A Glimmer of Fracking Hope

Hello and welcome to the blog...lots to get through so let's get stuck in...

In a previous post I referred to a recent 'discussion' I had with Liberal MLC Rob Lucas and in that post I vowed to withdraw my respectfulness and politeness...and in a certain context that's exactly what I've done...but as evidenced by my public behaviour, I remain who I've always been, a gentle, quiet person who treats people with due respect...

And I cannot go there without begging the forgiveness of my child for my swearing and carry-on that has all too often been a feature in our 'discussions'...as posted before, I can only apologise for behaviour inexcusable and beg the justification that absolute emotion and unrelenting love is reasonable grounds for forgiveness...(sob, that's just beautiful, sob-Ed)...it is a reality that who I actually am is buried deep beneath the trauma and suffering visited on families by the pro-paedophile Lutheran Church and their various pro-paedophile acolytes and minions, including a pro-paedophile state parliament.      

But that gentle, quiet person was not the person Mt Gambier City Council Deputy Mayor Penny Richardson saw today whilst she was sitting outside the pre-polling station at the Crouch St South Electoral office, handing out flyers on behalf of Labor candidate and fellow Councillor Jim Maher...what she saw today was an angry, traumatised father sheeting home the blame to the corrupt, scheming, Labor lap-dog Rory McEwen.

Sitting along side her with his Don Pegler vest on handing out flyers for Don, former member for Mt Gambier and key player in the gross corruption of the St Martins Lutheran School Child Abuse Cover-up, Rory McEwen...and I was just driving past and I did go around the block to park right out the front and Rory was mouthing something about 'here he comes' to Penny Richardson...(and you didn't disappointment him-Ed)...

No I didn't...he opened with that sickening, fake smile and 'Hello Nick' and I retorted with the time honoured "f*** off you f***ing paedophile f***"...(ah witty Wilde, witty-Ed)...and, Clang...(that clang was Penny Richardson's jaw dropping-Ed)...indeed...and Rory tried to just scoff at me and defer to Ms Richardson about how this is what he expected, etc, and I quite un-politely reminded him of his rank pro-paedophile corruption re St Martins...and he kept thanking me...seriously...

Then he called me a dickhead and then threatened to call the police...I laughed in his face because it was just so laughable and said call them...but he didn't...(why do they keep threatening you with the police?-Ed)...cowardice and corruption do not enjoy being held to account so it's grasping at straws time...and Rory kept trying to smile at me and thanking me, and I kept right on peeling the paint off his chair...

Then Mrs McEwen showed up and she was having a go at me, so I put it to her sans swearing exactly what her husband had done, and it's not the first time she and I have had this conversation...and she was waving me away like a dismissed servant, when Rory got up and walked off inside...

I'm not apologising, I'm not bragging, I'm not even gloating at Rory's amazing cowardice in running away to tell on me and leaving his wife standing there to face the music...(that's the second time he's done that...there was that time near the Library a couple of years ago when you were 'discussing' St Martins with him-Ed)...yeah...but that's not the point...today I bore witness to the rank pro-paedophile corruption of Rory McEwen.

I do not apologise for swearing at him nor do I apologise to Penny Richardson...I did when Rory skulked off inside but Ms Richardson went with the "oh, I don't really know about that"...(well that's just bullshit, she knows exactly what's happened at St Martins...you've discussed it with her before...don't really know...for shrek sake-Ed)...well quite...

Just because it's how I roll, I swore profusely at Rory but only at a 'speaking voice' level and was at all times aware that there were other people around if not actually nearby...indeed, as I went to leave I was approached by a woman who asked me what had happened and if I was alright...she actually asked if I was alright...I apologised to her if she heard me swearing and she laughed and said 'no, it was down wind, but I can see you're upset'...

As we were chatting, Rory re-appeared with Returning Officer Bill Russon...(ooo, you're in so much trouble now-Ed)...nope, Rory was complaining about me, but when he was done I went across and spoke to Mr Russon whom knows me from the 2010 State Election when I was a candidate, and half jokingly asked if I needed to be waiting for the police...we discussed what had happened and I apologised for any disruption and offered to leave, I had no desire to make problems for him or anyone else other than Rory.

Mr Russon was perfectly polite and acknowledged that he understood my motivations but that he had a responsibility to ensure the conduct of the Election process, etc...he didn't tell me to leave, he didn't threaten me, he was polite and succinct and it was all good...I chose to immediately offer to leave so as to remove that responsibility from Mr Russon, and I choose to believe that he understood and appreciated that...as I left I spoke to the same woman again briefly, and that was it...

Again, I am not bragging, I am not proud, it's just what happened...again, I make no apologies for bringing Rory McEwen's pro-paedophile corruption right home where it belongs, in his face...but I digress...

The Glimmer: This morning there was a 'Candidates Forum' on ABC Local Radio in which the subject of Fracking was raised and Liberal candidate Troy Bell stated outright that the Liberal Party will not approve Fracking before they have completed their previously promised Parliamentary Inquiry, probably 2-3 years...this is as close to a moratorium as possible but must not be seen as the end of the fight...that well is still being drilled...

I note that yesterday's ABC interview (or one nearly identical) with Labor Minister Tom Koutsantonis made it into today's The Border Watch, which I'll cover tomorrow along with all the other stuff that got shunted from today by today's stuff...particularly the stuff about 'how fiercely Independent Don Pegler is' and how 'he's going to be the most powerful person in the state'...with the direct, constructed inference that if you want to stop Fracking, vote Don Pegler...

And also in today's TBW, a letter from Troy Bell stating that Julie Macdonald, responsible for the Housing Trust Tenant's Assoc letter alleging that the Liberals are planning to ditch HT Tenants into the street, as covered in previous posts, Julie is actually a Labor Party member...(well now there's a huge shock, not-Ed)...indeed...so Julie has circulated that on behalf of Labor, and then, according to my phone conversation yesterday, has left the state unlikely to return before the election.  

Tomorrow: Gnarly Shredding By A Man Of Letters

(I didn't know you have any degrees-Ed)...I don't, that means 'a man will shred some letters gnarlyly'...(gnarlyly?-Ed)...gnarlyly...geez I'm tired though, gettin' on the angry pills sure takes it out of a bloke, I'm knackered...but it's a good knackered...it's a release of burden carried without hope of relief and so the beast stands a little straighter, a little taller...knackered but smiling...

I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...and cheers and laters...   

Latest Labor Fracking Promo For Don Pegler

Hello Aotearoa (New Zealand), Indonesia, China, and Poland and welcome to the blog...and this morning the ABC Local Radio lurched back to the dark side and completely trashed all of the good work it has done this week, in any week, with one atrocious 'interview' about Fracking at Penola with state Labor Minister Tom Koutsontonis.

(Don't you think that you're being a little melodramatic?...I mean, 'back to the dark side'?-Ed)...well, a tad, but I believe that it's only a tad, because not only did Mr Koutsantonis grossly misrepresent the realities of Fracking without contradiction, but the insidious and glaringly obvious pro-Don Pegler sub-text went un-challenged...more later...but first...

In Fashion News: supermodel Elle McPherson is to host a new Transsexual reality program, you know, one of those 'Model Search' thingys...(I don't watch them myself...I only read them for the articles-Ed)...nice...(um, but are you sure it was Elle McPherson and Transsexuals?-Ed)...yeah, I saw the ad on TV...(you're not confusing it with that RuPaul Drag Queen show one?-Ed)...nope, it was our Elle and 'Next Top Model' something or other...and they have very strict criteria too...(strict criteria?-Ed)...yeah, no post-op models...(post-op models?-Ed)...yep, in the ad Elle says;
          "We're looking for a model with the full package."
(Shall we move on?-Ed)...I think it would be best.

Missing My Own Anniversaries: regular TMGI availees may remember that February 8th 2005 was the day of my last Chemotherapy for a 16cmx12cm Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma tumour right in the middle of my chest, eventually diagnosed on my 4th doctors visit in July 2003...my 8th round of chemo over 7 months...as I said, 'enough chemo to kill an elephant to kill a tumour big enough to kill a horse'...and February 23rd 2003 was when I moved to my current Housing Trust property, so 11 years ago...

Laughable: is the announcement from Labor Minister Gail Gago that Labor will provide $500,000 funding for tourism promotion in the Riverland, Kangaroo Island, and the Limestone Coast, if re-elected....she may even have actually mentioned Mt Gambier...(hang on, Mt Gambier has been routinely left off SA Tourism promotional material...even the latest ads are about Adelaide and the Barossa Valley and Robe...and 16 days out from a state election they're announcing $1/2m for 'Regional Tourism'?-Ed)...yep...(what a load of rot-Ed)...

Apology: that I haven't attended the 2 Mt Gambier City Council 'Public Consultation' meetings re their Long Term Financial Plan 2013/14 to 2022/23...(ahhhhhahaha-Ed)...quite...held last Tuesday and today, and if there are further I probably won't go to them either...I do reserve the right to not give a damn, but basically it is a pointless exercise and I have better things to do...(I didn't even know Tuesday's was on-Ed)...shh, me neither...but in all seriousness I didn't know about Tuesday's meeting and when it came time to go today, I had a huge rush of complete indifference...similarly I didn't do a submission...

In that respect, I genuinely do have better things to do than waste time doing a submission addressing numbers that are entirely untrustworthy, particularly when that submission is going straight in Greg Muller's shredder...I've read the LTFP and it's an absolute joke...talk of suddenly, inexplicably returning to surplus 5 years down the track, and absolute nonsense about cash surpluses...the realities are undeniable, Council has doubled it's borrowing capacity, heaped the cash in a big pile and burned it...end of story.

