Free Burma... dammit!

I wasn't going to put anything on here. But...

Just in case you want to be like me (well, but of course!) and use your influence as an Australian citizen and voter to put some pressure on Downer and our Government to use our relationship with China, to put pressure on them to in turn pass the pressure on to the military junta of Burma to please, please, please initiate a peaceful passage to democratic government (and stop killing, bashing and imprisoning peaceful monks and other brave Burmese people)...

minister.downer@dfat.gov.au



&



Petition --- Petition --- Petition





"A smooth transition to democracy ...is really in the hands of people like the Howard government to say internationally and loudly that they will not tolerate human rights abuse."
- John Kaye, President of the Australian Coalition for Democracy in Burma.

On a lighter note

And no, I'm not referring to the ads in India (and soon UK) for Fair and Handsome. I could make light of it *ahem* but really it's a serious issue regarding the power of skin colour within a race and beauty in general society.

But, as my posts of late have been heavy enough, I will not go into all that. Instead I will speak of other ads - and in doing so I encourage you all to whinge to me about what commercials are annoying you lately.


I'm someone who actively avoids most ads. Yes, I'm a flicker. That cliche about men being in charge of the remote has never been true for me -- although, it is a difficult way to be... *sigh* and I'm heartily glad to be living on my own with no whining in the background. I mean good grief, why do you want to sit and watch people try to brainwash you into buying things? (Including their election campaigns...!)


But, sometimes, you can't avoid ads. Even if it's just because you've used the ad break to go to the kitchen to make a cup of tea. You can still hear lines such as this:


"I can't build a solar plant... but use the sun instead of my dryer? I can do that."



What the...?





A plant is bloody solar woman!!!









Jeez. Some people are so dumb...







PS - Regardless of my sarcasm - oh, I'm just so witty! - those ads do annoy me. Well, maybe it's not just the ads, cause living in such a sunny country and never having owned a dryer, I find it extremely irritating to think that people are being lazy and using their dryers all the time. And if people aren't being this stupid and lazy, then the ads annoy me cause they make us all look really dumb! And, it's the government, the HOWARD government telling us this?!!!* Er... maybe they could do something for the environment too (ie. some time in the past 11 years)! *takes deep breath* *counts to 10* *makes it 100*


* Please follow that link (coz I couldn't copy the pic).

Burma update

Wonderfully there were more people demonstrating yesterday. Numbers from 40,000 to 100,000. It's a beautiful thing and makes my heart lift.

But...

There is now a curfew, 9pm-5am, announced late last night. And no gatherings of 3 people or more are allowed, according to ABC news - some say more than 5 but really, what's the difference. Loudspeaker announcements added that these conditions were to last for 60 days.

Troops surround monasteries and armed soldiers are patrolling the streets.

Apparently high-profile protesters have been arrested. Plus:

In another possible sign of a looming clash, a well-placed source said detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi had been moved to the notorious Insein prison on Sunday, a day after she appeared in front of her house to greet marching monks.

Bush has spoken of tightening economic sanctions against Burma/Myanmar but these are more likely to, again, hurt the people and not matter a toss to the Generals.

"Americans are outraged by the situation in Burma,'' Bush said in an address Tuesday to the U.N. General Assembly in New York. Bush said the U.S. would tighten economic sanctions on leaders of the regime and their financial backers, and impose an expanded visa ban on those responsible for human rights violations and their families. The European Union also threatened to strengthen existing sanctions against the regime if it uses violence to put down the demonstrations.

Britain's ambassador to Myanmar, Mark Canning, met Tuesday with some of Myanmar's leaders, urging continued restraint.

Canning said he told ministers that "demonstrations have been peaceful and well-disciplined.''

"It will be disastrous in the eyes of the world on Myanmar if the authorities use force,'' he told them, saying that they assured him the situation would be handled with caution.

The main reason that there is some hope of restraint - that thousands may not again be murdered, as in the last protests in 1988 - is that Burma's ally and neighbour, China, is hosting the Olympics and will not want such an atrocity associated with them.
Got to have our best face on for the Olympics now!

Ugh. It's hard to be humorous about this...

Well, at least all that Olympic's nonsense might be put to some good use for once.


UPDATE TO THE UPDATE, 3:50pm

The military is using batons and tear gas, Charles Petrie, the United Nations humanitarian coordinator in Myanmar, said in a telephone interview from the city. Officials warned civilians over loudhailers not to take part in protests, U.K. Ambassador Mark Canning said by telephone.

Police fired warning shots into the air and tear gas at about 1,000 protesters, led by Buddhist monks, marching to Yangon's Sule Pagoda today in defiance of a ban on public gatherings, Agence France-Presse reported.


After the crowd scattered in the frenzy of beatings, armed soldiers used barbed wire to cordon off the area around the Shewdagon Pagoda. About 500 monks were believed to be holed up inside.


