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Fifteen years after the Wall came down, there are still two Germanies.
Governor of Australia glues the nation with his colourful Election blogam Are we there yet?

Eye on Politics & Election Stacking: Claims and counter-claims envelop defence debate
The defence policies of both political parties are attracting attention both locally and overseas.
Labor released its defence policy and has promised to increase the size of the Australian Army.
The Government unveiled a plan to step up the fight against terrorism in the region, using specialist teams of Australian Federal Police (AFP) that could be sent to work in neighbouring countries and John Howard has reiterated his view that as prime minister he would launch an attack in a neighbouring country against terrorist groups.
• Defensive Policies [As seen at Poll Vault ]
• · So God said: go to NSW and create poll floods [PDF version of the Australian Electoral Commission Group Preferences for Senate and Nile]
• · · Tony Windsor offered a diplomatic posting if he agreed not to stand again and the cleaning contractor for the closed Orange Grove factory outlet and Labor operative, Sam Bargshoon I branchstacked for Latham says ALP heavy
• · · · A new politics and the culture of fear Christopher Selth
• · · · · One and Only Pauline Hansome Rope
• · · · · · Papa McGuinness Left-leaning Pisa hacks sprayed

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Selling off family photo albums and silver Data obtained by The Daily Telegraph under Freedom of Information shows 82 individual sales of school and TAFE properties and other assets owned by the Education Department

Tracking Policies & Investigative Stories: Run For Your Life
Quique is one of an estimated nine million people who have embarked on an epic and illicit journey, leaving behind homes and families in Central America for an uncertain future 5000 kilometres away, in a place they call "El Norte".
With just $100 between them, Quique and his three friends will join one of history’s greatest migrations ... the human wave seeking a better life in the United States.
In order to depict this river of humanity, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation follows Quique and his friends with a film crew and light weight cameras ... not to assist them but simply to record these young men running for their lives.
To reach their goal, Quique and his friends must travel "el tren de la muerte" (the train of death), survive murderous gangs and evade corrupt Mexican police. They must then pay unscrupulous people smugglers to enable them to cross the almost impenetrable border into the United States ... a border that many have died attempting to cross.
• I accepted so that people can see how much we suffer on the road ... To take this road is not good because many fall. Many die there [Swimming for your life ]
• · Find out Who were the Fallen in Iraq?
• · · Four Corners Beating the Black Dog
• · · · Merchants of Passion One housewife at a time
• · · · · Putting Putin in Perspective via Prague-born-’n-bred Pazderka: Beslam is not Bethleham according to Czech View
• · · · · · Tax Break Bringing Businesses, and Fraud, to the Virgin Islands

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Australian history is almost always picturesque; indeed, it is also so curious and strange, that it is itself the chiefest novelty the country has to offer and so it pushes the other novelties into second and third place. It does not read like history, but like the most beautiful lies; and all of a fresh new sort, no mouldy old stale ones. It is full of surprises and adventures, the incongruities, and contradictions, and incredibilities; but they are all true, they all happened.
Mark Twain, More Tramps Abroad, London, 1897
Leaders Debate: How Australian? ; After the debate rivers of gold flow in the battle for the city of exiles

Eye on October Revolutionary Election, Now Less than Half C(h)ampaign Full When politicians lie: reflections on truth, politics and patriotism
In this essay for the GR’s Addicted to Celebrity edition, Raimond Gaita argues that the “cynical expectation that politicians will lie to protect their party or their own careers” reveals “how impoverished our life with the language of politics has become”. The consequences of this debasement are profound and stir intense feelings.
• Raimond Gaita in Griffith REVIEW ; [An address to the Special Operations Command Senior Leadership Group on 8 September 2004, by Aldo Borgu Future directions in terrorism: implications for Australia; Indonesia’s struggle is also our challenge, argues Greg Barton, author of a new book on Jemaah Islamiyah ]
• · Capital Ls Liberal's attacks on Latham's Liverpool council record ; [ Mark Latham A stranger unto himself; Bernard Slattery on easing the squeeze ]
• · · Priest with Guts: The fact that Sydney's west has again become a political battleground is good news for residents who can look forward to having Detective Sergeant Tim Priest back on the beat ; [The specter of Grove I believe the answer is contained in the material that I have tabled; Orange Grove of Gazal]
• · · · Federal election: minor political parties in the centre - Armadillos ; [ The pundits say the Coalition will win. Rod Tiffen isn’t so sure]
• · · · · How Many Electooral Scandals Are Enough?
• · · · · · Welcome to the World of E-Voting Internet starting to scare the horses Ready or Not (and Maybe Not), Electronic Voting Goes National ; [Flogging a dead horse Pauline Hanson is history – but it’s a history worth remembering, says David Burchell]

