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Tony Abbott is making the same mistakes as Campbell Newman?

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Tony Abbott is making the same mistakes as Campbell Newman?

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http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/tony-abbott/2015/jan/31/all

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Gough Whitlam was 'Democracy's last dance' in Australia?

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Gough Whitlam was 'Democracy's last dance' in Australia?

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The death of Gough Whitlam, in November 2014, caused much speculation about the direction and courage of current Australian politicians. He has been both celebrated and criticised, but reporters have questioned whether current leaders measure up to his democratic achievements as PM in the 1970s.

http://www.smh.com.au/comment/democracys-last-dance-modern-politicians-pale-in-comparison-with-gough-whitlam-20141026-11bgqd.html

A letter from the public: http://www.smh.com.au/comment/smh-letters/in-praise-of-gough-whitlam-a-leader-who-changed-lives-20141021-119kbz.html

A list of his achievements: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/gough-whitlam-left-a-long-list-of-achievements-20141021-119cpu.html

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Australian politicians: speaking with integrity?

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Australian politicians: speaking with integrity?

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In what do our politicians actually believe? For what do they actually stand? Reporter Kathleen Noonan considers what it means to be a leader who speaks with integrity: http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/opinion/last-word-noel-pearsons-tribute-to-gough-whitlam-a-lesson-in-good-speech-making/story-fnihsr9v-1227123500696 ; and Noel Pearson's tribute to the politics and integrity of recently deceased Gough Whitlam: http://www.smh.com.au/comment/noel-pearsons-eulogy-for-gough-whitlam-in-full-20141105-11haeu.html

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Jung-un became the Communist leader of the nation after his father passed in 2013 and has followed in his autocratic footsteps. He rules with absolute power and abuses human rights violations to maintain his position. In 2014, Jung-Un executed his uncle (and his uncle's wife and family), afraid that he would depose him with military backing (click on link below). What else has Jung-un been up to since his rise to absolute power? What has America done in response of late? Does this man violate the stated characteristics of 'good kings' in the play text? What has been the impact on the nation? Research!

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North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has reportedly put to death a number of surviving relatives of his executed uncle Jang Song-thaek, including children.

Quoting "multiple sources", a report from South Korean news agency Yonhap says the relatives include North Korea's ambassadors to Cuba and Malaysia, who were both related to Mr Kim's uncle by marriage.

Reported to have killed his uncle's relatives ... North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

Mr Jang, once a powerful mentor to Mr Kim, was dragged out of a party meeting, tried and executed last month on charges of attempting to overthrow the communist regime.

The report says all direct relatives of Mr Jang have been executed.

Executed: Jang Song-thaek, left, and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, during a military parade. Credit: AFP

"Extensive executions have been carried out for relatives of Jang Song-thaek," one source told the agency.

"All relatives of Jang have been put to death, including even children."

The agency says those killed include Mr Jang's sister Jang Kye-sun, her husband and ambassador to Cuba, Jon Yong-jin, and the ambassador to Malaysia, Jang Yong-chol, who is a nephew of Mr Jang. The nephew's two sons were also killed, according to the report.

Yonhap says all the relatives were recalled to Pyongyang in early December and executed. The dead include all the sons, daughters and grandchildren of Mr Jang's two brothers.

"Some relatives were shot to death by pistol in front of other people if they resisted while being dragged out of their apartment homes," a source told Yonhap.

The agency says the regime did spare some of the family. They have been sent to remote villages.

The report says Mr Kim is also carrying out a purge of low-level officials linked to Mr Jang.

Before falling out with Mr Kim, Mr Jang was considered the second-most powerful man in North Korea.

Married to the sister of Mr Kim's father, Kim Jong-il, Mr Jang had been considered the man who could help his nephew establish himself in power but at the same time presented the greatest threat to the young and untested leader.

Mr Jang's widow, Kim Kyong-hui, was thought to have survived the purge, but was later reported to have either died of a heart attack or taken her own life.

