M&M's, Telstra, Senate Fun, Labor Losing The Plot?

Eminem Does His Bit
In case you haven't seen it yet, Eminem's anti-Bush music video (Mosh) is doing the rounds on the Internet (here it is in QuickTime (47MB), or in Windows Media (streaming)). This is the latest in a line of songs about the state of America, including Green Day's American Idiot, Michael Franti's Bomb The World, NOFX's Franco Un-American and shitloads others.

"Wow, you know that Eminem and I have had our differences in the past, but this video is the best thing that I've seen all year. It's an amazing song and an even more amazing video. Please go watch."

- Moby

No, the song doesn't do anything for me, but I doubt this release has much to do with record sales.

I wish something like this'd happened here. Celebrities, artists, people that get looked up to - they should be trying to get people to care about their vote, to quit being apathetic and make sure it counts. Stars are telling people to vote in red carpet interviews, popstars are holding up "VOTE" shirts when they win at the VMA's, all sorts of shit. And here? I mean yes, in JJJ land everyone was talking, but over in Austereoville, there was absolutely nothing. Where was Delta's anti-Howard song? What do we have?

Speaking of being more like America, when do you reckon this'll start happening here?

Senate Seats
The Greens have scored a fourth Senate seat, from Western Australia, and Labor grabbed the final South Australian seat.

You're Fired!
The Nationals Senate leader, Ron Boswell is claiming they hold the balance of power in the Senate (he's also saying the first thing they should pass is unfair dismissal laws). Costello is telling him to shut up.

The Liberals are trying to get Labor to agree with them on their IR policy.

"The ALP said that it's reviewing its policy, its disastrous policy, on industrial relations," Mr Andrews said. "It's saying that it will be more business-friendly. This is the first test for the ALP as to whether they are going to be business-friendly. If they are, then they will get behind this legislation."

- Kevin Andrews, Workplace Relations Minister

"The long-term test here is what will the Government do after the first of July when it has unbridled power. Will it conduct itself in its traditional zealot ideological way or will it agree with Labor that the best way of getting economic growth, the best way of getting productivity in the workplace, is flexibility with fairness?"

- Stephen Smith, (new) ALP IR Spokesman

The ACTU is warning the ALP "not to suck up to businesses" as a way of scoring points.

"The Liberal Party is like your Republican Party, whereas the Labor Party is like your... Republican Party."
I think this post on LiveJournal sums up what a lot of people are thinking:

And this is certainly the time to be trying to change the Labor Party, now that it's in post-massacre freefall. My major fear is that in the attempt to beat the Liberals, Labor will become the Liberals, and that's what I want to fight.

There's an internal review on Labor's plans to get troops out of Iraq, throwing the Tasmanian forests policy out the window, and putting the tax policy in the republic box. Schools and Medicare Gold are staying though.

But why axe the forestry policy? If it was a load of shit then yes, but just because the announcement and media coverage was a disaster, doesn't mean the policy itself was. Bah.

The whole thing with Gillard pulling out of the running for treasury just to make certain factions happy was just pathetic. It seems like they've all lost sight of the big picture.

Making Life Sleazier
Full steam ahead for selling off Telstra! Privatising a monopoly is the best idea ever!

Helen Coonan (IT Minister) is already getting set to hold talks (here too) with Barnaby Joyce (the Nats guy that got the Liberals over the line in the Senate) about flogging off Telstra. The Nats don't want to sell Telstra until services in the sticks are fixed. Costello says he won't sell it unless the share price goes up, and will keep the majority Australian owned. Uh huh.

But as was pointed out to me on IRC this afternoon, the combination of wireless Internet and VoIP means that life without Telstra could well become a reality soon.

ATO Bent Over
Remember voting for a new tax system with less complexity, red tape and loopholes?

Cross-Media Ownership
Fairfax (makers of the SMH, AFR and The Age) shares have risen amidst speculation of a takeover once cross-media laws are chopped. Good for business, bad for the... bugger it, you know how it goes.