part 1.1 it might begin
While some bits of the western US may still be living in the past, it's now officially 2010. Which means I can get over the boring business of watching everyday politics that took up last year, and get back to the fun and shenanigans of '07 and '08. ELECTION YEAR Y'ALL.
In fact, there's three elections (at least, three which I'm in a position to really care about beyond “oh dang the slightly more evil party won”) happening this year. First of all you've got the American Congressional Elections for the Senate and House of Representatives, elections with far less of a public profile than the Presidential elections, but as Obama's only mildly successful attempts at fixing the American health care system are demonstrating, the balance of power in both Houses is vital to the success of any regime, and the Democrats need to retain this if they are to have any hope of achieving anything in the coming years. It seems like these will probably be the most closely contested of the three national elections happening this year. Apparently the US also has some Gubernatorial elections happening too but a) this seems like a state-level thing and b) why the hell would you spell it like that you dumb seppos governor doesn't have a 'b' in it (unless this is talking about something else in which case what the hell).
Second (these are ranked by importance in terms of world powers, but this one matters least to me and will probably have no tangible impact on my life whatsoever), the UK has its own general elections. This is something I can't see working out as anything other than a solid shellacking of Gordon Brown's Labour party by David Cameron's Conservative party, but honestly New Labour seem to be close enough to Tories anyway (except for that whole European Union business) and at the very least could probably use a term or two in opposition to wake themselves up. British readers will have to clarify this for me (and please do) but as far as I can see the best the country can really hope for is for the Lib Dems to pick up enough votes from people sick of Labour and not evil enough to vote Conservative to hold the balance of power and hopefully block some of the Tories' more painful legislation.
Third, however, and most importantly to me, Australia has a general election. Those of you who have been following a while will know that Australia's most recent general election happened not long after I started this journal, bringing home just how long I've been at this. I didn't write much about it back them because a) I didn't know enough about politics or follow the news closely enough to write anything of merit and b) let's be honest, metal was just about all I both cared and wrote about back then, and while I still love the stuff it's good that I have other musical and general interests. And it's this year's federal election that I want to write about. There's also some state elections including my own, but first of all, it's state stuff, and secondly, much like Britain, Tasmania is in a stuffed-if-you-do-maybe-even-more-stuffed-if-you-don't situation where a lot of folks, myself included, would rather the Greens be running the show than either of the two majors.
Irregularly but hopefully often over the course of this year, I want to write about this election in a way that not only enables even the most culturally snobby skippyphobe (technical term) to know what's happening to my country, and what could happen depending on which way we go at the end of the year, but understand it as well. Anything you might be confused about, whether it's the layout of the political system, what certain politicians support, or indecipherable slang, please ask because in explaining Australia I hope not only to enlighten you on certain aspects of “The Worst Country in the world, apart from all the others” but also to learn about other countries and their own political systems through the differences.
Also I hope I'm not getting over-ambitious again and I can keep this up at all.
In fact, there's three elections (at least, three which I'm in a position to really care about beyond “oh dang the slightly more evil party won”) happening this year. First of all you've got the American Congressional Elections for the Senate and House of Representatives, elections with far less of a public profile than the Presidential elections, but as Obama's only mildly successful attempts at fixing the American health care system are demonstrating, the balance of power in both Houses is vital to the success of any regime, and the Democrats need to retain this if they are to have any hope of achieving anything in the coming years. It seems like these will probably be the most closely contested of the three national elections happening this year. Apparently the US also has some Gubernatorial elections happening too but a) this seems like a state-level thing and b) why the hell would you spell it like that you dumb seppos governor doesn't have a 'b' in it (unless this is talking about something else in which case what the hell).
Second (these are ranked by importance in terms of world powers, but this one matters least to me and will probably have no tangible impact on my life whatsoever), the UK has its own general elections. This is something I can't see working out as anything other than a solid shellacking of Gordon Brown's Labour party by David Cameron's Conservative party, but honestly New Labour seem to be close enough to Tories anyway (except for that whole European Union business) and at the very least could probably use a term or two in opposition to wake themselves up. British readers will have to clarify this for me (and please do) but as far as I can see the best the country can really hope for is for the Lib Dems to pick up enough votes from people sick of Labour and not evil enough to vote Conservative to hold the balance of power and hopefully block some of the Tories' more painful legislation.
Third, however, and most importantly to me, Australia has a general election. Those of you who have been following a while will know that Australia's most recent general election happened not long after I started this journal, bringing home just how long I've been at this. I didn't write much about it back them because a) I didn't know enough about politics or follow the news closely enough to write anything of merit and b) let's be honest, metal was just about all I both cared and wrote about back then, and while I still love the stuff it's good that I have other musical and general interests. And it's this year's federal election that I want to write about. There's also some state elections including my own, but first of all, it's state stuff, and secondly, much like Britain, Tasmania is in a stuffed-if-you-do-maybe-even-more-stuffed-if-you-don't situation where a lot of folks, myself included, would rather the Greens be running the show than either of the two majors.
Irregularly but hopefully often over the course of this year, I want to write about this election in a way that not only enables even the most culturally snobby skippyphobe (technical term) to know what's happening to my country, and what could happen depending on which way we go at the end of the year, but understand it as well. Anything you might be confused about, whether it's the layout of the political system, what certain politicians support, or indecipherable slang, please ask because in explaining Australia I hope not only to enlighten you on certain aspects of “The Worst Country in the world, apart from all the others” but also to learn about other countries and their own political systems through the differences.
Also I hope I'm not getting over-ambitious again and I can keep this up at all.