ANYONE trying to make sense of the recent election campaign would be advised to stay well clear of the articles on the ABC’s opinion websites, The Drum and Unleashed.

With these sites established as an addition to the ABC’s online news service late last year, the campaign was the first big test to see whether online opinion at the national broadcaster could, as ABC chairman Maurice Newman once dared hope, “walk both sides of the street”.

But while Tony Abbott’s 2010 campaign will be remembered as the most successful by a first-term opposition in 79 years – and, conversely, Julia Gillard’s the least successful by a government – all of this seems to have eluded the chosen opinion holders at the ABC. I monitored both sites throughout the campaign. Here’s the tally. Negative comments: Gillard, 327; Abbott, 353. Positive comments: Gillard, 197; Abbott, 65. In short, while Gillard and Abbott received roughly the same amount of criticism, Gillard was praised three times more often.

From the first week, articles published at these websites informed us that “Changing leaders has done no damage to Labor’s chances at all because Tony Abbott is unelectable and his party is a rabble”; that cabinet meetings involving Abbott would be a “freak show” and the leader a “shameless political operator”.

Marieke Hardy told us it was likely he would be “stupid enough to go strolling about the streets wearing nothing but his swimmers and a vaguely predatory leer”. Bob Ellis chimed in to say Abbott should be asked about causing the premature death of asbestos-related diseases campaigner Bernie Banton.

Abbott started slowly in campaigning, but it seemed unlikely the tenor of the negative comments – running against him by about five to one at ABC online – could be easily justified.

Week two was the week of the leaks. Abbott performed well in the debate and by the weekend some polls put him in a winning position. This, you might think, would be reflected at the online opinion sites of our national broadcaster. In fact, in the week when it was revealed Gillard might not have been entirely truthful about her support for parental leave, her positive mentions doubled. Amazingly, the ABC published an item praising Gillard’s announcement of a citizens assembly on climate change, somehow uncovering the only person other than Gillard known to think that “Boganhagen” would be a good idea.

Positive comment for Abbott came in otherwise negative stories: “It should be clear by now that the trend is towards the Coalition. That’s despite anything they’ve done.” But for every grudging bit of praise, Abbott was attacked many times over: “To be fair to Tony, he is a genuinely strange-looking man” and “Personally I’m of the firm belief that [Abbott's] personality is born of the loins of Satan, but it’s still a personality regardless.”

With the entry of Mark Latham and the advent of “Real Julia”, Labor’s campaign rapidly turned to farce, but we were told Gillard was “shrewd, tough and intelligent and with a modest manner”. One writer followed her on the campaign trail, saying there was a “real buzz around her”. Whether there was a buzz around Abbott we are yet to find out; none of them followed him on the hustings. Another concluded that the insulation scheme, which led to four deaths and wasted billions of dollars, “actually achieved some very successful outcomes in terms of retro-fitting Australian homes”.

Read the rest here.

UPDATE:
I read this very interesting piece on why the media are losing readers and viewers, via Crusader Rabbit.

I was listening to Chris Smith interview Adam Wilson, the director of environmental company, Soil systems Australia, on 1377 MTR this afternoon, they were discussing how Australia can be drought proofed and the relatively low cost involved compared to say a national broadband scheme.
The idea is extremely interesting. Listen to the interview here.

WEST Australian Attorney-General Christian Porter warns that UNl treaties signed by Australia will affect how he runs the state’s jails.

He argued that practices such as strip-searching dangerous prisoners could become a thing of the past.

Mr Porter told The Australian that the Rudd government’s decision last year to sign a protocol allowing the UN to inspect jails and detention centres would create havoc in managing the country’s most serious offenders.

Arguing against growing UN intrusion into sovereign affairs, Mr Porter said covenants signed by the commonwealth were causing serious concerns in the area of criminal law and punishment after repeated UN rulings that state laws had breached international human rights obligations.

Mr Porter said he doubted all prisons would pass muster with the UN, opening the door to a wave of international criticism.
And he signalled a looming clash over strict practices in top-security prisons, such as strip-searching prisoners.

