Tim Blair

IT'S ALL ABOUT MARK

Sounds like Matt Price is becoming a little bored with Mark Latham's raging sense of self:

Remove the perpendicular pronoun from Latham's impeccably delivered 41-minute speech and it might have finished under half an hour ... I say. I will. I want. My life. My home. In Latham's view, Labor's campaign is the extension of his life story where he, Janine and the boys live happily ever after at The Lodge.

"It is I, come to rescue you all. Do not be afraid, little ones."

Latham’s still at it today:

"I'm not a choker, I don't get the wobbles, I'm advancing good policies for the benefit of the Australian people ... At my age, 43, I'm in the prime of my life, I've got a lot to offer the country ... I'm giving the Australian people the guarantee (that) Mr Howard won't, that I'll serve a full term ... I'm there for the long haul fight against terrorism, to build up our health and education systems."

Please stop talking! In other election news:

• An insane telephone retailer is threatening to sue Mr. I,I,I, Me, Me, Me.

• John Howard’s often-mocked fondness for white picket fences is shared by one of his musical heroes.

• The new Jeebus party wants to charge all Internet users $7 to $10 every year so it can reduce the amount of material you can access.

• Professor Bunyip is not impressed by Medicare Old.

UPDATE. ABC election nerd Antony Green calls it for Howard:

John Howard will lose seats, win the election narrowly and announce his retirement at the first sign of economic downturn.

Mark Latham will keep surging in popularity and lead Labor to victory - in three years.

I’m still leaning to Latham, although his weakness on Ivan Milat-Molloy is damaging:

On Brisbane radio 4BC today Mr Latham denied he had anything to do with Dr Molloy cancelling at the last minute an interview he had agreed to with the radio station today.

Mr Latham said he was not aware of any contact between Dr Molloy and the ALP about the interview, after being told that Dr Molloy had told the program's producer that the party did not want him to talk.

Pressed on the issue of whether he believed Dr Molloy should be disendorsed and whether he found him an embarrassment to Labor, Mr Latham again shied away.

Wimp. Perhaps Latham is spooked by this comment:

Molloy doesn't want to talk, is waiting for a call from head office, promises to "unload" if they dump him.

Greg Sheridan has lots more.

INNOVATIVE TRUTH-TELLING PLAN FOR TV

The Sydney Morning Herald's furiously negative Paul McGeough:

In another of those blood-curdling tapes released by the hostage-takers this week, Bigley addressed the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, as he pleaded for his life: "I think this is possibly my last chance to speak to someone who will listen."

Sadly, the truth of the Bush and Blair adventure in Iraq is that the two leaders never listen.

Sadly, the likes of McGeough never listen to Steven Moore. He emails:

You may recall a blog about six months back, "The View from Baghdad," written by an anonymous guy working with budding democrats in Baghdad, that disappeared suddenly in April. It posted a lot of photos and gave personal accounts of what was going on with every day Iraqis. Well, I am back and no longer anonymous.  

I came back from Iraq in May, and got disgusted with how the media was portraying events in Iraq, and thoroughly nauseated by Michael Moore (who has never been to Iraq) and the lies he is propagating, so I started The Truth About Iraq. I've decided to use the polling information from Iraq to debunk some of the myths that have been created by the media.

Domestically, our organization also did a poll of swing state media markets - Columbus, Cleveland, Detroit, Pittsburgh, and Philly - and found out that a lot of the messages we have on our site about how life is improving for Iraqis move voters. Given that more than 7 million people watched Dan Rather last night, and Fahrenheit 9/11 has sold some 13 million tickets, I figure the only way to counter such massive disinformation is through paid television commercials.

Sounds like a plan. Go visit the site for more information.

KERRY IN FRONT

Attention, Bush babes! You’re needed at this not work safe poll where John Kerry is beating your man 95 to 57!

KNOWING WHAT HE DOES NOW

John Kerry in August:

Kerry said he would have voted to authorize the war knowing what he does now ... "Yes, I would have voted for the authority. I believe it was the right authority for a president to have."

John Kerry today on Good Morning America:

"We should not have gone to war knowing the information we have today."

120YAY!

All hail the Datsun 120Y, the finest automobile ever. Sure, the 120Y may have endangered thousands due to its lack of brakes, power, and traction, and some aesthetes possibly were made suicidal simply by looking at it, but the noble Datsun has subsequently served a higher purpose. During 2002, one of them set in train events that undermined Victoria’s speed-camera madness:

The camera crisis emerged in the middle of last year when a fixed camera on the Western Ring Road recorded a 1975 Datsun 120Y travelling at 158 km/h. Independent mechanical testing showed that the car could reach only 117 km/h.

Almost 165,000 motorists caught by fixed speed cameras will have their fines waived or be paid compensation, costing the State Government $26 million.

I’m one of those 165,000. In your face, Steve Bracks! Here’s the letter from Victoria’s Department of Justice:

The Victorian State Government recently announced that all motorists who received a speeding infringement detected by a fixed digital speed camera on the Western Ring Road would have those infringements withdrawn and associated fines refunded and demerit points cancelled. I refer to the above infringement notice, which you have paid.

Can’t remember the amount; a couple of hundred bucks, probably. Thank you, Datsun! Your sublime engineering has returned food to my table.

VOTE IVAN

Labor hardheads, writes Emma-Kate Symons, are "still trying to work out how to deal with the pesky Ivan Milat/Molloy factor". Hey, why not treat it as a positive?

HOW TO ...

Today’s New York Times runs a piece entitled "How to Debate George Bush" ... written by Al Gore.

Next week in the New York Times:

How to Be a Journalist, by Dan Rather

How to Lead a Low-Key Lifestyle, by Paris Hilton

How to Compress Quotes, by Maureen Dowd

How to Peacefully Advance the Muslim Cause, by Osama Bin Laden

How to Barbecue Fucking Huge Steaks, by Karen Carpenter

How to Bowl, by Mutiah Muralitharan

How to Romance Poor White Trash, by John Kerry

Offer further NYT article ideas in comments.

SLAGTIME

Ever read E.L. Doctorow's Ragtime? It's terrific. But Doctorow, writing about George W. Bush, reminds us of the old adage: "Trust the art, not the artist":

I fault this president for not knowing what death is. He does not suffer the death of our 21-year-olds who wanted to be what they could be. On the eve of D-Day in 1944 General Eisenhower prayed to God for the lives of the young soldiers he knew were going to die. He knew what death was. Even in a justifiable war, a war not of choice but of necessity, a war of survival, the cost was almost more than Eisenhower could bear.

But this president does not know what death is. He hasn't the mind for it ... He does not mourn. He doesn't understand why he should mourn ... you study him, you look into his eyes and know he dissembles an emotion which he does not feel in the depths of his being because he has no capacity for it ... He is the president who does not feel.

Study him, Doctorow. Look into his eyes.

UPDATE. The director of the French Center on the United States -- who knew? -- also senses Bush badness:

"If foreigners could vote, there's no question what the result would be," said Guillaume Parmentier, director of the French Center on the United States. "Bush's image, even before the war in Iraq, was not good. The way he comports himself, the vocabulary he uses -- good versus evil, God and all that -- even his body language, most people think is not presidential." He added, "I've never seen such hostility."

Never seen such hostility, Guillaume? Check out a Michael Moore movie. Or read Doctorow's article.

SPONTANEOUS SUNTAN SELF-ORGANIZATION

Rathergate exposed the power of the Internet, writes Frederick Turner:

What we saw was an extraordinary example of what chaos and complexity theorists call spontaneous self-organization. Out of a highly communicative but apparently chaotic medium an ordered, sensitively responsive, but robust order emerges, acting as an organism of its own. Suddenly a perfectly-matched team of specialists had self-assembled out of the ether.

And this doesn’t happen only over fonts and Microsoft Word documents. Consider the reaction of sunless-tanning experts to John Kerry’s searing new suntan:

He looks pretty orange to me. He needs to use the Brent method I think!

looks very pumpkinfied to me...and hideous!

Way to dark and fake looking.

Well, HEY...I'll take an orange president anyday if he's supporting sunless!!

I would be ready to give Kerry credit for a nice wind-surfing tan here, too, if he weren't so dang orange. As it is, it looks like he got into some TBT with the solution a few percentage points too strong. I'd sure hate to be the tech who sprayed him...by all accounts, John-o doesn't treat his underlings well, especially when they net him as much grief as he's gotten today about his Florida citrus-y complexion.

I've never seen a real tan look like that.

So harsh! The tan is fake but real, okay?

