Semester 2: Revenge of the PIS

The PIS returns! Here is the agenda for this week's meeting, which takes place Wednesday at 1pm, in our new location of Room 109, Alice Hoy Building.

No smoking
Why is it that, if you is sitting in a drinking establishment with politically interested people, you can play devil's advocate on all manner of issues - defend the Iraq war, agree solemnly with the PM that fighting climate change must not be at the expense of the economy - but if you refuse to agree wholeheartedly with this new smoking ban of Bracksy's in bars and restaurants, you are looked at like you have just escaped from an asylum?
Is it possible that this ban is actually lousy policy?

Pakistan
Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's semi-benevolent dictator, is in a spot of bother. A few months ago he dismissed a judge, as dictators are inclined to do, but all hell's broken loose ever since, both with Pakistan's democrats, and, more worryingly, with its Islamists. Tensions reached a new high just the other week, with the storming of the Red Mosque. And the latest Newspoll finds he has made up hardly any ground on Kevin Rudd.
To take all this instability and supersize it, the Bush Administration, defying the general hope that its dumbest ideas are behind it, is planning on sending American troops into Pakistan.
What's going to happen in Pakistan? Is Musharraf going to have to get off the fence, and choose between a long-promised return to genuine democracy, or a metamorphosis into all-out dictatorship? Or, will Pakistanis choose to overthrow him first?
And: should America's policy of supporting Musharraf as an ally in the 'war on terror' be revised? Has it contributed to this whole mess?

Marriage
So less people are getting married, and those that do are getting married later in their lives. Is this regrettable? Or is there an upside? For example, maybe if our PM had remained an ineligible bachelor and hadn't tied the knot to Lady MacBeth, we would have been spared 11 years and might still live under the rule of law... Discuss.

Federal politics
Are the Coalition going to lose?
Should they switch to Costello?
How 'bout this Haneef business?

To be followed immediately by Hawkey Card-priced beer at PA's, on Grattan Street, from 2:15.


Previously, at the PIS ...
PIS President Dave Fettling won his second term. It was the narrowest election margin in the history of the Society.
One week later, he was inaugurated under a bleak overcast sky and with a record low turnout. While running the meeting that week, he was frequently interrupted and contradicted, leading to whispers he may already have become a 'lame duck PIS President'.
Despite this the President was talking big: 'Let me put it to you this way. I earned capital in the campaign, political capital, and now I intend to spend it', he told the assembled media at the Prince Alfred hotel.
Meanwhile the PIS's mascot, the two-headed dog, was hospitalised again at the end of May, spending a night in Eltham East Veterinary Clinic. Flowers, get-well cards and Schmackos from concerned members of the Political Interest Society poured in. The dog is beloved by the PIS.
Blanche, wife of former Labor Prime Minister Bob Hawke, who agreed to become the official patron of the Political Interest Society in February of this year, wrote an apologetic letter to the PIS Committee apologising for her husband's poor attendance record at the club. But as she explained, "he's been hitting the turps pretty bad ever since the Keating! musical became a hit".

What sort of semester is it going to be for the PIS? There's ample evidence that the club is headed for disaster.
The Young Liberals on campus, who attempted to crush the PIS four years ago, 'like the Soviets into Czechoslovakia in 68', as their then President described it, have been growing alarmed at the leftward turn in the Society's emails. While the Libs cautiously welcomed the election of Dave Fettling back in 2006, they have noticed of late his growing tendency to don army fatigues, smoke cigars, talk about a 'politically interested utopia', and refer to his Secretary, Eddie Clarke, as 'Raoul'.
We tried to get a quote from the Young Libs, but they didn't answer.
Then we tried again and they answered and they said that they were all gay.
After being released from the vet in June, the two-headed dog has returned to the ranch he calls home, but has been feeling dizzy and lethargic. All PIS members are to pray for him.
Thomas Friedmann in his regular New York Times column has asked the question, 'Is Dave Fettling the PIS's Mikhail Gorbachev?' Friedmann pointed out that the Soviet Union was going swimmingly until Gorbachev launched 'glasnost', which is Russian for 'going to the pub', and 'perestroika', which is Russian for 'stupid emails'. Gorbachev, says Friedmann, 'attempted to reform the unreformable...as a result, the whole Empire came crashing down'. Hmm.
And the University of Melbourne Student Union has launched an investigation after two rank and file PIS members were caught breaking into the Clubs & Societies office and tampering with files.
But I'm sure it's nothing.