Friday, August 31, 2012

“COMPULSORY DEMOCRACY”

They pretend our ‘democracy’ is maintained by compulsory voting at every tier of our alleged systems of government.

Fact is that it is not the voting that is compulsory rather the reporting to a certain appointed venue the day of the ballot to have one’s name crossed off a roll.
Failure to do so results in a $100 fine.

So what, f’r chrissakes, is that about?

A compulsory raffle of a failed sort combined with yet more revenue raising,

Hey. We don’t have a bill of rights.
But, by god, we are confronted with bills for whatever they consider as our wrongs every which way we turn.

“MINDSET”
She was born in Wales, that bit of real estate to one side of England on a piddly little island called Britain.
Wales had, amongst other assets, lots of coal.
These days the mining industry is almost extinct but there remains lots of slag heaps and a race memory of the coal pits.

The ruined landscape and the scarred memories are very real.
Is that the reason behind, or her perceived justification for, all this crap about carbon and the like?

What is it about gender based politics anyway that makes political women so completely blinkered and bloody-minded about anything and everything outside their tight little circle of interest?

“INTERCONNECTIVITY – THE FREUDIAN SLIP”
So this mindset is maintained unto death – so long as it is the deaths of others.

“TRUTH”
Would it be truthful to say that our government holds to truth with such intensity that they delete select items from Hansard?
No?
Well they do.
See - http://calligulashorse.blogspot.com.au/2011/01/do-our-politicians-want-australians.html -

“DO OUR POLITICIANS WANT AUSTRALIANS INVOLVED IN DEFENCE INDUSTRY” – an update


That article, for some obscure reason, is the most often read of the “Calligulashorse” articles.
Yet every reference item including that of defence specialist Mr. Max Blenkin (who should have an interest in keeping his each and every item ‘alive’ on the net) is now extinct.
Mind you some of the other actors in the demise of the defence materiel outfit are still around the ridges.

More importantly –
extract –
“You know Jason Clare? Coming man as the great E.G. Whitlam used to say. He's got Keating's old seat of Blaxland and is now the Minister for Defence Materiel. Big dollars. His ex-partner is Davina Langton. I think she's worked for every premier since Carr, been around even longer than I have. She worked for Joel Fitzgibbon in Canberra. Joel's a laugh. My brother once had a job with him.
Davina's dad is Brian Langton, the chair of Sydney Ferries. He was the transport minister who resigned after the Independent Commission Against Corruption found he had rorted charter flight expenses.”

So the very person that ‘Fitzgibbon the failed’ sent the supplicant was the girlfriend of the bloody minister for defence materiel.
Stap me! Anywhere else in the world people would have worked out that something crook was happening.
These people (as is suggested by those profoundly better informed about the incestuous nature of our politics than I) definitely had more interest in their own pockets than progressing Australian  R&D and manufacturing.

Somehow, what would be a capital offence were it to happen in China is nothing but an ‘unproven allegation’ in Australia despite the humbuggery drenching the newspapers for years.

Thursday, August 30, 2012

"THE AFGHANI GOODBYE”

Many years ago a haunting song was composed by Pete Seeger evoking the heartbreak, loss and loneliness of a past generation.
"Where have all the flowers gone?"

When will they ever learn?

And it is only fair to allow the composer his own rendition -

In their time they knew their duty and its consequence.  The poor bastards died like flies for most of the 20th century.

These days, we are told, the individual grunt is ‘valued’ more – if only for the extra moolah expended in their training in this techo age.

There are swags of analysts these days telling us in microscopic detail how this time a military intervention into Afghanistan will have outcomes  entirely different from past efforts.
After all, didn’t the USSR, the mighty Soviet Union was supposed to decisively sort ‘em out before Christmas?
(What DID happen to the USSR?)

No doubt the Brits mangled the devils in (how many wars was it?) the nineteenth century.
But they were still strafing the hill tribes in the 1940s.

Before that “Great Game” Afghanistan has been subject to a continuum of conflict and futile invasion attempts.
And we wonder why your average Afghani gent tends to be a bit warry when crossed. 

Hubris, definition – excessive pride, overweening confidence, arrogant defiance of (Greece) the Gods resulting in nemesis.

