The Lair of the Emerald Serpent

Oh you poor pompous penguin. (But we still thinks he makes a much better rat.)*slinks off to google 'Maxine'*

(Warning - Oz politics snippets ahead. )


Izzie is getting lots of early shifts lately which means we miss out on Question Time in Parliament which is midday in the wild west. Does not matter so much on Tuesdays and Wednesdays as they always broadcast the Senate which is insufferably boring and only bearable due to the presence of the Rat's Rottweiler - one Eric Abetz - (presently minister for fisheries and possibly the environment - Think of Dracula being minister of the Blood Bank and you get the picture)

But Monday turns out to be one of the juiciest of all time and Izzie will have to make do with the transcript. What a bummer. So made sure that we would not be missing out on Thursday's tasty morsels

Was not amused to discover that Jackboot Johnny must have been off cleaning the carpets for Dick Cheney. The little bugger was not there. Was not aware of this at first but after 20 mins of not one single question being addressed to him, sort of smelled a rat. Or maybe better to say that we didn't smell a rat.

Oh how booooring. At this stage, if all they have on offer is Prissy Pants Alexander Downer and Mr Piggie - the treasurer, may as well just potter off down to the owleries and not waste any more time listening.

But no sooner did we think such seditious thoughts than the shit hit the fan. The Rat has his rottweillers everywhere - not just in the Senate. No piccies on the radio but Izzie is sure that it was Tony Abbott who called the new leader of the opposition "Dr Death" This did not go down well on the Labour side of the floor and is totally against standing orders on the basis of manners and twee stuff like "not calling members into disrepute"
Abbott and Co justified this nasty name on the basis that the present Opposition leader had once held some post in Queensland where he slashed lots of jobs in the hospitals there and that this title was commonly used in the press and by the public in general.

Proper procedure called for the Speaker to demand that this remark be withdrawn but the Speaker declared that he would leave this decision to the Leader of the Opposition - Kevin Rudd - if he found it offensive he could say so and the Speaker would act but otherwise he would let it stand

Izzie was so so delighted that Dr Death declined this delightful offer. Oh happy happy day. By doing so - (this so so reminds Izzie of the Big Brother business in Britain) he was firstly putting the ball back in the Speaker's court and letting it be seen just how biased this ruling was. Secondly, he was not taking the bait and so maintaining his dignity but bestest of all and Izzie is damned sure he knows it too - the next time that a Labour member calls the Prime Mendacious a Lying Rodent - the other party won't have a leg to stand on and neither will the Speaker. And we can bet that this is exactly what will happen at the next Question Time. Bugger - will once again have to make do with reading the transcript.

Yessss. Politics. Hollywood for ugly people.

Been a long long day. Was up around 5.30 in the morning in order to be ready in time for our usual Friday morning meeting. It was a cold and frosty morning and most tempting indeed to remain coiled up in the serpent basket. But there was the minor problem of being rostered on to chair the meeting - so not really a respectable option if we don't want to be seen as an unreliable fickle flaky fruitcake.

Not that long ago, the prospect of even speaking at a meeting would have the Izzie in goosebumps and queazy for a week - and now we hardly bat an eyelid. So so true that practice makes perfect.
Did wear the special pink cardigan reserved for such occasions but in spite of that - was a nice chairserpent.

One of the creature features called the Pertinent Question is where one person presents both sides of an issue and then the chairperson randomly calls people to answer.
When the critic was commenting on this section of the meeting, she mentioned the trick much beloved of politicians to answer the question that they wanted rather than the one that was actually asked (Iz has been accused of this on more than one occasion)
So so had a fit of the giggles at this. Could not help but think of yesterday pottering on the docks in the sunshine watching the sailing ship Gotheborg depart - 6 cannon salute and all while listening to Question Time on Reichstag Radio

The Rat who had been on a whirlwind world tour hobnobbing and brown nosing with his creepy friends in Washington and Texas and then inflicting the poor Canadians with his verminous presence had cut his trip short to be back in time for Thursday's Question Time. Iz suspects that the real reason is the lack of respect and royal welcome for his Royal Rattiness in the land of Emerald Serpents.

He was in Dublin and not only were his speaking venues poky and almost empty but around a quarter of the local TDs (Members of Parliament) boycotted his speech to the Irish Parliament. Not used to that sort of abuse is our beloved Rat.
It's not just the business of his support for the 2003 invasion of Iraq that had them up in arms but also his rather draconian Serf Choices industrial relations laws which came into effect just over two months ago.

