Tuesday, 20 November 2007

The Scourge of Conservatism

No Dole for Drug Addicts!.

This was the headline that stopped me dead cold in my tracks. The 2007 Australian election is getting desperate for neo-con Howard and his Liberal Party. God that name is deceptive, Liberal Party ... the most non-liberal bunch of rabble I have encountered in Australian politics. Anyway, as usual during an election, Howard always plays the "bigot" card. It usually is a race issue to attract the many rednecks and racist right wing whackos e.g. children overboard, immigration, detention centres etc. They tried it again with the Mohamed Haneef case and since that backfired the "Tough on Drugs" issue was raised. The coalition's drug policy was pushed to new heights with an announcement that people convicted of drug offences would have their welfare payments handled by the Government. This means food stamps instead of cash, interdiction of purchasing smokes and alcohol etc. I was stunned to say the least and so were many welfare agencies. Even the AMA denounced it but it was too late because the message had got out. I read many comments from readers from various newspapers and although there were not as many pro-hate comments as previous elections, there were enough to keep me reminded of the millions of Australians who believe in Howard's Australia. No one with any common sense would think this could work. Many readers comments stated the obvious with comments like "now there will be a black market in food stamps" or "these addicts will just go into business of burglary or drug dealing to pay for their habit ... who said the Government doesn't support small business". I guessed there was about 80% against the policy and about 20% for it. How low will this dickhead go? He makes my skin crawl. I have been fairly relaxed during this diary but this has made me so mad. So for the record, I am just going to say it:

John Howard is a Brain Dead Freak.

He is an evil, narcissistic, lying, senile, flatulent, brain dead freak.

I hate this spaz so much it's embarrassing. This so called man who stopped the heroin trials because of his personal morals against the advice of numerous drug committees has forced me into the world of methadonia. I am a prime candidate for the heroin prescription plan that is part of some countries health plans ... and soon to be part of many countries health plans. Each day I wake up with pain and depression. I take my methadone and about an hour later I start to feel better. This lasts for about 2 hours and then I am flat out trying to feel normal again. This normal can mostly be achieved via a great medication called heroin. Why do medical experts, welfare workers and scientists understand this but not certain people especially politicians? I will tell you why - CONSERVATISM.

CONSERVATISM. The term itself is repressive. The opposite to progressive. Did society get here today by being conservative? No. It actually was the factor that stopped women voting, minority groups voting, Gay rights getting acknowledged, climate control etc. Howard is pushing the agenda that he and his merrymen are economic conservatives. Rudd also attributes himself as an economic conservative. WTF? This is not good, this is bad. This means budget surpluses which is an oxymoron anyway because a budget is suppose to balance. Surpluses just means that the Government is not spending our tax we pay on services. If Australia had perfect hospitals, schools etc. then a surplus would be good but this irresponsible Government just wanted to have a surplus to boast economic conservatism.

Paul Keating came out and hammered Costello for being the “laziest, most indolent, unimaginative treasurer in our post-war history”. I actually had time for Costello once but Keating is God when it comes to economics and it made me think. Keating went on to say how it was actually the unions that started the low inflation trend that Howard attributes to the Libs great handling of the economy via economic conservatism. Keating produced some notes from May 1995 that showed it was the ACTU secretary Bill Kelty who suggested a limit on inflation of just 3 per cent, which was taken up by the Reserve Bank chief Bernie Fraser. This again proves Howard is a liar and indicates that Costello is not what he is cracked up to be. If lying, surpluses or doing nothing is the fundamentals of conservative economics then Rudd, the self appointed me-too economic conservative will probably not be much better.

FYI: A Neoconservative (Neocon) is someone who follows the political view that was made popular by Leo Strauss, an American Political Science Professor from the University of Chicago. Strauss had a dedicated group of students and followers including Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Perle. The neoconservative ideologies were strengthened in the U.S. by George Bush Snr., Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney during the presidency of Gerald Ford and were responsible for the first neocon president, Ronald Reagan. The pinnacle of the neocon agenda is with the current Bush adminstration and has had many neo-cons including G.W. Bush, Scooter Libby, Richard Armitage, Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, John Bolton and Elliott Abrams. The basic philosophy is that the U.S. should be seen as the setter of moral standards worldwide and it should enforce it's democracy on other countries. The people should not question their government and should be more concerned with nationalism via patriotism and morals via christianity. Liberal views deflate social morality and individualism only distract from nations goals. Neocons who follow the Strauss ideal is best summed up in this paper by Shadia B. Drury:

The trouble with the Straussians is that they are compulsive liars. But it is not altogether their fault. Strauss was very pre-occupied with secrecy because he was convinced that the truth is too harsh for any society to bear; and that the truth-bearers are likely to be persecuted by society - specially a liberal society - because liberal democracy is about as far as one can get from the truth as Strauss understood it

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Leo Strauss and the neoconservatives

John Howard is a neocon in that he supports the Bush administration's agenda. He shares many ideals with G.W. Bush and blindly supports the U.S. e.g. The War on Terror, The War on Drugs, Israel occupation and human rights abuse, anti-abortion, pro christian moral propaganda, religious rhetoric, forced U.S. style democracy via military intervention, executive power overriding courts and constitutions, extreme secrecy, loss of civil rights, tax cuts for the wealthy etc.

Neoconservatism

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