He Said 'Mate' But He Meant 'Messiah'

The Professional Idiot goes to Israel and comes home with a fever :

Peter Costello was in Jerusalem last week, just a few metres from where Christ rose from the dead, when he heard a voice.

"Mate," it said.

"Mate, ya gotta take over the leadership."

It was just another tourist who'd recognised the former treasurer as the Messiah....

The Professional Idiot closes his declaration of religiously-fevered brolove for Peter Costello with an Old Testament translation of what the tourist said, but didn't :

...even more would have added their voices to the one Costello heard a few days later by the hill of Golgotha.

Peter, rise again. Your people await their Messiah.

The Professional Idiot is now beyond parody.

A Dream Given, Then Stolen Away

After years of pathetic whining about when oh when will the Evil Pagan Lefty-Infested ABC finally give a whining Howard-era conservative his own show, Andrew Bolt receives the call he's been waiting so long for :

Just received call from ABC, asking me to produce/host my own show for $20m. Squealed "Yes!".

But life is cruel. So very, very cruel.

They giggled, and then hung up.

Andrew Bolt is taking his obsession with Peter Costello beyond mere infatuation :

"Now I've started photoshopping myself into Costello's wedding photos. How good do I like in white? Very.

"Peter says I would look good with a moustache. Spent 30 mins in front of mirror with various fake moustaches. Looked quite good."

"Peter Costello dropped by for lunch. On the way out he touched me on the small of my back. It was electric."

"I keep finding myself scrawling Mr. Andrew Costello all over my notes. What is wrong with me?"

This is all taking place at Twitter. But why won't Andrew Bolt share his sweet emotions with his blog readers at the Herald Sun? What is he afraid of? People will mock him for confessing his man love for Peter Costello, but I think it's quite touching.

UPDATE : I'm shocked, stunned, shocked and stunned, that I've fallen for a fake Twitter. The Andrew Bolt I've quoted above, mewing like a schoolgirl in love, is apparently not the real Andrew Bolt, AKA The Professional Idiot.

Gary Kemble, the big spoilsport, at ABC Online, reveals all :

Twitter has taken off in Australia in recent weeks, aided by mainstream media focus and the Victorian bushfires, drawing in a whole new audience for enterprising tweeps who snapped up the names of some well-known Aussies.

Following in the footsteps of fake Henry Rollins, fake William Shatner and fake Megan Fox comes fake Andrew Bolt, obsessing over former treasurer Peter Costello.

Sydney Morning Herald columnist Miranda Devine also cops some heat, with her Twitter alter ego detailing a "blazing row" with ABC journo Leigh Sales at an upmarket Sydney eatery.

"Claimed my use of 'holocaust' in today's piece was inapropriate. Offered her my dictionary," the fake Miranda Devine writes.

It's not yet clear if the fake tweeps will be allowed to continue as they are.

Guidelines covering the use of Twitter state: "You may not impersonate others through the Twitter service in a manner that does or is intended to mislead, confuse, or deceive others."

Bummer.

It was fun while it lasted.

"Baby Cull" Makes God Burn Children To Death

The Next Prime Minister Of Australia (after Julia Gillard and Brendan Nelson), Peter Costello, has a friend in Jesus. And that friend is named Danny Nalliah of Catch The Fire ministry, for whom Costello delivered these Sunday School level theological musings.

So does Peter Costello agree with Pastor Danny Nalliah that :

....these bushfires have come as a result of the incendiary abortion laws which decimate life in the womb.

He's talking about legalised abortion, or as the ABC's Andrew Bolt calls it "the baby cull."

Here's crazy Pastor Danny, back in November 2008, doing what End Timers do best, spouting off about their dreams of death and destruction :

“I saw a man firing randomly with a weapon at people on the streets and many were falling dead. I was very disturbed and was crying. Then the scene changed and I saw fire everywhere with flames burning very high and uncontrollably. With this I awoke from my dream with the interpretation as the following words came to me in a flash from the Spirit of God, ‘My wrath is about to be released upon Australia, in particular Victoria, for approving the slaughter of the innocent children in the womb. Now, call on My people to repent and pray!’”

What sort of fucked up diety burns so many children to death because the state they live in has legalised abortion?

Victorian fire chiefs issued their own warning of apocalyptic fires for country Victoria on November 2, 2008. Surprisingly, using science and experience, they were far more accurate on the scope and scale of the holocaust to come :



If you click on the above you can see they picked Marysville and Kinglake as ground zero for the destruction they accurately forecasted. Here's the story :

Horror Fire Warning : Water Supplies, Urban Fringe At Risk

Melbourne's urban areas and precious water supplies have been identified as major fire danger zones ahead of an impending horror bushfire season.

Fire chiefs have warned of an extreme season expected to come earlier and last longer following a record dry start to spring and forecasts of a hot summer.

Melbourne's urban fringe has been identified as a particular risk zone, with the Mornington Peninsula, the Dandenongs and the Alexandra and Macedon regions told they should be on high alert.

Far East Gippsland and communities north of Horsham and around Bendigo have also been warned they are at risk of severe bushfires, fuelled by the absence of spring rainfall.

Department of Sustainability and Environment chief fire officer Ewan Waller said the threat was genuine.

"Those areas are rapidly drying out and becoming susceptible to bushfires," he said.

Melbourne experienced its driest September and October on record this year, Victorian Bureau of Meteorology figures reveal.

Statewide, Victoria had its third driest start to spring of all time.

Dave From Albury spotted Catch The Fire's sickening exercise in tragedy porn, and nailed it.

UPDATE : Peter Costello is all so very vague when he gets around to commenting on what his Friend In A Vengeful God Full Of Wraith has to say on the link between abortions and bush
fires :

"To link the death and suffering of bushfire victims to other political events is appalling, heartless and wrong,'' said Mr Costello, who has lost a Christian friend in the fires.

"Those who have suffered deserve ever support and sympathy. It is beyond the bounds of decency to try to make moral or politcal points out of such a tragedy.''

Fine, but does Costello also believe God burned children to death because Victoria legalised abortion?

Costello : Non-Christians Threaten Australia's Future

Peter Costello addresses Catch The Fire religious extremists on Australia Day, which provokes the crazed Nazi-Green-Commo-Pagan-Lefties at Crikey to praise John Howard. Yes, praise John Howard :

John Howard blocked Peter Costello from the Prime Ministership as long as he could, preferring even to take his party to defeat rather than let him run it. Based on this bizarre rant, it looks like Howard’s judgement was absolutely right.

The bizarre Costello rant in full :



Peter Costello, your almost prime minister :

"One of the things that has been absolutely central to the development of Australia and the foundation of our society is that Biblical heritage, the heritage that we have through the Scriptures, and through the Ten Commandments, respect for our Maker, respect for our fellow citizens, respect for property, respect for the laws that God has laid down. That’s been the foundation of our society. It’s been the basis of our peaceful tolerance of each other and of order. It has been the basis of creating opportunity for so many Australian’s. If we forget that tradition, if we walk away from those God given commandments, then we as a society will be threatened with the breakdown of that order, will be threatened with losing our heritage and loosing opportunity. So I want to say to you, those that are praying for Australia today, to pray that this nation will always remember its foundations, and always be true to them, and always live according to those laws.

"There are many people today that are telling us that religion is all a lot of superstition, that the laws that have been laid down, of respect for individuals, property and for our creator are all a load of nonsense, that don’t respect life. If we fall for that trap, if Australia falls for that trap then the very basis of our society and its order will be threatened. That’s why we need Christian people to pray for our country, we will never understand the way in which God moves. But we know that if his people pray, He will hear that they will be a light to the nation and the nation will be covered and protected by Godly people who are giving direction and standing for it in prayer."

That's probably a little too much God in politics for most Australians liking. But hey, once you've 'caught the fire' you gotta keep spreading that message, even if it destroys your political career.

How Turnbull Bulleted Brendan

Brendan Nelson may have been an idiot, but as opposition leader he was a mostly harmless idiot. And he was our idiot. The peoples' idiot. He put on his show, and we enjoyed it, most of the time. Brendan Nelson was fun as opposition leader.

Malcolm Turnbull is no fun.

No fun at all.

And he killed Brendan. The bastard. Paul Sheehan follows the blood stains :

...a picture of political bastardry, animosity and aggression. I now understand why Dr Brendan Nelson took what at the time appeared to be a dangerous and illogical decision to open up his leadership position to a vote less than 10 months after becoming his party's leader. He couldn't take the pressure any more. And the pressure was unrelenting.

Turnbull carved a big X on Brendan's forehead, the very first day of Brendan's reign :

Turnbull walked up to Nelson and gave him a negative review of his first performance as leader. Soon after, unable to contain himself, Turnbull walked into Nelson's office and dressed him down in front of his wife and staff. Nelson was stunned. So were his staff.

Now that's downright nasty, and no accident. Turnbull wanted to shatter Brendan, he wanted to fuck with his mind.

The denigration soon spread. Turnbull told a member of Nelson's staff that his boss was "hopeless". He told journalists the same thing. It became common knowledge in the press gallery that Turnbull's attitude toward Nelson was dismissive and corrosive, a corrosion which built up the pressure and ate into Nelson's credibility in the press gallery as his opinion polling numbers floundered.

Turnbull holds very good, very grand parties to which he invites his friendly media. And they love him for it.

The state of chaos that was the Liberal Party for most of this year has subsided, somewhat, with the completion of Turnbull's all but unprecedented four year rise to the top of conservative politics in Australia. Well, liberal-Green-Conservative politics. Turnbull's invention.

What the fuck do they stand for now, anyway? Turnbull wants to bail out the banks, and the front bench wears its newfound greenism unconvincingly, uncomfortably. They champion The Greens years long demands for increases to the pension, and more investment in new, alternative energy. Nobody in the Liberal Party wails about how awesome the Iraq War has turned out for everyone involved, including all those dead Iraqis, like Alexander Downer did. Now the free market is viciously mauling the poor yet again, with far more bloodshed to come, everyone wants to be a socialist.

Sheehan :

As of now the Liberal Party is not a political movement or a political philosophy but, apart from a band of idealists, a collective of opportunists masquerading as a cause. The deeper you go, the less you find.

The reason why the media, particularly the ABC, keep boring us with stories about Peter Costello still eyeballing the leadership of the Liberal Party is because he actually is, and a very anti-Brendan-like campaign of undermining Turnbull has begun. Costello expects Turnbull to crash and burn. He will piss on the flames and take over.

Forever the optimist.

Costello : I Am Immortal

Peter Costello finally confirmed tonight, on Lateline, what so many of his adoring colleagues always suspected. Death does not know his name.

