Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 5:54 am |Permalink
Just as well I get up at this time anyway!
2
dogford
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 6:04 am |Permalink
Looks like the dirt unit is biding their time!
I’ve got a good bet on with the dirt unit, so they have extra incentive to come up with something good.
3
Observer
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 6:06 am |Permalink
Maybe the letter in SMH from the gret PJK explains it. ‘It’s the underlying rate’ – Who said that, anyway? See it Paul’s words – http://www.smh.com.au/letters/?page=3
4
StanS
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 6:33 am |Permalink
Very dissapointing (but not surprising) MSM coverage of Howard yesterday. Focus on how the maestro will use Work Choices to batter Labor just like he has this week with the interest rate rise. Very little critical comment on the the sorry debacle. Honestly it really is alice in wonderland stuff from MSM.
Why are they persisiting? Are we are mere bloggers missing something? I just don’t get it.
5
BLUEBOTTLE
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 6:48 am |Permalink
StanS @4
They are persisting StanS because, for example, at the GG Shamaham is unashamedly acting as a spin doctor for the Liberal Party. There is no balanced Journalism: just a wanky sensationalism and Mr and Mrs Moron swinging voter don’t buy that paper anyway.
What they will buy and read is the front 2 pages of the Telegraph or Advertiser or Courier Mail or Herald-Sun and look for headlines – oh interest rates went up- and there is a picture of Mr Howard saying sorry but not apologising- Ohhh kayy. Screw you Howard on election day- then they flip the paper over and read the sports pages.
Mr and Mrs Moron will not read editorials, or statistical graphs, or long winded ‘Hail Howard or Hail Costello’ crap from Shamaham et al in any depth [not that there is any depth to fathom anyway]. I have no time at all for the GG or most of its writers: they bend over for Shamaham and seek kudos from him by becoming apprentice Liberal Party spin doctors. Pathetic paper, pathetic rumour from Crikey’s “contacts” too. This election story is just about over.
6
dave
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 6:48 am |Permalink
Fran Kelly on RN is saying Latham is taking a swing at Rudd/ Labor in the Fin Rev ??
7
BrissyRod
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 6:49 am |Permalink
Well StanS, with most mainstream journo’s barely passing Journalism 101, I think you are setting the bar too high.
Expect little from them – you won’t be disappointed.
8
dave
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 6:50 am |Permalink
Need the treeware version or sign in on the web to read the rest :
Exclusive: Latham lashes greed-driven campaign
09 Nov 2007 | The Australian Financial Review | Marcus Priest
Former Labor leader Mark Latham has broken his silence by accusing both the main political parties of pandering to middle-class greed……..
9
Midnorthcoast
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 6:56 am |Permalink
Surely the Latham story is a positive for Labor
10
Achenar
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 7:02 am |Permalink
Midnorthcoast, I’d agree on that… although, could the Latham thing really be the “bombshell” story that was alluded to in the rumours/tips? Surely not… the implication seemed to be something more smearish/damning… if something exists at all, that is
11
Mr Squiggle
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 7:03 am |Permalink
Any contribution from Latham is a plus for Howard and Costello
Union Headquarters must be gnashing its teeth
12
Snoopy Doo Doo
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 7:05 am |Permalink
Any contribution frrom Latham is a reminder of how much the ALP has improved and deserves to win.
13
Ed@Bennelong
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 7:05 am |Permalink
This is out of the ordinary.
Heading placement submiminally very nasty.
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 7:17 am |Permalink
Someone better email Media Watch now!
15
VoterBoy of Over the Water
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 7:21 am |Permalink
William,
I beg to differ, and it appears that others do also.
What on earth is this about? (clipped – and edited slightly – from another thread)
337
VoterBoy of Over the Water Says:
November 9th, 2007 at 2:17 am
Fellow Entrail-readers…
Given what was said the other day about the supposed publication in the Daily Telegraph of a Rudd story that would make Scores irrelevant, what do you make of this bizarrely concocted headline from today’s Telegraph.
PM not sorry, election rival ‘gay’
The gay reference has nothing to do with Howard’s apology – indeed, it makes no sense whatsoever – it’s about Dani Ecuyer using gay men to tout her run for Wentworth, a story that would struggle to get an inside mention in the Wentworth Courier, and certainly wouldn’t appear under the headline “Election rival ‘gay’” because a) that not what the story’s about – the story is ‘Candidate to use gay hunks in campaign,’ and b) any self-respecting journalist, sub-editor or editor would realise that such a headline was potentially misleading.
Written the way it is, however, it is deliberately misleading. It clearly implies that Howard’s election rival is gay. They couldn’t even be bothered putting in a semi-colon to separate the stories.
The Liberal Party high command better be praying that its fingerprints can’t be found anywhere near this, or there’ll be the mother of all sh*t storms next week.
(And btw, Tories, even if Kevin’s as queer as a bottle of crisps, he’s still going be elected PM on November 24th. Get used to it.)
16
Arbie Jay
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 7:25 am |Permalink
Trioli quitting because of falling ratings, what effect has Uhlmann had on the ratings.
There is nothing wrong with with Trioli and Uhlman acting as cheer leaders for Howard, it’s a free country and the ABC is there to represent all views, but it appears that the the listeners are getting tired of all the fawning and one sided comments.
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 7:26 am |Permalink
From news.com.au
A new Nielsen poll, published in Fairfax newspapers, has found support for Labor has increased dramatically in the 40 to 54 age group.
The survey found the ALP has been enjoying growing support across three age groups it monitors but there’s been a 10 per cent swing among baby boomers from 49 to 59.3 per cent on a two party preferred basis.
The poll shows support for Labor is strongest in people aged 18 to 24 with 64 per cent.
Voters in the 25 to 39 age group have shown the smallest rise in support for Labor.
Nielsen’s John Stirton says the only age group where the Coalition is still enjoying majority support is with those aged 55 and over.
No overall figures or sample size as yet.
18
steve
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 7:28 am |Permalink
Sorry campaign from newspapers that could be doing analysis of the election instead.
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 7:30 am |Permalink
Sorry that report was from skynews
20
charles
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 7:37 am |Permalink
Ed@Bennelong Says:
This is out of the ordinary.
Heading placement submiminally very nasty.
Yes but what impression are you left with, more tricky stuff from the Liberal party comes to mind. The incompetence of the Liberal election campaign is unbelievable.
They are working hard for my bet of 105 seats to labor, go Liberal election HQ.
21
Mathew Cole
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 7:41 am |Permalink
I can’t believe it, despite having seen it. Are there no depths to which the LNP will sink? Now they’re using their press stooges to run deceptive and misleading headlining, with the clear intention of branding Mr Rudd as a homosexual.
Two responses:
1. It doesn’t matter if he is (and I believe that he isn’t)
2. This takes dirty tricks to a new low.
22
Jon
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 7:42 am |Permalink
The MOE of that Nielsen poll is 3% in each age group. It’s a distillation of previous polls.
The picture of Costello looking at Howard does appear one of adoration and love, and Costello has long been Howards “election rival for the PM’s job. Is that what the story is implying? Is there more to this long ongoing love/ hate realtionship between the two than we know about, is that why there has been no invitation to Kirribilli, Jannette does not want her rival for affections at the same table?
Then again, Howards direct rival is Maxine, is that the dog whistle?
And they mention Gillard in the story, is that another whistle.
All the story will do is confuse anyone reading it.
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 7:44 am |Permalink
I hate this rehashing of old polls to create the impression of a new poll stuff. If it was a scientific journal they wouldn’t get away with it.
26
Hemingway
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 7:45 am |Permalink
That “Telegraph” Headline is bizarre because, for example, their front page coverage yesterday was of a family, Mr. and Mr. Whyte and 4 kids, who are so financially stretched by their mortgage payments after the 6 rate rises that this pilot and lifelong Liberal voter is voting for Labor. And here’s the big kickers is the focus group gold for Mr. Rudd when Mr. Whyte is quoted: “I’m sick of living in an economy, I want to live in a society”. Also, the “Telegraph” cartoon has been giving Team Howard a real beating, directly opposite to my local Fairfax rag cartoonist.
Hmmm, so much for the right-wing Howard media cheerleaders’ (a plethora of them in the ABC and Fairfax) attempts to spin the latest interest rate hike as a plus for Team Howard and Costello because it the electorate will now be focussed on the Coalition’s polling advantage ground of being better economic managers. Thank god, my fellow baby boomers appear to have not had all of their beliefs in a “fair go” society squeezed out of them in the last dozen years.
27
Hemingway
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 7:46 am |Permalink
Mr. and Mrs. Whyte, obviously. Though my first version would fit in with today’s headline! Lol
28
Pi
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 7:46 am |Permalink
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 7:47 am |Permalink
I saw the friday morning debate on channel 9 between Gillard and Abbott. Nothing unusual. Abbott is given more oxygen and is allowed to speak at his own pace whereas Gillard is continually interrupted. Karl Stifsitonovic is even resorting to coughing now when Julia is speaking. It didn’t make any difference Gillard brained both of them!
30
Snoopy Doo Doo
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 7:47 am |Permalink
Surely the headline in the Daily Telegraph must have been placed there with the approval of the editor? Which makes his claims the other day sound as hollow as John Howard’s promises over interest rates.
31
scaper...
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 7:50 am |Permalink
Does anyone here have doctor carl’s email or any info to get in touch with him?
32
VoterBoy of Over the Water
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 7:51 am |Permalink
Do a search on the Daily Telegraph site for the term “election rival”. Nowhere – other than this story – do they use it as it is used here – as in “election candidate”.
The headline clearly implies that Howard’s election rival is gay. It does not separate the two clauses with a semi-colon. There is no reason to assume from the grammar and punctuation that it is referring to two different stories. It is highly unlikely that the Daily Telegraph has ever used such a format to headline two stories.
The Daily Telegraph now needs to come clean. Who wrote this headline?
33
Pancho
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 7:55 am |Permalink
Speaking of the ‘election rival’ do we have any idea what sort of vote Danielle Ecuyer might get and who she is preferencing?
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 7:57 am |Permalink
So Rudd is gay now???
So what next – Howard is Jesus Christ!
35
Snoopy Doo Doo
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 7:57 am |Permalink
It is clearly an attempt to smear Kevin Rudd because the first part of the headline mentions ‘PM’, and the only rival competing with him for PM in the election is Rudd. The first paragraph of the article has now been changed to refer to an election rival, but it has not relevance to the story. The editor of the Daily Telegraph has a lot of questions of answer.
36
VoterBoy of Over the Water
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 7:58 am |Permalink
Also, Crikey might like to come clean and identify where it first heard the rumor that the Daily Telegraph had dirt on Rudd for Friday. Who was it – Brian Loughnane?
37
Misty
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 8:01 am |Permalink
Am I the only one who read that DT headline as if it was suggesting that Howard was not sorry and labelling Rudd as gay? I thought it was gaffe #2 and trawled through the article for a reference from Howard about Rudd being gay!
Good to hear that there was no (particularly) damaging story in the AFR or the DT today. I suppose it’s possible Latham could stir up trouble for the ALP, but it’s hard to see how him attacking them is anything other than a positive – though I do agree with his thesis that both parties are pandering to middle class greed!
I think we’ve all got to the point we’re expecting a Tampa so it’s easy to believe these rumours.
Love the Simpsons reference Williams, very well done.
38
Follow the Preferences
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 8:02 am |Permalink
There should be a score here somewhere where the cred of the people who thought the Daily Telegraph would hold a story for 3 days is noted.
Re, the ‘Gay” headline, What the ? The media in this campaign are behaving much as they always do, its called ‘hegemony’.
39
Shiftaling
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 8:03 am |Permalink
Is this what everyone’s been panicking about all week? Ha ha ha ha ha. Dirt unit have nothing! the Duck is history!
40
Charlie
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 8:04 am |Permalink
Latham writing in the AFR isn’t going to do too much damage. Maybe if he was doing an interview on Channel Seven news it would be an issue – but most outer suburban swinging voters will be at best dimly aware that he has popped his head up.
41
Julie
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 8:05 am |Permalink
Yes, it is deliberate for sure. The headline as written (pointed out by vbotw doesn’t separate the two clauses with a semi-colon) and in the article itself, the ONLY reference to the “other half of the headline” is this [
Click here to see how an independent candidate plans to woo young voters with "climate hunks".
]
one line paragraph 3 paragraphs into the story. 99% of the story is about “Sorrygate”. I am going out later and will check and see if the paper eidtion of the DT displays the headlines in a similar fashion. Often, the display is somewhat different than it appears on the website. For example, when Cousins news was front and center in Perth a few weeks back, his picture was the front cover of the DT that day although you wouldn’t have picked it from reading the website.
42
George
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 8:06 am |Permalink
Oh dear, AM on the ABC is continuing with “sorry, but I’m not sorry…sorry?” – I reckon Howard is this close to blowing up over this.
43
Pancho
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 8:07 am |Permalink
This is nothing. A non-story. If it is a recurring theme it might be something to worry about, otherwise, this is th Tele’s modus-operandi. They put ’sex’ or ‘gay’ or ‘orgy’ or ‘romp’ in the headlines with the flimsiest of pretexts, and readers of it realise that.
44
CL de Footscray
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 8:08 am |Permalink
The AFR Latham story is pure gold for Rudd. Better than being seen to stomp on those pesky unionists. The only question is: why did the Fin bother?
Re the Tele headline – can we please pay attention to the very fetching graphic William put up at the head of this thread? Over-interpretation is, like over-determinism, a sin which must be avoided by all thinking social scientisis (including pseph-heads).
And, Pathological Logic – please don’t spread alarm any more!
45
scaper...
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 8:09 am |Permalink
Ok, how about Dr carl’s spelling of his name and the party he represents….anyone???
46
Misty
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 8:11 am |Permalink
"Former Labor leader Mark Latham has attacked his ex-party's election policies and says both major parties in this election campaign are pandering to voters' greed.
Mr Latham has been publicly silent since he quit parliament soon after the last election, but he has re-entered the fray with an article in today's Australian Financial Review.
In it he writes that the election is "a Seinfeld election, a show about nothing" and that there is no real difference between the parties
"The dominant ethos is greed, not generosity. I expect a Labor administration to be even more timid, more conservative," he wrote."
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 8:15 am |Permalink
Thanks very much Pancho.
I need people like him and Ted Egan on the panel.
49
VoterBoy of Over the Water
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 8:19 am |Permalink
44 M’sieur CL…
Trust me, this isn’t over interpretation. Last Friday – and I can say this on an Aussie blog – the British satirical program Have I Got News For You made various coy references to the un-named (over here at least) Royal involved in the blackmail scandal. Of course the Royal wasn’t named in connection with the story. But later, in the program’s “odd one out” quiz, the Royal’s photo appeared against three others – the category being “Who has done something scandalous on a train”? The odd one out was the Royal, who, they said with heavy sarcasm, “has never done anything scandalous on a train”. If the media want to flag something they will find a way to do it.
The headline is forced – it has a very specific and singular implication from the way it is punctuated, and it does not accurately represent the accompanying story. Combined with the fact that Crikey flagged something like this, I can only conclude two things – one, that someone at the DT is being whimsically mischievous, or two – that someone at the DT is trying to float the suggestion that Rudd is gay.
50
Bushfire Bill
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 8:20 am |Permalink
Morning ‘Bludgers…
Youse should all get a grip.
The words “gay” and “rival” being mentioned above a photo of Howard and Costello and youse are worried about Rudd copping the wagging tongue treatment?
Yous’ve all been up too long. Get some sleep. Have a think about it. We haven’t sunk that low yet that we’d believe a story like that, subliminal or not.
51
adrian
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 8:22 am |Permalink
The best news of the day for we Sydneysiders is that La Trioli is quitting her morning radio show. Perhaps she has realised that when/if Labor is elected they’ll shun cheerleaders like her, and she’ll be left to interview member(s) of the opposition.
She likes to think of herself as an insider, so the lack of access would hurt.
Rumours that she’ll front Media Watch suggest another downgrading of a once great program.
52
Samuel K
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 8:22 am |Permalink
This appears to be what the tip off was talking about. Not a real story by the Telegraph uncovering some scandal, but a secret arrangement between Liberals and News Ltd to include a subliminal ’smear’ in one of its headlines. It’s ridiculous. Rudd will have a great line if this gets any air.
“Look I’m a married man with n kids. This really is desparate stuff for the Liberals to try this smear that somehow I am gay (not that there’s anything wrong with that). I mean, does anyone go around asking Liberal ministers, say Alexander Downer or Christopher Pyne if they are gay? No.”
53
S
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 8:24 am |Permalink
Oh get a grip guys. If anybody should be slighted it should be howard. It implies he’s calling a rival gay.
Don’t know about you, but thats an insult that only works in Primary school and it should reflect poorly on Howard if he were to be associated with it.
Oh, and I suspect Trioli’s ratings were lower because she is a shrew. I haven’t heard her Liberal leanings, but I have turned her off because she was just plain annoying.
54
Derek Corbett
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 8:26 am |Permalink
The hard copy head on Farr’s “sorry” story plays it straight: “Defining moment in PM’s sorry saga – Mortgagees don’t rate an apology.” That’s what the voters will see and they won’t like it. Seems that other nonsense was the online version.
55
Lindsay voter
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 8:26 am |Permalink
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 8:26 am |Permalink
Is the Tele headline in the dead tree version, or just on-line?
57
George
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 8:28 am |Permalink
S: “Oh, and I suspect Trioli’s ratings were lower because she is a shrew. I haven’t heard her Liberal leanings, but I have turned her off because she was just plain annoying.”
Agree. Now get her off Lateline as well, and I’ll be a happy camper.
58
Lindsay voter
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 8:28 am |Permalink
Malcolm Farr is such a scumbag. He had gay in quotation marks and will argue that it’s the original meaning as in happy.
59
Derek Corbett
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 8:29 am |Permalink
Yes, I actually bought the Tele – isn’t that sick! Just couldn’t believe it would run such a misleading headline …
60
adrian
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 8:29 am |Permalink
I see, Derek. Storm in the proverbial, then.
s, you are right Trioli is a shrew, but also a shrill cheerleader.
So a shrill shrew cheerleader?
61
Pancho
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 8:30 am |Permalink
58 – I think the editors write the headlines. And there was a link in the body of the text to the Ecuyer using ‘gay hunks’ story.
62
Bushfire Bill
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 8:30 am |Permalink
Adrian, As a fellow La Trioli Hater I can only concur.
This is the person who had Malcolm Fraser on her show to debate something or other, but when the government minister didn’t turn up she took over his part and his side in the argument.
“My job is to provide balance.”
Fraser made the rather good point that if the government could rely on her to spruik their side of any argument they’d make a habit of not turning up for interviews on her show.
I’m not sure whether La T is actually a Howard Hugger, although she did tell us all breathlessly last year how “brilliant” his counter against the Costello Wet Lettuce Leaf challenge was and now Howard could “stay forever as Prime Minister”.
I think she just wants to be seen as “connected”, part of the Sydney glitterati. It really doesn’t matter whether she has a politician on her show or the Art Gallery Director… as lobng as their part of what passes for an “A” list in Sydney.
She actually loosened up a little towards the end and I thought there might be some hope, but obviously there wasn’t enough time to change the image (or the ratings).
Poor Virginia, her radio epitaph will be, “She only wanted to be connected, and at least she wasn’t as bad as Sally Loane.”
63
VoterBoy of Over the Water
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 8:31 am |Permalink
I have to say, btw, that even though I have no doubt this was a dirty trick at least by the Tele people (and possibly Lib chums), and that they should get their a*ses kicked over it, I think it’s hilarious, and if it gets legs – which it should – it will only further confirm the scumminess and pettiness of those who will stop at nothing to pull Rudd down.
I have no doubt they knew what they were doing. And at the same time, they haven’t a clue.
64
Lindsay voter
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 8:35 am |Permalink
But it’s best to ignore the “gay” thing. The more we discuss it the worse it becomes and don’t spread it around ie tell friends and relatives.
65
James J
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 8:36 am |Permalink
Indeed, don’t blame Malcolm Farr. The sub-editors write the headlines.
66
barney
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 8:36 am |Permalink
That heading William.
LOL
67
CL de Footscray
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 8:37 am |Permalink
VoterBoiy, I have great respect for your views but I can’t quite read into this the implication that somebody at the tele is trying to plant the impression that Rudd is gay. Unless it’s a cunning ploy to win Wentworth …
OTTH, maybe Costello IS gay. That’d be a turn up for the books!
When’s the next poll? Data may distract us from the rumour mill …
68
Derek Corbett
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 8:38 am |Permalink
God, we are jumpy … look before leaping might be the go, methinks. I still think the sorry story has long legs.
69
CL de Footscray
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 8:39 am |Permalink
Virginia used to grace our airwaves down here. She was replaced by Lindy Burns. Believe me, VT is a rocket surgeon in contrast to Lindy. Her idea of deep thought is to reflect on how long Geelong’s winning streak could last.
Having said that, VT is a sort of superior air-head. She talks nonsense, but in a very confident way, and knows ALL the right people.
70
MayoFeral
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 8:40 am |Permalink
So what next – Howard is Jesus Christ!
Well I am looking forward to him getting crucified on the 24th. But I doubt his political carcass will be resurrected on the 27th, just buried with the rest of the Lib garbage.
71
RGee
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 8:40 am |Permalink
Morgan (groan!) is out today, at least it will give us something to discuss.
72
Howard Hater
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 8:41 am |Permalink
My fellow Sydneysiders: Viriginia Trioli has been a disaster. On the rare occasions when the woman hasn’t been on holidays, she’s been a shameless cheerleader for the Rodent/Liberals. The lack of balance on her program is very obvious! Let’s hope the ABC replaces her with a decent broadcaster, someone capable of dealing with all sides of politics in an objective way.
73
RGee
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 8:41 am |Permalink
CLdF – 774 has gone to the dogs. Jon Faine thinks he is Neil Mitchell.
74
StanS
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 8:45 am |Permalink
Just on Sydneysiders (at least east of the Galdesville bridge) did you see the 7.30 report last night on Wentworth? Being a Brissie boy having to spend days and days dealing with Sydney types in buisness I LOL at how Wentworth really is a caricature of all that is spivney about Sydney. La Trioli, Turnbull and Garrett are part on the vaccum that envelopes that part of Australia. Nice harbour though.
75
George
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 8:46 am |Permalink
“Morgan (groan!) is out today, at least it will give us something to discuss.”
Great (sarcastic). I think I’ll start a similar polling company next year… I’m gonna call it “Roll the Dice”.
76
CL de Footscray
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 8:46 am |Permalink
Indeed he does. But, again, he’s the best of a fairly poor lot. He does have some snes eof la vie politique, at least. Virginia, on the other hand, treats it like a celebrity gossip line. Lindy just talks crap, endlessly … she’s out of her depth with a local Mayor.
77
CL de Footscray
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 8:47 am |Permalink
That should be ’some sense of la vie politique’ BTW
78
charles
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 8:47 am |Permalink
S Says:
Don’t know about you, but thats an insult that only works in Primary school and it should reflect poorly on Howard if he were to be associated with it.
Yes, but it would seem the Liberals in charge of the election campaign ( and given Howard’s sorry, not sorry, probable Howard as well) are not smart enough to see this.
They really have lost it, 105 seats to labor is looking like a good bet.
79
bryce
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 8:48 am |Permalink
Another angle on the Tele story is that Malcolm Farr would not have included the linked paragraph. Of course it’s completely irrelevant to his piece.
It’s inserted between the PM regretting the pain and the RBA announcing the rates rise! WTF!
Pretty clear the link and the title are the work of a Machiavellian sub editor.
80
Alex McDonnel
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 8:49 am |Permalink
I just saw the DT ‘headline’ mentioned. Looks to me like a very childish prank by some immature sub editor. I doubt if it will attaract much attention unlike the ‘Sorry’ thing which has legs and will run for a few days yet with Labor help.
81
steve
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 8:51 am |Permalink
Check out Brough’s clumsy effort in the SMH to bag University Researchers.
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 8:52 am |Permalink
Mornin’ Bill ‘n’ all. Fifteen sleeps to go.
CBet board odds have remained remarkably stable for the past 24 hours.
LABOR 1.36
COALITION 3.15
If there were any fluccies, I didn’t peg ‘em and I visit the site quite a lot. Every “dot-ball day” is good day for Team Ruddster as E-Day draws ever nearer.
83
Howard Hater
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 8:54 am |Permalink
GALAXY WENTWORTH POLL:
George Newhouse(LAB) 51
Moneybags Turnball: 49
84
Derek Corbett
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 8:54 am |Permalink
Sub-editors write headlines, which are then checked by check sub, chief sub, then the editor. That’s how it used to work, anyway. Journos don’t write headlines, as a rule. Most can barely spell, anyway.
85
Aspirational Aspirationalist
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 8:54 am |Permalink
Someone could have been trying to find out a leak,
I tell person 1 that on “Friday”, that the SMH has the bad info, person 2 the Tele, person 3 the Fin Review etc and see what turns up.
86
Henry
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 8:54 am |Permalink
Goodbye Virgina Trioli, stupid cow. Just never “got” Sydney and we never “got” her.
Thought she was the new Maxine McKew. F off, there is only one Maxine!! God save the queen!
That Herald headline is dodgy as, might write a letter to the scum.
So is it in the hardcopy edition or not?
87
ed@bennelong
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:00 am |Permalink
Just got to work and catching up on the reactions to the Tele headline. It looks like they were trying to get a bite from bloggers, just like Caroline’s blog.
A poor try at sophisticated humour. They should get Peter to write their gags.
88
Derek Corbett
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:00 am |Permalink
NO Henry – it is NOT in the hard copy version – it’s a bit of online wankerism. Probably the work of a kiddie sub. Move along – nothing sinister here, I’d say.
89
Kirribilli Removals
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:01 am |Permalink
Latham bags both sides in the AFR?
My god, that’ll get Australia to sit up and listen…not!
What kind of excuse for journalism is that? An interview with a political corpse? Not an ex Prime Minister, not someone like Hewson who at least has some dignity and who’s opinions are occassionaly given in public and taken respectfully, but Latham?
God, that’s trawling the journalist depths, isn’t it?
90
Henry
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:03 am |Permalink
Ok Derek, the trainer wheels subbie should be demoted to the mail room!
91
RGee
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:06 am |Permalink
Howard Hater – You got a link, or is that rumours?
92
VoterBoy of Over the Water
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:07 am |Permalink
Well, whoever it was, I’m sure he or she will be named and shamed by the end of the day. Either way, if it gets into the mainstrea, Rudd will only win support. What a bloody foolish thing to doa.
93
Lindsay voter
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:07 am |Permalink
The apology v sorry thing is not getting a lot of coverage in the SMH nor The Oz. There’s a Spin blog about it in the latter. Or did I miss other articles?
94
Rates Analyst
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:08 am |Permalink
Wonder how Turnbull feels about that headline?
Pros and cons, pros and cons…
95
tdt
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:08 am |Permalink
Does anyone know where you can get a calendar of upcoming opinio polls? Try as I might, I cannay find one anywhere?
96
Gary Bruce
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:10 am |Permalink
This Latham thing will fall as flat as a pancake. What more can Latham say about Labor that he hasn’t already said? Besides, it will be seen as more sour grapes from a poor loser, will reinforce that Labor and Rudd are a long way from his version of Labor and is an attack on the Liberal Party as well. Howard has already responded to that attack.
All over in 5 minutes.
97
Michael
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:12 am |Permalink
Fran Kelly made the observation that the LIberal’s campaign seems to have come together this week, and they are now very much on message and coming across as very disciplined.
Now, I’m not sure if I am blinded by my own bias, but it does seem a bit at odds with my observations this week… can any Coalition supporters provide their take on things?
98
Ave it 07
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:13 am |Permalink
Super Liberal winning again
Useless Labor going down the pan
99
Howard Hater
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:13 am |Permalink
Latham: who cares? Irrelevant, embittered, mentally ill. He can go back to whatever hole he crawled out of!
100
Michael
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:13 am |Permalink
Howard Hater Says:
November 9th, 2007 at 8:54 am
GALAXY WENTWORTH POLL:
George Newhouse(LAB) 51
Moneybags Turnball: 49
Is that a guess or have you read that somewhere?
101
Howard Hater
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:14 am |Permalink
Any chance the ABC can get rid of Fran Kelly too? What a pity a once interesting breakfast show on Radio National has been reduced to pro Liberal crap!
102
Observer
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:15 am |Permalink
It’s Christopher Pyne who’s gay, certainly sounds cheerful enough, what-oh! And as for Dolly, well he’s more the sullen type!
And why does Howard’s daughter look like Pru Goward ? What’s going on there!
103
Lindsay voter
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:15 am |Permalink
From Crikey
Christian Kerr writes:
I’ve been inspired by the Liberal ads telling us that interest rates are always up above 10 per cent under Labor governments. Here are a few other historical economic figures that may be of interest:
When Gough Whitlam and Frank Crean were running the show…
* Australia ran a current account surplus. Today the deficit is six per cent of GDP.
* Net foreign debt was under one per cent of GDP. Today it is 53 per cent of GDP.
* The unemployment rate was under two per cent. Now it is 4.3 per cent.
* Real wages grew by 10 per cent. You’re now lucky to get two per cent per annum.
* The Australian dollar was at $US1.4875. It’s now around $US0.92.
If you can make the Whitlam government look like good economic managers, you can prove anything with statistics.
104
Howard Hater
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:15 am |Permalink
Michael: mentioned by someone on the oz politics board!
105
steve
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:16 am |Permalink
Tricky maths from Howard, he’s a clever politician alright.
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:17 am |Permalink
#93 Found Crabbe and Maiden articles through Crikey re non apology.
107
VoterBoy of Over the Water
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:17 am |Permalink
Michael @ 97: Fran Kelly is talking through her clacker. I spoke to a Liberal Party staffer mate yesterday who said that yes, they had thought out a line to deal with the rates rise, and they were ready for it, but then Grumpy Old Johnny f*cked up big time with his sorry-not sorry routine. (See idiot box thread for details)
108
Parramatta Moderate
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:19 am |Permalink
The average odds for Labor across the agencies are about 1.36, very little movement over the last few days. Stories about a wave of money for the Coalition are obviously a load of bull. The seat-level betting has edged a bit in Labor’s favour in the last week, mainly in Qld. Herbert has switched to Labor as favourite-they have a strong candidate, a local businessman called George Colbran, running there. Seats like Leichardt and Longman have also seen Labor firm, although the Libs are still favoured. Betting market reaction to the next round of polls will be extremely interesting.
109
Bushfire Bill
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:21 am |Permalink
Speaking of trainer wheel subbies: the ABC subbie who turned Howard’s “Sorry your dog got run over” into “Prime Minister apologizes” is most likely heading for Oodnagallarbie right now to take up the position of stringer, 2nd class, for the Country Hour.
I worked it out on the “apology” thing (sorry for the slow-thinking).
1. Howard floats the word “sorry”, knows from experience the media will present it as “Howard says sorry”… an ambiguous apology?
2. ABC ramps “sorry” to full-blown “apology” status. Howard makes no comment.
3. Next morning Daily Telegraph publishes an opinion poll saying the public doesn’t blame Howard for the interest rate rise. So there was no need to “apologize” after all.
