Adios! For A While Anyway

Hi there folks,

Long time no see. And for you, long time no read.

Yes, it’s been quite a while since the last instalment of Nah Seriously and there’s now a few tumbleweeds blowing down Main Street EDM.

Excuses? I have a few. Mainly around life getting in the way and leaving very little time for pondering, typing and disseminating. But the main reason would have to be a lack of inspiration and motivation due to most of the news both locally and beyond being so damn frustrating and angst-driven. Politics in Queensland and Federally have traditionally been a catalyst for a lot of my musings, but to be honest, so much in those spaces just pisses me off these days so I’ve decided to take a step back and bury my head in the proverbial sand for a while.

Life’s too short for a lot of that crap and I’m actually envious of people who choose to live in ignorance of it all as their lives seem so much easier and less complex. Ignorance is bliss and all that. And with a Federal Election looming that looks like being fought on the most basic level and to the depths of the lowest common denominator, well then, it might actually be a medical necessity for me to switch off and close my eyes to it all.

So with that, comes this announcement that I will not be blogging via Nah Seriously anymore. Yep, you heard it here first. Then again, where else would you hear it?

Perhaps ‘anymore’ is too strong a word though. More like ‘not in the conceivable future’ anyway. Because who knows what the future will bring and maybe I just need a good break to recharge the soul and rekindle some spirit. The basic premise of all this though, is that I won’t be blogging for a quite a while and your regular instalments of EDM are about to become not so regular. Or not at all.

Goodbye for now then. Hopefully catch you some other time but please don’t hold your breath. It’s a messed up world out there and I’m over trying to make some sense of it all. With some of things coming my way in the not too distant future, it’s time to focus on the real and discernible things that matter. You know, family and stuff.

So adios and take it easy my friends. Til next time maybe.  

EDM.

PS – will still be twittering though. 140 characters much more manageable. Hit me up at @Every_Day_Man

EDM Extract - Nepotism, Nonsense & Prisoner X

Well, it's been another big week in the big house of politics on all sorts of levels. State / Federal / International. Oversight / Breach / Punishment. Rumour / Speculation / Truth. Pretty much the whole gamut of the political discourse in this country.

State-side then, in Queensland anyway, the current Government has been busy in managing to appear in the news for all sorts of wrong reasons. It began last Friday when Minister Bates finally put us all out of our misery and resigned. The Minister who'd been on leave for nearly a third of her tenure had had enough and quit for personal reasons.

Of course the very next day we learnt more about the Minister's activities with revelations she'd appointed a personal friend, Kaye Martin, to a departmental position as well as a member of a government board. Much hilarity then ensued when Martin claimed to not be a friend of Bates and that she'd only met her a few times. Then came the news that Bates had thanked Martin for her friendship as part of her maiden speech to Parliament and that Martin had given a speech at Bates 50th birthday celebrations. Not bad for someone who'd only met Bates a few times. She obviously made quite the impression.

And no Bates story is complete without a mention of Michael Caltabiano, former Director-General of the Department of Transport and Main Roads, who'd been on 'garden leave' pending the outcome of a CMC inquiry into the hiring of Bates' son to a high-level departmental position. Well, last Friday the Premier terminated Caltabiano's contract and the press release contained just two sentences, the second being 'No further comment will be made'. No explanation has been given since and just yesterday Caltabiano launched legal action claiming unfair dismissal.

All of which allowed various Government Ministers earlier today to say they can't explain the termination or comment further because the matter is now the subject of legal proceedings. How convenient. The gods must be smiling for such a scenairo to occur. It's almost like it was contrived. But that would be ridiculous. Surely...

Moving along to Federal politics and...ummm....well....oh shit. It's all too bloody hard. I just can't find any motivation at the moment when it comes to the national scene. The whole sorry saga is getting beyond me and even I'm starting to switch off a bit to save my sanity. I'm just too damn young to be a grumpy old man shaking my fist at the world just yet.

The gist of it though is that Labor is once again shooting itself in the foot with more leadership rumblings. The lunatics are running the asylum it seems with 'disgruntled backbenchers' plotting against the Prime Minister and the media giving Rudd plenty of spotlight to spruik his wares. Political reporters are loving it of course because they can lazily report the 'he-said-she-said' and not have to put any effort into analysis of the big picture issues.

One particularly bad poll for the Government then resulted in the media going into overdrive sounding like Jim Morrison with calls of 'This is the End!' and telling us the Prime Minister should be replaced. And how many people took part in this poll? 1400. Yep, the views of 1400 out of nearly 23 million people is apparently the determinant of how this nation should be governed. How very democratic.