Costello : "I'm 50 years old. I'm not going to die."

Costello Announces To No Great Surprise That He Won't Lead Liberals, Nation Yawns

Australia's most tedious, snore inducing soap opera is finally over.

Peter Costello has confirmed his almost year old decision not to go after the leadership of the Liberal Party.

He doesn't want to lead the Liberal Party, and won't, and he didn't even bother informing his Liberal allies, let alone the Opposition in general, that he was going public with this announcement and that announcement basically was "Fuck you very much."

Tony Abbott was interviewed on Lateline. He was there to talk about why Rudd should make the old age pension increases that the Howard government refused to make, when this breaking news about Costello was dropped on him.

Abbott looked stunned and infuriated. But mostly Abbott looked humiliated, and for good reason. He'd spent the past few months debasing himself as he sang Costello's praises, lionising him, legendising him at every opportunity, in the vain hope that just maybe Costello would reconsider his November, 2007, decision to not become the leader of the Liberals, and to quit Parliament completely before the next election.

Costello didn't even call Abbott to tell him to give it a rest, and to remind him that he wasn't going to bring this Save The Liberals From Utter Oblivion fantasy to life. Ever.

Abbott may be one of the creepiest human-like creatures ever elected to public office, anywhere in the world, in history, but Costello has acted like a right fuckwit through much of this, and Abbott shouldn't have been allowed to continually sing Costello's praises, and publicly beg him to take the leadership off Brendan Nelson.

Whatever Costello might have said was unlikely to have stopped media speculation about who would replace Brendan "I'm very popular on the open road" Nelson, but many of the 'leaks' and 'rumours' about Costello secretly planning to stay on and become Liberals Leader that fueled all this absurd months of newspaper front pages and acres of Opinion came from Costello's friends and media allies.

It's all been a rather nasty little business, with Nelson copping most of the fallout, but then we are talking about the Liberal Party here and they're not famous for their humanity, loyalty or compassions. Even to each other.

Now Costello will further destroy the few remaining tattered shreds of Liberals credibility with a media crusade to flog his incredibly expensive ($55!) book.

Sources familiar with the memoir believe it will reignite tensions within the Liberal Party, and could see open warfare between those loyal to Mr Howard and others who wanted him to resign before last November's election.

Mr Costello will controversially argue that he was given a "wink and a nod" on five or six occasions by either Mr Howard or his close allies on a succession plan.

Good Christ, who fucking cares anymore?

The book will earn back its advance, but not much more. There simply isn't enough meat on the bones, or blood on the pages, for the book to sell beyond 40,000 copies. Costello isn't regarded as Australia's Greatest Living Treasurer by most Australians, in fact he's widely thought of as a bit of a wanker and a softcock for not going after the leadership. This book is not expected to do anything much to change those kinds of views.

Expect to see John Howard's first post-election interview on the 7.30 Report sometime in the next two weeks, as he attempts to counter Costello's "I Created Australia's Golden Age" twaddle-waffle around the country.

Book Wars : Howard Vs Costello

Biographer : "Howard Is This Automaton"

Costello The Messiah...No Wait, He's Not The Messiah

Former prime minister, John Howard, apparently has five publishers interested in his autobiography, but former treasurer Peter Costello has already got his deal done, the writing has begun and it is expected to briefly hog shelf space in bookstores from early October.

The betting, before the books are even completed, is that Costello will turn in the better tale, which will mostly be written by his father-in-law, Peter Coleman, a former editor of The Bulletin.

The hope is that the book's publication will mark the end of Costello's political career, instead of a new beginning. Why?

If Costello intends to take a run at leader of the Liberal Party (and really, why would he?), you would expect the book to go easy on Howard, on the Liberals in general, mock Labor generously and ramp up the potential of a victorious return to power for the Liberals, starting anywhere. That means, not a lot of sales outside the hard core ranks of Australian conservatives.

But if Costello is heading for the door (and really, why would he stay?) we might get a conservative rival to Mark Latham's spectacular napalming of Labor in The Latham Diaries, full of bite, bile and venom.

That is no doubt the hope of Costello's publisher, Melbourne University Press, and whatever newspaper will fork out $30,000 to $60,000 for the serialisation rights.

More here :

Peter Costello may finally take the top slot from his old boss John Howard in a battle of memoirs, according to a biographer of the former prime minister.

ANU academic Wayne Errington, who co-wrote last year's controversial John Winston Howard: The Biography, said Mr Costello was the more attractive prospect.

"Howard and Costello both gave us a lot of their time and, generally speaking, Costello was much more interesting," he said.

"He's more human. Howard is this automaton who is hugely focused and disciplined while Costello, and I know this is a terrible cliche, is definitely the bloke you'd rather have a beer with."

Interestingly, the writer of the Costello book, Peter Coleman, ripped into John Howard after the Liberal Party's election massacre.

"What was once seen as his gritty determination started to look like an almost animal egomania and he seemed to be blocking progress and regeneration, rather than advancing the cause," Mr Coleman said.

He claimed that Mr Howard destroyed Mr Costello's chance to be prime minister. "There is no doubt that this man of great promise and great ability was blocked by Howard's egomania," he said.

It'd be hard to imagine Coleman won't entrench those views, obviously shared with Peter Costello, in the new book. The publishers are clearly expecting this, and much, much more.

John Howard, eating his breakfast alone and reading the papers, as is his daily morning habit, must have a few seconds where he found it hard to swallow when he read the news of Costello's book.

