Sovietization
By Executive Fiat, W has installed a political officer in every federal agency, having oversight of policy-related undertakings and reports to Congress. How very totalitarian. Didn’t the USSR have such functionaries? Yes, they did. So who really won the Cold War?
31 January 2007
The Sydney Obsession
There is no escape. Absolutely everyone in Sydney talks about real estate. If you’re renting, you’re talking about buying; if you’re buying, you’re talking about what you’ve seen; if you own, you talk about your mortgage. Every gathering of any size is an opportunity. Every minute consideration is exhaustively examined, every triumph savored, every set-back wallowed in for whatever comforting horror stories you can receive in exchange for your own. It’s endless.
It doesn’t help that many of us take on mortgages that leave our disposable income in need of such tight controls that a weekend at the movies can nearly mean missing a payment, let alone that those on variable rates are subject to the inflationary measures of the Reserve Bank, pushing their repayments up and up to the breaking point. There are many mortgagee sales around the greater Sydney area, and an expectation of yet more to come. This would be a great time to buy, but the fact is that clearance rates have also fallen, whether for private treaty sales or auctions.
Meanwhile, somehow this has also meant that rental units are at an all-time low in availability, a situation exacerbated by the return of the university students, all in search of a cheap unit somewhere not too far from campus, preferably in Newtown, a suburb seemingly devoted to youth culture, but also Glebe and much of the rest of the Inner West. Competition is fierce. Renters line up at open viewings, and it’s pretty much first-come, first-served thereafter. Agents can’t be bothered to show units privately or to show up at showings on time, often enough. They’re rude, curt, dismissive of the concerns of people desperate for housing, especially at the “lower” end of the market – anything under $300 per week. Mind you, even $250 per week is over $1000 per month ($13000 annually), and to afford that you’re going to need a decent job. You will, after all, pay for electricity, food, transportation, and a phone, as well as an internet connection, potentially, and clothes, or laundry at least, various grooming requirements, and some relief in terms of entertainment. It all adds up pretty quickly, and taxes take a fair whack off the top of your wage, leaving little enough to begin with. Thank goodness there are still doctors who bulk-bill, but dentistry isn’t covered, and if you need a filling or crowns or a medical procedure that really can’t wait, some private health insurance isn’t a luxury.
So what can you get? Moldy carpets, chipped paint, plastic plumbing fixtures, and a kitchen that hasn’t been cleaned in a year or more (let alone windows that have), in a walk-up block of flats where the unit door doesn’t fit snugly in the jamb. We saw an amazing number of those when we were looking for our interim rental after we first moved to Sydney, and we were looking at the higher end of things. Units with no divider between the kitchen and the garage, like some new version of a peasant’s hovel, an automobile in place of the cow. Units where the investor-owner has bought the place purely for the negative-gearing, and so puts in no effort whatsoever to ensure a rental income, allowing the place to become run-down. Units where the developer has put no foresight into the design. I remember one place where renovations were made to add a bedroom in the space between the ceiling and the roof. This attic room would have been a valuable addition, except the stairs up to it took up three-quarters of the living room.
Will the unit be cleaned? No. Will it be painted? You can paint it if you want. Will something be done about the stain on the carpet that looks like the previous tenant brought their car engine in to rebuild it? It’s new. (Huh?)
Here’s my favorite: New York-style loft. It means small, with especially low ceilings, so a second level could be crammed in. (It’s like when you’re travelling outside New York City and see “New York-style pizza,” which just means nasty, lowest common denominator ingredients, and with a crust like cardboard.)
The thing is, however, that right now, renting is cheaper than buying. Short- and long-term. Right now, your money’s better off anywhere but in real estate, at least if what you’re trying to accomplish is having a place to live. If you’re capable of investing, it’s still worthwhile to have a unit or two, even if just to claim the negative gearing, let alone hanging on to it to sell when the market takes off again. The rich get richer, and the rest of us live in Ashfield.
There is no escape. Absolutely everyone in Sydney talks about real estate. If you’re renting, you’re talking about buying; if you’re buying, you’re talking about what you’ve seen; if you own, you talk about your mortgage. Every gathering of any size is an opportunity. Every minute consideration is exhaustively examined, every triumph savored, every set-back wallowed in for whatever comforting horror stories you can receive in exchange for your own. It’s endless.
It doesn’t help that many of us take on mortgages that leave our disposable income in need of such tight controls that a weekend at the movies can nearly mean missing a payment, let alone that those on variable rates are subject to the inflationary measures of the Reserve Bank, pushing their repayments up and up to the breaking point. There are many mortgagee sales around the greater Sydney area, and an expectation of yet more to come. This would be a great time to buy, but the fact is that clearance rates have also fallen, whether for private treaty sales or auctions.
