Morgan: 59-41

The first Roy Morgan face-to-face poll of Tony Abbott’s Liberal leadership covers the last two weekends of polling, and it fails to replicate the encouraging results for Abbott in Morgan’s two earlier small-sample phone polls. Labor’s primary vote is up two points on Malcolm Turnbull’s last poll to 49 per cent, while the Coalition is up 0.5 per cent to 35.5 per cent. The Greens are down 1.5 per cent to 8 per cent. Labor’s lead on two-party preferred is up from 58.5-41.5 to 59-41.

Festive preselection action:

• Former Davis Cup tennis player John Alexander has won the Liberal preselection for Bennelong, having earlier tried and failed in Bradfield. Despite predictions of a close contest, the Sydney Morning Herald reported the Left-backed Alexander had an easy first round win over local business executive Mark Chan, scoring 67 votes in the ballot of 120 preselectors. As the Herald tells it, “the right split and the hard right deserted Mr Chan”, although VexNews notes the seat is “not a centre of factional operations for either camp”. The also-rans were businessman Steve Foley and financial services director Melanie Matthewson.

• Wanneroo mayor Jon Kelly has withdrawn his nomination for Labor preselection in the Perth northern suburbs federal seat of Cowan, after earlier being considered certain to get the gig. This comes in the wake of a Corruption and Crime Commission finding that Kelly had put himself at “risk” of misconduct through his relationship with Brian Burke. Burke presumably knew what he was doing when he subsequently endorsed Kelly, going on to say he had “sought my help on many occasions and I’ve always been available to assist him”. The West Australian reported the withdrawal was the product of a “mutual” decision reached after “a week of talks with Labor officials”, which included federal campaign committee chairman and Brand MP Gary Gray. Potential replacements named by The West are Dianne Guise and Judy Hughes, who respectively lost their local seats of Wanneroo and Kingsley at the state election last September. The ABC reports a decision is expected in mid-January.

• The Western Australian ALP has also confirmed Tim Hammond, Louise Durack and ECU history lecturer Bill Leadbetter as candidates for Swan, Stirling and Pearce.

• The NSW Liberals have selected incumbents Concetta Fierravanti-Wells and Bill Heffernan to head their Senate ticket, reversing the order from 2004. The Coalition agreement reserves the third position for the Nationals – I am not aware of any suggestion their candidate will be anyone other than incumbent Fiona Nash. Imre Salusinszky of The Australian reports Heffernan needed the backing of Tony Abbott to ward off challenges from David Miles, a public relations executive with Pfizer, and George Bilic, a Blacktown councillor.

Phillip Coorey of the Sydney Morning Herald notes Left figurehead Anthony Albanese’s chutzpah in calling for the Macquarie preselection to be determined by rank-and-file party ballot, after the role he played in imposing numerous candidates elsewhere as a member of the party’s national executive. Albanese reportedly believes Left candidate Susan Templeman would win a local ballot, although the earlier mail was that the Right’s Adam Searle had the numbers and it was the Left who wanted national executive intervention.

• Final Liberal two-party margin from the Bradfield by-election: 14.8 per cent. From Higgins: 10.2 per cent. Respective turnouts were 81.51 per cent and 79.00 per cent, compared with 80.12 per cent at the Mayo by-election, 87.41 per cent in Lyne and 89.68 per cent in Gippsland. Question: if the results have been declared, why hasn’t the AEC published preference distributions?

VexNews reports Saturday’s Liberal preselection for the Victorian state seat of Ripon was a clear win for the unsuccessful candidate from 2006, Vic Dunn, who my records tell me is “the local inspector at Maryborough”. Dunn reportedly scored 53 votes against 26 for Institute of Public Affairs agriculture policy expert and preselection perennial Louise Staley and four for local winery owner John van Beveren. Joe Helper holds the seat for Labor on a maergin of 4.3 per cent.

• The Berwick Star reports that Lorraine Wreford, the newly elected mayor of Casey, refused to confirm or deny reports she lodged a nomination for Liberal preselection in the state seat of Mordialloc last Friday. Janice Munt holds the seat for Labor on a margin of 3.5 per cent.

• The Country Voice SA website reports that one of its regular contributors, former SA Nationals president Wilbur Klein, will be the party’s candidate for Flinders at the March state election. The seats was held by the party prior to 1993, when it was won by its now-retiring Liberal member Liz Penfold.

