(Above: the pond acknowledges that it is writing while in the traditional presence of British carpetbaggers and pays respect to the carpetbagger elders past and present who have worked so hard to maintain their heritage, beliefs and relationship to this land. The pond acknowledges the continuing importance of the carpetbaggers in Sydney today).
Phew, thank the lord that's over, these ceremonial duties get more onerous and burdensome by the year.
But it's so exciting to have the royals to hand in the state that exceeds all other states, the premier state, the first state, the state par excellence.
How many other states would go where New South Wales boldly goes, by calling an inquiry into an inquiry? An investigation into an investigation, but sssh, never you mind about what's being investigated.
Oh that Bazza, he could get a job scripting Yes Minister (should we keep the inquiry into pedophilia in the Catholic church narrow? Why, yes minister - Calls to widen clergy inquiry across state, forced video at end of link).
But wait, Bazza's gone one better in the matter of the very fast bus and tricycle connection to Sydney's second airport at Canberra.
What else to do to further the dream, but approve a 1-2,000 home development on the NSW side of the border right in the way of the flight path for all those very fast planes whisking Chinese high rollers to James Packer's pre-approved casino - for the good of god, country, low rollers and state - at Barangaroo.
Naturally the muffins in the NSW government fought back hard, as you can read in ACT airport hub still possible: NSW government.
It was still possible. The dream was alive. Yes Minister.
Naturally Albo took a stand, calling the very notion farcical and completely contradictory, but even jolly Joe Hockey took a view:
The shadow treasurer, Joe Hockey, said it ''does seem odd the state government would approve additional residential housing around Canberra Airport, when it says that should be the second airport for Sydney''.
Mr Hockey, who has previously described Mr O'Farrell's position on Sydney Airport as ''absurd'', said yesterday ''the Premier is entitled to his views but we should really be honest and deal with this issue in the Sydney Basin''.
''Canberra Airport was never a viable option as Sydney's second airport and it certainly isn't now.'' (here)
Minister Hazzard (now there's a name for a politician) valiantly kept pushing shit up hill, but the punters weren't helping:
Mr Hazzard said conditions placed on the rezoning approval meant it would not impede the airport's expansion, but the Canberra Airport managing director, Stephen Byron, has said the development ''severely compromises Canberra Airport's ability to serve as an overflow for Sydney … and Barry O'Farrell's only option for a second Sydney airport is about to be lost forever''.
It took five years for dingbat Senator Stephen Conroy to be persuaded by hard-headed realists that his truly awesomely stupid "giant filter that would filter everything and could be by-passed in a nanosecond by a child" was an awesome step towards China, and not much else.
How long will Bazza keep peddling the Canberra dream? So long as there are mugs to imbibe the kool-aid. Yes Minister ...
When mainstream politicians are so loonish, it barely leaves the pond any time at all to acknowledge the work of other valiant members of the commentariat, but we really must reserve a place for Angela Shanahan at the table of ideas.
Indeed, and the next time you see the Shanahan family on the road, or making use of any facility provided by the state, like a national park or a museum, run the beggars off the bloody road.
Happily Shanahan's Stop welfare churn: put the nuclear family back where it belongs is behind the paywall, and if you feel the need to pay for this sort of stuff, the pond can recommend a good psychiatrist (I know, I know, it breaches the four 'p' rule - have nothing to do with police, psychiatrists, priests and prison wardens - but these are desperate times.
There's really nothing to be said about Shanahan's piece, except to ask why The Australian didn't put below it a disclaimer advising that she was the mother of nine children, so of course she'd scribble the special pleading they published for reasons known only to themselves.
Shanahan is indignant about all this talk of middle class welfare, and why money should be shovelled down the throat of families (did we mention mothers), but it's mostly low comedy until the typo gremlins hit the highway and induce a kind of garbled delirium where you wonder if you read what you just read, and why you thought it made any kind of sense:
On and on it goes, reducing blather to hapless babble. A couple of the better ones:
Suddenly everything the family had been entitled to as a deduction ntsGrom their income tax nteeame "welfare"...
...Acknowledging the family in the tax system isn't just a freebie or handout. It is basic justice. Even the Americans do it! Tony Abbott tried to introduce ntsGet ntenome-splitting, more than once. Peter Costello thought it would affect revenue too much. Whether this is true now, with payments for childcare blowing out, is a moot point. If the welfare system were pared back to ntsGor ntetose that really need it, it might still be possible.
And ntsGor ntetose to you, mother of nine.
Thankfully the typos helped make an unreadable piece - Shanahan is always unreadable - truly unreadable, what with the pious hope that Tony Abbott would put the family, breeding - have one for the Pope, one for the Church and half a dozen for the Catholic school system - and lavish taxpayer funding at the disposal of family types, and expect, zero, zilch, not even three fifths of fuck all an acknowledgement of the state's generosity.
The family doesn't owe the state anything? Not even thanks? Certainly not from the "give it to me, me, me" Shanahan mob ...
Now you can see how all this starts to compound, What with Bazza and Shanahan, the pond has almost no time for Christopher Pearson brooding about the Republicans.
Fortunately there is almost nothing worth reading in GOP candidates' folly that cost (behind the paywall for your peace of mind) except to remind the world that two weeks before Pearson had written with optimism about the Mittster's prospects in Appeal to the base, reach the apex (behind the paywall because the Oz thinks there are mugs who will pay for nothing).