What will he say about me? Howard must have wondered, What will he reveal?

Winter began early for Howard yesterday morning.


The best coverage on the surreal hyping of Peter Costello returning to lead the Liberal Party and the announcement of his book deal naturally comes from Andrew Bolt, the Murdoch paid Liberal Party propagandist, and talking points provider, who can't even rely on the Liberals to leak him early news of actual interest anymore.

This is fantastic stuff from Bolt. Hail! Costello The Messiah Returns!

Costello retains a lot of respect in the electorate, making him preferred as Liberal leader to Turnbull, who is still inexperienced, unwilling to take advice and an ideological work in progress.

A Costello/Turnbull team would give the Liberals terrific credibility...

Costello has to get over his past resentments and seize his future.

...the Liberals must en masse ask him to take over.

...the leadership is there for his asking. And truly, his party needs him.

What news that Bolt didn't know was coming could turn that rancid fluff into pure bogwater? This - Oh Wait, The Messiah's Not Returning And...He's Taking Cash From The Publisher of Mark Latham and Antony Lowenstein :

Costello might be about to burn bridges rather than build them, unless he resists the impulse to get square:

Melbourne University Publishing (MUP) today said it would publish Mr Costello’s memoirs of his 18-year political career.

But you can at least gather from this Costello isn’t going anywhere that will demand plenty of his time, if he’s settling down for a long write.

Absolute bollocks, but pure comedy gold.

Costello wouldn't get more than $50,000 for his biography (he's believed to be getting around $150,000) unless the publisher knew in advance that Costello was going to use the book to leave at least a mildly impressive trail of smoke-belching burning bridges in his wake, heartily embracing the opportunity to get square, in public, and well before Howard's own tome wheezes onto the shelves.


The best part of the 2007 federal election remains the moment when John Howard had declared defeat and announced he would back Peter Costello as the new Liberal Party leader, with Howard all but begging Costello to come up onto the stage and allow Howard to officially anoint him.

Cut to Peter Costello standing in the crowd, looking casual and pissed, grimly grinning his answer back to the man who had done so much to make his life a frustrating, humiliating existence : Not fucking likely, mate, not fucking likely.

Oooh, Tough Talk From Costello The Big Quitter

Costello Blames Howard For Losing The Election, But Some Liberals Blame Costello

Look out, Peter Costello's tossing blame around for the Howard government's humiliating election annihilation, and he's claiming he could "neutered" Kevin Rudd.

Well, that's what Costello claims he could have done, if he hadn't been such a big coward, and if he hadn't cut and run from the leadership of the Liberal Party, that is.

So why didn't he challenge Howard for the leadership? Not enough support. How did Costello know this? His colleagues told him so. Of course, with the full backing of the Murdoch media behind him, if Costello had actually challenged Howard last year, or even earlier this year, there would have been such a wave of momentum and excitement around mounting a fresh front to fight Kevin Rudd, Costello would have found himself enormously popular with his colleagues, who were growing more desperate by the week as the polls sunk into the sewer.

According to now ex-foreign minister Alexander Downer, they knew they were not going to win with Howard in charge for most of 2007.

If Costello had tried to push the old man aside, of course the party would have rallied behind him. They wanted to win the election.

So why didn't Costello make his move? Why didn't he finally take a crack at the golden ring after pissing on year after year after year about how Howard wouldn't give him a go, like he promised?

John Howard wouldn't let him. The big meany :

The Liberals were continuing to play the blame game last night as Peter Costello handed John Howard responsibility for the party's massive electoral defeat.

The Treasurer, who aspired to be prime minister, was denied his opportunity after Mr Howard refused to retire despite diminishing support in cabinet.

Costello's first post-election interview with Lateline is now up here. Very wussy. He blames Howard, without saying "John Howard" and says they would have had a better chance with a "fresher face"...Costello is talking about himself? That battered, hang dog old mug of his is a "fresher face"?

Was he planning on hitting the Botox harder than Howard?


After spending a week blaming John Howard for losing the election, other Libs are now turning on Peter Costello :

A senior Victorian Liberal has hit out at former federal treasurer Peter Costello and his "factional henchmen", accusing them of stacking the party with yes-men and women...

Senator Judith Troeth said the faction, led by Mr Costello and his close friend, Melbourne businessman and former Victorian Liberal president Michael Kroger, was a "cult of personality" devoted to "Peter's ascension to the Lodge".

She said now that Mr Costello had decided to quit politics after last Saturday's devastating election loss, Victorian branch members should rise and rid the party executive of the Costello-Kroger henchmen.

Fight! Fight! Fight!

So much time wasted on their petty little internal brawling.

No wonder so many young people show absolutely no interest in getting into politics. Life is too short.


Here's here's Costello talking tough about what he woulda, coulda, done to the Labor Party :

"We could have neutered that appeal of Labor..."

Sure you could have.

Did it ever occur to Costello that one of the reasons why the Liberals were falling out of favour with the public was because of his ranting, sneering, smug head yelling all over the news from Parliament every couple of days?

Costello's antics might have made for big laughs in the former boys club of Parliament House, but it's no stretch to imagine that his yelling, and yawning, was pissing off more Australians in their living rooms than it was entertaining.

Glenn Milne : Finally, My Hero Costello Will Lead The Liberal Party!

Oh....dammit!

