Friday 31 October 2008

Palin's Visit to SNL

Here she is... Sarah Palin biting the bullet and realising that if she can't beat 'em, she'd better join 'em.

Clarke and Dawe on the economy and Bush's last two weeks in office

30/10/2008 - John Clarke and Bryan Dawe's prognosis for the Australian economy.


Video: Real Media (hi) Real Media (lo) Windows Media (hi) Windows Media (lo)

Read the transcript.

23/10/2008 - John Clarke and Bryan Dawe reflect on President George W Bush's final fortnight in office.


Video: Real Media (hi) Real Media (lo) Windows Media (hi) Windows Media (lo)

Read the transcript.

Tuesday 21 October 2008

Clarke & Dawe in the financial hot seat

16/10/2008 - John Clarke and Bryan Dawe in the financial hot seat with Treasurer Wayne Swan.


Video: Real Media (hi) Real Media (lo) Windows Media (hi) Windows Media (lo)

Read the transcript.

Political Preferences

I know it's a bit late to comment on this, but...

The Government would have had a much easier time getting it's Medicare Levy Surcharge changes through the Senate if they directed preferences in Victoria to The Greens ahead of Family First in the 2004 election.

The stupid decision to give preferences to Family First in an attempt to beat The Greens to a senate quota have come back to bite them on the you know where.

It's my opinion that the ALP should always direct preferences to The Greens because their philosophy is closer to Labor's than the other minor parties... especially Family First.

Thursday 16 October 2008

Obama's Power of Change

Obama's Power of Change seems unstoppable - even getting Sarah Palin on board.

Wednesday 15 October 2008

Clarke & Dawe on President Bush's bad week



09/10/2008 - Clarke and Dawe discuss a bad week with President Bush.


Video: Real Media (hi) Real Media (lo) Windows Media (hi) Windows Media (lo)

Read the transcript.

A Danish Utopia - Left/Right Consensus

Scandinavians have always seemed to me to be eminently sensible and practical. See Volvo, Ikea, The Danish Royal Family.

Tim Colbatch writes in The Age about the Danish left-right consensus, where business, unions and government share some basic principles - and everybody benefits as individuals and as a society.

Why can't we be more like that?

Sunday 12 October 2008

US Kath and Kim

I was going to bang on about how bad the US version of Kath and Kim is, but Guy Rundle says it better anyway at The Age.

Kath and Kim was never going to translate. It is intrinsically Australian and the US version doesn't even attempt to parody the American equivalents of the Australian idiosyncrasies that the original version did so well.

I'm not saying that Americans don't get irony - that's a patently stupid statement that's often levelled at them - and they make some great comedies. It's just that this one stinks.

Here's a montage of the original... funny



and the US version... unfunny.

Snarl

Why does Julie Bishop still have that snarl on her face that says "I can't believe we lost the last election" almost a year after that glorious day?

Tuesday 7 October 2008

Keating! The Musical

I am liking Keating! The Musical more and more, the more I hear the songs from it.

I got a copy of the soundtrack for Christmas last year and loved the songs. Then finally saw the show on ABC2 a couple of months ago. It really grew on me then.

It was great to see some of the names behind the characters - especially seeing how well Cheryl Kernot took being parodied... "my heart's in peril, Cheryl"...

Alexander Downer and John Howard were fantastic too. Howard's "Mateship" is brilliant and sums up the whole sorry mess really.

It's also great to hear Libby Gore playing some of the songs on 774ABC too. Imaging playing them this time last year. The shrill cries from the Libs about bias at the ABC would have muzzled that little exercise of free speach.

Here's "Mateship":