My Howard Space

The big splash about Australian politicians now being approachable on myspace got us curious and so naturally we signed up to have a peek. SeditiousSid went about inviting MP’s and candidates from the Greens, Liberals, Labor and Democrats to be his friend.

SeditiousSid received friendship approvals from Andrew Bartlett (Democrats), Kerry Nettle (Greens) and Greg Combet (Labor candidate). Disappointingly, Sid has patiently awaited reply from Bob Brown and Peter Garret for one week. Not disappointing but expected, no Liberal Party friendships have blossomed despite the Liberals being the most approached party in the number of requests Sid sent.

The biggest surprise was Kevin Rudd approving Sid’s friendship within minutes of request late one night. The last time we checked, Kevin had collected 7000 myspace friends in around a week. Hope he is employing a bot and not staff to send everyone’s reply.

The myspace Howard Government as it is called, how inviting is that, in the same time period have a massed 9 friends. One of those is the myspace default friend Tom so actually they have 8 friends. One of those is the How to Vote information guide so actually they have 7 friends. Two of those are federal ministers, they are there own friend, so really the Howard Government has 5 friends. Who are these five desperado's? All are State Liberal MP’s and candidates of course.

We do however take heart that there are some real people with something real to say. Check out this terrific enterprise, everyone needs a good cumrag.

From Capital Ideas Australia

Update 25/7/07

SeditiousSid has 3 new friends who deserve applause - Bob Brown, Wayne Swan and Julia Gillard. Applause because Sid can be quite an objectionable character but they have accepted him regardless, probably despite their better judgment.

It would appear that Sid’s friendship request has been rejected by Joe Hockey, Steve Ciobo and Malcolm Turnbull. While devastated with this realization, Sid prays for the day he is approved for friendship by Dr Dennis Jensen and the Liberal Party, formerly the Howard Government, who are yet to approve or deny his request.

A comment left on this post informs us that the Liberal Party have been actively requesting friendships. This is hilarious, we thought that the reason they remain friendless, with anyone that is not actually in the Liberal Party, was because they didn’t feel a need to have friends. Maybe they should not be choosy when deliberating the request from Sid.

Update 26/7/07

Shortly after the last update, Sid fell of his chair when it was noticed Dr Dennis Jensen had joined his friend list. Ok now we are scared. Is Sid's first Liberal Party friend so tolerant and compassionate he can not deny anyone? Does he have a sinister motive? Is he genuinely in need of a friend? Maybe its just a lapse in attention like when the Liberal Party accepted a political donation from the Man Boy Love Association posted in from the chaser team.

Howard vs Rudd Myspace - SeditiousSid talks with Hack TripleJ

Frustrating the Process

Under Australian anti terrorism laws it is permissible to hold terror suspects for 48 hours with out charge. However the laws also it seems, give police or other enforcement agencies the ability to extend detention without cause, simply by applying to do so with a court magistrate. This process was repeated several times in the case of Mohamed Haneef resulting in his continued imprisonment with out charge for 12 days. After this time, Dr Haneef who it is alleged, is connected to those responsible for failed UK terror attacks was charged with providing material support for terrorism. Hmm, where have we heard that before?

Ah yes, isn’t that what the US charged Guantanamo Bay captive David Hicks with directly after the US Supreme Court ruled the military commissions illegal? From memory it was alleged Hicks amongst other things, sought information on the US embassy in Afghanistan. At the time a legal rep for Hicks was reported saying that particular embassy had closed some ten years prior to David being in Afghanistan.

Similarly, the charges against Haneef are just as surreal. It is claimed that Mohamed purchased a sim card and gave it to a cousin, well over a year ago, while in England. Dam that’s so evil, we are so blessed that this retrospective association is a serious criminal offence under Australian law today.

Even after the seriously evil charge of “recklessly providing support to a terrorist organisation” the court deemed it appropriate to release Haneef on bail. Apparently this angered our little Fuhrer and he had his minister for immigration immediately suspend Haneef’s visa resulting in his re-incarceration, on grounds that he is not of appropriate character.

The federal Attorney-General announced that the government may want to advise the courts on how to make decisions regarding terror suspects in future. In retaliation to Haneef’s character assassination executed by our government, his lawyer leaked police interview transcripts where Haneef allegedly gave evidence demonstrating a good character. Fuhrer Magoo said the leak was an attempt to frustrate the process. The process of finding this man guilty as charged I presume.

29/7/07

Mohamed Haneef is today a free man after departing Australia. Previously all charges against him were withdrawn due to an amazing absence of reality in any of the evidence. The government meanwhile determined that Haneef’s innocence was no reason to reinstate his visa. Dr Haneef therefore as an illegal immigrant, was placed under home detention.

Immigration officials then returned Haneef’s passport and gave him permission to leave the country. Minister Kevin Andrews later described Haneef’s choice to depart Australia as suspicious which therefore justified the government’s position; he said that with a straight face. Apparently to not arouse suspicion, instead of returning home to his wife and child a free man, he should have stayed here in home detention and awaited official notice of deportation.