Monday, 26 May 2008

GO FIGURE: A Former US President Made To Look Sane By Victoria's Socialist Left

Jimmy Carter really is a piece of work.

The former US President who presided over a deep loss of confidence in the country which culminated in his failure to take effective action to stop Iran going completely rogue then abducting and imprisoning US diplomats there for over a year, now opines that the US needs to make nice with the Islamic Republic by - wait for it - sending them gifts of nuclear technology and fuel.

The fact that Iran's President Mahmud Ahmadinejad has called for Israel to be "wiped off the map" doesn't seem to alter the former US president's view.

He should pay attention to what even some in Victoria's notorious Socialist Left of the Labor Party think of Iran. I was astonished to see chunky  leftard and Carlo Carli staffer Chris Anderson write and put his name to an entirely commendable State Conference urgency motion which echoed OC criticism of the evil theocracy in very specific terms listing their repeated abuses of minorities and human rights in the country.

No doubt it was part of a fiendish Left plot to curry favour with recently arrived Iranian dissidents for the purposes of multiple recruitment but you couldn't fault him on the motion itself, which didn't get voted on prior to the closure of conference.

If the SL can rise above defending vile dictatorships purely because they hate America, then it is a very promising sign of their maturity.

It's a shame wet former US presidents can't do the same.

Game on.

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DUMPED: Eric Dearricott Defeated // Day of Feasting And Celebration Commences

The OC can advise that at 11.46AM Eastern Standard Time, Socialist Left aligned "Independents" faction boss Eric Dearricott was officially defeated and is no longer a member of the Victorian ALP's Administrative Committee.

Game on.

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SNOOKERED: The Hard Work That Goes Down On The Hill

A patriot found this facsimile lying around Chairman's Lounge today:

Australian Parliament Sports Club presents the 2008 Parliamentary Snooker Championship. Wednesday 4 June to Wednesday 25 June.

All abilities welcome.

One frame matches. First time held since 1992.

Please register your interest by return fax or email to Senator Michael Forshaw or Alex Somlyay MP. Draw and first matches to be made on 4 June 2008 in Reps Alcove at 6pm.

Nice to see the hard-working blokes and ladies of Club Fed busting their balls for the rest of us.

Game on.

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THE OC'S SHAME: Tony Sheehan's Making Money While We're Not // BTW Did You Know Vic Lottery Licence Holder Intralot Is Owned By A Former Soviet Bloc Spy?

The Herald Sun runs an amusing story today detailing that Socialist Left minister Tony Sheehan cashing in on his association with Greek firm Intralot which won a Victorian government licence to sell scratchie lottery tickets here.

Good to see the Kirner Government's disastrous Treasurer manage his own funds better than he was able to do nearly twenty years ago when large and in charge at 1 Treasury Place.

As the OC contemplates its future finances, we are given great comfort that if the man who nearly bankrupted the state can make a million bucks, surely representing considerable hope for all of us.

SPIES LIKE US

Redemption is certainly a theme at Intralot whose billionaire owner is accused of being a spy for many years for the infamous East German intelligence service Stasi.

Years after the collapse of East Germany, Stasi's records were slowly released. They revealed lots of unpleasant secrets, just one of them being that one of Greece's richest men and Intralot owner Socrates Kokkalis was a long serving spy and traitor. His code name was initially "Rocco" and later "Kaskadeur". Kokkalis had been trained in Moscow and East Berlin.

Multiple criminal charges against Kokkalis for money laundering, fraud and embezzlement were dropped early last year although a respected Greek newspaper reports:

Last year, a Piraeus court rejected a 6.6-million-euro slander suit brought by Kokkalis against Kathimerini over a series of articles on his possible collaboration with the Stasi, saying the reports were fully corroborated.

It's enough to make the greedy Tatts look good.

Click here to read a previous summary of the astonishing activities of Victoria's lottery licence holder.

Game on.

