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speaking ill of the dead
Apr. 26th, 2005 04:13 pmThe Age:
If there is a light burning in heaven for him, it's a watch-tower keeping an eye out for the evil old fuck, no doubt backed up by the most vicious brutes of guard dogs the heavenly host can get their ethereal hands on at short notice. The last thing you'd want is that vile embodiment of all that's wrong and disgusting about Queensland getting his hands on the holy silverware. The whole country saw how hard it was to get him to let go of anything once he got his hands on it; in the end they had to hire bulldozers to forcibly expel his rotten carcass from the Qld premier's office.
The Age has been falling over itself to be evenhanded since he died - mostly, it seems the pieces are of the form "He was a great premier, who brought Queensland into the modern world and *mumble* *mumble* corruption .. resigned in disgrace... *mumble* *mumble*"
In response I'd simply like to say "No". JB-P was a nasty cum stain on the bedsheets of Australian democracy, causing embarrassment all round. Everything about his career was corrupt, from the dodgy magic proxy vote that saved his premiership less than a year into it, his shakedowns of business and developers, his contempt for any form of democracy that might impinge on his power, all the way to the graceless and terrible exit. We've never had a Nixon here in Australia, but Joh (I refuse to credit him with his self-awarded knighthood) was as close as we got.
I should probably give points to the Australian for their coverage, see for instance here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here or here. (List of articles via crikey).
And, in case you think that age or time might have wearied the unpleasant old brute, recall that he recently attempted to extract $350M in compensation for the pain and suffering the Fitzgerald royal commission caused him. I'm not sure how you calculate "loss of future earnings" for an extortionist and bribe collector, but I assume (as with anything else to do with this old bastard) that he just made shit up and tried to ram it through.
Farewell Joh Bjelke-Peterson. Don't let the door hit you on the arse on the way out.
[update make sure to check out the absolutely priceless Joh quote at the end of this piece on Crikey]
Some of those closest to Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen were told a light would continue to burn in heaven forever, as a single candle was lit for him in a small church at Kingaroy today.
If there is a light burning in heaven for him, it's a watch-tower keeping an eye out for the evil old fuck, no doubt backed up by the most vicious brutes of guard dogs the heavenly host can get their ethereal hands on at short notice. The last thing you'd want is that vile embodiment of all that's wrong and disgusting about Queensland getting his hands on the holy silverware. The whole country saw how hard it was to get him to let go of anything once he got his hands on it; in the end they had to hire bulldozers to forcibly expel his rotten carcass from the Qld premier's office.
The Age has been falling over itself to be evenhanded since he died - mostly, it seems the pieces are of the form "He was a great premier, who brought Queensland into the modern world and *mumble* *mumble* corruption .. resigned in disgrace... *mumble* *mumble*"
In response I'd simply like to say "No". JB-P was a nasty cum stain on the bedsheets of Australian democracy, causing embarrassment all round. Everything about his career was corrupt, from the dodgy magic proxy vote that saved his premiership less than a year into it, his shakedowns of business and developers, his contempt for any form of democracy that might impinge on his power, all the way to the graceless and terrible exit. We've never had a Nixon here in Australia, but Joh (I refuse to credit him with his self-awarded knighthood) was as close as we got.
I should probably give points to the Australian for their coverage, see for instance here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here or here. (List of articles via crikey).
And, in case you think that age or time might have wearied the unpleasant old brute, recall that he recently attempted to extract $350M in compensation for the pain and suffering the Fitzgerald royal commission caused him. I'm not sure how you calculate "loss of future earnings" for an extortionist and bribe collector, but I assume (as with anything else to do with this old bastard) that he just made shit up and tried to ram it through.
Farewell Joh Bjelke-Peterson. Don't let the door hit you on the arse on the way out.
[update make sure to check out the absolutely priceless Joh quote at the end of this piece on Crikey]
