<< NICENESS WISHED FOR ~ MAIN ~ READER QUIZ >>

INGLORIOUSNESS PERCEIVED

Tracee Hutchison slams freed hostage Douglas Wood:

The hostage revealed himself to have none of the grace or dignity dished out to his brothers and looked like a blustering buffoon at his airport news conference ...

It was enough that his words “God bless America” had been played over and over on his release, but the 20 years Douglas Wood has spent as an expat Australian in America were played out in all their cringe-worthy ingloriousness when he decided to meet our media singing a song about a sheep thief who would rather die than be caught for his crimes . . . oh dear!

Oh dear, indeed. Tracee’s graceless, undignified piece was still prominent at The Age’s site when further details of Wood’s treatment became known:


Douglas Wood’s Iraqi captors forced their hostages to watch the executions of fellow prisoners, a released hostage has revealed.

How are you feeling now, Tracee? A little buffoony? Garbage site Crikey.com.au can relate; shortly after Wood’s liberation, it sent an item to subscribers asking if Piers Akerman and Andrew Bolt, both of whom had criticised Sheikh al-Hillali, would apologise to the magical man-saving mufti. Now that the Sheikh’s non-role has been exposed, will Crikey apologise to Bolt and Akerman?

Posted by Tim B. on 06/22/2005 at 10:44 AM
  1. Since the Left has nothing, ever, to apologize, it never apologizes.

    Posted by JorgXMcKie on 2005 06 22 at 11:55 AM • permalink

  2. I guess I missed another memo....  Are Australian’s suppose to be embarrassed by ‘Waltzing Matilda’?  When did that happen? 

    I learned the song while in first grade summer school in California.  I remember the first time I heard it (the teacher played a record), and I’ve been entranced with it ever since.  It was after hearing that song that I decided I had to visit Australia.  Fortunately, I’ve been able to do it twice, so far. 

    All I have to say to Tracee is ‘bite me’.

    Posted by Polly on 2005 06 22 at 12:02 PM • permalink

  3. Polly, I think you’re missing the point.  Australians are supposed to be embarrassed in general, since Americans aren’t.  Have you been practicing your head tilt and sorrowful expression?

    Posted by JorgXMcKie on 2005 06 22 at 12:06 PM • permalink

  4. Have some pity Tim, her parents couldn’t even spell her name, what chance did she have?

    Posted by Aging Gamer on 2005 06 22 at 12:23 PM • permalink

  5. ou know they’re in trouble when they make a tall poppy out of a hostage.

    Posted by chinesearithmetic on 2005 06 22 at 12:36 PM • permalink

  6. When everyone is calling the insurgents by such nice names and trying to understand them, Wood said it best..they are ‘arseholes’. I heard an argument in the Letters section..saying that this could jeopordise the other victims he was caught with.  Apparently not.

    Posted by Melanie on 2005 06 22 at 12:41 PM • permalink

  7. I remember learning what we were told was an australian song in first grade:

    kukuburra sits by the old gumtree
    merry-merry king of the bush is he
    laugh kukuburra, laugh kukuburra
    play your whole life long

    I think that’s how it went.

    Posted by Mr. Bingley on 2005 06 22 at 12:45 PM • permalink

  8. Poor Douglas Wood. Having been imprisoned and tortured for weeks by Iraqi jihadis, now he’s going to be tortured for months by the leftist Western media…

    Call it the Death of a Thousand Paper Cuts.

    He might have been better off as a hostage in Iraq. Especially when Maureen Dowd and Katie Couric sink their teeth into his reputation…

    Eek.

    Posted by Wes S. on 2005 06 22 at 12:58 PM • permalink

  9. It appears that the left would have been much happier if Mr. Wood had been decapitated.

    Posted by Drunk Fade on 2005 06 22 at 01:19 PM • permalink

  10. The Left is seething with rage that they’ve been deprived of yet another videotaped beheading to blame on Chimpy McHitler.

    The “insurgents” aren’t the only arseholes by a long way.