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FIRING LINE: Baillieu And Supporters Face Preselection Carnage Chaos

redtedfightson

A leading figure in the Kroger group has opened up the batting this morning, sharing the love with the OC by revealing exclusively just how vulnerable their opponents in the Victorian division of the Liberal party are to their attack.

Stunningly they claim that they have the numbers to mount serious challenges to the Leader himself, to one of his most loyal supporters Kim "Whodat" Wells, to factional overlord David Davis and to senior shadow minister Helen Shardey.

NOT A HAPPY TEAM AT HAWTHORN

The claim by Kroger forces that they could mount a serious challenge to Baillieu in his seat of Hawthorn is a fascinating one. They say that Frydenberg was only prevented by Peter Costello from taking out Petro Georgiou in Kooyong which includes the state seat of Hawthorn. "He is well positioned to take out Ted and would almost certainly back a challenge to anyone opposing Baillieu as long as we agree to dump 'Yasser' Georgiou."

Sources sympathetic to Baillieu strongly deny that anyone has the numbers against Baillieu in Hawthorn, even taking into account Josh Frydenberg's numbers. They say he controls 1 or 2 branches in Hawthorn of the ten in the seat. Phil Gude's presence - who was aligned with Kroger - has substantially waned leaving Ted quite safe insiders say. They also express great confidence in defending David Davis to the last man and last shilling insisting his support would be "quite overwhelming."

SITTING DUCKS GO QUACK

The Baillieu camp seem much less confident about Wells and Shardey, where the Kroger forces say that parliamentary aspirants Michael Gidley and David Southwick respectively are poised for a takedown of the kind Frank Greenstein might have seen on safari.

Gidley is the titan in control of the Scoresby branch and proudly tells insiders "he has a gun at Kim's head."

While acknowledging the numbers would be "close" (noblesse oblige speak for they don't have them) claiming Wells has improved his position in recent times, Baillieu's supporters say the "party would be pretty uncomfortable dumping Shadow Ministers."

Kroger sources insist they don't care any more about the comfort of a Leader who so openly and bizarrely declared war on them.

Indeed some say that Frydenberg isn't afraid of taking on a big challenge and that he or someone supported by him could quickly build on their support to mount a very real and at least niggling threat to Baillieu, which even if unsuccessful would highlight the deep hostility felt for him by many branch members.

"We used to feel pretty restrained about sending this kind of signal because we figured we were all in this together" one explained. "Now, it's war. It's the new Liberal Party versus the Melbourne Club culture of born-to-rule complete with its anti-semitic staffers and defence of PLO supporter Petro Georgiou. The gloves are off. There'll be no deals, no swaps, no lifelines. If we can shoot a few of theirs, we will do it without hesitation this time. We're going in for the kill."

The state preselection process is expected to start in little over a year, with the only Party body capable of calling off a local preselection process being the Kroger dominated Admin Committee which shows no signs of carrying out Ted's bidding.

Baillieu's supporters say this whole threat is just another sign of the young Kroger hot-heads struggling to make the cultural shift from the nasty world of student politics to the senior party. "This is just fanciful and designed to destabilise the Leader."

And on that last point, they could probably all agree.

Game on.

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GROSS HYPOCRISY: Nats Score Own Goal In Arts Smut Smear Scandal

In keeping with the OC's internationally recognised commitment to the arts, we present an imaginary dialogue set in state National Party leader Peter Ryan's bunker:

DRAMATIS PERSONNAE:

Peter Ryan - Leader of the National Party in Victoria. Keen to celebrate the demise of the annoying McGauran clan and reassert his power over their Gippsland stronghold.

Darren Chester - Suspiciously well-groomed gent with a passion for City clubs while working late nights at Spring Street. Otherwise, destined for great things as a country member. National party candidate for Gippsland and Peter Ryan's chief of staff.

