Courtesy Bill Leak, The Australian
John Howard likes the world stage but suddenly he has turned into an embarrassing extra in someone else's play. -- Michelle Grattan, Blunder, followed by bluster, with a dash of hubris
The perception of John Howard as an international statesman has been graphically exposed as a mythological invention of his spin doctors. -- Keith Remington, letter to The Age.
Mr Howard seems to have conveniently forgotten that there wasn't any al-Qaeda influence in Iraq before the invasion of the "coalition". Di Keller, letter to The Age.
Cornered like a cockroach on the midnight wall by Kevin Rudd in Parliament yesterday, John Howard refused to back down from his right-wing-lunatic-fringe comments about Barack Obama and the Democrats. Instead of acting like the statesman he likes to think he is by admitting he was way out of line, he carried on like a leadership-forfeiting petulant little boy, all but stamping his feet.
Obama was right to invite him to put Australian troops where his rhetoric is. If Howard is so sure he is right then he could indeed commit several thousand more troops. But since more than half of the nation disagrees with him on Iraq, he should be selective in whom he calls up. Let him begin with the sons and daughters of his ministerial colleagues and then to the sons and daughters of all those who support this infernal war. Since most journalists think Howard will win the next election -- in spite of eleven years of incompetence, corruption and causing Australia to be a prime terrorist target -- he should have enough new insurgency fodder to fill Iraqi streets with Aussie blood and gore for years.
Judging by the muted response from the White House to Howard's outburst -- even Bush must be embarrassed by this psychopathic sycophant** -- it must have gone over like a lead balloon.
Howard will need to run to the arms of Dick Cheney, who visits Australia this week, for the solace only a fellow-travelling misanthrope can give. The Little Arse-licker will want to keep an eye cocked, however, in case Cheney accidentally shoots him.
* - coined by the Zeitgeist Gazette
** - coined by Bob Ellis
-- Olney Garkle
Courtesy Ron Tandberg, The Age
I have at least one moderate concern about Barak Obama's speeches. He stresses going into the future without "grudges" from the past. I hope that this not an expedient cover for refusing to discuss Government ACCOUNTABILITY. Should it turn out that he is disparaging citizens with deeply-held sentiment regarding this Government's massive law-breaking and deceit, we will need another candidate with a better recollection of the principles and hopes upon which the nation was founded.
Posted by Philip Lundquist on February 13, 2007
A good point, Philip. The days appear long gone, if indeed they were ever with us, when a politician and a party were free of the tentacles of business, religion, and all the other lobby groups. The Democrats may renege on pressing the issue of accountability too far in the hope that future Republican governments may, in turn, let them off the hook.
But that is not how the Republicans operate. They go for the throat and do not let go until well after the last gasp of life. Obama or (God forbid) Hilary or whoever gets the job of Democrat candidate must proceed without fear or favour to uncover every last crime committed by the Bush Government. For never in America's history has an administration so breached the rule of law, not to mention the social contract that binds us.
America needs massive rehabilitation.
Posted by Olney Garkle on February 14, 2007