Dear Visitors,
other than the man himself, the in my books legendary Hans Soellner. In all my years on planet earth have I never come across another singer like him. It is hard to describe him, so it is probably best if you just read one of his lyrics. The song I've chosen is titled "Hey Staat", meaning in English "Hey State", from his 1989 album with the same name.Hey State!Hans is a musician who calls a spade a spade, who expresses in his bavarian dialect a sentiment that I initially just
I go to school and learn only what you think I need to know, if that is of interest to me is of no interest to you, you couldn't care less
From the beginning, all you are trying to do is to bend me the way you need me, I let it happen thinking that you probably know what's right
Then I go to work and I slog 8 hours every day in my damned job, and from the money I earn you deduct straight away two thirds
And the few bucks I am left with just about pay the rent, gas and light, and I need to go into debt so not to freeze in winter time
Refrain: Hey State, hey State, hey State,..... today I tell you about all the tings I do for you, and then you tell me what it is you do for me
You tell me what I should wear, how to cut my hair, my education and my job. Even my religion you prescribe, and I fool pay although I don't even have a god.
The one who points his finger at me, I am meant to respect and honour him! The one who has killed entire people or converted over the barrel of a gun.
Buying your drugs, beer and schnaps, but you reprimand me when I take'em, discriminate against me because I smoke, hey you are the state, its you who earns.
You are well off because of people like me, for that you should actually be grateful
that we sustain you, pay you, for your blah blah, your insults and lies.
Refrain: Hey State, hey State, hey State,..... today I tell you about all the tings I do for you, and then you tell me what it is you do for me
Oh man, I am not good enough for your daughters, before others you are ashamed of me
You call me a ferral and dumb, should be glad that there are still dumb ones. Only through the brownnosers can you live, through the ones who don't complain and who hold their hands before their mouths when they talk
For thirty years I played along, and did what you told me, but now, that I stand up and stick up for myself, coz' I finally feel that enough is enough, yeah then you call me a grouch and criminal, wishing you could line me up against the wall.
Refrain: Hey State, hey State, hey State,..... today I tell you about all the tings I do for you, and then you tell me what it is you do for me
And today we are standing at the Odeon's Square and are singing "Blowing in the Wind", with thousands of other peaceniks are we standing here,
Three thousand who show you that protests can be peaceful and responsible, but on TV you show forty skinheads on a rampage somewhere.
You show run amok rioters in Wackersdorf*, how bricks and bottles are thrown
But not the protesters who in sympathy care for your police.
Yeah I am ashamed of the people who fired shots at the Startbahn West protest, but its you who makes sure that everyone believes that all of us are like that.
Refrain: Hey State, hey State, hey State,..... today I tell you about all the tings I do for you, and then you tell me what it is you do for me
You also should be ashamed sometimes, hey state, maybe for the little kids who are dying on leukemia and their parents who are holding their hands and cry.
Your time is up, just like mine, and in the end it won't touch me all that much, but my son has sixty years ahead of him and I'll do everything so that he'll make it.
You are no role model anymore for me, you got obese from all the money that others had to earn with sweat, and even the hunger in this world
is good for your laughs and profits, with which you run a genocide
oh man none of us voted you in to pull that crap.
Refrain: Hey State, hey State, hey State,..... today I tell you about all the tings I do for you, and then hey state, I tell you what I think you represent to me.
understood, but progressively more and more share. He is not afraid of naming the worst politicians and showing society a less than polished mirror, for which he naturally cops plenty of criticism and hostility from various sides, and is victimized by the so called authorities, you know people with uniforms and mustache. In reality, with their narrow- mindedness, obvious to everyone else but seemingly unbeknown to them, they simply confirm that he is spot on with the musical pictures he paints, that it is a self-righteous community of hypocrites he lives in.Poll, Iraqis disillusionedAnd now to John Howard's magic trick. Abracadabra fidibus and we get this from today's The West Australian:
Iraqis are feeling increasingly pessimistic and insecure about their future, four years after the US-led invasion of Iraq, according to a poll published today.
