NSW looks to ban drivers under 21 from the road after 10pm as well as being banned from driving a "powerful" car. A look at why some US Presidents are despised. Plus Australia is now free to detain stateless refugees forever. Vive la liberte volent.

Wedge Politics and Election Time

A letter to the editor in the Sydney Morning Herald wrote in;

The permanent ritual is now that as each federal election approaches, some unfortunate minority group gets it in the neck. Who will be up for it next time? Is anybody safe?

Wedge politics is inherently divisive and Howard constantly practices in the art of discrimination for political purposes. The Westminster system is notoriously weak for protecting minorities. Australia's largest minority was openly and institutionally discriminated against by government until the 1970's. A bill of rights will curb some of the worst abuses, but the political mindset has to change. The current mob of bastards do not look to be utterly capable of that change or achieving that kind of enlightenment that is necessary in an equitable and egalitarian society.

NSW Marches Onwards Toward a Totalitarian Police State

From a Sydney Morning Herald on the subject of having curfews for drivers under the age of 21, entitled; Young driver curfew: off the road by 10pm . The article contains;

Drivers under 21 are likely to be forced off the road between 10pm and 6am, restricted to carrying one teenage passenger and not allowed to drive cars deemed too powerful.

The NSW Roads Minister, Carl Scully, wants changes in place by the end of the year to crack down on fatalities involving young drivers, and he has asked the Roads and Traffic Authority to prepare a discussion paper.

Ridiculous. It is a fact of life that teenagers are statistically more likely to act irresponsibly with their cars, but it is no reason to treat all teenagers like criminals. Educate rather than persecute should be the mantra of the government, and even then only those that have broken laws need to be singled out for greater attention. The rest of the teenagers that are driving sensibly don't need to be discriminated against because some over-statist politicians wants a political and media talking point.

NSW is getting worse and worse in the police state stakes. Each time I go back the changes are palpable. There is a stretch of road near Wilberforce that has signs up on it now about how people die there. The government puts them there. Those signs do not give me information to die better, they are fear signs. They don't tell me a tight corner is coming up and they recommend I hit it at 40km/h - no police states don't work like that, instead there is a nonsensical several paragraphs to read. It distracts from the road and does not give the driver any useful information. In other words it is litter, and worse, it is distractive sign litter.

"I think this is something mums and dads will welcome," Mr Scully said. "I know mums and dads across NSW worry when their teenagers start getting on the road . . . and are worried sick that they might not come home."

Justifying it "for the children" won't work. If the parents are that worried they can enact a driving curfew on their children themselves. This is not the governments place to be doing this. Scully can go back to making sure that pot-holes are filled and that suitable future planning for road transportation is being done for the rapidly expanding Sydney Western Suburbs. This is garbage statist legislation.

Clinton, Bush and Hate

An op-ed in the Washington Post for Friday, August 6th 2004 by Gary Alan Fine is entitled, "Ire To The Chief". I haven't linked to it as the Post is registration only and I have forgotten my password. I get it delivered to the door so I don't really care. Besides the registration process is too laborious. The article explores the source of hate for Bush, Clinton, Nixon etc is because of their youths and who their youth represents - Not their political ideology. From the article;

My argument was [in an essay entitled 'despised presidents'] that presidential hatred developed not from actions the president took while in office but from images of the president as a young adult. The president represented critical cultural divisions of a previous generation, divisions that were never fully healed.

Fine suggests that Nixon was hated not for his political ideology and scandals, but because of his role in the House of Un-American Activities Committee in the conviction of Alger Hiss. Fine also argues that Clinton's hippy youth is what raised ire as Fine see's Clinton despised before the Lewinsky scandal, just as Bush was despised before his scandals with 911 and Iraq. Fine believes that Clinton represented to traditional Americans all the aspects of the 60's that was wrong. ie draft dodging, drug smoking, war protesting, head-job getting etc. Yet politically, Clinton balanced budgets and was a pro-business government but was still despised by the right.

Fine see's Bush as despised by the left for a similar reason. Politically he has not had any sex scandals, though I consider his behaviour on 911 and with Iraq as scandalous. Bush has crafted leftist style legislation of increasing government, cost of health and education etc. However, Bush represents all that is wrong with the Buffalo aristocracy. From the article;

This loathing derives from Bush's seeming life of ease. .... He has led a charmed life, in which mediocrity, error and failure have had no consequences other than to produce success. An indifferent student, Bush attended both Yale and Harvard, escaped service in Vietnam, escaped disgrace despite drunken driving, failed as an oil magnate only to be promoted to head of the Texas Rangers baseball team, and lacking political experience, became governor of Texas. His family and mentors paved the way for this untalented scion of privilege.

Fine makes the point that the 2000 election added to this image as it was the Supreme Court who ultimately made Bush President. To Fine this underlined that Bush has an undeserving past and was only punished with success.

I don't think Fine is capturing the full complexity of the situation. Clinton and Bush until the act incompetently are targets of ridicule for their pasts. But Bush has sheer incompetence on his side after four years as President. There have been so many displays of incompetence. His presidential manner is a sham when not stage managed. He is incapable of answering questions that he has not prepared for ahead of time. He has made the Executive incredibly secretive and seemingly above legislative and judicial oversight.

His actions in the run up to Iraq and afterwards were sheer incompetence at its worst. Afghanistan and Iraq both remain major issues due to the ongoing incompetence and the political expediency they were both dealt with. I don't hate Bush. But I have seen enough incompetence to know that he incapable of being President. Do I think that his coming from an idle class and how he lived his life has something to do with his lack of ability at the Federal level? The answer is undoubtedly yes.

His thesis doesn't export well either. Keating and Howard are both despised by their respective counter-part polities. Yet neither of them represent the foibles of youth of a generation ago. They are both politicians that will do anything to stay in power. Back when Keating was around I didn't like him much and I like Howard less. The Australian political system is pretty disenfranchising though. The constant march of federalism and legislation over people is wearying so that any knee-jerk derision of a political person in authority is justified.

The Australian Guantanamo Bay

The High Court ruled that the Migration Act enabled the government to detain stateless refugees indefinitely. Already one refugee has been redetained since the courts decision came through. How far has Australia fallen? back to the days of the willful discrimination of the 1950's and the White Australian policy. I don't know how these politicians can sleep putting these people behind razor wire at the governments liberty. How putrid is the Australian political system. From the article;

"It's the end of the line for this whole group of people", Ms Goodstone said. "One of our clients who was in detention for 3 1/2 years was released from detention almost 1 1/2 years ago and has been living in the community since. Following the High Court decision, he now faces the prospect of re-detention, perhaps indefinitely.

"We call on the Government to amend the Migration Act as a matter of urgency, to prevent this inhumane situation."

The politicians in Australia are irrevocably and irreparably damaging Australia. What is needed is another Pemulwey, who will stand for the rights of others and be willing to take that stand to a conclusion.

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