{"id":581,"date":"2007-02-04T05:49:04","date_gmt":"2007-02-03T19:49:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/?p=581"},"modified":"2007-02-05T00:08:30","modified_gmt":"2007-02-04T14:08:30","slug":"but-it-might-just-be-a-lunatic-youre-looking-for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/?p=581","title":{"rendered":"But it might just be a lunatic you&#8217;re looking for&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[Shit. My housemate is leaving today and taking his Internet connection with him. So&#8230; things&#8217;ll be a little quiet for a few days &#8217;round these here parts. In other news, Rockin&#8217; Ricque and I enjoyed the sights and sounds of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.comedystore.com.au\/site\/index.php?page=bruce_griffiths\">Bruce Griffiths<\/a>, <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.tvsmith.com\/\">TV Smith<\/a><\/strong> and <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.innercitysound.com.au\/ThoughtCriminals.html\">The Thought Criminals<\/a><\/strong> at a public house known as <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thetotehotel.com\/\">The Tote<\/a><\/strong> this evening. FYI, Sunday arvo &#8220;TV Smith of The Adverts (UK), Jon Langford of The Mekons (USA) and our very own Kim Salmon play two sets each in rotating order, including an exhibition of Jon Langford\u2019s renowned artwork from 2pm.&#8221;]<\/p>\n<ul>&#8230;NSW Premier Morris Iemma said Mr Habib still had questions to answer to the Australian public and predicted he would get little support from voters. &#8220;The voters of Auburn, like Australians everywhere, won&#8217;t put up with lunacy, no matter who&#8217;s putting it forward,&#8221; Mr Iemma told reporters.<\/ul>\n<p>Former guest of the US Government at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.atlanticfreepress.com\/content\/view\/645\/81\/\">sunny Guant\u00e1namo Bay, Cuba<\/a>, <em>Mamdouh Habib<\/em> has recently announced his intention to run in the upcoming NSW state election in the seat of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.elections.nsw.gov.au\/state_government_elections\/electoral_districts\/all_districts_\/auburn\">Auburn<\/a>, currently held by Labor&#8217;s <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.parliament.nsw.gov.au\/Prod\/Parlment\/Members.nsf\/3c7d4693c06be72aca256ee3001a8ab1\/60ed4ae58320b356ca256ac60019fdfa!OpenDocument\">Barbara Perry<\/a><\/em> by a margin of 26.5%.<\/p>\n<p>Auburn:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>(b) 89,000 constituents, of which 45,000 are electors. (c) The area is approximately 1\/3 residential, 1\/3 commercial, and 1\/3 recreational. (d) Working class electorate with 82% employment and 18% unemployed. (e) One in five constituents over the age of 65 years. (f) 48 different nationalities. (g) Suburbs: Regents Park, Berala, Lidcombe, Auburn, Silverwater, Homebush Bay, Birrong, Sefton, Yagoona and Chester Hill. (h) Two local council areas: Auburn and Bankstown. (i) Religions: Catholic, Church of England and various Protestant churches. Also Sikh, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu. (j) Eight high schools and sixteen primary schools. (k) One university campus. (l) Area: 45.54 sq km<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Mamdouh Habib was one of a number of individuals subjected to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aclu.org\/safefree\/extraordinaryrendition\/22203res20051206.html\">&#8216;extraordinary rendition&#8217;<\/a> by the US state, a process in which &#8216;persons of interest&#8217; to the US state are kidnapped and taken to other countries &#8212; in Habib&#8217;s case, Egypt &#8212; where they are tortured for information (and pleasure). The HoWARd Government <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wsws.org\/articles\/2005\/mar2005\/habi-m28.shtml\">denies these facts<\/a>, as it does the torture taking place at Guant\u00e1namo; a position which Habib, at a rally in Sydney last month to commemorate the five-year anniversary of the concentration camp, made pointed reference to: &#8220;PRIME Minister John Howard should spend a year at the US naval base in Guant\u00e1namo Bay, says former detainee Mamdouh Habib, who claims inmates are subject to torture, electric shock and beatings&#8221; (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.news.com.au\/story\/0,23599,21044904-1702,00.html\">Stay a while at Guant\u00e1namo, Habib tells PM<\/a>, <strong>AAP<\/strong>, January 11, 2007).<\/p>\n<p>While the Australian Government simply cannot do enough to support George II&#8217;s regime, the German Government is currently <a href=\"http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/1\/hi\/world\/europe\/6316369.stm?ls\">chasing<\/a> the ghosts of the CIA responsible for kidnapping and torturing German citizen <em>Khaled al-Masri<\/em> in December 2003. al-Masri was kidnapped in Macedonia and tortured in Afghanistan: &#8220;Mr Masri says he was abducted by US agents in the Macedonian capital, Skopje, on 31 December 2003. He is seeking to sue the US government over his detention, but <strong>in May a judge dismissed a lawsuit he filed against the CIA, citing national security considerations<\/strong>&#8220;. In Italy, &#8220;Osama Mustafa Hassan, or Abu Omar, says he was abducted from the streets of Milan and then tortured in Egypt&#8221;. Italian authorities may also choose to chase CIA ghosts.<\/p>\n<p>NB. Such practices as &#8216;extraordinary rendition&#8217; are eminently sensible, and absolutely <em>vital<\/em> to securing <a href=\"http:\/\/www.chomsky.info\/talks\/20031021.htm\">national security<\/a>. What&#8217;s cRaZy is Habib&#8217;s platform, which <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theaustralian.news.com.au\/story\/0,20867,21152342-5006784,00.html\">reportedly<\/a> consists of the following lunacy:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>In a statement today, Mr Habib said he would be campaigning for &#8220;the right of freedom of expression and in opposition to the anti-terrorist laws, state and federal&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The right to fight racism, the end of scapegoating of Aborigines, Muslims and migrants,&#8221; Mr Habib said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The right to oppose Australia&#8217;s involvement in Iraq.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He said he was also standing on education, housing, health and environment issues.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>As you can see, it&#8217;s patently obvious that Habib is barking, and the <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.liberal.org.au\/\">Australian Labor Party<\/a><\/strong>, in the form of NSW Premier Morris Iemma, is absolutely right to describe freedom of expression, opposition to draconian laws, racism, and the scapegoating of Aborigines, Muslims and migrants, the war on Iraq and support for better education, health, housing and an end to the destruction of the natural environment as consisting of all those things which the ALP abhors.<\/p>\n<ul>&#8230;We put the work in<br \/>\nWe put the time in<br \/>\nAssumed we were doing the right thing<br \/>\nWe put the effort in<br \/>\nOur whole lives in<br \/>\nBut in the end we&#8217;re second class citizens<\/p>\n<p>So we zipped our lips<br \/>\nWe worked for tips<br \/>\nWe aimed ever-lower but still missed<br \/>\nIn this compassionate land<br \/>\nThe helping hand<br \/>\nShows you two fingers then a fist<\/p>\n<p>I put the work in<br \/>\nI put the time in<br \/>\nWhat did I get back? Virtually nothing<br \/>\nI put the effort in<br \/>\nMy whole life in<br \/>\nBut in the end I&#8217;m still a second class citizen&#8230;<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[Shit. My housemate is leaving today and taking his Internet connection with him. So&#8230; things&#8217;ll be a little quiet for a few days &#8217;round these here parts. In other news, Rockin&#8217; Ricque and I enjoyed the sights and sounds of &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/?p=581\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[9,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-state","category-war-on-terror"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6AyE-9n","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}