Angus & Robertson Manly is proud to present Margo Kingston in conversation with Dr Peter Macdonald, Independent Mayor of Manly.

WHEN: Wednesday September 15, 6.30 for 7pm.

WHERE: Manly 16ft Skiff Club, Corner East Esplanade and Stuart Streets Manly.

COST $11 inc GST. BOOKINGS are essential as seats are limited, please phone 02 9976 3188 for tickets.

We're living in pre-fascist times, argues MK. Gerard Henderson, supporter of the status quo and ruffler of even fewer feathers, says not.

Henderson appears unmoved, unwilling or ignorant of the profound changes occurring under the watchful eye of John Howard. Gay marriage laws, illegally taking us into Iraq and treatment of asylum seekers are but some examples. The comparison is not with Hitler or Mussolini, but rather with newly created powers in the post 9/11 world, not least of which is terrifyingly repressive so-called anti-terrorism laws.

Then again, what do we expect from a former adviser to Howard himself?

And in other news...

As Hollywood star Matt Damon lands in Australia, news emerges that Moveon.org, America's premiere online activism force, will be launching a series of advertisements tom

You are fast becoming a cause celebre! I have just attended John Valder's campaign launch in Eastwood and it was the most uplifting experience. So many different parties came together to unite on the one cause. I am very optimistic that I will be an extremely proud Australian again after the election.

I have purchased 100 stickers and will be giving them out. If only John Howard had given me a bigger tax cut, I would have bought 1000!

John Howard stated on 23/08/2004 that he was disgusted with Mark Latham personally bagging him out and he said that he would never resort to those tactics. However I would like to inform Mr Howard that he was bagging out Mark Latham's physique after the cricket match that Mark Latham participated in some months ago.

Also, Mr Howard would alway find something about Simon Crean.

NOT HAPPY JOHN.

I want a couple of Not Happy John t-shirts! Where can I get them?

Thanks

NHJ! (JR): Try contacting John Valder's NHJ! campaign office, Karen, on Sydney 02-99296818, or email here (anyonebutjohn@yahoo.com). Happy wearing...

I keenly watched the program on ABC, Tuesday 24/8/04 [The 7.30 Report - JR] and would like to know where I can get the great blue shirts with 'Not Happy, John' written on them. Please let me know, I would absolutely love one.

NHJ! (JR): As per Karen's query below, Kelly, try John Valder's Sydney campaign HQ 02-99296818 or email a query here.

At last! Australia has a chance after all. Thanks to everyone involved!

Now - query: is there a NHJ! movement (?) on the Sunshine Coast, and if not - would anyone be interested in developing one? I was one of the lucky ones to get a NHJ! car sticker at the Sunshine Coast Uni on Sunday and appreciate being able to visibly demonstrate my 'Not Happy John' sentiments. Anyone interested in starting anything here, or who can give me information about an existing movement, please send me an email.

Thanks again - L C Whitton.

NHJ!(JR): No, thank you, Linda. The more localised groupings we get going across the country, especially if they can coalesce around a good local non-government/minor party/Independent/whatever democratic candidate, the better. So...calling any & all Sunshine seachangers, Labor centrists n' small-l Libs, hinterland hippies and hipsters, Montville and Maleny potters n' potterers, disgruntled deregulated

Margo, I have just finished your wonderful book and am almost in tears at the extent of the lies, deceit and corruption. But it has fired me up! I am in the middle of a mass email to everyone I know who loves Australia and is appalled at the direction JH has taken it. Keep up the good work, more people than you know support what you and your colleagues are doing. Have a great day.

Thanks for writing 'Not Happy John!'. I've just finished reading it - it took me about 2 days, a record short time. While I have never been a fan of John Howard - I grew up in Ipswich during the Bjelke Petersen and Malcolm Fraser reigns and I doubt I will ever vote for a Conservative Government as a result of that - there were so many other things you have opened my eyes about.

