For a former fully paid-up member of the Greenhouse Mafia, Ian “Chainsaw” Macfarlane has come a damn long way. To see him admitting on 4 Corners last night that he had changed his views about the role of humans in climate change was semi-gobsmacking. Here was one of the principal figures in the Howard Government’s efforts to deny, delay and derail action on climate change lamenting the difficulties of getting a deal on Labor’s CPRS through his own partyroom, at one stage declaring he wasn’t sure whether Penny Wong or his own party was the more difficult interlocutor on the issue. Macfarlane’s trajectory goes even further than that of Andrew Robb, another former “sceptic” who threw himself into carbon trading issues when Malcolm Turnbull made him his point man on the ETS after becoming leader.
Bacevic bitch? Colebatch, natch.
Hal GP Colebatch (as opposed to Hal ‘urologist’ Colebatch) has a piece in the Oz op-ed about the split in US conservatism. He’s particularly exercised by a mag called The American Conservative, home of the ‘paleo-conservatives’, founded by former Reagan communications director Pat Buchanan after the pro-war neocons drove the anti-war paleo-cons out of the National Review during the Iraq war buildup.
Many of Colebatch’s charges against the AmCon are fair enough – it is nativist, anti-immigrant, teeters on and sometimes falls into, anti-semitism.
Who would hang around with such people? Step forward Tom Switzer…
How the moral have fallen
I had a piece in Crikey on Thursday about the Lisbon treaty, which is all set to come into force, but I wouldn’t want to let the occasion pass without a comment on the actual concession that secured its final ratification.
Czech president Vaclav Klaus only agreed to sign the treaty after he was promised that his country would be allowed to opt out of the treaty’s Charter of Fundamental Rights.
“Ghettos of agreement”???
This is a quick, very simple follow-up to my presentation at the Media140 conference, where I was on a panel on political journalism with Annabel Crabb, Chris Uhlmann, Caroline Overington and John Kerrison.
Another great term coined at #Media140 by Crikey’s Bernard Keane: “Communities of interest, or ghettos of agreement?” tweeted @matthewsinclair yesterday. My immediate reaction was “what does he mean another???!” but in fact I don’t actually remember using the phrase. Nevertheless, I’m claiming “ghettos of agreement” as mine because it sounds good. Sorry Matthew.
Devine’s totalitarianally nutsy take on bureaucracy
Good God, when you’re Miranda Devine you don’t want to begin an op-ed piece with an image of a plane on autopilot. But that’s what she did, to talk about bureaucracy. Bureaucratisation is just like a hi-tech pilot’s cabin, she twittered.
It obviously bloody isn’t, it’s the opposite.
Greg Craven’s God awful own goal against the atheists
Oh dear. The World Cup is nine months away, but we may not see a greater own goal than Greg Craven’s attack on the neo-atheists in today’s Age (sorry, National Times, the brave new collection of all the stuff that was available on Fairfax anyway) .
The neo-atheists – Dawkins, Hitchens and others – are an annoying bunch, taking the most literal version of monotheism, and then guffawingly mocking it (’oh a whale, really’) in a tone not unlike the baby in the Family Guy.
Trouble is Craven sounds worse…
Michael Moore’s Capitalism: the cage match
It’s bound to be one of the most controversial of the season’s cinematic offerings: Michael Moore’s Capitalism. Muddied low-brow critique or seminal turning point in the popular appreciation of a system past decay? You be the judge!
To help flesh out the argument, Crikey sent two of its most bristlingly politicised regulars to take in the movie and offer their thoughts.
Copyright © 2008 Private Media Pty Ltd, Publishers of Crikey.com.au. All Rights Reserved.
Independent news, blogs and commentary on politics, media and business.
Editor: Jonathan Green.
Publishers: Eric Beecher, Diana Gribble.
Level 7, 22 William St, Melbourne, 3000. Ph: 1800 985 502 Fax: (03) 8623 9975