UPDATE. Dan Rather just can’t resist those fake documents:

Three weeks after he denounced the internet as being "filled with rumors," the embattled CBS anchor ran a story on his Tuesday "Evening News" program hoping to stir up fear of an impending military draft. In a story that was a textbook example of slipshod reporting, CBS reporter Richard Schlesinger used debunked internet hoax emails and an unlabeled interest group member to scare elderly "Evening" viewers into believing that the U.S. government is poised to resume the draft.

AL-JEFFERSON

Those brave Iraqi insurgents ... are they Minutemen, as Michael Moore claims, or are they Confederates?

Iraqi security forces captured a suspected terrorist operating on Baghdad’s blood-soaked Haifa street – cornering him today in a cupboard as he was disguising himself with his wife’s underwear.

Five other suspected insurgents were also taken into custody as US and Iraqi forces clashed with rebels on the main street, said Colonel Mohammed Abdullah.

Acting on tips by local residents, Abdullah said Iraqi security troops backed by Us forces caught Kadhim al-Dafan as he hid out in his home. The suspected terrorist reportedly told Abdullah he was hurriedly trying to disguise himself with his wife’s underclothing.

Whoa! Shades of Jefferson Davis.

AVERTING NUCLEAR IRAQ

Mahdi Obeidi, the former head of Saddam Hussein’s nuclear centifuge program, on the wisdom of pre-emption:

Our nuclear program could have been reinstituted at the snap of Saddam's fingers. The sanctions and the lucrative oil-for-food program had served as powerful deterrents, but world events - like Iran's current efforts to step up its nuclear ambitions - might well have changed the situation.

Iraqi scientists had the knowledge and the designs needed to jumpstart the program if necessary. And there is no question that we could have done so very quickly. In the late 1980s, we put together the most efficient covert nuclear program the world has ever seen. In about three years, we gained the ability to enrich uranium and nearly become a nuclear threat; we built an effective centrifuge from scratch, even though we started with no knowledge of centrifuge technology. Had Saddam ordered it and the world looked the other way, we might have shaved months if not years off our previous efforts.

Read the whole thing. There are sections that might be easily excerpted by anti-war bloggers.

NO TO AMERICAN TEETH - YES TO AMERICAN MONEY

Cartoon faces with big sharp teeth on American airplanes offend sensitive European types -- especially sensitive European types headed to America for lucrative book tours.

Also from the OmbudsGod: a fun look at the phenomenon that is Tina Brown. And in other media news:

• Hugh Hewitt dissects Newsweek’s Steven Levy.

• The Register-Guard of Eugene, Oregon, claims to have been misrepresented:

Sen. John Kerry's campaign is running a new series of ads that feature newspaper headlines to suggest that all is not well in President George Bush's America. One of those headlines is from The Register-Guard. It's flattering to make the big time in this fashion, but Kerry's ad makes the headline look like something other than what it was.

• Mark Steyn questions the priorities of blow-dried network poseurs covering Ayad Allawi’s US visit.

• George W. Bush’s hometown newspaper endorses John Kerry.

• Tonight’s (Australian) ABC news report on the release of two Italian hostages in Iraq began: "In a rare piece of good news from Iraq ..." In a rare piece of good news reported by the ABC, perhaps. (This is the network, you’ll recall, that within twelve hours of Baghdad’s de-Saddamisation ran with this: "Well, dawn has broken over Baghdad, welcoming day one of the new freedom, but if this is liberty, then it's far from perfect.") Rumours abound of a ransom payment:

Ali al-Roz, publisher of Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Rai al-Aam, told Italian public television Rai 3 said a $US1 million ($A1.4 million) ransom had been handed over.

"The sum, as we had written, was one million dollars. A well-informed source in Baghdad told us," Roz said.

The Italian government denies any payment.

• During 2004's third quarter, Fox News beat the combined forces of everybody: "According to Nielsen Media Research, Fox News averaged 1.8 million viewers, while CNN, MSNBC, CNBC and Headline News averaged a combined total of 1.7 million."

HIATUS PROMISED

Chris Sheil threatens a blogging strike if Mark Latham loses:

If the ALP goes down, I imagine a decent hiatus will be in order - if only to escape the RWDBs who I know will be all over me like the thugees they are.

Thugees? Whatever, Chris. This happy site will be here on October 10 regardless of the result. The Left is election-obsessed; I fear for their well-being if Howard is returned. In the US, Andrew "can't vote for Bush" Sullivan is going wobbly on John Kerry:

I don't believe Iraq is a "diversion" from the war on terror; I believe it's the central front. If you share this view, Blair's view, it's extremely hard to support Kerry.

Yes. Yes, it is. Back in Australia, the Daily Telegraph’s David Penberthy meets a conflicted voter

"If the election were held today, which party would you vote for?"

"Definitely Labor. I've always voted Labor."

"And what do you think of John Howard?"

"Oh, I love him. He's doing a great job."

"OK, what do you think of Mark Latham?"

"Ugh! Can't stand him!"

"So, you're voting Labor and you love John Howard."

"Yeah, always have. I just love the guy."

UPDATE. Chris Sheil, myself, and several others are mentioned in this Melbourne Age piece on bloggers.

PRINCIPLED LEADERSHIP

"It's always the children's fault, isn't it, Seymour?" John Kerry continues his compelling impersonation of excuse-prone fellow Vietnam veteran Seymour Skinner.

UPDATE. Mark Steyn:

If it weren’t for the small matter of the war for civilization, I’d find it hard to resist a Kerry Presidency. Groucho Marx once observed that an audience will laugh at an actress playing an old lady pretending to fall downstairs, but, for a professional comic to laugh, it has to be a real old lady. That’s how I feel about the Kerry campaign. For the professional political analyst, watching Mondale or Dukakis or Howard Dean stuck in the part of the guy who falls downstairs is never very satisfying: they’re average, unexceptional fellows whom circumstances have conspired to transform into walking disasters. But Senator Kerry was made for the role, a vain thin-skinned droning blueblood with an indestructible sense of his own status but none at all of his own ridiculousness. If Karl Rove had labored for a decade to produce a walking parody of the contemporary Democratic Party’s remoteness, condescension, sense of entitlement, public evasiveness and tortured relationship with military matters, he couldn’t have improved on John F Kerry.

APOLITICAL ANTONY

Sydney Morning Herald bandwidth filler Antony Loewenstein isn’t happy about Alan Anderson joining the SMH’s online team:

He's a member of the Liberal Party in the Victorian branch. His coverage in "no way purports to represent the views of the Party." That's OK, then. Balance is assured. All bases are covered.

His personal blog supports Fox News and Israel's targeted assassinations. For the record, I am not a member of any political party or group.

Give me a break, Antony. If Not Happy John isn’t a political group, what the hell is it? A jazzercise class? Meanwhile Margo Kingston, the unhappiest little Not Happy Johnster of them all, is still bravely trying rescue Australia:

I tell ya, if Howard wins - and even if he doesn't - we've got to transform this site into an Australian moveon to protect what's left of our democracy.

But Margo -- if Howard wins, democracy will be dead! There won’t be anything left to protect! Maybe George Soros can help.

UNPOPULAR NEWSPAPER RAILS AT POPULARITY

In the wake of a brilliant AFL Grand Final, Melbourne’s Age continues its proud tradition of sour negativity:

Just 1.215 million Melburnians tuned into the game, the lowest recorded for a grand final under OZTAM, the ratings system introduced in 2001.

This compared with 1.324 million last year and 1.244 million in 2002, which both featured Brisbane and Collingwood.

So 29,000 fewer people watched this year’s match than tuned in two years ago - a decline of 2.3%. Even on the 2003 figure, the drop is still only 8.2%. The Age’s front-page headline for this piece? "How Melbourne tuned out of the grand final".

LATHAM FLIP-FLOPS ON HATE

Janine Lacy says her husband cares for all Australians:

"It's Mark's personal commitment to give all Australians a fair go in life."

I wonder if that includes all the Australians he hates?

Two years ago, he told Maxine McKew in The Bulletin that he was a "hater" who disliked "the other side with intensity". Five years before that, Latham told Craig McGregor in Good Weekend that he "grew up thinking" that Sydney's North Shore "is the enemy" and added: "I still think that."

Sheesh. And people call John Howard a divider. At least Latham is sticking by his troubled Queensland candidate Ivan Milat; I guess that’s because Ivan (shown here ... or maybe here) isn’t from the hated North Shore:

"Milat was once a constituent of mine," he explained. "He's now in Goulburn jail."

Meanwhile, this quote from Molloy/Milat hasn't received much attention:

In December 2002, Dr Molloy blamed Australia and the US for terrorism.