    Posted by Spiny Norman on 2005 06 22 at 01:58 PM • permalink

  11. People have a right and even an obligation in a democracy to pass judgement on political figures like Bush, Howard, et al. Like them, don’t like them...fine. Whatever.

    Douglas Wood however was a victim of terrorism, pure and simple.

    There’s absolutely no reason to speculate on whether he deserves to live or die just because he doesn’t suit your taste.

    By the same token, I’ll just bet Tracee never spewed such vitriol against bin Laden, Saddam, Zarqawi, or even Johnny Walker or David Hicks either publicly or privately.

    Sums up where her head and heart are at right there.

    Posted by JDB on 2005 06 22 at 01:58 PM • permalink

  12. Looks like Tracee wins this week’s moral limbo contest ("How low can you go?"); and it’s just Wednesday!

    Posted by paco on 2005 06 22 at 02:00 PM • permalink

  13. Not yet, Paco; the typical reaction of a leftist upon hitting the bottom of a moral or ethical hole is to whip out a shovel and start digging. So Tracee hasn’t won anything yet.

    On the other hand, she yet has ample time to top her previous statements - if “top” is the right word for ethical limbo, that is. Of course, she has tough competition from the likes of the seditious Senator Dick Durbin and the New York Times editorial staff, but I’m confident that Tracee can yet pull it off…

    Posted by Wes S. on 2005 06 22 at 04:40 PM • permalink

  14. Imagine Dougy describing the terrorist kidnappers as ‘fucking cunts’. Heads would have exploded right then and there.

    Posted by CB on 2005 06 22 at 05:04 PM • permalink

  15. Wes, you may be right. Among other contenders, I was also forgetting the odious Glenn Condell who, as noted in one of Tim’s earlier posts, said that ten Doug Woods are not worth the life of one Iraqi child killed by the allied “invaders”. Incidentally, did Condell ever write one word about the suffering of Iraqi children under Sadam? Even one comment about the children found in mass graves? No, I didn’t think so.

    Posted by paco on 2005 06 22 at 05:09 PM • permalink

  16. I found Ms Hutchison’s bio amusing.

    Tracee is an accomplished journalist who has been broadcasting for over 15 years, working for ABC radio and TV as well as SBS, Channel 9 and the Seven Network.

    She would apparently like Douglas Wood much better had he been beheaded.

    Why is it that the more left-wing the Australian, the more tolerant he or she is of right-wing Islamic extremism.

    Posted by swassociates on 2005 06 22 at 06:06 PM • permalink

  17. Giuliana Sgrena was caught lying (that’s real lying by the way - not the ‘no wmds so its a was a lie’ type lying) over several very important points to try and maximise damage to the coalition, praises the terrorists (they’re the bad guys by the way - for the sake of MSM readers) and she is treated as a courageous heroine by the left. Douglas Woods sings what to many Australians is an almost defacto national anthem and praises the coalition (they’re the good guys by the way - for the sake of MSM readers) and they attack him as an “arsehole” and a “blustering buffoon”
    Unbelievable.

    Posted by Michael42 on 2005 06 22 at 06:10 PM • permalink

  18. Is Crikey now part of the MSM?

    Posted by lingus4 on 2005 06 22 at 06:33 PM • permalink

  19. Go for it Dougy
    Sue the bloody ABC for defamation. Now you’re famous they’ll have to cough big bucks

    it’s the only language Journos like tracee UNDERSTAND.
    TRACEE !!! - who thought up that plagiarism. its worse that NATARSHA!

    Posted by davo on 2005 06 22 at 06:36 PM • permalink

  20. [Y]ou know they’re in trouble when they make a tall poppy out of a hostage.

    That makes my quote of the week. Well said!

    Posted by Henry boy on 2005 06 22 at 06:52 PM • permalink

  21. Nice career path, Trace: you start out working for the commercials and end up on 3RRR.  It’s supposed to go the other way. (Note for non-Melbourne readers: it’s a lefty sheltered-workshop ‘community’ station.)