4. Howard “clarifies” his position on “apology”, i.e. “It wasn’t one.”
5. Sh*t hits fan. Howard puzzled as to why everyone’s laughing at him.
* * * * *
Nicotine Chronicles
I am truly amazed and humbled at the support fellow ‘Bludgers have given me in my attempt (so far successful) to give up the ciggies, and indeed all forms of nicotine. Don’t want to go too far off topic or make too big a thing of it here, but I love youse all.
Anyone else thinking of coming over to the side of light read these quantifiable stats from just 4 days off the fags:
* Heart rate has dropped from 94 to 67 bpm.
* Blood pressure from a respectable 126/84 to a phenomenal 115/74
* Ankles no longer swell at 5pm (this was from Day #1… an instant result).
* Ran.. repeat… RAN with the dogs yesterday, 2 km. Never done this in my life before. In fact the dogs looked more worried than I was… “Has pop gone mad?”
That’s right: It’s not all psychological. These are real, measurable results. Nicotine addicts are in it for the instant gratification. Well those physical changes in my health after only 4 days are about as instant a gratification as anyone would want.
Note: According to the book, “Allen Carr’s Easy Way To Stop Smoking, “evangelism is part of the treatment.
110
centaur_007
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:22 am |Permalink
I wish to pass the motion that as the GG has become the abbreviation for that newspaper, that we rename the ABC the APC (Australian puppetry commission) I am apalled at their biased reporting!
All in favour say I
111
Rates Analyst
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:24 am |Permalink
Um… Aye?
112
steve
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:24 am |Permalink
Sham -I – Am bleating on about whatever it is he bleats about. Think he is convinced that he can influence the turning around of the Titanic.
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:24 am |Permalink
Newspapers often can’t print things for fear of libel suits or there may be a suppression order in place. They will often try to subliminally get the story out using juxtaposition. No-one, except diehards like us notice it and it makes them feel better that they sort of ran with the story. Or it may just be a coincidence.
114
BV
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:25 am |Permalink
Posted on ozforums, re-produced because it fits under the heading
*Radio [Liberal-]National [Coalition]*
Fran Kelly continues to display what can only be described as a cheer-leader approach to commentating on the election.
In today’s Friday Election panel we had:
*Michael Kroger, offering some of the most one-eyed and deranged pro-Government “analysis” yet (see earlier thread re “Postcard from La La Land”);
*Glen Milne, who was firmly pro-Government as always, but with a few backhanders, obviously motivated by his position as Chairman of Club Smirk;
*Grattan, offering generally balanced but paint-strippingly safe assessments of all events during the week; and
*Fran herself, who has, for reasons known only to herself, adopted the practice of talking up ANYTHING AT ALL as “momentum” for the Government and intones almost daily of a “come back” and “need for Labor to get the momentum” – THEY’RE AHEAD IN THE POLLS! As pointed out by Mumble, what, exactly, is “momentum” and why does the poll leader need it?!?!
So we were treated to a fantastically “balanced” panel of 3 pro-Government semi-spruikers and what amounted to an automated read-through of Grattan’s written copy. Fantastic!
Is where my 2c a day are going?!
Last edited by BV (Today 08:21:00)
115
centaur_007
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:26 am |Permalink
Voterboy I posted at 4.36 because as always I remembered that the garbage goes out on a Friday. And those hard working Higginites do my run at 5.55. I am forever missing it and have to take the sulo bins (an australian invention) across the road down the street.
116
CL de Footscray
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:26 am |Permalink
Ave it 07 – I get it now. You’re a sub at the Tele!
117
Ave it 07
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:26 am |Permalink
Vote Coalition for smooth relaxing government.
Removes the need to rely on nicotine
118
Mathew Cole
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:26 am |Permalink
It is officially confirmed… Ave it 07 is Tabitha using a sock-puppet! (refer to Ai07 #98 and the poor poetry)
Please bar one of the identities, William.
Regarding the story, didn’t Crikey promise a juicy story on Friday (that is, today)? Well , this is it – the “Rudd scandal” which will place the last nail in the LNP coffin. They’ll lose this election, then when their dirty tricks are exposed by the new Government, they’ll be consigned to a long decade in purgatory.
119
Ave it 07
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:28 am |Permalink
118:
Liberal = freedom of speech
Labor = people trying to get posters banned
120
Ashley
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:28 am |Permalink
No offence intended, but people reading conspiracy theories into the DT headline is one of the reasons we get referred to as the “looney left”.
If anything, that headline with the accompanying picture is actually implying Peter Costello is gay. But when I read the article, I realise of course that it is another case of a sub-editor playing games with the headline in order to get people to read the article. (BTW, I suspect the ‘gay’ bit of the article was moved to a separate article after the headline was written).
Happens all the time. Get over it. No one reading it is going to give a sh*t.
121
Kymbos
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:29 am |Permalink
This is what you call a slow news day. Let’s move on, shall we?
122
BV
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:29 am |Permalink
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:31 am |Permalink
Centaur: I always deposit my garbage with News Limited sub-editors. They’re happy for anything to chew on and are grateful for its nutritious goodness.
And now I feel a Tabitha coming on
Liberal for double entendres and sly innuendo
Labor for Tintin, the gender bendo
I know, utter crap, but it’s 10.30pm here and I’ve been monitoring your wretched newspapers all day
124
steve
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:32 am |Permalink
Very funny BV back to the future I preesume.
125
BV
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:32 am |Permalink
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:32 am |Permalink
BV this is August!
127
Ashley
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:33 am |Permalink
Well spotted BV!
You know what this means… next week Morgan will have “Coalition surges back!”.
128
Ashley
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:33 am |Permalink
Ha, it is August. BV, what you smokin?
129
CL de Footscray
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:33 am |Permalink
Bill – walk before you run. Apart from anything else, you need to get your muscles used to a load. You should warm up and stretch too, to avoid injuring yourself, which would be a setback. The other bit you can work out for yourself – stressed cardio-vascular system may not respond well to sudden and unaccustomed loads.
Howard is so out of touch it isn’t funny (well, it is actually. Bloody hilarious). The non-core apology is a terrific own goal, and it goives us the perfect minituarised version of Howard’s entire corpus – which amounts to: tell them what they want to hear using carefully chosen words which you can then later deny. This is pettifogging lawyerism at its worst, and unfortunately folk have succumbed for some time. Alas, for SS Rattus Desperatus, folk have finally seen through it.
130
BV
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:35 am |Permalink
Yeah, sorry all, over-saved an old link in my bookmarks for what will presumably be today’s new address!
131
Mathew Cole
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:36 am |Permalink
Ave it 07 #119,
Quite frankly, I consider you to be a deceitful, disgusting little person. If you are going to spend your time making puerile poetry for the glorification of one side or the other, at least have the courage to sign your name to it. Since you lack even that smidgeon of courage, you’re not worth my time.
Also, FYI, I am NOT a member of the ALP. Although I am considering giving them my vote this election.
132
VoterBoy of Over the Water
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:37 am |Permalink
Ashley @ 120. Tell me then – based on your reading of the two accompanying stories, how does the headline work? What is it referring to? Who is the “election rival” in that sentence? Who is the “election rival” in that sentence the rival of? And in what sense is the “election rival” ‘gay’?
133
Shiftaling
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:37 am |Permalink
Regarding Soft Voters, I think I am one. I’d say Australia is heading in the right direction alright – it’s taken eleven years but we are finally heading in the right direction, Gough be praised.
134
Slain
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:38 am |Permalink
Talk about jumping at shadows, some obscure headline in the Tele and a ditsy ABC presenter and everyone is frothing at the mouth. As for the ever flaccid Shamahan ’s drivel, he’s just p***ing in the wind, it’s more amusing than anything. Relax, people will make up their own minds, we aren’t some exotic enlightened species with the scales lifted from our eyes, we just participate in a media forum with a differing bias.
135
centaur_007
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:38 am |Permalink
Our daily papers Voterboy. Come on read the daily mail or the mirror or the sun (still got boobs?) Apart from the metro there are few papers worth reading, oh the European.
Hey after living there for 4 years recentlly and loving curry houses, I have to say that the best I had (must have tried 30) was Angel Curry at the bottom of Chapel market in Angel Islington. You won’t be dissapointed. The best chiicken tika masala, sagh gosth and lamb pasanda I have ever had!!
136
Diogenes
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:38 am |Permalink
On the media, I am going to officially call Rudd a political genius. Think about his relaxing of FOI laws. All the dirt the Rodent has been hiding for 11 years will come out (the laws are retrospective). There will be enough material for the media to report for three years, until the next election. New revelations about Haneef, AWB, Tampa, Hicks, SIEV, WMD… the list goes on. And it helps get Ruperts endorsement. Glen and all you other sad rodent followers, its going to be a LONG LONG DARK WINTER.
137
Ave it 07
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:40 am |Permalink
131 – I’m not really worried if you are a member of the ALP or not.
Mathew Cole getting a bit excited
When really he’s a bit of a #
138
Ashley
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:41 am |Permalink
This is one of the reasons I hate Howard so much.
He f#*ks up, and then blames someone else for it. Such a bare-faced liar, that even to this day he amazes me with his temerity. He’s the one who’s been making stupid differentiations between ’sorry’ and ‘apology’ and yet he has the gall to try and pretend it’s Labor who’s playing word-games:
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:42 am |Permalink
Diogenes says “move out of the way Howard you’ve been blocking the sun.”
140
Howard Hater
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:42 am |Permalink
Speaking of more ABC anti Labor bias: their radio commentators with the Rudd Campaign make their reports as negative as possible, we hear a lot from people who are either Liberals or have some derogatory remark to make about Kevin.
Eg. Today’s report on AM about Rudd’s visit to a shopping centre in Boothby – lots of mentions of hecklers, some old bloke who hates Labor & Nicole Cornes etc. Switch over to News Radio and their hack of a political commentator has a gushing interview with the Rodent.
141
dembo
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:42 am |Permalink
We saw that Wentworth story on the 7.30 Report last night. Two things jumped out – Turnbull’s pathological desire to be “an ordinary Australia” (his “tough student unit” is identical to the cool art deco unit I live in now, which I would not describe as “hard”), and the strange omission by the 7.30 Report of the Democrats candidate Pierce Field. I have noticed that the 7.30 Report does that sort of thing a lot – eg uses Democrats press releases as questions to the majors but refusing to mention the Democrats. It’s tres weird.
142
Mathew Cole
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:42 am |Permalink
Must…stop…feeding…trolls…..
143
Hemingway
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:44 am |Permalink
From 62 Bushfire Bill: Poor Virginia, her radio epitaph will be, “She only wanted to be connected, and at least she wasn’t as bad as Sally Loane.”
Brilliant epitaph, Bushfire Bloke. Smarmy Sally was obsessed with that fact that mothers and children (like hers, of course) were not sufficiently worshiped in Australia. One of Sally’s feature articles in the SMH was to vent her rage that when she took her pre-schoolers to the barber and her 2-year old threw a hissy fit on the floor, all the adults in the barber shop just pretended to ignore it. Sally thought this epitomises the evil forces of Child-ignoring and Mother-hating rampantly destroying Australian society!
As for Virginia, she’s obviously trawling to be the next Pru Goward, hoping to be handed a lucrative, cushy job as the Triumphant Team Howard’s special roving ambassador, adviser and PR flogger for (fill in whatever’s Virginia’s cause du jour). However, she’s got some fierce competition out in media land such as Fran “Yes, you’re 100% spot on about that, Piers!” Kelly or perhaps Melissa “Give me my tax cuts!” Doyle who hosts 7’s Morning Show with Koch.
144
Gippslander
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:44 am |Permalink
84
Derek Corbett Says:
November 9th, 2007 at 8:54 am
“….. Journos don’t write headlines, as a rule. Most can barely spell, anyway.”
Verry,verry trew. But most bloggers here would blusch az thay red it!
145
VoterBoy of Over the Water
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:44 am |Permalink
Centaur – I don’t think they publish the European any more. I recently had to buy the Daily Mail for three weeks because it contained DVDs of a TV series on the First World War, which my daughter in doing for her GCSEs here. It was the most shameful experience of my life. I’ve had less stressful times buying porn as a teenager.
The best curry house in my view was the South India Curry House in Darlinghurst – just near all those fabulous gay bars, if there are any Daily Telegraph subs reading this. But I shall follow your kind instructions and let you know before polling day what I made of it.
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:44 am |Permalink
Matthew Cole (131) have a look at the sentiment expressed by Henry in Post 86.
147
Derek Corbett
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:45 am |Permalink
VoterBoy
The HARD-COPY version of the story DOES NOT carry that headline. The hard-copy version plays it straight, so to speak. Read earlier posts. (Hell, I seem to be sticking up for the tele, must be feverish).
148
Pi
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:46 am |Permalink
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:47 am |Permalink
I prefer Latham to Rudd.
His article also makes a number of good points.
Latham was a true alternative to Howard, whereas Rudd has followed too many of Howard’s stances (i.e. Haneef) for my liking.
Nevertheless, Rudd has proven more then competent so far and I hope Howard goes down in a flaming wreck.
150
Ashley
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:49 am |Permalink
Ashley @ 120. Tell me then – based on your reading of the two accompanying stories, how does the headline work? What is it referring to? Who is the “election rival” in that sentence? Who is the “election rival” in that sentence the rival of? And in what sense is the “election rival” ‘gay’?
I didn’t actually bother to read the ‘gay’ story. I clicked on it, saw that it wasn’t interesting and went back to the main article.
IMHO, that’s what most people are going to do. I seriously don’t believe that anyone is going to come away from that article thinking that Rudd might be gay. Like I said, the picture kind of implies that it is Costello who is gay — which is equally ridiculous.
I agree it’s a silly headline, inappropriate and misleading. But it’s just some sub-editor who thinks he’s being clever. No one is actually going to be fooled into thinking Rudd or Costello is gay. If the DT really wanted to smear Rudd, there are *far* better ways they could go about it in quite legitimate ways… like the Australian does, for example!
151
VoterBoy of Over the Water
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:49 am |Permalink
147: Derek – thanks for the headsup on that. I still think it’s dodgy (for the reasons outlined in 132 – hey, I’ve been trained to close read documents), but I’m willing to assume it was some smarta*se sub rather than an order from Lord Voldemurdoch.
152
CL de Footscray
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:50 am |Permalink
VoterBoy – given that the ‘gay’ headline didn’t make it to the treeware version I suspect it was some juvenile sub who wanted to wind us all up. Maybe Tabitha has a gig at News Ltd? Anyway, it worked, on the wind up front anyway.
Meanwhile, out there in the RW, Rudd looks better by the second and el rodente looks more and more like a desperate, spiteful old goose who’s had his day but won’t let go. Oh how the cabinet must wish they had some courage! How tip must long for a heart! How Alex must long for linguistic gifts!
I can feel a musical coming on.
153
La Nina
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:50 am |Permalink
HH @83 Are those figures for Galaxy 2pp?
154
Ashley
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:51 am |Permalink
the HARD-COPY version of the story DOES NOT carry that headline.
I rest my case.
155
NB
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:51 am |Permalink
BB 109
Glad to hear it’s all going well – don’t stop now. Got to say though – don’t be an evangelist, remember how annoying it was when some ex smoker smugly told you to give up? UGH
156
VoterBoy of Over the Water
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:52 am |Permalink
150 – Ashley. Fair enough. I agree with you here. Let’s hope someone outs the sub-editor. (Not that I’m suggesting…)
157
Diogenes
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:53 am |Permalink
Centaur-I hope you are not comparing Howard to Alexander the Great! But God its so true. That slithering, putrid maggot has blocked the sun and tried to turn our great country into a Dark Ages Inquisition State where money and religion control all. Let there be light!!
158
Tabitha
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:53 am |Permalink
Another Labor day of failure on Sunday remembered
Another failed Labor election campaign in 2 Saturdays to remember
159
Howard Hater
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:54 am |Permalink
La Nina: yes, 2PP.
Thank god for Kerry O’Brien and Antony Green, the two remaining credible ABC political commentators. Sad to say even Tony Jones has joined the pro Howard bandwagon.
160
Ave it 07
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:54 am |Permalink
158 LOL love it!
161
NB
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:55 am |Permalink
Wow, Morgan bounces around more than a superball.
162
Lefty E
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:55 am |Permalink
As predicted: Rudd smear story was nonsense.
163
VoterBoy of Over the Water
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:55 am |Permalink
… meanwhile in the real world, an angry nation begins to respond to the sad bleats of Denise Sham-I-Am.
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:56 am |Permalink
Labor is for intelligent people
Liberal is for braindead trolls like Tabitha, Steven Kaye, Glen etc
165
centaur_007
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:56 am |Permalink
Another succesful labotomy
Another manufactured creature.
She’s alive!
166
ND
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9:58 am |Permalink
Latham was a blockhead. Okay, he provided a clear alternative, but when the PM of 11 years still has an approval rating of >50% it stands to reason that the people don’t really want a clear alternative. Australians are naturally conservative and going in saying you are reallying going to shake things up was politically niave.
Also, Latham masqueraded around pretending to be interested in the job yet all the while in his heart of hearts he hated the party, he hated politics and he hated what is involved with being a successful politician. He basically hated anyone who disagreed with him.
I will admit that I voted for him unashamedly and I wanted him to win as much as the next Labor supporter, but he was a disaster. In fact that whole term in opposition was a disaster (2001-2004). That term is the reason we have to listen to pessimists bang on with the old ‘16 seats is a lot to pick up’ rubbish….
167
Ave it 07
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:00 am |Permalink
164 HEHEHE.
Labor = LOL
168
Asanque
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:02 am |Permalink
ND: That’s because most voters are stupid.
And its not surprising Latham hated politics. Politics in Australia is a joke.
Both major parties rely on pork barrelling to win, and future policies are non existent.
Latham was an idealist, but unfortunately there is no room for idealism in Australian politics and we are all worse off for it.
169
NB
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:02 am |Permalink
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:03 am |Permalink
A poll conducted by the University of Adelaide politics department for ABC Radio gives the following figures for the Senate in SA: ALP 34.4 per cent, Liberal 28.8, Nick Xenophon 24.2, Greens 7.3. When all the numbers were punched into Antony Green’s calculator, the result was two senators each for Labor and Liberal, Xenophon, and a photo-finish for the last spot between the Greens, Xenophon’s running mate Roger Bryson and the third ALP candidate, with the Greens just favoured.
The poll suggests Labor will win the marginal seats of Kingston, Makin and Wakefield, with a good chance of taking Sturt and Boothby as well.
171
Hemingway
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:03 am |Permalink
141 Dembo: “uses Democrats press releases as questions to the majors but refusing to mention the Democrats. It’s tres weird.”
Dembo, don’t know if this helps or not, but I attended the one and only “All-Candidate” debate in my electorate last evening, and the only two candidates who failed to show up were the Liberal and the Democrat. Even the micro-party “Give Divorced Fathers a Fair Go” (or something like that) candidate showed up and acquitted himself fairly well on all issues. It’s madness that any Democrat candidate would decide to miss out on free publicity from the newspaper coverage etc.
By the way, sitting Labor member, Sharon Bird, who’s running for her first re-election after replacing the Green’s Michael Organ in ‘04, gave a stellar performance. Organ had all the audience questions on his side (e.g. Tassie Pulp Mill) and still couldn’t lay a glove on Bird. Labor will get 66 to 70% TPP here in Cunningham.
172
Rates Analyst
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:04 am |Permalink
Can we institute a rule that all rhyming couplets must at least rhyme? If possible also with somehing approaching a poetic scan?
Something like:
Liberal plays to fear and greed
While Labor helps those in need
173
Tabitha
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:04 am |Permalink
Labor is for misogyny and woman hatred
Liberal is for freedom and chick power
174
Derek Corbett
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:04 am |Permalink
Let’s clear this up. Page 6-7 of the Telegraph runs with the main head running over the two pages – “Defining moment in PM’s sorry saga”. Farr’s “sorry” story is on Page 7 with the kicker head: “Mortgagees don’t rate an apology.” There’s a big pic of Howard and Costello. Page 6 has a big pic of Dani Ecuyer and a panel with the “gay” story: “Hunky sidekicks appeal to the cool – and lazy”. There is no link between the two stories. It’s perfecly normal tabloid layout.
175
CL de Footscray
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:05 am |Permalink
VoterBoy – Dennis really is a tragical, if hysterically amusing, figure. I have developed a short list to id your contribution. I assume it’s not the one suggesting that Rudd is a slimebag.
176
Howard Hater
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:07 am |Permalink
Is Tabitha Steven Kaye’s alter ego?
177
AM
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:07 am |Permalink
Tabitha,
Better hurry, or you will be late for Kindy.
178
CL de Footscray
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:07 am |Permalink
RA – if you want that to scan you need to change ‘helps’ to ‘helpeth’. (Sorry, can’t help myself. Have a serious problem with Iambic Pentameters.)
I endorse your call for doggerel that rhymes.
179
NB
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:09 am |Permalink
172 RA
Check out the rules of Haiku:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haiku
Much more satisfactory than a simple rhyme.
180
Ave it 07
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:09 am |Permalink
172/173 – i prefer the random non rhyming artistry of tabitha.
Mathew Cole are you still there or are you in the kindergarten now?
181
Ashley
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:11 am |Permalink
Sad to say even Tony Jones has joined the pro Howard bandwagon.
I disagree with that. IMO, Tony is pretty even-handed.
IMHO, most of the bias in the media stems from the Australian. It sets the tone for much of the day’s discussion of politics, and much of the rest of the media simply regurgitates lines from Shanahan et al.
But let’s not get into another biased-media discussion again… I think we’ve covered that one pretty well!
182
Bobby Horry
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:12 am |Permalink
Am I the only one who thinks Tony Jones is hugely over rated? I don’t think he’s biased, he just thinks he is Edward R Murrow or something. So put on. Thinks he is a heavyweight.
183
Samuel K
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:12 am |Permalink
Don’t bookies have to continue offering ridiculously good odds for the Coalition because of the lopsided state of their books. If Labor wins they will be slaughtered, so any money on the Coalition reduces their expected loss, no?
184
VoterBoy of Over the Water
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:13 am |Permalink
CL @ 175 – c’mon then – money where your mouth is. Is my rancorous oeuvre recognisable? (Although my entry was truncated – they cut out the bit where I referred to Dennis slobbering over Howard like a drunken lech who’s found himself in a girl’s school… Only to be expected, tho.)
185
will
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:13 am |Permalink
Tabitha your attempt at poetry is so droll
Piss off from here you ineffective little troll
186
Tabitha
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:13 am |Permalink
Labor for misogyny and progeny’s sake
Liberal for liberty and opportunity’s sake
187
VoterBoy of Over the Water
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:14 am |Permalink
Beatrix Potter wrote tales of Miss Tabitha Twitchet
While we endure wails from a Liberal troll thicksh*t
188
NB
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:15 am |Permalink
Caterpillars twitch
Below furrowed brow
All is not well
189
Howard Hater
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:15 am |Permalink
Will: LOL LOL LOL
Tabitha you are a troll
Piss off now you Liberal loving mole
190
AM
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:15 am |Permalink
Tabitha.
Is your Mummy helping you to write this stuff?
191
will
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:16 am |Permalink
Av it 07 you think you are cool
But you remind me of a sad fool
192
George
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:16 am |Permalink
“Liberal for liberty”…. WTF?… Tabitha, you’re a comedian! Or maybe the 10 joints you’ve had before 10am are kicking in. Don’t they teach you to “say no to drugs” at school?
193
marty
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:17 am |Permalink
Sake rhymes with…sake!
Keep trying Tabitha.
194
Ave it 07
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:18 am |Permalink
LOL!
Isnt this little colonial election fun?!
Ave it!
195
AM
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:18 am |Permalink
Tabitha,
Or maybe Grumpy Grandpa Howard is helping you with your lines?
196
Tory Crimes
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:19 am |Permalink
Just saw the Ruddster being mobbed like a rock star. What a guy!
Kool Kevin Rules and so does Golden Gordon over in the UK.
197
will
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:20 am |Permalink
Tabitha and AV it07, if this is the best the young liberals can throw up, then heaven help the future generation.
198
Ave it 07
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:21 am |Permalink
Labor is for total failure
Liberal = very good really
199
Kina
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:21 am |Permalink
13
Ed@Bennelong Says:
November 9th, 2007 at 7:05 am
This is out of the ordinary.
Heading placement submiminally very nasty.
I think people might be missing the point. The headline is curious, no one is going to make any assumptions and, instead will be drawn in to reading the article to found out what it is talking about. It actually works as a device to get people to read what you wrote and, that was a negative message about Howard’s not-sorry.
200
steve
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:21 am |Permalink
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:23 am |Permalink
168 Asanque: ” Latham was an idealist, but unfortunately there is no room for idealism in Australian politics and we are all worse off for it.”
Asanque, Latham carried serious physical and psychological issues which he’s now made public knowledge. That’s the reason I can forgive him for his blunders which gifted Howard not only the larger House 2PP buffer in marginal seats that could still prove too big for Rudd to overcome, but the Senate majority which resulted in Workchoices and other rubbish.
As for Mark’s latest contribution, Rudd being attacked by Latham will do as little damage as being Rudd being attacked by a Joe McDonald-type union heavy.
202
Mr Denmore
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:23 am |Permalink
BV at 114, I caught the Fran Kelly-Kroger-Milne-Grattan discussion this morning as well and, like you, was gobsmacked at Kelly’s apparent partisanship. You could be excused for thinking she was a government spin merchant.
But the reality is that the Liberals have been in power so long now and the ABC board and management has been so stacked with Liberal-appointed heavies that the more careerist public broadcasters (like Kelly and Trioli) have simply realised which side their bread is buttered on.
On-air displays of bias in favour of the government will set the switchboards alight. And the record of those complaints will make it to the managing director and the board, who will be pleased at Ms Kelly’s ‘even-handedness’ and reward her appropriately.
Aside from Kelly herself, how can any discussion on the week in politics be balanced with a partisan host, a Liberal Party appartachik, a journalist who campaigns for Costello and dear old Michelle, who hardly ever says anything interesting these days?
203
Tory Crimes
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:24 am |Permalink
This ACN Baby boomer stuff. Have they not got their years a bit wrong? They are saying people born between ‘53 and ‘67 are baby boomers? Not sure about people born from ‘63 on?
204
centaur_007
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:25 am |Permalink
There was a young girl named Tabby,
Whos blogs were apaulingly shabby,
But one day she did see,
That such liberal repartee,
Was just purely moronic and crappy.
2mins 25sec
205
CL de Footscray
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:26 am |Permalink
VoterBoy – I’m opting for ‘Oh dennis how do you sleep at night’
206
Samuel K
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:28 am |Permalink
This might sound sex*st, but Liberal voting women are unattractive. I’m sorry, but it’s true. My girlfriend asked me last night if I would be going out with her if she was a Liberal. After vomiting violently in the middle of the lounge room, I composed myself and politely said, “no, absolutely not”.
207
VoterBoy of Over the Water
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:28 am |Permalink
I’m off to bed. May today bring more misery and confusion to the Satan and his Hellish Instruments, and I’ll log on again in a few hours to see whether that despicable and outrageous (copyright, Dolly Downer) gay headline had anything to do with Miss Toni Abbott’s Nancy Cap.
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:29 am |Permalink
Mr Denmore, I for one am simply appalled by the instances of bias. I will be writing some very detailed letters to whomever is Communications Minister after 24 November 2007.
209
VoterBoy of Over the Water
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:29 am |Permalink
And CL – you got it in one. You clever clever boy.
210
George
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:29 am |Permalink
Mr Denmore, very true. The reality for these people though (Kelly, Trioli, et al) is that they will be marginalised when Labor comes into power. For them to change in the dying minutes of the Howard Gov (even to start appearing a little more balanced) would be too obvious. So they give it the “old college try” and hope Labor doesn’t win. As Mr Burns says on the Simpsons: “I could crush him like an ant. But it would be too easy. No, revenge is a dish best served cold. I’ll bide my time until … Oh, what the hell. I’ll just crush him like an ant.”
211
Kirribilli Removals
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:30 am |Permalink
Trioli’s got morning sickness!
So she’s heading off to TV land and wants to keep doing Lateline. Maybe she reckons she’ll get the gig when Tony moves on, and then a few years later she’ll retire and run for the seat of Bennelong.
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:30 am |Permalink
Latham is right. This is a Seifield election. Why? well if Rudd is really gay it is a well known Seinfield catchcry that there is nothing wrong with that!
But really. I have two theories about this. One is that if we have to choose between a conspiracu and a stuff up, I’d go for the stuff up.
The other one is that after the good people at the Tele got wind of the ‘Rudd smear on Friday story’ and its associated frenzy in the blogosphere they probably decided to have a bit of a joke at us by placing these oblique headlines.
Regarding Radio National Breakfast I used to get angry but now I take it as a joke almost the same way as when I see Ackerman or Bolt on ‘The Insiders’.
Not only they had ‘The Panel’ which as someone else already suggested has one Liberal ex-President (and still influential Liberal operator), and one Costello loving journalist.
They also had before a journalist who followed John Howard’s campaign (so her views were very slanted towards him) and of course just after that Gerald Henderson!
Need I say more.
213
Mr Denmore
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:31 am |Permalink
Tony at 203, that’s just what I thought on reading the Herald article on generational support for either party. According to their analysis, the “boomers” are all backing Rudd, while the over-55s are predominately in Howard’s court.
People aged 55-60 were born between 1947 and 1952, which makes them boomers in my book (post world war 2 babies).
The Herald says the 40-54 year-olds are predominately in the Rudd camp. But I thought generation ‘X’ began in 1962, which would make half that sample Xers and half late baby boomers.
I think they’re stretching things.
214
BV
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:32 am |Permalink
I am confused by Tioli’s political past – a few years ago Liberals were acusing her of being left-biased (when she was in Melbourne). But in Sydney she has adopted a consistently conservative line. What happened? Did she see the changing faces on the ABC Board and took a punt on the Right?
215
Lord D
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:32 am |Permalink
Ave it 07, as a Pom Tory you must be in despair over the fortunes of the former ruling party, reduced to a total rump in 97, and not recovering very much at the last two elections. I’m hoping that’s what happens here to the Libs.
216
CL de Footscray
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:32 am |Permalink
The good news, however, is that none of the partisanism of certain ABC presenters appears to be having the slightest effect. Fran and various others are very annoying but remember only people with something like an opinion listen to RN, watch Lateline, or indeed hang on every word spoken on PM or AM. So it’s a sort of victimless crime, n’est ce pas? The only thing they’re doing is insuring ehmselves in the event of a Howard victory. They are also largely psephologically illiterate so haven’t quite worked out that the rodent is gone. Once they do (next week sometime, I suggest) watch them switch. The appropriate metaphor involves rats and drainpipes.
217
CL de Footscray
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:33 am |Permalink
VoterBoy – excellent! May you dream of drowning rats!
218
Ville
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:38 am |Permalink
John Faine has some clown on this morning – I think its John Roskam – doing the Coalition spruiking du jour. A caller tried to pull him up on interest rates and unemployment under Hawke-Keating; regarding the achievements they made in reducing unemployment etc. Roskam tried for about ten seconds to argue him point by point, then suddenly completely abandoned that line and talked about ‘looking at the overall 11 years of Howard-Costello vs Hawke-Keating’ and saying something to the effect that you can’t deny that the numbers are lower now. Which more or less means that the argument holds as long as you don’t look at it in any detail at all.
Faine just let him get away with that. He even said that Roskam would be happy with callers like that one, because it gives him a chance to compare the figures and bring out the 17% argument. That’s as far as he let the level of that debate go.