And all the associated missing money on unnecessary and completely mis-positioned items like a new Library...(where'd all the money go?-Ed)...and the Main Corner...(well we know where a lot of that money went...at least $340,000 straight to Greg Muller and then unaccounted for-Ed)...indeed...and $2m+ per annum just to run the Library without any return, $700k for the Main Corner, paying 30% too much for the Old Hospital and then millions more to pull down a sound building, the bizarre hole digging and dirt shifting on the Old Rail Lands, the ridiculous Lady Nelson Bus 'Shelter' (because it doesn't), the ludicrous grey pavers in the Main Street...it just goes on and on...(yes, you do don't you-Ed)...  

No covered pool, a lost International Tennis tournament, no support for public transport, reduction in services, eg, park maintenance, crap old look-outs around the Blue Lake, the bulk of which were done by service groups 30+ years ago...(no offence service groups-Ed)..nah nah, go' bless, go' bless...(go' bless-Ed)...the Rail Lands Retail Agenda and associated deceits and diversions and 'Planning' decisions, eg, the Lady Nelson Bus Shelter, etc, etc, on and on and on...and $millions on pointless and entirely unnecessary dirt shifting.

I have covered at great length in numerous previous posts the extraordinary nepotism, rank corruption, and gross malfeasance of Mt Gambier City Council and the devastating effect it has had on Mt Gambier's development...any talk of organised, responsible Planning and Development and/or Financial Plan, is a trite reference to a reality that doesn't exist...there's clearly a plan, but it's very much about what's best for a very small number of people...and everyone else pays.

That massive hole dug in the Rail Lands that I posted about, got even bigger yesterday before Gambier Earth Movers started filling it in with dirt and carefully compacting it...(say what?-Ed)...it looks like either 1) Council are trying to keep GEM sweet by throwing them a big fat profitable bone of imaginary 'variances'...(oh, so they won't arc up about the gross corruption of Mayor Steve Perryman's gross Conflict of Interests re awarding the Old Hospital Demolition to McMahons?-Ed)...precisely...(the Mayor's gross COI that's in the Council Meeting Minutes, but that the Independent Commission Against Corruption apparently couldn't see-Ed)...that's the one...that or...

2) they struck a fissure or other anomaly/weakness that had to be removed and then reclaimed and underpinned to bear the weight of a very large concrete slab, say for a Shopping Centre Expansion of Centro/the Lakes Plaza...(can't build a building over a cave-Ed)...indeed...(sure it's not to bury the contaminated mat...jeez, I can't even say it without laughing-Ed)...the allegedly contaminated material...no, that was 'buried' where they moved the easement to...(oh yeah-Ed)...whatevs, every single cent spent on moving dirt on that land, is a completely unnecessary expenditure, committed solely to pursue the Rail Lands Retail Agenda.  

But I furiously digress because today I must quickly address the blatant promoting of alleged Independent Don Pegler by Labor Minister Tom Koutsantonis...because I've left it so late in the post, a quick summary now and thorough dissecting tomorrow...today Mr Koutsantonis stated the Labor Party was concerned because Don Pegler is opposed to Fracking and is going to be the most powerful person in the state and that this would make Mt Gambier the most powerful area...(there's so much wrong with that sentence it will take a whole post just for that one, let alone a whole interview-Ed).

Indeed, and obviously I'm paraphrasing but damn near a quote...the whole interview was one long lie about the realities of Fracking with Minister Koutsantonis also stating that Labor intends to stop making companies like Beach Energy (Penola Fracking) pay any Royalties for 5 years as a strategy to accelerate mining 'investment' and development because there's a 'paucity of supply'...the usual unsupportable justification for Fracking...

He also stated that there had never been Aquifer contamination anywhere in the world...(he's stone cold tripping-Ed)...no, he's bare-faced lying...doesn't care, not the real purpose of the interview, and then some more doesn't care...the whole point was to ramp up the very justified fear of Fracking and then promote Don Pegler as the supposed way to stop it...'you vote for Don and he'll get the balance of power and because he's just like so opposed to Fracking and stuff, he'll stop it, nuh-huh yeah he will'...this interview is a blatant attempt to try and trick those opposed to Fracking into voting for Don...it's absolute bollocks...

I'll finish this up,

Tomorrow: Shredded Letters and Labor Promos

Just for the record, my hilarious Transssexual joke is just that, just a joke...gay, straight, post-op, whatevs, don't care...well I care but I don't care, yeah?...(yeah yeah-Ed)...

I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...cheers and laters...

Whom Do You Housing Trust?

Hello and welcome to the blog, and sorry again for yesterday's truncated effort but twice my Internet just cut out taking large chunks of unsaved text...(it's meant to auto-save frequently-Ed)...yes, but it wasn't...anyway, moving on...

For What It's Worth: I apologise to local Member Don Pegler for not holding to account Liberal Vicki Chapman for her simply offensive remark re Mr Pegler's loss of a child in a car accident...I barely know Mr Pegler and am deeply disappointed with him across a range of issues, but to lose a child in any circumstance is a traumatic experience I hope to never experience...may I pass before my child because that's just the way it should be...

I apologise because I bit-typed this into the blog whilst the interview was on that day, but edited it out due to other content and forgot to get back to it...point being, I heard the comment, the tone in which it was said, and indeed the response from Stuart Stansfield that the comment was "a bit glib"...I would call it a callous comment heavily stained with Ms Chapman's personal opinion of Don Pegler, which is her prerogative but in no way an excuse.

From Viv Maher's letter (The Border Watch Friday 21st February 2014) that which is apparently a direct quote from the ABC interview (Friday 14th Feb 2014?) with Vicki Chapman re changes to P-plate conditions for inexperienced drivers...
      "...yeah, look, I raised it with Don and he sort of just said I had a family member lost in road...
       I mean frankly who hasn't."

I fully concur with former Labor candidate (2010) Viv Maher that the comment is offensive...because this is such a serious issue and such an inexcusable thing to say I choose to address the rest of the Viv Maher letter tomorrow, along with several others...I will get there...

I was also completely unimpressed by the comments from Liberal leader and would-be Premier Steven Marshall as made in an ABC Local Radio interview on Thursday 20th February...(you mean when he said that he didn't know about 'Drains' in the South East, and, in response to a question from a caller, that he wasn't aware of the grossly un-democratic Wind Turbine legislation as introduced by former Premier Mike Rann in October 2011-Ed)...yes, that...particularly his excuse re the Turbine legislation that he 'wasn't there' at that time.

(But wasn't he elected in March 2010, 18 months before that Turbine Interim Development Assessment Plan was dropped on Regional communities?-Ed)...well, exactly...it is very poor form to come to the South East and claim to know nothing about Drains...(used to 'remove' surface water from swampy areas to make that land available for agriculture, with some devastating environmental effects-Ed)...quite...or about the Turbines, given the massive investment and infrastructure already in the state and the massive future projects allegedly due to be built, eg, Woakwine, CERES on Yorke Peninsula, etc.

(I note that you say 'claim to know nothing' which infers a degree of disbelief-Ed)...well let me clear that up for you...I absolutely do not believe that he didn't know, I believe that he didn't want to have those discussions...I wouldn't claim to know specifically why, and could almost believe the 'don't know about the Drains' stuff, but to not know about Wind Turbines?...sorry, but I do not believe that...but I digress... 

Yesterday (Tuesday 25th February 2014) I received the attached letter and double sided pamphlet from the Housing Trust Tenants Association in an envelope with my actual name and address hand-written and post-marked 23FEB14 (Sunday 23rd February 2014)...the parallel letter from Don Pegler is also attached again and also covered in a previous post...that envelope was sent to The Occupier but had my exact address...it appears that both letters were sent directly to Housing Trust Tenants.

In my limited travels, I have not met anyone who is not a Trust tenant who has received that letter from Don Pegler, nor the letter from the HTTA...they appear to have been sent re a list of HT Tenants...is this legal?...as is my want, I immediately rang the HTTA...(I bet you did-Ed)...and initially there was a recorded message about how the number was temporarily unavailable due to a health issue (paraphrase), so I started to leave a message when a man answered.

We discussed the letter, to which he pleaded ignorance, and as such I believe him, and he stated that the author of the letter, HTTA Assistant Secretary Julie Macdonald, had left the state (to Victoria?) for an unknown reason...the man openly criticised both major Parties re their attitudes toward social issues and we agreed that we were both grubby 'Socialists'...(bloody hippies-Ed)...beyond that, he could add nothing about the letter and pamphlet.  

I note that the Labor Party proper has not identified this 'Housing Armageddon' issue directly...given my personal experience and rank cynicism, I believe that this is a 'guerilla campaign' being run by Labor via various agents on their behalf...I am deeply disappointed that Don Pegler is involved in this and he should be held to account for the distress this is causing in the community.

I have contacted Liberal candidate Troy Bell, again, and again I'm not the only one, and again he has absolutely refuted these claims...I'll finish here because of the multiple letters attached...

Tomorrow: Some Gnarly Shredding Sans Ice

I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...cheers and laters...

Chunks Of Fracking Stuff On Shredded Letters

(That sounds like a recipe for disaster-Ed)...indeed...anyway, shoosh, they're here now...uh-huum...

Hello United Kingdom...(what actually like has a Queen and stuff, just for the last 50 years-Ed)...quite...and also to the United States of America, Brazil, and Ukraine...welcome to the blog...

I've not posted about the violence in Ukraine because it's been well documented across the media, but I'm truly amazed at the extraordinary scenes of political disintegration/reconstruction in Ukraine, and the incredible commitment of those involved...it makes a bit of a mockery of what happens in Australia where most people seem to consider elections/politics as an annoying inconvenience...whilst I realise the situations are poles apart, I personally do feel a little weak compared to their resolve...

