The dying days of the Fourth Reich: it's the 2007 AUSTRALIAN FEDERAL ELECTION

I will sleep like a bastard tonight. See you all in the non-extreme morning!

yay, i am so so happy!
yes moley, you are a wizard predictor.
sleep well mongs, good work:D

So when you all wake up from your drunken stupors, explain to me plz how your Senate works, because damned if I can figure it out. How come the switchover isn't until July?

I mustn't have got drunk enough. It's 4.30am and I feel fine.

Ned, the intent of the Senate for it to be a house of review that is in a sense "independent" of the lower house. I can only guess that the July changeover is to protect it from the general election cycle, which can (sometimes drastically) reduce the term of the lower house. Also, the end of the financial year here is June 30, but that may just be coincidence.

Weird. I guess I'm just used to combined switchovers like here (not that the whole US Senate is up for grabs at any one time but you get the point).

I only had two gins, half a packet of crisps and some chocolate, and now I feel like death. Having had 6.5 hours of sleep might have something to do with it. Best feeling ever to wake up under a new government though. 'Er indoors and I have only ever KNOWN each other under that dessicated coconut.

Anyway.

Ned, senators have six-year terms, so only half the senate is up for re-election at any time. That's how I understand it.

Age subheadline:

Kevin Rudd's victory was a triumph of humility over hubris.

I"LL FUCKING SAY. Remember Howard's very last lie of 11.5 years of wall-to-wall lies? "I have never lied."

It's like that riddle with the two guards and one of them always lies, except guards in riddles don't ban same-sex marriage and kill 85.000 Iraqis.

So who voted for the "What Women Want" party?

-- S

Yes, now what's that about? What does What Women Want want for women? And how can one give it to them?

Ah, found my answer. They seem disappointingly sensible.

http://www.whatwomenwant.org.au/home/modules/weblog/details.php?blog_id=4

http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2007/11_03/howardAFP2411_468x412.jpg

LOL

:D:D:D so good to wake up this morning!
autumn, i'm glad you don't have to leave the country now! how is the extended almanac family holding up?

Brilliantly.

I was incredibly ready to move out if Howard got back in. It feels great to know most of your own country isn't as bigoted as its last prime minister.

So how are you all feeling? Buzzed? Relieved? Tired? Avenged?

i'm quite tired, because i was nervous about it and that used up a lot of energy. haha, yesterday i went to the supermarket straight after the very promising exit poll results had been given and after walking around with what felt like a really goofy grin on my face compulsively blurted out all the results to the checkout girl, who luckily was a thrilled labor supporter. she shrieked with joy then looked over nervously at her grim faced coworkers to whom i would have said nothing, on instinct.

btw all those :D's above are for our chum walter who cannot be with us this morning.

Off topic, but what's with the Delt's new filmclip? Did the video director say, "I 'm seeing stylish chairs, and lots of them. I really want to feature designer chairs in this clip, it'll be so amazing.' So lame, so Australian creative industry.

Anyway yeah... Almy, what's your analysis of the implications of the Senate balance of power situation?

(musical interlude): 'i'm left, you're right, he's gone'

i have stopping singing now.

god, i'm so hungover. we were throwing back margaritas from maxine's speech onwards.

Off we go to a celebratory party with a big roast.

Funny, I got plastered too after the US 2004 elections.

Different reasons why probably.

it's amazing to be happy about an election result after so many years and so much skulduggery both here and in the us

So tired! So happy! So tired! In pathetic desire for more coverage we went out looking for a copy of today's 'Age' (could not bear the thought of paying for Adelaide's own 'Sunday Mail'), which had lots of good stuff about Howard being humiliated (their choice of word), although sadly most of it was put together pre the speeches last night, so not much actual new news.

Still, so happy!

What a surprise. Costello doesn't want the leadership now.

goddamn, what a sour motherfucker. going into business, huh?

went to school reunion and got hiiiiii with dudes i haven't seen in years, and now this! WHATTA WEEKEND

Almy, what's your analysis of the implications of the Senate balance of power situation?

Dunno, I haven't seen the seats yet :)

Matt Price died today too.

Today was nuts. We went to a garden party full of people effusive about Rudd's win, and a handful of oldies in the corner whining about the economy and oh noes we are all going to die. FUCK THEM.