The latest twist in this nasty saga is the sad story of Spotlight - a rather cheap and nasty retail store that sells fabric and crafts sort of stuff. New employees are being offered a basic rate of $$14.30 - two brass knuts more than the present $$14.28 but in return for this enormous increase in the basic wage, they would no longer receive higher hourly rates for evenings, weekends or public holidays and would no longer be entitled to any tea breaks. You don't sign you don't get the job. Simple really.

At Question Time - there was at least three questions on this very company directed at the Prime Mendacious. The first concerned a letter received by a Labour MP from one of these workers - a 57 year old claiming to be a life long Liberal voter who is now facing a loss of around $$90 a week under these new arrangements and feeling most mightily miffed and betrayed.

We will never know if she is real or not but the Rat's answer was a classic - basically along the lines that the new workplace reforms will create a stronger healthier economy and more jobs. Oh what a weasel.

Second attempt - when it was brought to his attention that the new rules at Spotlight fulfilled the so called minimum conditions of the new laws - of which there are only five - but totally excluded anything else including bonuses or extra pay for evenings or weekends - he said any previous conditions under the old system remained by default unless specifically excluded - never mind that the new contract did state specifically that the old conditions were null and void and he damned well knew it. He also adds later that if she (the aforementioned 57 year old) is not happy she can appeal to the new so called Fair Pay Commission (which he has stacked with a plague of his ratty friends)

Then we get to hear about high unemployment rates and low increases in real wages when Labour was in government and the immortal line "My guarantee is my record"


Another Labour MP tossed at the Rat - a quote that he had made back in August that if a worker loses public holidays under the new laws that they must be adequately compensated for such trade offs.
(Izzie remembers that the Rat had said on countless occasions that public holidays would still be safe)
Oh we had to give him big bad brownie points for this one - almost sneaking admiration. He declares that so many people state that he has said such and such about this and that, that it would be most unwise to assume that they have quoted him correctly and therefore has a policy of never answering such questions unless a transcript of his alleged words of wisdom is provided by the questioner. (Not to mention the sneaky trick of insulting her character and questioning her integrity while pretending to be ever so nice and reasonable)
Oh yesss. The evil genius of it all.
So far - 3 questions and no straight answers. But it gets better

A specific question about Spotlight workers no longer being entitled to toilet breaks or tea breaks after four hours at work - whether or not he thought this was fair turned into a warbling rant about waterfront reform, the 1996 workplace reforms which were supposed to bring the sky falling down and civil war on the city streets - but they didn't so there is no reason to believe the Opposition this time either (never mind that in 1996 the Rat did not have a majority in the Senate so the 1996 laws were a well and truly watered down version of the original)

Silly bugger forgot to repeat his other favorite mantra "The best form of welfare is a job" Left that one for his Minister of House Elf Relations we guess.

Yesss. One day we may live to see the momentous occasion that this snivelling grub actually answers the question that he is ASKED rather than the one that he wants to hear.

Izzie really was innocent and naive enough to believe that most of the more evil sorts of employers would hold off until at least after the 2007 election and that the sky would not fall in but rather there would be a slow corrosion of living standards and conditions. Never would have imagined that it would have taken less then 6 months (in some cases - one WEEK) to bring it on.

But he may have just this once bitten off more than he can chew. Scare tactics worked the last two times - 2001 - the invasion of hordes of baby eating illegal aliens from outer space and 2004 - the interest rates scare. Play on fear and the back pocket and the suckers will fall for it every time. But if your personal pay packet falls by $$90 per week while petrol is going up and housing is increasingly unaffordable - then a so called strong and healthy economy is bugger all consolation. And how can it be healthy when a lot more people will have a lot less disposable income and a lot more insecurity?

Well, at least the Irish and Canadians can see the Rat for the revolting veritably vile vermin that he truly is. Izzie was so so hoping that he would have taken a peek in Paris. There they would have dumped him in the Bastille and dusted off the Guillotine.