I have attached the following document more for the honesty of the Afghani comments rather than the somewhat hubristic main article - 
Meanwhile this gent seems to make more sense –

The Afghani goodbye?
General Elphinstone’s entire army was the recipient of the Afghani goodbye in 1842.
General Gromov’s team in 1989
And yesterday to our sorrow five Australian soldiers were given the hint.

So when WILL we ever learn?

http://english.ruvr.ru/2009/12/25/3268125.html - which is Gromov’s opinion about the Soviet mistake –
which url mysteriously won’t open for me in this ‘democracy’. Try -
extract from that article -
 On February 15, 1989 the last column of the Soviet troops left Afghanistan crossing the border bridge across the Amu Darya river. This column became a symbol of the end of the Afghan war. The last who brought up the rear of this column was Commander of the 40th army General Boris Grimov Today he is sure that the entry of the Soviet troops to Afghanistan was a mistake:”
Gen. Gromov said
"For those who took part in the Afghan campaign this date (December 25) is more notable than the date of the withdrawal of troops. We have many reasons for that. First of all it is 100% that we should not have done it. But the decision was made. For everyone who served in Afghanistan in the beginning, in the middle and in the end of campaign, this date brings back memories of that difficult and important time when they experienced many things including losses of friends and close people.  This date on the one hand unites all those who were involved in that campaign, and on the other hand, it is a reminder to next generations".

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Fine.

Julia has recently stated her case to a very bored and unimpressed Australian citizenry.
She made the legalistically valid point that a person does not have to prove themselves innocent of an alleged crime in a common law jurisdiction complying with the rule of law.
She makes the point that no-one could prove her guilty of

The premier of the Australian commonwealth is not at all corrupt.
Of Coursssse not.
She said not, that we need to ‘move on’, simply take her word that she’s not telling whoppers.
And, of course, we need to believe her.
Or else!
Neither are our other political masters corrupt, neither federal, state, nor regional.
Nor our judges, legal officers, bankers, nor our public servants.

That’s the indisputable official line according to their sort. And of course that is specious twaddle of the order that has become their standard.

Or so they’d hope to have us pond scum believe.
Or else alright!

After all our compulsory voting system guarantees most Australians get windy enough to get out of bed and place a vote on election day instead of having a good lie-in.

Result being that there is always an oversufficiency of like-minded winners of that curiously rigged raffle they claim is a democratic election.

Face it; Australians only vote to avoid a fine – not to choose a parliamentary representative.

Now these raffle winners, unfortunately, do tend to have some influence over who gets all those powerful top jobs in our limited little society.

It shouldn’t be that way – ‘cause anyone with a grade three primary school understanding of civics could tell you why not.

But, to our collective detriment, that is the way it is.

All that is fine and good for the raffle winners – those who are temporarily, overweeningly, confident enough to believe themselves the masters.

What did I read the other day?
Some constitutional expert opined that the Ozconstitution provides only two guaranteed rights to Australians –
1 - the ‘right’ to vote. (as mentioned compulsory and enforced by fines)
2 – the right to be poorly ‘represented’ and more likely ignored by the winners of those rigged raffles.

Actually that’s quite misleading. The ‘truth’ mooted by the establishment is more complicated and therefore tragically an even worse case situation for the majority of Australians – as even such high profile Australians as Julian Assange have discovered the last several months.

Not a problem for some. There exists the vaunted ‘Common Law rights’ as are mentioned below -

Apparently Jayent Patel found the means of gaining ‘justice’ in NewMania.

Other aspects of the new Newman regime in NewMania seem to have attracted the attention of the Federals.
Kevin seems bright enough to work out the link between what Newman is doing to state public service jobs and what Herr Abbott, given the chance, will expeditiously prosecute in the future.
Swann has to agree.

What causes all this to be invisible to the PM and her faction is a mystery.
It may be that anything happening up near, or especially above, the Brisbane line doesn’t matter a stuff to her lot.

