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This weekend is going down in His Story as the time when Dragoness celebrated the 20th wedding aniversary. The assembly line of our marriage boasts two dragon-butterflies of the Velvet Revolution. One was conceived in the heat of the revolutionary moment of 1989 and the other took place on the high interest rate waves we had to surf in 1991.
While election periods do not send me to the blue moon, I do identify with the suggestion that voting for president is a lot like sex—and not just because it takes place every four years (every day is a headache) in the solitude of a semi-private booth. Both are intensely personal activities that nonetheless can have profound public consequences. We might add that both often involve drug-and-alcohol-fueled delusions and morning-after feelings of guilt, shame, and recrimination. Who's Getting Your Vote? Political Medico John Tierney Takes the Town-Hall Pulse, for the Election and Beyond
Rick Perlstein: America might be a democracy, but that doesn't mean the Democrat has a right to campaign ... Sucking Democracy Dry and Losing America's birthright, the George Bush way The End of Democracy
Hunter Thompson: Armageddon came early for George Bush this year, and he was not ready for it. His long-awaited showdowns with my man John Kerry turned into a series of horrible embarrassments that cracked his nerve and demoralized his closest campaign advisers Fear and Loathing, Campaign 2004

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: After The Electoral Blood Bath Altered States Are Making a Federal Case
A century after Federation, Australia is facing a revolution in the way our money is spent.
In the brave new world of Bob Carr's federalism, Maggie would probably not have suffered the pain and indignity of bed sores. She may also have avoided a fall which broke her hip, a blood infection and subsequent renal failure.
Maggie is not a figment of a bureaucrat's imagination, but a flesh and blood 73-year-old; a patient tracked by State Government health experts as she battled for treatment in the Hunter area, north of Sydney.
Her frustrating and shameful case is a litmus test for Carr's argument that the system of delivering health and education, not to mention roads, water, child care, disability services and dozens of other services could be vastly improved by a revolutionary framework of funding, restructure and accountability between state and federal governments.
• The Herald has not made federal-(not feral)-state-relations a special feature yet, but I hope the good natured librarians of Fairfax school will bring stories out from the archives Maybe the Dog Didn't Eat Common Sense [Drunken sailor`s just a drop in the ocean ]
• · If you ever wondered why I keep saying that the Sydney Morning Herals is my favourite paper here is a proof in the reading. The Herald's chief correspondent, Paul McGeough, was last night awarded a prestigious media peace award from the Australian division of the United Nations for his coverage of the war in Iraq Peace prize for war reporter ; [The Ultimate Objective of Democracy ]
• · · Ken Parish a regular reader of Catallaxy brings to the blogosphere his views on defamation and offers John Howard and Mark Latham a few pointers in his post entitled Doubling up at the defamation casino ; [Roy Baker notes Every time people sue for defamation, the question arises whether the offending publication harms their reputation 101 Dalmations ]
• · · · The Princes Highway of our Modern Spy Tales is littered with leaking James Bond car*s (smile) and evidence that the art of good government is resisting the urge to legislate away every ill, which is impossible to do and often makes problems worse ... Legitimate concerns with civil liberties sandbagged with a lot of protective measures ;
[Mike Carlton, who likes to prove at every opportunity that he is a better historian than Bob Carr, writes We are now the only English speaking country that does not have a bill of rights. Our parliament can pass legislation that could not be passed in Britain, could not be passed in America or New Zealand, or anywhere in Europe This is a warning worth heeding. Maintain the rage, Malcolm Fraser...]
[Another Mike Kirkby observes: Persons of such views tend to live in a remote world of fantasy, inflaming themselves by their rhetoric into more and more unreal passions, usually engaging in serious dialogue only with people of like persuasion. For the rest of us, who live in the real world, and know our country and its institutions better, time will not be wasted over such fairytales An instrument for the defence of fundamental human rights and dignity]
• · · · · Dr Russell Cope was the first to draw to my attention to an article by John Button earlier this year during my visit to his Blue Mountain retreat. Today Alan Ramsey quotes from this sobering cold river paper: Labor's politicians have nearly all been to factional finishing school but not many to the school of hard knocks. The ALP has become truly professional. And, in the process of professionalising itself, it has lost much of its capacity to relate to the community and a lot of its charm ; [Daniel J. Flynn ( not David Flint) Intellectual Morons: How Ideology Makes Smart People Fall for Stupid Ideas ]
• · · · · · Ach, the real running mates Teresa Heinz Kerry and Laura Bush [An Era of Instability in World Politics ; Corruption Perceptions Index 2004 ]