John Howard - then and now

It would appear that political loyalty to the current policy of one’s party and the thickness of one’s pocket book are perhaps more important to former Australian prime minister and paid celebrity speaker John Howard than the future environmental, economic and social well-being of this country.

2006

PM's southerly change: expect extreme weather

Andrew Darby in St Helens, Tasmania
December 14, 2006

THE Prime Minister, John Howard, last night embraced a key climate change forecast, warning Australians to prepare for more extreme weather events such as the current bushfires.

Visiting north-east Tasmania, he repeatedly made the point that the region was not normally associated with bushfires, and neither were they usually so common early in the summer.

On his last stop in St Helens, Mr Howard was asked if he accepted the scientists' predictions of more extreme weather events.

"Let me put it this way," he said. "I think the country should prepare for a continuation of what we are now experiencing … I think the likelihood of this going on is very strong."

2013 (almost 7 years and 11 months later)

'The claims are exaggerated': John Howard rejects predictions of global warming catastrophe
Nick Miller Europe Correspondent
November 6, 2013

London: Former Prime Minister John Howard has poured scorn on the "alarmist" scientific consensus on global warming, comparing those calling for action on climate change to religious zealots in a speech to a gathering of UK climate sceptics.

Mr Howard said he was an “agnostic” on climate science and he preferred to rely on his instinct, which told him that predictions of doom were exaggerated.

He also relied on a book written by a prominent climate sceptic – which has been attacked as ignorant and misleading by scientists.

And he called on politicians not to be browbeaten into surrendering their role in determining economic policy.

Nuclear power – a “very clean source of energy” - shale oil and fracking were solutions to the world’s energy needs, Mr Howard said.

Mr Howard gave a speech in London on Tuesday night to the Global Warming Policy Foundation, a think-tank established by Nigel Lawson, one of Britain’s most prominent climate change sceptics, former chancellor in the Thatcher government and father of TV chef Nigella.

In 2008 John Howard was thought to be commanding speaker fees of between $10k and $15k per event.

One wonders how much those UK climate sceptics at the Global Warming Policy Foundation paid him for his keynote speech on 5 November at the Institute of Mechanical Engineers in London?

Or what Tony Abbott may have promised him come March 2014?

What retired alleged war criminals earn these days

iwatch news 20 may 2011 on the subject of former U.S. President George Walker Bush:

“When George W. Bush declined President Barack Obama’s invitation to a ceremony at New York City’s Ground Zero after Osama bin Laden was killed, the former president cited his desire to keep a low public profile.

But Bush has been high profile on the private, paid speaking circuit: he has raked in millions of dollars since he left office by making scores of speeches that typically earn him six figures a pop.

In the week after Obama’s Ground Zero event, the nation’s 43rd president made time for three separate speeches to hedge fund executives, a Swiss bank sanctioned for keeping secret bank accounts, and a pro golf event underwritten by the accounting firm involved in the Tyco International financial scandal.

Bush’s standard speaking fee is reportedly between $100,000 and $150,000.

David Sherzer, a spokesman for the former president, told iWatch News that since Bush left office he has delivered almost 140 paid talks, at home and abroad. Those speeches have earned Bush about $15 million, a conservative estimate, following in the golden path blazed by his predecessor, Bill Clinton.

Almost all of Bush’s speeches are closed to the press. Bush uses the Washington Speakers Bureau to arrange his paid speaking gigs.”

When you add what wife Laura earns from speaking engagements I imagine the family retirement pot grows larger.

Listed under “similar speakers” at the Washington Speakers Bureau is none other than that antipodean retired alleged war criminal John Winston Howard. Although Jackboot Johnny is not in the same fee league as his mentor, he is charging $40,000 or up for his pearls of wisdom. It comes as no surprise that the third member of that sanguinary trio, Tony Blair is also on the Bureau’s books. Who said alleged crime did not pay?

Dracula Rising and David Hicks {video}

Face it, Howard. You lost bigtime

John Winston Howard’s publicist is obviously out doing a bit of a beat up for the imminent release of the former Oz PM’s memoirs.
From what’s been written in the meeja so far it seems that Howard is looking to place the blame for the Coalition’s resounding 2007 general election defeat elsewhere than at his own feet.
Howard probably just can’t face the fact that he lost both his seat and government because enough Aussies thought he was a dangerous, jumped-up little shite.