And that's this insidious Serpent's seditious hissings for the day.
(Slinks off to snatch the actual transcript of wicked weasliness)

Nice to know that the Rat's fan club has followed him across the oceans. And let's hope they keep him there

Congratulations to the Froggies. They will not put up with crap. Their new (and now discarded) labour laws look like a Sunday School picnic compared to ours in Oz which extends dismissal without reason not to a two year period for people under 25 but for 25 years plus for everyone from 16 year olds to 60 year olds. Nothing unfair about that ;) Equal opportunity unemployment
And what do the Aussies do? Riot in the streets? Build a guillotine? No. We just toss another shrimp on the barbie and shrug "No worries. Mate"


Pulp fiction
(The Sydney Morning Herald has a habit of zapping stories so that only subscribers can read them so Izzie has cheated and stuck the text under an lj cut)
( It's a jungle out there in juice land )

Amazing what a bit of publicity will do - the slimy smoothies of the Juice jungle offer Amber a pay rise but she is not so easily fooled

AMBER OSWALD has won a pay rise over the radio, but the 16-year-old will not accept it unless the same is offered to her fellow workers at Pow Juice.

In yesterday's Herald, the year 11 student from Narrabeen Sport High revealed that her earnings from a Sunday job in Warriewood Square had been almost halved after the Federal Government's new workplace laws came into effect on March 27.

But on 2GB yesterday, Amber's boss, Andre Dowling, said there had been a misunderstanding, and that her flat pay had been revised from $8.57 an hour to $10.28, on the grounds she was 17 and her status had become casual, instead of permanent part-time.

However, Amber and her father, Phillip Oswald, are perplexed. They insist she is still 16, and they say the new flat rate offer is largely irrelevant because most of her hours were on a Sunday, which paid her $14.27 an hour under her former workplace agreement. All penalties have been scrapped under the new agreement, although Amber never signed it.

On March 24, the Friday before the new workplace laws came into effect, all employees of Pulp Juice were made redundant after the company went into liquidation. On the same day, Pow Juice took over the business, offering a new workplace agreement to all redundant, yet now rehired, employees. It came into effect on the Monday.

Nick Wilson, the director of the newly formed Office of Workplace Services, said the Pow Juice deal was being investigated, but he made it clear that redundant workers rehired within two months of a liquidation should not be forced into a new agreement. The old deal would still stand.

According to the records of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, the sole director and secretary of Pow Juice is Cherily Coad, born in India in 1960. When the Herald knocked on her door at Baulkham Hills yesterday, a woman said she was not Ms Coad, but someone else.

Last night, however, employees of Pow Juice confirmed that the woman in the Herald's photograph was indeed her. Ms Coad did not return calls last night.

Even cynical serpent Izzie expected the impact of the new Serfchoices legislation to not really be noticed for six months or so. Employers would get the newbies on the nasty new contracts with more work for less pay and conditions and eventually the oldies would fall in to line when their contracts ran out. But we never ever expected the bad apples to take advantage in less than a week. And certainly did not ever imagine the utterly evil twist of sacking current workers but then offering them their jobs back with pay and conditions less than 75% of what they had been getting. (29 meat workers in Cowra NSW have been sacked but offered their jobs back at $$584 compared to the $$768 that they are currently getting) But this is exactly what has happened. The Lying Rodent and his Minister for House Elf Relations have been wringing their paws with remorse claiming "This is not what we meant at all.... not what we meant at all"
Bullshit. Do not forgive them. For they knew exactly what they were doing. It's a jungle out there. A dog fuck dog world ;)
And we ain't seen nothing yet

Chop chop

After the last week or so of the mad house - triggered off by the antics of a particularly pathetic poltergeist, the Iz seems to be slowly recovering.

Due to a combination of staff cut backs - thanks to the stingineses of the greedy bitch goblin owner - and a new batch of particularly high maintenance residents, work has just been total chaos in the last few weeks or so.

This morning, decides it's a perfect day for snoozing in the sun and listening to Reichstag Radio. Not working until 5pm so we can dawdle around a bit before heading off to the shops around 2ish or so to get provisions for tomorrow.

The Iz has been a bit of a news junkie lately. Cynical serpent that she is - even the Izzie did not believe that the scum in the pond of Australian employers would be so unrestrained and unfettered in taking advantage of the dawn of the new Dark Ages of industrial relations. Figured that it would be a bit of a sleeper and we would not see much happen in the first six months while they crawled out of the cauldron, stretched their long spidery fingers and tested their new found powers.

