<< SHORT TERM LEASES ~ MAIN ~ LABOR'S DEATH CULTURE >>
INJUNCTED! (UPDATE: UNINJUNCTIMATED!)
Planned broadcast tonight of Andrew Denton’s interview with Mark Latham was abandoned following a legal injunction. More details soon. (*UPDATE* The program ran from 10.30pm. No transcript available as yet. Hit comments for News Ltd. injunction information.) Meanwhile, in earlier Crazy Mark developments ...
“Since his last days at school,” wrote Gough Whitlam in January, “I have known Mark Latham as a person of outstanding character and capacity with a zest for public service ... Margaret and I shall always regard Mark and Janine and their children with great affection and admiration.”
That regard is no longer shared:
Former Labor leader Mark Latham says he doesn’t plan to ever speak again to his political mentor Gough Whitlam.
A bitter Mr Latham on Thursday night spoke of his disappointment at the end of his close personal relationship with Mr Whitlam, the former prime minister.
Both men represented the Sydney seat of Werriwa, Mr Latham named his son Isaac Gough, and Mr Whitlam stood in place of Mr Latham’s father at his wedding.
But Mr Latham said he had discovered Mr Whitlam, who had been a “father figure” to him from the time he entered political life, had wanted him out of politics altogether before he resigned the Labor leadership early this year.
He said Mr Whitlam had done “mean things” to him.
Now Latham knows how the Australian economy felt between the years 1972-75. Kim Beazley continues to take Latham heat:
I wouldn’t make him the toilet cleaner in Parliament House, let alone the leader of the Opposition.
Actually, according to Kevin Rudd, Latham himself might not qualify for the toilet-cleaning job—unless it was ALP-sponsored:
In Mark’s whole career, I don’t think there is a single job that he held from the time he left university, which wasn’t in some way connected with or supported by the Australian Labor Party.
Nice to discover, by the way, Latham’s low opinion of hygiene maintenance staff. At least Rudd can’t complain that Latham concealed his loathing for the elfin foreign affairs spokesman:
“Rudd is a terrible piece of work,” Mr Latham wrote on April 20 of the potential future leader. “Addicted to the media and leaking. A junior minister in government at best.”
Mr Latham wrote that he would make Mr Rudd the minister for the Pacific islands.
Sure enough, Latham said so publicly in this April 2004 speech:
A Labor Government will restore the pre-1996 responsibilities of an Assistant Minister for the Pacific Islands (in this case, assisting Kevin Rudd).
Among others, Latham’s book denounces the following: Kim Beazley, Simon Crean, Paul Keating, Gough Whitlam, Bob Carr, Tim Gartrell, Kevin Rudd, Jenny Macklin, Lindsay Tanner, Bob McMullan, Robert Ray, Stephen Conroy, Anthony Albanese, Wayne Swan and Stephen Smith. I don’t think this blog has hit that particular group of Labor targets in four whole years.
UPDATE. The Age’s Michelle Grattan: “Perhaps the most damaging question for Labor, as Mark Latham’s bile sweeps over the party, is not about specific allegations, but how it could ever have seen him as a credible leader ... Latham is behaving like a crazy man.”
UPDATE II. Mark Latham admitted “he had set up frontbencher Kevin Rudd in a ‘sting’ - leaking him false information about Labor Party polling that then appeared in journalist Laurie Oakes’ column.”
UPDATE III. Margo Kingston: “As Webdiarists know, I’ve always liked Mark, and I’ve always liked the fact that he was a thinker, a dreamer.” Really? Margo wrote this in 2002:
Mark Latham’s views hold sway. Here’s what he said in Saturday’s Australian: ‘Working families working hard want to be rewarded for effort. On the flip side of that they have zero tolerance for illegality. They don’t support illegal migration ... I’ve got to say I haven’t got much sympathy for people who pay people smugglers and arrive in boats that are funded by corruption.’
What Latham is really saying is that the aspirationals care concerned only with self-interest - ie more money in their pockets - and eschew empathy for people in different circumstances. Us and them. We and Other. This is the antithesis of the progressive vision.
Friends 4EVA!
UPDATE IV. Mark Latham: “I still belong to the Labor Party and wouldn’t ever join any other organisation.” Hmmm. Reports in January claimed Latham had ceased paying party dues.
UPDATE V. Barry Jones: “In 12 months’ time I think he’ll come to bitterly regret what he has written.”
UPDATE VI. Labor pollster Rod Cameron: “I think the thing the community will latch onto is that this is a sick man ... It’s what’s going on inside his head. He’s a sick man.”
UPDATE VII. An anonymous Labor MP: “There is nothing wrong with his state of mind.”
UPDATE VIII. The SMH’s Peter Hartcher: “One of the striking features of Latham’s career is that he has consistently fallen out with every major figure with whom he has worked closely, with the exception of Gough Whitlam and Paul Keating. In his new book he corrects this omission by criticising these men, too.”
UPDATE IX. Robert McClelland: “I think it’s fair to say the potential leader I voted for didn’t materialise.”
UPDATE X. Political scientist and Beazley pal John O’Callaghan: “In my 30 years observing Canberra, I’ve never seen anything as grossly outrageous as this. The suggestion that Kim would go around smearing Mark Latham on a sexual matter is gross, unfathomable, unconscionable and just wrong.”
UPDATE XI. The Age: “It was learned last night that Mr Latham is threatening to sue Bernard Lagan, author of The Loner, the story of Mr Latham’s year as leader.”
UPDATE XII: Enough Rope executive producer Anita Jacoby: “He [Latham] breached our agreement, so all bets are off.”
UPDATE XIII. The SMH’s Mike Seccombe:
Until mid-afternoon yesterday, the Australian Labor Party website was offering a bargain for those who don’t mind being a bit behind the fashion. Quality cotton printed T-shirts, sizes from S to XXL, for just $15.
That’s 50 per cent off! They used to be $30.
The only thing wrong was that the shirts bore two words that are now anathema in Labor circles: Mark Latham.
At 2.43pm the sale offer disappeared from the site.
UPDATE XIV. Bob McMullan: “When someone looks through a window and thinks they see a lot of vipers and snakes, it’s nearly always the case they’re looking in a mirror and seeing a reflection.”
UPDATE XV. Mark Latham on Paul Keating: “He’s the most brilliant, talented person I met in my time in Australian politics, but his one flaw is he needs to get over what happened nine years ago and get on with the rest of his life.”
UPDATE XVI. Craig McGregor in the SMH two days before last year’s election: “Latham has confirmed his position as the alternative prime minister of the nation. He has unified the ALP, he has given it heart, and even more importantly he has given it direction.”
UPDATE XVII. Mark Latham: “If you ever wondered was Jeff Kennett an idiot, the confirmation is the answer is ‘yes’.”
UPDATE XVIII. Margaret Simons, before the election: “Latham’s arrival on the political scene has brought an end to the fictions that have dominated politics for the past 10 years. Whatever lies ahead and whether or not Mark Latham wins government, we have at last arrived in our present.”
UPDATE XIX. Mark Latham on his marriage to first wife Gabrielle Gwyther: “Huge error, huge error. Obviously the worst thing I ever did in my life.”
UPDATE XX. The Australian: “Mark Latham’s vicious comments on two of his former colleagues, Kim Beazley and Kevin Rudd, are distasteful and wrong.”
UPDATE XXI. Mark Latham: “All those sick puppies in the Labor Party, I’m happy to leave them behind.”
UPDATE XXII. Chris Sheil: “The story about Gough strikes me as remarkably precious, and his response outright spiteful.”
UPDATE XXIII. Mark Latham: “I think Labor would have a good chance at the next election with say Julia Gillard as the Labor leader.”
UPDATE XXIV. Mark Bahnisch: “Latham should have written his book to get it out of his system and not published it ... Who would ever give him a job now seeing how he treats colleagues?”
INJUNCTED!
Tim, you need to read less of Margo. It’s starting rub off on you, and that’s scary.
;-P
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2005 09 15 at 07:25 AM • permalinkAs mentioned on the other thread,It is News Limited
—Nora
Posted by The Thin Man Returns on 2005 09 15 at 07:26 AM • permalinkDenton should get Alan Ramsey on the show.
He should ask him ‘what were you thinking at the time’ and ‘how could you have been so gullible’.
I’m sure it will be a bit like those old WW2 documentaries where ordinary Germans try to justify their support for Hitler, whilst acknowledge their subsequent disgust.