Meanwhile, somehow this has also meant that rental units are at an all-time low in availability, a situation exacerbated by the return of the university students, all in search of a cheap unit somewhere not too far from campus, preferably in Newtown, a suburb seemingly devoted to youth culture, but also Glebe and much of the rest of the Inner West. Competition is fierce. Renters line up at open viewings, and it’s pretty much first-come, first-served thereafter. Agents can’t be bothered to show units privately or to show up at showings on time, often enough. They’re rude, curt, dismissive of the concerns of people desperate for housing, especially at the “lower” end of the market – anything under $300 per week. Mind you, even $250 per week is over $1000 per month ($13000 annually), and to afford that you’re going to need a decent job. You will, after all, pay for electricity, food, transportation, and a phone, as well as an internet connection, potentially, and clothes, or laundry at least, various grooming requirements, and some relief in terms of entertainment. It all adds up pretty quickly, and taxes take a fair whack off the top of your wage, leaving little enough to begin with. Thank goodness there are still doctors who bulk-bill, but dentistry isn’t covered, and if you need a filling or crowns or a medical procedure that really can’t wait, some private health insurance isn’t a luxury.
So what can you get? Moldy carpets, chipped paint, plastic plumbing fixtures, and a kitchen that hasn’t been cleaned in a year or more (let alone windows that have), in a walk-up block of flats where the unit door doesn’t fit snugly in the jamb. We saw an amazing number of those when we were looking for our interim rental after we first moved to Sydney, and we were looking at the higher end of things. Units with no divider between the kitchen and the garage, like some new version of a peasant’s hovel, an automobile in place of the cow. Units where the investor-owner has bought the place purely for the negative-gearing, and so puts in no effort whatsoever to ensure a rental income, allowing the place to become run-down. Units where the developer has put no foresight into the design. I remember one place where renovations were made to add a bedroom in the space between the ceiling and the roof. This attic room would have been a valuable addition, except the stairs up to it took up three-quarters of the living room.
Will the unit be cleaned? No. Will it be painted? You can paint it if you want. Will something be done about the stain on the carpet that looks like the previous tenant brought their car engine in to rebuild it? It’s new. (Huh?)
Here’s my favorite: New York-style loft. It means small, with especially low ceilings, so a second level could be crammed in. (It’s like when you’re travelling outside New York City and see “New York-style pizza,” which just means nasty, lowest common denominator ingredients, and with a crust like cardboard.)
The thing is, however, that right now, renting is cheaper than buying. Short- and long-term. Right now, your money’s better off anywhere but in real estate, at least if what you’re trying to accomplish is having a place to live. If you’re capable of investing, it’s still worthwhile to have a unit or two, even if just to claim the negative gearing, let alone hanging on to it to sell when the market takes off again. The rich get richer, and the rest of us live in Ashfield.
29 January 2007
Third Way
I read about Unity08 in this month’s Atlantic, and I’m thinking about signing up. Third parties have an interesting history in America, and not just because of Ralph Nader in 2000 or John Anderson (technically not a third party, just independent). There’s Teddy Roosevelt, of course, and H. Ross Perot, too. The idea of Unity08 – creating a centrist ticket by combining candidates from the two majors – is perhaps more akin to Anderson’s candidacy than it is to that of the others. And that’s the point where it falls apart for me. I don’t regard myself as committed to two-party politics. In Australia, where we’ve got a state election coming up in March, I’m more than a little open to voting Greens or Democrats rather than Labor (Liberal’s just right out). But they’re viable, established parties with a federal presence. While the Democrats have seen support shrink to nearly nothing, they’re still in there, and the Greens are doing pretty well, too, even if Peter Garrett took up Labor’s preselection offer in the last federal election. If I am going to vote for a third party candidate in the U.S., it’s because the candidate has the political appeal, the policies I support. Unity08 seems like more of the kind of nonsense that had Democrats in the U.S. trying to draft John McCain. Bipartisanship is all well and good, but a bipartisan ticket? Sounds like somebody’s been watching too much ”West Wing” (or, worse, ”Commander in Chief). Nevertheless, I like the process, I like the possible effects, and I especially like the participatory intentions. Maybe I’ll try out for delegate from Australia.
I read about Unity08 in this month’s Atlantic, and I’m thinking about signing up. Third parties have an interesting history in America, and not just because of Ralph Nader in 2000 or John Anderson (technically not a third party, just independent). There’s Teddy Roosevelt, of course, and H. Ross Perot, too. The idea of Unity08 – creating a centrist ticket by combining candidates from the two majors – is perhaps more akin to Anderson’s candidacy than it is to that of the others. And that’s the point where it falls apart for me. I don’t regard myself as committed to two-party politics. In Australia, where we’ve got a state election coming up in March, I’m more than a little open to voting Greens or Democrats rather than Labor (Liberal’s just right out). But they’re viable, established parties with a federal presence. While the Democrats have seen support shrink to nearly nothing, they’re still in there, and the Greens are doing pretty well, too, even if Peter Garrett took up Labor’s preselection offer in the last federal election. If I am going to vote for a third party candidate in the U.S., it’s because the candidate has the political appeal, the policies I support. Unity08 seems like more of the kind of nonsense that had Democrats in the U.S. trying to draft John McCain. Bipartisanship is all well and good, but a bipartisan ticket? Sounds like somebody’s been watching too much ”West Wing” (or, worse, ”Commander in Chief). Nevertheless, I like the process, I like the possible effects, and I especially like the participatory intentions. Maybe I’ll try out for delegate from Australia.
