Just one thing...

[lederhosen]

Bob Brown rocks. (Kudos also to Kerry Nettle, Mark Latham, Harry Quick, and Tanya Plibersek.)

Howard went bright red and stayed that way for the rest of the speech. His hand clutched the lectern in front of him.

*sniffle* I want a photo of that.

Let's talk about what happened, shall we? The US President comes to visit. The Australian public is *banned* from their own Parliament House, for fear somebody might actually say something Dubya doesn't want to hear. (And since the guy is under the impression he can get an objective view of the world by listening only to his own staffers, that's not too hard to do.) Australian journalists were effectively banned from any contact with George Bush, leaving only the tame journos in his own entourage - after the outrage this caused, Johnny-boy made some very slight concessions.

Bush gave a speech, if you can call it that. I can't go past Margo Kingston's description of it:

George Bush's speech was almost contemptuous in its tired banality. He treated us as children, he told us a simplistic fairy story laced with cheap flattery. Recalling John's visit to George in Texas, he said: "You might remember that I called him a man of steel. That's Texan for fair dinkum."

In Australia, fair dinkum means you're for real, that you're up front and honest. Man of steel doesn't mean that. Was it meant to be a joke? The Coalition laughed.

Just for the record, my American readers: there may still be a few parts of Australia where "fair dinkum" is in common usage. But if you throw it into conversation just to try to make yourself look like you like Australia, the average Aussie will conclude that you're a wanker who thinks we all ride kangaroos to work.

In times of trouble and danger, Bush said, "Australians are the first to step forward, to accept hard duties and to fight bravely until the fighting is done."

Now it's interesting he should say that. You see, since very early on in the buildup to the war in Iraq, there was a strong public suspicion that Howard had already promised our support. Every time he was asked - have you already committed us to war, in secret? - he would say no, we're keeping our options open, that decision hasn't been made yet. It wasn't until quite late in the piece - IIRC, well after the UK had committed - that our own commitment became public.

If we really were the "first to step forward", then Johnny-boy is a liar, and Bush is too dumb even to remember to cover for his allies when they lie on his behalf. Neither of those would surprise me.

There is a longstanding ban on journalists filming Parliament. Filming is handled by a government body, which then releases footage to the media - and is banned from showing 'disorderly behaviour' in Parliament, presumably because we're little children and can't handle knowing how our elected representatives actually conduct themselves in Parliament.

However, White House Security *overruled our government* on this matter, and allowed CNN to film inside the chamber.

Say WHAT? I am deeply unhappy about our government's ban on independent filming, and without CNN's footage we wouldn't be able to see for ourselves the way Coalition politicians manhandled the Greens to prevent them from getting near enough to talk to Bush. But it's *not* a good sign when White House security takes precedence over our own government in our own damn Parliament!

Senators Brown and Nettle have been banned from Parliament for 24 hours, which may prevent them from what they'd planned to do today - raise human rights issues during the Chinese premier's visit. (Can't accuse them of being inconsistent.) Brown called for a division on this matter, but the Speaker pretended not to hear him, thus denying the chance for a vote on the matter. Another fine example of democracy being stifled.

I'm getting pretty sick of this. Joining in the USA's follies is one thing, but do we have to be so bloody subservient about it? Go home already, George, and take our pathetic excuse for a Prime Minister with you.