"If the West in general and the US in particular are really serious about stamping out terrorism and state promoters of this activity, we would be turning our guns not only on the Russians, Chinese, Irish, Spanish, French, virtually all our allies and even back on ourselves, but most importantly also on the US itself," he said in a public speech.

I'm glad Latham hasn't disendorsed him. We need more people like Molloy in the ALP.

ART FAILS TO IMITATE LIFE

James Wolcott: the illustration.

James Wolcott: the reality.

Aaron at Free Will has more on this hugely influential figure.

LATEST LATHAMISM

"All in all," writes the Wall Street Journal, "this is one Aussie election that the world will be watching."

It sure will, especially now that a convicted serial killer has been named as a Labor candidate:

Opposition Leader Mark Latham is standing by the Labor Party's gun-toting Queensland candidate Dr Ivan Molloy despite new concerns about his past.

Mr Latham continues to defend Dr Malloy, despite confusing claims about the academic's past associations with an Asian guerilla organisation ...

Mr Latham inadvertently referred to Dr Molloy as notorious serial killer Ivan Milat when first addressing reporters, but he laughed off the mistake.

So did the Sydney Morning Herald. When George W. Bush blundered during a speech, the SMH ran it on the front page, provided video, and launched a reader poll. When Latham blunders ... well, just try to find any mention of it. It’s hidden in there somewhere.

Who else from Australia’s criminal elite might Latham next mistakenly enlist to the Labor cause? Mark Brandon "Chopper" Rudd, perhaps?

NO NEGOTIATION

David Aaronovitch in The Guardian:

If it is the objective of terrorists to drive people mad, then the Jordanian serial killer who kidnapped Kenneth Bigley and his two US colleagues, is doing a fantastic job on us. The media and large sections of public opinion currently seem to be intent on rewarding him for his extraordinary brutality. He calls, we lean towards him. He makes impossible demands and we indulge in recriminations about whether they can be fulfilled ...

Suppose, for a moment, that we in Britain faced a fascist insurgency, which kidnapped a few Jews and black people. Should we negotiate for their lives by releasing Neo-Nazi bombers and racist murderers? Or would we calculate how many more Jews and black people would, as a result, wind up in cellars with knives to their throats?

No. Negotiations. With. Terrorists.

FEAT PRECEDENTED

The Sydney Sun-Herald’s Alex Brown needs to consult his Australian football history books:

Pencils sharpened and erasers at the ready, AFL historians prepared for Brisbane's ascension to ethereal realms.

Four consecutive premierships. An unprecedented feat.

Well, apart from the fact that it isn't.

(Via reader Ben H.)

'GREAT DETAIL' ALLEGED

Canada's Antonia Zerbisias is a lone voice supporting Paul McGeough’s strange tale of the murderous rampage embarked upon by Ayad Allawi:

Did he, or did he not, as was reported in great detail by Australia's Sydney Morning Herald in July, pull a pistol and execute "as many as six suspected insurgents at a Baghdad police station, just days before Washington handed control of the country to his interim government?"

According to reporter Paul McGeough's witnesses, Allawi told onlookers that the hand-cuffed and blindfolded prisoners "had each killed as many as 50 Iraqis and they 'deserved worse than death.'"

While the Star reprinted the story, almost no U.S. media outlets picked it up.

The story was bogus. Which, to be fair to Antonia, makes it even more surprising that no US media outlets picked it up.

BUSY

Apologies for the lack of recent posts. I’ve been in Melbourne writing a Bulletin piece on the Grand Final, and Melbourne during Grand Final weekend is all-consuming. Did you catch that second-quarter Byron Pickett run? Man! Left-handed bounce-and-grab. Beautiful.

And how nice a guy did Alastair Lynch turn out to be? Having decided before the match that it would be his last, thus erasing any threat of suspension in 2005, Lynch launched a vicious, if unco-ordinated, attack on Port Adelaide defender Darryl Wakelin. Wakelin bravely held his ground and got in a couple of sharp blows; Lynch was the more bloodied of the pair when they eventually separated. It’s probably wrong to judge a 306-game veteran on a single bad match, but Lynch should be made to eat his own weight in sarin-laced dog meat.

Other distractions: after the Grand Final I caught an 8am flight to Sydney for a Sunday election discussion (scroll down) with Paddy McGuinness and Mike Carlton. Reviews were positive:

16 dead on Australian roads this weekend Tim, and you weren't one of them? Not even injured? What a shame. All those innocent lives lost and an asshole like you makes it across 600 kilometres.

There ain't no justice.

Loved your shouting on the tele this morning. typical oafish, right-wing media manners.

Did I shout at Carlton? I don’t think so. Not that Carlton doesn’t deserve to be shouted at, constantly, by a 3,000-strong squadron of expert shouters. Originally, by the way, the panel was meant to include me, Carlton, and Margo Kingston, but Kingston ran for her life as soon as she discovered I was involved. This is the third time Margo has dodged a debate with me.

Oh, who cares. Margo has enough problems without reality adding to them. Program host Jana Wendt was professional, friendly, and -- this you might not expect -- incredibly funny off-camera. Like, hilarious. I predict a long and lucrative television career for this attractive newcomer.

OZHAMMER

Many readers have forwarded this excellent Charles Krauthammer column. Krauthammer has an advantage over most US pundits when discussing Australian issues; he's married to an Australian.

I met Krauthammer, briefly, at the Republican convention. Charming fellow, as you'd expect. He was amused to learn that Phillip Adams still has a job.

GET OUT THE (INTERNATIONAL) VOTE

The Guardian’s Jonathan Freedland feels left out:

Who could honestly describe the 2004 contest of George Bush and John Kerry as a domestic affair? There's a reason why every newspaper in the world will have the same story on its front page on November 3. This election will be decisive not just for the United States but for the future of the world.

So perhaps it's time to make a modest proposal. If everyone in the world will be affected by this election, shouldn't everyone in the world have a vote?

It ain’t gonna happen. But here’s a way Freedland and his fellow meddlers can still have their say in the USA: each could simply identify and adopt a random individual living in one of the battleground states and target that person with emails, letters, and telephone calls begging them to vote against Bush. I’m sure average Americans will be pleased to receive whiny 3am calls from people called "Jonathan", and will alter their vote accordingly.

UPDATE. Time magazine’s Simon Robinson beat Freedland to this idea.

UPDATE II. Norm Geras mauls the hapless Guardian columnist.

INVADERS CONFRONTED

I celebrated World Car-Free Day by driving 600 kilometres across NSW (by the way, how come there’s no World No Terrorism Day? Just asking.) I’m on my way to Melbourne for the AFL Grand Final. Much traffic is headed in the opposite direction.

Blogging will be light while I confront the invasion of my home state by occupying forces.

CLEAN GLASS FOR ALL!

Scroll down to the end of the list. Note the candidate's occupation. This man must be elected.

MARY, MARY, QUITE PRO-KERRY

You think Rathergate is going to fade just because Duped Dan issued a semi-apology? Think again:

''60 Minutes'' producer Mary Mapes put its source, Mr. Burkett, in touch with a ranking leader in the John Kerry campaign ... even passed on his telephone number with the notation that he had been ''very helpful'' in the memo story.

Why would any journalist, even a television journalist, do such a thing? The only possible reason would be to favor one political campaign over another. No ethical breach could be more serious. If anyone at CBS is to become unemployed over the faked memos, it should be Ms. Mapes.

"Even a television journalist." Zing! More on this, from Elizabeth Jensen and James Rainey in the LA Times:

The network's missteps were compounded, in the eyes of many media analysts, when it was revealed that Mapes had agreed to a request from Burkett to pass his name along to one of Kerry's top aides, Lockhart.

"There's clearly a conflict of interest when [Mapes] plays both the role of the journalist and the role of an intermediary between a source and somebody in a political campaign," said Bob Steele, a professor of journalism ethics at the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla.

You don’t need to be an ethics expert to see the problem here.

MARGIN OF ERROR MARGINALISED

Terry McCrann identifies a major flaw in opinion poll reporting:

The sheer, breathtaking and fundamental incompetence of the Canberra Press Gallery - and in particular its supposed 'leading lights' - is once again on public display.

Indeed, that incompetence is splashed almost proudly but almost certainly ignorantly across the front pages of their very own newspapers and on the network nightly news.

An equal share of the blame has to be taken by their editors and the media organisations they work for. And the opinion pollsters.

The generous interpretation is that, in the words of a former preacher: "They know not what they do." I suggest, stunningly, most of them really don't.

But that merges with a more basic reality: they don't want to let the facts get in the way of a good story. Even if it's just to footnote it.

There is almost no margin of error in this criticism. Because that's exactly the point -- you are almost never told about the margin of error in opinion polls.

