The Angry Exile: Also on the federal election...

The Hangman

Into our town the Hangman came,
Smelling of gold and blood and flame.
And he paced our bricks with a diffident air,
And built his frame in the courthouse square.
The scaffold stood by the courthouse side,
Only as wide as the door was wide;
A frame as tall, or little more,
Than the capping sill of the courthouse door.
And we wondered, whenever we had the time,
Who the criminal, what the crime
That the Hangman judged with the yellow twist
of knotted hemp in his busy fist.
And innocent though we were, with dread,
We passed those eyes of buckshot lead --
Till one cried: "Hangman, who is he
For whom you raised the gallows-tree?"
Then a twinkle grew in the buckshot eye,
And he gave us a riddle instead of reply:
"He who serves me best," said he,
"Shall earn the rope of the gallows-tree."
And he stepped down, and laid his hand
On a man who came from another land.
And we breathed again, for another's grief
At the Hangman's hand was our relief
And the gallows-frame on the courthouse lawn
By tomorrow's sun would be struck and gone.
So we gave him way, and no one spoke,
Out of respect for his Hangman's cloak.
The next day's sun looked mildly down
On roof and street in our quiet town,
And stark and black in the morning air
Was the gallows-tree in the courthouse square.
And the Hangman stood at his usual stand
With the yellow hemp in his busy hand;
With his buckshot eye and his jaw like a pike
And his air so knowing and business-like.
And we cried, "Hangman, have you not done
Yesterday, with the foreign one?"
Then we fell silent, and stood amazed,
"Oh, not for him was the gallows raised."
He laughed a laugh as he looked at us:
"Did you think I'd gone to all this fuss
To hang one man? That's a thing I do
To stretch a rope when the rope is new."
Then one cried "Murder!" and one cried "Shame!"
And into our midst the Hangman came
To that man's place. "Do you hold," said he,
"with him that was meant for the gallows-tree?"
And he laid his hand on that one's arm.
And we shrank back in quick alarm!
And we gave him way, and no one spoke
Out of fear of his Hangman's cloak.
That night we saw with dread surprise
The Hangman's scaffold had grown in size.
Fed by the blood beneath the chute,
The gallows-tree had taken root;
Now as wide, or a little more,
Than the steps that led to the courthouse door,
As tall as the writing, or nearly as tall,
Halfway up on the courthouse wall.
The third he took -- we had all heard tell --
Was a usurer, and an infidel.
"What," said the Hangman "have you to do
With the gallows-bound, and he a Jew?"
And we cried out, "Is this one he
Who has served you well and faithfully?"
The Hangman smiled: "It's a clever scheme
to try the strength of the gallows-beam."
The fourth man's dark, accusing song
Had scratched our comfort hard and long;
"And what concern," he gave us back.
"Have you for the doomed -- the doomed and Black?"
The fifth. The sixth. And we cried again,
"Hangman, Hangman, is this the man?"
"It's a trick," he said. "that we hangmen know
For easing the trap when the trap springs slow."
And so we ceased, and asked no more,
As the Hangman tallied his bloody score.
And sun by sun, and night by night,
The gallows grew to monstrous height.
The wings of the scaffold opened wide
Till they covered the square from side to side;
And the monster cross-beam, looking down,
Cast its shadow across the town.
Then through the town the Hangman came,
Through the empty streets, and called my name --
And I looked at the gallows soaring tall,
And thought, "There is no one left at all
For hanging, and so he calls to me
To help pull down the gallows-tree."
So I went out with right good hope
To the Hangman's tree and the Hangman's rope.
He smiled at me as I came down
To the courthouse square through the silent town.
And supple and stretched in his busy hand
Was the yellow twist of the hempen strand.
And he whistled his tune as he tried the trap,
And it sprang down with a ready snap --
And then with a smile of awful command
He laid his hand upon my hand.
"You tricked me. Hangman!," I shouted then,
"That your scaffold was built for other men...
And I no henchman of yours," I cried,
"You lied to me, Hangman. Foully lied!"
Then a twinkle grew in the buckshot eye,
"Lied to you? Tricked you?" he said. "Not I.
For I answered straight and I told you true --
The scaffold was raised for none but you.
For who has served me more faithfully
Then you with your coward's hope?" said he,
"And where are the others who might have stood
Side by your side in the common good?"
"Dead," I whispered. And amiably
"Murdered," the Hangman corrected me:
"First the foreigner, then the Jew...
I did no more than you let me do."
Beneath the beam that blocked the sky
None had stood so alone as I.
The Hangman noosed me, and no voice there
Cried "Stop!" for me in the empty square.

