Welcome to PollieGraph
Dear Ashley…
Some well-intentioned advice for a disgraced young Republican campaign worker.
I am sure that you have plenty of worrying and perplexing questions on your mind right now, questions such as:
• What the hell was I thinking?
• Where can I get a good trial lawyer?
• OMFG, will I go to jail?
With all that on your mind, it seems unlikely that you have looked at the longer term and what you will do with your life after the US news media and the US legal system have finished with you. I suspect that when that time comes you will have had your fill of media attention; you will be looking for a quiet, provincial place where nobody knows you so that you can walk the streets without risking angry abuse from complete strangers who hate you for your botched attempt at a racial smear on the Democratic presidential campaign. There will be Democrat supporters who will hate you for trying to smear Obama’s supporters and Republicans who’ll hate you for getting caught out. You really will need a place to get away from it all. Continue Reading »
Tags: culture wars , george w bush , john mccain , online media , us politics Comments (2)
Sarah Palin and the Angry Men
As the GOP VP nominee reportedly ‘goes rogue’ and starts her 2012 presidential campaign, there are suggestions that John McCain isn’t the only one fed up with the way the Straight Talk Express is going.
The Chicago Sun Times is reporting Mr Palin is also angry. It seems every time he turns up at campaign rallies or another town hall meeting, someone’s waving signs or making a big old fuss about his wife. Not the ‘Stay the Puck out of the White House’ signs…. the ‘Mrs Palin is Mighty Attractive’ signs.
An aide on the McCain campaign has said, “Todd [Palin] is increasingly irritated by it all. He’s a very possessive guy and totally old-fashioned and traditional when it comes to his relationship with his wife, whom he adores.” It was reported that Alaska’s First Dude said ”She’s running for vice president of the United States. … Even though these guys are in our corner, don’t they see this belittles her?”
And an update to the list of John McCain ’senior moments’. In the scramble to find some decent endorsements, McCain stated on Press the Meat that there are five ex- Secretary of States voting for McCain. Unfortunately he can’t recall which ones exactly….
Tags: barack obama , culture wars , john mccain , media , online media , sarah palin , us politics Comments (1)
Nathan Rees Has a Red Hot Joke
It’s been almost one week since anyone in the Sydney media referred to new NSW Premier Nathan Rees as an ‘ex-garbo’. Despite his own departments D-G resigning and City Rail heading for another failure, you have to love the ex-garbo’s willingness to give as good as he gets - even after last weekends bi-election ’shellacking’.
Try this exchange in NSW Parliament Question Time yesterday:
Mr Barry O’Farrell: My question is directed to the Premier. Will the Premier act on the clear message sent by the people of Ryde last Saturday and provide a firm guarantee that their rail services will not be slashed by 50 per cent, or will the spin just continue?
Mr Nathan Rees: There was only one bloke in New South Wales unhappier than I on Saturday night: Andrew Stoner.
The Speaker: Order! The member for Clarence will cease interjecting. I call the member for Wakehurst to order.
Mr Brad Hazzard: You ain’t got the message yet!
The Speaker: Order! I call the member for Wakehurst to order for the second time.
Mr Nathan Rees: A seat that should have been won by the once great Nationals taken away.
The Speaker: Order! I call the member for Willoughby to order.
Mr Nathan Rees: Defeat snatched from the jaws of victory.
The Speaker: Order! I call the member for Bega to order. I call the member for Clarence to order.
Mr Nathan Rees: The question for Mr Stoner is—in the aftermath of the previous exercise to establish the Hunter Liberals, and he will remember the Hunter Liberals and the statement that they pose no threat to The Nationals—what is he now going to do about this situation? He has been actively white-anted and undermined by his leader.
Mr Barry O’Farrell: Point of order: My point of order is under Standing Order 129. The question was clearly about the future of rail services in an electorate that voted only four days ago. Will the Premier finally answer the question?
Mr Nathan Rees: What has occurred in Port Macquarie is something like a train crash.
The Speaker: Order! Members will cease interjecting.
Mr Nathan Rees: The Leader of The Nationals remains stony-faced on this because issue he knows we are on to it. The Leader of the Opposition has white-anted his outcome.
The Speaker: Order! The Leader of The Nationals will cease interjecting.
Mr Nathan Rees: Don’t yell at me, Andrew. Have that discussion with the Leader of the Opposition. In answer to the question, the proposed 2009 timetable does include changes. It includes more services for passengers on the northern line and the Minister for Transport is currently considering a number of proposed timetable changes in detail. He is also getting advice from the Independent Transport Safety and Reliability Regulator to ensure all the options have been considered. The result is that we would best deliver on the network as a whole. I am not going to get into a debate about options until I have seen this advice and the Minister’s recommendations, but we do have the Epping-Chatswood rail line opening next year and there will be a truckload of new rail services in that neck of the woods.
Tags: democracy , labor , liberal party , nathan rees , online media Comments (0)
The Enema We Had to Have
Devine Miranda has pulled together a nice pep-talk for Team McPain, suggesting Sarah Palin “has been a powerful psychic enema, flushing out the poison at the heart of establishment feminism for all to see”.
By poison, Devine means Naomi Klein, Kathy Lette, Sandra Bernhard and others as angry (lefty) feminists inciting violence and using words of hate against Palin.
