Represent - October 3
Working women wilfully on welfare, and Sarah Palin proves that she can read from a script as she and Joe Biden go head to head in the VP Debate.
Joe Hockey: It's Time The Parliament Got Serious [1:44m]: Download Paid Maternity Leave [1:44m]: Download Name & Shame [4:58m]: Download Sarah Palin Is Completely Incompetent. Again. Part 1 [4:09m]: Download Sarah Palin Is Completely Incompetent. Again. Part 2 [4:48m]: Download Sarah Palin Is Completely Incompetent. Again. Part 3 [3:29m]: DownloadThis week on Represent, whilst the Opposition has been bitching about the amount of time the government takes to answer questions in parliament, Australia’s Productivity Commission this week handed down a report calling for new mums to be given maternity leave from work for up to 18 weeks. This looked like it could replace the current $5000 Baby Bonus, the lump sum currently payed at birth (cash on delivery?), and possibly the stupidest of all Howard government policies. The catch may be that working mums (ie those who are giving up a wage) will be entitled to paid leave, worth close to $12,000 all up, while stay-at-home mums (ie those who don’t work and have little capacity to create their own savings) will still get the $5000 lump sum. There’s progress for you…
The big news today has been the US Vice-Presidential debate between Democrat VP nominee Senator Joe Biden, and his Republican counterpart Governer Sarah Palin. Whilst Biden has given over 100 interviews since being announced VP, Palin has, during her handful of television appearances, managed to make a number of gaffes, starting with the claim that Alaska’s proximity to Russia (if you squint you can just make out the Siberian coastline across the Bering Strait) has provided her with unassailable foreign policy experience. This claim came shortly before she speculated upon war with said Russia.
Following that has been an embarrassing series of interviews with CBS’s Katie Couric, where Palin couldn’t name a single news source she used to stay informed (her reply, “All of them” was found to be just a tad transparent). And, of course, lest we forget her fabled commentary on the US’s $700 billion bailout proposal, which just went through the US Senate. However, placing her in front of a podium, with time to compose herself, and a set of notes in front of her, Palin actually managed to remain composed, and came across pretty well - but for the fact that she was shut down on pretty much every single policy point by Joe Biden’s grasp of facts and logic. However, Palin’s most impressive quality was her ability to remain steadfast in the face of the moderator trying to shape what she said with “questions” about “specific topics”; instead she courageously pointed out that John McCain was a maverick… Again and again and again, and also remembered to mention that she was an outsider from small town America.
As we in Australia brace ourselves out of fear that Americans could be stupid enough to go for this “I’m like you! Ignore the issues!” line of campaigning (although to be fair, look at the way we all lapped up the Kevin07 viral marketing last year), new polls show that Barack Obama has his biggest lead over John McCain in months, in close to the best polling a Democrat has ever had a month out from the election. John’s boys will be getting desperate in the next couple of weeks, looks like it’s time to change the subject from McCain-sponsored financial deregulation to some guy Barack Obama talked to this one time who’s now involved in ethically dubious activities which shows Obama lacks judgement to be President or something. Stay tuned!
Name and Shame
- Kevin Rudd - Goes against Labor Party policy to support the death penalty for Bali Bombers
- Australian Crime Commission - Secret files on Labor Minister
- Forests NSW- Increasing logging levels despite RAMSAR listing
Playlist
- Ben Harper - Oppression (Fight For Your Mind, 1995)
- Double Dose - Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
- Love Burns [Live] - (Spread Your Love Single, 2002)
- 20 Hours - (American X: The Baby 81 Sessions, 2008)
- Pendulum - Showdown (In Silico, 2008)
