The Australian reports the latest Newspoll shows the parties still araldited together on 50-50, with Labor’s primary vote on 35 per cent (38.0 per cent at the election, 34 per cent in the Newspoll of September 10-12), the Coalition on 42 per cent (43.6 per cent and 41 per cent) and the Greens on 14 per cent (11.8 per cent and 14 per cent). This is despite a sharp deterioration in Tony Abbott’s personal ratings, which have seen a 9 per cent drop in approval (to 39 per cent) and rise in disapproval (47 per cent). By contrast, Julia Gillard is up four points on approval to 48 per cent and down three on disapproval to 33 per cent, and her lead as preferred prime minister has widened from 50-34 to 52-31. Full tables courtesy of GhostWhoVotes.
Finns
Cf India. Apart from marxists, naxalites, Hindi and Islamist extremists, there are some other internal dynamics tending to the unstable:
India has 43% of the world’s underweight children. Against that, one Indian man just built himself a billion dollar+ house.
[ I thought it was Holt that officially abandoned the White Australia Policy. ]
But not in practice. It was Goughy who abolished WAP in toto
Its still hard to believe there are so many AS myths out there, such as boat people are the problem not plane people, most AS arent genuine, AS are queue jumpers. Labor have been far to scared to confront this issue head-on. Hopefully that changes after today
BW, not to mention India’s illiteracy rate is still 30% Vs 6% in China.
[There will be a face-saving deal between the Taliban and the Karzai Government. ]
Yes, but the terms of that deal matter.
[4427
Doyley
briefly @4411,
thanks for that.
Do you see this policy change on assylum seekers and the move towards a price on carbon as pure pragmatism by Julia in light of the “new political reality “or a real attempt by her to move back to the centre left ground where, I believe, modern labor needs to go to be relevant and successful in the future?]
I think you can tick both boxes, Doyley. These are part of the “syntax” of the new Majority, and it is essential that Labor get on the front foot on these issues in order to box in the LNP.
Hmm GeeWhizz is on 7TWO as I type – in Love Thy Neighbour 🙂
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_gN7zlpnz8
Ironically this is the episode which is on now 🙂
[4452
The Finnigans
I thought it was Holt that officially abandoned the White Australia Policy.
But not in practice. It was Goughy who abolished WAP in toto]
The immortal Gough. How dear he is, how much we owe him.
cud chewer
The terms of the deal are utterly irrelevant because the main aim of the deal is for the West to leave.
As soon as the West leaves the deal is off. We lost. Get used to it.
Finns @ 4454
I see you have rendered around 500 million Chinese illiterate at the stroke of the keyboard.
[4404
The Big Ship
The difficulty for Abbott is that his close affinity with Jones makes him guilty by association, particularly if he is present in the studio at the time and fails to raise any objections. This is dangerous territory for the leader of a mainstream party who needs the broad support of middle Australia.]
Jones in fact trades in a kind of pornography. If I didn’t believe so strongly in free speech, I would advocate trying him under anti-obscenity laws. He is corrupting, degenerate and grotesque, perverting the minds of his listeners and debasing their morality. He is a fiend of the worst order.
There was a bit of a question about whether Australia would let Mum in. Mum had black hair, olive skin and brown eyes.
The Australian Immigration Officials suspected that she might have had a touch of the tar brush. Fortunately there was enough ‘evidence’ to prove to all concerned that she was really, truly white.
Plus my birth certificate has ‘witte’ on it. White good. Black bad.
briefly
I see you disapprove of Jones in religious terms. Exorcisms are legal.
The line between literate and illiterate is a fairly blurry one.
I imagine that it would be even more so in Chinese…
[Finns @ 4454 I see you have rendered around 500 million Chinese illiterate at the stroke of the keyboard.]
BW – FYI:
List of countries by literacy rate, as included in the United Nations Development Programme Report 2009.
83 – China – 93.3
149 – India – 66.0
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_literacy_rate
[4463
Boerwar
briefly
I see you disapprove of Jones in religious terms. Exorcisms are legal.]
But they don’t work. I would prefer to burn put him in the stocks, though there is a chance he might enjoy that too much for it to constitute a punishment.
Finns
It is just that you gave them a score of 6% in your original post. I do appreciate that it is not much use having power if you are not prepared to abuse it, but rendering so many people so illiterate so quickly is a bit over the top, IMHO.
K
Do they have bad eyes?
[Jones in fact trades in a kind of pornography. If I didn’t believe so strongly in free speech, I would advocate trying him under anti-obscenity laws. He is corrupting, degenerate and grotesque, perverting the minds of his listeners and debasing their morality. He is a fiend of the worst order.]
Too true!
The self confessed pillar of society. 😀
Crabby censored me for mentioning that Jones thought it was OK to write love letters to young male students.
