Kerry, just let me make this point …
Howard govt, Terrorism laws - - Posted on April, 4 at 10:00 pm by Ken L
Can the humiliation of the Howard Government over the David Hicks matter be any more complete? From the prime minister down through the foreign minister, the attorney-general and sundry lesser hangers-on they have been made to look like the most abject idiots. Even their most fervid supporters have been forced to decide whether Howard and his cronies are barefaced liars, blatantly telling us they had nothing to do with an outcome that they couldn’t have written to suit their interests better if they’d tried, or congenital imbeciles, gulled by the Americans into supporting an indefensible process. No other possibilities are admissible except to those who live in an alternative reality.
Tonight Howard stated repeatedly on the 7.30 Report that ‘his opponents’ in the Hicks matter had wanted Hicks brought back to Australia and released. He implied several times that these were the only options open to the government: bring Hicks home and let him go free or keep being a cheer squad for the way the yanks were handling things. Anybody who’s taken even the slightest interest in the matter would know that this is a massively dishonest misrepresentation of the views of ‘his opponents’.
Howard said all he’d ever accused Hicks of was being a ‘terrorist supporter’. What blatant manipulation of the truth. What about his attorney-general calling Hicks ‘about as dangerous as a person can be in modern times’? Or his foreign minister calling Hicks a ‘dangerous person’? Or his defence minister implying that Hicks was prepared to kill innocent people. How quickly he can airbrush them out of history!
On the news Laughing Phil Ruddock admitted that there was no way the Australian government could enforce the ban on Hicks speaking to the media for 12 months. Indeed he had the gall to protest that such suppression of free speech was un-Australian. So where was his vociferous protest last week at the orders that purported to prohibit Hicks’ family, friends and neighbourhood vet from commenting on the case? The orders that were more reminiscent of something a demented tribal chieftain would do instead of a bunch of army officers pretending to be a court of law? Ruddock’s spirit has clearly been broken at last and he’s saying whatever he thinks it will take to just make the Hicks thing go away please god make it go away.
Now Howard has hit rock bottom. After spending years boasting of his close relationship with the idiot child-king, after endless attempts to portray his government as being joined to the Bushistas hip and thigh, after poncing around time after time trying to kid us that George W is his best friiend forever and consults him before he decides what to have for breakfast … after all this self-aggrandisement our pathetic prime minister is reduced to saying repeatedly that the Hicks sentence is nothing to do with him … all the Americans’ doing … you’ll have to ask Major Mori about that … the military commission didn’t even know who John Howard was.
Complete, utter, total humiliation.
Posted in Howard govt, Terrorism laws |
April 4th, 2007 at 10:53 pm
Sweet, Ken; hubris in a handbag as red k, pills out the window wasn’t going to take it anymore…deary me; reminded me of the 70’s when everyone laughed at the cocoa plantation owner’s son then…what ever really happened?
And this after Mr Manne’s aunty lament today; a definite 9 pointer…well ouside fifty
But what about Cyclone Ken and the phone box phoney water policy…Sweet Jesus I take it all back! Rodent squirted, dripping irrelevance…alas poor cossie tip.
Shoulder twitch and everything…Tipping Point? He will be back after chocolates; red k that is?
What’s next? Ma Belle Grattan, the Dancing Bear at Large and Bill Leak’s Snowy gnawing on …I can’t quite spit it out…
April 5th, 2007 at 1:28 am
I watched part of it but had to turn it off. It was just for pathetic (AND infuriating). His shoulder twitch was going like the clappers.
It’s too bad that the 7:30 Report has an average audience of about 6.5 among the aspirationals.
April 5th, 2007 at 7:04 am
You’ve nailed it in the last para. For years now, I’ve been telling anyone prepared to listen, and plenty who aren’t, that, of all the adjectives which can and should be used to describe the current Australian Prime Minister, none so aptly captures the essence of the man as “pathetic”.
