Archive for the “Politics” Category

But in a marked departure from what most would expect, Rudd has allowed that homosexuals are not second class citizens and any discriminatory legislation should be removed.

He’s still not keen on the whole gay marriage thing, but it’s better than anything Howard’s mob are offering!

“On the institution of marriage itself, our view is between a man and woman and it’s just been our traditional, continuing view,” Mr Rudd said.

“When it comes to respecting people in same-sex relationships I understand the absolute importance of that.”

Mr Rudd said there were practical problems with homosexual marriage, like inheritance law and social security entitlements.

“I don’t have a view at all that people in such relationship are in any way second-class citizens, at all,” he said.

Legal discrimination against same sex couples should be removed, he added.

[Source: SMH]

Realistically it was unlikely that either major party would come out in favour of gay marriage, simply because it’s a guaranteed way to lose votes for a chance at gaining some, but potentially not enough to counterbalance those lost. For Rudd to even acknowledge that he’d like to see the legal discrimination gone is, in my opinion, a pretty big step.

It’s getting a little galling seeing politicians prattle on about tolerance, acceptance and not discriminating against various ethnic groups, all while they allow intolerance and discrimination against homosexuals.

And just because everyone loves a good polling:

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By now most people have probably seen the ads the Liberal party are running “exposing” the shocking history of many Labor party members as unionists. I say “exposing” because if there’s one thing everyone knows about Labor, it’s that they have extensive ties to the union movement. The Liberal Party and their assorted media cronies never let us forget it.

You can check out the ad for yourself right here on the Liberals website.

But if you’ve been reading mythor.net for a while, you can probably guess that there’s a point to me posting about this lame series of attack ads. And you’d be right!

You see, while many Labor officials do indeed have a history of unionism, the Liberal Party leaders are hiding an even darker history.

John Howard and Peter Costello, Prime Minister and Treasurer… used to be lawyers!

I’m now in a bit of a quandary. I’ve never been much of a fan of the union movement, but nor am I particularly enamoured by lawyers. So I can’t quite work out whose history I should be hating more. It’s a dilly of a pickle!

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Tim Norton over on the Greens blog has started a “competition” for funny lolpoliticians, in the same vein as the lolcats (eg. icanhascheezburger.com)

No exciting prizes, just the chance to be featured on the Greens blog. But hey, writing things on politician’s photos is always good for a giggle, right?

Yes, that’s my own feeble effort at one. Can you do better?

[Source: The Greens Blog via News.com.au]

In the latest effort by the Liberal Party to scare the Australian public into voting for them, Prime Minister John Howard has declared that a win for Labor in the Senate would hand control to the Greens, with them holding the balance of power.

Now, while it is certainly true that that is a possibility, it is just as possible that Labor would hold the Senate outright. And just as likely that the Greens could hold the balance of power over a winning Liberal Party.

This is simply a transparent attempt on the part of the Liberal Party to convince people that a vote for Labor will hand the country over to those filthy hippy drug-happy Greens. A minor party having control over the Senate is certainly something to be concerned over, but that should not deter people from voting for their preferred candidates - on either side.

[Source: ABC News]

With the next Federal Election set for the 24th of November, I thought it might be interesting to gauge the current mood of people with a poll.

The answer to this poll is not meant to be definitive. By answering you’re not saying that this is definitely who you will be voting for and nobody else. I’m just curious - as I would think many are - to see if the percentages change much or at all over the course of the election campaign.

So, with that in mind…

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This poll will run through till next Sunday evening when a new poll will be posted. And stay tuned for polls on other political issues as they arise during the campaign!

ABC News is reporting that Prime Minister John Howard has arrived at Government House in Canberra and is expected to announce the date of the Federal Election “shortly”.

Calling the election now means that the date is likely to be either the 17th or 24th of November, with most people tipping the 24th.

Personally I find the 17th more likely, since that allows Howard to appear at all the Remembrance Day commemorations on the 11th as the Prime Minister just one week before the election.

More information soon!

[Source: ABC News]

Update #1: ABC News is confirming that the election has been called.

Howard is expected to announce the date “shortly”, alongside the first official campaign message.

Personally I find that disgraceful as the announcement of the date ought to be seperate of any political maneuvering. It is bad enough that a Government can manipulate the date in this fashion, to have the incumbent allowed to announce the formal commencement of the election campaign and the date of polling alongside political statements of their own is an absolute disgrace.

