A weekly open thread where, at the mercy of your election-year mania, you may discuss various breaking politicking news that is not on topic for other current threads.
Life, Culture and Politics from BrisVegas
Larvatus Prodeo was an Australian group blog which discussed politics, sociology, culture, life, religion and science from a left of centre perspective. more»
Federal Minister for Horseflu should be sacked according to Beattie.
On Tuesday afternoon I found in my mailbox a taxpayer-funded booklet with a covering letter from the Prime Minister. The booklet is primarily a guide for parents about illicit drugs and how to talk to their kids about drugs. However significant parts of it, and much of the PM’s covering letter, is puffery about the programs which “my Government” is undertaking under the rubric of “Tough on Drugs”. Whatever one thinks about the usefulness of the booklet for anxious parents (and I’ll have something to say about that when I’ve finished reading it), it seems a touch curious that it has been produced and distributed at this point in the election cycle.
It is another wet and cold day here,a coldness matched as like a month ago.Around that time I felt a cold or flu happening,this has now persisted for about six weeks the longest one I have had and rare they are indeed for me..because I am a window an doors always open person.My coughing seems to be triggered by an emotional reaction to thoughts, that race,which I do not always consider my own.I watch from time to time air flight and the production of clouds..In the U.S.A if I was a citizen I would be wary of that.My plane watching evolves around the Nature of Echelon and its associated matters re plane flight.Written about in the past in articles associated with Brian Toohey of The National Times. I wonder about Brian and I dont see much from him,in the last two decades,as a lot of us hyper aware of Australia s lack of independence were knocked around by social and technological changes.Too many reinventions of ones mind set without much else happening is a faded horizon approaching at a much higher speed.Confidence in and of itself doesnt change,the nature of a personal affliction whilst the external ones mount.This place occasionally has RAAF flights across it still,the whoosh of something Gummo pointed out,I dont know wether he was explaining a real circumstance,is a regular matter for me..I have heard it approach across the paddocks and drive bulls silly, because in some way it failed to pick up me.The nature of voice command just outside of ones hearing range..deep hypnotic type state and I am asleep for less than two minutes..going under a little bit now, must check time..believe me I look up and I read 9 11.am..and back to a more normal self with my skull seeming like a soft clamp on it pulling away where ever I am this process is operating on me associating its influence with an external to me product..this time.. the time. You have now read an account of the new controlled human being,that knows that all other life stimuli act as a reminder, that my fate is in giving in to the coincidences built up as false emotions centred around words and objects at a hearing matter not always accessible and a build up of coincidences external in recognisable form to remind me I am trapped…And now it leads me on..I will attach myself as a function of distraction to the election..for I must distract myself until I find a way…I have corrected this account as much as I can with a overlay of words entering my mind not of the functions of my brain..just had eyesight interference whilst writing, without looking at the screen whilst typing the interference was associated with a mispelling of corrected… no-one seems to be able to help..just stay on guard if you feel something like this has descended.And over time be precise in the nature of the description of occurences.It wont necessarily occur to Leftist personalities …I have had this happening for so long I think I may be an anchor, stay on my boat even if I am not around and fate strikes.
With the media full of the lushing of love between Howard and Bush I would like to bring to your attention an very pertinent post that Peter Brent wrote on Mumble on November 10 last year.
He was reacting to an article written by Peter Hartcher in the Sydney Morning Herald
Peter is not impressed:
It is interesting how different the perception of this trip is. The war in Iraq has gone pear shaped, most Americans don’t approve of it, the Democrat candidates are calling for troop withdrawals, Bush is unpopular and won’t be president next time.
If APEC happened when Bush’s popularity was at is Zenith you could have read how great Howard’s friendhip was and how Rudd’s position was wrecking the Australia-US relationship etc.
But you can’t really argue that, when Rudd’s position is now on the same field as the British Prime Minister and possibly the next President of the United States of America.
“Tough on Drugs” sounds like someone getting beefy and agro on the steroids.
I hope Gummo is alright,at around 11 9 am I was listening to Richard Vidler,and a crow was making a noise that seem to have a tone that I have to report.Can someone please encourage Brian Toohey to this blog,something is going on.Just do it… automated message.
Tigtog and Everyone:
I’ll be delighted if a federal election actually does happen soon …. and my gloomy prediction that it will be delayed or suspended because of a terrrorism scare[actual or invented] will be proved absolutely wrong. I’ll be only too happy to eat my words [with pepper and salt please] if the election takes place.
