Sent out email last Friday to most Federal and State ALP members of parliament with a link to Internet Censorship Will Haunt Rudd Government. Have received 5 replies so far: Read more »
Sent out email last Friday to most Federal and State ALP members of parliament with a link to Internet Censorship Will Haunt Rudd Government. Have received 5 replies so far: Read more »
Some first impressions on the 1996-8 first term of The Howard Years: Read more »
According to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology:
Researchers at MIT's Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research have produced a report concerning key design issues of proposed "cap-and-trade" programs that are under consideration in the United States as a way of curbing greenhouse gas emissions. The first contribution of the three-part study found that, based on an examination of the European Union's system and of similar U.S. Read more »
When denying the "suspicions" of the opposition about the budget forecasts, Treasury Secretary Ken Henry made two attacks on their current tactics. Firstly, their undermining of the public service was "unhelpful". In Yes Minister terms that equates to the strongest criticism. Read more »
Another cross-post for Voices without Votes. Please write Your One Thing at Hoyden about Town:
Bloggers in Australia have been looking at what Barack Obama might actually be going to do as President. Read more »
One of our TV presenters has just suggested that there was a fair bit of evangelical fervour about Barack Obama's victory speech. What really impressed me was that he didn't rev up the crowd. He chose not to join their attempts to turn the slogan "Yes We Can" into a mindless chant. He challenged them with ideas not theatre. His performance was controlled and rational. He is the teacher not the preacher. Read more »
Barack Obama has a decisive lead over John McCain in both national and state opinion polls. My preferred poll for the finish line is Pew Research Center. It is objective and authoritative. Their 52%/46% shouldn't be far off the mark.
Poll junkies can use my Delicious polls bookmarks if you wish. Read more »
Jillian York of Voices without Votes has reported on Huffington Post about websites which cover global election maps tracking world opinion: Read more »
This video is at Talking Point Memo's TPM election Central Read more »
The Grocer’s Son/Le Fils de l'épicier Read more »
Indiana apparently doesn't allow robocalls. So the McCain/Palin campaign asked a call centre to read out the latest smears. They underestimated the determination of the local workers . Three dozen walked out in protest. Still strength in unity. No wonder employers will do anything to make wildcat strikes illegal. Read more »
It would be ironic if the government's opt-out internet filtering system is blocked by the conservatives, especially Senator Steve Fielding. The Age reports:
Family First Senator Steve Fielding wants hardcore pornography and fetish material blocked under the Government's plans to filter the internet, sparking renewed fears the censorship could be expanded well beyond "illegal material". Read more »
Part of a post by Ethan Zuckerman, at my heart's in accra, about Voices without Votes:
Sick of the US election dominating all media coverage? Dreaming of a future date, perhaps two weeks away, when it’s possible that headlines won’t feature Sarah Palin?
You could always turn to international news, where the question seems to be, “What does the rest of the world think about the US election?” Read more »
There is a new tracking poll from the Washington Post-ABC News. It's just into its second day. More good news for Obama:
Barack Obama is up 11 points on John McCain among likely voters in the new Washington Post-ABC News tracking poll, 54 to 43 percent.
...Two in 10 independent voters said they are more inclined to vote for Obama because of Powell's backing; 4 percent said they were nudged the other way. Read more »
My remarks yesterday on my Voices without Votes post were prophetic: Read more »
So Steve Fielding is no longer holding the government to ransom. His cave-in over blocking changes to the Medicare surcharge and the alcopops tax is both welcome and instructive. As Brendan Nelson and more recently Malcolm Turnbull discovered, populist politics are a two-edged cliché. Read more »
A couple of US election sites which are worth a visit:
A hard look at reality, and what you should do is from Sam Wang at the Princeton Election Consortium: Read more »
Real Clear Politics has a lead by Obama 49.1% to McCain 43.5% in their average of 10 National Polls. Read more »
By way of an apology to CNN commentators after my post yesterday.
Their polling seems to confirm their rating of the candidates in the second presidential debate based on first impressions.
Fifty-four percent of those questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey conducted after the debate ended said that Obama did the best job in the debate, with 30 percent saying Sen. John McCain performed better. Read more »
A post for Voices without Votes:
Sarah Palin continues to infuriate and trouble progressive bloggers in Australia. The Vice Presidential debate and her weekend attack on Barack Obama over William Ayers has brought swift responses.
Another useful link for those following the U.S. election numbers: Read more »
If you missed Sunday's Compass program God's Next Army on the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation), it was a low point for our national broadcaster. It was an uncritical look at Patrick Henry College near Washington D.C. which uses the bible to prepare home-schooled youths for leadership in conservative America. They have been George W. Bush's and the Republican Party's campaign fodder. Many have worked as White House interns or as volunteers with right-wing lobbyists. Read more »
What do the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and John Howard have in common?
