Progress Report
The Rudd government’s 100-day report card is a good idea, something similar to what Mayor Bloomberg does in New York (publicly, but for his own benefit, as well, since he’s then able to keep track of what still needs doing, as I understand it), but why isn’t it online? A booklet’s nice, but will I get one in the mail? Will further progress reports be issued? Maybe I should join the 2020 conference so I can suggest more effective use of HTML. (And I could meet Cate Blanchett.)

Questioning Question Time
Question Time is a venerable tradition in Parliament, carried down from the British House of Commons, in which members may query responsible ministers about matters pertaining to their portfolios, all the way up to the Prime Minister. The new Labor government decided that Parliament would sit on Fridays, but that there would not be Question Time, although they have not abolished it the rest of the week. This has not gone down well with the newly opposition LNP. First, under the previous government, Friday was not a sitting day. But it should be noted that it’s only a half-session, so offering an hour to QT just cuts into the regular business of governance. Today, the first Friday since Parliament was convened under the new rules, the opposition pushed the House into chaos, even temporarily routing the Speaker. It was a dummy-spit.

What I’ve seen of Question Time suggests what should be a worthy practice of ensuring government transparency and ministerial accountability is really nothing more than childish taunting, teasing, baiting, and point-scoring stunts. Members on either side hoot and holler like a pack of monkeys at every smirk and jibe. It is useless for anything more than letting off steam and seems at best merely to degrade the parliamentary system. I much prefer the system employed in the U.S. Nevertheless, this has been truly shameless behaviour, and represents – along with the various other showboating by former front-benchers like Peter Costello and Alexander Downer – an utter lack of leadership by Brendan Nelson. Is this how they intend to conduct themselves for the next three years? They’ll stay in opposition a long time, that way.

Update: It just gets worse. The opposition are clowns. No wonder they lost.

This Doesn’t Help
The house I intend bidding on in less than two weeks is going to cost me plenty, especially since I’ll “have to” renovate the kitchen and bathroom (it’s all in working order, just in need of a substantial upgrade), so reading about someone else’s trepidations, even, or especially, from the perspective of what it means as an investment, only heightens my nervousness over the financial predicament I’ll be in for the next fifteen to twenty years. (I’d go the full thirty of the mortgage, but I do hope to retire before I’m eighty. Even seventy.) At least I can borrow against the projected cost of minimal renovations and still afford the repayments, barring coming out of the three-year fixed rate period only to find whopping great interest rates. At the pace taken by the Reserve Bank, even the five quarter-percent increases (as they’ve been applying pretty much every month) that I’ve budgeted for will be quickly eaten up, leaving me with having to contemplate new sources of income or substantial cuts along the way in various lifestyle areas. Like lunch. Savings could be a problem, too, which would infringe on my ability to travel for leisure. But I want this settled, and I don’t believe renting is viable, given that rents are going up nearly as fast as interest rates and in substantially greater dollar amounts per annum and a notable dearth of alternative accommodations. The reno should also provide, at resale, for a bit of a profit, even if I only stay in the joint for ten years.

Off On Again
Last year’s inaugural Earth Hour in Sydney has expanded, now, to 28 cities, worldwide, set to switch off their lights on 29 March at 8 p.m. Out in Camperdown last year, the effect wasn’t particularly notable, because it’s already pretty quiet out there, once you get off the main drag. Still, the expansion would seem to indicate the event’s success, even if only 39,000 individuals and about 2,000 businesses have registered their support, so far.

The Future of Death Valley
I don’t usually buy into the standard time estimates for the development of some technology or whatever that will change the future. You know, “in 5 years,” “10 years,” etc., we’ll be doing this, having that, live like this. So when somebody tells me we could have 69% of America’s energy supplied by solar power by 2050, I’m sceptical. Not because I don’t believe the technology is possible, but because the implementation is projected as taking place in less than 50 years. I’m sure it’s possible, just not probable, and certainly doesn’t factor in the opposition it would face. Vast swathes of southwestern desert don’t get converted into solar farms that easily. The studies that would have to be done are as immense as the areas of land to be converted. Should we care about all the gila monsters and cactus species to be dispossessed? What would the effect be on the weather? Global warming? It’s hard enough to work out what’s going on as things stand, but such a massive implementation would have to be transformative in many ways, and not just on reducing fossil fuel dependence and carbon emissions. On the other hand, I know a country with an even bigger area of desert where such a project could be accomplished, although the subsidies projected in this study may be out of reach.

