The world adores matt hayward

If you go to www.mininova.org, a bittorrent site found out of the ruins of suprnova.org, National Australia Bank (NAB) have 2 banner ads on the front page! Yup that’s your hard earned money gone in bank fees to pay for banner ads on questionable web sites! I wonder if they actually know or care that there bank is being promoted on such a site?!

In case you don’t know what’s going on, let me explain. NAB, like any other bank, are capitalist bastards. Mininova is like a content pimp that provides sources for dubious content, that if you know what your’e doing, you can download it. Not all of it’s dubious. But not everyone in jail is a criminal either. Is this the bank’s ethics on display? We don’t care where we advertise, just give us big sites and Aussies and we don’t care about the rest? If a bestiality site met this criteria, would they advertise on it? It makes you wonder. . .

Really it’s like the catholic church promoting sermons on the panty liners of prozzies! Suffer in ya jocks NAB. You’ve been shafted!

Not a bad little doco this one. This one came out before Cyclone Katrina in May 2004.

The End of Suburbia traces the origins of the North American suburb, which in itself is quite interesting. But more to the point, its dependency on oil to get people from the suburbs where they live, to the cities where they work. Starting out with idyllic ‘country living for everybody’ 1950s propserous propaganda, very quickly you’re taken straight into the urbal sprawl. We soon find out that the suburban US dream is not under threat from Muslim fundamentalists, but the scarcity of the oil the whole American dream was based on.

So what’s so bad about suburbs you ask? Well North American suburbs were more a less a conspiracy away from public transport. Which if you look at some cities such as Los Angeles today, it seems highly plausible. Early suburbs had extensive trams (or what they call cable cars) and were very accessible without needing your own car. Jump to the post-war baby boomers and suddenly the US auto industry is burgeoning, and they didn’t want competition. So motorways got wider and trams more scarce as every family gets at least one car. Detroit used their Washington connections to keep highways coming and the clamp on PT. It was all based on cheap, plentiful oil and never thought to evebe unsustainable.

Cut a long story short, and post war suburbia was based on a false premise, and continues to this day. "it has none of the amenities of country life, and none ammenities of the town. Just a six lane highway" according to Howard Kunstler. Only one thing keeps the masses in the picture though, oil. And oil production peaked in the mid seventies. So guess how bad it is now? We’re just about out of gas.

The keypoints in this doco are three-fold: the false hope in alternative fuels; what peak oil really means for suburbia; economic impacts.

Alternative fuels

1. Alternative fuels are bogus. Hydrogen is no alternative to petroleum as it is only a means of storing energy in water and far more explosive. You still have to create the enegry in hydrogen from something. Effectively it takes more energy to make hydrogen than it does the bang for buck you’d get out of putting it in your petrol tank.
2. Ethanol from sugar cane or corn is not a feasible alternative fossil fuel because you need land to grow it, unlike oil which is mined underground. The amount of corn or sugar cane we’d need to grow to maintain sustainability is unfeasible.
3. Modern agriculture is heavily dependent on petroleum based pesticides and natural gas based fertilisers. The impact of this is two fold as we require pesticides to maintain peak production of affordable and plentiful food. Secondly that pumping so much oil based fertilisers into fertile land is slowly killing it, decreasing our ability to grow food in existing agri areas. Based on the last point, you’d need oil to fertilise corn. . .

What peak oil really means for suburbia

1. M King Hubbert an eminent, widely respected geologist predicted that US oil production would peak in the early 70s. In the true American style, they made a mockery of him. But history has proven him right although it took everyone a decade to realise that US oil prouction peaked in 1970, never to be beaten again. He also predicted world oil producton to peak in the 1990s. Scary . . .
2. According to Michael C Ruppert, 60% of the worlds’ avaialble oil fields are in the Persian Gulf. Guess where we’re at war?
3. So long as depleting natural resources are a reality, Cheney’s ‘war that will not end in our life time’ will continue. Because politicians that can keep the suburban dream alive, will stay in power. Furthermore control the (remaining) oil and you control the world.
4. Once you get past the peak of an oil well’s production, both the quality of oil suffers and the energy necessary to drill the oil makes it totally unfeasible to obtain. So there may be 50% of oil left in the ground, but it’s 10 times more expensive to drill for and half the quality of the former 50%

Economic impacts

1. As oil fields deplete, international free trade becomes impossible. It wont be feasible to make goods cheaply in China if the oil necessary to transport them continues to increase in cost.
2. Modern retailers such as K Mart and Wal Mart that not only ship in goods from overseas but truck them all over the country will become an impossible distribution model so long as we’re dependent on "cheap gas" to make it all possible 
3. suburbs themselves will have to become far more sustainable both economically and agriculturally. Local businesses selling local, seasonal goods will become a fact of life

Before we discuss there points further, here’s a bit about the production aspects of this doco. A hero of mine Michael C Ruppert (who wrote Crossing the Rubicon) is also featured in the oil scarcity discussions. Kunstler I don’t know anything about, but he’s pretty hip and calls the whole suburban nightmare a "clusterfuck" and refers to the average modern suburban house as a McMansion. So yes, I like his style! He certainly does lighten up the otherwise sombering tone of suburban despair.  This film also has minimal use of hyperbole and looks like it was made for television, so it production values and continuity are top notch.

Getting back to the crux of the matter, ‘Suburbia does have an upside. While the suburban way of life will be in imminent crisis, there are answers. Civilisation has to get back to a sustainable urban model that’s accessible by foot wherever possible. So there’s flirtation with a renaissance in urbanism to address these concerns. But increased inter and infrastate such as railways to curtail use of trucking and cars to travel are less likely but imperative.

And last but not least, we need to start thinking less of ourselves and more of our neighbors. Ingeneouity will have to solve the problems burocrats can’t. If it doesn’t we’ll perish. Those that do insist on suburbia will have to grow their own vegies and find a job locally. Quite possible even share their McMansion with another family. We’re in for an interesting ride as unsustainability becomes a bitter reality. In raising these points, this documentary has done very, very

The End of Suburbia is available at Mike Ruppert’s site at www.copvcia.com.

Not many docos on the market finish with a warning that under section 802 of the Patriot Act, you could be arrested under ‘Domestic Terrorism’ without charge and sent to Guantanamo Bay for viewing it. This one doesn’t even have the cursory copyright warning. Infact you’re freely encouraged to share it with others.

Whether or not you could ever get arrested for simple possession of a documentary film is yet to be seen. But this second installment ponders some serious questions for the US Government. Que bono? Bush administration? You betcha!

For those of you who have seen the first edition, there is a little overlap, but a whole lot of new content that flows on nicely. It’s very much in the same vein as the first, with plenty of newspaper quotes, an interview courtesy of Australian ABC radio with Hunter S Thomspon. At least 60% of it’s new and just as thought provoking as the original.

Fortunately this documentary is more palatable for a younger audience thanks to a funky New York DJ soundtrack, something you’ll never find on an Alex Jones or David Icke doco. The three guys that are responsible might not be historians, but that’s part of what makes it great. This not for profit production really hits home with a few Mythbusters style, ‘is this physically possible?’ factettes about the 911 attacks. I use the term factettes loosely. All facts are reasonably substantial and the producers freely encourage you to be skeptical and investigate further.

Here are some quick factettes covered in the second edition:
- Marvin Bush, George W Bush’s youngest sibling was head of security at the Twin Towers until Sept 10, 2001.
- near the Pentagon, FBI officers have confiscated security tapes from a nearby servoce station and the Hilton Hotel within minutes of the collision. These tapes would show if nothing else that a commerical jet did hit the Pentagon and not a missile.
- the official coroner at the scene of the Pennsylvania crash said no bodies were found at the scene.
- the black boxes from the Twin Towers attacks were never recovered, despite the fact that almost 99% of black boxes are both recoverable and workable in domestic US plane crashes. Yet despite this, one of the alleged hijacker’s passports feel over 100 stories and was found on the street.
- the alleged cell phone calls that took place from one of the hijacked airliners would be impossible in 2001 at normal cruising altitudes. Certainly so given that American Airlines had to install mobile phone base stations on some of their planes in 2004.
- in the Bin Laden confession tape, aired days after 911. Bin Laden was seen wearing a gold ring and was writing with his right hand. He’s not only left handed but fundamental Muslims are forbidden to wear gold jewellery.
- at least 9 of the suicide bombers are still alive!