11pm -- Earlier reports were one dead, 5 injured. Now Lateline reports there are 4 dead, 100 injured, and the UN has organised an emergency meeting.


Two of the monks were beaten to death while another was shot when he tried to wrestle a gun away from a soldier and the weapon discharged, two senior Myanmar officials told AFP.

A fourth man, who was not a monk, was pronounced dead on arrival at Yangon General Hospital with gunshot wounds, a hospital source said.

At least 100 people were injured during the day and some 200 people were arrested, as many as half of them Buddhist monks, according to witnesses and diplomats.

Another report says: About 300 monks and activists were arrested across Yangon after braving government orders to stay home, according to an exile dissident group, and reporters saw a number of monks, who are highly revered in Myanmar, being dragged into trucks.

And in The Age: As word of beatings, shootings and arrests spread, protest marches continued. Witnesses said thousands of onlookers cheered as about 1000 monks shrugged off the heavy presence of soldiers and police and kept marching towards the centre of Rangoon. The crowd roared approval for the monks and shouted at security forces: "You are fools! You are fools!"

Ms Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party released a statement saying the military regime had committed "the greatest, irreparable wrong in history" by beating monks.

"They even insult our religion and our monks," a businessman aged in his 50s said as he ran from the tear gas alongside monks who held wet cloths to their faces. Elsewhere in Rangoon, monks marching to the home of the pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, urged supporters to stand back and let them alone challenge the might of the hardline regime that has ruled Burma for more than four decades.

"We monks will do this, please don't join us," they said. "Don't do anything violent. We will send loving kindness to them," they said of the military presence.

Thursday: UN; Burmese bloggers; Generals' new isolated capital ("a fantasy land of male military vanity...")
"Many taxi drivers who are at the site of the violence take injured monks to nearest hospitals. The junta are using dirty tactics - they don't fire guns, but beat people with the back of their rifles. The monks defiantly did not fight back, endured the pain and died."

Do we hope... or fear?

It was both heartwarming and sad to read how monks protesting in Burma were allowed to see Aung San Suu Kyi on the weekend.

Detained Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi stepped out of her home in tears to greet Buddhist monks marching past the compound where she is confined by the military junta.

Witnesses say armed guards usually block the road leading to the lakeside house, but in an unprecedented move, they allowed about 1,000 monks to walk past the home where she has been detained for most of the past 18 years.

Under rainy skies, Suu Kyi walked out with two other women and cried as she paid her respects to the monks as they marched past.

The monks stopped outside her home for about 15 minutes and chanted a Buddhist prayer: "May we be completely free from all danger, may we be completely free from all grief, may we be completely free from poverty, may we have peace in heart and mind."


You may recall me writing about Suu Kyi before.

She "has not been seen in public since 30 May 2003, when her convoy was attacked by [government-sponsored] thugs". The two women she is confined with are "a senior member of the NLD and her daughter – and their only regular visitors are a doctor who visits them for a morning every two weeks and the person who takes them their food. Their provisions are taken in every day by a young member of the NLD who is thoroughly searched and who hands over the food while being supervised by the police."


The monks have been protesting since the 19th. The protesters are calling for the release of political prisoners and demanding that the country's military junta starts negotiations for national reconciliation and brings in greater political freedom. The protests are being led by 5,000 Buddhist monks, who are revered in Burma and were at the head of pro-democracy demonstrations almost two decades ago.

More and more people each day are joining the protests. People are forming a human chain around the monks to protect them. So far these protests have been relatively peaceful, although the monks haven't been allowed to go near Suu Kyi's 'home' again.

[Yesterday] police set up barbed wire barricades at the end of the road leading to her house and there were two lines of police with a truck and fire engine standing by when the marchers arrived.
About 400 people, led by monks, tried to pass but the authorities blocked their passage.
Witnesses said two monks stepped forward to try to negotiate with the police but were turned away.
The monks briefly prayed before walking in another direction, after which the crowd began to disperse.
They were carrying a large yellow banner which read: "Love and kindness must win over everything."


The protests were triggered by rising prices for fuel and energy which lead to a 500% increase in the price of cooking gas. The monks, who rely on handouts, "have declared a "boycott" of the military, refusing to accept donations from military officers and thus sending an extremely strong signal to the authorities."


What might help changes to, finally, occur with the military regime is that their "current junta leader, Senior General Than Shwe, is 74 and in poor health, a situation that suggests he might soon hand over power. His prime minister is in no better shape and has been temporarily replaced."


Other postive changes this year internationally:

In a remarkable step, leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, after years of inaction on Burma, openly expressed their unhappiness that the junta was impeding regional integration and the drafting of an ASEAN charter including human rights protections.

China and India, Burma's two main trading partners, are under increasing pressure from the U.S., Europe and many non-governmental organizations for supporting the regime.

The U.N. Security Council had its first meeting on the regional dangers emanating from Burma's internal situation, noting among other things that Burma's public health crisis is spreading across its borders, and that the country is a major source of drug and human trafficking.

