Australian National
(anotd)
Saturday 8th August 1998
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Since
October 1995
Between the One Nation lines
For those One Nation members who had the pleasure
of meeting the now infamous bodyguards who protected Pauline Hanson last
year you would be surprised at the inference now being labeled on them by
a hostile media and a Federal MP.
Image right: As close as you will get to seeing
Henry, Jock or Simon on GWB's pages - a picture taken by Henry of
myself with Vanessa Stewart, Heidi Lewis and Barbara Hazelton
at Hervey Bay
in November 1997.
The News Limited Courier Mail are making much of the comments by Senator
Amanda Vanstone who said that the three bodyguards, Henry Albiez, Jock Winton
and Simon Mullins were transferred to other duties because they lacked
professionalism. They were Pauline Hanson's shadow during much of 1997
after a number of death threats were received.
In the latest media blow-up the professionalism of the three is questioned
because they danced with Pauline Hanson when she visited the Penthouse nightclub
on Surfer's Paradise.
The Courier Mail asked Henry Albiez's wife how she felt about that. She said,
"They have to provide her with whatever protection is necessary. Henry did
his job professionally as he was trained to do and that was it."
She said that comments that Henry had become too close to Mrs Hanson "were
laughable".
Pauline Hanson's political adviser David Oldfield said, "Pauline did not
discriminate. I remember her dancing with everybody in the group, which included
police and friends. Pauline used to work at the Penthouse and was very
comfortable there. That's why she used to go there."
Oldfield confirmed that the three bodyguards relationship with Mrs Hanson
was close but strictly professional. He claimed that they had been removed
because they became supporters of the One Nation party.
When the three were removed I can now reveal that for several months
Pauline Hanson was so incensed that she refused to have federal police
protection.
For the record the bodyguards protecting Pauline Hanson were not only
totally professional whenever I met them or saw them with Pauline both during
or after rallies - and at social events but they also soon became firm friends
of the woman who has turned Australian politics on its proverbial head.
Final word from Australian Federal Police Association Industrial Officer
Craig Shannon who attacked Amanda Vanstone for making a public comment. He
said that the "sloppy commentary" had cast a shadow over federal
agents.
Hanson inherits role bequeathed by Ned Kelly and Peter
Lalor
Article by Lawrie Kavanagh, Courier Mail
Here
is an extract:
In 10, 12 or 20 years, when its safe for governments
to reflect on failures that have cost taxpayers their jobs, their families
and sometimes their lives, you simply shrug your shoulders, look concerned
and say in hindsight you wouldn't do it again.
I get that feeling when I think about honest hard-working
Australians who have lost their jobs or businesses because of wrong decisions
by all governments - such as those of the clothing and footwear industries
and now the farmers. Sacrificial lambs to the altar of academia's grand theories
and best guesses. In such changing times, sacrifices must be made… as
long as it's not me or mine.
It's all about moving with the times, see…
globalisation, rationalisation, big pictures, pictures so big they obliterate
individuals. Huh! What's that? Individuals? Oh yeah, they're those silly
things like ants scurrying off screen. They didn't quite make it to the big
picture. Well they're only workers after all.
Schools out for Resistance
The Communist youth brigade of the Democratic
Socialist Party, Resistance, is planning another rally through the streets
of Brisbane on 28th August. Their "leader", Mighty Mouse, seen here right
at One Nation's
recent Nicholas Street rally, has about as much intestinal fortitude
as a frozen pea - a fact which became blatantly clear in a verbal confrontation
on Nicholas street.
This time, Mighty Mouse and Resistance want to focus their attention on the
"racist policies" of all major parties - including Labor. A move which has
raised squeals of protest from Queensland State (Labor) Premier Peter Beattie
who warned students to be wary of the "extreme political party" which was
grossly and "deliberately distorting and misrepresenting" the Government
to exploit students and build membership.
