<< DEATH DODGED ~ MAIN ~ BEST AND BRAVEST >>

PEACENIKS FOR HALLIBURTON

Byron Bay might be better known as Australia’s Moonbats-By-The-Sea; a zombie enclave of naked war protesters, Che-cultist teachers, idiot writer festivals, and futile peace carnivals. Truly, Byron Bay is making a name for itself on the world map for its propensity to push peace.

But it now emerges that Byron Bay has a hideous connection to American imperialist war-mongering evil! In fact, Byron Bay residents are actually funding this evil, as Byron Bay Echo letter-writer John Weiley points out:

Ratepayers of Byron Bay may be surprised to learn that Byron Shire Council has chosen [Halliburton subsidiary] KBR to manage the upgrade of the Bangalow sewerage works ...

Can our elected Councillors really believe that we would wish to see our rates used to further enrich war criminal Dick Cheney by even one cent?

Councillor Tom Tabart, who voted in support of the Halliburton tender,  cranked out some standard Byron Bay lines (“Halliburton[’s] odious connections to the Cheney neo-cons ...”) in an otherwise fence-sitting reply:

The sad truth is that these corporations now control the world’s political systems and until we can get governments off their corrupt teat we are going to be forced to deal with them.

On the other hand, I wish I had voted against the KBR tender. If it had been rejected the subsequent media furore would have made it worth the risk. Next time ...

(Via Raff, our man in Byron Bay)

UPDATE. Raff’s scoop reaches the national media.

Posted by Tim B. on 01/14/2006 at 12:51 PM
  1. So, in a twist on Kerryesque vacillation, Tabart voted for Halliburton before he wished he had voted against it.

    Posted by paco on 2006 01 14 at 02:33 PM • permalink

  2. I hope Halliburton leaves them to stew in their sewage.

    Posted by Mike G on 2006 01 14 at 02:34 PM • permalink

  3. The sad truth is that these corporations now control the world’s political systems and until we can get governments off their corrupt teat we are going to be forced to deal with them.

    No you aren’t. Do the work yourselves, like good collectivists. Or is it just too icky for you prissy preening fops?

    Posted by Spiny Norman on 2006 01 14 at 02:46 PM • permalink

  4. Well, they obviously control Byron Bay.  Hey, can we stash a few renditions in the tanks, mates?  Shoulda read the fine print…

    Oh, and just so you know, your loos can now monitor your phone calls…

    Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 01 14 at 02:52 PM • permalink

  5. Actually, I’m hoping that KBR will get a food concession in Byron Bay.  Then we can feed those clueless socialists and ancient hippies plastic turkey.

    Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2006 01 14 at 02:57 PM • permalink

  6. Sounds like KBR’s work contract might include special tinfoil lining for the sewage pipes…

    More seriously, WTF does “If it had been rejected the subsequent media furore would have made it worth the risk” mean? Does he really think the media would have hounded them for rejecting a friggin’ contract tender? And what risk, fer chrissakes? Was Dick Cheney personally gonna send the black helicopters after the council members or something?

    Posted by PW on 2006 01 14 at 03:09 PM • permalink

  7. On second reading, I guess he might have meant a positive media furore. Yeah, I’m sure that “Council members bravely resist Halliburton hegemony” would have been frontpage material. Sheesh.

    Posted by PW on 2006 01 14 at 03:11 PM • permalink

  8. Yeah, I’m sure that “Council members bravely resist Halliburton hegemony” would have been frontpage material.

    It would be for the Byron Bay Echo.

    Posted by jic on 2006 01 14 at 03:19 PM • permalink

  9. The beautiful irony is that those “fascists” at Halliburton are stuck cleaning up leftist shit…Again…And for a tidy profit.

    Posted by monkeyfan on 2006 01 14 at 03:30 PM • permalink

  10. Haliburton (originally Haliburton, Brown and Root) has a really interesting history if you are interested in that kind of thing and you believe their website.

    Actually the most sinister project of Haliburton at present is to mastermind the steady reduction in the size of standard coffee cups on the lower north shore in Sydney. This has been apparent for a couple of years (at least the smaller coffee cups, if not the role of Haliburton) and more probing research is required to find if this is a global conspiracy.

