Club Troppo

I find that, with advancing years, my short term memory is fading; it's getting more and more difficult to remember what I did a year ago. I understand that the ability to remember stuff that happened way long ago improves as one slips memory-less into CRAFT's disease, life be...

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My name's Mark and I'm a blogoholic. Well, I'm not drinking any grog, have just decided to change the "go out once a week" rule to "don't go anywhere except to Coles or the Uni library", and progress is happening on finalising my PhD thesis for submission . But not enough, and...

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On the 7.30 Report , Dr Peter Botsman called for a rank and file election for Labor Leader. His criticism of Beazley for lack of party reform was also interesting. Crean tried to some extent, Beazley did not. The fact that Beazley is the candidate of AWU leaders Bill Ludwig an...

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As Rex points out , it's interesting indeed to read the whole of Julia Gillard's remarks then contrast them with how they're played in the media ( SMH story here , The Age and the Murdoch take ). I'll put the whole transcript over the fold . Note the repetitious nature of the...

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From today's press conference at Melbourne Airport. JULIA GILLARD: I'd like to thank the many members of the media who volunteered to come out to the airport and help me with my bags. That was very generous of you. We thought in view of those many kind offers that it was proba...

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If anyone's still having difficulties posting a comment, it's probably because of an issue to do with the way your firewall interacts with our site. Please refer to this thread for information as to how to configure your settings to avoid this issue. As is well known, Troppo i...

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And Other ALP Leadership News Nic White at The 52nd State has helpfully compiled votes in the blogosphere primary for ALP leader. So far Gilly's got 6 bloggers backing her, the Beazer 3, Rudd 3, anyone but Beazley 1, and "never voting ALP again" 1. Elsewhere on the net, Margo...

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In a review of Elektra , Paul Byrnes in the SMH makes this astute observation : Garner looks terribly serious, her plump lips pursed into a parody of determination. Boy, that top lip is plumper than I remember it being in Suddenly 30, the last film I saw her in. That lip would...

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Continuing the age old tradition of arcana imperii in the interests of raison d'etat , Dr Condoleeza Rice has refused to be drawn on "interrogation techniques" in her confirmation hearing , saying that going into details would not be in the interests of "American security": Ri...

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An automatic consequence of Latho's resignation from Parliament will be a by-election for his seat of Werriwa. One Labor member is quoted in the SMH as saying: "There's a real prospect in the current climate that we'll lose that seat," one MP, who asked not to be named, said....

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For my money, Michael Gordon's piece in The Age is the best op/ed article on the Labor leadership contest published to date. Writing of Beazley, Gordon comments: But others are more sceptical. They see Beazley as a caretaker leader who will see the party through tough times, b...

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My grandmother died on 16 November 2004 and I, along with her other three grandsons, was a pallbearer at her funeral. One thing that was moving was a photo of her as a young woman on her coffin. The Catholic Church is now moving to restrict such personal touches : Placing meme...

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After John Quiggin set a useful precedent with his commentathon to raise money for Tsunami aid, Gianna at She Sells Sanctuary has announced that she'll donate the proceeds of her blog ads to Tsunami relief. Good one, Gianna!

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As a number of commenters have already advised Troppo readers, Mark Latham has resigned as Labor Leader and as Member for Werriwa . At some point I might do a retrospective on Latho's time in office, but at this stage I just want to wish him well, hope that he recovers his hea...

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Rob Corr at Kick & Scream has come up with a good argument for Gillard as leader - unlike Henri IV, for her, Paris isn't worth a mass. She's got some convictions.

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Hendo's jumped on the communist t-shirt bandwagon that had the blogosphere rolling last week with posts at Troppo , Catallaxy and Quiggin . Gerry excuses Prince Harry's wardrobe malfunction because the third in line heir to the Australian throne is "ignorant" and asks rhetoric...

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Margo Kingston's back from hols , and appears to be the only journalist still supporting Latho, while doyens of the press gallery such as Michelle Grattan join Jim McGinty and (by implication) Peter Beattie in demanding that he stand down . What's odd about Margo's first post...

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While voting is underway for the 2005 Australian Blog Awards , news surfaces about another award. For sexiest RWDB . ELSEWHERE : Visit Darlene's place , to learn why this award might constitute objectification of RWDBs.

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The Currency Lad has returned , and is supporting the Tractarian Ticket for the ALP leadership... Welcome back to blogging, C.L. To commemorate this event, Troppo is happy to unveil a blogosphere exclusive - a candid snap of Currency pondering his next post taken by one of our...

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