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Author: William Bowe
William Bowe is a Perth-based election analyst and occasional teacher of political science. His blog, The Poll Bludger, has existed in one form or another since 2004, and is one of the most heavily trafficked websites on Australian politics.
View all posts by William Bowe
I had to laugh at Wayne Swan for he did a little Costello which I note the Liberals interjected too as being out of order
Swan used terms like Arthur or Martha and voo doo maths.
Interesting listening to the Age’s Tony Wright on ABC radio this morning.
Apparently, Cossies flood of boardroom offers isn’t even a trickle. Despite the claims/speculation his phone hasn’t been ringing (perhaps in his new state of relative poverty he’s missed a payment or two and Telstra has cut it off!). So it seems he’s headed back to his old ‘Dollar Sweety’ trade representing assorted crooks, drug dealers and unscrupulous bosses before the bench.
McGuaran is off to the United Emirates or Honkers to race horses, and, as has already been mentioned, Dolly will become South Aussie’s Brian Burke.
So much for all the think tank offers.
Expect all three, plus possibly the Undead One to resign in April, though they are under a lot of pressure to hang around until after the Budget.
One further item, Wright, who has not exactly been a Rudd fan is now beginning to think he may become one of the great leaders.
maybe Cossie was looking at Seek.
“They seek they find”
[Dolly will become South Aussie’s Brian Burke.]
Will Dolly be wearing one of Burkie’s Panama Hats along with the Fishnets ? 🙂
Which corporate entity would want Downer?
The guy who is proud that the AWB commission didn’t find him criminally culpable but merely grossly negligent.
I await a more indepth inquiry once Rudd has had a few months of fixing Howard’s more stupid errors.
[The guy who is proud that the AWB commission didn’t find him criminally culpable but merely grossly negligent.]
No doubt Dolly will use his new Burke like powers to “Get things done” in DFAT, via his daughter – talk about jobs for the girls – getting a diplomat’s gig cos Daddy’s the Minister.
Look at their CVs from the point of view of a prospective employer…
Costello – will spend his whole time scheming to get your job and sneering at the clientele.
Downer – doesn’t know where he is, what he is doing there and can’t remember how he got there in the first place.
Ruddock – can’t sell you his soul, he’s already done that. Might make a good door stop but the decor’s a bit depressing.
Howard – whatever happened, he didn’t know about it and it wasn’t his fault. Keeps ringing the wife and family before he makes major decisions.
Brough – first thing you know, he’s sent a crack SAS squad into the factory and they’re standing with their guns pointing at the employees’ heads to make sure they’re doing the job properly. (This includes accompanying them on toilet breaks for their own protection and keeping part of their wages to make sure the money gets spent ‘properly’)
McGauran – amazed that he’s actually supposed to do something in return for the paycheck.
402 # zoom
I reckon based on those CV’s they could start their new careers with becoming the new management of my former Employer!
Zoom, very droll!
I liked the Brough one, very good
BMWofVictoria @ 398
“maybe Cossie was looking at Seek”
Well at least it’s cheaper than the taxpayer funded ‘study’ tour of the US Dolly has just come back from. Looks like its real purpose, a trawl for a high paying, low effort job ended, like most of his efforts, in bitter failure.
asanque @ 400
“Which corporate entity would want Downer?”
Especially with coast to coast Labor governments.
Fantastic stuff, Zoom.
Cossie’s too lazy for any employer to want him. In ‘the Age’ yesterday, Eddie McGuire was being tipped as the next Labor candidate for Higgins. Not a good idea, I’d say.
A few myrhs should be dispelled
First the philiosophy underpining workchoices was PORTRAYED as the Liberals
philosophy of ‘freedom of the individual or choice’. This was a ‘con’
These words merely camoflaged the real Liberal agenda which was to increase ‘capitals’ share of the profit cake by diminishing the workers wages conditions share.
…via weakening workers bargaining position re being forced to negotiate individually with a boss who held all the cards and by making it easy to sack without ANY justification (thereby weaking the workers ‘security’ to negotiate)
The words ‘freedom of the individual ‘ is an empty Liberal slogan.