April 5th, 2007 at 8:24 am
“…or congenital imbeciles, gulled by the Americans into supporting an indefensible process.”
I’m inclined to that view, Ken. Very nice turn of phrase. Years back Howard said on drugs policy that he was “with the FBI approach”, which virtually amounted to prohibition (which itself had had an appalling record with alcohol).
Knowing his way of linking with populist/talkback sentiment, he could’ve taken the line for that reason. Or it could have been obsequiousness to the Americans, especially the New Right there.
The military hardware purchases, the continued public enthusiasm for the Iraq invasion/occupation and the warming denialist lines seem to point to the congenital imbeciles theory.
April 5th, 2007 at 10:39 am
I’m with you mars. wtched, but almost couldnt. Felt like a child who has to watch through parted fingers across the eyes. The same embarrassment as when granpop farts at Christmas Lunch with brand new posh inlaws in attendance.
Howard - boy.
Fancy even subjecting himself to the 7.30 Report - I cant recall seeing him on that program for many a moon.
And I dont think he does Lateline either - but with the performances his Tip Clown and Nefestu Ruddock, Dolly, and the formerly Mad Monk, henceforth the Demented Attack Dog - have delivered I s’pose he felt that if you want a job done - you have to do it yourself.
Howard. So used to seeing him all beligerant and irritated and aggressively intimidating interviewers when asked questions he thinks inconvenient or impertinent. Last night, there he was humbly subjecting himself to the interrogation.
Trying to cloak himself in dignity in much the same way as you do when required to submit to a rectal exam.
And Kerry OBrien - he musta been waiting for this day for a long, long l-o-n-g time.
Yeah, Ken, an excellent essay. You nailed it.
April 5th, 2007 at 11:22 am
Anyone notice how Howard now has blackened eyebrows? Some weeks ago they were all white! He’s trying to pretend he is not the doddery old fool we can see that he is.
April 5th, 2007 at 11:25 am
… Um, what the heck are you talking about?
April 5th, 2007 at 11:31 am
The Hicks case is having even FURTHER unintended blow-back (is that a tautology) in the US, with the parents of US al-quada/Taliban Lindh comparing the two cases and sentences.
If ever there was a clearer explanation of the Hicks double jeopardy - Hicks was told, plead guilty or risk life imprisonment.
Lindh pleased not guilty and got 20 years.
Now Lindh’s parents are saying - Hicks is guilt of being a terrorist, because he pleaded guilty and he only got nine months.
Our son is NOT a terrorist - because he pleaded NOT guilty - and he got 20 years - please explain?
from news.com.au
Lindh parents plead for release
:
:
:
“John has been in prison for more than five years and it is time for him to come home,” she said.
Asked if she felt her son’s treatment was unfair in the light of Hicks’ nine-month term, she said: “It’s quite a difference … what more can I say?”
Lindh’s father, Frank Lindh, said: “I think it is unfair. Remember that John did not plead guilty to any sort of terrorism offence.
“David Hicks pleaded guilty to assisting a terrorist organisation, and yet he will be home with his family in nine months. We wish John could be home with us in nine months’ time.”
Lindh pleaded not guilty in early 2002 to a 10-count indictment, which included charges of providing support to foreign terrorist organisations as well as contributing services to the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.
In a later plea deal, however, all terrorist-related charges were dropped in exchange for Lindh pleading guilty to two counts of serving in the Taliban army and carrying weapons.
He was jailed for 20 years without possibility of parole in October 2002 and is currently being held at a Supermax maximum-security federal prison in Colorado
April 5th, 2007 at 11:36 am
be rude if you enjoy it- but howard’s running the country still while your input to public policy is zip.
the reason he gets away with it is the character of the australian electorate. some people aren’t up to democracy,and “you get the government you deserve”.
April 5th, 2007 at 11:51 am
Finally got to see the latest Four Corners program on Hicks with the reconstruction of his interview with the Australian Federal Police.
