Paul Howes, what a piece of..........

"Faceless man" Paul Howes, one of the arseholes of the ALP/union clique who stole a Prime Minister from the nation in his first term of office and thus condemned his pals to a return to the political wilderness, always was and always will be a creep, and it appears he is a creep in every aspect of his life, a skid-mark on the fabric of Australian society. 
http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/celebrity/private-sydney/paul-howes-drama-takes-centre-stage-at-opera-house-ball-20141015-116h5t.html

The high price of Julia

According to demographer and former Labor senator John Black, by the middle of 2012, with most polls showing Labor's primary vote stuck at 30 per cent, Julia Gillard had cost her party two million votes.

- Maxine McKew, page three in her recent book Tales from the Political Trenches published by Melbourne University Press

This book is my pick as a summer read for Australian readers with an interest in politics. The book is part autobiography, blending with commentary and reporting on the events before, during and after the winter of 2010 when a highly popular Aussie PM in his first term was deposed by lesser beings, throwing the ALP into an abyss of voter unpopularity, pretty much the same abyss that Rudd had only two and a half years earlier pulled the ALP out of. In case you didn't know, McKew had a long and respected career in journalism at a public broadcaster before retiring and successfully later running for the ALP in the 2007 Rudd landslide federal election, and in doing so unseating the Liberal Prime Minister John Howard who till then had appeared to be unassailable. McKew was later unseated in the 2010 federal election which was a choice between political leaders that could be summed up as "dumb and dumber". So, Maxine has heaps and heaps to write about, and she's got the skill in spades to write in a clear and engaging manner. This is probably why this book drew me in, even to read stuff that I'd not otherwise find of interest. The main attraction for me in this book is McKew's debunking of many of the points in the official ALP/Gillard and Swan account of why Rudd had to be removed, and also McKew's general arguments against the integrity and competence of Gillard and Swan. Many anonymous but apparently very senior ALP sources are quoted by McKew regretting the coup of winter 2010. I can completely understand why such sources would insist on anonymity. There's also a quote from Rudd. Two and a half years later, many Australians are still feeling outrage at Gillard and Swan's disloyal grab for power. It must surely go down in Australian political history as the stupidest decision ever.

They are still talking about the Ruddocalypse, after all this time

Did Gillard and her colleagues believe that Rudd and the events of June 2010 would fade from the collective memory and fall back into the pages of history books? Dumb call.

I don't get why it is still such a live question as to when Gillard started planning her coup. Fowler unsuccessfully tried to get an answer out of the PM about some new evidence that she had planned well in advance, destroying the story that she was a party to the coup only as a last resort. It was reported by Patricia Karvelas on the front page of the Oz way back in December 2010 that months before the spill the "faceless man" Don Farrell told the US embassy that Gillard was campaigning for the leadership, according to a Wikileaks diplomatic cable release. I wrote about the lack of apparent impact of this story shortly after it was published. At the time it appeared that the ABC had not reported the story.

The Comeback Kid?
By Andrew Fowler and Peter Cronau
Four Corners
ABCTV
February 10th 2012
http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/2012/02/10/3427070.htm

"Julia Gillard 'after top job a year before coup': WikiLeaks"
By Patricia Karvelas
The Australian
December 17, 2010
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/julia-gillard-after-top-job-a-year-before-coup-wikileaks/story-fn59niix-1225972416553
http://www.news.com.au/national/julia-gillard-after-top-job-a-year-before-coup-wikileaks/story-e6frfkvr-1225972601117?from=public_rss

Annabel Crabb on Gillard, Rudd and personalities

"Politicians are people. Their insecurities and petty stubbornnesses dictate their behaviour just like anyone else's do. There is no other way to explain this Caucus's tolerance of judgment errors committed by this leader, in counterpoint to its ruthless punishment of the last chap, other than the differences in personality."

So, June 24th 2010 was about personalities? How pathetic. I understand that politicians are people, but I just wish that more of them were grown-up people.

Gillard, Rudd and Labor's personality tragedy.
by Annabel Crabb
The Drum.
ABC News.
September 9th 2011
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-09-09/crabb-gillard-rudd-and-labors-personality-tragedy/2878672

Fail, Julia, fail! Resign, Julia. Resign.

When the majority of Australians polled identify Kevin Rudd as their preferred PM, that can only mean that they would like to see the return of the nerd. Rudd's loyal friend Phillip Adams has the same dream. But who really cares about the wishes of the Australian voters? Clearly Julia Gillard had little regard for the will of the people when she chose to replace a PM who had not even three years earlier been swept to power on the crest of a tsunami of popularity.

Let Rudd resume rightful role.
Phillip Adams
The Australian.
September 06, 2011
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/opinion/let-rudd-resume-rightful-role/story-e6frgd0x-1226130032312

Gutless

I’d like to dedicate this lovely tune, by the legendary and not-gutless Courtney Love, to the Australian Labor Party,

the party who have never had the guts to challenge or to educate voters who misguidedly view refugees as a threat to our nation

the party who swiftly respond to popular outrage over animal cruelty while not swerving from policies which cause cruelty to human refugees

the party that has leaders who stuffed up the live cattle trade with Indonesia and endangered the relationship between Australia and Indonesia, leaving the great big mess for their outcast Foreign Minister to sort out

the party who can’t bring themselves to catch up with the twentieth century and end the embarrassment of our backwards nation still not allowing same-sex marriage

the party who has caved in to the expensive and questionable demands of a professor psychiatrist who has a flair for self-promotion, who lacks scientific credibility, has many conflicting interests and has routinely broken the rules of professional conduct by failing to declare conflicting interests in published journal papers

the party that has a long history of political dynasties (the less polite term for this is nepotism)

the party who were happy to sit in opposition for many years under an internally popular but shockingly useless leader

the party who still revere a past leader who was a drunken womanizer who ruled during times of high unemployment and high interest rates, and has been a vocal advocate of the brutal regime of “Myanmar”

the party who still revere a past leader who was a smug smartarse despite the shockingly high rates of unemployment and interest rates during the times when he was a treasurer and a Prime Minister, and who appointed an obese predatory paedophile as a federal government minister

the party who were happy to allow a hardworking individual to pull them out of the wilderness of opposition, and later pull the nation through the international global financial crisis using great judgement and decisiveness, while all the time reserving the right to knock him down and replace him should he become less useful

the party who failed to support their leader when he took on the might of Australia’s mining companies with a new tax

the party who failed to confront that leader when all that power went to his head, preferring instead to simply wipe him out and start with someone else

the party who allowed an unelected union leader to publicly announce the outcome of the most controversial leadership coup in Australian political history

the party who caved in to the demands of mining company billionaires who don’t like to pay tax

the party who kiss-up to and obey the US government, and who have prominent members who inform on other members to the US embassy, and who trot along to the Australian-American Leadership Dialogue every year, and munch hot dogs at baseball matches like the aspiring yankee doodle dandy suckholes that they are

the party who has a leader who will soon be going to Western Australia for a conference, perhaps in the hope that the mining state will be the least hostile place to be a year after the political assassination of their former leader, and months after the party caved in to the threats and demands of mining billionaires who like to avoid paying tax

you’re gutless!

Some quotes about Australian politics from this week

OK, so, one year on almost from the killing Kevin episode Julia Gillard’s net satisfaction rating is precisely where his was before he was knifed.

- Lenore Taylor, from the Sydney Morning Herald speaking on Insiders TV show broadcast on ABC1 June 5th 2011



I don’t accept that my country is a pissant country.

- Professor Ross Garnaut speaking at the launch of the updated Garnaut Review of climate change at the National Press Club, May 31st 2011.



Order, order, ORDER!, order, order......