• On Tuesday, The West Australian provided further data from the 400-sample Westpoll survey discussed a few posts ago, this time on attitudes to an emissions trading scheme. Forty per cent wanted it adopted immediately, down from 46 per cent two months ago. However, there was also a fall in the number wanting the government to wait until other countries committed to targets, from 47 per cent to 43 per cent. The remainder “ favoured other options to cut emissions or did not know”.

• Paul Murray of The West Australian offers some interesting electoral history on the occasion of the passing of former Liberal-turned-independent state MP Ian Thompson:

Shortly after the State election in February 1977, allegations began to emerge from both sides of politics about dirty deeds in the seat of Kimberley. Liberal sitting member Alan Ridge beat Labor’s Ernie Bridge on preferences by just 93 votes. The Liberals were the first to strike, claiming Labor was manipulating Aboriginal voters, but the move backfired badly. A subsequent Court of Disputed Returns case turned up scathing evidence of a deliberate Liberal campaign to deny Aboriginals the vote using underhand tactics and the election result was declared void on November 7.

Returning officers in the Kimberley for years had allowed illiterate Aboriginals to use party how-to-vote cards as an indication of their voting intention. What became apparent later was that Labor had put hundreds of Aboriginal voters on the roll and generally mobilised the indigenous community. The Liberals flew a team of young lawyers up from Perth to act as scrutineers at polling booths, with a plan to stop illiterate voters. The Court government pressured the chief electoral officer to instruct returning officers in the Kimberley to challenge illiterate voters and not accept their how-to-vote cards.

The court case turned up a letter of thanks from Mr Ridge to a Liberal Party member, who stood as an independent, saying “a third name on the ballot paper created some confusion among the illiterate voters and there is no doubt in my mind that it played a major part in having me re-elected”. Mr Ridge’s letter said that unless the Electoral Act was changed to make it more difficult for illiterate Aboriginals to cast their votes, the Liberals would not be able to win the seat.

Two days after the court ordered a new election, premier Sir Charles introduced in the Legislative Assembly a Bill to do just that. How-to-vote cards could not be used, nor could an instruction of a vote for just one candidate. Labor went ballistic, saying no illiterate voter would meet the test.

What transpired over nine hours was one of the most bitter debates ever seen in the WA Parliament and the galvanising of a new breed of Labor head kickers – Mr Burke, Mal Bryce, Bob Pearce and Arthur Tonkin, who came to power six years later. On November 10, it became apparent that the government was in trouble when one of the four National Country Party members not in the coalition Cabinet, Hendy Cowan, said he opposed the Bill because it disenfranchised all illiterate voters. When it came to the vote, the four NCP members crossed the floor and the maverick Liberal member for Subiaco, Dr Tom Dadour, abstained. The numbers split 25-25.

From the Speaker’s chair, Ian Thompson calmly noted that the law said when a Court of Disputed Returns ordered a by-election it had to be held under the same conditions as the original poll. If the Government wanted to amend the Electoral Act, it should do so after the by-election.

“Therefore I give my casting vote with the ‘Noes’ and the Bill is defeated,” he said. Hansard unusually recorded applause.

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.

2,931 comments on “Morgan: 59-41”

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  1. OMG, the Yanks have gone completely berserk over this incidence, as if another 911 has just been attempted, eg: a new rule that all passengers must be seated one hour prior to landing on all International flights to the USA.

    Anyway, why would anybody want to go to the land of paranoid and Lady Gaga, the whole effing country is Gagaland.

    [December 27, 2009 – Airline bomber was barred from Britain – Former student Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who allegedly attempted to blow up US jet, had UK visa request refused in MayAbdulmutallab began his journey in Nigeria and then changed planes in Amsterdam. Peter King, a Republican congressman, claimed he did not go through full-body image screening at either airport.

    All airlines flying to America have now imposed heightened security, including “pat-down” checks for all passengers and a hand luggage check at the gate.

    Abdulmutallab was from a privileged background. His father, Dr Alhaji Umaru Mutallab, was until recently the head of First Bank of Nigeria and had been a government minister during the 1970s.

    Abdulmutallab studied engineering for three years at University College London. His father said yesterday that he had lost contact with his son after he left London in November last year.