"I say to parents and more importantly to students, Resistance are not what
they claim to be."
Well now isn't that funny Mr Beattie, reports about One Nation have been
"deliberately distorted and misrepresented by Laboral and the media since
April 1997 -
when the
party was first launched in Ipswich. Stranger still, but of no surprise,
is that Mr Beattie is no Miss Innocent in this department either. Just yesterday
he was justifying a junket to Asia by saying that One Nation's rise in Queensland
was to blame for the drop in the number of Asian students... of course the
financial crisis in Asia has absolutely nothing to do with it now does it?
I wonder if the Labor Party will stop promoting and supporting extremist
groups like Resistance now that they are starting to bite at new targets
outside the blinkered attacks on One Nation?
MD
"Liberal" law firm quits One Nation "funds" case
Paul Everingham and Co withdrew from a Supreme Court bid to deregister
One Nation yesterday and threatened to sue its former client, Terry Sharples,
for defamation. Paul Everingham, a former president of the Queensland Liberal
Party and chief minister of the Northern Territory, said last night he had
been representing Terry Sharples for free.
Sharples, the former One Nation candidate for the Gold Coast seat of Burleigh
will now represent himself in the court action, which has already frozen
One Nation electoral funds worth nearly $500,000.
Yesterday, the Supreme Court in Brisbane adjourned the matter until Friday
next week, when Mr Sharples is expected to make an application to have the
trial expedited.
Mr Sharples said yesterday he had "sacked" the legal firm Paul Everingham
& Co - Everingham said he had become aware of "critical" remarks made
by Mr Sharples and threatened to sue him for defamation. "At all times, this
firm has carried out strictly Mr Sharples' instructions," he said.
"Mr Sharples has now terminated his instructions to this firm. He is welcome
to do so. We have acted for him on a pro bono basis.
"I will be examining his remarks very carefully and should they be in any
way defamatory of my professional reputation, I will not hesitate to institute
proceedings to give Mr Sharples the opportunity to justify his criticisms."
Mr Sharples disputed Mr Everingham's claim that his representation was pro
bono.
"If Paul (Everingham) wants to get into a fight, well, then let him do it,"
he said.
Mr Everingham also labelled as "bunkum" a claim by One Nation State director
Peter James, made outside the court yesterday, that a "mysterious third party"
was funding Mr Sharples' challenge to One Nation's registration. However,
one wonders why Everingham's firm, with strong ties to the Liberal Party,
would take up this case in the Supreme Court to freeze One Nation funds for
free. If this is not a political ploy to try to stifle the party's funding
then I am the Pope's nose. Readers might recall the Supreme Court froze nearly
$500,000 in electoral reimbursements pending the outcome of the trial, expected
next March.
Mr Sharples' fellow disendorsed candidate, David Summers, is expected to
withdraw from the court action after claiming his family had been "threatened".
State sponsored multiculturalism no longer serves the
interests of the ethnic communities.
Liberal MP Ross Cameron has told his local newspaper, the Fairfax Sun
that multiculturalism had been discredited.
“I understand that a lot of time and effort has been invested in promoting
the term multiculturalism, but there is a time when you just have to cut
your losses,” Cameron told the paper. “State-sponsored multiculturalism
no longer serves the interests of the ethnic communities.
“On the contrary, it has now been so discredited both among the ethnic
communities and the bulk of the Australian people, that persisting with it
positively diminishes the status of new migrants.”
Cameron said he had written to Ruddock suggesting he change the name of his
department from the Department of Immigration and Multiculturalism to the
Department of Immigration and Citizenship to put a greater emphasis on
citizenship.
However, a spokesman for Ruddock ruled out an immediate move to change the
name of the department.
“We think Immigration and Multicultural affairs is appropriate for this
time although you can never say never,” the spokesman said.
Now one has to wonder why the Liberal Party are not being accused of blatant
racism - after all an attack on multiculturalism is seen by the politically
correct as "racist".