Yes, I think our democracy may be in trouble, but I also think that on the whole Australians can see through the bullshit they are being fed - believing that us voters will be sufficiently distracted by the Olympics that we will ignore everything else for a fortnight seriously underestimates us and anyone who relies on this kind of distraction to get the better of us will be in for a shock. This is not to take away from your central point though -- we must get involved. Feeling disenfranchised and excluded is the easy option, and simply an example of learned helplessness and an abrogation of responsib

In John Clarkson's (Narangba, Qld) posting dated 20/08/2004 of his letter to the Prime Minister, amongst others, he states that he is opposed to the change in the law, enacted by the current government, to allow dual nationality. He seems to think that this was a new development.

It is not.

Dual nationality has always been allowed for people emigrating to Australia and becoming naturalised whose country of origin allowed it and Australian citizens who were entitled, by birth, to the nationality of their parents (or even grandparents in the case of some countries). These groups represent in excess of 2.5m Australians.

The only people who lost their Australian Citizenship if they 'acquired' foreign nationality were those Australians who were not already entitled to it.

Therefore the repeal of Section 17 of the Australian Citizenship Act (1948) just brought the law into line for

Sometimes it seems like a cry in the wilderness. For those who will believe the premise that something pretty wild and vicious has our democracy in its teeth, let's not spend our precious time in arguing about the true nature of the enemy of our democracy, the dingo. Many, many people say the dingo is John Howard. They'd only be partly right. Others say the dingo is Rupert Murdoch or big business. Perhaps it's George Bush.

Facts are facts. We're dealing with a mongrel dog here. Its a bitser made up of the elements above and a lot more (nearly all of which are discussed in NHJ). A rabid mongrel dog that needs to be put down and only the people acting in concert have the ability to save our democracy from those pressing teeth.

What do you do when you feel threatened by a dingo or other wild dog? You don't argue about what its name is or what colour it is. You're in mortal danger and you need to remember the rules of 'How to be Dingo-Smart' (produced by Queen

The Age featured an insightful analysis of John Howard's reign in Saturday's edition. Key quote:

'The coming election will be about the usual issues of health, education and industrial relations, but in significant ways, John Winston Howard will be on the ballot.'

Penguin publishing director Bob Sessions, and instigator of NHJ, says there is little interest in Howard the man. 'Let's cut to the chase. John Howard's a good economic manager, with no heart, apparently, and very little colour. The most exciting thing about him is that he goes for a walk every morning.'

I've just finished reading your very enlightening book, which I had to keep putting down because I kept becoming so angry at some of the things I was learning. I confess to being a long time Labor voter, so had always had my suspicions about Howard and his government. Now, you have provided confirmation of my suspicions. My main reason for being so angry is that he is robbing my children and grand-child of the right to free and universal education and health care. I also get angry at the thought of how we Australians are now viewed by the rest of the world. I hate the fact that we lock up innocent people whose only crime is trying to obtain a better life by coming here. I have written to several politicians from both sides and phoned up open lines programmes on radio, none of which seems to get me anywhere. So, thank you for the book and I hope thousands of people read it.

Fair enough, Martin English (and Mo Stoogers) - as NHJ!'s resident democratic umpy Hamish A points out, we PM-bashers can get a tad hot under the collar with our language, sometimes. Mea Culpa, mates - yet again. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea dickhead...sigh.

But...fair suck of the sav too, guys: as MK points out below your review, Mart, if you were actually to...er...read the book, you'd (hopefully) see that a reasonable slab of it is (somewhat painfully) devoted to acknowledging explicitly our own 'Howard-obsessive' faults and foibles, agreeing that we can't lay claim to any infallible moral supremacy - in the spirit of the book's core aim, which was and remains the same as that of this site: to help search out some common ground 'for all of us'.

This is the review I published in the August edition of my paper.

Defending our democracy

That's the subtitle of Margo Kingston's passionate book of more than 400 pages, actually titled (at her publishers' suggestion in order to be topical and thus sell more copies) 'Not Happy, John!'. It is wide ranging in its scope and Margo has included articles by five others, all contributors to her well known Webdiary, which can be found at the Sydney Morning Herald web site. Perhaps its wide range does it a disservice and I would suggest that it's more than one book: there's material and varying subject matter enough for three books.

Her thesis can be gathered though from the headings of the book's five parts: 'John's Australia', 'My Australia', 'Whose Australia?', 'Their Australia' and 'Our Australia', the second and last chapter of which is Democracy: Ten Ideas for Change, which are practical proposals for reclaiming our democracy.

She doesn't blame ou