The Australian government’s habit of playing fast and loose with the truth increases the risk of our spooks becoming traitors, warns a former intelligence officer.
Corporations as Psychopaths
Many large companies seem to fulfil the psychiatric criteria for psychopaths, according to research by the Turku School of Economics in Finland.
We Are At War!
“We are again locked in war,” says Roger Bell. “Locked in an ideological battle, locked in the language — very exaggerated language — of ideological conflict.”
Roger Bell, Professor of International Studies at the University of New South Wales, isn’t surprised that the debates and contexts of McCarthyism have resurfaced.
[These debates are] particularly about free speech, and in a broader sense also about — in the American case — about Americanism, and un-American activities, about traitors within, about evil enemies etc.
So when Bush speaks in my view in very exaggerated terms, about the evil of Islam, or the evil of terrorism, he, as it were, takes the political rhetoric to another level. And when acts such as the Patriot Act are invoked domestically to repress or to limit freedom of expression at home, then it’s to be expected that many of those traditional debates in a democratic society will re-surface.
Part of a much longer conversation in ABC Radio National program The Media Report last week. Worth a listen. (transcript) (podcast)
Peter Debnam, you’re just as bad
The other day I wrote about the incompetence of NSW Premier, Morris Iemma. Well today’s “effort” by Liberal opposition leader Peter Debnam shows that next year’s state election is going to be a Battle of the Midgets.
Earlier today, Iemma announced massive cuts to the NSW public service, including the loss of 5000 jobs.
Debnam’s brilliantly strategic response? They should be sacking more. 29,000, he says.
I know it’s the role of an Opposition to oppose. But:
- I reckon a good few of those 29,000 you want to sack are exactly the swinging votors you need to keep onside; and
- You have just over a year to convince us that you’d be a better government than the one we have now.
You’re pushing it, Peter. I even had to look up your name, you’re that (un-)memorable.
Apparently Iemma is on the wane with NSW voters but, Peter, he’s still leading you in the polls by 20 percentage points.
Morris Iemma, you f—wit!
What a stupid fuss last week, just because NSW Premier Morris Iemma referred to someone as a “f—wit”. Really, it’s the kind of language you can hear on the bus any old day. But the fact that it got into the media demonstrates Iemma’s basic incompetence.
The Sydney Morning Herald quoted Iemma’s words last Saturday. He was talking with Victorian Premier, Steve Bracks:
Bracks: “Any issues at home in NSW?”
Iemma: “Today, um, well this f***wit is the new CEO of the Cross City Tunnel and has been saying, ‘Oh, well, what controversy? There is no controversy.'”
Iemma’s manner was “relaxed and jovial”, says the Herald. The comment was “off-the-cuff”. In other words, it exactly the sort of thing an Aussie block would do to express his frustration.
Big deal.
What the NSW ALP should really worry about is the incompetence this demonstrates.
Iemma says he didn’t realise that the microphones were turned on. But one of the first things you learn in the media is to assume every microphone and every camera is live — unless you know specifically that it’s not.
Is Iemma really such a newcomer that he doesn’t know this? It shows what happens when you choose a Premier based on factional deals rather than assessing his or her skills.
But hey, who could the NSW ALP pick that’d be any better?