[Jonestown by Chris Masters]
Boerwar,
Good one!
No but even now, after several reforms and simplifications, they do have a hell of a lot more characters than people with alphabetic systems.
How many barely-literate Australians would be fully illiterate if they had to remember a few thousand “letters”? Quite a few, I think.
GeeWizz @ # 4412
“The Federal Govt can tax incorporated bodies any way it likes. It may not have powers to stop States from raising royalties. So what?
Minerals in the ground are property of the states, therefore any tax on those minerals or individuals making a profit from those minerals is only possible by state governments.”
I previously asked if any individual could be as sill as this goose. If any one is aspiring for this title they will have to work hard as he has just set a new world record in ignorance.
In one foul swoop he has just wiped out the Income Tax Assessment Act, The Fringe Benefit Tax, Capital Gains Tax, and the GST and all the other supplementary tax Acts.
Takes talent to do that when the Legal Profession and the Accounting Profession has not see this glaring error for the last 100 years or so.
K
Yes, it is interesting. I was watching a show on the TV at the gym and it was aimed at teaching people how to speak Mandarin. They did not use chinese script but were using some sort of phonetic system which meant, that during the show at least, I could actually track the link between some of the phonemes and what the demonstrators were saying.
Grrrrr!
[The Federal Opposition says it is willing to listen to a proposal which could see children and families seeking asylum released from detention centres.
In a major policy shift, the Federal Government is preparing to announce plans to release hundreds of asylum seekers from detention and allow them to live in the community while their applications for asylum are being assessed.]
The second para is the actual story. The first is merely a side show to the main event. So why lead the story with what side show alley says?
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/10/16/3040288.htm
[My thoughts on asylum seekers and immigrants; I don’t care where they come from as long as they bring recipes.]
Puff, great line, lol. Reminds me of Napoleon’s, “an army marches on its stomach”.
Who cares what they are willing to listen to? They are irrelevant.
The kinder gentler Alan Jones mentoring Tony Abbort.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Nm5bTGqRzI
I have been thinking for a while about how to phrase this but think it is looking a bit sorted:
‘Christopher Pyne, Australia’s leading expert in Back Alley Bitching.’
[4473
confessions
Grrrrr!
The Federal Opposition says it is willing to listen to a proposal which could see children and families seeking asylum released from detention centres.
In a major policy shift, the Federal Government is preparing to announce plans to release hundreds of asylum seekers from detention and allow them to live in the community while their applications for asylum are being assessed.
The second para is the actual story. The first is merely a side show to the main event. So why lead the story with what side show alley says?]
Very apt point, confessions.
Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. Three wars driven by America, supported by Australian Liberal Governments and the majority of Australians until young soldiers began to die in increasing numbers. Then, and only then, did these very same Australians call for troops to come home.
I abhore war at all times because I believe that war is driven by political and economic motives. Nothing more nothing less. If not why aren’t we going to Africa, Somalia etc.
I continue to shake my head in despair as I try to work out the mentality of these Australians. What do they think happens in war ? Politicans send young people overseas into conflict and young people die. After a while it becomes too hard for these Australians and in unison they cry ” We have changed our mind, bring them home”. How many times does it have to happen before people learn or are people so easily led by slogans and rhetoric ?
Briefly @ 4378
[ starting with John Howard, there is a hint of the xenophobe buried deeply in the mitochondria of Liberal Consciousness. Howard certainly had form. ]
Howard’s “form” stretches right back to the late 1970s. Cabinet papers showed that Howard was the only Liberal who opposed Fraser’s move to accept Vietnamese ‘boat-people’. At least in this he was consistent.
I cut my teeth on Wade-Giles spelling. To me, Pinyin sometimes seems really counter-intuitive.
When ch was split up into zh/ch/q it really threw me!
[4476
Gaffhook
The kinder gentler Alan Jones mentoring Tony Abbort.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Nm5bTGqRzI%5D
Excellent. He is the original self-parody. He should be called Temper Jones…….wot an eejit.
[4480
Ozymandias
Howard’s “form” stretches right back to the late 1970s. Cabinet papers showed that Howard was the only Liberal who opposed Fraser’s move to accept Vietnamese ‘boat-people’. At least in this he was consistent.]
Why am I not surprised. Such a bloody fossil – what did we ever do to deserve him!
K
I trust not too far. If I was starting language learning again, I would learn Mandarin. But then, I have had a huge amount of enjoyment out of French etc, etc.
USA is addicted to wars, pure and simple.
For the Illegal IRAQ War, Bush, Blair and Howard should be tried for war criminal.
Finns
You would think that losing them so often would put them off a bit.
[Wade-Giles spelling]
Left over from the Opium wars.