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Aristotle said Irony better befits a gentleman than buffoonery ; the ironical man jokes to amuse himself, the buffoon to amuse other people...
Tell me, MEdia Dragon, when did you begin to have these thoughts that people are laughing at you whenever you blog???!!!
While we (royal we) blog in the nude, as you do, as you do, we are disappointed and rather surprised to learn, via the Beautiful Atrocities, that most other unbohemian bloggers sit in their actual living room and in fact wear two piece pajamas as they write (Is this some kind of unbearable darkness of blogging? smile)

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Blogging Off Daily Can Make You Blind
People should have a complete media diet, Wonkette editor Ana Marie Cox tells Paula Zahn. Things like CNN, the Washington Post, the New York Times, that's your roughage. That's your green vegetables. That's, like, what's good for you. And then there's what I do, which is like dessert. It's not always good for you. It's not very filling, but it's tasty. It's fun. It's, you know, empty calories.
• Nude Media Dragon chats with Seymour Hersh, Howard Finberg, Glenn Reynolds and others [I never thought I'd be one of these jerks who looked at Amazon, says columnist and Bushworld author Maureen Dowd Dowd takes 'Liberties' with a dose of irreverence]
• · Shrillness of political debate concerns NYT chief Sulzberger As some news organizations "enjoy their positions as actors in the theater of the absurd, people either become disengaged or they vent their frustrations themselves
• · · Tim Porter: Arrogance, Mafia and Journalism In Nazi Germany (before the concentration camps became death camps) “undesirables” were “placed in protective custody” or “resettled”. In Australia “illegals” are held in “Immigration Reception and Processing Centres” behind “energised fences”, receiving regular “security checks” and occasional “extractions”. Their “inappropriate behaviours” are not allowed to “manipulate public policy”.
• · · · Thanks to a furious row that broke out over claims in a new book by BBC broadcaster James Naughtie that US Secretary of State Colin Powell described neo-conservatives in the Bush administration as '****** crazies' during the build-up to war in Iraq bohemian poem gets Google crazy; Crazish Entrepreneural People Finder
• · · · · Michael Kinsley: Journos shouldn't have to be political, ideological eunuchs It's a fiction to suppose that reporters don't have political views, and it would be healthier and more honest if they simply said what they were
• · · · · · Spyware and Adware Present Challenges and E-Commerce Opportunities Barbarians at the Digital Gate

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Sadly, a byelection will be held at the state level in the Dubbo electorate. The local paper pays a hearty tribute to a man who had a soft spot for Chinese culture an Independent MP, Tony McGrane

Elections: Rubber can be mightier than the pencil: Pen Is, in fact, Mighty!
A concern that has been regularly raised by political parties, members, Senators and candidates is the level of mail returned unclaimed from mailings to electors.
Significant levels of returned mail from mailings, if generated from the most recent AEC-provided enrolment data, is rightly of concern. Alleged levels of mail returned unclaimed from mailings to electors prior to the election have also been subject to some public comment as indicative of gross inaccuracies in the roll used for the election or of possible attempts to place significant numbers of fraudulently enrolled persons on the roll for particular target Divisions.
One wonders what the percentage of unclaimed mail really is in 2004. I had a brief contractual affair with the AEC in mid 90s and I must admit I was impressed by the administration of the electoral roll.
It also seems that the vote early and often method would almost be impossible to implement in practice. In order to verify the integrity of the electoral roll, the AEC has a regular army who knock on doors (even on doors of houses of ill reputations - smile). I enjoyed the opportunity to observe the voting on the election day at the booths of the Wentworth electorate.
While the chances of anyone fiddling with the ballot papers were minimal, my instinct tells me that supplying booths with a pen rather than a pencil would be more rubber-proof. (Ach, that idea for many reasons does not go down too well). However, most professional locksmiths know that pen is mightier than the lock. To boot, who would know whether a cleaning contractor is active in any political party. The suggestion that real estate developers (or landlords of some kind) might be tempted to be involved in the mischevious opportunities is often dismissed. The seal on the electoral boxes are not that hard to replace. I somehow doubt that anyone less paranoid than a good old Eastern European would actually detect anything unusual even if the seal was not replaced....
Political Party Rubber might be be mightier than the electoral pencil or unclaimed mail