The Izzie turns up to start work at 3pm and is sitting outside before starting time with the Prince of Darkness (one of our favorite coworkers and partners in crime) Iz hears some screaming shrieking voice saying something along the lines "Fucking bloody this and bloody fucking that" and wonders disgustedly just what on earth Miss Piggie is ranting and raving about this time. (Miss Piggie is the proprieter and spends all her time lurking and meddling instead of trusting the Director of Nursing to run the place properly. She is infamous for going around personally turning off airconditioners - even in the middle of a 37 celsius day)

We found out later that she had been screaming at the registered nurse on afternoon duty who she had accused of taking a lampshade from the library room to a new resident who had requested a light for reading. All this nurse's protestations were to no avail. She took it from an empty room - not the library but the bitch was not having a bar of this. The bitch is a total bully. Deidre - the registered nurse in question is a beautiful soul but as soft as butter and almost has the word 'doormat' tattooed on her forehead. Registered nurses are a most rare commodity indeed and can earn far more working with agencies or in hospitals than in pissy private nursing homes. Most others would have told her to stick her fucking bloody lampshade up her arse and walked out but not Deidre. She was very upset but put up with this shit like she always does.

Three hours later on the news, came the first stories of the sackings around the country. Of course - folks get sacked all the time and it never makes the news but what made these different - all had the distinction that they would not have happened the previous week because the employees would still have had the protection of the unfair dismissal laws. Another thing they had in common - while supposedly incompetent enough to be sacked, the employers would be quite happy to give them their job backs but only as contracters with infinitely less pay and conditions.

Yesterday, around 5pm, the Izzie was walking past the main office when we heard a voice calling out from the toilet opposite. One of the residents had gone in there and shat herself silly and wanted help . So, the Iz went and got her all cleaned up and the toilet as well. Just as she is leaving the toilet, Miss Piggie comes out of the office hand on hips and shouts at the Iz "Was it really necessary for you to bring her into that toilet?" "Iz replied at a slightly lower decibel range but mustering as much contempt and hatred as possible without being down right abusive "I did NOT bring her in here. She came in here by herself" Somewhat taken aback, the bitch replies something along the lines "No need to get upset - I was only asking in a friendly manner" Iz could have been a bitch and said "Yesss - we guess so. Not using the words 'fucking bloody bitch' is the essence of politeness for the likes of you"
Not quite sure what our reply was - but what lacked in words, we more than made up for with tone and the look of utter murderous rage we gave her. It's funny - maybe - replying to her in almost the identical tone that she used in her first accusation - may just possibly have made her realise just how offensive she was being because the encounter by her standards was a back off.

But you know - seeing the evening news one hour later when the Minister for House Elf Relations was forced to admit that a worker could be sacked merely because of a personality clash or if the boss found them too abrasive - Izzie sniggers - yeah right. But what if it is the boss who is the bull in the China shop with the manners of a sewer rat.
The fact is - simply standing up to her abuse like the Iz did yesterday - is now a sackable offence.
The really scary thing is not whether she does sack you or not but merely the possibility that she might. (Funny - most bullies turn out to be the sort of people who respect those who stand up to them and despise those who don't)
We will soon have a culture of self censorship where folks will try second guess the reaction of the boss to certain behaviours - like - just got our pay check and they did not pay us the higher Sunday rate. Better not ask or we might get sacked. Or - we worked 70 hours and they only paid us 50, shall we say something and risk losing our job or just swallow the losses. And as for making complaints about occupational health and safety or inadequate staffing levels or that Fluffy Bunny has not being doing her job properly - not a hope in hell. Oh and don't even dream of slipping on a wet floor or putting in a compo claim if one of the residents beats the shit out of you when you are trying to shower and dress him.

Rang the ma today and the first question she asks "Has anyone been sacked yet" It truly is a most disgusting situation indeed. And today - missed the first few minutes of Question time on Reichstag Radio so we did not get to hear who was answering the first question - but oh - did not take the Iz too long at all to work out that it was the Rodents' very own Rottweiler - the most dishonorable Eric Abetz. Iz sees him as future leader of the 'liberal' party if not Prime Mendacious - heaven help us all - he will make the present rat look like Father Christmas. Abetz is the meanest, leanest, snarkiest nastiest bastard that the Iz has ever set ears on. The voice - always so full of hatred and vindictiveness. True evil personified. He tears all opposition to shreds with vicious personal attacks and never ever condescends to actually answering a question. Must so so put together a sample of his snarkilicious sneers.
Well, he can smirk and swagger all he likes about the Rodent's impeccable economic management credentials (Don't even get us started on that one) and how the sky has not yet fallen in. But when the sackings reach epidemic proportions and work place cultures are slowly poisoned with fear and pay and conditions whittled away - when the banks start refusing loans (or charging higher rates to compensate for increased risk) because now nearly all Australians will have employment security along the same low status as traditionally reserved for the self employed and the housing boom slowly but surely comes to an end as the mortgagee sales flood the market, then we will see what he has to say
Wonders if it is coincidence that the spooks are now looking for extensions to their sunset clauses granting them ridiculous Patriot Act style powers.

