“Ship’s going under. Captain at the helm. Steady as she goes. Mr Lightoller!” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Lightoller

I think you’re partly right, mick, but as with Teh Great Push By Teh Punditariat For a Labour Leadership Change, it will blow up in their faces.

What a pack of f**knuckles. Blind Freddy could see …

One of the main factors in play here is political cynicism (hence the Libs concentration on the Rudd spin machine), but could anything be more cynical than Howard resigning now? Simply a case of exchanging one set of soiled goods for another.

Rumor has it that Howard is going to call the election next Wednesday, after the Canadian Prime Minister has left the country. This would give us a poll at the end of October.

But now with everything online the poor dears can’t actually escape scrutiny.

The not so subtle changing of tune over the past few months has been hilarious. With the Shamahams, Albrechtsons, Kellys etc etc etc being exposed as having no garments, they now demand that Costello become the haberdasher-in-chief and dispense exclusive Italian fashions to Shamaham, Albrechtson, and Kelly all.

The Pirate Queen is, of course, always beautiful.

They only lauded Keating for his economic agenda not his cultural one.

No, that’s not right, delrio. The Oz was a supporter of the two Rs that mattered back then - reconciliation and the republic (which they championed until 99). Go to a library if you don’t believe me!

But if Rudd can occupy the middle 60% with the rest split between two hostile groups who are incapable of uniting in an effective opposition, why shouldn’t he stay in power for a very long time?

On the other hand, that was the SDB/Liberal alliance dream of the early 80s in Britain, and in a different way, Blair’s dream.

The electoral system is a big barrier to that sort of thing. Yes, you could be in power for a long time, but sooner or later a hard right Liberal Party will wake up to itself and move back to the centre. And in the HoR there’s still very few viable options for the left. Unless the Labor Left left.

We have the most extraordinary boards in the public broacasters. Tertiary education with smoke coming out windows. A collection of clowns masquerading as the nation’s public intellectuals in the Murdoch stable. Cheats, liars, fools and fuckwits all of them. They have fatally compromised the walls between news, editorial and commentary.

And now, we are back. Renewed, confident, supported, energised.

Watch the ALP enact its electoral promise of an independent system to appoint boards to the ABC and SBS. Then watch them purge the lot. Tell me again, what happened to the eunuchs in the Forbidden City?

Did you see his response to Rudds’ Mandarin speech?

Dolly at his cringe-making best.

There is a great story that once Goss gained power, Rudd, as his head of staff, arranged for the more egregious Joh supporters amongst the Queensland public service to be put on ’special projects’ at a former leprosorium out in the Brisbane boondocks…

Another tale I heard is that some of them were sent to an office with only the Courier Mail and a pencil in the room to aid in their search of a new job. I hope Barbara Bennett has her own pencil sharpener!

We’ll deal with Rudd later but, as things stand, this pack of scummy lying toads are going to have to take their lumps. I can’t wait.

Is APEC the most expensive suicide note in history?

Well the the band at the WA LIberal Party 2005 State Election Campaign launch played as thethe Opposition leader Colin Barnett entered the room “Suicide is Painless - the theme from MASH.

Seemed rather prophetic

I base my comments on the whole Mandarin-speaking thingo.

Remember, this week is the first time since Rudd was elected opposition leader that we have seen him in full bilingual flight. It’s almost as though he was “saving it up” for maximum impact now in APEC week, in the shadow of the election.

If we’d all got used to seeing Rudd nattering on in Mandarin by now, it wouldn’t have grabbed the headlines like it did this week.

I wonder how many Mandarin-speaking Aussie battlers of the Bennelong electorate caught Rudd’s tete a tete with President Hu on the evening news?

I reckon between 500-1000 Bennelong votes swung against Howard on that 5 seconds of prime time news coverage.

And how p****d would you be at the news coverage of APEC if you were the government? The prime time TV news has been nothing but images of buses lined up across the Bridge while Howard and Bush have lunch on the back of a massive motor yacht, Sydneysiders whingeing about security, shots of security fences, Chaser antics, and Rudd speaking Mandarin to President Hu. The $35bn gas deal and the uranium deal got 30 seconds coverage and a yawn.

It’s not just Janet, the whole of the MSM have turned.

Personally, I think there’s real substance to Rudd behind all his media spin - but we’ll have to wait to see the proof.

He has form on this issue. As Goss’s chief public servant after 1989 he inflicted condign retribution on the National Party placemen (and they were just about all men) in the top ranks of the Queensland public service.

There is a great story that once Goss gained power, Rudd, as his head of staff, arranged for the more egregious Joh supporters amongst the Queensland public service to be put on ’special projects’ at a former leprosorium out in the Brisbane boondocks…

‘Condign retribution’ indeed.

In short, it’s not known as the Government Gazette for nothing. Remember how they used to laud Keating before they turned on him (when it became obvious he was on the way out)?

Come on, Kim. They only lauded Keating for his economic agenda not his cultural one.

The paper was still essentially right wing. During the Howard years it’s moved even further to the right.

I suspect Murdoch’s hard right columnists will continue to preach the anti-multicultural, anti-indigenous, anti-anything that’s deemed progressive line, regardless of who’s in power. That’s why I think Albrechtsen, Akerman, etc will retain their jobs. I don’t like their chances of retaining their positions at the ABC though.