ABC's Four Corners and Foreign Correspondent present damning reports on the Howard Government's persecution of asylum seekers. With Four Corners we watched Defence Minister Robert Hill remain unmoved by a boat load of refugees attempting to cope with the mind-unhinging news that despite the hell they had gone through to get onto this leaky boat and into an unknown ocean, they were being turned back to Indonesia. And for no other reason than to re-elect a small minded bigot. The future of these people, or lack of it, rests squarely on the puny shoulders of John Howard. If he were the Christian he has conned everyone into believing he is, his conscience would be heaving. But he has no conscience. And neither did the man this action brings to mind, his former East German counterpart, Erich Honecker, builder of the Berlin Wall which conversely tried to keep people from leaving. With Foreign Correspondent we watched Konzentrationslager Commandant Heil Ruddock impassively reject the mounting evidence that by accepting the Howard Government's financial bribe in exchange for taking asylum seekers, the Papua New Guinea Prime Minister has breached the PNG constitution and may be forced to resign. Ruddock also rejected evidence that nearly half of the excluded refugees are suffering malaria, a disease they would not have contracted in Australia where they should have been "detained" for a fraction of the cost. Making Adolph Hitler look statesmanlike by comparison, Howard and his lot of scheming little men have treated desperate, traumatised people with all the compassion of a serial killer. And they have done so merely to stay in power. Never has the political climate of this country sunk so low. The Howard Government, exhibiting indictable incompetence and disregard for propriety since it came to power in 1996, must now be deemed illegitimate on the grounds that it willingly lied to voters at every turn concerning the boat people. Scam has followed scandal, and now we have Peter "The Jerk" Costello softening us up for more cuts to services to finance what has to be the greatest scam in Australia's political history: "border protection". If Australia does indeed need border protection, the reason lies squarely with Deputy Sheriff Howard who single-handedly endangered this country by aligning Australia with an America hated by oppressed people everywhere. Despite the bristling outrage of Christopher Hitchens against those who question the causes of 9/11, the cold-hearted bombing of the World Trade Centre was the direct cause of America's cold-hearted foreign policies of an entire century. And despite John Howard's wish to be an honorary member of the American Republican Party, there was no reason for him to hop on Dubbya's shoe and tug at his pant leg for attention, yelling at the top of his still breaking, adolescent larynx: "Australia wants to be terrorised too 'cause I need another term so I can pip that awful Fraser and surpass Don Bradman...er, Robert Menzies." For that is all being Prime Minister really means to John Howard: a place in the record books. In reality, Australia does not need border protection, and certainly not from wretched people escaping tyrannies on leaky boats. In fact the phrase is code for xenophobia and belongs to the paranoid mentality that oversaw the White Australia policy, the real highlight of the 1950's all Illiberal's wish to return to. I sensed, with reporter Evan Williams' hectoring of Philip "The corpse of Canberra" Ruddock on Foreign Correspondent, that the tide is turning at last. Margo Kingston alluded to this turn of the tide also, in conversation with Phillip Adams, when she spoke of the valiant protesters at Woomera. This is the first time, said Margo, that people have stepped forth to do something about this deeply un-Australian tragedy. In so doing, she said, they are helping to take back the derogatory appellation "bleeding heart" from the sneering right. Taking the baton from Margo, I kind of like the term bleeding hearts with balls. Our greatest ally in the eventual downfall of this irreputable government is the government itself. Day after day their paranoias, there lies and deceits, their clearly autocratic agendas are doing them terminal harm. But we clearly have a fight on our hands, for their supporters, like the supporters of Milsoevic, have found strength in Howard's hatreds. The anti-terrorist laws the government is trying to get through the Senate will, if passed by Labor (sinking that party forever), herald an era of despotism and unleash civil unrest never before seen in this once proud nation. Don't forget to vilify the bastards every chance you get. |
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