    He attempted to return to Britain for a six-month course in May this year but was refused by officials from the UK Border Agency.]

    http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article6968539.ece

  2. [I am pro-active with my driving and assume everyone else are idiots(best driving rule you can ever learn)]

    Yes, you are the best example I can think of for this theory.

  3. Noble of ya, fredn! Onya!

    Mean traffic laws and mean traffic cops, those Vics! And many would be raising a stubby (or glass, seeing it is Vic) to those who didn’t become death, severe injury or stressed-out family & friends stats because they’re mean.

    I ‘specially liked this bit 😆

    A boost in the hours that mobile speed cameras operate – from 6000 to 9000 hours a month – had also contributed to the result, along with number plate recognition technology.

  4. Finns

    He had a fire-cracker or something which came with instructions and didn’t work.

    The Yanks have already lost to the terrorists as they are living in a perpetual state of paranoia. They need to toughen up.

  5. LAURA NORDA

    Following on from reading recent posts, I have been thinking about Law & Order in the political process.

    With elections in SA and Tasmania in 2010 and NSW in 2011, I was wondering whether people considered Laura Norda would feature in the elections.

    I only speak in respect of NSW, because it is the only state I have any knowledge of.

    In NSW, Laura Norda has played a significant role in elections over the last 20 years. It has basically been a bidding war to show who is the toughest on crime. As a result, maximum sentences have been increased, a ‘kinda’ mandatory sentencing introduced, police numbers increased, police powers increased, citizens rights reduced etc. From things said in the parliament there is some indication that the parties have called a truce, with possibly bi-partisan support for the view that the pendulum has swung too far. However, politics is politics, and I am not sure that will be the case, as parties chase every vote down every rabbit hole. The Daily Telegraph, one of the state’s 2 daily newspapers loves running Laura Norda stories – and whipping up mass hysteria. Ditto for some electronic media as well.

    Labor has been crowing the last 6 months that crime is stable or falling in 16 of 17 categories. So perhaps they will rely on that rather than upping the ante, as they have done in the previous elections.

    The Liberals, would have the most to gain from a Law & Order campaign. But one has to wonder how much further that can be pushed without turning NSW into a heartless totalitarian state.
    In addition Shadow Attorney General Greg Smith is an enigma. Prior to entering parliament in 2007 he was a Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions. It has been engaged in a running battle with the Labor government for years. The goverment claims the DPP is “soft on crime” (thereby deflecting criticism from it and onto the independent DPP). The DPP says it is under funded. Certainly Greg Smith is the most knowledgeable person in the NSW parliament, regarding the criminal justice system. He is a conservative catholic. His speeches in parliament have indicated he is acutely aware of the issues (Labor’s justice policy seems more focussed on stacking the judiciary with faithful servants). Everytime he gives the impression he might side on the side of “civil liberties”, the government attack him for being soft on crime. In the end he has rarely stood up against further draconian legislation, supporting it but noting his reservations. It has been a widely held view that those appointed to the judiciary from the Prosecution, often make more lenient judges than people expect, whilst those from the Defence are tougher than expected (based on the theory the prosecution knows the tricks of the Police, and the defence the tricks of the crims). Whether this holds true for Attorney-Generals as well, I don’t know. Thats why it is so difficult to read Greg Smith.

    In summary, the possibility for another Law & Order campaign in NSW, based on history seems high, but it is difficult to see how much further it can be pushed.

  6. Diog, It’s not looking good for your poster boy. Aloha and hula-hula in sunny Hawaii while this is happening. He should be like Toothy, out on the sea patrolling the border to keep America safe from the Wangkers.

    👿 😛 😎

  7. dio@2755:

    [The Yanks have already lost to the terrorists as they are living in a perpetual state of paranoia. They need to toughen up.]

    In general:

    The yanks live in a state of fear. This is one of the prime reasons for the gun culture. They are scared of robbers, rapists, and muggers. Many sleep with a gun under the pillow, loaded ready to go.

    They are scared the guvmint is gonna do something unnamed which they can only be ready for if they have an arsenal of automatics and ammunition.

    I have spent a lot of time on US boards, and the general attitude of fear is, to me, all pervasive.

  8. don

    My parents and my brother went to New York separately last year. Both said New Yorkers were fantastic people, much more friendly than Aussies and they felt safer than in Adelaide (which I suppose isn’t saying much). But they all said the NYers were still obsessed with 9-11 and if you talked to one for long enough, it would always come up in one form or another.