According to the survey, just 39 per cent of Iraqis questioned think things are going well in their lives, while only 35 per cent think their lives will improve over the next year.
Just 40 per cent believe the general situation will improve.
The poll, commissioned by the BBC and US broadcaster ABC News, made for generally bleak reading, with barely more than a quarter — 26 per cent — of respondents saying they felt safe in their own neighbourhoods.
Other basic necessities were also found to be lacking, with 88 per cent of respondents saying the availability of electricity was either "quite bad" or "very bad"...
Cautious sense of optimism in Iraq: PMIncredible, Joh Bjelke Howard is amazing, David Copperfield couldn't have done this better.
Prime Minister John Howard says there is a new sense of cautious optimism in Baghdad...
Howard excels when it comes to matesYou Beauty! How can someone not vote for the Liberal Party, Australia's Grand Old Party. So sophisticated, so refreshingly corrupt, so magic.
YOU might call it the FOG syndrome. Friends of the Government just keep getting appointed to the commanding heights of the system, into key positions on government boards and instrumentalities that either compete with, or can have a profound effect on, Australian business.
...But the Howard Government has arguably taken it to the next level. While this is not to question their capacities, or suggest that they are not well qualified in their own right, many top jobs on government boards and agencies have gone to prominent supporters, heads of key business lobby groups, big financial donors to the Coalition parties, staffers, or people personally close to senior ministers.
The latest is last week's appointment of former senior private secretary to John Howard, cabinet secretary and now company director, Paul McClintock, as chairman of Australia's biggest private health insurer, the Commonwealth Government-owned Medibank Private. Just by-the-by, McClintock is also chairman of Symbion Health, a company with extensive interests in private health care, health centres, radiology and medical imaging, pharmaceuticals and other health products like vitamins.
Of course, the Government denies his appointment represents any risk of a conflict of interest, despite what, to the lay observer, would appear to be a fertile field with Symbion on one side as a health goods and service supplier and Medicare Private on the other as a major insurer and funder of such goods and services...
John Howard Jr:
Dear austie,
Simple question, simple answer: Because they were written by the Liberal Party. Single moms, people with disabilities, Uni students, pensioners, workers in the lower income brackets, doesn’t matter. The plebs need to understand that the business end of town needs to be looked after, and if that means having to shift money from the working class wallets to Big Biz profit & loss reports, then so be it. We are the Liberal Party, that is what we do.
Yours gleefully,
John Howard Jraustie:
Dear John Howard Jr.,
I knew there must be a rational explanation, and it is reassuring to know that our beloved government, and Prime Minister work so hard to maintain only afterall, a reasonable standard of living for those who are the real most needy amongst us.
It is easy to forget how costly it can be to run the private yacht, not to mention how dear it is today simply to travel first class.
It is outrageous of course having to pay for the occasional slice of pizza, and a drop of Californian.
I appreciate your kind help in clarifying this complex situation for me.
Kind regards,
Your average mug.
John Howard Jr:
Hello austie,
good to hear that you are with us Liberals on this. Goes to show that there is still hope for Tasmania, if you pass on your e-mail addy I’ll promise to forward it to our Liberal Special Human Intelligence Team (Liberal SHIT) in Hobart, who will be more than happy to invite you to their SHIT meetings.
You see, we need people in the working class who are willing to defend us Uptown dwellers, who have a grasp on the fact that if there are no Big Business profits, the companies will leave Australia and go to India or China where they get away with paying a pittance and no unions to make a stink about it. And if there are no companies, there is no work. Simple. We therefore have to introduce Indian and Chinese wage levels & workers rights to Australia, you know, to save or possibly even generate jobs.