    Posted by cuckoo on 2005 06 22 at 07:20 PM • permalink

  22. Miranda Divine has this nailed in the SMH.

    Posted by noir on 2005 06 22 at 07:35 PM • permalink

  23. Bob Brown is also putting the boot in:

    Senator Brown said there was “something slightly off about a huge cheque going to somebody who’s been rescued out of that cauldron (and) who went there of their own free will”.

    ...

    "They’ve left families in Iraq and there’s more than 100,000 (civilians) ... who are dead in Iraq as a result of the invasion by the coalition, which was of questionable legality, and Mr Wood was there as a result of that invasion and there on a fairly handsome wage for purposes we don’t yet know."

    Salman Rushdie, talking about the fatwa against Isioma Daniel, said that what surprises him is not so much the extremists’ actions, but how others try to blame the victim.

    Posted by Andjam on 2005 06 22 at 07:43 PM • permalink

  24. "Why is it that the more left-wing the Australian, the more tolerant he or she is of right-wing Islamic extremism. “

    The left replaces the god with the state and the religious right replaces the state with god.

    Posted by Rob Read on 2005 06 22 at 08:06 PM • permalink

  25. The tree sways, whichever way the wind blows.

    Posted by hogchild on 2005 06 22 at 08:32 PM • permalink

  26. Mr Bingley,

    I can overlook your misspelling of kookaburra of course, but what is interesting is your recall of the last line of the song. Most Aussie kids knew the last lines of the song to be:

    Laugh, kookaburra laugh, kookaburra
    Gay your life must be...

    And not “play your whole life long”.

    I wonder when (and more importantly why) that line differs in the two versions. I guess they don’t write songs like that anymore…

    Meanwhile, back on topic, you should all read Miranda Devine’s latest column - Hostage to Public Opinion at Home, in today’s SMH. A welcome relief from the front page article that continues condemning him.

    Posted by Dan Lewis on 2005 06 22 at 08:43 PM • permalink

  27. Well said, Miranda Devine!

    Posted by Hanyu on 2005 06 22 at 09:03 PM • permalink

  28. Your creative writing assignment is: imagine David Hicks has been freed and returned to Australia.  He is offered a six-figure sum for his exclusive story.  Imagine you are a Fairfax journalist: compose a heart-tugging justification of his right, nay, duty, to accept this offer.

    Posted by cuckoo on 2005 06 22 at 09:10 PM • permalink

  29. Traceeee is just upset ex-pat Dougy didn’t come back ands shit-can Australia like Robert Hughes, Germaine, and co usually do.

    Posted by Tony.T.Teacher on 2005 06 22 at 09:21 PM • permalink

  30. Tim:

    Aren’t the moonbats who are (rather rudely) telling Doug Wood to shut up the same people who berated Australians for not caring more about his fate a couple of weeks ago?

    Doug was right. What a bunch of arseholes.

    Posted by SeanP on 2005 06 22 at 09:40 PM • permalink

  31. Polly, ‘Waltzing Matilda’ is a beaut song and no Aussie is ashamed of singing it.

    Wood reminds me of its anti-hero. Not the genteel sort but brave, big hearted and every bit his own man.  No wonder he likes ‘Matilda’.

    Fortunately, the Douglas Woods of this country still run the show through the ballot box and they know a bunch of wankers when they see them.

    Posted by Inurbanus on 2005 06 22 at 09:43 PM • permalink

  32. Is ‘Tracee’ a bogan? Or maybe her mother was.

    Funny that they didnt complain about Habib receiving money ...

    but that’s DIFFERENT, right?

    Posted by dee on 2005 06 22 at 10:05 PM • permalink

  33. Shouldn’t the Left approve of sheep-stealing? Redistribution of property from the exploiting Capitalist squatters and all that?

