{"id":464,"date":"2007-12-05T16:24:17","date_gmt":"2007-12-05T06:24:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/machinegunkeyboard.com\/?p=464"},"modified":"2008-06-29T07:21:39","modified_gmt":"2008-06-28T21:21:39","slug":"hands-off-saint-phil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/machinegunkeyboard.com\/?p=464","title":{"rendered":"Hands off Saint Phil"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"PhilWhile I’m generally annoyed with the NSW Labor right faction<\/a>, resurgent shadowy accusations of my local MP, Phil Koperberg<\/a> of being a violent man are way <\/em><\/strong>over the line. Blind Freddy could see the lame attempt at a political smear… in the dark… while wearing welding goggles.<\/p>\n

I’m an editor and site administrator for the anti-racism group FightDemBack!<\/a> As such, I’m a frequent target for political smears and defamations from the neo-nazis, racists and other bigots profiled by FDB. A popular smear, often distributed by leaflet in FDB members’ neighbourhoods, is that I or other FDB people are homosexuals, paedophiles, homosexual paedophiles, agents of Israel or perhaps Mossad. Begs the question that if FDB actually are<\/strong><\/em> Mossad agents, wouldn’t you think twice about messing with us? My mailbox has been smashed and our cars have been vandalised a few times. Not terribly creative. Since moving to the Blue Mountains in 2006, the AEC has registered me to vote as a silent elector to help stop vandalism of my house and harassment of the people living here. It’s worked so far, aside from an amusing anonymous tip to Centrelink that I was purportedly in the paid employ of a “NSW Police Multicultural Advisory Board” in violation of the terms of my pensioner status. Pity there is no such organisation within NSW Police- but I gather they’d like to know more about one from my last chat with them about it.<\/p>\n

Mind you, none of that is a big deal compared to when Crikey’s Christian Kerr came out of left field at Mach III last March, brazenly and baselessly accusing FDB of being involved in violent anti-racism activism<\/a>. FDB is simply an information clearinghouse, recording incidents of racism and conducting said information to ethnic community groups, law enforcement, government and media as required. Absent any evidence FDB had ever<\/strong><\/em> been involved in anything violent, aside from parroting smears he found on the internet about us (as published by some of our friendly local neo-nazis), Kerr was handed his arse on a silver platter by a number of people. Mind you, neither I nor FDB ever got an apology from Kerr or Crikey management.<\/p>\n

As such, I can certainly empathise with what Koperberg must be feeling at the moment. How on earth do you prove a negative?<\/p>\n

People who cannot win an argument tend to try to get a seat at the table by ‘preaching the controversy.’ It’s an entirely obvious ploy- and nasty<\/strong><\/em> when it backfires, as Karen Chijoff and Jackie Kelly<\/a> will certainly agree.<\/p>\n

NSW Labor under Iemma are only slightly <\/em>left of Mussolini- and given the recently and obviously demonstrated mood of the electorate for a little social justice with the ouster of Howard, the NSW Labor right faction are flirting with disaster. When Barry O’Farrell starts sounding sensible (and he has<\/em> been lately), things are<\/em><\/strong> going to hell in a handbasket.<\/p>\n

NSW has been slipping down the path of conservative autocracy since Carr, but Iemma’s crossing lines even Howard dared not. Labor is seriously risking loss of NSW government at the worst possible time, with Labor just now in the door at the federal level.<\/p>\n

This latest firestorm over Phil Koperberg shall pass… and when it does, I sincerely hope the conspirators are sacked- and publicly hung out for the ratbags they are. Perhaps Koperberg should use some fireys’ skills in really soaking down the embers this time to stop more flareups. Phil- don’t let them ‘swiftboat<\/a>‘ you.<\/p>\n

It may be time to bring back the stocks <\/a>and pillory<\/a>. Put the smear campaigners in them for a few days, with buckets of rotten tomatoes conveniently placed nearby. When slime artists are held responsible in the cold light of day for their cowardly whispers in the dark, perhaps we’ll hear less of them.<\/p>\n

-weez<\/p>\n

PS<\/strong>– thanks again for saving our house<\/a>, Phil. <\/em><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While I’m generally annoyed with the NSW Labor right faction, resurgent shadowy accusations of my local MP, Phil Koperberg of being a violent man are way over the line. Blind Freddy could see the lame attempt at a political smear… in the dark… while wearing welding goggles. I’m an editor and site administrator for the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/machinegunkeyboard.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/machinegunkeyboard.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/machinegunkeyboard.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/machinegunkeyboard.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/machinegunkeyboard.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/machinegunkeyboard.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/machinegunkeyboard.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/machinegunkeyboard.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/machinegunkeyboard.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}