Germaine Greer on Pauline Hanson
Australia's most infamous feminist and author of the 1970s has slammed her
1990s equivalent. Germaine Greer said Pauline Hanson was boosting the chance
of the Sydney Olympics becoming a national humiliation because of Aboriginal
issues.
Saying it was a shame Ms Hanson's parents ever had sex, Dr Greer said the
One Nation leader was providing aggravation for the land rights issue, which
was likely to boil over at the 2000 Games.
After opening an exhibition of Aboriginal art at an inner London gallery,
Dr Greer said the pity about Ms Hanson's rise in Australia was that there
had been nobody strong enough in power to "annihilate her".
"She's not a clever woman," Dr Greer told journalists. "She's not even an
intelligent woman.
"The things she says are the things that ignorant people have always said.
"And it's a terrible indictment of Australian education that so many people
are prepared to give it mind room."
Dr Greer said nobody was to blame for the emergence of the Hanson cult.
"Pauline Hansons are all over the place," she said. "They pop up like mushrooms.
She's nobody's fault except her parents'. If only they hadn't had sex on
that particular night.
"She just doesn't know how far out she is. She'd be amazed if you actually
took her to the UN and said: "Hey Pauline, these are the people who are trying
to run the planet'."
Dr Greer said helped by the One Nation movement and the ongoing tussle over
land rights, Aboriginal issues were likely to turn the 2000 Olympics into
an episode of "national humiliation".
"If Australia does not face this problem and the problem of its own deep-seeded
unconscious guilt, it will never be a happy country," she said.
"And if they don't wise up to the way the rest of the world is regarding
what's going on, the Olympic Games are going to be the most enormous humiliation.
"At this moment I cannot see any way that we can avoid it."
One Nation continue to climb in the polls
Support for the Coalition has fallen in Victoria and NSW with One Nation
preferences – an increasingly important electoral factor – leaking
away from the Coalition, according to two polls by Roy Morgan Research.
The polls found that Labor would have won in both States on a two-party preferred
basis if an election had been held in July, so spelling trouble for Mr Jeff
Kennett's long reign in Victoria and potentially for the Federal Government's
expected October poll.
NSW is expected to go to the polls around March of next year, while Victorians
must chose a new government early in the year 2000.
One major feature of the Morgan poll was the continued rise of Ms Pauline
Hanson's One Nation party, with its support in NSW at 8.5 per cent in July
(up 2.5 per cent since April), rising to 9.5 per cent outside Sydney.
In Victoria, One Nation support was 5.5 per cent, jumping to 11 per cent
in country Victoria.
As a result, support for One Nation in NSW was well in excess of the combined
vote for the Democrats and Greens, and about equal to the two parties combined
in Victoria – albeit with much of One Nation's support being in the
country, the National Party's heartland.
As has recently been widely noted, the emergence of One Nation as the third
force in many NSW and Victorian seats has made the game of picking likely
election results considerably more complicated, especially if the party
suddenly decides to start directing preferences.
Although One Nation electoral victories have largely been in Labor seats,
most of its supporters have relocated from the National Party and Liberal
camps, so analysts have generally expected the majority of One Nation preferences
to go to the Coalition.
Although State polling results do not translate very well to the federal
sphere, the polls cannot hold much comfort for the Coalition, especially
as they indicate the increasing size and likely political clout of One Nation
in directing preferences.
Making the
news" -
an indepth exposé of media and political collusion at the highest
possible levels in Australia.