The International Committee of the Red Cross uncharacteristically shed its long-standing principle of confidentiality and publicly blasted the government about conditions in Burma.


Plus: The UN's special envoy Ibrahim Gambari is expected to visit Burma in the first two weeks of October when he will request permission to meet Ms Suu Kyi, having been granted permission on his two previous visits. He will report back to the Security Council.


The Wall Street Journal concludes its article: as Burma's monks and other protestors risk life and limb by marching against their overlords we cannot simply let this moment slip by.
The nonviolent resistance of Burmese inside and outside Burma to the brutal military regime cries out for support, and world leaders must at least vigorously stand with the Burmese people and echo their call for change. If they do not respond to the world's truly non-violent political struggles, they send the message that the world responds only to violence.


I am hoping these protests remain peaceful and achieve at least some positive outcomes. These are very, very brave people and my heart goes out to them.

It also serves as another reminder for people such as us to be grateful for the wonderful lives we are free to enjoy. Although our society is not perfect, we at least do not live in fear, in prison or in deprivation.

I am also thinking how the people of Burma must love and respect their monks and Suu Kyi, their elected but imprisoned leader who has a spirit of such beauty and such strength. May all their prayers be answered.

Lukky I be only child I rekn

Tori Amos Cloud On My Tongue live

Me likes this one too. Another fav would be the first song of hers I heard, Winter. It's still able to make my heart ache.

Tori Amos - Doughnut song

Seeing as Mai was interested I thought I'd post this live version.

I love ALL of me(s)!!!

I heart Tori Amos.









Although she's a 'strange little girl'.

I'll admit I understand about having different personalities or aspects of oneself...

Tori Amos is in the country touring her latest album American Doll Posse. She explained to Robbie that the posse is a group of characters she uses to show all the sides of herself.

"This is about, to me, performance art. They have their own stories and they have their own songs. And they have their own life. They're different people."

While Tori does play all her live shows as herself, each night she begins with an opening set performed by one of the other women.

So who was invited on stage to open the first show of the Australia tour?

"Santa, she's a tart. Husband loves her. Santa's a party."


...it's just that I wouldn't name them.














Although, the wigs would be fun...


Plus, seriously, it is just 'performance art' and it really does sound like 'a party'...


Hmmm, what do you think of the name Eleanor...

Sick, sick, sick

(I'll warn you, this is about animal cruelty.)


I am so f*cking angry and disturbed.

A dog has been found skinned and beheaded, with its paws cut off and its legs bound together in Brisbane's south.

The find is the latest in a string of recent animal cruelty cases in the state's south-east.

The incident follows a number of disturbing animal cruelty cases in south-east Queensland in the past three months.

Two weeks ago, a female Rottweiler cross was found lying beside the D'Aguilar Highway near Woodford with a broken leg and fractured pelvis.

The dog was believed to have been sexually assaulted.

Last month, a woman on the Gold Coast found her cat partially skinned.

It was alive but had to be euthanased.

Anyone with information is urged to contact the RSPCA or police.

I don't think I need to expound upon the sickness of this, the horror, or to ponder upon the sickness of the 'human' inflicting such torture and sexual assault on dear, dear animals.

What I will say is that if they don't find this 'person' soon he will next begin torturing and raping women and/or children. It nearly always starts with animals.


Vile, vile, vile... Please may they find this 'man'. May he be the next animal to be put in a cage.

The wreck is going down...

"I think it's the most spectacular disintegration of a federal government on the threshold of an election we've ever seen..." said Bob Carr.

I haven't needed to blog about the Libs lately. I mean, they've been digging their own hole...




Costello


Labor's latest slogan is "New Leadership", which is probably less effectual now that Libs are attempting to promote a 'new' leader... well, kinda ...well, sorta.


So, should people have faith in Costello as leader? He hasn't acted too ballsy so far; hasn't taken that shovel and belted the PM with it any time in the past few years to nudge him out of the way. Let's see what he and his wife think of his political prowess:



Mr Costello laughed when asked about his own wife's role in matters of policy and state.

"I think her political judgment is better than mine, and she takes a dim view of mine. She's much much more sensible than I am. And much more level-headed."

Hyuk! I'm hoping to be leader of the party but I'm really that crap my own wife could do a better job! Hyuk, hyuk!

And the public! Too easy. They're not even paying attention!

"I think for most weeks of the year people are very disinterested in politics, and for a couple of days a year you grab their attention. Maybe one of those days was this week, but I have a feeling by the weekend they'll settle back into football and their kids' lives which they regard as much more important."

Hyuk! Fools! Fools, all of them!

-----

Committment

And how committed do you think Howard sounds about actually handing over the leadership to Costello (or at all!)?

[7.30 Report] HOWARD: .... Peter is an ambitious man. One day he will lead the Liberal Party. I believe he is my logical successor. Now, that is a matter for the Party to decide, not for me, but that is my belief. Now, I can't say any more than that.


