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Any Takers?

In a national ACNielsen Poll fifty-four per cent nominated Mr Costello as the treasurer they would prefer, compared with 32 per cent who named Mr Crean. Labor has targeted Mr Costello by saying a vote for John Howard is a vote for a Costello government. Now this is only conjecture but what isn’t, what is a laid down fact, is that a vote for Latham is a vote for Crean as Treasurer. Frightening. Latham, can you let Crean out of his cage so the voters can remind themselves of the mans measure? Short. I like the add bringing up Latham’s history with the Liverpool City Council. Telling, isn’t it?. As Slatts says;
They’re even having sport with his lame slogan borrowed from the hapless Kerry campaign, “Ease the squeeze”. “Latham will squeeze the fees”, the Libs are ho-hoing in regard to his class-hatred inspired attack on private school grants. That’s without mentioning the council worker he king-hit, the road-rage incident with a council opponent, the arm-breaking attack on a Sydney taxi driver and the porn show he put on for his in-laws at a restaurant.
The Poll Bludger (scroll down to ‘Hold the Mayo) scribes on Brian Deegan, high-profile independent and would-be slayer of Alexander Downer.
…(Deegan) appeared to abandon any notion of extending his electoral appeal beyond the ideological fringe with his reaction to the Jakarta bombing, suggesting that the Australian Government ‘negotiate’ with Jemaah Islamiah”. The Advertiser today carries a poll conducted on Wednesday surveying 530 voters in the seat of Mayo which puts support for Deegan at 13.5 per cent after the undecided vote is distributed, seven points down on a similar poll conducted in May. Downer is safe and sound on 53 per cent. The poll will come as a shock to the Australian Democrats, who came agonizingly close to winning the seat in 1998 but are now recording a miserable 1 per cent.
13.5 % is not a surprise, however it does reinforce one’s faith in the Aussie voter’s ability to recognize an ideological fool. Meanwhile the latest Morgan Poll gives it to Labour as they report two-party support for the ALP was down 1.5% to 53% while Coalition support was up to 47%. This would suggest a comfortable Labor win, if the same result is achieved in the election on 9 October 2004. Palmer’s Oz Politics has a good summary of this and of Centrebet odds that are being repeatedly quoted as a better indicator than polls. Under the heading – Another day, another millimetre in Howard’s direction, odds are heavily in favour of the Coalition with quotes of Coalition $1.28: Labour $3.30 Looking for a bet on the outcome? Yobbo is offering up to take bets up to and including $1000 AUD. So – any takers? None so far and commenter Paul from Paul and Carls nails it in his usual subtle and genteel manner;
I haven?t been able to get any takers, offering 3.1 on the One pod sod. Could only get one $20 bet on Kerry- none of these pinkos will put their money where their skip-like gobs are; pansies.

Some Reading

Too much going on at home to blog but some reading has brought to light two excellent political blogs. Look to the left sidebar and if you don’t have to waste a whole day as ‘Mr Fixit’ around the home like I do, then go read some non-emotive analysis of the Aussie election. Particularly of note is Palmer’s Oz Politics that has plenty of reference for those whose interest in politics is not matched by a political science degree. Notably missing in both blogs is the ‘Howard Hating’ mentality so prevalent in too much of the debate. Just the facts.

Where is the SASR?

They’re there, they’re not there. Defence says they aren’t, this article in the Australian say they are
AN advance team of Special Air Service reconnaissance specialists has hit the ground in Iraq in an effort to confirm whether two Australians are being held hostage by an Islamic terrorist group. The small SAS advance team, equipped with sophisticated eavesdropping devices, includes Arabic-speaking troopers able to blend in with local people.
Sophisticated eavesdropping devices is not all they will be equiped with. Watch out Mohommad

Pauline Hanson to Run

Correct me if I’m wrong or being cynical but surely the only purpose is to drain votes off the Greens Drew Hutton and the Dems What’shis face? If I’m wrong please tell me. I’m sure someone will. But if I’m correct and it works, well and good. UPDATE: Graham at Ambit Gambit has more