Airpain
An argument against the house in my present suburb. Not that it'd necessarily be much better in some of the other locations. Pretty much the entire inner west is under the flight path, especially now that Sydney airport are undertaking renovations to the east-west runways for the next two years.

Bush Wins Forever
Every time the House or Senate rolls over for Bush on one of his expansions of executive power, I lose more faith in the idea that a Democratic President will accomplish any meaningful change from what the present administration has done to damage civil liberties and the Constitution itself. Hillary, locked in an increasingly tight run against Obama, didn’t even turn up for the vote, but it’s Harry Reid I blame for this, and I’m sure Pelosi will roll, too, in the end. With the Supreme Court packed for the foreseeable future, the more-co-equal-than-others executive will surely prove just as susceptible to abuses under Clinton/Obama/McCain as it has now under Bush. The U.S. is screwed.

Update: See what I mean? (Maybe I should add a new tag: "Scalia sucks.")

Remakes
In a conversation with S., one of M.’s oldest friends, we somehow got on the subject of movies, specifically Hollywood’s apparent present tendency towards remakes and sequels. As a result, I rented Infernal Affairs, which is the movie Martin Scorsese finally got his Oscar for, by remaking it as The Departed. S. said something to the effect that this was the one time he’d watched a subtitled movie and wasn’t distracted reading the dialogue, and I can echo that sentiment, and his recommendation. It is at least as good a movie as Scorsese’s, or, rather, Scorsese’s is as good as it is, failing, in the end, perhaps because the American version gives the audience a moral resolution, as Hollywood is wont to do, whereas the Hong Kong original retains the ambiguities from start to finish.

Still, whereas I won’t be bothered over the next umpteenth remaking of King Kong, and know that the 3rd in a sequel series will inevitably be a disappointment at best (but still go see it), I’ve heard good things about 3:10 to Yuma, but may not bother over the Glenn Ford original.

Housing Crisis
I guess it’s official enough: I’m looking for my next home ownership experience. I spent a significant part of Saturday running around the inner west, checking out houses for sale. Last weekend, I’d see a place at the far end of Petersham – really only another five or ten minutes by public transit from where I am now, at least in non-peak hours – with a terrific garden, gas cooking, one bedroom. It’d work, but the renovations were incomplete, requiring probably a few grand to finish, and the bathroom is outside, which would mean going out in the weather (whenever there is weather, like most of last week) at all hours. Still, it would be quiet, close to transport, and not far to shopping. Most importantly, I could afford it, so long as the price doesn’t get jacked up insanely during the auction.

Auctions, now that’s a problem. There’s a lot of competition out there, too. I saw three properties on Saturday: a very small one-bedroom in Newtown (with a non-existent garden; I’m not even sure my furniture would fit), a complete renovation job in Macdonaldtown (apparently a deceased estate, but how anyone lived there in their declining years seems hard to imagine), and a weirdly panelled (walls and ceiling) house in Camperdown, my present suburb. There is a place in Newtown that isn’t open yet (appointment only) and that is being sold directly, but I’m thinking I might go for the auction in Camperdown. It will probably go low 400K’s, so it’s not only affordable, but I could even manage a little extra on the loan to pay for the minor renovations it would require, mainly painting and pulling down and replacing the built-in wardrobe in the bedroom. Well, and also tearing out the second toilet, a cubicle in the back garden (yeah, weird, I know). The garden’s no great shakes, but there’s plenty of room for the potted plants already in my possession. Still, there were a lot of people through, mostly couples, probably with two incomes, so there’ll be competition. It would be nice to stop renting, though.

Reprise
I hadn’t previously heard of the Don’t Look Back Concert series, but when I saw the Died Pretty were slated to play the Enmore as part of the Australian sets, running through what’s considered one of their best albums, “Doughboy Hollow,” I knew M. (who’d been on the scene with these guys and even has a co-writing credit on one of their songs) and I had to attend. The series has had some real classics, and this was no exception. Ed Kuepper, originally from the Saints, later the Laughing Clowns, opened with his album, “Honey Steel’s Gold,” putting on a terrific show in his own right, but it was the Died Pretty’s night, and I’ll never understand why these guys didn’t make it in the States, let alone much bigger globally. Ron Peno’s vocals are terrific, and he’s got real stage presence. When he cuts loose, Brett Myers plays a mean guitar, and has lost none of his chops. They hit the stage at about 9:30, and for the next two hours the audience was enthralled. A couple of encores allowed them to run through a near “best of” (including M.’s number) and kept the place rocking right along.

