Snakes alive! It's the start of that season again

With the nights getting warmer and the days sunnier, it's time to take care when out walking through scrub or long grass on the NSW North Coast.
The start of Spring will see snakes begin to move about more often and some may cross our paths or that of our pets.

A snake's body temperature - and so its level of activity - is controlled by the temperature of the air and the ground. It will try to maximise body heat, by basking in the sun or lying on or near warm surfaces such as night-time roads or even, on occasion, household water heaters.
In the more temperate climate along the coast they shelter in rock crevices and logs during cold weather and come out on warm days to soak up the heat of the sun.

All native snakes in NSW are protected under the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974.

Photograph of Eastern (Common) Brown Snake found at Sydney University website.

Dirty deeds done dirt cheap

I can't say that I follow American politics all that closely, but it is not hard to recall the Bush-Gore presidential race of 2000 and the debacle surrounding electronic voting and flawed vote counts.
With the November 2008 polling day coming ever closer, the first concerns are surfacing about irregular purging of voter registration rolls in at least three US states.

"The purge issue is only going to rise in profile in the coming weeks. Several voting rights groups are studying the process in a number of swing states and hope to issue reports later this summer. Among the issues being studied is the accuracy of the database matches used to purge voters. When California first implemented a data-matching program in 2006, some counties had error rates as high as 40 percent, meaning a registered voter who appeared to have moved would have been incorrectly purged without further efforts to confirm their residency and voter registration status."

It has been reported that last month in Colorado a Bush appointee purged one in every five voters registered in that state.

There is no uniform eligibility requirements for voluntary voter registration across America and the mishmash of conflicting state and federal legislation may make the run up to November quite interesting for the rest of us watching from afar.

What is evident is the fact that it would be relatively easy under current rules for a US state apparatus to disenfranchise groups thought to be unsympathetic to the candidate favoured by its governor and it wouldn't cost real money to do so - just stationery and postal costs.
While even the dead may be turned to advantage in other instances.

Both Democratic and Republican voter registration drives are frequently problematic also and prospective voters can become very confused.

"Late last month, as a voter-registration drive by supporters of Senator Barack Obama was signing up thousands of students at Virginia Tech, the local registrar of elections issued two releases incorrectly suggesting a range of dire possibilities for students who registered to vote at their college.
The releases warned that such students could no longer be claimed as dependents on their parents’ tax returns, a statement the Internal Revenue Service says is incorrect, and could lose scholarships or coverage under their parents’ car and health insurance."

It's times like this that I'm thankful to be living in Australia - our voting system seems eminently sane compared with this American brand of political insanity.

US 08: Who said what

* Click image to enlarge

Word cloud graphic came from the stables of The New York Times.

It is interesting to note that during the Democratic Convention speech Obama used his opponent's name 78 times and spoke about God 22 times.

While during the Republican Convention speech McCain used his opponent's name 25 times and mentioned God 43 times.

The word cloud also gives lie to a recent Obama statement, supported by Biden, that McCain and Palin failed to mention issues affecting middle class Americans.

Amazing Grace...........

With 21 candidates standing at the Clarence Valley local government election, one would think that there would be an embarrassment of talent to choose from.
Sadly this is not the case when one looks at those standing for the first time or standing again after an initial unsuccessful attempt.

However, along with Janet Purcell, Grace Clague is an exception to this dismal field of wannabes.

Grace, an indigenous mother of three from Brushgrove, shone with quiet sincerity when she made a commitment to protect the cultural and economic values of the Clarence River.

She also impressed with her understanding of the financial realities of local government and the need to develop federal and state relationships which can facilitate funding outcomes.

Grace acknowledged that Clarence Valley Council's current differential rating system needed to remain in place and be fine tuned according to changing circumstances.

Reported in The Daily Examiner last Saturday she stated:
I support borrowing strictly controlled levels of finance to spread the cost of very expensive infrastructure, such as water supply, between current and future residents.

Grace Clague gets an 8 out of 10 on my ballot meter.

Frank Sartor can't understand why he's lost out - should we tell him?

Frank Sartor thinks that the current situation, which finds him without his title of planning minister and off the new NSW Rees Government front bench entirely, is all a big mistake.

He told The Age yesterday:

Mr Sartor said in nearly 17 years of elected office, he had made many contributions to the City of Sydney, of which he was former lord mayor, and the state of NSW.

