DogfightAtBankstown

blog lite

For the next week or so as I attend to urgent family business.

my way or the highway

Vaile gawn. I love how family is important all of a sudden - don't get me wrong, it always is. But not important enough for the rest of us to have the possibility of the odd day where we are all not working and can get together.  While I think Costello will do a runner mid-term and go work for Macquarie Bank or somewhere with the big bucks, I am not sure what Vaile's long term future would be.

And forget who will replace him.  I am not even sure it is worth having a National Party anymore.  I am wondering if Rudd will do a Rann and invite a National into the ministry - even in a junior capacity - and totally demoralize the Coalition.

As for the Liberals, Turnbull, Abbott and Nelson have put their hands up for leader.  Downer has declined.  Must be hard to roll up your sleeves for some serious rebuilding after years as Howard's devotee and Foreign Minister.  If the Liberals elect Turnbull then boy, that will be a long time in the wilderness.  And all that Howard mantra about experience goes out the window.  Abbott?  Glen Milne will be either miffed or chuffed - he had him down and out a few days back.  Did Abbott really say he had people skills?  Can you imagine Abbott trying to negotiate with say, a Yudhoyono?  And that pretender Nelson? 

As I have said before, whoever lost this election was in for some serious wildnerness but the Coalition looks like it's going to perish in a desert.  Things may settle in coming weeks, but it is funny how much the Coalition revolved around Howard.  It reminds me again of former Senator Robert Hill's statement during the 2004 election campaign about "what a good investment" the Liberal Party had made in Howard, and the impression that left me: a rather complacent front bench which was happy to let Howard play presidential politics.  With the only rumblings coming, as Beazley predicted, from the backbench once they won control of the Senate. 

And given Howard seems to have taken full responsibility for the Coalition's loss, and other Liberals like Minchin are sharpening the knives for Howard, it seems Shanahan was right in April-May 2005, even if Howard lacked a bit of self-awareness back then:

In extraordinarily provocative comments in Athens at the end of his two-week overseas trip, Howard has declared his ability to beat Beazley at the next election.

It's the first sign of real hubris from Howard, who has avoided making any predictions about his opponents and chances in the past.

There's the smell of an arrogant Prime Minister at the end of a world tour about these comments.

***

On the other side of politics (bit like the other side of double sided tape these days) Clare Martin and her deputy in the Northern Territory have resigned.  I am not up on Territory politics to know what is really behind that. Surely there must be more to it then the federal government intervention in Aboriginal communities and a tough six months?

vale matt price

HIGHLY respected and much loved journalist for The Australian Matt Price has died aged 45.  Price was diagnosed with brain tumours in September.

The editor in chief of The Australian, Chris Mitchell, said today: “Matt’s colleagues at The Australian, at News Limited and in the wider media and political community are devastated at the news of his death.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife Sue and his children. We will really miss our brilliant parliamentary sketch writer.  Matt was one of a kind. He was prolific and just as happy writing political commentary, as magazine profiles or Australian football and rock reviews.  We will miss his conversation, sense of humour, humanity, good nature, positive outlook and wonderfully amusing take on the life of the body politic.”

Besides his print work for The Australian newspaper, Price was also an extremely popular blogger on the paper's website.

He was also a frequent guest on the Insiders television program which runs on the ABC.

In 2003 he wrote a book on the Fremantle Dockers, a team which he passionately supported.

He leaves behind his wife Sue and their three children.

Leave your tributes to Matt Price here.

 

Shocked. Sad.

what the?

OK, I couldn't imagine Howard hanging around as Opposition Leader even if he hung on to his seat. Kind of not the sort of thing a former PM would do.  And given the part of the speech I heard by Costello last night before the channels cut to Howard's concession speech, along with Howard's own endorsement of Costello whom he expected to be selected unopposed (i.e. no handover) but which sounded quite genuine for once in the context of how much he "loved" the Liberal Party - I thought, yep it's a straight to Costello.  But in the back of my mind, I wondered if Costello would lead given that he has never had the numbers and he also has a chance of being toppled before the next election. 

Remember the deal with Downer?

Well it gets better.

Costello will not be standing for leader or deputy leader of the Liberals.  And while he is indicating he is going to continue representing Higgins, it sounds as if Costello will be the one retiring sometime mid-term.  And the god-awful Turnbull will challenge.

Will Downer do what Costello did to him and wait to pounce?  Will he decided to retire too?  Who else is there? Abbott (auugh!)  Ruddock (does he have the ticker)?  And please let me not even hear the name Pyne, not even for Deputy.

Was this really for family? For Australia?  Or has this really been all about power.

Are the Liberals, indeed the Coalition, going to go into free fall?

blogging the tally

So I promised myself I wouldn't. But I did.

Switched on to election coverage just as Channel 7 are calling doom and gloom for John Howard in Bennelong with 12% counted. I wouldn't be too happy about that yet.  Good grief Plibersek looks groomed.  Kelly looks exhausted and what on earth is on her ears?

Just switching to the ABC, 11.8% counted [in Bennelong], swing against Howard of 6.6% with Labor 46% primary with preferences putting them over the line. Nick Minchin says Howard is holding his primary but the shift to Labor - some 10% - is coming from the Greens. While it is early, he's not jumping for joy.  Gillard has had a hair cut and highlights and an iron applied to her hair. 

Oooh Top Gear is on SBS...do I stop to watch the fastest, most expensive road car the world has ever seen. Race against a couple of mopeds and a light airplane.  To deliver mummified testicles from Alba to London.  Jeremy is in ecstasy.  OK an election update, AEC says swing of 4.9% swing to Labor, with Eden-Monaro leaning towards Labor and Howard under pressure in Bennelong.

Oooh, does Channel 9 still exists.  So does Ray Martin's hairpiece.  Swan talking of needing at least 6 seats in Queensland but happy about the swing in NSW.  Ooo SA gets a look in.  Makin is showing 51.2% primary for Labor with 7.1% swing.  Labor well ahead in Kingston, they're calling it for Labor with a swing for 3%.  Wakefield also showing 5.9% swing for Labor and a Labor gain.  Pyne - Costello's best mate - is under pressure in Sturt.