You say:
Subject: How to vote cards
Mr. Howard, a large percentage of the population of
Australia can see that you are now just a puppet for the globalist elite
and that in the years ahead you and your family will live out a life of luxury
from the rewards for your TREASONOUS acts against our country. Meanwhile
the quality of life for the average Aussie will keep on falling. You know
damn well that One Nation has the genuine interests of Australia and its
people at heart. Don't forget that you were once Australian, before greed
and corruption got the better of you and you sold your Aussie spirit to the
new world order, if there is one ounce of Aussie patriotism left in you,
use it to do what is right for our country, make a stand against this evil
that is enveloping our land, put One Nation first on the how to vote cards,
and support a lib/O.N. coalition, do this and you will probably find that
liberal support will u-turn and start to rise again. Do not go down in history
as one of the men that destroyed Australia. You have the power to save oz,
please do the job you was voted to do and put our interests before that of
foreign corporations.
from:
Dave Hall
Subject: Labor Party
Take the 'L' [left wing] and the 'R' [right wing] out
of The Australian L "abo" R Party and there's not much left - is there?
Subject: what the pollies arent telling
us
Scott,
I`ve been off the air for over a week, so I may have
missed some thing.
I down loaded that file on the validity of our constitution
and have passed it around.
Is anyone doing something about it? If so please let
me know if I can help. If there isn`t any action being taken, I have a plan.
It will require a team effort and timing.
I do not wish to pre-empt other efforts, so I need
to know before I take the plunge on my own.
John Hugo
Subject: migration and/or children
This week Kim Beazley came out strongly in favour of
increasing Australia's immigration policy. Why? Because Australia has a greying
population and there won't be enough workers to keep us. Apparantly Australia's
'fertility rate' is below replacement level and has been for some time.
It is probably true that only migration generates growth
now, but surely that is an indictment of government social policy. I would
say the lack of children has nothing to do with native Australians' 'fertilty'
but a lot to do with bad social policy for too many years. In any case Beazley's
statement is not only deliberately simplistic it is deceitful. As if future
migrants, especially hard-working but clannish Asian migrants are going to
be politically very happy about paying high taxes to support the aged of
a nation that was too stupid to look after its own interests.
There would be enough Australians generating economic
growth, Kim Beazley, if young couples could afford a house and could afford
to have children. But as I recently showed in publishing a precis of Lucy
Sullivan's analysis of the current tax + welfare system, breadwinners are
hugely over-taxed considering their responsibilities. For too long social
policies have been 'vetted' by feminists who certainly do not have the interests
of traditional families at heart. They make no bones about their hatred of
the much maligned 'nuclear family' of mum, dad and the kids. One of their
gurus, Simone de Beauvoir is on record as saying women must never be given
the choice to look after their own children because they will always make
the 'wrong' choice.
In post-Hanson Australia the arrogance sounds very
familiar, dosn't it? By definition elites always know best.
A very few highly-talented women have always wanted
and enjoyed totally un-interrupted careers. I think they are mad, but if
that is their choice, good on them. But the overwhelming majority of women
would prefer to look after their own infants and toddlers. Many women like
to keep a foot in their professional or work doors by working part time.
Fine. But the feminist agenda is to have all children in creches and child-care
centres from birth. That's why they denigrate full-time mothers. When was
the last time you saw a positive portrayal of an at-home mother in a TV
soapie?
No, the print and electronic media now invariably preface
the word 'housewife' with the adjective 'bored'. Let me assure you, the 'bored
housewife' is a deliberate media creation. Though the brainwashing has been
unrelenting, most young women would still love the chance to be real mothers.
Most parents know that the feminist-approved, politically correct concept
of 'quality time' is crap.
Antonia
Subject: Looming One Nation Victory scares off
Minister
Everyone in the rural south east of SA knows that Ian
McLachlan had no chance of keeping his seat at the next election. This arrogant
twit has not even set up an electoral office in his electorate yet, despite
his 3 parliamentary terms.
I'm sure that One Nation has already pencilled in Barker
as a victory in the pending federal election.
Ian McLachlan was staring defeat in the face, but he
didn't have the courage to accept the judgement of his electorate. He decided
to run away and hide in disgrace.
But he hasn't changed anything. He is still a
loser.
