coalition
The Kerb Stomp
As we on the broadly-defined Left slowly wait for our well-celebrated livers to dry, like so many vinegary gerkhins left out after thorough pickling, it’s probably time for a bit of digestion of the moment. I don’t necessarily share premature disappointment over Kevin Rudd’s conservatism, because George Bush after all won his 2000 election on a platform of moderation, though I’ll certainly concede that his acceptance speech was a bunch of bullshit hyper-cliché that would have shamed a rugby league coach. All it needed to complete the scene was Tim Gartrell having a bucket of ice poured over him in the background, and Laurie Ferguson scratching his balls through tracksuit pants.
A the election result was an annihilation, and it’s not hard to savour the schadenfreude. The question is, for a Left so unused to electoral success (and so unwilling to mention the unfortunate State level of Labor Government, kept by a discursive Grace Poole in a locked room of the progressive soul), how best to scratch the insatiable itch of triumphalism?
To follow the current fashion of cliché: history is the best teacher. We should look forward from our past, secure in the future, and always twirling, twirling towards freedom.
Here it is, straight from 2004, the most right-wing piece of writing ever put to publication and made infamous by social bookmarking websites: Adam Yoshida’s masterfully terrible Four More Years!
Despite all of their tricks, despite all of their lies, the people have rejected them. They mean nothing. They are worth nothing. There’s no point in trying to reach out to them because they won’t be reached out to. We’ve got their teeth clutching the sidewalk and out boot above their head. Now’s the time to curb-stomp the bastards.
Oh yeah. That’s how you do it.
My tip
My tip for the Liberal leadership is that Brendan Nelson will overtake all challengers.
In other news:
Mr Evans said the source had told him former prime minister John Howard had “desperately” wanted to leave politics four months ago.
“He was coaxed to stay on board, while the feeling for the past few months has been that Costello had alienated himself from the core constituency of Liberal voters,” Mr Evans said.
He said the source told him Mr Costello had been found to have been particularly unpopular with with older voters – those in the 35-60 age group.
Update:
Recriminations begin:
Senator Macdonald says he respects Mr Howard but he should have gone a year ago.
“It’s a tragic way for such an able, committed man and someone who’s been so good for Australia to leave,” he said.
“I think it would have been different had Peter Costello been leading the party for 12 months.”
He says the cabinet ministers should have that ensured Mr Howard went earlier.
“I’m very confident the Coalition would have won had Peter Costello been leading the party,” he said.
“I’m a little disappointed with some of our senior colleagues who didn’t have these discussions earlier in the piece.
Unleashed delusion
The ABC has given the soap-box to the lunatic fringe of the Liberal Party, with Julian Barendse’s foray into voodoo election commentary.
Two marginal seats in which the ALP appears to be facing a particularly tough battle are the seats of Deakin in Victoria, and Boothby in South Australia. Both these seats are held by members of the Liberal class of ‘96 and (according to the betting markets) are holding up well in their respective fights for re-election.
The pendulum puts Bennelong as the final seat needed for Labor to win. The two seats noted by Barendse as “encouraging” in so far as the seat by seat odds go, are both past the 4.1% swing needed by Labor to win (Deakin at 5.0% and Boothby at 5.4%).
Even if Labor didn’t win Deakin and Boothby (but was in the range of 5% or so), it could still pick up McMillan and Corangamite.
I’m sure I also don’t need to remind Barendse that the amounts being bet on the seat by seats markets is almost negligible. It’ll be much closer to 24 Nov before real money is bet on individuals seats to make the odds relevant.
As Unleashed commenter William says:
“Unleashed” has promised us satire as well as commentary. I can only presume that this is satire…
Howard is lame
Remember when Howard was all scornful and like “I don’t need to resort to twenty-first century technologies to win this election”? Then Rudd trounced him in the polls, and now he’s on YouTube telling kids to eat apples (although no-one is watching it and it’s hard to find; judging by the comments most of the viewers are Liberal staffers), and playing the PlayStation:
Not a good look, John. It reminds us of when we were five and we tried to show our granddad how to play Super Mario and he couldn’t do it and how he smelt bad and had hair coming out of his ears and then later he died.
Debt and Interest Rates
“The states are going into debt. My point simply is that if you go into debt, you have to borrow to finance that debt and when you borrow to finance that debt, you put upward pressure on interest rates because you compete with private borrowers.
“The federal government is not doing that. State governments are doing that, that’s the point I was making.”
Any right-wingers care to explain the economics behind Mr Howard’s statement here, given that state governments borrow in the international markets? Is Howard suggesting that the deficits run by a few Australian State Governments seriously reduces the total amount of finance available globally (or even in Australia)?
Haneef charges dropped
Mohamed Haneef has had charges dropped against him.
What are the odds he stays in detention, or is simply deported on short notice. The question is where will he be deported to?
Whose arse is gonna get kicked over the notes in the diary, and all the other cock-ups in this case?
More to come.
Three-thirtyitis
You have to wonder when the PM becomes the butt of advertising jokes.
(Source: Herald Sun, last Saturday)
Tired, out of ideas and playing to the base
Many people will have already seen the latest attack ad from the Liberals - reminiscent of the Robert Doyle attack ads a few years back in the Victorian State Election.
All these ads really do is speak to the Liberal’s base. The Lib’s support is so low that they are really desperate to still show the neo-cons and ultra conservatives that they can still bash unions and the ALP without addressing policy issues.
For most people however, these ads don’t mean anything. People with a positive union experience will ignore the ad, and for most people with a neutral union experience, the ads won’t make sense (why is it bad for Labor to have lots of union officials in Parliament?).
And in other news, there is a poll at the SMH. The voting so far shows a great deal of support for Labor.
11 Years, Still Asleep
Are these kinds of attack ads effective?