Whose Law?
One of the difficulties of multiculturalism in respect to Islam is that the Koran is the codification of all aspects of society, not just a set of religious precepts. So while the Archbishop of Canterbury may say some integration of Sharia with English law is “unavoidable”, it isn’t that hard to see what he’s getting at, although it has nothing to do with, as opposition leader Brendan Nelson puts it, ”chang[ing] your basic values, culture and law” to suit some malcontents unwilling to integrate with society, British or Australian. In fact, we already make accommodations, recognizing the authority of tribal law among the Aborigines, for example, but also in granting priests and rabbis and imams etc. the authority to conduct marriages then recognized under civil law. Granting some limited jurisdiction over financial disputes, divorce, and so forth, doesn’t seem much of stretch, when you think about it, although there would have to be some standard of equal protection applied.

Nevertheless, I oppose such accommodations, at every level. Government should remain resolutely secular, and social transactions should be conducted within that framework. Church, or mosque, weddings should be a separate process, as should divorce. You want religious or tribal recognition in addition, fine, go for it, but it’s extra.

(It's interesting to me that Nelson's the one to come out in the news with this. I assume the Rudd government saw Rowan Williams' remarks and didn't think it worth bothering about. Nelson's probably just trying to stay visible, wedge Labor if he can, and perpetuate the LNP's politics of xenophobia.)

Sorry
One of Kevin Rudd’s promises during the election campaign was to say “sorry” to the Stolen Generation. He’s going to do it next Wednesday, when the new government sits for the first time. This is an historic moment that is sure to help bridge the modern, multi-generational rift between whites and the aboriginal peoples of Australia. I say “modern” because it is only after we have moved beyond the colonial mindset that we have even been able to perceive the problem as a problem. But multi-generational shouldn’t be conceived of as ignoring the pre-Federation centuries, and modern shouldn’t be thought to have coincided only with the post-Federation decades up through the nineteen-forties. In fact, the policies that led to the Stolen Generation persisted well into the ‘60’s and ‘70’s.

But the now-opposition LNP persist in failing to understand the need for us to say and for aborigines to hear “sorry”. They insist on knowing the precise wording for the apology before committing to standing with Labor in offering it. Well, the option exists for Labor to apologize on behalf of the government, rather than the Parliament, which would be, perhaps, sufficient, but still a shame. We could have a national healing moment and a national commitment to improving the lives of the most damaged, most vulnerable, most disadvantaged among us, or we could have the commitment of the sitting government, for its term of office, to address the problems of the aboriginal communities. This is Howard’s final legacy to the party he led. This is Howard’s shame, and now Brendan Nelson perpetuates it. By doing so, should the Coalition fail to join in, the LNP condemns its present members along with the Howard government, and along with all its constituents, to the ash heap of history.

Force Majeure
Is it significant that four of the states hit by tornadoes on the same day voted for Huckabee?

Sweetness
I’ve met sixteen-year-olds I’d trust at exercising a right to vote, but very few, and mostly relatives. There have been recent studies regarding maturation, and it’s accepted fact at this point that girls mature, physically and mentally, well before boys, but that the brain is still developing well into the twenties for both. So enfranchisement of youth, while an admirable ideal, has less of an argument than does extending the age of consent. We already don’t allow young people to purchase alcohol until age 21. Perhaps we should be doing the same with voting, military service, criminal justice, etc.

Yesterday's Voting
Still underway, back in the podes (and pending here in the antipodes), and I don't know much about delegate allocations, within or between the states, but here's a prediction anyway: even pending California, the Obama/Clinton match-up will continue all the way to the national convention, but McCain will lock up the Repugs. What I'm really interested in now is, who are the possible VP's? You wouldn't think it's a job that has much push, but when it comes to the general election, it seems to count for a lot.

Super Wednesday
Tomorrow, Democrats Abroad Australia will host an election watch at the Agincourt Hotel, in Sydney, and the Queensberry Hotel, in Melbourne, both starting at 11 a.m. Over the next few days, we'll also be running on-line primary voting for U.S. citizens who haven't already voted in a primary by absentee ballot. Democrats Abroad, the parent organization, sends delegates to the national convention, so this is our shot at being heard as a bloc of our own. Sydney ballotting will take place, again at the Agincourt, on Saturday, 9 February, from 10:30 'til 1:00, and on Tuesday, 12 February, between 7:00 and 8:30 p.m. Melbourne will go to the polls on Thursday, 7 February, at the Queensberry, from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.

Summer?
Rain all weekend. Rain today. Rain all week. Sure, it’s good for what’s left of the drought, but I’ve only been to the beach once so far this year. And the cats are not terribly happy, either.