Of course there is always the lottery or e-bay with which you proletarians can escape the mortgaged suburbs and join us on the winner side. Thats what we Liberals stand for, Hope. So keep playing Keno and selling stuff on e-bay, you might be debt free one day, not through work, but through ingenuity and luck, thats what we Liberals stand for, Luck to the brave.
So, thanx for your reply. I trust you’ll be voting Liberal at the next election (no, better, for the rest of your life) and ensure the success of our IR Laws revolution, as it is about choices, your choices - live in Australia and work for a few dollars all day or live in China and work for a few dollars a day. Remember, under Labor you wouldn’t have this important choice.
Best wishes
John Howard Jr
austie:
Dear John Howard Jr,
It amazes me to learn, and I must say that it is hard for me to admit this, just how wrong I have been in my thinking. I have always had a profound interest in China, and the Chinse people and I can see now there really is no better way to learn about this ancient culture than by working much longer hours at Chinese rates. This all seems so obvious to me now that I am embarrassed to say that I did not realise it earlier.
Of course there is the economic side of this miracle too. After all my needs are simply and let’s face it, do we really need to eat everyday? Obviously if we reduce wages we can reduce the extravagant expenditure on things like unnecessary food, educational costs – I am sure you would agree – on children who should learn to stay in their proper places as servants and butlers to those too busy with the cares of the world to attend to their own immediate personal needs. Acknowledging that all employers and Liberal Politicians are omnipotent and obviously know far more that we do about what is right and wrong, why would we ever need health coverage, because if we work hard how can we ever possible get sick?
I must confess to a great sense of relief knowing as I now do our proper place in the scheme of things. I was wondering - this is just an idea from the top of my head, whether … we could introduce the Indian caste system here. This would simplify things enormously.
I truly appreciate your comments … to say that the light has finally gone on in my dark abyss of ignorance … well … words fail me.
I remain eternally indebted to you for my sudden enlightenment.
Kind regards,
Your average mug
P.S.
When you left you shoes for polishing you didn’t tell me when you were going to collect them, so I have assumed that you will want them soonest. I apologise for not having them done earlier.
P.P.S.
I must admit to an embarrassment of a totally different kind now. It seems that, well … due to my lower wages that I just don’t have $10 today to pay you for this wonderful opportunity to clean your shoes, so I was wondering, is it OK if I pay you next week, 
or would you simply prefer to take my car?
John Howard Jr:
Hello Austie,
first up regarding the shoes, of course its alright if you pay me next week. Fortunately us Liberals have kept the interest rates low as promised, so you should be able to afford the slight increase in payments. I might take you up on your offer though and take the car (as collateral) until you made payment in full.
Secondly, as you pointed out correctly, food is so overrated and in our Liberal policy papers is fittingly classed as a luxury item. In a real workers paradise we don’t need that kind of lavishness, there is always the fingernails to chew on, who simply regrow and can be easily shared with friends or family. When the times get tough, the Liberals get going, welcome on board. When I pick up my shoes err.. sorry, when you drop of my shoes, ask my housekeeper to hand you the Liberal Guide to Clever Rationing And Poverty (CRAP), a must read for people who care about our lucky country. Getting by was never any easier.
Talking about education, as you might know, us Liberals have always been in favor of pragmatic and outcome based learning, preferably centered around the concept of mutual obligation. Children should learn the skills to succeed in later life, so knowing how to set a table or vacuum your employer’s car is essential to achieve their goals in adulthood. In order to be able to fill in a ballot paper correctly come election time, kids should also learn how to recognise the word Liberal. So there is lots to be taught, on the job training being the preferred method, and under a liberal government you can rest assured the costs to parents will be not exceeding their life savings.
Finally, I really like your idea of Australia adopting the Indian caste system, or at least make it official, because, and lets be honest about this, effectively we actually have already implemented this scheme. Us Liberals think ahead, our core quality which sets us apart from the rest of the field, a liberal trademark so to speak that is appreciated by the Australian electorate and industry. You might have noticed that I rarely speak to working class people and I encourage all my fellow Bentley Club members to take a similar approach when dealing with the masses. This guarantees an orderly society where people know their place whilst fulfilling our human need for belonging.
