‘Sub-Prime’ Explained as Never Before

Nov 12, 2007 | Australian Values, Corruption, Economic Values, Humour, Values

‘Sub-Prime’ Explained as Never Before

 

“Too stupid to be real…”

 

If you only watch one online comedy sketch this year, (as we used to say (almost) at ABC Promos) this should be it. 
We promise. You will laugh…and perhaps cry at the same time,

If you ever wondered what was up with those “Sub-Prime Mortgages” and why they were creating such havoc in the financial world, the famous and hilarious British comedy team of John Fortune and John Bird will explain it all to you.

No, they really will.

It looks like comedy and it sounds like comedy and it all seems too stupid to be real. Surely it’s all made up. But you should know that the “High-Grade Structured Credit Strategies Enhanced Leverage Fund” is very real, and so is “Bear Stearns“.

“The people that lent all this money must have been incredibly stupid…

“Oh, no…no…no. The reality is that what was stupid is that at some point somebody asked how much money these houses were actually worth! If they hadn’t have bothered to ask that question everything would have gone on as perfectly normal…but unfortunately they did…”

Enjoy!

 

Chateau Quelquechose

Nov 12, 2007 | Australian Values, Citizenship, Corruption, Cultural Values, Democracy, Economic Values, OzPol Values, Religious Values, Values

Chateau Quelquechose

 

Gone out the window

 

We were on the train this morning and for the first time in a long time noticed the truly stuffed in our society and how comprehensively invisible they are to most of us. “Stuffed” in the bad way, not ‘stuffed’ like a Liberal politician after a fine meal and a cheeky Chateau Quelquechose or two (at the tax-payer’s expense). And we saw clearly what it is that we hate so much about what Howard has done to our country.

Once upon a time we seemed to care about our society as a society; as a community, you might say.

If someone was down we picked them up because they were part of our team. We looked after them. Now it is all about looking after No. 1. It’s not because people have become more callous. We have just had to learn to look after ourselves in order to survive and avoid being the ones who are stuffed, ourselves.

We have had to learn to be selfish, because all around us has grown this culture of greed fostered by Howard.

We at Values Australia have nothing personally against “stuff”, acquisition, money – even lots of it – but we can’t seem to enjoy it the way we’d like to when others can’t find enough for them or their kids to eat. Or a bed to sleep in, or something to hope for and look forward to in the future.

These days, of course what we prefer to say to these people is, “get over it”, “stand on your own feet”, “if you can’t get a job these days you’re a lazy dickhead who deserves to suffer.” “Where’s me bloody Plasma?”

Ultimately, a society is judged not by its average accumulations of wealth and belongings, not on its greatest and wealthiest but on its very least – on how the community looks after its own, its most needy, and lifts them up. That takes a real, not a rhetorical, sense of community – a whole community – a responsible community.

And that is what has gone out the window as a direct result of this nasty, hateful, selfish, grasping ideology of John Howard’s.

And that is why he must go, before he irreparably tears apart everything that actually made this the best country on earth.

 

As Captain Whyte, a lifelong Liberal voter, said:

“I’m sick of living in an economy; I want to live in a society”.

And, for the christians — as JC his very self is reputed to have said:

“Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”

Who is DIC’s Grima Wormtongue?

Nov 2, 2007 | Australian Values, Border Security, Corruption, Democracy, Freedom of Speech, Immigration, OzPol Values, Religious Values, Values

Who is DIC’s Grima Wormtongue?

Polishing your arse on a public service seat

 

A leading defence lawyer and close follower of the Haneef case, barrister Greg Barns, last night said the emails showed that “the AFP in conjunction with the Government were essentially completely undermining the judicial process”.
“They were ripping up the doctrine of the separation of powers,” Mr Barns said.

“What you are seeing here is the politicisation of an investigation and the AFP working hand-in-glove to formulate that.

“It shows there was a pre-judgment by Minister Andrews and the Government, prior to the magistrate’s decision being taken, and this decision was politically stage-managed rather than being done according to law.”

