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The good news is that Blogotariat has been entirely stable since moving hosts and unique visitor numbers have been doubling for the last three months. This means that post rankings are developing a proper life of their own without my input. Read more »

The good news is that Blogotariat has been entirely stable since moving hosts and unique visitor numbers have been doubling for the last three months. This means that post rankings are developing a proper life of their own without my input. Read more »

The good news is that Blogotariat has been entirely stable since moving hosts and unique visitor numbers have been doubling for the last three months. This means that post rankings are developing a proper life of their own without my input.

I do spend time everyday doing minor cleanups of html - mostly to fix broken or bad layout, and a lot of that is from the many non-standard ways that people use when formatting their blog posts. From an aggregation perspective all the superfluous code created by wysiwyg blog editors needs to be removed as far as possible. Read more »

Third time lucky. Well so they say. Let's hope so. A handful of sites I've built have been rendered useless by the major trials and tribulations of MDWebhosting. First, it was Russian cross-spripting hackers or something, and then on February 9 they had a major power malfunction which fried the power supply grid and then proceeded to cook the servers. Read more »

Blogotariat was nobbled a few days ago by what my webhost calls Russian hackers using cross-scripting. Now they tell me. Apparently they've taken measures to make it less likely to happen again. Great.

I tried in vain to restore the site by upgrading to the latest release and restoring the database. Finally resorted to restoring the site files from a late December backup I must have created in an uncharacteristic moment of lucidity.

The menu has disappeared but I hope to find it shortly. It might have fallen down the back of the couch. Ah.. there it is. Read more »

Blogotariat's web host have been upgrading and migrating servers which is always good news. However they did not advise me that the method I was using to update the feed items had been deprecated and was no longer functioning. I had to rely on manual updates for the last few days. Not being able to get through to the web support service for a few days was also a worry. I finally managed to talk to a support person this morning who came up with the answer for me. Read more »

The defeat of the Howard Government marks the end of the insidious Culture War, or at least a temporary cessation of hostilities. The Culture War was waged on Howard’s behalf by a compliant media to foster division and fear within Australian society for naked political advantage – divide and conquer.

Howard came to power when the public had grown tired of Keating’s vision thing and the moral high ground of political correctness. Shock Jocks and rednecks were unhappy with the slow creep of legislation outlawing discrimination on the basis of race, religion, gender and disability. With the aid of Pauline Hanson and a number of dog-whistles, Howard set out discredit Keating’s political correctness and restore ignorance and bigotry to its rightful place in the heartland of Australia. The Culture War became a new conservative political correctness waged against indigenous Australians, immigrants, Muslims, Greenies, teachers, universities, the media, the ABC, the leftist-luvvie latte elites, and even sought to recreate our own history. The Culture War was an unscrupulous tool of political manipulation, wielded without regard for the damage to social cohesion, and used as a smoke screen for a radical rightwing economic agenda. Read more »

After six weeks of mind-numbing pork-barrelling appeals to self-interest, Australians will decide today the future of our nation – do we continue down the road of economic servitude or do we reaffirm our commitment to the land of the Fair Go? Read more »

Speaking in a Korean Christian church in his seat of Bennalong, John Howard proclaimed to the congregation that God is neither Liberal nor Labor, but quipped that He would have reason to be pleased with the Liberals policies. Read more »

With the election only a week away it would seem that Kevin07 is galloping confidently down the home straight as Team Howard struggles up the rear. Rudd’s campaign launch had the confidence of one who is to become the next Prime Minister. Read more »

Team Howard’s Campaign ‘Launch’ is anything but economically conservative as the cost of its election promises approaches $50 billion. Any traction gained by attacking Kevin07’s me-too-ism has been lost as Team Howard attempts to out-bid on education and first home affordability. Read more »

The Interest Rate Fortnight draws to an unhappy end for Team Howard. Read more »

Team Howard has spent the last few days framing the debate for the now confirmed sixth interest rate rise since the last election. In a moment of candour, Member for Blair Cameron Thompson revealed the strategy in simple terms "What it does is underline the strong economic performance of this government and to that extent if you want to draw a political line under it, it's a positive for the Government."

