SURPRISE, SURPRISE!

Well at last President Geo W Bush has found Burma! He was just looking at The Children’s Map of the World hanging on the wall and there it was. He called Condi in and said, “What’s all this going on in Burma, Condi?” She told him that there’s been trouble brewing there since 1990 when a nasty bunch of generals with ridiculous high hats staged a coup, threw out the democratic government and put it’s leader, Ms Aung Sang Suu Kyi under house arrest. Now The monks and thousands of people are marching through the streets in protest and the generals are threatening to shoot. “Why haven’t we done anything about it before now?” Asked Bush.
“Well for tthree reasons, Mr President, ” said Condi.” They’re not Commies and they’re good people to do business with. Anyway, we haven’t got any troops left, they’re all in Iraq taking shelter and in Afghanistan blowing up caves.”
The President tapped the table with his pencil.
“How about sanctions. What can we afford to sanction?”
“Yeah,”she said,”good idea. How about pork?”
” Well, the pig growers won’t be real pleased.”
“Oh, they won’t mind, Mr President. The Burmese are all vegetarians!”
“You know, Condi,” Said Geo. W, I shoulda married you.”

—————————-

THINK BEFORE YOU VOTE.

Before they vote for the Coalition and its “team”, voters should consider various aspects of the Coalition’s Government’s record.

* It has blindly followed the USA into two wars, neither of which was any of our business. The entry into the Iraq war was based on a lie, and the Prime Minister made up fresh reasons as the previous ones were discredited. First it was weapons of mass destruction, then it was to get rid of the murderous Saddam Hussein. When he was safely hanged it was to bring freedom and democracy to the unfortunate Iraqis, then it was to counteract El Qaeda, then it was to reconstruct the country which we helped to destroy, then it was the PM’s pathetic “we’re there until the job is done”. The only thing he didn’t say was what Alan Greenspan said a few days ago, namely it was to let the US steal Iraq’s oil.v No wonder most Iraqis want us all out of what’s left of their country.

* Then there was the equally silly war in Afghanistan. That’s been going for years now and all it’s achieved is to miss Osama bin Laden, kill a lot of Taliban fighters, and install a “president” who’s not game to come out of his palace in Kabul. Perhaps if President Bush had stopped having endless holidays on the ranch, stopped watching cowboy movies, and read about what happened to the British army in Afghanistan a couple of centuries ago, he mightn’t have been so keen to invade.

* Next you might consider the endless tax cuts which, since it’s mostly a percentage, gives vast amounts of money to the high salary sector and a few dollars to the poor.
Now we all pay for those tax cuts by ever deteriorating infrastructure. Some of the European countries have much higher taxes than we do, but they aren’t complaining.They’ve got better roads, hospitals, working conditions, holidays and sick leave. The trains run faster and on time. They’ve got better education systems for all, not just for the children of the wealthy. Many have free university courses so that the clever , not only the rich, get a tertiary education. By setting the cost of university courses so high that only the moneyed classes can afford to send their offspring, Australia is missing out on some of our best brains.

* Turning to the environment, the PM has finally set 2020 as a date to reduce carbon emission level to 15%, and for the first time in 11 years he mentioned renewable energy such as solar, wind and tidal. He had to. Even school kids were laughing at him. Naturally he tacked “clean coal” on the end but thought it politically unwise t mention nuclear.

*I didn’t mention the “work choices” laws, or the erosion of our freedoms in the name of security, or the attacks on the ABC, or the Kirribilli squat “for the children”, or the disgusting treatment of asylum seekers, or the non existing children overboard,all those bits of bastardry are getting enough of a workout already.

* On the international field, I’m sure that most Australians are disgusted by the nose-to-tail relationship the PM has forged with the US President Geo.W Bush who is arguably the worst, and most dangerous President the American people have ever had to suffer. When the PM anointed himself as the Deputy Sheriff in the Pacific even the President must have thrown up. One wonders if the ex Member for Benelong will get many invitations to the ex President’s Texas ranch when they’re both private citizens again. Maybe Laura Bush will have another pinched nerve in the neck.

