Karl Bitar

National Secretary

Australian Labor Party

Hello Karl, Whatever you do - DO NOT DELETE THIS MESSAGE -

On the eve of an election we should never have feared to lose and which we quite frankly are possibly capable of losing...& terrified of losing. I decided to reply to your automated email to my husband. We share the same email address but please NOTE this is from me.

His wife, Jackie. (Not Terrance)

Talk about sending emails & doing things at the last minute!! This is really bizarre. Here you are sending emails to"'members",  the "converted", of all people at 05:11pm on the eve of a federal election!!!

It didn't have come to this, Julia.

Although a rusted on Labor voter, I will swallow my pride, confront an aversion to conservatism and vote Liberal, purely out of spite.

Australians don't all sleep with cricket bats next to their bed to thwart invading boat people; Paul Keating was Australia's greatest treasurer, prime minister, antique clock collector and deliverer of artful insults; and Labor is traditionally the party of substantial economic reform. But it's all gone so horribly wrong.

Do not consider buying AMP products till it rescinds its planned Metro development that has already been rejected by the Marrickville Council before. Apparently the planning rights has now been bypassed from council and placed in the care of the NSW government, possibly using the Land and Evironment court quango — mostly a pro-development outfit, from my past experiences and observations.

You have to be suspicious when big policies are released this late in a campaign. As such, the Liberal Party's infrastructure policy has the distinct whiff of rodent about it.

Aside from all manner of lofty promises about systematic approaches to infrastructure (we got that from the last mob too, until there was an election to win in Sydney's west), the major announcement is a scheme for "infrastructure bonds":

Since the earliest days of the worldwide web, the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians has seen its rhetorical counterpart fought out on the talkboards and chatrooms of the internet.

Now two Israeli groups seeking to gain the upper hand in the online debate have launched a course in "Zionist editing" for Wikipedia, the online reference site.

Yesha Council, representing the Jewish settler movement, and the rightwing Israel Sheli (My I srael) movement, ran their first workshop this week in Jerusalem, teaching participants how to rewrite and revise some of the most hotly disputed pages of the online reference site.

By ERIC LICHTBLAU and BRIAN STELTER

WASHINGTON — With Republicans hoping to recapture a number of statehouses in November, the media conglomerate headed by Rupert Murdoch is inserting itself into the races in bold fashion with a $1 million donation to the Republican Governors Association.

From Peter Costello

In a dull campaign, Mark Latham's report on 60 Minutes was one of the more interesting. I know the media canned it. Before it aired, Laurie Oakes told us Latham had "crossed a line". Nothing upsets journalists more than the idea that outsiders can do their job.

Who knows where that could end? The public might realise there is nothing special about the insights of political journalists - a group of people who consider themselves expert on something they have never done. Every so often a journalist chances their arm in real politics.

Badenden... drawing by Gus.

An artist today said he was left "dumbfounded and astonished" after an exhibition of his nude paintings was taken down from a council office following complaints from staff.

John Vesty had arranged to display his paintings for four weeks at the North Norfolk District Council offices in Cromer.

from Crikey .....

At least Abbott's honest about wilful refusal to buy into global warming

Canberra correspondent Bernard Keane writes: