Club Troppo

A digest of the best of the blogosphere published each weekday and compiled by Ken Parish, gilmae, Gummo Trotsky, Amanda Rose, Tim Sterne, Jen McCulloch and Stephen Hill

Politics

Australian

Nationals bitch slap ALP and LP in Gippsland. Ralph Buttigieg finds good news for Brendan Nelson and the Coalition in the Nationals win. John Humphrey’s celebrates the LDP garnering 4.6% of the vote, enough to leach funding from the public tit. Geoff Robinson believes it highlights Rudd Labor’s need for a charismatic spokesman to sell the need for an economic reform agenda.

Andrew Elder asks just what have the ALP achieved with their once-in-a-lifetime alignment of Federal and State power. Or for that matter, what did the Democrats achieve in the last decade?

Cameron Reilly interviewed the folks behind OpenAustralia.org.

Bid farewell to Andrew Leigh for six months, censored by the Government, while he is seconded to the Treasury.

International

Mark Steyn is off the hook in one venue, but still has the British Columbia case dangling over his head.

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While some members of the Missing Link team have subscribed their selections and others have done so partially, others (where are you arts people?) haven’t done so at all. They’re no doubt as flat out as I am with work commitments. In my case it’s finishing exam and essay marking by a strict deadline of COB today. Thus I don’t have time time to supplement team efforts to get today’s edition into a publishable form. Hence no ML again today. With any sort of luck we should be able to return to a more normal format tomorrow (although I’ll be away conferencing next week, so we’ll probably miss a few days then too). Apologies.

Thursday’s Missing Link over the fold.
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Wednesday’s Missing Link over the fold.
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Tuesday’s Missing Link over the fold.
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Monday’s Missing Link is over the fold.
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Friday’s edition over the fold.
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Thursday’s edition over the fold.
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Wednesday’s edition over the fold.
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Tuesday’s edition over the fold.
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Monday’s edition over the fold.
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A digest of the best of the blogosphere published each weekday and compiled by Ken Parish, gilmae, Gummo Trotsky, Amanda Rose, Tim Sterne, Jen McCulloch and Stephen Hill

Politics

Australian

Phillip Toledano’s new book Phone Sex (July 2008, Twin Palms) takes us into the boudoirs of nearly 30 phone-sex operators so we see their faces and also hear their stories—each operator gives his or her take on the business.

tigtog calls bullshit on allegations that Belinda Neal is a victim of double standards.  Tim Dunlop is unimpressed too.

Andrew Landeryou calls bullshit on Andrew Clennell and Brad Norrington’s reporting of the Neal story.¹1. GT: I’m willing to accept his expert professional opinion - Andy knows a thing or two about bullshit. [↩]

Cam Riley, Tim Blair, Stephen Kirchner and Tim Dunlop join the almost universal cross-factional chorus of condemnation (at least in the blogosphere) of the Rudd government’s hybrid car subsidy decision.

And on another crap Rudd government decision, Peter Martin looks at the ABS’s imminent move to cease publishing 9 separate statistical reports series to meet the Rudd razor gang’s required spending cut targets:

The Rudd government came to office promising to make “evidence-based”decisions.

Its budget cuts will destroy much of the evidence.

International

Darryl Mason notes that France has jumped on the internet censorship bandwagon.

Dale looks at Andrew Sullivan’s agonising over whether US strong-arming of Iraq over bases and associated sovereignty  should be labelled imperial or colonial.²2. KP: As if there’s any doubt. [↩]

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A digest of the best of the blogosphere published each weekday and compiled by Ken Parish, gilmae, Gummo Trotsky, Amanda Rose, Tim Sterne, Jen McCulloch and Stephen Hill

Politics

Australian

‘The hero. The leader. The god’ by Alexandre Kosolapov (via the Stumblng Tumblr)

Gary Sauer-Thompson notes that the government seems to be backpedaling on coping with climate change, and argues that private medical insurance just allows the rich to jump the queue.

Dave Bath takes the pith out of the Victorian Auditor-General’s report to Parliament.

Guy Beres disputes Greg Sheridan’s hyperbolic comparison of Rudd with Mahathir, while Tim Dunlop thinks the attitude of Sheridan and a couple of other MSM commentators evinces an undesirably apologetic cultural cringe.