Rightly or wrongly I am now confirmed in my view he is a flipping idiot with a small dick who wanted to compensate by playing soldiers and play-act at being tough and a hard man.
A kid playing soldiers in the sandpit.
Until it all got a bit too real, when the REAL bullets started flying, and he couldnt get outta there and head for home fast enough.
Another thought was about the media ban. Rupert and his crew werent ever going to like being shut out of the deal.
Hicks = readers = money for Ruppie.
Howard should know by now not to try and get between Rupie and a bucket of money……
Rupie can score with this one in Oz, US, Brit - money money money.
Everyone wants to hear what Hicks has to say - and Rupie wants to be the one to sell it to you.
April 5th, 2007 at 12:54 pm
David Hicks is not back in Australia YET. We cannot rest until he is here. And then someone has to remind the “Liberal” Party continuously of its great concern for human rights. What Robert Richter said regarding the future in The Sunday Age is most important. The objective is to get an Attorney General with the intestinal fortitude to charge Howard, Ruddock etc with violation of the laws he quoted. It would be most gratifying to see these pathetic little men end up in jail. Perhaps we need a certain Spanish judge, whether ours would have the balls for such a turnaround in accountability is open to doubt.
April 5th, 2007 at 1:04 pm
And just the other day the Treasurer was on tele effectively blaming Hicks for Sep 11 and the Bali bombing.
April 5th, 2007 at 1:20 pm
Thanks Ed, I liked it too. Tell me what you think.
April 5th, 2007 at 1:25 pm
[...] Lovell guffaws at Howard’s logical contortions in trying to represent the Hicks outcome as a simple matter of justice taking its inexhorable [...]
April 5th, 2007 at 1:37 pm
In the interview with Kerry O’Brien earlier this week, Major Mori was looking as ever like a sweet foolish Gomer Pyle, but he was speaking with a cleverly forked tongue. Cripes, that guy is a smart lawyer.
On the one hand he was speaking as a lawyer should, saying that Hicks would have to comply with the gag order and needs time to get on with his life, but three times he also said, with very particular emphasis, that the media is very persistent.
As I read it, Mori was telling us sotto voce that nothing can stop a determined press gang from getting to Hicks, his father and anyone else who knows something and wants to talk. (And if there is any argument go to court and let’s see just how constitutional the gag order really is).
I have said previously that Mori has now done his job and should be allowed to move on. Its our job now to extract the truth, including hearing everything that Hicks has to say.
Its time now for that foot-in-the-door class of gutter journalism the australian media does so well. Go for it guys. Do your job. Get the story.
April 5th, 2007 at 1:40 pm
Sorry, my first comment was a little juvenile.
What I should have said was “I don’t understand what you are saying.”
April 5th, 2007 at 1:48 pm
Don’t watch or listen to or read Howard at all anymore. Can’t do it and remain sane and decent. It is just endless smug lies and amoral political thuggery.
And Codger, I agree what Ed, what the flip are you talking about?
No, but if true, then it is pathetic. On a related issue, I am pretty sure he had his teeth straightened and whitened in the early 90s (?) to be more electorally appealing. Which is particularly offensive given that his almost total destruction of the public dental scheme when he first took office has left tens of thousands of people with serious chronic dental problems, while he lives the high life at taxpayer expense, and spends hundreds of millions on political self-promotion and electoral bribes. It is increasingly well understood by medical science that poor dental health is a major contributor to poor overall health. For that piece of real bastardy alone he deserves serious contempt and condemnation. (He, of course, blames the states, despite the fact that the federal government holds the purse strings for the dental scheme. Truly disgusting.)
April 5th, 2007 at 5:22 pm
Translation: Hicks wasn’t guilty of any crime but he had to be punished anyway so we were forced to conspire with a foreign government to commit war crimes to make sure he suffered.
OTOH, a British detainee - Feroz Abbasi - who’d done the exact same Al-Queda training courses as Hicks and also met bin Laden several times and was with Hicks for most of the post 9/11 period was returned to Britain years ago.
Tony Blair has much to answer for, but conspiracy to commit war crimes against a British citizen isn’t one of them.
April 5th, 2007 at 6:53 pm
Yer, I liked the bit about Murders, Ho ho ho! He believes some murders; some MURDERS only get 7 years, while this may be true, hey, who’s running the justice system anyhow?
“Shoulder twitch and everything…Tipping Point? He will be back after chocolates;”
For the worst of the worst you’d think Life to 20 at least. Very weak defence, bit like the girls under 8’s netball team taking on the raiders. I thought the old boys head was going to explode! Kerry was defiantly excited at the prospect, but alas, his noggin kept bobbin and the drivel kept on-a drivelling.
“the reason he gets away with it is the character of the australian electorate. some people aren’t up to democracy,and “you get the government you deserve””.
A L.
To right.
We/You/Us/They voted him in alright. The problem is, now he has an election looming he’s gota take care of the issues he’s been avoiding, and WAS constantly questioned about. Nothing last forever, not even the Howard Government, seeya.
April 5th, 2007 at 7:15 pm
While you’re on about other Government Ministers, Ken, don’t let Costello off the hook. Who remembers his contribution some weeks ago, when he said that the charges were straightforward and the evidence was strong? HELLO! This was BEFORE the attempted murder charge was dropped. My beloved wrote to Costello asking him to explain himself, seeing as how he was an eminent lawyer before entering Parliament and, you know, maybe he could let on about how a charge of attempted murder would be straightforward, given that the prosecution acknowledged that he hadn’t attempted to murder anyone. She got a very helpful reply saying that her letter had been referred to the Attorney-General, as the matter fell within his responsibilities. She wrote back, pointing out that she wasn’t interested in what the Attorney-General might say; rather she wanted to know what Costello himself meant. Or alternatively, since the matter is within Ruddock’s responsibility, what was Costello doing commenting on it? No response, and none expected. ‘Pathetic’ is an adjective that can be applied to the lot of them.
April 5th, 2007 at 8:22 pm
Puglsey - tell your better half an “onya” for writing not once, but twice…
and be consoled that while you might not have got a written response in reply to the second, be assured, be very assured that there would have been a response within Tip’s camp.
As Ken has posted ALL the Howard comedy troupe are wishing the Northern Alliance had of taken HIcks out when they had the chance.
Instead of the Northern Alliance getting $us1000 for selling Hicks to the Yanks, the Howardvistas - knowing then what they know now - would gladly pay twice the market rate to be rid of the wretched ‘roo skinner.
April 5th, 2007 at 8:25 pm
sorry, post got mangled - Ken said this:
And I think the Howardvistas now wish the Northern Alliance had taken Hicks out.
April 5th, 2007 at 8:38 pm
I just think it’s rather daring to put the words Ruddock and spirit same sentence!
April 5th, 2007 at 9:17 pm
I just caught thge end of The 7:30 Report… did they happen to say why Kerry wasn’t doing the show tonight?
April 5th, 2007 at 9:47 pm
“No, but if true, then it is pathetic. On a related issue, I am pretty sure he had his teeth straightened and whitened in the early 90s (?) to be more electorally appealing.”
I heard that.
May the young and meek inhearit the earth. Its the truth. Young people rule, or will.
April 5th, 2007 at 9:55 pm
Comment by mars
# April 5, 2007, 21:17:27 |Quote|
I just caught thge end of The 7:30 Report… did they happen to say why Kerry wasn’t doing the show tonight?
———————————
April 5th, 2007 at 10:29 pm
Mars & ID
‘He will be back after chocolates; red k that is?’
Red Kerry rendition pre chocolates!?! It was a very ballsy and long overdue interview but maybe K’s off on an early mark?
Ed I’m sorry that you don’t understand but hey life is a mystery and every day an adventure. Hang in.