    Posted by Susan Norton on 2005 06 22 at 10:26 PM • permalink

  34. Have a gander at today’s Geelong Advertiser to see how Doug got through his ordeal. It’s very Australian.

    Posted by slatts on 2005 06 22 at 10:34 PM • permalink

  35. Miranda Devine in the SMH today:

    The Reverend Dr Vincent Zankin of Canberra, a prolific writer of baffling letters to newspapers, this week claimed in The Australian that Wood called his captors “arseholes” “because they are Muslims, whose dignity, religion and culture have been subjugated by Western civilisations for centuries”.

    I have been following the Rev. Mr Zarkin’s weird quasi-moonbat letters for some time. The weirdest thing of all is that google indicates he is a Chaplain to the royal Australian Air Force - that is, he is a serving, paid Defence Force officer and as such is barred from making public political statements. What about someone investigating what is going on here?

    Posted by Susan Norton on 2005 06 22 at 10:38 PM • permalink

  36. Bitch crazee.

    Posted by Jim Treacher on 2005 06 22 at 10:51 PM • permalink

  37. Sheikh al-Hillali’s “non-role” in Wood’s rescue is not the only questionable story to come out of this situation. When will you give Alexander Downer a spray for his “Team Australia” crap and his public expression of gratitude to Sheikh al-Hillali?

    Posted by R_W_F on 2005 06 22 at 11:36 PM • permalink

  38. #35 Susan,
    its ‘Zankin’, easy to remember, rhymes with ‘wankin’.

    Posted by Nic on 2005 06 23 at 12:16 AM • permalink

  39. You gotta admit, he was a great decoy, RWF

    Posted by Aging Gamer on 2005 06 23 at 12:24 AM • permalink

  40. its interesting - Where did they get the $10million claim from???

    please dont tell me they just took their favorite number ( 100,000 ) and added 2 zeros?

    Posted by knuckleheadwatch on 2005 06 23 at 12:43 AM • permalink

  41. I don’t know what to say about Tracee Hutchison, I used up all my pejorative superlatives on Dick Durbin yesterday.

    Posted by ForNow on 2005 06 23 at 12:44 AM • permalink

  42. My sleepy home town of Melbourne has today been the scene of a number of raids by ASIO on groups suspected of planning terrorist activities.  Needless to say, the local media have picked up on the real story here, and are giving wall-to-wall coverage to local Muslim community ‘spokesmen’ expressing their concerns that Muslims are being victimised by such raids.  Yes, I suppose ASIO should be conducting equal-opportunity raids on the local boy-scouts and Rotary.  One ‘spokesman’ seems to be complaining that ASIO didn’t give him prior warning of the raids.  Gee, I wonder why that would be?

    Posted by cuckoo on 2005 06 23 at 01:12 AM • permalink

  43. cuckoo,
    read the ‘your say’ in The Age. There are afew who would be glad of an attack. funny how people violence only to inflict on the place that gave them the sanctuary they sought.

    Posted by Nic on 2005 06 23 at 01:56 AM • permalink

  44. should be a ‘flee’ in there somewhere.

    Posted by Nic on 2005 06 23 at 01:56 AM • permalink

  45. Firstly, I would certainly be happy as Larry if I survived a situation where I thought I would surely die, I’d be singing Waltzing Matilda at the top of my lungs and thanking everyone!
    I am annoyed that people have picked up the “How come he looks so robust after 47 days on bread and water?”, for heaven’s sake, the man has a heart condition. Look at him in the stills of the videos provided by the kidnappers - he looks as crook as rookwood. Reckon being rescued gave him a new lease on life.
    Others bag him for his personality - cripes, I got the impression that he was a good bloke, from his brothers and his wife. From the little I have seen of him and his family I reckon he must be a top bloke.

    You know, it’s true, many of the anti-Doug Wood fools would have been happy if his head was separated from his shoulders; he’d be a bloody hero.

    Drongoes.

    Posted by kae on 2005 06 23 at 02:03 AM • permalink

  46. Just how did Bogan refugee Traceee get a job with the ABCeee?

    Oh, OK, I seee

    Posted by rog2 on 2005 06 23 at 02:29 AM • permalink

  47. Are letter writers actually saying that murderous kidnappers are usually calm, even handed individuals unless you call them “arseholes” in which case they morph into violent lunatics.

