RubySoho
Winston
John Howard And The NeoCons- A Marriage Made In Conservative Heaven.
March 10th 2008 04:41
Last Friday I walked into a 7-11 and saw a sight that I hadn't seen for several months. John Howard. Yes, the vanquished Prime Minster on the front page of the leading broadsheet newspaper. How many bad memories it brought back for me. Twelve years worth of them.
So what was he doing on the front page again? Apparently he is re-inventing himself as the darling of the American Neo-Cons. In his first public speech since conceding defeat in the 2007 Australian Federal Election, Howard was in Washington giving a lecture to the American conservative "think tank" the American Enterprise Institute. It seems that 'our John' still can't accept the fact that the people of Australia just didn't agree with him anymore. Apparently the fact that he couldn't even hold onto his own seat in Parliament wasn't enough of an indicator to him that he was out of touch with the public he claimed to know so well.
Not surprisingly Howard had a go at the new Rudd government and his own party, the Liberals, for distancing themselves from his old hard line policies on the issues of Iraq, workplace relations and global warming.
Here's some of what he had to say:
"One has only to look at al-Qaeda's words and actions to know that Iraq is every bit as much a major front in the war on terror as Afghanistan. We simply cannot afford to lose in either".
Say what? Hasn't it already been proven that the war in Iraq was based on "faulty intelligence". That, of course, is just politician speak for "goddamn lie". Save it John, we know there was and is not link between al-Qaeda and Iraq, we know there were no WMDs. Where do these people get off perpetuating these lies when they have been proven false time and time again? But then what do the rest of us know right? We only get our information from the "liberal media" according to John and his Neo-Con buddies.
"The liberal media apparently cannot bring themselves to acknowledge any good news coming out of Iraq"
Huh? Good news? What, that there are slightly less people dying now than there were 6 months ago? If that's the good news, you can spare me the bad. And where, Dear John, do you even get off using the term "liberal media"? Since when has any Australian politician denounced pretty much every non-Murdoch owned news source as "liberal media"? Way to perpetuate a false impression of reliable news sources John. Well done. I'm so proud.
Howard went on to slam the Rudd government for promising to overturn his workplace reforms which basically decreased the earning potential of working class Australians whilst simultaneously increasing the hours their employers could force them to work. Oh yeah, and he 'reformed' unfair dismissal laws so that employers could sack their workers if they decided they would prefer to stay at home with their families on Christmas Day rather than work. Says John:
"The New Government has pledged to reverse these reforms. That would be a mistake. It would be the first time in 25 years that a major economic reform has been reversed in my country".
All I can say is, what a sore loser! Australia hated your reforms John. We couldn't wait to see the back of them. They were cruel and unfair and gave the impression that you thought that working class Australians exist for no other reason that to serve as the cogs in the capitalist machine. So Rudd actually sees them as people who have a right to earn a decent wage and spend time with their families, wow, what an ogre. I mean, what can he possibly be thinking? Well, the same thing as your former party members actually, who have no problem agreeing with Rudd on these proposed reversals.
So onto global warming. Ah yes, the "hoax" of global warming. That issue so near and dear to the conservative heart. According to John, global warming is:
"...A new battleground. The same intellectual bullying and moralising, used in other debates, now dominates what passes for serious dialogue on this issue"
Okay my fellow Australians, are any of you as stunned by this as I am? Never, ever, EVER would Howard get away with such statements in Australia. Bullying? Moralising? What do the greenies hope to get out of the issue of global warming other than a safer, cleaner planet? Do we really need the water lapping at the doors of the penthouse apartments on Park Avenue before we all accept that it is global warming and not "Islamofascism" that is the real threat of our time?
And just in case any of you are in doubt that the whole speech wasn't just an exercise in brown-nosing the wheelers and dealers of Right Wing America here are a few other quips:
"It was (Ronald Reagan's) unapologetic American character that really won me" (somebody pass me a bucket please!)
"I speak to you tonight as an unapologetic and continuing advocate of the broad conservative cause, restlessly conscious, as you are, that the battle of ideas is never completely won" (and you are either with us or against us!)
"Australia in the 80's and 90's is remembered as the heyday of the more zealous feminist view" (Ah, what conservative speech is complete without a dig at those nasty feminists, huh?)
"(My government gave) "faith-based groups direct involvement in policy making". (Oh please! Australia is about as secular a society as you can get. The only member of parliament who runs on a religious platform is Senator Fielding of Family First and no-one actually takes him seriously).
So what are we to make of this then? At this event, Howard received the American Enterprise Institute's 2008 Irving Crystal Award for "contributions to government policy, social welfare and political understanding". Social Welfare. Please remember that this is the man that lied about the reasons for going into Iraq. That lied about refugees throwing their children off a boat and deliberately drowning them. That lied about the "never, ever" GST. That set about achieving the systematic exploitation of low wage earners and dramatically decreasing their quality of life and dressed it up as economic reform.
This was the first time this award has been given to a foreigner and was awarded in front of a luminous crowd of conservative stalwarts such as Paul Wolfowitz, Lynne Cheney and Dick Cheney's former chief of staff Libby Scooter. Yes, that same Scooter who was convicted of perjury last year.
Hmmm. Now I don't know about you but I get the feeling that John Howard is perhaps in the process of re-inventing himself as a Neo-Con. Maybe he is thinking of leaving our shores and gracing the Americans with his presence permanently? Does anyone else get the impression he is fishing for a job somehow?
I hope he gets one. America's loss will be Australia's gain. Poor America. We've already given them Rupert Murdoch and Mel Gibson. Now this.