Maurice Ogden

Sunday, 5 September 2010

Also on the federal election...

... things have moved a bit closer to Julia Gillard retaining power, which will more than make up for her footy team getting the shit kicked out of it last night, and it's all thanks to one of the independent tails enjoying its chance to wag the dog.

IN A blow to the Coalition, key independent Tony Windsor has backed Labor's $43 billion national broadband network, criticising the opposition's cheaper alternative as a ''retrograde policy'' that would create a digital backwater in rural Australia.

Mr Windsor told The Sunday Age he believed Labor's national broadband network was the better of the two policies.

Mr Windsor, who was briefed by senior officials from the Department of Broadband last week, said he had been convinced that ''you do it once, you do it right, you do it with fibre''.

The comments come as Mr Windsor and the other two rural independents, Rob Oakeshott and Bob Katter, remain locked in negotiations with both sides to determine who they will ultimately support: Prime Minister Julia Gillard or Opposition Leader Tony Abbott.

Well gee thanks, Tony, you fucking bellend. Shall I send my cheque for four grand direct to you or to to your new buddy Julia? Because that's what it's going to cost us all. I repeat:

Labor want to install a 100 Mbps fibre service to cover 93% of the country and high speed satellite for the rest - a snip at $43 billion. The Coalition would rather provide us with a 12 Mbps fibre and wireless service that might go as fast as 100 Mbps, covers 97% of the population (the rest to get satellite again) and which only costs $6 billion. And obviously both are missing the point:

It's not your fucking money, you thieving pricks! You're not there to piss our cash away on rolling out broadband as if it's a public service. Being a telecoms company is not a government function, which is why we have fucking telecoms companies. When 90 plus percent of the population really need that sort of service, whether it's $6 billion or $43 billion, they'll be willing to put their hands in their fucking pockets for it and someone will come along and put the network in. It's called the market, and all that is really required from the government is for it to stay out of the fucking way.

There are about 22 million people living here, and while the AEC page I screencapped earlier says there are 14 million eligible to vote, which will be everyone over 18, you can safely assume that some of those will be retired, not working or employed by the taxpayers and therefore pay taxes only in a nominal sense.* I wouldn't be at all surprised if this $43 billion cost is borne by less than half the population, and that would make it around $4,000 each. And even that assumes that it'll be on fucking budget and also neglects the ongoing costs of running the bloody thing.

I'd love 100 Mbps broadband. Probably everyone I know would love 100 Mbps broadband. But I doubt I know anyone who'll fork out $4,000 just for the fucking connection. I don't think there are many people who'll fork out $4,000 just for the connection, because if there were Telstra and Optus and iiNet and all the others would be fighting each other for a share of the money. That they're not suggests the market for broadband isn't there yet. But because the bloody ALP are so free with other peoples' money and haven't got a clue where government is supposed to fucking stop, and because some independent MP in a rural seat sees an opportunity to get the rest of Australia to pay for what his own electorate - any electorate - won't stump up for voluntarily.

And the crazy thing is that even if they ultimately get 100 Mbps and even if by some miracle the cost doesn't overrun they'll still end up paying over the odds in the long run. Let me put it like this, Tony, if your campaign pledges had included a promise to help yourself to $4,000 from each voter to pay for a high speed broadband network do you think you'd have won the seat, or do you think that perhaps most of the 63,000 who voted for you would have decided that while the current options might not be that fast or cheap even Telstra won't charge them $4,000 plus eventual running costs just for the privilege of having the fucker available?

As is becoming my regular scream of fury in these circumstances:

IT IS NOT YOUR FUCKING MONEY!