MUA helping Howard

The more the radical unions are shown on TV, the more the voting public can see what a vote for Latham means.
Maritime workers giving away $10,000 notes handed out in Martin Place as union launches ?funny money? The MUA will launch its own election campaign in Martin Place, Sydney midday tomorrow by giving away money. Branch Secretary Robert Coombs said he’d watched the Howard Govt buying votes with tax cuts and pork barreling, so the union thought they would hand out money too.
And the ALP isn’t buying votes with tax cuts? Meanwhile; Watching the ABC show Seven Wonders of the Highways on ‘Big’ tourist attractions like the Big Pineapple and the Big Guitar. A guy is talking about a big Oyster that never actually got off the ground. Why not?
Well I went to the Bank Manager and we were talking about how hard business was with the ‘Recession we had to have’ and the bank manager told me I was paying 25% interest on my loan
Yep. 25%. I’m surprised it got past the ABC ‘Must Make Howard look Bad’ censorship rules. Fancy letting any mention of Labour interest rates get through to broadcast. That’s actual Labour interest rates – not Latham’s promised ‘we will keep ’em low if we ever work it out’ type rates. It is the rates that happen after the left wing Politicians and Union Reps front up and call in their markers from Caucus.

What happened Doc?

Currency Lad has an email from a reader about the struggle she and her husband had to put their kids through a private school. They are not happy Latham! I don’t blame her. In a previous life, a long time ago, I was a recruiting Sergeant and in one day I lectured at two north-of-the-harbour Sydney schools. The first was St Leo’s Hornsby. I was well received, the students sat quietly and listened, or at least sat quietly, and when I finished the head boy thanked me after some reasonable searching questions from the Year 12 audience. After lunch I went to Hornsby State. The gym was decked out in communist propaganda – I mean copies of USSR posters, and the students were an unruly, profane mob. The teacher, who had obviously primed them, smirked and ask me how it felt to be a murderer. I walked out – embarrassed for my self and my country. At about the same time I read an article in the Bulletin magazine about the Evatt Family. You know. Doc Evatt…the Evattt Foundation …one of Labours greatest leaders? In this article one of the family, and I think it was Doc, was quoted as advising;
Don?t leave your kids money. Spend as much as you can afford on their education.
Always ready to follow good advice, my wife and I put five kids through private schools and then helped them through University. We chose Private schools, not because of some weird elitist ideal, but because we believed in education. The Christian ethos, discipline and charters of the schools we chose, suited our beliefs. We had a choice and took it. We could see that Doc Evatt had a good point. We too worked three and sometime four jobs and in the one year when all five were at high school, we had to take out a loan to maintain the dream. Our socialist neighbours thought we were all mad. While we worked shifts to midnight, three and four nights a week on top of our day jobs, the neighbours watched ‘Neighbours’ and like the ALP today miss the point. We did it happily and ask for no return other than the kids use their education for the betterment of their community, their family and themselves. Apparently Doc Evatt, and by extension, myself and all other parents who have tried to improve on generational standards are wrong. What happened Doc? UPDATE: Graham at Ambit Gambit has some good background and comments on the education debate. Well worth the read

So What

Labour’s only defence against the woman who phoned a Perth station and pointed out an anomoly in their maths – dare I say a lie – is that she is a paid up member of the Liberal Party. She is stll right though. Latham, I see your one Liberal member getting some airtime and raise you literally hundreds of ABC and SBS TV and radio staff and half the journalists in the press – all paid up or wannabe Labour members. You have to give us some airtime. Wayne Swan shouts into the wind;
Labor’s family and community services spokesman Wayne Swan continued to reject the Poor family’s claims, saying they should not be taking into account the Coalition’s $600-a-year welfare bonus when this may not continue.”
If Wayne can get away with saying that then I can say Latham’s Tax Plan may not continue, or if he gets into power he will add all Private Schools to his ‘Hit List’. It’s the same assumption based on an unheralded event. Get over it Labour – the $600 payout exists and you can’t just wish it away. You got it wrong. What else?

The Debate

I thought Latham presented well and would even give him a slight edge in the debate. Of course, the audience giving it to Latham 67 to 33 says more about the audience than it does about Latham so I’ll just wait and see how the election campaign develops. Let the ALP followers have their day in the sunshine – winters coming.
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