24 January 2007
Diplomatic Incident
I think it can be safely assumed that Amanda Vanstone won’t be posted to Indonesia or any other country from which refugees come to Australia.
I think it can be safely assumed that Amanda Vanstone won’t be posted to Indonesia or any other country from which refugees come to Australia.
22 January 2007
I Pledge Allegiance
Growing up in “love it or leave it” America, I always found the zealotry around the U.S. flag rather excessive, although I was thoroughly imbued with the principles of respect embodied in law: don’t let the flag touch the ground, don’t burn the flag, don’t mutilate the flag, don’t fly the flag upside-down except as a distress signal, take your hat off and put your hand over your heart when saluting the flag or reciting the pledge of allegiance or singing the national anthem. . . . It’s still all a little excessive, but patriotism is very important to Americans. At university, I took a course studying the First Amendment, the one about freedom of speech, and had to read excepts of Supreme Court decisions overturning arrests, prosecutions, and laws regarding the misuse of the flag: protestors wearing a flag patch over their crotch or burning a flag on the steps of one courthouse or another or in front of their draft board’s offices. As a result, a lot of the 1960’s-70’s jingoism the flag had come to embody was lost, watering down the flag’s iconic status, not wholly, but enough. The flag was something you saw at civic assemblies and sporting events and didn’t pay much attention to. Then we had September 11 and the flag was everywhere. M. and I both remember this one tow truck we’d often see, cruising up and down the avenues, covered with flags, large and small, whipping out behind the truck as it went by. We also remember the Sikh cab drivers who found themselves so fearful of being mistaken for Muslims they’d put a flag decal or sticker up in the cab, visible to their passengers, hoping to deflect a conversation or confrontation over what should be done to terrorists.
M. tells me the Australian flag was never so ubiquitous as it was after we moved here, post-Bali, and I well remember the high visibility it gained during the Cronulla riots. That was pretty scary, but what was worse was how the government dog-whistled their support for the bigots abusing their flag. And now they’re at it again.
The Big Day Out is a music festival. It travels around the capital cities during the summer, including the Sydney Australia Day weekend concert. Name acts from around the world participate, as well as local bands getting a bit of exposure. It’s not quite the same thing as Homebake, a multi-band concert devoted to promoting Australian performers, but it’s very popular. Last year, the Big Day Out took place not long after the Cronulla riots and there was some trouble with drunken Neanderthals promoting their own violent version of patriotism. This year, BDO has, in effect banned the flag.
Well, not really, unless you’re a politician and can’t read, or a patriotic zealot and can’t be bothered to read, or a bigot intent on promoting hate and violence.
It isn’t a government-sponsored event, and flying the flag isn’t a prerequisite for staging the shows, and if trouble-makers made the flag a security issue last year, the organizers are within their rights to request that concert attendees don’t cause a similar problem again this year. If you want to bring a flag to a gathering, stage it yourself or go to a patriotic event.
Maybe we need a nice Jimi Hendrix version of “Advance, Australia Fair” to lighten things up.
Growing up in “love it or leave it” America, I always found the zealotry around the U.S. flag rather excessive, although I was thoroughly imbued with the principles of respect embodied in law: don’t let the flag touch the ground, don’t burn the flag, don’t mutilate the flag, don’t fly the flag upside-down except as a distress signal, take your hat off and put your hand over your heart when saluting the flag or reciting the pledge of allegiance or singing the national anthem. . . . It’s still all a little excessive, but patriotism is very important to Americans. At university, I took a course studying the First Amendment, the one about freedom of speech, and had to read excepts of Supreme Court decisions overturning arrests, prosecutions, and laws regarding the misuse of the flag: protestors wearing a flag patch over their crotch or burning a flag on the steps of one courthouse or another or in front of their draft board’s offices. As a result, a lot of the 1960’s-70’s jingoism the flag had come to embody was lost, watering down the flag’s iconic status, not wholly, but enough. The flag was something you saw at civic assemblies and sporting events and didn’t pay much attention to. Then we had September 11 and the flag was everywhere. M. and I both remember this one tow truck we’d often see, cruising up and down the avenues, covered with flags, large and small, whipping out behind the truck as it went by. We also remember the Sikh cab drivers who found themselves so fearful of being mistaken for Muslims they’d put a flag decal or sticker up in the cab, visible to their passengers, hoping to deflect a conversation or confrontation over what should be done to terrorists.
