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TELLING IT LIKE IT IS

Who do you suppose was the first person who claimed to “tell it like it is”? I’m betting it was someone in a 1951 CIA hallucinogen-testing program (“subject claims to possess unique insight; subsequently consumes laboratory cat and throws self out of window”). Margo Kingston is the most recent:

Telling it like it is isn’t done in the American mainstream now. It’s too risky. It’s the same in Australia. If you have a go telling it bluntly, and with moral force, you’re condemned as a Howard Hater by the media’s dominant band of Howard Lovers. And to be condemned as a Howard Hater means you’re, well, unAustralian.

So the greatest risk you face is being condemned as a Howard Hater? Some risk; Margo rejoices in the description: “I’m happy to be tagged a Howard-hater, because I am.”

I mean, democracy is about finding a school to vote at every three years, right? We did that, the people have spoken, and the minority who didn’t want this government have to shut up or leave Australia, right? Otherwise they’re anti-democratic.

How anti-democratic is it to proclaim that democracy is dead if a certain party wins?

I’ve copped these arguments constantly on Webdiary since the October 2004 election. Many Australians seem to have forgotten what democracy means, or never worked it out in the first place.

Margo Kingston—who once warned that “there could be a cell in Sydney planning a terriers act in Italy”—claims to be smarter than many Australians.

It’s us versus them stuff, and the “us”, it seems, doesn’t seem to notice that their ranks are getting smaller by the day.

Soon they’ll be the “u”.

Tampa. To me, that was the event which saw Australians accept that it was okay for our government to treat some human beings as less than human.

How, exactly?

Let’s tell it like it is, shall we? Australia has its own “disappeared”, and its own “disappear them squad”.

Which we know about due to Cornelia Rau and Vivian Alvarez. Who haven’t disappeared—in fact, they’ve re-appeared. We have our own re-appear them squad!

But, perhaps, the government has gone too far this time. There is a prima facie case of terrible abuse of power here. Yet there would be no inquiry, no commissioner with legal powers to get to the truth and bring any perpetrators of crimes before the courts. There would instead be a cosy closed-door investigation by a former police officer relying on the cooperation of those in the frame for possible crimes, criminal negligence, and just plain negligence.

This up-yours response and the abandonment of any pretence that Australian citizens had the right to know what the government did to fellow citizens was too much even for a media cowered by threats and intimidation (the ABC) or whose commercial interests directed pro-Howard coverage (News Limited).

Speaking of a media “cowed by threats and intimidation”, Margo has some explaining to do. More on this later.

When Vanstone refused to give any details of who, when, how and why an Australian citizen was deported, the media did the job, and is still doing it. Webdiary began “a people’s inquiry” to help get the truth.

Any updates on the “people’s inquiry”? Have we reached the “people’s sentencing” yet?

Australian citizenship doesn’t matter much to this government. Unlike just about every other nation whose citizens were incarcerated and tortured in Guantanamo Bay, we’ve let the Americans do what they will with Hicks and Habib. Until the public screamed too loud, it was also happy for Corby to be thrown to the wolves for the sake of friendly relations with Indonesia.

“First time I’ve ever heard a Leftist accusing the Fascist Howard Junta of putting too little emphasis on Australian citizenship as a factor in one’s legal protection by the Commonwealth,” writes reader Tom R.

The “them” is getting bigger every day. First they came for the interlopers, then they came for the undesirables, then they came for the mentally ill, then they came for ...

Margo? Margo, are you still there? MARGO?

So let’s tell it like it is. Let’s feel proud to do so, and let’s see the vitriol rained down on us for what it is, the scream of the fascists and their yes people now dominating the “governance” of this nation.

Margo maintains her political correctness even when denouncing us fascists. “Yes people”?

No more pussyfooting around with these people, okay?

Whatever you say, Great Leader. Please don’t drag me before the “people’s inquiry”.

(This column ran in The Northern Rivers Echo, where Margo is temporarily replacing Mungo McCallum. Who’s next? Murgo? Mingo? Mongo?)

 

Posted by Tim B. on 05/27/2005 at 09:31 AM
  1. I would say that poor Margo’s completely lost her mind, but… what mind?

    Posted by Mike Jericho on 2005 05 27 at 10:52 AM • permalink

  2. These people have the odd effect on me of making me simultaneously scoff at how stupidly wrong they are (about being censored / persecuted / etc.) and wish they were right.

