tcpip: (Default)
Diary of a B+ Grade Polymath ([personal profile] tcpip) wrote2007-11-22 02:59 pm

A day is a long time in politics

There was a hint a few days ago that the Coalition was going to play a little grubby. First they attempted to claim that a number of Labor candidates were ineligible to stand. That fell apart quite badly. Then there was the hysterics about if Labor wins socialists and unionists will corrupt the minds of the youth.

But now they've really screwed the pooch. It would seem that NSW Liberal Party State Executive member Jeff Egan and the retiring candidate's husband and the candidate's husband, Greg Chijoff, for the marginal seat of Lindsay, Gary Clark, have been caught trying to distribute fake election material from the "Islamic Australia Federation" to support Labor. A copy of the leaflet is available. Worse still, Jackie Kelly has tried to work her way out of it in a (MP3 file ABC radio interview and on television. I don't think I have ever seen Laurie Oakes so angry.

Paul Keating gets his revenge on moral grounds. Bob Hawke gets his on economic grounds. Even Malcom Fraser - a little more carefully - gives his considered opinion. Finally, Catherine Deveny really does have a way with words.


If we do not seize this opportunity for change we will go down in history as the most greedy, gullible, mean-spirited, selfish, short-sighted, tight-fisted generation in the history of Australia. How will it feel sitting in front of that $5000 plasma TV watching reruns of American reality shows, wearing clothes manufactured in a sweat shop and sitting on a sofa made by Third World slaves? How will that feel when our public education and hospitals have been gutted and our environment corroded to a point of no return? How will it feel knowing we have turned our back on people who need us most: the poor, the broken, the scared, the sick, the elderly and the vulnerable? How will it feel when you turn to your children and say, "I believed him"?


There is no way any decent human being could vote for the Liberal Party, or even give them a major party preference, after the events of the past twenty-four hours.

[identity profile] artbroken.livejournal.com 2007-11-22 06:17 am (UTC)(link)
It's not out of the question, but I find the last-minute mindset too much of a mystery to make the prediction.

[identity profile] gevauden.livejournal.com 2007-11-22 06:27 am (UTC)(link)
Only because it gets compared to The Sunday Times.

[identity profile] splodgenoodles.livejournal.com 2007-11-22 06:29 am (UTC)(link)
Nah, I'd vote for Ruddock being Saruman. He starts out good and noble(Amnesty member and all that), then betrays his own principles.

[identity profile] splodgenoodles.livejournal.com 2007-11-22 06:32 am (UTC)(link)
I'm too much of a pessimist to predict a liberal loss I'm afraid. I keep thinking of all those other unwinnable/unloseable elections.

Although when commercial networks start turning on the government...well that's something.

[identity profile] tcpip.livejournal.com 2007-11-22 06:35 am (UTC)(link)

Well, as a daily paper I was thinking of "The Daily News". By the gods, that was trash.

[identity profile] tcpip.livejournal.com 2007-11-22 06:36 am (UTC)(link)

Surely he'd be The Mouth of Sauron.

[identity profile] catsidhe.livejournal.com 2007-11-22 06:36 am (UTC)(link)
That'd make Howard = Sauron. But better spoken.

[identity profile] catsidhe.livejournal.com 2007-11-22 06:37 am (UTC)(link)
Serving as a mouthpiece for so long he no longer even remembers his own name...

[identity profile] gevauden.livejournal.com 2007-11-22 06:38 am (UTC)(link)
I'd completely forgotten about that one.
A newspaper so devoid of merit that you'd not even use it to wrap prawn heads.

[identity profile] darkstardeity.livejournal.com 2007-11-22 06:43 am (UTC)(link)
Costello is Denithor or Borimir (unable to resist the lures of power despite the knowledge that it will lead to tears in the end)

Who is Sauron? Bush maybe, or America in general? Far away, evil as all fuck but relying on others to do their dirty work while slowly spreading their canker over everything.

[identity profile] tcpip.livejournal.com 2007-11-22 06:44 am (UTC)(link)
I keep thinking of all those other unwinnable/unloseable elections.