What is interesting about Howard's publicity teasers was not the predictable Costello response they were designed to elicit, but the fact that Mrs. Bucket encouraged Howard to tread that ruinous political path.

The little woman behind the man seems to have nurtured some of his worst features and supported unwise decisions right to the bitter end.

In 2010 nothing much has changed.

Cartoon from Google Images

How sweet it is watching Howard bark his shins

How sweet it is watching former Oz prime minister John Howard bark his shins against the reality of his personal and political reputation.

L'l Johnnie wonders aloud about the unfairness of being refused the vice presidency of the International Cricket Council - he doesn't for the life of him understand why he has been rejected.

"The 70-year-old said yesterday the most "disappointing" aspect of the decision was that he was given no explanation for the knockback."

Gar'n John!

Even in your own country you have a dodgy reputation as a closet racist.

And remember this from 2003? "Prime Minister John Howard was yesterday censured by the Senate for misleading the public in his justification for sending Australia to war with Iraq. It was only the fourth time in more than three decades a sitting prime minister has been censured and the second in Mr Howard's seven-and-a-half years in office."

Some of your fellow countrymen even laid complaints at The Hague alleging that you're a war criminal {first was by a Melbourne-based academic and in 2008 by a group}.

Besides which mate - you're a fair dinkum pie chucker.

Cartoon displayed at Google Images

Will someone shove a cake of Sunlight down the throat of John bluddy Winston bluddy Howard.....

For a man who stated that he was going to refrain from political commentary after he retired was tossed from office, former Aussie prime miniature JW Howard is forever popping up in the media with yet another observation on world affairs or national politics.
This time he combines both (along with some gratuitous brown-nosing) by calling for an increase in troop numbers in Afghanistan.
Yer, right.
Let's send more young men into a region where no invading First World power has 'won' a war in living memory.
Where temporary victory is inevitably followed by successful insurgency, until the 'foreigners' finally take their military bat and ball and go home. Just ask Russia.
And where Australia is supposedly fighting for democracy by supporting a corrupt Afghan government which only holds power because it could rig a national election on a grand scale right under the West's nose.
So will someone do the world a favour and stuff that arrogant little man's gob with Sunlight soap or lock him away in a backroom at Wollstonecraft where his stupidity will only be heard by four beige walls.

Of course if it comes to L'l Johnnie's own hip pocket nerve, he is not as quick to front the microphone.
The media attention was suddenly unwelcome when asked if he is to have a well-paid role in a restructured NRL.
Last Wednesday ABC News Radio reported that he would not comment because he was travelling.
Tha's right! The same 'travelling' he was doing when he opened his mouth about Afghanistan.

Image of the wee richardhead from Pop Culture Caricatures and Cartoons

When is John Howard going to realise he's dead and lie down?

I'm getting sick and tired of the way former Australian prime minister John Howard keeps popping up in the media giving his totally useless views on current Australian politics and world affairs.

He lost the last federal election for the Coalition - if they don't shut him up he will lose the next as well.
This media tart's irritation factor is 100+.

Maudie's Ex
Yamba

Guest Speak is a North Coast Voices segment allowing serious or satirical comment from NSW Northern Rivers residents. Email ncvguestpeak at live dot com dot au to submit comment for consideration.

An ending too 'orrible to bear.........

This was sent to me earlier in the week.

I haven't been able to sleep with the light off since.

First Dog on the Moon cartoon from Crikey

And then I woke up screaming...............

Gawd struth!
Because John Winston Howard did not have the good grace to go quietly into retirement, is constantly touting for international testimonials to his political acumen, is always popping up in the media to offer gratuitous advice and let it be known that he still feels like Teh Leader - I have this recurring nightmare.
I dream that il grande fascista has a long discussion with Hyacinth and the kids and calls a press conference where (flanked by Tony Abbott) he announces he is going to stand for parliament again.
AAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh no, John - the 'honour' is all yours

Lil Johnnie Howard has been bleating into microphones since Tuesday that his mate George Dubbya's awarding him the US Presidential Medal of Freedom is a "compliment to Australia."
No, John.
It was you, not Australia, who decided that our nation would break international law and invade other nations willy nilly because Dubbya said so.
It was also you, not Australia, who ran a disinformation agenda at the behest of the Bush Administration.