South Korean news agencies have been known to publish unverified stories emanating from the North, but the most recent claims tie in with a report by the Daily NK news site, run by North Korean defectors based in South Korea, which claimed more than 100 relatives of Mr Jang had been rounded up before Christmas.
SMH

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Kim Jong-un executes uncle's relatives: report

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North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has reportedly put to death a number of surviving relatives of his executed uncle Jang Song-thaek, including children.

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Robert Mugabe: Prime Minister turned Dictator - still kicking on... 

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Robert Mugabe: Prime Minister turned Dictator - still kicking on... 

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Mugabe has long been recognised for his crippling hold on Zimbabwe: a nation which suffers from police violence, famine, hyperinflation and extreme violations of basic human rights. In 2014, it was rumoured that "The king was dead!", but he still, in his 80s, has a stronghold on the nation. When will the country be relieved of his totalitarian rule? What will the country look like without him? Research his past, and you will find many parallels to Macbeth's rise to power. Ms Lipka also has a great DVD on his rule, which you are welcome to borrow.

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Pope Francis: a world leader whose polls remain in his favour - why is he much loved thus far?

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Pope Francis: a world leader whose polls remain in his favour - why is he much loved thus far?

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An article from 2014...look for the latest on this after reading!

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On the day he was named Time magazine's Person of the Year, a new ABC News/Washington Post poll marks Pope Francis' almost unanimous popularity among American Catholics - as well as the continued recovery in their views of the church itself since the worst of its pedophile scandals a decade ago.

Nine months after his elevation to the papacy, a remarkable 92 percent of Catholics express a favorable opinion of Pope Francis, 16 percentage points more than said so about Pope Benedict XVI early this year.

See PDF with full results, tables and charts here.

Indeed among all Americans, including the nearly eight in 10 who aren't Catholics, 69 percent see Francis favorably, 15 points more than said the same about Benedict at the end of his papacy. Still, there's room for Francis to advance further: Pope John Paul II was seen favorably by more Americans overall, 86 percent, in a Gallup poll in December 1998.

Beyond Francis' personal popularity, a new question in this poll, produced for ABC by Langer Research Associates, finds that 85 percent of Catholics approve of the direction in which he's leading the church. Even ratings of the church overall have improved among Catholics, from 86 percent favorable in February 2013 to 95 percent now. Among all Americans, 62 percent view the church favorably, the same as last February.

These results extend improvements for the church since its credibility was badly damaged by its child sex abuse scandals. Sixty-eight percent of Americans rated the church favorably in a 1999 poll; that plummeted as low as 40 percent in late 2002, with the scandals front and center. Among Catholics themselves, favorable ratings of the church fell as low as 69 percent in 2002, 26 points lower than their level today. (John Paul, for his part, fell from an 86 percent favorable rating among all adults in 1998 to 65 percent in 2003, again as scandal gripped the church.)

The Vatican last week announced that Francis was appointing a commission to consider how the church can better protect children from sexual abuse by priests. Some victims' groups were critical, calling the effort insufficient and ill-defined.

GROUPS - There are some telling differences in views of Francis across the U.S. population, particularly in comparison to Benedict. Only about half of political moderates and liberals held a favorable opinion of Benedict at the end of his papacy; by contrast three-quarters in both groups see Francis favorably now.

Political conservatives, Benedict's best ideological group, are Francis' weakest, by dint of his sharply lower popularity among "very" conservative Americans; a comparatively low 59 percent in this group see Francis favorably. And fewer still among strong conservatives, just 49 percent, approve of the direction in which Francis is leading the church. Benedict was seen a doctrinal conservative, while Francis, a Jesuit, has focused on outreach beyond some of the more divisive issues in the church.

There's a similar difference among all Americans by political affiliation, with Francis more popular than Benedict by 27 points among Democrats and by 11 points among independents, yet with the current pope and his predecessor rated about the same by Republicans.

