The Lair of the Emerald Serpent

Making the most of the ratty goodness before he slinks off to the cheesy lands. But as much as Izzie detested the critter, is most impressed indeed at how he stepped down gracefully and is the only one not jumping up and down and whingeing about being wiped out by Mr Sheen. The Rat has displayed more dignity and decency in leaving his post than he ever did while holding it.
The rest of his minions are whingeing and indulging in 'If Only' scenarios while he remains silent. He must have had some almost Snapelike powers to maintain such control over them all for the last 11 years. Only the smallest handful dared to stand up to him and declare that his policies were mean, nasty and tricksy but the rest just grovelled and worshipped at his furry tail.

Oh the evil green politics of envy. The old rat is a master at the art of twisting every possible set of circumstances to portray himself in the best possible light

Isn't it amazing how when interest rates were going down - this was due to excellent economic management and sheer talent of the fearless leaders in government but when they go up - it's because of those nasty Labour state governments who keep borrowing. When that little story does not sell they then twist it into a sign of their own excellent economic management
If the sneaky little git had not promised to keep rates low at the last election (something that was not in his power to do and he damned well knew it) then he would not be having half of these problems

Not too happy about paying yet more interest to the bank - like rent, it too is dead money - something that a lot of home buyers conveniently forget. But the Iz would never ever sell her soul to the party that promised to put an extra dollar in our hip pocket. In fact, the bigger the promises, the lower down the Izzie vote list a party goes. Either they will promise just about anything to get in and then not deliver which makes them liars or they will deliver which makes them reckless economic vandals
People overcommitted themselves with borrowings and then wanted to believe that the Rat could protect them from the big bad banks

And lest we forget, not everyone hates higher rates. There will be lots of happy retirees out there with fatter nest eggs who will be glad of the extra silver sickles since the cost of living is going up at a rate much higher than the pension

Anyway, Izzie is sick of living in an economy. Much preferred the good old days of living in a society.

Yesss. Izzie so so hates Aussie Rules football and most sports in general. But that is one serious advantage as the cartoon so perfectly puts it. The ma has used the Lair as a warehouse for excess bits of stuff including a television that can only pick up SBS. Not being a TV person, it stays off for months on end. But the ma rather likes the goggle box so the Izzie does get to see bits and pieces on our weekly visits. In the last few weeks, simply cannot get over the almost total saturation of those infernal govt adverts. Bad enough having to look at junk but knowing that your taxes paid for it is even more of an insult. And then the buggers are tossing it in the mailbox too.
The latest instalment is the seriously sad little pamphlet "Climate Clever" Most amusing indeed especially since the Izzie so very vividly remembers one parliament Question Time when the Prime Mendacious constantly denied the existence of this very campaign. (The leader of the opposition way back in April had managed to get his paws on the crappy and ever so corny "Climate Clever" title)

Most strange. Left Oz last year on September 20 with the general government attitude of dismissal to the whole environmental thing. Came back only 8 weeks later to discover that green was the new Black. Even the Lying
Rodent was paying lip service to the whole climate change thing which he had been totally dismissing until consulting Sybil's Opinion Polls.

Oh and most amused to see the latest university study raining on the Rats' parade. It's pretty obvious that the whole structure of individual workplace 'agreements' would disadvantage those with the least bargaining power and when a study comes along and proves this point the rat and his minions are only too quick to cry foul. The academics concerned are most peeved indeed at the questions cast on their credentials and are threatening to sue for defamation. Let the lawyers loose. It could be most embarrassing indeed.
The Iz is ever so reminded of an amazing exhibition seen many moons ago featuring various posters from the 1933 elections in Germany. A certain party had one set of posters featuring big bad hooknosed cigar smoking capitalists and promising the working class protection from these evil creatures. But there was also another set appealing to small business owners and promising protection from the evil communist hook nosed bolsheviks. Talk about having it both ways.
The truth is out. The voters' suspicions have been confirmed - an industrial relations regime that takes from the have-nots and gives to the have-lots. And the Rat is most peeved indeed.

He never uttered a squeak about this grand plan in his 2004 election campaign and there's an awful lot of voters who have not quite forgotten and forgiven this particular brand of evil sneakiness. Those petty appeals to the hip pocket in 2004 have rather backfired when lots of voters whose workplace arrangements have left less in the wallet courtesy of Serfchoice will be out for payback time.

PS We interrupt this post for a quick commercial

And there's more where that one came from

This is so gory and gross - maybe it should be X rated. And Bill Leak should certainly be charged with sedition and sent on a holiday to Guantanamo

Yesss. While other folks post quizzes, Izzie's online indulgence is pretty ratty piccies and political cartoons in general



And for the masochistic minority who just can't get enough ratty goodness, then there's a feast in store of Google Goodness.
A world first one stop shop for this year's Oz Election

Unlike ozfille, Izzie is missing out on all the action and has to make do with cartoons and radio reports of the APEC gossip behind the Great Wall of Sydney



Must get around to a proper squiggle some day. But been a good green little serpent and just requested online an application form for the govt rebates for solar panels. Will be interesting to see the devil in the detail and just what sort of percentage of the cost the grants cover.
Maybe the Izzie will finally start making a bit of proper progress on that 101 'to do' list

Snatched from fellow Bat Lover ozfille

Hate to say it but the Lying Rodent looks sort of cute in his black vampire suit - infinitely better than his appallingly awful and positively pornographic superman y fronts
( Super Rat to the Rescue )

Just the perfect piccie for this lawyer wannabee

Yesss. Izzie has been busy slinking outside of Cyberia so has not got around to posting about our little speechie last Friday.
The topic was "Members of the jury, have you reached your verdict?"

Did not get the usual two weeks notice but only one day as this was an offer to volunteer since the original person rostered on had to pull out at the last minute due to work commitments.

So, the Izzie took the stand and informed the audience that the trial concerned various charges related to terrorism adding that they should not consider it significant that the accused was not present to defend himself , that his defence lawyer would not be able to question witnesses and that well as a matter of fact he did not even have a defence lawyer. But since he had confessed to all of the various charges, such legal niceties were not really necessary.
So we then went onto the evil green Charge sheet

1 Material Support for a terrorist organization
(300 million of which was generously provided by the Australian Wheat Board)

2 Accomplice to mass murder (The accused was in Washington at the time of the attack on the Pentagon and had publicly spoken shortly afterwards of offering a blank cheque)

3 Dining with and performing transportation and logistical duties for terrorists - during Richard Cheney's recent visit to Australia

4 Experimental human cloning (a remarkable resemblance in appearance to the new Opposition leader being positive proof of this)

5 Infringement of intellectual property rights (in plain English - stealing Pauline's policies)

6 Environmental Terrorism - Izzie offered irrefutable photographic evidence from Friday morning's "Australian" newspaper as proof of this charge where the accused was shown chopping down the very last tree in Tasmania

7 Accessory to people smuggling and selling people to Nauru

and last but not least - the assassination of John F Kennedy

(Izzie made a deliberate decision NEVER to actually name the defendant and constantly referred to him as The Accused but it did not take too long for folks to figure out that it was NOT David Hicks)

We then concluding by directing the jury to take into account the seriousness of all the above charges and their duty to protect the nation from terrorism

This meant that there were three possible verdicts
Guilty
Very Guilty
and Extremely Guilty

Yesss. Was quite happy with our evil efforts and they certainly kept the audience amused. Did get accused of reading too often from the charge sheet - with a resultant loss in voice projection
The critic has been around long enough to have noticed this serpent's wicked twisted ability to put the strangest spin on the most mundane and unpromising of topics

Such a pity we did not get the usual two weeks or so to prepare our case. Would have gotten the wig, gavel and the whole works.

Sorry about the evil Izzie Aussie politics piccie spam but this Rat is just too cute to keep to ourselves. Such a shame he insists on wearing that GREEN tracksuit. Keep this up Mr Leunig and you'll be wearing a green jumpsuit in Gitmo.

Oh you poor lonely little rat. We guess the Australian voters are more concerned about interest rates than a lying brown nosed little rodent selling their souls to the highest bidder and killing a lot of other innocent souls in the process

Switch and bait would be a good idea. Send the pair of them off to Guantanamo and Hicks back to Oz. They're a pair of lawyers so no one will miss them. Yesss. Would be nice to see them on the end of the same standards that they consider to be good enough for the rest of us. And if it's hearsay evidence those military commissioners ared looking for, Izzie's only too happy to take her place in the very long queue of volunteers willing to supply the same