Yesss. And the Rat, Ruddock and the Rottweiler still have the sedition laws up their sleeves for those uppity house elves inciting and encouraging illegal acts such as going to jail rather than paying the ridiculous new fines in these draconian laws.

To explain in more detail - a scary snippet from that nest of treacherous vipers - Radio National

There is another sedition-related offence that should also be remarked upon. If a person who is an office bearer in an organisation says something to which a seditious intention may be attributed, he or she opens that organisation to prohibition.

And what is a sedition intention? It means, among other things, to urge a change in the law by other than lawful means. Taken literally this would mean that the advocacy of civil disobedience would be outlawed at a stroke.

I think here of a speech given by Greg Combet, the Secretary of the ACTU some months ago. In that speech he suggested, with considerable gravity, that trade unionists would go to jail rather than comply with some aspects of the government's new industrial relations legislation. These words might be seen as encouraging or condoning illegal protest. Mr Combet may need to be more circumspect in the future.

And it is worth dwelling on circumspection for a moment. For perhaps the most significant but least recognised danger of these new, sweeping laws is not that of prosecution, but rather of self-censorship. The risk is that those who engage publicly, legitimately and sometimes forcefully in debate with the government will be tempted to trim the sails of their rhetoric or performance. This is not because one might think that a prosecution is either justified or likely to be successful, but because one will not wish to court the possibility of prosecution and trial, with all of its uncertainty and expense, at all.
source

His Royal Rattiness speaks

Some snippets
"Whenever you have a big change, and IR is a big change, although it's a fair change, you always lose a bit of bark, because it's easy for the critics to say: ‘This is terrible. It's outrageous. It's going to cut everybody's wages and lead to people being intimidated and suppressed.’ I mean, none of that is true, but they're the allegations.

And if you are to be a Government for the future, if you are to be a Government that vindicates the judgement of the people, then you have to accept that you'll go through periods of political adversity. And nothing in the polls at the present time the least bit surprises me, and of course I note that we are, what, two years away from the next election.

So, I think the Government's position is a good position, because it's a position based on doing things, and governing well and governing with courage and strength for the future of the country.

There's no point in being in government if you don't utilise the opportunity that democratic responsibility has given you."

"......this Government is doing what the people asked us to do in October of last year.

They put us back. They increased our majority. They gave us a wafer-thin majority in the Senate. We have used that sensibly, responsibly, but soberly, and we'll go on doing that."

Such a bugger they don't have the bit about bombed out Beazley - the leader of the so called Labour party. Izzie despises the Rat but for once he minimized his mendaciousness when accusing the Big B of being a gutless wimp wanting to have it both ways by on the one hand criticizing the so called anti terrorism bill while at the same time voting in favour of it.
Yesss. It is nice to know the Rat is protecting his fellow Australians from the Scum of the Universe.
Australia saved from evil American terrorist


Oh, and in the light of recent events, thought it would be interesting to tweek the Time Turner and resurrect this Oscar winning performance from June 2005 (as quoted in The Australian - Sat 3rd December p20)

“It will be a modest, even humble, government that will take advantage for the benefit of the Australian people of this new-found, and I have to repeat, unexpected, majority”

Almost as revealing as this ratty revelation in a recent radio interview as reported in The West Australian on Saturday 12 November this year.
“The Prime Minister said yesterday that workers should not worry about whether the reforms would be good or bad for them, but rather they should think about what they meant for the economy’
“You can’t really look at industrial relations laws in the context of whether it helps or hinders the workers or helps or hinders the employers” he said on radio”
“Because in the end it’s not the laws of industrial relations that govern job security and govern high wages - it’s the strength and productivity of the economy”

And this is what Izzie's got to say to that

"I am sick and tired of miniscule profits"

Izzie so so loves this most memorable line from one of her favorite movies of all time. Up there with "Howard Potter and the Goblet of IR" And we certainly had the occasion to think of both of these delightful creations today

Been so so much happening lately. Gallons of gloom and doom. Riots in Paris and the latest bombings in Jordan which hardly rated a mention on the local newses here. They are far more interested in that Azahari fellow in Indonesia who finally got the right idea and blew himself up instead of other people like he was used to doing.

