Lies, lies and more damned lies

I wasted half an hour of my life watching President Bush's latest speech to the American people.

What a load of arse, is all I can say.

Thirty minutes of my life I shall never recover, I feel well ripped off.

How can the President of a 'freedom loving' democractic nation get away with his continual use of half truths, lies and total fabrications when addressing his constituants?

How can he and his administration continue to link Saddam Hussain with September 11?

How can the American public and the world sit back and not see these speeches as what they are - rather badly constructed propaganda. Josef Gobbels would be ashamed.

How, how, how..... hell it really is a insult to anyone thinking person on this planet and any other life forms that may be watching us from afar. This sort of shit demands ET stay home, don't visit cause we is morons. Brutal, violent, uncaring and hypocricitical morons.

One of the blessings of our free society is that we can debate these issues openly, even in a time of war. Most of the debate has been a credit to our democracy, but some have launched irresponsible charges. They say that we act because of oil, that we act in Iraq because of Israel, or because we misled the American people.

said George...

They are of course right, the President leads by misleading. The Bush speech failed to adhere to the most basic rules of integrity, even for a politician.

Jeeze I should be used to this crap by now, yet having had the displeasure of a sleepless night and thus stumbling upon said speech, then foolishly watching it I have only myself to blame, perhaps thats why I am so wound up.

I see this morning the polls have closed in Iraq, Condi - can I call her that?

The President does so why not me - I reckon he can't pronouce her full name... well anyways Condoleezza Rice, I mean Condi, has already declared the election a victory for democracy... she did the same thing immediately after the polls closed in Afganistan too - I wouldn't be surprised if she already knows the results, even if it takes two weeks for the votes to be tallied and counted on the ground.

New Zealand based Iraqi's can't vote - 3000 of them (approx) because Iraq only allows 15 nations to have their local Iraq population vote in the elections - whats with that? If they fly to Sydney they could cast a vote, they might get the bash over there as well...

Democracy is rapidly becoming a very dirty word.

Speaking of dirty, hows them Australians.... the race riots of the past week are for someone sitting just across the ditch (Tasman Sea for the geographically inclined) are quite shocking and frightening for us Kiwis.

Shit like that would never happen here we smugly congratulate oursleves and you know I doubt very much that sort of thing would, we learnt a lot in 1981 (Springbok Tour) and have learnt even more since.

We have our race problems, we have our cultural biases, we have our fair share of thugs and red necks... we are also very similar to our cousins across that there ditch, yet we are so different too and one thing we know, even the haters, that rascism just ain't cool or acceptable in this country. I hope this never changes. No scrub that I hope we get better at this living together lark, for whilst I am proud of how we as a nation have tackled many of our race issues, there is always more we can do, both as a nation and as individuals.

As the weekend nears I imagine that Sydney readies itself for more violence, more hate and more tragedy. Lets hope that whatever happens over there it is minor compared to last weekend, I somehow doubt it but we can only hope.

Prime Minister Howard and his government has done a lot to promote racist tendancies, whilst saying the complete opposite, he really is a horrible piece of work.

Though he ain't alone, the media's role in Australia and the US continues to further promote division, misunderstanding and the lack of debate still continues, yes it is slowly getting better but its not enough, both timewise and editorially.

Wishful thinking and lies are the domain of the mainstream media in this day and age, there is better objective reporting and more honest at that of trivial (in world terms) local news in most media than there is for major international events - why is this, well I and many know its about business, politics and ultimately money but the question still needs addressing and must be asked over and over again....

A picture they say is worth a thousand words, so heres one that sums up so many of my thoughts...