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Street Fighting Men: Delving Into Democracy's Shadows
The sociologist Michael Mann took a detour from his epic study of power in human history. It led him straight to the horrors at the center of modern life.
In Fascists, Mr. Mann contends that the rise of right-wing authoritarian movements between the world wars can best be understood as, in effect, nation-statism forging not a cage but a concentration camp.
The culprit in genocide is not democracy, but a form of politics that uses words similar to [those employed by] democrats, but in a different semantic sense.
• The Grid and the Cage [Everywhere the S-word wreaks havoc. Iraqi terrorists kill hundreds of Americans and Iraqis to protest infringement of sovereignty by the Great Satan. Africans massacre other Africans because European-imposed "sovereign" borders clash with tribal allegiances. Violating 'Sovereignty': Questioning a Concept's Long Reign ]
• · Canterbury tales: Young Howard travelled to Kommunist Poland in sexy sixties where he had an interlude with a young Catholic woman in Warsaw Stubborn, methodical and always strategic, there would only ever be one career for John Howard ; [ Some of the juicier election snippets courtesy of Crikey]
• · · Sunday with Janka Wendt: Interview: Mark Latham ; [ Webdiary: Future shock: the ideology of Mark Latham ]
• · · · Sunday continues: Swinging voters: week 3
• · · · · Carr's history-making date with ICAC ; Czechoslovakian crystal chandeliers Mr Merritt, who has been seen behind the wheel of a Rolls-Royce bearing the number plates THANKU, formerly ran Merritt Madden printing in Alexandria before retiring to the high life of the Southern Highlands. That company is now managed by the wife of the NSW Premier, Bob Carr, who by all accounts prefers to be known as Helena
[Members were given back-of-the-envelope calculations Belmont Golf Club and the developer, Terrace Tower ]
• · · · · · The first is our history. Czechs have always been subjects of a larger multinational structure, be it the Roman, Habsburg, Nazi or communist empires. The fact that we have always been subjugated meant that we never learned the art of self-rule. Furthermore, when we did try to strike out on our own (as in 1938 and 1968), the world looked the other way and we paid a heavy price. That's why in 1989 we chose the easy way out. Instead of confronting the past, our dissidents drafted a compromise with the ruling communists, in which the latter merely transformed themselves into a capitalist mafia without relinquishing control. There was no true revolution, since freedom doesn't equal true democracy. This simple but ignored fact explains comments such as Nothing has really changed.
Czech Kommunism Revisited? In the wisecracking words of comedian Jay Leno, politics is just show business for ugly people: Gross’ Political Advertising and Gross' dubious sex appeal; [Gross’ Police in new scandal as anti-mob officer accused of gang links ]

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Egan creating constitutional crisis: The federation is at risk because of unfair cuts to state grants
The way Peter Costello was talking about the GST, it has been transformed from tax pariah to godsend

Invisible Hands & Markets: Young entrepreneurs not afraid of risk
If ever there were an archetypal successful young entrepreneur, make-up artist Napoleon Perdis would have to be it.
Passionate? Check. Lateral thinker? Check. Cowboy? Czech!
This week, Perdis made BRW's Young Rich List - a showcase of nearly 100 of Australia's self-made entrepreneurs aged 40 and under. But unlike many more established multimillionaires, Perdis, 34, did not amass his $20 million through property, media, mining or industry. Instead, he saw a gap in the market for women's cosmetics, waved goodbye to his parents' fish and chip shop and started selling Napoleon Perdis lipstick, mascara and eyeshadow.
• BHP Billiton did not start in somebody's garage At the end of the day I started with nothing, so if I end up with nothing it doesn't matter
• · Justice Hill v Greg Ward Not earth-shattering, but certainly rare, and worth reading Millionaire Factory vs the tax man
• · · Monkeys v Gorillas: Exec salaries: it's all about not looking cheap

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If it were all so simple!
If only there were evil [bloggers] somewhere
insidiously commiting evil deeds,
and it were necessary only to seperate them
from the rest of us and destroy them.
But the line dividing good end evil
cuts through the heart of every human being.
And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?
Alexander Solzhenitsyn [with poet’s permission bloggers inserted]
Another Alexander, John Alexander,

