A total waste of space, I dont know how this got voted in the top blogs!

I also didnt know there were any 'left wing shock jocks'. Where are they?

With the greatest respect, Susan Prior (ed), I found this article as second under a heading "January 24, 2008".
When I followed this link, I found an article titled "last word on Haneef?". Under this was the line "By Harry Clarke -posted January 24, 2008".
Where exactly was it 'clearly marked' as a best blog of 2007?
In the -locked- basement of council chamber in rural England, perhaps?

Grim: +1
Nowhere on the article's page does it mention "best blogs". The world 'best' isn't even anywhere on the page.

So... "clearly marked"? This article was simply on the home page - you know, 'http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/'?

Maybe it is just clear to me because I look at it every day! It is marked as a "Feature" article on the front page and the Feature for this month is Best Blogs 2007 ... It can also be navigated to from the Feature box on the front page and the Feature in the menu on the left side. Susan Prior (ed)

Harry Clarke,

Repeat after me slowly...'The golden thread that runs through the common law is that a person is innocent until proven guilty'.

It is also advisable to distinguish between investigating an innocent person and demonising a person in order to gain political advantage.

A good illustration of all the above is then Minister Andrews seen on TV stating a propos Dr Haneef..."We don't want people like him in this country"

Who can guess what Harry got for his birthday?

Yes! That’s right! A box full of “ex post”s! It says on the box, “Guaranteed to make user appear learned and wise”.

How on earth did this get in the Top 40? Balance?

Harry carries an unflattering mental image of Teh Left. It clearly torments him and perhaps causes him trouble sleeping. Throughout this…thing…Harry disparages any leftish opinions that he sleuthfully detects:

“Hysterica”, “frenzy”, “dishonest”, “ratbag”, ”propagandist”, “anti-Howard”, “disreputable”, “totally ridiculous”, “the idiot left”, “unsubstantiated stream of allegations”, “overreaction”, “nitwits” and an oldie but a goodie, “anti-western bias”.

Contrast this with his comfort with the appalling mismanagement by the Right of the Haneef affair:

“regrettable initial mistakes”, “normal processes”, “plausible”, only “apparently innocent”, “quickly released”, “imperfections in information”, “Haneef himself left Australia with a smile on his face” (well, that’s all right, then).

For Harry it all amounted only to some silly, trifling oversights by men of unquestionable good will. We could still sleep comfortably while his beloved John steered us safely through the nightmare reefs of the black night of Al Qaida.

But the real danger was the abuse of power and of process that was taking place. Nevertheless, the exercise by Australians of their democratic duty to question the conduct of the system under which we live is in Harry’s frightened eyes a threat to “damage Australia’s security and its ability to investigate and prosecute terrorism”. When, then, might it be safe again for citizens to exercise their democratic rights?

Harry, the flaws in the conduct of the case were not minor, forgiveable abberations. The AFP, Howard and Andrews struck at the heart of the rule of law and democracy. The only reason they failed was on the basis of information which the AFP tried its hardest to withhold and of facts which the government dishonestly and selectively tried their hardest to spin in their own favour.

Says Harry, “the alternative claim by others on the left, that Minister Andrews acted incorrectly under the Migration Act in withdrawing Haneef’s visa, is false.”

Damn! Apparently not (ex post, you know).