My wife gave me your book for my birthday, 22 July, and on Saturday night I read it between 11pm and 5am, experiencing quite unpleasant bursts of anger and frustration along the way. The Bush visit particularly irked me.

Part of me is wishing that I hadn't read the book because I wouldn't be upset but part of me is eternally grateful to you. Thanks.

I agree wholeheartedly with the sentiment that democracy is not a natural state of affairs and that our predecessors made sacrifices that most of us (myself included) do not appreciate. I have always felt drawn to public service. Having read your book, I realise that I also have a duty to do my share to uphold this wonderful society that our predecessors have created.

I also agree that John Howard is not the only culprit - he is partly a sum of his own experiences and our current political system. Our challenge is to change the political culture so that it promotes the people who can lead Australia for Aus

Thanks for relieving me of some of the shame that I have felt in recent years. I've been ashamed to be an Australian every time that Howard speaks, Costello smirks, Downer bumbles and Reith lied. I'm proud to say that Margo Kingston is my fellow Australian.

May your common sense approach to regaining our pride and our democratic rights prevail. I didn't notice that I'd slowly slipped into apathy. Thanks to your book, that won't happen to me again.

I recently bought the book and am enjoying it immensely. Latham seems to have totally dumbed down his image and seems to be going along with most of the Lib's ideas as he doesn't have any of his own. He would stand a much better chance if he stayed somewhat controversial and pulled a publicity stunt close to the election whereby he goes up to Howard and asks him to accompany him to the closest police station in a citizens arrest for breach of the UN policies on war - I feel most Australians would respond to that kind of passion and touch of larikinism rather than this new quiet, restrained image.

Isn't there some gungho lawyer out there with wealthy contacts who wants to make a name for himself and starts a lawsuit again Howard, Bush and Blair for illegally invading another sovereign country - of course he would never win but at least the press being what they are will jump on its sensationalist aspect and more people may be hit with the truth closer to the US and Australia

G'day. I've just published on Webdiary the manifesto of John Valder's 'Not happy, John!' campaign to unseat John Howard in Bennelong. There's also a fabulous piece by David McKnight on the death of the old right and the old left and an emerging alliance of conservatives, greens and true Liberals to haul back the rampant dominance of neo-liberalism and restore integrity and morality to our enfeebled democracy. Highly recommended.
Penguin are reprinting another 3,000 copies of NHJ, and another 50,000 stickers for distribution to bookshops. I've got more too, so let me know if you want some.

It may have taken 6 weeks for the SMH to review NHJ, but today, finally, Max Suich, founding editor of The Independent Monthly and chief editorial executive of Fairfax's Sydney and national newspapers between 1980 and 1987, weighs into the debate.

It's a mixed affair. Combining praise and criticism in equal measure, it's a full page review, the longest I've seen in the paper for some while.

Personally, I reckon Suich's missed the point of the book. He argues that 'much of this book is simple opinion asserted, dressed up as fact-based comment - just as it is so often in the newspapers and TV current affairs programs.' He does not appear to understand that the rules of journalism have changed. It is no longer sufficient to simply report on the events of the day, the old he said/she said paradigm. That may have worked in Suich's day, but not today. Those in power, business, politics or big media,

I found the book gave me a better understanding of what goes on in the real world of our Political 'representatives'. I was disappointed - to put it mildly - that these people while going on about democracy at election time, act like abosolute rulers during the in between periods. I can't think of any at the moment who I would see as 'Statesmen' - ie leaders interested in the next generation rather than the next election.

Hi Margo,

Thanks for replying to my query. I'm not particularly familiar with the Marriage Act and was wondering if you could clarify how the Act already makes it clear that marriage is the union of a man and a woman?

NHJ! (HA): Webdiarist Polly Bush provided this answer to the question:

Currently, the Marriage Act (1961) does not define a union as being between a man and a woman, although this is the common law definition and what you would expect the courts to uphold. The Howard Government insists there is some urgency in introducing this legislation to prevent

I am grateful that I decided to take up listening to Phillip Adams LNL after stopping for some time. I picked your and Philips interview, Margo, and through it the existence of Not Happy John!.