Andrew Elder reflects on the thuggish antics of Della Bosca and Neal and swimmer D’Arcy as well as the prospects and organisation of the Libs on the NSW central coast.

Kim at LP rather likes Stephen Mayne’s idea of nationalising childcare but doubts it will ever happen with that closet Tory Rudd in charge.

International

Beju looks over the recent Human Rights Watch report on Guantanamo Bay.

If you thought the antics of Della Bosca and Neal were a tad gross, Hilzoy focuses on a US judge and a state governor who make them look like the essence of Victorian propriety by comparison.

Tim Dunlop and Roger Migently both call bullshit on GW Bush’s claim to be a misunderstood man of peace.

Turcopolier on Obama’s chances:

If you think that smoldering resentment towards the trashing of the United States by the Bush Administration will necessarily elect Barack Obama to be president, then I think you are wrong. His appeal is more limited than his urban, liberal, coastal, and black admirers are willing to admit to themselves. The country remains very nearly evenly divided in basic sentiment no matter how much the Bush Administration and things like the “K Street Project” have angered many citizens.

Dave Nalle plays Pick the Veep for John McCain.

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A digest of the best of the blogosphere published each weekday and compiled by Ken Parish, gilmae, Gummo Trotsky, Amanda Rose, Tim Sterne, Jen McCulloch and Stephen Hill

Politics

Australian

We should be thankful for the small mercy that Tim Blair at least doesn’t seem to believe in creationism. (Sistine Chapel detail via the Stumblng Tumblr)

fleeced and Jono both speak out against the $35 million offered to Toyota to build a hybrid car manufacturing plant in Australia.  Guy Beres has distinct reservations about the Rudd government’s decision to subsidise Toyota.

Gary Sauer-Thompson points out that higher oil prices are now the norm not a momentary aberration.

 
International

Geoff Robinson questions: can Iraq really be thought to have a sovereign government?

Possum plays pick the Veep.

At Spiked, Brendan O’Neill argues that the bile-filled assault on Irish voters who are thinking of rejecting the Lisbon Treaty shows just how corrupt and undemocratic is the EU.  Henry Farrell also reports from the battlefront (in Ireland on a visit).

Why doesn’t the Guardian want to admit that the British (and Australians) are fighting a noble cause in Afghanistan?

If you thought that story about the Muslim husband in France who got his marriage annulled because his new wife had lied about her virginity, Italian Catholics appear to have even more primitive, heartless beliefs.¹1. KP: In fact, in one sense I don’t even have a problem with the French situation. Although demanding that the female spouse must have been celibate before marriage is problematic to say the least, a marriage where one of the spouses knowingly lies about a matter she knows is crucial to her partner is certainly doomed. [↩]

Juan Cole covers possibly highly significant reports that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has advised Iraqi President al-Maliki not to sign a new security agreement with the US for 58 semi-permanent US bases and some ceding of sovereignty.

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A digest of the best of the blogosphere published each weekday and compiled by Ken Parish, gilmae, Gummo Trotsky, Amanda Rose, Tim Sterne, Jen McCulloch and Stephen Hill

Politics

Australian

Should we be worried? (via Boing Boing)

Lauredhel and Fiona Reynolds discuss the absurd import restrictions on RU486.

Apathetic Sarah and clarencegirl think it’s a bit rich awarding John Howard an Aussie Gong so soon after he became a Companion of the Order of the Boot. Niall Cook thinks it’s a bit rich awarding a gong to, apparently, anyone who has achieved anything without total altruism in mind.

Harry Clarke works through the reasons Kevin Rudd is a disappointing PM.

International

Darryl Mason notes that most Iraqis would like to know when the US military plans to bugger off home again.

Tim Dunlop looks at the claimed emergence of a military junta pulling the strings of Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe, while Norman geras focuses on Human Rights Watch documentation of systematic regime torture and intimidation of voters, and the increasingly self-caricaturing Christopher Hitchens demands to know why Nelson Mandela isn’t condemning Mugabe.¹1. KP: Possibly because he’s retired and almost 90 and figures it’s time others stood up. [↩]

Kim at LP compares Obama’s victory speech and Clinton’s concession speech.

At openDemocracy, John Casey sketches Syrian politics and society in the context of current peace talks with Israel. 

Hilzoy is markedly unimpressed by RWDB columnist Thomas Sowell’s evaluation of Obama and McCain.

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