A Tasmanian election date. Looks like David Bartlett has decided to run his full term. Bookings have just been made for polling booths. March 20, 2010 is the day.

It’s a pathetic turn of affairs when ALP candidates try to win preselections through online media outlets. Witness efforts to depict Adam Searle as the natural candidate for the federal seat of Macquarie, which have locals in fits of giggles. Word is that Searle knows he would be trumped in a preselection by any one of several talented locals, and is hoping to use his allies in the media and the more nefarious sections of the right of the party to build a case against a local ballot.

It’s ironic that the Searle camp has tried to smear the reputation of one candidate by misquoting an interview from 2001, because that was the year Searle last ran for Macquarie — a dilatory campaign that resulted in the lowest primary vote ever recorded for Labor in the area, and that has not been forgotten by local preselectors.

The Searle camp needs to remember that leakers always end up with something splashed over their shoes, and that even the most careful aim can produce unexpected results.

Victorian ALP assistant state secretary Lisa Carey is expected to finish up today at 360 King Street, with replacement Nathan Lambert eager to get cracking on the ALP’s federal election campaign. Lambert informed Twitter on Wednesday night he was already on the premises. The appointment is expected to add to factional tensions inside head office, with Lambert not believed to be on speaking terms with fellow assistant state secretary Noah Carroll, who hails from the other side of the divided right wing of the party.

More interesting linkages at BKK Partners. Go to their main website and skip the intro. Click on the cartoon boy-girl in the bottom right-hand corner. This takes you to the web design company that created the site. A certain surname in that company’s name looks familiar?

So you think the 767 incident at Qantas was bad? As they have only four A380s and they fly long sectors, the company is struggling to give crews time to get used to this new aircraft. After their training on this aircraft is finished, pilots are required to have four sectors in the next 28 days.

To obtain this, if they are lucky, FOs and Captains are used as supernumerary crew. i.e. no hands on flying they sit behind the operating crew and watch. Some pilots have never flown an Airbus before the A380 and they cannot get a manual landing for themselves for months.

Cooper Park, nestled in the Woollahra end of the eastern suburbs, is the scene of a battle between the local residents and the Woollahra Council, over council’s “arbortree” decision to destroy four 60-year-old liquidambar trees.

Will the gentile residents be soon seen throwing themselves in front of bulldozers and chainsaw gangs, while council goons call in squads of burly police to break up the rabble. Or will the cavalry, in the form of the local federal member, airing his newly acquired green credentials, arrive in the nick of time to save the day. Stay tuned.

Separated at birth? Just in Japan in Tokyo staying in the suburb of Ohanajaya, saw these billboards for the local election. Is it Kevin or is it a Kevin clone?