Something called the Australian-American leadership dialogue played host to Umeruhcan puppeteer Dick Cheney in Sydney today. You can go here for a report of the leaden tones of his patriotic bullshit in praise of Dubya's deputy in the Antipodes, John W. Howard.
What the report didn't mention is that Cheney split right after his speech. Unlike Condoleeza Rice, who took questions to calm resentment and anger after her speech last March, Cheney saw fit to cut and run with nary a Q to be given the imperial A.
Or maybe he just didn't give a rat's ass. After all, he's here to fish, not to have his wisdom questioned by colonial subjects.
Cheney meets Kevin Rudd later today. We'll have to wait for Rudd's memoirs several years hence to get an idea of what this meeting was really like. You know, Rudd's response to Cheney's exceedingly inhumane face, with its viciousness, arrogance and contempt for opposing views.
Shortly it's off to Tasmania for the Dick "The War Criminal" Cheney, where he will be wined and dined at taxpayer expense by John "Crimes Against Humanity" Howard. It's reminiscent of the satrap of Austria or Pétain of France visiting Hitler at the Wolf's Lair. Or Hungary's Number One being paid a "cordial" visit by Stalin's Number Two.
One of the bits in Andrew McGahan's book Underground I liked best was the long dream sequence near the end. Adapting that scenario to the Tassie visit, Cheney will invite Little Johnny to go hunting. As always, Little Johnny will be unable to refuse anything asked of him by his master.
-- Olney Garkle
'Fly fishing' I would suspect, Olney.
Posted by joe2 on February 23, 2007
I have probably understated the trouble my own writing has caused the Bush Administration. Laura Bush visited Las Vegas (where I live) in October 2004, during the presidential campaign. I have genuine regard for her as a person, but she praised a national law enforcement conference being held in town at the Las Vegas Hilton. I wrote her a letter, and received a directed, personal response from her chief of staff, Denise Bradley, at the White House. I enclosed a copy of the letter to Las Vegas' public schools chief, Carlos Garcia, a few months later when expressing deeply-felt concerns about law enforcement programs directed at children here - for example, the practise of taking children to downtown courtrooms to role-play criminal trials. I was invited to address top school officials on April 20th 2005. About that time, CNN television carried a brief statement from the White House that "symbolism is substance" (I had written Mrs. Bush about choosing symbolism OVER substance). April 20th was a symbolic date for school officials, being the date of the Columbine school shootings in Colorado several years earlier - the pretext for turning schools into no-civil-rights mini-police-states and propaganda centers. I was actually complimented on my presentation, and Schools Superintendent Garcia resigned several days later (I take an early-morning walk just before daybreak near my home most days. On April 19th 2005 - the day before I was to speak on law enforcement's bloated and dangerous sense of entitlement, I was completing my walk, near my home, when a police helicopter roared overhead and spotlighted me. Two police cars raced up from opposite directions. Before they could go too far with me, I refused their instructions and told them I was going home, which I did). This is certainly not the end of the account. A year later, I sent the original letter from the White House to PM Tony Blair. I had some things to write him. Perhaps this would be materiel for another posting, though I wish to divulge the contents here. It caused a stir at 10 Downing, and at the House of Commons. It was at that point that President Bush came on TV to disparage "those who have undermined our efforts...as in Las Vegas". It wasn't really my pleasure, and in some ways very much flies in the face of my concepts of humanity. But what humanity is there in pre-meditated and unnecessary wars, the rape of citizens' lives on cheap pretexts, the profiteering from their crimes through incestuous collusion with the multi-billion-dollar film industry (this was a matter I brought up with PM Blair)? Thanks for reading.
Philip Lundquist/Las Vegas/ Nevada/ USA
Posted by Philip Lundquist on February 24, 2007