Convicted terrorism supporter David Hicks has arrived at the Adelaide prison where he is set to spend the next seven months after touching down in his home state this morning.
Inside Yatala Labour Prison, Hicks will enter G Division, where he will strip naked, get prison clothes and be put in a two-metre by four-metre cell. It is expected to he his home until his scheduled release on December 29.
Hicks is expected to spend 23 hours a day inside his cell and will have little or no immediate contact with fellow prisoners, who include Adelaide's worst rapists, murders and Snowtown serial killers Robert Wagner and John Bunting.
Meanwhile, the creepy little rodent who, at his pleasure, kept Hicks in Guantanamo for over five years is slowly roasting on the spit of comuppance. According to Jason Koutsoukis:
If Howard loses, the political horizon facing his successor will be the bleakest in the Liberal Party's 63-year history.
One Liberal senator considered close to Costello put it this way last week when asked what would happen if the Liberals lost: "There will be no mercy, none," he said, seething at the mere thought of defeat.
"We have sat back, for years, years, and listened and watched and been humiliated. Howard says the voters are not waiting on their verandas with baseball bats ready to hit the Government, but we are. I'll come out swinging mate, don't worry." [last italics mine.]
A humiliating defeat at the election is exactly what the John Howard Party (formerly the Australian Liberal Party) deserves, nothing less. They have consistently put big business, the rich and their own lust for power over the well being of all Australians. Above all, John Howard should lose his seat of Bennelong in a landslide.
It's a pity that no one has yet compiled the list of crimes against humanity, democracy, the Westminster System and the good old fair go that have been committed by this Government in its eleven long contemptuous years in power. A simple list would do, to be published for free before the election and given away at every possible outlet or handed out on the streets of every major city and as many suburbs as is humanly possible.
The final straw must be the banishment of the name WorkChoices to Howard's hated legislation. As if he were operating in Orwell's 1984, Howard expects the mob out there to come up all perky, "Oh, well then, now that it's called The Workplace Relations System it must be as wholesome as a crate of rosy red apples at the supermarket. Let's vote JHP after all!" Howard and the electorate have form here. For at least the last two elections they've been as dumb as he's thought them to be.
The last word to Andrew Dyson, from Cornered (in today's Age). Here is a sample:
The ratings are in and it's bad news for the Howard's House team. Australian viewers far prefer the slick Fakin' it with Kevin, an undemanding farce which routinely outrates Howard's House in every demographic save the elderly rich.
This seems poor reward for the show which has, during the past decade, consistently broken new ground in local entertainment. No viewer of sound mind could forget those landmark episodes "Wacky Waterfront" and "Honey, the Kids Fell Overboard", both featuring the cheeky, chubby and sorely missed Peter Reith.
Afficionados agree that the WorkChoices episode marked the beginning of the end. In retrospect, it was unwise to hire the imported scriptwriting team of Ayn Rand and Ben Mussolini for this task.
David Hicks may have made a bad career move eight years ago, but ultimately he has hurt no one but himself. John Howard is the one who deserves to be in the dock.
-- Gort Slypesunder