True, as covered in previous posts, I have had cause to fear for my life when involved with former parliamentary Speaker Peter Lewis's office, in circumstances where some other people who had contacted him about Child Abuse were being murdered, as covered in the media at the time...but I wasn't being attacked and shot at and seeing my friends and associates being killed right next to me.

I couldn't begin to define what has happened and who drove it and why, I can only offer deepest condolences to the families of those apparently killed by their own government, and my hopes for what they're worth, that that is the beginning of the reconstruction, not the start of further decline...even now pro-Russian Ukrainians are protesting in the Crimea...

Nothing I have experienced in my own life offers me any understanding of the war continuing in Syria, it leaves me speechless and dumbfounded that a country can do this to it's own people, that people can do this to each other...the wholesale destruction of entire cities and millions displaced...I cannot not talk about it, but I cannot understand, so on occasion, I just cry...not that that helps...

It seems almost flippant to talk about the sort of political bastardry that has been experienced by Regional South Australia, particularly the South East, but that's where I find myself and so that's what's most real to me...and there are very genuine reasons to be horrified even terrified at the prospect of Fracking and the outright lies being told...(and apparently accepted-Ed)...indeed...to ease away the vague opposition...and I say vague with all due respect because short of physically stopping that well, it's a done deal...   

Beach Energy Fracking: From today's The Advertiser newspaper a casual acknowledgement of the reality of what's happening at Penola in the article Beach Energy surges past $2bn in value (page 29). There is this reference to the Fracking well being drilled right now at Penola..."Beach expects to finish drilling it's first shale gas well in the Otway Basin in March"...(what a cleverly deceitful reference to the mine only 2kms from Penola-Ed)...indeed, and it doesn't say anything about 'exploration' it's a straight out statement of fact.

Said it once, twice, three times and maybe more, that is not a 'test well', that is a well, and whoever gets into power in 3 weeks time will rubber-stamp Beach Energy pumping tonnes of toxic sludge deep underground with the obvious massive and irreversible consequences...

Bloody Bike Lanes: I don't blame the cyclists but bike lanes on Penola Rd are ludicrous, and I find it unbelievable and incredibly galling that the Labor state government have refused traffic lights at the notoriously dangerous Penola Rd/Wireless Rd intersection...(even though one prefers a round-about-Ed)...indeed...but whichever, either/both have been refused because 'there aren't the traffic numbers to justify it', yet the cost, inconvenience, and design stupidity of the bike lanes is being forced on everybody due to what numbers?...a tiny minority.

Last Saturday I was headed South going 'up' Crouch St North with the bike-lane on the Eastern side (to my left) and parking lane with bike lane outside that, on the Western side (to my right)...(we drive on the left in Ostraya-Ed))...and so the 'centre line' is now well to the Eastern side...there was a car parked just up from the roundabout, effectively stradling the bike-lane line, forcing me to cross into the oncoming lane by nearly a metre...then 50 metres on were 2 'lycraed amateurs' wobbling up the hill on bikes.

I've seen some schoolkids riding up/down those lanes, but never before recreational riders...and despite having their own designated lane, they were riding side-by-side...(which is apparently legal-Ed)...apparently...having a chat, meaning the outside rider took up a meter of the 'driving lane', forcing me to go onto the other side of the centre line, again, by that 1m...a minor inconvenience given the relatively wide road with good visibility and no pedestrians.

But apply this to the Penola Rd bikelanes currently being implemented/installed...as per previous posts, the design as presented shows a bike lane along either roadside, with a broad (2m?) painted median strip being promoted as a safety feature for pedestrians...if this design if followed as presented, when cars are parked along the 'bikelane' all traffic, going both ways will be driving nearly a metre onto that proposed pedestrian zone...as the road is currently configured traffic passes only a metre apart so I don't know where the transport Dept plans to find this extra 2m.

Despite the advanced stupidity of the whole bikelane plan, I still find the most hilarious thing about this situation Mt Gambier City Council whinging and complaining about how the state government/Transport Dept don't listen to them...   

Sorry, I'm going to close because my Internet connection is cutting out repeatedly... I have received a letter from the Housing Trust Residents Assoc repeating the claims made a fortnight ago by alleged Independent Don Pegler that the Liberal party will ditch people out of housing and/or force 'spare bedrooms' to be utilised or payed extra for...with a number of identical sentences to Don's letter and a shiny flyer saying in big red writing 'Warning' and 'If not, don't vote Liberal in March'...more, 

Tomorrow: Housing Trust letter 

And sorry the other letters stuff as well...

I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...cheers and laters

On A Bed Of Shredded Letters

Hello and welcome to the blog...and today I'm going to just get stuck in because there's a bit of humble pie, possibly made of crow, on the menu...so away we go...(you got somethin' stuck in ya' teeth-Ed)...and a bitter taste in my mouth...(get on with it-Ed)...I'm getting...

But First: What the hell is going on with that massive 25-30 ft deep, 40ft x 60ft wide hole in the Rail Lands immediately adjacent the Old Rail Station?...(it looks like they've dug a hole just big enough to bury an Old Rail Station in-Ed)...quite...if it was a fraction closer one could argue that that hole might possibly have been conceived and constructed to 'undermine' the Old Station, rendering it architecturally unsound, and, oh dear, we have to pull it down and build, I dunno, a Shopping Centre on it...

(You are of course referring to the Mt Gambier City Council's obsession with their Rail Lands Retail Agenda for that site...referring to it in a particularly trite and facetious fashion-Ed)...moving on...  

Credit Where Credit Due: I was surprised but pleasantly to hear Stuart Stansfield on the ABC Local Radio this morning...(first cab off the rank-Ed)...indeed...raise the issue of the extraordinary attack on parent/Independent candidate Danyse Soester by rank Labor hack Amanda Blair in the 'article' from The Advertiser newspaper Saturday 22nd February 2014, as covered in my post that day...if one has not availed oneself of said post and attached article, please do.

Serendipitously, Mr Stansfield's studio guest was Liberal Shadow-Minister David Pisoni, who is mentioned by name in that article as being one of the people manipulating Ms Soester...(the other being Nick Xenophon-Ed)...and Mr Pisoni was not backward in his opinion of Amanda Blair, stating that she worked for the Education Department on occasions, as well as a series of Labor controlled Boards.

Stuart read the opening comments from the article, "shut up Danyse", etc, and I briefly missed the next bit as I scrambled for a pen, but I swear he said 'but even more offensive than that' before reading the section about Ms Soester being a "blow-up doll" for Pisoni and Xenophon...perhaps it's more about my perception and reception than the broadcasting and intent, but there was something about this interview that differed from so many I've criticised previous.

Stuart sounded genuinely shocked at the extraordinary language, the direct abuse spewed at Ms Soester with such a blatantly pro-Labor bias, and it's deeper and very insidious intent...perhaps I'm reading too much into it, but the fact that that story received any attention at all is to me an indication that there has been a shift in attitude on this issue.

I refer to the direct similarities between this attack on Ms Soester and the kind of abuse that I have been subjected to...(and other parents-Ed)...and some other families, children included...I choose to believe that this article has bought into sharp focus the reality of what I have claimed...sure, on a good day I'm having a whinge, but I have suffered so much, I have lost so much, and that trauma has cascaded through my life, into all my relationships, simply for trying to get something done about the "text-book grooming paedophile" (Flinders Child Protection) who abused my child and dozens of other 7 year olds.    
Ms Soester has stared down the bullies and the liars, the manipulators and conspirators, and she has become such a threat that Labor has had to trot out Amanda Blair's particular brand of soulless, mindless, bigotry and vitriol...well done Amanda, you have given Ms Soester the sort of credibility and exposure that money cannot buy...well done...but I digress...

The ABC interview shifted briefly to the Naracoorte student 'framed' by a teacher for accessing pornography, as currently playing out through the media...I believe Stuart referred to him as the 'hush-money student' and Mr Pisoni directly stated that the Education Dept had "invented a position" for the teacher involved, but refused to sack him...this interview may be available at the ABC Local Radio website... 

Again, there was something different about this interview that I cannot adequately explain because I struggle to quantify it...most odd though, was my personal non-response to this interview off the back of this perception of mine, and one fed the other...(whaaa?-Ed)...it was my own quiet response to this interview that made me consider that there was a different attitude apparent...normally I would have been furious that the St Martins Issue was not raised, but it just didn't happen, I was genuinely pleased to hear these issues discussed at all.

I don't know whether I've just finally lost the last tattered shreds of my sanity, but it was a good interview, an excellent interview even...(oo, that hurts doesn't it?-Ed)...and followed on from a couple of good interviews with Liberal Shadow Ministers last week, including the extraordinarily crass statement from Vicki Chapman re Don Pegler's terrible loss of a child in a car accident...I will cover this at length tomorrow in more letter shredding...

And a further serendipitation in the 'just then news' report that the After School Carer Mark Harvey, gaoled for 6 years (4 with parole) for raping a young girl at the Western Suburbs School where Ms Soester was on the School Council, is facing 4 further charges of persistent sexual abuse re 4 other girls...said it before, how is it that a man can rape a young girl, let alone whilst working in a school, and get 6 years...it's a clear indication that the Judiciary consider Child Rape a negligible offence...steal a Judges Mercedes and see how many years you get. 

And then reported, the former Mt Gambier International Tennis Tournament as currently being played in Pt Pirie because Mt Gambier City Council did not keep the courts here up to standard...but are apparently looking for funding despite it not being anywhere on Council's 'planning' agenda...(didn't Mayor Steve Perryman say that the loss was no biggy because 'it didn't bring in much money'?-Ed)...indeed he did Ed, indeed he did...

