AUSTRALIA HAS A FEDERAL ELECTION SOON TOO

If John Kerry leaves a lot to be desired in the character stakes, his Australian counterpart (Mark Latham) is not much better. Christopher Pearson sums up Latham's history at some length. One excerpt: "He has never resiled from the class warrior's description of himself he gave The Bulletin: "I'm a hater. Part of the tribalness of politics is to really dislike the other side with intensity. And the more I see of them, the more I hate them." Although it's not the way well-adjusted people work, Latham -- who once described himself as "a maddie" -- sees it as normal.... The journalists' nickname for him, "Biff", is jokey recognition of Latham's violent hoon streak" Pearson also notes that Latham has said of himself: "I'm a narcissist.". So we have a violent egomaniac on offer: How Leftist!

Latham's education policy also has American echoes: "Mark Latham's schools strategy has worked well to protect one of Labor's core constituencies � the public education unions. Instead of addressing why parents have been deserting state schools for a decade, and explaining what he will do to stop the rot, Mr Latham is playing the class-war warrior in a debate that ducks this essential question. Labor's strident attack on rich private schools � as if their very existence denied public school children the right to learn � is polemical politics. And it is very poor policy that will do nothing to improve the education on offer in state schools... The reason why the non-government school sector accounts for about 30 per cent of all pupils is because ordinary Australian parents have lost faith in public education. More money in itself will not change this. What will is real reform that allows parents and school communities to make decisions that suit their own circumstances. Such as giving schools the power to pay their best teachers more and to fire the duds. And giving parents vouchers for the benchmarked cost of classes, valid at any public or private school. Not to mention encouraging a culture of accountability by publicly ranking schools so we can compare their performance. But all these measures are anathema to the teacher unions, a lobby Mr Latham evidently dares not defy".

Australia's Left are Green: "Labor's chances of winning the federal election are expected to receive a boost today when it announces a strong preference deal with the high-rating Greens."

This was on the front page of Saturday's "Australian" newspaper: "What followed was a complete sellout of Aboriginal people in the greatest act of racist political bastardry perpetrated by the Queensland government headed by Joh Bjelke-Petersen. The subsequent decades of misery are only now being redressed..... The actions of the Bjelke--Petersen government were what led to the introduction of liquor canteens on "missions." The canteens decimated entire Aboriginal families and communities through alcoholism and child neglect." It's "bastardry" for a conservative government to give blacks the same right to a drink that whites have? Only a Leftist would think so.

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ELSEWHERE

The Dallas Protest Warriors have been having a lot of fun as "The Halliburton Defence Force", showing up what mental cripples the Leftist protesters are.

There is a review here of a Leftist historian who calls genocidal violence "the dark side of democracy". I guess Hitler and Pol Pot must have been great democrats! Elitist Leftists sure hate democracy!

Good to see a bit of official honesty about what an oppressive place Saudi Arabia is. Looks like Powell has been overruled. Dick McDonald has some good comments on the matter too.

Is Kerry moving left? "To the astonishment and dismay of Democratic politicians, John Kerry over the last weekend appeared to have forgotten his opponent for president. He did not seem to realize that he was running against George W. Bush, not Howard Dean. That was an understandable conclusion to be drawn from the Democratic nominee's course over four days."

Bad Deal: Review of Reconsidering Roosevelt on Race by Kevin J. McMahon and FDR's Folly by Jim Powell: "Two recent books, one generally liberal and the other libertarian, offer interesting and divergent viewpoints on what Roosevelt and his New Deal did, and did not do, to improve life for American blacks."

The biggest issue? "Family Research Council President Tony Perkins said voters should not forget the importance of the possibility of several U.S. Supreme Court justices retiring over the next four years as they vote for president in November. Calling it the 'unspoken importance of the 2004 elections,' Perkins wrote in an e-mail to supporters on Tuesday that people should not forget that the next president of the United States will make a lasting impact on the judicial rulings made by the high court. Perkins said he is surprised the potential vacancies on the U.S. Supreme Court has not been an issue in the 2004 presidential election between President George W. Bush and Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kerry as it was in the 2000 contest."

Soviet USA? Mandatory mental health screening?: "On Sept. 9, the 'Ron Paul Amendment' was defeated in the House of Representatives by a vote of 95-315. The Amendment would have prevented the funds sought by an appropriations bill (HR 5006) from being used for the mandatory mental-health screening of Americans, including public schoolchildren. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, a practicing physician for more than 30 years, campaigned against the new program on the grounds that it negates parental rights and would encourage the over-medication of children."

The not so Supreme Court: "Yes, Marbury established the Supreme Court as the Constitution's final arbiter, in much the same way as a pretender to the throne establishes himself as king by cramming the crown on his cranium and declaring, 'I'm king!' As long as the other pretenders -- or branches of government -- stand around and shuffle their feet and mutter, 'Uh, well, okay then' he's king. In other words, the Supreme Court declared itself supreme."

For more postings, see GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH and EDUCATION WATCH. Mirror sites here, here, here and here

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Anti-Americanism is in epidemic proportions in France and Germany but most people don't realize that it is in epidemic proportions in South Korea too. And what do those three countries have in common? They were liberated by America. And what is probably the most pro-American country in the world? Poland. They liberated themselves. Ego defeats rationality all the time.

The conflict between conservatives and Leftists is not usually a conflict between realists and idealists. Mostly it is a conflict between realists and big egos who will say anything to win applause

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