Glenn Milne has been barracking from the pages of The Australian and Sydney's Daily Telegraph for Peter Costello to take over the leadership of the Liberal Party for so long, you'd be forgiven for thinking that Glenn lights candles in front of a Costello shrine in the corner of his bedroom each evening, while chanting, "Soon Peter, soon you will lead..."

For almost a decade Glenn Milne has been working centre stage, and behind the scenes, to help score the leadership of the Liberal Party for the man he just can't get enough of. If Costello was Britney Spears, Milne would be running the fanclub and the chatroom.

Then finally, finally, it happened. John Howard lost the election and announced, late in the evening last Saturday that this was it, he was out of politics forever. The leadership of the Liberal Party was open.

Glenn Milne pounced. By 11pm on Saturday night, shortly after Howard announced his retirement, Milne's first breathless story announcing Peter Costello would become leader of the Liberal Party was up on the Sunday Mail website.




From The Sunday Mail :

Victorian Peter Costello will take over a decimated Coalition unopposed as Opposition Leader, knowing he would have been able to mount a stronger fight against Kevin Rudd and Labor.

Mr Costello has long held the view that if Mr Howard had stood aside months ago and allowed him to establish his vision for Australia, the Coalition would have had a better chance of winning last night.

There is unlikely to be any credible challenge to Mr Costello when he formally stands as leader at the first Liberal Party caucus meeting.

Previous contenders - Alexander Downer, Brendan Nelson, Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull - have all faded under the weight of their own mistakes.

By 7am, Sunday morning, Milne had reworked the story for the Sunday Telegraph to include a firm commitment from Costello that he would seek the leadership of the Liberal Party :




From the Sunday Telegraph :

Peter Costello will take over a defeated Coalition unopposed, in the knowledge he would have been able to mount a stronger fight against Kevin Rudd.

Mr Costello considers politics to be his vocation and does not want to repeat Mr Latham's mistake - abandoning his career too early and living the rest of his life wondering "what if''.

Within hours of this Glenn Milne "exclusive" appearing online, Peter Costello was standing in front of the media, with his wife by his side, announcing he didn't want to be leader of the Liberals, and would soon be leaving politics completely.

Whoops.

Eyes Show Devastation Of Shocking Defeat



Two excellent accounts of John Howard's last day as prime minister :

'That's How It Goes' - Howard Campaigns For Every Last Vote


And the day after, with a bit of the night before as well :

24 Hours In The Life Of An Ex-Prime Minister


The rage and bitterness on show in these stories from shocked Liberal supporters towards non-Howard voters is disturbing. What happened to graciousness in defeat?

So much for all that alleged violence of the Howard Haters.

Speaking of which, a whip around the online newspaper sites reveal that just about everyone connected with the 'conservative' side of politics this morning has already become one of the Howard Haters they used to so very recently revile.

Much of this New Howard Hatred comes from the dawning horror that the Liberals are in ruins, for the next few months at least, and that Howard purposely shafted Costello and destroyed any chance he had of becoming prime minister, or even an enthusiastic leader of the Liberal Party.

No wonder Costello decided to pass on the leadership. Who'd want to hang around this grim and explosive pack of bitterly sore losers for another six or ten years?

Australian Treasurer Warns Of Global Financial "Tsunami"

Is Costello Planning To Undermine The Australian Economy And Stock Market In A Last Ditch Effort To Stay In Power?

Treasurer Peter Costello knows that if his government loses the coming federal election, he can kiss goodbye his dream of one day becoming prime minister. But that's not all he will lose. Come the day after the election, if Costello is no longer the treasurer for the next three to four years, he will have disappointed his many local and international masters.

As we count down to election day, and the Howard government faces near certain defeat, Costello is getting grimly desperate. He is now lashing out out at the banks, the Reserve Bank in particular, the Labor Party in general but now also the global financial system.

The Australian economy, and the global economy in general, is weak and fragile he now tells us.
If his government loses the election, recession will descend. Few economists agree with Costello, but that won't shut him up.

Costello wants Australians to be terrified of daring to vote Labor. Think of your mortgage, think of your stock portfolio. His verbal terror campaign will grow only more shrill, and dangerous, as the election draws closer.

Labor will destroy, or at minimum thoroughly damage, the Australian economy, claims Costello. He may as well be standing on a street corner, with dried vomit on his shoes, a wine cask under his arm shouting, "You're all doomed! Doomed I tells ya!"


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But even all that cheap talk fear-mongering doesn't fully explain Costello's incredible statement on how the world markets are now facing a global financial "tsunami". It's his first missile in a coming volley, and he will inform us in coming days how the "tsunami" will affect the Australian economy, and in turn, the pockets of every Australian.

Mr Costello predicted the US economy would weaken in the wake of its subprime mortgage meltdown, and said the breakneck pace of Chinese growth could not continue.

At some stage, likely to coincide with a move to a floating exchange rate, the Chinese economy would unleash even greater instability on global markets than the US had.

"That will be a wild ride when that happens," he said. "That will set off a huge tsunami that will go through world financial markets."

Figures released yesterday show the Chinese economy grew at an annual rate of 11.5 per cent. Inflation has run above 6 per cent.

China's fixed exchange rate, widely seen as undervalued, has been blamed for the growing trade imbalance with the US, because it keeps the price of Chinese products artificially low.

"All flows of capital they have been sending to the US might reverse, and you will get a major realignment on major currency markets," Mr Costello said. "China is very strong but you can't just grow an economy in double figures on a long-term basis."