- Harry Jenkins, Speaker of the House of Representatives, who came close to resigning this week following a failure to win a vote to have a backbencher suspended for alleged rowdy behaviour

June 24th 2011?

So, is anything planned to commemorate that day? Not that I'm advocating or suggesting in any way that anything of an illegal nature should happen on that day, but surely someone should do or say something? I guess some print journos will write pieces arguing that Gillard has been a pathetic disappointment as a leader and as Australia's first female Prime Minister, and that the Gillard Government has been pragmatic but gutless and uninspired, but wouldn't that just be stating the obvious?

I used to date this boy who had an absolute gift for thinking up practical jokes. The things that you can do with a dead kangaroo, or a set of "Detour" signs!

Wishing You an Unhappy Birthday

This evening our pathetic excuse for a national news TV channel ABC News 24 broadcast Prime Minister Julia Gillard giving a jocular speech in which she acknowledged the presence of a number of federal ALP colleagues at the celebration of the AWU's 125th anniversary at the Gold Coast. The list of ALP guests listed by Gillard consisted mostly of Wayne Swan and all of the infamous "faceless men", of which two have been leaders of the AWU, an influential union. Gillard made a joke about AWU leader Paul Howe's role in the coup that removed then-PM Kevin Rudd in June of 2010, an incredible lapse of taste in my opinion. It is no surprise at all that one major figure in the ALP was not mentioned in Gillard's list of party guests.

I'm guessing that Gillard might be keen to crack jokes with and slap the backs of her faceless pals, as there has been a persistent rumour repeated by a number of different sources lately that one of these unpleasant friends, Bill Shorten, is planning some type of coup to intall himself in Gillard's place. No, seriously, I am not making this up, this is not a joke, yes, apparently Shorten sees himself as our Prime Minister, not in 20 years time, but now. Yes, that bloke with the psycho-eyes. What's with the eyes? He must be as mad as he looks. Bill Shorten as PM? Imagine that. I can see rioting in the streets, Egypt style.

After all of the natural disasters that have been visited upon our great nation in the last few months, why couldn't a flaming fireball of a rogue asteroid plunge through the Earth's atmosphere just above the venue for this gathering and blast a hole of fiery destruction just big enough to wipe out these thoroughly dislikeable people? Why not?

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/8210517/awu-national-conference-opens-in-qld

http://www.awu.net.au/712743.html

Fail Julia Fail

"The failure of Gillard to truly replace Rudd is agonisingly obvious. Her tenure in the job is tenuous. Senior members of her Cabinet – both those who opposed and supported the coup – see her as a flop. They’re talking about dumping her."

Conspirators turn on Gillard.
Phillip Adams
The Australian February 01, 2011.
Weekend Australian. magazine February 5-6th 2011.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/conspirators-turn-on-gillard/story-e6frg7fx-1225998053845

Paul Howes' book not really a disappointment, because I didn't expect much anyway

I have been reading the recent book by the "faceless man" Paul Howes titled Confessions of a faceless man. Originality is clearly not a trait that defines Mr Howes. This claustrophobic book gives the reader the viewpoint of Howes during the 2010 election, and it is a visit to a world of power, but also a limited and personal world. Mr Howes displays a lack of self awareness and social awareness in that he does not seem to realise that the whole world doesn't care who he likes or doesn't like, and doesn't attach the same importance to social ties and group membership that he does.

This book has done nothing to dispel my fear that petty personal antipathies were an important factor behind what they did to Rudd. Howes makes quite a few unsupported derogatory claims about Rudd's character in this book. It is alarming that Howes has shown in this book how willing he has been to assume that Rudd was the source of the infamous leaks that damaged the ALP during the 2010 election, assuming the worst about a man. I have found no account in the book of Howes attempting himself to investigate the truth of this matter.