I feel compelled to say this everyone time someone mentions Tough On Drugs:
Tough On Drugs is an absolute steaming crock full of the juiciest shit imaginable. Australia’s official drug policy – never mind the name – is, was, and ever will be Harm Minimisation. Always.
Why? Because, unlike tough on drugs aprproaches, harm minimisation has been proven, time and time again, to actually work.
I really wish someone would call Howard’s bluff on his tough on drugs crap, but Labor have no incentive too, and fact is, if he actually followed through the rhetoric, it would be a disaster.
Nonetheless, and excellent example of spin completely overwhelming reality. Most people probably do think he’s tough on drugs. Sigh. (not saying you do, Paul).
There’s not much room for toughening when the acquital rate is this low.
I’m willing to bet a $9 bottle of chardonnay that the Federal election will result in the election of an authoritarian conservative Prime Minister. Any takers?
Patrickg:
That’s the problem — too much of politics in Australia is about perception, not reality.
Tougher sentencing and all that failed rubbish appeals to the noose-and-lash brigade and nobody is game to call their bluff either. Wouldn’t it be nice if there was random drug testing throughout the land …. wonder how many of that “hang-them-high” bunch would test POSITIVE? [ha-ha-ha
]
No.
That was a response to Paul btw.
Graham, what section of the Constitution, or what Act of Pariament, would over-ride the operation of sections 28 and 32 of the Constitution?
Do you envisage that if the government does suspend the election and the High Court demurs at this the government will intern them as menaces to law and order?
We seemed to be able to get through two world wars without suspending elections.
“an authoritarian conservative Prime Minister”
Gee, if only Kim Beazley had not been dumped as Labor leader. He wouldn’t have been an authoritarian conservative PM at all.
All party leaders are authoritarian, almost by definition, except for the Democrats for some strange reason. And look at what has happened to them.
Rudd is most certainly a conservative. But then every Federal Labor leader in its history has been a conservative. Australians are a conservative people, by and large. The only way to get progressive (let alone radical left) things done is behind the facade of a conservative Labor leader.
Dishonest? You bet. But that’s politics.
Received a small pamphlet for the offices of Maxine MacKew – she and partner ( Bob Hogg is it not ?) sitting outside the entrance to thier humble little house in Epping.
Can’t quite read the expression on Mr Hogg’s face – it could be a yearning for the distant pleasures of Mosman perhaps.
Anyway I speculate that if Ms MacKew is unsuccessful in her tilt to unseat the PM then one small, modest house in Epping will be for sale asap.
How was Keating a conservative? Or Whitlam?
Keating spent his political career at war with the Labor Left. His maiden speech included a passage about how terrible it was that women were entering the work force, instead of being at home where they belonged. Everything he did as Treasurer was opposed by the Labor Left as was most of what he did as Prime Minister.
Whitlam spent his political career at war with the Labor Left. He supported the Vietnam War until very late in the piece. When he was Prime Minister he was opposed within his own government by leaders of the Left like Jim Cairns.
Since leaving politics, both have demonised by the Right of Australian politics as being radical lefties. Don’t believe a word of it.
GregM:
That was then. This is now.
You are talking about a bygone era when it would have been unthinkable for a married woman to hold a job in the public service; when governments held monopolies on the provision of many services; etc., etc. In 2007, all of the safeguards could be neutralized at the stroke of a pen …. and with no penalty whatsoever for the culprit, provided at least some planning went into the execution of such a bold move. b.t.w. If such a move was well-planned, why would there be any necessity at all to intern High Court judges?
Anyway, I have my plate, cutlery and condiments ready and I will be happy to eat Humble Pie, with gusto, if I am wrong..
I’d question that. But the internal tribal politics aren’t the main game for a retrospective assessment. You don’t think Keating’s openness to cosmopolitanism, cultural policy, commitment to full employment, position on reconciliation and the Republic, etc, etc, were progressive?
And it’s a bit unfair to characterise his attitude to women as PM by something he said in 1969. Have a look at what Anne Summers (who worked in his office as PM) said about his changing views…
Also, the opposite of a conservative is not a “radical leftie”. I’d settle happily for a genuine social democrat!
Keating fell for the flattery of his courtiers like Summers and Don Watson towards the end of his time as PM. This led to anomalies like his Redfern speech on reconciliation and puffery like his flirtation with the arts.
But while all this was going on he created the precursor to Workchoices and was cosying up to Suharto.