So Costello is saying that if China wanted to, they could utterly devastate the already staggering American economy. Is he admitting the American economy, and the world economy in general, is now at the mercy of China?

China now holds more than $1.3 trillion in US debt, that is the "flows of capital" Costello is talking about. Americans, on average, spend more than they earn and rely on Asian financial giants, like China, to buy up their debts. But China has been showing signs of preparing to dump some of that American debt, even if it means massive losses. American debt, in the form of Treasury bonds, are quickly becoming next to worthless on world markets, and China won't let itself be left holding that much in dead money. Also, more and more countries are now choosing to dump the American dollar as the international trading currency of choice, and the US dollar is losing its standing as the 'oil currency' on world markets. The Euro is now starting to take its place, for Iran, for Russia and, soon enough, probably for Japan as well.

Local, and international markets, play close attention to the words of the Australian treasurer. Costello is going to have to be very careful with his claims between now and election day.

Unless, of course, Costello's plan is to try and start stock market brush fires in the next month, in the hope that a fast storm of bad economic news, and plunging local share markets, will frighten Australians into voting the Howard government back into office.

As we've said before, there are many powerful, very wealthy people in this country, and internationally, who will suffer if the Howard government loses office, as they most surely will if things don't change dramatically in the next few weeks.

The Australian corporate elite have probably never had a cosier relationship with an Australian government in history, and that relationship will go through a process of transformation under Labor. To a point, anyway. But it's the kind of change the poisonously greedy don't want to undergo. They don't want to renegotiate, with a new government. They want the cosy relationship to stay the same.

The Australian people are not the only masters Costello serves. You shouldn't put any act of desperation beyond the reach of these people, or Costello himself, between now and election day.

They have so much to lose if the Howard government is swept from power.

We are unlikely to see a calm, and orderly, change of government.


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Drunk Downer Rambles, Slurs On Lateline

Calls Journalists Liars For Accurately Reporting Treasurer's Plot To "Destroy Howard'

So how hammered was foreign minister Alexander Downer during his interview on Lateline last night? About half a glass of Glenfiddich away from slurring whole sentences.

Perhaps he needed to be pissed to go on the ABC and deny that the Treasurer Peter Costello plotted to "destroy" John Howard, when he clearly did, and then dare to accuse one of Australia's most respected political journalists of being a flat-out liar.

Hilariously, Downer actually tried to claim that the Australian public were more likely to believe him and Costello over respected Australian journalists. How much more comprehensively out of touch with their own people could a couple of politicians actually be?

On Lateline, Downer repeated himself so often that host Tony Jones had to intervene to get him back on track. By the end of the interview, Downer was clearly slurring, his thoughts muddled and clouded. He looked ready for another double.

Michael Brissenden of ABC's 7.30 Report is one of the three journalists that both Downer and Costello have now accused of being stone-cold liars. An excerpt from his report on the scandal follows below.

Naturally, the whole scandal comes down to Costello's ceaseless boasting in 2005 that if John Howard didn't step aside and allow for an orderly leadership transition, to Costello, by early 2006, he would bring down Howard, all of which he tries to continue to deny.

Costello told numerous journalists of his plans, back in 2005, and said as much to the writers of a new Howard biography. He even gave a more subtle version in front of television cameras when he tried to encourage the PM to step aside last year.

How stupid do Costello and Downer really think people are? That they would trust either of them, particularly Downer, over the sober reporting of three journalists, who took short hand notes of their conversation with Costello, because it was on the record.

They'll find out soon enough, when the Liberal Party goes down in flames, and torrents of horrid shrieking, at the federal election.

Here's some of Brissinden's report on the fresh and already blood-soaked "I'll Destroy Howard" scandal. It all began with a dinner in early 2005 :

Present at that dinner were journalists Paul Daley, Michael Brissenden, veteran political reporter Tony Wright - then also a Bulletin writer now working with the Melbourne Age, and the Treasurer's press secretary.

The dinner was held on March 5, 2005, where the leadership question had been swirling its way through yet another eddy.

The Treasurer was in an expansive mood.

The three journalists still have the notes of that discussion.

Michael Brissenden says Mr Costello told the group he had set next April 2006 as the absolute deadline - "that is mid-term" for Mr Howard to stand aside.

If not, Mr Costello would challenge Mr Howard.

Mr Costello said a challenge "will happen then" if "Howard is still there".

"I'll do it," Mr Costello said, also saying he was "prepared to go to the backbench".

Mr Costello said he would "carp" at Howard's leadership from the backbench and "destroy it" until he won the leadership.

He says he would do it "because he (Howard) would lose the election".

Mr Costello said he could beat [then Opposition Leader Kim] Beazley but that Howard cannot win "without me".

He said April is the deadline, "then it's on".

The journalists all left the dinner that night with the understanding that the story - as background - could be reported.

The Bulletin planned to splash with the story the next week. The ABC agreed to run the story the night before the magazine was published.

But by 1pm the day after the dinner, the Treasurer had a change of mind.

An agitated press secretary rang pleading for the conversation to be now placed off the record and that the Bulletin pull its report.

Reluctantly, the journalists agreed.

The journalists, however, kept their detailed notes of the meeting, and Costello's bold claims, and have now made them public.

Costello had been caught out in a lie when he was questioned on the quotes by journalists yesterday. So why did he try and deny it?