Would Ramsey say something like ‘I was hypnotised into his charismatic spell - I didn’t know what I was thinking, but now I have realised…’
Now that is what the ABC is for…
Posted by Flying Giraffe on 2005 09 15 at 07:45 AM • permalinkQuick, call Websters! Call Oxford! LET’S BEAT MARGO TO THE PUNCH!!!!!!!! Woot!
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2005 09 15 at 08:11 AM • permalinkAttention American readers: You might know that Latham called Kevin Rudd, Stephen Smith, Wayne Swan and someone else whose name escapes me “Big Macs” - as he believed they were US puppets.
Rove strikes again!
Posted by Quentin George on 2005 09 15 at 08:36 AM • permalinkI wouldn’t make him the toilet cleaner in Parliament House, let alone the leader of the Opposition.
I think the Libs have their next campaign slogan ready made.
Reading the ‘your say ‘site at the SMH today was sickening. Where were all of the lefties so strident about Latham last year? It seems that just like the France and its ‘French resistance’, no one supported the other side at all. Funny how the electorate got it right despite the luvvies at the ABC and Fairfax.
New image though- what’s happened to the Bob Carr tombstone glasses? A makeover with contacts?
Seeing as he’s tipped a bucket on every favour-holder in the ALP, a seat on a board won’t be on offer- I reckon even Richo couldn’t get Ol’ Mono-Pod a gig on a pew anywhere- could there be a resurchence of his career as a Green moon pie?
Don’t laugh- I give the example of Peter Garrett.
Good thing Australia voted the Coalition back in otherwise we would have had a cabinet full of “numerous snakes, freaks, arseholes and sewer rats” and a “traitorous rat” as PM. And that is the description given by the people themselves!
If they keep this effort up Howard can wait till his 80’s before safely passing on the PM job to Costello.
How about that photo of him on the SMH website.
He looks like a dolled-up corpse with the pale skin, glazed eyes and expressionless face. And old - hard to believe he is only 44 or so.
Posted by Flying Giraffe on 2005 09 15 at 09:44 AM • permalinkWonder what Flavius Antonius has to say about this blatant act of speech suppression… by his publisher?
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 09 15 at 10:10 AM • permalinkMost of the stuff he’s saying about Labor sounds pretty right to me. Gough, Keating, etc - all monsters. I have no doubt the other things he says about Labor are true too.
Maybe he’s like a cult follower who’s just been set free. If I’d spent 25+ years trapped and brainwashed in an insane cult I’d feel pretty vengeful too.
...just an alternative theory…
Hey rhetorical question for MS GRATTEN:
Forget the alp,the most damaging question for the MEDIA is “how did they ever see latham as a credible leader.?”
Don’t think you can deflect negative attention from your own backyard,you MADE Latham the legend and set him up as a future Australian prime minister.Aside from any other frightening scenarios,think what incredible damage he could have done to international relations.Completely OT, but in the light of Chrenkoff’s retirement from blogging, I thought I’d point out that the Tampa Tribune is going to feature a weekly “Voices from the Front”:
We regularly publish opinions from people who have something to say about the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Besides our own editorials, we open our pages to syndicated columnists, letter writers and people with expertise. Today, we are starting a weekly feature that deliberately seeks out the voices of our military on the front lines.
Yes, the big question is why were the ALP so desperate to nurture and promote this nasty piece of malevolence.
Last night Barry Jones (pick a box Barry, any box!), grasping for analogies, used the tired old skorpian-&-frog-crossing-a-river story to explain their very own mess, which must leave the ALP looking more and more like a dead frog
No Robert Bosler quotes? I was hoping for some insight as to where the nuts and bolts of Latham’s creativity would be flowing next.
Posted by Paul Zrimsek on 2005 09 15 at 05:16 PM • permalink# 36 rog2
the big question is why were the ALP so desperate to nurture and promote this nasty piece of malevolence.
Right;
I know little of Australian politics (just about all I know I’ve learned from this site).
But Latham, with his apparent venge-full tendencies and pre-occupation with the doings of those around him, reminds me somewhat of Richard Nixon, but with half the charm and none of the power of the late President.
QG…Big Macs…heh.