Now we’re just starting to get controversial and we’ve only just begun. from the Loose Change web site "And according the FAA, both N591UA and N612UA, Flights 93 and 175, are still valid. But Flights 11 and 77 are listed as destroyed." Strange that two planes that everybody saw crash and burn could still be in the air.

Better still the claim that the planes that hit the Twin Towers (probably the two the FAA still think are in service) were landed at an evacuated airport. Now even I think that might not be that plausible until I remember Mike Rupport mentioned the same thing in his book Crossing the Rubicon. That book has been out for at least a year and a half.

Now you might argue that Ruppert and guys are both a bunch of cooks, and that’s fine. Although there will be some of you that have actually read Ruppert’s book and fromthewilderness.org web site and will know him to be one of the most verbose, dedicated and articulate writers on subjects such as clandestine CIA operations, 911, peak oil and dodgy US economics.

So OK, what makes this crackpot conspiracy doco unique? Well these guys are in their early 20s and pledge to give a free DVD to anyone that can prove they lost a loved one in the 911 attacks. They are the true patriots that don’t just tow the party line, or do the Micheal Moore ‘profit from your politics’ emoticrap that made him a millionaire. These 3 New Yorkers don’t even show their faces in the main feature, which is true unbiased journalism. Their web site asks you to take nothing at face value and to check their references and make your own mind up.

A fantastic pro bono production to clearly demonstrate que bono. You simply must download this doco, while you still can. It’s amazing to see stuff like this actually happening via the internet at the grass roots level.

Yesterday I saw your typical shock horror of muslims going crazy, rioting in the streets on the TV yesterday because of cartoon depictions of Muhammad. Anyway, me mate Wayne forwards me this article this morning. In the article she publishes the images that caused all the ruckus in the first place. The following is a quick excerpt:

Last October, I blogged about a Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, and its cartoonists being threatened by Muslim extremists for publishing cartoons about the prophet Muhammad deemed offensive by Islamist p.c. bulllies. See here and here.

For the past four months, The Brussels Journal has relentlessly covered the ensuing uproar from the Muslim world and the battle over the newspaper’s freedom to publish provocative speech.

Knowing full well that politics makes for strange bedfellows, i’m still not totally sure I want this woman on the side of freedom of speech. Michelle Malkin claims that for posterity and solidarity with the Danish, she’s publishing the toons for all to see. So that ‘the west’ doesn’t cave into muslims apparently quite happy to parodise Jewish and Christian figures, but is fundamentally opposed to any caricature of Muhammad.  That all seems good and patriotic, she even calls her effort, an act of solidarity. But look around her blog. This woman evidently doesn’t believe in freedom of speech in her own country!

Check out the site. There’s a big old banner ad for the GOP, or the Republicans. I’ve been back a few times and it appears to be a permanent feature. if this isn’t ringing any bells, it’s George W Bush’s party. I can’t think of any one administration that has overseen more attacks on freedom of speech than the Bush family. Just off of the top of my head:

• changing media ownership rules so that the Clearchannel Network own virtually everything. Driving Howard Stern amongst others onto uncensored satellite radio.
• further relaxing media ownership laws so that Ruppert Murdoch to have a reach of three quarters of the worlds’ population.
• strengthening the FCC (headed by Colin Powell’s brother) after something as pathetic as a nipple in the Superbowl. So yeah there’s freedom of speech, so long as the conservative right agree with it. You can’t even say penis on TV any more in the US.
• implementing the Patriot Act and Patriot Act II which inadvertantly make any critic of the war effort a threat to national security.
• keeping tight lipped on the actual number of war casualties in Iraq. Especially considering so many of them are National Guard troops, that should be taking care of stuff like, you know, Cyclone Katrina. And that’s where they’d be if the Republicans didn’t decide that the best defence was attack. Try telling that to to anyone in Louisiana.
• not allowing the coffins of US war casualties being flown home to be photographed or published.