Postal votes, postal votes. All the Liberals are talking postal votes.  Already. This early.  And a lot of people saying it may come down to what happens in W.A.

19.45 - 20.00 CDST
Channel 9 is putting Bass, Bennelong Deakin, Dobell, Eden-Monaro, La Trobe?, Lindsay, Makin and one more, Page, Parramatta, Sturt?, Wakefield in the shredder for the Coalition.

Channel 7, the avuncular Joe who looks safe in his seat.  And I just heard Turnbull will keep his.  And Bob Hawke has claimed Labor victory, just a question of the margin.

On the ABC, Anthony is calling 14 for Labor, and tracking towards 20, no Labor seats under threat with a 5% swing.  Kate Lundy also looking groomed. I think Rudd has demanded all the girls paint their faces and starch their hair.  Howard is plodding along in Bennelong, and again the mention of the (record) postal votes etc.  The question being discussed: what happens if Howard keeps his seat and the Coalition loses. Will he stay as Opposition Leader.  No one is conceding or thinking about it.  Now 34.8% counted with small percentage of Queensland. ALP with 71 and   Liberals 47 Nationals 10 Others 2.  First prediction of the night: 82 seats to Labor with majority of 14 seats.  What happens in Queensland will tell us if WA will matter.

On SBS, Jeremy is now salivating over the interior of the car whose model I don't know, because I missed it.  He's telling me the stalks of aluminium and magnesium cost 4500 pounds each (I am looking madly for the pound symbol on the keyboard).  He's been overtaken by Maverick and Iceman in the air so no more coffee breaks for him.  Hmm, did he say Volkswagen...?

Channel 10 has someone asleep on ice.  Oh, its Luke Skywalker.  B-e-e-e-e-n, come back.

Over to Channel 9 just in time to see the Laurie Oakes announce a 16% swing to Labor in Bennelong and claiming it would be very hard for Howard to pull back from that.  Postal votes!  What about the postal votes! Why hasn't anyone mentioned pre-poll and postal votes? But Labor scrutineers are a bit muted and not calling it.  Finally, a mention of postal votes! 46% of vote counted in Bennelong, and Howard is behind, and more mention of postal votes, massive postal votes for the Coalition.  But Howard is 900 behind on the primary votes, with preferences, that's 2000 behind.  Not comfortable and relaxed at this stage of the count.

20.06 CDST
Channel 9 again - has graphics claiming "Kevin Rudd wins election!" Helen Coonan (who as Communications Minister, with her bleached hair, lippy and breathy voice, always struck me as the perfect media tart) wants to wait for North Queensland and NT.

20.09 CDST
Tanya and Joe are squabbling on Channel 7.  Kochie is announcing that Howard has likely lost his seat with 58% counted and a uniform swing across all booths, and lost the election.  Kennett is saying with 2% behind, Bennelong will hard to regain.  Joyce, says Howard was unselfish by campaigning in other seats and neglecting his own. He's such a cad.  But now it is almost impossible to hear Beattie speak praising McKew's campaign with all the clapping and cheering in the background.

20.17 CDST
The ABC is interviewing the current sitting member for Bass, Liberal MP, Michael Ferguson.  He is not conceding Bass by channelling Rudd -voice, head nod...throw in some hands and bingo.  Ooo South Australia: Southcott will probably retain Boothby, with primary vote to Labor going backwards despite a 3% swing to Labor (don't ask but that's what you get when Nicole Cornes is your candidate).

20.22 CDST
For Troppodillians: Jacques Chester has got 0.6% of the vote at Solomon.

20.30 CDST
SBS's election update has Janice Pedersen - all lonely now that Kostakidis and Grant have left - reporting a 5.5% swing to Labor,  and calling 77 seats to Labor, 55 to Coalition at this stage, with Bennelong too close to call.  This gets interesting if Howard is out and Turnbull remains in.  Don't even think about it.   

20.33 CDST
Luke Skywalker is retrieving R2D2 from a foggy swamp.  It's been years since I saw the last rerun and it's strange just how dated Star Wars looks now. Not only that, the acting is appalling and the dialogue is positively corny.   But the  Darth Vader theme is good.

20.38 CDST
On Channel 7, no-one on the Liberal side is conceding Bennelong.  It may go down to the... postal votes!!!  And WA numbers are just coming in.  And I'm really bored.  And Pyne might just hold on in Sturt.  And it's postal votes!  Even Beattie is making jokes about postal votes.  Plibersek is calling it.  "I really really hope so."  The avuncular Joe is teary.  He has to sack 20 staff (well maybe that's counting a few colleague's staff because Joe looks like he's won his seat, and if he has 20 staff, he should be sacked.  But you know, it's called WorkChoices.  Operational requirements: you're sacked.)

20.47 CDST
Downer is refusing to speak to the media. Plibersek says he's always been a bit of a sook.  Hockey is defending him and his colleagues.  It's devastating, he says.  The margin.  No, looks like Aussies lost their sense of humour. Plibersek offers sympathy, gets teary herself.   And Bennelong is bouncing back for Howard.

20.56 CDST
Maxine McKew has entered her staging post and it's a din. Will she claim victory?  What about those postal votes.  Oh gosh if Howard has to concede his seat if not the election, will he break down and cry?  Kezza sounds a bit choked.

Nope, she's called Bennelong a knife edge and everyone has gone silent.

Too much lippie Maxine.  The lady of the house recommends that you blot before, not suck while you speak.  And thank God the sound just went because she then went on into the most stupid, pointless speech.  Kevin Rudd, a prime-minister for children?

21.16 CDST
Just wondered out, wondered back. The Australian has called it for Labor and Bob Brown is on the ABC talking up the support for the Greens although Tony reminds him Labor has benefited and they support the pulp mill.  Brown is now saying that he expects Labor to change their minds on the pulp mill.  And something else except that I am thinking about how I dislike the Greens more each time I hear Bob Brown speak.