Every sound bite has been used to emphasise the fear factor in the coming 'difficult economic times'. An experienced Team Howard will be a better bet to keep inflation under control and interest rate rises will always be fewer and lower under a Coalition government. Electing an inexperienced Rudd Labor government with 70% trade unionists will cause rampant inflation and the destruction of economic life as we know it. "We will determine the inflation and interest rates and the circumstance under which they happen!" Read more »

Team Howard's favorite NewsPoll appears to show an improvement in their 'fortunes' but even Dennis Shanahan is reluctant to call it a narrowing, as the latest poll is still consistent with those of the last 8 months. What they show if tomorrow's anticipated interest rate rise goes ahead remains to be seen. Read more »

After a week highlighted by Gaffes from both Team Howard and Kevin07, interest is turning to this week's anticipated interest rate rise. Team Howard have decided that an offensive on interest rates is the best form of defense, although, like much of Team Howard's campaign strategy it is not a strategy without risk - containing, as it does, contradictory and confusing messages. Read more »

Team Howard's long hoped for poll narrowing remains as elusive as ever with the latest A.C. Nielson polling maintaining Kevin07's year long preferred government status. As we near the half way mark in an interminable election campaign it seems that Team Howard's strategy of throwing incomprehensible amounts of money at a million problems has failed and a crushing Kevin07 win is all but inevitable. Read more »

Tony Abbott's National Sorry Day yesterday was as unfortunate as it was stupid for Team Howard as the election narrative turns to health. In the unlikely event of Team Howard's re-election, it's a sure bet that Abbott will be relieved of the Health Portfolio. Read more »

Howard declares that Costello 'creamed' Swan in The Great Economic Debate although The Worm gives it Swan and most economics commentators call it a draw. The Worm continues to show that Work Choices remains a big negative for Team Howard. Read more »

Team Howard's Generals regrouped in Melbourne yesterday for what they hope was a productive if not decisive reframing of the election narrative ahead of encouraging polling figures from HQ's preferred Newspoll showing a narrowing billed by the Government Gazette as a halving of Kevin07's 2PP vote. Team Howard are back in The Game! Read more »

What happened to day 12? Read more »

As exciting as this election campaign is, it's hard to believe that there are only 4 more weeks to go! Yay! Media fatigue has set in at the end of the second week with most election stories running after the headline news. With relentless daily pork-barreling, one announcement seems much like another. Read more »

Radio National's Media report today talked with the guys behind YouDecide2007 and Kwoff with respect to online alternative coverage of the Federal Election. Despite advising them of Blogotariat a few weeks ago it didn't get a mention. Crikey are also ignoring its existence Read more »

Napoleon Bonaparte may well have said "There are two levers for moving men - interest [rates] and fear." With Day 10 dominated by debate about the latest inflation figures and a widely tipped interest rate rise Team Howard are doing their best to frighten the punters with the narrative that a Rudd Labor government would cause a recession in the Australian Economy, because Interest Rates will always be lower under a Coalition Government. Read more »

Argument about the merits of the Great Debate continued today with a depressing News Poll for Team Howard. Kevin07 primary vote is up, Rudd as Preferred PM is up and 2PP is up. The salt in the wound is that the gap between the teams on economic credibility and trust has further narrowed. Read more »

All attention today was focussed on The Great Debate with The Worm the clear winner. So who pulled the live feed to Channel 9? Read more »

Unsurprisingly, John Howard is deemed by all rational observers to have comprehensively lost the TV debate with Kevin Rudd. I watched Channel 9's telecast to a 60 Minutes audience with their own Worm. 69% to Rudd and 35% to Howard was the official calculated Worm Squirm. Read more »

It's been a policy-free Saturday as Team Howard and Kevin07 meet-and-greet - Howard in his own seat of Bennelong at the Granny Smith Festival and Rudd in Melbourne's Liberal seat of Latrobe. Read more »

The big play in Day 5 has been Kevin07's announcement of their Great Plan to Cut Taxes for The Future of Australia with a bit left over to begin a Small Education Revolution. Read more »

A rather quiet day on the campaign trail. Kevin07 was busy finalising the details for Sunday's debate, no doubt trying to come up with a sucker punch to knock out the Great Tax Cut Plan for The Future of Australia (TGTCPFTFA). The MSM are keen to portray Rudd's apparent quietness as uncertainty, but it is altogether consistent with his year-long strategy when Howard tries to wedge him. Wait until the dust settles and see how it's sitting with the electorate and meanwhile let Team Howard and the MSM Housing argue it out until it frays at the edges. Read more »