We all believe in it because we believe in Democracy & its Institutions
The original reasons for the words Menzies in the 1940’s incorporated in the philosophy died with the ‘death’ of socialism in the ALP. Hey Liberals its 2008 !
Liz why would Eddie make a bad candidate in Higgins, he lives there, his childern go to school there although I think the ALP could go with someone like the women who ran in Goldstein.
If I was Alexander i’d be trying to find a remote island somewhere before the inquries start.
Jen should Dolly take his black stockings ?
379
Generic Person Says:
February 14th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
No 376
Malcolm Fraser had the overwhelming authority in the cabinet, even if Howard believed the recommendations of the Campbell report should be implemented.
The Campbell report recommended the most fundamental change in our economic settings.
IF Howard believed in this massive change & got rolled he should have resigned.
Which means either was not a true believer or he sqibbed it……or both.
Its like Dolly saying he did not support the Iraq war in cabinet but got rolled by
Howard’s authority in the cabinet and still remained Foreign Minister supporting it
I know it is abit of topic. So for all of you bored talking about the us primaries and the sorriness. Malaysia is heading for a snap election
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/theworld/2008/February/theworld_February419.xml§ion=theworld
It is a shame however they are going early so Anwar Ibrahim can not contest the election, What cowards. Hope the Barisan Nasional gets flogged personally. But it is unlikeley to happen
Another apology for comment moderation delays. Things will improve from tomorrow evening.
Ah, William, but will an apology really change anything??
very good, zoom.
Eddie is not gonna run in Higgins. For one thing, he would be in a marginal seat at the next election and he would prefer to have a safe seat. The problem is nobody is going to stack a seat out to put in a candidate like Eddie, who might act of his own free will too much. The alternative is the executive will give him a safe seat and I doubt they would be able to sort that out with causing chaos.
Plus they call him Eddie Everywhere, but as a current resident of the capital, Canberra is Nowhere.
420
exactly zoom.
Hollow symbolism from William. we want practical solutions.
Plus I doubt the Magpies fan base would be happy with more games at Manuka Oval.
Jen, I think I read a report somewhere that might have said that there were in fact no comments in moderation in the first place.
Certainly noone I know has ever met one.
Can Mal Brough come down to Melbourne and run in Higgins please!
Or at least get him to run in Mayo!
425
Glen
Good idea Glen, so he can get the “brough” end of the stick for a second time! LOL
KR he’d increase Higgins margin out to 10%!
Mal Brough has more to offer the Australian people in public service than most Labor MPs IMHO, including the bearded bloke who beat him in Longman.
With due respect Glen the Liberal party is a long way from having a 10% margin in Higgins, of course in saying that the Liberals should be able to hold the seat in a by-election
427
Glen
But isn’t the next leader of the Coalition the member for Higgins? You know, the world’s greatest living treasurer?
Pity he’s leaving isn’t it? I mean, such a talent, such a leader, such a statesman and yet…
…oh, the humanity!
BMW Higgins is held by what 7% how hard would it be to increase than by 3%?
Glen,
Well the people in Longman seem to have a different opinion.
Deal with it!
It’s nice to know nothing has changed that much having deserted this forum for a couple of months. Nothing has changed much except for Kev’s fine work in parly yesterday, of course. Don Watson gave the speech a ‘no comment’ in Crikey yesterday but that could either be a reflection of his abhorrence of the odd weasel word thrown in, or the fact that he was sitting on the dunny when Crikey called for a comment.
I was never a great fan of Kev but voted for him nonetheless, and with all the best intentions. My opinion of him changed irrevocably at about 9.30 yesterday morning. I feel good. I hope the majority of the rest of Australia does too.
Today in parly, Swanny looked like a bit of a tool but Julia looked the goods. Who saw that coming, eh? Yeah, I know, everyone.
By the way, isn’t this Generic Person poster just the pseudonym of Helen Darville/Demidenko/Dale? Why’s everyone getting so uptight?
Those comments in moderation have no one to blame but themselves. We whitebread bloggers should not have to put up with all the out of sequence consequences of their secret bloggal laws.
Don’t start me on “The Stolen Blogeration!” It never happened alright!
a picture is tells a thousand words
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/a-good-start-now-work-together/2008/02/13/1202760399107.html
#gusface
Well, I like Kev, Paul and Mal’s ties, but Bob and Gough have something to learn about stripes v primary colours.