The trouble for Howard is that we heard this 17% mantra all through the last election, and now it’s been clouded by the 22% figure that Rudd brought up in the first debate. I’m not sure it’s cutting through. And if it isn’t, they can’t go much further into the figures without exposing their own hypocrisy on the issue. We saw that with the ‘tables’ they stuck into their latest ads.
My feeling is that you can pull this shtick if you’re well-placed electorally, as they were in the last election. But it isn’t going to do you any good if you don’t have the good will of the electorate already.
219
Alan H
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:38 am |Permalink
Denmore and others,
re ABC bias: Please use the ABC complaints link on the ABC website http://www.abc.net.au/contact/contactabc.htm
to register your complaint about bias. In this particular instance you might complain about the obvious bias in the selection of the ‘panel’ and also use salient points from the transcript of the show when it appears. I have succeeded in having a complaint about a particularly blatant piece of Uhlmann rubbish escalated to a very high level. Just keep pushing and don’t take no for an answer. Publish their replies on blogs like this, to demonstrate to the public at large what garbage they come up with as justification.
cheers,
Alan H
220
Betamax
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:38 am |Permalink
Just had to respond to the comments above about the Fran Kelly continuing to speak about the need for ALP to “get the momentum back”. What a twit she is. Always running the same line, on RN and Insiders.
Watching that woman rise from political correspondent to full-fledged host has made me almost go crazy. Has no-one — not a single manager, producer –noticed how completely freaking FATUOUS she is? I don’t know that she’s ever had a single incisive thought about Federal politics in her life. And she’s ONE OF THE MOST SENIOR and IMPORTANT pundits around.
She has all the worldly wisdom of a girl on a Year 11 private girls school debating team. By which I mean — she can express herself, she knows how to write a cute english essay to score a good mark, she can fill a vacuum with words, but she has absolutely no sense of the world around her.
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:42 am |Permalink
Fran Kelly sounds the perfect person for Trioli’s gig, at least as far as the ABC is concerned.
Or maybe they’ll get some twit like Jennifer Byrne. Virginia assured a concerned listener that her replacement would definitely be female.
223
Fagin
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:43 am |Permalink
It’s an eerily slow old day in the world of Oz politics.
We need another rumour, or a scandal, or an opinion poll (a real one – not a Morgan) to liven things up.
224
Kirribilli Removals
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:44 am |Permalink
Nicotine addiction? Sheeesh! That’s nothing!
I need another poll, and I need it now!
Quick, do me some numbers and analysis now, my brain is starting to hurt.
225
Pi
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:44 am |Permalink
# 198 Ave it 07 Says: November 9th, 2007 at 10:21 am
Labor is for total failure
Liberal = very good really
William, has this guy contributed a single post worth reading yet? Mindless posting like this doesn’t help debate for either side.
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:44 am |Permalink
sorry…wrong transcript. I will link it if I find it.
227
Michael
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:44 am |Permalink
216
CL de Footscray Says:
November 9th, 2007 at 10:32 am
Exactly – not a single swinging voter watches lateline or listens to RN. Not one.
I don’t see it as an issue.
228
Kate Ellis for PM
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:46 am |Permalink
Latham is correct in stating that both parties are pandering to middle class greed, the election is like a ‘Seinfield election’ and Labor is ‘conservative’. Welcome to Howard’s Australia Mark! But the only way you can change it is by being in government, and unfortunately, the only way Labor can be in government, is by not being wedged by Howard and pander to Howard’s Australia. Sad, but true.
229
George
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:46 am |Permalink
Ville, yes it’s John Roskam (from the Institute of Public Affairs). http://ipa.org.au/people/bio.asp?peopleid=68 Don’t get me started on this guy, but I am not being flipant when I say I wouldn’t p*ss on him if he was on fire. A real dirt bag. People from this organisation make disgraceful comment on many social issues and are extremely right wing.
I wrote to Crike about these idiots a while back:
“I think it’s time we (the Australian Public) express some opinions about this “Institute of Public Affairs” (whatever the heck their name means!) which keeps getting an airing in Crikey (and elsewhere) – just like ACCI and Peter Hendy, who are now so obviously up the Liberal Party’s proverbial date, the Institute of Public Affairs is little more than a gang of right-wing scare-mongers, who believe in some alchemical model of the universe, a direct antithesis of everything scientific and universally obvious. Whether it’s “comments” on global warming (no, it’s not called climate change), the stolen generation (no it’s not called the displaced or saved generation) or “Union Bosses” (no they aren’t under your bed – just go and check!), their “research” (cough, cough) is laughable, purposely ignorant and downright dangerous. I challenge any of their “experts” to provide even one article they have had published in an internationally acknowledged, peer reviewed journal.”
I emailed Jon Fayne ages ago to get this moron off his Friday Wrap, and he wrote back saying they can’t find any right-of-center balanced commentators to come on.
230
CL de Footscray
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:47 am |Permalink
Fran K is fairly lightweight – but really, how many of the Canberra gallery are much better at the moment? One of the things that Howard’s tight control has done is to tun the gallery into lapdogs – if you offend us, you lose access. If you lose access, you’re reduced to recycling rumours (which is effectively what Crikey has institutionalised and turned into a ‘business’, although how long it will last is another question). Howard’s mania for control has produced this the good news is that rudd seems to understand this, and his remarks about FOI, and reform of the PS, bode well for de-lapdogging the media. Of course, they’ll end up biting him, but the lapdogs will probably go, their access all dried up.
PS – silly me, i subscribed to Crikey for their election ‘coverage’. Talk about lightweight! PB is thirty times more informative and has abetter class of rumour (not to mention paranoia).
231
middle man
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:47 am |Permalink
Nr denmore.
oops sorry i take that back.
232
middle man
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:49 am |Permalink
on other matters… is it just me or is Virginia Trioli a bit hot?
233
CL de Footscray
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:50 am |Permalink
middle man – i suspect it’s just you …
234
adrian
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:51 am |Permalink
232, it is definitely just you.
235
tdt
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:51 am |Permalink
The rat was the head of the nation
The greedy thought him a sensation
But then with a thud
Came a fellow called Rudd
And with him came lib decimation
236
middle man
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:52 am |Permalink
tdt. nice work.
237
Lefty E
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:53 am |Permalink
“I wish to pass the motion that as the GG has become the abbreviation for that newspaper, that we rename the ABC the APC (Australian puppetry commission) I am apalled at their biased reporting!”
I second that Centaur.
Man, Im getting overexcited by these rumoured polls. I ddint even notice the August date on that link and was sending emails. Doh!
Must. Chill. Out.
238
Mr Denmore
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:53 am |Permalink
Betamax at 220, I think Fran Kelly is just one of those journalists who never really made the transition from reporter to commentator. She was actually pretty good as a straight-down-the-middle gofer. But when she got promoted from straight reporting to the presenter’s chair in current affairs, it was discovered that she really had nothing really interesting to say on her own account.
I think she realises she is perceived as a lightweight (her little girl, breathy voice does not help her on that account), so she over-compensates by making sweeping statements full of kitset political rhetoric (eg: Labor has “lost the momentum”, the election “could go down to the wire”, and best of all, “the marginals at the end of the day will decide this thing”).
239
George
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:54 am |Permalink
middle man: “on other matters… is it just me or is Virginia Trioli a bit hot?”
Great, now this morning’s breakfast is on the floor and I have to get down on all fours and clean it up. Thanks middle man… oh, and , NO, it’s just YOU!
240
CL de Footscray
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:54 am |Permalink
My favourite was when she said something like ‘the party that gets the most seats will win’.
241
CL de Footscray
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:55 am |Permalink
It was pretty early in the morning …
242
Mr Denmore
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:55 am |Permalink
Middle Man at 232, it isn’t just you. She definitely has something.
243
tdt
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:55 am |Permalink
Tabitha cheered for the rich
Alas, they’re about to be ditched
So let me just jab
That the only good tab
Appeared in the show called Bewitched
244
middle man
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:56 am |Permalink
wow, i didn’t think it was that crazy a notion!
245
BV
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:57 am |Permalink
My complaint lodged with the ABC:
I have witnessed with increasing dismay and alarm that Fran Kelly’s Breakfast show on Radio National exhibits a pro-Government bias in a number of areas.
Kelly herself regularly adopts the various “spin” lines being pushed by the Government, be it in relation to interest rates, job figures, climate change or “global financial tsunamis”.
Kelly regularly allows (caretaker) Ministers to simply speak from their prepared lines while Opposition members are confronted with a series of interruptions and spoken over (her divergent treatment of Costello and Swan yesterday was replete with examples).
Today’s show was an almost unceasing endorsement of the Government line, from her repeated statements of Howard being “on message!” and “confident” in her discussion with Lyndal Curtis, to her interchanges with the “Friday Panel” in which Kelly commented that “Labor hasn’t had the momentum”.
Further, the composition of the “Friday Panel”, made up of the former head of the Victorian Liberal Party (Kroger), the known pro-Costello Milne and the straight down the line Grattan could hardly be called “balanced”. Especially with Kelly’s own contributions and the fact that it was preceded by an interview with self-described conservative Gerard Henderson.
I look forward with receding hope to some semblance of balance within the final 2 weeks of the election campaign!
246
mate
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:58 am |Permalink
tdt 235 “applause”
247
tdt
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:58 am |Permalink
To Tabitcha, Ave and to glen
And all of you right leaning men
Please glance at the polls
You short-sighted trolls
It’s “good night” “bad luck” and “amen”!
248
StanS
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:58 am |Permalink
the one great advance from this campaign is the rise of the blog. This site is truly the best, for quality information, over the horizon inside info and plain old gossip. It is my source of electoral info. Don’t watch TV, read papers or listen to the wireless unless pointed to by this site bloggers. Really works being in Qld and being an hour behind no more wasted RN Breakfasts, 7.30s or Latelines.
I suspect that MSM and the patehtic excuse for a press corp are going to be suffering from Gareth’s deprivation syndrome soon.
249
middle man
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:58 am |Permalink
thanks for the support Mr Densmore. although Jana on Rove last week was a delight. Why a TV channel wont just let here do whatever the hell she wants is beyond me…. I’d watch her host any old cr*p, even ACA! oh yeah she’s done that…… oops.
250
George
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:00 am |Permalink
BV, excellent
251
Greensborough Growler
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:00 am |Permalink
Saying Virginia Trioli is quitting radio is like saying Howard is quitting as PM on Nov 24.
252
Kate Ellis for PM
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:00 am |Permalink
245 Bravo!
253
Socrates
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:01 am |Permalink
Kate Ellis for PM 228
Sadly I must agree with you. The past ten years have demonstrated Howards amoral view of the use of power, and the cowardice of many so-called “journalists” in not even reporting it. But the fact that Howard got reelected despite both Tampa and Children Overboard has shown that, ultimately, the majority of Australians are selfish and don’t really care. No wonder governments don’t invest in the future. Most voters would rather have a plasma screen TV.
254
Ashley
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:01 am |Permalink
BV @ 245:
Good points. Anyone else who feels the same should send off an email too… the ABC is pretty good at responding to allegations of bias these days. BV, any details as to where emails should be sent?
255
tdt
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:01 am |Permalink
thanks – back to work for me. hate for this to become a poetry appreciation centre.
256
steve
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:01 am |Permalink
One vote short of being a candidate. Maybe a run in three years perhaps, if enough signatures can be found.
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:01 am |Permalink
did anyone see the GG’s story about the Latham article?? apparently “MARK Latham has thrown a bombshell into the 2007 election campaign, skewering some of Kevin Rudd’s central themes.”
That is fantastic sub work!
258
BV
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:02 am |Permalink
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:03 am |Permalink
Headline: Latham says Labor ‘conservative’
When the GG whack this headline up, do they realise it’s just what Rudd has been trying to get the voters to think?
How bizarre that in their desperate last minute agony, they actually reinforce Rudd’s theme because they just do not get it!
Rudd’s out wedged, out played and out smarted the conservatives and now the poor old Government Gazette is trumpeting Rudd’s theme in it’s headlines.
This just gets funnier and funnier.
260
Ashley
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:03 am |Permalink
BTW, BV (245) I think your point regarding having an unbalanced discussion panel is the strongest. The ABC is required to give equal weight to all sides, and as you have demonstrated 2 out of 3 of these commentators are not impartial.
261
Tory Crimes
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:04 am |Permalink
defo you middle man-but maybe 10 years ago you could have been on to something. But seriously over the years she has taken some anti-govt stances over things like VSU and she copped a lot of personal vile from a certain political blogger who has his own gossip site when she covered the story of the missing millions from the Melbourne Uni Student Union . Im not sure she is a blatant right-winger but another of these ABC journos who are too scared to take on the Tories and go overboard with wanting to be balanced (no punt intended)
262
Lefty E
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:04 am |Permalink
Lets sum it up: Our fourth estate is a national embarrassment. Bunch of press-release jockeys and compromised, second rate hacks. Few honourable exceptions.
263
steve
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:05 am |Permalink
‘not impartial’?
264
Ashley
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:05 am |Permalink
257 (middleman) On ABC radio news this morning the Latham article was referred to as a “grenade”.
265
Socrates
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:05 am |Permalink
How is Latham criticising Rudd even news? Latham is not even a Labor party member any more AFAIK. By comparison, Malcom Fraser has sharply criticised Howard on many occaisions and it barely gets reported by now. Its not old news; its non-news. Is anyone actually going to release a policy today?
266
Michael
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:05 am |Permalink
SMH:
The cost of home loans is set to rise by a further 0.25 per cent in the next month or two over and above the latest increase that is now being pushed through by the major banks after the Reserve Bank lifted official cash rates this week.
National Australia Bank warned today that it couldn’t keep absorbing the price pressures that have been added to its own cost of borrowing which, in turn, is used to fund the mortgages it offers.
267
The Keegan
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:07 am |Permalink
Kevin Rudd should come out and deplore the Tele for suggesting Peter Costello is gay. We all know he’s not gay [insert Seinfeld rejoinder], he’s just a pr*ck.
268
Rates Analyst
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:07 am |Permalink
Where exactly did you see that Michael?
269
middle man
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:08 am |Permalink
a grenade???? oh that is too funny! If Latham says someone is conservative, most people would interpret that as a compliment. I cant believe the AFR thought latham’s views were even worth publishing.
270
Michael
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:08 am |Permalink
[269] – just go to smh.com.au
you can’t miss it
271
Fagin
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:10 am |Permalink
Joe from WorkChoices I heard
Tried hard to polish his turd
It all came asunder
With blunder on blunder
When he was eaten by a Labor-Left bird.
272
middle man
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:11 am |Permalink
man this is a slow news day… Latham.. geez…. best get back to the salt mine. hi ho, hi ho….
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:11 am |Permalink
I look forward to RN panel next Friday which will consist of Barry Jones, David Marr and Robert Manne. NOT!
274
Rates Analyst
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:13 am |Permalink
Thanks
275
Gary Bruce
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:13 am |Permalink
I like this from Crikey’s Early Campaign Edition: Day 26
“Dear Sole Subscriber,
Campaign day 26. 15 sorry days to polling. Not that we’re apologising for anything. No, sorry, but we’re not. I mean we’re sorry, but we wouldn’t want you to think that meant we were indicating anything other than a vague sense of generalised and certainly non-specific regret. Certainly not guilt. And it’s not our fault.”
Brilliant.
276
Don Wigan
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:13 am |Permalink
It is a dull day when the trolls get so much attention.
My theory on Tabitha is that she’s the latest innovation that Howard Junior brought back from Team Rove in the US.
You remember that at the 04 election he used that computer-generated phone spammer to call up marginal voters with ‘John Howard’s Special Personal Message’ (it seemed to be similar to Homer Simpson’s Money-making spammer, “Friend, I have this great money-making scheme. Just send $5 and a stamped envelope to…”) on how important it was to vote Liberal.
In this one the computer generates couplets and sends them in to left-leaning blogs to crowd up space and distract posters. Tabitha is not a person! She’s a computer program. Which is why she never engages in dialogue.
Ave it 07, of course, is merely parodying Tabitha.
277
adrian
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:15 am |Permalink
Just flicked through the Tele at the newsagent downstairs – the ’sorry saga’ headline is fantastic for Labor. Don’t know about the rest of the article, but the headline says it all. Maybe they will support Rudd after all.
The Tele’s interpretation of Trioli’s departure is completely different from the SMH’s version, the Tele being far more critical of her ‘failure’ as a broadcaster.
And the SMH is doing its best to bury sorrygate. What’s going on?
278
John Hunt Is A Coward
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:15 am |Permalink
Don’t feed the liberal trolls. Best to just ignore them and talk about interesting stuff. I don’t bother even reading Glen’s posts. Too predictable and too boring.
279
Julie
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:16 am |Permalink
Ok, here is my story from the front lines here in Liverpool, NSW this morning.
I stopped at the local Westfield on my way home from the gym to get a take away salad for lunch. I remarked to the lady who was preparing my salad that I “wanted to get home before the cricket started at 11am”. She said “oh, so you are a cricket tragic then?” and I said, yes, pretty much. Then I added that the only thing more interesting than the cricket at the moment was the Federal Election. She looked at me in all innocence and said “oh, when is that?”. I didn’t want to be rude and put my best “you’re kidding?? right??” face on. She wasn’t offended and took the look the way I meant it and told me “I work all the time and I don’t read papers or watch TV so I had no idea”. I caught my breath and told her it was on Saturday 24th November. Then she said to me “well, you seem like you know all about it, who should I vote for?” [I thought to myself, "you BEAUTY" and realized I probably wouldn't get a chance like this again]. I also remembered the KISS principle [Keep It Simple Stupid] and told her this. “Vote for your Labor candidate so that Kevin Rudd gets in as PM. Howard and the Libs have simply been there TOO long.” She said to me as she gave me my change “That sounds to me, thanks ”
If she was on the level, I got one more onto the ship today :):)
280
Socrates
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:16 am |Permalink
Perhaps we could institute a “Tony Snow Award”, for the journalist making the greatest cnotribution to the continuation of right wing government. Do I hear any nominations?
We could put up an online poll and allow people to vote for their favourite. Given the intellectual stature of most of the potential recipients, an Oxford Dictionary (Student edition) would be a good prize.
281
Andrew
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:17 am |Permalink
Why the competition? Shanahan is without peer, with a special mention to Ackerman
282
CL de Footscray
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:17 am |Permalink
275 – I suspect they’re not apologising for spreading paranoia and alarm in the ranks of pseph-bloggers …
283
Julie
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:18 am |Permalink
279,
that second last line should read “sounds good to me”, sorry about that ……
284
Dinsdale Piranha
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:18 am |Permalink
Has anyone seen that rolling ad for the Greens? “Howard is Gone,” it says. “But who will keep Kevin honest?” Very droll. With senators like Kerry Nettle, Labor must be quaking in its collective boots.
285
Betamax
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:19 am |Permalink
Well said, Denmore @ 238.
That is exactly FK’s problem: she feels an obligation to pontificate or theorize about politics. Unfortunately, her background is as a straight fact gatherer. She has no theoretical grounding in anything to base her comments on. No political science or economics, no real world experience of campaigning, no psephology, no sociology.
So she fills the gap with sweeping, cliched statements, as you say. Usually ones that look at politics through the prism of unhelpful Lakoff-ian metaphors (eg a metaphor of politics as a fight/brawl; a week as being won/lost; parties “having momentum/stalling”)
I for one have long been irritated with the way media privileges *other journalists* with a special knowledge of politics and society. Heck, ABC 702 is a perfect example — every week at least 2 different shows have a “journalists forum” where intellectual titans such as Jennifer Byrne — people who truly have their finger on the pulse of our world — share their important insights. It’s just not in the media playbook, for instance, to ask people who might actually have, oh, I don’t know, studied politics or society or media for a living to give their opinion? People who’ve actually done some research, gathered some evidence to base their opinions on?
Apologies for the rant.
286
seajay
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:19 am |Permalink
I agree about Fran Kelly’s apparent bias; her silly claim about Howard’s momentum was supported by Lyndal Curtis who has been on the Howard campaign ‘bus’ all week – of course it would look to her like Howard had momentum. Why do we continue to get Kroger, Milne and the ubiquitous and oleagenous Henderson (who seems to deliberately drop his Gs as if imitating some upper class pommie twit) as ‘expert’ commentators on an almost daily basis? I know RN listeners will almost certainly pay her no heed but it buggers up the rest of my day getting annoyed about it.
And then I think about WorkChoices, Nov 24 and the sweet vision of Howard’s resignation speech – oh joy oh joy.
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:19 am |Permalink
As Michelle Grattan said this morning, the care factor about Latham comments out there in the electorate is zero.
As she said he had his time and failed and the electorate already rejected him, and will not listen to him now. Pointedly Grattan said that the only people who will take any notice are journalists, commentators and politics tragics like us.
Latham has already been scathing towards Rudd before so I can’t see this failry mild criticism having much impact.
Of course Milne said that Latham statement about the fact that there is no affordibility crisis will be a ‘turning point’ in this election (for heavens’ sake, how many turning points we’ve had?) which will favour the coalition.
As someone said, being labelled a conservative by Latham will be seen as a plus, if anything.
288
steve
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:19 am |Permalink
270 &274 Yes, Michael and Rates Analyst, seems that another Christmas Nightmare has just fallen into Howard’s lap.
Apparently being called out by a former PM isn’t enough to make you even remotely reconsider your mantra these days.
I see Uhlmann got s mention a little earlier too. Chris, if you’re reading, (and let’s face it if you’re a political journo and you’re not skimming here you’re missing out), I have no problem with attacking and teasing the truth out of ALL pollies, but the intellectual bar needs to be raised just a tad – go watch a few decent barristers if that’s who you want to emulate.
290
Pi
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:20 am |Permalink
280 Socrates Says: November 9th, 2007 at 11:16 am
Perhaps we could institute a “Tony Snow Award”, for the journalist making the greatest cnotribution to the continuation of right wing government. Do I hear any nominations?
Andrew Bolt. He at least has some indication of the hammering that the libs are about to get in about two weeks.
291
tdt
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:20 am |Permalink
You’ve just trumped me Fagin. Top stuff.
I’m in Hockey’s seat and I can tell you – Mike Bailey is everywhere. I’ve seen him three times in this campaign already. He’s a long horse, but wouldn’t it be great to see the weather man get up!
292
ND
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:21 am |Permalink
Johnny Howard is a jerk
Give us back our rights at work
293
ND
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:25 am |Permalink
Vote ALP and the light on the hill
Not Johnny Howard and the boys from Brazil
294
peterm
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:25 am |Permalink
Listening to Frannie’s panel this morning made be wish that they tried harder to get a panel of non-aligned people with something interesting to say, meaningful insights and nothing to spruik.
Problem with that is the Howard style of spin government politicises everyone, you are either for them or against them.
Same problem with Insiders – though I think Megalogensis comes closest to an interesting commentator.
295
Pi
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:25 am |Permalink
Funny how we don’t hear any ‘internal liberal polling’ leaks anymore?
What does that tell you?
296
CL de Footscray
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:26 am |Permalink
Seajay et al – try news radio in the mornings. Marius Benson is the real thing. And you’ll hear stuff that only another 16 people will hear, so you can be first to spread rumours.
297
Michael
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:27 am |Permalink
Did Milne really say that Latham’s comments would be a “turning point”?
That does seem very odd.
Latham’s comments were really quite innocuous – surprisingly so. If anything, they feed into Labor’s narrative, not the government’s.
298
Ashley
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:28 am |Permalink
Funny how we don’t hear any ‘internal liberal polling’ leaks anymore?
Not much from Labor either. You can draw the same conclusion, but for different reasons.
299
Ashley
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:29 am |Permalink
Did Milne really say that Latham’s comments would be a “turning point”?
Milne has had so many turning points he is going round in circles.
300
AM
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:30 am |Permalink
The end is in sight for Johnny Rotten.
At the end of the fight he will soon be forgotten
301
Fagin
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:30 am |Permalink
I for one believe that the “rate rise spike” in the polls is tied in with when the letter from the bank, informing the mortgagee that he/she/they have to pay more, arrives in the mail box.
I assume that NAB customers will be getting theirs next week.
302
Pancho
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:30 am |Permalink
299 – very good, Ashley.
303
Yo ho ho
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:31 am |Permalink
On the ‘internal polling’….
I had a chat to a friend of mine who let’s just say is ‘in’ with the ALP campaign. Says all their polling is suggesting victory BUT he says it will be VERY close and somewhere between 76-80 seats rather than the 85+ the polls suggest.
He says their is a great deal of worry about WA (nothing new here) but that they’re not particularly positive about QLD or VIC either. He also mentioned that there is no way that Howard or Turnbull will lose their seats.
I was a little dissapointed to be honest. I’ve been locked into here and possom’s site, hoping for a bloodbath….
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:33 am |Permalink
With all the Liberal bias from the mainstream media and the ABC I read about on this site. The ALP will lose this election in a landslide!
305
cynic
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:34 am |Permalink
7 news sydney
lead story
Sorrygate (non apology)
rates rises
cranky old man saying sorry but not apologising
Rodent is fatally flawed here
the end of the rodentcy is nigh
306
Pi
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:34 am |Permalink
# 303 Yo ho ho Says: November 9th, 2007 at 11:31 am
I was a little dissapointed to be honest. I’ve been locked into here and possom’s site, hoping for a bloodbath….
’twill be a bloodbath, make to mistake.
307
CL de Footscray
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:36 am |Permalink
Yo ho ho – the internal polls you hear about are almost certainly cr#p. They spend much to much on that stuff to let some eejit spruik it to their mates. No-one who’s actually keen to tell you such stuff is going to have access to it.
Maybe Milne thinks this turning point is the one where the Libs REALLY get shafted in the polls. I’m hanging out for a 60:40 sometime soon …
308
BrissyRod
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:36 am |Permalink
There once was a PM called John
Who was known for his Workchoices con
He promised low rates
‘just vote for me and me mates’
But the people wanted Rudd & Swan
309
Michael
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:37 am |Permalink
Guys
It won’t be a bloodbath. Labor has never won in a landslide and they won’t this time either.
It will be close – all the reports over the past few weeks that I have read suggest that the key seats are not as optimistic for labor as we’d hope.
I am very nervous about this election – it is not over by a long shot and we may still have John Howard for PM on 25 November.
M
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:38 am |Permalink
sportingbet has labor leading in 15 and dead even on 1 with no loses
314
Megan
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:40 am |Permalink
Howard has to go because he has become an autocrat…he doesn’t listen and that he didn’t stand down when his party wanted him to shows he has no sense of democracy. He is listening to his more powerful mates Cheney and Bush…..those long visits were not for nothing. But as they have proved in other interventions,they too are out of touch and we here have better sh*t -detectors…..I hope! This time!
As to Crikey, this PB site is much better….informed, rumour and best of all HUMOUR. Lighten’s this ‘amateur’ lurker’s day!
315
CL de Footscray
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:41 am |Permalink
New Nicholson on the non-core apology. This one’s better than usual:
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:41 am |Permalink
If any PB’s who live in North Sydney can get around to Hockey’s office to see this
Join us this Friday 9 November, at 12.30 in Sydney at Mr Hockey’s office on the corner of Myrtle St and Pacific Hwy, Crows Nest – or in several electorates around the nation on Saturday, 10 November. Click here for details
[from the Get Up organization]
please report back on how it was? :) thanks (sure that it will likely be on the news tonight anyways, but would be nice to have a first hand account)
317
Lindsay voter
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:41 am |Permalink
Agree with Michael. Hope everyone is helping out on election day. BTW guys, keep going on about so and so is hot/goodlooking and I will engage Julie, Jen et al on Tony Abbott’s pecs and that hunk in the National party.
318
judy
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:43 am |Permalink
Shanahans at it again, the car firms have come out and denied the truth of this article, there was no letter, they’ve authorised their association do give full denials, in fact one company said they have just signed off on an enterprise bargaining wage deal with their workers to everyone’s satisfaction.
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:43 am |Permalink
Lindsay voter. Point well made. I’ll keep it to myself. The mad abbotts pecs?? Ewwwww!!!
320
The Duke
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:44 am |Permalink
I’ve decided to tackle the Liberal Party logo as it seems to have disappeared from their website, campaign etc. They must have been working on a new one, just haven’t revealed it yet.
Either way, I thought I’d trump their effort with my own attempt for all those with a love affair with Team Rat.
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:45 am |Permalink
This is what Get Up is doing, sorry I hit send before I put the rest of it in …
“We can now proceed with the second stage of our campaign! This Friday we’ll be in North Sydney to plaster IR Minister Joe Hockey’s office in our massive ‘Know Where We Stand’ post-it notes -”
322
Pancho
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:45 am |Permalink
Lindsay voter, is this some sort of anti-Julie and Jen smear campaign?
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:46 am |Permalink
The Prime Minister was spouting crazy stuff yesterday, such as a Labor win would increase the divorce rate and reduce the fertility rate. It was on radio yesty but can’t find anything in the papers today.
The Tiser reports that the Libs will use expensive personalized TV advertising to try to hold on to Wakefield and Boothby.
324
Ashley
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:46 am |Permalink
sportingbet has labor leading in 15 and dead even on 1 with no loses
More “accurate” is the expected seat count, averaged across bookies. The 3 bookie expected number of seats was 78.8 as of yesterday lunchtime (courtesy of Simon Jackman’s blog).
We know the punters are being conservative in the seat-by-seat betting. And even so, Labor would still be expected to win 79 seats on average (if we could hypothetically rerun the election multiple times, and the bookies odds were actually and accurate reflection of probabilities).
The expected seat count has been slowly rising the past week. I reckon by the time we get to election day it will be into the mid-80s.
325
Adam
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:46 am |Permalink
Anyone who believes anything Milne says is a fool. He is nothing more than a Liberal Party hitman pretending to be a journalist.
326
passthepopcorn
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:46 am |Permalink
scaper, i don’t know if anyone has replied to you already re dr karl, but try sydney uni site – he works (?still does) there. last name is kruselnicki. major league dork, but that’s another story.
327
BrissyRod
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:47 am |Permalink
I heard the new Liberal logo is an ‘L’ shape made by a human hand.
328
Mr Denmore
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:47 am |Permalink
Much of the media bias, though, is really just a reflection of the media’s need to make this into more of a contest for its own selfish reasons.
If you’ve ever worked in the media, you’d know that it’s a big ask every day to fill up all that empty air time or white space. So you are inclined to ‘beat’ stories up, to exagerrate and amplify otherwise inconsequential events (’Latham throws a bombshell’) and to rely on media whore rent-a-quotes (Kroger, Henderson) who would comment on the sun coming up if you asked them to .
For the purposes of your job and to keep the advertisers happy (or in the ABC’s case, the board), you simply can’t run each day with the headline ‘Labor Still On Course for Victory’ because it would cease to be ‘news’ after a day or two.
So you have to create a new narrative every day, or every hour on radio and every minute on the internet and wire services. As it happens, it is the Howard forces who are most willing to feed the voracious media, because they do not have control of the narrative. They must make up a new story every day.
Do you see where this is heading? There is a commonality of interests between the media and the Howard forces to create the illusion that the Liberals are in with a sniff in this election. Both of them need a new story every day.
The fact is that forced to choose between reporting on a drowning man (Howard) or the sunbaker (Rudd), the media will choose the drowning man every time.