But what else would you expect from the Liberal Government at this point?

Post will be updated with the election date once it has been announced!

Update #2: The election has been confirmed for the 24th of November.

Batten down the hatches, this is going to get messy!

The Liberals have been at it again recently with yet another big meeting to decide whether Peter Costello’s smirk is just too much of a vote killer to risk it.

As expected, the answer was yes, so John Howard will be leading the Liberals into yet another Federal Election.

However to put an end to the debate once and for all, it was decided that at some point during the next term - a point as yet unannounced - Howard will retire from the leadership and hand the reins over to Peter Costello.

This prompted more speculation, this time regarding whether that handover would also mean Howard would force his electorate into a messy by-election at some point during the next term. However, that has since been refuted:

“If I’m returned and the government’s returned at the coming election I will serve my full term at the member for Bennelong, the full three years, and I won’t be inflicting a by-election on the people of my electorate.”

[Source: SMH]

And it seems this has satisfied everyone.

I’m sorry, when did John Howard become trustworthy again? This is the man who said there would never ever be a GST, children were being thrown overboard by so-called “boat people”, foreign debt would be reduced and a number of other greater or lesser lies.

His promises to retire from the leadership and to stay for a full term ought to be seen in the proper context.

Am I alone here? Do people really think Howard will keep his word?

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At the moment there are two sets of advertisements running on Australian TV, one set in favour of the Government’s recently enacted Workplace Agreement laws and one against them.

Which set of actors do you suppose got paid more?

Eleven members of the cast and crew for ABC TV’s “The Chaser’s War on Everything” have been arrested and charged over an incident in Sydney today.

Chas Licciardello and Julian Morrow, among others, put together a fairly small motorcade to impersonate one of the official delegations who are in Sydney at present for the APEC summit.

“No particular reason we chose Canada,” said Taylor. “We just thought they’d be a country who the cops wouldn’t scrutinise too closely, and who feasibly would only have three cars in their motorcade - as opposed to the 20 or so gas guzzlers that Bush has brought with him.”

[Source: SMH]

Sounds fairly harmless, right? It seems like half of Sydney is in lockdown to ensure the security of APEC, so a fake Canadian motorcade should be picked up pretty quickly, right?

Well, no, as it turns out. Early reports suggested the Chaser boys managed to get past one of the supposed-to-be top security checkpoints without being stopped and later reports are suggesting that they actually managed to be waved through two checkpoints and were in fact only stopped when Chas Licciardello - dressed as Osama bin Laden - exited the vehicle.

The crew members were in a convoy of three cars and two motorbikes, which was reportedly ushered through two checkpoints in Sydney’s APEC security zone.
The convoy was pulled over in Macquarie Street in a block adjacent to the InterContinental Hotel where US President George Bush is staying.

Regardless, it’s clear they did, in fact, penetrate the very high security that has been giving Sydneysiders headaches for weeks. Considering this is just 11 bozos from a satirical ABC TV show who made it through security, not a crack squad of highly trained terrorists, you would think the Police Minister might be left a bit red-faced by this debacle.

NSW Police Minister David Campbell denied he was embarrassed by the comedians’ ability to penetrate APEC’s restricted zone - rather, he was pleased the “multi-layered” security had worked.

I have to wonder what would have happened if the Chaser boys had been assassins. Would they have gotten all the way through and assassinated a world leader? And if they were then caught, would Campbell be pleased that the security had worked and the perpetrators caught? I think not.

Perhaps the most ridiculous part is what they’ve been charged with - “entering a restricted area without justification.”

Justification? How’s “exposing gaping flaws in the organisation of security for the APEC summit and generally making a mockery of very important people” grab you? Seems a good enough reason to me!

Tune in to Your ABC on Wednesday, 9pm for “The Chaser’s War on Everything“. It ought to be a real hoot this week!

[Source: SMH & The Daily Telegraph]

I know that seems an obvious statement, between the bombs and the knives and the guns and so on, but it never really struck home until I saw this picture today.

An elderly Iraqi woman shows two bullets which she says hit her house following an early coalition forces raid in the predominantly Shiite Baghdad suburb of Sadr City.

[Source: AFP via Yahoo]

I know that the common opinion regarding the intelligence levels of soldiers is that they’re a tad on the low side… but even the armed forces of Third World countries know that you fire bullets at things, not throw them.

Hey, Iraqi propagandists? You’re doing it wrong!