I don't understand, why is it a "bad thing" that Obama has declined public money for his campaign? To me, an outsider, I would have thought that was a good thing - more money for things like health and education rather than making advertising companies rich. Seems more ethical to me. Is it because McCain has no hope of matching? Old man gripes?

I also understand exactly what Michelle Obama meant when she said that she was finally proud of her country. I felt the same way when we threw out the John Howard's Liberal government and voted in Kevin Rudd and the Labor Party. I was ashamed to be Australian when we invaded Iraq, I was ashamed of Australia when we allowed refugees to drown at sea rather than give them sancturary, I was ashamed of Australia when we paid small Pacific Island nations to detain our refugees to avoid giving them refuge. I was ashamed of Australia when we introduced a citizenship test that discriminated against anyone not white and educated. I was ashamed when the Liberal party made the horrific existence of many Aboriginal Australians a political issue after years of indifference to try to win an election. Only now am I proud to call myself Australian again after many years...yes Michelle I hear where you are coming from...

I  know that Sean Hannity is a very conservative, conservative but lately he has been sounding hysterical. Does he really think Obama hates America? Does he honestly believe that Obama will bomb the nation, and bring pestilence and plague upon the nation if he is elected President? He keeps harping on about the so called “friends” of Obama when blind Freddie could see that they were merely means to a political ambition, a means to an end. Every politician does the same…cultivate people. It is how the game is played.

Hannity is hysterically crying about the monster under the bed in the same manner our previous Australian government tried to colour the man who is our new Prime Minister. Do they not realize that the important subjects that really matter to the general public are the issues that directly impact their daily lives? Elections are about health, education, fuel and mortgages. People want a change to the same old, same old and Hannity is one of those poor media people who just can’t accept that the “times they are a’changin “

I had a very odd moment this afternoon.  Jerry Springer was speaking with Hannity today and I had to agree with Springer! Who would have have thought! Springer was trying to tell Hannity that he was missing the reality of why Obama was popular and Hannity just talked over him all the time as is his style. If you can’t win the argument just shout louder, isn’t that right Sean?  In the end, Springer just laughed and said that if Hannity kept harping on about the stupid issues and missing the important stuff, and he hoped that he would, it would guarantee a win for Obama.

None as blind as those who cannot see.

The thing that upset me most was Hannity saying that they shouldn’t give a damn about the rest of the world, who they elected for President had no bearing on any other country.  As an inhabitant of a country that got pulled into the Iraq War with America I take umbrage at such a comment.  Hannity rabbits on about America being the LEADER OF THE FREE WORLD (self appointed) and in the same breath that decisions made in America has nothing to do with any other country.

Wake up! The rest of the western world has changed and like some crazed gatekeepers, people like Sean  Hannity are so busy shoring up the borders and trying to keep things from evolving, and are so frightened by change, that they can’t see that they are in danger of making America a pariah, and more than irrelevant, but  an international joke. They have already cemented the perception that America is a self centered bully in the minds of most other nations, its time they stopped creating moral panic and came to grips with the fact that people want to do things differently this time around.

Good luck, America. Remember you are the land of the brave.

• Yes, like the rest of the world we will be switching everything off for Earth Hour. I suppose it will all give us a warm and fuzzy feeling for 10 minutes after wards. One of the local radio stations was also trying to get listeners to pledge to have sex during that hour (yes most said that they wouldn't need the whole hour!).

I read in today's paper that oly 8% of people switched to green power after last year's effort. I must admit we weren't one of the 8%. We do recycle, try to use green cleaning products, have rain water tanks, use grey water for the garden and compost, but that is about it. We are gradually replacing light bulbs with greener ones as they blow too. I expect as certain appliances go we will change over. I would like to go to solar power but can't afford right now, but intend heading that way.

Is it all too little too late? Does stunts such as  Earth hour really help? Or does it just allow the guilty ons to pretend they are doing something when they aren't for the rest of the year? Do we need awareness raising when it is pretty much in your face all the time now? Is this just another thing for me to feel guilty over? Is it my fault that the icebergs are hanging by an ice thread? Have I ruined the world?