You could read this thinking people such as Anne Coulter, Michelle Malkin or any of those Fox News fembots don’t exist (actually she must know Michelle, that’s where all her ideas come from).
Of course lots of things don’t exist in Miranda Devine’s world, like reality. She seems to have skipped the part where Palin recently ignored calls at rallies such as “kill Obama” and “off with his head” or the Republican lead Troopergate inquiry, finding Palin abused her power as Governor and lives in fear of Safety Bear.
I guess the ‘flushing’ will be finished soon. Recent polls suggest Team McPain trails Obama/Biden by 14 points.
PS. Devine writes this stuff as though Hillary Clinton didn’t spend eight years in the White House and every day since copping crap from men, women and infantile rednecks wearing stuff like this or worse.
Tags: Uncategorized , barack obama , citizen journalism , culture wars , democrats , feminism , john mccain , sarah palin , us politics Comments (0)
The talented Ms Palin
There is a growing list of Republicans declaring the McCain campaign dead and/or disassociating with Team McCain/Palin.
Christopher Hitchens has joined the list with some carefully chosen thoughts on Gov Palin:
“I wrote not long ago that it was not right to condescend to her just because of her provincial roots or her piety, let alone her slight flirtatiousness, but really her conduct since then has been a national disgrace.
“It turns out that none of her early claims to political courage was founded in fact, and it further turns out that some of the untested rumors about her—her vindictiveness in local quarrels, her bizarre religious and political affiliations—were very well-founded, indeed.
“Moreover, given the nasty and lowly task of stirring up the whack-job fringe of the party’s right wing and of recycling patent falsehoods about Obama’s position on Afghanistan, she has drawn upon the only talent that she apparently possesses.”
More thoughts on Team McCain at Slate
Tags: Uncategorized , barack obama , democrats , john mccain , online media , sarah palin , us politics Comments (0)
First look at the Libs TV blamefest
Just up on YouTube appears to be the promo for the upcoming Fran Kelly ABC TV talkfest with the former Howard Government… the Howard (Wonder) Years:
Like long lost friends….
Direct url here: http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=PFnFEF_5lbo
Tags: alexander downer , coalition , george w bush , iraq , john howard , liberal party , malcolm turnbull , peter costello , youtube Comments (0)
Just Palin Stupid
As the McCain campaign gets hammered in the polls, the irratic behaviour of the straight talk express is turning to desperation. At GOP campaign stumps, there’s an increasing use of ‘Barack Hussein Obama’ to incite the crowds and links between Obama and terrorists are grist for the mill (60’s terrorists that is).
Sarah Palin continues to be the gift that keeps on giving. She now accuses Obama of being ‘exotic’ and somehow un-American because he pronounces the names of foreign countries….correctly. I guess it’s a badge of honour for American’s to mis-pronounce the names of countries on the basis that they’re American and you’re not.
What other explanation is there for this race to the bottom, when you celebrate your ignorance? Mark Steyne says the one thing he likes about Sarah Palin “is the way she says ‘Eye-raq’”. Well for all the liberal baiting and hatred of Palin, I think that’s probably the best put down from anyone. (For the record, I quite like Palin’s nails, though I have a problem with her lip liner tattoo).
During the VP debate a few week’s ago, Palin managed to name a few foreign statesmen, including the notorious Castro Brothers. As she did so, she looked like a high school student who just won a point in debating class.
McCain will probably keep talking about Bill Ayers (his political activism 40 years ago, not his education reform policies). Probably as good a time as any to remember other statesmen with dodgy friends.
Here’s one former terrorist with a former president. Or is that a former president with a former terrorist. I think you get the idea.
Tags: barack obama , culture wars , democrats , george w bush , iraq , online media , us politics Comments (4)
Muuuuuuurderers!
A majority of Victorian MPs have just become, in the words of a courageous anonymous emailer, “disgraces to humanity” by voting to make abortion legal in the state, no doubt precipitating an orgy of baby-killing as promiscuous teenagers embark on wild abortion sprees for kicks.
Prue Neiberding of Youth For Life declared to the parliamentarians that “there will be retribution”, possibly the most savage threat ever made by somebody named “Prue”.
Personally, I find it rather feeble that somebody would actually think their government is sanctioning the slaughter of actual, fully-developed people, as opposed to just foetuses, and upon learning of this outrage do nothing more than stage a protest, or write a threatening email. Pretty lame, pro-lifers. If I didn’t know better I’d think you were more interested in controlling women’s sexual lives than defending babies. If you heard they were killing kids by the thousands just down the street, wouldn’t you do anything to stop it?
Seriously people, it’s MURDER. Put up or shut up. Go blow up a clinic, or drop it.
Tags: Uncategorized Comments (19)
Malcolm in the Middle
Becoming Leader of the Liberal Party can be a poisoned chalice, especially when it’s at least a good 6 months before you actually want it.
But having stepped up (or over) to carry on the work done by Rainman, Malcolm appears to be discovering the softer side of politics. He looks totally at home here surrounded by Sonia ‘Tina Sparkle’ Kruger & Todd ‘Pants Off’ McKenney.
Then to highlight what a long and trying road our politicians tread, Malcolm did some other radio interviews recently. Malcolm, the 14 year old kids that listen to Jackie and Vyle won’t be enrolled to vote at the next election - it’s not worth it!
Tags: malcolm turnbull , media , online media Comments (2)