Hear We Go Again: the National Health Medical Research Council yet again dances around the reality that there has been no appropriate testing of Wind Turbines by dismissing virtually all relative studies but then stating that Turbines are just fine...it's all about 'no reliable or consistent science'...but then go on to say there might be 'visual amenity' issues and/or other annoyance issues, might be both, eg, the visual may cause the annoyance, and that this might cause people stress and problems with sleep. 

Dismissing all but 7 of 3,000 public references as 'not reliable', as worthless, the NHMRCs Prof Warwick Anderson declares the all-clear on Turbines then openly acknowledges that "there might be" issues of "annoyance" and potentially "sleep deprivation"...

(Sorry?...so the NHMRC, despite not having done any investigation other than to review other 'studies' and then dismiss 2993 of that 3,000 as worthless, is then saying everything's fine with Turbines, but their evidence is that there is no evidence either way, nothing that proves or disproves definitively any of the 'alleged' health issues, but then recognises that there are issues of annoyance and sleep deprivation?...which is what is claimed in the first instance-Ed)...exactly...

(So, none of the science is any good, but Turbines are fine, but they do cause definable negative effects for people living near them-Ed)...exactly...(that's not even having a bet each way, that's just bare-faced self-contradiction ignored to support a pro-Turbine position-Ed)...indeed...

Penola Fracking company Beach Energy has declared a $161million first half profit off the back of oil production in the Cooper Basin...(yay for them-Ed)...indeed...

Excuse the blunt ending, but that's enough just there...it's dinner time...num-nums served on,

Tomorrow: A Bed Of Shredded Lettuce - Part II

I'll get to the Maher's letters, etc, eventually...probably...

I am Nick Fletcher and sorry, yes I am an animal...and this is my blog...cheers and laters...

Just A Short Post About Stuff

Hello and welcome to the blog and sorry but today I lack any great enthusiasm, motivation, and/or inspiration because I'm feeling a bit sorry for myself...my child (young adult) has joined the thronging hordes departing Mt Gambier so as to be able to attend Tertiary Education...

Now there's a whole blog in itself, let alone a post, and I don't really need to spell out to most people the issues related to the ongoing withdrawal of services, courses, etc, and potential for further cuts as per the front page of The Border Watch just last week, etc, the TAFE job losses recently, etc, and...(I thought you were going to take a spell from spelling it out?-Ed)...fair enough...moving on...

I feel strangely 'released' from my personal commitment to 'expose' myself...(hehehe-Ed)...to public scrutiny by being involved in the Electoral Process...putting aside the grossly biased and deliberately discriminatory nature of the Eligibility Criteria changes (20+ nominees and $3,000) that was un-apologetically introduced in 2013 and openly defended as being necessary to stop certain people running...(people like you?-Ed)...exactly...not me specifically but like me yes, I'm strangely relieved to not be part of the whole farce...

(So if it was free, you wouldn't have run?-Ed)...no, I would have I'm sure, but it would still have been very much as a fringe candidate unlikely to get the 4% first preference votes necessary to get the $3,000 back if I had paid...and it is not easy being involved in the public spotlight for reasons I've discussed at length in previous posts, and in some respects I've gone backward from there (March 2010), but at that stage I felt obliged to put my self up for criticism...

(Sorry, introduced to stop people running?...surely not...we live in a democracy where everyone has an equal right to participate-Ed)...no. sorry, that's simply not the case...and no genuine Independent is ever going to win the seat of Mt Gambier...and with the St Martins Issue fully exposed and officially covered-up by the Labor government, et al, the issue that drove me to run in March 2010, I feel less obliged to put myself up for 'exposure' and to 'wear responsibility'.


Firstly, a huge part of running in the March 2010 election was that I felt driven to address the issues re myself and other parents being targetted as the only genuine problem with the St Martins Child Abuse Cover-up...I've covered this in previous posts and it features heavily in the 'Comments' left by anonymous coward 'Dick Stretcher.'..and there's no question that I have borne the brunt of the bulk of that character assassination...


Basically, as far as strategy goes, I was saying 'if I'm the problem then here I am and let us get it on sir!'...or something like that...with the distance of 4 long years I struggle to remember any other particular motivation...and that motivation is gone now because here I am right here, and I have problems and I cause problems no doubt, but I have irrefutably established the reality of what the problem is at St Martins...

Even if I'd managed to run at the September 2013 Federal election as an 'Anti-Wind Turbine' candidate, that would have been really only a partial motivation dwarfed by the St Martins Issue.

Feedback: Yes availee, it is strange that I can make outrageous, apparently slanderous statements about the Child Abuse Cover-up at St Martins Lutheran School over and over again and then do it a few more times, and yet no Defamation action as threatened by the Lutherans, the Crown Solicitor, Bill DeGaris, etc, and the vast majority of those posts remain...(the truth is stranger than fiction-Ed)...

Secondly, in 2010 I genuinely felt that there were no positive options for Mt Gambier, it was basically down to Mt Gambier Mayor Steve Perryman and Grant District Council Mayor Don Pegler...and that this, coupled with the Labor strategy of 'preferencing' alleged Independents sourced from the Grant District Council, meant that there were only really one group of people running...(you're referring to the extinction of distinction between Liberal and Labor-Ed)...exactly...that and the paedophile influence immediately apparent in South Australian politics.


I am not a Liberal Party supporter, nor do I accept and/or promote their ideologies, strategies and/or policies, but for what little I know him, I do believe that Troy Bell can/will be a good advocate for Mt Gambier and Regional South Australia...for what little I know of him he seems genuinely concerned for his community...it is entirely down to him if he then slides onto the backbench and slips it into neutral...

Mt Gambier has been all but destroyed over the last decade by a series of local and state politicians wholly focused on themselves and operating in a paradigm where the electorate and it's well-being is considered to be subservient to the wants and needs of the elected representative...and one issue looms darkly in a storm-tossed sea, poised to crash on the South East like a giant polluted wave strewn with detritus and debris...

Fracking Ho:...(dude, you can't say that-Ed)...what?...the South East is like a rudderless ship under full sail, driven by an ill wind, carried on a tide of corruption, and the cry from the crows nest is "Fracking Ho"...the SE is on a collision course with Fracking and nobody, no party, not no one is actually going to act to stop Fracking for Shale Oil Gas at Penola, as currently being drilled right now...you can yell it all you like from the top of the mast, the problem is at the helm.

And at the other end of the map are the Labor Party, the Liberal Party, Beach Energy, the Environment Protection Agency, et al, getting all their wagons in line...(their Apple Carts?-Ed)...precisely...and then it's 'move 'em out...let's hit the road pilgrims, Fracking ho!'...but of course that ship of Apple Carts of self-interest and Adelaide obsessed politics set sail long ago...(is it a wagon-train or a ship?-Ed)...the drilling has already commenced and Fracking is one rubber-stamping away from realisation.   

Enough for today, but I'll do some collective letter-shredding re the Mahers and the Liberals and whoever else, whatevs, for tonight I sleep on new sheets, but,

Tomorrow: On A Bed Of Shredded Letters

Ahahaha...sorry, but that's what passes for humour in my world today...at least I'm still trying...(very-Ed)...I knew you were going to say that...

Oo, I also note that current Grant District Council Mayor Richard Sage had not nominated as of late last week so unless he did and it wasn't announced or I missed it...(or he nominates before noon tomorrow-Ed)...quite...well unless one of them things is what is happening, it appears that I was wrong in predicting his candidature in a supportive role to Labor and Don Pegler as part of the preference control strategy as per previous elections...we'll see I guess...

I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...cheers and etc, etc...where are my slippers?

Society's Real Evil Resides In The Advertiser

Hello, welcome to the blog, and my most profuse apologisings for yet again bumping the promised post, but a quick teaser about that...in a couple of recent letters in The Border Watch newspaper, Labor candidate and Mt Gambier City Councillor Jim Maher has taken issue with a petition organised by Liberal candidate Troy Bell re the Patient Assistance Transport Scheme...(was the petition about the PATS in general, or about the PATS Review?-Ed)...I don't know specifically...both?...

Anyhoos, all I know is that the Labor PATS Review strictly ruled out more funding, and was looking instead at making the same money go further by changing eligibility criteria to discount many people from even being able to apply...and current Member for Mt Gambier Don Pegler fully supported that PATS Review with it's direct intent of finding ways to deny people applying.

This refusal to improve funding was re-stated directly and unequivocally by Labor Health Minister Jack 'The Rat' Snelling right up until the Liberals announced funding, and then suddenly Labor announced $2.5million...I note that Labor never said 'we'll have to wait to see what the Review recommends', it was an absolute 'no'.

Anyhoos, Mr Maher takes great issue and much undisguised umbrage, some perceivable displeasure with the veracity of said 'PATS Petition'...(he also seems quite pissed-off-Ed)...quite...well anyway, I refer readers to the Fluoridation issue...(orhhh, jeez you're good...I remember...a 6,600 signature Formal Petition asking that the people of Mt Gambier be allowed to decide on having their water Fluoridated, all very carefully and appropriately formatted, collected and collated, etc, and formally presented to Don Pegler who had promised at the March 2010 Election Forum to represent the will of the people-Ed)...

(And then Mr Pegler just handed it to Labor, did not do the Parliamentary Grievance Debate speech to parliament that is specifically allowed for as part of the Petition process, and Labor just shoved the shreckin' thing straight in the shredder...bye bye petition-Ed)...well I think it was just 'shelved' not actually shredded...(yeah?...it's only been 3 years nearly 4, but I'd like to see Labor produce that Petition now still-Ed)...indeed...

Anyhoos Part III, that Fluoridation Petition was a fully sick, fully fat, gnarly great chunk of fully functioning Petition and our alleged representative handed it over, dutifully bowed his head, and sycophantically withdrew without a whimper...and Labor just completely ignored it...perhaps Mr Maher could have a look for it...but I digress...