• My daughter is a teacher and she has to force her students to physically write using a pen so that their hands can stand up to doing the long public exams they have to do in year 12. They write so little now that their muscles can't last the distane of a 2-3 hour exam. Are we really going to have no arms and no legs one day (al la in the year 2525, for those of my era who know the song!)?
• When is autumn going to start? Still 28 degrees C today. The shadows are longer but little else is different.
• I am so tired of reality shows. I don't want to see Big Brother, or Australian Idol, of Biggest Loser, or So you thinbk you can Dance, or anything like that anymore. I want real shows. I have taken to watching Fox news. My daughter is worried that I will be indoctrinated by conservatism. I tell her it is my new comedy channel. Especially the way they say Fair and Balanced all the time. If they were they wouldn't have to tell us would they? Rupert Murdoch has a lot to answer for - so glad he gave up his Australian citzenship. We don't want him anymore. He has even left his poor 98 year old mother left with a big tax bill due to his machinations. Bad Rupert, bad.
• My husband's birthday on Monday. That means another cake to bake tomorrow. I am birthday'ed out.
• My 50th birthday in 9 days. I expect a big fuss - marching bands, the doves fluttering about my head, a golden crown.
• Why do really old people have to go shopping at peak times in the supermarket. They always stand for so long, looking, looking. I worry that I will knock one over. I guess that their working daughters can only take them shopping when they go shopping hence their presence, but I fear for them. They make me sad too...I make stories about them in my head. The solo man, he is all alone learning to care for himself after his wife has died, the old woman who buys one apple, one orange - her family obviously never comes to visit, the two old ladies together - are they sisters who know live together?
• I hate kids in the supermarket. They run riot and everytime I turn a corner there they are again. Get out of my way and shut up!  Parents please teach your children supermarket etiquette.
• Am I turning into one of those Grumpy Old Ladies, escept I am not old yet? I fear I have always been grumpy.
• I hate George Bush for pretending he likes Kevin Rudd. Bush was rude to Rudd before the election when he thought Johnny Howard was going to win - he must have been the only person who did. What would you expect froma  man who decided to invade Iraq anyway! And yes George, Queensland is bigger than Texas, and we don't need to execute anyone. And we have gun laws so people can go to school or shopping malls and be safe! 
• I am tired of the Obama/Hillary thing and I am not even American. Can't we get Al Gore back? Isn't he already President?
• I don't want Australia to go to the Olympics. I think the Olympics should be granted as a reward for doing the right thing, not as a bribe to suggest doing the right thing. Anyone who says the Olympics isn't about politics lives under a rock.
• My howling at the moon weekend is two weeks away and I can't wait. I want to see and listen to the ocean on the beach.
• Is this as good as it gets?
• Why do the words, it is a spaghetti bolognese kind of day,keep going through my head?
• Where have all the flowers gone? Why do I care? 
  
• Why didn't I marry rich?
• Should I take calcium tablets? Will I get a dowager's hump when I am old if I don't?
• Why do I always think of the best retort five hours after the event?
• Can the wind really make your face stay like that?
• It is Earth hour I have to switch off now.. 

I baked a birthday cake for my Mum today as well - a sultana buttercake which I iced with pale lemon icing and bright yellow daisies. Finished Daughters cake, the chocolate cherry bundt fruitcake, which got rich chocolate icing and pink and purple flowers, her favouirte colours.

We had to vote for the Mayor and local councillors today. Seemed such a non event after the excitement of our histroy making change of federal government last year when a sitting Prime Minister actually lost his seat! Such joy to see him tumble, the racist, misogynistic pig! However, local government does impact on your everyday life - we all complain if the garbage doesn't get collected, or if we run out of water! So tried to give it some thought. I expect most of the sitting members will be returned.

After we voted, my husband and I went to the local garden centre to buy petunias. We got Bobby Dazzlers!

I had a couple pots that needed freshening up now that the summer planting

has faded. Petunias are always good for a long show. We ended up staying there for lunch. The food is always lovely in the restaurant. He had a great looking salmon dish, with all sorts of prawn and shell fish. I had a savoury muffin - sounds boring I know, but I love them. It is probably the sour cream I love most, but I will always order a savoury muffin, or seafood chowder before anything else. Too predictable. They seated us next to a lovely fountain that actually had water gushing from it! Since the drought struck so hard most fountains have been switched off around the city so it was lovely to see some flowing water. I didn't mind the odd drop that bounced on to me at all. I was wishing I had my camera to take a photo but I had left it on charge at home, ensuring plenty of photos for tomorrow.

I watched the Obama interview with Major...???? on fox news. I think Obama was very weak in his responses. I think he lost respect. He lost mine. Ignorance is no excuse under the law, and I think it is inexcusable, no matter what the subject, to say that I wasn't there, so I didn't know. Not a great excuse for someone wanting to be President - oh I didn't know my people were cold and hungry, I wasn't there... Politicians -  they are made of a different fabric, very pliable! I can understand the anger of the black community, and they have every right to voice that anger, but isn't a President suppose to unite people? Care about all members of the flock? It seems very odd to me.

And how about leaving Monica Lewinsky out of all this? Does the poor woman have to be persecuted for the rest of her life?