What a disappointment for poor Gollum Andrews! Brimming with christian belief, though of limited intellect, and a desire to do good in the world (at least as defined by his christian beliefs) he is now reduced to being the bumboy for a frail, doomed old man. Instead of doing good he has apparently been breaking the law, or at least his oath to serve the Australian people ‘well and truly’. Is it treason or a high crime in Australia to betray a sworn oath? Forced to blow the racist dog-whistle last month. Forced to rip up the separation of powers over Haneef. Forced to ignore habeas corpus. Forced to sell his soul to the devil (tough gig for a christian boy).

Frankly, we don’t care any more about Kevi Andrews. He’s a goner politically. He’s been converted from an idealist to a party hack. He should just go.

We’re far more interested in who gave him the advice. Why, wouldn’t the best man for the job be the owner of a Public Service Medal – rumoured to be obtainable by polishing your arse on a public service seat for enough years?

Wouldn’t the perfect person for the job be someone who would be responsible for, say, borders, compliance, and detention? Someone with a special interest, perhaps, in visas and the use of the visa as a tool for enforcing whole of government policy?

Wouldn’t the ideal person be someone who, having made a glorious career out of devising exciting new ways to punish the unemployed for being unemployed, had then turned his obvious talents to the continuing and fascinating problem of devising innovative ways to punish refugees for being desperate?

Why, stap me bollocks!

Could it be our own Grima Wormtongue, our old friend Bob Correll?

Surely not?

Surely Bob could not conceivably have been involved in any way in helping to devise a special contingency plan to entertain Mohamed Haneef for just a little bit longer in Australia? Naah. But if he had, might he have broken the law in doing so?  Don’t know.

Look, sorry, would you mind if Bob and I just have a private conversation over here? Just talk amongst yourself for a moment……

Yeah, look, Bob, it seems as though your political masters are going to be turfed in a couple of weeks and that might land you in a bit of a spot, you know? I mean, you’re a bit too…politicised?…don’t you agree? Just a little bit too…tainted?…with the extremist brush, do you think, to be really acceptable to the new regime? You probably should see if you can’t find something to “fall back on”, if you know what I mean.

Well, it just so happens that apparently there are any number of really effective job agencies, federally funded as it turns out, who could have you come in for several hours a week and read the job ads in their free newspapers, or trawl through the internet CareerOne ads for warehouse general hands and jobs like that. Some of those jobs pay up to $15 an hour! Several of them may even be within 90 minutes travelling distance of your home! And to keep you going for the time being there’s this truly excellent and efficient and caring organisation called Centrelink where you can stand in a queue for a few hours each fortnight to help pass the time. And in return they’ll begrudgingly give you enough money to pay about half of your essential living expenses each fortnight, so that’s something to look forward to, Bob, eh? What do you think? Bob?

Bob?

G’day again. Sorry. Bob’s just gone off. Don’t know why he was upset. Hope he finds a job that suits his talents. Maybe he could have a chat to Blackwater – they’re pretty big on “compliance”. Maybe with his experience in remote detention policy he could be a consultant to Guantánamo. Maybe he could sell off a couple of basic Australian values for a few pieces of silver…

How Howard ‘Destroyed’ Hanson

Oct 27, 2007 | Australian Values, Border Security, Citizenship, Corruption, Cultural Values, Democracy, Immigration, OzPol Values, Racism, Religious Values, Terrorism, Values

How Howard ‘Destroyed’ Hanson

“We’re running hard on security and terrorism”

 
It’s just past the sixth anniversary of the sinking of the SIEV-X and the drowning of approximately 353 people.We found this post by ex-Liberal candidate for Reid, Irfan Yusuf, via the [Andrew] Bartlett Diaries.

Excerpt:

” Then, one afternoon in October, I received a call from a lady named Mahbooba who ran a small charity working among Afghan orphans in Pakistan. She wanted to introduce me to a Middle Eastern chap. We agreed to meet at a small mosque in Auburn.

 

I entered the mosque and saw Mahbooba sitting with a visibly distraught man whose reddened eyes betrayed days of mourning. The man continued to weep in my presence while Mahbooba showed me some photos of some young children. The man then spoke:

 

These are the children of my sister. She was killed by the government of our homeland. I”ve been an Australian citizen for 25 years. I run my own business. I pay my taxes. I have only ever asked one thing from my local member and that was to help me get my sister and her children out of there.

 

“Who is your local member?” I asked. “John Howard,” was his answer.

 

He then told me about how he was informed by other relatives that the children had been placed on an unseaworthy boat. They were among some 350 others who had drowned.

 

This was the first time I had heard of the SIEV-X incident. I wasn”t sure what I could do. I was just a candidate in a hard-luck seat with little hope of winning. What could I hope to achieve for this man?

 

“Some people in your Party are starting to tell lies about my sister”s children. They are saying my sister taught her children to be terrorists. You must speak out against them. Remember what the Prophet Mohammed said — that the best jihad is to speak the truth to rulers. It is easy for you because you are in their Party”

 

I listened to the man”s story and looked at the photos of these young children who had barely reached their teens. After the meeting, I got onto the phone with campaign HQ. I told them about the conversation I”d had with the man, and how I wanted to make some statement about it.

 

“No way, Irfan,” said the voice from HQ. “You mustn”t talk about this topic. I”m warning you that if you say anything about it, you might find yourself disendorsed and expelled from the Party. We are running hard on security and terrorism.“

“But these are young kids,” I objected. Then the HQ officer told me something that made me shudder.

 

“Listen, I know how much you hate Pauline Hanson. You”ve got to understand that we have a deliberate strategy here. We want to destroy Hanson by sounding like her and attracting her voter base away from her. It”s part of a deliberate strategy, and it”s temporary.”

Temporary? It’s party policy! It’s dogma. It’s mandatory to promote the Pauline xenophobia. It’s been dragged out yet again by the Hansonite Kevin Andrews (wash my mouth out) with his ‘dirty filthy black diseased criminal African refugee rapist gangs’. Destroy Pauline Hanson? They’ve become Pauline Hanson.

In July we reported on Tony Kevin‘s interview with Richard Fidler on his advocacy about the SIEV-X issue when he said,

” I think my work achieved useful results going beyond SIEV X. It helped more people to see the truth behind the now discredited myth that John Howard is just another Australian politician trying to do his job more or less decently. Australians know the real Howard now. I think my SIEV X research and advocacy helped to expose the ugly truth about this man.

And it is such an ugly truth.

Disaster Capitalism

Oct 14, 2007 | Australian Values, Border Security, Capital Punishment, Citizenship, Corruption, Cultural Values, Democracy, Economic Values, Global Warming, Immigration, Legal, Media Values, OzPol Values, Racism, Religious Values, Science Values, Terrorism, Values, War

Disaster Capitalism

 

In other news…

Better the devil you know?

 

Howard’s appeal on 60 Minutes tonight fits right into the well-worn Disaster Strategy.

 

On the one hand:

“you’ve never had it so good”

but on the other:

“these are savage, uncertain and untamed times”.

In other words, you should feel disoriented and anxious and hang on to what you know.

“Love me or loathe me, people know where I stand and what I believe in.”

Quite so, John.

It’s just that we hate what you stand for and despise what you believe in and we don’t want any more of it.

…But We Weren’t

Oct 12, 2007 | Australian Values, Border Security, Corruption, Cultural Values, Democracy, Media Values, OzPol Values, Racism, Religious Values, Terrorism, Values

…But We Weren’t

Moe Keelty – yet again

 

Let’s not mince words about Indonesia. While most of its ordinary people, at least the ones we have met, are in the range from friendly to wonderful, it has seemed to us, looking at reasonably recent history, that for the most part Moe Keelty’s Indonesian friends, the police, and their friends  – politicians, military, police, judiciary – are corrupt, ignorant, stupid, racist, bigoted and brutal.

But, you know, we knew we could be wrong.

But we weren’t.

” JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) Indonesia’s anti-terrorism chief was relaxed as he mingled with the guests on his lawn. Muslim hard-liners swapped tales of al-Qaida training camps in Afghanistan and the Philippines. Convicted Bali nightclub bombers feasted on kebabs. 

Indonesian law enforcement – Moe Keelty’s friends.