Fatally flawed policy and politics

As if Stephen Conroy’s grand plan to protect us from the Internets wasn’t bad enough. Now his office has taken to attempting to stifle criticism:
On Tuesday, a policy advisor for Senator Conroy, Belinda Dennett, wrote an email to Internet Industry Association (IIA) board member Carolyn Dalton in an attempt to pressure Newton into reining in [...]

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Constructive disagreement vs constructive disengagement

A recent post by Coby at A Few Things Ill Considered feeds into something I have been thinking about lately. He says:
I poke into Jennifer Marohasy’s blog from time to time, though I am no longer a regular commenter. I gave that up a couple of years ago but still take any special cases as [...]

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Reverse-framing

I posted a comment in response to the Blair/Bolt Watch Project’s formulation of Bolt’s Law:
Bolt’s Law: the ongoing process by which teh Right’s multiple moral crusades are becoming one giant, intertwined idea despite their complete lack of anything to do with each other.

It was a hastily written reaction to something that I have been bouncing [...]

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I’d have said ‘Howard-esque’

As expected – the claim and counter-claim about whether all legislation should be rammed through without parliamentary oversight or should be held up needlessly gets underway.
ELSEWHERE: Some commentary from Tim Dunlop – it’s interesting that Joe Hockey is happy to acknowledge that “payback” is part of the motivation for trying to stall legislation.

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Agreement with GrodsCorp

I has it.
UPDATE: On the flipside is this tactic from the Opposition, which manages to both (i) stall the Government’s plan to eliminate a clear form of discrimination and (ii) implicitly suggest that homosexual partnerships are on a par with siblings and other carers rather than married or de facto heterosexual couples. There should not [...]

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Big Gun vs Red Julia

The IR czars are holding their National Press Club debate today – 12:30pm EDST on ABC (no indication in my TV guide of Nine/worm coverage). I’ll be in a cave, during that time, so I’ll have to catch up on it later.

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The best of debates; the worst of debates

The good news: Joe Hockey and Julia Gillard are having a debate.
The bad news: It’s on Sunrise this morning. Based on last week’s Turnbull vs Garrett match-up, it won’t exactly break new ground or provide real debate, but it’s (hopefully) better than nothing.
UPDATE: Joe promised to resign as a Minister if there are any substantial [...]

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Running from a hiding

Howard won’t put himself through another debate:
“We had a good debate two weeks ago,” he told reporters in Darwin.
Well, one of you did.
Someone needs to do this to JWH on his morning walk tomorrow:

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Treasurers’ debate liveblog

Swan wins the toss and will kick off. Costello to run with the wind.
Swan opening: Australia needs a plan. Ours is about investing in our people. We’ll follow strict rules for fiscal restraint. You can’t fix jack without a strong economy. Prosperity has come from reforms and helped by the mining boom. We have a [...]

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Debate reminder

Smirk vs Trade Union Member.
12:30pm (EDST) on ABC.

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