I don't often buy the Advertiser newspaper because it's grossly biased and wholly untrustworthy in it's reportage...(but you still buy TBW?-Ed)...that's a whinge for another day...but in today's Advertiser, everything that is so very wrong with Adelaide in a definitive essay on the morality of our alleged illuminati, penned quite by accident...(whaaa?-Ed)...well, the 'article', in it's unabashed vitriole shines more light on the mindset of the person who wrote it and those she supports than discredits the subject, which is the articles clear intent.

In today's Advertiser Saturday 22nd Febuary 2014, page 13, notorious Labor hack Amanda Blair has returned to the media with one of the most vacuous, libellous, and infuriating pieces of dross that I have personally encountered for quite some time, under the heading Blow the whistle where society's real evil resides...(what, in Mike Rann's face?...or Jay Weatherills?...hows about right in Rory McEwen's?-Ed)...point perfectly made...

I've attached the article below, so please read now and then you'll appreciate the fruitiness of the language that follows as I refer to it directly............

Congratulations Ms Soester because you have clearly hit a nerve with the soulless and corrupt elements in the Education Department and state Parliament that they feel the need to trot out this tired old horse to drag her particular brand of bigoted and biased bullshit around the track...Ms Blair either has absolutely no idea what she is talking about and is mindlessly re-iterating false information provided by those she serves, or she has deliberately misrepresented the facts to the benefit of those she serves.

This letter is an unabashed attack on Ms Soester on behalf of the Labor Party, with associated denigration of Nick Xenophon and Liberal David Pisoni...I find it hilarious that Labor's performing pony puppet would describe Ms Soester as someones " blow-up doll"...

(I'd suggest that very few thoughts cross Ms Blair's mind-Ed)...indeed, 'when I drop my kids off I don't give a damn'...it is a farcical dismissal of the reality that has been played out in South Australia re child abuse in the Education system and the repeated cover-up of those abuses by the Education Department and the Labor government...we've got 2 police officers running the Education Dept, Amanda, because the last CEO shot through back to Oxford, England where he was at the centre of a horrendous Child Abuse cover-up prior to his stint in SA...(sweet baby cheeses, you couldn't make this shit up-Ed)...indeed...

What shreckin' planet are you on Amanda that you can just drop your kids off at a South Australian school and not give a thought for their safety?...not caring about the welfare of your own children is your business, but most other parents who give half a damn are absolutely horrified at the levels of abuse in our schools and the Education Dept's clearly defined attitude of cover-up and self-protection.

This article is exactly the sort of desperate 'character assassination' that desperate and corrupt people resort to when they can't get any traction against the facts...ignore what doesn't suit you, dismiss the rest, and make wholly subjective critiques of the actual person...this article defines you Amanda far more than it defines Ms Soester.

Naturally I feel a degree of solidarity with Ms Soester because I was driven to the same position at the March 2010 state Election, to run as an Independent candidate based on my experience of the St Martins Lutheran School Child Abuse Cover-up...and I have experienced the wrath of our illustrious leaders and their various acolytes and pretty much anyone who felt it was easier to blame myself and other parents rather than acknowledge and/or do something about the St Martins Cover-up.

Because it's a longish article and I've had an absolute gutful, I'll pull up here, but I'm just listening to a discussion on the ABC/BBC about the 1500 deaths in Iraq this year already from bombings, etc, and a total of 6,000 last year, but how these acts of extreme violence have fallen out of the news cycle as Iraq slowly sinks from sight of the West...(don't you mean 'in' the West?-Ed)...no, I mean 'of'.

Tomorrow: The Maher Manuscripts

I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...cheers and laters...

More Of The Same Yet Different

Hello and welcome to the blog and a brief apology for some unpleasant venting in yesterday's post, but I don't retract the meat of the matter...(so you're taking back the angry gravy but the Roast remains-Ed)...exactly...all day I'd heard a bunch of stuff around the Child Abuse Royal Commission and their latest hearing in Toowoomba, and some of the faux mia culpas coming from the Principal, etc...and I'm in no better mood today...

I was just deeply angered to see him talking around how he had 'spoken' to the teacher who refuted all allegations, and was then re-employed...(and who was the woman who criticised the kids for not having "the courage" to come forward...she was actually blaming the kids for not exposing the man who was assaulting them...no wonder you get angry-Ed)...she was the school's Counsellor or some such...what an extraordinary thing to say.

In the Teachers Registration Board hearing (March 2003-Nov 2004) it was teacher Glyn Dorling's 'explanation'/excuse' that the many physical contacts he admitted with the 7 year old children, were occurring because the children forced themselves on him and he couldn't control them (paraphrase of his testimony)...commit acts of gross psychological manipulation and physical impropriety against 7 year old kids from a position of absolute power, and then when you get caught, blame them.

And the TRB accepted that 'defense' and exonerated him...(mate, he could have said 'because I felt like it' and the TRB would have cleared him because that's exactly what they set out to do, starting day 1 in March 2003-Ed)...yeah, fair enough...

I'll go further and say that it doesn't make me angry so much as deeply traumatised, and I try to deflect some of that trauma with anger...I refuse to let it all get through to me by throwing some of it back...there are just so many similarities between this case and the St Martin's case...in Toowoomba, if the appropriate authorities had dealt with it properly, a dozen 8-10 year old girls would not have been abused...Glyn Dorling was already being protected by the Lutherans after several years of multiple complaints, when they put him in a classroom with our 7 year old children.

Just in case I hadn't mentioned it, I carry enormous guilt about seeing Glyn Dorling in the middle of his "Christian Cuddles" regime one morning in May 2002 and failing to recognise that for what it was, meaning that the abuses continued for another 2-3 weeks...and that guilt has only been multiplied by my failure to resolve the St Martins Issue...but to have it identified to you and then allow it to continue, as Principal John Alexander did at St Martins, and as the Principal did at the Toowoomba school, that's just bastardry, that is true insanity.

And yesterday I took a healthy slice of that guilt and poured it in to an angry post about some of the people I hold responsible...(that's a very sloppy pie if you can pour a slice-Ed)...shhh...perhaps I'm wrong, perhaps it is wrong to blame some of the people I do for what I consider to be their involvement in the St Martins Lutheran School Child Abuse Cover-up...but try as I might it keeps coming back to the same thing in the same place, my opinion is irrelevant because the reality defines itself. 

And so today more of the same re the subject matter but a different approach in that I'd like to discuss how wrong I might be about any number of things...but first quickly...despite my several pages of notes, I don't have a particular commentary re the Leaders Debate from earlier this week because I found it wholly without passion and Regional South Australia barely rated a mention...in fact, if the question of Regional services was not raised by interviewer/moderator Chris Uhlmann, I don't think the wondrous land of Notadelaide would have even got a mention..

As per usual, my deep cynicism drove me from any hope of belief or optimism and I struggled to stay focused on the debate, to stay with the herd...plans and promises and visions and versions of events...call me a cynic, but it looked like a 'gentleman's agreement' to go easy on each other...through-out the whole thing, in the back of my mind, I could hear Rob Lucas bleating about how there was nothing the Liberals could do to embarrass the Labor government over the St Martins Issue...

And nothing improves my mood more than the petty point-scoring politic that is currently being played out in Mt Gambier when all of these learned scribes and orators are by any definition culpable in the St Martins Cover-up...(and readers, can I just point out that he's very much aware of just how much the St Martins Issue continues to dominate his life-Ed)...thankyou Ed, you don't need to apologise on my behalf, I can do it for myself...but I digress...  
  
For The Record: for all I know there is absolutely no connection between Rory McEwen and Grant King and the $20million Seaweed Harvesting deal (near Kingston SE) recently announced, or even if they are involved that there's any impropriety, but I do trust my information as being genuine...and my personal experience of Rory and Grant greatly colour my opinion of anything they might be involved in.

However, if there is any truth at all in the situation as it was 'alleged' to me, there are questions to be asked and duly answered...I understand that the main issue, regardless of who is/isn't involved, is that the profits from that project are in-appropriately going into private hands with virtually no recompense for the community...I would suggest that the seaweed is a public asset, and that it is not irresponsible to look at this as the potential misappropriation of public funds.

I will endeavour to pursue this issue as best I can so as to present an accurate reportage and post in the near future...

I'm going to pull stumps here, it's 2050hrs and I'm knackered...(oh, but quickly, an important public notice-Ed)...oh yes?...(the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission has issued a warning about the many state Liberal shadow-ministers and their federal government colleagues who have been in the South East recently-Ed)...the ACCC issued a warning...are you sure?...(yeah I heard the bloke from the ACCC on the radio stating that consumers needed to "beware of travelling con-men'-Ed)...

Hilarious, and nearly as funny as the burgeoning vacuum where the Labor campaign should be...(taboomtish-Ed)...strewth, who writes this material?...anyway, I don't know which is worse, a flood of Liberals or a Labor drought?...and sorry, there was a genuine ACCC warning about people trying to sell 'left-over bitumen' and taking the money and not completing the work.

Tomorrow: A Maher Trifecta

Former Labor candidate Viv, and current candidates Jim (seat of Mt Gambier) and Kyam (Upper House) were all in the media today, all in my face today...(well, Kyam was in your ears which technically aren't  part of your face-Ed)...finished?...(yep-Ed)...and there's always the counter-point of contradiction from the Liberal party...(yay for everyone-Ed)...yes, yay...

I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...cheers and laters...

PS: Apologies for short, partly disjointed post but I pulled a chunk of script at the last minute following advice...cheers, Nick.

Just Some Corruption Allegations

Hello and welcome to the blog   and it's summer in Australia and last week it was 40C and yesterday at 1500hrs it was 11C and raining...quite bizarre...but here's some actual news...well, some venting...

