Of course this is no news flash except perhaps in the Opposition ranks, but the immediate reaction was despair from commentators and party hacks who do not understand that refreshing honesty is a valuable commodity in Voter eyes.
Despite the success of Kevin 07 who refused to automatically take the opposing view when Howard tried to force him on to shaky ground, the current Opposition has still failed to grasp the lesson.
I guess they will have to continue believing it's some sort of mythical honeymoon period for Rudd although I would think that line would be wearing thin by now.
Trouble with the "better half" has caused an unwelcome focus on some of young Silvio's appointments to positions in politics that would normally go to politically experienced folk. Instead they seem to be going to young attractive female candidates with little or no experience.
How do you get yourself out of the spotlight? Why, stand next to someone even more bizarre.
Sound the bugle. Col. Gaddafi has come to the rescue.
The context for the big break was Italy apologising for their occupation of Libya from 1911 to 1943 and handing over some US$5bn by way of compensation. Tied into the deal was Oil and Gas privileges and full access for Italian patrol boats to Libyan waters.
The payoff was the bizarre behavior of Gaddafi. The 200 strong all female body guard, and 50 limos carrying these folk around which grid locked traffic around Rome. He pitched his Bedouin tent in Central Park which was responded to with "No camping" signs being erected by protesters.
Even more bizarre was Gaddafi pinned a photo to his chest of a Libyan guerrilla being captured by Italian troops. The Left wing pollies responded with a photo of a Lockerbie victim to remind folk of the colonel's part in the tragic bombing that Libya ended up paying reparations for.
Meantime young Silvio has taken a break from the front pages, no doubt considering it was $5bn well spent. I can just imagine how annoyed the families and friends of the Lockerbie bombing are feeling right now.
I recently turned 64 and had to choose a new primary care physician for my Medicare coverage.
After two visits and exhaustive lab tests, he said I was doing 'fairly well' for my age.
A little concerned about that comment, I couldn't resist asking him, 'Do you think I'll live to be 80?'
He asked: Do you smoke tobacco or drink alcoholic beverages?'
'Oh no,' I replied. 'I don't do drugs, either.'
'Do you have many friends and entertain frequently?'
'I said, 'No, I usually stay home and keep to myself'.
'Do you eat Rump steaks and sausages?'
I said, 'No, my other doctor said that all red meat is unhealthy!'
'Do you spend a lot of time in the sun, like playing golf, sailing, hiking, or bicycling?'
'No, I don't,' I said.
'Do you gamble, drive fast cars, or have a lot of sex?'
'No,' I said. 'I don't do any of those things'. He looked at me and said,
'Then why do you give a sh!t?'
Despite the flashing red lights of the opinion polls, the Libs have not noticed they are not offering what the Public want to hear. A good question for them to ponder would be this.
Do the Voters want to see a start on addressing Climate Change, or would they rather be watching a slanging match across the dispatch box?
Not surprisingly, this question has not been asked in the Party room. With all the internal politics going on, the Voters wishes are running a very distant second. They seem to think the last election was an aberration rather than folk waking up to the fact that they didn't have a say in where the country was headed. It's a simply but logical concept. Aussies don't especially want to steer the country they just dont want the incumbent to take it in the wrong direction. Howard got it wrong so they got the boot. They haven't changed direction so why would the same Voters swing back?
It's an odd attitude that. Trusting that someone will vote for you because you belong to the Liberal party rather than what you stand for is asking a lot. Howard "embraced" the Workers and then he slapped them with Work Choices. Folk who hated to see children thrown in jail (and this includes plenty of traditional Liberal voters) got to see their cries ignored as asylum seekers and their kids were interred. Folk who wanted us to move towards a sustainable, environmentally responsible Economy just got nay sayers and a thin facade the Voters saw straight through. It doesn't leave much support to draw on. It wasn't enough to win the last election and it has softened since then.
So who will get promoted if a reshuffle occurs? If Tony Abbott comes to the crease then we are back to the "old school". Of course Kevin 07 would be delighted to see Tony back after Tony's expert help in making Kevin so popular but that 50's style of playing the man is clearly out of favour with the Public.