M. tells me the Australian flag was never so ubiquitous as it was after we moved here, post-Bali, and I well remember the high visibility it gained during the Cronulla riots. That was pretty scary, but what was worse was how the government dog-whistled their support for the bigots abusing their flag. And now they’re at it again.
The Big Day Out is a music festival. It travels around the capital cities during the summer, including the Sydney Australia Day weekend concert. Name acts from around the world participate, as well as local bands getting a bit of exposure. It’s not quite the same thing as Homebake, a multi-band concert devoted to promoting Australian performers, but it’s very popular. Last year, the Big Day Out took place not long after the Cronulla riots and there was some trouble with drunken Neanderthals promoting their own violent version of patriotism. This year, BDO has, in effect banned the flag.
Well, not really, unless you’re a politician and can’t read, or a patriotic zealot and can’t be bothered to read, or a bigot intent on promoting hate and violence.
It isn’t a government-sponsored event, and flying the flag isn’t a prerequisite for staging the shows, and if trouble-makers made the flag a security issue last year, the organizers are within their rights to request that concert attendees don’t cause a similar problem again this year. If you want to bring a flag to a gathering, stage it yourself or go to a patriotic event.
Maybe we need a nice Jimi Hendrix version of “Advance, Australia Fair” to lighten things up.
Cleaned Water
When I started back to work after our holiday on the Central Coast, I immediately made a note to bring my digital camera along the next day, after seeing the Parramatta River from the Church Street bridge. I’d seen the river over its banks many times since starting this job, but that Tuesday, there suddenly wasn’t much water, the flood-control embankments visible, the weeds drying in the sun, and fish visible in the center, circling in remaining pools where there remained some depth. Also,
unretrieved shopping trolleys, a bit weedier than this one. It took a couple of days before I found out that the upper reaches had been drained to allow new fish ladders to be built, since there was no sign of construction. Too late, as it turns out, because today, the water’s back, even though the ladders aren’t due for completion for two more months yet. It’s just as well, though; the fish didn’t seem happy. I’m not certain if the clean-up mentioned in the Council’s website was particularly complete, but I’ll assume they pulled the trash they could reach.
When I started back to work after our holiday on the Central Coast, I immediately made a note to bring my digital camera along the next day, after seeing the Parramatta River from the Church Street bridge. I’d seen the river over its banks many times since starting this job, but that Tuesday, there suddenly wasn’t much water, the flood-control embankments visible, the weeds drying in the sun, and fish visible in the center, circling in remaining pools where there remained some depth. Also,
unretrieved shopping trolleys, a bit weedier than this one. It took a couple of days before I found out that the upper reaches had been drained to allow new fish ladders to be built, since there was no sign of construction. Too late, as it turns out, because today, the water’s back, even though the ladders aren’t due for completion for two more months yet. It’s just as well, though; the fish didn’t seem happy. I’m not certain if the clean-up mentioned in the Council’s website was particularly complete, but I’ll assume they pulled the trash they could reach.
Dreamgirls
It was so stinkin’ hot over the weekend that it was impossible to stay away from the movies, and since we already had free tickets in hand for Sunday’s screening of Rock ‘n’ Roll Heart, the Lou Reed biopic from 1998 (showing at the Chauvel, in Paddington, as part of the Sydney Festival), we headed out on Saturday afternoon for this must-see musical. Now I’ve found Dad’s theory regarding the transition of Broadway show to movie, that it should be accomplished within a year of the show’s close or the movie will suffer, to be reliable, but while Dreamgirls came in 1981 and went in 1985, whatever it took to bring this to the screen was worth waiting this long for. I didn’t see Chicago, the last movie touted as the revival of the movie musical, but I don’t care if I never do. From the first song, I was hooked, and that was before the Dreamettes took the stage and even before Eddie Murphy came out. Frankly, while every song and every performer in this movie is top notch, Eddie Murphy supplies the performance of his life and pretty nearly steals the show. He does it all, from James Brown to Marvin Gaye, and in his dramatic performance moments puts in an effort we’ve come to never expect him capable of. Yeah, Jamie Foxx is a good actor, but Murphy? Yeah, he is. Beyoncé Knowles transforms into Diana Ross so well it’s spooky, and Jennifer Hudson, well, for a girl who didn’t do well (if she didn’t do badly) in “American Idol,” it turns out she can act and sing. Not all the songs are brilliant – I mostly enjoyed the early stuff (and yes, the Dreams wouldn’t have toured China) but every song was used to good effect in driving the plot, both narratively and cinemagraphically, and the whole thing was immensely enjoyable.