Darren McCubbin - Labor's candidate, local mayor and supporter of the arts smited in Glenn Milne's column this morning for allegedly providing a "platform for pervs" at a Commonwealth funded local arts festival which included a very exotic performance involving "necrophiliacs, murderers, chronic masturbators, prison bitches and Jesus freaks!"

Glenn Milne - Grumpy Australian journalist who was so infuriated by a story the OC had written one time that he thumped Stephen Mayne live on stage at the journalists' union awards night. Confusing, I know, but certainly no more so than one of Milne's young producers when he was at Channel 7 who was left very confused by Milne's strange ways. If that's too subtle for you, you need to listen to more Grail gossip next time you're in CBR.

The Beautiful Losers Cabaret - Filthy "cabaret" show which belts out odious lyrics like "From those who simply wet the bed/To those who actually f--- the dead." It also contains tunes about "sex with dogs." Naturally it was described in The Age as "a bright, inventive, clever show." We can only presume their criminal diversion programme participant and gossip Lawrence Money got a double-serving of his usual supply of free tix. He loves a cheap thrill.

SCRIPT IN DEVELOPMENT:
Ryan: "Hey young one, nice work leaking that review of the gay play put on at the arty farty festival run by that fairy McCubbin. Brilliant idea giving it to Milne too, he's so needy these days with Cossie out of the picture."

Chester: "Thanks boss, that'll get their minds off energy jobs and onto gay jobs of a kind which dare not speak their name."

Ryan's Acting COS (hoping for a successful byelection so Chester's absence is permanent): "Keep it clean, DC. Hey I'm just looking at this website for the WaterWater festival which was the scene of the depravity. It's a bit hard to make out but is that the Australian Government logo I see there?"

Ryan: "When was this bloody festival?"

Acting COS: "Ah, last year boss..."

Chester: "Oh f*ck. I think this might have been a case of premature accusation."

Ryan (incredulous): "You mean we gave these pervs money when we were in government? We gave taxpayer money to a sex show that was celebrating 'c*ck-stroking' and 'neckophilia' ?

georgebrandis Acting COS: "That'd be right. George Brandis was Arts Minister too. I think he got sucked in by all those arts wankers."

Chester: "Bloody lawyers."

Ryan: "Ease up, we're not all pinkos like George. And unlike you dumb f*cks a lawyer would at least check a website of an arts festival to make sure we weren't linked to it ourselves before slagging it off..."

Chester: "Jeez boss, I much preferred the back passage to all this stressful front of stage work. It's not easy being bent over double all the time... I'm not sure I can take it anymore."

Ryan: "If that annoying little tosser McGauran can hold this seat for twenty years, you'll be fine AC, sorry DC."

Game on.

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ASHES IN THEIR MOUTH: New South Africa's Most Grave, Dark And Repulsive Moment

Nelson Mandela went to jail for the highest principle.

He wanted a South Africa where anyone could achieve anything their talents could propel them to reach regardless of race, freed from an evil system "apartheid" which institutionalised racial prejudice.

A COUNTRY STILL SEETHING WITH HATRED

Now the heirs of his amazing legacy of self-sacrifice have not only chased many of the best and brightest whites from the country due to collapsing law and order, they are now violently and brutally turning on recent immigrants to that country from elsewhere in Africa in what some are calling ethnic cleansing, one horrific incident shows how low they have descended:

The man they called Mugza had come to Johannesburg in search of a job and dignity. Instead he was burnt alive in broad daylight last Sunday. His only crime: being a foreigner competing for low-paid work in a city swept by hate and xenophobia.

Today Mugza lies in Johannesburg’s Germiston morgue, his hideously charred body unclaimed by friends or family. In 28 days he will be buried in a pauper’s grave...

The dead man, a thirty-something Mozambican, had worked as a casual labourer on a nearby construction site. He seemed very poor: he slept on a borrowed mattress and owned little but a duvet, some clothes and a picture book entitled Karoo Blossoms.