Keating, entirely at heart, and mostly in deed, was a very conservative PM.
“I’d settle happily for a genuine social democrat!”
You won’t find those in the Labor Party. Both The Labor Right and the Labor Left are at best wary, and more likely contemptuous, of the notion, though of course for very different reasons.
Re conservative Labor leaders, Bob Hawke (who we so often overlook) can’t really be cast as conservative. He was the most liberal Prime Minister in Australia’s history, although his penchant for “national consensus”, tripartite economic policymaking and quasi-corporatist environmnental policymaking in the Ecologically Sustainable Development process can most accurately be characterised as social democratic in the Continental sense (notwithstanding that Jeff Kennett once memorably compared the 1983 National Economic Summit with Mussolini’s Grand Council of Fascists!).
Calwell can certainly be considered a conservative Labor leader right down the line. Whitlam was more conservative in his earlier years in Parliament and as opposition leader than he eventually was as Prime Minister, something which Tom Uren commented on in his autobiography.
It would be drawing a long bow to regard the likes of Curtin and Evatt as conservatives, even though Curtin was required by historical circumstance to play the kind of role as PM which one doesn’t usually associate with radicals.
Keating’s 1969 speech about working women, and the views which other Labor leaders of distant decades may have held on issues of gender and sexuality, need to be measured by the standards of their time. Once upon a time advocates of female suffrage were dangerous radicals!
“need to be measured by the standards of their time”
Jaysus, it was 1969 not 1949.
We also need to be clear on what we mean by “conservative”. Conservatism, as understood by conservative theorists such as Michael Oakeshott and John Grey, it is far from synonymous with right-wing or anti-TEH LEFT. And in Australia in the early 1990s people such as Robert Manne, John Carroll and B. A. Santamaria were self-consciously conservative critics of the dominant currents of the political and intellectual Right.
I saw Garrett yesterday and I can understand why this arch conservative has to conceal what he wants to do to battler’s incomes with his ‘price signals’, and ‘carbon trading’ schemes. Last week he announced a policy to compel people not to use electric water heating devices. That policy would impose a cost burden of at minimum around $120-140 p.a. for people who have off-peak electric water heaters (all other things equal).
Progressives faced with a discovery of a cost imposition on battler’s might be expected to say ‘OK thanks for pointing this out, we ought to compensate these people, so we will take the money from x and give it back to them’, but no such reaction here at LP. I conclude that describing oneself as progressive and being one is… well optional to say the least. Nobody on LP thought this yearly cost burden a problem or even seemed to notice. Silence was the order of the day.
Thankfully, no-one (who will swing) is now listening to the government, but I think some people are now at the stage when they are going to listen to the likes of Garrett. Up to date, the polls have indicated the swinging voters want anybody but Howard, even the noxious Rudd is acceptable as a replacement but I can’t help but think that when the race is on that the horse called self interest will put in a good showing.
Global warming / climate change and what’s to be done is now front and centre but because a ‘price on carbon’ is electoral poison, so LP sorts, other Greens and ALP types will go quiet and just pretend not to notice (till after the election when they will impose these costs for our own good no less).
Voters will have to work out who wants to put the price on carbon and who does not.
Ahh yes, the wonderful Whitlamite liberals who gave the nod to the invasion of East Timor and the long and relentless slaughter of the peoples’ of East Timor, (now Timor Leste) by the ALP’s Javanese kleptocratic mates.
Ahh yes, the good old days when for year-in-year-out nothing but brutality was inflicted upon the Palestinians with never a word to discourage the Zionists from their war for greater Israel, (which now 40years later has obviously failed and is being ended as we speak by that nasty right winger GWB, for no other reason than it is against the strategic interests of the U.S.)
Kim sees only what she wants and remembers only what she wants!
Meanwhile, Kim and her so called progressives are attempting to cut the standard-of-living of battlers and boasting that because the masses would reject them if they knew what was going on, so the trick is to get into power behind right wingers like Rudd and then impose the medicine for our own good!
This is the strange new world of the pseudo-left, still being mistaken for the genuine article that is all about standing up for the oppressed against the oppressor and being enthusiastic and positive about development.
Spiros, how mainstream do you think that Keating’s sentiments were in 1969? Women only began to enter the labour market in large numbers in Australia in the mid to late 60s… Anyway, I have to go and do some work!
Patrickm, I suggest you give up Maoism and join the “Marn Ferguson Left”. You’d fit right in.