These differences fade among Catholics themselves, with no significant differences between conservatives vs. non-conservatives or Democrats vs. non-Democrats in views of Francis and his direction for the church. Within the faith, ideology regardless, Francis is resoundingly popular.

Among other groups, Francis is more popular among senior citizens vs. those under 30, as was Benedict - a finding consistent with generally higher religiosity among older Americans. And Francis is particularly popular among college-educated Americans, 81 percent of whom see him favorably.

METHODOLOGY - This ABC News/Washington Post poll was conducted by landline and cell phone Dec. 4-8, 2013, in English and Spanish, among a random national sample of 1,006 adults. Results have a margin of sampling error of 3.5 points. The survey was produced for ABC News by Langer Research Associates of New York, N.Y.

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Pope Francis, Time Magazine's Person of the Year, Is Vastly Popular Among Catholics

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Get breaking national and world news, broadcast video coverage, and exclusive interviews. Find the top news online at ABC news.

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Still a famous Christmas Carol - what is it we cherish about this man who reigned in the 10th C?

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On the Beatles' first Christmas flexidisc, sent to their UK fan club members in 1963, the group performed several brief renditions of the carol, in a variety of arrangements, with John Lennon at one point singing a satirical set of lyrics, incorporating the names of several Hollywood stars.

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The story behind the carol: Good King Wenceslas

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On the Beatles' first Christmas flexidisc, sent to their UK fan club members in 1963, the group performed several brief renditions of the carol, in a variety of arrangements, with John Lennon at one point singing a satirical set of lyrics, incorporating the names of several Hollywood stars.

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This is also discussed by the HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW http://hbr.org/2004/01/what-makes-a-leader/ar/1 and FORBES http://www.forbes.com/sites/kenmakovsky/2012/02/16/what-makes-a-good-leader/

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Thatcher was Prime Minister of Great Britain in the 1980s and is known to have been a strong and progressive leader by some, and a ruthless, heartless woman by others. Since her death in 2013, the world has (again) begun to ask questions of her time in government, as someone who was and is hated as much as she is loved. Her story offers interesting parallels to Macbeth (and Lady Macbeth), including Thatcher's deposition by her own government: she could not believe that she would be removed from her position, and people took to the streets en masse to make it so!

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Loved and loathed

Margaret Thatcher, Britain's first female prime minister, used her cast iron will to help change the face of Britain. She epitomised a particular school of right-wing politics: Thatcherism - laissez-faire economics and individual self-determination.

Even after her death, she remains a controversial figure. Some see her as having saved Britain from economic decline, others believe she destroyed the livelihoods of millions of workers. Yet this powerful woman began her life in a quiet market town.

Faces rejection

In 1949, Margaret moved to the safe Labour seat of Dartford, to stand for election as an MP. At 24 she was the youngest female Conservative candidate.

She failed to get elected in 1950 and 1951, but remained undaunted. In 1951, she decided to study law, as she believed this would help her succeed in politics. She married Denis Thatcher, a wealthy businessman, and in 1953 and gave birth to twins Mark and Carol. In the run-up to the next election Thatcher was frustrated when she was not selected as a Conservative candidate. Some local committees would not accept a young mother could run for Parliament.
The Telegraph: Thatcher's early political life

Finally becomes an MP

When the Conservatives, led by Harold Macmillan, swept to power, Margaret Thatcher won the safe seat of Finchley.

In 1961 Mrs Thatcher was appointed as a parliamentary under secretary for pensions and national insurance. She was the youngest woman ever to take on this role. At the 1964 Tory Party Conference she railed against Labour tax policy as a step "not merely towards Socialism but towards Communism". After Labour won the 1964 election, Thatcher held several shadow ministerial positions and voted in favour of decriminalising homosexuality and abortion, but in favour of capital punishment.
Margaret Thatcher: From MP to PM

The Bruges Speech

For much of her career, Margaret Thatcher was a pro-European. Yet later in her premiership her ideas began to change.

