This fortnight’s Newspoll shows Labor’s two-party lead unchanged on 56-44. Kevin Rudd’s approval rating is down three points to 62 per cent, while Brendan Nelson’s is up two to 16 per cent.
The weekly Essential Research survey has Labor retaining its 59-41 lead. Peter Costello is rated best person to lead the Liberals by 26 per cent against 13 per cent for Malcolm Turnbull, 8 per cent for Julie Bishop and 7 per cent for Brendan Nelson. However, Kevin Rudd is preferred to Peter Costello head-to-head 53 per cent to 27 per cent.
916 Comments
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ESJ
Didn’t we enter “winter” the day the Twin Towers came down on the Kondratieff cycle?
There’s a similar theory I am more familiar with called the Holling adaptive cycle (panarchy theory), which was developed to model ecosystems but has been adapted more widely. It looks at the relationship between resilience, connectedness and potential in any adaptive system. We’re in a high connectedness, decreasing resilience phase which will lead to some form of collapse. But we’ll bounce back.
Boerwar, as someone who visits Thailand and knows a lot of people there, I totally agree. I don’t think much of Thaksin or Samak, but the people elected them and they have both been forced out by the Bangkok elite and the Palace camarilla. Thailand is headed for a very nasty smash unless the elites learn to live with real democracy rather than the fake one they’ve profited from for so long.
They don’t pray for rain in Alaska, they pray for a gusher!
I know this is a very robust site and the range of views expressed is very diverse, but I honestly didn’t think I would ever see any pensioner bashing on it.
To those who think existing on $270 a week is acceptable for our senior citizens in a country as rich as Australia, I can only say you are not my kind of people. And no doubt I am not your’s either – thank God.
(and no, I am not a pensioner myself).
No 494
I did not link to the article to which you refer.
Boerwar & AIC, they dont quite understand the principle behind “The Rule of Law”
Darn
i might add a high proportion of those pensioners risked there lives so people here had th freedom to bash them …I say a high proporiton cause mosat of th rest ar in war graves around th world
No 504
I’m sick to death of people complaining about the pension rates. It doesn’t matter how high it is, there will always be some person complaining how low it is. The pension is there to provide for the bare essentials of survival, like any other government benefit. If that’s not enough, get a job or take responsibility for the fact that you spent your whole life spending.
Thaksin was done in by the King and the King’s life long friend and adviser General Prem who has been for a long while the Onka-mon-tri [Privy Counsellor]. Thaksin’s problem was his great popularity with country folk [hitherto the prerogative of the King] and his actually beginning the clean up of corruption that cut right across some palace income as well as some police and military income, in milk as one example. The last straw was a FTA Thaksin was negotiating with Japan. Soon as the King and Prem were against Thaksin he had no chance – the courts would make sure of it.
But back on topic.
Howard govt ministers with more than a decade in power should have a wealth of experience, talent and corporate knowledge with which to keep the government honest. Yet you would not know it now they are in opposition. Were they all so lazy that they learned nothing?
Just Me @ 494
I had a look at the link you provided. Good stuff but a bit depressing when you think of what the OO refuses to publish. So much for fact, balance and nuance.
507 – high proportion might be stretching it a bit – a 65 year old was born in 1943…
GP,
Cool.
As long as we can cache that comment and pull it out closer to an election.
Your Liberal friends will thank you profusely.
she lost a bet
McCain is now $2.40 on Betfair – the cheapest he has been.
Centrebet has the ALP @ $1.50 to win in the ACT. Libs @ $2.50
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/09/09/2360097.htm
An interesting take by Phillip Adams.