“If I cannot empower my staff to strip-search on a random and regular basis people in the special handling unit, it will be a very, very difficult thing to run the prison regime, very difficult indeed,” he said.

“But, nevertheless, we will be subject to that form of scrutiny.

“Some of the federal government’s own places of detention might not come up to scratch to standards which are not determined inside Australia — and by that I mean its refugee places of detention.”

Mr Porter pointed to a worrying case in The Netherlands where a notorious murderer and rapist had received E3000 ($4278) compensation.
He said prison management practices were forced to change after an international committee determined the prisoner’s strict confinement regime — including limited physical contact, only one visitor a week and random strip-searches — created “feelings of helplessness, powerlessness, anger and communication difficulties”.

Mr Porter said the ruling raised concerns about the prospect of similar compensation in this country.
“Absolutely, they’re concerns,” he told The Australian. “But another concern is that we actually don’t know what standards we’re going to be held to.”

He claimed some treaties had been signed by Australia with little understanding of their impact. Mr Porter pointed to a series of criminal cases where the UN had overridden Australian supreme courts of appeal and the High Court when making decisions condemning state laws.

A UN human rights committee ruling had upheld complaints by Queensland sex offender Robert Fardon and NSW pedophile Kenneth Tillman about state laws that allowed them to be detained or strictly supervised after their sentences were served as a way to protect the community.

A spokesman for federal Attorney-General Robert McClelland said he could not comment while the government was in caretaker mode.

“He claimed some treaties had been signed by Australia with little understanding of their impact.”

Adam Brandt -

In the 1995 memo, Mr Bandt said he was “towards an anti-capitalist, anti-social democratic, internationalist movement”.

Identifying himself as a member of the Left Alliance, Mr Bandt said, “the parliamentary road to socialism is non-existent”. He called the Greens a “bourgeois” party but said supporting them might be the most effective strategy.

“Communists can’t fetishise alternative political parties, but should always make some kind of materially based assessment about the effectiveness of any given strategy come election time,” he wrote in the 1995 memo.

Julia Gillard –

For the Left to make any real advance all these perspectives on the relationship to Labor in government need to be rejected in favour of a concept of strategic support for Labor governments. We need to recognise the only possibility for major social change is under a long period of Labor administration. Within that administration the Left needs to be willing to participate to shape political outcomes, recognising the need to except (sic) often unpalatable compromises in the short term to bolster the prospect of future advance. The task of pushing back the current political constraints by changing public opinion would need to be tackled by the Left through government, social movements and trade unions.

Call me cruel but I would love to see the look on the face of the average clueless, “I’m voting for the Greens ‘cos they like the environment”, voter, when they discover there’s more to the Greens than they realised.

Is this what the Greens want?

1. Increased income tax rates ( 3.3.2)
2. New Consumption tax with multiple rates (3.3.8)
3. Increase capital gain tax (3.3.9,3.3.10)
4. Higher Fringe Benefit tax (3.3.3)
5. Eliminate salary sacrificing (3.3.3)
6. Introduce estate duties [including family home] (3.3.11)
7. Introduce gift tax (3.3.12)
8. Higher Medicare levy with progressive rates (3.3.15, 3.3.16)
9. Eliminate Private Health Insurance rebate (3.3.18)
10. Increased taxations of superannuation(3.3.19, 3.3.20)
11. Tax family trusts (3.3.14)
12. Increased company tax to 33% (3.3.21)
13. Tax on franked dividends (3.3.22)
14. Carbon levy (3.3.24)
15. Increased timber royalties (17.1.8)
16. Tax equivalent on non recycled paper (17.1.8)
17. Tax bottles and containers (17.1.7)
18. plastic bag levy (17.1.7)
19. private transport user tax (2.4,2.5)
20. Tax on batteries (7.1.12)
21. Increased tax on rental property (3.3.28)
22. Mining environmental levy (15.1.6)
23. Nutrient pollution tax (3.3.25)
24. Tax on fossil fuel usage (3.3.25)
25. Tax on water pollution (3.3.25)
26. Tax on soil pollution (3.3.25)
27. Tax on air pollution (3.3.25)
28. Tax on timber use (3.3.25)
29. Tax on use of ocean (3.3.25)
30. Tax on use of freshwater (3.3.25)
31. Tax on mineral use (3.3.25)
32. Tax on land sites according to land value (3.3.25)
33. Tax on electromagnetic spectrum assets (3.3.25)
34. Tax on petroleum (3.3.25)
35. Higher taxes on ecologically damaging industries 3.3.27)
36. Currency transaction tax (3.3.36)
37. 33 % tax surcharge on high corporate salaries (3.3.31)
38. Pay-roll tax to fund employee entitlements (4.3.25)
39. Landfill taxes (16.2.3)
40. Increased environmental charges and fines (16.2.3, 16.2.8)