A neighbour in the shanty town, a Zimbabwean refugee named Joseph Mugashi, said that trouble began last weekend when a preacher began agitating against foreigners, whom he accused of stealing food from South African mouths. Mugashi’s tiny shop was attacked by a mob that held him at knifepoint while his shelves were ransacked. He fled.

Neighbours advised Mugza and his housemate to follow suit, but they decided to hang on. Over the next 36 hours, small groups of vigilantes roamed the warren of shanties, picking off foreigners one by one.

On Sunday, said a witness named Alfredo Tembe, a throng of locals, many “redeyed and reeking of liquor”, and armed with sticks and machetes, gathered at a crossroads where they skirmished with police and set fire to barricades. Mugza and his housemate chose this moment to make a break for freedom.

Witnesses say the two men ran for their lives, but it was too late. The mob hunted them down. The housemate was stabbed and knocked unconscious. Mugza was bludgeoned to his knees, his head dangling. A rioter took a blazing plank from a nearby bonfire and doused Mugza with paraffin. As he burst into flames, someone dumped his precious duvet on top of the pyre. In local parlance, Mugza had been “necklaced”.

Eventually, a hefty Boer policeman appeared with a fire extinguisher, but for Mugza the rescue came too late.

The situation has gotten so bad that President Thabo Mbeki has deployed the Defence Forces to stop anti-foreigner violence which has led to as many as fifty murders and tens of thousands of people being forced from their homes. It is the first time the army has been ordered into the townships since the time of white minority rule.

South Africa's biggest newspaper, the Sunday Times has been strongly critical of the government and this Sunday didn't miss Mbeki, calling on him to resign for not taking this ugly situation seriously enough by suspending his overseas travel schedule:

Throughout this crisis — arguably the most grave, dark and repulsive moment in the life of our young nation — Mbeki has demonstrated that he no longer has the heart to lead.

South Africa has fifty million people. Five million of them are immigrants. Three million of those have fled Zimbabwe looking for a better life.

With a resources boom rising tide lifting all commodity-rich nations' boats, South Africa has so much promise if its people can stop robbing, raping and killing each other. One commentator writes:

South Africa today is like the American Wild West circa 1881, the year of the gunfight at Tombstone's OK Corral. It is a land of tremendous dynamism and opportunity - and brutal, rampant lawlessness. When people from the African countries to the north ponder migrating south, their minds turn on the former vision, not the latter. They go to South Africa for the same reason that other Africans go to western Europe, or Mexicans and Salvadoreans go to the United States. South Africa is the continental superpower; Johannesburg, the most prosperous city in the whole of Africa. In terms of macro statistics, South Africa is one of the more impressive emerging nations. The management of its financial affairs never ceases to impress at the gatherings of the World Economic Forum in Davos. Also impressive is the degree to which a hefty black middle class has arisen out of the ashes of apartheid, extinguished in April 1994, when Mandela was elected President.

A recent New York Times editorial is much less kind about Mbeki:

If it remembers Mr. Mbeki at all, it will be for appointing a health minister who favored garlic and beet root as treatment for South Africa’s more than five million citizens infected with H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS, and for his stubborn refusal to use South Africa’s economic and political clout to stop Zimbabwe’s horrors...South Africans and all of Africa need and deserve better.

Someone told me today that Martin Luther King had said that "in the darkest sky, you can see the brightest stars." I collect such optimistic but truthful quotes for bleak winters to fuel our fight against leftards, bigots and other foes. And I hope it's true too for South Africa, that at their nadir they can find a future of which Nelson Mandela can be proud.

Game on.

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Sunday, 25 May 2008

UNELECTABLE: Why Gen X & Y Libs Think Red Ted Is Pure Zzzz

redtedwooldridge

The Sunday Age's Melissa Fyfe wrote a surprisingly fair and balanced account of the recent divisions in the Victorian division of the Liberal party across two articles here and here.