It was exactly for his bile spewing abilities that he was selected to lead the labour party. The party elite though it was fantastic when he called the PM an ‘ass licker’. What other qualities did he have to make him leadership material? Didn’t take too much intelligence to see it was going to blowup in their faces.
Posted by Robin J Wade on 2005 09 15 at 07:26 PM • permalinkMan, I wish I could get one of those T-shirts here in the States.
I’d be, like, the only person over here wearing one, and my coolness would instantly elevate to stupefying levels. People would want to be me, simply because of my “Mark Latham for Prime Minister” shirt. And I’d be, like, “no, you can’t have my ‘Mark Latham for Prime Minister’ shirt.”
Heh, speaking of the only-recently-disappearing t-shirts, in Parramatta there is still a shiteload of “Latham for PM” graffiti around from when someone(s) went around just before the election and sprayed it on empty shopfronts, pavements and other areas.
Hopefully that graffiti will now remain up for as looooooooooong as possible to remind people.I have never liked Latham but I do agree with kipwatson.
Latham has escaped a cult and is breathing fresh air for the first time in ages. I bet he even stops to smell the flowers now.
I hope he keeps his happiness and enjoys this new life with his family.
I am struck with difference of Mark’s new life and the utter destruction that he has created for his old comrades. Just an amazing contrast.
Perhaps it is more than square up? He may be making a statement albeit in a rather cataclysmic fashion.
Make your bed and you have to lie in it.Crash wrote: Forget the alp,the most damaging question for the MEDIA is “how did they ever see latham as a credible leader?”
Indeed, though few will ever ask it. A small sample of the giddy love-talk that continued right up to the lost election:
Matt Price: “of course Latham is the wild card, new generation, explosive, dive bomb candidate who worries a lot of people and inspires some and has been fiercely loyal. We hope that holds him in good stead.” - Lateline, 27 November, 2003
“Latham knows how to run things. Latham is also a thinker. He has ideas. Lots of ideas. Too many ideas at times, and on occasion they contradict each other. But many of them are good ideas, much better than anything most of his colleagues have put on the table. Put Latham in charge of ALP policy and you just might get something that Australians will actually want to vote for one day.”—Michael Duffy, Daily Telegraph, 1 December 2003
“Yesterday, for the first time, I got a real sense of the inevitability of the Latham ascension.”—Maxine McKew, ABC AM 702, 30 September 2003
“Win or lose, Mark Latham is the future of political Labor.”—Geoffrey Barker, AFR, 9-10 October, 2004
“Latham will be a towering figure in Australian politics of the 21st Century.”—Geoffrey Barker, AFR, 9-10 October, 2004
“Drink your tea, Prime Minister, and think about Labor’s very own WMD coming to get you.”—Alan Ramsey, SMH, 4 February, 2004
“In truth every day has been Labor’s birthday since Latham got the leadership 89 days ago.”—Alan Ramsey, SMH, 28 February, 2004
“Latham’s time will come. Believe it.”—Alan Ramsey, SMH, 11 October 2004 (after Labor lost the election)
“There is an innate core of belief in Latham that is very close to what the Australian electorate has for years been searching for: integrity.”—Craig McGregor, SMH, 3 December 2004
“I’m convinced that Latham will become prime minister of Australia; the people will decide. But at least he has reintroduced to a nation that badly needs it the politics of hope.”—Craig McGregor in Australian Son, his remaindered biography of Latham
“Howard is becoming desperate and it’s showing. Latham has been cleverer at presenting himself as non-threatening yet with a frisson of excitement about him.”—Clive Hamilton, the Australia Institute, 6 October 2004
“Latham put some fresh issues on the table that resonated with people. In fact, however, what seemed positives had a negative side that was just concealed for a while.”—Michelle Grattan, after Latham was dropped as Labor leader, 18 January 2005
“At a time when too few people will be wishing Latham well, I might add: Australian politics needs Latham the visionary outsider back again.”—David Burchell, The Australian, January 2005Posted by arrowhead ripper on 2005 09 15 at 08:10 PM • permalinkMelbourne University Press, under Louise Adler (Mrs. Max Gillies), are probably ecstatic about the publicity - heady stuff for a press whose headline publications are usually books like “A History of the New Guinea Public Works department, 1907 to 1923”. Still, all the bucks they plan to make from Antony Loewenstein’s forthcoming book will no doubt fund their legal fees if required.