Subject: A couple of thoughts
Dear Editor,
Man (or Woman) slaughter in the workplace was one of
the questions in a very recent ABC Lateline Television programme on Occupational
Health and Safety.
What would have been quite annoying, to many of the
viewers who had experienced personal loss as a result of the death of a family
member or a close friend, would have been the detached and quite clinical
nature of the discussion.
Australia's media, electronic and print, seeks to entertain
rather than to provoke earnest consideration of important issues and so cannot
be expected to instigate any significant changes for the better in these
matters. Trade and Craft Unions and the local branches of political parties
seem to be the ones that are supposed to provide the pressure for
change.
Human life (of employees) was clearly portrayed as
being merely expendable like any other plant, machinery or materials in the
overall conduct of the enterprise. Because the Employer's representative
was able to say some comforting words like "the experience in this country
is as good as, and often better than, that in comparable countries" (the
employers in which are undoubtedly just as interested in greedily making
profits at everyone else's expense?). Professional Directors (the corporate
policy makers) have never been the ones to have to concern them- selves with
such mundane things as occupational health and safety and the bureaucrats
in the realm of the Corporate regulators would claim that it was not part
of their brief either.
Many, however, would recognize that there is, ever
so certainly, a growing culture in which respect for the safety of workers
is being subordinated to corporate "viability" (the bottom line?) and
"outsourcing" ensures that there is no continuing "memory" of why particular
practices are not condoned or permitted in the workplace environment.
Legislators and members of the judiciary nearly all
live in a rarified atmosphere that is quite obviously frequently very detached
from the "real" world of industry and commerce and so cannot be expected
to comprehend the full extent of the risks. It is the deliberate decision
of the politicians in this nation to destroy the concepts of long term employment
- making workers as insecure as they are or delivering the employers from
any liability for payment of long service leave entitlements or some other,
less obvious motive perhaps.
Readers, a growing number of people believe, should
make it their business to question the ulterior motives and hidden agendas
of the business and professional community frequently and to solicit the
aid of the media in the process.
Sincerely,
J o n M. A x t e n s
Subject: Comments on Australian News of the
Day
ON parliamentarians (Qld) have been accused of spreading
conspiracy notions which the average australian knows, true, that they dont
exist. Any politicion from our ruling class parties will confirm this.
Maybe the Qld ON pollies might like to pose a question
re the LETTERS PATENT from "our Queen" held by our Govenor General and state
Govenors, and their legitimate status.
My understanding is that LETTERS PATENT are issued
to British Subjects who, in turn, present them to a British colony.
My understanding is that our current Govenor General
and Govenors are Australian citizens, appointed by mutual cosent of our Laboral
parties, to act as a rubber stamp for the party in power. I also believe
that Australia is a sovereign nation.
Therefore any LETTERS PATENT, if they do exist, have
no authority in this nation.
Our Canadian friends might also check this out. They
also became a sovereign nation on 10 January 1920.
John R hugo
ps. Scott if this letter is pre-empting any other action
on the validity of our parliaments, please dont print it and let me know.
Subject: Comments on Australian News of the Day
RE: The League of Rights and the Spencers The issue
here is what you think of the League. The Spencers have addressed it, as
well as Denis McCormack. So has Graeme Campbell. Campbell claims that it
is heading towards being a main-stream conservative organisation, and McCormack
will have none of the condemnations of the League.
The difference is Alexander Downer addressed a Conservative
Speaker's Club, a League division, without having a clue about what it was!
He then went cap-in-hand to ECAJ to explain his mistake.
The League made it a story when they proudly flogged
the video because Downer had the Liberal leadership at that time. Maybe that's
worse...
The League has tried to distance ITSELF from One Nation...
Eric Butler said so on TV, so the headline is disingenuous.
Subject: letters and MacKerras
1. I enjoy the variety in the letters, though I agree
some a are bit long. Education does not necessarily indicate intelligence,
and conversely a lack of education, as shown by bad grammar or poor expression,
does not necessarily indicate lack of intelligence.
