IN CONVERSATION WITH… The Bush Legacy

HEAR THE AUDIO AT RTRFM!

Eight years and fifty-two pages
A bullshit story for the ages
Highlights and Achievements
Of the Bush Administration

Well it starts off, and I kid you not
With Bush standing where the Twin Towers dropped
The achievement you’re supposed to applaud
He “Kept America Safe and Promoted Liberty Abroad”

Promoted liberty abroad?

Did it like a true Republican can
Took the troops and went into Afghanistan
Found a new excuse to go and fight ol’ Saddam
Ignoring North Korea and Iran
Funding foreign insurgencies
In the name of democracy…

Bush Fights for the release
Of prisoners in oppressive regimes
That’s a fact that you probably didn’t know
About the man that started Guantanamo

His Patriotism is more than an Act
His missiles are more for defense than attack
If you still have a job then you’re paying less tax
And the tax that you paid is underwriting the banks

Underwriting the banks that took your house.

Other than that, not a lot on the economy
Along with the $30 billion plus spent overseas
Fighting famine, poverty, disease and illiteracy
Problems that the US doesn’t have, you see?

Or at least it cannot spell…

Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?

Eight years and fifty-two pages
A bullshit story for the ages
Eight years and fifty-two pages
Historical reform that is truly outrageous
Eight years and fifty-two pages…

IN CONVERSATION WITH… 2008 (Year in Review)

081216-2008inreview-tight (Audio)

History will show, ’07 belonged to Kevin
But now we’re in ’08, and its time to contemplate
Did we go from bad to worse — is that trend in reverse?
How did we get from there to here? Take a look back on the year…

If it somehow fell to me to write this year in history
I’d have to note we’re contrary to all the other trends I see

The US sent a black man to the White House
But locally we re-elect The Dormouse
Who’d like some yellow-cake with his tea

Say can you see Kevin went ahead and said sorry
That was back in Februrry, nothing rhymes with February
When you say it propruary — next step was voluntary
When he signed the Kyoto Treaty, greenies thought he was the bee’s knees

When I’m writing history, I’ll give out what I get
Yesterday Kev pissed upon carbon reduction targets

In May we had a $20 billion surplus
And signs of an impending credit crisis
Now our banks are all guaranteed
Next comes the deficit we had to have, you’ll see…

Olympic Games? The Chinese apple of the media’s eye
Unless they want to televise, or get the news up on the net
What the hell did you expect, when there’s no democracy
The censors choose what you can see – déjà vu or is that just me?

I’m not rewriting history, just picking out the bits that struck a chord with me
I know not everyone will agree with me

Because the highest rating story of the year, you betcha
Was the death of Heath Ledger, followed by
An update on the death of Heath Ledger
Followed by Should Ricky Ponting lead the cricket team
That was SMH, not me.

IN CONVERSATION WITH… Two Races

Two Races (Audio)

Well by this time* tomorrow, it will still be today
In that bastion of democracy they call the USA
Today they’ll choose the Leader
Of the Free World, so they say
When the voting starts tomorrow in the USA’s today

We know it must be Barack or McCain
Republicans and Democrats both swear
It can’t be rigged again

The absent votes are flooding in
Like New Orleans in a Hurricane
At last count all the absent votes
Tallied up to 27 million

Because the thing about democracy
In the USA it’s voluntary
So 27 million votes before the day
Is extraordinary

More than our whole population
Off their ass, participatin’
Could be the race card’s motivating
While the Melbourne Cup stops our whole nation

I’ll blame Phar Lap, I’ll blame JFK
For the really awful thought
That I’m afraid I had today
Winning doesn’t really help
When they shoot more than horses, don’t they?

Don’t matter if it’s Barack or McCain
I’m pretty sure that either way
That history will be made today

Cause I know the guy who dopes the horses up
I’ve got the inside running
On the Winner of the Melbourne Cup
Giddy’up!

In a constitutionally armed democracy, winning isn't always enough.

*’this time’ is 7.15am, November 4, 2008 (+8.00 GMT)

IN CONVERSATION WITH… Peter Barr – Kingmaker.