They are relentless!
The cross-promotions for the documentary The Howard Years on ABC TV and radio are ubiqitious. Not just ads but ceaseless items on the News and other programs. Even the News-in-Brief. For a sample try the online promo which was under 'Just In' yesterday: Howard dug heels in after 'deal' note revealed Read more »
During the early noughties I was teaching Year 12 English Studies at Katherine High School in the Northern Territory. A very useful website for studying Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice was The Republic of Pemberley. One year the site was blocked by the NT Department of Education. Apparently their black list was outsourced to a U.S. firm in silicon valley. Read more »
It is fascinating to see Malcolm Turnbull's emerging style as leader of the Federal Opposition. As fairly progressive on social issues he is defining his leadership through economics as we would expect from a former merchant banker. However, it is the less the content of his policies on the financial crisis than the tactics he is using to gain some traction in the debate which makes him appear to be stakinga claim to pit-bull status. His endorsement of government responses to the crisis, followed by immediate criticism of the detail is what we want from a credible, functioning opposition. Read more »
A post for Voices without Votes:
Australian bloggers found their voices after being glued to the media or live-blogging the election for most of Wednesday our time. Read more »
This article from Guardian correspondents around the globe has been picked up by Melbourne's Age newspaper as Change they want. Some of the comments include: Read more »
The Republicans are supposed to be praying for a miracle. Perhaps a less supernatural event would be enough for McCain to win. According to a U.S. study rain affects voter turnout by up to 1%:
The relationship between bad weather and lower levels of voter turnout is widely espoused by media, political practitioners, and, perhaps, even political scientists. Yet, there is virtually no solid empirical evidence linking weather to voter participation. Read more »
This looks like fun. You can get your own at The Take Away
Talking Points Memo reports that John McCain has sent a robocall to voters in his home State of Arizona. This part of the recording sounds like desperate stuff: Read more »
If you haven't logged onto Voices without Votes yet, there's still a week to go of world bloggers tackling the U.S. elections. A report from The Washington Post explains the context: Read more »
I knew that robocalls had arrived in Australia. Nevertheless, when Prime Minister John Howard rang me before last year’s election I was startled by his voice at first. Because it was a recorded message, my colourful response was wasted.
It’s the electronic age in political campaigning these days. We are now well acquainted with the political use of the Web. Party and candidate websites, blogging, social networking pages, online videos, and internet advertising are just some of the techniques used. Read more »
John Liebhardt has a roundup of international bloggers reactions to Colin Powell's endorsement of Barack Obama:
Most bloggers stayed away from making political prognostications of the endorsement. Instead, many investigated the social aspects of a one-time favorite for the GOP nomination to cross party lines and support a Democrat. Read more »
We are great fans of the Coen brothers and enjoyed Burn After Reading a lot. Hard to say whether it’s a spy thriller or a lifestyle comedy. Let’s settle for social satire.
The film has a stellar cast. The actors walk through their roles with ease, with few surprises. Read more »
This post is a little tardy but I thought I'd read the report before commenting. It's hard to argue with the comments and recommendations below from the NORTHERN TERRITORY EMERGENCY RESPONSE REVIEW BOARD REPORT. Former Indigenous Affairs, Mal Brough, had no difficulty on Radio National's Australia Talks: Read more »
I couldn't resist it!
For more visit the Anchorage Daily News
For a different angle on the Bradley effect, please see:
Bradley Effect, or *Reverse* Bradley Effect?
Is it possible that some people are telling pollsters that they are not going to vote for Obama, even though they intend doing so. Read more »
My recent post McCain's sky hasn't fallen just yet looked at some of the senior economists who endorsed McCain's economic plan on his website:
It's instructive to look at the scrolling list of academics who endorse the Economic Plan on McCain's website. It's the usual suspects.
In particular it looked at some of those associated with the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. Read more »
Thanks to Voices without Votes, fresh perspectives on the second presidential debate from Jotman in Bangkok:
"Obama is matching McCain on toughness, it's a strategy not to give McCain an advantage on this score" Read more »
Homer Simpson tries to vote for Obama
I thought Homer would be a Palin kind of guy. Read more »
ABC Radio National’s Counterpoint seems to draw on the right-wing think tanks for many of its guests. Jennifer Marohasy, Senior Fellow at the Institute of Public Affairs, well known climate change denier, is a regular on ABC radio. Read more »
The Pew Research Center has conducted a survey of attitudes to the U.S. by foreigners. Read more »
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