But he did. Not only did he deny he ever said those words about destroying Howard, Costello tried to disparage the journalists involved :

"You find actually over the years that you get attributed with a lot of things you didn't do and you don't get afforded a lot of things you did do and I must say when I read some of these things, I wonder where the journalists get them from.

"They generally speak to somebody who has spoken to somebody who was down the back of a pub who heard the barman say, and that gradually finds its way into magazines or articles."

The journalists were sitting at a table, with Costello, while he spoke on the record.

Last night Alexander "Tulip" Downer had his drunken try at discrediting the journalists :

...you think the public would believe journalists over Peter Costello, well that's an interesting proposition, by the way.

that's the claim of the journalists and did that happen? No. And they claim that these conversation took place two years ago. I mean, you know, get real. At the end of the day journalists claim something was said two years ago, the Treasurer, who's a man of decency and integrity, has denied it.

Howard, Costello and Downer love to waffle on about their vast experience, and yet they still don't understand that when you're caught out in a lie, the worst thing you can do is try and deny it. Particularly when journalists recorded the lie.

So much for all that experience. And credibility.

Labor will have a field day with this scandal, as they well should.

Another bloodbath on the road to the Howard government's decimation has begun.

Treasurer Would Deport Australian Citizens For Not Being Patriotic, If Only He Could

The Australian federal government would love nothing more than to make the coming national election a debate about what it means to be Australian.

It's their favourite non-issue of the moment, and although government minister can usually bag a few minutes of media air time whenever they start spouting off about they categorise as non-Australian behaviour or beliefs, the majority of Australians are more interested in issues the government would rather not have at the forefront of the national agenda - climate change, dwindling water supplies, shocking levels of personal debt, ending the Iraq War, the five year long imprisonment, without charge, of Australian citizen David Hicks in a US isolation centre.

Because they've lost control over setting the subjects of national debate, political figures like the Australian treasurer, Peter Costello, are becoming increasingly sad, divisive and bitter.

Costello has other reasons to be so very sad and so very bitter. Prime minister John Howard had promised Costello, repeatedly, through the early 2000s, that he would hand over the leadership of the coalition government to Costello, but Howard kept changing his mind, deciding to stay on.

The longer Costello feels he has been cheated out of his dream of being gifted the prime ministership of Australia, without having to face an election, the more extreme his rhetoric has become. He can't slam the dishonesty and questionable loyalties of the prime minister, so he continually goes after easy targets : idiotic religious leaders, flag burners, anti-globalisation protestors.

Costello has become the chief bulldog in the fictional, reactionary debate about what it means to be an Australian, and who should, and not be, be allowed to keep their Australian citizenship if they were determined to be, by an undeclared body, acting against the interests of the nation.

I say fictional and reactionary because this debate is one all but created by the government to tamp down the political dreams of Australian Muslims, and to drive wedges into Australia's mostly harmonious and accepting multicultural society.

Now Costello's mind is whirling with plans to deport Australian citizens, even those born here, who he thinks don't past the patriotic muster call.

When he talks about the loyalty of those Asutralians who hold dual citizenships, he doesn't even bother trying to make it sound like he's talking about the hundreds of thousands of Australians who still hold onto their US, Israeli and British passports. For Costello, it's all about those who remain citizens of countries like Egypt and Lebanon.

He is, however, far too cowardly to just come out and say his chief target is Australian Muslims.

"If somebody is an Australian citizen and also, let's say, an Egyptian citizen and that person doesn't support what this country stands for... I think we'd be within our rights to say to that person, well, Australia's not for you..."

But Costello doesn't want to just "say to that person", he wants them gone, and it bothers him greatly that he can't just write up a list of all those he thinks should be deported for being "divisive" and and un-Australian and hand it over to the Immigration Department for fast action.

Costello isn't just talking about dual-citizenship Australians, either. Even those born here, he believes, should be thrown out of the country for not being patriotic enough. He wants to kick them out, but is clearly saddened by the fact that he can't. Well, not yet anyway.

"You get into a difficult situation if they're not dual citizens, because at that point, if you take away Australian citizenship they're not a citizen of anywhere, they've got nowhere to go."

Don't let that stop you, Peter. I'm sure Indonesia would donate one of its unoccupied islands for all those Australians you think should be deported, but can't be because they're not dual citizens and don't have another homeland to be sent back to.

Costello likes to harp on about Australians who still hold citizenship in countries like Egypt and Lebanon. But he never mentions the fact that the vast majority of Australia's dual citizens hold secondary citizenship in the US, the UK or Israel.

He doesn't like flag burners, either. In fact, they make him "sick to my stomach." But again, he doesn't want to make the act of burning the Australian flag illegal because he's afraid that those convicted would become "martyrs".

Costello clearly doesn't view the flag-burning non-issue through the prism of freedom of speech, or one of the rights inherent in a free society, no matter how distasteful the burning of the national flag may be.

To him, it's all about loyalty to Australia. Which is in itself a hypocritical argument to make, as long as Australia remains part of the British Commonwealth, and has the Union Jack eating up one quarter of our flag.

How you can be 100% loyal and patriotic to a country that still has a foreign queen as the official head of state?

You'll know Costello is being serious about his calls for dual citizens to show their loyalty to this nation when he starts calling for those Australians who still hold British, American and Israeli passports, along with those holding Lebanese and Egyptian passports, to give them up and drop their dual citizenship.