Unless I have missed it, there still has been no reportage of the Independent Commission Against Corruption alleged 'investigation' of the Mt Gambier City Council...and again, surely this is huge news given the allegations of mismanagement, malfeasance, and theft that have plagued Council over the last few years, eg, Main Corner, Library, Mayor Perryman's 'Insider Trading' re the Old Hospital Demolition, etc...and particularly huge news that the ICAC have supposedly looked at everything and found absolutely nothing and have duly "closed the file".  

And just for the record, the former Old Hospital owners SkyTowers Mt Gambier were/are suing the Receivers who sold the property to Council, and Council was allegedly under investigation from the ICAC, but the building demolition went ahead anyway...(even though it was still allegedly riddled with Asbestos in the window frames at the rear-Ed)...well quite.

It's just nonsensical that the windows on the protected front side did have waterproof Asbestos mastic and were duly smashed out of the building with all the subtlety of a Rampaging Randy Rhino on Acid, but the exposed windows at the back, facing the Southern gales, etc, supposedly did not have Asbestos and were left in for the demolition...but I digress...an alleged Court action and an alleged ICAC investigation of Insider Trading but the building comes down anyway.

Sorry, but I still haven't written to the ICAC, but tomorrow...(you like to drop these things on them on weekends don't you?-Ed)...not particularly, I just forgot...but I reference the ICAC and their farcical investigation of the City Council because I'm about to brutally eviscerate them for their rank collective corruption and I don't want anyone to be under any illusion and/or remotely uncertain as to whom and/or what I am referring.

And I have absolutely no qualms in attacking both ICAC and Council and making direct claims of their collusive corruption because that is exactly what has happened...and I don't make a habit of taunting people...(although you do enjoy the occasional mocking-Ed)...occasionally...but I challenge both Council and ICAC and whoever else wants to front up, come on, let's get funky in a Courtroom and I'll bring my scurrilous, libellous allegations and you bring what ever it is you are.

And again, I say that with the quiet confidence borne of experience, that nobody embroiled in the St Martins Lutheran School Child Abuse Issue wants to let me or any of the other parents involved anywhere near a Court, let alone try to deal with the litany of criminality that the ICAC has rubber-stamped with it's pathetic 'investigation' of Council...(yeah, could you be a little more specific?-Ed)...not really...

Please refer to previous posts re the extraordinary failure of the ICAC to find any 'evidence' of acts of Council corruption despite the fact that said acts are recorded in Council's own Meetings Minutes or have been on the front page of The Border Watch...

I completely reject the ICAC as having any authority or any credibility...it is an institution without integrity and a wholly subservient avatar for the corrupt politicians who instigated it...and again I'm not taunting or goading anyone...(Stuart Stansfield corners that market-Ed)...careful or he'll call the police...alright yes now I'm goading a bit...(and why haven't the ABC sued you for publicly accusing them of being knowingly involved in the St Martins Abuse Cover-up?-Ed).

Because I haven't alleged anything, I have merely borne witness to the truth, to the facts, to the reality of exactly what they have knowingly done and continue to knowingly do...the ABC is knowingly, willingly, wantonly, and apparently irretrievably committed to supporting the St Martins Cover-up...by all means please peruse my previous posts and the extraordinary treatment that has been meted out to me by the Public Broadcaster.

If the ABC's Legal Eagles are perusing the blog as they claim and still fail to act to address the extraordinary behaviours of Stuart Stansfield but rather attack me and lie to me and call me a liar, etc, and have duly perused my specific statements identifying their role in the St Martins Cover-up, then why have I not been dragged into Court and held to account...(um, because the Truth is still a fairly solid defense, even in the highly corrupted South Australian Court system-Ed)...well exactly...moving on...   

Last week the Mt Gambier City Council held a 'workshop' with a Dr Tolley, and are set to hold 3 more, and the topic?...walking and city structure and planning and such like...(this is a joke you are playing at me, yes?-Ed)...no sorry, they're actually doing it...(is this more of that Park and Stride crap?-Ed)...ah yeah that's part of it...and Council's new super dooper 'Plan for the Future'...(but it's too late, they've already stuffed everything with their greed, corruption, and incompetence...the damage is done...that horse ain't gettin' up again-Ed)...

Are you suggesting that it doesn't matter when one bolt's ones gate, because Council is flogging a dead horse that ain't goin' nowhere no time soon?...(absolutely...their obsession with the Rail Lands Retail Agenda has rooted planning and development issues across Mt Gambier, and now the lunacy of the Old Hospital Demolition and pointless, unnecessary Rail Lands dirt-shifting has burned millions of ratepayers money, much of it borrowed-Ed)...

A casual glance at the litany of planning and development disasters and gross nepotism and fraud and theft, etc, etc, etc, that defines the last decade of a dysfunctional and corrupt Council defines the reality of the problems they have created...again I ask that readers review my previous posts that clearly outline a series of major malfeasance issues, the vast majority of which is factual recounting of actual events.

And call me an old cynic, but I'd reckon that, given the Main Corner 'catering leasers' have assimilated the Old Town Hall facilities as well, these 'workshops' being held in the OTH would be a nice earner if they were catered...(and of course Rate-payers are subsidising every single dish prepared in the $1million commercial kitchen installed as part of the Main Corner and it's 120%, $6million cost blowout...and pay for the gas, electricity, etc-Ed)...yes, including the meals the leasers prepare there and then sell over the road at their cafe.

Recently the Forestry Industry Advisory Board chair Trevor Smith was on the ABC spruiking the wonders of various studies and strategies...(more bloody catered forums-Ed)...for the future of Forestry and industry, etc, in the South East...and again I vehemently denounce this as too little too late and from someone largely responsible for the abject bastardry of the Forestry Sale in the first instance...Mr Smith is a card-carrying Labor man and former Chair of the Forestry Round Table...(not the FRT?...splitters-Ed)...

Sorry, but I'm just starting to vent...I know it but I don't possess the motivation to control myself this evening...and I do find it quite cathartic to hurl a bit of accurate abuse once and a while...and render unto Caesar and all that...(he means give it to someone who deserves it-Ed)...ta...so,

Tomorrow: JSCA Part II

And yes, sorry, the Rory McEwen and Grant King stuff with the seaweed and shizzle...

I am Nick Fletcher and this is my very angry blog...well today it is anyway...thanks for the feedback and I'll do some of that tomorrow too...cheers and laters...

More PATS On The Back For ASIC Patient

Hello and welcome to the blog Poland, the USofA, Indonesia, and the United Kingdom...and I know how wet it's been in England and parts of Europe, but it's raining here for the first time in ages (weeks even months?)...not a lot, but it's still rain...and there's just so much stuff going on that I'm not sure where to start...(how's about right here-Ed)...okey dokes then...

ASIC 'Em Boy: as the Parliamentary Senate Standing Committee on Economics goes the Australian Securities and Investments Commission about their (ASIC) response to the Insider Trading share deals that the David Jones Chairperson Peter Mason and 2 directors conducted ...(is that the recent one relative to sales results and a 'secret' merger offer from Myer?-Ed)...yep...(and that follows the Gunns Chair John Gay ripping off $3million and getting fined $50,000 without having to repay the money and no jail time?-Ed)...exactly...

(What do ASIC actually do?-Ed)...damned if I know...and I know I'm very cynical, but it looks to me like they're there to make it look like there's something there to look at the stuff they're supposed to look at but don't seem to ever do...(is that their Mission Statement?-Ed)...nice...and Mr Price of ASIC kept excusing their farcical inaction by saying that it was "the materiality" and/or lack of of the evidence, the situation, the personnel involved...it was all 'not material' , it lacked "materiality "...(materiality is never a word-Ed)...yeah I think it is, it's just that he used it in several contexts so I have no idea exactly what he was trying to say.

PATS: Dr Scott Lewis, President of the Rural Doctors Association states that patients are still going to be out of pocket even with the $2.5million Patient Assistance Transport Scheme funding increase that both major Parties have promised ahead of the state Election...they (RDA) identified that patients certainly cut back on trips, and do put off treatment and diagnostic services, eg, X-Rays, scans, etc.

They would like to see a much more "equitable" 25c per km for travel allowance not the 16c/km under the current system, and other changes to accomodation costs that are set to go from $30 up to $40. As Dr Lewis quite rightly stated, there are not many $40 per night accommodation options (if you can't get into Greenhill Lodge, etc) and the RDA would like it to be $80, and that these costs are often cumulative for multiple treatments and the associated stressors of just accessing services do affect lower positive health outcomes. He spoke highly of video conferencing as a way to bridge the perpetual gaps in services to help stop people having to travel.

Again, I have a problem with video conferencing as being a replacement for actual services in the Regional centres where they should be provided...I see these trends, eg, toward 'Video Education' that is being spruiked as a real positive for Regional students, I feel there is a real possibility of there being 1 lecturer and 10,000 on-line students, of jobs being lost at Regional campuses and once those jobs go, the institutions become unsustainable and are closed with the disclaimer that it can all be done on-line now.

Even today The Border Watch has concerns about service provision and jobs at TAFE Mt Gambier as the cover story...(ah but we're getting more prisoners from Adelaide for populating a further gaol expansion, that's all squared away, plenty of cash for that...and Grant District Council Mayor Richard Sage says be grateful for the jobs-Ed)...strewth...  

But with PATS, I have experienced exactly what Dr Lewis is describing and know many others who have suffered the same problems, eg, getting to Adelaide to find appointments have been cancelled before the patient had even left Mt Gambier, but they weren't contacted...I missed a cancelled/re-scheduled MRI scan over a year ago because I couldn't get to Adelaide, only to find out that it was actually only an appointment to see if I would get a scan...I'd then have had to go back a few weeks later for the scan...if I got an appointment...still waiting...

