False Messiah 2

The English poet John Milton, writing on the evil of hypocrisy, focused on its general invisibility: "For neither man nor angel can discern hypocrisy, the only evil that walks invisible, except to God alone."

Angels aside, the men Milton had in mind must've been the simpletons Peter Hartcher was referring to in today's Sydney Morning Herald when he wrote about the warm reception given to Kevin Rudd in shopping centres across the nation:

"There is no equivalent in modern Australian politics of the striking disjuncture between the way Rudd is regarded among the political classes and his reception among the broader public. To those in the front-row seats of politics, Rudd is diabolical. To those further away from the stage, he is some sort of messiah." (Return of Mr Popular raises hackles on both sides of chamber)

God aside, the more politically astute among us can also recognise a phony when they see one:

"I thought the Labor Party preached that collective workplace agreements worked better than individual contracts. Collective agreements, it is claimed, are fairer and provide higher productivity. Not so for Party leader Kevin Rudd's wife, Therese Rein, who has all of the 800 Australian workers in her own business on individual contracts... Therese's firm also provided jobs to job seekers to be employed under Australian Workplace Agreements - the individual contracting arrangement Labor has promised to abolish." (Rudd clan's hypocrisy on IR, harryclarke.com, 28/5/07)

"Contrast and compare the grandstanding of the Rudd government over Japanese whaling to its relative quiescence on the human rights crackdown in Tibet." (Kevin Rudd's Asia hypocrisy, Tony Parkinson, ipa.org, May 2008)

"On June 9, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced that Australia would be forming an international commission to work towards the elimination of nuclear weapons... Rudd's emphasis on [North Korea and Iran's] supposed nuclear threat, while ignoring Israel's illegal nuclear arsenal (which it has regularly threatened neighboring countries with) and promoting the preeminent nuclear power, the US, as a force for stability represents a continuity in policy from the previous Howard Coalition government." (Radioactive Rudd's nuclear hype, Tony Iltis, greenleft.org.au, 13/6/08)

"Prime Minister Rudd has just announced our target for the emissions cuts as part of the planned Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). It's a tiny little 5% cut. Yep, that's it, just 5%. The galling thing is that he announced the number after talking about how important the Great Barrier Reef, Kakadu and the Murray-Darling basin are to Australia. And went on to talk about how urgent it was to do something about climate change." (Rudd's hypocrisy on climate change, gogreenaustralia.com, 15/12/08)

The pretender's sickening hypocrisy was again on display in yesterday's Fairfax papers:

"Believe it - the human cry for freedom and democracy is universal. In Tunisia, what began as one man's protest, so desperate he set himself on fire, became a symbol of the yearning for democracy across the region. Since then, we have been moved by the courage of the citizens who sought what is naturally theirs - in Tunisia, in Egypt*, in Libya - and right now, in Syria. Since March, the Syrian people have protested for their basic democratic rights. The al-Assad regime's response has been brutal. An estimated 2,700 people now lie dead. Still more have been harmed, imprisoned and tortured. The world was rightly sickened by this. But the al-Assad regime has shown neither remorse nor any will to change course. Indeed, the violence is escalating... Importantly, many of Syria's neighbours are part of the global outcry against the al-Assad regime's brutality. The Arab League and the Gulf Co-operation Council have spoken out strongly, calling for an end to the bloodshed... In sum, Australia stands with the Syrian people at this grave moment - as we have with the people of Libya, Egypt and Tunisia." (Australia stands with Syrians fighting for freedom)

The people of Libya... Egypt... Tunisia. But not those of Bahrain (which the GCC helped screw with their intervention force), Yemen (Saudi Arabia's backyard) or Palestine (support for Israel being, as Rudd has said, in his DNA).

No, folks, messiah he ain't.

Note: As Rudd's monstrous hypocrisy on the Middle East is a work in progress, those interested should also read my following posts: *Gypos Ratfuck Rudd's Policy Settings (1/2/11); When Will the West Intervene to Protect Bahrainis from... the West? (19/3/11); No Tears for Bahrain (7/4/11); The Tell-Tale Heart (2/6/11); Where Do You Go to My Unlovely? (3/8/11).