That was your point, was it not?
Glen, Peter Costello was a very successful and popular local MP yet from 1998 on-wards his margin declinded, yes I know Government MP’s tend to lose support but if a popular local MP like Peter Costello struggled to break 10% then they are some distance from tha margin.
While Higgins has some very safe Liberal booths it does have areas that lean towards the ALP thus making a 10%+ magin harder to obtain.
The comments were put in moderation for their own good. If they had just been allowed to wander the blogsphere on their own, unmoderated, they would have been dead by now. We should remember that other comments have also been put in moderation in the past, and make sure that William’s apology includes them as well. I am sure William had the best of intentions in NOT reviewing the comments awaiting moderation and should not be made to apologise for this.
I disassociate myself from William’s apology, as I am not responsible for any of the comments in moderation or for William’s slowness in releasing them.
Judge Growler of Greeensborough, I’ll have you know that the alleged ‘blogeration’ in fact, only consisted of a mere 10% of all relevant bloggers, which hardly qualifies for such hyperbole.
And I dare anyone to name ten of these so called stolen bloggers. I dare you’se all!
And a big howdy doody to you Ms Twain.
Long time no snark
Oh, and Billbowe Baggins is obviously a Kultcha Worrier!
Marktwain
actually they were not lined up in chronological order and something else was missing but for the life of me i dont remember-nor do i want to!
The comments in moderation were separated from the other comments for their own good. The moderator acted with the best intentions, and what he did was legal at the time.
You cannot compensate the pain of the authors, but the apology will allow us to move on.
In the spirit of reconciliation, I must say that I don’t agree with all these bloggers bagging Wilson Tuckey and Dennis Jensen and Sophie Mirabella for not apologising, and John Howard for not turning up. While I disagree with the views held by these members, it is the essence of democracy that if you don’t like something, you don’t have to vote for it. It is a blight on our parliamentary process that dissidents toe the party line and vote for things they don’t really believe in. Tuckey, Jensen etc must answer to their own constituents for their failure to support the apology. I prefer an unpopular view being raised in the House, to blind support for a popular one.
Whether we like it or not, many Australians do not support an apology, and their views have a right to be represented in Parliament.
The real disgraceful performance came from the MP (Chris Pearce?) who read a magazine during Rudd’s speech, showing contempt for the Parliamentary process. If he didn’t like the apology, he should not have voted for it, or absented himself, rather than acting like a tool on a solemn occasion.
Howdy Poss. Nice snark hunting to you too. Liked your bit in Crikey the other day. When are you going to out yourself?
Gus, my comment on ties was completely innocent. I could have talked about age or length, but I’d never degenerate into that sort of vulgarity. Not tonight anyway.
Possum,
Next thing you’ll be saying is there was blogger nullius before Poll Bludger. Very dangerous if you are because there is black letter law that says the blogosphere existed prior to anyone knowing about it.
Apologising for missing blogs is one thing. But compensation opens Pandoras can of worms.
It’s so refreshing to see a government full of talented ministers, after 11 years of gross incompetence. At last Australia can move forward, instead of being stuck in the 1950’s. No more Spanish Inquisition. A new look, a refreshing outlook. The dark ages are behind us.
GG are you taking a black blog view of history
GG
but were pandora’s comments placed in moderation for her own good(and of course the can of worms good) and was it with best of intentions?
I actually understand that some bloggers asked for their comments to be put in moderation, because they were drunk and irresponsible, and were incapable of caring about what they’d written.
But what drove them to drink, Antonio? Was it the knowledge that previous comments had been put into moderation and therefore a lingering fear that all subsequent comments would be moderated too?
Let alone the effects of intergenerational moderation; removing blogs deprived bloggers in the subsequent generation of role models and meant that they were not sure what an unmoderated blog looked like.
Oscar Wilde told us how to approach this issue a long time ago – “Everything in moderation – especially moderation”
Blogger Nullius! Hurumph – there’ll be bucketloads of extinguishment – we have a WIKi ten point plan!
You need to read the Fabrication of Blogging History m’lud
Ta Ms Twain – outing is just soooo 2007! 😉