McCarthies Under the Bed....

I am outraged. No joking this time...

The latest Liberal Party stunt is to get students at Uni and at high school to narc on their propagandising "lefty" teachers in an effort to blow the lid on the vast left wing conspiracy that is the education system. The source for this news is that purveyor of propaganda par excellence, the Daily Telegraph.

Apparently the libs will use this information to hold a Senate enquiry to the biased teaching going on in Australian schools and unis. I wonder if we could have an enquiry about the rabid rightwing propaganda of media outlets like the Daily Telegraph too?

The first thing that we should note is that clearly there are not enough grown up Liberals to undertake this very important work so the last remnants of 'talent' the party has will be undertaking this campaign of repression.

Nice work Young Libs... it is so pleasing to see you are taking your responsibility of keeping campuses everywhere safe for the white and advantaged seriously.

So really we are looking to create some McCarthyist campaign in the very places where the last vestiges of free thought and enquiry may still exist.

Awesome.

What the Libs are actually saying is that we are all too stupid to think about and question what we learn. Loving that vote of confidence.

If there are so many proselytising lefties perhaps the Libs should have stopped defunding education in Australia so it was more attractive to the selfish and venal who make up their support base?

And if this is true, how come there are still so many bloody young libs left?

Seriously the vast left wing is not doing very well now is it?

Dr No (Mates)

So I said they'd keep on giving but even I could not anticipate this deliciousness....

Recently a poll result was released showing just how unpopular the Good Doctor actually is. Dr Nelson's approval ratings have plumbed new depths.

Now you could have been forgiven for assuming that after hitting the 9% mark in the preferred PM stakes there was nowhere esle to go. I mean there must be a critical mass of of die hard Liberal voters who would always prefer a Liberal Government led by anyone to Labor.

Apparently it's not 9%.

In fact the Good Dr's approval rating is at a meagre (and utterly embarrassing) 7%. This despite of the fact that around 37% of voters would prefer a Liberal Party Government (wackos!).

Ouch!

Not even the Lib grassroots can muster up any affection for Australia's (least) favourite turncoat.

So where does this leave us? Well sitting pretty, at least until Labor actually does something. Not that I want to detract from ratifying Kyoto or attempting to heritage list the Kokoda trail. Nor do want to cast any negative aspersions on the Apology to the Stolen generations which was in my opinion one of the best moments in Australian parliamentary history.

But it has to be said the Labor party hasn't spent any money and they didn;t make many promises in order to win the election.

Roll on the budget and we'll see what they are really made of (more of the same I'll bet). We'll also see what the most unpopular man in politics can make of himself... if anything at all.

Don't know about you, but I am not holding out high hopes.

They Just Keep on Giving

This blogger was truly concerned that a change in government might mean no more fun.... No more Liberal party antics to post about.

Well never fear, they just keep on giving!

ABC's 4 Corners had an episode that exposed the goings on in the Liberal party in the lead up to the 2007 election.... what fun!

Unfortunately I missed the show but I did catch this article in which Mr Joe Hockey announced that Cabinet did not fully grasp the implications of the changes to IR laws that WorkChoices heralded. Specifically that they didn't understand that "workers could be worse off under Work Choices".

Que?

You mean that the people who supposedly debated the policies, were responsible for tinkering with (read utterly destroying) Industrial Relations policies that seemed to be well, working just fine, that forced them on an unwilling and unsupportive public, didn't actually KNOW WHAT THEY WERE DOING?!!

Well that makes me for one feel so much better.... I mean what JH is saying is that they didn't really mean to screw us over. On the contrary they just weren't bright enough or didn't care enough to fully understand their own policies.

Whew, that's a relief.

But now, all of a sudden I am regretting the election result. You mean we chucked out a whole lot of well meaning ignoramuses, all because we want our rights at work protected... Goddammit, how short sighted of us!

The New Matilda also published an article about the problems within the Libs (yes indeedy there is a lot of good reading at the moment). Andrew Elder contends that their biggest problem is an inablity to create a post-Howard 'narrative' since the party was in effect Howard. Apparently JW destroyed dissent and opposition in his pursuit of absolute loyalty and now no one knows how to distance themselves from him or create a new set of guiding principals... or something.

Methinks they will have to find a better leader than the Good Doctor to do that.

As much as there is a part of me that rubs my hands and licks my lips in anticipation of a longterm Liberal meltdown, there is another that is more than a little worried by it.

We all know what happens when there is no strong opposition in a democratic system. If you don't, move to New South Wales.

In a recent poll the NSW Premier has only a 30% approval rating. Pollsters asked voters who they would prefer out of Iemma, Turnbull, Barry O'Farrell, Michael Costa and John Watkins to lead the state. Iemma still comes out on top (just) but interestingly his closest rival is Turnbull who is in the Federal parliament. Of the two who seem most likely to replace Iemma, O'Farrell, current state Liberal Party leader got a measly 17%. It comes as no surprise to me that NSW State Labor government thinks they can do what they like, you know like privatise our power despite the fact that over 60% of people in NSW don't want them to. There isn't anyone in politics to tell them they can't.

So while the sadist in me will continue to enjoy the thrashings of the Liberal Party, the political junkie will remain concerned. Then again.... perhaps accountability is overrated.