    Posted by bovious on 2005 05 27 at 10:57 AM • permalink

  3. I try to read Margo and her friends, particularly since the young Stuart Lord has accepted the challenge to try and contribute balance. But they went from patronising him to condemning him.
    One does feel in the end that these people are mad.
    The “The “them” is getting bigger every day” for example, this is fairly strange stuff. Seriously what does the SMH think it is doing being associated with Margo and her strange mates.
    As a South Australian though I suppose I should at least acknowledge that in some small way Marilyn Shepherd puts us on some kind of map.
    “it was also happy for Corby to be thrown to the wolves for the sake of friendly relations with Indonesia.”
    I know we are arguing about this, but what is SHE talking about.
    Why does she shake?

    Posted by Ros on 2005 05 27 at 11:02 AM • permalink

  4. Margo wants to tell it like it really is? Then how does she explainthis airbrushed beauty to the more realistic wreck of the Hesperous?

    Posted by Nic on 2005 05 27 at 11:04 AM • permalink

  5. I recognize the words in the post above, but can’t decode their meaning.  There’s a frequent commenter on a couple of other blogs who writes in the same incomprehensible stream of consciousness manner as Margo.  I wonder?  Could it be the same person.

    Posted by blerp on 2005 05 27 at 11:06 AM • permalink

  6. This Margo twit reminds me of Anna Quindlen, Eleanor Clift, or (the worst of the lot), Ted Rall. Their writing is packed with a lot of sloganeering, sound bites, bitching, and huffing and puffing, but good luck finding any logic or facts.

    Posted by marknicodemo on 2005 05 27 at 11:07 AM • permalink

  7. She gets more dememted everyday.

    Posted by Aging Gamer on 2005 05 27 at 11:27 AM • permalink

  8. A “terriers” attack???  LOL. 

    Well, I admit those little bastards can be
    vicious.

    Posted by Patricia on 2005 05 27 at 11:36 AM • permalink

  9. My mingo went mungo but mongo mit migo mugutjfhdhsvxzj
    can anyone just round these fruitcups up? It’s like trying to coraal cats; if they don’t want to muster, there’s always ordnance.

    Posted by Habib on 2005 05 27 at 11:39 AM • permalink

  10. Does Mungo have a brother who rides an Qx? Simply asking.

    I’ve heard of an “Army of One”, but an echo of what?

    Posted by yojimbo on 2005 05 27 at 11:40 AM • permalink

  11. That should be ox, of course.  A horse is a horse is a horse, but an ox ain’t.

    Posted by yojimbo on 2005 05 27 at 11:42 AM • permalink

  12. In all honesty I think she’s lost it. Ever since she accidentally voted liberal she’s never been the same.

    And it’s obvious that writing all those books has left her exhausted. It’s fairly obvious she needs a holiday. 

    May I suggest body surfing in Bali?

    BTW, I find it telling that the only thread on her own web diary that she has never contributed to is the one titled “Why does a female orgasm exist?”.

    Posted by rightsaid on 2005 05 27 at 11:44 AM • permalink

  13. I’m starting to think ‘reality-based’ is the name they’re stamping on baggies of really fine coke.

    Posted by Achillea on 2005 05 27 at 12:07 PM • permalink

  14. When I first read through the bit about cells in Sydney “planning a terriers act in Italy”, I admit that I thought something blasphemous, i.e., that Tim had simply made a typo. But, in following the link, I see that the priceless floater was Margo’s own. The mind reels . . . Aussies in false beards transporting yorkies in dog carriers on planes to Europe, where they make their way to, say, Florence over little used roads under the cover of darkness, and then stop rush hour traffic by whipping out hoops and tiny trapeze sets, and putting the yorkies through their paces. Fiendishly clever, mates!

    Posted by paco on 2005 05 27 at 12:29 PM • permalink

  15. Note to Margo: Getting drunk and having your photo taken the next morning to post at your column is not a good idea.

    Posted by bc on 2005 05 27 at 12:51 PM • permalink

  16. Read somewhere that infantile paranoid fantasies fueled by a heighten sense of victimism is the last stage of narcissism. That’s our Margo, to a T. She’s lost what was left of her bloody mind.

    Get that woman a fainting couch. Her vapors are like a bad acid flashback.

    Posted by Gary from Jersey on 2005 05 27 at 01:47 PM • permalink

  17. Candygram for Margo! Candygram for Margo!

    Y’know, this is all interchangable bitter lefty boilerplate stuff that you can read in any boringly predictable American alt-left weekly. It’s entertaining in a pathetic way, but it gets wearying with all of the “democracy is dead because the voters don’t agree with me” tripe. I’m almost looking forward to the inevitable Hillary presidency, when magically all of the horrible problems of the nation and the world will disappear (at least from the writings of the lefty columnists). I just hope our side shows a little more grace after losing.