Tax elimination or reductions (Policy section reference)
1. GST ( Replaced with consumption tax ) (3.3.8)
2. Cut tax on bartering or black market (3.3.29)
3. Increase tax-free threshold (3.3.31)
4. Tax cut for non-frequent flyers (3.16)
5. Eliminate Higher Educations charge (2.18)

Source: The Australian Greens’ Election Policies. Why The Green’ Policies Matter By Jim Hoggett.

So why did people vote for the Greens?

Yes we Canberra!

I haven’t got a religious bone in my body but, hey, when somethings true, it’s true.

“The heart of the wise inclines to the right, but the heart of the fool to the left.”

Allen West on Islamic Fundamentalism

This clearly highlights the character and stupidity of the knob who has been in control of our purse strings for the last few years and possibly the next few.

Wayne Swan gets owned (extended)

“Do I have to put up with this?” ….. what’s going on? …. why aren’t the media protecting me? … help …. I want my mummy … …….

I’m not sure why more wasn’t made of his incompetence during the election campaign, but there’s a lot of ammunition I feel the Libs failed to use effectively. Anyway better late than never.
Go Michael Kroger!!!

I hope this post is coherent. If not then please cut me some slack, it’s Sunday morning and I literally only woke up 5 minutes ago.
I haven’t even had a coffee yet, I’ve turned the laptop on, opened google reader and the headline of one of Andrew Bolts posts came up first.

Congratulations, Prime Minister whoever

Followed by these ominous words -

Scary, that the winner of the election will be decided on some combination of the Greens’ Adam Bandt, anti-Iraq-war conspiracist and former Greens candidate Andrew Wilkie (if elected) and the three former Nationals-turned-independents – Bob Katter, Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott.

Last night I started watching the election results on tv but turned it off, Laurie Oakes and Nicola Roxon are both people I cannot cope with, so to have them both on my tv screen at the same time was unbearable. I spent the evening on facebook, being updated on election news by FB friends, and reading bits and pieces on the web.
During the evening I came across this article.

Unlocking the Secrets of Personality Types – Part 2

Regular readers of this blog might have seen my post on personality types. Here.
For a while now I have been interested in temperament types and have concluded that there must be a link between type and politics. That different types probably want governments to play a role in their lives that is consistent with their type.

For instance what makes some people want a big government that nannies them, controlling every aspect of their lives and others want a small government that butts out of their business and leaves them alone. What makes some people want a government that shows compassion and others want their government to be just and fair.

Firstly I have to say that my conclusions are that of an amateur and obviously every person is different and there is a very real possibility that I am about to insult some people who belong to the Artisan type. I hope not because my eldest son belongs to this group and he is a wonderful, fun, adventurous person. Who luckily, like a lot of Artisans, has no interest in politics. I say luckily because the ones who are this type and do have an interest are often strident in their beliefs, easily led and clueless. Remember I’m generalising. Everyone is different and these observations are based on my own limited experience.
Of the four types, Artisans make up the second largest group. Guardians are the largest. Both Artisans and Guardians are sensors, meaning they have a preference for absorbing data in a concrete, literal fashion. But if that data is broken up into lots of little pieces they are not good at putting the pieces together.
This is from my previous post.