It was terrific to see and hear my feelings and suspicions put in clear, understandable language. And all the linkages to other fascinating sites.

The most important thing in this whole excercise was the discovery that I was not the odd one out.

Thank you Margo. Please keep shouting!!!!!!!!!!!!

Katie Blair is right to say that we need Margo to point out how bad the country has become. But the reason I mentioned 'Imagining Australia' was that we need to do more than get mad. Macgregor Duncan and the other authors have this great metaphor for Australian public debate -- the hedgehogs and foxes.

They reckon we have hedgehogs, who only think of the big picture; and foxes, who only think about policy detail. And on the Left, the two groups are talking past one another. Maybe between us all, we can work out a way to fix that.

I sometimes read your SMH articles and generally I found them a little on the conservative side for my tastes. I may have had a road to Damascus experience after encountering you excellent book Not happy John.

I have become very saddened by the shift that Australia has made in such a short time to the right and become cold hearted. I have been cheered by the tremendous support for the walks for reconciliation and walks against war but frustrated by the lack of impact on a government which seems to have been allowed to achieve control of parliament as its own territory to do what it will, media and the public service and military.

I would never say that John Howard's is a Nazi or another Hitler because that would dishonour the memories of the countless millions who suffered across Europe and indeed the world during his brutal reign of terror. But I have come to see that there is a fascist movement rising among us in the guise of the Liberal Party. We are seeing

On the anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks on the US, Showtune Productions presents LAST NIGHT IN NEW YORK, a multimedia performance by Wednesday Kennedy that takes us back to the city that never sleeps in the aftermath of 9/11.

Kennedy roams the streets in the weeks after the attacks, capturing a fractured and vulnerable New York, trying to make sense of a dramatically altered landscape. The show moves from New Yorkers' responses to Kennedy's own narrative, presented in vignettes woven throughout the documentary/performance - part poetry, part performance and part journalism, a unique and very personal hybrid from an outsider fused to the city by catastrophe.

In creating Last Night In New York, Ms Kennedy has articulated what most New York performing artists have been unable or unwilling to tackle. It is a subject that Hollywood has almost completely ignored and one that the American theatre community has bee

Thank you, Margo, for writing NHJ. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Through your book, web pages, and webdiary, you put a public voice to what many of us have been silently seething at. However, for this Australian, the very statement;

What do you think of the election prospects of a gay, anti-war, anti-FTA, pro-UN, left leaning, private school educated eldest son of a 3Cs family (Conservative, Country, Catholic)?

I am an Australian citizen recently returned after living in Europe, principally the UK, since 1998. As such, discovering and reading WebDiary has been interesting. I must admit that although I had seen the link on www.smh.com.au I hadn't followed it until I read 'Not Happy, John'. Thank you.

After reading your book and catching up on the on-line debate I have decided to follow your suggestion and get involved. Although my distaste at the leadership of Our Beloved Mollusc (John Howard) was a factor in my departure to Europe in early 1998 I was unaware of the depths to which Australian Democracy had sunk, having returned to Australia a month after the private visit of the President of the USA to Australia. The details revealed in NHJ were shocking and have led to my recommending the book

Borrowing from the US Democrats' Convention where they had slogans like: 'The new No CARB diet: No Cheney, no Ashcroft, no Rumsfeld, no Bush and definitely no Rice'. Our Aussie equivalent would be: 'The new No CARBHD diet: No Costello, no Abbott, no Ruddock, no Bishop, no Howard and definitely no Downer!'

BTW, I was surfing Moveon's website and noticed that you can request for one free anti-Bush sticker but will have to pay if you want more (https://www.moveonpac.org/stickers). I am happy to pay for my fair share.

My idea of Utopia would be to see NHJ stickers on a few million car bumpers!

NHJ! (HA): Hear Hear! Stop putting them on your fridges and bathroom walls! They're for car bumpers!

In yesterday's Web Diary, Margo wrote 'lots of political commentators write that Mark Latham is concentrating on the