*And speaking of meanness, you might consider the dirty trick the Government sprung on the East Timorese (remember, we liberated them). By announcing changes to the terms on which Australia accepts international dispute resolutions including boundaries, they were able to move the boundary between Timor and Australia to the north of the actual median line, thus depriving east Timor of a fair share of the proceeds of their oil and gas fields estimated to be worth about $120billion on the northern (Timor’s ) side of that actual median line. Australia gave East Timor 40% in an interim share two months before it became a nation. The Government knew it was worth a lot more, but it also knew that Timor would be unable to challenge the deal.

Thus the richest country, ruled by the world’s most sanctimonious PM, cheated the poorest of revenue which it badly needed.

Current opinion polls show that the public has stopped listening to the PM. They obviously don’t believe a word he says. I hope, for all our sakes this is mirrored
on election day no matter what the pork barrel contains.

————————-

BET YOU’LL GO BROKE!

If ever NSW needed a decent opposition it’s now. The latest announcement that the State’s “Labor” Government will allow Keno into pubs will figure as yet another black mark on its already lamentable record. Most of us have experienced, either in friends, or in ourselves the misery the addictive nature of poker machines, and the misery they cause. I had a few people working for me over the years, who presented themselves at my office every Monday morning asking to borrow money to support their family, having lost their pay on the pokies in the weekend.

Added to all the suspect land deals, tunnel deals, planning deals etc., this latest
profit-over-public-interest deal will simply add to the long list of how NSW Labor has lost its way. They’re no longer in office to make the State a better place to live. They’re there purely for the perks of office, honestly or dishonestly gained.

WHO’S AFRAID OF THE BIG GOOD WOLF?

Of all the dishonest nonsense  currently being peddled by the Coalition parties in the coming Australian election,  the silliest is the anti union scare campaign.  People who are taken in by all the talk of the wicked union bosses and the awful unions which caused all those terrible strikes, should consider a few points which are largely lost in the anti union nonsense.

The most important of these is the self evident fact that most of the improvements, both in pay and conditions  gained by the Australian work force were due, not to the magnanimity of the employers, but to the unions.  Sure there were maverick unions and crooked union bosses, but they were in the vast minority.  After all, ask yourself, are there more union officials or businessmen in gaol?

Also, the worse the employer, the more militant the union. For example, probably one of the best paid, best looked after employee these days, is the miner.  It wasn’t always so.  In the old days the miner worked underground in unspeakable conditions during most of the daylight hours.  Many of them were killed in mine accidents, many died of lung diseases.
Their employers made huge profits.The miners were paid a pittance.  Do you really think that  the miners owe their present pay and conditions to the charity of their employers? No.  They had a militant union who used the last resort of strikes.  The same goes for the wharfies, the builders’ labourers, other  unskilled workers, and particularly the young ones whose fight may have to begin all over again. It’s always important to realise how hard it is to get people to go on strike.

The Government’s “Work Choices” legislation strips most of the unskilled workforce of any but the most toothless protection against unfair conduct of employers.  There are many examples of this new “flexible” way that unscrupulous employers can deal with their helpless employees. Therein lies the reason for all the Government attacks on union officials.

It’s obvious that one has to make well in excess of $100,000 a year to qualify as one of “Howard’s battlers”.

IRAN – MORE WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION?

It is to be sincerely hoped that our “team leader” and his “maybe-future-team-leader” don’t decide to follow  the cowboy movie fed, Armageddon seeking  lunatic fringe in the White House to yet another unwinable war in the middle east.

The war in Iraq has so far cost the lives of some 600,000 of its citizens,  in excess of 3000 young Americans and many more soldiers of the “Coalition of the Willing”.  It has plunged the country into a deadly civil war which has caused the death of thousands more,  and for what?  Alan Greenspan says oil, so do many others.  As well as that, millions of dollars are being made by US companies, contractors, arms providers and other hanger-on, but it’s all being done in the name of Democracy! What a lot of piffle.

And now we’re asked to believe that Iran poses a huge threat to the world because it’s  supposed to be aiming to make atom bombs.  Of course the dangerously unstable  state of Pakistan, with all those terrorists and Taliban sheltering there doesn’t pose any threat at all. It doesn’t matter that they already have the bomb – they’re on our side.