The funny familiar faces will show the voting public that the ghost of Howard still lurks within the party and unless they start to show some grasp of the current world and a rejection of policies past, they could be spending a long time electing "The best man who never led the country".
A splendid example exists of what can happen. The Democrats decided not to punish Meg Lees for not "Keeping the Bastards Honest" and their support base withered away to vanishing point. Now the Libs have higher starting numbers and eventually the cream will rise to the top but they still have some hard yards to go especially if they keep gazing into the rear view mirror.
Politics is an ugly business at the Senate level. It all comes down to the numbers and occasionally the simple head count makes strange bed fellows.
The continuing stalling tactics from the Forces of Darkness to not address emissions trading continues to hold us back from making the changes we will have to make to help save The Great Barrier Reef.
This has led to folk like Nick Xenophon on the same side of the argument as the Climate Change Deniers, the Nationals, and the Climate Change Confused, the Liberals. No long ago we even had the Greens siding with the deniers in a bid to make changes to the legislation even though both want it moved in opposite directions.
Now here lies the problem for those who want to advance our Economy into the strange new world where the polluter pays. Delaying a start does not guarantee any improvement under the current structure of the Australian Senate. Quite the opposite in fact. Because the Government needs every other "Independent" outside the coalition camp it only takes one Senator to delay or crush any changes to the law.
Currently we have a real problem with Senator Fielding who clearly has very little idea of where he stands except for wanting to get his photo taken. Recently he even went as far as to travel to the US to enjoy the attentions of Climate Change skeptics and came back with data that was at least 2 years old and already dealt with. Apparently reading Aussie science is a bit beyond him.
It reminds me of Little Johnnie Howard. Be it the Queen or George Dubya, a little attention from "higher authorities" had him falling all over himself to curry favour. I think the same goes with Fielding. Scientists are never going to go fawning over a pollie where as Big Business is used to fluffing up pollies for their own advantage. That puts him in the same category as the Nationals. They get a lot of funding from the Mining industry so they are in lock step with their benefactors.
If Nick Xenophon thinks he can win through on Emissions Trading in the current structure then I think he is dreaming. His moral standards are not all that common in the House and the real weaklings are for sale to the highest bidder.
Here it is.
I'm not even going to comment about the reluctance of the female and the enthusiasm of the male.
I am impressed that someone can get funded to produce material that caters for worms who enjoy a bit of one handed net surfing.
How lucky are American voters?
This week another test popped up that McCain clearly fumbled and gave the Voters a clear indication of the correctness of their collective decision last election.
The unhappiness in Iran after the sham election has highlighted a serious character flaw in Republican thinking. That is that they have to tell other nations how to run their country. It’s not even a case of working towards achieving their desired ends. It must be obvious to them that any US interference is highly counterproductive so it must be a macho thing.
McCain decided to get vocal about this over the past week and has managed to show he is still locked into the “Cold War” thinking that he should have grown out of at his age. But maybe that’s what the problem is. Some of the older senators are locked into the knee jerk reaction that makes them oh so amenable to their opponents.
I hate to think of what may have happened if McCain was in power. Clearly he aspires to the “tough guy” image rather than the “smart guy” so perhaps we might have been treated to threats of military force and other worthless grandstanding which would make sod all difference to the situation on the ground, but been helpful to the folk he seems to want to unsettle.
The common US claim is to try and keep the civilian death toll down in struggles for Democracy but this simply doesn’t work when you have had previous leaders play the “Christian” card. Bush did it a lot and appears to have enjoyed doing so even at the cost of more aggravation. That was another ego thing just like his hated comments to the car bombers in Iraq of “Do your worst.”
In Iraq we now have the coming Civil War but we can be grateful to the US for going out of their way to train up many of the different groups. At least the body bags will be filled efficiently. Happily the US troops are being moved out of the way so their presence should be less obvious and thus less inflammatory to the locals. And hopefully less US body bags will be going home.
The take home message for McCain should be “mind your own business”. It’s not your problem and if you interfere you only make it harder for those struggling towards Democracy. How much easier can it get? By doing nothing you are actually getting a better result and no US kids need to be sacrificed to promote a hated foreign government.
The only down side that I can see is he might have to resort to Viagra to prove his manliness.