21.27 CDST
I'm looking at the Senate results in the AEC's virtual tally room. 34.18% counted in S.A. and it looks like our resident prankster independent has made quota, and even the DLP is doing better than the Democrats.

21.58 CDST
I haven't had dinner, so I am eating a peach. It's so yummy I think I will have another.

I'm watching Costello speak. This is no dignified Mal Brough concession; he's rather chirpy despite looking exhausted.  And he is thanking everyone. Wonderful, wonderful. Thanks his family. This is Costello at his warmest and most human.  Now he gets serious. No analysis from him tonight - the party leaders will speak. Refers later to doing analysis over night. He wants to speak to all his colleagues - thank those losing, speak to others of their future.  Thanks Higgins for re-electing him, and now makes his bid. Explaining what he thinks the Liberal Party stands for and what sort of future he wants for Australia. Whoah, he's just giving a vision thing.  That my friends, may just have been Costello signifying he's going for the leadership now.  Except we are cutting to Howard.

22.08 CDST
Look no matter how much you dislike Howard, or the Coalition, to jeer and swear at him during his concession speech is beyond juvenile, it's uncivil, even disgusting.  Someone get those hecklers out.

OK that speech was quite long as it should be for one who has held office so long and someone will report it tomorrow.  Reiterating his record and that he is handing over a nation that is prouder, stronger and more prosperous.

Thanks to staff, family and all.  Accepting full responsibility for the defeat. Somewhere in there was some sort of pointer to Costello.  And I think that may have been a signal that Howard will retire much sooner instead of later. Like even tomorrow.  He may now just want to lose his seat. 

There'll be plenty of time to make plenty of speeches and pontificate on the lucrative U.S. speaking circuit.

You know, when I voted this morning, my local polling station was quite busy - it was such a beautiful day that I think everyone just wanted vote and get out and enjoy the sun.  There was the usual mish mash of people from my neighbourhood: from indigenous Aussies to the newest arrivals from Sudan, Iran and Iraq, and everyone in between, all standing in a lazy, line. Chatting, laughing.  The volunteers handing out leaflets and how to vote cards were crushed together in a small spot near the entrance to a school gymnasium but were chirpy and joked with each other.  A pleasant calm atmosphere, almost like a carnival. But no cupcakes!   

There were only two free booths when I got my papers, and there, on the cardboard base of the one I chose, someone had scrawled in pencil in a large, loping hand: Goodbye John!

Goodbye.  And goodnight.  Indeed.

she's clearing her throat...

...and she's just...starting...to...

oh one last thing

Before we run off to cast our votes.

I know that many people have been working hard on election campaigns, including one young Max Baumann who links to this blog, and is standing for an S.A. Senate seat  for the Australian Democrats. 

Good on you for having a go, but seriously, Max, pass this message along to your fellow Democrats from one voter who is totally underwhelmed by the entire SA senate ticket: don't just get rid of some of your psycho polices, get rid of your psycho women.

When it comes to the Democrats, women are your biggest liability. The days of Janine Haines are long, long gone, and you all don't just need to get over Kernot and Lees and whoever you think was a bright spark - with or without the dagger under their cloak - because they never were, and are not.  You will also need to get over Stott-Despoja.  She may speak well, but says nothing.  She's a total ideologue, having done nothing but politics all her life, and the best thing that will ever happen to you (and probably to her) is her impending retirement.   Well, it may get uncomfortable when she does the talk show rounds and dishes all the dirt on you all.  Or joins the Liberal Party or something.  But please don't clone her, much as I am sure she or most of you, probably won't object.

And what with Kernot and Evans, and Powell and Spindler (*shudder*), let's not mention that Adelaide is also a very, very, small place, so many of us know more than we want to, about people we really don't want to know about: your moral credibility needs a bit of bleach.  Yep, especially your women.

But if you want any semblance of any credibility at all, then apart from getting rid of the odious Lyn Allison, and shaking off the loony left side of your policies for starters, don't, for the love of sanity, put up candidates like that washed-out aging hippie Ruth Russell.

Please, treat your constituents as grown ups who have families, and jobs and other commitments, and who have a firmer grip on reality and real politik instead of someone who is perpetually outraged and has a lunatic desire to go and sit in a wheat silo in the middle of a war zone to find meaning in life because her grade three teacher made her sit up straight and no-one sits around the campfire singing Kumbaya anymore. 

So, don't blame anyone but yourselves, if we all kiss you good-bye in S.A. today.  OK?

oh weh

Irfan Yusuf has a dream.  But the revelations are not pretty.  How's this for an admission:

Yet Hockey will face a big battle in a NSW Division stacked with hard-line ultra-conservative religious fanatics. Actually, it’s probably an insult to genuine religion to describe them as religious. Unless, of course, you think religion is just about banning abortion, removing homosexual rights and enforcing a moratorium of the migration of nasty people who just might be tempted to tick the ‘Muslim’ box on their census forms.

One of Hockey’s closest allies is Senator Marise Payne. Both come from the Group. Both are former Presidents of the NSW Young Liberals.

When I was in the non-Group side of the Party, there was no one we were encouraged to hate more than Marise. We tried everything in our power to stop her from winning her Senate pre-selection. We spread all kinds of false innuendo and rumours about her — that she was a supporter of paedophilia, that she lobbied to reduce the age of consent for homosexual males (it varied from 14 to 4 months depending on how gullible the listener was), and so on.

Payne narrowly escaped a pre-selection challenge after Howard directly intervened. But with Howard gone, who will keep the ascendancy of the religious Right in check? Would an effective religious takeover of the Party render it unelectable?

Well an effective religious takeover of any political party by those following a religion which rewrites history, and whose politico-religious law advocates killing homosexuals, apostates and non-believers, punishing victims of rape,  special taxes for dhimmis in exchange for a semblance of freedom, strapping bombs to their one year old boys, or else marrying off nine year old girls isn't gonna get you anywhere in this country Irf. 