HOWARD: .... [re meetings] look, this is all trivia, frankly. It really is trivia. I don't think your viewers are very interested in it, they're interested in what I've got to offer them in the future, not anything else. Although, quite frankly I've ignored talking about what I have to offer them, I only care about saving my own arse Kerry baby; clinging onto leadership as best my wizened old, sharpened claws can. It's about me! Me, me, me, MEEE!!!


O'BRIEN: ... you've always said that you'll only stay for as long as your Party wants you, you also said in your party room today as I understand it, you added: 'and in the best interests of the Party'. I mean, you don't...


JOHN HOWARD: No, I've used that line and abused that line, but obviously I can't anymore because, quite frankly, as every man and his dog knows, no one in my party wants me as leader! I'm a loser! A lame duck! We all know they're trying to get rid of me but they're weak as piss, a bunch of children, I just speak to them firmly and they fall in line. No worries.
... but look, can I just say something about it. I've given a lot of thought to this, and my position to the next election, and this is what I'll be telling the Australian people is, is very simple. If the Australian people are good enough and kind enough to re-elect me again, there are a lot of things I want to do, *crosses fingers hoping no one actually asks him what these 'things' are or that they notice he's had 11.5 years to accomplish them* and I would want to approach those things with enormous energy.


But I would expect, well into my term, and after those "things" have been implemented and battered down, I would probably, certainly form the view well into my term just repeating that cause, well, I really mean near the end of it..., that it makes sense for me to retire not saying that I actually would retire, and in those circumstances which will never happen, I'll never complete my invisible list of 'things' you know, *heh*, I would expect, although it would be a matter for the Party to determine if Peter would take over. So look, it doesn't matter a fig what I say about it, but it suits me right now to suggest the party actually has some balls, er, power.


... I've thought this through, and what I'm saying to the Australian people is I want to be re-elected, there are a lot of things I want to do for them. But well into my term er, perhaps you missed that the first two times, I would [stay vague..] come to the conclusion [vague...] that it would be [vaaague...] in the best interests of everybody if I retired, - regardless... I'll stay on of course - and in those circumstances, I would expect Peter to take over, but that would be a matter for the Party cause there's no bloody way I'll ever back him as leader, quite frankly I cannot stand the man Now, that is the honest skirting of the truth...


HOWARD: ... I won't find it easy if I am re-elected to retire. I won't find it the least bit easy because I am very committed to this job, and I will not like leaving it. This is why I've left myself a way out by being so damn vague about it. *Heh*

The following was about a possible by-election in Bennelong; he's since said he will serve the term in full - but no one is believing him - although many would love to see him sitting in Parliament as a backbencher raising his hand and asking questions of Costello or whoever, "Er, I have a question for the P-p-pri- *sob* Prime Minster..." *blows nose loudly into hanky*

HOWARD: Well, the position in ... the position in relation to that is ... I mean, I'm very, very upfront. I mean, whether ... depending on when I ... whether there would be a by-election or not is something that I would determine then...

Verrrry convincing...

-----


Convenient

Of course, by featuring Costello so prominently in Lib's election campaign - as finally, Howard cannot ignore that the party is heading for a major defeat - Howard is sneakily avoiding full responsibility for such a loss.


... if Howard recognises that he's on the nose enough that he can't win without having Costello prop him up, how can he continue to argue that staying on is in the best interests of his party?

And there's this: if the Government loses, Howard will have effectively hog-tied Costello to the defeat. He would emerge from the other side of an election loss as damaged goods.

It's a measure of how twisted the politics of Liberal leadership have become that some government MPs were suggesting this week that that might even have been the intent of Howard's strategy.




Yep, keep pushing that TEAM spirit:

Liberal MPs begin airbrushing John Howard out of their local campaigns after the damaging leadership chaos of the past week.
...one frontbencher told The Sunday Mail. "We're not going to want Howard anywhere near our seats during the campaign.

"And don't expect to see many pictures of him around voting booths on polling day either," they said.


-----


Lame, lame duck(s)

"John Howard is making a mockery of the prime ministership," Bob Brown said. "Australian voters see that, and the pity of this is (that) it is a lame duck prime ministership and a lame duck government that's now presenting itself to the election."




It will be interesting to see how the Libs react to the results of the first poll since the PM's announcement. They will know of the poll results Monday night.

Do you think they may still be considering making Costello outright leader? At the moment there's most likely around 8 weeks before the election, but if they brought Costello to the fore now they could easily delay the date to January. When a week is a long time in politics, what's wrong with a few months?

This will test the balls of the party, and of Costello.


Two really very fanciful thoughts:


1. If you were a senior minister of the Coalition, wouldn't you be tempted to see this as an opportunity to throw your hat in the ring (rabbits or no rabbits)?
No one else is standing up, yet the entire cabinet wants a change of leader. Why not stand up, announce a challenge to Howard? Ain't got much to lose.
[Don't think this will happen of course, but why not eh? How interesting would things get then?!]


