News
Tony Abbott yesterday tried to modify his negative image with a positive speech at the National Press Club. He actually framed it in exactly those terms. So, was this the dawning of an exciting new era of actual policy for the Coalition? A time of vision and forward-thinking politics? Well, he did spend the first half of the speech positively ripping into the Government, accusing them of waste and mismanaging the economy (every time a Coalition member says this and the assembled people don't laugh in their faces at how stupid it is, a puppy gets shot out of a cannon into a turbine fan on your birthday), before launching into a laundry list of vague policy prescriptions most of which involved either doing nothing or simply undoing everything that had been done since Howard had been ousted, and the rest of which hadn't actually been sorted out yet, but rest assured Tony was working on it and you'd definitely hear something about it within weeks of the next election. If anyone came out of that speech yesterday feeling particularly illuminated as to Tony Abbott's vision for this country, I'm going to presume they're either a new citizen or illiterate. But hey,
he's still leading in the polls 54-46, so maybe this is all he needs.
Gina Rinehart, our richest citizen by quite a significant margin and, from all reports (including
that of her late father), a generally loathsome human, seems to have
made a tilt at picking up a significant stake in Fairfax Media. Already controlling 4% of the company, she's purportedly made it to 9%, but wants to get to 15% i.e. enough to guarantee her a position on the board. Which I guess would sort of make her my employer... Hi Gina! I'm sure you're really nice in person!
Julian Assange's TV career continues from strength to strength, with news that
he's soon to appear on an episode of The Simpsons. Because Rupert Murdoch loves Wikileaks. And Julian Assange no longer seems to be in the business of leaks.
Newt Gingrich is having a tough time in Florida as last minute polls reveal
a 15 point deficit to Mitt Romney in today's primary, he faces up to
a February where almost every primary will go Romney's way, and
he's being sued by the writers of the song 'Eye of the Tiger' for playing it at his campaign rallies. Still, Gingrich is defiant, vowing to take his campaign all the way to the Republican Convention, and with luminaries such as Herman Cain, Sarah Palin and Rick Perry behind him, why wouldn't he? He's the king of the idiots of America! (Thank you, 30 Rock).
The UN Security Council meets this morning to debate an Arab League backed Syria Resolution which would call for Assad's immediate departure from the Presidency. While it has the support of Britain, America and France, China remains ambivalent and Russia is steadfast in opposition. Russia frames its resistance as concern that the vote would push the country toward civil war a la Libya, but given the scale of Russia's arms sales to the Syrian army it's probably reasonable to impute a fair amount of self-interest into their antagonism. Also a la Libya, Russia is trying to frame itself as a global powerbroker, hence its generally hamfisted efforts at conflict mediation over the last year or so. Russia will almost certainly veto the Resolution, so it's hard to know what the end game is here besides all out civil war, but one lives in hope.
Features
Eureka Street on why Gingrich, divisive and corrosive as he might be, is also
the only candidate that could defeat Barack Obama. Under the right circumstances i.e. the second coming of Jesus and/or John Belushi.
As the nuclear situation in Iran seems to be easing slightly,
the New Yorker on the diplomatic state of play and the perils of conflict.
Oddities/Curiosities
I always wonder if airport security staff are aware of how ridiculous they are, but I think now I'm convinced it's all an exercise in performance satire.
Two Irish tourists were arrested and refused entry to America after one of them tweeted to a friend 'Free this week, for quick gossip/prep before I go and destroy America?' (because terrorists love gossip) before following it up by quoting Family Guy: "3 weeks today, we're totally in LA pissin' people off on Hollywood Blvd and diggin' Marilyn Monroe up!". Officials searched their bags for shovels and everything. They were held for 12 hours and then returned to the UK. Marilyn Monroe remains safely interred. As far as we know.
Now here's a death that requires further explanation.
Video
Don't you love Stephen Colbert and want to lick his face to try and steal his power? I know I do. On the show on Monday he played
the first part of an interview with 'Where The Wild Things Are' author Maurice Sendak and the results are just amazing. Sendak don't take no shit. And for the sake of the embedding, here's the Super PAC ad from a couple of weeks back that he ran against himself. That's some meta satire right there. Also, Samuel L. Jackson.