I thought, after all these years of living here, and despite ticking that census box, you might have worked that out.

But I can dream too you know.

P.S. Irf. We like our taqiyya with a worm. Even if it's on Channel Nine.

(via Tim Blair)

so pakistan

Has been suspended from the Commonwealth.  Fat lot of good that did last time - because Musharraf is still President - with or without coup - and still head of the army.

And fat lot of good that has done for Zimbabwe, which was suspended indefinitely, although there was significantly less Commonwealth money involved there i.e.virtually none.

Sure, I don't have problems with the suspension, but somehow, given Musharraf's track record, I frankly can't see how Musharraf will care.

lame duck

I always like reading how Australia is presented in the overseas press.  I was a bit surprised at this headline in The Times and some of the colour in the article:

It is a remarkable comedown for the big-spending populist. He is the diminutive 69-year-old who, memorably, turned the country’s SAS forces on a bunch of impoverished, ragged asylum-seekers before winning the 2001 election. He is the former solicitor who used his renowned capacity for fear-mongering to win the last election in 2004, when he mounted a scare campaign against the Labor Party’s ability to hold down interest rates. He is the hard-of-hearing grandad who prides himself on being in touch with the aspirations of ordinary Australians.

There is no single answer for John Howard’s rapidly declining popularity. Undoubtedly he has suffered poor luck. He has, however, also been the victim of his own unfortunate timing and misread the true level of support he enjoys among his colleagues. And he has stayed too long.

Ooo, we don't mention his age, his height, his hearing or his rather short lived legal career in the previous century around here.   It's strictly hair colour and ear wax only.

Then I looked at the by line: "Bernard Lagan in Sydney". Hmm local boy, or fly-in foreign correspondent? 

So I googled him.

Update: a much more perceptive analysis of party support and the election campaign from The Piping Shrike.

assume the position

The position that Labor will win the Federal Election tomorrow.

The truth be told, I don't really care if either the Coalition or Labor wins.  We will after all, get to do this all again in three years. But assume that Labor wins government for now.

My first questions without notice.

What can we expect? 

Well, not the end of the world for a start, although it might be the end of a few careers if over-excited Laborites go into an all-drinking all-dancing partying binge.

The Coalition and supporters have made a lot of noise about installing a bunch of learners in government, but frankly they would be as experienced as the Coalition was when they first won government.  I am old enough to remember some seriously bad gaffes and stumbles as the Coalition settled in.  You wan't judgment?  Remember when the Liberals were touting Bronwyn Bishop as not just ministerial but leadership material?  I doubt Howard would make the same remarks about the Paxton kids today, while simultaneously arguing he should stay in Sydney to be close to his adult kids.  Nor do I think he would change Health ministers, like changing shirts as he did for a while.  Let's not mention child care reform mark one - my local MP preferred to forget it altogether, it was such a confusing mess. One could pile up a list of policy and strategy disasters. Eventually they worked out how to pull the strings.  Eventually, even Howard got to like strutting the world stage - this from a man whose notable weakness for decades was foreign policy. 

So I expect there will be the usual period of chest-puffing and balls-ups as the incoming government finds its feet.  And as happened then, some will grow into their role in government and prove competent.  Some will just be out of their depth.  So will Rudd give his cabinet time to prove themselves before doing a little shuffling or will he reshuffle the deck as soon (and assuming) he gets in?  And has anyone thought to reconcile the current Labor opposition portfolios with Rudd's statement that he is not expecting to reorganise the public service just yet?

And will the Coalition be in a position to capitalize on that from the opposition bench, taking every chance to reduce their wilderness wonderings to an election term?  Or will they be too busy bloodletting and sitting in sackcloth and ashes?  Will Costello actually finally have the ticker to challenge?  Will Howard, assuming he retains his seat, simply quit?  Will we have an effective Opposition?

Assuming Labor wins, the first six months will be interesting given that the Senate won't change - if at all - until mid next year.  That may explain Rudd's curious list of five priorities (that and just simple poll-driven electioneering) as most would not require Senate approval but can be ticked off as underway in order to get some quick runs on the board - for those who love Kyoto and all that.  And I also expect the first budget will be cautious unless salvation will loom in July.  Indeed the Senate (where I am still having an aweful time working out how to vote) may prove the making or breaking of any incoming Labor government.  As will the willingness or otherwise of State premiers to co-operate on that blame game.  Will Labor be so quick to use the External Affairs powers or whatever else it is in the Constitution to override them at will? 

But looking further than that, and assuming the government changes hands, the question in my mind is, will Labor keep its discipline as well as keep up the work rate of its leader?  Will the loony left elements stay under control or be tempered by the realites of responsibility and government? And who will keep Rudd under control, because sometimes I reckon, he can be more ruthless than Howard.   Will they actually make an impact, changes for the better, instead of tinkering at the edges and waiting for commission reports?  Will we get the vision thang? Somehow, education revolution alone just doesn't do it for me.  Will it matter if we don't?

Can we finally sort out the Murray-Darling haggling? Will Rudd, control freak and media tart that he is (how like Howard) share the limelight with the rest of his ministers?  Will Swan get a dinner date at the Lodge?  What will Women's Weekly make of Mrs. Rudd's dress sense ?  Will they offer her a make-over? 

Will Piers Ackerman try to find himself a spot on Rove's couch?

Will we finally get to see our Governor-General?

And if the government DOESN'T change hands on Saturday, will be ever see him again?

this one

To warm FX's heart:

An online prankster has listed the prime minister's Sydney residence, Kirribilli House, for sale on an internet real estate site.

It's not the first time Kirribilli House has been the target of a bogus for-sale listing.

The latest fictitious advertisement suggests the four-bedroom abode at 111 Kirribilli Avenue will be "open for inspection - sorry open for election" this Saturday.

"Far superior to any old Lodge in Canberra, this house fits a family of five and provides the ultimate abode in which to be relaxed and comfortable," the ad says, playing on John Howard's statement before the 1996 election on his vision for Australia.

"Includes a $200,000 set of executive chairs (not from Ikea!), plans for $500,000-plus renovation of the dining room to re-enact the predicted last supper.

"Uses 28 times more water than the average Sydney household - one of few properties that can be credited for creating its own mini-drought.

"Current occupant considering a move even if a new lease is signed."

And the price? "Negotiable just like your Work Choices employment contract."

The ad, on Fairfax's Domain website, comes complete with photographs of Kirribilli's magnificent grounds and waterfront location on Sydney Harbour.

One of the shots shows a man posing outside the front entrance wearing a Kevin07 T-shirt.

It urges prospective buyers to "act now, it's only a matter of time before interest rates go up again, and again and maybe even again".

The latest fake advertisement appears to be a reworked version of one placed on Domain in September that listed Kirribilli for sale for $15.

But it's just the latest in a long line of pranks ahead of Saturday's federal election.

Update: Open inspection at Troppo, full view here, and the archive for posterity at SCTW.

you've made your peace with Hardie, Bernie

May you make your peace with God.

must be the water

Heather Mills-McCartney, who is seeking tens of millions of dollars to split from her Beatles legend husband, has denounced the world's rich as insufferable misers and snobs.

Oh do tell.

"I don't think anything can prepare you for being treated worse than a murderer or a paedophile, when all you have done in 17 years is charity work," she said, referring to her campaigns against land mines and in favour of animal rights and vegetarianism.

Well yes we heard that pity party a while ago, but excuse me if your nut-case greeny animal-rights-based vegetarianism isn't really a charity in my book, even if the animal-rights vegetarian nutcases agree.  Same goes for those Dinky Di land mines.  I kinda think people are important too.

So what's new?

"Sadly, you have to mix at a certain level of people to raise the level of funds you need to bring about the greater good," she said. "Because people are very snobby. These people who have lots of money, they're either snobby or they're stingy. If you have lots of money, you have to be stingy - because why would you want that amount of money?"

So you can copy other people with lots of money to get all the attention that they do? Plus those accountants that help you not pay tax cost money too.  Am I getting warm?

She also compared herself to human rights crusaders down through the ages, suggesting they all had been victimised for their beliefs.

Yep.

u.s.s. dreck

Yet another article in the U.S. press about pentecostal shysters in the poo.  This time Rick Godwin. 

Who's Rick Godwin? Well a matey mate of our own Hillsong - a regular speaker at Hillsong churches and conferences around the globe for years.  Google god told me all about him last year, when he was invited to Hillsong 2006.   Read about his devotion to the poor - his poor old self that is.

This particular paragraph is rather precious:

Another time, when the daughter accompanied her father to a speaking engagement in Australia last year, her flight was $15,567, a journal entry shows. It's unknown whether Godwin reimbursed the church or what role, if any, his daughter had at the event.

What bet that was Hillsong 2006?  Any journo want to check with Hillsong just what the daughter did, if anything at all?

And here's an interesting thought. Hillsong raises lots of money to hold its conferences and staffs them with unpaid volunteers.  Where does that money go apart from venue hire? Do they pay fares and fees for speakers and entourages?  Did they pay for Godwin and entourage? Just a little love offering for his sacrifice?

Is there a bit of global double dipping in this transnational lake of swill?

(H/T: reader)

don't give up your day job

Or maybe, please do. 

What a crack up. 

And how's this for Freudian slips.  Says Jackie Kelly:

"I think its intent is to be a send-up but obviously it hasn't worked," she told ABC radio.

"I think if you read it you'd be laughing. Most people who have read it have said 'That's a Chaser-style of prank'."

Well the pamphlet was only funny in that it was so juvenile - not to mention gutless.  Not scared to print the ALP logo. Too scared to print Allah Akhbar or even Allahu Akhbar, which is precisely why her husband looked like this when caught distributing the pamphlet:

Like all good appeasers, he was just showing his respect for Muslims by trying to cover his head.

Ms Kelly said the "prank" was "really immature stuff" that would not influence any voters.

I dunno honey child.  You married him.  Says a bit about your judgment.  And that of all who used to sing your praises.

She Kelly denied the pamphlets were printed in her office and said she didn't know who funded or authorised the printing.

Asked if she could guarantee no funds came from her office or the Liberal Party, she replied: "Yeah, yeah, absolutely."

"Everyone has got home printers and what not. You can do up dodgy flyers how you like. Anyone could have, even the goon squad following," she said.

That just told you who printed them and where didn't it? And you reckon cops can't check if it was your little deskjet?

Ms Kelly said she was "upset" with her husband.

"I'm a bit upset with him, but no, look I love him," she said.

And here, no doubt, is why:

"He hates the unions with a passion and after weeks and weeks of letterboxing, what gets to be boring material, of a repetitive message that we get them to letterbox all the time, they come up with their own skylarking over a few beers and think that something's funny."

Poor little poodle. Wets his pants at his party's own fear campaign.  And not only does he read junk mail, he can't find the waste bin. 

This man drills holes in people's teeth. No doubt, the drill slipped a bit once and drilled a hole in his brain.   Why else would an airhead like Kelly love the dear?

Update: Mr Howard can't dig fast enough:

"I hope we live in a society where husbands and wives... we treat them as individuals,'' he said.

"... Because her husband has done a foolish thing that should not be visited up her.''

She tried to excuse it and even blame others for planting the material. Until darling hubby 'fessed up.  And of course the errors of a husband cannot be visited upon a wife, but the errors of a wife, or more to the point, a wife's company can be visited upon a husband, even if corrected and especially if he happens to be a member of the Opposition.

And that sums up the absurdity of post-modern politics and spin in Australia.

Update: The evening news are leading with this item and labelling the pamphlet as "racist". No, it was fradulent and stupid, particularly as it came from such experienced political players. Even more stupid given Kelly's attempted defense. It used some Muslims (or perhaps the opinions of some Muslims, given the reference to our Catmeat Sheik) as a political football, but racist it was not. Islam is not a race.  And from what I can ascertain at this point, the tip-off came from a Liberal Party insider.

at the end of this article

More barbarity:

Meanwhile, horrifying new details emerged last night of the attempt by suicide bombers to kill Ms Bhutto on her return home from exile last month.