And again, it was you not Australia who put the Obama Administration offside before it was even installed - first by linking an Obama presidency with a win for Al Queda and then planting your little round derrier in Blair House for freebie White House accommodation so that there was little hope that the Obama family could stay there pre-inauguration.

So that gaudy little bauble that you get to pin on your chest is rightfully yours - all yours.
As to whatever compliment such a bauble may be.
Well in past years Dubbya has given it to Frank Sinatra, Doris Day, Rita Morena, Charlton Heston - all actors like yourself.

This is what Dubbya's press secretary told the media last Monday:

"President Bush will award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, and former Prime Ministers Tony Blair of the United Kingdom and John Howard of Australia, on Tuesday, January 13th, in an East Room ceremony. The President is honoring these leaders for their work to improve the lives of their citizens and for their efforts to promote democracy, human rights and peace abroad. All three leaders have been staunch allies of the United States, particularly in combating terrorism. And their efforts to bring hope and freedom to people around the globe have made their nations, America and the world community a safer and more secure world. The Medal of Freedom is the nation's highest civil award and was established by executive order in 1963. The President has previously awarded 78 medals during his tenure."

Yup, this award has nothing to do with reality and is clearly intended for those intimately acquainted with the nether regions of a US president who'll be leaving by the back door in about two weeks time.
So, as I know you and yours would've lobbied hard to get this bauble, please take all the credit, John.
Most Aussies don't want or need it I'm sure.

A look at The Age poll yesterday morning:

John Howard and his great and powerful friend

Come 20 January next year George Dubbya ceases to be US President and John Howard quite literally loses his 'great and powerful' friend.

Tectonic plates are already shifting across the political arena and last week the US Senate released a summary of the Senate Armed Services Committee Inquiry Into The Treatment of Detainees In US Custody, which pointed a finger squarely at the Bush Administration and Donald Rumsfeld for encouraging and approving mistreatment and abuse of Guantanamo Bay prisoners and others through the redefinition of torture, suspension of the Geneva Convention and specific interrogation instructions.

How long before John Howard's role in refusing to support international law and failing to support Australian citizens caught as 'enemy combatants' comes to light in yet more detail?

With most of his allies gone from office or otherwise neutered, will the truth about Howard's time as an Australian prime minister finally come to light?

Can the world dig faster than Little Johnnie can backfill?

Summary of Senate Armed Services Committee Inquiry Into The Treatment of Detainees In US Custody here.

Did the Howard years leave us dribbling idiots?

For $25 you can buy a book which tells everyone just how successful school chaplaincy programs can be.
Joelle even has a blog to promote her book which reportedly speaks openly of miracles.

According to Caroline Overington at The Australian last weekend:
"GOD has cured at least one state school student of attention deficit disorder and another of asthma, according to interviews with chaplains employed in 2850 schools under a $165 million federal government program.
The Lord has also made it stop raining at a state school assembly in Queensland and performed other miracles to bring state school children to Jesus.
One chaplain was able to "fix the head" of a disruptive student by placing his hands upon the boy's head, and praying for him.
These and other miraculous claims are included in a book about the national school chaplaincy program, which was introduced by the Howard government in October 2006."

Now who'da thunk it. John Howard - miracle worker sitting at the righthand of Hughie!
Obviously the Scripture Union didn't, because they stated that they no longer endorse the book and gently repudiated its author.
Except of course that the top article touting the book on the first Google search page on 6 December was at (ya guessed it) The Scripture Union.

Howard cost me WHAT in the first nine months?

The Australian couldn't wait to tell taxpayers that:

"JOHN Howard has defended his decision to run up more than $400,000 in taxpayer-funded bills since he was turfed from office as "strictly in accordance" with his generous entitlements.

In a brief statement today, the former Prime Minister rejected any suggestion there was anything wrong in his post-election spend-a-thon on travel and office accommodation.

"All costs incurred are strictly in accordance with the guidelines set for all former Prime Ministers,'' he said in a statement released this afternoon to The Australian Online.

The former Prime Minister, who commands large fees as an international speaker, is spending around $10,000 a week on taxpayer-funded staffing costs, rent for his plush CBD office and other expenses, according to figures released by Special Minister of State John Faulkner...

According to government figures, Mr Howard spent $192,542.77 staffing including $75,674.90 of travel for himself and $11,374.44 on travel for Mrs Howard.

Mr Howard, who is expected to pen his own memoirs as he enjoys his retirement, also ran up facilities and accommodation costs of $124,000."