The other scenario gathering more traction here and in southern states is about the secretive traitorous faction in labor apparently engineering the final solution for labor as a political entity and grooming us all for a handover of Australia, not to a conservative political party, but to a tontine of exploitative capitalist pigs already engaged in stripping what wealth they might muster from Australia and Australians before handing the husk over to what emerging geopolitical power may wish to annex the remains.

Too harsh?
Is it just that a little girl coming to Australia from Wales has little loyalty and less understanding of that admittedly flawed nation to which she emigrated?

Whatever your own personal conspiracy theory - one thing for sure is that old saying of Bill Hayden’s when he was shoved sideways by the silver bodgie must be rattling about inside Kevin Rudd’s head – “The Drover’s Dog could win this election”.

And without being too harsh similar will be said about Mr. Abbott if Ms. Gillard refuses to graciously retire in the very near future.

Dear politicians, a hint –
  • If you find it irksome that people tend to treat you, you know, the way they do why not consider thinking about looking at matters as if you were ‘in the other person’s shoes’ – in that idealist legalistic sense. Thinking that way is expected of you as a precept at law.
  • I know it will be hard but stop saying things like ‘moving on’ and the like. Or keep sprouting perceived callousness and see what life is like when you are given the bum’s rush and do have to occupy such shoes.
  • Otherwise figure it out for yourself – or perish in the attempt.
  • I happen to reckon you are all coming so very close to perishing in that attempt.
Keep up that good work, men!

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

“Google - The futility of researching Australian governance” - or - “Let your fingers do the walking”

Author - Krummlauf

What funding goes toward diverting the mass consciousness away from real issues here in Australia?

It would be fair enough to expect the ‘silent majority’ to be distracted by sports events, risqué late night TeeVee and the like – but have a go yourself – ‘Google Australia’ - the futility of researching governance. The result lists a load of waffle more to do with the nausea and difficulty apparently caused by every government in the world except our own.

Only one article caught my eye on page I of the search results - http://www.sawa-australia.org/background/winthewar.pdf  - and guess what SAWA is about?

Since you ask, it is the “Support Association for the Women of Afghanistan”. SAWA would have to be a meritorious organisation, undoubtedly worthy of unanimous support – but I’d never categorise the outfit as ‘Australian governance’.

 But let’s look at that article to find out what it’s about. 
                                    
ABSTRACT – “If Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Defence Minister Stephen Smith believe that trust and confidence can be reestablished by Australian soldiers toward Afghan troops they are meant to live alongside and train they are sadly deluded.
That's the problem in having politicians of limited life experience and senior defence force officers who gain preferment and promotion through playing the political game.
The Australian commitment is in a mess and will not be sorted in the short, medium or long term.”

The authors, their own pages -
Bruce Haigh
Kellie Tranter
They do seem to be receiving some high profile support, according to their links –  http://www.sawa-australia.org/links.html

But that’s not what I was looking for.
I am 100 percent in agreement with what Bruce and Kellie have written in that document and am also in agreement with much they portray as their social conscience on their own pages. I note how much they care about our Julian.
But it all somehow seems a little false.

Take for instance in  -


Shona wrote in reply  “My favourite saying is "In Australia nobody hears you scream" that sums up my treatment at the hands of government. “

Which few words perfectly succinctly sum up what happens these days in Australia, at every tier and in every bureau, in result of the chronic, systemic failures in governance.
And it is neither accidental nor caused by ‘cracks’ between the planks of legislation.

So going to our other author –

“Appointing serving or former senior military officers, to undertake sensitive humanitarian investigations, smacks of the militarisation of the government process. Until the military can get its own act together it should be kept well clear of assisting such undertakings.”

“The media coax people into believing that we are experiencing a refugee plague, that our safety and security are being threatened even if we are not being overrun; many of our elected representatives respond with policies of indifference, all the while carefully professing their own personal humanity, and the self-perpetuating frenzy leads us as a nation to ignore the international humanitarian obligations we have agreed to uphold.  Why do our political parties permit, let alone encourage, such xenophobic propensities?”
“The cowardly and callow handling of this issue by the federal parliament defines it and goes a long way to explaining why the average person holds politicians, the parliament, democratic institutions and indeed democracy with such contempt.”