It was so stinkin’ hot over the weekend that it was impossible to stay away from the movies, and since we already had free tickets in hand for Sunday’s screening of Rock ‘n’ Roll Heart, the Lou Reed biopic from 1998 (showing at the Chauvel, in Paddington, as part of the Sydney Festival), we headed out on Saturday afternoon for this must-see musical. Now I’ve found Dad’s theory regarding the transition of Broadway show to movie, that it should be accomplished within a year of the show’s close or the movie will suffer, to be reliable, but while Dreamgirls came in 1981 and went in 1985, whatever it took to bring this to the screen was worth waiting this long for. I didn’t see Chicago, the last movie touted as the revival of the movie musical, but I don’t care if I never do. From the first song, I was hooked, and that was before the Dreamettes took the stage and even before Eddie Murphy came out. Frankly, while every song and every performer in this movie is top notch, Eddie Murphy supplies the performance of his life and pretty nearly steals the show. He does it all, from James Brown to Marvin Gaye, and in his dramatic performance moments puts in an effort we’ve come to never expect him capable of. Yeah, Jamie Foxx is a good actor, but Murphy? Yeah, he is. Beyoncé Knowles transforms into Diana Ross so well it’s spooky, and Jennifer Hudson, well, for a girl who didn’t do well (if she didn’t do badly) in “American Idol,” it turns out she can act and sing. Not all the songs are brilliant – I mostly enjoyed the early stuff (and yes, the Dreams wouldn’t have toured China) but every song was used to good effect in driving the plot, both narratively and cinemagraphically, and the whole thing was immensely enjoyable.
19 January 2007
Community-Minded
Last night, someone (Sara, the Bargain Queen) finally got around to organizing a Meet-up for Sydney webloggers, the first in quite some time that I’m aware of. There were probably about a dozen of us around the table, although interestingly, not all bloggers, and three of whom work in public relations, one in particular, visiting Sydney to watch his son compete in the Youth Olympics, making up, along with a Sydneysider on a home visit and myself, a New York contingent.
(It’s funny, but I have trouble sometimes distinguishing American accents, on television or in person, from Australian, other than very broad or very strong regional accents, something I attribute to having become accustomed to the overall Australian “voice” while [or “whilst” as is the common usage here] having a U.S. accent myself. It took me a moment or two to realize he was from back in the States. I think he’ll regret only spending a week here, as well as his having succumbed to the tourist syndrome of failing to apply adequate amounts of sunblock.)
What was more interesting than such coincidences was that so many of those attending don’t maintain a personal blog, such as this one, but are more focussed on professional blogs or actual websites, as distinct from blogs in the content. the Bargain Queen, for example, follows a traditional blogging format, but its content is devoted to generating revenues, presumably through advertising and affiliate sales and referrals. If it does well, it could do very well indeed, and if it does just o.k., it could still generate a fairly substantial, if purely supplementary income. It also provides a clearing house of shopping and fashion-related links some of which even I find of interest. After all, I’m going to have to re-cover the cat’s favorite sofa sooner rather than later, for example.
So, Trevor Cook has a blog, but its focus is on blogging’s contribution to public relations, often from a back-handed method, pointing out the breadth and depth of blogs as media, but, like Peter Himler, keeping a distinct web presence from the office website, while On Voice Over uses the blog format more in the way Sara does, although with a focus on creative design, particularly with the internet in view. The other PRblogger, Steven Noble, runs Elbow Grease within the context of the firm, although the content reads in the more usually experienced blog “voice.”
Meanwhile, Luke Matcalfe’s Rapid Intelligence is producing some amazing content: Nation Master and State Master, for example, which provide statistical and comparative data on a wealth of topics (is Texas really the biggest oil-consuming state in the U.S., or does that include processing as consumption?). Fact Bites and Qwika provide alternatives to other internet search engines.
I didn’t talk to everyone, but I’d go again just to see who turns up, and what internet trends they represent. Even if I did feel a bit like a 1980’s “home-pager.”
Last night, someone (Sara, the Bargain Queen) finally got around to organizing a Meet-up for Sydney webloggers, the first in quite some time that I’m aware of. There were probably about a dozen of us around the table, although interestingly, not all bloggers, and three of whom work in public relations, one in particular, visiting Sydney to watch his son compete in the Youth Olympics, making up, along with a Sydneysider on a home visit and myself, a New York contingent.
(It’s funny, but I have trouble sometimes distinguishing American accents, on television or in person, from Australian, other than very broad or very strong regional accents, something I attribute to having become accustomed to the overall Australian “voice” while [or “whilst” as is the common usage here] having a U.S. accent myself. It took me a moment or two to realize he was from back in the States. I think he’ll regret only spending a week here, as well as his having succumbed to the tourist syndrome of failing to apply adequate amounts of sunblock.)
