Ponderance: www.johnhowardlies.com

www.johnhowardlies.com

Friday, July 16, 2004

Jesse Hogan in The Age in a particularly conservative and self-congratulatory mood reported:

A former Labor Party adviser is the creator of the johnhowardlies.com website, an investigation by The Age reveals. A company search shows former Labor party adviser Tim Grau is the founding director of the public relations company, Springboard Australia Pty Ltd, that authorised the website. Mr Grau was an adviser to former Labor Attorney-General Michael Lavarch and former Labor Queensland Premier Wayne Goss. The formerly unauthorised anti-Government website was pulled down for a "revamp" just hours after The Age yesterday asked why Labor was promoting the site in an official email newsletter.

Hmmm. The words former and adviser jump out in that section ... even if The Age is trying to imply that Labour had something to do with the website. It's interesting that no one is attacking the content of the website. No one is claiming, for instance, that John Howard doesn't lie!

In another politically masturbatory 'report', by Misha Schubert entitled 'Anti-Howard website goes offline', we are told:

Labor national secretary Tim Gartrell did not back away from encouraging voters to visit the website, but insisted Labor had "nothing" to do with it. He urged its publishers to reveal their identity by posting authorisation details as required under the Electoral Act. "We are not responsible for it or in any way connected to it," his spokeswoman said. "But it's a good idea for voters to understand the abysmal record of the Howard Government when it comes to telling the truth." [...] The site's registrar, Surfer's Paradise-based Global Netsaver, said yesterday it had no obligation to ensure correct registration details for any ".com" domain name - only for ".com.au" domains.

Welcome to national politics in the era of a global interconnected information network! Seriously, though, if George Bush even tried to get publicity when someone on the web pointed out his lies, it'd fill his schedule completely. Since Howard (aka Mini-Bush) is willing to follow Dubyah's lead so often, why not learn the lesson that any publicity for a website outside of your jurisdiction is good publicity for them? Silly little man.

And now johnhowardlies.com notes:

The founders of www.johnhowardlies.com are not members of any political party. Contrary to recent suggestions the site is not run or managed by any political party. Nor have there been any discussion with staff or officials of any political party about the site.

Will that settle the matter? I hope so. I must admit, though, I do rather enjoy reading johnhowardlies.com...