An elderly man walks into a confessional and the following conversation ensues:
Man: 'I am 92 years old, have a wonderful wife of 70 years, many children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. Yesterday, I picked up two college girls, hitchhiking. We went to a motel, where I had sex with each of them three times.'
Priest: 'Are you sorry for your sins?'Man: 'What sins? '
Priest: 'What kind of a Catholic are you?'
Man: 'I'm Jewish.'
Priest: 'Why are you telling me all this?'
Man: 'I'm 92 years old ... I'm telling everybody.
Labor has a gift in Turnbull's style. He often reverses his view on a matter within days of first striding into the spotlight and has left his Shadow Ministers holding the baby when he has failed to tell them before hand.
He hasn't been able to control the Global Warming deniers within the coalition too and seems happy to muddle around without any real policies of the matters that concern the Voters.
Even better value is he is destroying Joe Hockey's cred by having him try to defend the indefensible fake email. Something that John Howard did to Joe with Work Choices. This is a huge problem the Libs are yet to realise. Joe built up heaps of "good guy" points when he and Kevin 07 used to do daily gigs on morning TV. Kevin 07 used his to good advantage while the Libs have frittered Joe's away.
When you add to this Turnbull's surprising lack of business acumen and inexperience of the political process, you have a chap who regularly appears to be out of touch and often makes a goose of himself over Parlimentary processes.Embarassing arguments with department heads have cost him dearly.
It doesn't get much easier than this so Labor should back off and try and keep Malcolm off the front pages.
Where the focus should be applied is to the activities of Mr Grech. The Public Servant generously, if not accurately, labelled as a whistle blower by Turnbull.
Someone has to go. If the embattled Grech was bullied into faking the email then he is not strong enough to perform his role and he should go. If he had a brain fade and made it up all on his own then the pressure has gotten to him and he should go. If someone in his department accessed his computer and wrote the fake then they should go.
The Public Service is supposed to protect the country from politicians not conspire to undermine a government. Whistle blowing is uncomfortable for pollies but is based on fact and helps to "keep the bastards honest" but lying is a million miles away from whistle blowing.
The body language of Mr Grech was shocking at the hearing before the fake was revealed. I can't think of a more obvious example of someone uncomfortable in their data. I suspect the government noticed it too and started to smell a rat.
The result so far is a major cred problem for Turnbull simply because he led with his chin but it currently stands as a "best case" result for Labor if they don't push it too far. The last thing they should be aiming at is getting a new Opposition Leader.
Nursey rhymes are entirely appropiate for politics so some thought should be given to that old axiom, Don't kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.
The first shows the 3 trees in question. They dominate the skyline and attract large numbers of birds including black cockatoos on the odd occasion. Especially prominent is the rather bare tree on the left. It still gets leaves on about a third of it but is the preferred domain of visiting magpies. Not only do they get a good view from there but they sometimes show off their speed by doing hot laps, I assume to impress the ladies.
Very impressive speed but if they decide I'm not allowed to enter the back yard in breeding season it will be a hassle. I certainly wouldn't get rid of them.
Second photo is The Girls. Currently producing 3 to 4 eggs a day. Not only do they provide beautiful yellow yokes in their eggs, they also work as a garbage disposal.
Last shot is of the human powered mower. Extremely easy to use and not as good for fitness as I was expecting. Mainly constructed of plastic, it's hardly generating any exercise at all. The big benefits here are
- Much quieter
- Cut grass can be fed to the chooks because the cuttings are not contaminated by petrol
- You can mow over dusty patches without creating a dust storm
- Doesn't use petrol
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Recent Comments
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GOF said:
Damn! and I thought you would present me with another role model this week ;-) read more
on Naughty Friday funny - Trying to live till 80 -
petermcc said:
I'm surprised he popped hid head up. Surely he isn't thinking of standing next time around?Of course it could be... read more
on The US dodges yet another bullet -
Rainbird said:
[das ist gut]We´ve already had this subject for several times: Mc Cain is obviously not able to learn from the past! He... read more
on The US dodges yet another bullet -
petermcc said:
That's why his only hope is to do it his way.He can't fit the Howard shape and nor should he.... read more
on Can Turnbull be his own man?
Too right. read more
on Naughty Friday funny - Trying to live till 80