Then you look at her book references. So I always work on the parable that Democracy is two wolves and a sheep arguing over what’s for dinner.  She doesn’t seem to agree with me on this one. Makin’s In Defense of Internment the blurb tells of imprisonment of Japanese citizens in camps during WW2, who volunteered to be imprisoned. You don’t really have to see the book to judge for yourself that the parable applies here. Soldiers come to your door and say that you’re a threat to national security and suddenly you’re the sheep and they’re the wolves. There’s no premise of honest journalism here. So she writes this book because she’s pro racial profiling. Yeah even better, you can say anything you want so long as you fit our profile. I’m sure you’d be saying that if you were a second generation Japanese American in 1942.

Malkin pulls no bones about being conservative. She has her mugshot on every page and admitedly she’s freaking hot. But what journalist puts their profile shot on the page except one that wants to bias you to an uber conservative, Republican, cute Asian chick? Check out the business suit. She has a full fledged glamour shot on another page. It’s that typical, ‘I’m clean cut so how can I be evil? I am the American dream!’ look that means your unbiased discourse is completely out the window. And so is your credibility.

Malkin, if you’re so big on freedom of speech, why don’t you go talk to the ex-Fox journos that couldn’t get their expose on Monsanto aired, covered in explicit detail in documentary The Corporation? It’s a lot easier to stand up for freedom of speech when the enemy is brown isn’t it! Especially when you’re a minority yourself. It’s so much easier to get acceptance.

Now that i’ve finished the rant about Republicans and how they’re America’s own, self installed worst enemy to freedom of speech, how can a conservative US journalist claim to be a saviour of it. Who gives a rat’s arse anyway? So they show a few people in a riot which was probably ramped up for the cameras, how many muslims SERIOUSLY COULDN’T GIVE A RAT’S ARSE. I’ve had a few mates who are secular muslims who would be laughing and joking about it. So why should a few fundamentalist going off chops, discredit the majority of those who don’t?

In the words of Johnny Rotten ‘if it looks like an arsehole, and smells like an arsehole, it probably is an arsehole’. Miss Malkin, i’m with Johnny on this one. Oops, I am probably going to get charged with sedition for writing this. But at least I don’t curtail to false prophets of free speech.

Don’t let the title put you off. This isn’t some jingoistic, Republican response to Moore’s evidently successful Farenheit 911.  In fact documentary maker Michael Wilson, dedicates a great deal of time to justifying the movie’s somewhat harsh title and how similar his upbringing was to Moore’s.

Interviewed are people from Moore’s real home town in Michigan (not Flint) and several renouned documentary makers. So to are the bank clerks from the beginning of Bowling For Columbine that handed our Mick the shotgun over the counter. Because this is where Moore shows his contempt for his fans, by liberally editing and manipulating the truth to the point he could be an intern on Fox News. You’ll be quite surprised to see what the bank clerks have to say about Moore’s ruse to get his scene.

Those of you looking for a pro gun, doco-made-from-the-back-of-a pickup will be disapointed. So too those who are far too sensitive to Moore’s plight to overcome dumb, middle America. Because this doco shows a more liberal, beligerant side to the US that Moore belittles as the rubble left behind by corporate America. No doubt the US is trouble, but several people, including a maimed Iraq war vet. are furious with the way Moore has manipulated the interview footage.

Moore himself hasn’t done himself any favours by telling the doco maker, for all intents, to fuck off at question time at one of his university tours. So much so that many attendees actually came up to the documentary maker, to comment that whilst they agreed with Moore, they thought accosting him was uncalled for. Furthermore for refusing to be interview, as so many of his own subjects had in Roger and Me especially.

Whilst Moore himself may not hate America per se, he’s certainly profiting from corporate channels through criticising it.  Allegedly he now lives in New York far, far away from the Flint he so allegedly loves. This film certainly illustrates he’s not catching the bus.

