Australia Ripe For Electoral Stitch-up?

Keep a close eye on this one in the run-up to the election in Australia, particularly given the way Howard abandoned David Hicks and the subsequent anger in this most compliant US franchise.

From the Sunshine Coast Daily (spotted thanks to a comment on Wish Hounds' MySpace page):

Although the Federal Election must be called in 2007, the call is unlikely to come before July with many hedging their bets that the Howard Government will announce an election sometime around October.

Mr McKenzie warned that a Sunday election announcement would allow un-registered voters only 24 hours to get their name on the roll.

Meanwhile, registered voters who had failed to update their current details would be allowed only three days to check whether or not they had been removed from the electoral roll and re-register.

Australia’s compulsory voting regime potentially puts registered voters who fail to arrive at the ballot box at risk of a fine but Mr McKenzie said the biggest penalty was missing out on the chance to have their say on election day.

According to Get Up!:

In the last election, 83,000 first-time voters enrolled in the first week after the election was called. Hundreds of thousands more registered at their new address.

This cunt will try anything to shit on the people of Australia (with the full backing of some particularly vile fascists). And he will be even more determined after being revealed to the world as a vicious totalitarian. It's time this bastard was kicked out. Australia - YOU CAN DO BETTER THAN THIS.

You can also visit the Australian Electoral Commission website to check your enrolment, register for the first time or update you details. More information is available at: www.myspace.com/getupaustralia.

Hicks Sentenced to Nine Months

David Hicks, apparently a 'very dangerous terrorist' according to the Timbo loving, pro-statist crowd, has been sentenced with NINE months imprisonment. Which kinda suggests that he wasn't anywhere near as dangerous as the loonies would have you believe (shock, horror). However, his whole 'trial' underlines quite how flawed (not to mention illegal) this system is.

It is quite obvious to even the most simple minded people, that the only reason Hicks pleaded guilty, was so that his chances of being sent home were increased. The fact that this comes after a certain amount of bribery by the US, suggests that he had no choice but to plead guilty. After five years of illegal detention, can anyone really blame him? And of course, the guilty plea has given the Bush administration the perfect mandate to continue. The system works. If this is how the system works, it's time we smashed the system.

Meanwhile, David will have to spend the rest of his life branded as a terrorist thanks to the abuse of state power and the complicity of the pro-statist right. And this is what they call 'justice'.

Additional: If there is any good to come out of this, the pro-statist right are up in arms. Stupid fuckers.

This Means War......

I have never been so insulted in my life. I thought that the nutters on Timbo's website couldn't go any lower. Not content with bombarding this very site with thousands of comments (ok, about 60), they have now really hit where it hurts. Words can't express how devastated I was when I read this comment. It cut right to the very core of me. Well, maybe I should share it with you all as some form of group therapy. Here it is, brace yourself:

David Hicks supporters get distraught when Starbucks runs out of soy milk for the lattes. I don’t think we should be concerned.

Posted by RebeccaH on 2007 03 21 at 10:34 AM • permalink

Can you believe that? Fucking Starbucks??? I would rather drink my own bodily fluids than be seen in a Starbucks. One of the very brands that symbolise all that is wrong with the capitalist system. These fuckwits just don't get it do they?? I mean, Starbucks............

Bush Attempted to Water Down Climate Change Science

What a shock. Despite the protestations of the renowned climatologists, Dr Melanie 'Fuck the Muslims' Phillips (incidentally what is it with her and her 'down with the kids' language??) and Dr Timbo 'Do You Want Free Publicity' Bliar (that's a deliberate typo for all you right-wing fruitcakes), Bu$h Corp have been instrumental in playing down the evidence of climate change. According to The Guardian:

The Bush administration ran a systematic campaign to play down the dangers of climate change, demanding hundreds of politically motivated changes to scientific reports and muzzling a pre-eminent expert on global warming, Congress was told yesterday.

But it was all so plausible. Who would have thought that George 'friend to the oil companies' Bush would take action to protect oil companies? Not me. Who would have thought that a former oil industry lobbyist (Philip Cooney) would actively play down the science?

Documents released yesterday show that in 2003 Mr Cooney and other senior appointed officials imposed at least 181 changes to a strategic plan on climate change to play down the scientific consensus on global warming. They made another 113 alterations to minimise the human role in climate change, and inserted possible benefits of climate change. "These changes must be made," said a note in Mr Cooney's handwriting. "The language is mandatory."

Some of the statements deleted on Mr Cooney's instruction were non-controversial, such as: "Climate change has global consequences for human health and the environment." He also deleted references to models indicating that temperatures have been rising for the last 1,000 years. However, amid such deletions he chose to highlight a study funded by his former employer, the American Petroleum Institute.

Under heated questioning, Mr Cooney admitted yesterday that the changes were all intended to cast doubt over the impact of global warming. He denied they were directly coordinated with the White House but said he had regular conversations with a senior White House aide. "We got notes from them," Mr Cooney said.

I'm sure Dr Phillips will have an entirely plausible explanation.

Go Back To Bed, Australia

You've got to love the reactionary right. They just never take the time to think things through. For some bizarre reason, most of the righties that comment on Tim Blair's blog seem to think that nobody who has an opposing view reads his site. I'm mean, even I know that there are people out there who read this blog and disgree with everything I say (that's how this started in the first place). Are they stupid, or just plain naive? Take the recent furore over that song. Now, you can hate that song as much as you like (it's ok, I'll let you), but as soon as you attack it publicly on a blog, what do you think is going to happen? Your opponents will find out about the song and spread the word, as has happened. If they had kept quiet about it, it would still be the same small group of people who had heard it. Idiots.

On top of that, you get reactionary morons saying things like this:

And then there’s Anarchists that hate America- America, where mistrust of government was written into the constitution and everyone’s allowed to own a gun just in case they need to overthrow the State on short notice. The USA is about the closest thing to a successful Anarchist society that will ever exist.

Posted by wreckage on 2007 03 19 at 07:36 AM • permalink

Come again? The USA is about the closest thing to a successful Anarchist society that will ever exist?? Now, I'm no anarchist (cue dumb righties scratching their heads and saying 'But your title......'), but the US?? A country that spends more on the military than any other country in the world, a country that has Christofascists in the White House, a country who locks people up at will and the most successful capitalist economy in the world?? What definition of anarchy were you thinking of?? The slightly mad, strait-jacket afflicted, knuckle dragging, right-wing definition (brought to you be Conservapedia), by any chance?? And they call this:

an overdose of facts and reason.

Posted by Harry Bergeron on 2007 03 19 at 11:30 AM • permalink

Only in your tiny little brain my friend.

Still, the whole 'debate' (such that it is) reminds me of something good ol' Bill Hicks once said:

Go back to bed, America. Your government has figured out how it all transpired. Go back to bed, America. Your government is in control again. Here. Here's American Gladiators. Watch this, shut up. Go back to bed, America. Here is American Gladiators. Here is 56 channels of it! Watch these pituitary retards bang their fucking skulls together and congratulate you on living in the land of freedom. Here you go, America! You are free to do what we tell you! You are free to do what we tell you!

Although, obviously, you can substitute 'America' for 'Australia' and the message would still fit.

A Few Further Words of Thanks

Well it had to happen, didn't it? I made a typo. Luckily, Timbo & Co were so concerned that this might undermine the calls for Hicks to face justice, they very kindly pointed it out to me. Does their generosity know no bounds? It would appear not. Once again, I would like to take time out to say thank you to all of you who pointed out my mistake. It has now been rectified, but I have left the original banner on my previous post for your amusement. Thanks again, I have been overwhelmed by your kind words. Peace to you all.

A Special Tribute

I hope you don't mind but I would just like to say a few words of thanks. A few days ago, I blogged about a song by Wish Hounds about David Hicks. Since then, I have been inundated with comments and emails offering support (or criticism) of this piece of work. I would just like to say a very special thank you to Tim Blair for publicising this song and David's plight. It has done much to bring this to the attention of many people around the world. Before Timbo published his post, it was only shared between a few listeners. Now, thanks to Timbo's PR campaign, it has generated huge interest. So, in thanks to Timbo and all his commentors for their efforts to publicise this song, I would like to add a special tribute to my sidebar. Thanks Tim, you have done more to advance David's cause than you will ever know.

The Fascists Are Up In Arms

You know you are doing something right when the defenders of the establishment are up in arms. And, boy, are they up in arms right now. Who would have thought that a song would cause the loony brigade to bust a blood vessel? I always find it amusing to read the comments of those on the right that are opposed to state control and state infringement on our personal lives, sticking up for the state when it imprisons people at will. The rest of us, however, tend to be more sceptical about how governments behave. Guess we're are not as naive as to trust everything the state tells us.