In that piece, Pearson maintained the hard line rage, and the sense, the hope, the dream, the delusion that Obama might be doomed, and by the minorities eager to be crushed by Republican love and care:
The appeal to the base was clearly on display at this week's debate. Romney cited his faith in God as central to his ethos and talked tough on gun policy. Obama raised the controversy over provision of contraception under his healthcare policy and obliquely referred to abortion. From both, this was an unambiguous signal to their base: "I am your guy and he is not."
In the absence of a game-changing surprise in the next fortnight, what will determine the outcome is who is most effective in bringing out his base. Romney has not made the mistake of backtracking to his old, more moderate positions. Obama may well win the white working class, where he has struggled before, but face danger from a less expected quarter.
Black and Hispanic voters are the hardest hit by ongoing growth in the number of millions seeking work, and are over-represented among those who have dropped out of the labour market. Catholic voters may well disagree with their bishops about contraception, but they nonetheless have a tribal sense of solidarity that has been threatened by the Obama-care controversy and other attacks on religious freedom. Young voters are disillusioned by the lack of hope and change that has actually eventuated, despite the promises. That's why the subtext of the Obama campaign is: "I know you're disappointed, but things would be worse with the other guy."
If Obama fails to win a second term, it is most likely that it will be because of the failure of his flank to hold firm: minority voters, social justice-minded Catholics and young people who decide to stay home on election day.
It's worth quoting at length because it shows just how inept Pearson is at reading the signs - pick a sign, any sign will do, Aries if you like.
In today's piece, he's suddenly experienced a Hannity-like transformation. (Sean Hannity Flips On Immigration Reform, Now Supports Pathway To Citizenship).
Pearson does exactly the same flip in relation to the base. First there needs to be fiscal responsibility and no fantasies about abolishing all taxes, and pro life but not saying women who are raped can will themselves not to get pregnant, and an iron fist in a velvet glove in the Middle East, and never you mind that these are all exactly the sort of talking points that were led by fundamentalist theocratic true believing narrowly conservative Republicans in the expectation that it would get out the base, the very base that Pearson contended would be the game changer, until the game changed and suddenly the gase wasn't so important, and changing demographics were and so there needed to be a new base:
The second big lesson for Republicans is to wake up to the rate of demographic change in the US. The GOP needs to appeal more to women, to minorities and to youth. That doesn't mean abandoning basic principles and mimicking the Democratic Party. The Republicans will never win a majority of African-American voters, but even going from 10 per cent to 20 per cent makes a huge impact in key states. How is it that George W. Bush won 44 per cent of the Hispanic vote in 2004, but Romney could manage only 27 per cent this year? Because the party has allowed itself to be knocked off course, pandering to anti-immigrant sentiment that ignores economic realities.
Hannity and Pearson. Two peas in the same deluded pod.
But he's not the only deluded one who's suddenly found a new brand of kool aid:
Say no more. After months, years of Obama-bashing, there's hope in the wind. Or is that just wind in the Sheridan.
And then there's a sign that The Australian is destined to get even more eccentric.
The pond never referenced George Megalogenis - this is a pond for loons, not for the few relatively sane members of the Murdoch press - and now George is gone, leaving the loons in control in paranoid castle. A wise move perhaps - he's been transparently ambivalent these last few years - but a loss to the paying readership.
The trivialisation of political debate began with Howard and his well-intentioned, but ultimately self-defeating attempt, attempt to reach ordinary Australians through the Alan Jones program. The problem wasn't Jones so much as the idea that politicians should defer to the abuse of his listeners. Hawke and Keating would never have been quite so obliging.
The precedent of excess accessibility, once set, can lead to the unintended consequences of Kevin Rudd. Howard was beaten at his own game by a younger version of himself, who could go to studios where the older man wouldn't dare. Rudd was your pal on morning television, the butt of gentle ribbing on FM radio through the day and fielding questions on who he would turn gay for on evening television.
Amen to that George, all the best in the real world, and amen to your coda about way back when: Journalists didn't have to endorse a party; they explained the policy on release and went back to the field after its delivery to see how it was working.
Tell that to the crusading geriatric demographic of aging white men who run the lizard Oz.
Now to get back to where we started, an eternity ago, it's only left for the pond to note that George is leaving a paper which seems to have turned proudly monarchist, with dutiful reporting of the royal tour, and with updates on backsliding republicans like Tom Keneally.
Poor Tom, he barracks for Manly, what would he know, and now he's been set up for the gloating of David Flint about how wondrous Charlie and his darling are ... and never mind that tampons can't and shouldn't talk.
Regal jotting: the royal couple will leave Sydney at mid-day via its first airport to land in Canberra at Sydney's second airport ... housing development permitting ...
(Below: regal musings at the Oz).
A week of farewells then:
Oh yes you are Christopher Pearson, you're still a teapot ...
DP, did you read Fairy wrens show importance of Mum's word?
ReplyDelete... superb fairy wren mothers teach a "password" to their young while they are still in the egg as a means of identifying them when they want to be fed ...
On the strength of George M's farewell to Roop, it seems pollies & the press are locked together like litter mates, imprinted to open their mouths for a feed together.
We are in a race to be first to stop thinking.
So, who is their Mum?
Well, if Pell can tell our elected reps they cannot call a Royal Commission, while the media stand around with mouths open going "cheep-cheep" there's a contender.