What was more interesting than such coincidences was that so many of those attending don’t maintain a personal blog, such as this one, but are more focussed on professional blogs or actual websites, as distinct from blogs in the content. the Bargain Queen, for example, follows a traditional blogging format, but its content is devoted to generating revenues, presumably through advertising and affiliate sales and referrals. If it does well, it could do very well indeed, and if it does just o.k., it could still generate a fairly substantial, if purely supplementary income. It also provides a clearing house of shopping and fashion-related links some of which even I find of interest. After all, I’m going to have to re-cover the cat’s favorite sofa sooner rather than later, for example.
So, Trevor Cook has a blog, but its focus is on blogging’s contribution to public relations, often from a back-handed method, pointing out the breadth and depth of blogs as media, but, like Peter Himler, keeping a distinct web presence from the office website, while On Voice Over uses the blog format more in the way Sara does, although with a focus on creative design, particularly with the internet in view. The other PRblogger, Steven Noble, runs Elbow Grease within the context of the firm, although the content reads in the more usually experienced blog “voice.”
Meanwhile, Luke Matcalfe’s Rapid Intelligence is producing some amazing content: Nation Master and State Master, for example, which provide statistical and comparative data on a wealth of topics (is Texas really the biggest oil-consuming state in the U.S., or does that include processing as consumption?). Fact Bites and Qwika provide alternatives to other internet search engines.
I didn’t talk to everyone, but I’d go again just to see who turns up, and what internet trends they represent. Even if I did feel a bit like a 1980’s “home-pager.”
17 January 2007
Closing in on 2008
While a lot of what goes on in the media focuses on how early the Presidential campaign season starts, it does take a lot of time and attention, from voters, that is. Or it should. All politics is local, as Tip O’Neill said, which means we mostly only know the politicians having some personal effect on us individually. As much as the President has a national profile, it’s the repercussions of his actions and policies that mean anything to us. “Congress” exists as a collective entity not unlike the circus. It’s only after some spectacular clowning that we notice anything in particular happening there, unless our Rep. or Senator brings home some tasty pork that doesn’t just get eaten up in the State House. But some of these politicians achieve national notoriety separately from previous runs at the White House. John Kerry went into government with a name and stayed more or less in the national consciousness, which should have helped him more than it did, when he ran in ’04. John Edwards, on the other hand, was known mainly to the media pundits, until he threw his hat into the ring. Now, he’s a contender. Barak Obama, on the other hand, stood up and delivered an address at the Democratic National Convention, and now he may run for President. And he could win, too, even against Hillary Clinton or Edwards, both of whom are often touted as favorites. Frankly, I’d rather any of these three than Biden or Kerry, and I don’t consider Dennis Kuchinich especially viable. Whether Governors Vilsack or Richardson can turn their executive credentials in their favor remains to be seen. Meanwhile, a solid announcement from any outstanding candidacy-contemplators would be worthwhile, if just so we’re not left cramming for the election too late in the piece to get a good handle on why one or another of them deserve the job, let alone who presents the best chance of taking on whomever the Republicans throw up. Much as I like Obama, he’s going to take some studying.
While a lot of what goes on in the media focuses on how early the Presidential campaign season starts, it does take a lot of time and attention, from voters, that is. Or it should. All politics is local, as Tip O’Neill said, which means we mostly only know the politicians having some personal effect on us individually. As much as the President has a national profile, it’s the repercussions of his actions and policies that mean anything to us. “Congress” exists as a collective entity not unlike the circus. It’s only after some spectacular clowning that we notice anything in particular happening there, unless our Rep. or Senator brings home some tasty pork that doesn’t just get eaten up in the State House. But some of these politicians achieve national notoriety separately from previous runs at the White House. John Kerry went into government with a name and stayed more or less in the national consciousness, which should have helped him more than it did, when he ran in ’04. John Edwards, on the other hand, was known mainly to the media pundits, until he threw his hat into the ring. Now, he’s a contender. Barak Obama, on the other hand, stood up and delivered an address at the Democratic National Convention, and now he may run for President. And he could win, too, even against Hillary Clinton or Edwards, both of whom are often touted as favorites. Frankly, I’d rather any of these three than Biden or Kerry, and I don’t consider Dennis Kuchinich especially viable. Whether Governors Vilsack or Richardson can turn their executive credentials in their favor remains to be seen. Meanwhile, a solid announcement from any outstanding candidacy-contemplators would be worthwhile, if just so we’re not left cramming for the election too late in the piece to get a good handle on why one or another of them deserve the job, let alone who presents the best chance of taking on whomever the Republicans throw up. Much as I like Obama, he’s going to take some studying.
16 January 2007
Tuesday Cat Blogging
If I work at it, I could have a nice cat-blog, instead of one full of political outrage. I would, however, have to have the camera at hand more often and then force the cats to do cute things worth photographing. If I'm going to do that, however, wouldn't it be better to video them and try to win the cash prize on "Australia's Funniest Home Videos"?