Effectively those who criticise this doco may say it’s a dissection of Moore’s crock pot edit techniques to polarize people into action. I used to agree with his principals despite his actions. However this doco was in making me realise that truth should never be manipulated or compromised. Ultimately it only weakens your case and strengthens your detractors.

Two very big thumbs up buy the Michael Moore Hates America movie here.

OK so everyone that looked a little bit olive skinned was getting attacked? So OK, if I was in Cronulla, I think I would’ve been screwed. I am of English descent, but quite olive skinned. By default because I have very Celtish features, a combination of both English and French Celt descent. Not something I am proud or unproud of, just am that way. Maybe I could’ve been attacked by a bunch of stubby throwing bogans?

For most of us, nationality doesn’t mean shit really. My girlfriend is Asian (most have been) and most of my mates are in many ways foreign. Primarily because most suburban ‘Aussie’ types hang amongst themselves and don’t really do anything that interests me. It really doesn’t compel me where people are from. In some instances, sure it does, but why make a big deal of it? Some people are just sick to death of being asked where they’re from and I can at least at a simplistic level, understand why.

One possible reason why it doesn’t concern me is because I went to a primary school that was about 99% Anglo Australian (we had one Italian and a Jordanian) and was always seen as a wog, even through high school. And well up until about the 9th grade when I got to go overseas, I was bigoted, fag hating racist of the worst order. But I was for the most part a product of the environment. It doesn’t mean you can’t escape the environment! A trip to Japan probably saved me at that age.

So in effect, I could’ve ended up one of the yobbos at Cronulla beach. I am an ‘Aussie’ sans blue eyes and blonde hair. I am from the suburbs, never went to private school and have shit tin of AC/DC in my CD collection. Unfortunately I am not disgusted by what happened, you pretty much learn to expect it.

It scares me that Aussies who really don’t have a clue what’s going on might one day start a brawl at Frankston Beach or St Kilda beach because there’s nothing else to do.

Honestly I have no idea what spurred this on in Sydney. Although I hate Sydney in general, who wants to see this crap happen anywhere? Who wants to see people act this way toward one another? Also just because I don’t like it, doesn’t mean there aren’t some cool people there, and there’s not a good time to be had. It’s just a populous city with populous attitudes I detest, but do I hate the people? No.

Apparently, there were several catalysts for the rioting. Rapes by Muslim guys, ethnic gangs on beaches. God only knows what. You could even throw terrorism in the melting pot. Either way, I am not disgusted I am dumfounded. We live in a country where there’s plenty for everyone. Politically and economically not perfect, but for the most part OK. It’s not like where in Europe where people have been fighting for sovereignty and borders for hundreds of years. We’re 200 years old for crying out loud. We’ve never had a civil war (and you’d be surprised to see just how many countries have, ie Malaysia 1969) or anything where the national guard have been called in. I’m not disgusted, I am saddened.

One thing is clear though, is that the sun was shining, the beer was cold, a few people were pissed with their phones and felt like a punch on. They might have seen something on the TV and thought, ‘hey let’s jump on the train and start some shit’. White or muslim, equally unintelligent. Of course a few serious nutters were in the mix, like White Supremacists and Actual real Ethnic gangs. But for the most part, it was probably normal working types, that donned overalls come Monday morning (or even suits) and brag about their prowess at the water fountain or building site.

If you are from overseas, there is injustice in Australia and it would be most prevalent in Sydney. If only because the outer suburbs vary tremendously in living standards and the inner city areas are so impossibly unaffordable. People for the most part aren’t truly racist. There’s just trendy stereotypes, like ‘lebs’ and ‘wogs’ and a need to fit into a crowd. But we don’t have the pitfalls of New Orleans or Paris at the moment. We just have red blooded idiots with a TV, baseball bat and a mobile phone, pissed off by the ever increasing stresses of life that want to be the shit out of each other. And it’s enough to make you want to stay out of the trendy spots forever.

All I can really think of is perhaps the media can take a different tack in their treatment of this kind of violence. Instead of inciting people to grab a slab and call or their mates and get on the train to the beach. If this ever happens in Melbourne, I don’t know what the hell i’d do.

