Raise the screen, give it a lamenting pat, and put Labor to sleep.

Was watching Question Time last night. I really don't see the point in the whole thing.

Theres Lib-to-Lib pretend questions, by some nobody backbencher to the front bench, who thanks them for their question, and complements them on various matters, their future, intelligence, hairstyle, whatever, all the while knowing full well they aren't allowed to have an opinion, only allowed to warm the seats and keep the background looking busy whilst the real team makes it show. "How much do we rock? And how can we rock more?" seems to be the standard question. Always reiterating a statement already made. Waste of dollars, waste of air time.

Then theres ALP-Lib (or visa-versa). These represent the biggest load of bollocks in Australian politics. The question is never answered. (Although I was stunned when John Howard answered a question a while back with the simple word "no" and sat down. I cheered.) The supplementary question is mostly a piddle on a stick as well, never answered.

"I have a question about Telstra privatisation"
"Nah, you'se guys privatised stuff too, Commonwealth Bank, etc"

"I have a question about monetary matters"
"You'se guys heaps sucked with money, you always lost it all and stuff"

Then theres the Greens/Dems-Lib (although the Democrats have managed to botch up enough to be a write-off), this is interesting. There is no simple "but you did this" rebuttal in most cases. The question has to be answer, or avoided. Of course it is mostly avoided.

But really, you only need to look at interviews on shows such as Lateline, or on the radio. They simply do not answer questions, at all. ALP is probably a tad better with the media, but not by much.

The ALP sucks dogs balls. The Liberal Party is not hindered by them, quite the contrary. If they're similar, which they are, there is little reason to chose one or the other. You can only be an apologist for so long, and I personally had given far too much credence to the ALP for far too long. If you defend the ALP and fail to win arguments, then maybe there is a problem with your position. And I'm not refering to Question Time as an argument, it is nothing of the sort, I mean a political discussion with peers.

Labors agreement to the FTA was my final straw, others have theirs. I fuckin' got petition signatures and everything, AND WAS A MEMBER AT THE TIME. People of sound mind, and by that I mostly mean lefties/middies/ignorants (but definately not actual right-wingers), need to wake up quite frankly. They are in the ranks of the Libs, ALP, Dems, probably even the Nats, and it is high time they stopped pretending. If you are more an apologist than supporter, you do not support the party that you claim to.

Rant rant rant, where was I?

Oh yeah, ALP is crap. The Greens are the ALP now, the Dems also have lost any credibility (to me). The Greens are what the ALP used to be in its finer moments, and what it should be right now. Their position on IR is what the ALP should be.

Let's look in the newspaper.

Shell accused of hiding benzene emissions from Geelong refinery - Greens would have made rampant corporate pollution economically unviable had they been in power.

Telstra sale, blah blah, Greens would never have allowed this stupidity. It is a disgrace.

Incorrect detention of citizens as immigrants - no such draconian knee-jerk detention would exist under Greens.

Oh I LOVE this one - Lib Malcom Turnbull wants a ban on corporations/unions/organisations funding political parties, or at least that there be a limit, it might corrupt the system. Can't believe The Age didn't make this comment at all really - GOOD POINT, here's a campaign that exists already to stop this - democracy4sale, hold the phone, it's a Greens initiative! And they refuse donations from big business ALREADY, whilst YOUR PARTY Mr Turnbull slurps up donations from whomever is willing to throw it at them like a cheap stripper. The ALP throws some of the money back, but only token amounts, and only when it gets it's knuckles rapped.

... and that's how we play "Man, we'd be so fuckin' set if we didn't have clowns running the shop."

You can play politics - you can do this and say that because that seems to be what the reporters want to hear, pick words carefully, do some branch stacking, ignore a reports findings because it's not what you wanted to hear, claim you haven't read that report and can't comment, spend time arguing amongst yourselfs, have party splits, demand unity and conformance, deny individual Senators the right to cross the floor, control others with threats, attacks, or con them with money for their particular area of concern, but you won't get my vote.

Or you could just respect democracy, do what you feel is the best thing to do, the right thing to do, and listen to your constituents votes and concerns. None of the other parties seem to maintain a grasp on this, and if they do, it is soon wringed out of them.

ALP=FTA
DEM=GST
ALP+DEM = FF
I want the parties split, because I think those concerned quite frankly want it to as well. No more in-fighting, just switch. Look at the policies and history, and judge for yourself.

Besides which, I don't imagine the right-wing parties will be around for much longer. It's easy to assume, with election results, that there is a shift to the right, there is nothing of the sort. Look around you. See where issues about the environment rank amongst Australians concerns, we have recycling bins, hard garbage, organic foods have never been more popular (except for several decades ago when there were no other options), shit even one of the big election stunts was about fucking old growth forests for fucks sake! (*cough* Go Bob *cough*)

Why do they win elections so well? They are desperate, a minority actually wants what they are planning to do, or believes in their ideology. Thus, they resort to dirty filthy disgusting tactics. They stem down into threats basically, we will protect you from these evil doers who throw children overboard, etc (if you don't vote for us, you will be in danger from these crazy people), if you don't vote for us you will suffer from higher interests rates, go bankrupt, become working poor. Someone in the party think-tank must have thought through "what is the biggest and most easily expoited vulnerability of Australians?" and been really excited when he got the idea and it was fleshed out. The same goes for the other rascist one.

IIRC 70% of Australians don't want the Telstra sale, 60% don't want the IR changes, 40% STRONGLY, 20% for. But when they voted, this is what they were asking for. That makes them idiotic, ill-informed, and about to learn the hard way why they should have be keeping up with politics.

Australians are mis-represented.

I feel so much better now. Ahh.. oh crap theres talk of a union related Labor split-type thing on Lateline. Why DOES EVERYONE STEAL MY IDEAS!?