The Blog, The Press, The Media:
THE big loser from the election debate on Sunday night was the ABC, which was marginalised by managing director Russell Balding's curious decision to run the political set piece at 10pm.
. Predictably, no one was watching. It was boring enough the first time around on Nine. Diary understands Balding didn't want to run the debate at all, believing the restrictions imposed by the Government compromised the ABC's independence. He came up with the compromise at the 11th hour. ABC political correspondent Jim Middleton dutifully fronted the replay – minus the comment by Laurie Oakes that Nine was happy to be "the national broadcaster". Privately though, Middleton was livid about the delay, as were most of Aunty's journalists.
• Minus the comment by Laurie Oakes that Nine was happy to be the national broadcaster [ How do you know when the best part is over? Restoration Hardware opens in the neighborhood It’s hard to digest revolutionary change]
• · Hansard study of political blogging
• · · Small town California experiments with citizen journalism
• · · · See Also Do bloggers really rely more on other bloggers than old media?
• · · · · Blogs, Political
• · · · · · Search Engine Room Search Day

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Decided Deal or not Decided Deal ... Deeeeaaaal!
Ach, the Undecideds as well as Decided Ladies and Gentlemen, The Australian Electoral Commission proudly presents Candidates and Parties by state
While the ABC provides an alphabetical list of candidates
[Please note details for the Division of Gellibrand are not available at present due to an injunction in the Federal court]
The Greens are expected to win somewhere close to 6-7 per cent, but to fall short of victory because Labor and the Liberals/Nationals will not allocate them preferences. The Democrats' vote will plummet - so even if they do receive the preferences of the major parties they may not be able to hold John Cherry's seat This means Hanson, (One Nation Senator Len) Harris and the Nationals' Barnaby Joyce will be vying for the final position; Czech out the colourful politics of the most joked about town: Gympie (Ouch, Bundaberg is the joking leader)

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: An Exegesis of the Media Dragon
behold, a great red dragon.
Revelation 12:3
The media dragon is not the problem.
The dragon appeared over our City one day, like a medieval apparition. The photos and newsreels of the dragon’s initial devastation have been widely disseminated: two entire boroughs in ruins, balls of napalm flaming down, a jagged skyline of charred teeth, ashy outlines of human remains. What the photos cannot convey is the visceral terror, the sense of irrevocable rupture, a miasma of charred flesh like a greasy fog.
We believe the authorities have manipulated fear of the dragon into a climate of hysteria. The threat has been wildly exaggerated. In point of fact, it is still possible to stroll unmolested in many neighborhoods, free of the odor of cinders and without fear of imminent incineration. That the dragon has been relatively quiescent of late is evidence the authorities have vastly overstated the danger...
All of the authorities’ statements about the dragon are suspect. They say the dragon is evil, but we prefer to interpret the dragon through the reigning dialectic, which is more subtle and takes a long time. The dragon does not share our values, and is simply doing what dragons do.
• True, it is given to overwrought statements of its intent to lay waste the entire City, to cauterize our souls and winnow the money-lenders and initiate a millennium of fire; the dragon suffers from an acute lack of irony [A bottom-pinching Dragoness]
• · Bible-based Ballot Family First: Launched in South Australia two years ago, they already have an upper house member in that state; [Devout Catholic writer, Mike Steketee: Fretful candidates feeling a bit Green
• · · You toss true believers enough red meat, they start acting like predators How vulnerable are we to electoral rorting?
• · · · Kicking 'em While They're Down
• · · · · Vladimir Putin, the aspiring dictator of Russia, has forced President Bush to reveal how committed he really is to the cause of democracy around the world KGB agent at heart, Vladimir (Iljich) Putin is cynically using the horrific terrorist attack in Beslan as his excuse
• · · · · · Iraq war allies rebuff UN chief Key states who joined the US-led invasion of Iraq have rejected claims by the United Nations secretary general that the war was illegal

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Bookie, Mark Wormwood, of Centrebet, bets on Havel for peace prize
When we go into a library, we usually spend a few minutes in the children’s book section, looking for old favorites. There is some comfort in knowing that another generation is puzzling over the (rather tame) antics of Beany Malone. That the Boxcar Children haven’t aged. That Margaret is still talking to God. That on any aisle in any library, we can find a book that changed our little world (look under Laura Ingalls Wilder, and you will discover the summer we captained an expedition to build a cave to protect our gang from the wild tornadoes of California’s Central Coast…).
From Booksquare:

Literature & Art Across Frontiers: Judging Artistic Success by Commercial Failure
Building a 21st Century Library System for San Diego was one of ten goals Mayor Dick Murphy issued when he took office in January 2001. The Mayor's purpose was to create a city worthy of our affection by 2020. Libraries ranked right up there with strengthening police and fire protection, reducing traffic congestion, building affordable housing, establishing energy independence, cleaning up the pollution of the city's beaches and bays, and even building a new baseball stadium. The rare combination of a mayor giving the city library system as high a priority as other crucial city services, articulating a long-term vision for the development of that plan, seeking allies to support it, and sticking with it even when it became a campaign issue attracted the attention of LJ's editors.
• Politician of the Year 2004: Dick Murphy
• · The Billionaire Poet: Like Jozef Imrich, Felix Dennis is a socialist billionaire.... Now Dennis, 57, has decided to become a poet. If I were Poet Laureate, I would put a poem in every pair of pajamas, fortune cookie...; [V.S. Naipaul likes the idea of Vrbov: Home is, I suppose, just a child’s idea. A house at night, and a lamp in the house; Youth, hope and silliness go together, in cities as in people Scary that I should grow ooold in such a young city as Sydney ]
• · · French for "already seen", déjà vu is "the sort of fleeting, intimate experience that reveals itself more readily to novelists than to researchers
• · · · ALA member libraries to receive copies of Oprah's Book Club pick: "The Good Earth" by Pearl S. Buck
She was definitely the sort of girl who puts her hand over a husband's eyes, as he is crawling in to breakfast with a morning head, and says: 'Guess who!'
P.G. Wodehouse, The Code of the Woosters
• · · · · Monogamy something created and imposed by human beings as a way of managing the intersection of political and social affairs Myth of Monogamy: I've looked on many women with lust. I've committed adultery in my heart many times
• · · · · · Political adultery at Tulip Cafe Czech premier Stanislav Gross endorses Scotty

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Political Sorrow
Sorrow comes in great waves—no one can know that better than you—but it rolls over us, and though it may almost smother us it leaves us on the spot, and we know that if it is strong we are stronger, inasmuch as it passes and we remain. It wears us, uses us, but we wear it and use it in return; and it is blind, whereas we after a manner see.
Henry James, letter to Grace Norton, July 28, 1883

It was the Slavic sorrow which created characters like Vaclav Havel. May sorrow show us the way on the web. So go directly to Ken Parish who compiled another list of Election Blogs ; Maiden, Hansard, study of Political Sorrows

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Urban Magicians
Have you ever wondered what makes us cling so tenaciously to our beliefs - not just religious beliefs or belief in a political ideology but any little insignificant belief, such as belief in urban legends or the belief in the superiority of one brand over others of equal or better quality? We hold on to beliefs as if they were cherished possessions, like trinkets that have sentimental value but no practical use.
Seeing people climb on George Washington's nose and hang from the eyebrows of Teddy Roosevelt formed my eternal image of America, with all of its grandeur and illusion ...
• My American dream [Nowadays, in a choice historical irony, they are under assault from the cultural left Undercuting appeals to prejudice, hierarchy and custom ]
• · Vaclav Havel was always close to my political heart, @ Eastern Europe Literature we get even closer (smile) My Austrio-Australian Dream (Kafka, Klima, Kundera and mememedia dragon); The good, the bad and the ugly, in order!
• · · JIM DICKINS and LINDA SILMALIS Carr's unbeatable jackpot: NSW Government is earning hundreds of millions of dollars through the state's hotel gambling industry in property leases, taxes and even a direct percentage of the takings from poker machines (Elsewhere: Premier Bob Carr said his government would introduce legislation forcing politicians' staff members to reveal all their income sources.
• · · · MI6 A TEAM of undercover security guards are patrolling Sydney's railway network dressed as surfies, businessmen and office workers to target political troublemakers ...
• · · · · Political Blogging
• · · · · · Antony Loewenstein keeps Kounter-Spinning the Electoral Mews

