Australian political changes and US political foolishness

[tcpip]

It seems that the West Australian Labor government has been re-elected by the skin of its teeth. A very cogent explanation of why the election was so close by crankynick basically blames a poor Labor campaign, although the Liberals were helped by astoundingly biased reporting from the West Australian newspaper. In a very sensible effort to shore up what has become a particularly unpopular government, the Labor Party in New South Wales has finally rid itself of the pro-privitisation treasurer and Premier; the former was sacked by the latter and then the latter was sacked by his parliamentary colleagues. I have hopes that Nathan Rees and Carmel Tebbutt will be able to 'do the right thing' and regain the trust of the NSW public.

Far to the north and east, the U.S. political landscape received a shockwave of sorts when Republican Presidential hopeful John McCain appointed Sarah Palin as the Vice-President nominee. This self-described "bulldog with lipstick" has come with a lot of attention, with her viewpoints on banning books, teaching Creationism in schools (but not comprehensive sex eduation), and opposing abortion in nearly all instances. What is remarkable about the choice is that (a) it shows how much the Republican Party is still under the influence of the fundamentalist religious lobby which seeks to impose their narrow worldview on the American public and (b) how irresponsible, divisive this choice is which, yet another sign of how completely unfit McCain is for the office of President.

In my own life everything is going very well. Ran a good game of RuneQuest on Sunday (Borderlands, Jezra's Rescue for those who know such things), and have received some excellent endorsements for RPG Review. Have been dealing productively with a number of work issues relating from everything from a particular Drupal module, HR and motivation issues for administrative staff (I've decided that our new administrative staff should at least do our Introduction to VPAC Computing course to give them a better sense of what we're on about), to dealing with some unprofessional behaviour from a software vendor.

Comments

[mr-figgy.livejournal.com]

I see my PM used a loophole to call an election early. He's scared that a surge in the polls for Obama will hurt Conservative chances for a majority government. So the election was called after the US election, yet will happen sooner.

Was wondering if you ever poked about on Moorcock's Miscellany, where the US election is also being discussed on the forums, and where we're also well-wishing Mike and Linda, neither of whom are in particularly good health at this time. :(

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Yes, I noticed that there was now an election in Canada as well. Now there's a place that needs preferential voting as well! Between the Liberals, the Greens, the NDP and Bloc Québécois they make up over 60% of the vote - yet the Conservatives are in power!

I was unaware of Moorcock's Miscellany, so thanks for the reference. I'll sign up today - and give my best to Michael and Linda...

[mr-figgy.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure there was a referendum on that system and I supported it, but it was killed by ignorance, lack of hype, and lies. Now there's an outside chance of the Conservatives getting a majority government, McCain/Palin winning to the south, and me heading to your side of the world to practice various survival skills for when the world inevitably looks like it did in the Mad Max trilogy; hopefully, large numbers of voters understand that electing a woman with regressive policy ideas is not a progressive thing to do, much like with Margaret Thatcher.