Although Europe was important for trade, Thatcher was opposed to the idea of Britain ceding power to European institutions. In July 1988, European Commission President, Jacques Delors, spoke about the beginnings of a European government. In Bruges that year Thatcher issued a firm riposte to the idea of a European super-state and reaffirmed Britain's sovereignty. The speech was applauded by some, but opened up divisions within the Conservative Party over European policy.
Read the Bruge Speech in full

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Margaret Thatcher: From grocer's daughter to Iron Lady

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Margaret Thatcher, Britain's first female prime minister, used her cast iron will to help change the face of Britain. She epitomised a particular school of right-wing politics: Thatcherism - laissez-faire economics and individual self-determination. Even after her death, she remains a controversial figure.

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Look for updates! Obama's accomplishments since his election. Note:  Google search engine shows there are a variety of opinions on the subject.

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Australian politics: "Already more people favour the opposition than the Abbot Government"

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Australian politics: "Already more people favour the opposition than the Abbot Government"

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An article which considers Tony Abbot's leadership in his first 100 days as Prime Minister. YOU NEED TO RESEARCH his current status in the opinion polls...

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By Mark Kenny

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Tony Abbott was typically generous. "We've made a strong start," he opined through successive early morning interviews.

The end-to-end chats with the chief correspondents of all the major mastheads were designed to spruik the Government's achievements, approaching the otherwise meaningless 100-day mark.

It's been a rough 'ton' beset by problems such as the MP's entitlements furore, the Indonesian spying allegations, the vetoed GrainCorp take-over, the education funding row, and big troubles for Holden and Qantas.

What Abbott's rave review lacked in objectivity, it made up for in enthusiasm.

The first ton: The polls already have the Opposition in front of the government. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Far more influential though will be the assessments of the financial markets, his parliamentary colleagues, and of course the voters.

Already, more people back the Opposition than the government. The last Newspoll and Fairfax Nielsen polls put two-party support for Labor at 52 per cent to the Coalition on 48.

It is still a long way to the next election and nobody believes that result would be replicated even if an election were held now.

But the sharp collapse in government enthusiasm is remarkable nonetheless - a reminder perhaps of the new volatility in politics as the big voting blocs of Labor and Liberal continue to fray.

These factors aside, Abbott is prey to a raft of situational factors of his own making.

First, there is his low popularity - he is the only prime minister in the contemporary era to be elected with a negative net approval rating.

Then there's the very live question of expectation management. Here, Abbott faces a deadly foe: an earlier version of himself, still strong in the voters' memories. Abbott the opposition leader, was the ultra-priest of political cut-through.

Complex policy challenges were reduced to cartoonically blunt goals such as stop-the-boats, axe-the-tax, end-the-waste, repay-the-debt, and balance-the-budget. Their strength was their simplicity, their memorability, their unadorned straight-forwardness.

Abbott is prey to a raft of situational factors of his own making

Once in government however, those same qualities make the promises very difficult to resile from. In short, voters remember them.

It turns out, 'cut-through' cuts both ways.

Retro-fitting nuance into election slogans which had only masqueraded as policies, is seen for what it is - dissembling.

Witness the storm when Christopher Pyne claimed the government had not promised to keep Labor's Gonski school funding but rather just the school funding "envelope".

Voter reaction was scathing. Abbott was made to wear his election-eve declaration that he was on a unity ticket with Kevin Rudd on school funding, like a crown of thorns.

Retreat was inevitable. And costly.

Abbott to his credit, has since turned the failed deceit on schools into a kind of personal catharsis by reframing it as a prime ministerial lesson on the value of keeping your word - both in letter and in spirit.

Among the other explanations for the Government's surprisingly swift descent into unpopularity is the sense that the government is not what it said it would be. The Opposition has hammered this for all its worth but then, why not?

After all, Abbott came to power promising to restore trust, put the adults back in charge, run an open government, and end the inveterate profligacy of Labor.

