Howard’s vanishing legacy
Howard govt - - Posted on October, 27 at 3:32 pm by Ken L
Over the last week I’ve spent quite a lot of time following links to the loonier conservative blogs in the US. Partly it’s sheer voyeurism, getting fun out of watching people make total prats of themselves as they realise Obama might actually pull off a win, and partly it’s finding anything to do except mark undergraduate assignments.
One thing that struck me as I reflected on the enormous volume of vicious ignorance spewing forth from the wingnut blogs is that it seems to have little connection to Australia. This is a very good thing. It means the Libs might have abandoned their forays into the politics of social division.
Remember the kind of bullshit Howard used to peddle? The terrorists would love to see Obama win, defeat in Iraq would see terrorism blossom throughout South East Asia, gay marriage is the pits, our role is to project ‘Western values’ in Asia, all that pandering to prejudice and fear for political gain … well it’s still meat and drink to the kind of people Howard pals around with on his frequent trips to the USA and gets risible awards from.
The thing is: I don’t hear it coming from the Libs here any more. Maybe it’s because they’re in opposition, and yes, Christopher Pyne, but lining up the Liberal Party with reactionary Republicanism doesn’t seem to be flavour of the month any more. Moreover the truly contemptible slimebags who were Howard’s accomplices - Ruddock and Andrews and Tuckey and Heffernan and Costello and the rest - might just as well have joined Downer in Cyprus for all the influence they appear to be having on opposition positions.
Of course it’s impossible to tell what ideology or policies are determining Liberal Party positions but that’s inevitable after the trauma they went through last year. Maybe there’s hope for them after all.
Posted in Howard govt |
October 27th, 2008 at 4:12 pm
I dont think the water problems of the Murray Darling are solved.And well,I haven’t made up my mind that the Liberals are not being genuine in.. in opposition,certainly not always clear,but that doesn’t mean they are not genuine,and the money thing is a flip flop thing worse than a UFO flap.And what is this major problem that,according to a link site on DavidIcke.com is going to happen around the 22 of January that Obama knows about and Powell leaked out!? Last time I looked the Liberals like being Australian,thats where the photoshots are aimed for.Maybe a deeper sense of reality sweeps across the neo-cortex than the American Experience.And heaps of people in their constituencies have already spit the dummy over George .The Liberals have a new sense of Freedom now,and possibly dread.
October 27th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
Ideology???
I always suspected the little grub was no more than a shallow political opportunist.
With the blooming of neocons, Pauline Hanson, and Sept 11, he just took the lazy route and appealed to our base instincts. JWH was NOT a leader, he followed the mob. I don’t think that the prick believed DEEPLY in anything, other than his right to rule.
October 27th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
All of them in Cyprus? NO!!!!!!!!!!
October 27th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
I’m guessing Little Lord Fauntleroy must be getting on OK in Cyprus. As far as I know, they haven’t started shooting at each other again, so he obviously hasn’t pissed them off as much as he did me.
October 27th, 2008 at 5:28 pm
Maybe they are being good so they don’t have to have to listen to him
October 27th, 2008 at 6:56 pm
I think Polly’s onto something there.
Tony Abbott’s still doing his best, bless him. Thank goodness, they still have the senate. Why waste their energy when they have Fielding to do everything for them?
October 27th, 2008 at 9:59 pm
PhilT first Alex Jones, now DavidIcke!!!
October 28th, 2008 at 11:05 am
“PhilT first Alex Jones, now DavidIcke!!!”
I find these sites fascinating. I take them w/ a pinch of salt…but it seems to me that some of the writers on these blogs have got the economic predictions a heckuva lot more right than the BS corporate media.
Every once in a while I get this strange cold feeling & a sense of dread…an overwhelming feeling that those orchestrating & influencing events are stranger than we generally imagine. There’s a great deal of manipulation going on here & we need to get to the roots of it.
Those tentacles that call themselves investment banks such as Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and so on are BRASH & IN YOUR FACE when it comes to controlling our governments & seem to be fearless in putting their GRINNING REPRESENTATIVES OUT THERE IN THE CORPORATE MEDIA.
It’s a big middle finger to the public.
But I’m beginning to see WORRY on their melting faces. There are ANOMALIES that are stuffing up their plans to expand the war & heat the planet.
Whatever INFECTED John Howard & his FRONT BENCH back then, whether it be a corporate fascist agenda/ideology due to propaganda that crept into their cells as youth…or GREED, POWER LUST & XENOPHOBIA due to a combination of 9/11 trauma & their length of stay…or some alien virus that altered their behavioural patterns…all I can say is:
GODD RIDDANCE TO A BAD LOT
Aussie is still struggling w/ bad vibes…but I can breathe slightly more easier these days.
I feel the same way when I watch Obama. I don’t feel that tightness of chest & cold, dreadful feeling when I watch him speak. But he must OBSERVE carefully & be WARY of some of those surrounding him.
Poor old John McCain is trying to RESIST the PUPPET MASTERS but they are sapping him of energy. His hitched breath & odd talking patterns reveal an inner-struggle.
I think Palin is being controlled by some titan more than we think. She is showing characteristics of a manipulated DESPOT…watch those eyes blaze as she speaks…as tho she were drinking the nectar of THE GODS. The God of War perhaps? She’s CRAZED. And will do & say anything to win. Now…or later. We’ve seen it all before.
WALK PATHS CAUTIOUSLY…VOTE TO BREATHE EASIER AGAIN
N’
October 28th, 2008 at 11:15 am
Right on the money Ken.
I can tolerate the traditional ‘battler suburban union bashing’ Liberal stuff (don’t like it, but I guess that’s what the Liberals do) but Howard introduced some of the nasty right wing Republican ethos here in Australia which I thought was quite dangerous.
One of this was the ‘dog whistling’ practices, which spun out of control and bit Howard in the bum with the ‘Linsday Anti-Muslim Leaflet’ incident.
Poetic justice really.
November 2nd, 2008 at 3:26 pm
The other day I was musing with a group of my - let’s call them trainees, or protégés - mostly political innocents. “Does Australia still have combat troops in Iraq?” I asked. Ten blank faces. “You know,” I said, “a year ago John Howard was telling Australians that the world would end, Iraq fall into the abyss and America’s international prestige be irreparably damaged” (I am never so eloquent as in recollection…)”if Australia were to withdraw its troops from Iraq. But lo! we have withdrawn and neither you nor America can say for sure whether we are still there! Iraq remains only on the brink of the abyss and George W. didn’t need any help from Australia to devastate America’s reputation in the world. He has shat on it in so many ways, in so many areas, all by himself.” (I didn’t really say ’shat’. I’m not supposed to swear, or talk about politics, religion, or sex…)
What, I wonder, would John Howard say now about his predictions of doom? His role today is to keep popping up with his dreadful but irrelevant opinions so that we remember how good it still feels to know he’s gone.