Candidates, many, many, candidates, will be announced today by the Electoral Town Criers
Pauline Hanson has again an amazing timing (the nominations closed yesterday), the old urban myth has it that it was her Polish ex-hubby who first drove Pauline to enter Queensland political scene as a local councellor at Ipswitch. The young lore has it that Pauline was the last to be interviewed, but the best dressed during the Liberal Party pre-selection for the unwinnable seat of Ipswitch. The local rag ran a number of wild stories about her attitude towards the Aborigines and Pauline jumped before she was pushed to stand against the Liberal Party and win the seat as an independent. This week she will be standing against Senator Len and her former staffer David Oldfield (sic) current caretaker of her former One Nation party.
In the New South Wales upper house election in 2003, Pauline Hanson got 1.9 per cent of the primary vote. But a week is a perfectly long time in the Boland's sticky Queensland, (the land of do not blame mmmmwwaaa I did not vote for John - GST stickers) Pauline needs 14.3 per cent (primary votes or preferences) to get her cold revenge.

Division of Kalgoorlie - Extension of Nominations period
Following the death of a candidate in the Division of Kalgoorlie, the close of nominations date has been extended for that Division only by 24 hours to 12 noon local time Friday 17 September 2004. Nominations for the Division of Kalgoorlie will be declared at 12 noon local time Saturday 18 September 2004. (Section 156 (2) of the Commonwealth Electoral Act applies).

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An ideal example of abandonment is the relationship between Linus and The Great Pumpkin. Every Halloween, Linus faithfully waits by a pumpkin patch, in the hopes that he will be blessed with the holy experience of a visitation by The Great Pumpkin. Of course, The Great Pumpkin never shows up, and He never answers Linus? letters. Despite this, Linus remains steadfast, even going door to door to spread the word of his absent deity. Does The Great Pumpkin exist? We can never know. But from an existential point of view, it doesn?t matter if he exists or not. The important thing is that Linus is abandoned and alone in his pumpkin patch.
Kafka and his Castle turn into Pumpkin

Invisible Hands & Markets: Mischievous Mitchell
While I'm on the topic of politically unthinkable policies, Alan Mitchell in today's Fin (subscription required) argues that we should raise the rate of GST and use the proceeds to abolish a bunch of inefficient distorting taxes. It's a sensible idea, but, given the way the GST was sold, it's politically out of the question. Still, it would be worth looking again at this in a decade or so, when all those associated with the original GST debate have left the political scene.
• All that would need to be done is change or delete the lines in the GST Act that "give" the power to raise the GST to the states
• · It is about to become harder to find butterfly cakes, chocolate eclairs and cream puffs in the city, with a cherished cake shop forced out of the Strand Arcade by rising rents
• · · ‘What’s in it for me?’ Today’s rich are not giving enough of their wealth to good causes--the ancients would have known why
• · · · Bernie Fraser robustly debating: Governments have become very risk-averse, and there is this prevailing notion around that only the private sector can do these things properly ...; [ Sale of Telstra has Labor, Greens up in arms]
• · · · · Contrary to his international reputation, Kafka was merely a reporter of Czech daily life Going for brouk ... Keeping a low profile is a Czech survival strategy. Harness interpersonal networks to succeed
• · · · · · Your job is pointless, inane: You can be replaced by the cretin sitting next to you. So work as little as possible

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The Australian Greens tax and revenue policy
The Australian Greens say they aim to use taxation to achieve social equity and environmental sustainability.
The exact make-up of the next Federal Parliament could have a strong bearing on taxation