That bl**dy man may have been sacked by the likes of me but he still knows how to stick the knife in - spending in excess of $400,000 over and above his parliamentary pension in nine months and two weeks.
Proving himself to be a first class sponger (as well as a world's best political liar) while on the NSW North Coast this week there are many, many people scrapping about to find enough money to be able to eat for at least 12 days out of every fortnight.
What was it that another blogger called him recently - cnut?

First anniversary of the day Australia kicked John Howard out on his a*se!

A small reminder of some of the things which preoccupied us as we went to the polling booths on Saturday 24 November 2007.

Cartoon from First Dog On the Moon

What the heck - take the day off work and celebrate our national good fortune.

As the first anniversary of the November 2007 election draws near............

Winston Churchill, like Will Waveadagger before him, may have decided on how the popular history of his era would go down.
However, his chief admirer John Howard will have a tougher time with his revisionist version of his time in government because now we have the Internet to remind us all that he was never going to win in 2007.

Take a short trip in North Coast Voices own mini wayback machine:

Govt dismisses poll predicting election loss
The poll of 1,400 voters was taken from Thursday to Saturday.

It suggests Mr Rudd's personal approval rating has risen three points to 67 per cent, while Mr Howard's has fallen three points to 46 per cent.

Calamity John: Howard faces massive defeat

PRIME Minister John Howard is headed for a calamitous defeat on Saturday, according to the latest Sunday Age poll, which shows that mortgage-belt voters have turned sharply against the Coalition.
After six rises in interest rates since the last election — which shattered Mr Howard's promise to keep interest rates at record lows — Labor holds a 14-point lead among mortgage holders.

Just how good is John Howard's personal vote

Galaxy's latest poll in Bennelong has John Howard losing to Maxine McKew. As the PM says - no big surprise there. If it said anything else you'd say the sample was bad, because it would be completely out of line with everything else the polls currently say about the state of the parties' votes.

John Howard Readies Fortress Sydney
Australian PM John Howard has made a You Tube appeal that both apologises to Sydneysiders for turning the city into fortress Sydney in preparation for the forthcoming APEC meeting and anticipates the protests that now accompany meetings of such leaders similar to this and the G8. The slick video features an identikit Australian newsreader and the PM selling the need to host the meeting and painting protesters as the baddies who should support APEC rather than decry it, whilst explaining to the city residents why most of central Sydney around the Opera house is now encased in a ring of steel fencing and barbed wire and generally looking like a scene from Bladerunner (re-released again I see).

Prime Minister John Howard talks to Lateline
Well, the Prime Minister turns 68 tomorrow and he plans to spend the day with Australian troops in East Timor. Expect to see lots of images of a vigorous leader surrounded by diggers, and barely a moment for the sentimental trappings of an ageing man's birthday. Well, beyond the issue of his age, there was plenty to talk about when I caught up with him in Perth late this afternoon, shortly before he jetted off.

Howard happy with Haneef detention
Prime Minister John Howard has defended the continuing detention of Gold Coast doctor Mohammed Haneef.

Bid For John Howard's Integrity On eBay!
You are bidding on an original 1950's mind set. Genuine period flaws make this a truly unique item. While the internal mechanism (not visible in photo) is damaged, it still spins at full speed. The veneer is in splendid condition. You will be disappointed or your money back.

Al-Qaeda 'praying for Obama win'

PRIME Minister John Howard has launched a broadside against US presidential hopeful Barack Obama, warning his victory could destroy Iraq and prospects for peace in the Middle East.

Howard's promises for the 2007 election

John Howard's message for the Australian voters in 2007 has not changed from 1974. He has been true to his word; he has not changed his message.

The Howard Years: why am I not surprised?

The Australian yesterday:

THREE of the biggest decisions of the Howard years - the GST, the intervention in East Timor and the Pacific solution - were decided with virtually no consultation with cabinet, it can be revealed for the first time.

A new television documentary, which is based on more than 20 hours of interviews with John Howard and 180 hours of interviews with key players in Australia and overseas, confirms how dominant the former prime minister was in running the affairs of the nation for almost 12 years.

Former foreign minister Alexander Downer reveals how one of the most controversial policies of the Howard years - the so-called Pacific solution under which asylum-seekers from Australia were moved to neighbouring island nations - was devised.