    Posted by Rafe on 2006 01 14 at 04:07 PM • permalink

  11. I have it on good authority that Halliburton is using the babies of poor Wal Mart employees to create pure toxic waste.

    Posted by Bobby on 2006 01 14 at 04:09 PM • permalink

  12. Of course, this means that any time a resident of Byron Bay takes a dump, they’re contributing to the Chimpy McHitlerburton drive for global domination. 

    Bob Ellis’s columns don’t count.

    Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 01 14 at 04:27 PM • permalink

  13. I wonder how long before the leftie spin machine in Byron Bay will come up with the story that this is a good thing…..since, after a fashion, they’ll be crapping on the Evuuullll Haliburton Chimpire™ every day.

    Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2006 01 14 at 04:38 PM • permalink

  14. these corporations now control the world’s political systems ...
    Oh, really?

    Posted by blogstrop on 2006 01 14 at 05:01 PM • permalink

  15. Of course, what I found shocking was the revelation that apparently nobody in Australia knows how to dig a sewer…

    Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 01 14 at 05:06 PM • permalink

  16. Today the sewers!  Tomorrow the world!

    Bwaahahahaa!

    Posted by RebeccaH on 2006 01 14 at 05:16 PM • permalink

  17. Byron Bay joins the coalition of the willing:

    “Turds Against Terrorism!”

    Posted by ekw on 2006 01 14 at 05:45 PM • permalink

  18. Andrea:
    Could you please ban me, or de-register me. I have a very busy year coming up and I need to kick the habit!

    Posted by blogstrop on 2006 01 14 at 05:52 PM • permalink

  19. What bewilders me is that I thought Oz was settled by a bunch of roughneck jailbirds like my ancestors, the drunken lunatic Irish, but your hippie morons and the US’s appeared at the same time, rather than a century apart.  What gives?

    Posted by ushie on 2006 01 14 at 05:57 PM • permalink

  20. Socialism is what gives…Just before it takes everything and flushes it into a sewer.

    Posted by monkeyfan on 2006 01 14 at 06:07 PM • permalink

  21. No poop for profit!

    Posted by Lucky Nutsacks on 2006 01 14 at 06:23 PM • permalink

  22. Its about time they supported the war effort.

    Posted by captain on 2006 01 14 at 06:39 PM • permalink

  23. LOL!

    Posted by monkeyfan on 2006 01 14 at 06:42 PM • permalink

  24. All your hippies are belong to us!

    Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 01 14 at 07:04 PM • permalink

  25. Wipe out Haliburton!

    Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2006 01 14 at 07:33 PM • permalink

  26. The byproducts end up as tofu. Is is still legal to cull these vermin?

    Posted by CB on 2006 01 14 at 07:48 PM • permalink

  27. Just say no, blogstrop. I have faith in you.

    Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2006 01 14 at 08:01 PM • permalink

  28. Didn’t Cheney divest himself of any financial interest in Haliburton?

    Not that one should expect facts to get in the way of a bout of self-righteousness.

    Posted by sjens on 2006 01 14 at 08:11 PM • permalink

  29. 10: Yeah, my folk came over from England as indentured servants (“transportation”, they called it, typically a commutation of a death sentence handed out for one of the two hundred or so capital crimes they had in those days); two centuries later, you get hippies, gangsta rappers, and professors of “transgender” literature. My theory is that an extremely strong economy just naturally generates so much wealth that it can sustain great masses of societal froth.

    Posted by paco on 2006 01 14 at 08:13 PM • permalink

  30. Actually, I was replying to 19 (incidentally, thanks for the dance, Ushie; the veiled hat was, as we used to say back in the hill country, “tray chick”).

    Posted by paco on 2006 01 14 at 08:15 PM • permalink

  31. “Preening”!  That’s the word I was looking for.

    Posted by sjens on 2006 01 14 at 08:16 PM • permalink

  32. In the Latham Daries the fallen ALP leader talks about how the Shoppies’ Union was trying to determine Labor policy on stem cell research to which Latham replied with the words to the effect of: “Why would a sixteen year old checkout chick be worried about stem cell research? Wouldn’t she be worried about a pay rise?”