BW, when you are addicted. you dont really care if you win or lose. you just need the fix.
[ What do they think happens in war ? Politicans send young people overseas into conflict and young people die. After a while it becomes too hard for these Australians and in unison they cry ” We have changed our mind, bring them home”. How many times does it have to happen before people learn or are people so easily led by slogans and rhetoric ?]
Really does indicate that as a nation we are disconnected from reality. We have yet another military funeral & it conjures up outrage. Did people really think that soldiers were there for photo opportunities only? The mind boggles.
Howard was always unable to change to suit the environment, but he handsomely compensated with a great ability to debase the environment to suit him.
He was the Liberal Party’s racist underbelly in the ’80s. I remember the twisted little so-and-so then, the darling of the “Asians Out!” brigade.
He never got anywhere then because he had an unfortunate habit of occasionally telling the truth about what he thought. Once he got that under control, and acquired his trusty dog-whistle, he never looked back…
Finns
That explains it. Have patented war, win or lose, we come out ahead.
[The Federal Opposition says it is willing to listen to a proposal which could see children and families seeking asylum released from detention centres.]
This seems almost fabricated just to be able to use the “Federal Opposition says” lead.
Why should the willingness or otherwise of the Opposition to listen to a proposal matter to anyone?
The Opposition is still not the Government despite the urging.
Dee @ 4470
[Too true!
The self confessed pillar of society.
Crabby censored me for mentioning that Jones thought it was OK to write love letters to young male students. ]
‘The Parrot’ is more self proclaimed than self confessed as a ‘pillar of society,’ as I am sure that the blue rinse fascists who make up his geriatric audience would not approve of him as being a ‘pillar’ if they knew what Dear Alan actually gets up to in his spare time …
He is, however, a pestilence on our polity, a rabid reactionary sociopathic outlier who has parlayed his particular brand of fear mongering and racist vigilanteeism into a modicum of local Sydney political influence that belies his ‘kingmaking’ reputation, after all, we have had Labor State Governments in NSW for all but 7 of the last 35 years, so how much ‘influence’ can old AJ have actually had?
Briefly
[ what did we ever do to deserve (Howard)? ]
We failed to re-elect Keating.
One bit of disinformation created especially for the Australian public is the stats on Australian casualties. They list killed and wounded. But they only count as wounded those who have received physical damage.
Such a lie.
From Buffy Saint Marie’s Universal Soldier
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyNLN-cKsp8
[He’s five foot-two, and he’s six feet-four,
He fights with missiles and with spears.
He’s all of thirty-one, and he’s only seventeen,
Been a soldier for a thousand years.
He’a a Catholic, a Hindu, an Atheist, a Jain,
A Buddhist and a Baptist and a Jew.
And he knows he shouldn’t kill,
And he knows he always will,
Kill you for me my friend and me for you.
And he’s fighting for Canada,
He’s fighting for France,
He’s fighting for the USA,
And he’s fighting for the Russians,
And he’s fighting for Japan,
And he thinks we’ll put an end to war this way.
And he’s fighting for Democracy,
He’s fighting for the Reds,
He says it’s for the peace of all.
He’s the one who must decide,
Who’s to live and who’s to die,
And he never sees the writing on the wall.
But without him,
How would Hitler have condemned him at Dachau?
Without him Caesar would have stood alone,
He’s the one who gives his body
As a weapon of the war,
And without him all this killing can’t go on.
He’s the Universal Soldier and he really is to blame,
His orders come from far away no more,
They come from here and there and you and me,
And brothers can’t you see,
This is not the way we put the end to war.]
[The terms of the deal are utterly irrelevant because the main aim of the deal is for the West to leave.]
NO, the terms of the deal with the Taliban do matter, because it isn’t just us in the West that don’t want the Taliban to completely dictate the terms. The whole point is to prevent the Taliban from reintroducing the worst of Sharia Law.
[after all, we have had Labor State Governments in NSW for all but 7 of the last 35 years, so how much ‘influence’ can old AJ have actually had?]
Michael Kroger commented after the 1998 federal election that AJ was a supporter of Bob Carr.
That was in the context of Jones having got Howard over the line.
Doyley @4479 and others
No-one sane could possibly like war but there are often valid moral reasons for paying the price of participation, eg East Timor, Solomon Islands and of course WW2, or the Yankees in the civil war. A bigger issue is that the burden of fighting these days in western countries is borne by so few so it’s easy for us to sip lattes while others fight and when we are upset at the cost, say “bring them home”. The world is complex and neutrality is not a fair option when evil needs to be confronted, but it’s not always as successful or speedy as we hope. Lastly we need to consider how things might have turned out if we didn’t take action, but we can never know for sure.
[You would think that losing them so often would put them off a bit.]
Ahh, but they makes heaps of dough out of them.