I appreciate your lines of encouragement and, with warm regards, remain
Yours truly
John Howard Jr
.
a move which sparked widespread opposition and protests. The reason for his suspension are most likely some of the judge's recent court rulings, which have the potential to turn out uncomfortable for Musharraf. This was a political hatchet job, and the press / people smelled the roast.The military establishment faces the choice of clamping down hard on opposition or allowing the protests to run their course.From what I can gather, Musharraf has been walking on rather thin ice for quite a while. He was lucky to survive three assassination/coup attempts since taking over in 1999, the last one just recently was foiled and has shown that his own military is infiltrated by Al-Quaida supporters. Which sort of explains why he has no sympathy for them, catch 22 so to say, but demonstrates at the same time his weakness
"There is undoubtedly a political eruption after a prolonged political lull in the country, and if it is sustained it could go a long way. However, there is always a threat from the establishment that it will make some moves todivide the politicians and lawyers," commented retired Lieutenant-General Hamid Gul, a former head of the Inter-Services Intelligence.
"Musharraf created the situation where a clash of the military establishment and civil society seems to be imminent. There is .... anger among the masses towards the present military rulers," Gul said.
Militants feed off such anger, so once again Washington is pondering whether Musharraf may be more the problem than the solution.
of being undermined from within his own supposed powerbase.
For instance, the alleged chief operations manager of AQ, who is currently in the news with his astounding admissions of having orchestrated if not even executed most of AQ's terrorist attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, was hunted down and arrested in Pakistan 4 years ago.But Tehran probably has fresh grounds to reassess Musharraf's intentions. Or, it is running out of patience. Last month, terrorists killed 13 officials of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards in Zahedan. Last week, in another incident in the town of Negor in Sistan-Balochistan, four Iranian policemen were killed, one abducted and another wounded. The perpetrators fled across the border into Pakistan.What I found most interesting though in the above quoted AT article were the the last 4 paragraphs, where the author, M K Bhadrakumar, a former Indian Foreign Service diplomat, is suggesting that the real issue for America in the US-Iran-Pakistan politics triangle is, surprise surprise, natural resources and their distribution, as in pipelines and US access to them:
Iran last week announced its intention to erect a 3-meter-high concrete wall reinforced with steel rods along its border with Pakistan. Islamabad put on a brave face, with the Foreign Ministry maintaining, "The fence is on the Iranian side of the border, and we have no problem with that." But Tehran calculates that the sheer humiliation of being treated as an infectious gangrene by all its neighbors - Afghanistan, India and Iran - should eventually begin to tell on the Musharraf regime...
...there is a sideshow to these happenings that is no less profound. US intelligence operatives must be laughing all the way to Washington that they could manage with such ease what their suave diplomats (and wily Congress members) have had a hard time achieving in recent years - arresting Islamabad and New Delhi from finalizing the $7 billion Iran-Pakistan-India gas-pipeline project. In geopolitical terms, the project holds the definite potential to forge a unified Asian energy market, with deep implications for US energy security.
Washington was increasingly finding it counterproductive to resort to arm-twisting New Delhi and Islamabad into putting the project on the back burner until such time as US-Iran relations were normalized and Washington, too, could dip into Iran's energy reserves.Should Musharraf be ousted and Pakistan find its way back to a democratic system, the US would probably loose in the medium to long-term an important ally in the region. 90% of todays 165 million Pakistanis are Muslims (20 Shia, 70 Sunni), of whom many would certainly vote for parties which express the anti-western views many muslims hold.
Now, just as it was becoming clear that the three regional capitals were inching toward finalization of the project at a trilateral meeting in Tehran in June, the high volatility in the security situation in the Iran-Pakistan border region puts question marks on their energy dialogue. To be sure, the pipeline project is predicated on a climate of trust and confidence prevailing among the three parties.