    How often do you hear about Bali and terrorism in Australia? Per capita it was about the same for Australia as 9-11 was for the US.

  9. Cuppa #2761
    I’m pretty sure Aussies’ perspective would change if a terrorist attack were conducted on their own soil.

    Honestly, Cuppa, what about?

    Hilton Bombing:
    In the early hours of February 13, 1978 a bomb exploded outside Sydney’s Hilton Hotel. Three people were killed and seven more wounded. …

    http://www.abc.net.au/gnt/history/Transcripts/s1202891.htm

    Perhaps it’s our stiff upper lip culture & (for some) ancestory, especially this poem most of us learned at primary school – unless, like me, they’d already been taught it by parents who learnt it from theirs who (with other family members) fought in the Boer War, WW I etc

    IF you can keep your head when all about you
    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
    If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
    But make allowance for their doubting too;
    If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
    Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
    Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
    And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

    If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
    If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
    If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
    And treat those two impostors just the same;
    If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
    Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
    And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

    Rudyard Kipling: If

    IMO, can meet with Triumph and Disaster/ And treat those two impostors just the same just about sums up most of us who live in The Wide Brown Land despite Her beauty and her terror So, despite the “best” efforts of Murdoch tabloids & commercial TV to whip up hysteria with screamer headlines and promos – we’re not sport aside – an hysterical nation.

    What with floods and fires – and drought, cyclones, destructive storms, crocs, sharks and very poisonous spiders & snakes – thank goodness for that!

  10. Kev’s at the cricket today
    [Speaking on the Melbourne Cricket Ground before play on the second day of the Boxing Day Test, Mr Rudd said Australia has a problem with binge drinking.

    “Know when to declare,” he said.

    “Know when you have had enough. Know when to say to your mates they have had enough.”

    Mr Rudd launched a new advertisement titled “Know when to declare”, which is a joint partnership between Cricket Australia, the Foster’s Group, Diageo Australia and the Nine Network]

    http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/rudd-urges-drinkers-to-declare-20091227-lg0t.html

  11. [“Know when to declare,” he said.]

    I would have thought Howard would be a better spokesman for that campaign – given that he did NOT know when…

  12. And I’ve found Toothy’s boat!!!
    It even has his initials on it!
    It’s has onroad and onwater capabitities
    Only one horsepower though, so running those red lights might be a bit dicey 😉

  13. I have just come back from the cafe after sipping a latte. I was speaking with an Irish woman (lived in Australia for 40 years) about the Irish sense of humour. She told me that on a recnt overseas trip she was in a line in a bank in Prague. Her mobile phone started ringing.

    She reached into her handbag and felt around for her mobile phone. When she couldn’t find it she said aloud:
    “Dash, I must have left my phone in my hotel room”.

    All those in the line burst into laughter.

  14. Cuppa@2761:

    [I’m pretty sure Aussies’ perspective would change if a terrorist attack were conducted on their own soil.]

    As OPT says, there’s been the Hilton bombing.

    There was also the bombing of Darwin, and the sub attack on Sydney.

  15. We know the Victorian Bushfires were horrific on an international scale, and reaction to them was especially great in the UK; where, as we know, reportage on Oz is pretty much confined to sport and soapies. This year, they’re among The Guardian’s Eyewitness 2009, by those who saw it happen stories.

    Australia Ablaze:Bruce Ackerman relives the battle to save his home, and his neighbours, from the worst bushfires in Australia’s history captures its ferocity and tragedy in a few paragraphs.

  16. Make that man the President of India:

    [Indian governor, 84, resigns after four-some group sex scandal – AN 84-year-old Indian politician has resigned after a sex tape was broadcast allegedly showing him in bed with three women.

    Narayan Dutt Tiwari, the Governor of Andhra Pradesh in south-east India, had maintained his innocence after the sex tape was aired a day ago on the news channel Andhra Jyothi. He has now has bowed to pressure and resigned, the Indian Express reports.]

    http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/breaking-news/indian-governor-84-resigns-after-four-some-group-sex-scandal/story-fn3dxity-1225813908031

    Eat your heart out, Berlusconi. You aint got it no more:

  17. OZ, any man (woman) who still can hack it with 3 women (men) at 84 deserve to be supported rather than condemned!!!!!