“I want to know who the drunk “ABC presenter” driving Latham up the wrong side of the road was???
I bet it was Barry Cassidy!”Did anyone notice the change in Denton’s expression after he jokingly asked/or said (cant remember the exact wording or context - need the transcript) if it was “Kerry”....there was a little uncomfortable pause b/w Denton and Mark…
I watched the Andrew Denton interview last night and was glued to the screen.
Denton is a brilliant interviewer, he got Latham into his comfort zone by asking him about his family, his health, playing cricket and then he worked his way over to the things mentioned in his book.
Every time Denton tried to discuss one of Latham’s actions and his quitting of the ALP leadership, Latham just repeated the same old line about wanting to spend time with his sons and family. Denton tried to discuss the idea that this book will destroy the ALPs chances of winning any elections in the near future, he repeated Latham’s line that “the ALP is a party that stands for nothing”.. and Latham just kept criticising Beazley, Rudd, Conroy, Carr and finally Whitlam.
Actually, apart from his many shortcomings and the disaster he would have been as PM, I reckon Latham got a lot closer than any of the ALP to what Australia is about these days.
When he spoke about the aspirationals he was actually getting close to the reason the coalition is in power and retains power. The young, working voters are interested in getting ahead, buying their home and an investment property, making their way in the world. Despite Fairfax and ABC/SBS I don’t think illegal immigrants, aborigines and foreign affairs are high on their list of important matters.
In Oz you can do alright if you have a go. I think Latham recognized this despite working all his life in a sheltered workshop.
Bloody amazing to think he could have been PM though.#33- I thought the Tampa Tribune was a gag name for a fairfax publication- aren’t I embarrassed (but not as much as anyone who voted for or supporrted the ALP at the last federal election).
Dodged a bullet? More like a mortar barrage.
Denton has described Oddball as “emotionally unstable”- a rather polite way of saying “out of his fucking tiny mind”.
I hope he hangs around, a bit like Keating does- not enough to bore people, but just bob up from time to time like Banquo’s ghost and put the wind up the electorate.Unfair to toilet cleaners. I’ve been a toilet cleaner - 2 hrs a day, 5am to 7am, 7 days, back when saving for an overseas holiday, and to get married, to buy a house. It’s not that bad, except the ‘ladies’ toilet on New Years Day and the day after the Melbourne Cup (this was a city club).
Is MUP an stand-alone publisher, or the imprint/brand of one of the big foreign players?
Posted by walterplinge on 2005 09 15 at 09:43 PM • permalinkOT
News Flash
This Just In:
DU Pans Bush Hurricane Recovery Speech
In a shocking development, the Great Minds™ at Democratic Underground mindlessly attack President Bush’s speech tonight outlining his plans for the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast region devastated by hurricane Katrina.Details to follow.
walterplinge — As someone who has wielded a mop in anger, let me tell you the women’s bathroom was always the most disgusting place in the theatre…
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 09 15 at 10:04 PM • permalinkI thought the real explanation for all this might be that Latham had suddenly gone sane, and was seeing Labor for what it really was, like Theoden in The Lord of the Rings suddenly seeing Grima Wormtounge for what he was. But unless he is also a good deal subtler than he seems, his endorsement of the Gilliard woman shot that theory down.
Posted by Susan Norton on 2005 09 15 at 10:19 PM • permalinkWhat the ALP needs is a guy called Luca Brasi.
What Beazley needs to hear is “tonight, Mark Latham sleeps with the fishes”.Posted by pick-your-pun on 2005 09 15 at 10:23 PM • permalinkThere’s an ABC online forum on Latham running for the next day or so.
Maybe it could do with some RWDB input.
Posted by Evil Pundit on 2005 09 15 at 10:42 PM • permalinkIsn’t that what Kim Beazley was alleging the Lacker was up to?
After all, he’s not the first celeb to have a finny fetish.
(Explains the gaff in his office as well.)Mmmm, after waiting for the Latham interview at 8.30pm, I gave up and watched Sara-Marie’s boob job on a commerical broadcaster instead.