If I work at it, I could have a nice cat-blog, instead of one full of political outrage. I would, however, have to have the camera at hand more often and then force the cats to do cute things worth photographing. If I'm going to do that, however, wouldn't it be better to video them and try to win the cash prize on "Australia's Funniest Home Videos"?
13 January 2007
Tanned, Rested, and Ready for Retirement
We've just spent four days at Kim's Beach Hideaway, at Toowoon Bay, up the Central Coast. My God, this has been the best vacation I've ever had. Even though we took the least expensive option available - midweek, off-the-beach instead of beachfront semi-attached bungalow - I have trouble only in failing to imagine going back again and for longer. Three buffet meals a day, and a bell rung at the dining hour, with cocktails at seven, hundred-year-old Norfolk pines lining the central walkway, bamboo and Balinese gardens, and the beach just an arm's length (or short walk, anyway) away, I could picture myself a new Ernest Hemingway (if only it was as cheap as Cuba back then). The food was never short of wonderful and plentiful. The beach stretched for miles. And if we were slightly plagued by a surfiet of seaweed, and if the water was perhaps cooler than average this past week, it didn't matter. Father-in-law Russell and cousin-in-law Don separately threw money at us for Christmas to pay for exactly this, after all our medical travails in 2006, and for four days, we recouped every agony. Well, sort of, at least as far as it's possible to do so. I'll be saving money this year to go again as soon as possible. What I think I'd really like is to spend a week in winter and really settle into a little writerly fantasy. I'll remember to bring my own cocktails, though, seeing as how the booze is more than a little pricey. Worth every damn penny, just the same.
We've just spent four days at Kim's Beach Hideaway, at Toowoon Bay, up the Central Coast. My God, this has been the best vacation I've ever had. Even though we took the least expensive option available - midweek, off-the-beach instead of beachfront semi-attached bungalow - I have trouble only in failing to imagine going back again and for longer. Three buffet meals a day, and a bell rung at the dining hour, with cocktails at seven, hundred-year-old Norfolk pines lining the central walkway, bamboo and Balinese gardens, and the beach just an arm's length (or short walk, anyway) away, I could picture myself a new Ernest Hemingway (if only it was as cheap as Cuba back then). The food was never short of wonderful and plentiful. The beach stretched for miles. And if we were slightly plagued by a surfiet of seaweed, and if the water was perhaps cooler than average this past week, it didn't matter. Father-in-law Russell and cousin-in-law Don separately threw money at us for Christmas to pay for exactly this, after all our medical travails in 2006, and for four days, we recouped every agony. Well, sort of, at least as far as it's possible to do so. I'll be saving money this year to go again as soon as possible. What I think I'd really like is to spend a week in winter and really settle into a little writerly fantasy. I'll remember to bring my own cocktails, though, seeing as how the booze is more than a little pricey. Worth every damn penny, just the same.
What Good's an Attorney General if He Won't Read an Indictment?
Phillip Ruddock has been busy these last few years, blaming David Hicks for his own incarceration, claiming it's the appeals that have left Hicks rotting in Guantanamo. Meanwhile, he never asked for, never read any bill of indictment, and so has no real idea if there's an indictable offense at work. So when he, or his master, the Prime Minister, fail to even ask, let alone demand (as Tony Blair did for his own citizens) the release of David Hicks, it's because they can't. They haven't got the guts to face down George Bush. A greater group of cowards has never before run a country, and it's Australia's great shame they keep putting this goons back into power. For what? Mortgage rates? Or fear of Muslims?
Phillip Ruddock has been busy these last few years, blaming David Hicks for his own incarceration, claiming it's the appeals that have left Hicks rotting in Guantanamo. Meanwhile, he never asked for, never read any bill of indictment, and so has no real idea if there's an indictable offense at work. So when he, or his master, the Prime Minister, fail to even ask, let alone demand (as Tony Blair did for his own citizens) the release of David Hicks, it's because they can't. They haven't got the guts to face down George Bush. A greater group of cowards has never before run a country, and it's Australia's great shame they keep putting this goons back into power. For what? Mortgage rates? Or fear of Muslims?