Mr Howard had told him: "Go and find someone who will take them."

Mr Downer said: "So I went back up to my office and got my staff together there and said: 'Well, now we are literally going to have to think up a country to send these people, that'll take them.'

Let us hope that the Australian Broadcasting Commission really has solidly tackled its subject. Time is well overdue for Australian citizens to hear more of the details of what was done in their name (though it is a certainty that all the usual suspects kept very quiet when in front of the cameras about their parts in the AWB scandal, just in case any documentary viewer actually recalls details of previous 'evidence' presented to Commissioner Cole).

Given that Howard stacked the ABC board with neo-con sympathizers during his almost eleven years in office, I expect that a genuine exposé is out of the question and what we will be treated to is a watered down version of events and reams of self-serving footage of the former prime minister.

Most iconic image found on an Aussie blog this weekend

Found at Ken Lovell's Tweed Heads blog Verging_on_Random

Best political quote on the Teev this week

Paul Keating to Kerry O'Brien on the 7.30 Report last Wednesday.....

"I mean John Howard turned the prime ministership into something like a state police minister. He was at the scene of every crime, twice a day on radio. The guy did no thinking."

Howard supports Nelson. Who cares, replies electorate

Former prime minister and current bore John Howard recently spoke out in support of his successor as leader of the parliamentary Liberal Party, 'Little Brennie' Nelson.

"There is no harder job than being leader of an opposition, it's tough, it's unrelenting. You have my total goodwill, my total support," he said.

Who cares? replied the Australian electorate, which has Nelson's standing pegged at a meagre 14% and which rates him as trailing Rudd in all key areas in the last Newspoll.

I'm still wondering why Howard thinks that his opinion matters in the looming Lib leadership battle.
After all, his 'considered' opinions lost the Coalition the last federal election.

It really gets on my wick (and I blame the current Lib leadership for indulging him in this) that post-defeat John Howard has been offering a gratuitous running commentary on Australian politics, when he so clearly undertook to be "a very quiet ex-prime minister and would not be making a running commentary".

It's time the Libs realised there is nothing so ex as an ex-prime minister - the rest of the country certainly does.

Howard awarded Queen's Birthday AC but not everyone is impressed

John Winston Howard, former Prime Minister of Australia, has just been awarded a Companion of the Order of Australia.
Not the Order of the Garter or Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports with which he hoped to emulate his dead idol, Robert Gordon Menzies, but better than nothing ('Mrs Bucket' apparently sees the AC as a stepping stone to greater honours).

Of course not everyone was or is impressed.
Saturday's online mention of his AC honour only came up on Google News once and yesterday he might never have rated a mention if he had not shared billing with Australian supermodel Elle or "The Don" centenary wasn't coming up.

War crimes is still the phrase which more readily trips from the lip when Bush, Blair and Howard are mentioned.
At last count Google Search came up with 128,000 mentions of war crimes and Howard.
War crimes outrank honours anytime.

Here are some example article links.
Australia`s Howard accused of war crimes over Iraq: Report [Indonesia]
Bush, Blair, Howard wanted for war crimes [Estonia]
Australia group seeks ICC war crimes charges against ex-PM for Iraq deployment [USA]
Oz PC racism & ICC complaint over Australian & Coalition war crimes in Iraq & Afghanistan [Australia]John Howard a 'war criminal' [Australia]
Howard is war criminal, says former colleague [Australia]

Update:
By this morning Google News mention of Howard's honour had risen to four (after the original Saturday item was shifted or renamed). Perhaps his taxpayer-funded assistant did a quick ring around to wake the media to the momentous event they were otherwise ignoring.

Regrets? I've had so few: John Winston Howard

If I were still prime minister, we wouldn't be withdrawing from Iraq says former Australian Prime Minister John Howard in a The Sydney Morning Herald article. 

 

Howard went on to say of his decision to unlawfully invade Iraq in the face of considerable opposition from the Australian people; "It was hard; very, very, very hard. It was very much my decision." It was a decision influenced "partly by the fact I had been in America at the time of the [September 11] attack and because of what terrorism represented".

 

John Howard is stuck with an eternal defence (no matter how simplistic or revisionist) of his decision to go to war because complaints to The Hague just won't go away.

ICCACTION ha reportedly sought a "legal brief" that it intends to forward to the court.

 

ICCACTION brief of May 2008 is here.