Walter Brennan; Life gets tedious.

It's that time of year again. Christmas, the season where one tries very hard to do what everyone else wants and finished up doing NOTHING that they wanted to do. There's a great old Walter Brennan song, lyrics below...you have to imagine his voice just reciting it.

For those too young to remember him Walter starred in the TV series "The Real McCoys". He was in many movies including "Bad Day at Black Rock" with Spencer Tracey where he had another really great speech which may have inspired this song. It's a truly great movie. Walter plays the town Vet, Realtor and Undertaker. It's a depressing place and he gives Spencer (who the locals plan on killing) a little soliloquy right after telling him "I'd like to help you but I'm consumed by apathy" Here it is;

"First, I sell 'em a piece of land. Do you think they farm it? They do not. They dig for gold. They rip off the topsoil of ten winding hills, then sprint in here all fog-heaved with excitement, lugging nuggets --- big, bright, and shiny. Is it gold? It is not. Do they quit? They do not. Then they decide to farm, farm in a country so dry that you have to prime a man before he can spit. Before you can say 'Fat Sam,' they're stalled, stranded, andstarving. They become weevil-brained and butt-sprung. So...I bury 'em. But why bore you with my triumphs?"

And here's the song.

Life Gets Tedious , Don't It?
The sun comes up and the sun goes down,
The hands on the clock keep going round,
I just get up and it's time to lay down,
Life gets tedious, don't it?
My shoes untied but I don't care,
I wasn’t figuring on going nowhere,
I'd have to wash and comb my hair,
Life gets tedious, don't it?
Water in the well gettin' lower end lower,
Can't take a bath for a month or more,
But I've heard it told and it's true I'm sure,
That too much bathing weakens yer.
Life gets tedious, don't it?
Open the door and the flies come in,
Shut the door and yer sweating again,
And in the process, I cracked my shin,
Life gets tedious, don't it?
Ole brown mule, he must be sick,
I jabbed him in the rump with a pin on a stick,
He humped his back but he didn’t kick,
There's something cockeyed somewhere.

Ole mouse chawing on the pantry door,
Been chawing there for a month or more,
When he gets through he's gonna be sore,
Cos’ there aint a darnn thing in there.
Life gets tedious, don't it?
Hound dog howling so forlorn,
Laziest dog that ever was born,
He's howling cause he's sittin' on a thorn,
And he's just too tired to move.
Life gets tedious, don't it?

Tin roof leaks and the chimney leans,
There's a hole in the seat of my old blue jeans,
I 'ate the last of my pork and beans,
Life gets tedious, don't it?

Cows gone dry and the hens won't iay,
Fish stopped biting last Saturday,
Troubles piling up day by day,
Life gets tedious, don't it?

Grief and misery pain and woes,
Bills and taxes and so it goes,
And now I'm gettin' a cold in the nose,
Life gets tedious, don't it?

Here we go again....

Here goes another Labor disgrqace, this one has the added advantage of being related by marriage to Joe Tripodi. A man much misunderstood accourding to Eddie Obeid. I think the big problem is that every idiot out there in voter land understands them all to well.
The Labor brand is never going to recover in NSW until there is a huge purge. I just hope that the Liberals who come to power in 2011 are not so awful that we revert to Labor before they have properly cleaned out the stables.

NSW MP rorted expenses, corruption watchdog finds Sean Nicholls
December 7, 2010 - 10:54AM SMH


Angela D'Amore ... expenses fiddle. Photo: Peter Morris
The Labor MP for Drummoyne, Angela D'Amore, is expected to face calls for her resignation after the corruption watchdog found she acted corruptly in falsely claiming thousands of dollars in entitlements for two staff.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption is also recommending that the Director of Public Prosecutions consider bringing charges against Ms D'Amore, who is the parliamentary secretary to the minister for police, for two offences of misconduct in public office.

The commission found Ms D'Amore and a staff member Agatha La Manna "engaged in corrupt conduct by falsely claiming sitting day relief payments".

Advertisement: Story continues below It recommends ‘‘action be taken against Ms La Manna as a public official with a view to dismissing, dispensing with or otherwise terminating her services’’.