McCrann is right. Unlike in the US, where margin of error is a feature of poll reporting, in Australia this is rarely mentioned. Read the whole thing. (And scope out all of McCrann's Herald Sun copy, now available online.)

ATTENTION, SYDNEY NEWS DESKS

The Reverend Fred Nile just claimed on Network Ten religious program Face to Face that some of his fellow NSW politicians have asked him: "What should I do, Fred? My child’s on heroin."

COME ON DOWN

Remember how US Immigration and Naturalization Service officials approved Mohamed Atta's and Marwan al-Shehhi's student visas six months after September 11? Well, Australian authorities were ahead of the curve:

The mastermind behind September 11 was granted a visa to visit Australia one month before the al-Qaeda strikes on New York and Washington but authorities realised their error only after the attacks.

The tourist visa was granted to Khalid Shaikh Mohammed after he made an application using an alias through the Australian high commission in Islamabad in August 2001.

However, at that stage Australian authorities had not entered any of the aliases used by Khalid - al-Qaeda figurehead Osama bin Laden's military commander - on their alert lists.

Hooray for authorities. This is worth pondering, however:

Revelations of Khalid's attempted visit offer the clearest insight yet into al-Qaeda's designs on Australia.

NEWS BRIEFLETS

• Why is the Sydney Morning Herald running Hugh Mackay’s column four days after it first appeared in the Melbourne Age?

• They don’t call him the man of steel for nothing:

The catamaran didn't so much cut through the waves as bounce off them, lurching from nauseating peak to stomach-twisting trough on the ride out to Green Island.

John Howard, no doubt fortified by some cutting-edge, anti-seasickness pill unavailable on the general market, declared himself fine.

But after 50 minutes, the travelling media, there to cover Mr Howard's latest "green" policy were looking a little ... well, green.

• Pat O‘Shane will be hoping for a friendly magistrate.

•The Australian’s Roy Ecclestone chances upon a familiar construction:

John Kerry has ramped up his rhetoric on Iraq only to find that some of his best attacks are being blunted by ... John Kerry.

From this site a day earlier:

A possible explanation for John Kerry’s low support is ... John Kerry.

Which is one reason Bush is leading. Another reason being ... John Kerry.

STEPMOTHER TERESA

The Boston Herald's Gayle Fee and Laura Raposa reveal the frosty relationship between Teresa Heinz Kerry and her step-daughters:

In fact, we hear the gals refer to Heinz as their "step-money."

HELP THE HELPERS

Project Mercury Hope, run by Canadian soldier Russell D. Storring, has collected seven tons of goods to be delivered to Afghan orphans. Problem is, they have nobody to do the delivering.

Perhaps you work with, or know somebody who works with, an international transport or distribution firm. Hit the above links for details; global blogosphere publicity is guaranteed.

TRAINED OBSERVERS

Reuters, the newsagency that won't call terrorists terrorists, is now yanking bylines from rewritten stories:

Having their bylines appear in newspapers is an unexpected bonus for news agency reporters. But now Reuters has asked Canada's largest newspaper chain to remove its writers' names from some articles.

The dispute centers on a policy adopted earlier this year by CanWest Global Communications - the publisher of 13 daily newspapers including The National Post in Toronto and The Calgary Herald, which both use Reuters dispatches - to substitute the word "terrorist" in articles for terms like "insurgents" and "rebels."

The insurgent rebel organisation known as the New York Post has been inserting "terrorist" in Reuters copy for some time. Sleepy Reuters bosses don’t seem to have noticed.

MOORE SECURES THE SWING STATES

As if the Kerry campaign didn’t have enough problems:

Documentarian and liberal rabble-rouser Michael Moore kicked off a 62-speech, pre-election tour Monday. His tour, which he calls the Slacker Uprising Tour, will go to college campuses and arenas and will concentrate on 20 swing states.

And it will drive even more voters away from Kerry. Moore looked so damn happy during the Republican convention that I can only conclude he’s an undercover Bush operative employed to undermine the Left from within. He sure acts like a Republican; consider the amount CalState "slackers" have ponied up to hear Moore speak:

They've raised $46,000 to cover Moore's appearance fee and the rental of an undisclosed hall.

UPDATE. Already distracted by the the Swift Veterans for Truth, Kerry now faces another fact-checking menace:

John Kerry has called the frozen tundra in Green Bay "Lambert Field," hailed the dreaded Buckeyes while standing in a state of Wolverines and praised the slugging of a Sox star named "Manny Ortiz."

Now Kerry's sportsmen gaffes will live in infamy - thanks to the Web.

Launched last week, Football Fans for Truth was the brainchild of two Bush backers.

In addition to the Lambeau Field, Ohio State vs. Michigan and Manny Ramirez (or David Ortiz) gaffes, the Web site highlights Kerry saying Eddie Yost is his favorite Red Sox player - though Yost never played for the Sox.

It also chides Kerry for hunting doves, for blaming Secret Service agents for a skiing fall and for "throwing like a girl."

DANGATE LATEST

Who to believe? The White House says the Kerry campaign’s crack 3,624-strong advisory team may be responsible for Dangate:

Anchor Dan Rather admitted he was duped on documents used to assail President Bush's military service - shattering CBS' credibility and sparking White House charges John Kerry's campaign may be behind the hoax.

But Duncan Black -- it’s so cute how he keeps calling himself Atrios -- believes Dark Lord Rove is a more likely candidate:

I'm not yet ready to accuse Rove of a masterful 5 cushion bank shot, but if I were, say, writing a political thriller about one President Smush who had an advisor name Snarl Stove who had a history of doing exactly that kind of thing, I would pat myself on the head for thinking of such a brilliant plot device.

Slam Duncan is no stranger to patting himself on the head. Or elsewhere. Antonia Zerbisias is just bitter that Dan Rather has undermined the honest efforts of principled leftists like Antonia Zerbisias:

Way to go, CBS.

Thanks to your rush to kick off a new season of 60 Minutes II on Sept. 8 with big ratings, your bungling of what the pro-war blogosphere has dubbed "Memogate," your hesitation to admit the error of your ways and your blinkered eye on the bottom line, you carpet-bombed the U.S. presidential race with bluster and blather about proportional spacing, nuking what little remains of serious political discourse in the U.S. and making the Kerry-Edwards campaign collateral damage.

Zerbisias is a fascinating writer. Here’s an additional sample paragraph:

How much did you heard about that in this 'liberal media' fuss over IBM Selectrics?

I don'ts no! Why I knot heer bout this? Angry Antonia ends: "So thanks CBS. Thanks for being 'liberal' and all your good investigative work. Now please don't do us any more favours." Which is what CBS might be thinking about Bill Burkett, their trusted Dangate memo source. USA Today has lately conducted a series of interviews with the man who supplied CBS (and USA Today) with those forgeries. Does he seem trustworthy? You be the judge:

Burkett now maintains that the source of the papers was Lucy Ramirez, who he says phoned him from Houston in March to offer the documents. USA TODAY has been unable to locate Ramirez.

Burkett's own doubts about the authenticity of the memos and his inability to supply evidence to show that Ramirez exists also raise questions about his credibility.

Burkett's emotions varied widely in the interviews. One session ended when Burkett suffered a violent seizure and collapsed in his chair.

As Burkett told his story, he appeared overwrought, fatigued and unsure of how to deal with what he characterized as the extreme pressure of national attention. He spoke of being under a severe strain.

At one point Thursday, as he spoke on a cellphone to his San Antonio lawyer, David Van Os, Burkett's voice froze in midsentence and his body convulsed in a violent seizure. He was helped to the floor and then to a couch. He has had such bouts sporadically over the past several months, but this one was worse, his wife said.

The next day, Burkett resumed the interview. He lay on the couch with a wet cloth on his forehead.

Dan Rather feels his pain.

FLY ON, SUPERBIRD

Plastic turkey sightings have been scarce recently. Left-wing opinion columns -- the rare bird’s native habitat -- no longer contain the nutritious anti-Bush triumphalism needed to maintain turkey viability. But just as I was about to call the World Wildlife Fund (polymer division) to demand an endangered-species listing, Michael Moore has launched a turkey revival program:

Had Bush bothered to show up when he was in the "service" he might have somewhat of a clue as to how to recognize an immoral war that cannot be "won." All he has delivered to Iraq was that plasticized turkey last Thanksgiving.

Kudos to Moore for ignoring the New York Times’ premature extinction announcement. And good luck with Moore’s other project -- keeping the myth of Devastating Dan alive:

Later today (Wed.), the Boston Globe, the A.P. and Dan Rather all present new and damning information about how George W. Bush got moved to the front of the line to get in the Texas Air National Guard, and how he then went AWOL. I am putting every ounce of trust I have in my fellow Americans that a majority of them get this, get the injustice of it all, and get the sad, sick twisted irony of how it relates very, very much to our precious Election 2004.

