G'day. Adelaide was a blast, and South Australian readers are asking for NHJ stickers in disproportionate numbers. There's a vibe down there, for sure. My latest thoughts on Howard's betrayal of Menzies' legacy are on Webdiary at Not Happy, John! Reflections of a Webdiarist: it's the text of the speech I delivered to the Sydney Institute last week contrasting the values of Menzies and Howard. I'm told it's being passed around by true Liberals in the federal parliamentary party.
I'm moving home to Canberra tomorrow. The next NHJ event is at Dymock's flagship Sydney store in George Street at 6pm on Wednesday August 18. Call 92309013 or email Leticia at [email protected] if you'd like to come - it's free, but an RSVP is required. ... if you'd like to come. I'm speaking at a Greens' fundraiser dinner in Canberra on Saturday, August 21, in Ainslie. Email [email protected] if you'd lik

Being a bit player, part-time letter writer, would-be novelist, full time greenie, local agitator, (current President of Noosa Residents and Ratepayers assoc.) it is with trepidation that I poke a toe into the same pool as the big boys and girls.

First, I was inspired, excited and depressed by your book. Excited and depressed because I new it was true, very depressed because I also know that hardly anyone is paying attention and the majority of those that read it were already very unhappy with John (of course that is quite a few). Now if you could get on Big Brother, Australian Idol or some greed/humiliation based variety show, you would have two thirds of the country as your audience.

I have attached my local contribution to the democracy debate. Here on the Sunshine Coast the latest assault is led by a coalition of property developers and government to abolish local governments in favour of centralised regional councils. This of course means the abolition of loca

I've just returned from the US and was delighted to see how many advertisements there are on TV, not from the Democrat party, but advocating against Bush's re-election. Would anybody here be able to raise the money to do that?

Margo: Perhaps local groups could raise the money for ads on local TV or in local papers? Another reader, Ian Grant, also suggests that people could print off fliers for letter box drops where you live.

Small-l Liberals and true Burkian conservatives who watched John Valder on Sunday this morning may well have been a tad discombobulated by JV's final rather...er, 'cheeky' dig at the kind of tactic the on-going evolution of his once-beloved 'broad church' may yet introduce to Australian 'conservative' politicking:

GRAHAM DAVIS: But to sink the knife in one last time himself, John Valder makes yet another extraordinary claim - that so far to the right has John Howard taken the Liberals that he now fears a violent reprisal from the Party's more ardent supporters among the Young Liberals.
JOHN VALDER: It could take things as extreme of people like myself being roughed up, which I think is, in modern politics, the dirt units get out ...
GRAHAM DAVIS: When you say roughed up, you mean physically?
JOHN VALDER: Physically.
GRAHAM DAVIS: What, you're worried about being physic

I have wondered why I have constantly felt angered and a sense of fleecing by this government, but I am now able to now begin to put my finger on what I haven't quite been able to understand - thanks to your book.

I have endeavored over the past 7 years to add up the deceit, lies, spin, mistruths about the Howard government and the list grows daily. I have mostly been a Labor supporter over the years, but became concerned by a sense of arrogance and dismissal of the people by Keating in his last years.

I like you decided in 2001 to vote Greensm - shame more voters don't support Bob Brown. Howard has taught us that to lie and get away with it is OK. He has made it a pastime. And I now feel sick to the stomach each time I hear him speak more crap and never take ownership on truth and real human issues.

I enjoyed your book, however, I did find the subtle suggestion that Pauline Hanson represents people who feel suppressed by Government, Big Business and Big Media a little difficult to swallow.

Hanson was elected because she appeared on the Liberal ticket (even though she had been disendorsed shortly before the federal election). She had also stated bigoted/conservative (words that are synonymous with eachother) views concerning the unfortunate plight of the indigenous members of our Australian community. Categorisations such as the 'Aboriginal industry'evidence such bigotry because they are entirely false and expressed for the purpose of vilification.

Hanson then got her juggernaught moving following her maiden speech in parliament where she stated that Australia was being swamped by Asians and that Multiculturalism did not work. No other comments were given any significance by the media.

It is not difficult to categorise her support as predominately from th

I'm enjoying the book immensely. My wife has commented that I've been thumping the table at breakfast. Actually it is good to feel that that anger over the damage that's been done to our democracy can be purposefully directed. And shared. I'm looking forward to hearing you speak about the 'State of the Nation' at the Melbourne writers festival.