Michael C Ruppert is like the Shaft of the consipiracy theory world. He’s a bloody legend. I got onto him because in 2002, someone gave me an MP3 of one of his lectures. He’s been doing lecture tours around the world since 2001 as well as maintaining the fromthewilderness.com web site. This book is in part, several extracts from that web site’s manifestos over the past 3 years.

Speculation is not his thing and he proudly starts a lecture proclaiming that the FBI or CIA have never formally denied any of his claims. If that wasn’t enough, he tells you that he’s an ex LAPD who was well on the way to making rank as detective. Early on he tells you how he was shot at by drug running CIA operatives who worked for Cheney’s Brown and Root in the late 70s.

What this book is specifically about is Peak Oil. Or more so, the fact that oil production peaked many, many years ago. Which puts us, the humans in a really fuck off bad place. Because, as he points out, oil just doesn’t power your car, it powers the powerpoints and makes the plastics that virtually everything is made from - or wrapped in. So with so little oil left (and the remaining oil being so bloody hard to get to. Very, very hard in fact).

Now, all we need is an evil tyrant to take control of what’s left and throttle it out. Oh, and wouldn’t it be helpful if we killed off a shit tin of people so there’d be more oil to go around? Bonzer! Enter George Bush’s Empire. Tyranising the world, through it’s oil fields and keeping it inline with terror.

Invariably, this will get typecast as a 911 book. But it doens’t talk about missiles hitting the Pentagon and other salient theories. What this book does is establish a case against the Bush Administration for having a LOT to gain from such attacks taking place. This includes, and is not limited to:

- getting to loot social security funds in the advent of an emergency (eg a terrorist attack)
- putting military bases where oil fields exist and/or pipelines are requried, so long as the oil field owners look like terrorists and evildoers. And who woulda thunk the oil fields all belong to ‘terrorists’! wow!
- advancing their own corporate profiteering interests (Halliburton, Carlyle Group, Brown and Root, all who have MASSIVE Department of Defense contracts).

From the get go, Ruppert spells out this book takes the approach of a detective preparing a court case and the final chapter takes the “ladies and gentleman of the jury. . .” tack. He himself has had an interesting life and met some ne’er do wells in the making of the book. It was written over about 2 years (2002-2004). So much so that the last chapters revisit what he’d written two years ago.

Perhaps the most provocative topic explored is that Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld were VERY much in control and directing the events that had happened on 911, Rummy in particular. Cheney had setup several war game excercises to distract and confuse NORAD and the armed forces that day. He also points out the high probability that the planes were actually remote controlled on the day and even identifies a company that could’ve supplied the technology to do so.

Let it be said, this book covers a LOT of ground and goes into a lot of extracts from his newsletter and at times can be very verbose. There’s sections on where the oil is now and what the US is doing to get it, the Patriot Act, the death of several world class microbioligists all working on germ warfare and vaccines, you name it. It can get quite overwhelming.

Ruppert puts forward a pretty compelling case in this 600 page manifesto. Whilst I question a lot of it, such as his claims about Promis software, quite a lot more is definitely plausible. One thing that really sticks out is that his theory about the Saudis in particular is that their plan is to scare them out of town, leaving their lucre in the bank. As Michael Moore points out in Farenheit 911, they own a huge chunk of the US ecomony, I think some 7%.

Anyway, back to the Shaft thing, Ruppert is very unpretentious and modest, though he makes some audacious claims. There’s a lot to take in here, and it may even be worth two reads, but you really feel up to date once you’ve read it. Almost enlightened. Well worth a read- in fact a must read.

If you’ve seen the book ‘Crossing the Rubicon’ by Micheal C. Ruppert, or perhaps his video ‘The Truth and Lies of 911′, then Mick Ruppert will be no stranger. He has an uncanny way of stating politicians’ modus operandis in a bleak yet compelling, judical-like tone.

Unlike most journos or political commentators, he runs his own subscriber based site www.copvcia.com. So what’s the truth without spin Mick? Well as of September 2, Ruppert had this to say.