That’s still the current entry (one of only three) at Moore’s blog. He updates it every time his body mass index drops below 100.

(Via reader dc)

NEWS BRIEFLETS

• AP reports: "Staking out new ground on Iraq, Sen. John Kerry said Monday he would not have overthrown Saddam Hussein had he been in the White House ..." (Via LGF)

• The creator of one of the world's most famous guns, the AK-47 assault rifle, has launched another weapon in Britain -- Kalashnikov vodka.

• More from Kerry, this time on conditions in Iraq: "Raw sewage fills the streets, rising above the hubcaps of our Humvees." Humvees have hubcaps? (Via Spartacus)

• Spectator editor Boris Johnson is blogging. Go tell him he’s an idiot for hiring Andrew Gilligan.

• A cashed-up and confident Sam Ward challenges Laborites: "Any of you lefties who really, honestly believe that Labor will win are welcome to put your bills up against mine - at even money. I’ll take bets up to and including $1000 AUD. So - any takers?"

KILLING FOR THE SAKE OF GOD

The non-human who murdered Eugene Armstrong helpfully points out the differences between us and them:

"Now, you have people who love death just like you love life. Killing for the sake of God is their best wish, getting to your soldiers and allies are their happiest moments, and cutting the heads of the criminal infidels is implementing the orders of our Lord."

They love death. We love life.

SETTING DIANA STRAIGHT

Former Australian diplomat Amanda Sokolski smites John Kerry’s sister:

To support her claim that Australians are in greater danger, Ms. Kerry refers to the Bali nightclub bombings two years ago, which killed 88 young Australians, and the September 9, 2004, attack by Jemiah Islamiah (JI) on the Australian embassy in Jakarta. Such loose play with facts is in keeping with the Kerry campaign's lack of seriousness on issues of Iraq and terrorism. The Bali bombings took place in October 2002 well before the Iraq war and Australia's involvement in it. It is also well recognized that JI had been targeting Australian interests in the Southeast Asia region since long before Australia's involvement in Iraq. Take for example the foiled plot by JI terrorists to bomb the Australian embassy in Singapore in January 2002.

Australia is a target for terrorists because of the ideals and beliefs that Australia shares with the United States and other Western countries. Would Ms. Kerry have Australians give those up to remain safe?

Another former Australian diplomat probably thinks that’s a very good idea.

SHOVE IT

When George W. Bush misspeaks, it’s because he’s an idiot. But when Teresa Heinz Kerry says something stupid ...

Despite her linguistic prowess and her worldliness, Heinz Kerry has, at times, a deaf ear for the nuances of slang, code, condescension, and vulgarity in English—for the emotion of the language. “There are these bizarre moments that make you shudder,” the Kerry adviser said. “Like calling herself African-American to black audiences.” She dismissed voters skeptical of her husband’s health-care proposals as “idiots,” and, in a television interview with a Pittsburgh anchorwoman, employed the word “scumbags” to describe some of her detractors.

Thank you, New Yorker, for investigating the Teresa Paradox.

'AUTHENTICITY NOT PROVED'

60 Minutes -- so named for the length of time it takes somebody to disprove its stories -- got it wrong. CBS now apologises, in a mealy, hopeless kind of way:

CBS News said Monday it cannot prove the authenticity of documents used in a 60 Minutes story about President Bush's National Guard service and that airing the story was a "mistake" that CBS regretted.

A "mistake"? Glad to learn CBS "regretted" it.

CBS News Anchor Dan Rather, the reporter of the original story, apologized.

That sentence lacks the conclusion: "and resigned". Might be an early draft.

CBS claimed a source had misled the network on the documents' origins.

The network never researched the documents’ origins.

In a statement, CBS said former Texas Guard official Bill Burkett "has acknowledged that he provided the now-disputed documents" and "admits that he deliberately misled the CBS News producer working on the report, giving her a false account of the documents' origins to protect a promise of confidentiality to the actual source."

He promised the kids at Kinko’s he wouldn’t tell?

The network did not say the memoranda — purportedly written by one of Mr. Bush's National Guard commanders — were forgeries.

The network is now more than a week behind the curve.

But the network did say it could not authenticate the documents and that it should not have reported them.

Because the documents are ... (nine letters, beginning with 'f')?

"Based on what we now know, CBS News cannot prove that the documents are authentic, which is the only acceptable journalistic standard to justify using them in the report," said the statement by CBS News President Andrew Heyward. "We should not have used them. That was a mistake, which we deeply regret.

If the documents aren’t authentic, what are they?

"Nothing is more important to us than our credibility and keeping faith with the millions of people who count on us for fair, accurate, reliable, and independent reporting," Heyward continued. "We will continue to work tirelessly to be worthy of that trust."

Heyward mistakenly speaks in the present tense.

Additional reporting on the documents will air on Monday's CBS Evening News, including the interview of Burkett by Rather. CBS News pledged "an independent review of the process by which the report was prepared and broadcast to help determine what actions need to be taken."

Buy some pyjamas!

In a separate statement, Rather said that "after extensive additional interviews, I no longer have the confidence in these documents that would allow us to continue vouching for them journalistically."

The guy requires extensive additional interviews to confirm what most people see right in front of them. "Hey, Dan, has the pizza arrived?" "I'll tell you in a few days, honey, after I've finished conducting extensive additional inteviews."

"I find we have been misled on the key question of how our source for the documents came into possession of these papers," he said.

Not the issue, old man. How many bogus sources must approach 60 Minutes each year? How come this one made it to air?

"We made a mistake in judgment, and for that I am sorry," Rather added.

Your mistake wasn’t one of judgment. It was one of research. Of journalism.

In the statement, CBS said: "Burkett originally said he obtained the documents from another former Guardsman. Now he says he got them from a different source whose connection to the documents and identity CBS News has been unable to verify to this point."

These people have got more sources than Teresa Heinz Kerry. For the last time: no matter who the source might be, these documents are forgeries!

Questions about the president's National Guard service have lingered for years. Some critics question how Mr. Bush got into the Guard when there were waiting lists of young men hoping to join it to escape the draft and possible service in Vietnam.

If only some memos existed that could flesh that story out.

In the Sept. 8 60 Minutes report, former Texas Lt. Gov. Ben Barnes — a Democrat — claimed that, at the behest of a friend of the Bush family, he pulled strings to get young George W. Bush into the Guard.

Yay for Ben. Who’s pulling strings to keep Dan Rather on the CBS payroll?

Other questions concern why Mr. Bush missed a physical in 1972, and why there are scant records of any service by Mr. Bush during the latter part of 1972, a period during which he transferred to an Alabama guard unit so he could work on a campaign there.

Voters care.

The CBS documents suggested that Mr. Bush had disobeyed a direct order to attend the physical, and that there were other lapses in his performance. One memo also indicated that powerful allies of the Bush family were pressuring the guard to "sugar coat" any investigation of Lt. Bush's service.

These "memos" you speak of ... their current status is what, exactly?

Skeptics immediately seized on the typing in the memos, which included a superscripted "th" not found on all 1970s-era typewriters. As the controversy raged, CBS broadcast interviews with experts who said that some typewriters from that period could have produced the markings in question.

As the controversy raged, CBS defined as "experts" former typewriter repairmen who declared themselves to be "not experts".

The Bush campaign has alleged that their Democratic rivals were somehow involved in the story. John Kerry's campaign denies it.

No mention of the fact that the Democrat campaign alleged that Karl Rove was behind it.

Meanwhile ...

Oh, please ... not a "meanwhile". Don’t disgrace yourselves with a "meanwhile" ...

... a federal judge has ordered the Pentagon to find and make public by next week any unreleased files about Mr. Bush's Vietnam-era Air National Guard service to resolve a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the Associated Press.

And all those files will be in pristine Microsoft Word.

UPDATE. Dan Rather has always been strange.

AT LEAST HE'S VICTORIAN

Congratulations to West Coast Eagle Chris Judd for winning Australian football’s greatest ... er ... best ... um ... finest ... well, I mean ... most hottest award.

Yes. Congratulations.

DISSIDENT DIPLOMADS DEFY DIANA

Diana Kerry may think little of us, but a group of US Foreign Service officers hails everything Australian:

Let us all get down on our knees and thank the Lord for the Aussies. Take an Aussie to lunch; buy a bottle of Australian wine; get some Aussie beer; send a fan letter to Nicole Kidman; visit the Aussie bloggers and drop them a note of appreciation; thank Australia for sending us Rupert Murdoch to save the American media. Compare the Aussies to the Canadians and you'll soon see there is no comparison. Australia is a vibrant, proud, confident country. And we Diplomads are proud to call them our friends.