There was much merit in US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's recent fulsome praise that "this has been a stalwart fighter, Pakistan's Musharraf, in this fight". Those in Washington who insinuated that he deserved "an unusually tough message" over the "war on terror" have since hastily beaten a retreat. They didn't know what they were saying.
...The universe is immense and existence is hard, in the best sense of the word, and God just seems like too pat an answer, too self-serving. Add in the codifications—faiths --that allow one set of believers to pit themselves against all others and the harm done by this self-serving idea very easily outweighs the good...In other words, NO, or at least unlikely enough so as to render the concept not worth believing in.
my Hall of Thoughts on various occasions, I come to a similar deduction, the one almighty God is a human concept born in the hope for equalising justice and a life after death, a omnipotent being that can be used as universal explanation for what is and isn't happening.What if Jesus came back today, after 2000 years of Christianity? We, Christians or not, would stick him into a mental institution or jail, not the cross anymore, no, we have finally moved on from that after burning people alive for 16 hundred years, but we'd declare him a fraud, a loony, an extremist.Jesus would be living as an itinerant, hang out with people our society classes as "loosers", he'd be a rebellious activist with a record for trespassing and being a nuisance in public. I couldn't explain this paradox much better than Kev Carmody, (I recommend his albums, essential listening) :
He was born in Asia Minor,
a colonized Jewish man.
His father the village carpenter,
worked wood in his occupied land.
He was apprenticed to his father's trade.
His country paid it's dues;
to the colonial Roman conquerors,
He was a working-class Jew.
Though conceived three months out of wedlock
the stigma never stuck.
He began a three year public life
but he never made a buck
because he spoke out against injustice;
saw that capitalism bled the poor.
He attacked self-righteous hypocrites
and he condemned the lawyers' law.
But they've commercialised his birthday now;
the very people he defied,
and they've sanctified their system
and claim he's on their side!
But if he appeared tomorrow,
He'd still pay the highest cost,
being a 'radical agitator'
they'd still nail him to a cross.
You see He'd stand with the down trodden masses,
identify with the weak and oppressed.
He'd condemn the hypocrites in church pews,
and the affluent, arrogant West.
He'd oppose Stalinist totalitarianism;
the exploitation of millions by one,
and 'peace' through mutual terror,
and diplomacy from the barrel of a gun.
He'd fight with Joe Hill and Walesa,
Mandela and Friere;
Try to free the third world's millions
from hunger and despair.
He'd stand with the peasants
at the pock-marked walls;
They'd haul him in on bail.
He'd condemn all forms of apartheid,
and he'd rot in their stinking jails.
He'd denounce all dictatorships
and Mammon's greed,
and the exploitation of others for gain.
He'd oppose the nuclear madness,
and the waging of wars in His name.
He'd mix with prostitutes and sinners,
challenge all to cast the first stone.
A compassionate agitator,
one of the greatest the world has known.
He'd condemn all corrupt law and order,
tear man made hierarchies down.
He'd see status and titles as dominance
and the politics of greed he'd hound.
He'd fight against the leagues of the Ku Klux Klan,
and the radical, racist right.
One of the greatest humanitarian socialists
was comrade, Jesus Christ.
"When did I realize I was God? Well, I was praying and I suddenly realized I was talking to myself."That's it, not much more to say. IMHO we are all Gods/Goddesses, and because being a God means existing forever, and eternity being pretty boring after a while, we invented life, to escape the boredom of being a God.