In my opinion Vet Affairs should be made to concentrate solely on the welfare of surviving vets. They should be forced to abandon their proselytizing and promotion of the Anzac legend. As far as government expenditure on recording and honouring the history of Australian involvement in war I believe that should be the sole preserve of the Australian War Memorial.”
“By way of interest, the Minister of Veterans Affairs, Warren Snowdon, might like to provide a list of his officers who will be attending Anzac Day Ceremonies in Turkey, France, Belgium and elsewhere around the globe.”
So is this poor effort ‘all at sea’ and at cross purposes? I’m just borrowing the work of others in order to save time?
Might seem so until you consider some basic elements of how a subtle mélange of truth and disinformation may be confected into quite some hermetic fait accompli.
Bruce and Kellie like many Australians evidently care about others. That is without a doubt.
As mentioned though something becomes strained to falsity when all ever mentioned is events involving any other nation or any other race, religion or societal set other than the common or garden boring bloody Australian.
So why is that?
Are we all either swimming in mining share dividends or too worthless to bother a mention?
Or is it more that the overweeningly arrogant yet defective sort mentioned by our correspondents above are actually shelling out millions in funding for bribes, legal action, threats and probably the odd KGB style ‘wet job’.
That has to be it – taxpayer’s money wasted on the forlorn hope of terminal distraction of the peasantry from truth. Surely our news services HAVE to hear the bellow emanating from the suburbs every 6.00 pm – “Oh shiiitt; not Afghanistan/refugees/ give up smokes n’ drink; always the bloody same STILLLLL!!”

The only other view is that none of ‘em truly care whether through greed, callousness, or sheer stupidity.
At sunset and the going down of the tatty old flag – no speculation matters – except surrounding that one fact - the place never worked all that well yet has become immensely worse to the extent of complete dysfunction.

Next week we might discuss – “The new Australian underclass/slave caste and their distinctive mandatory apparrel” – or – “So, when you grow up Freddie, do you want to be a green fluoro, or an orange fluoro?”

Monday, August 20, 2012

“JULIAN HAS HAD A BIT OF A WIN – BUT?”

According to the majority of those ‘experts’ the Australian propaganda ministry  [the (G)Ay Bee Cee] trundles out from their storage closets, Julian Assange is despicable; should at the very least be expeditiously removed from view, kept in quarantine, the record of his accomplishments expunged and hopefully, consequently,  be forgotten by society.

After all that IS the way they are required to operate as dictated by their ‘political masters’ – the same ‘masters’ who keep encouraging the peanut rush to ‘just move on’ after each and every spectacular foul up.

Political regimes of every stripe appear to be escalating heartlessness and brutality in the guise of pragmatism at an accelerating rate.
Tacit acceptance of this seems an indication that core societal principles have been cast aside by the majority of the human race.

Having said that it must be considered that the death penalty is just a bit stiff for winning a few scoops off the ‘mainstream media’ at the expense of those allegedly ‘transparent democracies’– or was it having a bonk or two without his wearing a frenchie that got the buggers so upset?

Sanctuary?
If it has been ‘okay’ over the past many years for the Seppos/Brits to grant asylum to a variety of dissenters, traitors and ne’er do wells – certainly often enough to establish precedent – then what the hell is wrong with Ecuador providing sanctuary to a Townsville lad?

Reciprocity?
Forget it unless it can be achieved from a position of moral strength through negotiation.
Sure it is ‘okay’ for the Seppos/Brits to expect their diplomats and embassies to remain inviolate; so why not those of Ecuador?
The only way to assure the inviolacy of the Ecuadorian embassy in London is to ensure that the fact of any breach of that embassy becomes immediately publicly known worldwide.

In short, the fear of resultant reciprocal action (in fact a cornerstone of the relevant Vienna convention) is the only leverage available toward achieving natural and true justice for Mr. Assange.


Compliance?
Compliance with what?
There’s now some word on the net that Ecuador wants to extradite one Aliaksandr Barankov to Belarus
http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/ExBelarus+financial+crime+prober+fights+extradition+Ecuador+week/7118193/story.html - all of which, in conjunction with the Townsville lad’s plight, puts Ecuador on the spot and under the microscope.