Peter Barr, I only left you in charge
For a weekend, when I came back
We had a Liberal Government

This is worse than the time
When I went away and asked you to feed my cat
And you fed my cat to your dog
This is worse than that

A good carpenter can get resurrected
But no Carpenter ever got elected
Even Jesus never won the primary vote
Even with the preferences
From his Father and the Holy Ghost
Even Jesus never won the primary vote
He never got past the post

But it’s easier to keep it in the family
Than buy your House with regional royalties
The Libs have risen outta the fire
And onto the Grylls
He’s just doing his best
For the new Nationals

And I don’t blame him… I blame

Peter Barr, I only left you in charge
For a weekend…

Letter to the Editor

I’ve sent this letter to The Australian and X-Press, who knows if it’ll get a look in…

****
To the Editor,

Well the election results are in and the most disappointing thing about the result is that as soon as Howard called the election, he started using terms such as ‘the mandate of the people’ — as if winning this election was an endorsement or absolution of all the injustices he perpetrated not only against refugees and potential ‘terrorists’ but against the Australian people — not least of which, an executive decision to go to war without even consulting parliament.

I fervently hope that the priorities of the electorate that have seen Howard return to government is a lack of faith in Labor’s ability to maintain the economy (which most economists are saying is unsustainable anyway) or just a belief that the Liberal Party is ‘- this time round –  the better partly to lead us through these ‘turbulent’ and ‘uncertain’ times.

It is unfortunate that the Democrats have lost so much credibility in recent years, and further disappointing that they have engaged in antagonistic politics with the Greens, with whom they should have so much in common. People must have many reasons for voting Liberal, but surely it is not an endorsement of the willful deceit of the Howard administration on matters of social justice, international policy or ‘global peace’.

The Liberal Party has won the vote this time. In the next three years, we must be especially careful to make our voices heard, so that Howard does not mistake an election result as carte blanche.

****

Of course I am saddened by the result, but I am equally saddened by the immediate anger that has come from the left — loose talk about the majority of Australians being ‘stupid’, ‘ignorant’ and ‘greedy’.

I understand (now) that this anger is part of the grief from people who have worked hard for change, only to see the opportunity not only lost, but a significant swing towards a government I consider to think itself unaccountable to the people.

I think a major problem we’ve had in this campaign is that we’ve had a limited number of parties setting their own agendas and when it comes time to vote, we have to choose the one that seems best to us. I don’t see either of the major parties attempts to differentiate themselves from each other as actually *listening* to the people and coming up with policies that truly reflect the wants, needs and interests of the Australian people.

Nevertheless, the anger coming from the Left seems counter-productive to me, and in essence, an attack on democracy — an undercurrent of anger that the majority of people haven’t agreed with them, but to me, this is what democracy is all about…

I personally believe that Australia probably *did* have to get involved with the Coalition Of The Willing, and I also believe that no matter which party was in control, external pressures would have forced our hand — I believe there was a strong relationship between Howard’s executive decision to go to war and the Free Trade Agreement that was awaiting ratificiation.

Needless to say, I also believe we got screwed at both ends on that deal.

So, as I was saying, I believe we would have been forced into this conflict either way, and to a certain extent, I accept that. What I do find repugnant is that there was no-one in the Liberal Party who had the balls to tell us the real reasons why, instead of ramming all this homeland security and the importance of freedom etc down our throats…

We have been involved in the supposed toppling of oppressive regimes, and yet when people risk their lives to escape them, we lock them up. The liberators of the world and the jailers of those who liberate themselves…

They treated us as if we were stupid, and when we tried to question it, they just repeated the same crap until we got tired of asking. Yes, it’s a cynical ploy on their part, but at the same time, some of us were too cynical to actually believe we could *force* them to become accountable.

I don’t believe that the people of Australia have decided that John Howard is an honest man, I simply believe that for some reason that my own priorities make it difficult to understand, people have decided that the Liberals will be the more effective party over the next three years.

I am often irritated by the Left’s (and by this, I don’t exactly mean Labor), belief that if they simply give people the information, that they’ll come to the same conclusions.

I believe we have a responsibility to keep this information flowing, but I also believe that this election proves that we also have to listen to what the people who voted against us have to say. Not the parties or their campaigns, but the people who actually voted… we need to find out why.

Dialogue.

But if we go into this presupposing that these people are ignorant fucks who simply don’t care about what is ‘important’, I doubt we’ll learn anything, and I doubt they’ll feel much like talking to us.

Find people who voted Liberal, and find out why — listen, don’t judge. How else are we ever going to win their vote, no matter which party we support or are involved in.