True enough, but even in 1969 it would probably not have been difficult to find Labor Party and union members (even from the ALP Left and the Communist Party) who held similar views. The NSW Labour Day Committee held a “Miss May Day” beauty contest at the Sydney May Day Rally (with the support of the ALP Left and the more conservative pro-Soviet communists) every year until 1973 when Sydney Women’s Liberation (supported by the Eurocommunist CPA and the anarchists) stormed the stage in protest. Many a second-wave feminist who was active in that period could tell some fascinating tales about the discomfiture they caused their male comrades by articulating demands and criticisms which are part of today’s common sense.
The greenhouse denialists are descending the mountain
Just had two different birdies tell me very strongly that the election will be called tomorrow week, after the first week of parliament, with a 6 or 7 week (aaargh) campaign finishing on Oct 27 or Nov 3.
I’m inclined to believe them.
Kim,
Does the Marn Ferguson ‘Left’ support the liberation of Iraqis from the ‘lawful’ Baathist tyranny?
BTW everyone is noticing that you’ve made no mention of the substantive point I raised about the cost impact of the Garrett announcement (it’s a bit like your memory of the great progressive, Whitlam). What do you say to these people now that you know that they have just been done down by that $ amount each and every year of the possible ALP government?
Paul Norton
Do you agree with the sentiment expressed above by Spiros about hiding the truth about carbon pricing until you can get into power and then impose your policies?
Seems to me that many Greens are scared about the masses making an informed choice for themselves because in their view GW is far too important to let democracy produce the wrong result! But now that people are paying attention they are going to quickly realize that Greens want people to use less, while the masses want to use more – so dishonesty is going to be the stamp of Green politics from now on.
The Greens used to try and convince people (anyone for Ehrlich and the population bomb nonsense?) but now after forty years of being wrong every time it’s time to compel non-believers. The use of the term ‘denialist’ is the sort of tactic to be expected by such philosophical bankrupts.
Who could doubt the right-wing nature of Greens/ALP when people like Spiros openly declare the intention to conceal their politics and then impose them!
Excuse me, when did I say anything about carbon pricing?
Which, as I understand it, is a free market way of getting people to use less carbon-based stuff.
Only a Maoist could think of this as a radical left policy.
Interesting crikey article suggests that Lord Downer may be the one to do the tapping on the shoulder post APEC.
It’s certainly clear that Howard has only 2 options – call an election immediately after APEC or resign immediately after APEC. The more he delays calling an election, the more he will look as though he is scared to face the people, and every interview will begin with that question, to which there is no reasonable answer.
As I said before my money’s on him resigning. Desperation has a tendency to develop its own imperative.
i got the same mail tim…. latest rumour spinning round:
Heres some intresting reading folks.CrosbyTextor Report, via Crikey.
http://www.crikey.com.au/Media/docs/CrosbyTextorReportCompletePart1of2-0ba6a412-8ff0-49e2-b940-599e5f25c279.pdf
http://www.crikey.com.au/Media/docs/CrosbyTextorReportCompletePart2of2-9725c436-2177-4546-9e48-cac56ffa78e0.pdf
In coming weeks, expect more pork, and more ads. I have a friend who joked he’s going on holiday to evade the unavoidable wall-to-wall g’ment advertising at the moment, 2 billion dollars and counting.
“THE ubiquitous political advertising during election campaigns is set to become even more common after the broadcast watchdog today increased the cap on such marketing.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has revised the television industry code of practice to allow an extra minute of political advertising to be broadcast each hour from 6pm to midnight during election campaigns.
â??Based on the evidence provided from (public) submissions, there was no strong view that the proposed amendment would result in a lessening of community safeguards during an election period,â?? ACMA Chairman Chris Chapman said.
ACMA said the free-to-air television industry group, Free TV Australia, wanted the change to clarify existing guidelines.
Free TV Australia welcomed the decision.
‘The change should ensure that broadcasters are able to meet all requests for political advertising time during election periods,’ the body said.”
November 3rd? Excellent!
OK. Serious issue now. Why the hell don’t political advertisements run on our ABC?
I want to see these ads. How can I stay informed? The ABC are mad if they can’t tell the difference b/w commercials and agitprop.
(And don’t anybody dare to tell me that I still get to see the political campaign announcements?. The production values on those are worse than one of Howard’s youtube efforts.)
And while I’m here I demand that government advertising in all it forms (work choices, health promos etc) get aired on our ABC.