I find it interesting that a man who has assumed so many adult responsibilities at an early age (Howes is a married father of three and the head of a major union at the age of 30, and left home to live independently at the end of year 9, forsaking an education), is so fond of using the term "grown-ups" when taking a snipe at people. I think Mr Howes might have unresolved issues of some type with early origins, and I wonder how much trouble those issues might have caused for everyone to date. Howes is an unusual man - every bit as unusual as Rudd, and I am surely not the only person who has noticed that Howes and Rudd seem to be opposite types - Rudd the socially clunky academic star and Howes with his street-smarts but no education. David Marr should have done a job on Mr Howes, but who would bother to write an essay about a faceless man?

I think it is also interesting that Howes tends to favour using terms such as "bizarre", "odd" and "strange" in reference to things or utterances of others that seem to be mistakes or questionable. Howes seems to be a man who would rather drop innuendos about possible mental heath issues of others instead of stating plain judgements. In this book Howes shows his herd-mentality with his fondness of the mental health diagnosis du jour of Australian commentators - he speculates about narcissistic personality disorder in relation to Latham and Rudd. This says so much more about Howes than it does about anyone else.

I find it interesting how little there is written in this book about those troublesome people beyond the world of the ALP, the media and the union movement. I'm talking about voters, the public. They don't get much of a mention in this book, except for references to undefined people who sent Howes abusive messages through his Twitter account. Howes' term for Twitter is "the shit room" for an obvious reason. I've read much of the book but I still haven't found any bit where Howes tackles the big question about Rudd's relationship with the ALP - the question of why the voters were so very willing to vote for Rudd in 2007, but in other actual elections haven't shown nearly the same electoral enthusiasm for the rest of the ALP for a very long time. Mr Howes seems to be so very wrapped up in his tight and collegiate but limited and sharply defined world that he has forgotten that the business of political parties is courting and winning votes, and then governing.

Another thing that is noticeably almost absent from this book is mention of the other "faceless men". I find it hard to believe that this absence is a reflection of the reality of the time that was supposedly chronicled in this election diary. I guess Howes did not want to paint a picture that looks like an evil conspiracy.

In December 2010 the Australian newspaper reported that Paul Howes is one of the protected sources / US embassy informants named in WikiLeaks cable number 08CANBERRA609. Mention of this matter is yet another thing that is absent from this book, but this is hardly surprising.

I'm sure many people reading this book will be wondering how the people in politics and the media described in this book get anything much done while they spend so much time drinking or recovering from drinking, but I'm sure this will surprise no one, considering the long association that the ALP has had with alcoholics and drunken bonding. It's another world.

If you are really interested in Paul Howes this book is worth a read, because it gives an insight into the psychology of the man, who is probably typical of other ALP figures. Howes' passion for defending the rights of refugees is displayed prominently in this book. But if you are hoping to discover any major new information about the events of June 2010, you will be disappointed.

Isn't this news? Isn't this BIG news?

This story was on the front page of the Australian newspaper today, Friday December 17th 2010. When I saw the paper at the Woolies supermarket today I thought "Gosh! She lies like a rug! What a scheming cow! Is it news that a pollie lies like a rug? Maybe not, but still the issue is rather important. I think it is news, but this evening I didn't notice the story on the TV news. I can't find the story on the ABC's news website and it is buried deep within the bowels of the Australian's website. WTF?

I'm also wondering why I can't find the cable that the story was based upon, cable number 09CANBERRA545, at the WikiLeaks website. The website of the Australian newspaper have published it, which can be found here:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/australian-wikileaks-cables/story-fn59niix-1225971723172

"Julia Gillard 'after top job a year before coup': WikiLeaks"
By Patricia Karvelas
The Australian
December 17, 2010
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/julia-gillard-after-top-job-a-year-before-coup-wikileaks/story-fn59niix-1225972416553
http://www.news.com.au/national/julia-gillard-after-top-job-a-year-before-coup-wikileaks/story-e6frfkvr-1225972601117?from=public_rss