My concern is that, as with PATS funding that doesn't address failure to provide Regional services, any sort of video conferencing can and will lead to further centralisation of services and self-justify further cuts, and with the Adelaide focused culture of South Australian politics, we could well end up with sub-standard video services...video conferencing is an excellent addition to expand service options, but it cannot be allowed as a justification for service reduction in local Health, Education, etc, service provision.

I further make the point that with the privatisation of the SA health service re the profit guarantee contract on the Royal Adelaide Hospital (previous posts), and a new RAH that is 100 beds smaller than the current hospital, this new "hospital for all South Australians" (former Labor Health Minister John Hill) will not have room for country patients...(yeah, but they're not just going to push patients out in the street-Ed)...actually they are, Labor directed exactly that to happen only 2-3 years ago when the ambulance 'Ramping' issue reached a climax, country patients were discharged en masse to make room for Adelaide patients.

This 'discharge directive' is considered by some country patients to be a continuing practice...I remind readers that the $26million for the current Mt Gambier Hospital expansion is Federal funding...it remains my concern that Mt Gambier is an irrelevance to Adelaide politics, and that the recent announcement from Liberal Health minister Peter Dutton of no MRI for Mt Gambier, is only further proof of that, and that we will increasingly be accessing Health services in Victoria. 

Fair Game: apparently, are the Un-endangered Animals that Prince William has been gunning down in his spare time...(hang on...isn't he a patron for the World Wildlife Fund or something similar?...an advocate for Endangered Species Day or som'it?-Ed)...not quite I don't think, but he has apparently vowed to help save Africa's endangered wildlife and to show solidarity, to destroy the Royal family's Ivory collection...(so it's ok to shoot boar in Spain on 'holiday', but Ivory is right out?-Ed)...that's about the size of it.

I'm really not into shooting things...(bloody hippy-Ed)...but there is a great show on SBS 4 National Indigenous TV called Hunting Aotearoa where a Maori dude travels around Aotearoa (New Zealand) hunting predominantly feral animals like deer, goats, pigs, bulls, etc, with the locals...if PW gutted his boar and lugged it back to the ute and butchered it and slung it onto a BBQ, well that'd be one thing...(doesn't he have people to do that for him?-Ed)...dunno...shooting things for fun or trophy is not my sport...venison, now that's a different story.

(Ah, so you're saying that it's one thing to kill for sport but something entirely different to shoot for food-Ed) ...that's exactly what I'm saying...(see, I got really confused when Prince Billy said it was alright to shoot the animals that he was shooting because they weren't endangered, I just thought it meant that he was a very, very bad shot and therefore those particular animals were not in danger-Ed)...I love the way your mind works...and I also saw a photo of Prince Harry posing next to a Water Buffalo he'd just shot, but I think that was from 10 years ago and just thrown in amongst the other stuff for a bit of colour.

Enough for today and barely scratched the surface...haven't forgotten the Rory McEwen, Grant King,  Seaweed thingy either so,

Tomorrow: Shenanigans 

People say stuff to me, at me, about me...so long as it's me...(ahahaha-Ed)...but there are things that I can only say are said to me as such and as such are merely heresay...and should be carefully identified as such...but where there's smoke there's fire...(not necessarily...what about smoke machines?-Ed)...yeah, that's dry ice, not smoke...

I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...cheers and laters...

Dentistry and Deceits and One And The Same

Hello and welcome and apologies for dodgy, late, stop-gappish, short post, but still some interesting stuff I think...(nobody's going to complain about you doing a short post, mate-Ed)...fair enough...had the unexpected pleasure of the company of my child today, and then Council meeting this evening...(get on with it-Ed)...sure...

But First: Last night I saw part of an interview on ABC TV Lateline with Tim Wilson, former Director with the Public Affairs Institute and now head of the Human Rights Commission...(ahahaha-Ed)...and he said that the Abbott Federal government should stop funding Private Schools...(say what?-Ed)...he was talking about Free Speech and discrimination, etc, and said that Private schools should be able to discriminate, but Public schools are funded by government and that's public money and therefore they should be accountable, etc...

(But Private schools also receive government fuahhhh, I get it...he didn't actually say they should stop funding-Ed)...sorry, did I say said?...what I meant was directly inferred in the one sentence...but that is exactly what he said, and obviously without realising it, he made a huge boo-boo...(hilarious-Ed)

Dentally Does It: I recently received a letter from the SA Dental Service (attached below)...I had been on a SADC waiting list from some time ago (3 years?) and subsequently had some treatment (2 appointments) at a local private clinic in October 2013...(well that's a good thing-Ed)...sure, and I think it might have been part of the program to reduce Waiting Lists as well...not sure...

Late 2012 SADC Waiting Lists in Mt Gambier had blown out to 4 years, just for an appointment, and in mid 2013 a program was implemented to reduce that wait...as per previous posts, I do take a very small measure of credit for that actioning and subsequent reduction as being a response to my attempts to address the issue via the media, but I genuinely feel that we owe a debt of gratitude to the ABC and their Late Afternoon's announcer Annette Marner and her colleagues for pursuing the issue.

And a huge thankyou and massive creditingness to the staff at the Mt Gambier Hospital Clinic because I know how hard they work to help people who do have genuine emergencies...(or have had chemo, etc-Ed)...indeed...and that cannot be easy given the gross under-funding that epitomises Country Health. and the well documented problems with attracting 'long-term dentists' (and other doctors, specialists, etc) to Mt Gambier.  

Anyway, I received partly funded treatment and that is, as Ed said, all good...except that I received the letter dated February 4th 2014, just over a week ago, some 4-5 months after the treatment, and as you can see it refers to "Today's appointment" and says I'll have to wait 12 months before getting back onto the Waiting List...the handwritten "Oct 2014" was on there and refers to my last appointment October 2013 +12 months.

It appears that this is the same strategy as has been applied to other Waiting Lists, eg, Elective Surgery, where Labor Health Minister Jack Snelling is now saying 'we've got the shortest waiting lists in Australia' by creating Waiting Lists to get on the Waiting Lists...(charming-Ed)...

Also attached the email that I received last Friday 14th October 2014 (sorry, only just checked my emails this morning on another computer...all fixed now though) from Liberal candidate Troy Bell, that refers to the letter sent to Housing Trust tenants by current member Don Pegler...this letter is self-explanatory.

Tomorrow: The Stuff I Promised Yesterday

I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...cheers and laters...

Some Mo' Shredded Letters

Hello and welcome to the blog Taiwan, Aotearoa (New Zealand), China, and France...and an early apology for a late, bitsy post...been a long day of housework and appointments and other minutiae and I've stupidly got 'house-dusting hayfever' or at least the groggy, clogged head thing that immediately proceeds it...(sorry, no pity for such silly self-inflicted wounds, wear a face-bandanna thingy-Ed)...yeah, I forgot...moving on then...

Yay: Tonight on South Australian TV there is the bewildering prospect of the undignified spectacle of our illustrious leader Premier Jay Weatherill going mano et mano with Liberal leader Stephen Marshall...and
as ugly as may be every image that that conjures, I'm quietly confident that the reality will be even uglier...

I look forward to forcing myself to sit through this impending blizzard of bullshit because as much as I try to be involved informedly in politics to the point where I need to watch this, it remains my personal desire to have absolutely nothing to do with any of these people, let alone put up with them in my lounge room talking their particular brand of bare-faced bollocks at me...(take a breath dude...and a chill pill...they're not actually there, they're just on the telly-Ed)...yeah, sorry, sorry...

I choose to segue straight into the subject matter, but I'm not going to try and pick apart every letter, instead I'll stick to what I believe is the truth and let 'availees' compare this to what ever it is you all are lookin' at ya' hear...there have been many interviews about frickin' Fracking on the ABC Radio and various letters  in The Border Watch and/or other local papers, eg, Federal MP Tony Pasin saying it's a state planning issue, etc, his family has a farm, etc...or Steven Davies who has declared it is a "benign process" and he wants the revenue now to maintain his lifestyle now (a paraphrase but the overall tenet of his reasoning).

Forget Mr Davies, he's stone cold tripping, Fracking is an environmental disaster everywhere it occurs and the employment figures, etc, that he quotes, are unrealistically high. I find it fundamentally impossible to accept that any of these various players, Labor or Liberal or even Independent, are genuinely acting to stop the Fracking at Penola...and if Fracking is allowed 2kms from Penola township in the middle of prime, pristine, farmland and vineyards, straight through 2 Aquifers, then it can happen anywhere...and Adelaide has no idea and probably wouldn't care anyway...

Labor have no conscience what-so-ever and have openly supported this Penola/Beach Energy venture and there's just no way that they're suddenly going to refuse those approvals that allegedly have not yet been granted...the Liberal Party are blowing smoke where ever they can manage with a farcical promise of a parliamentary committee that will achieve nothing until well after it's too late anyway...(whaaa?-Ed)...and have openly supported Fracking, eg, Mitch Williams gross misrepresentation of the facts in supporting this specific Fracking project.

That well is being drilled now...it is in itself a massive artificial geological anomaly that guarantees that the toxic sludge pumped into the ground, under extreme pressure, will 'escape' and pollute both Aquifers the shaft passes through.

Even Senator Nick Xenophon's proposed changes to legislation so as to protect Aquifers and therefore stop Fracking in vulnerable areas like the South East, even those changes, if they get through, are subject to state attitudes and application, and that means that you can have whatever legislation you like because it's wide open to jurisdictional control and everyone in SA wants Fracking...for shrek sake people, it's 400kms from Adelaide so who gives a rats arse?...(well I do-Ed)...and good on you champ.
 