What Next
So, another year's anniversary in Iraq approaches, and, after all the "Study Group's" work, what we have is an increase, an escalation, another 20,000 troops sent into harm's way, and where is this all coming from, let alone where's it supposed to get us? Speculation has it that the so-called surge is at the behest of the Iraqi government, perhaps seeking to at least get Bahgdad under control, and that may be, since it's pretty clearly not the Baker group's consensus or the Pentagon's or anything like the conventional wisdom, if anyone takes that seriously. Maybe Bush is making it up himself, and that's likely, too, since that's pretty much how we got into this predicament in the first place: he's the decider, remember? I caught David Brooks on the SBS broadcast of the News Hour, and he's doing the usual Republican song-and-dance: it's all well and good to be critical, but until somebody else (a Democratic candidate for the 2008 Presidential election) actually proposes a policy, there's nothing else to do than keep on doin'. Bull. Bush and his cronies and handlers and corporate masters got us into this neo-Vietnam quagmire, so it's up to them, to him, the decider, to get us out, to fix this and move on. Instead, he's got the new Secretary of State, the death's head, Condoleeza Rice, proposing an escalation against Syria and Iran. How thoroughly reminiscent of the 70's does Bush propose to go? It's Laos and Cambodia all over again, although at least this time, it isn't Iraq using extra-national territory, but actual state players interferring in the war, crossing borders themselves. How Bush can keep this from playing out into Road Warrior scenarios, with general Middle East conflict becoming global conflagation, has never yet been articulated. Of course, articulation isn't exactly this President's strong suit, is it? It's time to go. Get out of Iraq.
So, another year's anniversary in Iraq approaches, and, after all the "Study Group's" work, what we have is an increase, an escalation, another 20,000 troops sent into harm's way, and where is this all coming from, let alone where's it supposed to get us? Speculation has it that the so-called surge is at the behest of the Iraqi government, perhaps seeking to at least get Bahgdad under control, and that may be, since it's pretty clearly not the Baker group's consensus or the Pentagon's or anything like the conventional wisdom, if anyone takes that seriously. Maybe Bush is making it up himself, and that's likely, too, since that's pretty much how we got into this predicament in the first place: he's the decider, remember? I caught David Brooks on the SBS broadcast of the News Hour, and he's doing the usual Republican song-and-dance: it's all well and good to be critical, but until somebody else (a Democratic candidate for the 2008 Presidential election) actually proposes a policy, there's nothing else to do than keep on doin'. Bull. Bush and his cronies and handlers and corporate masters got us into this neo-Vietnam quagmire, so it's up to them, to him, the decider, to get us out, to fix this and move on. Instead, he's got the new Secretary of State, the death's head, Condoleeza Rice, proposing an escalation against Syria and Iran. How thoroughly reminiscent of the 70's does Bush propose to go? It's Laos and Cambodia all over again, although at least this time, it isn't Iraq using extra-national territory, but actual state players interferring in the war, crossing borders themselves. How Bush can keep this from playing out into Road Warrior scenarios, with general Middle East conflict becoming global conflagation, has never yet been articulated. Of course, articulation isn't exactly this President's strong suit, is it? It's time to go. Get out of Iraq.
05 January 2007
Tick, Tick, Tick
Congratulations to the new Democratic leadership and incoming freshmen. The first 24 of Representative Nancy Pelosi’s 100 Hours is underway, and the Republicans are already mounting the traditional Opposition High Horse. I hope our new Speaker gets through at least some of her agenda, including what mostly sounds like a worthy effort on addressing the 9/11 Commission’s recommendations for “homeland security.”
Congratulations to the new Democratic leadership and incoming freshmen. The first 24 of Representative Nancy Pelosi’s 100 Hours is underway, and the Republicans are already mounting the traditional Opposition High Horse. I hope our new Speaker gets through at least some of her agenda, including what mostly sounds like a worthy effort on addressing the 9/11 Commission’s recommendations for “homeland security.”
03 January 2007
Proven to Prevent Tooth Decay
Back when the threat of communism was everywhere, pinko governments fluoridated the drinking water, and the next thing you knew, the scourge of cavities was eradicated. O.k., well, fluoride toothpaste, brushing after meals, flossing, and visiting the dentist twice a year helped, but we all know that if you're worried about you children's teeth, make sure they drink plenty of tap water.
Look, seriously, we have socialized medicine in this country (or we did, until the Howard government started its push to get everyone signed up into private cover), and, with all the studies that have shown a link between dental health and general health, it would make sense to extend the program to cover preventive dental care. Of course, this is an area where the medical coverage providers are making a bit of money for themselves/their shareholders, so it's not likely to happen. I wonder how many of his own teeth the Rodent still has?
Back when the threat of communism was everywhere, pinko governments fluoridated the drinking water, and the next thing you knew, the scourge of cavities was eradicated. O.k., well, fluoride toothpaste, brushing after meals, flossing, and visiting the dentist twice a year helped, but we all know that if you're worried about you children's teeth, make sure they drink plenty of tap water.
Look, seriously, we have socialized medicine in this country (or we did, until the Howard government started its push to get everyone signed up into private cover), and, with all the studies that have shown a link between dental health and general health, it would make sense to extend the program to cover preventive dental care. Of course, this is an area where the medical coverage providers are making a bit of money for themselves/their shareholders, so it's not likely to happen. I wonder how many of his own teeth the Rodent still has?
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