or Powell's or me• • •
"Mike and Jon, Jon and Mike—I've known them both for years, and, clearly, one of them is very funny. As for the other: truly one of the great hangers-on of our time."—Steve Bodow, head writer, The Daily Show
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"Who can really judge what's funny? If humor is a subjective medium, then can there be something that is really and truly hilarious? Me. This book."—Daniel Handler, author, Adverbs, and personal representative of Lemony Snicket
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"The good news: I thought Our Kampf was consistently hilarious. The bad news: I’m the guy who wrote Monkeybone."—Sam Hamm, screenwriter, Batman, Batman Returns, and Homecoming
November 24, 2007
John Howard Defeated; Looks Forward To Spending More Time Lying To His Family
With John Howard's defeat in Australia, now's a good time to look back at the shameless lies he told about Iraq and WMD. I've put the details over at Mother Jones.
Farewell, John Howard. Say hello to history's scrap heap for us.
Posted at November 24, 2007 04:45 PMIs it just me or is it the case that Howard always looks like he is crying?
I guess he's had plenty of good reasons to feel teary-eyed.
Bush, Berlusconi, Blair, Howard, Aznar: hey they have enough for a basketball team!
(So that's what it was all about!)
For the uninitiated, here's a potted (and it must be said, slanted) summary of Howards era:
http://www.chaser.com.au/content/view/3061/44/
It was originally written on the anniversary of Howard's ten years of Prime Ministership but reads just as well as an obituary. For more reading, google/wiki "Children Overboard", "AWB Oil For Food" "the Pacific Solution" and "Stolen Generations" for a potted summary of Howard's more "impressive" acheivements.
Oh yeah and Iraq, can't forget Iraq. Our force contribution may have been small, but it leant legitimacy to a wholly illegitimate action and entirely misused my country's defence force, making it the agressor for the first time in our history. Woo-frigging-hoo.
I wish I could claim pride in Howards downfall, but all in the end it is simply relief, after all it still took eleven years and a substantial body of shameless lies before the electorate came good. That the Australian people have favoured their own personal wealth to the exclusion of these substantial failings for so long is nothing to be proud of. If anything, it's a miracle that the electorate ditched him so emphatically while things were so "prosperous".
Well, at least we had the pleasure of voting the little s#@t out of office (and his own seat), a pleasure that will be denied our US cousins when GBH slinks into heavily superannuated ignominy. Unless of course the Democrats have a change of heart and impeach... and the pig is on the runway.
....and for an excellent, even-handed and invective-free assessment, Richard Flanagan
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2217016,00.html
"In the wake of his defeat the attacks on Howard's legacy will turn ferocious, but at their heart will be an unease, a ritual exorcism of something deeper that Australians would perhaps rather not admit. For a decade Howard's power had resided in his ability to speak directly and powerfully to the great negativity at the core of the Australian soul - its timidity, its conformity, its fear of other people and new ideas, its colonial desire to ape rather than lead, its shame that sometimes seems close to a terror of the uniqueness of its land and people."
"a ritual exorcism of something deeper that Australians would perhaps rather not admit"- very apt
Thought "GBH" was "grievous bodily harm." Is this a new nickname for our brave President?
Posted by: StO at November 25, 2007 11:50 PMHoward is the first PM to lose his seat since Stanley Melbourne Bruce in 1929. Bruce like Howard was trying to enshrine a law which forbade employees from bargaining as a group with their employer.
I hope the parallels don't continue into a Great Depression.
Labour won seats in Queensland they'd not held since before WW1. Howard had a 16 seat majority; Rudd is now about 24 seats in front with a few still to be decided. It was a rout.
And though we too have a two-headed political elite, this victory, unlike the Dem's success last year, signals real change (out of Iraq, for one). Our left party isn't owned by the Lobby and the MI complex, yet, partly because unions haven't yet been as marginalised here as in the US. They have organisational clout and plenty of funds.
So it's morning in Australia, with lights on the hill, and all that stuff. Over to you guys!