So what was he doing on the front page again? Apparently he is re-inventing himself as the darling of the American Neo-Cons. In his first public speech since conceding defeat in the 2007 Australian Federal Election, Howard was in Washington giving a lecture to the American conservative "think tank" the American Enterprise Institute. It seems that 'our John' still can't accept the fact that the people of Australia just didn't agree with him anymore. Apparently the fact that he couldn't even hold onto his own seat in Parliament wasn't enough of an indicator to him that he was out of touch with the public he claimed to know so well.
Not surprisingly Howard had a go at the new Rudd government and his own party, the Liberals, for distancing themselves from his old hard line policies on the issues of Iraq, workplace relations and global warming.
Here's some of what he had to say:
"One has only to look at al-Qaeda's words and actions to know that Iraq is every bit as much a major front in the war on terror as Afghanistan. We simply cannot afford to lose in either".
Say what? Hasn't it already been proven that the war in Iraq was based on "faulty intelligence". That, of course, is just politician speak for "goddamn lie". Save it John, we know there was and is not link between al-Qaeda and Iraq, we know there were no WMDs. Where do these people get off perpetuating these lies when they have been proven false time and time again? But then what do the rest of us know right? We only get our information from the "liberal media" according to John and his Neo-Con buddies.
"The liberal media apparently cannot bring themselves to acknowledge any good news coming out of Iraq"
Huh? Good news? What, that there are slightly less people dying now than there were 6 months ago? If that's the good news, you can spare me the bad. And where, Dear John, do you even get off using the term "liberal media"? Since when has any Australian politician denounced pretty much every non-Murdoch owned news source as "liberal media"? Way to perpetuate a false impression of reliable news sources John. Well done. I'm so proud.
Howard went on to slam the Rudd government for promising to overturn his workplace reforms which basically decreased the earning potential of working class Australians whilst simultaneously increasing the hours their employers could force them to work. Oh yeah, and he 'reformed' unfair dismissal laws so that employers could sack their workers if they decided they would prefer to stay at home with their families on Christmas Day rather than work. Says John:
"The New Government has pledged to reverse these reforms. That would be a mistake. It would be the first time in 25 years that a major economic reform has been reversed in my country".
All I can say is, what a sore loser! Australia hated your reforms John. We couldn't wait to see the back of them. They were cruel and unfair and gave the impression that you thought that working class Australians exist for no other reason that to serve as the cogs in the capitalist machine. So Rudd actually sees them as people who have a right to earn a decent wage and spend time with their families, wow, what an ogre. I mean, what can he possibly be thinking? Well, the same thing as your former party members actually, who have no problem agreeing with Rudd on these proposed reversals.
So onto global warming. Ah yes, the "hoax" of global warming. That issue so near and dear to the conservative heart. According to John, global warming is:
"...A new battleground. The same intellectual bullying and moralising, used in other debates, now dominates what passes for serious dialogue on this issue"
Okay my fellow Australians, are any of you as stunned by this as I am? Never, ever, EVER would Howard get away with such statements in Australia. Bullying? Moralising? What do the greenies hope to get out of the issue of global warming other than a safer, cleaner planet? Do we really need the water lapping at the doors of the penthouse apartments on Park Avenue before we all accept that it is global warming and not "Islamofascism" that is the real threat of our time?
And just in case any of you are in doubt that the whole speech wasn't just an exercise in brown-nosing the wheelers and dealers of Right Wing America here are a few other quips:
"It was (Ronald Reagan's) unapologetic American character that really won me" (somebody pass me a bucket please!)
"I speak to you tonight as an unapologetic and continuing advocate of the broad conservative cause, restlessly conscious, as you are, that the battle of ideas is never completely won" (and you are either with us or against us!)
"Australia in the 80's and 90's is remembered as the heyday of the more zealous feminist view" (Ah, what conservative speech is complete without a dig at those nasty feminists, huh?)
"(My government gave) "faith-based groups direct involvement in policy making". (Oh please! Australia is about as secular a society as you can get. The only member of parliament who runs on a religious platform is Senator Fielding of Family First and no-one actually takes him seriously).
So what are we to make of this then? At this event, Howard received the American Enterprise Institute's 2008 Irving Crystal Award for "contributions to government policy, social welfare and political understanding". Social Welfare. Please remember that this is the man that lied about the reasons for going into Iraq. That lied about refugees throwing their children off a boat and deliberately drowning them. That lied about the "never, ever" GST. That set about achieving the systematic exploitation of low wage earners and dramatically decreasing their quality of life and dressed it up as economic reform.
This was the first time this award has been given to a foreigner and was awarded in front of a luminous crowd of conservative stalwarts such as Paul Wolfowitz, Lynne Cheney and Dick Cheney's former chief of staff Libby Scooter. Yes, that same Scooter who was convicted of perjury last year.
Hmmm. Now I don't know about you but I get the feeling that John Howard is perhaps in the process of re-inventing himself as a Neo-Con. Maybe he is thinking of leaving our shores and gracing the Americans with his presence permanently? Does anyone else get the impression he is fishing for a job somehow?
I hope he gets one. America's loss will be Australia's gain. Poor America. We've already given them Rupert Murdoch and Mel Gibson. Now this.
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Comment by Anonymous
Comment by Anonymous
Comment by RubySoho
Music Zone
Thought Zone
I find many of his convictions dubious at best. Just because he was a true believer does not mean that what he believed was worthy of my respect. People do many bad things in the name of their beliefs, be they religious, economic or political.
Comment by Anonymous