Eye on Politics & Media Bias: Media bias
Roy Morgan poll released today provides insightful results on people's perception of media bias.
86% BELIEVE NEWSPAPER JOURNALISTS ARE BIASED AS MEDIA HONESTY AND ETHICS RATINGS FALL
Australians are very critical of the media being often biased, with 86% of Australians saying Newspaper journalists are often biased, 75% of Australians said Talk-back radio announcers were often biased and 73% TV reporters and journalists, a special Morgan Poll finds.
Of Newspaper journalists, Andrew Bolt (3.5%) was most often mentioned by Australians as being often biased, followed by Piers Akerman (3%) and Miranda Devine (1.5%). Ray Martin (6%) and Kerry O'Brien (4.5%) were the most frequently mentioned TV reporters or journalists who were often biased, along with Laurie Oakes (2%) and Richard Carlton (1%).
Talk-back 'giants' John Laws and Alan Jones topped the list, mentioned by 28.5% (37% in NSW) and 26% (41.5% in NSW) of Australians respectively. The results also record a significant drop in trust for politicians. Only 9% believe that Federal MPs are trust-worthy.
A number of questions remain, however. Do people mind that their media commentators are biased if they're simply reinforcing existing prejudice? What exactly can be defined as objective journalism? And perhaps most importantly, how much election material interpreted by journalists is even vaguely believed by the reading public?
• Counter Spin (15 September 2004) [We all know that magicians trick us by distracting us -- shift our attention in one direction while they work their magic in the other. Is that the case in these American and Australian elections? ]
• · See Also Obsession with economic track record and bowls of spaghetti: Magicians at work
• · · School Policy from the Age and Young Bloggers Greg Hywood in today's Age. [Rob Corr; Ken Parish; Chris Sheil]
• · · · Literary Gem, Gianna Should we talk elections? Come to Mama and much more...
• · · · · Latham Cut the greed, Latham warns top executives: 66.6 per cent pay rise for Qantas directors
• · · · · · Liverpool Live: Tragic Comedy Land sale not linked to site approval: Gazal

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The Blog, The Press, The Media: On Selling (What Else?) Books
Nicki Leone, manager of Bristol Books in Wilmington, North Carolina, was recently invited by author M.J. Rose (The Halo Effect, Mira) to be a "guest blogger" on Rose's Weblog. Leone's assignment: To "write about anything related to getting books read." Thanks to Nicki Leone and M.J. Rose for allowing BTW to share with our readers this lighthearted look at the extent to which a bookseller will go to sell a book.
• Oh, we booksellers are certainly defenders of free speech, but honey, that don't pay the light bill
• · But all fun aside, I think there are some important lessons for Big Media -- and for everyone else -- in the rise of the blogosphere. They stem from the fact that bloggers operate on the Internet, where arguments from authority are difficult since nobody knows whether you're a dog It's the difference between high-trust and low-trust environments
• · · Portals and KM Business Blog Links: Part Two - Jessica Baumgart
• · · · Bloggers have discredited CBS News Whoa! That's what Newsday says: Sept. 9, 2004, will be remembered as a paradigm-shifting day in media history...
• · · · · Pivia Launches First 'Distributed Workplace' Blog
• · · · · · Gurlie Bloggers Straight Talk About Blogs: Do You Really Need One?

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An Australian logistics team has left for Iraq to assist efforts to secure the release of two Australian hostages

Yet another thoughtful counter spin and marginal sidewalk along the Bloggeauvard of Dementia
Also this request from Anton and Tim who are gathering questions we would like our leaders to answer. We'll get a collection of the best and send them off shortly. Please send me the questions you'd like answered by Latham and Howard. We can surely do better than the assembled media hacks on Sunday night.

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: MANY OPINION POLLS
A closer look at the Newspoll shows the Coalition's primary vote up one point to a very healthy 46 per cent, while the Greens have faded two points from last week's spike to record a more typical 6 per cent.
The following table provides recent results from three sources. On Saturday the Gold Coast Weekend Bulletin produced surveys of the outer Brisbane seat of Rankin, held by Labor front-bencher Craig Emerson, and the New South Wales north coast seat of Richmond, held by National Party minister Larry Anthony. The sample in each case was about 450. Then follows results from all five Tasmanian seats from the EMRS poll in Sunday's Launceston Examiner, which have less impressive samples of around 200. Lastly is a poll of the fairly safe Liberal Adelaide seat of Boothby which appears in today's Adelaide Advertiser.
• William Bowe Strictly polling [Strictly Newscasting: PLAYGIRL Announces Winners of Sexiest Newscaster Election ]
• · · · Poll Vault by Nadia: The classic 'litmus test' seat, Eden-Monaro has fallen to the party that has won government at every election since 1972 - that's 13 elections in total
• · · · Bloggers have discredited CBS News Whoa! That's what Newsday says: Sept. 9, 2004, will be remembered as a paradigm-shifting day in media history...
• · · · · Election Results Competitions [ At that stage, the Coalition were $1.28, with Labor at $3.25, but in recent months, not a lot has gone right for Labor. Add to that the woes of the Carr Govt in New South Wales (Labor), and all of a sudden there is a gap opening up again in the betting ]
• · · · · · Barista Film, Radion and Broadcasting Funding
• · · · · · · Southerly Buster Lessons from the Jakarta blast