He pointed to his "transformation" of Sydney, the establishment of the Cancer Institute of NSW, the Water and Energy Savings Fund - now the Climate Change Fund, the smoking ban in pubs and clubs and difficult planning reforms.

What Frank Sartor doesn't understand is how the average voter thinks.

While everyone either approves or disapproves of state policy initiatives across a broad range of community concerns, it is the politics of their own streetscapes that brings individual passions to the fore.

When Crankie Frankie stripped away the rights of residents and ratepayers to have any effective say in most local development decisions, he crossed a bridge to far.
One which is likely to cost Labor at the next election.

Premier Rees is obviously hoping that with Sartor gone, NSW voters will forget about those draconian planning reforms.

He is perhaps being overly optimistic, especially in coastal electorates where development pressure is fast stripping local identity away and leaving behind a generic 'retirement and tourism zone'.

Brendan Nelson stuns this mullet

Federal Leader of the Opposition Brendan Nelson was on the ABC TV The Insiders program yesterday morning.

A minute or two into the interview he left me looking like a stunned mullet accidentally beached on the living room carpet, when I heard him calmly suggest interfering in state politics to the extent of finding the means to call an early election in New South Wales three years ahead of the end of this government's term.

Here is what he said:
"Federal Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson says he will examine the constitutional arrangements in New South Wales to see if there is any chance of an early election."

Brendan, that strange hairstyle you sport must be eating through to your brain.
It is not up to any federal pollie to look for ways to wreck a state government or to assist others to do so, no matter how deeply concerned that political lowlife allegedly feels.

21 Economic Models explained with Cows - 2008 update

Clarrie Rivers admits this is not his original work.

SOCIALISM
You have 2 cows.
You give one to your neighbour.

COMMUNISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and gives you some milk.

FASCISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and sells you some milk.

NAZISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and shoots you.

BUREAUCRATISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both, shoots one, milks the other, and then throws the milk away.

TRADITIONAL CAPITALISM
You have two cows.
You sell one and buy a bull.
Your herd multiplies, and the economy grows.
You sell them and retire on the income.

SURREALISM
You have two giraffes.
The government requires you to take harmonica lessons

AN AMERICAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You sell one, and force the other to produce the milk of four cows.
Later, you hire a consultant to analyse why the cow has dropped dead.

ENRON VENTURE CAPITALISM
You have two cows.
You sell three of them to your publicly listed company, using letters of credit opened by your brother-in-law at the bank, then execute a debt/equity swap with an associated general offer so that you get all four cows back, with a tax exemption for five cows.
The milk rights of the six cows are transferred via an intermediary to a Cayman Island Company secretly owned by the majority shareholder who sells the rights to all seven cows back to your listed company.
The annual report says the company owns eight cows, with an option on one more.
You sell one cow to buy a new president of the United States, leaving you with nine cows.
No balance sheet provided with the release.
The public then buys your bull.

A FRENCH CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You go on strike, organise a riot, and block the roads, because you
want three cows.

A JAPANESE CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk.
You then create a clever cow cartoon image called 'Cowkimon' and market it worldwide.

A GERMAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You re-engineer them so they live for 100 years, eat once a month, and milk themselves.

AN ITALIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows, but you don't know where they are.
You decide to have lunch.

A RUSSIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You count them and learn you have five cows.
You count them again and learn you have 42 cows.
You count them again and learn you have 2 cows.
You stop counting cows and open another bottle of vodka.

A SWISS CORPORATION
You have 5000 cows. None of them belong to you.
You charge the owners for storing them.

A CHINESE CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You have 300 people milking them.
You claim that you have full employment, and high bovine productivity.
You arrest the newsman who reported the real situation.

AN INDIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You worship them.

A BRITISH CORPORATION
You have two cows.
Both are mad.

AN IRAQI CORPORATION
Everyone thinks you have lots of cows.
You tell them that you have none.
No-one believes you, so they bomb the **** out of you and invade your country.
You still have no cows, but at least now you are part of a
Democracy.

AN AUSTRALIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
Business seems pretty good.
You close the office and go for a few beers to celebrate.

A NEW ZEALAND CORPORATION
You have two cows.
The one on the left looks very attractive.