The NEXT coming Oz election thread!

JH makes meaningful links with the Oz Islamic community ... to dispel terrorist inclinations, should they exist!:

JH the conquerer!:

Yeah, exactly!

Thoughful & timely article by Martin Flannigan. Worth a read:

Revive Australia, the idea
August 22, 2005/the AGE


Illustration: Dyson

The country is suffering because of the narrowness of debate under John Howard, writes Martin Flanagan.

.... In certain key ways, our age has gone speeding back into the 19th century. Not exactly the time before the Labor Party but getting near. What has been lost is a belief to do with democratic politics, one from which its energy came - the confidence of the citizenry to control or influence the events of their time. The ideology of the hard right, which has swept all before it over the past two decades, has never been popularly supported except where it has merged with issues of race. Then came September 11, the Axis of Evil speech, the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, Guantanamo Bay, etc.

The Howard Government winning the majority in the senate means debate in Australia is about to get dangerously narrow. Henceforth, as in the old communist states, we will look for opposition to come from within the government. What we still have that they didn't have in the old communist states is freedom of speech. Let's fire up, as we say in sport. Let's have a real debate. Let's revive the idea of Australia....

<complete article>
http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/revive-australia-the-idea/2005/08/21/1124562744775.html

Michael Leunig writes (rather than drawing cartoons, for a change) about the PM & that "mate" issue.:

WHEN Prime Minister Howard and President Bush announced that they were "mates", it was clear mateship had been boldly redefined. A historical tilting point had been achieved after which mateship was officially a dead parrot and "mate" had become our hottest new weasel word........

..... Howard's use of "mate" is all wrong, and deliberately so, for he has nicked the word from the old working class so he can pose as a salt-of-the-earth, egalitarian bloke. But he's no such man; he's from the silvertail tribe and everybody knows it. He might as well dangle corks from his Akubra hat. Howard's not a mateship man. He's from the nepotism culture: secret handshakes, Machiavelli, networking; he speaks fluent spin, but mateship and its language are not really in his bones.... <extracts>

<complete article>
http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/michael-leunig/2005/08/21/1124562744772.html

John Howard's talk-fest with (moderate only) Muslim leaders:

Oops

Yes?

Well someone had to because you can put money on it that JH won't.

Ah, I see!


Sometimes I'm rather slow, gf!


May I join you then?:

I missed hinge & his input here, so I posted a PM to him. I received a response today. I'm pleased to hear that his new life in Cairns is progressing very well indeed. Busy & productive & happy. (Remember the big shift from Canberra?)

And I liked these comments, too:

"... keep up the cartoon posting, they're the last bastion of the free press in this country."

I rather agree with that!

And:

" .. somewhere along the line I found this quote 'Societies don't learn lessons, individuals do' and that's why the same sh1t happens but the flies change."

Yes!

Anyways, greeting to you, hinge, if you're reading this!

Cheers,
Olga

More on JH's summit with Muslim leaders. The federal Minister for Education says they should teach & live Oz values or leave!:

So what, exactly, are these Oz values that Dr Nelson (Federal Education Minister) is talking about, then? Simpson & his donkey & the like! THAT's what Islamic schools should be teaching their students, according to Dr Nelson. The author of today's Age editorial begs to differ:

.... Australia's values have developed through a complex process of social consent, analogous to the way in which the nation's laws have evolved. Those that Australians evidently rate highly are universal: respect for human dignity, freedoms of speech, association, assembly, religion and movement, and the right to elect governments. By contrast, Dr Nelson's interpretation suggests that values can somehow be imposed from above. Similar thinking informs Treasurer Peter Costello's view that to express anti-American sentiment is un-Australian. Likewise the warning issued by Prime Minister John Howard that mosques, prayer halls and Muslim schools will be watched to ensure they do not give succour to terrorists. All suggest an outmoded, monocultural vision of the diverse, multicultural society Australia has become. The idea that those who don't want to understand "our history and our culture" should "clear off" is irrelevant, like the language of a schoolyard bully.

<complete editorial>
http://www.theage.com.au/news/editorial/chasing-the-donkey-vote-on-values/2005/08/25/1124562979605.html

Apparently our Dr Nelson is taking a soft line on "intelligent design", too. Jeeze, just a couple of weeks I was enquiring on A2K what the term meant! That was a very fast import to Oz!

.... here, where more than anywhere a firm defence of rational thinking is needed, Brendan Nelson has flubbed it. His comment that the teaching of intelligent design doctrine can be offered as an alternative and that it's "about choice, reasonable choice" speaks volumes, not only about the poor level of public understanding about what science is, but also about the selective and political nature of the "standards" imposed on educational systems. <extract>

<complete article>
http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/intelligent-design-is-taking-us-backwards/2005/08/23/1124562864552.html

Our Brendan senses a chance at the big green chesterfield msolga (that's my somewhat oblique allusion to him getting to be PM). I reckon Brendan thinks Costello has blown it but just in case he hasn't Brendan doesn't want to upset the paleolithic right which is where Costello is launching his attack on Howard. Talk about Republican Lite. Funny though, when the US is back to normal we'll be lurching around in the same sort of nutbar right-wing controlled environment they're suffering under right now. I can hardly wait

What a thought!