I think the Prime Minister has a point, Latham is very much a product of the Labor Party: he is not different, loonier or whatever.
He is a product of the NSW machine, as much as he doesn’t want to admit it. When you join the party you have to change your middle name to “hate” by deed poll.
Posted by Major Anya on 2005 09 15 at 11:05 PM • permalinkBTW, Latham now says that Gough wasn’t a father-figure, just a political mentor.
This, at least, only makes him wacky on one count.
Posted by Major Anya on 2005 09 15 at 11:07 PM • permalink#58, Walterplinge, MUP is a completely independent university press. If you’re a local, you’ll know that its previous high spot was publishing the multi-volume history of Australia by Prof Manning Clark, which became famous as one of the most error-riddled works of scholarship ever produced in this country. As the series went on, it simply became a vehicle for the increasingly loopy obsessions of its author, a old-style Russia-loving lefty, notorious for his description of Lenin as ‘Christlike’.
Melbourne Uni, like most universities, is now obsessed with money and business, and their press is no doubt under pressure to ditch the dull but worthy books that normally only Uni presses will publish, and go instead for ‘sexy’ stuff like Latham and Loewenstein (sic). If only Mark could have worked in something about the Da Vinci Code.
darlene taylor — Buffy fans understand the Latham/Whitlam dynamic: “You sired me, man! You were my Yoda!”
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 09 15 at 11:32 PM • permalinkTotally OT, but various blogs are covering the Bush ‘bathroom note’ image (Reuters photographer snapped a note Bush was writing at the UN summit, to pass a hint for a bathroom break). Needless to say, juvenile MSM types are all over it. At the same time, I saw newsfootage last night, in which a private conversation which Tony Blair was having with a fellow delegate at this summit, was being filmed through a long lens, and helpfully reported to us by a lipreader. Where do these jerks get off?
“It was learned last night that Mr Latham is threatening to sue Bernard Lagan, author of The Loner, the story of Mr Latham’s year as leader.”
LATHAM: “The sodding book is too ****ing short!”
LAGAN : “Well, who the hell’s fault is that?”Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 09 15 at 11:58 PM • permalink#63, it’s not fair to pick on the mentally-challenged ;)
Posted by Art Vandelay on 2005 09 16 at 12:00 AM • permalinkBig news from Wedbiary Wrold:
I’ve been imagining my dream ticket to launch the independent Webdiary in Sydney. Watcha reckon about Hewson and Latham?
Well at least Mark and Margo have something in common: they are both unemployed and unemployable.
Posted by Villeurbanne on 2005 09 16 at 12:11 AM • permalinkAlso, people who cry at a Mark Latham should probably get off the weed.
Sorry, that’s my third comment: I have got the day off work, and should be doing more constructive things than watching Oprah and reading blogs.
Posted by Major Anya on 2005 09 16 at 12:34 AM • permalinkGoing back over old ground in this thread, I know, but I’ve just flipped open my copy of The Macquarie Dictionary Second Edition and the word injunct is right here on p.906. It is listed as a transient verb meaning: to gain an injunction against. The Macquarie is pitched as Australia’s national dictionary so any entry in it is fair usage down under. Sorry no link. It is accessible online, but as a paid subscription service.
splice said;
“The Macquarie is pitched as Australia’s national dictionary so any entry in it is fair usage down under.”
Is this the one known in some enlightened circles as the “McDictionary”?? You know, the one that includes the latest and trendiest words to gain currency in typically lefty organisations and groups such as a love-in of Webdiarists??
I think I’ll stick with the Oxford.
Posted by TruthHandler on 2005 09 16 at 01:51 AM • permalink#67 - thanks cuckoo.
Ah yes - Manning Clark’s History of Australia. Even worse, A History of Australia - The Musical. How long did that run before the curtain came down? A week? And it hasn’t been revived. There’s not a great market for mayhem and pillage set to music.
Posted by walterplinge on 2005 09 16 at 02:05 AM • permalinkAm I the only person who thinks that some of the Latham revalations are a bit too twee, and have been massaged to fit in later events?
For example:
The allegation that Bonecrusher Howard tried to break his wife’s hand a few days/weeks before the infamous handshake at the ABC; or
Saying that he wanted to retire and become a ‘home dad’ (his expression, not scare quotes) whilst he was still leader of the opposition.Ultimately I don’t think his diary is going to hurt Labor too much because he is so obviously deranged.
