October 17, 2004

MACK DADDY

The Sydney Morning Herald's Alan Ramsey on February 7: "Have a look at page three of The Australian Financial Review on Tuesday. There is a photo there which shows John Howard like you've not seen him before. A little grey man burdened by, what? Responsibility? His conscience? The thought of the Mack truck bearing down?"

Alan on April 3: "We have not heard the last of the Iraq fiasco. Nor should we. And John Howard, by any measure, did nothing this week to avoid that Mack truck coming for him."

Alan on June 5: "Latham hasn't budged. The Mack truck is still coming."

And Alan two days ago: "John Howard's press office, I suspect, left an anonymous 'welcome' taped overnight Sunday to my office door in the parliamentary press gallery, 'The Mack truck has arrived AT YOUR PLACE.'"

Inaccurate Al will always have his fans -- among them optimistic commenter Homer Paxton: "Al is the most perceptive Journalist around and if a mack truck is coming you better take warning" -- but the good news is a gigantic truck really is coming. It’s not a Mack, but Al should be happy enough.

(Via Piers Akerman, whose Mack-mentioning column in the Sunday Telegraph is yet to be appear online)

Posted by Tim Blair at October 17, 2004 02:42 AM
Comments

The International CXT, eh? Good. I was having a hard time finding something I could get Margo for her birthday...

Posted by: Richard at October 17, 2004 at 02:58 AM

Ultimate Big Boys Toy? Nah. Now something German like this, maybe. Or this. Or even a cheap, tiny japanese box like this.
Or for 4WD enthusiasts, this.
4 on the floor all right.

Posted by: Alan E Brain at October 17, 2004 at 03:09 AM

"...optimistic commenter Homer Paxton...", Tim?

I would have thought "...optimistic and usually incoherent commenter Homer Paxton..." to be more accurate.

Posted by: The Real JeffS at October 17, 2004 at 03:09 AM

Reading your blog, I learn stuff I hadn't known. I didn't know Aussies undertood what a Mack Truck was. I thought they called them "lorries," or "lifts," or "crumpets," or something. Over on my blog, I'm covering day 8 of the Nudegate scandal, and it isn't pretty. It never was.

Posted by: Sean Gleeson at October 17, 2004 at 03:13 AM

You're right. Damn, that's one ugly nude.

Posted by: Andrea Harris at October 17, 2004 at 03:35 AM

Everyone, read that "two days ago" link. It is very satisfying, particular with snippets like:

Howard's cup has runneth over, damn him.

Eat shit Ramsey!

Posted by: Anon at October 17, 2004 at 03:50 AM

The Aussie story about the truck contained this line:

"Ute tragic Adam Hedgecoe operates a website, Utes 'n Stuff, and was blown away by the CXT."

Could an Aussie enlighten me as to what "tragic" means in this context? It appears to be a noun synonymous with "enthusiast" or "geek."

While I'm on the subject of Aussie slang, what does "bint" mean?

Posted by: Dave S. at October 17, 2004 at 05:01 AM

Dave yes a 'tragic' is an enthusiast for something or the other.

Bint is arabic for 'girl' and found its way into british usage. It is used as a pejorative.

Posted by: Anon at October 17, 2004 at 05:44 AM

Update:

Piers Akerman is now online..

Posted by: Yoo Hoo at October 17, 2004 at 07:58 AM

The Mack Truck must have stopped just in front of Howard, and then backed up, reversing over Latham.

Posted by: Quentin George at October 17, 2004 at 08:57 AM

I would have thought "...optimistic and usually incoherent commenter Homer Paxton..." to be more accurate.

How about Homer "Morgan Poll is highly accurate!" Paxton?

Posted by: Quentin George at October 17, 2004 at 09:37 AM

LOL! Pretty good, Quentin!

A variation might be, "Homer 'Translate Me' Paxton".

Posted by: The Real JeffS at October 17, 2004 at 10:06 AM

Truck? My goodness. The thing that ran down Labor was more like a hundred metre robot overload with gigantic rotating teeth, fourteen sets of treads and three integral cranes.

Posted by: Alan Green at October 17, 2004 at 03:14 PM

now let me see.
Timbo had Iron Mark having a majority in the teens.
the Penguin had a very slim howard majority.

I said howard would win at the start of the last week.

don't call me Al has gor one call wrong however it seems given his last column he was MUCH closer to the money than you were.

In essence apart form Mumble I don't recall anyone consistently saying Howard would win as he did . Even howard didn't otherwise his whitlamite spending spree makes no sense.

timbo you can gloat if you were right on the button however since you were well out of the money perhaps you should save some of your criticism for yourself!

Posted by: Homer Paxton at October 17, 2004 at 04:45 PM

Pipe down, rub-a-dub!

Posted by: Quentin George at October 17, 2004 at 06:38 PM

Homer! stop with the Mark 'Iron noodle chef' Latham stuff!! you've been warned! i know where you live!!

Posted by: Penisis! at October 17, 2004 at 07:24 PM

I'm predicting Alan Ramsay will get sick and die before Labor get another crack at degrading Australia. All those years of excess you see...

Posted by: Steve at October 17, 2004 at 07:28 PM

Just for the interested ALL the major polls plus the newcomer got the primary vote for the parties basically right considering the MOE.

The reason most polls were 'wrong' was because of preferences. Both parties polling also got this wrong.

I tend to think that Galaxy fluked the 2PP as it certainly appears people decided alomst on the day where their preferences were going.

The reason why howard has a largish majority instead of a paperthin majority is because around 30% of Green voters preferenced the government.
No-one but no-one expected this.

for those following the US election one not only has to look out for the MOE but also WHO the pollsters poll. This is very important in the US as they only like to poll 'likely' voters.

however this precludes all those newly registerd voters.

you have been warned.

Posted by: Homer Paxton at October 18, 2004 at 10:52 AM