Why should I be left in the dark?
I am in stitches. Janet Albrechtsen joins the mob shrieking for a handover to Costello in tomorrow’s Gazette:
[link]
Fun times indeed.
Howard made being a conservative cool!
Murdoch is definitely running a depose Howard campaign… First Paul Kelly, now Janet. The nine pin falls…
They have well & truly jumped the shark. Unfortunately Howard is smarter than that and knows he is still a far more likely prospect than the ticklerless smirker from Higgins,
When Shanahan and Pearson join in, we’ll be able to be certain.
How would it work in practice anyway? People are fed up with the election campaign that never ends. Costello couldn’t turn it around in a month. And even if legally the election could wait til January, arrgghhh!!!! But, yeah, wbb, you’re right.
And I don’t believe Howard will go.
The GG and maybe Murdoch are obviously clutching at straws not just to avoid having to admit a Labor victory is almost certain, but also to find some sort of argument to justify voting for the Coalition…
You forgot to mention that serial flip flopper Matt Price & The Poison Dwarf Milne.
I think Shamaham is too far up David Flint’s rear end to change teams, since he gets his talknig points from him
I reckon the GG will do a reluctant “vote for the ALP” editorial like they did for the WA State Election with a veiled threat to “don’t fuck up Kevin or we’ll withdraw our support”
Milne has always been a Costello booster, though.
Notice in Albrechtsen’s article, she’s pointing the finger at Downer to clear Howard out of the way. As if he could! Though wouldn’t it be hilarious if Dolly and JHo did a deal and the GG got Dolly as leader instead of $weetie! Then we might still get the PM losing his seat!
I’ve just posted an article on “the switch” speculation so if you want to discuss it more you can take the discussion there. [link]
If Costello leads the Liberals into the election, then Kevin Rudd will surpass Neville Wran’s achievement in the 1978 NSW election, when Labor got 58 p.c. of the primary vote.
The Liberal leader in that election was Costello’s father-in-law, Peter Coleman. He lost his seat, and the Labor has held it ever since.
It’s quite an achievement for a party which was formed in 1992 to be wrong every time for forty years and to be responsible for something Paul Ehrlich wrote in 1968! Stephen Baxter and Gregory Benford have written interesting sci-fi books which explore such possibilities.
As for the substantive issue about carbon pricing, I’ve previously stated this in response to one of patrickM’s earlier missives on the topic, but it’s worth restating. The masses ultimately don’t want to consume X joules of energy and burn Y tonnes of carbon as ends in themseles. They want hot showers, cold beer, clean dry clothes, mobility and access to work, services, entertainment, etc. The point of carbon pricing and other greenhouse response measures is to drive a range of microeconomic adjustments which will ultimately enable the masses to have these things whilst consume fewer joules and burning much less carbon.
This, of course, will not stop the Maoists and other palaeo-leftists from chanting “Whaddawewant? A huge carbon footprint! Whendaweannit? Now!”
And, proceeding from the abstract to the concrete, this morning I travelled from inner-city Brisbane to work on the Gold Coast by train. Many others would have made a similar journey by drive-alone motoring. It could be deduced from patrickM’s general position that I enjoyed less utility and prosperity than one of my motorised counterparts whose commute to the coast would have generated much more greenhouse gas emissions than mine. Yet they would only have arrived a few minutes earlier, would be less relaxed after having spent 50 minutes driving at high speed in traffic, and would not have got any work or reading done (in contrast to my having used the journey time preparing for classes and mentally composing an LP post for next week).
I think it can fairly be said that most of those who, from a labourist or self-described Marxist perspective, dispute the reality of global warming or the desirability of policies to avert it end up arguing overtly for waste and inefficiency as a matter of socialist principle.
All parties are now committed to putting a price on carbon via the introduction of emissions trading.
Labor is deliberately scant on details, Howard has forward dated all relevant details until after the election – but it is safe to predict the Liberals (with or without Howard) won’t put a carbon price high enough to upset their fossil fuel industry pals (coal miners & exporters). I would predict they would go for about $10-15 per tonne. Interestingly, this would make their favoured alternative of nuclear totally uneconomic. A rough breakdown is:
$10-15 no effect
$20 gas becomes cost competitive with coal
$35 wind becomes cost competive with coal
$50-100 nuclear and CCS become cost competitive
The Greens position is that the market will set it based on the levels of the target. However, it is recognised that around $50 tonne will get renewables moving.