“The United States, with 5% of the world’s people, consumes (wastes) 25% of the world’s energy. How do you destroy demand? You collapse the economy. Homeless, unemployed “refugees” (what a cold, depersonalizing term) don’t buy gas, take trips, fly on airplanes or buy consumer goods (made with energy and requiring energy to operate). They don’t use air conditioning because they can’t afford it. They are the embodiment of Henry Kissinger’s infamous term “useless eaters,” a phrase from the Nazi vocabulary.”

It starts even more tragically:

“What is not being discussed rationally by the mainstream media is Katrina’s impact on energy production. They don’t dare. By my calculations and those of oil energy expert Jan Lundberg, the United States has just lost between 20% and 25% of its energy supply. My projection is that it’s not coming back — at least not most of it.”

“As many as twenty offshore rigs have now been confirmed as adrift, capsized, listing or sunk. Each rig may have as many as eight wells. Where’s the money coming from to replace them? How long will that take?”

Suffice it to say, America is completely buggered oil-wise. Even if they can get oil from Venezuala, Colombia, or god forbid the Persian Gulf, a lot of it was processed in New Orleans anyway. It doesn’t just magically turn from ‘bumblin’ crude into precision oil, or electricity.

There’s also the indeliable aspertions on George W. Bush

Since taking office, President Bush “has appointed, in succession, his 2000 campaign manager and an Oklahoma lawyer whose only emergency management experience prior to joining FEMA was as an assistant city manager.”

Beyond any natural, freak occurence, it’s highly apparent that this is not so much a racial descrimination as a class issue. Because as our old mate Mick puts it, in a neo-conservative, corporate run world, the less poor consumers, the more to go around with fewer overheads. Socialism for the uber rich. Get used to it or do something about it. The Republicans and their allies only care for themselves.

Here’s the original article if you want to judge for yourself.

Ages ago, I wrote an open letter to Kim Beasley. It was in order to keep a law going to allow the open slather importing of vehicles, mostly from Japan, aged 15 years old or more.

This law was setup because they, the Liberal government, thought it would put an end to the slew of Silvias and Skylines on the roads. Well it didnt. In their finite wisdom, they forgot to check that most of the cool cars of the moment (Nissans: 300zxs, Silvias, Skylines, GTRs; Mazda MX5s and the first of the VTEC Hondas) all came out in 1989-1990, you guessed fifteen years ago.

Well my letter was in vain. The law was abolished and now they’ve decided only cars made up to and before 1988 can be imported open slather. Bugger.

There are two poignant facts we have to live with now this rule is over. First, there was a bit of insanity in the 15yo rule. It was making fast and unreliable, twin turbo cars affordable to dramatically more people. Some nutter chick a while back bought a twin turbo Nissan 300zx coupe on her 18th birthday. She pretty much got straight on the Western Ring Road in Melbourne and put the right clog to the floor and was doing 240kph by the time the cameras caught her. Now in anyone’s language, that’s just insane.

In a strange way, i’m kinda glad it’s over. There are far better ways for societies fuckknuckles to kill themselves. No need to waste a perfectly good car over them.

Secondly, when you look at the import sites now, there really aren’t that many cars to crow about. J-Spec are trying to push the V35 Skyline and more kosher, SEVs compliable motors. These cars are kinda cute, but not worth getting wet over. You can tell that most of them are just trade-ins from Nissan dealers. There not exactly straight out of a tuning shop or some hot rodder’s garage. You’d be better off now buying a locally delivered and manufacterd Ford Falcon XR6 Turbo.

High Performance Imports magazine are of the opinion that since the late 90s, Japan have given up on the turbo performance market, and it’s becoming more and more self evident in the import yards. What’s left of the import motors will be run into the ground by anyone that can get their hands on them though, that’s for sure.

Then there’s the final nail in the coffin. www.yahoomotorsport.com, seem to have gone on a huge arsed binge and bought every last 15yo import they can get their hands on. His holding yard in suburban Adelaide, must look like a refugee detention centre for unloved Japanese cars. In their current stock, rust is rife and high kilometres a-plenty. I’m not dissing Yahoo motorsport though, they seem to be very much ‘what you see is what you get’, but is it worth the getting any more? Sadly no.