Investigators from Ms Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party said yesterday they believed the bomb, which killed 170 people and left hundreds more wounded, was strapped to a one-year-old child carried by its jihadist father.

They said the suicide bomber tried repeatedly to carry the baby to Ms Bhutto's vehicle as she drove in a late-night cavalcade through the streets of Karachi.

"At the point where the bombs exploded, Benazir Bhutto herself saw the man with the child and asked him to come closer so that she could hug or kiss the infant," investigators were reported as saying. "But someone came in between and a guard felt that the man with the child was not behaving normally. So the child was not allowed to come aboard Benazir's vehicle."

Ms Bhutto is said to have told investigators she recalls the face of the man who was carrying the infant. She has asked to see recordings made by television news channels to try to identify the man.

Some 140 people - including some 50 of Bhutto's "bodyguards" were killed - and 550 wounded.  Bhutto's "bodyguards" were comprised of poor civilians - effectively another human shield.  They too were killed along with police and other innocents. Including an unwitting one year old child.

justice

Saudi Arabia style. 

Sick.

It was extraordinary that the woman and her lawyer were even able to bring charges and get a conviction, given that a rape requires four male witnesses to be proven under sharia. No doubt here, they would have been four of the seven assailants who kidnapped her and her "unrelated male companion" and raped her.  And they must have been known or identifiable to her or her companion.  And yet, she is punished for what?  For being in the company of an unrelated male.  She and her lawyer are punished further, for what? Challenging the sentence? Supposedly talking to the media?

What is left unexplored in media reports about this case is that she is Shi'ite. The religious affiliation of her male companion is unknown. But Saudi Arabia is Sunni central.  I wonder if there is a hint here, of lynching by rape with some sectarianism thrown in for good measure.  What is obviously there in the media reports, is just another example of the draconioan Saudi legal system at work, especially for the not so oil-rich.   

Either way, the sad reality is this: whenever you hear a Muslim cleric talk of justice, do not assume that their concept of justice is necessarily anywhere near the same as your own. 

the stuff of movies

Except this was real life cops and robbers:

HAVING stolen $2 million, the thieves handcuffed the Australian pilots to a mangrove in a Papua New Guinea swamp as the tide rose, and covered their faces with mud.

"That was so their white skin could not be seen from the air," Senior Inspector Reuben Giusu told the Herald yesterday.

Two armed security guards hijacked their light aircraft in mid-flight to steal money being delivered to an isolated bank branch.

The robbers forced the plane down on a disused World War II airstrip on Fishermens Island, a few minutes flying time from Port Moresby, but the Australians were able to activate a distress signal.

Air traffic controllers at Port Moresby's Jacksons Airport had also noticed the plane was not following its planned course, and contacted police, who began an aerial search.

Quick thinking by the Aussie pilots and fast action by controllers and police on the ground led to their rescue - and the capture of two of the robbers, the third being shot dead.   I like this cop's attitude:

Two men branded as "masterminds" are still being hunted. They were believed to have fled Fishermens Island.

"We know who they are already - we know their identities," Senior Inspector Giusu said. "Don't worry, we'll get them."

And yes, the money - 5 million kina ($2 million) - was recovered.

Other details here.

ooga booga

Helen reminds us of what those terrible unions can do. 

(And no, I am not a member of a union in case you're wondering).

like we didn't know

What a bunch of pre-pubescent cowards they are:

Britain’s contemporary artists are fêted around the world for their willingness to shock but fear is preventing them from tackling Islamic fundamentalism. Grayson Perry, the cross-dressing potter, Turner Prize winner and former Times columnist, said that he had consciously avoided commenting on radical Islam in his otherwise highly provocative body of work because of the threat of reprisals.

Perry also believes that many of his fellow visual artists have also ducked the issue, and one leading British gallery director told The Times that few major venues would be prepared to show potentially inflammatory works.

“I’ve censored myself,” Perry said at a discussion on art and politics organised by the Art Fund. “The reason I haven’t gone all out attacking Islamism in my art is because I feel real fear that someone will slit my throat.”

Perry’s highly decorated pots can sell for more than £50,000 and often feature sex, violence and childhood motifs. One work depicted a teddy bear being born from a penis as the Virgin Mary. “I’m interested in religion and I’ve made a lot of pieces about it,” he said. “With other targets you’ve got a better idea of who they are but Islamism is very amorphous. You don’t know what the threshold is. Even what seems an innocuous image might trigger off a really violent reaction so I just play safe all the time.”

Mind you, if his art about Islam were to be as "inspiring" or "insightful" as the rest of his stuff, why would anyone bother to react other than to recommend he try super absorbent Huggies and a bar of soap.

hah

You call that a straitjacket?

free range rodents

Nothing like a vegan.

world loving

Reuters has a new blog, FaithWorld, where Reuters reporters follow religion news, and stories behind the news, and trends in faith and ethics. 

Today Tom Henegan writes:

The Daily Telegraph had a fascinating scoop over the weekend — Professor Ian Wilmut, the creator of Dolly the cloned sheep, has abandoned the therapeutic cloning method for a new way to create stem cells without an embryo. In classic Fleet Street style, the London daily announced in the second paragraph that the decision “will send shockwaves through the scientific establishment.” It took another 16 paras to get to other constituencies for this story, who are mentioned in passing in the line that “there is an intense search for alternatives because of pressure from the pro-life lobby, the opposition of President George W Bush and ever present concerns about cloning babies.”

That doesn’t take away from their scoop in any way — it is primarily a science story, written by their science editor Roger Highfield, and it’s a good one. But this second angle is of enormous importance to many readers out there who have moral scruples about embryonic stem cell research.

The Daily Telegraph article is worth a read, and Heneghan's questions are also worth considering.   

But there are two things people seem to always forget when discussing stem cell research, cloning and related medical issues. 

