This is a democracy, now shut the fuck up.

When faced with pesky protest groups that highlight government incompetence, Victoria's unelected premier, John Brumby silences his critics by bankrupting them.

In the US, the powers-that-be just send in the goons to stop people daring to suggest that John McCain may not be a good president.

And we want to export our style of democracy to other nations.

South of the border down Anglesea way.

BLL will be extensively reporting about the Surf Coast political scene in the lead up to the November council election, and this week we have two stories coming out of sleepy Anglesea.

The first story concerns a proposal for a new cafe, to be made out of shipping containers, located behind the petrol station. The proposal has been described as "unique" by the owner, and "shabby" and "old" by this blog's favourite councillor, Ron Humphrey.

Despite the fact that the proposal hasn't even gone to the council's planning committee, Ron's already clearly indicated which way he is going to vote on this one. This is the second time Cr Humphrey has spoken out against proposals before the committee has handed down their report. The other time involved the wind farm near Gnarwarre.

Why even have a planning committee? Why don't we just get rid of all formal planning processes and let Ron arbitrarily decide on all planning decisions.

Ron has found an ally on this issue by teaming up with Peter Huebel, a man notorious in local tourism circles for racking up complaint after complaint about his service.

Huebel argues that the land in question should be "just a residential area". Does that mean he wants the two cafes, the petrol station, the vet, the hair dresser, the surf shop, the resort, and of course his own business to be removed?

Seriously, if these two people are against the project, it's probably going to be a massive commercial and community success.

Still down Anglesea way, local fishing guru, Gary Kerr has been spending a lot of energy praising Cr Jim Tutt in his weekly fishing column in the Surf Coast Times. There is a rumour floating around that Gary is going to stand in the upcoming elections.

I'm not in a position to confirm or deny the rumour, but if Mr Kerr is pumping up a potential running mate in a fishing column, this could be seen as dubious campaigning at best. If Gary is just expressing an opinion without any vested political interest, then fair play to him.

Ouch

Sexy sport and sporty sex are both good, but this is just taking things too far.

Oh pulease.

The Geelong Independent has been running a cracking yarn about Surf Coast Councillor Keith Grossman "wanting" to put a caravan park on his acreage on the outskirts of Torquay.

The only thing is, I don't believe a word of it.

Having worked in the local tourism industry for nearly 10 years, I can safely say that there is absolutely no money to be made in a new low rent caravan park beyond walking distance to the beach. This business model has been a failure in the past and the fundamental flaws of supply and demand have not changed.

The caravan parks near the beach in Torquay have vacancies for 95 per cent of the year. There are also large free sites in the Otway National Park just down the road. At the very best, a new inland caravan park could expect patronage at Easter and over the Christmas New Years break. Inland caravan parks are quite simply the "last resort" for the vast majority of people who want to stay near Torquay, and a park on Grossman's road would have to compete against two much better located parks on the main highways.

Cr Keith is claiming he was completely misquoted by the Geelong Independent, the other papers are running totally different stories. The council has also taken the unusual step of issuing a clarifying statement denying the existence of a Grossman's Road caravan park plan.

But there is more.

A few years ago council looked at potential caravan park sites for the region, and Grossman's road was not one of them.

Also, there is currently a draft management plan into the Spring Creek growth corridor, where the land in question is situated. This detailed plan talks about schools, building, high use zones, commercial hubs etc, and does not contain the word "caravan".

And yet, some "journalist" still believes that Cr Grossman would want an unprofitable caravan park on his land rather than a lucrative subdivision for housing.

A few months out from shire elections, I wonder who sowed the seed for that particular story,?

We need more Gunns control

TO

John Gay

For the Gunns lawsuit against conservationalists in Tasmania. It's fast becoming a PR and legal nightmare for the woodchippers

Who is using the ALP brain today?

Well folks, it certainly isn't South Barwon MP Michael Crutchfield or any of his advisors.

This weeks Surf Coast Times has a front page story about the lack of a secondary school in Torquay, and the ALP come across really really badly.

This isn't a consequence of a rabid right wing local paper having a go at the ALP, it is a consequence of one of the dumbest policies ever imposed on the South Barwon electorate.

A little bit of background info. Torquay would have to be one of the largest towns in the country without a high school. Currently, Anglesea PS, Torquay PS, Bellbrae PS, and Saint Therese (Torquay) send all their graduating pupils to Geelong for secondary school.

Lorne, with a population of under 1000 has a high school and so does Lavers Hill, a tiny hill town in the Otways. Torquay is experiencing a rapid population boom, with young families flooding into town. The state government has already outlined the need for another primary school in Torquay. That would mean within five years, a high school in Torquay would have five feeder primary school.

So what does the ALP do? They announce that their isn't a need for a secondary school in Torquay and say a school at Armstrong Creek (a non-existent suburb half way to Geelong) is preferable. FFS, are they serious? Do they honestly believe a place which has a current population of zero, is a better place for a high school than a rapidly growing town of 10,000?

Mark my words, the Liberal Party will flog Labor over this issue until the 2010 election. It will also be a major issue in the upcoming local council elections.

Labor have managed to piss off the key demographic in the most important area in the electorate, but, at the end of the day the non-existent people who (don't) live in Armstrong Creek would vote for the ALP.

Worse than Work Choices

When the previous federal government spent millions of taxpayer dollars on shameless pro-Liberal propaganda regarding Work Choices, the ALP screamed like stuck pigs.