This is not what Baby Boomer and Lounge Lizard David Davis might have expected when he sanctioned the Sunday Age hit and briefed the journo on how odious and right-wing thug-like the yoofs from the Kroger faction. That's all a bit weird because of course the Victorian Liberal yoofs are seen as decidedly left-wing and latte-sipping by their harder-nosed NSW cousins.

WHITE-ANTING THE BABY BOOMER
Fyfe makes the point that Baillieu appears to have totally lost the confidence of many Liberal party members in the generations younger than him. His supporters like the charmer David Davis and Kim "Whodat" Wells have struck out at these young ones, characterising them as bullyboy extremists.

ailinglibs The attack on the younger Liberals aligned with the Kroger group sits uncomfortably with reports earlier this year about:

the dire state of the Victorian party, in opposition now for almost a decade. Membership, has dwindled to 13,000 down from 33,000 in the Whitlam era. The number of suburban branches is shrinking and the average membership age is 62.

Sixty two years. Anyone with any care for the future of the Liberal party should be very concerned about that statistic. Sure it reflects the reality that many people are reluctant to join traditionally structured organisations these days because of demands on their time but it's alarming. Instead of being worried about the alarming lack of young members, Baillieu and his comrades are keen to hunt down these pesky yoofs and mount their heads above Ted's baronial fire-place.

Just as Baby Boomers snatched and grabbed every privilege and prize they could for themselves in the 1960s and 70s, they jealousy and even viciously guard their rich bounty of power as they get older. This phenomenon plays itself out every day in many organisations, in the law, in politics, journalism, probably every workplace in the nation.

EXPEL THE PESKY YOOFS FOR UNDERMING HIS REDNESS SAYS KIM "WHODAT" WELLS

Upper house leader Davis even lined up his factional bruvver Kim "Whodat" Wells to talk up the expulsion of the two young bloggers for expressing private or anonymous views about some party policies and the party leadership.

The expulsions seem very unlikely to happen without a great deal of faction bloodshed. All the Baillieu huffing and puffing at the Kroger house isn't go to blow it down, as Fyfe notes the numbers simply aren't there. At least for now. This might change with the prospect of both party President Old Man Winter Dr David Kemp and the Leader himself monstering, hectoring and bullying Policy Assembly members into toeing the line to expel two young rebels.

BUT TED'S UNELECTABLE THEY RESPOND

But Ted's opponents have a pretty devastating riposte to all his positioning on this issue and that's what actually played really well for them in the Sunday Age today. He's a loser. He's unelectable. He's Red Ted and Dead Ted all rolled into one.

One told her:

"We need someone to put us back in the race. We are a laughing stock … I really feel we have to do it; we have to put enough pressure on him (Red Ted) so he goes."

Another said:

One, close to party headquarters, described the Opposition leader as: "extraordinarily paranoid, dictatorial and incredibly factional"; a man who interferes obsessively in minor positions that volunteers hold in the party and stymies efforts to reform it and share power among the factions; and a leader who struggles to deliver a cohesive, sharp grab for the television news.

It will all sound familiar to OC readers because that's what we've been reporting for a long time now. This sums up Ted's problem very well: "But you don't see that on the Kennett (factional) side of things. If they can't inspire and excite party members how are they going to inspire and excite the people of Victoria?"

Fyfe reports:

Several members of the administrative committee have told The Sunday Age that Mr Baillieu himself will be the one facing fury at its next meeting on June 6.

She also says:

One committee member has written to state president David Kemp over their concerns about the Opposition leader's handling of the blog crisis...

The OC understands that while he didn't write the letter, one Admin Committee member believed to be very concerned about Ted's conduct is cake king Frank Greenstein, regarded by many as a tireless workhorse for the party who puts the party's interest ahead of any factional considerations. He's not a twenty-something, impatient, ideologically crazed Melbourne Uni Liberal Club hardass, he just doesn't think much of Baillieu's recent brutish and unsubtle behaviour.