It is awful to think that Rupert Murdoch tries to influence politics so in Australia and America. I have always been indifferent to him, but after watching fox news lately...that man is evil. He tried to direct debate in our election, and the Australian newspaper is still so pro Liberal party even though we threw them out of government. It is so funny to hear fox news say they are "fair and balanced" and "use only the facts". It is all so orchestrated. And the way everyone talks over everyone else and no one ever gets to finish a sentence. It is like watching comedy. Only it is frightening at the same time.

We have a saying in Australia..."when America sneezes, Australia gets pneumonia". The current economic situation is making everyone worried. Luckily we have a new government that understands globalisation, and not having your eggs all in one basket. Anyway, hence my interest in the Presidential election.

I have no interest in the upcoming Olympics. It should not have been given to China considering their human rights record. I suppose we all want to court their market though. Got to love capitalism. Doesn't matter what happens to our fellow human beings as long as someone can make a dollar out of it somewhere, all is great!

I have a running joke with my daughters that I am in fact Queen of the World...except on Wednesdays (one must rest one day), I sound like it tonight. Opinion on everything! Such is life I guess...

Obama City cashes in on US politicking

By North Asia correspondent Shane McLeod

Posted Sun Mar 9, 2008 1:00pm AEDT  http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/03/09/2184387.htm

Citizens in Obama City cheer as they watch early election results of US Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama during the Ohio and Texas primaries. (Reuters/Kyodo)

It is tough to say which rates higher on the weirdness scale. Either that there's a city in Japan called Obama that's embracing its presidential candidate namesake, or that myself and so many other members of the international media would traipse halfway across Japan to watch Obama City do exactly that.

Truthfully neither question was at the top of my mind as I dragged myself out of bed early on Wednesday morning to journey over here.

Fukui prefecture is really not that far from Tokyo. But it's off the main railway lines. The nearest big airport is a few hours drive away. So, it's not somewhere on the itinerary for most foreign travellers. That's part of the reason for local business leaders embracing the town's eponymous political candidate.

Not that he's ever been to Obama City, but Barack Obama is already aware of the connection.

"I went to Narita Airport, and there was a man at customs who was stamping my visa. And he saw and he looked up and he said, 'I'm from Obama'," Senator Obama said.

Obama's residents know their time with the world's attention could be fleeting. So they've made a concerted effort to make the most of it. As the results of presidential primaries in Ohio and Texas were rolling in around lunchtime, the city was launching its own Obama campaign.

There were t-shirts, Obama fish burgers, and my favourite, the Obama red bean paste rice cakes embossed with an Obama logo. I'd never noticed before the Senator's ears were quite so prominent.

And along with the local hula dancing group, was the song.

It's one of those tunes that's hard to get out of your head. And that's exactly what Obama's business leaders would hope. They know that as a small rural city on the remote north coast of Japan, they don't have a lot of virtues to sell the rest of the country or the world.

Their real coup it seems was getting everyone to pay attention, just for a day or so. Even CNN is here, local residents were saying, as about 10 Japanese TV crews followed the every move of the news channel's unlucky correspondent.

The lunchtime launch was meant to coincide with a triumphal result for Obama the candidate. But as you know by now, no clear result means there's no clear frontrunner, and therefore no clear connection for Obama City.

Local residents will now sit and wait out the rest of the Democratic primary campaign. Most say they don't really know much about the politician's policies, but they're happy that they share a connection.

They're hoping that a future US president will be able to say that like them, he's from Obama too. And if not, well maybe a name change will solve the problem. Although neither Bush, Clinton or McCain sound very Japanese.

'Fridge' and 'Tractor' make for outback mayoral contest with a difference

There is an unusual mayoral contest shaping up in Queensland's [Australia]south-west.

Bulloo Shire Council, based at Thargomindah, has just 240 voters and it is the two mayoral candidates who will be the focus of their attention. Thargomondah is located 1014 km west of Brisbane and is just 126 m above sea level.  It is the last hint of civilisation before the traveller heads off into the desert

The race is between Trevor Dare, also known as 'Fridge', and the sitting Mayor John Ferguson, known as 'Tractor'.

Their nicknames will be listed on the ballot papers.

Council employee Glyn Dare says the locals do not think there is anything unusual about the battle between a 'Fridge' and a 'Tractor'.

"A lot of people wouldn't even know their first name," he said.

"Nobody would call them Trevor and John - they'd call them 'Fridgie' or 'Tractor' because that's what everyone knows them by."

Either way, locals are expecting a good, clean contest.

Makes the tussle between Hillary and Obama look amateurish doesn’t it!

A slogan! The children's character, Bob the Builder is renowned for his cry "Can we do it, yes we can!"  Sound familiar, Barack? Bit of a worry...