Izzie is astonished that the riots could have been allowed to get out of control for so long and wonders why no one seems to be making a big fuss about the incompetence of the French government in the way that they did about the Feds in the USA over New Orleans.
Most overseas tourists come into Paris by airplane so they never get to see the sleazy seediness that is very evident if you ever get a long distance train to the city centre.

The froggies are damned good at public relations. It was a few months ago when there was a serious of fires in hotels in Paris where so many African immigrants died - both legal and illegal that it seemed that something very strange was going on. So many dodgy substandard slums in the middle of the city and no one seemed to care and the authorities certainly did not seem to be in any great hurry to shut them down.
Not to mention that a couple of years ago when the heatwave hit Europe, the death toll in Spain and Italy was really rather small but France which one would not expect to be anywhere near as hot - it was somewhere in the thousands.

But the real reason the Izzie slinks in for a squiggle is the most entertaining day we had in Radio Land. The Izzie was giggling herself so silly that we thought it might be time to get a big bag of "Depends" just in case of accidents

Been glued to "Reichstag Radio" on and off for the last week or so (when not in the Dead Zone down south) and could not help but begin noticing the amazing talent of the Rat and his side kick - Kevin Andrews - the Minister for the management of House elves to avoid ever actually answering a question. So , Izzie's ears were truly in a state of disbelief when Mr Andrews - still capable of speaking through his enormous gloating smirk - actually quoted page numbers and clauses from some present industrial relations legislation on the subject of the requirement for employees to produce a sick certificate for an absence from work of one day. Usually his command of the English language does not extend much further than the phrase "The best form of welfare is a job"

Needless to say - when the King of Rats was asked a very specific question - namely why there was no mention at all of the present Industrial relations legislation in his party's 19 page policy brochure produced for last year's election - he squirmed and smirked and ranted about Chicken Little and the sky falling in.
After listening to his amazing antics over the last few weeks or so, the Iz cannot help but wonder if he has ever ever given a straight answer to one single solitary question from the opposition.
Would have been most amusing to be watching on the box instead of totally relying on radio and having to make up our own pictures. For most of question time, there seemed to be an unusual amount of clucking and cackling and crowing. God knows, there might even have been the odd egg laid here and there. Where's an outbreak of bird flu when you need it?

Another thing the Iz found most noteworthy - most members of the ruling party seem incapable of mentioning the "U" word without spitting and hissing in a most vile and venomous manner. One can tell that to use this word as a label is for them the greatest insult and probably gets equal ranking with their other favorites "UnAustralian" and "Terrorist"
Izzie has met a few union wankers in her life time but this pathological hatred and total irrationality was truly disturbing. Pity the Labour party don't have the brains to play the game too and bandy about the insult of "Fat Cats"

Was going to turn on our radio for the tasty tidbits just after 7am but decided to snooze a bit until our alarm went off at 7.40 Silly Izzie. Did turn on just in time to hear the vote on the third reading of this nasty piece of work but missed the previous debate and the government's favorite tactic of the gag and guillotine. They got the numbers so there's no need to follow proper procedure.
So so looking forward to the debate in the Senate two weeks or so from now. Hopefully the Izzie will have lots of afternoon shifts so we get to listen to the action live.
Seems to be a foregone conclusion that it will pass there too but unlike the lower house, they don't have a massive majority of 20 or so. It could be down to one or two. Where's Brian Harradine when you need him? He would never ever put up with such a nasty piece of works. Izzie still remembers to this day when he gave up promises of tons and tons of freebies for his constituency in Tasmania and refused to support the gouge and screw tax. The Rat got little Miss Mouse Lees to sell her soul for 33 silver sickles so it got passed in the end in spite of his refusal to do the dirty deed. But at least he still had his integrity. Such a rare commodity for a politician.