    You can’t spell “naive” without “Sydney Morning Herald Letters to the Editor”

    Posted by Quentin George on 2005 06 23 at 02:47 AM • permalink

  48. Maybe if she dropped her extra E, she’d love Douglas Wood and everyone, really, or drop dead. Either option is acceptable.

    Posted by Habib on 2005 06 23 at 03:12 AM • permalink

  49. Habib

    I’m keen to get on it tomorrow night at the Story Bridge/Brekky Creek or whereever.  What about you?

    Posted by murph on 2005 06 23 at 03:42 AM • permalink

  50. Drongoes.

    make a tall poppy out of a hostage.

    kukuburra sits by the old gumtree

    I can’t find the checkbox in my profile settings to translate these Aussisms…

    Another missing link in Yank-understanding would be the makeup of your telly stations/papers.

    I mean, here in the US, we’ve got CBS, ABC, (aka ABCBS), MSNBC, (aka PMSNBCBS), as the heavyweight legacy media lefties, then of course Fox the recent counterpoint.  And you know about CNN.

    Paperwise, we’ve got the New York Times and L.A. Times, and Washington Post for the lefty behemoths, and a smattering of itty bitty right wing papers, New York Post, Washington Times…

    What’s it like down undah?  How much market share does (your) ABC have, and who else is there?  Same question, Sydney Morning Herald?

    You guys are always talking about Joe Schmuckatelli while assuming I know what paper/station he’s from, but I don’t…

    Posted by zeppenwolf on 2005 06 23 at 03:49 AM • permalink

  51. Kookaburra Lyrics

    Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree
    Merry, merry king of the bush is he
    Laugh, Kookaburra! Laugh, Kookaburra!
    Gay your life must be

    Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree
    Eating all the gum drops he can see
    Stop, Kookaburra! Stop, Kookaburra!
    Leave some there for me

    (My favourite verse is the one I can only remember the first two lines of - Kookaburra sits on the ‘lectric wire
    Screaming ‘cause his balls keep catching fire)

    As for what is a
    kookaburra?

    It’s a bird with a distinctive call that sounds like it’s laughing. Another name for it is the Laughing Jackass. You’ll recognise the noise they make from countless jungle movies from the 40s and 50s.

    Regarding the Aussie media set-up.

    I’ll leave that to more learned members of the public. I’m still a newbie in this world of blogs.

    Posted by Nilknarf Arbed on 2005 06 23 at 09:16 AM • permalink

  52. Looks like the Wood craziness has struck the Margoloids as well.


    You are lucky your captors had ethics and did not dispose of you as soon as the deadline set had passed.
    Posted by drscroogemcduck on 2005 06 23 at 01:44 PM • permalink

  53. If Douglas Wood didn’t exist, they’ve had to invent him
    He’s perfect to demonstrate to American’s the stoic co-operation of it’s buddy Down Under.

    This is also from that blog, dr. mcduck.  Notice the apostrophe.  Did these idiots all go to the same school, I wonder?

    Posted by RebeccaH on 2005 06 23 at 02:25 PM • permalink

  54. This is also from that blog, dr. mcduck.  Notice the apostrophe.  Did these idiots all go to the same school, I wonder?

    They all read the same things—over and over and over—so it’s probably traceable to a common source.

    Posted by Rob Crawford on 2005 06 23 at 03:28 PM • permalink

  55. You’ll recognise the noise they make from countless jungle movies from the 40s and 50s.

    I always thought those were recordings of monkeys.

    Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2005 06 23 at 09:32 PM • permalink

  56. Page 1 of 1 pages

Commenting is not available in this weblog entry.

Members:
Login | Register | Member List

Please note: you must use a real email address to register. You will be sent an account activation email. Clicking on the url in the email will automatically activate your account. Until you do so your account will be held in the "pending" list and you won't be able to log in. All accounts that are "pending" for more than one week will be deleted.