329
ND
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:48 am |Permalink
Liberal is for the wealthy and mean
Labor is for the Australian dream
330
Gary Bruce
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:49 am |Permalink
Milne has about as much knowledge about politics as Tabitha.
331
John of Melbourne
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:50 am |Permalink
Is Morgan Poll out later today?
332
middle man
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:50 am |Permalink
BrissyRod you are on fire! Brilliant. Almost LOL in the middle of my quiet open plan office.
Morgan Poll: Anyone know what time its due out?
333
peterm
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:52 am |Permalink
But even if you choose the drowning person you can make the story interesting & not rely on the daily talking points.
We should have had many discussions on what a re-elected Howard nee Costello ministry would like, but nada.
There are many groups that would give their a5rms for some airtime so I do not completely buy the filling up air line – its just that they use the usual “hacks”.
334
Dinsdale Piranha
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:54 am |Permalink
That Nicholson cartoon raises a good point. If saying “sorry” doesn’t amount to an apology, what harm would come by saying it to indigenous people?
335
Michael
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:55 am |Permalink
Middleman – usually about 2pm – but the site is hard to get onto until about 4
336
frank frederic
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:56 am |Permalink
please, can someone clarify this…
Is Latham still in ALP? Does he still paying party membership fee?
337
middle man
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:56 am |Permalink
Thanks Michael.
So that would be 1pm up here in Brisbane?
338
Ashley
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:57 am |Permalink
Someone mentioned that PollBludger is much better than Crikey.
That’s because Crikey has to pay its bloggers.
We hate Howard for free.
339
steve
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:57 am |Permalink
331 [Is Morgan Poll out later today?]
Yes and Howard is out in just over two weeks time.
340
centaur_007
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 11:58 am |Permalink
Thanks ashley, portland bet has 17 leading and 2 dead even
341
Dave55
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 12:02 pm |Permalink
Maybe the Libs have realised that the ‘L’ logo is similar to the ‘L’ pates they are sticking on pictures of the Labor front benchers … Trying to differentiate themselves perhaps?
342
middle man
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 12:02 pm |Permalink
Regarding all this talk of landslides, tight contests etc… all I can recall is that the day after the last election I woke up in my back sunroom, upright in my armchair, the remains of a six pack and a bottle of red strewn on the floor, Howard was still PM, and the night before I had passed out before the pizza delivery guy had got there.
That was not a good feeling. I really dont want that again. I’m doing my best to keep my expectations low.
343
Mr Denmore
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 12:03 pm |Permalink
PeterM at 333, I forgot to mention in my drowning man analogy that aside from its insatiable and voracious appetite making the media a sucker for junk news, spin and kite flyers, the industry’s other great appetite is laziness.
You won’t hear much about what a 5th term Howard/Costello would be like, because that requires journalists to actually work, rather than just passively recycle the Liberals’ talking points of the day.
Actually, come to think of it, I’m guilty of that myself, having wasted an entire morning trawling this blog rather than doing what I’m paid to do.
344
Michael
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 12:04 pm |Permalink
MIddleman – on 2004 I arrived at Heathrow after a 24 hour flight only to receive a text message from a friend, expressing despair. It was not a good start to my holiday.
It was at Heathrow 4 weeks later, when I was returning home, that I discovered on the TV screens around the terminal that George Bush had been re-elected.
Needless to say I avoid heathrow during elections these days.
345
Socrates
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 12:04 pm |Permalink
Judy 318,
regardless of Scamaham’s reporting, present government policy is a death sentence for the car industry. They have all given up trying to make economical cars and put their eggs in the same basket – making large, not very economical cars for some local use and export. We all know local demand for those cars is down. But what peope forget is that with Kyoto entering the “penalty phase” in 2008 for teh signatory countries (whether we sign or not) many of the export markets may dry up as well. They are already making losses, and that would kill most of them. Ford is at least saying they will make the Focus here now. GMH actually did a prototype Commodore Hybrid, but decided not to make it here.
We have gotten very poor value out of the $3bn assistance package. No trully new model cars were developed, just updates of the old ones, and no new efficient engines, which are critical. If it really takes $3bn to save 7000 jobs, then at $428,000 each it would have been chaper to buy every worker a house and tell them to retire! It probably sounds bizarre but I live in Adelaide hope Mitsubishi closes. With the Lonsdale engine plant already closed there are less than 4000 jobs left. In the current market everyone would get a job quickly, especially if mechanically qualified. Others could be retrained. It would also make some prime land available for housing, which the supply-constrained market bady needs. Labor’s policy to support developing a cleaner car locally is a vast improvement.
346
Nick
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 12:05 pm |Permalink
This straight from simon jackman’s blog, which is pretty great….he collaborates odds from centrebet, sportingbet and portlandbet and turns them into probabilities and whacks them into groovy graphs. It’s updated daily. Today’s analysis:
“ALP Expected Seat Count: 78.85 out of 150 seats. Yesterday: 78.83 out of 150. Computed as the sum of the 3-agency-average seat-by-seat ALP win probabilities.”
347
Nick
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 12:06 pm |Permalink
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 12:06 pm |Permalink
OOps – last message not very clear – the text message was reporting on the 2004 election result, which i didn’t know because i was mid air
349
middle man
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 12:06 pm |Permalink
Michael, I’m calling Qantas now to ensure there is an embargo on you purchasing ANY international fights.
350
Megan
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 12:07 pm |Permalink
Dave55
Libs are still on their ‘L’ plates?
Wonder if our friend Bill Leak….
351
Inner Westie
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 12:08 pm |Permalink
It’s a shame the Mayne-Milne Walkley confrontation didn’t explode into an all in, table-hurling brawl. Then The Poisoned One might have copped a couple on his glass jaw and, while lying semi-conscious in an expanding pool of his own vomit, been forced to have a good hard look at himself. Who am I? What is my life really all about? What is truth? Sophisticated, dispassionate, even-handed political journalism, why is that not valued anymore? I’m not that short am I? And alcohol’s not poison anyway. Who said those mean things? Why don’t people respect me? … Who am I? (… repeat fifty times … until Big Bustling Laurie takes his shirt off, smashes a few heads together, orders the lights be tuned up and everybody p*ss off home).
352
Matt D
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 12:09 pm |Permalink
The Coalition are mad associating themselves with Latham’s comments.
All Rudd has to do is say “I disagree with what Mark says while my opponents seem to agree with him”.
Agreeing with Mark Latham is not a good look in a community that widely regards him as a nut case. (even those of us who voted for him!)
353
Gary Bruce
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 12:09 pm |Permalink
It may be my imagination and I may be speaking too soon but have the anti – union ads left the scene? It’s been a while since I’ve seen one.
354
Gary Bruce
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 12:11 pm |Permalink
Typically Sky News are running a poll on Latham’s comments.
355
scaper...
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 12:11 pm |Permalink
Passthepopcorn,
Thanks…I’ve already established contact and he is on a book launch tour and we will have a chat after the election concerning the project, as I require people of his talent and vision.
If I have to rely on politicians, our grandkids will have no future.
356
Rob
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 12:12 pm |Permalink
As polling day approached, voters would worry increasingly about the prospect of a union-dominated Labor government, Mr Howard said.
And that’s a good thing for Howard. He rules by exploiting fear and division. I’m looking forward to a leader who will lead by inspiring.
357
middle man
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 12:13 pm |Permalink
scaper. what project are you referring to?
358
Ville
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 12:15 pm |Permalink
As far as internal polling is concerned, the only things you can place any trust in are the official polls (once they’ve been interpreted by some pseph you can trust of course) and what the bookies are saying. The polls are saying Labor in a canter, and the bookies are saying Labor in a canter. Seat by seat not so much, but head to head it’s no contest.
We know both internal polling and media commentary are tainted by bias (though I think the media issue is more about creating the perception of a contest, rather than mere spruiking in most cases), so all of that can be taken with a grain of salt.
Everyone around here gets very antsy without a poll to chew on.
359
ed@bennelong
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 12:17 pm |Permalink
351 Inner Westie. Have a look at the Milne/Garrett photo on Mumble’s site.
Can be creatively read many ways. http://www.mumble.com.au/
360
Megan
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 12:18 pm |Permalink
Forget that one…just realised that ‘L’ applies to Labor as well!!!
Doh! This election is more nerve-wracking than the last one….driving me to take up smoking!
And whatever happened to the immediate post-war demographic-surely boomers start from 1946?
361
Socrates
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 12:18 pm |Permalink
As polling day approaches, I suspect Howard worries most about telling Janet she has to hand the keys to Kirribilli back. That should be a lot of fun.
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 12:19 pm |Permalink
Check out the poll done in SA on the senate by political students at a university.It is on the ABC radio website. If the vote goes along with this poll we could see 2lab 2lib 1grn 1xen.
363
cynic
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 12:21 pm |Permalink
recieved letter and leafletfrom local member (ticehurst)
letter mentions 9 point plan
leaflet mentions only 7 point plan
must be those pesky rate rises
364
Andos the Great
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 12:22 pm |Permalink
CL de Footscray: I listen to Marius Benson’s interviews every morning. I couldn’t handle not having News Radio with breakfast.
365
centaur_007
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 12:22 pm |Permalink
Thanks Nick I will keep an eye on that Jackman site. megan I have been fighting off the smoking cravings in the past week and i’ve been winning. I know where you’re coming from though
366
Shanghai Surprise
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 12:23 pm |Permalink
George Newhouse’s mother responds to Lucy Turnbull:
You might enjoy this, particularly those of you who have received Lucy’s letter about the man she loves:
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 12:25 pm |Permalink
Et tu, Centaur_007?
368
Derek Corbett
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 12:27 pm |Permalink
Phil Robins @ 323
Yes, I heard that yesterday on radio. Spooky – sounded as though he was, well, drugged? Weird stuff about divorce and fertility rates. Haven’t read or heard anything since, which I find surprising. Maybe his spin doctors convinced the media outlets to can it, pleading that the PM wasn’t himself.
369
PJK for President
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 12:28 pm |Permalink
but wouldn’t it be great to see the weather man get up!
As the great man sung – “You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows…” And we all know the wind is a gale now and where it is blowing…go get him, Mike..
370
Julie
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 12:28 pm |Permalink
This election is feeling very much for me like the 1992 election did in the US. 12 years of the Republicans, way too long, they had overstayed their welcome. Similar to here now in 2007, all of the polling seemed to point ahead of time to Clinton’s victory. Thus, there was an underlying confidence for those on the left hand side of the political spectrum. I remember watching the returns that year. I was at home, 2 others with me. I was the Democrat voter in the middle of the 3 seater couch and on one side of me, I had a Republican voter and on the other side, someone who voted for the Independent. It was exciting to watch the states come in and one by one, the vast majority of them ticked over for Clinton.
Check out this cartoon (from the afterglow of the Democrats victory in 1992) and imagine it transposed to Kirribili House/The Lodge with John and Jeanette and that it is the Ruddsquad who are coming in to move them out ….
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 12:29 pm |Permalink
“Diogenes Says:
November 9th, 2007 at 9:38 am
On the media, I am going to officially call Rudd a political genius. Think about his relaxing of FOI laws. All the dirt the Rodent has been hiding for 11 years will come out (the laws are retrospective). There will be enough material for the media to report for three years, until the next election. New revelations about Haneef, AWB, Tampa, Hicks, SIEV, WMD… the list goes on. And it helps get Ruperts endorsement. Glen and all you other sad rodent followers, its going to be a LONG LONG DARK WINTER.”
Diogenes – I expect that there will be a flurry of document shredding on the weekend of the 24th the like of which Canberra has never seen before, and hopefully will never see again
373
Michael
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 12:32 pm |Permalink
Poor Mike. I really do think he’s in beyond his depth.
Before he left the ABC he;d occasionally try and do things other than weather – do a live report to ABC radio from an ABC Open Day, that kind of thing.
Excruciatingly embarrassing. I almost crashed my car recoiling from embarrassment at one particular exchange.
He’s a bit like Tony Eastley at the end of AM on Radio National when he crosses to Fran with some particularly dorky comment.
374
John of Melbourne
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 12:32 pm |Permalink
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 12:33 pm |Permalink
ed@bennelong @359
The caption: “I can’t pretend I’m happy to see you Glenn. You’re smiling completely the wrong way. So how ’bout a bunch of these to sober you up (you grubby little soak)?”
376
Matt
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 12:34 pm |Permalink
Not sure if this got mentioned already, plus apologies for rehashing yesterday, but did we all realise we have Mr Shanahan to thank for the whole ’sorry…but not really’ fiasco? Shanahan was the one to ask “Mr Howard, if you’re not responsible for the interest rates rise, why did you apologise for it?” leading to Howard’s fumble.
It sure made me smile (read into it what you will).
Also doesn’t Morgan normally come out at 1pm? So in half an hour or so for you Southerners.
377
ND
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 12:36 pm |Permalink
Lathams little entry into the election debate reminds me of the Chaser episode earlier this year…
“I am the ghost of Mark Latham…. I was ahead in the polls too… I filled you all with same false hope Kevin is…. Ease the Squease……”
too funny…
378
Jude
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 12:37 pm |Permalink
PRIME Minister John Howard is poised to release the Federal Government’s policy on housing affordability, but has hinted it will not include making mortgages tax deductible for first-home buyers.
Mr Howard said there was no silver bullet to make property more affordable, particularly for young people.
With the Liberal Party’s campaign launch to be held in Brisbane on Monday, Mr Howard said the Government would be announcing “some new initiatives” in a range of areas but would not go into detail.
However, he said the Government would have more to say about housing affordability during the remaining fortnight of the election campaign.
“Yes, we will be releasing a policy on housing affordability,” he said today.
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 12:38 pm |Permalink
#340 Centaur, I’m pretty sure Portlandbet has ALP ahead in 16, 2 dead-even (which they count as 1 seat apiece), thus the 77-71-2 current headline.
380
middle man
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 12:39 pm |Permalink
scaper,
interesting…. not sure of your influences etc… but i would love to see someone who is focussed on the environment engage Peter Andrews… micro climate extraordinaire!
381
Andos the Great
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 12:42 pm |Permalink
FF @ 336:
I believe Latham quit the party shortly after the 2004 election.
382
Jude
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 12:42 pm |Permalink
Vaile says Latham’s comments show Rudd is plagiarising Coalition policies. Good! He took the bait and endorsed Latham. Otherwise this is a complete yawn.
383
Sean
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 12:44 pm |Permalink
Apparently virginia trioli has got the flick from abc radio…
384
steve
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 12:45 pm |Permalink
374 Sure Rudd will be really happy to see Howardhuggers cheering when Latham calls Rudd a conservative. Think Latham might be having the last laugh here.
385
Tory Crimes
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 12:48 pm |Permalink
Good Grief-Another turning point in the election? First it was the Garrett comments on a post-Kyoto agreement, then it was Garrett again with Price, then the rate rise, now Latham. Is Milne permanently p*ssed these days?
386
scaper...
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 12:50 pm |Permalink
Middle man,
I’m apolitical now as I have to deal with all parties and to be effective I can’t side with any.
But I know for the benefit of the nation a change of government is most important, and if does not ensue, our social fabric and all the values that Australians hold close to their heart will be lost.
This is the most important election of our history.
387
Shiftaling
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 12:50 pm |Permalink
Rudd will be thanking Latham for his blessing – it certainly can’t hurt. But listening to Rudd on Adelaide local ABC this morning l was struck by the way he came across – he sounded like he wasn’t really listening to the questions and he was quite verbose at moments when a clear simple message would have cut through more more effectively. If he wants to capitalise on the Duck being “out of touch” he will have to work on his presentation. A few colloquialisms scattered in a sea of wonk-speak do not a man of the people make. Just MHO..
388
Jude
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 12:50 pm |Permalink
Breaking news on SMH website:
People warned not to touch bats
What? Has internal polling shown that the mob IS after Howard? Alas, it’s referring to a bat virus.
389
Michael
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 12:51 pm |Permalink
scaper – good to see you’re remaining apolitical
390
Kina
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 12:51 pm |Permalink
Latham must live in a different world because housing prices where I come from have gone through the ‘roof’.
Milne should do himself a favour and drop Costello for Turnbull – at least he knows Turnbull won’t be too scared to go for the job.
I think we should not be refering to some of these people as journalists out of respect to real journalists – better to call them party reporters.
I wouldn’t be worrying too much about Morgan. I had a look at their 2004 effort near election time – you don’t want to get mislead like that this time.
391
Michael
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 12:52 pm |Permalink
Shiftaling
I agree – same with the Lateline interview last night
392
Clarence the Clocker
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 12:52 pm |Permalink
Sky news are recycling an AC Nielson poll giving a demographic breakdown by age, published last week by Fairfax. They claim it as the top election story of the day and that it was last updated sometime after 11 EST. I guess its just a slow news day with all the pundits hanging out for a post interest rate rise poll.
393
middle man
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 12:52 pm |Permalink
Scaper. I hear you mate. I’ve long wanted to be involved but finding a party that matches my sensibilties is quite tough. It’s certainly not teh Libs, and Labor is just a bit too hamstrung by its traditions. The Dems… well maybe if they actually truly existed.
394
Basil Fawlty
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 12:53 pm |Permalink
Does anyone know how big the sample is on Roy Morgans “My Electorate” site for each electorate. I live in McPherson on the Gold Coast which is classified as very safe Liberal. I think the margin from 2004 is about 15%. Morgans site is showing TPP for Labor as 61%. It is held by Margaret May who is useless and her opposition is Eddy Saroff, a well known and liked GCC councillor. I just joined Sportingbet and got $3.50 for Saroff, plus $100 free bet which I plonked on Maxine in Bennelong @ $2.75. Whoopee, here comes the tidal wave to sweep the Rodent to a watery end, and we haven’t even begun on his plans for 26 nuclear reactors yet.
395
steve
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 12:53 pm |Permalink
388 Has the Minister for horseflu stuffed up again?
396
Michael
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 12:53 pm |Permalink
BF – ignore it. You’ll only be disappointed.
397
Jude
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 12:56 pm |Permalink
Steve @ 384
Latham’s doing Rudd’s work for him. A conservative! How Rudd must detest being called that (and by someone who everyone knows isn’t trying to do Rudd any favours).
398
Scotty
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 12:56 pm |Permalink
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 12:56 pm |Permalink
Latham is a dog. To say what he said when the election is going into the final two weeks, is a deliberate attempt to sabotage the ALP campaign.
There have been many other ALP leaders that have failed – Hayden, Beazley, Crean etc. But none have stooped as low as Latham. He deserves to be the reclusive pariah he is today.
Today should have been about Howards non apology, but frikkin Latham has turned it into an issue of why vote for Labor when they are the same as the Libs.
400
BV
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 12:56 pm |Permalink
Morgan for real!
Telephone Morgan Poll: ALP Lead By 12% In Wake Of Interest Rate Rise – ALP 56%, L-NP 44%
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 12:57 pm |Permalink
Scotty – is that up or down?
402
Hemingway
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 12:57 pm |Permalink
Can anyone elucidate why they reckon that there would be numerous undecided (or Morgan”s mythical “soft Labor”) voters who’ll give a rat’s arse what Latham has to say about Rudd?
Mark is widely, if unfairly, perceived as the Ben Cousins of politics, a huge waste of the natural gifts which he once possessed.
403
Deo
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 12:57 pm |Permalink
Well that makes me feel a lot better – even if it is a Morgan.
404
Matthew Sykes
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 12:57 pm |Permalink
Morgan headline is up:
Telephone Morgan Poll: ALP Lead By 12% In Wake Of Interest Rate Rise – ALP 56%, L-NP 44%
This series had labor at 54.5 last time around.
405
Lindsay voter
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 12:58 pm |Permalink
365 Shanghai Surprise, that was hilarious.
406
ShowsOn
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 12:58 pm |Permalink
Does anyone know how big the sample is on Roy Morgans “My Electorate” site for each electorate.
150 – 200, i.e. margins of error of 7 or 8%
407
Oldtimer
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 12:58 pm |Permalink
Clarence @392
Those poll findings were actually reported in the SMH online this morning but it does not mention if it was new data or old?
408
Ashley
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:00 pm |Permalink
Yawn. If the election ends up being any less than 53-47 I’ll be surprised.
409
Michael
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:00 pm |Permalink
Sample size of 552 sounds useless to me
The first Morgan Poll since this week’s interest rate rise (interviewing conducted November 7/8) finds the ALP has a 12% lead on a two-party preferred basis: ALP 56% (up 1.5% since the last telephone Morgan Poll on October 24/25), L-NP 44% (down 1.5%).
The ALP would win in a landslide if the Federal election were to be held now, the latest telephone Morgan Poll finds.
The Coalition’s primary vote is 39% (down 2%), while Labor’s primary vote is 44.5% (up 0.5%).
Among the minor parties: Greens 10.5% (unchanged); Democrats 2% (up 0.5%); Family First 1.5% (up 0.5%); One Nation 1% (up 0.5%); and Independent/Other candidates 1.5% (unchanged).
A majority of electors (58.5%, down 5%) think the ALP will win the next Federal election, while (28.5%, up 1.5%) think the L-NP will win and 13% (up 3.5%) can’t say.
Now, 55.5% (down 8%) think Australia is heading in the “right direction”, while 31% (up 3%) think Australia is heading in the “wrong direction” — 13.5% (up 5%) are undecided.
Currently, 19% (down 4%) of all electors say Australia is “heading in the right direction” yet say they would vote Labor if an election were held today. The Morgan Poll considers these electors to be “Soft ALP voters” and believe they are the key to the Federal election.
These are the main findings of a Roy Morgan telephone survey conducted November 7/8, 2007, with 552 Australian electors.
Of all electors surveyed, 3.5% did not name a party.
Electors were asked: “If a Federal election for the House of Representatives were being held today – which party would receive your first preference?”
410
Dinsdale Piranha
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:00 pm |Permalink
Morgan. Ho-hum.
411
Burgey
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:01 pm |Permalink
Well, we all have to take Morgan with a grain of salt imo, but it has sometimes shown up as a start of a trend in the other polls.
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:01 pm |Permalink
Nothing to do with the topic! I see a huge future for the Greens in coming state and federal elections. There will be a significant increase in our vote in 2007 and when climate change starts to hit hard it will propel the greens into lower house seats both federally and state. Sadly it takes something that will impact dramatically on all our lives for this to happen.
413
Matthew Sykes
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:02 pm |Permalink
The Advertiser polls more than 500 for their individual seat polls !
414
Dinsdale Piranha
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:03 pm |Permalink
I think it’s safe to assume that the primary split is solid at 45 to 40.
Labor has done what it had to do, which is put a “4″ in from of its primary vote.
415
CL de Footscray
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:03 pm |Permalink
Deo – Latham is gold for the ALP. Howard’s non-apology is still running along nicely and all Latham will do is remind us that Rudd is a long way away from him. Rudd wants to look like Howard, except for certain bits, which he chooses.
In moments of stress, chant this useful mantra:
Howard’s gone, it’s all over. Howard’s gone, it’s all over. (repeat as many time as required to achieve inner harmony).
416
Burgey
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:04 pm |Permalink
Ooh – I made the cardinal sin of not checking sample size!!!
Pretty useless isn’t it?
417
Jenny
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:04 pm |Permalink
Another rate hike
But Howard is not sorry
See my one finger
418
CL de Footscray
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:05 pm |Permalink
MoE on sample of 522 about 4.3
419
Oldtimer
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:06 pm |Permalink
Yes, but the Labor primary at 44.5 seems low?
Coalition on39!
Good news but yes I know it is Morgan!!! Still good news – still ahead!!!!!!!!!
420
Spiros
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:06 pm |Permalink
Morgan is very disappointing and very worrying.
I was hoping for 63-37.
Morgan proves the gap is narrowing (even though it doesn’t actually show that); that the Coalition’s campaign is now firmly on message; that the Garrett gaffe was hugely significant; that voters believe that the Coalition are superior economic managers; that Labor’s swing is p in all the wrong seats; that the betting markets are all wrong; that Howard will pull a rabbit out of his hat; and that Joe Hockey isn’t nearly as fat and ugly as he looks.
Oh dear, oh me, oh my.
421
Dazzamack of Perth
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:06 pm |Permalink
This poll is a joke.. Sample size too damn small. But at least it is still positive for the Reds
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:06 pm |Permalink
Julie:
That cartoon reminds why I can’t stand Mark Knight in the Herald-Sun: Knight’s little figure making a sotto voce remark at the end of each strip is a blatant rip-off from a funnier, more incisive counterpart – but because Pat Oliphant’s work never appears in Australia this fact is never picked up.
Incidentally, Oliphant was born in Adelaide!
423
scaper...
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:06 pm |Permalink
Middle man,
There are so many people in your position out there of talent and passion for this nation, there is certainly enough room for a new political force.
But then again, if the predictions here are on the high side concerning seats lost by the coalition, there is every chance that the party can be refashioned into a viable alternative in the future.
Time will tell.
424
BV
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:06 pm |Permalink
“IT’S ONLY A MORGA’n’ POLL (BUT I LIKE IT)”
425
Not the other Tim
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:06 pm |Permalink
Sample size of 552? Roy needs to pull his socks up and his finger out if he wants his data taken seriously.
426
Autocrat
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:06 pm |Permalink
He can’t say sorry.
Must be a defective gene.
Vote for someone else.
427
Michael
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:07 pm |Permalink
My little chant goes
Good bye Johnny
Good John
Johnny you are gone.
There is a tune, but not sure what it is.
I find myself singing it at quite inappropriate moments. I think an increasing number of people think I’m mad.
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:08 pm |Permalink
CL de Footscray Says:
Rudd wants to look like Howard, except for certain bits, which he chooses.
So Howard must be doing something right if the ALP needs to use a Howard type leader. Its not about doing the best for the people anymore it is just the grab for power and screw the disadvantaged. The election result will make no difference in Kingston and funnily enough the YR@W group will be continuing long after a win by either party
429
CL de Footscray
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:08 pm |Permalink
Spiros – (i) this is a Morgan Poll; (ii) the sample size is 522 – see #418; (iii) it has the Greens on more than 10% – unlikley; (iv) it shows an increase in ALP primary.
Do not be alarmed. All is well. The evidence is with us …
430
Kirribilli Removals
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:08 pm |Permalink
That’s it ladies and gentleman (oh, yes ’sorry’, and troll!), so much for Howard’s momentum…it’s all DOWNWARDS!
Now, Kev just has to get some rest, stay alert, smile a bit and enjoy his final lap to the Lodge.
The Rodent is about to get battered by his very own cheer squad: the “Howard Batterers”
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:09 pm |Permalink
In fairness Knight did have one good cartoon just after the 2004 election. It depicted Howard power-walking in tracksuit, relentlessly marching over mountains, through raging torrents, walls, minefields etc.
It crystallized my despair perfectly. Hopefully his batteries have nearly run down for good.
432
ed@bennelong
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:09 pm |Permalink
420 Spiros Touche re 429
433
Spiros
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:10 pm |Permalink
CL de Foots-a-crie @429
I was kidding.
434
La Nina
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:10 pm |Permalink
Megan, the Boomer demographic did begin in 1946. I am one of the early ones myself. And there are many, many of us over 55 and still believe in the values of the left. We were radicalised during the Vietnam era, and while we have mellowed, we have not changed to the dark side. Incidentally if you think that 11 years of arid Howard conservatism is bad, I was 23 before I experienced a Labor government. The election parties of 2 Dec 1972 were some celebration! I look forward to a similar experience on November 24.
435
Derek Corbett
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:10 pm |Permalink
Howard’s spooky stuff about divorce and fertility rates was replayed on Radio National’s The Word Today during a discussion with Peter Beattie and M Kroger. Beattie said it was sad, desperate. Kroger said it was fair enough for Howard to stand on his record, or something. It was a speech Howard gave in Melbourne.
passthepopcorn:
Last night in relation to this you asked if I felt a bit sad for the ageing Rodent. After due consideration, I replied (but it was lost during the glitches) …
“Er, no. Normally, I would extend sympathy and compassion, but this is a particularly virulent creature that has been stalking the populace for years, wreaking untold damage – a Rogue Rodent, in fact. In a situation such as this, there is but one option … a Mr Rudd, from the tropics, has been engaged by the villagers to do the deed. We wish him all the best in this endeavour.”
436
Blacklight
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:10 pm |Permalink
so no farce to farce polling… erm face to face polling ?
437
middle man
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:10 pm |Permalink
scaper. if the libs are refashioned it will probably be by the religious right. The young Libs are infested.
start afresh if you want a new force. there’s too much history in both parties.
438
Ashley
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:11 pm |Permalink
Seems to me Morgan phone polls are artificially inflating the green vote, and taking it directly from Labor primary.
Their past 3 phone polls have put the Labor primary on an average of 44.5.
Meanwhile their past 3 face-to-face polls have Labor primary on 48.5.
If you look at the Lib primary vote it is pretty much the same for each of those 6 polls… around 39.5.
The “drop” in the Labor primary when they do a phone poll is matched by a corresponding increase in the Green primary vote. I suspect this is a sampling issue.
439
ShowsOn
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:12 pm |Permalink
So Howard must be doing something right if the ALP needs to use a Howard type leader.
It’s the same reason why Howard adopted nearly all of Keating’s policies in 1996, including Medicare and Superannuation, which he had repeatedly voted against in parliament.
This is nothing new.
Its not about doing the best for the people anymore it is just the grab for power
Rudd knows he can’t do the best for the people unless he has power.
Only the impotent remain pure…
440
Kirribilli Removals
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:13 pm |Permalink
Attention everyone, it’s not the size of the sample, it’s the direction of the swing!
All the other polls, and especially the venerable ACN will show the same thing.
In other words, Howard’s finished. Hoist on his own petard, shafted on his own glib non-core promise, and choked on his own inability to say that little word starting with ’s’.
Abbott said it better: “Sh!t happens”, yeah, like rate hikes in your election campaign!
441
Jenny
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:13 pm |Permalink
Kindly Workchoices
To stop my wage from rising
Why am I not pleased?
442
scaper...
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:14 pm |Permalink
Middle man,
You are most probably right.
A new party it is.
Be back later.
443
CL de Footscray
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:15 pm |Permalink
bill weller – as you may know, the Australian electorate is very conservative. however the evidence suggests that while they are comfortable with a particular style of government (predisposed towards the interests of capital, while acknowledging the rights of workers and the need for socially progresive programs like Medicare) they have become very unhappy with the execution of this style by the incumbent. Rudd would not win by advocating the overthrow of capitalism, which in any event is not a position he has ever supported. He has a good chance to win by maintaining key postions on economic management, but emphasising economically responsible, socially progressive and redistributive policies that Howard has ignored, neglected, or simply f@#ked up. So when he wants to be like Howard, he wants to adopt the broad Australian psotion on matters economic. He has, however, differentiated himself and labor on many fronts where it is clear that the electorate has grown most tired of the rat.
Here endeth the leson.
444
Julie
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:15 pm |Permalink
422,
If Oliphant is an Aussie by birth and works/lives in the USA; he went the WRONG way.
I’ve done the opposite and I will tell you, no one is perfect but we are much better off here.
I was searching actually for something else and stumbled upon that, the “chickens coming home to roost” line reminded me of the way that Howard is being treated now and will be in the short term future lol ………
445
HaHaHa
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:16 pm |Permalink
HOWARD PRESS CONFERENCE ON SKY:
As a neutural watcher, I am getting the feeling that Howard is nearly fatally misreading the public mood.