2. Howard may recognise that he's in a lose/lose situation and could look for a way out, one in which he could save face.
How convenient would it be for him if dear Jeanette suddenly developed a serious illness? One declaration of the line, "At this difficult time *sniff* I think it is best that I spend as much time as I can with my wife and family..." and he's outta there!
And we know Jeanette would do anything to help!

Let's hope Howard stays in though. They'll be much easier for Labor to beat that way.

UPDATE: "a Morgan poll overnight pointed to Mr Howard losing his Sydney seat of Bennelong." *grins*

Frustrating: my box (only re telly)

Ugh. Some of the tv I've seen lately has been depressing. And I'm not just speaking of Howard's latest approach of winning votes through sympathy. Anyone else noticed his hangdog, woe-is-me expression since the end of APEC (or is he just missing his mates)? I think he's attempting to look less aggressive. Before he was looking frustrated, and now he's just looking subdued and sad. It could work for him... but I think it's too late.
[UPDATE: Actually, today he's all grins - trying to look like he's got everyone's support in the party after their 'meeting'. Costello etc all grinning their fake plastic smiles too. Just as nauseating really, if not more so.]

Anyway, I mean to give politics a break and talk about other drivel instead.

I seem to be punishing myself lately. I watched some of Idol on Sunday, not a show I've followed since the first series. Don't get me wrong, a few of the singers were really good and I am pleased for them when they do well. I say to the telly, 'Good on you, well done' like a right twit. (You see, this is why I find myself amusing.)

But the real pain was to have someone choose a bloody awesome song - Awright! About time! - and have the judges say they haven't heard of it and that the girl ought to choose songs people have heard of. The song was by The Gossip (Standing in the Way of Control) who apparently do it quite well live. And the girl's voice was fine, she did ok; but she couldn't get near the original [audio link].

Then they all get excited by a Justin Timberlake song that I may have heard possibly once. I thought it sounded none too flash. Another time a girl did a song which was apparently by Fergie that I had never - thank God - ever heard. Apparently that was a good choice too. And yet Regina Spektor was considered too out there. Honestly, I felt very mainstream when I bought her latest from JBhifi a while back. Of course, the girl who did the Spektor song wrecked it.
Oh, and it turns out the girl who chose the awesome Gossip number to cover was the first to get booted.


Yes, yes, I know. What do I expect watching these shows. I really am just torturing myself.


But I really copped a beauty last night when I - Lord only knows why - watched NCIS (I think that's what it was, all those shows look the same to me; I never usually watch any of them). It was just horrifically bad. Apparently it is written by children for children (I guess the same audience as Idol). All the characters where in fact behaving like children.

If this show is accurate, then people solving serious crimes giggle and make faces at each other the majority of their working day. Not a comforting thought. (Although, if you look at Bush it is easy to believe that the US is in fact run by children.)

And I don't mean to be cruel to kids here.


Also disappointing was Californication the other night. I saw the first episode and watched most of this third one.* It left me pretty cold.

I like that it's a show doing something different. I liked Entourage for the same reason. I think it's good for a show to have characters, including a main character, that aren't likable. Jeremy Piven in Entourage for example; you love to hate him and when I used to watch that show he did that character very well. I think David Duchovny's character's agent might be trying to be a bit like Piven actually. But I think I'd rather see Piven spanking a lass's bare behind, he'd manage more humour.

Anyway, it's fine to have unlikeable characters; that's more realistic. But the other night they were trying to get the audience to sympathise with DD's character. Worse still was this was badly done through the use of soppy music while DD watches his pretty ex and his daughter frolic on the beach. Hair blowing in the breeze, child happily playing with a puppy. I was too busy rolling my eyes to care whether or not this was 'real' or a daydream with it's sepia lens action happening. Yes, have a shitty male character who we love to hate, but don't try and make us feel for him. Not unless you're going to do the show seriously which, if that's their intention they are failing miserably.


Anyhoo, there may be hope yet. My inner child is looking forward to The Bionic Woman coming soon. It will probably be shite of course, but it might be good. I watched the original and never really got attached to any of the characters but I loved the idea - and I'm that juvenile I still do! As a bonus, it was easy to play pretend games of The Bionic Woman cause to be really super fast all you had to do was run in slow motion and make a fake sh-ki-ke-ke-ke-ke-ker kinda noise - and of course, flick your hair around a lot.



* In part because I hadn't realised that the little girl from The Nanny was the one riding Duchovny and punching him in the face during sex (thanks Edward).

I don't get it

I've been cringing a bit lately about women who say:

"Oh no, I can't do that [what I want to do which is completely personal and nothing to do with anyone else] because [insert girlfriend's/best-friend's name here] would be so upset with me!".

Drives me a little nutty.

