The 55% of women that now vote Labor — or prefer it. The 51.5% of West Australians, the 53% of South Australians, the 53% of Queenslanders, the 55.5% of Victorians that now vote Labor — or prefer it.

This means, must mean, that the Kevin07 votes are back and the relaxed and comfortable Howardista vote has been smashed, once again, by...?

It’s the ‘non-core promise’ factor, probably.

Gonski, NDIS, Medicare, the ABC and the Old Age Pension they swore would be protected, are being trashed. The anxiety of the carers of the disabled, and everyone has a disabled relative, though gone for a while, is now sadistically restored. And the mistrust women, especially, feel for Abbott (he abandoned his pregnant bride-to-be and made her give up her newborn baby) will not now, ever, be allayed.

But there’s also, I think, a ‘cock-up’ factor in play as well.

Murder has occurred on Manus and two killers are still on Immigration MinisterScott Morrison’s paid staff.

A sea-search for a crashed plane for six weeks has turned up nothing — not even a floating passport. Money that has been spent on this search could have saved Holden, and a quarter of a million livelihoods.

Amid calls for ‘shared sacrifice’, we learn that Assistant Treasurer Senator Arthur Sinodinos got a quarter of a million dollars for fifty hours work and was promised twenty million more.

Amid boasts that ‘the adults are now in charge’ and ‘leadership stability’ was now the go, the Liberals changed premiers in Victoria, New South Wales and Northern Territory and sacked the Treasurer ‒ a former leader ‒ in Western Australia.

Attorney-General George Brandis has come out for bigotry (88% of Australians think this is crazy) and called climate science ‘medieval’. Cory Bernardi has compared gay men with ‘beasts’ and Education Minister Christopher Pyne wants to write colonial brutality out of our history.

And it’s hard to overturn the perception of a sackful of struggling cats in a river.

Bronwyn Bishop is already most lunatic Speaker in our history.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, after former foreign minister Bob Carr’s book, seems a cross-eyed, angry amateur.

Treasurer Joe Hockey’s quest for a surplus seems more and more a tilt at windmills, or the unleashing of a loaded dog.

read more: http://www.independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/royal-non-core-abbotts-poll-cat-struggle,6410

Please note that it is illegal to impersonate a fighter pilot...

The cost of running the 58 Joint Strike Fighters announced by the Abbott government will double the price tag for the cutting-edge planes to a towering $24 billion, it was revealed on Wednesday.

While announcing the blockbuster purchase in Canberra, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said that the cost would be “$12 billion for the aircraft and equipment … and a further $12 billion to keep them operational” – doubling the total hit to taxpayers.

The Joint Strike Fighter is "flying dog meat", writes Sydney bureau chief and military buff Ross Jones, and anyone who goes near this lemon has rocks in their heads. 

Anyone who goes near the Joint Strike Fighter has rocks in their heads.

It’s the Liberals, I rest my case.

These things aren’t going to keep us safe from anybody. The word Joint in the JSF of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II means just that. Not single strike fighter — a joint strike fighter. It needs another aircraft to protect its lumbering airframe, packed to the gunwhales with 8 million code lines of stuff — too slow to turn and too slow to run.

Put these things up against a new Russian Sukhoi or a Chinese Chengdu J-20 Black Eagle without air cover and they’re toast.

It's like no-one recalls the Fokker Scourge of 1915.

And all that packing in of equipment fills its porcine airframe so there is absolutely no room for development; what you see is what you get for yonks.

Remember the Zero?

It cut allied aircraft to bits in the first few years of the war, especially the stupendously stupid Boomerang, manufactured by the Commonweath Aircraft Factory and completely outclassed from the off.

Read more: http://www.independentaustralia.net/article-display/the-joint-strike-fighter-purchase-someone-must-have-been-smoking-one,6412

Meanwhile at lib/labor apology central, the ABC Drum some called Andrew Porter , former advisor to Prime Ministers, says the contrary: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-04-24/porter-jet-order-no-flight-of-fancy-theyre-worth-it/5408346

Overall Andrew Porter's exposé is brilliant political gobbledegook alla former advisor sauce... He does not really explain why we need those planes which are touted as the best of the best only WHEN THEY SHALL BE WORKING. Presently, they are not working well. They have too many bugs and the design is trying too hard. Try do do a loop-de-loop at mach 2.2 and the plane will fall apart.

One to one combat in the air is also a thing of the past. A bunch of well targeted missiles could get rid of 24 of these planes, while the others would be in the workshop for trouble shooting and spare parts alignment. 

My guess is that we need these planes like "papier-maché" submarines.

Australia risks being pulled into a disastrous war against China because successive Australian governments have surrendered the nation's strategic independence to Washington, former Liberal prime minister Malcolm Fraser has warned.

With tensions rising in the East China Sea between China and Japan, Mr Fraser said there was a real danger of conflict and that he had become "very uneasy" at the level of Australia's compliance with the US's strategic interests.

Cooler heads have prevailed in recent days, and it appears the Prime Minister has scratched his itchy trigger finger when it comes to the Iraq conflict, writes Barrie Cassidy.

The Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, has scratched his itchy trigger finger.

He told ABC radio in Brisbane this week that "we're not going to get dragged into a new Iraqi war; no one is talking about putting combat forces on the ground".

That was unequivocal, with none of the ambiguity that surrounded some of his tough rhetoric at the height of the rescue of thousands of Yazidi refugees trapped on Mount Sinjar in northern Iraq.

And though Ukraine is a different situation, his distaste for the use of ground forces in Iraq was not replicated, apparently, when, according to Paul Kelly in The Australian last weekend, he seriously considered sending 1000 troops into the disputed territory to safeguard the plane crash site. According to Kelly, Abbott changed his mind when the action became unnecessary. Why it became unnecessary is not clear, given that a proper investigation at the site is still elusive.

What's more likely is that he was persuaded the initial proposal wasn't a good idea.

Still, weeks later he went to The Netherlands and then London, essentially to thank and acknowledge those who had put in the effort in Ukraine, though it had the appearance of simply further identifying himself with the issues.

There are parallels with the Government's decision months ago to take the lead role in the search for the missing Malaysian airliner, MH370, which disappeared on March 8. It's never been clear just how strong was the evidence that the plane went down in the Indian Ocean in the area specified. Or why the Abbott Government took it upon itself to lead the search and spend potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in the process. Of the 239 passengers and crew on board, six were Australian.

read more: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-08-22/cassidy-abbott-scratches-his-itchy-trigger-finger/5687838

See toon at top. Read the print on the plane...