TONY EASTLEY: Well, while it was a sombre and dignified exit for the Prime Minister, one supporter who had watched the night disintegrate and saw her hero walk out of the building was certainly having trouble coming to terms with how her fellow Australians had voted.

WOMAN: I don't want to be an Australian after today. I hate Australia, for Christ's sake. I hate us. I think we're despicable. We're despicable. How could we bloody do…

TONY EASTLEY: Mr Howard is about to make his way out, do you think…

WOMAN: …haven't even (inaudible). I love this man. This man has given us more than anything and I just hate to think what we've done to him. I hate Australia. I'm not Australian.

Good, get the fuck out of our country. Don't bump your swastika on the door on your way out.

Hey dudes, thanks for getting rid of that cunt.

Lots of love,

np bruv

Your cunt is next. I know he's going regardless, but a swift kick up the arse would teach his fundy mates to never fucking do it again.

xpost

Matt's a Brit Adam - do you mean Brown, or Bush?

Brown is fucked over this lost records fiasco!

Oh! I assumed the DC part was Washington DC in the US. Sorry Matt!

Brown's refusal to call an election has already killed him, but the alternatives are a bit gloomy. Is there any hope of the Lib Dems actually being in power? The Tories still spook me a bit tbh.

At least Guardian readership is good. Far too Daily Mail readers when I was there recently.

Our cunt will only be replaced by a bigger cunt, bit like Russian dolls, but with vaginas.

Essentially I am a bit jealous, because any similar sense of euphoria is at least six years away for us, probably 10-15.

But no, no chance of the Lib Dems ever getting in.

Sigh.

At least we (and the US) have a centre-left presence to replace the warmongers. Your warmongers ARE centre-left.

I'm interested to see now, how Rudd will handle Bush.

Er, that wasn't meant to be a series of artful euphemisms.

It would never have even occurred to us to read it that way, Trayce.

You know when a guy goes to a bar, sees some woman he likes and chats up her friend in order to get to her? That's what Rudd is doing to Bush.

!LOL! Abbott wants to lead the Liberals.

Abbott wants a smack. Honestly. We only just got rid of the prick who destroyed the party and Australia's social conscience, we don't need an equally fuck-headed nutbar doing it all over again.

glenn milne in the oz:

Howard is no doubt well pleased with his work. As the Liberal Party tastes the bitter dregs of defeat and digests the effective departure of Costello we now realise why the outgoing prime minister constantly lectured his party room against hubris. Because all along it was the dark whisper that fluttered at the core of his own being.

And on Saturday night he finally succumbed to that spirit by playing out the last act in a succession of acts of wilful pride that eventually took his party down with him. Having ignored the repeated urgings of his colleagues to go both in his own interests and those of his party, Howard's hubris saw him finally dare the voters to dispatch him. They obliged, ultimately convinced it was the only way to get rid of him.

That wilful pride also defined the disastrous nature of the Coalition campaign itself. Insider accounts are starting to emerge. The formal structures fell away early under the pressure of the Rudd challenge. Howard's chief of staff, Tony Nutt, was sidelined. Howard relied increasingly heavily on his former chief of staff, Grahame Morris. Howard would conduct phone calls with Morris without anyone else being allowed to be present.

Mark Textor, the Liberal's pollster and joint architect of previous Coalition victories, was also not being listened to. Word leaked out to Labor that it was Janette Howard who was in fact running the campaign. Whether true or not, behind the scenes the ALP made merry hell with the "intelligence". The consultation with Costello, who was meant to be running on a joint leadership ticket, was perfunctory.

Howard was unable to stay on message about the economy. His discipline gone, he fell headlong into the trap laid by Rudd; making the election a referendum on the two leaders and thus anticipating a verdict on Rudd as the symbol of the future and Howard as a signpost to the past.

Inexplicably the prime minister invited the public to decide whether "they loved him or loathed him". The vote is now in. In the fag-end days of the campaign, as the Liberals struggled to recover from the racist blunders of Jackie Kelly's husband in Lindsay, the desperate imperative was to keep driving home the economic risks posed by Rudd.

Instead, Howard talked about his political instincts, that he had a sense he was "coming back". This became the story in the final hours leading to the poll. In the end it was all about him. As Costello knew all along.

Wow.

Thanks for posting that.

Looks like Maxine's a winner :D

So awesome =)

Best ever.

Howard's a little fuckpot.