And, in case I'm being as clear as mud here, the latest example for which I am rolling my eyes in frustration is regarding a woman I know who is contemplating returning to her husband.

Now who's business is that but hers? Yes, take note of how your kids feel about it, that's fair enough. But, to consider not returning to your marriage because it might - and God knows why or how - upset your girlfriend/best friend? I just don't understand.


Do you think women who say such things really mean it?

Or are they just pretending they are ditsy cause they think people like ditsy females?

If I hear ASPIRATIONAL one more freakin' time...!

After 11 years as leader of our nation John Howard has managed to bring himself up to being... wait for it... aspirational.

Whether it is in regard to nationalism or climate goals (a goal being an aspiration in itself; as noted on Insiders* this morning, they are aspiring to aspirations). He is... aspiring to do... things.

Wow.

What a guy.

He desires and aims for stuff.

Not up to: "I will..." or:

"We shall..." yet, but merely:

"We'll consider... and maybe say a few prayers or something... you know, thinking in that general direction and possibly I will look at devoting myself to a commitment to temporarily crossing my fingers... perhaps...".



Or, you know, this could be a positive thing. Howard is finally being honest! We've pinned him as 'tricky' so now he's being really 'clever' and not promising anything at all!



But... such honesty is a bit 'sneaky' don't you think?


-----

* And you know, things are pretty bad for Howard when, for once, I mostly agreed with Andrew Bolt!!!!


PS - My sarcasm appears to be in overdrive lately, forgive me. Politics does this to me.

Just shocking

What? Howard's popularity is lower than ever?
When he's da big man of APEC and happily shaking hands with the likes of great men such as Bush, Hu and Putin?

How surprising...


OK, not that Rudd's doing much better, esp sucking up with his prowess at Mandarin. But at least he's telling Bush the what for...

UPDATE: Bush is up to his usual gaffes.
Er, Mr President, this isn't OPEC, we're not a member of OPEC; ah, Austria has no troops in Iraq, Howard was actually visiting the Aus'tra'lian troops there; no, you'll fall down a hole if you walk off the stage that way, come here, there's a good boy, take my hand...

See, told you Howard keeps him around just to make him look good ("My fellow Australians, obviously I'm not the old and doddery one... How spritely and quick-witted do I look now!").

Do you laugh or cry?

So happy about those millions...


Of course everyone knows about The Chaser boys' prank at APEC yesterday - onya lads!


The convoy of three black cars, decked out to resemble an official Canadian motorcade, came within metres of the hotel where US President George W Bush is staying, before finally being pulled over by authorities.



A source inside the show has told The Daily Telegraph the team never expected to get so far. The skit had been approved by ABC lawyers but was written in the assumption they would be stopped at the first checkpoint.

Instead they were waved through the first on Macquarie St, then a second, which had sniffer dogs, and eventually stopped themselves at Bridge St.

"As they did Chas got out of a car dressed as Osama bin Laden and said something like 'I'm an important world leader why don't I have a seat at the APEC table?'. Apparently that was the first time the police realised it was not authentic and they swooped in and arrested everybody," the source said.



"What happened is not a joke and we we would have preferred it did not happen,'' (state Premier) Mr Iemma said.


I bloody bet they'd rather it didn't happen. How dumb does all that security hoo ha look when 11 people get past security checks with passes that say 'It's pretty obvious this isn't a real pass' and: 'Chaser's War', 'JOKE', 'Insecurity'?



That we're spending $250 million on security and it doesn't even work is the real joke.

Watch out for turkeys Dubya, there's obviously plenty around.

...

Happy day

Just wanted to share with you all how happy I am that millions of our tax dollars are going toward ensuring the safety of George Dubya Bush.















So, so happy.

Denton goes spelunking...

...discovering only the simplest of lifeforms in a vast and empty cavity.

Right well, watched Denton interview Kyle Sandilands. As promised, no pictures of him. So this will have to do:








First of all, the news story was a bit off the mark which Denton confirmed yesterday on radio. Fireworks did not fly. Quite the opposite. We didn't see Kyle outrageously lose his temper or have steam coming out his ears. There was just... well, a lack. I think Denton has said he found Kyle to be very cold and it's as if he has no soul. And really it was a little disturbing.

I think I lost a bit of my soul last night.

The whole thing was really strange.

Firstly, Kyle admits he's not the sharpest tack on the corkboard - this fact really was confirmed by the interview - and that in school he "was that class clown that couldn’t learn, didn’t know maths, you know would fool around to avoid being pointed out as the dumb one."

I think that I just always had that smart alec tongue to get me out of sticky situations whether it was um whether it was to be used for fun or whether it was to avoid being humiliated.

---

Kyle comes across as almost devoid of emotion - except for anger of course. He's quick to blame others and I'm sure his skills at self-reflexivity are nil. Plus he doesn't seem to be able to comprehend that his actions may affect other people. I don't think he knows how to consider others at all!

Let's note here that he seems to think he has evolved somewhat as he used to spit and throw chairs.