Yet his response to problems as they have arisen has tended to assert the opposite. When the MP's entitlement stories emerged for example, Abbott refused to act. The promise of attacking dishonesty, of rooting out waste, of being open and accountable, evaporated. By his refusal to impose a new standard, Abbott sent the opposite message - that as Julia Gillard had with Craig Thomson and Peter Slipper, Abbott would put his MPs ahead of voters, even if they were wrong.

Ditto for the alleged debt crisis. An Opposition waging a war on debt suddenly became a government looking to double the credit card limit. Of course it's not that simple, but when your entire policy fiscal policy was reduced to axe-the-tax, repay-the-debt, and end-the-waste, you can hardly cry foul when you are marked against such rudimentary benchmarks as well.

Abbott couldn't axe the taxes because he couldn't control the Senate - he knew that before the election. Now we find out he couldn't simply pay down the debt because it will keep growing even past this term. Again, he must have known this. And so it goes. And as for openness, his Border protection minister has been a monument to arrogance.

Going into 2014, the fortunes of the Abbott government will rest substantially on Treasurer Joe Hockey's ability to communicate a new more complicated message while stimulating a slowing economy. Abbott and his team have found out that governing is complex and that slogans might get you elected, but they are no substitute for policy.

Connect via Mark Kenny is a former national affairs editor for the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. Twitter or email.

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Tony Abbott's report card: The first 100 days

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Tony Abbott was typically generous. "We've made a strong start," he opined through successive early morning interviews.

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Is America still confident in Obama's leadership?

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Is America still confident in Obama's leadership?

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From 2014...consider how the public view him in 2015 through further RESEARCH...has anything changed? Why?

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President Obama will speak to the nation Tuesday night with approval ratings lower than for any of his previous State of the Union addresses and with Americans broadly pessimistic that he or lawmakers of either party will make good decisions for the future of the country, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Obama's general weakness and the overall lack of confidence in the country's political leadership provide a stark backdrop to the beginning of a potentially significant election year. Obama is looking to rebound from what many have judged to be the worst year of his presidency while Republicans, who were damaged during last fall's partial government shutdown, are hoping to wrest control of the Senate from Democrats.

Obama's standing will be an important factor in how those fall elections turn out. For Democrats, the good news is that he has improved his position from the lows of last year, when the botched rollout of the Affordable Care Act took his ratings to the lowest point of his presidency.

His current approval stands at 46 percent, up from a low of 42 percent in November. Still, for the first time on the eve of a State of the Union address, more Americans rate his performance negatively than positively, with 50 percent disapproving. His previous low at the start of a new year was 48 percent positive, 48 percent negative in 2012. A year ago, his approval rating was 55 percent.

Just 37 percent say they have either a good amount or a great deal of confidence in the president to make the right decisions for the country's future, while 63 percent say they do not. Those numbers are the mirror image of what they were when he was sworn into office in 2009 and lower than at any other time the question was asked by The Washington Post and ABC News.

Obama's approval ratings are almost identical to those of George W. Bush at a similar point in his presidency in 2006. Other recent two-term presidents - Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan - were at 60-percent approval at the start of their sixth years, while Richard M. Nixon, in the middle of the Watergate scandal, was at 26 percent.

Confidence in Democrats and Republicans in Congress, however, is even lower than for President Obama. Twenty-seven percent say they have confidence in Democrats to make the right decisions for the country, while 72 percent do not, and just 19 percent have confidence in Republicans, while 80 percent do not. Almost half lack confidence in all three.

For the GOP, the lack of faith in their decision-making includes their own followers. Just 36 percent of self-identified Republicans say they believe their party's lawmakers will make good decisions. In contrast, a majority of Democrats have confidence in their congressional party.

The low confidence in congressional Democrats and Republicans is consistent with a pattern of poor ratings of congressional performance that marked the past year. In the new poll, just 16 percent approve of the way Congress is doing its job, only a few points higher than the lowest reading recorded by the Post-ABC poll last October, just after the partial shutdown ended.

