(Above: the ACL indulging in prophesy, or perhaps speaking in tongues, as their rotating banner still promotes a showdown between Rudd and Abbott. So it has or might still come to pass).Here at the pond we're waiting for the brain snap from Jim Wallace and the Australian Christian Lobby at the news that jolly Joe Hockey has announced the Liberals will vote against the internet filter (Coalition to dump flawed internet filter).
Over at the ACL site all is quiet at the moment, with the rotating banner quaintly featuring an On Air Live webcast between Tony Abbott and former chairman Rudd. Was this merely being prophetic, with the return of the former Chairman from his sickbed?
Still the ACL site provides a handy link to all their busy bees going about the business of fiddling about in the election campaign (ACL in the media - a wrap-up of the last week's commentary).
It seems, if you read the transcript of the ABC Lateline spot Influence of Gillard's atheism still unknown, that the ACL has been running around targeting Greens candidates:
JIM WALLACE: We have seen them supporting euthanasia, supporting abortion, against prayers in parliament, against ISP filtering - so on a great range of issues we find ourselves at variance with the Greens.
(Excerpt from Christian Democratic Party video)
FEMALE VOICEOVER: With the balance of power in the Senate any time the Government wants to put through legislation, the Greens will get the final say before it can be passed.
MALE VOICEOVER: For Christians and for anyone believing in Christian values, this should be a cause for grave concern...
(End of excerpt)
PETER LLOYD: The Australian Christian Lobby is not alone in spending money targeting Green party candidates.
Members of Fred Nile's Christian Democratic Party created this video message, placing it on a website called OneVote.com.
RAY MORAN, CHRISTIAN DEMOCRATIC PARTY: We obviously hope that people will vote for the Christian Democratic party, but that is not what that video is about.
It is about warning people of - particularly Christians - of the ramifications of the Greens having the balance of power with an atheist Prime Minister - then what we are likely to see go in terms of our Christian values and our freedoms.
Happily it seems there's no actual sign that the ACL lobby is effective in the way of votes in the box:
RODNEY SMITH: The Australian Christian Lobby said that it was targeting some specific seats held by what it described as "libertarian Labor members of parliament" and it was targeting those members of parliament and the Greens in those electorates.
If you look at those electorates, the swings in those electorates were no difference. If fact, they were even slightly higher in most cases, to Labor than the state swings in which those electorates fell.
So it is very difficult to look at the 2007 election and take out of it a lesson that a Christian lobby group - or indeed a Christian denomination - can sway sufficient voters to have a big impact on the election outcome.
If you look at those electorates, the swings in those electorates were no difference. If fact, they were even slightly higher in most cases, to Labor than the state swings in which those electorates fell.
So it is very difficult to look at the 2007 election and take out of it a lesson that a Christian lobby group - or indeed a Christian denomination - can sway sufficient voters to have a big impact on the election outcome.
Even so, we look forward to the ACL and other concerned Christians targeting jolly Joe Hockey in his North Sydney seat. It seems Lucifer takes many forms these days, and somehow has managed to infest jolly Joe's body, thereby threatening Christian freedoms and values. Who'd a thunk it, jolly Joe joining the satanic anti-filter brigade. Is it time for Jim Wallace to make a stand?
Speaking of Lucifer, Glenn Beck long ago jumped the shark, so is it possible to say that he's now jumped the whale by comparing Obama not just to Karl Marx, but to Lucifer?
You can see the actual clip here in Glenn Beck's final swan dive off the deep end: President Obama reminds him of Lucifer.
There is a section of America which is deeply, profoundly, barking mad, and Glenn Beck's crazed demagoguery leads the way. What does Rupert Murdoch do about it, seeing as how his Fox star is even further out there than the likes of that ratbag radio priest Father Charles Edward Coughlin? And by golly that's saying something ...
Why, in his ethical way, he takes the money and runs. It's true he also happily takes the money from hippie blather like Avatar, proving that cash has no conscience. (Put on the 3D glasses for a perspective on the News profits, from Titantic to Avatar). Of course it'd be a cheap shot to compare chairman Rupert to an amoral Lucifer Glenn Beck style ...