446
Clarence the Clocker
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:17 pm |Permalink
When you compare concurrent Morgan phone polls their is no significant change, a very marginal change towards “headed in the wrong direction”. I think it will take a little more time for the interest rate rise to sink in and you need some good qualitative polling in mortgage belt seats to pick up any movement. Anyhow so much for the mythical narrowing. I like to think of “the narrowing” as a mythical beast killed of by climate change and hubris.
447
Kina
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:17 pm |Permalink
One thing the Morgan shows in the phone polls and the F2F is that the LNP are not moving and the ALP firm.
448
ShowsOn
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:19 pm |Permalink
HOWARD PRESS CONFERENCE ON SKY:
As a neutural watcher, I am getting the feeling that Howard is nearly fatally misreading the public mood.
Is today a Happy John or Grumpy John day? It seems to depend on what side of bed he got out of.
449
CL de Footscray
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:19 pm |Permalink
Spiros
sorry, have lost sense of humour in struggle with los panickos …. in future will read ALL of posts before responding …
450
Dazzamack of Perth
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:19 pm |Permalink
Ashley 438,
Good analysis.. In total agreement… I really expect more from Roy. I always rated his polling in previous elections. Now his polling seems to be a bit off.
ACNeilsen gets my vote these days and Galaxy to a lesser extent. Newspoll will always has my sceptism due to its alignment to the Howard Cheerleading Association aka News Limited.
451
Darn
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:21 pm |Permalink
This is the third telephone poll Morgan has done since mid october and all of them have the ALP primary at 44 to 45%. The much larger face to face polls on the other hand have consistently shown Labor’s primary at 47%+. Morgan himself has said in the past that his telephone polls tend to understate the ALP vote and this seems to be further evidence of that.
So all in all, I believe there is reason for optimism from these figures, even if Morgan is not our favourite pollster.
452
Dazzamack of Perth
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:21 pm |Permalink
LOL – News.com.au’s – ‘Woman knocked out at Howard walkabout’
453
Asanque
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:21 pm |Permalink
The Libs last bastion of hope is economic management. It is a myth that has been perpetuated throughout all the past elections. Now Howard is destroying this myth with his policies. If the Libs lose this election, its hard to see them coming back in the foreseeable future.
454
The Keegan
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:22 pm |Permalink
Haiku time!
morgan start the trend
widening from now to end
john cry kevin smile
dome arigato!
455
Michael
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:22 pm |Permalink
I wonder if roy is bring out the f2f today as well
456
Shiftaling
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:23 pm |Permalink
Scaper:
A new party it is.
Be back later.
Could this be the mysterious ‘project’?
457
jen
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:23 pm |Permalink
Been out letterboxing –
not a Sophie Mirrabella to be seem.
(A Blessed relief .)
But Green triangles starting to pop up…
458
Asanque
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:24 pm |Permalink
Not to mention, most Liberal policies are aimed at the over 55’s, which is the Liberals main area of support. The youngsters and next generation are firmly against Howard, and it will take the Liberals decades to recover.
Howard’s legacy – the destruction of the Liberal party.
459
Michael
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:24 pm |Permalink
WTF is this?
… a 29-year-old man was spoken to by police after he declined to shake the Prime Minister’s hand.
The man, identified only as Alex, put his hand out as Mr Howard approached him but then whipped his hand away.
“I’m not a fan,” he said later.
Alex was spoken to by police before being allowed to leave.
460
Lindsay voter
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:25 pm |Permalink
I thought the PM may be heading this way today and was hoping it would be later this arvo when I’m in the Plaza.
We must live in a police state.
461
Jenny
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:27 pm |Permalink
ALP still lead
Make me proud, fellow Aussies
Evict the rodent
462
Sinic
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:27 pm |Permalink
Nice #454. I’ve got another:
Howard’s on the wane
Rudd will win in two weeks time
I smell Liberal blood.
463
Michael
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:28 pm |Permalink
CRIMES ACT 1914 – SECT 24AA
Treachery
(1) A person shall not:
(a) do any act or thing with intent:
(i) to overthrow the Constitution of the Commonwealth by revolution or sabotage; or
(ii) to overthrow by force or violence the established government of the Commonwealth, of a State or of a proclaimed country; or
(b) refuse to shake a prime minister’s hand.
464
Clarence the Clocker
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:28 pm |Permalink
The Morgan 2PP phone poll that distributes preferences acording to 2004 tflow shows1.5% swing to Labor, the poll that allocates preferences according to the stated intention show no shift.
465
John of Melbourne
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:29 pm |Permalink
Sigh, within MOE
466
Dazzamack of Perth
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:29 pm |Permalink
I hope there is TV vision of this lady crying at the shopping plaza with Howard close by. Pure gold for Rudd.
467
Peachy
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:30 pm |Permalink
BTW i noticed that the labor strategist Hawker (of hawker britton) used the phrase ‘non-core apology’ on Sky News Agenda this morning. Maybe the parties are watching Pollbludger a bit closer than we think!
468
Michael
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:30 pm |Permalink
There is no votes in a woman falling over for god’s sake. The poor woman fell over and hurt herself.
469
seajay
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:31 pm |Permalink
Rudd had a cold yesterday, probably why he was a bit off the pace last night and this morning. Don’t panic.
470
Daniel B
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:31 pm |Permalink
Wow. 470 posts about nothing…
471
Michael
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:32 pm |Permalink
Daniel B – yep, that’s a seinfeld election campaign for you
472
Andos the Great
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:32 pm |Permalink
… and people thought Facebook was costing the economy productivity!
473
ShowsOn
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:33 pm |Permalink
Why on earth was that guy questioned by police for not shaking Howard’s hand?
Have the police become Howard’s campaign managers?
474
Dazzamack of Perth
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:34 pm |Permalink
Michael 468,
the vision/story will just play into the current view that everything is in disarray on the coalition campaign, therefore votes will be affected
475
Shiftaling
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:35 pm |Permalink
Nothing on ABC news bulletin about Howard pressgang incident.
476
George
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:36 pm |Permalink
Lindsay Voter, the rest of that news report was even funnier:
“Earlier, a 29-year-old man was spoken to by police after he declined to shake the Prime Minister’s hand.
The man, identified only as Alex, put his hand out as Mr Howard approached him but then whipped his hand away.
“I’m not a fan,” he said later.
Alex was spoken to by police before being allowed to leave. ”
On the woman knockout – it’s John Howard’s “Latham handshake”
477
Michael
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:37 pm |Permalink
Am I to take it that Johnny knocked the woman over? Or did she just fall over on her own?
478
ShowsOn
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:38 pm |Permalink
Am I to take it that Johnny knocked the woman over? Or did she just fall over on her own?
Possibly got knocked over by a security guard.
479
Autocrat
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:38 pm |Permalink
If you spy a rat
Ensure that you shake his paw
Or straight to gaol.
480
Dazzamack of Perth
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:39 pm |Permalink
I believe she was knocked by the ensuing frenzy of the Rodent’s presence at the shops, therefore, as far as I’m concerned, he caused it.
481
George
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:39 pm |Permalink
“Why on earth was that guy questioned by police for not shaking Howard’s hand?
Have the police become Howard’s campaign managers?”
ShowsOn, beautiful, isn’t it – makes Howard look like a dictator. Gold!
482
ShowsOn
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:39 pm |Permalink
Am I to take it that Johnny knocked the woman over? Or did she just fall over on her own?
Surely if Howard knocked her over he would’ve said “sorry”. I don’t mean he would’ve apologised, he just would’ve said “sorry”.
483
red wombat
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:39 pm |Permalink
Was Howard wearing a blue singlet when it happened
484
Crispy
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:40 pm |Permalink
The limerick’s an art form complex
Good scansion is better than sex
Please meter your verses
of John Howard curses
And don’t f#ck them up with lines that don’t fit, okay?
485
ShowsOn
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:41 pm |Permalink
ShowsOn, beautiful, isn’t it - makes Howard look like a dictator. Gold!
See if Labor HQ was switched on, they would be demanding Howard respond to the News Ltd report that police questioned someone for no other reason than he didn’t want to shake Howard’s hand.
This is another opportunity to make Howard look desperate, and make him spend time responding to things that he hopes people ignore.
486
K Jin
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:41 pm |Permalink
The interesting take from RN was Kroger saying “its whether the swing is in safe Lib and Lab seats and the marginals can just hold on” To me that can be read that the swing is on and the only hope left is that it will not be where it counts. Normally Kroger just spins everything as pos for the libs and makes no concessions
487
John Hunt Is A Coward
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:42 pm |Permalink
The woman in question was a UNION BOSS. So no apology required.
488
Lord D
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:42 pm |Permalink
Good news from Morgan. May be a Nielson online tomorrow, otherwise have to wait until Mon night for Newspoll.
489
steve
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:42 pm |Permalink
Morgan was doing face to face polling in Deception Bay last weekend so maybe that will come out later this afternoon.
490
Clarence the Clocker
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:42 pm |Permalink
Yes Michael not only did he knock her over, he refused to say sorry or apologise and then he went and kicked her dog! What a rotter.
491
Dazzamack of Perth
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:42 pm |Permalink
ShowsOn, 482 was a brilliant response,
Yes it feeds into his sorrygate stance perfectly – he is sorry that it happened, but he won’t apologise for it happening, as he didn’t personal knock her.
492
John of Melbourne
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:42 pm |Permalink
ShowsOn he probably said something that wasn’t reported
493
ShowsOn
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:43 pm |Permalink
The interesting take from RN was Kroger saying “its whether the swing is in safe Lib and Lab seats and the marginals can just hold on”
Well it is good that Kroger has finally moved on, and now accepts that there is a swing.
494
Michael
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:44 pm |Permalink
god it is a slow news day… the abc are still leading with the latham stuff
495
George
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:44 pm |Permalink
See if Labor HQ was switched on, they would be demanding Howard respond to the News Ltd report that police questioned someone for no other reason than he didn’t want to shake Howard’s hand.
ShowsOn, there is literally an ARMY of people on this blog (and others) that the Labor party could take advantage of – we are all very switched on here and could react instantly to help with their campaign efforts. Agree with you on this opportunity (and many others). I hope Labor staffers are reading….
496
ShowsOn
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:45 pm |Permalink
ShowsOn he probably said something that wasn’t reported
And so what if he did? Do you live in Melbourne, Victoria, or is Melbourne also a city in Burma?
497
HarryH
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:46 pm |Permalink
you know Morgan is irrelevant when we here at PB are bored out of our minds and his polls are almost completely ignored lol.
i really think ACN has been the only credible poll throughout the campaign.
498
steve
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:46 pm |Permalink
492 [ShowsOn he probably said something that wasn’t reported]
Like when is the next poll out loser?
499
Michael
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:47 pm |Permalink
Oh FFS! This site is rabid today. A woman falling over is not going to win a single vote, however labor plays it.
The 29y/o who refused to shake howard’s hand – well, it’s humerous, and no doubt the chaser will play it next week – but nothing labor does will convert it into more votes.
500
Betamax
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 1:47 pm |Permalink
Apropos of nothing (v. much a slow news day comment) can anyone tell me why the Rattus is anti-capital punishment? Its always kinda surprised me. He’s otherwise so quick to push all the right-wing, populist, moral-panic, be-afraid buttons.
587 Comments
Just as well I get up at this time anyway!
Looks like the dirt unit is biding their time!
I’ve got a good bet on with the dirt unit, so they have extra incentive to come up with something good.
Maybe the letter in SMH from the gret PJK explains it. ‘It’s the underlying rate’ – Who said that, anyway? See it Paul’s words – http://www.smh.com.au/letters/?page=3
Very dissapointing (but not surprising) MSM coverage of Howard yesterday. Focus on how the maestro will use Work Choices to batter Labor just like he has this week with the interest rate rise. Very little critical comment on the the sorry debacle. Honestly it really is alice in wonderland stuff from MSM.
Why are they persisiting? Are we are mere bloggers missing something? I just don’t get it.
StanS @4
They are persisting StanS because, for example, at the GG Shamaham is unashamedly acting as a spin doctor for the Liberal Party. There is no balanced Journalism: just a wanky sensationalism and Mr and Mrs Moron swinging voter don’t buy that paper anyway.
What they will buy and read is the front 2 pages of the Telegraph or Advertiser or Courier Mail or Herald-Sun and look for headlines – oh interest rates went up- and there is a picture of Mr Howard saying sorry but not apologising- Ohhh kayy. Screw you Howard on election day- then they flip the paper over and read the sports pages.
Mr and Mrs Moron will not read editorials, or statistical graphs, or long winded ‘Hail Howard or Hail Costello’ crap from Shamaham et al in any depth [not that there is any depth to fathom anyway]. I have no time at all for the GG or most of its writers: they bend over for Shamaham and seek kudos from him by becoming apprentice Liberal Party spin doctors. Pathetic paper, pathetic rumour from Crikey’s “contacts” too. This election story is just about over.
Fran Kelly on RN is saying Latham is taking a swing at Rudd/ Labor in the Fin Rev ??
Well StanS, with most mainstream journo’s barely passing Journalism 101, I think you are setting the bar too high.
Expect little from them – you won’t be disappointed.
Need the treeware version or sign in on the web to read the rest :
Exclusive: Latham lashes greed-driven campaign
09 Nov 2007 | The Australian Financial Review | Marcus Priest
Former Labor leader Mark Latham has broken his silence by accusing both the main political parties of pandering to middle-class greed……..
Surely the Latham story is a positive for Labor
Midnorthcoast, I’d agree on that… although, could the Latham thing really be the “bombshell” story that was alluded to in the rumours/tips? Surely not… the implication seemed to be something more smearish/damning… if something exists at all, that is
Any contribution from Latham is a plus for Howard and Costello
Union Headquarters must be gnashing its teeth
Any contribution frrom Latham is a reminder of how much the ALP has improved and deserves to win.
This is out of the ordinary.
Heading placement submiminally very nasty.
http://theorstrahyun.blogspot.com/
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,22725964-5001021,00.html
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,22725957-5001021,00.html
Someone better email Media Watch now!
William,
I beg to differ, and it appears that others do also.
What on earth is this about? (clipped – and edited slightly – from another thread)
337
VoterBoy of Over the Water Says:
November 9th, 2007 at 2:17 am
Fellow Entrail-readers…
Given what was said the other day about the supposed publication in the Daily Telegraph of a Rudd story that would make Scores irrelevant, what do you make of this bizarrely concocted headline from today’s Telegraph.
PM not sorry, election rival ‘gay’
The gay reference has nothing to do with Howard’s apology – indeed, it makes no sense whatsoever – it’s about Dani Ecuyer using gay men to tout her run for Wentworth, a story that would struggle to get an inside mention in the Wentworth Courier, and certainly wouldn’t appear under the headline “Election rival ‘gay’” because a) that not what the story’s about – the story is ‘Candidate to use gay hunks in campaign,’ and b) any self-respecting journalist, sub-editor or editor would realise that such a headline was potentially misleading.
Written the way it is, however, it is deliberately misleading. It clearly implies that Howard’s election rival is gay. They couldn’t even be bothered putting in a semi-colon to separate the stories.
The Liberal Party high command better be praying that its fingerprints can’t be found anywhere near this, or there’ll be the mother of all sh*t storms next week.
(And btw, Tories, even if Kevin’s as queer as a bottle of crisps, he’s still going be elected PM on November 24th. Get used to it.)
Trioli quitting because of falling ratings, what effect has Uhlmann had on the ratings.
There is nothing wrong with with Trioli and Uhlman acting as cheer leaders for Howard, it’s a free country and the ABC is there to represent all views, but it appears that the the listeners are getting tired of all the fawning and one sided comments.
From news.com.au
A new Nielsen poll, published in Fairfax newspapers, has found support for Labor has increased dramatically in the 40 to 54 age group.
The survey found the ALP has been enjoying growing support across three age groups it monitors but there’s been a 10 per cent swing among baby boomers from 49 to 59.3 per cent on a two party preferred basis.
The poll shows support for Labor is strongest in people aged 18 to 24 with 64 per cent.
Voters in the 25 to 39 age group have shown the smallest rise in support for Labor.
Nielsen’s John Stirton says the only age group where the Coalition is still enjoying majority support is with those aged 55 and over.
No overall figures or sample size as yet.
Sorry campaign from newspapers that could be doing analysis of the election instead.
http://www.newmatilda.com/election07/index.php/2007/11/09/sorry-so-sorry-but-not-apologising/
Sorry that report was from skynews
Ed@Bennelong Says:
Yes but what impression are you left with, more tricky stuff from the Liberal party comes to mind. The incompetence of the Liberal election campaign is unbelievable.
They are working hard for my bet of 105 seats to labor, go Liberal election HQ.
I can’t believe it, despite having seen it. Are there no depths to which the LNP will sink? Now they’re using their press stooges to run deceptive and misleading headlining, with the clear intention of branding Mr Rudd as a homosexual.
Two responses:
1. It doesn’t matter if he is (and I believe that he isn’t)
2. This takes dirty tricks to a new low.
The MOE of that Nielsen poll is 3% in each age group. It’s a distillation of previous polls.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/federal-election-2007-news/baby-boomers-carrying-rudd/2007/11/08/1194329413246.html
Let the libs called Rudd like they want, it just gives them less credibility and their rating on this is already in the negative.
Ed, Voter Boy
The story from the Tele can be interpreted in many ways especially with the picture next to it.
“PM not sorry, election rival ‘gay’”
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,22725964-5001021,00.html
The picture of Costello looking at Howard does appear one of adoration and love, and Costello has long been Howards “election rival for the PM’s job. Is that what the story is implying? Is there more to this long ongoing love/ hate realtionship between the two than we know about, is that why there has been no invitation to Kirribilli, Jannette does not want her rival for affections at the same table?
Then again, Howards direct rival is Maxine, is that the dog whistle?
And they mention Gillard in the story, is that another whistle.
All the story will do is confuse anyone reading it.
I hate this rehashing of old polls to create the impression of a new poll stuff. If it was a scientific journal they wouldn’t get away with it.
That “Telegraph” Headline is bizarre because, for example, their front page coverage yesterday was of a family, Mr. and Mr. Whyte and 4 kids, who are so financially stretched by their mortgage payments after the 6 rate rises that this pilot and lifelong Liberal voter is voting for Labor. And here’s the big kickers is the focus group gold for Mr. Rudd when Mr. Whyte is quoted: “I’m sick of living in an economy, I want to live in a society”. Also, the “Telegraph” cartoon has been giving Team Howard a real beating, directly opposite to my local Fairfax rag cartoonist.
Hmmm, so much for the right-wing Howard media cheerleaders’ (a plethora of them in the ABC and Fairfax) attempts to spin the latest interest rate hike as a plus for Team Howard and Costello because it the electorate will now be focussed on the Coalition’s polling advantage ground of being better economic managers. Thank god, my fellow baby boomers appear to have not had all of their beliefs in a “fair go” society squeezed out of them in the last dozen years.
Mr. and Mrs. Whyte, obviously. Though my first version would fit in with today’s headline! Lol
24 Arbie Jay Says: November 9th, 2007 at 7:44 am
Peter Costello is gay?
I saw the friday morning debate on channel 9 between Gillard and Abbott. Nothing unusual. Abbott is given more oxygen and is allowed to speak at his own pace whereas Gillard is continually interrupted. Karl Stifsitonovic is even resorting to coughing now when Julia is speaking. It didn’t make any difference Gillard brained both of them!
Surely the headline in the Daily Telegraph must have been placed there with the approval of the editor? Which makes his claims the other day sound as hollow as John Howard’s promises over interest rates.
Does anyone here have doctor carl’s email or any info to get in touch with him?
Do a search on the Daily Telegraph site for the term “election rival”. Nowhere – other than this story – do they use it as it is used here – as in “election candidate”.
The headline clearly implies that Howard’s election rival is gay. It does not separate the two clauses with a semi-colon. There is no reason to assume from the grammar and punctuation that it is referring to two different stories. It is highly unlikely that the Daily Telegraph has ever used such a format to headline two stories.
The Daily Telegraph now needs to come clean. Who wrote this headline?
Speaking of the ‘election rival’ do we have any idea what sort of vote Danielle Ecuyer might get and who she is preferencing?
So Rudd is gay now???
So what next – Howard is Jesus Christ!
It is clearly an attempt to smear Kevin Rudd because the first part of the headline mentions ‘PM’, and the only rival competing with him for PM in the election is Rudd. The first paragraph of the article has now been changed to refer to an election rival, but it has not relevance to the story. The editor of the Daily Telegraph has a lot of questions of answer.
Also, Crikey might like to come clean and identify where it first heard the rumor that the Daily Telegraph had dirt on Rudd for Friday. Who was it – Brian Loughnane?
Am I the only one who read that DT headline as if it was suggesting that Howard was not sorry and labelling Rudd as gay? I thought it was gaffe #2 and trawled through the article for a reference from Howard about Rudd being gay!
Good to hear that there was no (particularly) damaging story in the AFR or the DT today. I suppose it’s possible Latham could stir up trouble for the ALP, but it’s hard to see how him attacking them is anything other than a positive – though I do agree with his thesis that both parties are pandering to middle class greed!
I think we’ve all got to the point we’re expecting a Tampa so it’s easy to believe these rumours.
Love the Simpsons reference Williams, very well done.
There should be a score here somewhere where the cred of the people who thought the Daily Telegraph would hold a story for 3 days is noted.
Re, the ‘Gay” headline, What the ? The media in this campaign are behaving much as they always do, its called ‘hegemony’.
Is this what everyone’s been panicking about all week? Ha ha ha ha ha. Dirt unit have nothing! the Duck is history!
Latham writing in the AFR isn’t going to do too much damage. Maybe if he was doing an interview on Channel Seven news it would be an issue – but most outer suburban swinging voters will be at best dimly aware that he has popped his head up.
Yes, it is deliberate for sure. The headline as written (pointed out by vbotw doesn’t separate the two clauses with a semi-colon) and in the article itself, the ONLY reference to the “other half of the headline” is this [
Click here to see how an independent candidate plans to woo young voters with "climate hunks".
]
one line paragraph 3 paragraphs into the story. 99% of the story is about “Sorrygate”. I am going out later and will check and see if the paper eidtion of the DT displays the headlines in a similar fashion. Often, the display is somewhat different than it appears on the website. For example, when Cousins news was front and center in Perth a few weeks back, his picture was the front cover of the DT that day although you wouldn’t have picked it from reading the website.
Oh dear, AM on the ABC is continuing with “sorry, but I’m not sorry…sorry?” – I reckon Howard is this close to blowing up over this.
This is nothing. A non-story. If it is a recurring theme it might be something to worry about, otherwise, this is th Tele’s modus-operandi. They put ’sex’ or ‘gay’ or ‘orgy’ or ‘romp’ in the headlines with the flimsiest of pretexts, and readers of it realise that.
The AFR Latham story is pure gold for Rudd. Better than being seen to stomp on those pesky unionists. The only question is: why did the Fin bother?
Re the Tele headline – can we please pay attention to the very fetching graphic William put up at the head of this thread? Over-interpretation is, like over-determinism, a sin which must be avoided by all thinking social scientisis (including pseph-heads).
And, Pathological Logic – please don’t spread alarm any more!
Ok, how about Dr carl’s spelling of his name and the party he represents….anyone???
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/11/09/2086066.htm
The ABC are of course leading with it.
Scaper, try here: http://climatechangecoalition.com.au/federal-election-07/karl-kruszelnicki.html
Thanks very much Pancho.
I need people like him and Ted Egan on the panel.
44 M’sieur CL…
Trust me, this isn’t over interpretation. Last Friday – and I can say this on an Aussie blog – the British satirical program Have I Got News For You made various coy references to the un-named (over here at least) Royal involved in the blackmail scandal. Of course the Royal wasn’t named in connection with the story. But later, in the program’s “odd one out” quiz, the Royal’s photo appeared against three others – the category being “Who has done something scandalous on a train”? The odd one out was the Royal, who, they said with heavy sarcasm, “has never done anything scandalous on a train”. If the media want to flag something they will find a way to do it.
The headline is forced – it has a very specific and singular implication from the way it is punctuated, and it does not accurately represent the accompanying story. Combined with the fact that Crikey flagged something like this, I can only conclude two things – one, that someone at the DT is being whimsically mischievous, or two – that someone at the DT is trying to float the suggestion that Rudd is gay.
Morning ‘Bludgers…
Youse should all get a grip.
The words “gay” and “rival” being mentioned above a photo of Howard and Costello and youse are worried about Rudd copping the wagging tongue treatment?
Yous’ve all been up too long. Get some sleep. Have a think about it. We haven’t sunk that low yet that we’d believe a story like that, subliminal or not.
The best news of the day for we Sydneysiders is that La Trioli is quitting her morning radio show. Perhaps she has realised that when/if Labor is elected they’ll shun cheerleaders like her, and she’ll be left to interview member(s) of the opposition.
She likes to think of herself as an insider, so the lack of access would hurt.
Rumours that she’ll front Media Watch suggest another downgrading of a once great program.
This appears to be what the tip off was talking about. Not a real story by the Telegraph uncovering some scandal, but a secret arrangement between Liberals and News Ltd to include a subliminal ’smear’ in one of its headlines. It’s ridiculous. Rudd will have a great line if this gets any air.
“Look I’m a married man with n kids. This really is desparate stuff for the Liberals to try this smear that somehow I am gay (not that there’s anything wrong with that). I mean, does anyone go around asking Liberal ministers, say Alexander Downer or Christopher Pyne if they are gay? No.”
Oh get a grip guys. If anybody should be slighted it should be howard. It implies he’s calling a rival gay.
Don’t know about you, but thats an insult that only works in Primary school and it should reflect poorly on Howard if he were to be associated with it.
Oh, and I suspect Trioli’s ratings were lower because she is a shrew. I haven’t heard her Liberal leanings, but I have turned her off because she was just plain annoying.
The hard copy head on Farr’s “sorry” story plays it straight: “Defining moment in PM’s sorry saga – Mortgagees don’t rate an apology.” That’s what the voters will see and they won’t like it. Seems that other nonsense was the online version.
http://climatechangecoalition.com.au/home/contact-us.html
Scaper @ 31, try CCC.
Is the Tele headline in the dead tree version, or just on-line?
S: “Oh, and I suspect Trioli’s ratings were lower because she is a shrew. I haven’t heard her Liberal leanings, but I have turned her off because she was just plain annoying.”
Agree. Now get her off Lateline as well, and I’ll be a happy camper.
Malcolm Farr is such a scumbag. He had gay in quotation marks and will argue that it’s the original meaning as in happy.
Yes, I actually bought the Tele – isn’t that sick! Just couldn’t believe it would run such a misleading headline …
I see, Derek. Storm in the proverbial, then.
s, you are right Trioli is a shrew, but also a shrill cheerleader.
So a shrill shrew cheerleader?
58 – I think the editors write the headlines. And there was a link in the body of the text to the Ecuyer using ‘gay hunks’ story.
Adrian, As a fellow La Trioli Hater I can only concur.
This is the person who had Malcolm Fraser on her show to debate something or other, but when the government minister didn’t turn up she took over his part and his side in the argument.
“My job is to provide balance.”
Fraser made the rather good point that if the government could rely on her to spruik their side of any argument they’d make a habit of not turning up for interviews on her show.
I’m not sure whether La T is actually a Howard Hugger, although she did tell us all breathlessly last year how “brilliant” his counter against the Costello Wet Lettuce Leaf challenge was and now Howard could “stay forever as Prime Minister”.
I think she just wants to be seen as “connected”, part of the Sydney glitterati. It really doesn’t matter whether she has a politician on her show or the Art Gallery Director… as lobng as their part of what passes for an “A” list in Sydney.
She actually loosened up a little towards the end and I thought there might be some hope, but obviously there wasn’t enough time to change the image (or the ratings).
Poor Virginia, her radio epitaph will be, “She only wanted to be connected, and at least she wasn’t as bad as Sally Loane.”
I have to say, btw, that even though I have no doubt this was a dirty trick at least by the Tele people (and possibly Lib chums), and that they should get their a*ses kicked over it, I think it’s hilarious, and if it gets legs – which it should – it will only further confirm the scumminess and pettiness of those who will stop at nothing to pull Rudd down.
I have no doubt they knew what they were doing. And at the same time, they haven’t a clue.
But it’s best to ignore the “gay” thing. The more we discuss it the worse it becomes and don’t spread it around ie tell friends and relatives.
Indeed, don’t blame Malcolm Farr. The sub-editors write the headlines.
That heading William.
LOL
VoterBoiy, I have great respect for your views but I can’t quite read into this the implication that somebody at the tele is trying to plant the impression that Rudd is gay. Unless it’s a cunning ploy to win Wentworth …
OTTH, maybe Costello IS gay. That’d be a turn up for the books!
When’s the next poll? Data may distract us from the rumour mill …
God, we are jumpy … look before leaping might be the go, methinks. I still think the sorry story has long legs.
Virginia used to grace our airwaves down here. She was replaced by Lindy Burns. Believe me, VT is a rocket surgeon in contrast to Lindy. Her idea of deep thought is to reflect on how long Geelong’s winning streak could last.
Having said that, VT is a sort of superior air-head. She talks nonsense, but in a very confident way, and knows ALL the right people.
Well I am looking forward to him getting crucified on the 24th. But I doubt his political carcass will be resurrected on the 27th, just buried with the rest of the Lib garbage.
Morgan (groan!) is out today, at least it will give us something to discuss.
My fellow Sydneysiders: Viriginia Trioli has been a disaster. On the rare occasions when the woman hasn’t been on holidays, she’s been a shameless cheerleader for the Rodent/Liberals. The lack of balance on her program is very obvious! Let’s hope the ABC replaces her with a decent broadcaster, someone capable of dealing with all sides of politics in an objective way.
CLdF – 774 has gone to the dogs. Jon Faine thinks he is Neil Mitchell.
Just on Sydneysiders (at least east of the Galdesville bridge) did you see the 7.30 report last night on Wentworth? Being a Brissie boy having to spend days and days dealing with Sydney types in buisness I LOL at how Wentworth really is a caricature of all that is spivney about Sydney. La Trioli, Turnbull and Garrett are part on the vaccum that envelopes that part of Australia. Nice harbour though.
“Morgan (groan!) is out today, at least it will give us something to discuss.”
Great (sarcastic). I think I’ll start a similar polling company next year… I’m gonna call it “Roll the Dice”.
Indeed he does. But, again, he’s the best of a fairly poor lot. He does have some snes eof la vie politique, at least. Virginia, on the other hand, treats it like a celebrity gossip line. Lindy just talks crap, endlessly … she’s out of her depth with a local Mayor.
That should be ’some sense of la vie politique’ BTW
S Says:
Yes, but it would seem the Liberals in charge of the election campaign ( and given Howard’s sorry, not sorry, probable Howard as well) are not smart enough to see this.
They really have lost it, 105 seats to labor is looking like a good bet.
Another angle on the Tele story is that Malcolm Farr would not have included the linked paragraph. Of course it’s completely irrelevant to his piece.
It’s inserted between the PM regretting the pain and the RBA announcing the rates rise! WTF!
Pretty clear the link and the title are the work of a Machiavellian sub editor.
I just saw the DT ‘headline’ mentioned. Looks to me like a very childish prank by some immature sub editor. I doubt if it will attaract much attention unlike the ‘Sorry’ thing which has legs and will run for a few days yet with Labor help.
Check out Brough’s clumsy effort in the SMH to bag University Researchers.
http://andrewleigh.com/?p=1687
Mornin’ Bill ‘n’ all. Fifteen sleeps to go.