    So in the same vein, if Tom Tabart was elected as a councillor for Bryon Bay then he should shove his tree hugging up his arse and start worrying about the community he gets paid to represent! If Halliburton’s tender is good for his area then he should vote for it and ditch the neo-con rhetoric.

    Posted by cjblair on 2006 01 14 at 08:34 PM • permalink

  33. Halliburton stole my cat… and raped my car!

    Yeah it’s hilarious that these idiots think Cheney still holds shares in Halliburton. Do even simple facts matter to them? But you have to be deeply, childishly naive anyway to think that a polity as big and complex as the US is run by a procurement company.

    Children, stupid, ignorant children. God hippies are pathetic.

    Posted by Amos on 2006 01 14 at 09:05 PM • permalink

  34. If they only knew that the real name of the founder of Halliburton is Schlomo Halliburtonstein…

    Posted by Mystery Meat on 2006 01 14 at 09:14 PM • permalink

  35. sjens: Didn’t Cheney divest himself of any financial interest in Haliburton?

    Close.  In breaking ties, he negotiated to receive a yearly income from Halliburton™, which is fixed and (ergo, duh) does not depend whatever on H’s profits or losses.

    Further, (I’m pretty sure), he arranged to have that “pensionish” income auto-diverted to some charity.

    Further, (this I’m totally sure), this was before anyone had ever thought of using “Cheney” and “Vice President” in the same sentence.

    Posted by zeppenwolf on 2006 01 15 at 01:17 AM • permalink

  36. Amos,

    Halliburton stole my cat… and raped my car!

    Ha! They turned me into a newt!

    Posted by Spiny Norman on 2006 01 15 at 01:29 AM • permalink

  37. “The sad truth is that these corporations now control the world’s political systems”

    So they control them to such an extent that even fascist-aware Byron Bay council can’t resist them? Who in the Council is in Haliburton’s pocket? Or was it simply because they were the best tenderer?

    Posted by Francis H on 2006 01 15 at 02:04 AM • permalink

  38. Benesath the sewers of Byron Bay
    the Haliburton ‘roaches hold sway
    Fettered in that dampness dayless gloom, they plot and scheme our impeding doom.
    Through these dank sewers they will rise above
    and destroy the Habitations of peace and love
    (with sincere apologies to lord Byron)

    Posted by davo on 2006 01 15 at 02:25 AM • permalink

  39. HAH!  Good one, davo!

    Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2006 01 15 at 03:07 AM • permalink

  40. I’d say the councillor isn’t being ridgy-didge, he’s just, er, going through the motions. Council motions at that.

    Paco : re #29 and “transgender literature” (sneer quotes’n'all) : Smile when you say that. I might just have a short-short published in an ANU magazine soon.

    Posted by Zoe Brain on 2006 01 15 at 03:14 AM • permalink

  41. The sad truth is that these corporations now control the world’s political systems and until we can get governments off their corrupt teat we are going to be forced to deal with them.

    If only there were more successful hippy-founded organic sustainable enviro-communal worker-owned co-ops in the modern sewage system business, we might not have to turn to evil “corporations”, with their hated “competency” and “resources”.

    Posted by Aaron - Freewill on 2006 01 15 at 05:24 AM • permalink

  42. Meanwhile in the editorial room at the Byron Bay Echo:

    Ellis: “When I was a kid, you could buy meat anywhere! Eggs they had, real butter! Not this… crap!”
    Mungo: “It’s crap. Tofu is made out of crap. Halliburton are making our food out of turds. Next thing they’ll be force-feeding us like cattle for methane. You’ve gotta tell them. You’ve gotta tell them!”
    ” You tell everybody. Listen to me, Moonbat Ellis. You’ve gotta tell them! Tofu is excreta! We’ve gotta stop them somehow!”


    * with apologies to the scriptwriter for Soylent Green

    Posted by entropy on 2006 01 15 at 06:16 AM • permalink

  43. “The sad truth is that these corporations now control the world’s political systems ...”

    ~Echo headline: “Halliburton gives Byron Council shit treament”.

    Posted by egg_ on 2006 01 15 at 07:10 AM • permalink

  44. #36 Spiny Norman (or should I say, Peasant 3) - it is great to see that you “got betta”, as newts have a hard time with keyboards.  But I suggest we burn the hippies anyway! (unless they are heavier than a bridge!)