Firstly, regarding stem cell research, most (if not all) of the useful scientific breakthroughs to date, have come from adult stem cell research, which does not require the creation or destruction of human embryos.

Secondly, people - usually the same ones that wear T-shirts - don't seem to mind supporting the sorts of medical procedures and research which reduce women to nothing more than egg factories and wombs-for-rent. When it comes to ebryonic stem cells, even

...cloning is still too wasteful of precious human eggs, which are in great demand for fertility treatments, to consider for creating embryonic stem cells. "It is a nice success but a bit limited," commented Prof Wilmut. "Given the low efficiency, you wonder just how long nuclear transfer will have a useful life."

I don't see Kerry Nettle wearing her t-shirt over that.   Or maybe that's what she meant to say: her ovaries are anyone's but Abbott's (writing that alone is enough to make me want to throw up).

Now broaden your horizons even further, and consider other factors which at first seem unrelated although even the oh-so-liberated French government has noticed the link: marriage, family, children.  You want marriage which is not between man and woman?  Guess what comes next?

Start putting it all together and soon you will get something like this:

In order to prevent or cure disease and illness under the noble aim of preserving human life, you advocate destroying life: making babies commodities, women egg factories and wombs for hire, and men either sperm factories or just obsolete.

In order to assist those who would normally have the biological possibility of having children naturally together, but can't because of infertility (still not well understood), disease (e.g cancer) or just natural reasons (e.g. menopause) under the noble aim of creating human life, you advocate destroying life:  making babies commodities, women egg factories and wombs for hire and men either sperm factories or just obsolete.  And here, the life of a child is no longer a gift, to be received graciously and celebrated, but a demand and a right, usually to order.

In order to let those who will never have the biological possibility of having children naturally together - the man-man, woman-woman couples - you advocate destroying life:  making babies commodities, women factories and wombs for hire, and men either sperm factories or just obsolete.  Again a demand and a right, to order, to fulfil some false notion of marriage as self-actualization.

And of course, in order to let those who refuse to take responsibility for their own actions, or find their own biology functions as it should, but at a rather inconvenient or embarassing juncture in your life, or that your child doesn't meet your specifications, you advocate destroying life: abortion.

(Update: did I forget to add, that when it gets too hard, you have a right to get someone to kill you off "with dignity" and well sometimes, someone else will make that decision for you or for your child, whether you like it or not.  But you are allowed to bleat about the death penalty for murderers of course.)

Keep going, it's not that hard.  And soon you will notice the tangled web which Pope John Paul II so aptly called, a "culture of death".

It's also a culture of mass confusion and endless legalities: biological impossibilities  like two mothers, the death of mothers and fathers alltogether -they're just progenitors. Oh wait.   

And when factory delivers more than you ordered, you move states and sue.

I just call it cognitive dissonance on a massive scale.  Or simply mass suicide.  If not that, almost sub-human.

People are rightly sickened by stories of parents who starve their children to death, murder them to get back at their partners, men who beat their wives, or objectify women, women who neglect their children or are misandrists  They deplore such attitudes and behaviour.  Loudly.

But if you kill them softly, somewhere in a petri dish, or in a womb, where no one can see, and preferably in the name of the god of self and science, no one hears a scream.

Except God that is.

Update: The politics of stem-cell research in the U.S., an article  which not only notes Wilmuts back track, but another breakthrough: direct reprogramming of ordinary cells, reported in more detail here. 

four more sleeps

And the sh*tstorm is on. 

Protect your ear wax: disarm your phones.

From The Daily Flute

odyssey

Into Ethiopia

Eliza Codex 17 - Gospel of John; Horologium of Abba Giyorgis
for the night hours, incomplete - 16th and 18th centuries (composite)

I was reading about Ethiopic Church Orders recently (don't ask) and thinking, I should finish a post I started ages ago about the fascinating Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and the famous pilgrimage site at Lalibela.  So what do I do? Read my favourite blogs and find some fabulous images from mostly 20th century Ethiopian manuscripts, in the treasure box that is Bibliodyssey (now also a book!). 

well

Did he?

because

Anything that makes Tom Cruise look like the washed-up B-grade buffoon that he really is, is a good thing.

whoah

Talk about mixed messages.

On Saturday I thought things must be grim if even Dennis Shanahan, The Australian's political editor, had dropped the Iraqi Information Minister routine: two days earlier, he turned a maggot inching towards a big black hole, into a mighty march towards a ride on top of the sheeps' back for the Coalition. But on Saturday, he had run out of silver-lining to place over that yawning black hole of defeat:

Rudd on course for victory

JOHN Howard enters the final week of his last campaign facing defeat as Kevin Rudd and Labor hold their election-winning lead in key marginal seats.

According to the latest Newspoll survey, covering both parties' election launches this week, the Coalition has failed to peg back Labor's lead in the Government's 18 most marginal seats in NSW, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia.

On primary votes in the 18 seats, Labor extended its lead in the past two weeks to five points -- 47 per cent to the Coalition's 42per cent -- to give the ALP a two-party preferred lead of 54 per cent to 46 per cent.

To be even competitive, the Government has to pull back at least two or three percentage points in the final week of the election campaign.

The survey of marginal seats is in keeping with all the national polling in recent months, which has shown a consistent eight-point lead for Labor.

If the swing recorded in the Newspoll survey -- the biggest of the campaign to date, after canvassing 3615 voters between Monday and Thursday -- is uniform in the marginal seats and across-the-board in the four states, the Coalition would lose between 18 and 28 seats.

Labor has to make a net gain of at least 16 seats to take government next Saturday. But Kevin Rudd refused to take anything for granted yesterday, urging all Labor candidates to "get out there" and campaign every hour up to the close of polls.

Indeed, he wrote elsewhere on Saturday, the Coalition is clutching straw, having dropped off the sheep all together.  Their best hope is that they'll wake up to find it's all been a bad dream:

John Howard only has one chance left to retain government: the published polls are wrong.

Well, not necessarily wrong, just showing an undeniable general swing to Kevin Rudd and Labor that won't be reflected next Saturday in the marginal seats.