CBet board odds have remained remarkably stable for the past 24 hours.
LABOR 1.36
COALITION 3.15
If there were any fluccies, I didn’t peg ‘em and I visit the site quite a lot. Every “dot-ball day” is good day for Team Ruddster as E-Day draws ever nearer.
GALAXY WENTWORTH POLL:
George Newhouse(LAB) 51
Moneybags Turnball: 49
Sub-editors write headlines, which are then checked by check sub, chief sub, then the editor. That’s how it used to work, anyway. Journos don’t write headlines, as a rule. Most can barely spell, anyway.
Someone could have been trying to find out a leak,
I tell person 1 that on “Friday”, that the SMH has the bad info, person 2 the Tele, person 3 the Fin Review etc and see what turns up.
Goodbye Virgina Trioli, stupid cow. Just never “got” Sydney and we never “got” her.
Thought she was the new Maxine McKew. F off, there is only one Maxine!! God save the queen!
That Herald headline is dodgy as, might write a letter to the scum.
So is it in the hardcopy edition or not?
Just got to work and catching up on the reactions to the Tele headline. It looks like they were trying to get a bite from bloggers, just like Caroline’s blog.
A poor try at sophisticated humour. They should get Peter to write their gags.
NO Henry – it is NOT in the hard copy version – it’s a bit of online wankerism. Probably the work of a kiddie sub. Move along – nothing sinister here, I’d say.
Latham bags both sides in the AFR?
My god, that’ll get Australia to sit up and listen…not!
What kind of excuse for journalism is that? An interview with a political corpse? Not an ex Prime Minister, not someone like Hewson who at least has some dignity and who’s opinions are occassionaly given in public and taken respectfully, but Latham?
God, that’s trawling the journalist depths, isn’t it?
Ok Derek, the trainer wheels subbie should be demoted to the mail room!
Howard Hater – You got a link, or is that rumours?
Well, whoever it was, I’m sure he or she will be named and shamed by the end of the day. Either way, if it gets into the mainstrea, Rudd will only win support. What a bloody foolish thing to doa.
The apology v sorry thing is not getting a lot of coverage in the SMH nor The Oz. There’s a Spin blog about it in the latter. Or did I miss other articles?
Wonder how Turnbull feels about that headline?
Pros and cons, pros and cons…
Does anyone know where you can get a calendar of upcoming opinio polls? Try as I might, I cannay find one anywhere?
This Latham thing will fall as flat as a pancake. What more can Latham say about Labor that he hasn’t already said? Besides, it will be seen as more sour grapes from a poor loser, will reinforce that Labor and Rudd are a long way from his version of Labor and is an attack on the Liberal Party as well. Howard has already responded to that attack.
All over in 5 minutes.
Fran Kelly made the observation that the LIberal’s campaign seems to have come together this week, and they are now very much on message and coming across as very disciplined.
Now, I’m not sure if I am blinded by my own bias, but it does seem a bit at odds with my observations this week… can any Coalition supporters provide their take on things?
Super Liberal winning again
Useless Labor going down the pan
Latham: who cares? Irrelevant, embittered, mentally ill. He can go back to whatever hole he crawled out of!
Howard Hater Says:
November 9th, 2007 at 8:54 am
GALAXY WENTWORTH POLL:
George Newhouse(LAB) 51
Moneybags Turnball: 49
Is that a guess or have you read that somewhere?
Any chance the ABC can get rid of Fran Kelly too? What a pity a once interesting breakfast show on Radio National has been reduced to pro Liberal crap!
It’s Christopher Pyne who’s gay, certainly sounds cheerful enough, what-oh! And as for Dolly, well he’s more the sullen type!
And why does Howard’s daughter look like Pru Goward ? What’s going on there!
From Crikey
Christian Kerr writes:
I’ve been inspired by the Liberal ads telling us that interest rates are always up above 10 per cent under Labor governments. Here are a few other historical economic figures that may be of interest:
When Gough Whitlam and Frank Crean were running the show…
* Australia ran a current account surplus. Today the deficit is six per cent of GDP.
* Net foreign debt was under one per cent of GDP. Today it is 53 per cent of GDP.
* The unemployment rate was under two per cent. Now it is 4.3 per cent.
* Real wages grew by 10 per cent. You’re now lucky to get two per cent per annum.
* The Australian dollar was at $US1.4875. It’s now around $US0.92.
If you can make the Whitlam government look like good economic managers, you can prove anything with statistics.
Michael: mentioned by someone on the oz politics board!
Tricky maths from Howard, he’s a clever politician alright.
http://blogs.theaustralian.news.com.au/meganomics/index.php/theaustralian/comments/tax_cuts_hikes_small_change
#93 Found Crabbe and Maiden articles through Crikey re non apology.
Michael @ 97: Fran Kelly is talking through her clacker. I spoke to a Liberal Party staffer mate yesterday who said that yes, they had thought out a line to deal with the rates rise, and they were ready for it, but then Grumpy Old Johnny f*cked up big time with his sorry-not sorry routine. (See idiot box thread for details)
The average odds for Labor across the agencies are about 1.36, very little movement over the last few days. Stories about a wave of money for the Coalition are obviously a load of bull. The seat-level betting has edged a bit in Labor’s favour in the last week, mainly in Qld. Herbert has switched to Labor as favourite-they have a strong candidate, a local businessman called George Colbran, running there. Seats like Leichardt and Longman have also seen Labor firm, although the Libs are still favoured. Betting market reaction to the next round of polls will be extremely interesting.
Speaking of trainer wheel subbies: the ABC subbie who turned Howard’s “Sorry your dog got run over” into “Prime Minister apologizes” is most likely heading for Oodnagallarbie right now to take up the position of stringer, 2nd class, for the Country Hour.
I worked it out on the “apology” thing (sorry for the slow-thinking).
1. Howard floats the word “sorry”, knows from experience the media will present it as “Howard says sorry”… an ambiguous apology?
2. ABC ramps “sorry” to full-blown “apology” status. Howard makes no comment.
3. Next morning Daily Telegraph publishes an opinion poll saying the public doesn’t blame Howard for the interest rate rise. So there was no need to “apologize” after all.
4. Howard “clarifies” his position on “apology”, i.e. “It wasn’t one.”
5. Sh*t hits fan. Howard puzzled as to why everyone’s laughing at him.
* * * * *
Nicotine Chronicles
I am truly amazed and humbled at the support fellow ‘Bludgers have given me in my attempt (so far successful) to give up the ciggies, and indeed all forms of nicotine. Don’t want to go too far off topic or make too big a thing of it here, but I love youse all.
Anyone else thinking of coming over to the side of light read these quantifiable stats from just 4 days off the fags:
* Heart rate has dropped from 94 to 67 bpm.
* Blood pressure from a respectable 126/84 to a phenomenal 115/74
* Ankles no longer swell at 5pm (this was from Day #1… an instant result).
* Ran.. repeat… RAN with the dogs yesterday, 2 km. Never done this in my life before. In fact the dogs looked more worried than I was… “Has pop gone mad?”
That’s right: It’s not all psychological. These are real, measurable results. Nicotine addicts are in it for the instant gratification. Well those physical changes in my health after only 4 days are about as instant a gratification as anyone would want.
Note: According to the book, “Allen Carr’s Easy Way To Stop Smoking, “evangelism is part of the treatment.
I wish to pass the motion that as the GG has become the abbreviation for that newspaper, that we rename the ABC the APC (Australian puppetry commission) I am apalled at their biased reporting!
All in favour say I
Um… Aye?
Sham -I – Am bleating on about whatever it is he bleats about. Think he is convinced that he can influence the turning around of the Titanic.
http://blogs.theaustralian.news.com.au/dennisshanahan/index.php/theaustralian/comments/ir_policy_one_debate_labor_cant_avoid
Newspapers often can’t print things for fear of libel suits or there may be a suppression order in place. They will often try to subliminally get the story out using juxtaposition. No-one, except diehards like us notice it and it makes them feel better that they sort of ran with the story. Or it may just be a coincidence.
*Radio [Liberal-]National [Coalition]*
Fran Kelly continues to display what can only be described as a cheer-leader approach to commentating on the election.
In today’s Friday Election panel we had:
*Michael Kroger, offering some of the most one-eyed and deranged pro-Government “analysis” yet (see earlier thread re “Postcard from La La Land”);
*Glen Milne, who was firmly pro-Government as always, but with a few backhanders, obviously motivated by his position as Chairman of Club Smirk;
*Grattan, offering generally balanced but paint-strippingly safe assessments of all events during the week; and
*Fran herself, who has, for reasons known only to herself, adopted the practice of talking up ANYTHING AT ALL as “momentum” for the Government and intones almost daily of a “come back” and “need for Labor to get the momentum” – THEY’RE AHEAD IN THE POLLS! As pointed out by Mumble, what, exactly, is “momentum” and why does the poll leader need it?!?!
So we were treated to a fantastically “balanced” panel of 3 pro-Government semi-spruikers and what amounted to an automated read-through of Grattan’s written copy. Fantastic!
Is where my 2c a day are going?!
Last edited by BV (Today 08:21:00)
Voterboy I posted at 4.36 because as always I remembered that the garbage goes out on a Friday. And those hard working Higginites do my run at 5.55. I am forever missing it and have to take the sulo bins (an australian invention) across the road down the street.
Ave it 07 – I get it now. You’re a sub at the Tele!
Vote Coalition for smooth relaxing government.
Removes the need to rely on nicotine
It is officially confirmed… Ave it 07 is Tabitha using a sock-puppet! (refer to Ai07 #98 and the poor poetry)
Please bar one of the identities, William.
Regarding the story, didn’t Crikey promise a juicy story on Friday (that is, today)? Well , this is it – the “Rudd scandal” which will place the last nail in the LNP coffin. They’ll lose this election, then when their dirty tricks are exposed by the new Government, they’ll be consigned to a long decade in purgatory.
118:
Liberal = freedom of speech
Labor = people trying to get posters banned
No offence intended, but people reading conspiracy theories into the DT headline is one of the reasons we get referred to as the “looney left”.
If anything, that headline with the accompanying picture is actually implying Peter Costello is gay. But when I read the article, I realise of course that it is another case of a sub-editor playing games with the headline in order to get people to read the article. (BTW, I suspect the ‘gay’ bit of the article was moved to a separate article after the headline was written).
Happens all the time. Get over it. No one reading it is going to give a sh*t.
This is what you call a slow news day. Let’s move on, shall we?
MORGAN IS UP EARLY:
Labor Extends Lead In Wake Of Interest Rate Rise
http://www.roymorgan.com/news/polls/2007/4197/
Centaur: I always deposit my garbage with News Limited sub-editors. They’re happy for anything to chew on and are grateful for its nutritious goodness.
And now I feel a Tabitha coming on
Liberal for double entendres and sly innuendo
Labor for Tintin, the gender bendo
I know, utter crap, but it’s 10.30pm here and I’ve been monitoring your wretched newspapers all day
Very funny BV back to the future I preesume.
[MORGAN IS UP EARLY:
Labor Extends Lead In Wake Of Interest Rate Rise
http://www.roymorgan.com/news/polls/2007/4197/
Sorry, scrap that, my browser cache f#cked up.
BV this is August!
Well spotted BV!
You know what this means… next week Morgan will have “Coalition surges back!”.
Ha, it is August. BV, what you smokin?
Bill – walk before you run. Apart from anything else, you need to get your muscles used to a load. You should warm up and stretch too, to avoid injuring yourself, which would be a setback. The other bit you can work out for yourself – stressed cardio-vascular system may not respond well to sudden and unaccustomed loads.
Howard is so out of touch it isn’t funny (well, it is actually. Bloody hilarious). The non-core apology is a terrific own goal, and it goives us the perfect minituarised version of Howard’s entire corpus – which amounts to: tell them what they want to hear using carefully chosen words which you can then later deny. This is pettifogging lawyerism at its worst, and unfortunately folk have succumbed for some time. Alas, for SS Rattus Desperatus, folk have finally seen through it.
Yeah, sorry all, over-saved an old link in my bookmarks for what will presumably be today’s new address!
Ave it 07 #119,
Quite frankly, I consider you to be a deceitful, disgusting little person. If you are going to spend your time making puerile poetry for the glorification of one side or the other, at least have the courage to sign your name to it. Since you lack even that smidgeon of courage, you’re not worth my time.
Also, FYI, I am NOT a member of the ALP. Although I am considering giving them my vote this election.
Ashley @ 120. Tell me then – based on your reading of the two accompanying stories, how does the headline work? What is it referring to? Who is the “election rival” in that sentence? Who is the “election rival” in that sentence the rival of? And in what sense is the “election rival” ‘gay’?
Regarding Soft Voters, I think I am one. I’d say Australia is heading in the right direction alright – it’s taken eleven years but we are finally heading in the right direction, Gough be praised.
Talk about jumping at shadows, some obscure headline in the Tele and a ditsy ABC presenter and everyone is frothing at the mouth. As for the ever flaccid Shamahan ’s drivel, he’s just p***ing in the wind, it’s more amusing than anything. Relax, people will make up their own minds, we aren’t some exotic enlightened species with the scales lifted from our eyes, we just participate in a media forum with a differing bias.
Our daily papers Voterboy. Come on read the daily mail or the mirror or the sun (still got boobs?) Apart from the metro there are few papers worth reading, oh the European.
Hey after living there for 4 years recentlly and loving curry houses, I have to say that the best I had (must have tried 30) was Angel Curry at the bottom of Chapel market in Angel Islington. You won’t be dissapointed. The best chiicken tika masala, sagh gosth and lamb pasanda I have ever had!!
On the media, I am going to officially call Rudd a political genius. Think about his relaxing of FOI laws. All the dirt the Rodent has been hiding for 11 years will come out (the laws are retrospective). There will be enough material for the media to report for three years, until the next election. New revelations about Haneef, AWB, Tampa, Hicks, SIEV, WMD… the list goes on. And it helps get Ruperts endorsement. Glen and all you other sad rodent followers, its going to be a LONG LONG DARK WINTER.
131 – I’m not really worried if you are a member of the ALP or not.
Mathew Cole getting a bit excited
When really he’s a bit of a #
This is one of the reasons I hate Howard so much.
He f#*ks up, and then blames someone else for it. Such a bare-faced liar, that even to this day he amazes me with his temerity. He’s the one who’s been making stupid differentiations between ’sorry’ and ‘apology’ and yet he has the gall to try and pretend it’s Labor who’s playing word-games:
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=305478
This guy is a world-class loser.
15 days to go!!!!!!!!!!!
Diogenes says “move out of the way Howard you’ve been blocking the sun.”
Speaking of more ABC anti Labor bias: their radio commentators with the Rudd Campaign make their reports as negative as possible, we hear a lot from people who are either Liberals or have some derogatory remark to make about Kevin.
Eg. Today’s report on AM about Rudd’s visit to a shopping centre in Boothby – lots of mentions of hecklers, some old bloke who hates Labor & Nicole Cornes etc. Switch over to News Radio and their hack of a political commentator has a gushing interview with the Rodent.
We saw that Wentworth story on the 7.30 Report last night. Two things jumped out – Turnbull’s pathological desire to be “an ordinary Australia” (his “tough student unit” is identical to the cool art deco unit I live in now, which I would not describe as “hard”), and the strange omission by the 7.30 Report of the Democrats candidate Pierce Field. I have noticed that the 7.30 Report does that sort of thing a lot – eg uses Democrats press releases as questions to the majors but refusing to mention the Democrats. It’s tres weird.
Must…stop…feeding…trolls…..
From 62 Bushfire Bill: Poor Virginia, her radio epitaph will be, “She only wanted to be connected, and at least she wasn’t as bad as Sally Loane.”
Brilliant epitaph, Bushfire Bloke. Smarmy Sally was obsessed with that fact that mothers and children (like hers, of course) were not sufficiently worshiped in Australia. One of Sally’s feature articles in the SMH was to vent her rage that when she took her pre-schoolers to the barber and her 2-year old threw a hissy fit on the floor, all the adults in the barber shop just pretended to ignore it. Sally thought this epitomises the evil forces of Child-ignoring and Mother-hating rampantly destroying Australian society!
As for Virginia, she’s obviously trawling to be the next Pru Goward, hoping to be handed a lucrative, cushy job as the Triumphant Team Howard’s special roving ambassador, adviser and PR flogger for (fill in whatever’s Virginia’s cause du jour). However, she’s got some fierce competition out in media land such as Fran “Yes, you’re 100% spot on about that, Piers!” Kelly or perhaps Melissa “Give me my tax cuts!” Doyle who hosts 7’s Morning Show with Koch.
84
Derek Corbett Says:
November 9th, 2007 at 8:54 am
“….. Journos don’t write headlines, as a rule. Most can barely spell, anyway.”
Verry,verry trew. But most bloggers here would blusch az thay red it!
Centaur – I don’t think they publish the European any more. I recently had to buy the Daily Mail for three weeks because it contained DVDs of a TV series on the First World War, which my daughter in doing for her GCSEs here. It was the most shameful experience of my life. I’ve had less stressful times buying porn as a teenager.
The best curry house in my view was the South India Curry House in Darlinghurst – just near all those fabulous gay bars, if there are any Daily Telegraph subs reading this. But I shall follow your kind instructions and let you know before polling day what I made of it.
Matthew Cole (131) have a look at the sentiment expressed by Henry in Post 86.
VoterBoy
The HARD-COPY version of the story DOES NOT carry that headline. The hard-copy version plays it straight, so to speak. Read earlier posts. (Hell, I seem to be sticking up for the tele, must be feverish).
# 122 BV Says: November 9th, 2007 at 9:29 am
That’s August 17. Still a few hours.
I prefer Latham to Rudd.
His article also makes a number of good points.
Latham was a true alternative to Howard, whereas Rudd has followed too many of Howard’s stances (i.e. Haneef) for my liking.
Nevertheless, Rudd has proven more then competent so far and I hope Howard goes down in a flaming wreck.
I didn’t actually bother to read the ‘gay’ story. I clicked on it, saw that it wasn’t interesting and went back to the main article.
IMHO, that’s what most people are going to do. I seriously don’t believe that anyone is going to come away from that article thinking that Rudd might be gay. Like I said, the picture kind of implies that it is Costello who is gay — which is equally ridiculous.
I agree it’s a silly headline, inappropriate and misleading. But it’s just some sub-editor who thinks he’s being clever. No one is actually going to be fooled into thinking Rudd or Costello is gay. If the DT really wanted to smear Rudd, there are *far* better ways they could go about it in quite legitimate ways… like the Australian does, for example!
147: Derek – thanks for the headsup on that. I still think it’s dodgy (for the reasons outlined in 132 – hey, I’ve been trained to close read documents), but I’m willing to assume it was some smarta*se sub rather than an order from Lord Voldemurdoch.
VoterBoy – given that the ‘gay’ headline didn’t make it to the treeware version I suspect it was some juvenile sub who wanted to wind us all up. Maybe Tabitha has a gig at News Ltd? Anyway, it worked, on the wind up front anyway.
Meanwhile, out there in the RW, Rudd looks better by the second and el rodente looks more and more like a desperate, spiteful old goose who’s had his day but won’t let go. Oh how the cabinet must wish they had some courage! How tip must long for a heart! How Alex must long for linguistic gifts!
I can feel a musical coming on.
HH @83 Are those figures for Galaxy 2pp?
I rest my case.
BB 109
Glad to hear it’s all going well – don’t stop now. Got to say though – don’t be an evangelist, remember how annoying it was when some ex smoker smugly told you to give up? UGH
150 – Ashley. Fair enough. I agree with you here. Let’s hope someone outs the sub-editor. (Not that I’m suggesting…)
Centaur-I hope you are not comparing Howard to Alexander the Great! But God its so true. That slithering, putrid maggot has blocked the sun and tried to turn our great country into a Dark Ages Inquisition State where money and religion control all. Let there be light!!
Another Labor day of failure on Sunday remembered
Another failed Labor election campaign in 2 Saturdays to remember
La Nina: yes, 2PP.
Thank god for Kerry O’Brien and Antony Green, the two remaining credible ABC political commentators. Sad to say even Tony Jones has joined the pro Howard bandwagon.
158 LOL love it!
Wow, Morgan bounces around more than a superball.
As predicted: Rudd smear story was nonsense.
… meanwhile in the real world, an angry nation begins to respond to the sad bleats of Denise Sham-I-Am.
http://blogs.theaustralian.news.com.au/dennisshanahan/index.php/theaustralian/comments/ir_policy_one_debate_labor_cant_avoid/
Can you guess which one was mine?
Labor is for intelligent people
Liberal is for braindead trolls like Tabitha, Steven Kaye, Glen etc
Another succesful labotomy
Another manufactured creature.
She’s alive!
Latham was a blockhead. Okay, he provided a clear alternative, but when the PM of 11 years still has an approval rating of >50% it stands to reason that the people don’t really want a clear alternative. Australians are naturally conservative and going in saying you are reallying going to shake things up was politically niave.
Also, Latham masqueraded around pretending to be interested in the job yet all the while in his heart of hearts he hated the party, he hated politics and he hated what is involved with being a successful politician. He basically hated anyone who disagreed with him.
I will admit that I voted for him unashamedly and I wanted him to win as much as the next Labor supporter, but he was a disaster. In fact that whole term in opposition was a disaster (2001-2004). That term is the reason we have to listen to pessimists bang on with the old ‘16 seats is a lot to pick up’ rubbish….
164 HEHEHE.
Labor = LOL
ND: That’s because most voters are stupid.
And its not surprising Latham hated politics. Politics in Australia is a joke.
Both major parties rely on pork barrelling to win, and future policies are non existent.
Latham was an idealist, but unfortunately there is no room for idealism in Australian politics and we are all worse off for it.
165 C007
Beautiful
A poll conducted by the University of Adelaide politics department for ABC Radio gives the following figures for the Senate in SA: ALP 34.4 per cent, Liberal 28.8, Nick Xenophon 24.2, Greens 7.3. When all the numbers were punched into Antony Green’s calculator, the result was two senators each for Labor and Liberal, Xenophon, and a photo-finish for the last spot between the Greens, Xenophon’s running mate Roger Bryson and the third ALP candidate, with the Greens just favoured.
The poll suggests Labor will win the marginal seats of Kingston, Makin and Wakefield, with a good chance of taking Sturt and Boothby as well.
141 Dembo: “uses Democrats press releases as questions to the majors but refusing to mention the Democrats. It’s tres weird.”
Dembo, don’t know if this helps or not, but I attended the one and only “All-Candidate” debate in my electorate last evening, and the only two candidates who failed to show up were the Liberal and the Democrat. Even the micro-party “Give Divorced Fathers a Fair Go” (or something like that) candidate showed up and acquitted himself fairly well on all issues. It’s madness that any Democrat candidate would decide to miss out on free publicity from the newspaper coverage etc.
By the way, sitting Labor member, Sharon Bird, who’s running for her first re-election after replacing the Green’s Michael Organ in ‘04, gave a stellar performance. Organ had all the audience questions on his side (e.g. Tassie Pulp Mill) and still couldn’t lay a glove on Bird. Labor will get 66 to 70% TPP here in Cunningham.
Can we institute a rule that all rhyming couplets must at least rhyme? If possible also with somehing approaching a poetic scan?
Something like:
Liberal plays to fear and greed
While Labor helps those in need
Labor is for misogyny and woman hatred
Liberal is for freedom and chick power
Let’s clear this up. Page 6-7 of the Telegraph runs with the main head running over the two pages – “Defining moment in PM’s sorry saga”. Farr’s “sorry” story is on Page 7 with the kicker head: “Mortgagees don’t rate an apology.” There’s a big pic of Howard and Costello. Page 6 has a big pic of Dani Ecuyer and a panel with the “gay” story: “Hunky sidekicks appeal to the cool – and lazy”. There is no link between the two stories. It’s perfecly normal tabloid layout.
VoterBoy – Dennis really is a tragical, if hysterically amusing, figure. I have developed a short list to id your contribution. I assume it’s not the one suggesting that Rudd is a slimebag.
Is Tabitha Steven Kaye’s alter ego?
Tabitha,
Better hurry, or you will be late for Kindy.
RA – if you want that to scan you need to change ‘helps’ to ‘helpeth’. (Sorry, can’t help myself. Have a serious problem with Iambic Pentameters.)
I endorse your call for doggerel that rhymes.
172 RA
Check out the rules of Haiku:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haiku
Much more satisfactory than a simple rhyme.
172/173 – i prefer the random non rhyming artistry of tabitha.
Mathew Cole are you still there or are you in the kindergarten now?
I disagree with that. IMO, Tony is pretty even-handed.
IMHO, most of the bias in the media stems from the Australian. It sets the tone for much of the day’s discussion of politics, and much of the rest of the media simply regurgitates lines from Shanahan et al.
But let’s not get into another biased-media discussion again… I think we’ve covered that one pretty well!
Am I the only one who thinks Tony Jones is hugely over rated? I don’t think he’s biased, he just thinks he is Edward R Murrow or something. So put on. Thinks he is a heavyweight.
Don’t bookies have to continue offering ridiculously good odds for the Coalition because of the lopsided state of their books. If Labor wins they will be slaughtered, so any money on the Coalition reduces their expected loss, no?
CL @ 175 – c’mon then – money where your mouth is. Is my rancorous oeuvre recognisable? (Although my entry was truncated – they cut out the bit where I referred to Dennis slobbering over Howard like a drunken lech who’s found himself in a girl’s school… Only to be expected, tho.)
Tabitha your attempt at poetry is so droll
Piss off from here you ineffective little troll
Labor for misogyny and progeny’s sake
Liberal for liberty and opportunity’s sake
Beatrix Potter wrote tales of Miss Tabitha Twitchet
While we endure wails from a Liberal troll thicksh*t
Caterpillars twitch
Below furrowed brow
All is not well
Will: LOL LOL LOL
Tabitha you are a troll
Piss off now you Liberal loving mole
Tabitha.
Is your Mummy helping you to write this stuff?
Av it 07 you think you are cool
But you remind me of a sad fool
“Liberal for liberty”…. WTF?… Tabitha, you’re a comedian! Or maybe the 10 joints you’ve had before 10am are kicking in. Don’t they teach you to “say no to drugs” at school?
Sake rhymes with…sake!
Keep trying Tabitha.
LOL!
Isnt this little colonial election fun?!
Ave it!
Tabitha,
Or maybe Grumpy Grandpa Howard is helping you with your lines?
Just saw the Ruddster being mobbed like a rock star. What a guy!
Kool Kevin Rules and so does Golden Gordon over in the UK.
Tabitha and AV it07, if this is the best the young liberals can throw up, then heaven help the future generation.
Labor is for total failure
Liberal = very good really
I think people might be missing the point. The headline is curious, no one is going to make any assumptions and, instead will be drawn in to reading the article to found out what it is talking about. It actually works as a device to get people to read what you wrote and, that was a negative message about Howard’s not-sorry.
Andrew Fisher is Rudd’s role model apparently.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Fisher
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/news/queensland/rudd-praises-former-qld-pm/2007/11/09/1194329453320.html
168 Asanque: ” Latham was an idealist, but unfortunately there is no room for idealism in Australian politics and we are all worse off for it.”
Asanque, Latham carried serious physical and psychological issues which he’s now made public knowledge. That’s the reason I can forgive him for his blunders which gifted Howard not only the larger House 2PP buffer in marginal seats that could still prove too big for Rudd to overcome, but the Senate majority which resulted in Workchoices and other rubbish.
As for Mark’s latest contribution, Rudd being attacked by Latham will do as little damage as being Rudd being attacked by a Joe McDonald-type union heavy.
BV at 114, I caught the Fran Kelly-Kroger-Milne-Grattan discussion this morning as well and, like you, was gobsmacked at Kelly’s apparent partisanship. You could be excused for thinking she was a government spin merchant.
But the reality is that the Liberals have been in power so long now and the ABC board and management has been so stacked with Liberal-appointed heavies that the more careerist public broadcasters (like Kelly and Trioli) have simply realised which side their bread is buttered on.
On-air displays of bias in favour of the government will set the switchboards alight. And the record of those complaints will make it to the managing director and the board, who will be pleased at Ms Kelly’s ‘even-handedness’ and reward her appropriately.
Aside from Kelly herself, how can any discussion on the week in politics be balanced with a partisan host, a Liberal Party appartachik, a journalist who campaigns for Costello and dear old Michelle, who hardly ever says anything interesting these days?
This ACN Baby boomer stuff. Have they not got their years a bit wrong? They are saying people born between ‘53 and ‘67 are baby boomers? Not sure about people born from ‘63 on?
There was a young girl named Tabby,
Whos blogs were apaulingly shabby,
But one day she did see,
That such liberal repartee,
Was just purely moronic and crappy.
2mins 25sec
VoterBoy – I’m opting for ‘Oh dennis how do you sleep at night’
This might sound sex*st, but Liberal voting women are unattractive. I’m sorry, but it’s true. My girlfriend asked me last night if I would be going out with her if she was a Liberal. After vomiting violently in the middle of the lounge room, I composed myself and politely said, “no, absolutely not”.
I’m off to bed. May today bring more misery and confusion to the Satan and his Hellish Instruments, and I’ll log on again in a few hours to see whether that despicable and outrageous (copyright, Dolly Downer) gay headline had anything to do with Miss Toni Abbott’s Nancy Cap.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/hats-off-as-tony-dons-a-hairnet/2007/11/09/1194329453879.html
Mr Denmore, I for one am simply appalled by the instances of bias. I will be writing some very detailed letters to whomever is Communications Minister after 24 November 2007.
And CL – you got it in one. You clever clever boy.
Mr Denmore, very true. The reality for these people though (Kelly, Trioli, et al) is that they will be marginalised when Labor comes into power. For them to change in the dying minutes of the Howard Gov (even to start appearing a little more balanced) would be too obvious. So they give it the “old college try” and hope Labor doesn’t win. As Mr Burns says on the Simpsons: “I could crush him like an ant. But it would be too easy. No, revenge is a dish best served cold. I’ll bide my time until … Oh, what the hell. I’ll just crush him like an ant.”
Trioli’s got morning sickness!
So she’s heading off to TV land and wants to keep doing Lateline. Maybe she reckons she’ll get the gig when Tony moves on, and then a few years later she’ll retire and run for the seat of Bennelong.
Oh yeah, but Maxine will keep her seat.
Latham is right. This is a Seifield election. Why? well if Rudd is really gay it is a well known Seinfield catchcry that there is nothing wrong with that!
But really. I have two theories about this. One is that if we have to choose between a conspiracu and a stuff up, I’d go for the stuff up.
The other one is that after the good people at the Tele got wind of the ‘Rudd smear on Friday story’ and its associated frenzy in the blogosphere they probably decided to have a bit of a joke at us by placing these oblique headlines.
Regarding Radio National Breakfast I used to get angry but now I take it as a joke almost the same way as when I see Ackerman or Bolt on ‘The Insiders’.
Not only they had ‘The Panel’ which as someone else already suggested has one Liberal ex-President (and still influential Liberal operator), and one Costello loving journalist.
They also had before a journalist who followed John Howard’s campaign (so her views were very slanted towards him) and of course just after that Gerald Henderson!
Need I say more.
Tony at 203, that’s just what I thought on reading the Herald article on generational support for either party. According to their analysis, the “boomers” are all backing Rudd, while the over-55s are predominately in Howard’s court.