    What’s wrong with those Indians, not enough butter tandoori chicken? 👿

  18. I’ve always had Warnie penciled in as a Nouveau riche Liberal, but he just said that Rudd is doing a fantastic job for the country.

  19. Lura Norda,is alive and living in WA,both party’s are in it, or some on the Labour side are some are not,radio 6 pr are the law and order station,we now have the stop and search laws that look to have failed in the UK on the books they have increased penalty’s for everything.
    We had powers to the body called the CCC that the cops dont have,in Wait Awhile we are a proto police state,I think Johnston goes home and worships at the little statue of Thacher in the lounge

  20. I heard Rudd guest commentating at the cricket and in answer to the question “What in politics would be on par with getting out in the 90s” he said, having been way ahead in the polls leading to an election and then in the last week something goes very wrong (words to that affect)

    Geez I hope he hasn’t jinxed himself 🙁

  21. [I’m pretty sure Aussies’ perspective would change if a terrorist attack were conducted on their own soil.]

    [As OPT says, there’s been the Hilton bombing.

    There was also the bombing of Darwin, and the sub attack on Sydney.]

    Granted there have been attacks on Aussie soil. But those incidents happened decades before what I may refer to here as the Modern Age of Terrorism. Defined as contemporary Islamic terrorism beginning with 911, through the London tubeway bombings, Bali and Madrid etc.

    Fortunately Australia has thus far escaped direct embroilment on domestic soil. Though our national contribution to the Iraq fiasco, and our government acquiescence to the US’s unreasonable detainment-without-charge of Muslim, David Hicks, must certainly have increased our risk of and exposure to possible terrorist reprisal.

  22. Umm

    The USSR embassy was bombed,so was the Sth African one. (both in the 70’s)

    Various Judge and Police bombings, tho not by international terror groups.

    Also the murder of the Turkish consul general

  23. http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/previous%20series/vt/1-9/vt09.aspx#5

    For those seeking more info

    [First it is important to remember that acts of terrorism connected with struggles in other parts of the world have taken place sporadically here over the past 20 years or so. In the 1970s there were a number of bombings of Yugoslav diplomatic, airline and other facilities perpetrated by Croatian extremists.]

    [In December 1980, as part of a world-wide campaign of terror against Turkish diplomats, the JCAG (Justice Commandos for the Armenian Genocide) assassinated the Turkish Consul-General, Mr Sarik Ariyak, and his bodyguard, in Sydney. In all probability, this operation was carried out by a terrorist brought into the country for this purpose. In December 1982, the Israeli Consulate-General in Sydney was destroyed by a bomb, probably planted by the Palestinian May 15 Organisation. In November 1986, a bomb exploded in the basement of the building housing the Turkish Consulate-General in Melbourne, killing one of the bombers. Finally, in 1988, explosive devices were also involved in a number of incidents involving cars or premises belonging to United States and South African diplomatic representatives in the Australian Capital Territory]

  24. If you go back far enough I suppose you could say the numerous massacres of Aborigines during the colonial timers were terrorist acts too.

  25. Cuppa

    It wasnt that long ago

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coniston_massacre

    [Official records at the time stated that thirty-one people were killed. A member of the punitive party for the first few days and the then owner of Coniston station (Mr Randall Stafford) estimated that at least twice that number were killed. Some historians estimate that at least sixty Aboriginal men, women and children were killed; others estimate as many as 110 were killed]

  26. Given the end of the year is approaching, can we have nominations for PB porky of the year?? I vote for Truthy saying he voted Labor last election

  27. Cuppa

    I stress that this was the last officially recorded massacre.

    Some historians point to Maralinga and the Woomera test grounds as also possibly incidents where large loss of aboriginal life occurred

    The relevant documentation is still classified and is due for review in 2065

    You draw your own conclusions

  28. Cuppa, the Hilton Bombing was part of the Modern Age of Terrorism, which included the massacre of Israeli athletes at Munich Olympic (1972), the hijacking of Lufthansa Flight 181 to Mogadishu (1977), the Brighton Hotel bombing (1984) the in-flight bombing of PanAm flight 103 over Lockerbie (1988) and many others part of the continuing Israel v Palestine story – travelling OS by air, one had to be mentally prepared to be hijacked (& many were).