The range of writing styles and perspectives, along
with the cosmopolitan mix that make up anotd correspondents, definitely makes
this an interesting and very democratic forum. According to traditional Aussie
culture, Jack has always been as good as his master, and rightly so. Let's
face it, our sleazy Rhodes Scholarship prime minister couldn't hold a candle
to a former train driver one. It's good to let people have their say, and
if some are rude they soon enough find out that it's usually
counter-productive.
2. Carol, we shouldn't laugh but the illustrious MacKerras
opined that One Nation wouldn't win any seats, though perhaps there was an
outside chance of them picking up one. True.
Antonia
Subject: Comments on Australian News of the
Day
Could the real reason that Tim Dither and his clean
cut little mate are still boss of the (multi)National party be that Bob Katter
and what is left of the real National party know that the (multi)National
is a shot duck? And that there is no way the party is ever going to get its
reputation back in time for a federal election?
The Curlew.. watching.. ever watching.
Subject:
Comments on Australian
News of the Day
S. Brown wrote:
>Calling for all Australians to be treated equally
when particular minority groups are not at the
>same starting line in society is to perpetuate the continuing unequal
status for these Australians (aborigines and
>migrants).
You people still don't get it do you? Pauline is not
about stopping welfare and help to people who are "not at the same starting
line". She IS about helping people who are not at the same line. It's just
that she doesn't want to make race a factor in that decision. Being poor
is a good reason to receive help. Being a certain race is not. If aborigines
are as poorly as they say they are, they will continue to receive help. But
not over and above non-aborigines who are even worse off. Aborigines don't
have a mortgage on problems in this country you know.
>By Pauline Hanson's One Nation party claiming these
minority groups receive special privileges when
>anyone can see the insignificant amount of special privileges have not
improved their lives is to legitimise the
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Out of the mouths of babes! No the aboriginal industry
HAVE NOT improved their lives. You got that right! So why poor money on a
problem when it doesn't help.
>ongoing racial vilification that is still directed
by supporters of One Nation towards these people.
What "racial vilification" is that may I ask? I've
yet to see any of this. Please point to even one example of a One Nation
member doing this.
>But this interventionist stance is doomed to fail
as the rest of the world follows the globalisation path in the
>capitalist economy. Trying to create a "socialist' Australia where the
government intervenes into the market eg
>tariff protection and state-run banks ( as One Nation economic policy
highlights) in a capitalist world will
>impoverish the Australian economy even further. National socialism did
not work for Germany so why should it
>work for Australia?
Hmm. Let's see now. Australia once had tarriffs, exchange
controls, and state run banks, airlines and phone companies. At that time
everybody had a job, inflation was non-existant and Australia was #1 in the
world for standard of living.
Then Whitlam and Fraser and Hawke came along and removed
all the tariffs and exchange controls. Then they sold all the national assets
and encouraged us to do the same. Now we have perpetual high unemployment,
periods of high inflation, disasterous balance of payments, and loss of national
independance.
Yes Mr S. Brown. Forgive my foolishness. I for some
reason thought that those who ignored history were doomed to repeat it. Silly
me.
Subject: Mailing List
Hi,
My name is David Sproule. I'm 19 and i'm from Melbourne.
I would like to join your mailing list.
Although, in a way I wish I had never heard about this website.
I used to be content to be like everybody else and actually BELIEVE what
the "Media" says about One Nation and Pauline Herself.
Recently, I have seen what One Nation is saying.
It is NOT racist, anti-asian, anti-aboriginal or against any other minority
group. (To the best of my knowledge) Yet everyday I here ignorant people
telling that me i'm a racist, because I try to express One Nation's views.
Oh, trust me I do it a with a great deal more truth than the media.
Thanks for your time.
MEDIA CAUSES ETHNICS TO SH0OT THEMSELVES IN THE
FOOT.
