From The Slime To The Ridiculous

I must be psychic. Sure enough, the protesters made a huge kerfuffle at the G20 summit, and therefore no one knows what actually went on there. I was rather alarmed to see that the alleged leader of the student protest group is twenty-eight. 28! I can sort of understand why protesting might be appealing to a twenty year old, but frankly by 28, one should know better. What the heck is he doing at uni at 28 anyway? I suppose he might be a doctoral student. But I know a few doctoral students, and none of them are charging at police truck windows armed with crash barriers.
Listen you lot: cut off your dreadlocks, wash your clothes, and go get jobs.

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The silly season is upon us again. Just as you know Xmas is on it's way when you see decorations going up in the shops, so when you start being bombarded with political propaganda, there's an election around the corner.

It's just 124 days to the NSW state election, and over the weekend an independent candidate for my local seat parked a large promotional van for his campaign in the vacant block adjacent to my house. The region where I live is considered a safe Labor stronghold. Lately though, two state government ministers from the area have become involved in rather terrible messes. For legal reasons and the sake of decency, I'll spare you the details, but it's all badly damaged the Labor party locally and whilst the Liberals will never get a look in round these parts, for once independent candidates might have a chance.

I feel a bit sorry for the NSW premier Morris Iemma. He seems like a decent enough sort of guy, but since he took over from Bob Carr mid-last year, his government has lurched from crisis to crisis, mostly crises not of his making. His ministers are acting up, the Cronulla riots and cross-City tunnel have become farcical, and NSW seems headed for a recession (the Australian economic "success" is being carried by the resources boom in Queensland and WA, whilst the NSW and Victorian economies play after-you down the toilet).

Sympathy doesn't translate into votes though. I have little loyalty to the Labor party on a state level - I just want to know what's in it for ME. So I kept an eye on the candidate's van, thinking that when he returned to collect the thing, I'd go have a chat with him, just to find out what bang he could offer for my buck. It disappeared in the middle of the night, but I'm not put off. I've set myself a mission to talk to all the local candidates prior to the election, to find out just who is worthy of the Xander and Nico endorsement. Then on election day I will vote for the party with the most ludicrous name on the ballot paper. Because I know that no matter what the candidates tell me, as soon as they get elected they'll be droning on about What's Good For Families anyway. I'm not going to fall for it again.

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