(PS - took the Preciousss walkies today so we got a lot of clickies and linkies. This masochistic serpent has now finally got her fangs on all 1200 pages of the SerfChoices bill. Amazing how so called deregulation of the labour market - like so called free trade legislation needs to have so many squillion subsections and clauses. Thank God for Cyberia and PDF files or a lot of poor trees would be dying for a most unworthy cause indeed)

Izzie slinks into LJ Land after packing her bagses for her Grand Garden Tour tomorrow. Still deciding which reading material to bring *Picks up a tasty thousand page tome sneaked to us by one Steven Smith -the Honorable Member for Dursleyville* Naaaa. Nice toilet paper - but not so sure about a good read. Decides after all to pick an old favorite and tosses the Potter into the green rucksack.

Another crisp and crunchy day it's been again. Just slinked over from Petunia's place. Izzie - the Diva of Dementors has now found another supply of infinite amusement - the one and only Reichstag Radio. Hours of unadulterated entertainment. Simply could not drag our ears away.

But after 3 hours or so listening to the countless virtues of "Arbeit macht Fair", Izzie switches off and reads the papers until 2pm. Oh silly serpent. Most peeved indeed to hear on the news - we know not the day nor the hour but between 1 and 2pm turns out to be exactly the time when the Attorney General introduces the long awaited "NotOrdnung" (Abolition of Liberty Bill 2005) Izzie missed it. Shame shame. Well - can always snatch it on Google.

So so funny. Enroute from Petunia's place, popped into work to check the latest rosters. (It's back to house elf slavery for Izzie on Wednesday) Our favorite registered nurse Deirdre was on. Funny - the other elves says she was talking about the Izzie only yesterday. Well well. You will never guess just exactly what dearest Deirdre has been watching on Foxtel. She too is a fan. Spent hours yesterday and this morning watching the antics of the idiots in Canberra. But she unlike Izzie gets to see their pretty faces in full colour. We had a great time discussing the antics of our favorite soapie stars.
Ashamed to admit it but the Iz was most mightily impressed with the weaselish slinkings of our favorite Rodent and his astonishing ability to never give a straight answer to a simple question.

Astonishing really how many folks in Oz lately have become parliament junkies. Interesting too - that most of them - Deidre just like Izzie are foreign born. We guess - the Aussies have had it too good for too long and have no real idea just what a precious and valuable thing free speech and freedom of association is until they lose it. But by then it will be too late.

Apart from keeping our ears amused, Iz spent the rest of the morning helping the pa with the pavers out the side of the house. He's been most peculiar lately. Came back to Oz after his grand European tour knowing nothing at all about the proposed industrial relations legislation and was amazed at just how draconian it was. So the Iz was most astounded indeed when today he's ranting about the need to be reasonable and see both sides of the story. These new laws are the best things since sliced bread since all these young things are a lazy bunch of bastards who could not be bothered getting out of bed and whose days of dole bludging will now be well and truly over!
(You know you are getting old when you start whining about lazy good for nothing young things - we weren't like that in my day)
No decent employer would ever sack a worker who is doing their job claims Vernon. But, Izzie says - if some Chinese house elf comes along and will do your job for 3 silver sickles and you are getting 12, then you haven't got a hope in hell. He puffs up his chest and proclaims "Rubbish. I have always been so good at my job that they could not compete with me" All this sudden sympathy with the point of view of the poor put upon and most oppressed employer is a bit rich coming from the critter who called Izzie a gutless wonder and spineless wimp for not using up her 360 accumulated hours of sick leave because she is so old fashioned that she only takes sickies when actually unwell and even then, still feels guilty for taking them.

The Izzie is not quite sure if the critter is off his rocker, gone a bit manic or indulging in a spot of Izzie baiting. (Like he will often rant and rave about Jewish conspiracies and all those American bastards because he knows it pisses off the Izzie no end. Sometimes we let it go and other times we argue back or say that we refuse to continue the conversation until he switches out of Rant mode.
Izzie always makes the distinction between individual people and their collective government and gets extremely annoyed with folks who indulge in generalisations and who insist on holding each single American, Israeli, Australian or any other nationality personally responsible for the behaviour of their government. It's not ethnicity that makes folks bad but possession of power and the almost unendurable temptations that it brings. Izzie would sure sure hate to live in a land where Vernon was the big cheese. He'd be a right little Hitler.
Needless to say - there is no game two cannot play at. The Izzie has dusted off her brown hat and from now on - in his presence will be broadcasting "The Voice of Reason" and "The other side to the story" and be the Chimp's and the Rodent's number one fan.