Just a few comments with regards to Harold's post on
"culturism" as opposed to "racism".
Harold is quick to note that One Nation supporters
are not "racist" but are on the contrary "culturalist", suggesting that their
opposition is not to one's skin colour or to one's country of birth, but
their objection is to these "outsiders" setting up their own cultures here
in Australia. Harold's point is that as long as an immigrant actively assimilates
and actively contributes to the country, they are welcome here.
Let me ask this question. What is your definition of
assimilation? Does a migrant have to become one with the local populace,
adopting all their practices and habits and totally forgetting his heritage
to effectively assimilate? That certainly is what Harold seems to be
suggesting?
Culture is defined as the conventions, customs and
lifestyle of a society. Using this definition, one would also have to incorporate
other factors such as ideas, attitudes and cuisine. Does this mean that for
every migrant who comes over to Australia he/she must forget all those factors
and become a clone of your "average" Aussie? Does this mean forgetting ones
usual diet and in the extreme stereotype, adopt the meat pie as one's
diet?
Yes, some degree of assimilation should be expected
of migrants. Migrants should be expected to adopt their new country as their
home and their loyalties given to new home. Old prejudices and other problems
should be left in their old countries, and effort should be made to adapt.
However, assimilation should not be at the cost of forgetting their heritage.
Just because you should fit in with your new home does not mean one has to
totally forget ones past. Why can't new arrivals to our fair country keep
their heritage and "culture" while adapting and learning from their new culture,
adopting new traits and facets as they see best. After all, this would then
lead eventually to an enriching of the Australian character and culture.
Yes, it does mean an end to the old or as Harold puts it, the "familiar
Australian" culture. But it does add and enrich it.
Thus, there is a place for multiculturalism in
Australia.
A.B.
Subject: A letter to the WSJ re. U.S. national debt
(8/06/98)
August 6, 1998; 08:56 PM
Ned Crabb
Letters Editor
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
New York, NY
----------------------------------------------------
Subject: A letter to the editor Re. - "Debt Heads,"
(a WSJ editorial, 8/06/98)
Dear Ned:
I didn't realize that Wall Street bankers owned the
Wall Street Journal. Nor that they wrote your editorials. For, your "Debt
Heads" editorial (8/06/98) reads as if it had been composed by one of the
bankers' "PR" agencies, rather than by a responsible journalist thirsting
for the whole truth to be known.
You say that "America's debt burden will shrink every
year that the economy grows." That is an absolute falsehood. On two counts.
First, because America's humongous debt burden has been expanding, not shrinking
in recent years, as have been the debt-servicing payments which the bankers
have been collecting from the American taxpayers. Second, because you do
not tell your readers what would happen if the economy failed to grow (as
seems to be the imminent prospect, given a mere 1.4% rise in the second quarter
GDP).
Instead, you engage in mathematical semantics suggesting
that our national debt would shrink from a 50.2% of GDP peak in 1994, to
18% in 2008. Yet you never tell us what your underlying GDP growth assumptions
are. Nor what the absolute national debt or GDP figures are.
In other words, you're playing a game of smoke and
mirrors with numbers.
If, for example, you assumed an unceasing 3% or higher
U.S. GDP growth for the next 10 years, my oh my... then maybe it is possible
that one day the Mississippi may flow all the way back from Louisiana to
Minnesota. Or that the ice will melt in Hawaii. Or that Washington may champion
the U.S. taxpayers' interests.
At the very least, your editorial was irresponsible
journalism. More likely, it was evidence of the Journal editors' responding
to your rich banker neighbors' order to jump with a "how high?" retort.
Shame, shame... And here we thought that the press
in America was free and independent. Or was that a paid ad we had read in
your newspaper?
Best regards,
Bob Djurdjevic
Founder,
Truth in Media,
Phoenix, Arizona
Another perfect day in paradise.
Have a good one.
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