Their judges of civil/inquisitorial persuasion (as opposed to our common law/adversarial variety) will doubtless be criticized for their decision by those unfamiliar with the code of Napoleon.

And meanwhile Sweden or leastways Swedish nationals play a stunt in Belarus
Sure it’s a joke to invade another nation’s airspace and without notice or approval drop unknown items by parachute over their cities.
Anyone would agree that on the face of it Belarus should be encouraged to release poor Anton for doing nothing more than taking pikkies.
Then again a better headline might be “Amnesty condones invasion of Belarus’ airspace and illegal dropping of Swedish ordnance”.
The sub header could be “Swedes to be extradited for false flag invasion?”

God sakes – now I know why certain tasteless turnip like vegetables are called Swedes.

But it is funny to discover how Sweden does appear like some lurking actor playing the ‘eminence grise’ - in a bad play.
Funny my arse – bloody amateurishly sinister as far as this writer is concerned when this stuff turns up during a casual read despite being neither sought nor solicited.

Consequence?
So what could happen if a hyped-up Britain is gulled by an arrogant, overzealous Sweden and bribed by a mob of vindictive Gringos to nab a circumstantially diplomatically inviolate Julian from his Latin American sanctuary?

Well, the second innings perhaps but with no covert support for the Brits this time from a friendly dictator
If luck is pushed too far the best outcomes for a Falkland Islander might rely on the toss of a coin
Heads – Pack up the rowboat in anticipation of a quick departure.
Tails – Learn a latin language damn pronto.

• “ I seem to recall that when General Pinochet was being detained in London on a Spanish arrest warrant the British government was unable to fulfil its extradition obligations and he was allowed to escape back to his Chilean bolthole. It seems that in Britain you stand a better chance of avoiding extradition if you are a murderous fascist dictator than if you are a champion of free speech and open government. But of course we must dismiss from our minds any suspicion that in both cases it was and is Washington that has reminded London where its real obligations (and best interests) lie. Perish the thought.”
Adrian Marlowe
The Hague, Netherlands

  William Hague says the UK does not recognise diplomatic asylum. Strange. The UK did recognise the concept of diplomatic asylum when the Hungarian Cardinal Mindszenty was sentenced to death by the communist authorities for supporting the anti-communist uprising in Hungary in 1956. Mindszenty spent 15 years in diplomatic asylum in the American embassy in Budapest. Strange that the UK authorities did not protest then. But maybe Hague is too young to actually know of this precedent.”Jan Culik
University of Glasgow


Further reading -





http://annaprovidence.deviantart.com/art/Eminence-grise-319471880

Sunday, August 19, 2012

Breaking news, 20/8/12, about the latest renaming of the State of Queensland.

The lnp(liberal/national party) politburo met over the last weekend to plan moves divorcing “God’s Own Country”™ from the last remaining unhealthy influences of the deposed and despised laborite regime.
In line with lnp policy any such initiatives have to be ‘funding neutral’ but nonetheless apparently positive and representative of the new order.

That is why some bright spark attending the think-tank came up with the idea of renaming queensland yet again.

The reasoning went this way –
It was all very well just to spell queensland without an upper case q during the laborite regime: after all such use of the lower case did reasonably reflect the state’s embarrassing credit rating but caused (all had to agree) constant merry hell for anyone using a word processor.

Meanwhile ‘Moynihania’ never did catch on –
(See - http://calligulashorse.blogspot.com.au/2011/11/moynihania-used-to-be-called-queensland.html ) - apparently some adverse feeling from the footy set scotched the official name change

Nonetheless our new minders did like the symmetry of both the northern and southern states names ending in ‘ia’. (They reckon that when we annex New Zealand we can likewise match WA (West Australia) with EA.

These overnight discussions were grueling and exhaustive yet at some time in the early morning a decision had been made to choose a new state name that –
  • honoured a hero of the new regime
  • reflected the consummate victory of their party and the establishment of the new regime as the rightful outcome of the Bligh mutiny II
  • and ended in ‘ia’. 
So in result of these deliberations and in recognition of the new Leader, as of 4.23am, Sunday,19, August, 2012, queensland shall henceforth and in perpetuity be known as “NewMania”.