Peter O'Toole
When we die we go back to being Gods, catch up with other Gods in Godland, and when we are fed up with godliness, we line up and parachute into a creature being born at that moment. One time round we want to find out what it is like to be a hungry child in Africa, next time round we line up in the rich kid column.Nuclear facility may go ahead despite traditional owners' oppositionI remember reading in Saturday's paper that there are about 400 TO's included in the payment plan. OK, lets do the math:
Federal Member for Lingiari Warren Snowdon says legislation passed last year may see a nuclear waste facility go ahead at Muckaty Station, despite some traditional owners opposing it. A weekend newspaper reported the Federal Government has offered traditional owners of the site north of Tennant Creek $9 million every five years to use their land....
Federal Government as a radioactive waste depository. Would you agree to this contract if it be your land? How much would you want if it' be you who's ancestors have lived and are buried there?Inquiry fails to uncover Aboriginal paedophile ringsWho remembers the claims made? The media hype? I do, and the people wrongly accused probably do. Whole communities were branded with those accusations. I mean it's good that the police and other investigative bodies follow up any claims, you never know, terrible if it is true and nothing was done. But to label whole communities as paedophiles or paedophile supporters, and that's what Mal Brough and the ABC Lateline did, without having substantial proof that this is the case , is less than helpful in the fight
The co-chairs of an inquiry into child sex abuse in the Northern Territory say they have not uncovered any paedophile rings in the Territory's Aboriginal communities....
against child abuse. From memory there was one suspect reported by community members, and before you knew it it was a whole ring and then entire communities. Crikey did last September an interesting piece on what effect such slander has on the people attacked and Mark Lawrence a follow up. Anyway, it turns out there was no such ring, can't wait for Mal Brough to officially apologise to the communities involved.Native Title Tribunal chief to quitAfter reading those three stories today, I couldn't help but wonder how much the indigenous community can take before they have collectively a gutful. For them it seems everyday is Bad News day. This country has by god a lot to say sorry for.
The head of Australia's native title agency says he is quitting his position because the system is too concerned with legal technicalities to provide real results....
…If you stand up and say your policy is to bring about a withdrawal of all combat units by March 2008, that is noted by terrorist leaders. It is a source of encouragement and comfort,…
PM John Howard
Hansard
12th February 2007
time scale than the Iraqi population. For the COW soldiers to “wait out” the insurgency would mean they’d have to move there, probably forever.…Iraq possesses huge reserves of oil and gas -- reserves I'd love Chevron to have access to…And, voila, 9 years later they have, more access than most other countries would give private corporations. Comments by analysts to the newly approved Iraqi National Oil laws:
Kenneth T. Derr
Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer
Chevron Corporation
Speech To the Commonwealth Club of California
San Francisco, California
November 5, 1998
…Iraq will not be capable of controlling the levels -- the limits of production, which means that Iraq cannot be a part of OPEC anymore. And Iraq will have this very complicated institution called the Federal Oil and Gas Council, that will have representatives from the foreign oil companies on the board of it, so representatives from, let’s say, ExxonMobil and Shell and British Petroleum will be on the federal board of Iraq approving their own contracts.IMHO, the motivations for the invasion are the determining factor for the time of withdrawal. The exit strategy for Iraq hinges on the original objectives being achieved. From the initial US support of Saddam Hussein in the war against Iran, to the harsh sanctions against Iraq after the Kuwait invasion, to Operation Shock and Awe, to Fallujah, to Abu Ghraib, I get the impression that the well being of the common Iraqi was never really the main concern of the West's engagement in that country. The primary objective appears to be more of economic and geo-strategic nature, oust Saddam Hussein and secure Iraq's oil supply for western oil cos, and whilst there establish some bases near Iran, Russia and Israel.
…the law certainly opens the door to US oil companies and the Bush administration winning a very large piece of their objective of going to war in Iraq, at least winning it on paper. The law does almost word for word what was laid out in the Baker-Hamilton recommendation, which I discussed previously on your show, which is, at the very basic level, to turn Iraq's nationalized oil system, the model that 90% of the world’s oil is governed by, take its nationalized oil system and turn it into a commercial system fully open to foreign corporate investment on terms as of yet to be decided...