...back in the cowboy days where I use to spit in, at people and you know and throw chairs and you know was as bit of a lune.

ANDREW DENTON: Mm.

This was rather typical of Denton's approach. He let Kyle dig his own hole.

Kyle's explanation of 'the cowboy days' was his way of defending his spontaneous outing of a 19 year old on live radio.

ANDREW DENTON: Did you ... consider that for a nineteen year old struggling with their own sexuality that this was a, a hugely exposing thing to do?

KYLE SANDILANDS: No, I didn’t.

ANDREW DENTON: Why not?

KYLE SANDILANDS: I just didn’t even think about that. Back in those days I would only think about what I thought was funny and entertaining and it wasn’t until reflection once it had gone to air then everyone flipped out and everyone started saying you know oh this could have gone horribly wrong. Luckily it, it went quite well. Um he’s a happy gay man to this day.

So that was back in those days.

Now these days on radio:

I want to deal with real life stuff. The real life dramas that are going on in people's lives and a lot of the times radio station management will hate that cause they say no one wants to go to work in the morning and hear a woman crying her eyes out cause her husband’s cheated on her. But I do. I, I’d like to hear it.

This was in reply to Denton's query: You’ve got a lot of faith in your abilities. What are they?

Damn good question.

Answer? That he'd like to hear more of women crying on radio. Hmm. Profound.


And we can see that Kyle does have a lot of faith in himself. He is working with state government to implement changes to some primary schools. Kyle wants to make the classroom "like an Imax theatre."

we’ve developed projectors that turn the whole classroom into um a learning tube so everyone sits in and watches the walls and the roof...

This surely comes from his passion to help others.

I get paid very well from the radio um I get paid very well from Idol. I keep all the money.

Oh. Well maybe not.

---

It was obvious that Kyle loves to play up the "homeless years" as he refers to them - after explaining that he was on the streets for less than a year. I suspect that he feels he is owed a lot because of this.

You can tell from the laughter - which appeared to come from the majority of the audience - that people were really feeling for dear Kyle.

To intro this, Kyle's parents asked him to leave when he had a party at 15 and he and his mates drove his parents' cars around, 10 to a car. So we had both their cars out yahooing around the streets um causing trouble.

ANDREW DENTON: How long were you on the streets?

KYLE SANDILANDS: Just a bit under a year but I’d go from you know the first, the first few weeks I was…

ANDREW DENTON: And your parents didn’t come looking for you?

KYLE SANDILANDS: They said they looked um but they couldn’t have looked too far cause I really was still around the same suburbs that we grew up in.

LAUGHTER

KYLE SANDILANDS: I don’t find anything funny about it. [He says in all seriousness to the audience.]

LAUGHTER

ANDREW DENTON: And you, and it didn’t, it didn’t occur to you to go home …

KYLE SANDILANDS: No.

ANDREW DENTON: As in you felt you couldn’t?

KYLE SANDILANDS: I felt that I couldn’t. They said get out you’re not welcome back here. We can’t believe it and that was it. and I, you know I spent a few nights behind shopping centres in, you know where they’d throw out all the boxes and you know packing it. Like as a fifteen year old I had no clue, just thought I was going to get raped and bashed every, every night.

ANDREW DENTON: But, but why I’m, I’m still trying to get it why you were so, I can understand the party and I understand that you were afraid of the strictness but and that they told you to go but why was there so much anger in you that for, you’ve never really gone home?

KYLE SANDILANDS: I really did believe that they, that when they said get out and don’t come back that that’s exactly what they meant.

ANDREW DENTON: But that’s twenty years ago.

KYLE SANDILANDS: Yeah.

ANDREW DENTON: There’s, there’s still that anger. Why is that?

KYLE SANDILANDS: I don’t know. I’m not sure what it is um you know I have a great relationship with them now although this cloud still looms, so it’s never been discussed fully. No one’s ever cried. No one’s ever said sorry.

ANDREW DENTON: Mm.

KYLE SANDILANDS: No one’s ever explained anything, no one’s ever asked any questions.

ANDREW DENTON: Do you feel loved by your parents?

KYLE SANDILANDS: Yes. But I’m not sure if it’s, you know so they can get free Idol tickets or whether it, or whether it is you know…

ANDREW DENTON: Do they ask…

KYLE SANDILANDS: I think they feel a lot of regret and you know I know that whenever they read a magazine article that discusses it, they hate it. They hate the fact because their friends will come to them and say oh, Kyle was homeless and they’ll think oh God the homeless years and everyone hates talking about the homeless years um except for me who loves bringing it up and waving it around.

Yup.


You know, this must have really wounded Kyle who dreamed of money and owning only the best things as a child.

ANDREW DENTON: As a kid you use to fantasise about being wealthy didn’t you?