    Posted by Dave S. on 2005 05 27 at 02:14 PM • permalink

  18. A “terriers act” in Italy?  What is this, the Italian-language service of Animal Planet?

    Posted by Baby M on 2005 05 27 at 02:19 PM • permalink

  19. How appropriate that this tripe should be published in a newspaper named “Echo”.

    I mean, democracy is about finding a school to vote at every three years, right?

    Maybe Margo should spend the intervening 2 years and 364 days in a school as well. Then again, that would probably be a little hard on her schoolmates, so maybe not such a good idea.

    When Vanstone refused to give any details of who, when, how and why an Australian citizen was deported

    When she refused to give details “of who an Australian citizen was deported”? Okay, whatever you say Margo.

    Margo Kingston—who once warned that “there could be a cell in Sydney planning a terriers act in Italy”

    Maybe she meant that the Webdiary dog and pony show was planning to go international.

    Speaking of a media “cowed by threats and intimidation”, Margo has some explaining to do. More on this later.

    Hmm, I’m curious. Please don’t keep up the suspense too long, Tim.

    Posted by PW on 2005 05 27 at 03:17 PM • permalink

  20. Well actually, it’s true.  Lord Rove has issued a command for a “terriers act” in Italy.  Since 9/11 and the Islamist war on the West is all a fiction concocted by the Emperor and his dark lords to take power, me and the rest of the minions have been working very hard to carry out the hundreds of diabolical stunts necessary for the takeover.  Not the bombings mind you.  That’s not us.  More like stealing lakes, sending mind control rays into Californian homes, having John Kerry nominated by the Democrats—the normal.

    But I have to tell you, a “terriers act”, could this be right?  I asked my minders McEnroe, Dave S, Achillea, is this a typo?  No one could say.  But at the same time, no one dared call Lord Rove for confirmation.  Do you really want a dog attack?  Up to now, I really thought my minders were mean and fearless although a bit careless and callous where my welfare is concerned.  I really was beginning to respect them.  But I have to say their faces turned ashen and their bottom lips trembled when I asked that they question Lord Rove on his order.

    So .... I’ve been spending the last three days rounding up terriers, big, small, long hair, short hair, trying to acquire enough to make a plausible attack on some Italian location.  I’ve stolen so many elderly ladies’ dogs that I really should feel a tinge of guilt, if I could feel guilt, which I can’t since I’m a neocon in training.

    Damn it, I’m beginning to feel like Cruella De Ville.  Once I get up to 101 terriers, it’s off to Rome I go.

    Posted by wronwright on 2005 05 27 at 03:31 PM • permalink

  21. The “them” is getting bigger every day. First they came for the interlopers, then they came for the undesirables, then they came for the mentally ill, then they came for ...

    Interlopers, undesirables, the mentally ill.  Clearly, Margo is a candidate to be scooped up by the the Howard Nazis in any of the categories…

    Posted by Mystery Meat on 2005 05 27 at 04:36 PM • permalink

  22. Margo should hop into the nuthouse with Cornelia Rau

    Posted by steve68 on 2005 05 27 at 04:38 PM • permalink

  23. wronwright,

    You’ve equipped them with the body armor, rocket-packs, shoulder-mounted neutron rays, and (all-important, for the breath weapon) the tuna-laced dog food?

    Posted by Achillea on 2005 05 27 at 04:48 PM • permalink

  24. Telling it like it is? Like the SMH headline above? After the US/UK/OZ election trifecta this democracy crap is looking increasingly deluded. It took George Galloway to expose a weakness in the system - it elected him.
    Watch out for the terriers, because the Afghans will be not far behind!

    Posted by blogstrop on 2005 05 27 at 06:07 PM • permalink

  25. As a jack-booted goon, I’m of the understanding that we have Margo slated for “disappearing” around 12.35 from the pub down the road from the SMH offices next Thursday.

    Those wishing to visit after her “disappearance” may find her in one of our many secret “gulags”.

    Posted by CB on 2005 05 27 at 07:16 PM • permalink

  26. We can only laugh at Margo and the parody that she and her coterie . Have a look at the recent post about ‘upgrading Webdiary, a call for volunteers’

    Management Team

    Objectives: The management team will ensure the overall smooth running of the project, including approval of ideas - Margo retaining “benevolent dictator” status at all times and the right to a final veto, distribution of tasks to teams and providing status reports to the Webdiary community.

    Team Leader: Margo Kingston

    Project Manager: Caroline Compton

    Team Leaders: Jack Robertson, + +

    Various Others: Small group of invited long term contributors/commentators.