Splice — thought a transient verb was what the wino told me to do with myself when I wouldn’t give him any money…
TimB — I think the headline you’re looking for is “disjuncted.”
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 09 16 at 02:41 AM • permalinkI’d always called “that book” The Macquarie Book of Etymological Hearsay.
Posted by Semi-conductor on 2005 09 16 at 04:52 AM • permalinkLatham’s gripes about the ALP are probably well-founded.
This is the thing that gets me.
I have never belonged to the Labour party, have never been to a Labour meeting and barely know anybody who has.
But even I know well enough it is full of ambitious, ruthless, power hungry, backstabbing individuals who operate as a ‘machine’ full of patronage. It is well documented and widely known.
The trouble I have is, he acts so surprised – as if he didn’t know it would be like that. What planet was he living on? He could have called me before he joined the party and even I could have told him what to expect.
In any case, the fact he was the youngest ever Labour leader suggests that he was not totally without ambition (and perhaps some ruthlessness) himself.
Posted by Flying Giraffe on 2005 09 16 at 07:51 AM • permalinkHow can they justify ploughing Mark’s shirts into landfill when they could just cross some of the no longer relevant graffiti out.Margo could probably spare some BOLDING to a good cause and some vicious anti markey themes worked in to the t shirts. e.g. Mark Latham sucks….
Wonder how Mrs Markey feels about the move she made when she married Mark?franny the brave gave me a laugh this morning when she was interviewing Hendo and she hastily qualified her position on Latham “I was away at the time…”
She was more intent on sledging Dubya who is “Paying a steep price for his neglect of hurricane Katrina.” Guested Prof Simon Sharner from bbc and author of TV “A history of Britain “.His view “It may be (America) they should be more attuned to the suffering in AFRICA.Apocryphal stories of rape and murder turned out to be true.
Her “has it SHOCKED AMERICA AWAKE?”
Him—-admiringly “You put it better than I did Fran…”“The National Guard was thought of as the first line of defence and they LOCKED themselves IN at the back of the centre.”“WHO ARE YOU GONNA BLAME GEORGE YOUR BEST FRIEND GOD?” and “the civil service worked really well under Clinton but under (Dubya) there have been years of neglect..”
Helpful franny “do you think that’s going to RALLY and WAKE UP the government?”.
Prof “I NEVER FAIL TO UNDERSTAND THE DEMOCRATS’ ABILITY TO COCK THINGS UP.
They (Feds) are paying the price for YEARS of NEGLECT”. Franny—“Is this because of SMALL government.Will the people DEMAND more government involvement?
Prof is from U of Columbia.pmf-Underestimate not understand.(above).Interestingly almost fair interview about Scott/accidental activist Parkin.
Presenter actually ASKED him at L.A. airport on arrival..“Would the U.S. let someone from Australia in and let them do what you did? Having spent minutes spouting about freedom of speech this really threw him.He also said he felt a lot safer in the U.S. That’d be a change for him,to actually appreciate his own country.Re: The Macquarie Dictionary - If there’s one way of spelling a word correctly and a common mispelling, the Macquarie will include them both.
As a dictionary it brings to mind the insurance claim form that stated: “The pedestrian didn’t which way to run, so I ran over him.”
—Nick
Posted by The Thin Man Returns on 2005 09 16 at 08:59 AM • permalink#70 cuckoo
The bathroom.
That’s why you get comments like this-
I wouldn’t make him the toilet cleaner in Parliament House, let alone the leader of the Opposition.
Dang it-I am missing one hell of a soap opera-beam me Aussie TV!
Posted by madawaskan on 2005 09 16 at 11:59 AM • permalinkI bumbed into Barry Jones, whom I have vaguely known for some years, shortly after Latham was elected. He said that the ALP had a choice between someone who would bore Australia to death (Crean) and a madman, and it chose the madman.Who said that Jones wasn’t a great visionary??!
Posted by arnienelly on 2005 09 16 at 10:44 PM • permalink
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Melodrama in Three Acts. Or maybe five.
Entitled ‘La Tham’.
The Australian Ballet must do this.
Nominations for Kim Beazley’s role invited.