We are learning about Fact and Opinion, and Denotation and Connotation in my Year 9 English class. Many in the class have rated a Shampoo commercial over a war report as containing more reliable facts! These are kids from the Western suburbs who are deeply suspicious of our Pollies as well as our news coverage.

Just today, a couple had the rest amazed and raving about the duplicity of George W depicted in Fahrenheit 9/11. (They led the conversation, I just chaired). I hope and pray the sentiment is coming from their voting parents.

I'm Very Happy to be aboard the Bandwagon,

I have just returned home from the Adelaide Imprints Bookshop launch of your book. Thank you for including us in your itinerary, and I thoroughly enjoyed hearing you speak. I hope you have provided a lightning rod for the regime change you spoke of.

Unfortunately time beat the questions, but I wanted to report an observation, and hear your opinion. I might add I have not read your book yet, though plan to as soon as my partner has finished reading it - he keeps having to put it down to calm down his rage every now and then, so it seems to be working!

Around the time of Tampa, I became concerned about the greater use of marketing style 'jargon' being used by the Government, and particularly John Howard, that is repeated by the press without contradiction, so in the end you hear the general population using the same words (thereby convinced somehow that the government is correct).

When I was a kid, people in desperate need of asylum were called 'refugees' or '

Margo, great book - it made me feel for the first time that its my privilege and obligation to be more active in our democracy. I thought your idea of denying the Big Parties their public monies by not voting for them Number 1 was a good one - it needs to be explained and sold to the public.

I also hope you continue to pursue the AEC and Tony Abbott - wouldn

G'day. Adelaide citizen and NHJ team member S is a worried man after Howard's appearance on Sunday this morning, which was followed by a feature called Not happy, John!. on John Valder's campaign to unseat Howard in Bennelong. S wrote:

''I'm very worried. The PM's focus on interest rates on this morning's Sunday programme, makes it clear that he's going to focus on that during this campaign. During the recent property boom, a significant number of people have borrowed significant amounts of money, so they're likely to be influenced by the PM's scare campaign about higher interest rates under Labor.

'Recent elections have shown that even the smallest tax cuts influence voters one way or another (e.g. the 'GST' Election - without tax cut sweeteners, the Howard Government would never have been r

Mango, we sadly, have a problem.

Valda will never have our support!

He cannot be trusted.

We reckon that Wilkie is the way to go, there.

Go Greens!
Dailys.

I bought the book while having a lunch time browse and I'm up to page 9 and feeling better already. I was feeling particularly cheesed off with John and his mates this week.

Last week my daughter brought home the papers for a school council meeting. I'm on the council of her value free zone (sorry I should say her public school). Included with the papers was a note from the principal saying that our local member (Trish Worth) had been on the phone to him and wanted to know if Brendan Nelson could visit the school during the election campaign.

My blood boiled. They use every opportunity to bag public education and now they want photo opportunities. They are pouring public money into private schools. Just a coincidence that the school (Unley Primary School) is at the liberal voting end of one of the most marginal electorates in Australia (Adelaide).

So I went to the school council meeting and tried to sink the visit. No luck - the principal said the state educa

I read your book to and from work for about a week, and several people on the tram asked me about it, seeing the front cover. I ended up having some interesting discussions with my fellow passengers, and surprisingly found a lot of common ground and, even from committed liberal voters, a sense that all is not well. My optimism is restored!

Words, to describe matters, can sometimes fail people yet there is no doubt in my mind. Margo confirms for me that Australia is in crisis if we continue to tolerate Howard and his oligarchy any more. Enough of the lies, the outrageous disregard of social contract, and the insipid toadies who give legitamacy to this disastrous hegemony. The time has come for each and every one of us to reclaim our past heritage and rid ourselves of such fascists.

Very long post - please forgive.

If you care about where this country is headed then you should take the time to read all of Thursday's Hansard speeches from the laughably-truncated Marriage Bill 2004 'debate', but you should in particular read Senator Brian Greig's and Senator Andrew Bartlett's. First, though, you should read the PM's speech to the National Marriage Forum in Parliament's Great Hall the previous week, to see where his standard 'dog-whistling/wedging' stump tactics have now led both the Liberal Party and the country: to the hitherto unthinkable juncture whereby religious fundamentalism is explicitly driving secular legislative change. Browse the pale, grim, joyless, loveless faces in those podium photos; skim their grim, strident, humorless, loveless speeches; sense the aggressively populist, simplistic, barren, lovel