    In the UK – when most Aussies’ dream was to head for London to work, play hard & tour – terrorist attacks were an ever-present threat – List of terrorist incidents in Great Britain gives a sense of how many, how expensive in lives, injuries & property damage they were. Some of the most famous are:

    20 July 1982, when two terrorists nail-bomb attacks occurred simultaneously in Hyde & Regent’s Parks during public performances by military personnel. In Hyde Park

    Three soldiers of the Blues and Royals were killed instantly, and another died on 23 July from his injuries. The other soldiers in the procession were all badly wounded and shrapnel and nails sprayed into the crowd of tourists assembled to watch the parade, causing further injuries. Seven of the regiment’s horses were also killed or had to be put down because of their injuries.

    At the same time,

    a bomb hidden underneath the bandstand in Regent’s Park exploded during a performance of the music from Oliver! by the Royal Green Jackets band to a crowd of 120 people. Here too, the crowd was peppered by shrapnel from the iron bandstand, causing dozens of injuries amongst the audience, as well as killing or wounding the entire band

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyde_Park_and_Regent%27s_Park_bombings
    By then, OH, I & Offspring had our tickets to London and my mother absolutely freaked Didn’t stop us, but we sure learned a great deal about life in a land under siege by terrorists … and that Londoners faced it as stoically as they did the Blitz!

    In October 1984, terrorists attempted to assassinate Margaret Thatcher and most of the Tory conference at the Grand Hotel Brighton.

    Five people, however, were killed, including Conservative MP Sir Anthony Berry, and Parliamentary Treasury Secretary John Wakeham’s wife Roberta. Sir Donald Maclean and his wife, Muriel, were in the room in which the bomb exploded. Lady Maclean was not killed in the explosion, but later died of her injuries, and Sir Donald was seriously injured. The other victims killed by the blast were Eric Taylor and Jeanne Shattock. Several more, including Margaret Tebbit—the wife of Norman Tebbit, who was then President of the Board of Trade—were left permanently disabled. Thirty-four people were taken to hospital but recovered from their injuries.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brighton_hotel_bombing

    In 1993, an IRA bomb exploded near Liverpool Station London, killing a child, injuring more than 40 and causing £1billion damage. Then,

    On Saturday 15 June 1996, at a peak shopping time the day before Father’s Day, a 3,000lb IRA bomb exploded in Manchester, injuring more than 200 people and ripping into the fabric of the city’s main shopping centre. In a state of shocked disbelief, police had begun clearing people from the area some 40 minutes before the blast; fortunately, several telephoned warnings had been issued to newspapers…

    http://www.manchester2002-uk.com/buildings/bombing.html

    During the same decades, most European nations suffered similar terrorist attacks

    It’s just that, until something happens to the Great US of A on home soil, in their minds, it hasn’t happened! When it does, they go way over the top, carrying on as if no one else has ever suffered. The Brits and Europeans, having been bombed to bits during WW II, tend to be far less hysterical!

  29. [During the same decades, most European nations suffered similar terrorist attacks

    It’s just that, until something happens to the Great US of A on home soil, in their minds, it hasn’t happened! When it does, they go way over the top, carrying on as if no one else has ever suffered. The Brits and Europeans, having been bombed to bits during WW II, tend to be far less hysterical!]

    And of course the many attacks by the Mafia etc – but the US is’t all about them – self absorbed rednecks they are.

  30. OzPol,

    Thanks for the informative post.

    Your Modern Age of Terrorism differs to my own, self-coined grouping. I define it as having begun with 911, or maybe, if we were stretching, to the attack on the WTC several years before.

    The common thread through the attacks since and including 911, the commuter and nightclub bombings, has been Islamist action, principally originating with al Qaeda or associated organisations. Just about all terrorism in the world in that period – apart from localised domestic incidents with the Basques in Spain and the Tamil Tigers – are connected one way or another with Islamism, al Qaeda, or allied groups.

    The waves of attacks in Iraq, seemingly coming every week, are a slightly different kettle of fish, but with overlaps of the same ideology.

  31. Frank,

    I noticed there were a lot of anti-Obama comments on that clip page! This is a typical “mild” but pointed one!

    [while they’re checking passports what do you say we check in? to a young kenyan student that traveled from outside the USA from overseas in the 1980’s . black and also a muslim ?]

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