People like that are just part of the majority of Victorian Liberals who've been offended by Red Ted's mishandling of the blog affair.

A CARICATURE NOT EVEN THE AGE BOUGHT

Ted Baillieu and his support-group aims to characterise their young foes as hot-heads with degrees from Melbourne Uni who are distastefully passionate about voluntary membership of student unions, unnaturally enthusiastic for the Reagan presidency and are racist sexist thugs.

The truth was always more complicated.

What's most telling is that this supposedly oafish band of yoof rebels is clearly growing in sophistication as they get older and wiser.

Lined up for a thrill-kill by vengeful Baillieu forces in today's Sunday Age, it seems several of them patiently and carefully explained their position to a journalist with a surprisingly open mind. She ended up telling the whole story and while it wasn't all the yoofs' way, it was a fair account of their position and a very reasonably expressed exposition of their opposition to Baillieu's leadership.

Their judgment over some things - including operating the blog from 104 in the first place - can be questioned but many of them are smart young blokes making their way in the world and showing every sign that the future of their party belongs to them, if they can keep their wits about them.

They say Ted is unelectable and you don't have to be Genghis Khan to know that's right. Their vindication is not a matter of if but when.

Game on.

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BITING THE HAND: Anti-Corruption Watchdogs Will Never Be Let Off The Leash By The Rudd Government // Here's Why

Despite an enthusiastic front-page in our national broadsheet, there will never be a Commonwealth Anti-Corruption Commission or Ethics Squad or whatever you like to call it.

Never.

We don't normally make predictions because they are strongly influenced by our prejudices. I could never live with myself tipping against Essendon, even in this euphemistically described "rebuilding" year.

One call I did make that the federal election would be very close, with John Howard representing a very good value bet ended up being vindicated even though he lost and lost his own seat. The election turned out to be extremely close as PM Kevin Rudd has been reminding his gloating troops recently.

Despite the rewriting of history that went on, the Liberal party remains ten seats away from victory.

And that's why there won't be any such Commission.

They are electoral poison for any government. Ask Nick Greiner who introduced the first. And then lost his job after it utterly falsely found him guilty of corruption. A court later found them to be utterly wrong. In short they are a useless menace.

That's why John Howard didn't create one. It's why Kevin Rudd never will.

HIGH PROFILE // LOW YIELD

There's plenty of other good reasons aside from that powerful pragmatic one why such standing public inquiries like ICAC ought not be introduced and indeed should be scrapped wherever they exist.

They aren't effective in combating corruption, merely brilliant at generating headlines as they publicly dredge through private phone calls and emails in an attempt to humiliate and destroy targets who it seems only very rarely get actually charged with breaches of the law.

They generally employ armies of expensive lawyers not the far more cost-effective and experienced Police investigators who are trained in detecting and investigating crime.

There are very strict laws prohibiting corruption in the public sector in every jurisdiction in the nation. And reasonably well resourced state and federal police forces that love nothing better than taking high-profile scalps that get the investigators' names in the paper. That's how they get promoted.

Consider the example of Socialist Left politician Dr Andrew Theophanous, pinged for taking thousands of dollars for helping people with their immigration cases. He was accused by an informant. The predecessor of the Crime Commission investigated, wired up a witness, obtained proof of some dreadful dealings, charged and prosecuted him. He lost his preselection and his seat in parliament, went to jail and lost millions of dollars in superannuation entitlement.

Would a standing Royal Commission, with hearings conducted in public have detected him earlier or caused a worse outcome for him?

Almost certainly not.

Few dispute the ugliness of the allegations against him and equally few say he got off lightly. He was punished very severely indeed.

WINDOW DRESSING IS NOT NEEDED FOR ONE OF THE CLEANEST PUBLIC SECTORS IN THE WORLD

There is corruption in the Australian public sector. But it's very limited. International observers Transparency International says so. We have one of the cleanest public sectors in the world. It's never been easier to detect, using technology that can record conversations from long distances, over telephones, via email or whatever. A public servant taking bungs in this country is both very brave and very stupid.

