Howard

Love him or loath him, JWH's 11 years as PM has been an EXTRAORDINARY FEAT OF POLITICS.

This post election critique examines:

Was he an ideologue, rat-cunning opportunist or snivelling pro-market political animal climbing the greasy pole ?

Was Big enchilada a serial liar ?

Would his cheer squad, parliamentary press-gallery, sycophants and chroniclers-biographers, need a strong stomach ?

Born 26 July 1939 -
Entered Parliament 1974. Bennelong for 33 years. Parents owned petrol station. Lived at home until 32;as a youth battled acne, poor hearing and eye sight. Scuffled for acceptance in the Liberal party dominated by Melbourne society, made harder by his lower middleclass Sydney beginnings. Adopted the underdog " me against the World " psyche. Lost Bennelong to a political novice Maxine McKew 2007.

His detractors : No vision. Conservative values. Orwellian in his pettifogging, wedge politics, National interest v self promotion, vengeful, hangup's galore.

Howard's tenure :
9/11, mv Tampa, Iraq war, asylum seekers, Siev X debacle, Guantanamo Bay, GST, Manus and Naru detention, Camp Baxter, waterfront reforms, stolen generation/reconciliation, Port Arthur massacre, Timor, Kyoto protocol, AWB coverup, Vissy/amcor coverup, Cronulla riots, Indonesian Embassy Canberra ( alleging harmless white powder was a bio-terrorist threat after analyst, AFP asserted otherwise ) workplace relations ( workchoice)contracts, Bali/Jakarta bombings, APEC talk fest, Haneef bungle, Citizen's test and much more.

Modern Historian's will either revile JH's modus operandi or gratuitously applaud it. Anecdotally, Oz historian's on politics, military matters, indigenous affairs, multiculteralism etc predictively circumvent reality, deliberately ignore, sanitise factoids, plagiarise previous works and provide voluminous bibliographic references which supposedly lends credence to their PhD's.

What good are thesis's which selectively appropriate quotations upon quotations and pass for original composition ? Anybody can roneo copious amounts of other peoples works. Meantime, we the hoi polloi are saddled with a bewildering array of pseudo-intellectual jargon, folklore, distortions, myths, out-right furphy's, half-baked hypothesis, fictitious extrapolations, mostly under the guise of Academic research. Greedy publishers no doubt subscribe to the irregularity.

No wonder students today are left pondering what is indeed fact or chimerical ' harry potter ' fiction. Our educational system

should prioritise a much needed overhaul.

The 2007 Elections provided some insights. All Partied spent enormous amount of money to win votes. We will never know for certain how much JWH Inc bribed, pork-barrelled, disbursed etc funds accumulated from party faithful, so clled philantrophist, power brokers and wannabe's who want to be seen dining at the Lodge and hobnobbing with the creme de la creme of a now defunct, disillusuined and disarrayed motley crew, ex tempore ebullent Brenden Nelson. Previous estimates of JH war chest varied @ $ 35 B. His style of using the Lodge to raise donations is considered by many as money laundering. Bjelke Petersen called it ' brown paper bag ' donations which ostensibly vanished. Taxation evasion - pure and simple.

Obfuscating Aust Electoral Commission will in due course provide ' seasonally adjusted figures' which are at best rubbery and taken with a dose of diuretics. A record 65 candidates threw their hats into the arena and despite the reinvention of Pauline Hanson, her One Nation Party of yesteryear polled well. She secured more than 4 % of the priomaries and @ $ 2.10 a vote she reputedly pocketed $ 250,000. How mant Australians earn $ 83,333 a year ?

David Etteridge, Hanson were incarcerated in 1998 for fraudulent misappropriating electioneering funds of $ 500,000 in Queensland. Apparently, she makes enough money every election to service her lavish jet setting lifestyle.

Another quirk, the AEC received over 150 official recommendations this and previous years at preventing rorts, fraud and other disparities which were ignored by Parliamentarians ? What became of integrity, transparenct and professionalism in Government ? Tony Abbot's reputed $ 100,00 slish fund avoided public disclosure and was vehemently denied by the AEC.

Donations in excess of $ 10,150 have to be declared, but Unions and people lobbying for political favours, particularly Order of Australia awards, donate in frequent small parcels to circumvent legislation and basically avoid being identified ? Corruption is a Federal offence. AFP, CMC, DPP and other watch-dogs, have never pursued this anomaly. Business as usual.

Sayonara mister Teflon man.

Belly,

Contrary to popular belief, lemmings do not throw themselves off cliffs in mass suicides. I have given a few details at:
http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=6812&page=0
or you can go to ‘Lemmings Suicide Myth’ at:
http://www.abc.net.au/science/k2/moments/s1081903.htm

John Howard was a racist and a liar, through and through.
He succeeded to a small degree in facilitating this trait to permeate thorughout the broader political scene and media, as well as society in general.

Australia is far better off today than 10 years ago. JH's detractors are claiming that it would have been anyway.

A CEO of a company is judged on its results, and the excuses of Labor for their previous federal and present state incompetence are pathetic.

I only hope that "new Labor" is as economically capable as their predecessors or the peccadilloes of the liberals will seem like the good old days.

Democritus,

Are you taking the piss?

And did you know that the word "peccadilloes" means sins or transgressions? - in which case I totally agree with you - I hope they are remembered as a particularly onerous chapter in this nations political history.

None the less, please learn to write and speak English properly mate or bugger off to where ya came from!! Have you taken the citizenship test yet?

And the last time I looked Australia was not a listed company.

So that little comparison with Howard being a CEO is way off the mark.