Ms D’Amore, who is the sister-in-law of retiring Fairfield MP Joe Tripodi, was investigated over signing false expense claims in three periods between August 2006 and June 2007.

The forms were for a now-defunct entitlement, called the sitting day relief allowance, under which MPs could claim the cost of a staff member in their electorate office to replace one required to attend parliament on sitting days.

One of Ms D'Amore's staff, Karen Harbilas, told the commission she had falsely written the name of another staff member, David Nicoletti, on the claim form after being told to do so by Ms D'Amore. Ms D'Amore denied the claim.

The ICAC says Ms Harbilas’s evidence was the key to exposing Ms D’Amore’s corrupt conduct. It says it has exercised its discretion to not make a corrupt finding against her.

During the hearings, Ms D'Amore's counsel argued the MP had simply been "careless" in signing claim forms which contained false details.

The ICAC report says Ms D'Amore instructed or authorised Ms La Manna and Ms Harbilas to complete false claim forms, which resulted in them receiving a total of $4500 "to which they were not entitled".

Ms D'Amore consistently denied any wrongdoing and her counsel even clashed with the commission over its name for the investigation, "Operation Syracuse", which appeared to reflect on her Sicilian ancestry.

Earlier this year, a Labor MP for Penrith was also found to have acted corruptly in claiming the same allowance.

During public hearings into her matter, Ms Karyn Paluzzano admitted lying to the commission about rorting the entitlement. She was forced to resign soon after, forcing a byelection in her seat of Penrith at which Labor suffered a swing against it of 25 per cent.

FANTASTIC BLOG

Here's an unpaid advert. for a fantasctic blogsite, it's called "Thoughtlines" with Bob Carr. Bob shares comments on the news, book and film reviews and travel reports. It's great for anyone interested in politics, cold war history, the US civil war and a host of great stuff. Here's the address http://bobcarrblog.wordpress.com/
Enjoy!

World Cup Bid Stuffed Up

Not that I actually care all that much, but Frank Lowy has put heart and soul and millions of his dollars into out bid for the World Cup. Now in the last 24 hours we learn that the dreaded Karl Bitar, Federal Sports Mininster, has interposed himself over there to help with the numbers. The man who so far has ruined two and about to be three NSW Labor Premiers and one Prime Minister (not to mention the best PM that we missed out on, Kim Beazely) is now undoubtedly going to stuff up our bid to host the world's biggest event.
Meanwhile back at the ranch the factional warriors are arcing up over the two great issues of the year, gay marriage and nuclear energy. The first one no one really gives a toss about except George Pell and co. The second is just a complete non-event. They'll fight to the death and the result will be nothing. Nuclear energy is too expensive and no one wants the reactor or the power plant withing 1000 miles of their back fence. If Tony Abbot ever gets a five word slogan instead of all the three word ones it will be all over red rover for Julia.

Cardinal Pell Leaves the Planet.

I wonder what the founding father would have made of our local Cardinal's view of ethical behaviour. Had Christ managed to display George's talent for excusing and even justifying the behaviour of sinners, provided that they were wealthy and influential, they'd probably have made him a Senator instead of nailing him up on a cross.
Selling arms, gambling are not cardinal sins Kelly Burke SMH
November 12, 2010

THOU shalt gamble, thou shalt smoke and thou shalt sell arms, the country's most senior Catholic cleric has decreed.

Speaking at an ethics in business lunch hosted by Notre Dame University, Cardinal George Pell suggested it might be somewhat hypocritical for the Catholic Church to condemn gambling outright, given the proliferation of poker machines in NSW Catholic clubs.

''I must confess I do feel a bit uneasy about that, but only a bit uneasy,'' he admitted. ''Because culturally I'm an Irish Australian and we grew up gambling.''

Advertisement: Story continues below Gambling in itself was not intrinsically wrong, he said. Only when it became an addiction, threatening the well-being of oneself and one's family, did it become a sin.

Warming to the forum's theme ''God and Mammon: need or greed in the big end of town'', Cardinal Pell said as far as the ethics of selling tobacco went, supplying adults who were aware of the risks and still chose to smoke was nothing to rush to the confessional about. And when quizzed about the ethics of selling arms, he hypothesised that global military contractors may in fact be acting on a moral imperative.