It's a scenario that has kept the Liberals hopeful and disciplined in circumstances where they could be excused for a complete panic and shambles.

It's a scenario that takes another beating from today's Newspoll survey, showing swings in the 18 most marginal Coalition seats no better than the general polls, which have shown a consistent Labor lead of 8-10 points on a two-party-preferred basis all year.

Yet party officials on both sides, federal and state, insist the contest remains close and the election will be tight.

This defies logic and the published polls. How could a contest that has been poles apart ever since Rudd became leader of the Labor Party become tight overnight on November 23?

The answer from the insiders is that the published polling, such as today's extrapolation in Victoria showing a loss of six seats, simply doesn't take the local factors into account.

The common words to describing the party polling in individual seats are perplexing and weird. It's difficult to tell what's happening from day to day except for a clear and strong swing to Labor and record approval for Rudd.

In the atmosphere of a benign dismissal, Coalition and Labor officials are finding it difficult to say with certainty what's going to happen -- notwithstanding the consistent indication of a landslide to Labor. The only answer they can give is that if there's a landslide, the marginals don't count because they'll all be marginal. But in the case of a tight election, which has historically been the case in Australia, particularly at times of strong economic growth, then each marginal will count, seat by seat. It just looks pretty lame when you put it next to marginal polling that's no different to the national polling.

Two days later again, on this fine Monday morning, and with the addition of Matthew Franklin in the by line, Shanahan realizes it's an inching maggot after all.  It's just that it's really heading towards...ahem...how shall I put it delicately...a tigthening sphincta.  That should make the sheep happy.  Oh, OK, enough with that imagery.  After all, I had nothing to do with Flutey's worm.  Here are Dennis and friend today:

Labor in front, but it's tight

KEVIN Rudd heads into the last days of the election campaign on course for victory - but facing a tighter contest than was expected all year.

Coalition and Labor strategists agreed yesterday that the election was still extremely tight and said the last six days could decide the outcome.

Party officials are convinced the decisive battlegrounds will be in NSW and Queensland, but with Western Australia possibly determining the final result should the Coalition make up ground this week.

John Howard flew to Perth last night to campaign in the Labor-held seat of Cowan, which the Coalition hopes to win following the retirement of sitting MP Graham Edwards.

The Coalition is also eyeing the nearby seat of Swan, held by Labor's Kim Wilkie.

ALP polling in Victoria last week suggested Labor would be lucky to win a seat in the state, meaning that the bulk of the 16seats the party needs for victory will have to come from NSW and Queensland.

The Opposition Leader yesterday predicted the election would be "very tight".

"However it is determined, it will be won and lost by a nose," Mr Rudd said. "I know that. I know from having travelled around the country that's how it's going to be next Saturday."

With the Prime Minister continuing to assert that Labor would not be able to manage the nation's trillion-dollar economy, Mr Rudd said the Government had failed to produce positive policies, leaving the Coalition with nothing but negativity as its case for re-election.

In other words, Dennis, like everyone else, is Clueless in The Baffle.

Two things have struck me about this campaign - although having studiously rationed my intake of election related material from all parts of the political and media spheriods, it may not be truly descriptive.

Firstly, I can't remember the last time I saw Labor so focussed, disciplined and on message.  Sure, it's been part of Labor's me-tooism: a me-tooism in terms of campaign strategy and execution, as well as policy.  But Rudd being friendless and a control freak may have also paid some dividends.  Even Gillard has played a surprisingly better second fiddle than she could ever hope to play as first violin (and thankfully some of that cloying sappiness between leader and deputy has also dried up) and also held up under the predictable rocks thrown at her.  Rather, it's Rudd's famous glass jaw that has seemed progressively left less brittle - at least in public.  The question is, how much and for how long will this discipline be maintained, win or lose on Saturday?  And can Rudd afford to micro-manage should he ever become Prime Minister?

Costello on the other hand, has seemed strangely absent from nearly all of my dietary portions, not that I think I would notice if he were there.  Rather I have noticed that he is not.  Bit like tofu really. 

I guess that is why too, this has been such a boring election campaign and yet one which, despite all its predictability, has left most pundits writing about scratching their heads.  Worm infestations and the National Sorry Days of Garrett, McLelland, Vaile, Abbott et al. excepted (although Abbott alone, I think, got the trifecta, and has Milne studiously avoiding mixed metaphors, unlike me). 

I think this photo by Lyndon Mechielsen published today in The Australian is the photo which best characterizes this campaign as we now inch down the home straight to that fork in the road on Saturday.

Win or lose, Howard's not going to come up smelling like roses: winning 16 seats or more to win would be a historic first for Labor. Clawing back a sizeable sum to leave Labor with a narrow defeat is still a good look.  Both leave Howard on the nose. I'm guessing the harrowing might be more fraught on that side of the house.  I wonder too, if that is when Costello will finally pop his head up?

Still, it's only on Saturday when we Aussies get to stick a fork in it, and say it's done.

Then, and only then, will pundits and punters know the antecedent of the objective pronoun.

Update: Word!

over there

Miss Boynton reminisces.  Prompted by this classic bit of Australiana.

For the non-Australian readers of this blog, this is what football looks like to an Aussie. Well how it looked back in 1979 in case you missed the fashion statements.  The title of the song refers to Roy Cazaly, a footy legend.   

The footage also includes a snippet which should also feature in any Australian citizenship test asking for a definition of "mateship" (and I'm not talking shepherding in this instance): it's what someone with a typically Aussie sense of humour would answer. 

Sadly, too many an Aussie these days would just hyperventilate, sue the trainer, and ban his club (and post footage from woman's footy on wikipedia to demonstrate shepherding, and spell it incorrectly to boot).  The player who is down wouldn't figure in their reasoning, much less in their gutless reaction.

To segue on Miss B: nothing like the unpretentious vérité of the crowd.

and all the folks

At larva prod said...d-u-u-u-u-h.

sunday bible

For progressives.  And maybe atheists.

Oh and for the ECUSA.