Divided opinions on interest rates. The usual suspects — those who rely on speculation to generate trading profits — are on the “Reserve Bank to cut official interest rates” bandwagon again but the market overall is not so sure. The Crikey Interest Rate Indicator still has no change as the most likely outcome from the bank’s October board meeting.

Evidence of the uninterested. I was rightly mildly chastised by a reader for putting “dis” instead of “un” in front of interested when writing yesterday of people’s lack of interest in federal politics this far out from an election. So today I bring you this example from a Sydney Daily Telegraph opinion poll of the number of politically uninterested people there are out there in New South Wales.

Voyeurs defeated. As for my own totally unscientific poll on peeking at the princess, I can report that the voyeurs are a minority of Crikey readers. The tally late this morning:

Increasing the attention by complaining. The reason for my interest in such a frivolous matter as the topless princess is a growing belief I have that seeking redress for intrusions into privacy can be self defeating. Rather than stopping the circulation of material that people properly might be upset about, the very act of complaining just draws it to the attention of people who otherwise would not have noticed it.

Here’s another example of something that would quite have passed me and many others by if it had not resulted in what radio station 2GB reported last night was a “Krakatoa”-like complaint from the office of the Prime Minister to the powers that be at News Limited. It is the second editorial from Saturday’s Weekend Australian — surely something where the readership could be counted in the hundreds if not the tens.

I’m sure that sometimes silence is the best policy.

Politics in song — mentioning the unmentionable. Search the mainstream American media and you will be hard put to find a mention of a candidate’s colour as a presidential campaign issue. But master songwriter and Barack Obama supporter Randy Newman has dared to raise the unmentionable in his new satirical and sarcastic “I’m Dreaming (of a white president.)” which is available as a free download

Newman explains:

“No other Western industrialised nation would’ve elected a black president. I’m proud of this country for having elected Obama in 2008. But from the beginning of his term, I noticed a particular heat to conversations that wouldn’t ordinarily generate that kind of passion: The budget, appointments, health care.

“I think there are a lot of people who find it jarring to have a black man in the White House and they want him out. They just can’t believe that there’s not a more qualified white man. You won’t get anyone, and I do mean anyone, to admit it.

“I often write songs in character. You can’t always trust or believe the narrators in my songs. So why listen? Good question.

“Anyway the guy in this song may exist somewhere. Let’s hope not. Vote in November.”

I’m Dreaming lyrics

George Washington was a white man
Adams and Jefferson too
Abe Lincoln was a white man, probably
And William McKinley the whitest of them all
Was shot down by an immigrant in Buffalo
And a star fell out of heaven

I’m dreaming of a white President
Just like the ones we’ve always had
A real live white man
Who knows the score
How to handle money or start a war
Wouldn’t even have to tell me what we were fighting for
He’d be the right man
If he were a

I’m dreaming of a white President
Someone whom we can understand
Someone who knows where we’re coming from
And that the law of the jungle is not the law of this land
In deepest darkest Africa nineteen three
A little boy says, “Daddy, I just discovered relativity.
A big eclipse is coming
And I’ll prove it. Wait and see!”

“You better eclipse yourself outta here, son
And find yourself a tree
There’s a lion in the front yard
And he knows he won’t catch me.”

How many little Albert Einsteins
Cut down in their prime?
How many little Ronald Reagans
Gobbled up before their time?

I don’t believe in evolution
But it does occur to me,
What if little William Howard Taft had to face a lion
Or God forbid, climb a tree?
Where would this country be?

I’m dreaming of a white President
Buh buh buh buh
‘Cause things have never been this bad
So he won’t run the hundred in ten seconds flat
So he won’t have a pretty jump shot
Or be an Olympic acrobat
So he won’t know much about global warming
Is that really where you’re at?
He won’t be the brightest, perhaps
But he’ll be the whitest
And I’ll vote for that

Whiter than this?
Yes
Whiter than this?
Yes
Whiter than this?
Yes
Whiter than this?
Oh yeah

News and views noted along the way: