Monday, October 20, 2014

Forum And Coke Sake

Hello Vietnam, India, Canada, and the United States of America, and welcome one and all to the blog for another exciting week in politics, and to that end another post mostly about the CAS Mayoral Candidates Forum last Friday evening, October 17th 2014...and again thanks to Community Action for Sustainability for organising the event, it was by all accounts quite an eye-opener for most in attendance...

But First: a fire has destroyed the Old Rail Shed, the Roundhouse, on the site just West of the main Rail Lands...made me jump a bit when I heard it because I unfortunately predicted (continue to predict) that this is the potential future for the Old Rail Station given that it sits right in the way of the Rail Lands Retail Agenda, an agenda proven previously on this 'ere blog and to my mind very much still 'in play'...

I note yet again that Council has wasted $4million on the Rail Lands (half of it borrowed) by needlessly removing the rails and then moving the easement, etc, pushing dirt pointlessly in circles for weeks, rolling out $100,000s of turf sods on ground that becomes a sodden sump in Winter, building a $700,000 Death-Trap Drowning Pit, adding a large section of new platform for gourd knows what reason, those palm trees...(ahhh, not the bloody palm trees-Ed)...and another acre of dodgy cement pavers, more farcical shreckin' about with sections of the old platform, expensive balustrades for no good reason but not a proper fence around the Death Pit of Stupidity...

(You know, I may have this wrong, but it looks like they've cut a large section through the old platform so that it effectively separates the main platform bit from the Signal House section where they're going to put new toilets instead of in the toilet area already part of the Old Station building, meaning that if you're on the platform and need the toilet, instead of going just over there, you'll have to go down the ramps and/or steps, and then across open ground to get to the toilets-Ed)...indeed, across an area that floods when it rains, as per previous posts and added again below, just for laughs...(nuthin' funny 'bout that, it's a bloody disgrace-Ed)...indeed...

And on the ABC Local Radio (earlier today) a mention of the Local Government elections...the postal voting packs start to be mailed out today and apparently if you don't have yours by next Monday you should contact the SA Electoral Commission...and also just announced as coming up on the ABC Morning Program another 2 interviews with 2 Mayoral candidates...(ahhh, so you did get a guernsey then...I know you were complaining last week that the ABC was running interviews with candidates but hadn't even contacted you yet...why are you looking at me like that?...they still haven't contacted you yet have they?-Ed)...nope...(so this'll be interviews with candidates 5 and 6, and you haven't heard anything yet-Ed)...nope... 

And again as put to me by the people at the CAS Forum who came up to congratulate me afterwards, there was one clear winner and an obvious second and daylight for third, and yet no-one from the media came up to me...(ooo, here we go-Ed)...damn straight we do...no-one from the media asked for an interview, did I have any further comments, etc, didn't come near me...(but I thought you said that it was "a triumph darling" as far as you were concerned-Ed)...it was...many things going on here...

Firstly, I didn't see any 'media' that I recognised other than Anelia Blackie from The Border Watch, certainly no-one from the ABC, and I don't even know if Anelia was there as a TBW employee or whatevs because the coupla' times I got near her she turned away like she couldn't see me there only feet away...(classic-Ed)...indeed...it leads me to assume that she attended in some private capacity and was taking photos, talking to other candidates, etc, for her own personal pleasure/purpose/whatevs...(sure as heck wasn't there as a journalist-Ed)...

First time I was 2 feet away from her in the foyer area and she quickly blew past me and I don't know if she even heard me say hello...(say hello? you provocative bastard-Ed)...well quite...maybe she didn't hear me, whatevs, but she sure as hack saw me...(don't you mean 'sure as heck'?-Ed)...no, I said exactly what I mean...(ooo, now I get it, nice-Ed)...and then a second time after the forum as I went toward the rear of the room along the main aisle and she was coming the other way and looked right at me, panicked, baulked, turned right, and appeared to be talking to the back of the person standing there like she was interviewing them or something...absolutely pissingly hilarious...I went past and politely said hello to the back of her head from 3 feet away...again...and again I don't whether she heard me or not, whatevs, give a damn, it was bloody hilarious...