Those Diplomads won’t be buying a single drink if they ever get to Australia. Thanks, friends.

(Via the no-longer-blogging Steven Den Beste. Return soon, SDB.)

NEUTRALITY COMPROMISED

Oh no! The neutrality of Australia's defence forces is being compromised! I hate when that happens.

W STANDS FOR WISCONSIN

The Guardian’s Suzanne Goldenberg wigs out in Democrat-friendly Wisconsin:

After weeks of intense campaigning, a CNN/USA Today poll last week showed Mr Kerry falling behind George Bush in Wisconsin by eight percentage points.

That seems unthinkable at first in a state which has a strong independent streak and a history of political activism.

Why? Why does this happen? It’s not as if George W. Bush's death-dealing RoveSquads -- invisible to police research due to Halliburton-altered DNA; implanted with devices enabling them to decode the President’s speeches; chanting "fair and balanced!" -- have successfully liquidated dissent:

"In Wisconsin, there is an anti-war base larger and more organised than any other state," said John Nichols, editorial page editor at the Capital Times in Madison. "I don't think there is a town in the state where you have to hide the fact that you were against the war."

A possible explanation for John Kerry’s low support is ... John Kerry:

"Unless John Kerry opens a serious dialogue about the war - and how he is going to end it - he is going to have a problem capitalising on the vote in Wisconsin from people who are sceptical of the war, and anti-war," Mr Nichols said.

Frustration with Mr Kerry's incoherence on the issue is now openly acknowledged among his colleagues in the Senate, who say it is time for him to take a stand. In effect, they are longing for Mr Kerry to return to the persona he inhabited during the Vietnam war when, as a returning navy lieutenant, he delivered a speech against America's military misadventure.

If only Kerry could re-write the intro to his convention speech: "I'm John Kerry, and I'm reporting ... the serial atrocities committed by myself and other American servicemen during the war in Vietnam! Where, by the way, I won several medals."

The votes are there for the Democrats; [Democrat activist] Mr Ziesler is convinced of it. "If he could at least come out and say, 'I am going to stop the war,' that would be a resounding message for the people," he said. "We still need a single message."

Which is one reason Bush is leading. Another reason being ... John Kerry:

This week, Kerry will also take steps to address what advisers call "the likability factor" -- trying to raise voters' comfort level with Kerry on a personal level.

In related news, advisors to the Oily Kyoto Water Scorpion That Shoots Puke From Its Eyes are taking similar steps. Good luck, advisors.

FIVE COUGARS, THANKS

Shelly Horton, a friend of this site, appeared on the ABC’s Glasshouse program last week wearing a dress that, if Shelly wasn’t already a friend of this site, would make her a sordid focus of leering, degenerate perversion of this site.

Viewers liked it too:

"i loved Shelly's dress and would like to know where to get one. was really nice and had good effect on the men"

"Shelly Horton, what a babe !!! Where has she been hiding?"

"WOW! How good did Shelly Horton look on last night's show? SHWING!!"

"is there any reason Dave spent most of the episode staring at Shelly's tits?"

"Just wanted to say that I think the guest Shelly Horton on this evening's show is really gorgeous!"

"I want to know where Shelley Horton got that killer dress"

I happen to know from whom Shelly borrowed that dress, and I would like to remind the owner of that dress that she is forbidden to wear that dress in public. Now put your burqa back on and make me some tabouli!

(By the way, if you scroll far enough through the viewer comments, you’ll find this: "You guys should replace that boffin from the media watch program.")

BARGSHOON BOMBSHELL

A former Labor member now running as an independent against Mark Latham claims that Latham asked him to stack two Sydney ALP branches:

Sam Bargshoon was a member of the ALP for 18 years and has admitted to extensive branch stacking during that time.

"Mark Latham asked me to wait until everyone had left the meeting of the Austral branch," Mr Bargshoon said.

"He wanted me to help him find some new members to put in Austral branch and his electoral branch."

Bargshoon says he found 49 new members whose memberships were paid by the ALP's head office; Latham says "nobody joined that branch in 2003, so the whole proposition is just a fantasy." Should be easy enough to discover who’s telling the truth; open the relevant membership accounts.

UPDATE. Via AAP:

Austral branch secretary Tony Beuk today refused to confirm or deny Mr Bargshoon's allegations.

"Whatever comments I made to the inquiry, I made to the inquiry, so I mean, that question wasn't asked of me so I've got no particular comment in relation to that," Mr Beuk said.

"I can't confirm any version of events.

"I'm not prepared to make any comment in relation to those particular allegations."

Interesting. And here’s more from branchy Bargshoon:

"He wanted me to help him find some new members to put into Austral branch because [left-winger] Paul Lynch put in 20 members," Mr Bargshoon told the inquiry.

"Mark hated Paul Lynch and Paul hated Mark ..."

UPDATE II. It’s a double bombshell day:

The federal Labor Party says it is extremely concerned about allegations that a sitting Independent MP had been offered a diplomatic posting if he agreed not to stand again.

Tony Windsor, the Independent Member for New England in northern New South Wales, says people connected with the Liberal and National parties have been involved in making the offers.

Labor's Nicola Roxon says it is a serious criminal offence to offer inducements to someone to persuade them not to run for Parliament.
Ms Roxon says the maximum punishment for the offence is two years jail or a $5,000 fine.

"Clearly this is an outrageous attack on our democracy, something that we don't expect the government to be involved in, in any way," she said.

CBS FACES FACTS

It’s almost D-Day for Dan, according to Drudge:

After days of expressing confidence about the documents used in a 60 MINUTES report that raised new questions about President Bush's National Guard service, CBS News officials have grave doubts about the authenticity of the material, network officials said last night, the NEW YORK TIMES is reporting in Monday runs. Developing...

How much of the blame will Rather and CBS accept, and how much will be pinned on the Burkett fellow? An interview with the Kinko konnection is forthcoming:

CBS News anchor Dan Rather has interviewed the retired lieutenant colonel widely believed to have helped provide "60 Minutes" with the disputed National Guard documents about President Bush that have created a credibility crisis for the network, and CBS plans to air the interview in the coming days.

The on-camera sit-down with Bill Burkett, who has urged Democratic activists to wage "war" against Republican "dirty tricks," could help resolve whether CBS continues to stand by its story or concedes the purported 30-year-old memos are forgeries, as numerous document experts have contended.

UPDATE. The New York Times:

[CBS] officials, who asked not to be identified, said CBS News would most likely make an announcement as early as today that it had been deceived about the documents' origins.

Mr. Rather interviewed Mr. Burkett on camera this weekend, and several people close to the reporting process said his answers to Mr. Rather's questions led officials to conclude that their initial confidence that the memos had come from Mr. Killian's own files was not warranted. These people indicated that Mr. Burkett had previously led the producer of the piece, Mary Mapes, to have the utmost confidence in the material.

THE LAUGHING ASSASSIN

Ha! Ayad Allawi is making fun of Sydney Morning Herald rumour-monger Paul McGeough. The New York Times reports:

Ayad Allawi will have his right wrist in a cast when he arrives in the United States this week for his first visit as Iraq's interim prime minister, and it will provide the 59-year-old neurosurgeon with a powerful talking point. Asked about the wrist in an interview here as he prepared to leave for London, New York and Washington, Dr. Allawi joshed: "I've been shooting people, didn't you know?"

This should please McGeough, who was earlier miffed that his Ayad the Slayer story didn’t get any attention. Not even from CBS! More from the NYT’s Allawi piece:

Shortly after he took office in June, stories circulated of Dr. Allawi visiting a detention center in the Baghdad suburb and shooting several detained insurgents dead. The story quickly faded, with American officials saying they had no information to confirm it, and Dr. Allawi dismissing it as a "ridiculous" fiction. But a curious thing happened: many Iraqis who heard the story told friends they would not be unhappy if it were true, because it would show that Iraq finally had a strongman at its helm again, one who might restore order.

Hmm. Sounds like the Iraqis are down with this whole "fake but true" concept.

LATHAM DETONATION WATCH

"The tropical heat of the Top End has brought back the real Mark Latham," writes Sue Dunlevy:

Channel 9 correspondent Laurie Oakes was attacked for making "smart alec commentary" as the Opposition Leader went troppo.

Mr Latham was still trying to sustain the bizarre argument the families would be better off on a weekly basis and only worse off annually.

"If journalists don't get it, well bad luck, the Australian people do and Labor is going to solve the problem for them," he told Channel 9's Sunday.