People aged 55-60 were born between 1947 and 1952, which makes them boomers in my book (post world war 2 babies).
The Herald says the 40-54 year-olds are predominately in the Rudd camp. But I thought generation ‘X’ began in 1962, which would make half that sample Xers and half late baby boomers.
I think they’re stretching things.
I am confused by Tioli’s political past – a few years ago Liberals were acusing her of being left-biased (when she was in Melbourne). But in Sydney she has adopted a consistently conservative line. What happened? Did she see the changing faces on the ABC Board and took a punt on the Right?
Ave it 07, as a Pom Tory you must be in despair over the fortunes of the former ruling party, reduced to a total rump in 97, and not recovering very much at the last two elections. I’m hoping that’s what happens here to the Libs.
The good news, however, is that none of the partisanism of certain ABC presenters appears to be having the slightest effect. Fran and various others are very annoying but remember only people with something like an opinion listen to RN, watch Lateline, or indeed hang on every word spoken on PM or AM. So it’s a sort of victimless crime, n’est ce pas? The only thing they’re doing is insuring ehmselves in the event of a Howard victory. They are also largely psephologically illiterate so haven’t quite worked out that the rodent is gone. Once they do (next week sometime, I suggest) watch them switch. The appropriate metaphor involves rats and drainpipes.
VoterBoy – excellent! May you dream of drowning rats!
John Faine has some clown on this morning – I think its John Roskam – doing the Coalition spruiking du jour. A caller tried to pull him up on interest rates and unemployment under Hawke-Keating; regarding the achievements they made in reducing unemployment etc. Roskam tried for about ten seconds to argue him point by point, then suddenly completely abandoned that line and talked about ‘looking at the overall 11 years of Howard-Costello vs Hawke-Keating’ and saying something to the effect that you can’t deny that the numbers are lower now. Which more or less means that the argument holds as long as you don’t look at it in any detail at all.
Faine just let him get away with that. He even said that Roskam would be happy with callers like that one, because it gives him a chance to compare the figures and bring out the 17% argument. That’s as far as he let the level of that debate go.
The trouble for Howard is that we heard this 17% mantra all through the last election, and now it’s been clouded by the 22% figure that Rudd brought up in the first debate. I’m not sure it’s cutting through. And if it isn’t, they can’t go much further into the figures without exposing their own hypocrisy on the issue. We saw that with the ‘tables’ they stuck into their latest ads.
My feeling is that you can pull this shtick if you’re well-placed electorally, as they were in the last election. But it isn’t going to do you any good if you don’t have the good will of the electorate already.
Denmore and others,
re ABC bias: Please use the ABC complaints link on the ABC website http://www.abc.net.au/contact/contactabc.htm
to register your complaint about bias. In this particular instance you might complain about the obvious bias in the selection of the ‘panel’ and also use salient points from the transcript of the show when it appears. I have succeeded in having a complaint about a particularly blatant piece of Uhlmann rubbish escalated to a very high level. Just keep pushing and don’t take no for an answer. Publish their replies on blogs like this, to demonstrate to the public at large what garbage they come up with as justification.
cheers,
Alan H
Just had to respond to the comments above about the Fran Kelly continuing to speak about the need for ALP to “get the momentum back”. What a twit she is. Always running the same line, on RN and Insiders.
Watching that woman rise from political correspondent to full-fledged host has made me almost go crazy. Has no-one — not a single manager, producer –noticed how completely freaking FATUOUS she is? I don’t know that she’s ever had a single incisive thought about Federal politics in her life. And she’s ONE OF THE MOST SENIOR and IMPORTANT pundits around.
She has all the worldly wisdom of a girl on a Year 11 private girls school debating team. By which I mean — she can express herself, she knows how to write a cute english essay to score a good mark, she can fill a vacuum with words, but she has absolutely no sense of the world around her.
She’s just a fat version of Naomi Robson.
BV at 214 – as a Melbourne 774 listener I am also surprised.
Trioli was not pro-Labor by any means, but she was quite ’socially progressive’
Also remember that she was the one that nailed Reith over the doctored ‘children overboard’ photographs for which she won a Walkley Award.
Fran Kelly sounds the perfect person for Trioli’s gig, at least as far as the ABC is concerned.
Or maybe they’ll get some twit like Jennifer Byrne. Virginia assured a concerned listener that her replacement would definitely be female.
It’s an eerily slow old day in the world of Oz politics.
We need another rumour, or a scandal, or an opinion poll (a real one – not a Morgan) to liven things up.
Nicotine addiction? Sheeesh! That’s nothing!
I need another poll, and I need it now!
Quick, do me some numbers and analysis now, my brain is starting to hurt.
# 198 Ave it 07 Says: November 9th, 2007 at 10:21 am
William, has this guy contributed a single post worth reading yet? Mindless posting like this doesn’t help debate for either side.
sorry…wrong transcript. I will link it if I find it.
216
CL de Footscray Says:
November 9th, 2007 at 10:32 am
Exactly – not a single swinging voter watches lateline or listens to RN. Not one.
I don’t see it as an issue.
Latham is correct in stating that both parties are pandering to middle class greed, the election is like a ‘Seinfield election’ and Labor is ‘conservative’. Welcome to Howard’s Australia Mark! But the only way you can change it is by being in government, and unfortunately, the only way Labor can be in government, is by not being wedged by Howard and pander to Howard’s Australia. Sad, but true.
Ville, yes it’s John Roskam (from the Institute of Public Affairs). http://ipa.org.au/people/bio.asp?peopleid=68 Don’t get me started on this guy, but I am not being flipant when I say I wouldn’t p*ss on him if he was on fire. A real dirt bag. People from this organisation make disgraceful comment on many social issues and are extremely right wing.
I wrote to Crike about these idiots a while back:
“I think it’s time we (the Australian Public) express some opinions about this “Institute of Public Affairs” (whatever the heck their name means!) which keeps getting an airing in Crikey (and elsewhere) – just like ACCI and Peter Hendy, who are now so obviously up the Liberal Party’s proverbial date, the Institute of Public Affairs is little more than a gang of right-wing scare-mongers, who believe in some alchemical model of the universe, a direct antithesis of everything scientific and universally obvious. Whether it’s “comments” on global warming (no, it’s not called climate change), the stolen generation (no it’s not called the displaced or saved generation) or “Union Bosses” (no they aren’t under your bed – just go and check!), their “research” (cough, cough) is laughable, purposely ignorant and downright dangerous. I challenge any of their “experts” to provide even one article they have had published in an internationally acknowledged, peer reviewed journal.”
I emailed Jon Fayne ages ago to get this moron off his Friday Wrap, and he wrote back saying they can’t find any right-of-center balanced commentators to come on.
Fran K is fairly lightweight – but really, how many of the Canberra gallery are much better at the moment? One of the things that Howard’s tight control has done is to tun the gallery into lapdogs – if you offend us, you lose access. If you lose access, you’re reduced to recycling rumours (which is effectively what Crikey has institutionalised and turned into a ‘business’, although how long it will last is another question). Howard’s mania for control has produced this the good news is that rudd seems to understand this, and his remarks about FOI, and reform of the PS, bode well for de-lapdogging the media. Of course, they’ll end up biting him, but the lapdogs will probably go, their access all dried up.
PS – silly me, i subscribed to Crikey for their election ‘coverage’. Talk about lightweight! PB is thirty times more informative and has abetter class of rumour (not to mention paranoia).
Nr denmore.
oops sorry i take that back.
on other matters… is it just me or is Virginia Trioli a bit hot?
middle man – i suspect it’s just you …
232, it is definitely just you.
The rat was the head of the nation
The greedy thought him a sensation
But then with a thud
Came a fellow called Rudd
And with him came lib decimation
tdt. nice work.
“I wish to pass the motion that as the GG has become the abbreviation for that newspaper, that we rename the ABC the APC (Australian puppetry commission) I am apalled at their biased reporting!”
I second that Centaur.
Man, Im getting overexcited by these rumoured polls. I ddint even notice the August date on that link and was sending emails. Doh!
Must. Chill. Out.
Betamax at 220, I think Fran Kelly is just one of those journalists who never really made the transition from reporter to commentator. She was actually pretty good as a straight-down-the-middle gofer. But when she got promoted from straight reporting to the presenter’s chair in current affairs, it was discovered that she really had nothing really interesting to say on her own account.
I think she realises she is perceived as a lightweight (her little girl, breathy voice does not help her on that account), so she over-compensates by making sweeping statements full of kitset political rhetoric (eg: Labor has “lost the momentum”, the election “could go down to the wire”, and best of all, “the marginals at the end of the day will decide this thing”).
middle man: “on other matters… is it just me or is Virginia Trioli a bit hot?”
Great, now this morning’s breakfast is on the floor and I have to get down on all fours and clean it up. Thanks middle man… oh, and , NO, it’s just YOU!
My favourite was when she said something like ‘the party that gets the most seats will win’.
It was pretty early in the morning …
Middle Man at 232, it isn’t just you. She definitely has something.
Tabitha cheered for the rich
Alas, they’re about to be ditched
So let me just jab
That the only good tab
Appeared in the show called Bewitched
wow, i didn’t think it was that crazy a notion!
My complaint lodged with the ABC:
I have witnessed with increasing dismay and alarm that Fran Kelly’s Breakfast show on Radio National exhibits a pro-Government bias in a number of areas.
Kelly herself regularly adopts the various “spin” lines being pushed by the Government, be it in relation to interest rates, job figures, climate change or “global financial tsunamis”.
Kelly regularly allows (caretaker) Ministers to simply speak from their prepared lines while Opposition members are confronted with a series of interruptions and spoken over (her divergent treatment of Costello and Swan yesterday was replete with examples).
Today’s show was an almost unceasing endorsement of the Government line, from her repeated statements of Howard being “on message!” and “confident” in her discussion with Lyndal Curtis, to her interchanges with the “Friday Panel” in which Kelly commented that “Labor hasn’t had the momentum”.
Further, the composition of the “Friday Panel”, made up of the former head of the Victorian Liberal Party (Kroger), the known pro-Costello Milne and the straight down the line Grattan could hardly be called “balanced”. Especially with Kelly’s own contributions and the fact that it was preceded by an interview with self-described conservative Gerard Henderson.
I look forward with receding hope to some semblance of balance within the final 2 weeks of the election campaign!
tdt 235 “applause”
To Tabitcha, Ave and to glen
And all of you right leaning men
Please glance at the polls
You short-sighted trolls
It’s “good night” “bad luck” and “amen”!
the one great advance from this campaign is the rise of the blog. This site is truly the best, for quality information, over the horizon inside info and plain old gossip. It is my source of electoral info. Don’t watch TV, read papers or listen to the wireless unless pointed to by this site bloggers. Really works being in Qld and being an hour behind no more wasted RN Breakfasts, 7.30s or Latelines.
I suspect that MSM and the patehtic excuse for a press corp are going to be suffering from Gareth’s deprivation syndrome soon.
thanks for the support Mr Densmore. although Jana on Rove last week was a delight. Why a TV channel wont just let here do whatever the hell she wants is beyond me…. I’d watch her host any old cr*p, even ACA! oh yeah she’s done that…… oops.
BV, excellent
Saying Virginia Trioli is quitting radio is like saying Howard is quitting as PM on Nov 24.
245 Bravo!
Kate Ellis for PM 228
Sadly I must agree with you. The past ten years have demonstrated Howards amoral view of the use of power, and the cowardice of many so-called “journalists” in not even reporting it. But the fact that Howard got reelected despite both Tampa and Children Overboard has shown that, ultimately, the majority of Australians are selfish and don’t really care. No wonder governments don’t invest in the future. Most voters would rather have a plasma screen TV.
BV @ 245:
Good points. Anyone else who feels the same should send off an email too… the ABC is pretty good at responding to allegations of bias these days. BV, any details as to where emails should be sent?
thanks – back to work for me. hate for this to become a poetry appreciation centre.
One vote short of being a candidate. Maybe a run in three years perhaps, if enough signatures can be found.
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/news/queensland/wouldbe-candidate-falls-one-name-short/2007/11/08/1194329409831.html
did anyone see the GG’s story about the Latham article?? apparently “MARK Latham has thrown a bombshell into the 2007 election campaign, skewering some of Kevin Rudd’s central themes.”
That is fantastic sub work!
There’s a contact link here:
http://www.abc.net.au/contact/contactabc.htm
Headline: Latham says Labor ‘conservative’
When the GG whack this headline up, do they realise it’s just what Rudd has been trying to get the voters to think?
How bizarre that in their desperate last minute agony, they actually reinforce Rudd’s theme because they just do not get it!
Rudd’s out wedged, out played and out smarted the conservatives and now the poor old Government Gazette is trumpeting Rudd’s theme in it’s headlines.
This just gets funnier and funnier.
BTW, BV (245) I think your point regarding having an unbalanced discussion panel is the strongest. The ABC is required to give equal weight to all sides, and as you have demonstrated 2 out of 3 of these commentators are not impartial.
defo you middle man-but maybe 10 years ago you could have been on to something. But seriously over the years she has taken some anti-govt stances over things like VSU and she copped a lot of personal vile from a certain political blogger who has his own gossip site when she covered the story of the missing millions from the Melbourne Uni Student Union . Im not sure she is a blatant right-winger but another of these ABC journos who are too scared to take on the Tories and go overboard with wanting to be balanced (no punt intended)
Lets sum it up: Our fourth estate is a national embarrassment. Bunch of press-release jockeys and compromised, second rate hacks. Few honourable exceptions.
‘not impartial’?
257 (middleman) On ABC radio news this morning the Latham article was referred to as a “grenade”.
How is Latham criticising Rudd even news? Latham is not even a Labor party member any more AFAIK. By comparison, Malcom Fraser has sharply criticised Howard on many occaisions and it barely gets reported by now. Its not old news; its non-news. Is anyone actually going to release a policy today?
SMH:
The cost of home loans is set to rise by a further 0.25 per cent in the next month or two over and above the latest increase that is now being pushed through by the major banks after the Reserve Bank lifted official cash rates this week.
National Australia Bank warned today that it couldn’t keep absorbing the price pressures that have been added to its own cost of borrowing which, in turn, is used to fund the mortgages it offers.
Kevin Rudd should come out and deplore the Tele for suggesting Peter Costello is gay. We all know he’s not gay [insert Seinfeld rejoinder], he’s just a pr*ck.
Where exactly did you see that Michael?
a grenade???? oh that is too funny! If Latham says someone is conservative, most people would interpret that as a compliment. I cant believe the AFR thought latham’s views were even worth publishing.
[269] – just go to smh.com.au
you can’t miss it
Joe from WorkChoices I heard
Tried hard to polish his turd
It all came asunder
With blunder on blunder
When he was eaten by a Labor-Left bird.
man this is a slow news day… Latham.. geez…. best get back to the salt mine. hi ho, hi ho….
I look forward to RN panel next Friday which will consist of Barry Jones, David Marr and Robert Manne. NOT!
Thanks
I like this from Crikey’s Early Campaign Edition: Day 26
“Dear Sole Subscriber,
Campaign day 26. 15 sorry days to polling. Not that we’re apologising for anything. No, sorry, but we’re not. I mean we’re sorry, but we wouldn’t want you to think that meant we were indicating anything other than a vague sense of generalised and certainly non-specific regret. Certainly not guilt. And it’s not our fault.”
Brilliant.
It is a dull day when the trolls get so much attention.
My theory on Tabitha is that she’s the latest innovation that Howard Junior brought back from Team Rove in the US.
You remember that at the 04 election he used that computer-generated phone spammer to call up marginal voters with ‘John Howard’s Special Personal Message’ (it seemed to be similar to Homer Simpson’s Money-making spammer, “Friend, I have this great money-making scheme. Just send $5 and a stamped envelope to…”) on how important it was to vote Liberal.
In this one the computer generates couplets and sends them in to left-leaning blogs to crowd up space and distract posters. Tabitha is not a person! She’s a computer program. Which is why she never engages in dialogue.
Ave it 07, of course, is merely parodying Tabitha.
Just flicked through the Tele at the newsagent downstairs – the ’sorry saga’ headline is fantastic for Labor. Don’t know about the rest of the article, but the headline says it all. Maybe they will support Rudd after all.
The Tele’s interpretation of Trioli’s departure is completely different from the SMH’s version, the Tele being far more critical of her ‘failure’ as a broadcaster.
And the SMH is doing its best to bury sorrygate. What’s going on?
Don’t feed the liberal trolls. Best to just ignore them and talk about interesting stuff. I don’t bother even reading Glen’s posts. Too predictable and too boring.
Ok, here is my story from the front lines here in Liverpool, NSW this morning.
I stopped at the local Westfield on my way home from the gym to get a take away salad for lunch. I remarked to the lady who was preparing my salad that I “wanted to get home before the cricket started at 11am”. She said “oh, so you are a cricket tragic then?” and I said, yes, pretty much. Then I added that the only thing more interesting than the cricket at the moment was the Federal Election. She looked at me in all innocence and said “oh, when is that?”. I didn’t want to be rude and put my best “you’re kidding?? right??” face on. She wasn’t offended and took the look the way I meant it and told me “I work all the time and I don’t read papers or watch TV so I had no idea”. I caught my breath and told her it was on Saturday 24th November. Then she said to me “well, you seem like you know all about it, who should I vote for?” [I thought to myself, "you BEAUTY" and realized I probably wouldn't get a chance like this again]. I also remembered the KISS principle [Keep It Simple Stupid] and told her this. “Vote for your Labor candidate so that Kevin Rudd gets in as PM. Howard and the Libs have simply been there TOO long.” She said to me as she gave me my change “That sounds to me, thanks
”
If she was on the level, I got one more onto the ship today
:):)
Perhaps we could institute a “Tony Snow Award”, for the journalist making the greatest cnotribution to the continuation of right wing government. Do I hear any nominations?
We could put up an online poll and allow people to vote for their favourite. Given the intellectual stature of most of the potential recipients, an Oxford Dictionary (Student edition) would be a good prize.
Why the competition? Shanahan is without peer, with a special mention to Ackerman
275 – I suspect they’re not apologising for spreading paranoia and alarm in the ranks of pseph-bloggers …
279,
that second last line should read “sounds good to me”, sorry about that ……
Has anyone seen that rolling ad for the Greens? “Howard is Gone,” it says. “But who will keep Kevin honest?” Very droll. With senators like Kerry Nettle, Labor must be quaking in its collective boots.
Well said, Denmore @ 238.
That is exactly FK’s problem: she feels an obligation to pontificate or theorize about politics. Unfortunately, her background is as a straight fact gatherer. She has no theoretical grounding in anything to base her comments on. No political science or economics, no real world experience of campaigning, no psephology, no sociology.
So she fills the gap with sweeping, cliched statements, as you say. Usually ones that look at politics through the prism of unhelpful Lakoff-ian metaphors (eg a metaphor of politics as a fight/brawl; a week as being won/lost; parties “having momentum/stalling”)
I for one have long been irritated with the way media privileges *other journalists* with a special knowledge of politics and society. Heck, ABC 702 is a perfect example — every week at least 2 different shows have a “journalists forum” where intellectual titans such as Jennifer Byrne — people who truly have their finger on the pulse of our world — share their important insights. It’s just not in the media playbook, for instance, to ask people who might actually have, oh, I don’t know, studied politics or society or media for a living to give their opinion? People who’ve actually done some research, gathered some evidence to base their opinions on?
Apologies for the rant.
I agree about Fran Kelly’s apparent bias; her silly claim about Howard’s momentum was supported by Lyndal Curtis who has been on the Howard campaign ‘bus’ all week – of course it would look to her like Howard had momentum. Why do we continue to get Kroger, Milne and the ubiquitous and oleagenous Henderson (who seems to deliberately drop his Gs as if imitating some upper class pommie twit) as ‘expert’ commentators on an almost daily basis? I know RN listeners will almost certainly pay her no heed but it buggers up the rest of my day getting annoyed about it.
And then I think about WorkChoices, Nov 24 and the sweet vision of Howard’s resignation speech – oh joy oh joy.
As Michelle Grattan said this morning, the care factor about Latham comments out there in the electorate is zero.
As she said he had his time and failed and the electorate already rejected him, and will not listen to him now. Pointedly Grattan said that the only people who will take any notice are journalists, commentators and politics tragics like us.
Latham has already been scathing towards Rudd before so I can’t see this failry mild criticism having much impact.
Of course Milne said that Latham statement about the fact that there is no affordibility crisis will be a ‘turning point’ in this election (for heavens’ sake, how many turning points we’ve had?) which will favour the coalition.
As someone said, being labelled a conservative by Latham will be seen as a plus, if anything.
270 &274 Yes, Michael and Rates Analyst, seems that another Christmas Nightmare has just fallen into Howard’s lap.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/business/christmas-nightmare-banks-to-up-rates-again/2007/11/09/1194329464130.html
Trioli
Landeryou aparently has a ‘thing’ for her. One of many mentions:
http://andrewlanderyou.blogspot.com/2006/12/fight-fight-nasty-leftistes-slug-it.html
Apparently being called out by a former PM isn’t enough to make you even remotely reconsider your mantra these days.
I see Uhlmann got s mention a little earlier too. Chris, if you’re reading, (and let’s face it if you’re a political journo and you’re not skimming here you’re missing out), I have no problem with attacking and teasing the truth out of ALL pollies, but the intellectual bar needs to be raised just a tad – go watch a few decent barristers if that’s who you want to emulate.
280 Socrates Says: November 9th, 2007 at 11:16 am
Andrew Bolt. He at least has some indication of the hammering that the libs are about to get in about two weeks.
You’ve just trumped me Fagin. Top stuff.
I’m in Hockey’s seat and I can tell you – Mike Bailey is everywhere. I’ve seen him three times in this campaign already. He’s a long horse, but wouldn’t it be great to see the weather man get up!
Johnny Howard is a jerk
Give us back our rights at work
Vote ALP and the light on the hill
Not Johnny Howard and the boys from Brazil
Listening to Frannie’s panel this morning made be wish that they tried harder to get a panel of non-aligned people with something interesting to say, meaningful insights and nothing to spruik.
Problem with that is the Howard style of spin government politicises everyone, you are either for them or against them.
Same problem with Insiders – though I think Megalogensis comes closest to an interesting commentator.
Funny how we don’t hear any ‘internal liberal polling’ leaks anymore?
What does that tell you?
Seajay et al – try news radio in the mornings. Marius Benson is the real thing. And you’ll hear stuff that only another 16 people will hear, so you can be first to spread rumours.
Did Milne really say that Latham’s comments would be a “turning point”?
That does seem very odd.
Latham’s comments were really quite innocuous – surprisingly so. If anything, they feed into Labor’s narrative, not the government’s.
Not much from Labor either. You can draw the same conclusion, but for different reasons.
Milne has had so many turning points he is going round in circles.
The end is in sight for Johnny Rotten.
At the end of the fight he will soon be forgotten
I for one believe that the “rate rise spike” in the polls is tied in with when the letter from the bank, informing the mortgagee that he/she/they have to pay more, arrives in the mail box.
I assume that NAB customers will be getting theirs next week.
299 – very good, Ashley.
On the ‘internal polling’….
I had a chat to a friend of mine who let’s just say is ‘in’ with the ALP campaign. Says all their polling is suggesting victory BUT he says it will be VERY close and somewhere between 76-80 seats rather than the 85+ the polls suggest.
He says their is a great deal of worry about WA (nothing new here) but that they’re not particularly positive about QLD or VIC either. He also mentioned that there is no way that Howard or Turnbull will lose their seats.
I was a little dissapointed to be honest. I’ve been locked into here and possom’s site, hoping for a bloodbath….
With all the Liberal bias from the mainstream media and the ABC I read about on this site. The ALP will lose this election in a landslide!
7 news sydney
lead story
Sorrygate (non apology)
rates rises
cranky old man saying sorry but not apologising
Rodent is fatally flawed here
the end of the rodentcy is nigh
# 303 Yo ho ho Says: November 9th, 2007 at 11:31 am
’twill be a bloodbath, make to mistake.
Yo ho ho – the internal polls you hear about are almost certainly cr#p. They spend much to much on that stuff to let some eejit spruik it to their mates. No-one who’s actually keen to tell you such stuff is going to have access to it.
Maybe Milne thinks this turning point is the one where the Libs REALLY get shafted in the polls. I’m hanging out for a 60:40 sometime soon …
There once was a PM called John
Who was known for his Workchoices con
He promised low rates
‘just vote for me and me mates’
But the people wanted Rudd & Swan
Guys
It won’t be a bloodbath. Labor has never won in a landslide and they won’t this time either.
It will be close – all the reports over the past few weeks that I have read suggest that the key seats are not as optimistic for labor as we’d hope.
I am very nervous about this election – it is not over by a long shot and we may still have John Howard for PM on 25 November.
M
Yes Milne said that it would be a turning point. If anyone is interested the audio is HERE
301 Fagin probably best to read the story in the SMH. re timing of extra payments.
Here we go again: http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/PM-unsure-over-Bennelong-in-opposition/2007/11/09/1194329465912.html
He loves a wedge, even on himself.
sportingbet has labor leading in 15 and dead even on 1 with no loses
Howard has to go because he has become an autocrat…he doesn’t listen and that he didn’t stand down when his party wanted him to shows he has no sense of democracy. He is listening to his more powerful mates Cheney and Bush…..those long visits were not for nothing. But as they have proved in other interventions,they too are out of touch and we here have better sh*t -detectors…..I hope! This time!
As to Crikey, this PB site is much better….informed, rumour and best of all HUMOUR. Lighten’s this ‘amateur’ lurker’s day!
New Nicholson on the non-core apology. This one’s better than usual:
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/opinion/animations/0,25199,22,00.html
If any PB’s who live in North Sydney can get around to Hockey’s office to see this
[from the Get Up organization]
please report back on how it was?
:) thanks 
(sure that it will likely be on the news tonight anyways, but would be nice to have a first hand account)
Agree with Michael. Hope everyone is helping out on election day. BTW guys, keep going on about so and so is hot/goodlooking and I will engage Julie, Jen et al on Tony Abbott’s pecs and that hunk in the National party.
Shanahans at it again, the car firms have come out and denied the truth of this article, there was no letter, they’ve authorised their association do give full denials, in fact one company said they have just signed off on an enterprise bargaining wage deal with their workers to everyone’s satisfaction.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22727906-5013871,00.html
Lindsay voter. Point well made. I’ll keep it to myself. The mad abbotts pecs?? Ewwwww!!!
I’ve decided to tackle the Liberal Party logo as it seems to have disappeared from their website, campaign etc. They must have been working on a new one, just haven’t revealed it yet.
Either way, I thought I’d trump their effort with my own attempt for all those with a love affair with Team Rat.
http://www.aquafruzzl.com/media/images/rattus.jpg
This is what Get Up is doing, sorry I hit send before I put the rest of it in …
“We can now proceed with the second stage of our campaign! This Friday we’ll be in North Sydney to plaster IR Minister Joe Hockey’s office in our massive ‘Know Where We Stand’ post-it notes -”
Lindsay voter, is this some sort of anti-Julie and Jen smear campaign?
The Prime Minister was spouting crazy stuff yesterday, such as a Labor win would increase the divorce rate and reduce the fertility rate. It was on radio yesty but can’t find anything in the papers today.
The Tiser reports that the Libs will use expensive personalized TV advertising to try to hold on to Wakefield and Boothby.
More “accurate” is the expected seat count, averaged across bookies. The 3 bookie expected number of seats was 78.8 as of yesterday lunchtime (courtesy of Simon Jackman’s blog).
We know the punters are being conservative in the seat-by-seat betting. And even so, Labor would still be expected to win 79 seats on average (if we could hypothetically rerun the election multiple times, and the bookies odds were actually and accurate reflection of probabilities).
The expected seat count has been slowly rising the past week. I reckon by the time we get to election day it will be into the mid-80s.
Anyone who believes anything Milne says is a fool. He is nothing more than a Liberal Party hitman pretending to be a journalist.
scaper, i don’t know if anyone has replied to you already re dr karl, but try sydney uni site – he works (?still does) there. last name is kruselnicki. major league dork, but that’s another story.
I heard the new Liberal logo is an ‘L’ shape made by a human hand.
Much of the media bias, though, is really just a reflection of the media’s need to make this into more of a contest for its own selfish reasons.
If you’ve ever worked in the media, you’d know that it’s a big ask every day to fill up all that empty air time or white space. So you are inclined to ‘beat’ stories up, to exagerrate and amplify otherwise inconsequential events (’Latham throws a bombshell’) and to rely on media whore rent-a-quotes (Kroger, Henderson) who would comment on the sun coming up if you asked them to .
For the purposes of your job and to keep the advertisers happy (or in the ABC’s case, the board), you simply can’t run each day with the headline ‘Labor Still On Course for Victory’ because it would cease to be ‘news’ after a day or two.
So you have to create a new narrative every day, or every hour on radio and every minute on the internet and wire services. As it happens, it is the Howard forces who are most willing to feed the voracious media, because they do not have control of the narrative. They must make up a new story every day.
Do you see where this is heading? There is a commonality of interests between the media and the Howard forces to create the illusion that the Liberals are in with a sniff in this election. Both of them need a new story every day.
The fact is that forced to choose between reporting on a drowning man (Howard) or the sunbaker (Rudd), the media will choose the drowning man every time.
Liberal is for the wealthy and mean
Labor is for the Australian dream
Milne has about as much knowledge about politics as Tabitha.
Is Morgan Poll out later today?
BrissyRod you are on fire! Brilliant. Almost LOL in the middle of my quiet open plan office.
Morgan Poll: Anyone know what time its due out?
But even if you choose the drowning person you can make the story interesting & not rely on the daily talking points.
We should have had many discussions on what a re-elected Howard nee Costello ministry would like, but nada.
There are many groups that would give their a5rms for some airtime so I do not completely buy the filling up air line – its just that they use the usual “hacks”.
That Nicholson cartoon raises a good point. If saying “sorry” doesn’t amount to an apology, what harm would come by saying it to indigenous people?
Middleman – usually about 2pm – but the site is hard to get onto until about 4
please, can someone clarify this…
Is Latham still in ALP? Does he still paying party membership fee?
Thanks Michael.
So that would be 1pm up here in Brisbane?
Someone mentioned that PollBludger is much better than Crikey.
That’s because Crikey has to pay its bloggers.
We hate Howard for free.
331 [Is Morgan Poll out later today?]
Yes and Howard is out in just over two weeks time.
Thanks ashley, portland bet has 17 leading and 2 dead even
Maybe the Libs have realised that the ‘L’ logo is similar to the ‘L’ pates they are sticking on pictures of the Labor front benchers … Trying to differentiate themselves perhaps?
Regarding all this talk of landslides, tight contests etc… all I can recall is that the day after the last election I woke up in my back sunroom, upright in my armchair, the remains of a six pack and a bottle of red strewn on the floor, Howard was still PM, and the night before I had passed out before the pizza delivery guy had got there.
That was not a good feeling. I really dont want that again. I’m doing my best to keep my expectations low.
PeterM at 333, I forgot to mention in my drowning man analogy that aside from its insatiable and voracious appetite making the media a sucker for junk news, spin and kite flyers, the industry’s other great appetite is laziness.
You won’t hear much about what a 5th term Howard/Costello would be like, because that requires journalists to actually work, rather than just passively recycle the Liberals’ talking points of the day.