Until he makes this call, Costello is being a divisive and hysterical hypocrite.

But then, that is the kind of behaviour that gets him the most media attention.

Howard Government Denies Conspiracy to Overthrow Government Of East Timor

World Bank Now "Stands Ready To Assist" East Time After PM Kept Them Out For Years

By Darryl Mason


This remarkable image by Glenn Campbell appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald.

The rumours and whispers have grown so strong, so convincing, that now even the Australian Treasurer, Peter Costello, has been forced to publicly state Australia did not play a r0le in overthrowing the government of East Timor.

"It's absolutely false that Australia has intervened in any way in the political line-up in East Timor," he said on Channel 9.

"Australia, by the way, has troops that are serving, in difficult conditions, the East Timorese people, keeping law and order on the streets.

"Those troops are there at the invitation of the president and the then prime minister Mr Alkatiri. So they were asked to be there."

Well, that's not quite true now is it Mr Treasurer?

Australian ships and helicopters and ground vehicles and troops were sent to East Timor with the expectation that the Prime Minister Alkatiri would ask for Australian troops to come in and help out, at the height of the rioting, the burning and the killings last month. But he refused to commit for days, unsure of what the role of foreign peacekeepers should be in East Timor.

Alkatiri feared a coup back then, and warned his supporters that this might happen. Now he has been forced to quit, his supporters believe his prediction has come true.

When Australian troops entered East Timor there was still a bit of paperwork left to be signed, and the East Timorese Prime Minister Alkatiri was extremely reluctant to allow foreign troops into the country, no doubt forseeing his disposal.

Australian troops were allowed into East Timor mostly due to President Gusmao, who engaged in "shouting matches" with the Prime Minister in the days leading up to Australia's intervention.

The Australian Treasurer plays dumb when it comes to discussion of just how influence 1300 Australian troops, with gunned up trucks and Blackhawk helicopters, can have on local happenings in East Timor.

"To claim that they've engaged in domestic politics is absolutely false and I can say that for a fact."

This is a ridiculous thing to say and Costello knows it.

Any time foreign troops enter a sovereign country, and are seen to be protecting, or keeping watch over anti-government forces, as Australians did, then they are becoming involved in domestic politics.


It's not getting any better in East Timor. The government is in chaos after Alkatiri quit. and he is now being accused of arming kill squads to take out his political enemies in the early days of the current conflict.

Homes are being burned, Australian troops are having big time trouble keeping rival gangs from beating and stabbing ten kinds of hell out of each other, and even the displaced persons camps are being attacked and harassed.

Their bodies trembled with fear. They sobbed. They stared wide-eyed, heads bowed. They were mostly women and children, huddled at the gate of Dili's main wharf yesterday.

They had been chased there by anti-Alkatiri rioters who then stood on the road 20 metres away, screaming threats. "We're going to kill you all," a mob leader yelled. "You are all dead."

All that mattered to the rioters, who were frothing at the mouth and screaming incoherently, was that they believed the petrified women and children they had bailed up were from East Timor's east.

That's how far East Timor's conflict has gone: Timorese attacking strangers because of where they were born.

Australian troops are heavily restricted by their rules of engagement in East Timor. They can't open fire unless they feel their lives are directly threatened, but the rioters aren't targeting the troops. They go after women and children and the houses and businesses of those they view as their enemies.

...the soldiers must remain "neutral". Major James Baker, the spokesman for Australia's peacekeeping force in Dili, said: "Our soldiers are taught to have a measured response to defuse any situation which might arise. Our job is to make sure the feuding parties are separated."

The soldiers separate them, but then the rioters run around the block and attack each other, or innocent passers-by, all over again.

The soldiers jumped out and chased the culprits, one of them screaming "Come here, you little f---ers." The soldier ran down and grabbed the slowest by the neck before bundling him into one of the vehicles. The rest of the rioters escaped, free to terrorise elsewhere.

Australian journalist John Pilger has covered events in East Timor from the early 1970s, when Australia first refused to interfere with the ongoing Indonesian genocide that wiped out 1/3 of the entire population over the next two decades. Here's an excerpt of his take on what's happening in East Timor today :

These days Australia likes to present itself as a helpful, generous neighbor of East Timor, after public opinion forced the government of John Howard to lead a UN peacekeeping force six years ago.

East Timor is now an independent state, thanks to the courage of its people and a tenacious resistance led by the liberation movement Fretilin, which in 2001 swept to political power in the first democratic elections. In regional elections last year, 80 percent of votes went to Fretilin, led by Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri, a convinced "economic nationalist," who opposes privatization and interference by the World Bank.

Barely three days after Prime Minister Alkatiri stepped down, the World Bank has made it known that it "stands ready to assist in any way we can."

World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz was one of the most insidious of all the NeoCons who lied their country into the brutal 'War On Iraq', later admitting that the story of Saddam's WMDs was just a cover story to help sell the war.

Wolfowitz has now got his World Bank sights well and truly set on East Timor, after being denied extensive exploitation rights by Alkatiri for the past six years. Not anymore. Says Wolfowitz :

"This chance for a united approach to peace and recovery may not come again."

That almost sounds like a threat.

Go Here For Extensive Coverage From May 28, When Australian Troops Had Just Entered East Timor

Go To 'Your New Reality' Blog For Coverage On How The Current Troubles In East Timor Began And Quickly Spiralled Out Of Control.

Another Slab of Coverage Here