Oh, thank you Uncle Mark! You can tell when Latham is trying to control his temper; he begins uptalking like an indignant teenager. Inflections were rising all over the place when this happened:

Mark Latham yesterday demanded his three-year-old son Oliver be left out of the campaign and turned on journalists covering his election bid.

The extraordinary outburst followed one question about whether the Labor leader might send his children to a private school.

"I'm a supporter of the public education system. The truth of this matter is that we've put Oliver's name down for a couple of pre-schools next year.

"And we've picked one [private pre-school] out that we hope he will go to, if we're still in Sydney."

Note to Mark: if the question is about what school you’re sending your kid to, it’s a question about schools. You might have a legitimate cause for grievance if the question was about your kid having no friends or if he’d learned to walk yet or if other pre-schoolers called him "Ollie Ollie Oxen Face".

What was I saying about schools a couple of weeks ago? Oh, here it is: "Raise the cost of private education and some of Mark Latham’s beloved aspirational class won’t be able to afford it. The gap between rich and poor will increase!" Scarily, Robert Manne agrees:

The reduction of public funds from private schools is not only dubious politics; it is a policy mistake. Parents most affected by this will be those struggling to pay their private school fees. As a result such schools will become even more exclusive than is the case.

Manne is on-side with the single-parent families, too:

When Labor's family and tax policy was released, it immediately became clear that low-to-middle, dual-income-earning families would benefit quite handsomely from the package. It also became clear that once the Coalition's recent offer of $600 a year a child was taken into account, many single-income families would suffer financial loss, especially if the income of the sole breadwinner was low and the family had a number of children to support.

The single income family is, in general, the type where severe economic difficulties are now found. Nevertheless Labor was now going to the election promising many single income families that if it were elected they would be noticeably less well off.

Meanwhile, at the serious end of politics:

Prime Minister John Howard is today expected to launch a $98.7 million assault on terrorism with plans for specialist counter-terrorism flying squads to be dispatched in the region to help Australia's neighbours guard against terror attacks.

News of the planned announcement last night came after Mr Howard flexed his muscles on national security yesterday by restating his readiness to launch a pre-emptive strike if a terrorist threat emerged against Australia.

Mr Howard reaffirmed his position after Opposition Leader Mark Latham ruled out taking similar military action, suggesting it was best to use diplomatic channels.

UPDATE. An article from last week’s Herald Sun (no link available) by Dr Kevin Donnelly, a staffer with Employment and Workplace Relations Minister Kevin Andrews:

The first thing to be said about the ALP’s schools policy is that it represents a grubby and cynical political exercise that destroys any promise about trust and openness in government.

How else do you explain why voter-sensitive Jewish schools in marginal ALP seats like Melbourne Ports are excluded from funding cuts?

The Australian Education Union (AEU) last week launched a $1.5 million campaign across 28 marginal seats in an attempt to unseat the Howard Government. The very next week, surprise, surprise, Mark Latham announces an additional $1.9 billion for AEU-dominated government schools.

Forget that the AEU’s curriculum policy - one which refuses to hold teachers or schools publicly accountable, that is anti-family and that promotes the rights of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people and that applauds PC fads like black armband history – is one reason why parents are deserting government schools.

Of course, Mark Latham is smart enough to know, given that 32% of students attend non-government schools (in Victoria the figure grows to 41% at years 11 and 12), that it would be political suicide to stop funding non-government schools altogether.

The answer, engage in the politics of envy and establish a hit list of 67 so-called wealthy, elite schools and freeze the funding at a further 111.

Ignored is that the current SES formula used to fund non-government schools is already needs based. The average student government recurrent funding (2001-2002) is just under $9,000, students at Scotch College only receive $1,713 in government funding and students at The Kings School in Sydney receive $1,905.

By cutting funding and forcing schools to increase fees, all the ALP will achieve is to financially penalise those parents who wish to choose what is best for their children. Worse still, every student that is forced back into the government system represents an additional burden on government spending.

The fact is that that 47.9% of independent school families earn less than $78,000 a year and, according to figures released by the Productivity Commission, such parents save Australian governments $4.2 billion a year. Such parents not only pay for their children’s education, their taxes also fund government schools.

Take our family as an example. Julia and I both went to government schools and ended up teaching in them as well. Such was our experience of the state system that we sent James to Camberwell Grammar and Amelia to Ryton – both independent schools are on the ALP’s hit list.

The only way we paid schools fees was by Julia taking on part time work and by increasing the mortgage. Of course, we did not expect governments to cover the cost. At the same time we certainly felt, as parents, that we had the right to choose and that some of our taxes should support our children’s education.

Not only is the ALP schools policy guilty of the tall poppy syndrome - let’s attack those schools that achieve the best academic results and that promote values that parents want - but the policy also gives greater control to state and federal left-leaning bureaucracies and teacher unions.

The ALP policy released this week calls for a nationally consistent curriculum, including teaching Australian values and common approaches to reporting and literacy and numeracy. Those parents who remember Joan Kirner’s VCE and Paul Keating’s national curriculum will understand that dangers in such an approach.

NEWS BRIEFLETS

• "He advanced on her, his tousled hair looking great."

• Daily Kos is unhappy about being listed as a satire site by Google: "Someone should look into this. It might send a wrong message to newcomers."

• The Australian’s Patrick Smith demands that Victorians go to the Grand Final, whether they want to or not:

If Victorians do not pack the MCG then they are as small-minded and insular as the Melbourne Sunday Herald Sun believes them to be. And Melbourne could hardly continue to brag that it is the sporting capital of the world. That would just be drivel.

Sydney is the gay capital of Australia. I order Smith to hang out at an Oxford Street leather bar for the rest of the month.

• George W. Bush is getting hammered in this international poll, which asks: "What if the whole world could vote in the U.S. presidential election?" It’s not exactly reliable (maybe to CBS!) but check the results for Afghanistan and Iraq relative to France, the UK, and Germany ...

• So Bernie Slattery reckons I know nothing about politics, eh? Well, check out this horrible poll, then! (Of course, Bernie is probably right. I hope so, anyway.)

KERRY TO AUSTRALIA: SHUN US

Remember when Greens senator Bob Brown demanded that George W. Bush stop interfering in Australian politics? Let’s see what Bob has to say about this:

John Kerry's campaign has warned Australians that the Howard Government's support for the US in Iraq has made them a bigger target for international terrorists.

Diana Kerry, younger sister of the Democrat presidential candidate, told The Weekend Australian that the Bali bombing and the recent attack on the Australian embassy in Jakarta clearly showed the danger to Australians had increased.

"Australia has kept faith with the US and we are endangering the Australians now by this wanton disregard for international law and multilateral channels," she said, referring to the invasion of Iraq.

By the way, the Bali bombing took place before the invasion of Iraq. Intriguing message Kerry is sending; is this her way of (as John Kerry promised in his convention speech) restoring "America's respect and leadership -- so we don't have to go it alone in the world”? As Brown might say, were he capable of consistency: "Pull your head in, hideous replicant sister!"

JUICED-UP 'NAM VET THREATENS VIOLENCE

Run, everybody! Run for your lives! John Kerry is in a fighting mood:

"Let me tell you something, these folks have got me in fighting mood," Kerry said of rival President Bush's campaign. "When I get in a fighting mood towards the end of September and towards the beginning of October, I think you know what happens here in Massachusetts."

Yes; the Red Sox lose. Brawlin' John seems to have inspired his fellow Democrats:

Politics in Gainesville turned rough and tumble Thursday night when, police say, a social behavior sciences instructor - a Democrat - punched the chairman of the Alachua County Republican Executive Committee in the face.

David Philip McCally, 55, of Gainesville faces misdemeanor battery and criminal mischief charges after he was accused of hitting both committee chairman Travis Horn, 32, and a life-sized, cardboard cutout of President George Bush.

Via reader Scott S. Here’s more tough talk from juicy John:

"I feel those October juices flowing," Kerry said. "And I've been at this for a while and when those juices get flowing, I feel good. Let me tell you, we feel it happening."

We are left to wonder, along with Don Imus ... what the hell is Kerry talking about?

"I'VE NEVER BEEN MORE CONFIDENT IN MY LIFE"

Massive Washington Post piece on Rathergate. It includes a major concession from CBS producer Josh Howard, who says the network stopped fact-checking the documents when they weren’t immediately challenged by the White House:

"Obviously, looking back on it, that was a mistake. We stopped questioning ourselves. I suppose you could say we let our guard down."

