The Labor "faceless men"

They've been around longer than you think. Here's a great post on their history and their relevance (or lack thereof, actually) to recent events in the Labor Party.

I love reading educational blog posts like this one. Thanks Jon!

I think the First Dog on the Moon could be my new hero

Someone commented that the last panel in this cartoon should be made into a T-shirt. I think I would seriously consider buying one if they did that.

Thoughts from the US Republican Convention 2012

(Image from here).

Earlier today, I turned on the TV over lunch to find a live broadcast on the ABC news channel from the Republican convention in Tampa, Florida. After warm up speaking acts that included Clint "Make my day" Eastwood, among others, I heard Mitt Romney's speech as he formally accepted his nomination as the Rupublican US Presidential candidate.

There were the usual outpourings of adulation from the wildly enthusiastic audience waving flags and signs, and applauding at just about every word that came out of his mouth. A few people there were even in costume. One guy looked like he might have come dressed as Christopher Columbus. I guess it's all part of the atmosphere.

Anyway, I thought Mitt was strong on style, but lacking on substance. I suppose that finer details weren't really necessary because at this point he's just accepting the nomination and quite clearly he was preaching to the converted. He did make a solid attempt to win over women voters, and the low income earners. But he seems to have the idea, in a similar vein to Gina Rinehart's recent comments, that people without much money just need to work harder and start up their own small business to get ahead. If only it was that simple.

And there were plenty of comments from Mitt and the other speakers I heard about repealing Obama's plans for healthcare reform if the Republicans get into the White House. One guy said that having two systems (ie private and public) "hadn't worked in any country it had been introduced in" or words to that effect. I'm not so sure it's been a failure here in Australia. I think it's great that people who can't afford private cover have a free healthcare system that they can access. It's not perfect, sure, but it means everyone's looked after. And a society that shows care and concern for the vulnerable is a good thing, I think.

I didn't end up being won over by much of what Mitt said. And he had this weird look that he seemed to deliberately put on during pauses in his speech when he was looking directly at the camera. A bit smirky and self-satisfied, I thought.

Or maybe it's his name that I can't get past. You know me, small things amusing small minds and all of that. But all along, I've found it rather amusing that his name is also the name of a well-known item of sporting equipment. Or for those of us in Australia, an oven glove.

Are all children getting a fair go at school, no matter what their background or postcode?

Well, I think we all know the answer to that question.

But Insight is tackling it tomorrow evening on SBS, covering the recent Gonski report which got a bit buried in the wake of the recent federal Labor leadership challenge.

Read more here.

If you're not home then, they usually repeat it a couple of times during the week or you could watch online.

Great political quote

Tony Fitzgerald expressing his opinion that merit based selection should be used to demonstrate transparency in the appointment of senior public servants in the new Queensland state government:

"The current toxic political culture can be radically altered by an infusion of public-spirited talent to counteract the mediocrity and venality of those power-brokers and professional politicians whose life experiences are limited to practising the dark arts of misinformation, secrecy and character assassination, and who pursue power by all available means."

I think he may have been suggesting that the days of "jobs for mates" in Queensland might not be over.

And how many fantastic words are there in that single sentence? I love it.

This one gets my vote for the best cartoon of the week

From here.

There's still lots of mileage....

....to come out of the Rudd/Gillard leadership struggle.

Best quote of the morning so far from the ABC's Chris Uhlmann (7.30 Report):

"It's just like World Series Cricket all over again...."

Came home from my first tutorial this evening...

...to the news that Kevin Rudd has resigned as Foreign minister. I'm pleased that someone has made the first move in the stand-off at last.

Interesting times ahead.

Anyway, the tute went okay. Referencing was a challenging task for almost all of them, although there were a few with that "I already know all this, I'm pretty bored" look as we were doing the referencing practice activities at the end.

In answer to the getting to know you opening question I gave them about the superpower they would most like to have, there were some interesting responses. Lots of time travellers, flyers and several who wanted to be invisible. A sizeable minority wanted to read minds. My favourite responses were from a girl who wanted to be able to breathe under water so she could go diving more easily, and another one who wanted to be able to walk through walls so she wouldn't have to go around stuff.

Disappointingly all of the above was probably more interesting than the responses to the question of why they chose to do occupational therapy. Hearing "it would be sooo rewarding" and "I really wanted to help people" became quite repetitive after a while. Though I suppose my answer to that question isn't much better. I ended up in occupational therapy after a careers talk in which they showed us a whole heap of equipment (easy reachers, bottle openers, tap turners and the like) and talked about how much we could help people do everyday things. It sounded and looked more interesting than the speech pathology talk I went along to the same evening. And here I am twenty years later, still an OT.

If you imagine Kevin Rudd in place of the girl in this cartoon...

... you have a pretty good summary of Australian federal politics over the past two years.

Well, the general public's perspective of it, anyway.

Annabel Crabb's take on the Rudd/Gillard mess

..."if Mr Rudd or Ms Gillard could speak frankly about the current impasse, what would they say? Their silent tussle is surely the most nihilistic in Labor's organisational memory. It's not about clashing, passionately-held convictions, or the parties' spirited disagreement on what to do about schools, or nukes, or Syria. It's a classic corner-office dispute of numbing mundanity. She thinks he shouldn't be prime minister because he's nuts. He thinks she shouldn't be prime minister because she's hopeless. And that's about the size of it. Caucus members now arrange themselves into Team Bloodnut and Team Bowlcut, driven by nothing except the clinical extent of their own despair."

From here.

Yes indeed. Love the Team Bloodnut vs Team Bowlcut line. Absolute gold.

While I'm at it, I'm quite enjoying The Drum on the ABC right now as well. Best current affairs show on television. Q&A is highly entertaining too.

I think it's really funny

...that with Kevin Rudd currently away in Mexico, the ongoing brouhaha* over the leadership of the federal Labor Party is literally a Mexican stand-off.

*didn't think I would EVER get to use this word in a blog post...

QANTAS grounding

Wow. This is big news. Lots of special news broadcasts going on.

I was actually thinking earlier in the week about blogging about the ubiquitous presence of Olivia Wirth, the QANTAS media spokeswoman, on television lately. It seemed like every news bulletin, there she was getting stuck into the unions for their actions. I was wondering if she was getting a bit tired of saying the same thing over and over again.

I don't know the ins and outs of the dispute. The last time I flew anywhere was in 2005 so it hasn't really impacted on me in any way. It will be interesting to see what happens next though.

Quote of the day on the Craig Thomson saga

Sorry....it's like watching a train wreck. I can't avert my eyes or ears from what's happening.

Today Anthony Albanese has come to his defence in parliament. This quote from The Australian online:

"Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese today threw his support behind Mr Thomson, saying he "absolutely" believed the Member for Dobell's denial of wrong-doing.

"I have the view in life that when someone tells you something you believe them," Mr Albanese said today."

Probably in the same way some believed Julia Gillard when she said there would be no carbon tax under a government she led.

Political commentary

I have been following the Craig Thomson story as it's unfolded this week. Mainly out of curiosity on whether or not he will bring down the Gillard government. They're digging in to defend him while he's denying everything. According to today's newspapers, he has Labor advisors in his ear 24 hours a day so he doesn't cave in to all the media pressure and resign.

I'm pretty skeptical on whether he's telling the truth. And more than a little annoyed that if he is in fact lying, my husband's Health Service union fees may have partly contributed to the funds that were then used for some very unethical behaviour.

So I found this clip from Meet the Press quite amusing. Barnaby Joyce is well known for his outspokenness and regardless of whether I agree or disagree with his politics, I think he has a fantastic metaphorical turn of phrase sometimes.

No metaphors here though. Just telling it like it is.

Tony's Boatphone

Time for another You Tube diversion.

I must say that I found the concept of the boat phone amusing when I first heard about it a few days ago.

My kids love watching little Lego men in movies. Lego Tony is quite cute. I just wonder who has that much time on their hands to put these things together??

Election wash-up

Last night's election viewing turned out to be more exciting than I thought. We didn't get to bed until nearly midnight.

I think the result reflected disillusionment with both major parties, but that might just be me projecting how I felt about it. In the Saturday newspaper, they quoted one woman saying it was like choosing between two really bad husbands in an arranged marriage. That resonated with me. No one seemed to have a vision for the future of the country, it was all about bagging the other guys and throwing money around for short term satisfaction.

Anyway, I wonder who will end up forming government out of all this.

It's interesting that those who voted "independent" in the seats with independent MHRs are now waiting to see whether that "independent" vote was in effect a vote for the ALP or the Coalition.

Either way, I guess it's good news for their electorates, which, in the case of the Queensland and NSW independents, are all in rural and regional areas of Australia.

We used to live in Port Macquarie, and Rob Oakeshott was our local state MP when we lived there. He's a nice guy with some big decision making ahead of him. We should be praying that he and the other independent MHRs will be wise in the choices they make over the coming days.

We don't have Paul the Octopus but Harry the Crocodile says....

That Julia Gillard will win the election. You can read about it here.

Grab the popcorn....

...and settle in for a night of election coverage.

I like Antony Green's commentary on the ABC the best. Here's his blog. I do find his geekiness a bit endearing...

Annabel Crabb's take on the Abbott-Gillard Brisbane showdown

You can read it here.

I'm no Paul the Octopus in correctly predicting winners, but on Saturday I think the Government will hang on with a reduced majority.

I still don't know who I'll be voting for. The donkey is looking appealing.

Asylum Seekers

This is interesting. I was doing some internet research on boat people last night and then found this posted on Simone's blog.

The people on the boats (as opposed to the people smugglers who illegally put them into the boats) deserve our compassion.

Who to vote for on Saturday remains the question...