A Star Chamber of the kind demanded by journalists and pious folk from the ICAC/CJC industry would do little to improve what is already an enviable standard of ethics in the Australian public sector.

And it would do much - as it has in NSW and WA - to diminish public confidence in government while rooting out little that rises to a criminal standard of misconduct. And just as much to make serving the public either in the bureaucracy or in elective office considerably uglier that it need be and tougher than it already is.

John Faulkner might say he's considering proposals for a Commonwealth ICAC. But he's very unlikely to be doing anything more than fobbing off journalists who crave its easy copy and cheap headlines. The cost of all that is much greater than the many tens of millions a Commonwealth ICAC would directly cost. Public confidence in our system of government and those who serve them is precious and fragile.

Superficially attractive anti-corruption "watchdogs" are a menace not just to bung-taking bureaucrats or paid-off politicians but to all of us. Every dollar spent on their usually fruitless show-trials is a dollar taken from funding that ought go to the Police and prosecutors to keep doing what they clearly already do very well already in this country, maintain law and order for good of our Commonwealth.

Game on.

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Saturday, 24 May 2008

HASTA LA VISTA BABY: Eric Dearricott's Bid For Admin In Crisis


Notorious "Independents" faction militant aligned with the Socialist Left, Comrade Eric Dearricott appears to be in deep trouble in his bid to be re-elected to the Victorian ALP's Administrative Committee.

Dearricott whose sanctimony exceeds that of any known televangelist has suffered from a considerable decline in his previous support largely due to changes within the fractional alignments with his Socialist aligned grouping.

Traditionally directed by deposed MP Bob Sercombe to support his mouthpiece Dearricott, those votes have now been directed to support the Mammarella clan within the Socialist Left.

That and some other Lefty intrigues conspired to cost Dearricott enough support to push him down to around 13 votes, well below the quota of twenty Admin candidates require.

Well placed insiders have given the OC the word "He's a goner."

Parting is such sweet sorrow.

Game on.

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UNIONS FEUD WITH JB: Union Bosses Hit Out At Vic Government's Use of "Howard's Laws"

Two senior Victorian union officials have slammed the state government over its "abuse" of Workchoices laws against them in enterprise bargaining rounds. Trades Hall boss Brian Boyd and the glamorous patriot Kathy Jackson proposed a motion which called on the government to stop litigation that relies on these laws. It was passed unanimously.

Some patriots expressed concern that state government ministers hadn't at least stuck around to debate the issue of how they were handling public sector pay.

They have a strong case to put.

If they agree to every demand, it gets very contagious very quickly. Most of the state budget is composed of public sector pay, increase it by even 1% and it's cost multiple tens of millions.

They also dispute whether they are actually using Howard's laws or not.

They say if the HSU and other unions sat down and talked reasonably they'd have a much better chance of working out their differences.

But that's just my best attempt to summarise what I understand is their position. A Cabinet with twenty plus, MPs by the dozen, staffers who must number in their hundreds and many more who presumably like the state government and profess to back them over the Liberals.

But not one of that small army was willing to stand up and defend their cause. Pathetic.

Game on.

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YAWNMANIA: Vic ALP State Conference Dozes On

The excitement of ALP state conference is nearly curing the OC's occasional insomnia.

Despite this we can report that the ALP has scrapped its mandatory retirement age of 65 setting the stage for the continued reign of patriot George Seitz whose adoring local populace keep increasing his majority to the fury of the nation's most left-wing newspaper The Age.
May the sun never set on his empire.

The Ruddster came along, spoke well, though some questioned the good taste of him ripping into Red Ted over current Lib carnage.

We also report that patriots can look forward to new and exciting pics of left rogues Bob Mammarella and Les Tarczon.
Game on.

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