Actually, come to think of it, I’m guilty of that myself, having wasted an entire morning trawling this blog rather than doing what I’m paid to do.
MIddleman – on 2004 I arrived at Heathrow after a 24 hour flight only to receive a text message from a friend, expressing despair. It was not a good start to my holiday.
It was at Heathrow 4 weeks later, when I was returning home, that I discovered on the TV screens around the terminal that George Bush had been re-elected.
Needless to say I avoid heathrow during elections these days.
Judy 318,
regardless of Scamaham’s reporting, present government policy is a death sentence for the car industry. They have all given up trying to make economical cars and put their eggs in the same basket – making large, not very economical cars for some local use and export. We all know local demand for those cars is down. But what peope forget is that with Kyoto entering the “penalty phase” in 2008 for teh signatory countries (whether we sign or not) many of the export markets may dry up as well. They are already making losses, and that would kill most of them. Ford is at least saying they will make the Focus here now. GMH actually did a prototype Commodore Hybrid, but decided not to make it here.
We have gotten very poor value out of the $3bn assistance package. No trully new model cars were developed, just updates of the old ones, and no new efficient engines, which are critical. If it really takes $3bn to save 7000 jobs, then at $428,000 each it would have been chaper to buy every worker a house and tell them to retire! It probably sounds bizarre but I live in Adelaide hope Mitsubishi closes. With the Lonsdale engine plant already closed there are less than 4000 jobs left. In the current market everyone would get a job quickly, especially if mechanically qualified. Others could be retrained. It would also make some prime land available for housing, which the supply-constrained market bady needs. Labor’s policy to support developing a cleaner car locally is a vast improvement.
This straight from simon jackman’s blog, which is pretty great….he collaborates odds from centrebet, sportingbet and portlandbet and turns them into probabilities and whacks them into groovy graphs. It’s updated daily. Today’s analysis:
“ALP Expected Seat Count: 78.85 out of 150 seats. Yesterday: 78.83 out of 150. Computed as the sum of the 3-agency-average seat-by-seat ALP win probabilities.”
Here’s the address sorry… http://jackman.stanford.edu/oz/Aggregate2007/bettingmarkets/index.php
OOps – last message not very clear – the text message was reporting on the 2004 election result, which i didn’t know because i was mid air
Michael, I’m calling Qantas now to ensure there is an embargo on you purchasing ANY international fights.
Dave55
Libs are still on their ‘L’ plates?
Wonder if our friend Bill Leak….
It’s a shame the Mayne-Milne Walkley confrontation didn’t explode into an all in, table-hurling brawl. Then The Poisoned One might have copped a couple on his glass jaw and, while lying semi-conscious in an expanding pool of his own vomit, been forced to have a good hard look at himself. Who am I? What is my life really all about? What is truth? Sophisticated, dispassionate, even-handed political journalism, why is that not valued anymore? I’m not that short am I? And alcohol’s not poison anyway. Who said those mean things? Why don’t people respect me? … Who am I? (… repeat fifty times … until Big Bustling Laurie takes his shirt off, smashes a few heads together, orders the lights be tuned up and everybody p*ss off home).
The Coalition are mad associating themselves with Latham’s comments.
All Rudd has to do is say “I disagree with what Mark says while my opponents seem to agree with him”.
Agreeing with Mark Latham is not a good look in a community that widely regards him as a nut case. (even those of us who voted for him!)
It may be my imagination and I may be speaking too soon but have the anti – union ads left the scene? It’s been a while since I’ve seen one.
Typically Sky News are running a poll on Latham’s comments.
Passthepopcorn,
Thanks…I’ve already established contact and he is on a book launch tour and we will have a chat after the election concerning the project, as I require people of his talent and vision.
If I have to rely on politicians, our grandkids will have no future.
The article quoted by Pancho #312 http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/PM-unsure-over-Bennelong-in-opposition/2007/11/09/1194329465912.html
Had a very interesting quote by JWH
And that’s a good thing for Howard. He rules by exploiting fear and division. I’m looking forward to a leader who will lead by inspiring.
scaper. what project are you referring to?
As far as internal polling is concerned, the only things you can place any trust in are the official polls (once they’ve been interpreted by some pseph you can trust of course) and what the bookies are saying. The polls are saying Labor in a canter, and the bookies are saying Labor in a canter. Seat by seat not so much, but head to head it’s no contest.
We know both internal polling and media commentary are tainted by bias (though I think the media issue is more about creating the perception of a contest, rather than mere spruiking in most cases), so all of that can be taken with a grain of salt.
Everyone around here gets very antsy without a poll to chew on.
351 Inner Westie. Have a look at the Milne/Garrett photo on Mumble’s site.
Can be creatively read many ways.
http://www.mumble.com.au/
Forget that one…just realised that ‘L’ applies to Labor as well!!!
Doh! This election is more nerve-wracking than the last one….driving me to take up smoking!
And whatever happened to the immediate post-war demographic-surely boomers start from 1946?
As polling day approaches, I suspect Howard worries most about telling Janet she has to hand the keys to Kirribilli back. That should be a lot of fun.
Check out the poll done in SA on the senate by political students at a university.It is on the ABC radio website. If the vote goes along with this poll we could see 2lab 2lib 1grn 1xen.
recieved letter and leafletfrom local member (ticehurst)
letter mentions 9 point plan
leaflet mentions only 7 point plan
must be those pesky rate rises
CL de Footscray: I listen to Marius Benson’s interviews every morning. I couldn’t handle not having News Radio with breakfast.
Thanks Nick I will keep an eye on that Jackman site. megan I have been fighting off the smoking cravings in the past week and i’ve been winning. I know where you’re coming from though
George Newhouse’s mother responds to Lucy Turnbull:
You might enjoy this, particularly those of you who have received Lucy’s letter about the man she loves:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLQaKA6n5qo
Et tu, Centaur_007?
Phil Robins @ 323
Yes, I heard that yesterday on radio. Spooky – sounded as though he was, well, drugged? Weird stuff about divorce and fertility rates. Haven’t read or heard anything since, which I find surprising. Maybe his spin doctors convinced the media outlets to can it, pleading that the PM wasn’t himself.
As the great man sung – “You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows…” And we all know the wind is a gale now and where it is blowing…go get him, Mike..
This election is feeling very much for me like the 1992 election did in the US. 12 years of the Republicans, way too long, they had overstayed their welcome. Similar to here now in 2007, all of the polling seemed to point ahead of time to Clinton’s victory. Thus, there was an underlying confidence for those on the left hand side of the political spectrum. I remember watching the returns that year. I was at home, 2 others with me. I was the Democrat voter in the middle of the 3 seater couch and on one side of me, I had a Republican voter and on the other side, someone who voted for the Independent. It was exciting to watch the states come in and one by one, the vast majority of them ticked over for Clinton.
Check out this cartoon (from the afterglow of the Democrats victory in 1992) and imagine it transposed to Kirribili House/The Lodge with John and Jeanette and that it is the Ruddsquad who are coming in to move them out
….
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/oliphant/vc007253.jpg
Middleman,
I call it “The Great Southern Cross Project”
The sponsored web site is being built and it is a national infrastructure and environmental project bigger than anything ever done in the past.
I’m still working to get the logo right.
http://www.greatsoutherncross.org/draft_logo_variations.pdf
“Diogenes Says:
November 9th, 2007 at 9:38 am
On the media, I am going to officially call Rudd a political genius. Think about his relaxing of FOI laws. All the dirt the Rodent has been hiding for 11 years will come out (the laws are retrospective). There will be enough material for the media to report for three years, until the next election. New revelations about Haneef, AWB, Tampa, Hicks, SIEV, WMD… the list goes on. And it helps get Ruperts endorsement. Glen and all you other sad rodent followers, its going to be a LONG LONG DARK WINTER.”
Diogenes – I expect that there will be a flurry of document shredding on the weekend of the 24th the like of which Canberra has never seen before, and hopefully will never see again
Poor Mike. I really do think he’s in beyond his depth.
Before he left the ABC he;d occasionally try and do things other than weather – do a live report to ABC radio from an ABC Open Day, that kind of thing.
Excruciatingly embarrassing. I almost crashed my car recoiling from embarrassment at one particular exchange.
He’s a bit like Tony Eastley at the end of AM on Radio National when he crosses to Fran with some particularly dorky comment.
Go Latham!
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22729233-601,00.html
ed@bennelong @359
The caption: “I can’t pretend I’m happy to see you Glenn. You’re smiling completely the wrong way. So how ’bout a bunch of these to sober you up (you grubby little soak)?”
Not sure if this got mentioned already, plus apologies for rehashing yesterday, but did we all realise we have Mr Shanahan to thank for the whole ’sorry…but not really’ fiasco? Shanahan was the one to ask “Mr Howard, if you’re not responsible for the interest rates rise, why did you apologise for it?” leading to Howard’s fumble.
It sure made me smile (read into it what you will).
Also doesn’t Morgan normally come out at 1pm? So in half an hour or so for you Southerners.
Lathams little entry into the election debate reminds me of the Chaser episode earlier this year…
“I am the ghost of Mark Latham…. I was ahead in the polls too… I filled you all with same false hope Kevin is…. Ease the Squease……”
too funny…
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22729612-12377,00.html
Seems to be hosing down expectations somewhat…
#340 Centaur, I’m pretty sure Portlandbet has ALP ahead in 16, 2 dead-even (which they count as 1 seat apiece), thus the 77-71-2 current headline.
scaper,
interesting…. not sure of your influences etc… but i would love to see someone who is focussed on the environment engage Peter Andrews… micro climate extraordinaire!
FF @ 336:
I believe Latham quit the party shortly after the 2004 election.
Vaile says Latham’s comments show Rudd is plagiarising Coalition policies. Good! He took the bait and endorsed Latham. Otherwise this is a complete yawn.
Apparently virginia trioli has got the flick from abc radio…
374 Sure Rudd will be really happy to see Howardhuggers cheering when Latham calls Rudd a conservative. Think Latham might be having the last laugh here.
Good Grief-Another turning point in the election? First it was the Garrett comments on a post-Kyoto agreement, then it was Garrett again with Price, then the rate rise, now Latham. Is Milne permanently p*ssed these days?
Middle man,
I’m apolitical now as I have to deal with all parties and to be effective I can’t side with any.
But I know for the benefit of the nation a change of government is most important, and if does not ensue, our social fabric and all the values that Australians hold close to their heart will be lost.
This is the most important election of our history.
Rudd will be thanking Latham for his blessing – it certainly can’t hurt. But listening to Rudd on Adelaide local ABC this morning l was struck by the way he came across – he sounded like he wasn’t really listening to the questions and he was quite verbose at moments when a clear simple message would have cut through more more effectively. If he wants to capitalise on the Duck being “out of touch” he will have to work on his presentation. A few colloquialisms scattered in a sea of wonk-speak do not a man of the people make. Just MHO..
Breaking news on SMH website:
What? Has internal polling shown that the mob IS after Howard? Alas, it’s referring to a bat virus.
scaper – good to see you’re remaining apolitical
Latham must live in a different world because housing prices where I come from have gone through the ‘roof’.
Milne should do himself a favour and drop Costello for Turnbull – at least he knows Turnbull won’t be too scared to go for the job.
I think we should not be refering to some of these people as journalists out of respect to real journalists – better to call them party reporters.
I wouldn’t be worrying too much about Morgan. I had a look at their 2004 effort near election time – you don’t want to get mislead like that this time.
Shiftaling
I agree – same with the Lateline interview last night
Sky news are recycling an AC Nielson poll giving a demographic breakdown by age, published last week by Fairfax. They claim it as the top election story of the day and that it was last updated sometime after 11 EST. I guess its just a slow news day with all the pundits hanging out for a post interest rate rise poll.
Scaper. I hear you mate. I’ve long wanted to be involved but finding a party that matches my sensibilties is quite tough. It’s certainly not teh Libs, and Labor is just a bit too hamstrung by its traditions. The Dems… well maybe if they actually truly existed.
Does anyone know how big the sample is on Roy Morgans “My Electorate” site for each electorate. I live in McPherson on the Gold Coast which is classified as very safe Liberal. I think the margin from 2004 is about 15%. Morgans site is showing TPP for Labor as 61%. It is held by Margaret May who is useless and her opposition is Eddy Saroff, a well known and liked GCC councillor. I just joined Sportingbet and got $3.50 for Saroff, plus $100 free bet which I plonked on Maxine in Bennelong @ $2.75. Whoopee, here comes the tidal wave to sweep the Rodent to a watery end, and we haven’t even begun on his plans for 26 nuclear reactors yet.
388 Has the Minister for horseflu stuffed up again?
BF – ignore it. You’ll only be disappointed.
Steve @ 384
Latham’s doing Rudd’s work for him. A conservative! How Rudd must detest being called that (and by someone who everyone knows isn’t trying to do Rudd any favours).
Morgan 56-44
http://www.roymorgan.com/news/polls/2007/4237
Latham is a dog. To say what he said when the election is going into the final two weeks, is a deliberate attempt to sabotage the ALP campaign.
There have been many other ALP leaders that have failed – Hayden, Beazley, Crean etc. But none have stooped as low as Latham. He deserves to be the reclusive pariah he is today.
Today should have been about Howards non apology, but frikkin Latham has turned it into an issue of why vote for Labor when they are the same as the Libs.
Morgan for real!
Telephone Morgan Poll: ALP Lead By 12% In Wake Of Interest Rate Rise – ALP 56%, L-NP 44%
http://www.roymorgan.com/news/polls/2007/4237/
Scotty – is that up or down?
Can anyone elucidate why they reckon that there would be numerous undecided (or Morgan”s mythical “soft Labor”) voters who’ll give a rat’s arse what Latham has to say about Rudd?
Mark is widely, if unfairly, perceived as the Ben Cousins of politics, a huge waste of the natural gifts which he once possessed.
Well that makes me feel a lot better – even if it is a Morgan.
Morgan headline is up:
Telephone Morgan Poll: ALP Lead By 12% In Wake Of Interest Rate Rise – ALP 56%, L-NP 44%
This series had labor at 54.5 last time around.
365 Shanghai Surprise, that was hilarious.
150 – 200, i.e. margins of error of 7 or 8%
Clarence @392
Those poll findings were actually reported in the SMH online this morning but it does not mention if it was new data or old?
Yawn. If the election ends up being any less than 53-47 I’ll be surprised.
Sample size of 552 sounds useless to me
The first Morgan Poll since this week’s interest rate rise (interviewing conducted November 7/8) finds the ALP has a 12% lead on a two-party preferred basis: ALP 56% (up 1.5% since the last telephone Morgan Poll on October 24/25), L-NP 44% (down 1.5%).
The ALP would win in a landslide if the Federal election were to be held now, the latest telephone Morgan Poll finds.
The Coalition’s primary vote is 39% (down 2%), while Labor’s primary vote is 44.5% (up 0.5%).
Among the minor parties: Greens 10.5% (unchanged); Democrats 2% (up 0.5%); Family First 1.5% (up 0.5%); One Nation 1% (up 0.5%); and Independent/Other candidates 1.5% (unchanged).
A majority of electors (58.5%, down 5%) think the ALP will win the next Federal election, while (28.5%, up 1.5%) think the L-NP will win and 13% (up 3.5%) can’t say.
Now, 55.5% (down 8%) think Australia is heading in the “right direction”, while 31% (up 3%) think Australia is heading in the “wrong direction” — 13.5% (up 5%) are undecided.
Currently, 19% (down 4%) of all electors say Australia is “heading in the right direction” yet say they would vote Labor if an election were held today. The Morgan Poll considers these electors to be “Soft ALP voters” and believe they are the key to the Federal election.
These are the main findings of a Roy Morgan telephone survey conducted November 7/8, 2007, with 552 Australian electors.
Of all electors surveyed, 3.5% did not name a party.
Electors were asked: “If a Federal election for the House of Representatives were being held today – which party would receive your first preference?”
Morgan. Ho-hum.
Well, we all have to take Morgan with a grain of salt imo, but it has sometimes shown up as a start of a trend in the other polls.
Are we expecting a Neilsen tonight/ tomorrow?
Nothing to do with the topic! I see a huge future for the Greens in coming state and federal elections. There will be a significant increase in our vote in 2007 and when climate change starts to hit hard it will propel the greens into lower house seats both federally and state. Sadly it takes something that will impact dramatically on all our lives for this to happen.
The Advertiser polls more than 500 for their individual seat polls !
I think it’s safe to assume that the primary split is solid at 45 to 40.
Labor has done what it had to do, which is put a “4″ in from of its primary vote.
Deo – Latham is gold for the ALP. Howard’s non-apology is still running along nicely and all Latham will do is remind us that Rudd is a long way away from him. Rudd wants to look like Howard, except for certain bits, which he chooses.
In moments of stress, chant this useful mantra:
Howard’s gone, it’s all over. Howard’s gone, it’s all over. (repeat as many time as required to achieve inner harmony).
Ooh – I made the cardinal sin of not checking sample size!!!
Pretty useless isn’t it?
Another rate hike
But Howard is not sorry
See my one finger
MoE on sample of 522 about 4.3
Yes, but the Labor primary at 44.5 seems low?
Coalition on39!
Good news but yes I know it is Morgan!!! Still good news – still ahead!!!!!!!!!
Morgan is very disappointing and very worrying.
I was hoping for 63-37.
Morgan proves the gap is narrowing (even though it doesn’t actually show that); that the Coalition’s campaign is now firmly on message; that the Garrett gaffe was hugely significant; that voters believe that the Coalition are superior economic managers; that Labor’s swing is p in all the wrong seats; that the betting markets are all wrong; that Howard will pull a rabbit out of his hat; and that Joe Hockey isn’t nearly as fat and ugly as he looks.
Oh dear, oh me, oh my.
This poll is a joke.. Sample size too damn small. But at least it is still positive for the Reds
Julie:
That cartoon reminds why I can’t stand Mark Knight in the Herald-Sun: Knight’s little figure making a sotto voce remark at the end of each strip is a blatant rip-off from a funnier, more incisive counterpart – but because Pat Oliphant’s work never appears in Australia this fact is never picked up.
Incidentally, Oliphant was born in Adelaide!
Middle man,
There are so many people in your position out there of talent and passion for this nation, there is certainly enough room for a new political force.
But then again, if the predictions here are on the high side concerning seats lost by the coalition, there is every chance that the party can be refashioned into a viable alternative in the future.
Time will tell.
“IT’S ONLY A MORGA’n’ POLL (BUT I LIKE IT)”
Sample size of 552? Roy needs to pull his socks up and his finger out if he wants his data taken seriously.
He can’t say sorry.
Must be a defective gene.
Vote for someone else.
My little chant goes
Good bye Johnny
Good John
Johnny you are gone.
There is a tune, but not sure what it is.
I find myself singing it at quite inappropriate moments. I think an increasing number of people think I’m mad.
CL de Footscray Says:
Rudd wants to look like Howard, except for certain bits, which he chooses.
So Howard must be doing something right if the ALP needs to use a Howard type leader. Its not about doing the best for the people anymore it is just the grab for power and screw the disadvantaged. The election result will make no difference in Kingston and funnily enough the YR@W group will be continuing long after a win by either party
Spiros – (i) this is a Morgan Poll; (ii) the sample size is 522 – see #418; (iii) it has the Greens on more than 10% – unlikley; (iv) it shows an increase in ALP primary.
Do not be alarmed. All is well. The evidence is with us …
That’s it ladies and gentleman (oh, yes ’sorry’, and troll!), so much for Howard’s momentum…it’s all DOWNWARDS!
Now, Kev just has to get some rest, stay alert, smile a bit and enjoy his final lap to the Lodge.
The Rodent is about to get battered by his very own cheer squad: the “Howard Batterers”
In fairness Knight did have one good cartoon just after the 2004 election. It depicted Howard power-walking in tracksuit, relentlessly marching over mountains, through raging torrents, walls, minefields etc.
It crystallized my despair perfectly. Hopefully his batteries have nearly run down for good.
420 Spiros Touche re 429
CL de Foots-a-crie @429
I was kidding.
Megan, the Boomer demographic did begin in 1946. I am one of the early ones myself. And there are many, many of us over 55 and still believe in the values of the left. We were radicalised during the Vietnam era, and while we have mellowed, we have not changed to the dark side. Incidentally if you think that 11 years of arid Howard conservatism is bad, I was 23 before I experienced a Labor government. The election parties of 2 Dec 1972 were some celebration! I look forward to a similar experience on November 24.
Howard’s spooky stuff about divorce and fertility rates was replayed on Radio National’s The Word Today during a discussion with Peter Beattie and M Kroger. Beattie said it was sad, desperate. Kroger said it was fair enough for Howard to stand on his record, or something. It was a speech Howard gave in Melbourne.
passthepopcorn:
Last night in relation to this you asked if I felt a bit sad for the ageing Rodent. After due consideration, I replied (but it was lost during the glitches) …
“Er, no. Normally, I would extend sympathy and compassion, but this is a particularly virulent creature that has been stalking the populace for years, wreaking untold damage – a Rogue Rodent, in fact. In a situation such as this, there is but one option … a Mr Rudd, from the tropics, has been engaged by the villagers to do the deed. We wish him all the best in this endeavour.”
so no farce to farce polling… erm face to face polling ?
scaper. if the libs are refashioned it will probably be by the religious right. The young Libs are infested.
start afresh if you want a new force. there’s too much history in both parties.
Seems to me Morgan phone polls are artificially inflating the green vote, and taking it directly from Labor primary.
Their past 3 phone polls have put the Labor primary on an average of 44.5.
Meanwhile their past 3 face-to-face polls have Labor primary on 48.5.
If you look at the Lib primary vote it is pretty much the same for each of those 6 polls… around 39.5.
The “drop” in the Labor primary when they do a phone poll is matched by a corresponding increase in the Green primary vote. I suspect this is a sampling issue.
It’s the same reason why Howard adopted nearly all of Keating’s policies in 1996, including Medicare and Superannuation, which he had repeatedly voted against in parliament.
This is nothing new.
Rudd knows he can’t do the best for the people unless he has power.
Only the impotent remain pure…
Attention everyone, it’s not the size of the sample, it’s the direction of the swing!
All the other polls, and especially the venerable ACN will show the same thing.
In other words, Howard’s finished. Hoist on his own petard, shafted on his own glib non-core promise, and choked on his own inability to say that little word starting with ’s’.
Abbott said it better: “Sh!t happens”, yeah, like rate hikes in your election campaign!
Kindly Workchoices
To stop my wage from rising
Why am I not pleased?
Middle man,
You are most probably right.
A new party it is.
Be back later.
bill weller – as you may know, the Australian electorate is very conservative. however the evidence suggests that while they are comfortable with a particular style of government (predisposed towards the interests of capital, while acknowledging the rights of workers and the need for socially progresive programs like Medicare) they have become very unhappy with the execution of this style by the incumbent. Rudd would not win by advocating the overthrow of capitalism, which in any event is not a position he has ever supported. He has a good chance to win by maintaining key postions on economic management, but emphasising economically responsible, socially progressive and redistributive policies that Howard has ignored, neglected, or simply f@#ked up. So when he wants to be like Howard, he wants to adopt the broad Australian psotion on matters economic. He has, however, differentiated himself and labor on many fronts where it is clear that the electorate has grown most tired of the rat.
Here endeth the leson.
422,
If Oliphant is an Aussie by birth and works/lives in the USA; he went the WRONG way.
I’ve done the opposite and I will tell you, no one is perfect but we are much better off here.
I was searching actually for something else and stumbled upon that, the “chickens coming home to roost” line reminded me of the way that Howard is being treated now and will be in the short term future lol ………
HOWARD PRESS CONFERENCE ON SKY:
As a neutural watcher, I am getting the feeling that Howard is nearly fatally misreading the public mood.
When you compare concurrent Morgan phone polls their is no significant change, a very marginal change towards “headed in the wrong direction”. I think it will take a little more time for the interest rate rise to sink in and you need some good qualitative polling in mortgage belt seats to pick up any movement. Anyhow so much for the mythical narrowing. I like to think of “the narrowing” as a mythical beast killed of by climate change and hubris.
One thing the Morgan shows in the phone polls and the F2F is that the LNP are not moving and the ALP firm.
Is today a Happy John or Grumpy John day? It seems to depend on what side of bed he got out of.
Spiros
sorry, have lost sense of humour in struggle with los panickos …. in future will read ALL of posts before responding …
Ashley 438,
Good analysis.. In total agreement… I really expect more from Roy. I always rated his polling in previous elections. Now his polling seems to be a bit off.
ACNeilsen gets my vote these days and Galaxy to a lesser extent. Newspoll will always has my sceptism due to its alignment to the Howard Cheerleading Association aka News Limited.
This is the third telephone poll Morgan has done since mid october and all of them have the ALP primary at 44 to 45%. The much larger face to face polls on the other hand have consistently shown Labor’s primary at 47%+. Morgan himself has said in the past that his telephone polls tend to understate the ALP vote and this seems to be further evidence of that.
So all in all, I believe there is reason for optimism from these figures, even if Morgan is not our favourite pollster.
LOL – News.com.au’s – ‘Woman knocked out at Howard walkabout’
The Libs last bastion of hope is economic management. It is a myth that has been perpetuated throughout all the past elections. Now Howard is destroying this myth with his policies. If the Libs lose this election, its hard to see them coming back in the foreseeable future.
Haiku time!
morgan start the trend
widening from now to end
john cry kevin smile
dome arigato!
I wonder if roy is bring out the f2f today as well
Scaper:
Could this be the mysterious ‘project’?
Been out letterboxing –
not a Sophie Mirrabella to be seem.
(A Blessed relief .)
But Green triangles starting to pop up…
Not to mention, most Liberal policies are aimed at the over 55’s, which is the Liberals main area of support. The youngsters and next generation are firmly against Howard, and it will take the Liberals decades to recover.
Howard’s legacy – the destruction of the Liberal party.
WTF is this?
… a 29-year-old man was spoken to by police after he declined to shake the Prime Minister’s hand.
The man, identified only as Alex, put his hand out as Mr Howard approached him but then whipped his hand away.
“I’m not a fan,” he said later.
Alex was spoken to by police before being allowed to leave.
Woman knocked out at Howard walkabout
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22729946-12377,00.html
I thought the PM may be heading this way today and was hoping it would be later this arvo when I’m in the Plaza.
We must live in a police state.
ALP still lead
Make me proud, fellow Aussies
Evict the rodent
Nice #454. I’ve got another:
Howard’s on the wane
Rudd will win in two weeks time
I smell Liberal blood.
CRIMES ACT 1914 – SECT 24AA
Treachery
(1) A person shall not:
(a) do any act or thing with intent:
(i) to overthrow the Constitution of the Commonwealth by revolution or sabotage; or
(ii) to overthrow by force or violence the established government of the Commonwealth, of a State or of a proclaimed country; or
(b) refuse to shake a prime minister’s hand.
The Morgan 2PP phone poll that distributes preferences acording to 2004 tflow shows1.5% swing to Labor, the poll that allocates preferences according to the stated intention show no shift.
Sigh, within MOE
I hope there is TV vision of this lady crying at the shopping plaza with Howard close by. Pure gold for Rudd.
BTW i noticed that the labor strategist Hawker (of hawker britton) used the phrase ‘non-core apology’ on Sky News Agenda this morning. Maybe the parties are watching Pollbludger a bit closer than we think!
There is no votes in a woman falling over for god’s sake. The poor woman fell over and hurt herself.
Rudd had a cold yesterday, probably why he was a bit off the pace last night and this morning. Don’t panic.
Wow. 470 posts about nothing…
Daniel B – yep, that’s a seinfeld election campaign for you
… and people thought Facebook was costing the economy productivity!
Why on earth was that guy questioned by police for not shaking Howard’s hand?
Have the police become Howard’s campaign managers?
Michael 468,
the vision/story will just play into the current view that everything is in disarray on the coalition campaign, therefore votes will be affected
Nothing on ABC news bulletin about Howard pressgang incident.
Lindsay Voter, the rest of that news report was even funnier:
“Earlier, a 29-year-old man was spoken to by police after he declined to shake the Prime Minister’s hand.
The man, identified only as Alex, put his hand out as Mr Howard approached him but then whipped his hand away.
“I’m not a fan,” he said later.
Alex was spoken to by police before being allowed to leave. ”
On the woman knockout – it’s John Howard’s “Latham handshake”
Am I to take it that Johnny knocked the woman over? Or did she just fall over on her own?
Possibly got knocked over by a security guard.
If you spy a rat
Ensure that you shake his paw
Or straight to gaol.
I believe she was knocked by the ensuing frenzy of the Rodent’s presence at the shops, therefore, as far as I’m concerned, he caused it.
“Why on earth was that guy questioned by police for not shaking Howard’s hand?
Have the police become Howard’s campaign managers?”
ShowsOn, beautiful, isn’t it – makes Howard look like a dictator. Gold!
Surely if Howard knocked her over he would’ve said “sorry”. I don’t mean he would’ve apologised, he just would’ve said “sorry”.
Was Howard wearing a blue singlet when it happened
The limerick’s an art form complex
Good scansion is better than sex
Please meter your verses
of John Howard curses
And don’t f#ck them up with lines that don’t fit, okay?
See if Labor HQ was switched on, they would be demanding Howard respond to the News Ltd report that police questioned someone for no other reason than he didn’t want to shake Howard’s hand.
This is another opportunity to make Howard look desperate, and make him spend time responding to things that he hopes people ignore.
The interesting take from RN was Kroger saying “its whether the swing is in safe Lib and Lab seats and the marginals can just hold on” To me that can be read that the swing is on and the only hope left is that it will not be where it counts. Normally Kroger just spins everything as pos for the libs and makes no concessions
The woman in question was a UNION BOSS. So no apology required.
Good news from Morgan. May be a Nielson online tomorrow, otherwise have to wait until Mon night for Newspoll.
Morgan was doing face to face polling in Deception Bay last weekend so maybe that will come out later this afternoon.
Yes Michael not only did he knock her over, he refused to say sorry or apologise and then he went and kicked her dog! What a rotter.
ShowsOn, 482 was a brilliant response,
Yes it feeds into his sorrygate stance perfectly – he is sorry that it happened, but he won’t apologise for it happening, as he didn’t personal knock her.
ShowsOn he probably said something that wasn’t reported
Well it is good that Kroger has finally moved on, and now accepts that there is a swing.
god it is a slow news day… the abc are still leading with the latham stuff
ShowsOn, there is literally an ARMY of people on this blog (and others) that the Labor party could take advantage of – we are all very switched on here and could react instantly to help with their campaign efforts. Agree with you on this opportunity (and many others). I hope Labor staffers are reading….
And so what if he did? Do you live in Melbourne, Victoria, or is Melbourne also a city in Burma?
you know Morgan is irrelevant when we here at PB are bored out of our minds and his polls are almost completely ignored lol.
i really think ACN has been the only credible poll throughout the campaign.
492 [ShowsOn he probably said something that wasn’t reported]
Like when is the next poll out loser?
Oh FFS! This site is rabid today. A woman falling over is not going to win a single vote, however labor plays it.
The 29y/o who refused to shake howard’s hand – well, it’s humerous, and no doubt the chaser will play it next week – but nothing labor does will convert it into more votes.
Apropos of nothing (v. much a slow news day comment) can anyone tell me why the Rattus is anti-capital punishment? Its always kinda surprised me. He’s otherwise so quick to push all the right-wing, populist, moral-panic, be-afraid buttons.