    Posted by SezaGeoff on 2006 01 15 at 07:47 AM • permalink

  45. #33 and #35:
    Yeah it’s hilarious that these idiots think Cheney still holds shares in Halliburton. Do even simple facts matter to them?
    and
    sjens: Didn’t Cheney divest himself of any financial interest in Haliburton?

    Close.  In breaking ties, he negotiated to receive a yearly income from Halliburton™, which is fixed and (ergo, duh) does not depend whatever on H’s profits or losses.

    Further, (I’m pretty sure), he arranged to have that “pensionish” income auto-diverted to some charity.

    Further, (this I’m totally sure), this was before anyone had ever thought of using “Cheney” and “Vice President” in the same sentence.

    Now take a look at Terry Lane in the Sunday Age this morning 15/1/06:
    “At the time of the invasion, Cheney held 433,000 Halliburton stock options worth $US241,498. Today they are worth $US8 million. Pin money for Cheney, but still worth a small war. And a war on Iran should double that.”
    My view is that Terry Lane is more worthwhile big-game than Margo and Loewenstein put together. Can #33 and #35 provide their sources so I/we can do a job on Lane?

    Posted by percypup on 2006 01 15 at 07:50 AM • permalink


  46. #40: Actually, I didn’t even know there is such a thing; I just picked something that sounded like it would be absurdly specialized, if it existed at all. My apologies if I gave offense.

    Posted by paco on 2006 01 15 at 09:02 AM • permalink

  47. Paco, Halliburton stole my hats!  I understand Cheney looks particularly fetching in the green one, with the pheasant feathers.

    #40, Zoe, but you’re not a fool, so…

    Posted by ushie on 2006 01 15 at 01:12 PM • permalink

  48. Didn’t Haliburton raise the Kursk?

    Posted by John Nowak on 2006 01 15 at 08:01 PM • permalink

  49. We have a double agent in Byron Bay?

    Posted by crash on 2006 01 15 at 08:21 PM • permalink

  50. Tim, percypup, et al — Terry’s lying, of course.  Here’re the facts…

    Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 01 15 at 10:43 PM • permalink

  51. If the Byron moonbats don’t like Halliburton running the sewers, they can always go behind a tree. Plenty of trees up that way. Good fertiliser for the crops as well, so would get the Green tick of approval.

    Posted by mr magoo on 2006 01 15 at 10:43 PM • permalink

  52. But Mr Tabart said he had voted in favour of KBR because council staff had recommended its tender as the most cost-effective. He said refusing the tender on political grounds could have exposed the council to court action.

    What a load of crap. The Green council was voted in with Byronians all too aware of their moonbat policies- they deserve the effects.

    “And if you scratch any multinational you’ll dig up just as much dirt as you would on Halliburton, so what’s the bloody difference?”

    So use a smaller contractor you feral-left shit, or as someone suggested already- do it yourself- rally the communists of Byron Bay (or at least get them to send their maids)

    John Lazarus, a Green councillor who voted against the KBR proposal, said councils should think carefully before choosing multinationals such as Halliburton for such contracts.
    “Halliburton has benefited enormously from contracts to the Iraq war,” he said. “We should be looking closely at corporations we are supporting financially and at what they are doing on this planet.”

    Uh-huh, the evil imperialist Coalition has had its day. I want to see what a Green-run council can do, as an example for the rest of the country. If they keep finding excuses to be pro-business, then no one is ever going to see what a society run by the Greens will be like!

    Posted by anthony27 on 2006 01 15 at 10:47 PM • permalink

  53. percypup — Pleeeeeeeze learn how to format a link?

    Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 01 15 at 11:56 PM • permalink

  54. #54: I used to try to do “links” and the links wound up everywhere except where I wanted them. But if humans can put a man on the moon, I can learn to add links correctly.
    #51: Thanks, I will draft a letter to editor of Sunday Age. My chance of getting published will be 0.0001%. But I think I will add a rider: “You are free to not publish my letter and I am free to refer the case to the Press Council which will cause you a great amount of irritation and wasted time.”

    Posted by percypup on 2006 01 16 at 06:37 AM • permalink

  55. 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.