We are Sensing when we:

* Taste food
* Notice a stoplight has changed
* Memorize a speech
* Follow steps in a plan

We are Intuitive when we:

* Come up with a new way of doing things
* Think about future implications for a current action
* Perceive underlying meaning in what people say or do
* See the big picture

Guardians are said to be conservative in their outlook.
Neither Guardians or Artisans are good at seeing the big picture, although the Artisans I have debated with, think they are. They also seem to be in love with tokenism.
This is from the article I referred to in my previous post.

Moreover, look at the words given to describe the various personality types. Most Sensors are the people would you probably want to trust least when it comes to accurate, complete information – and this is majority of the population! Would you rather listen to a Mastermind or a Performer when it comes to world conspiracies? Or how about a Teacher or a Provider?

I’m not saying that Sensors are bad, I’m saying they’re bad at doing things they’re not designed to do. A “Mastermind” shouldn’t be performing or entertaining people, fine, but he should be figuring out who is running the show and why we are where we are as a society.

My type is Rational (NT) (Green card) and I call myself a Conservative Libertarian.
Rationals are the most autonomous of all the temperaments, so as a person who sees red when someone tries to control or manipulate me, it makes sense that my type are likely to be the group that most resents government interference in their lives.
This is from the article I came across last night –

In his groundbreaking book, Please Understand Me, David Keirsey took the 16 Myers-Briggs personality types and reduced them to four “temperament” types. This makes it much less complicated to figure out and understand a person’s type.

The four temperaments are: Intuitive Thinkers (NTs), Intuitive Feelers (NFs), Sensory Judgers (SJs), and Sensory Perceivers (SPs).

The Advocates has put together descriptions of the temperaments on color-coded cards which help people quickly figure out their types. NTs are “Green Cards,” NFs are “Blue Cards,” SJs are “Gold Cards,” and SPs are “Orange Cards.”

What “color” are you?

Here are key words that describe each “color”:

Green Cards (an estimated 12% of the population): Objective, rational, logical, conceptual, curious, competent, scientific, intelligent, knowledgeable, and wise.

Blue Cards (an estimated 12% of the population): Compassionate, caring, warm, communicative, cooperative, romantic, creative, sensitive, and harmonious.

Gold Cards (an estimated 38% of the population): dependable, Responsible, sensible, helpful, hardworking, stable, loyal, organized, practical, punctual, and traditional.

Orange Cards (an estimated 38% of the population): Spontaneous, active, adventuresome, risk-taking, competitive, flexible, cheerful, realistic, charming, skillful, and fun.

The libertarian type

Over the years, observers have noted that most libertarians are Green Cards — a temperament type that makes up only 12% of the population. In fact, in 1987, when David Bergland and Marshall Fritz first introduced the libertarian movement to “temperament types,” their libertarian audience was 98% Green Cards.

Fortunately, it has been my observation that there has been a major shift in the last few years. Recently, when I’ve surveyed groups of libertarians, only about half turn out to be Green Cards!

This is a definite sign that libertarians are reaching out and appealing to other types.

I would love to know what category most supporters of the Australian Green party belong to. I would put money on the majority of them being Artisans and Idealists.

If I am correct then the question is how to reach out to Artisans (orange cards) and Idealists (blue cards) and convince them, in a way that is complementary to their type, to see things our way.

The answer could be here.

In my opinion, each of the four temperament types is naturally attracted to specific political views. Green Cards are naturally attracted to libertarianism. Gold Cards are naturally attracted to conservatism. Blue Cards are naturally attracted to liberalism. And Orange Cards tend to be skeptical about politics.

Interestingly, I think it’s difficult for conservatives to attract anyone but Gold Cards, and it may be hard for liberals to attract other types than Blue Cards. On the other hand — though Green Cards are the “natural” libertarians — libertarianism is attractive to all types

Let me repeat that: Libertarianism is attractive to all types — provided we learn to communicate the ideas in a way that each personality type can understand and appreciate.

Continue reading this article here.

What a surprise. Obama has backed the building of a mosque near ground zero.

Obama Backs Mosque Near Ground Zero

Yeah, yeah Obama, but why would they want to build a mosque in a place they know will upset so many people? Where is their sensitivity? Where is their compassion? Where is their tolerance?

Glenn Beck joins the dots.

Glenn Beck victory mosque.m4v

Here’s Pat Condell again.