Yes, you could say that. (White House communications director Dan Bartlett’s explanation for his no-challenge: "How am I supposed to verify something that came from a dead man in three hours?") It turns out Rather has actually met the source:

In mid-August, [CBS producer Mary] Mapes told her bosses that she had finally tracked down a source who claimed to have access to memos written in 1972 and 1973 by the late Lt. Col. Jerry B. Killian, Bush's squadron commander in the Texas Air National Guard. The memos, she was told, revealed how the young pilot from a famous family had received favorable treatment, even after refusing an order to report for a physical. Rather and his producer met the source at an out-of-the-way location.

An out-of-the-way location near Abilene, perhaps? Maybe we should feel sorry for 60 Minutes, running on a tiny budget and all:

"The show is not so lavishly budgeted that we have tons of people doing this," said Harry Moses, a "60 Minutes" producer not connected to the story. "You do the pre-interviews yourself and then bring in the correspondent."

At which point the budget suddenly increases:

The next stop was Texas. Rather was in Florida, so CBS chartered a plane to get him to Austin.

Priorities, people. CBS News President Andrew Heyward says "all of us asked questions" during a pre-broadcast meeting:

"We asked core questions -- about reliability, authenticity, motivation, could the source have had access to the documents."

Too bad nobody thought to type up the memos in Microsoft Word. Too bad Dan Rather -- who must have reams of ‘70s-era memos lying around in his files -- didn’t recognise elemental differences (superscript, no hyphens, etc) between modern and 30-year-old documents.

After the show, one colleague asked an elated Rather whether he was sure the documents were real. "I have never been more confident of a story in my life," he said.

That line is going to get some play in the next week or so. Marshall, earlier admitting "we let our guard down", later retreats into Ratheresque denial:

Rather said that if the memos were indeed faked, "I'd like to break that story." But whatever the verdict on the memos, he said, critics "can't deny the story."

As the days begin to blur for Josh Howard, he embraces the same logic: "So much of this debate has focused on the documents, and no one has really challenged the story. It's been frustrating to us to see all this reduced to a debate over little 'th's."

A debate CBS has lost, by the way. And the reason critics "can't deny the story"? There isn't a story to deny.

UPDATE. Impressive document-hunting work from Allah and Daily Recycler. What did CBS know, and when did they not want us to know it?

UPDATE II. Mark Steyn:

You'd think CBS would be mad as hell to find whoever it was who stitched them up and made them look idiots.

They could start with Rather.

UPDATE III. It’s all Bush’s fault:

"If we had gotten back from the White House any kind of red flag, raised eyebrow, anything that said, 'Are you sure about this stuff?' we would have gone back to square one," Josh Howard, the program's executive producer, said Friday.

But the White House lies! John Kerry says so!

UPDATE IV. Blaming the White House doesn’t cut any ice with the Independent’s Rupert Cornwell:

If CBS, however, has been duped, the network appears the author of its own misfortune, having ignored warnings even from its own forensic specialists that the memos might be dodgy.

UPDATE V. Dan Rather, a few weeks before the memo broadcast:

In the end, what difference does it make what one candidate or the other did or didn't do during the Vietnam War? In some ways, that war is as distant as the Napoleonic campaigns.

UPDATE VI. Bill 'Kinko' Burkett, probable source of the memos, can count on Dan:

Burkett told a visitor that after the story ran, Rather phoned him and expressed his and the network's "full support."

And it turns out Michael Moore did end up influencing this election, albeit indirectly:

A biographical sketch appended to another anti- Bush essay Burkett posted on an Internet site in late August describes him as "one of the sources" for Michael Moore's anti-Bush film "Fahrenheit 9/11."

UPDATE VII. Stop calling him Burkett!

LATHAM, AGAINST THE ODDS

Chatting with David Marr before a Radio National forum Friday night, he’s surprised that lately I’m thinking Mark Latham will win. I’m just as surprised he believes Howard is a certainty. Onlookers are surprised we’re talking instead of smashing chairs over each other’s heads.

Anyway, I’m not exactly sure why I think Latham will win. The polls certainly don’t support me:

And even Hugh Mackay -- returned to The Age for the duration of the campaign, may it please end quickly -- believes Howard will be re-elected:

At the mid-point of this election campaign, it's hard to see how the result will be close. No doubt there will be some surprises in closely contested marginal seats but the overall mood of the electorate, tracked by my own qualitative research throughout the year, strongly favours maintenance of the status quo.

Lord knows, it’s not as though I want Latham to win; and, in fact, the Labor leader seems to be doing his best to sabotage his own campaign:

The Opposition Leader, Mark Latham, today promised to serve as prime minister until the war on terrorism was won.

Speaking at the Labor Party's West Australian campaign launch, Mr Latham said he was the only prime ministerial candidate to undertake to see out the war on terrorism to its end.

"If you elect me as prime minister, I will see the fight against terror through to the end, securing the safety of the Australian people."

A few more of these Superman outbursts and I might have to re-think. One reason for a Latham win: the economy has been so good for so long that any relationship between it and the Howard government is dulled. Howard seemed to be making a huge reach during the debate when he mentioned the economy his government inherited waaaaaay back in 1996; first-time voters in this election were then only ten years old, and -- like many of their elders -- have come to think that a zippy economy is as elemental a fact of Australian life as a Brisbane Lions appearance in the Grand Final. If Howard loses, it might not be due to the Not Happy John! factor, but the opposite: happy Australians up for a gamble on Latham. Fear of terrorism? Australians have demonstrated an admirable resistance to fear. Terror may not be as much of an election issue as many suppose.

I do have a poor hunch history; for example, I was convinced until one week before the 1996 election that Keating would win. Maybe I’m just pessimistic. Or optimistic, considering the wealth of conserva-pundit items that a Latham government would deliver. Brian Toohey was also at the Radio National thing. We spoke for an hour or so afterwards; I won’t give exact details of what he said, because I think he was musing out loud on future column ideas, but he predicted some especially entertaining Latham-in-government possibilities.

More on the forum later. The ABC will broadcast edited highlights this Wednesday.

UPDATE. I sure can pick ‘em. A few hours after I posted this, Latham turned into a thrashing microphone-knocker during an interview with Laurie Oakes. The trouble began with this question: “You say they're better off on a weekly basis, but acknowledge they're worse off on an annual basis. Do you understand how silly that makes you sound?”

LAURIE OAKES: Mr Latham, I think you've knocked your microphone off there, would you be able to sort of stick it back on the coat, if that's all right?

MARK LATHAM: I was getting stuck into the debate about the benefits of our tax and families, so the mic's gone flying, but I'll whack it back on the tie. There we go.

LAURIE OAKES: That's the trouble with passionate political debate, has those effects.

MARK LATHAM: Well, it's...

LAURIE OAKES: Could I ...

MARK LATHAM: ... it's the problem with clips that fall off, too. So how's that?

LAURIE OAKES: That's pretty good.

MARK LATHAM: Okay.

LAURIE OAKES: You should be a technician in television.

Not great under pressure, is he? Laborite Chris Sheil will be alarmed:

Above all, I think Latho has to stay cool, reasonable, civilised ... When you have truth and reason on your side, as I feel sure the ALP has in this case, civilised and reasonable debate must always be the way to go.

"EMINENT" "WRITERS" SPEAK

Attention Sydney readers! If you’re bored or mentally ill today, why not visit the Bennelong Writers Festival?

Come, hear what these eminent writers have to say that might impact on the outcome of the next election. They speak to you from within the heart of Bennelong, the electorate of Prime Minister John Howard. This will be a stimulating and at times controversial day, with a chance to meet the authors over a coffee during book sales and signings. Book early to avoid disappointment!

Session One 10.15am - 11.15am: Tony Kevin discusses his book, A Certain Maritime Incident: the sinking of the SIEV X, with journalist and author Margo Kingston. Question time followed by booksigning.

Followed by medication hour. Things get super-diverse in Session Three, where opinions ranging from I Hate John Howard to John Howard: Hate Him! will be explored:

Session Three: 2pm - 3.30pm Chaired by David Salter
Margo Kingston: Not Happy, John!
Andrew Wilkie: Axis of Deceit
Dr Alison Broinowski: Howard’s War
Margaret Simons: Latham’s World
Includes question time from the floor

Suggested question: "Margo, can you name one of the Zionist fundamentalists who control politics and the media in Australia and the US?"

VICIOUS KITTIES

Whoa! Luke Power just got knocked out. This Geelong/Brisbane preliminary final is excellent. Cats up by four points with eleven minutes to go in the second quarter (on delayed telecast).

UPDATE. Power is back, but now Shaun Hart has been taken out of the game by team-mate Daniel Bradley ... er, Bradshaw. Haven't seen that much blood since Francis Bourke.

BUCKHEAD UNMASKED

Late to the party on all this Memogate business? Well, put on your pyjamas and let