Given the new radio ads promoting the North South pipeline, I can only conclude that hypocrisy runs very deep in the Victorian Labor Party.

In fact, the current North South Pipeline taxpayer-funded PR campaign is actually more offensive than the Howard Government's Work Choices "advertising".

The people of the Goulburn Valley are getting a pipeline whether they like it or not. The location has been chosen, and the ad provides no useful information what-so-ever. It's 100 per cent fluff and can be paraphrased by the statement "it's going to be great for you. End of discussion"

At least the Work Choices ads referenced a web site so you could then go online and find out how you were going to get royally screwed.

The ALP have become unbelievably cynical under Brumby and they continue to make genuinely fucked up infrastructure decisions. Those who believe governments are like baby's nappies and need to be changed regularly, are desperately looking for an alternative to Brumby's bumbling.

If the Liberals could half get their act together in Victoria they would be a shoe-in in 2010.

Now this is torture.

The Sunday Age is supposed to be a quality paper but it will fast lose its' credibility if it keeps publishing op-ed pieces by Mirko "look at me" Bagaric.

The Sunday Age must have really been scratching for an opinion piece this week, because they decided to re-hash this pile of puke by this tortue supporter.

Global warming + abortion + poverty + third world deaths + generational equity = an attack on the greenies.

It really is pathetic stuff, but what makes The Sunday Age's decision to publish this dog's breakfast even worse is that the op-ed piece is merely a regurgitation of Bagaric's previous op-ed pieces.

The Australian ran something similar in February 2007

That article was in Online Opinion ten days later.

And of course Mirko ran it on his own blog as well.

Why does the Sunday Age run this stuff? It's not even in Bagaric's field of expertise.

Automated abuse

I've just been shown this great site which generates complaint letters automatically.

It's simple, you just put in the name of the person/organisation you want to complain about, add a couple of more details and then the letter is generated.

I've decided to test it out by "writing" a mock letter to Grods. Who will fall for it?

Don't complain;;;;;

Idiot conservative Iain Hall is utterly comfortable with the legal process that was used to convict Salim Hamdan.

Of course there will be people of the leftist persuasion who will whine that the process is unfair but that is nonsense, this chap has been duly convicted by a process that has been challenged to the supreme court of USA and those challenges have been rejected

So what exactly would Iain Hall say if he was arrested by, say Burma for having a shitty car and ugly beard? This new law was of course introduced after Iain was arrested.

During the case the prosecutor used evidence gained by beating the shit out of Hall and waterboarding him.

And of course Iain didn't get to choose his legal team, the jury was hand picked by his detainers, and the trial was held behind closed doors.

He could sit in jail thinking, "well at least I got a fair trial".

The Age Editorial

Today's editorial in The Age is titled, "Suddenly, he's a real nowhere man".

Who is the "he" this editorial is referring to?

Is he Brendan Nelson, Eddie McGuire, GWB, Peter Costello, The Chair Sniffer, or Kevin Andrews?

Guess (no cheating) and discuss in the comments section. Huge cash prize for the winning entry!

Four Corners and Andrew Bolt

When Mariane Wilkinson was interviewed about her upcoming Global Warming show by ABC radio, Andrew Bolt had a big waahhhh on his blog, and came up with a series of "facts" that Wilkinson omitted.

And let's have a look at the links the clown prince of journalism provided to prove his "facts".

Three of the first four links were to, no, please, you're cracking me up, that's right, Bolt's own articles. His fourth link was utterly inconclusive and impossible to read because he linked a thumbnail image.

Blot then cross referenced himself twice again and then went to a scientist who believes in "intelligent design" to support his case.

Next link was to the Lavoisier Group and soon after that, descredited denialist Steve McIntyre get's a run.

It gets so much better for those who want a laugh at the Blotster.

Andy claims, "Sea levels over the past couple of years have fallen". While this technically may be true, have a look at the graph the Bolt uses to prove his point. Now who is omitting important details now Andrew?

Next up for Bolt's "truth" links is the Centre for Science and Public Policy. Sounds like a nice official body, until you find out they are Funded by Exxon.

And then to end his rant, Bolt then returns to an old favourite and thoroughly unreliable source, himself, for a final bit of "truth".

After proving nothing, Bolt signs off with the following, to get his readers really angry.

This (The ABC) is not reporting but propagandising, and listeners would have been profoundly misled.

Ha Ha, Don't wait up for a Walkley Andrew.

Special treatment

If someone suggests Sharia Law or traditional indigenous law should be used in Australia, you get every conservative wing nut under the sun screaming about the end of civilised society.

"If you come to this country you adopt our laws and you're subjected to our courts" is a familiar catch-cry.

UNLESS of course you are a footballer.

Take the case of sexual harassment dished out by naked players to a female paramedic while she was treating a team mate who had broken his leg during a game.

Class act. Not.

Were the police called? Of course not, but up stepped a quasi judicial body known as The Lexton Plains Football League who dished out "sanctions" to the Ararat Eagles Football Club.

In true third world legal style, The Lexton Plains Football League would not reveal what these "sanctions" were, and who they were applied to.

Where's Andrew Bolt and Tim Blair on this matter? Why aren't they screaming "special privileges"? and when the fuck did the country develop a second secretive legal system to deal with footballers who commit sex crimes?