    Total team membership of approx. 8-10.

    I notice that the ‘annointed ones are not down for messy things like selling badges. I’m not sure what it resembles more, the pigs from Animal Farm or the People’s Front of Judea. Just ‘telling it like it is’.

    Posted by Nic on 2005 05 27 at 08:32 PM • permalink

  27. The poor old Echo’s got its hands full with Mungo & Margo.  If one of ‘ems not drunk the other’s exhausted.

    These terriers are worse than I could have ever imagined!  If you’re not being mauled by a Pit Bull you’re being suicide bombed by a Jack Russell!  Maybe Margos next crusade could be to get all terriers banned for the good of humanity!

    Posted by TonyD on 2005 05 27 at 08:42 PM • permalink

  28. If Margo really wants someone to tell it like it is I will give it a shot.

    Margo you are a self absorbed little moron babbling on about torture at Gitmo when you yourself would no doubt charge a pretty penny to provide the kind of services the US military has been accused of forcing on the terroirsts at Gitmo free of charge.

    Poor babies, here they were hanging in their caves planning murder and mayhem taking a new nine year old for a wife when they wore out the old one when the evil Americans came and spoiled all their fun.

    So what if they were trying to kill the Americans? So what if they would lob off Margo’s head as soon as look at her?

    They deserve to be free just like everyone else. I say we abandon them on an island with Margo. Beats a firing squad. maybe.

    Posted by terryelee on 2005 05 27 at 09:01 PM • permalink

  29. #14 - “When I first read through the bit about cells in Sydney “planning a terriers act in Italy”, I admit that I thought something blasphemous, i.e., that Tim had simply made a typo.”

    Margo is on to something. She may be right. In yesterday’s Telegraph (UK)—

    Terrorists tie bomb belt to dog in Iraq

    Insurgents in Iraq attached explosives to a dog and tried to blow up a military convoy near the northern oil centre of Kirkuk.

    The canine bomb went off but the only casualty was the unfortunate animal, said police. The militants wrapped an explosive belt around the dog and detonated it as the convoy passed through Dakuk, 25 miles south of Kirkuk, said the town’s police chief, Col Mohammed Barzaji. “The dog was torn apart by the explosion which caused neither injury among the soldiers nor any damage.”

    Posted by walterplinge on 2005 05 27 at 09:37 PM • permalink

  30. You’ve equipped them with the body armor, rocket-packs, shoulder-mounted neutron rays, and (all-important, for the breath weapon) the tuna-laced dog food?

    Yes, yes, of course.  (why oh why do you three always double and triple spot check me?)  And night vision goggles, a red kerchief, and a Koran.  All miniture versions impervious to dog chewing.

    And strangly enough, a pack of Lucky Strikes.  For each terrier.  I have no idea why.  McEnroe insisted on it.  Ever try getting an answer out of the guy?

    Posted by wronwright on 2005 05 27 at 09:41 PM • permalink

  31. Mongo only pawn in game of life.

    Posted by Tommy Shanks on 2005 05 27 at 10:12 PM • permalink

  32. My apologies to any resident of the area, but where the hell is The Northern Rivers Echo published? It sounds like Bob Ellis writing for that Byron Bay giveaway. These people (Margo & Ellis) are finding their way down the journo’s food chain. I sincerely hope that descent doesn’t stop.

    Posted by Dean McAskil on 2005 05 27 at 11:34 PM • permalink

  33. that increasingly weird mungo has even blamed our johnnie for his alcoholism….

    at this rate johnnie is going to have to take the rap for the titanic going down, and jfk’s assasination.

    Posted by vinny on 2005 05 28 at 12:04 AM • permalink

  34. Achillea… did he really fall for the “Luckies” bit…? Excellent…. slides the two packs of Camels safely out of sight…

    Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 05 28 at 12:10 AM • permalink

  35. “Mungo!  Santa Maria!”

    Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 05 28 at 12:13 AM • permalink

  36. (why oh why do [they] always double and triple spot check me?)

    Because you never came back with the “shitload of dimes.”

    Posted by guinsPen on 2005 05 28 at 12:42 AM • permalink

  37. “The Them”.

    Now there’s an RWDB site going begging.

    How high could the paranoia level be turned up before it’s identified as parody? Pretty high I reckon.

    Posted by Henry boy on 2005 05 28 at 02:04 AM • permalink

  38. Margo the Magician practising disappearing margick.

    Posted by crash on 2005 05 28 at 05:00 AM • permalink

  39. If she’s going to replace Mongo, I hope she doesn’t eat any beans.

    Posted by Arnie on 2005 05 29 at 02:09 AM • permalink

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