Garret is on a tight leash to only talk about anti nuclear (in Australia) and renewables, and to be wheeled around strategically to use his rapidly diminishing environmental cred (& musical profile) to take primaries off the Greens, as was the case in Vic in 2006.
He will say nothing negative about coal, forests, Gunns or any serious policy on climate change – this is all out of bounds of his deal the get a shadow ministry. Dirty deals, done dirt cheap.
PS: Stern put the environmental impact price of carbon emissions at $80. Of course, Howard doesn’t care to listen to esteemed economists unless they mouth his party lines of deception and coal fired fog.
The Australian Government research & modeling on carbon taxes from:
Taxation and the Environment – Carbon Taxation: an evaluation of options and outcomes
Latest Morgan. 60-40
If the election result bears any resemblance to the poll figures, the 2007 Australian Election Study will make fascinating reading.
The Ruddians are at the Reichstag.
Howard’s down to Heff and a few young libs with Panzerfausts.
Even Albrechtsen is crossing the Rhine.
Its the battle of the bulge. Next stop the bunker.
APEC could’t even make it to the top of the Brisbane News Services in Brisbane tonight and Liberal Party leadership was a long winded no 3 item by Oakes. The Liberals are in big trouble and running around in circles with Downer claiming he is getting phone calls from nervous MP’s wanting him to do something.
The following words come to mind:
Implosion, collapse, landslide, Ruddslide, bloodbath, killing spree, devastation, decimation, desolation, slaughter, trouncing, crushing defeat, wasteland, decisive blow, ruin, defeat, failure, clean sweep, futility, wash-out, impotence, bankruptcy, checkmate, beating, drubbing, hiding, rout, licking, thrashing, debacle, Waterloo, annihilation, stampede, downfall, wreck, graveyard, hopeless outcome, perdition, limbo, purgatory, damnation, lost cause, void, abyss, deathblow, dead in the water, floating corpses, dead men walking, extinction, carnage, collateral damage, bloodletting, uphill battle, plague, Sisyphean task, impossibility, stress factor, armageddon, holocaust, firestorm, catastrophe, perplexity, impasse, doom, shutdown, undoing, demolition, crushing, wipe-out, adversity, shipwreck, sinking ship, apocalypse, blitzkrieg, cataclysm, dissolution, curtains, swan-song, end-times, lemmings, knock-out, cliff edge, final trumpet, Judgment Day.
A Tribute to Lexy Downer by John Cooper Clarke
Like a nightclub in the morning, you’re the bitter end.
Like a recently disinfected shit-house, you’re clean round the bend.
You give me the horrors too bad to be true
All of my tomorrows are lousy coz of you.
You put the Shat in Shatter
Put the Pain in Spain
Your germs are splattered about
Your face is just a stain
You’re certainly no raver, commonly known as a drag.
Do us all a favour, here... wear this polythene bag.
You’re like a dose of scabies,
I’ve got you under my skin.
You make life a fairy tale... Grimm!
People mention murder, the moment you arrive.
I’d consider killing you if I thought you were alive.
You’ve got this slippery quality, it makes me think of phlegm,
And a dual personality: I hate both of them.
Your bad breath, vamps disease, destruction, and decay.
Please, please, please, please, take yourself away.
Like a death a birthday party,
you ruin all the fun.
Like a sucked and spat our smartie,
you’re no use to anyone.
Like the shadow of the guillotine
on a dead consumptive’s face.
Speaking as an outsider,
what do you think of the human race?
You went to a progressive psychiatrist.
He recommended suicide...
before scratching your bad name off his list,
and pointing the way outside.
You hear laughter breaking through, it makes you want to fart.
You’re heading for a breakdown,
better pull yourself apart.
Your dirty name gets passed about when something goes amiss.
Your attitudes are platitudes,
just make me wanna piss.
What kind of creature bore you
Was is some kind of bat
They can’t find a good word for you,
but I can...
TWAT.
Yep a House of Reps poll and a Morgan Senate Poll, Silkwood.
Latest work from Possum Pollytics
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22370606-11949,00.html
& welfare to work anyone??
http://blogs.theaustralian.news.com.au/meganomics/index.php/theaustralian/comments/battlers_who_will_shape_the_poll/P50
regional seats like dobell with 19% single parent families, page 18.8%, blair 17.9%
whichever way you look – it’s payback
Howard tipped to call October 27th Poll next week.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22382270-601,00.html
Zarquon:
How undignified! What an unkind post to put up about the man most likely to be our prime munister next week.