White House officials look to Tuesday's speech as a moment for the president to try to gain some momentum. He still receives low grades for his handling of the implementation of the health-care law - 37 percent approve and 59 percent disapprove - and his economic ratings, at 43 percent positive and 55 percent negative, are not much better than they were at the end of last year.

Americans are similarly negative about the president's handling of two major foreign policy issues, Iran and Syria. Four in 10 approve of his handling of the situation with Iran at a time of diplomatic efforts to prevent the Iranians from obtaining nuclear-weapons capability. Just one-third approve of his handling of the Syrian conflict.

The president gets positive marks for his overall handling of terrorism, with half the country approving of how he has handled these threats. But assessments of his recent recommendations for limiting the National Security Agency's surveillance programs are more equivocal. Four in 10 Americans say they believe those steps are "about right" to deal with the problems highlighted as a result of leaks of classified information by former NSA analyst Edward J. Snowden. Almost three in 10 say the steps do not go far enough, while two in 10 say they go too far.

Although the president's approval and favorable ratings have risen somewhat from their lows of last year, other personal attributes are stagnant. The country is almost evenly divided over whether he is honest and trustworthy, while 52 percent say he does not "understand the problems of people like you" and 51 percent say he is not a strong leader.

Obama's agenda for the year includes passage of an extension of long-term unemployment benefits and immigration reform. Six in 10 Americans support the extension of long-term unemployment benefits, but on immigration the country is evenly divided over the question of whether undocumented immigrants should be given the right to live and work here legally. Republicans and Democrats stand on opposite sides of this issue.

White House officials have said Obama also will look to use executive actions to advance some other priorities, given likely opposition from congressional Republicans. A majority say they support presidents using executive actions to bypass Congress.

Republicans hope to make Obama's health-care law a centerpiece of their midterm election message, but the new poll shows that it is a less important issue for voters than in 2010. Opposition is not quite as strong as it was in November, when controversy surrounding the administration's Web site for signing up for insurance was at its peak.

At this point, 46 percent support the law and 49 percent oppose it, with Democrats strongly supportive and Republicans even more strongly opposed. Just under four in 10 say the law should be repealed. But confidence in the administration on implementation remains low. Six in 10 say the federal Web site, HealthCare.gov, is not working as it should and a majority say that is a sign of broader problems with the law.

Looking ahead toward the midterm elections, Americans continue to see the country seriously off track, with just 35 percent saying things are going in the right direction. But that is eight points higher than it was in November, driven mostly by a big jump among independents. Among those who approve of Obama's job performance, almost seven in 10 say the country is going in the right direction.

Roughly equal numbers of Americans say they will vote for the Republican candidate for the House as say they will vote for the Democratic candidate. At the same time, more than six in 10 say they are inclined to look around for someone else to vote for rather than the incumbent in their district.

Republicans have a clear advantage on which party would better handle the economy and the federal budget deficit. The GOP's lead on the economy is their largest in Post-ABC polling since 2002. Republicans also have an advantage on the question of which party has better ideas about the "right size and role of the federal government."

But while Republicans score higher on fiscal issues, Democrats hold an edge on issues related to health care, raising the minimum wage, helping the middle class and understanding the economic problems people in the country are having.

On other issues, more Americans say they identify with Democrats' positions on abortion and same-sex marriage than say they identify with the Republicans', but Republicans have the edge on gun control.

The economy remains the top voting issue, followed by the budget deficit, the way Washington is working and the new health-care law.

The Post-ABC poll was conducted Jan. 20-23 among a random national sample of 1,003 adults, including interviews on land lines and with cellphone-only respondents. The overall margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

Scott Clement contributed to this report.

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Poll finds little faith in nation's leaders

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Large majorities doubt that Obama or members of Congress will make wise decisions for the nation's future.