Smooth Operator
- January 31st, 2006
- By Robert
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It was is shaping up to be the court even of the decade, the Cole Inquiry into the AWB Kickback scandal is going from strength to strength, and I am hanging on every new development. I had been almost certain that J’Ho’s Teflon coated government was going to continue to side step the shit storm is behaviour has created but perhaps this time something might actually get through.
For those of you not following this antipodean drama Australias’ monopoly wheat exporter AWB , formally known as the Australian Wheat Board, has been caught very red faced with its hand in the pocket of the UN. It appears that they were knowingly inflating their wheat prices when selling to Iraq and used that overrun to pay over $300M in kickbacks to Saddam Hussein’s regime. It looks like they were not the only company involved in all of this, but to date no formed stools have clung to any of the other players including BHP , Australias’ landmark oil and gas exploration company.
The most significant thing that has come out to date however is that it appears that a number of senior Ministers in the Howard government had close dealings with AWB at the time this was going on. Those potentially involved include Mark Vale; Deputy PM, Leader of the Nationals and Trade Minister; and J’Ho himself.
Now the Cole enquiry had originally had its terms limited to exclude investigating government involvement, but some clever clogs had engineered things so that its well nigh impossible for J’Ho not to open things up without looking like he is covering something up. The next few weeks should be REALLY interesting.
John Howard is one of the smoothest political operators to emerge on the scene in the last few decades, and I suspect faster than you can say “plausible deniability” he is going to wiggle his way out of this, so I am not jigging for joy just yet. But it is going to take some political capital to do so and it will leave him injured.
Now if the Labor party just had a spine, or even a recognisable policy framework they might be able to capitalise on this and keep up the momentum. But somehow I doubt it. The days of labor “Maintaining the rage” seem, for the nonce, to have passed. I may just have to settle for watching J’Ho squirm.
On Saturday I was lucky enough to get invited to the Australian Open. It was one of those corporate VIP things as a thank you for some consulting work I had done. My friend Joe came with me and to my great surprise we ran into an old work buddy of mine, Sharon. She of the London adventure fame.I also hung out with Elle McPherson for a while, which is entirely another story, although I would like to point out that unlike some media whores I won't be showing off any trophy pictures.
Not a very long era, i will grant you that, but an era none the less.
The 1990
Recently I wrote a post
Back in my twenties I was living in Sydney and working as an Aerobic Instructor. I was fit, healthy, young and for me at least, kind of pretty. As a result I receive a fair amount of attention from good looking guys which resulted, from time to time in, some decent shagging. Not that I was the village bike or anything, that was Sevens job, but I was certainly reasonably "popular". I had met someone the night before and had enjoyed an evenings entertainment. As usual, my friends and I met up at Morgans around 11 to enjoy breakfast and compare war stories. Someone, Gary I think, commented that I had disappeared early the evening before, so of course I was mercilessly teased into giving details. I am always careful not to kiss and tell, partially out of a sense of honor but mostly because I like kissing too much. As a result I wasn't prepared to divulge too much that I felt would be identifying detail. I did however tell them that the gentleman in particular, while very keen for me to fuck him, complained A LOT during the process. "Put it in, but not too far", "not like that", "ouch, slower", that sort of thing. I don't usually get much in the way of complaints so it was a bit off putting. I guess I would refer to him as a whinging bottom. At this point Garys' eye lit up and he grabbed his phone. He dialed, waited a moment and asked it "did you sleep with Robert Miller last night?" pause, "thought so", and he hung up. Everyone at the table was goggling at him, particularly me. He looked at me and said "Jason Davies� , lion tattoo‡ on his left shoulder blade. Right?". Stunned I nodded. At this point Gary smirked, he loved these games, and "There is no better way to describe him than "whinging bottom" � not his real name ‡ not his real tattoo
So its likely you will remember Richard Hatch, aka the fat, naked fag who won ONE MILLION DOLLARS on the first season of
So what did happen to Micheal Jackson after he won his court case but lost his publicity war? Neverland Ranch is shut down, his finances are in ruins and his credibility as a babysitter is, well quiet frankly its shot all to hell.
For my American cousins, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU PEOPLE WAITING FOR? AN ENGRAVED INVITATION?
In 2002 James, my partner of the time, and I went on an Atlantis cruise around the Western Caribbean, San Juan, St Croix etc, along with the trip to the Maldives with Steve and a week James and I spent in Sorrento, it was one of the most wonderful holidays I have had.
I had a great posting prepared for today, all about gay profiles and why I abandoned them. But alas a technology glitch snatched success from me.
As in heat hot.