Jo:
Payback indeed …. but how will the economy recover from from the destruction of productivity caused by WorkJoyses and all the other economic tomfoolery of the Howard regime? Labor hasn’t announced setting up a Department of Economic Recovery or anything else to get us out of plummeting further into third-world status.
The Liberal-Nationals’ underhand nastiness towards widows, divorcees and those struggling alone to raise a family might have made the boofheads feel smug and powerful but the electoral payback of these bullies will be well-deserved.
Everyone:
If an outrageous stunt doesn’t delay the election ….
My guess is for
[a] A massive Labor majority [so we'll have a young conservative government - with economic competence for a change].
[b] A rather small opposition made up of Australian Democrats, Greens, New United Australia [or whatever the rump of the Liberals-Nationals call themselves], a few minority party and independents [ex-Liberals, Hanson, Fishing Party, etc.] as well as the religious fanatics [why should the Israeli Knesset have all the fun - we too can have MPs whose every vote on bills is ordered from Heaven].
Minor matter of political interest. Pauline Hanson’s new party is called the United Australias Party. Shades of 1934.
I’ve just posted by snail mail the latest IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM THE PRIME MINISTER back to him at Kirribilli House,Australia, (just in case some-one sent it to Austria) unopened.
No message from this PM is important.
And its probably full of half-truths or lies anyway.
“Latest work from Possum Pollytics”
If you haven’t got time to read it all go to the conclusion.
Yep, that’s why I quoted the conclusion in my post about it.
http://larvatusprodeo.net/2007/09/08/from-the-twilight-world-of-the-blogs/
If you do have time, it’s worth it.
Paul Burns:
That Pauline Hanson has actually got her party registered in time for an election is amazing. Many were expecting a swag of dirty tricks to prevent it getting registered and heaps of vexatious appeals to prevent it staying registered.
Westpoll: 51.6-48.4 to Labor in WA via Poll Bludger.
http://www.pollbludger.com/566
Everyone:
Howard says he is going to contest the election. He is ignoring what happened to McMahon in 1972.
Wonder which parties will pick up all the talented and the wealthy Liberals and Nationals supporters afterwards? Australian Democrats, Labor, which?
Dolly brags about his modesty:
Perhaps at Dolly’s next press conference the Agence France Presse correspondent might ask a question in French that would allow Dolly to demonstrate his savoir faire.
Re the discussions above on Senate outcomes, Morgan has released a new Senate polling aggregate last Friday.
Once again, it all depends on the fall of preferences, and we have to have the regular caveat of Senate polling being notoriously unreliable, but it’s looking good for at least 2 States going 3ALP plus one Grn / Dem. TAS, VIC, NSW, QLD and SA could all fall that way.
Note, also, that there’s no numbers on the ACT coz too small a sample size.
Another workchoices report out.
Graham,
Vexatious appeals etc to Hanson’s United Australia Party might have been expected, and undoubtedly up in Queensland, you’ve got a much better idea of what was going on there. But I think the major political parties, who presumably were likely to be the appellants, couldn’t be seen to be subverting democracy so obviously in an election year. They probably also made a judgement she wasn’t going to get many votes any way.
Are my assumptions correct?
Costello wouldn’t take the poisoned chalice in any case. His political career has largely stalled and losing and election would terminate it.
Nor would Howard give him the chance – he doesn’t like Costello and loves the job too much.
Looks like the captain will go down with his ship, rats and all.
NSW housing repossessions increase with interest rate rises.
How’s Lexie’s form in the “Stuff duty-of-care, it’s all about me” stakes?:
“Mr Downer cancelled a dinner with the Indonesian President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, to return to Adelaide last night for his birthday drinks. He was expected to chat with the Finance Minister, the fellow South Australian Nick Minchin.”
http://www.smh.com.au/news/apec/howard-poll-panic/2007/09/09/1189276546261.html?page=2
What could they possibly have to chat about, apart from them both having forebears who headed up the other Adelaide Zoo, not the liberal party organisational branch?
Wouldn’t it be fantastic if Lexie has a terminal dose of tickets on himself, and reckons he can be head prefect, and looking at numbers?
In this fantasy, Howard, (“who befriended the then 32-year-old newly elected member for the South Australian seat of Mayo in 1985. Today, it is the 55-year-old Downer and not Costello, as one might expect, to whom Howard turns for political advice.”), anoints Lexie, passes over Pete. Then we’d have some real blood sport, Downer v Rudd.
Lexie, with all those personal scores of humiliation at Kev’s hand, (as he practised his preferred PM schtick as preferred Foreign Minister), can be relied on to not let decency or dignity stand in his way. He has nothing to lose, he will get every bit of dirt out pre-election. That’s a good thing, we don’t want a year of the gallery flogging “why weren’t we told?” stories, there’s work to be done.
And Kev will get the real trial by fire we need to see him go through, to see if he is just an eggman, or whether we can have some confidence in him having the right toughstuff (beyond the up-to-now retail version of his bullying media and public servants and staff). Burkegate, Anzac Day, Therese’s businesses, Scores…all fairy floss compared to the conflict resolution actual prime minister’s have to deliver.
This country needs a real leader, and Lexie might finally do the country a service by bringing out the leader in Kev, get beyond the stage management to his primative animus, (per “animus tamen omnia vincit”, Ovid, ).
Have a look at youtubes of Howard’s (v Keating) fulminations across the parliamentary tabletop battlefield, you’ll see the energy that has sustained him all these years in it’s essential form: a fight for personal and tribal survival against a well matched opponent.
Seen that in Kev yet? At AWB, a bit, his finest hour so far. Not being afraid to bring out the putonghua stilletto at APEC gave a glimpse.
But facing an old man as opponent he is inhibited. He needs to be picked on by someone his own age. Like Lexie.
Paul Burns [at 11.04am]:
I would expect appeals against Hanson’s party registration to come from agents for the major parties, with funny names and nebulous backgrounds and dubious membership lists, Homes For Homeless Homing Pigeons Society, Land Rghts For Gay Whales Coalition, etc., etc. You are right; the major parties wouldn’t be scared to be seen attacking her. She is still incredibly popular [I personally think she wasn't particularly great but then not all that bad as an MHR; darned sight better than some of the thick-as-a-brick duds inflicted on the electorate by party apparatchniks]. The other ones who will interfere with our clumsy party registration process are foreign commercial interests pretending to “fight Racism” through their surrogates here. [don't get me wrong, I myself abhor Racism].
No. Hanson will get a lot of votes. In the Reps election, that would certainly get her a seat and that would add some curry to the next Parliament. However, by running for the Senate, she might just stop Andrew Bartlett [Aust.Democrats] getting re-elected and stop a Greens Senator getting elected without getting elected herself …. and we will be stuck with Labor yes-men and the relics and ghosts of the soon-to-be defunct Liberals and Nationals; six years of putting up with political oxygen-wasters is a hell of a price for the electrate to pay!!!!!
Everyone:
Red Herring Alert.Wonder if Peter Beattie’s resignation is to: [a] Get medical treatment? [b] Leap into the corporate world with a seven-figure renumeration package? [c] Leap into federal politics? [d] Actually retire to enjoy the Queensland lifestyle while he is still young enough?
((my 3;38pm post: please change my remarks about major parties’ involvement from “wouldn’t’ to “would”.))
Graham,
The impression we get down south is she’s a bit of an also ran. Even the Packer apparatchniks on the Today show were sooling into her a week or two ago and got such a fierce negative public reaction they had to apologise the next morning. So I see what you mean by her still being popular.
With many commenters here and elsewhere so certain of a Labor victory why are so many ALPZ joining the ranks of the politically naive and calling or wildly hinting for Howard’s resignation?
With both the Liberal commentariat, and ALPers calling for Howard’s resignation, or wildly hinting they have the political nous that Howard lacks – resigning at the top of their game – it seems to me that Howard is still the main threat to an ALP victory and the idea that Costello has more chance of winning than Howard is shown to be wrong.
There is a huge difference between a state Premier resigning so that they can move on to more challenging things but for a PM there is no such imperative to seek more challenges as they just keep coming on a world stage thick and fast.
Howard ought not and will not resign. This is not the only instance where the contradictions are evident and electors are savvy – they are sick of fear campaigns which both sides are currently frantically engaged in and so whichever side can be the most positive and decisive has a world to win IMV.
My estimates for the election called dates (issue of writs) and election date are:
Called Sept 11 (today) for Oct 20 election
Called Sept 18 for Oct 27 election
Called Sept 25 for Nov 3 election
Called Oct 2 for Nov 10 election
Called Oct 9 for Nov 17 election