Bob Harris in Sydney

Okay, maybe this is where I'll look for a future....

And freedom of speech means something here in a way it simply doesn't back in the States. Case in point: John Howard, the prime minister, is by most accounts (and like many prominent politicians, anywhere) a lying asshole. The difference: unlike America's lying asshole, Howard has already by censured by the legislature, and has been roundly booed several times in public appearances, including the opening ceremony of the Rugby World Cup, where 60,000 nigh-orgasmic rugger fans wheeled from cheering to jeering when said asshole dared to rear his head, forcing him to stand silently for several moments.

Can you imagine something similar in the United States, land of the Best Free Speechiest Freedom There Is? Fuck, no. Try for yourself. Boo Bush in public, you're hauled away by security at a minimum, if you're lucky. At major appearances and political conventions, protesters are shunted off to "Free Speech Zones" out of the asshole's eyesight and earshot (and thus that of the press, which is to Bush as Jenna Jameson is to any actor at eye-level), defeating the entire purpose of the first amendment.

Read the rest. Bob makes it sound very nice.

And, if you haven't been keeping up with his journaling, here's the page.

And if you don't know about The Prisoner, check here.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.


Update 5:30 pm: When Bush visited Australia in October, Sydney Morning Herald columnist Mark Riley observed, "The basic right of freedom of speech will adopt a new interpretation during the Canberra visits this week by George Bush and his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao. Protesters will be free to speak as much as they like just as long as they can't be heard." Demonstrators were shunted to an area away from the Federal Parliament building and prohibited from using any public address system in the area.  article

That sounds more like it.

Still looking for a country....