Anelia hasn't been shy in telling me all about it on occasions, eg, from the audience floor up at me on the stage as a candidate at the March 2010 State Election Forum, berating me re the local bus service and being absolutely wrong whilst doing it...and several other 'conversations' we've had...but now it's just avoid me like the plague...and put that in the context that I absolutely nailed the forum and made more than one of my 'opponents' look like blathering buffoons, and she sees me walking right toward her and turns away to deliberately avoid me... 

(Wow, you really are special-Ed)...orrr, in my own special way, yeah, it would appear to be the case, a bit, so I'll put my hand up for a bitta' that...I certainly get special treatment, that's for sure...(absolute classic-Ed)...regardless of how I went during that forum, I was one of the candidates, at a public meeting, putting myself into the public realm for scrutiny and Anelia (TBW?) think she/they have the right to ignore me...(pathetic-Ed)...but not just that, and with all due respect and humility, I'm very proud to say that I was the stand-out speaker on the night, and still Anelia thinks it's her place to snub me and turn her back, etc, as part of her (TBW?) agenda to censor me out of the reality of what is happening...(absolutely pitiful-Ed)...indeed...   

And I wasn't the only one who noticed this, amid comments that TBW does itself no favours behaving this way...and as for the ABC, sweet baby cheeses, I'm not sure they were even there...(but didn't they broadcast the entire Candidates Forum from Keith last week?-Ed)...yep, most of it I think...(but no-one even showed up for the Mt Gambier forum?-Ed)...well not that I recognised/spotted, certainly no-one approached me for a comment or to say well-done or whatevs...

Apologies, but I could swear I heard it just announced (this morning) on the ABC that SA Labor has 'backed-down' and now supports and/or has presented their own Cancer Compensation Legislation that includes Country Fire Service volunteers as being eligible/covered re certain Cancers related to fire-fighting...and now they've said it twice I'm sure...will see what happens with this and believe it when it happens...call me a cynic but that's just because I've seen a lot of announcements and very little actioning...(didn't alleged Independent Geoff Brock vote down the same Liberal initiative only weeks ago?-Ed)...indeed...(one could be forgiven for thinking that he did that just so's Labor could say 'hey, check how fabulous we are, look we've done this'-Ed)...I forgive you...

And relatively fantastic to hear this afternoon a spokesperson from the CFS volunteers (name? sorry) state exactly that...'this is a stunt to try and sweeten us up because we're protesting the massive Emergency Services Levy increases and opposing the amalgamation of the CFS, the State Emergency Service, both volunteer organisations, and the full-time Metro Fire Service'...(well spoken that man-Ed)...absolutely, he nailed it...this is yet another rank political stunt courtesy of Messrs Weatherill, Brock, et al, and I doubt it'll see the light of day...

And yet another 24 beds for the Mt Gambier Gaol, following on from the recent 200? bed expansion, and the talk is turning to 'let them out because we can't physically house them'...(whats the point of sentencing them in the first instance?-Ed)...dunno'...apparently we've got 2625 prisoners and only 2448 beds, up about 10.7% total inmates in recent years and as a result infirmaries, police station holding cells, etc, are getting used to house prisoners...(yay-Ed)...

Absolutely rabid though about what happened on Friday in SA parliament when the Liberals voted down the Green's proposal  for a Fracking Inquiry, as repeatedly promised by the Liberals at the March 2014 State Election...today's interview with Liberal Mitch Williams was an atrocious betrayal of the people of SA and particularly those in his own electorate...more tomorrow...and more Aldi/Showgrounds stuff, etc, etc...

Tomorrow: Mo' Stuff Fo' Ma' Homies

Written and Authorised by Nick Fletcher, 16 Kooringa St, Mt Gambier, SA 5290.


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