''I think you can produce arms morally … You might say in some cases it is necessary. We are a peaceful country. If we were unarmed that would be an enticement to evil people. The best way to stay as we are is to be strong and effectively armed so I think you could make the case,'' he said.

Instead, the cardinal's wrath honed in on corporate fat cat salaries, which were morally suspect, he said. His fellow panellist, David Thodey, barely squirmed.

The curliest question Telstra's $10 million-a-year chief executive caught involved a comparison of his nice-guy reputation to that of his predecessor, Sol Trujillo, and its possible relationship to Telstra's recent all-time low of $2.58 a share.

So can nice guys succeed in business?

''It's not about being nice or not nice,'' said Mr Thodey, with a passing reference to the latest round of Telstra redundancies. ''It's about doing things in an ethical and considerate way … in the best interests of our shareholders - which of course include customers and employees.''

Journos do not like Rudd

The article below from this morning's Herald is further proof that jopurnalists do not like Kevin Rudd. It puts him in the worst possible light and the bit at the end about him going off sick is not part of the story but an added dig. I'm sure he deserves it richly.
This blog's been very quiet for a while. It's hard to get interested in politics in Australia today. They are all so bloody boring.

Rudd ruffles feathers to be in Clinton limelight Daniel Flitton SMH
November 10, 2010

Kevin Rudd gatecrashed the special ABC television broadcast with Hillary Clinton on the weekend, demanding a place in the heavily promoted event to share the limelight with the US Secretary of State, an official said.

Mr Rudd's last-minute decision to attend the town hall-style meeting sent organisers at the ABC, the Foreign Affairs Department and US embassy into a spin - coming only hours before the event was due to be recorded.

Mr Rudd was not scheduled to be among the VIP guests at the recording, which included Australia's ambassador in Washington, Kim Beazley, the businessman Hugh Morgan, Melbourne University's vice-chancellor, Glyn Davis, and the US ambassador to Australia, Jeff Bleich.

Advertisement: Story continues below But after a dinner with Mrs Clinton on Saturday night, Mr Rudd insisted he attend. An Australian official familiar with the event said Mr Rudd had stridently demanded plans be changed to include him. ''The behaviour was disgusting and he deserves to be called on it,'' the official told The Age.

There was confusion that Mr Rudd was actually asking to be seated on stage alongside Mrs Clinton and the ABC host, Leigh Sales, for the broadcast dubbed, Hillary Rodham Clinton: An Australian Conversation. This threatened to undo the careful planning for the recording, which involved some six camera positions spread among an audience of about 450 in a Melbourne University lecture theatre.

But Mr Rudd has denied he or his staff asked for a seat on stage. ''No, not at all. I didn't ask to go on the stage at all,'' he told The 7.30 Report on Monday.

''I said to Hillary, 'Oh, you're going to the university tomorrow? That's terrific. I know the vice-chancellor. I'd like to come along and have a look. That's terrific.'''

Mrs Clinton has made a habit of engaging in televised special conversations with younger audiences around the region, including in Cambodia and Indonesia.

She has never previously shared the stage with another foreign minister. Mr Rudd described as a ''bit of mischief'' suggestions he sought a place on stage.

He arrived early at the event and walked up and down the aisle, shaking hands with the audience. He then took a seat in the front row and later attended a morning tea hosted by Melbourne University Asialink following the recording.

After a hectic two days of meetings, where Mrs Clinton repeatedly praised him for his expert knowledge of foreign affairs, Mr Rudd has now fallen ill.

On medical advice, he has pulled out of attending a regional summit in Japan, with the Trade Minister, Craig Emerson, to represent Australia in his place.

Costello vs Howard

It's tempting to say "who cares about these has beens" but it is amusing to watch. it's a damn sight more amusing than watching the current crop of lightweights in Canberra. The weekend australian lastweekend was truly sickening with their studio portraits of a statesmanlike Howard and glowing references to his self serving memoirs. Undoubtedly the most nauseating book since the Hawke memoirs. I don't even rate Blanche's trashy novel (definitely a work of fiction).
But consider for a moment the Gillard memoirs. these people are still doing the impossible and making Tony Abbot look good.