Ahhh, Oooo, My Troybellitis Is Killing Me: 2 more TV ads and posters and forums and articles and interviews...you'd be excused for thinking that the Liberal Party are taking Mt Gambier very seriously as a seat worth winning and that their candidate Troy Bell gives half a damn...    

Tourist Bus Attack: in the Sinai area of Egypt, the first in several years, has confirmed fears that the ongoing political instability has stirred up or re-ignited regional conflicts. Targeting tourists was/is a deliberate strategy to 1) damage the countries economy and therefore the government by driving away the Tourism dollar, and 2) move the issues outside of Egypt itself, ie, an attack on Egyptians might receive little or even no international coverage, but the deaths of tourists is guaranteed to generate news time.

Starting 10-12 months ago, I have seen/heard several reports saying that the Sinai had already been declared 'lawless' and was effectively out of bounds for tourists...why and how these tourists came to be there despite these bans/warnings has not been explained.  

Child Abuse Royal Commission: goes to Queensland to look at a 2007/08 case in a Catholic Primary School but yet again it's a case that has already been resolved and the teacher gaoled for 10 years...(can I just make the point that there were over a dozen direct victims and other children witness, so each child's suffering is worth less than a year in gaol-Ed)...yeah it's indicative of the judicial attitude to paedophiles and the rights/well being of the perpetrator...he should be doing 10 years for each victim of his abuses...

Still no word about when or even if the Commission is going to come to Mt Gambier to tackle the St Martins Lutheran School Child Abuse Cover-up...and there are chilling comparisons with this case and St Martins, namely that these were 8-10 year olds who were abused across 2 years, even after parents complained in the first year, and the parents involved were attacked by other parents (who would wear ribbons indicating support for the school) and a headmaster who didn't Mandatory Notify, etc...(ya' gotta' love it when people start wearing ribbons to attack others...insidious passive aggressive arseholes-Ed)...I concur

Meanwhile in Adelaide the parents whose disabled children were abused at St Anns Catholic School in the 1990s are still fighting for compensation despite the gaoling of the perpetrator (where he died) and a 2004 public mia culpa from the then Adelaide Arch Bishop Phillip Aspinall...10 years after that and the families are quite convinced that the Catholics have no intention of ever resolving the matter but are simply waiting for the now elderly and traumatised parents to die...(yay for the Catholics-Ed)...this has just run again 5 minutes ago on the ABC...now the Queensland case...

And the Leaders Debate has just finished so I'm all sworn out...enough for today and...

Tomorrow: More Council Shenanigans

And the second part of the stuff about Labor candidate Jim Maher's recent letter from TBW re PATS, etc...also some startling allegations about the Kingston/Chinese Seaweed deal...and imagine my surprise that those named as being involved include Grant King and Rory McEwen...

I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...cheers and laters...

The Writs Hit The Fan

Hello and welcome to the blog Netherlands, Brazil, United Kingdom and France...and welcome all to the 2014 South Australian state election campaign as officially launched yesterday (Saturday 15th February 2014) when our illustrious leader Premier Jay Weatherill strolled across to Government House to word-up his homie Governor Kevin Scarce...it is still K Scarce, isn't it?...(dunno, think so-Ed)...

And Big Kev said 'yo' and the Writ was writ and so away we go and don't you know that time will show the to and fro for what it truly is...the farcical debacle of pseudo-Democracy that we are privileged to be allowed to participate in by our gracious overlords...(yay for Democracy...or, failing that, yay for whatever it is we currently experience every four years-Ed)...and I know I've been through all this before, but it bears repeating.  

And in that context I denounce what currently happens in South Australia as being Democracy in name alone...SA isn't governed for the benefit and betterment of the community, we are governed tor the benefit of a handful of politicians and their mates and supporters...(as per Mt Gambier City Council-Ed)...indeed...this is the reality and fundamental root of our problems...we are 'governed' from one election to the next solely with a view to winning the next one, via a strategy of 'pork-barrelling' and 'carpet baggage'...and that's not Democracy.

And don't get me started...(too late surely?-Ed)...about the bipartisan approach to covering-up paedophilia as evidenced by the St Martins Lutheran School Child Abuse Cover-up...and in that context I partially apologise to City Councillor and Labor candidate Jim Maher for unloading at him in yesterday's post...I don't withdraw my criticism, but there's plenty of other people who are exponentially more responsible for the St Martins Issue and should bear the bulk of that criticism. 

It would not be unreasonable to suggest that I took a bunch of residual unhappiness from my recent chat with Liberal Rob Lucas and Rory McEwen's appearance at Don Pegler's campaign launch and dumped it all in Jim Maher's lap...I still choose to believe that Mr Maher genuinely believes that there are positives that he can achieve, but thinks that achieving requires what some might describe as 'pragmatism' and pragmatism means ignoring, and ignoring means denying, and denying the truth is lying, and there-in lies the problem.

Maybe I've failed miserably, but I have demonstrated attempts at pragmatism, eg, lamenting the loss of Councillors Maher and Byron Harfield...or allowing Nick Xenophon a latitude of behaviour that I have allowed no other...(ah, well, I think you're big-noting yourself a bit now...even for you-Ed)...fair enough...but I submit that there is a perception of Mr Xenophon's behaviour that I haven't covered before...(but you're going to now, right-Ed)...

Mr Xenophon helped establish the highly corrupted 3-4 year long Statutory Authorities Review Committee culminating in SARC Report no.54 that effectively helped officially cover-up the St Martins Issue and all involved...actually, I did mention this before, that MLC Anne Bressington, amongst others, have alleged that Mr Xenophon conspired with various Parties to herd us parents into a 'blind gully' with an Inquiry conceived and run to break us...that we would eventually give up...(exactly like the Teachers Registration Board hearing was run-Ed)...exactly...

And Mr Xenophon failed to follow through with his repeated promises to attend the SARC Inquiry with parents, and has failed to raise the St Martins Issue in Federal parliament where this matter now clearly resides given the abject failure of state authorities...(or in the media-Ed)...indeed, how many times has Mr Xenophon been on the ABC Radio Mt Gambier since the SARC Report no.54, and not mentioned St Martins or the SARC...(heaps-Ed)...exactly...

Perhaps it's a case of accepting that Mr Xenophon has done what he felt could do and now feels that there is nothing else to be done...I still choose to believe that Mr Xenophon acted to get us the Inquiry that he could and where none was likely otherwise, and that he did that with a view to help not hinder us.

(Personally, I'd like to see Liberals Rob Lucas, David Ridgway, Tony Pasin, Peter Gandolfi, Steve Perryman, et al, and all their lawyers, joining with Jay Weatherill, Mike Rann, Rory McEwen, et al, and all their lawyers...and the Crown Solicitor, and the Teachers Registration Board, and SAPol, et al...I'd love to see you take them all on-Ed)...well, actually, I have been...and throw the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Independent Commission Against Corruption in with that lot...

(Yeah, but I mean all together in one room...all together getting a factual flensing, an effervescent evisceration, a public pummelling, to be hoisted upon the crucifix of facts, to be-Ed)...yeah, yeah, you've made your point...that's not going to happen...that's why we have the blog...I'm putting everything I believe to be true right here with my name on every one, and it appears the 'taking posts down' strategy has failed so now we've entered a phase of 'acknowledgement denial'...(whaaa?-Ed)...attempted denial of the blogs very existence by not acknowledging it...(don't give it the credibility of recognising it's existence-Ed)...exactly...

But I digress because the issue is the Issuing of the Writs for the SA State Election to be held on Saturday 15th March 2014...so it's official now and the various protagonists have been going each other for quite some time already...(indeed, I have Troybellitis-Ed)...Troybellitis?...(yes, it's a hallucinatory affliction where-in you see Liberal candidate Troy Bell where ever you look-Ed)...oo, nasty...is it uncomfortable?...can you get an ointment or something for that?...(no, and I'm also experiencing a nasty rash of political posters from all candidates...and it's spreading-Ed)...oh nobody needs that...

Seriously though, there's one fat, furry face you won't be seeing grinning inanely at you off a stobie-pole, and that would be mine, because in the unlikely event that I do meet the grossly biased criteria and can even run, there's no likelihood that I'll be poster-bombing...besides, all the good poles are taken already...(not just the good ones, pretty much all of them-Ed)...I note that when I went up the street recently there were Troy Bell posters and no others, and then by my return a bunch of Greens posters.

And I should note another candidate for Mt Gambier in Mr Peter Heaven for the Family First Party...so that's incumbent Don Pegler (Independent), Jim Maher (Labor), Green's candidate Mr Baseley, Liberal Troy Bell, and...actually I think that's it, currently...(you still think that Grant District Council Mayor Richard Sage is going to run, don't you-Ed)...the surprise will be if he doesn't...and if it can be managed, one Large, Angry, Hippy...(yay-Ed).

I have had no dealings with Mr Baseley or Mr Heaven so I am not in a position to comment...and as for the other 3, well, I never shut-up about them...(the other 4 if you include Richard Sage-Ed)...indeed...

I apologise for not getting onto any further issues stemming from yesterday's post, but I will do it...

Tomorrow: Politics and Other Afflictions

Joking aside, there is very little chance that I'll be running as a candidate...it's not a contest that I could conceivably win, and I'd need to get nearly 1,000 first preference votes to get back the extortionist and biased $3,000 Nomination fee...whilst I'm in many contexts incredibly lucky to be on the Disability Support Pension, $3k is nearly 1/4 of my yearly income...(can I have a yay for Democracy?-Ed)...no, sorry, fresh out of yays, but I've got this wreath, will that do?

I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog and I know I go over the same old stuff sometimes but when some of it gets resolved, I'll move on...and not before...thanks for your patience, patronage, support and even critique...I've made mistakes on occasion and offended a few people I know, but it is what it is and for all my faults and failings, at least I'm trying...cheers and laters.