{Should McCain become president, Palin will certainly succeed him, perhaps during the inauguration. The bitterly cold weather in Washington in January will probably be the death of him, but they are conditions for which his VP is perfectly adapted. (As a television comic pointed out, Palin is pro-life and he’s fighting for life.) Should McCain survive the ceremony, natural causes will get him within weeks and we’ll be stuck with an ultra-carnivorous, gun-wielding, evolution-denying, fundamentalist dominatrix who lacks the most necessary attribute for the high office. No, not foreign affairs experience: as her boosters point out, Alaska is next door to Russia, so she’s got that covered. I fear she lacks the all-important qualification: McCain’s hatred of George W. Bush.}
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24315165-7583,00.html
No 512
It’s not mean spirited, as you appear to be insinuating; it is just simple fact.
516 – that would be what most Republican’s are hoping.
No 516
Phillip Adams is the worst excuse for a journalist that I ever had the displeasure of reading.
GP (508)
I’m sure the pensioners are really concerned about the distress their suffering is causing you.
Palin is simply Dubya in drag
GP,
If it is not mean spirited, what is it?
GP I don’t think he ever claims to be a journo. (unlike say Albrechtsen)
Us men are so shallow. The Repugs Palin-lead bounce in the polls hasn’t been due to her getting the Hillary vote. It’s been men who have been allured by her charms.
A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey out Tuesday morning indicates that 62 percent of men questioned have a favorable opinion of the Alaska governor, nine points higher than women.
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/09/09/poll-women-and-men-dont-see-eye-to-eye-on-palin/
GP (519)
Seeing you give him such a good wrap-up, I must make a point of reading his articles more often.
Thomas Paine and Adam in Canberra
Interesting additional details you have provided. While some of the transitions are anti-democratic, they are generally (but not always) bloodless – as I realized when warned off one of the lifts in Thammasat University in Bangkok. (Some students had been murdered in it in a previous pro-democracy violence and their spirits were held to be still in the vicinity).
It appears to me less certain that future transitions will be managed without bloodshed when the current King passes away.
505
Generic Person
My apology. Been a long day.
{their spirits were held to be still in the vicinity.}
I think Howard’s spirit is haunting the corridors and joint party rooms of the Coalition.
good night all
#524 – Diog, [It’s been men who have been allured by her charms] – so, in the immortal words of Sam Newman, is she worthy of coming on?
Diogs,
She’s a spunk.
You have a problem with that?
Generic Person @ 508. I do apologise for my antagonism last night. And I didn’t follow through in relation to suicide being for dolts and cowards. Tonight, it seems to be pensioners who are in your sights. Why on earth do you think sinking the boot into the poor and the sick is such a crash hot electoral turn on?
Why doesn’t phillip do a take on experience ..oiliness with community centre experience , like in ‘oz’ that would maybe qualify to give out HTV cards no higher , or perhaps about Rezko …or maybe oiliness other mate th worst terorist in US history…perhaps I should enlighten posters about th bomb man…seeing oiliness suporters here seem abit embarrased to quote th matter
[She’s a spunk] GG – i wouldn’t go that far
No 527
Apology humbly accepted.
No 532
On reflection my suicide comments were out of line. Apologies for any offence caused.
On pensioners however, I stand by my comments. It is simply irresponsible to expect the Government to pick up the tab for your lifestyle once you retire.
Finns,
This could be your “Summer of 42″ moment.
TP @ 509
“Howard govt ministers with more than a decade in power should have a wealth of experience, talent and corporate knowledge with which to keep the government honest. Yet you would not know it now they are in opposition. Were they all so lazy that they learned nothing?”
It’s an interesting point. As a Liberal I would be the first to admit that the Opposition’s performance has been very poor. Interestingly enough the best effort (IMO) has been from Greg Hunt, one of the (if not the) least experienced of actual Govt out of the lot of them. Turnbull – another one with fairly limited Ministerial experience – started off ok, too, till he began trying to parse Treasurer Swan’s every sentence to see if he could frame him on a charge of talking down the economy.
I think a key point is: Opposition is hard, and it is very different to governing. When confronted with someone as moderate and (Labor folk please don’t take offence) as personally boring as Rudd, it is simply not a plausible strategy to oppose everything and pretend that he is evil – yet that seems to be the tack being taken by the Libs. The public just won’t cop argument for the sake of argument anymore.