Nevertheless, it explains why - if I found a copy of a Murdoch paper on fire in the gutter - I'd find the energy to be most unladylike and go piss on the nearest fire hydrant.
Happily Australia has a way to go before it reaches the bizarre level of senate candidate Sharron Angle, campaigning in Nevada with this kind of nonsense (Sharron Angle: Onward Christian Soldiers):
And these programs that you mentioned -- that Obama has going with Reid and Pelosi pushing them forward -- are all entitlement programs built to make government our God. And that's really what's happening in this country is a violation of the First Commandment. We have become a country entrenched in idolatry, and that idolatry is the dependency upon our government. We're supposed to depend upon God for our protection and our provision and for our daily bread, not for our government.
The government as a kind of idolatry, a bit like Cecil B. De Mille bunging on a depraved orgy in a biblical pic? Shades of barking mad Glenn Beck's Lucifer?
But there is of course an area where religion is rampant in Australia, and that's in the funding of schools. Yes, you see, Catholic and independent schools, in a despicable form of idolatry, rely on government funding for their daily bread, and there are plenty around to celebrate it, and urge it forward. Here's Kevin Donnelly scribbling in The Punch Can Julia Gillard be believed on school funding?
He seems to think that's a jolly hockey sticks idea.
Phew, that must be a relief for the Exclusive Brethren, Scientologists and fundamentalist Islamics (not to mention mad Christians of a more mainstream kind) in search of a little idolatry and government money.
You see, in their usual half-baked, gutless way, Labor has folded on the SES model due to expire at the end of 2012, and will extend it for another year, and you have to scratch around to find anyone who actually gives a toss about the public education system, or take the time to write about what's happening in schools.
If you scratch hard enough in the media chook yard, you might land on Maralyn Parker's helpful Only minuses for public schools on the Abbott list:
It is appalling that Tony Abbott, a prospective prime minister of Australia, has only one solution for the majority of Australian families using, as he sees it, problematic public schools - move your child out.
This shows a profound ignorance of what life is like and the choices available for most families in this nation.
Yep, while the gadfly Christians get into a flap, and the media keeps blathering on about the Kevin Rudd roadshow, there are actual issues at stake in this election, and none of them getting the attention they deserve.
I visited a very disadvantaged public school in Sydney’s west on Monday where Labor’s Building The Education Revolution had given the school its only upgrade in fifty years and a new technologically advanced library.
The school also received $90,000 in Labor’s National Partnership money for literacy and numeracy that is helping buy time, resources and support for a whole school numeracy program.
It has been promised another half a million in low SES funding by Gillard in 2010. There is an amazing buzz of quality teaching, leadership and renewal about this school.
Under an Abbott government - forget the extra $500,000 - it will become just one of the thousands of Australian schools the prime minister thinks families should leave as soon as they can.
It's tempting sometimes to do a Jon Stewart, throw the hands in the air, and shout I give up.
Ah but that would be to ignore the splendid news that the Christians are now campaigning against that Lucifer incarnate, jolly Joe Hockey, to strip him of his 666 North Sydney throne ...
I guess it could be worse. I've always wanted to live in America, but when I watch Stewart I sometimes wonder why ... and then I remember it's because here in Australia we simply don't have the likes of him, sending the political class up shitless ... And perhaps Leo Shanahan, who scribbled 10 reasons why this election is anything but boring:
Arguably this election is lacking serious policy debate (and we all kow how that wouldn’t bore anyone), the leaders and their rhetoric can be very frustrating, but boring?
Yep, in an election campaign designed to showcase policies and strategies and plans designed to take Australia forward, or to get us involved in Action Jackson routines, it's yet another funny Punch story about how there's no serious policy debate, and since we're incapable, in Australia's best conversation, to manage a serious policy debate, let's attempt a top ten list Letterman style in a feeble attempt to be funny.
I give up. Here's funny ...
If the Abbott-led opposition, if elected, will endorse the SES model and ensure that Catholic and independent schools are properly resourced, then this only indicates that these schools are in dire need of full-time gardeners, sprinkler-systems with water from the desalination plant; cafeterias with delicious organic vegetables grown by horticulturists on their 1 acre garden plot. Yes, the SES model, Schools Eminently Squandering, deserves taxpayers help.
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