KYLE SANDILANDS: Yeah... Like to the ridiculous where you know my, my grandparents had a stupid little name. Everyone called me this stupid little name um Lord Fauntleroy, Lord Devonport because I would, I, everyone else would be you know kicking balls around in the backyard and I’d be cutting out a picture of a really nice crystal vase out of a magazine and gluing it into my special little book that I wanted oh one day I’ll have a crystal vase like that. It’s a bit weird.

LAUGHTER


Well, at least he gave the crowd a good laugh. I wasn't laughing at home unfortunately. Really, the whole thing was just mildly painful in a dull sort of way, uncomfortable to watch.

---

Oh, and he's not a bully. After Kyle clarifies this Denton asks him about the Dave Hughes comment and Kyle says that violence is the often the best solution to many difficulties in life. So yeah, he's not a bully.

ANDREW DENTON: A couple of years ago you ah addressed an anti bullying conference and you talked about being bullied as a kid.

KYLE SANDILANDS: Hm mm.

ANDREW DENTON: There are people who consider you a bully. How do you reconcile that?

KYLE SANDILANDS: I was bullied as a kid because I was always the nerd at school that would be in the school uniform from five schools ago because my mum would move around quite a lot so we wouldn’t get a new school uniform so I was always like the target.

ANDREW DENTON: So knowing what it is to be bullied …

KYLE SANDILANDS: Yeah.

ANDREW DENTON: And how horrible it is how do you feel when other people say to you you’re a bully?

KYLE SANDILANDS: I I just don’t accept it to be the truth. Um I don’t feel that I do any bully behaviour. I see bully like behaviour as repetitively causing injury or physical or mental damage to the one person over and over and over and over again for no particular good reason.

ANDREW DENTON: I want to show you another clip now and you’ll probably remember this quite well from the Logies earlier this year. This is Dave Hughes.

CLIP

ANDREW DENTON: National television, a roomful of your peers, laughing at you being called a dickhead. Did that …

KYLE SANDILANDS: Yeah, I know.

ANDREW DENTON: Did that sting?

KYLE SANDILANDS: Yeah, it did. It did. Um I used to be a fan of Dave Hughes but now I will … punch him in the throat when I see him next, it’s as simple as that. It gets as simple as that.
A lot of people these comedians they say oh you know it’s just a joke. Mark Holden and Dicko were sitting opposite me. Ah ha, ha… slapping their leg, loving lapping it all up.
I mean I thought as soon as it happened, I thought oh my god and then when you look at the camera and it’s right on you and you’re going ah ha, ha… excellent joke, and inside you know it it it does cut cos you know I don’t really know Dave.
Um I mean now I just hate eh I hate him and him and I will cross paths and you know unfortunately the bad street kid still comes out sometimes. I I I’m happy to kick arse. I I I’m you know a lot of people go oh you know fisticuffs isn’t the way. It is the way for some people.


---

But look, there is some hope. To conclude the interview Denton asked:

ANDREW DENTON: So where do you see yourself when you’re 50?

KYLE SANDILANDS: Um … hopefully very sunburnt in yellow Speedos um not doing any work. That’s what I’d like to do. Blistered, blistered sunburnt like that that burnt.


In pain, burnt to the point of blisters and not working. I think that's something we all hope for Kyle, don't you?

Coked up kitteh

I CAN HAS MORR COKE PLZ?

In case you haven't read the article it's here. (Hey, I'd be anxious with someone trying to use a rectal thermometer on me too.)

(Another new post below)

Hunting

I was running for my life last night. Well, in my dreams at least. I had one of those very long dreams where people keep coming after you with nasty weapons and angry looks and such.

I kept changing to different people, was even a boy at one stage hiding from the men with guns. They were not happy chaps. There were lots of other people running and hiding too.

I used to have dreams like this years ago when I was in an awful situation for a time there, but there weren't other people around, it was just me being chased. There would either be one man or a group after me and there were always fences or walls in the way of my escape. In the better dreams I managed to, after some struggle, get past these obstacles. In the really good ones and this was rare, I would fly away from them. That felt good. Woo hoo! Take that you motherf#*@ers!

So last night in my dream when I was me or a woman at least, one guy caught up to me and was about to shoot me and someone else. I was closest to him so decided to walk up to him. I don't know if part of my plan was helping the other person but I recall that I thought he might chicken out this way or at least get me a damn good shot so it was over quicker. So I got face to face with him and looked him in the eye.
Then he shot me.
It hit me in the throat and I fell back. And I fell... and fell... And I never hit the ground, just kept falling. And it was so peaceful that I smiled and realised this was why people looked so peaceful when they passed away. Falling peacefully and free.

Funny how some dreams stay with you isn't it?

Unfortunately today the hunted prey part is staying with me more than the peaceful falling. Oh well, I'll try to dream something nicer tonight. It will be after I've watched Alias and the MotoGP late this evening so I'll likely whup collective ass with a mean right hook and some twirling high kicks, then flick back my hair and speed off on my red 800cc Ducati. oh yeah.