I was pretty sure Keating was going to win the 1993 election. I remember watching Hewson do a big rally in Perth city; about 20,000 people turned up being c7,000 supporters, c7,000 protesters and c7,000 neutral. The protesters had a field day with him - I remember leading a "Loser! Loser!" chant which caught on with great popularity. I also admit for feeling a little sympathetic when Hewson stared in our direction looking genuinely sad and hurt.

The last opinion poll published a couple days later predicted a very slight Labor lead, the first time in the campaign.

At that point I knew Hewson would lose.

Although when commercial networks start turning on the government...well that's something.

Quite. I wonder what sort of stuff up the Tories can manage tomorrow?

[identity profile] tcpip.livejournal.com 2007-11-22 06:48 am (UTC)(link)

*nods* Exactly.

Laurie Oakes ...

[identity profile] imajica-lj.livejournal.com 2007-11-22 06:52 am (UTC)(link)
looks like someone just pinched the last of his prize claret.

What are you doing for Saturday?

[identity profile] catsidhe.livejournal.com 2007-11-22 06:55 am (UTC)(link)
When John Roskam turns on Howard's chances, you know he's lost.

I mean, he's rabbiting on about Johnny's immanent apotheosis, but it's still a eulogy.

Re: Laurie Oakes ...

[identity profile] tcpip.livejournal.com 2007-11-22 06:56 am (UTC)(link)

Voting in the early morning, going to Werribee open zoo for the day and possibly a post-election party after that...

Interested in any of the above?

[identity profile] tcpip.livejournal.com 2007-11-22 07:02 am (UTC)(link)

Wow, that John Roskam guy is a full-flavoured nutbar.

I mean get this:

The Greens can talk all they want about being the true party of the "left", but this rhetoric is hollow while their preferences go towards electing ALP candidates.

Ummm, ok. So a left wing party should preference who exactly if not a centre-left party when the other major option is a centre-right party?

Maybe he just doesn't understand preferential voting.

Those who hate Howard and everything he stands for have for 11 years deluded themselves with a convenient fiction. According to them, the Prime Minister is to blame for everything from the failure of the republic referendum to the fact that the Japanese still hunt humpback whales. If


You know... The Prime Minister does have some responsibility for both of those issues...

John Roskam is executive director of the Institute of Public Affairs.

Ahh, now that explains it.

[identity profile] zey.livejournal.com 2007-11-22 07:27 am (UTC)(link)
I have fond memories of The Western Mail though.

[identity profile] lederhosen.livejournal.com 2007-11-22 09:09 am (UTC)(link)
Fraser has been criticising the Howard government for quite some time now, on one front and another. I don't know that he's characterised Labor as better, but he's certainly made it clear that he thinks the Coalition's lost its moral compass. Did you see the letter he and Whitlam wrote on the lack of accountability in modern government?

[identity profile] angel80.livejournal.com 2007-11-22 09:23 am (UTC)(link)
I love this. It's out of my price range dollar-wise, so I'm really glad that it's open to election!
reddragdiva: (Default)

[personal profile] reddragdiva 2007-11-22 10:29 am (UTC)(link)
I was working at the AEC (Vic Park office) at the time, in fact. I happened to be in town that day and saw Hewson's speech. I got back to the office, walked up to the Labor guy and said "Give me yer bumper sticker kit please."
reddragdiva: (Default)

[personal profile] reddragdiva 2007-11-22 10:49 am (UTC)(link)
My goodness Keating is a flame warrior.

I wonder what Fraser makes of the last twenty-five years. He hasn't changed a single opinion in the last thirty, but he finds himself somewhere to the left of Rudd. Um, what?
reddragdiva: (rocknerd)

[personal profile] reddragdiva 2007-11-22 10:54 am (UTC)(link)
You were only supposed to read it on Fridays! And then only the middle bit!

[identity profile] nomnivore.livejournal.com 2007-11-22 11:26 am (UTC)(link)
You'd think so, but Australians just don't care.
ext_74493: (Default)

[identity profile] wildilocks.livejournal.com 2007-11-22 11:50 am (UTC)(link)
I only read it for the Biorhythms.

[identity profile] tcpip.livejournal.com 2007-11-22 12:11 pm (UTC)(link)

Oh, I think we'll find out on Saturday evening whether they do or not.

I'm sticking with 97 seats to Labor at this stage.

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