On the budget, the Libs should have tried to amend the Medicare threshold change to something more gradual that would have tested the public system less.
The rest of the budget (incl FuelWatch) – the Libs should have let it all through, said this is a new Govt still on training wheels so we’ll give them a fair go, all the while pointing out that the measures were half-baked and petty. Which the public would have come to realise was the case.
You sure can talk some crap Ron
re pensioner-bashing: as I pointed out earlier, increasing the age pension by $10 a week will cost more than $1bn a year, rising each year as the proportion of aged in the community increases. Humanitarians, how is this to be paid for? Are you willing to pay the extra taxes?
very good points dyno
539, Adam stop pointing out there are no easy answers!!!
And how bad is the media at the minute – has the “could you afford to live on the pension” become the “how much does a litre of milk cost” quesiton of 2008?
Cheers Grog
Phillip Adams is a moron.
“Several blogs and publications have recently attempted to calculate the odds that John McCain will live another four or eight years, bringing an actuary’s dispassion to the delicate subject of the Republican nominee’s age. Based on the Social Security Administration’s life expectancy tables, the Times Online concluded that McCain will live another 13 years, while a Daily Kos diarist calculated that McCain’s odds of dying naturally during his first term were 15 percent. His odds of not surviving two terms were nearly 1-in-3. Politico arrived at similar figures.”
Adam @ 539,
I take it you are saying a lower surplus is not an option?
The pensioners will have nothing to worry about from tomorrow after they fire up the “atlas” atom smasher
No 537
The public already realise that the Fuelwatch scheme is a waste of time. It has been almost universally panned, notwithstand that contemptuous dolt running the ACCC.
Goodness, Generic Person, thank you for your response. I’ll return later for more conversation. Nite all.
Dario
your oroblem is you can not handle opublished facts on Obama , so you give pathetic one liners , meaning nothing , stop being lazy , check out th bomb man
Boerwar 459
I felt the same as you after seeing that Salvation Army Major campaigning with the Rodent up Kings cross some time before the 2004 election, They were on the news together everynight. Just SAY No was the message, no to safe shooting up rooms, no to needle exchanges, no to heroin trials no to any program to help people get off drugs. cold turkey was the policy. They tried to stir up hatred against the drug addicted just the same as Rodent did against Aboriginals (remember the mabo election— they’ll put land claims on your back yards and you’ll all lose your houses) and the race hate campaigns “We’ll say who come’s here” The salvos were almost portrayed as a lib party branch.
G Growler my dad was a Rat of tobruk and he had more respect for the salvos than just about anyone. I always felt the same until this major sold out to the dark side. Everytime I put a coin in the tin I’d wonder what % was going into the Fibs reelection campaign!
His name was Major Brian Watters
Found him in this speech given by Julia Gillard in 2003.
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/03/12/1047431094441.html
“Alongside the domination and intimidation of Australia’s media by the Howard Government there has been a ruthless stacking of public bodies.
Take the following stark examples: “capital C” conservatives such as Ian Callinan and Dyson Heydon have been appointed to the High Court; 13 of the 15 Howard appointments to the Industrial Relations Commission have been from employer backgrounds; the ABC board has been inundated with Howard’s hacks; in the welfare field, the extremely conservative Major Brian Watters from the Salvation Army (a man who believes in zero tolerance towards alcohol) was appointed as chairman of the Australian National Council on Drugs; merit selection processes were bypassed to allow the appointment of new censors at the Office of Film and Literature Classification; conservation bodies such as the Australian Heritage Commission, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority and the Australian Landcare Council are now headed by former Coalition MPs or Coalition insiders.”
No 543
Hear, hear.
His bile is completely intolerable. And the Left have the gall to criticise Janet Albrechtsen – a shining beacon of brilliance by comparison.
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