But that's letting the Government off lightly. These few weeks since the election announcement have been very poor from them indeed. The Government has struggled to sell itself and its achievements at the best of times let alone when things like the mining tax are exposed as being toothless and all manner of leadership speculation takes hold. The inability to convince the electorate of anything is also making things difficult as some flimsy yet entrenched views just aren't being shifted.

Minority governance hey. I do remember telling the wife in the days after the last Federal election that whoever took power and formed Government that they would lose the next election. But I'm no oracle on that I'm sure.

Finally, I just wish to bring to your attention the excellent Foreign Correspondent story from last week regarding the imprisonment of Ben Zygier, so-called Prisoner X, by the Israeli Government and his subsequent 'suicide'.

A few weeks ago no-one had even heard of Zygier and his story but since the program went to air it's prompted governments in both Australia and Israel to launch inquiries into how it all went down. Both nations' intelligence agencies have some questions to answer, but I'm guessing those answers won't be too forthcoming. National security and all that apparently. Anyway, check it out for yourself here.

That's the latest EDM Extract then of the days and weeks of late. Til next time,

EDM.

EDM Extract - Peptides & Platitudes

"Pssst. Over here. Yeah you. Wanna buy some peptides? What are they? I dunno. But everyone's talking about them. They're all the rage."

Nah Seriously, what a few days it's been in Australian sport. Particularly the two main football codes in the AFL and the NRL with relevations on a daily basis of new-age drug, hormone and supplement taking with all sorts of blurred lines in regards to what is illegal and what is OK. To be honest, I've struggled to keep up with it all and haven't quite got my head around it yet, but here's a brief summary for your reading pleasure.

It all started on Tuesday when the Essendon Football Club announced they'd recently learnt that some of their sports science practices from alst year might not have been completely legal or ethical. It was an extraordinary press conference in that no details were offered up but there were plenty of platitudes along the lines of 'we'll cooperate fully with the investigation' and 'I had no idea at the time' from the Chairman, Senior Coach and Medical Officers.

We've since learnt players were often taken offsite by the club's sports scientists to be injected with 'supplements' and players were asked to sign waivers to offload any liability from the club despite the fact the club was telling them everything was kosher. Now of course I know nothing of the inner workings of the Essendon Football Club, but it seems extraordinary that the Senior Coach and Medical Officials in particular didn't know about this. And the idea of making players sign waiver forms certainly looks like a head office / legal area thing to do so the Chairman not knowing either is suprising.

Last year certainly was a rollercoaster ride for Essendon in 2012 on the playing field anyway. The players looked like they'd really bulked up over the offseason and they were at top of the ladder at 8-3 at the halfway mark of the season. It all fell apart after that though and they managed only three more wins to finish outside the finals. They suffered a horrific injury toll with players going down with soft tissue injuries on a weekly basis and it was widely thought that the weights-focus of the offseason was to blame for all the hammies, calf and groin tears that occurred. You know, Jake the Muss and all that. "Too much weights, not enough speedwork".

Anyway, other AFL Clubs in Geelong and Gold Coast have since been mentioned with the sports scientist in question having worked as a consultant with the Suns and the Cats coming out and saying they have some concerns about their own practices as well. Every other club was no doubt hurrying away and checking their procedures and asking some hard questions of their respective sports scientists.

The NRL wasn't immune either with Manly being put in the spotlight with the same sports scientist having worked with them during their premiership years under Des Hasler. We'd previously heard stories of players injected with calf blood and the like but apparently lactate-reducing concoctions and DNA testing of muscle fibres were also prevalent around the club at the time. And then today, we've heard of vials and needles being found stashed in the home dressing rooms of the Gold Coast Titans at Skilled Stadium.

The legality of any and all of these practices is the big issue with no-one quite being sure what is illegal, what is legal and what the boundaries are. From what I've seen anyway. The thing is, all of this has come about with not one player testing positive for illegal use of a substance. That obviously brings into question the current list of banned substances, the current methods of testing players, and the current protocols that are meant to ensure the rules are being followed.

And all this was then wrapped up with the release of a Australian Crime Commission (ACC) report yesterday that found evidence of players taking performance enhancing drugs; criminals being involved in the trafficing of these drugs to players; players being fed quick-metabolising substances which are hard to detect; doctors writing scripts in false names for drugs to be supplied by compounding pharmacies; and anti-ageing clinics having links to criminal groups to obtain and distribute performance enhancing substances.

It's all very murky and there's obviously plenty of shocking relevations that need to be further investigated, reviewed and addressed. The links with criminal groups is a big concern obviously and all the sporting organisations need to work with the ACC to stamp it out. Players who knew they were taking banned substances and doctors / sports scientists who knew the substances they were pushing are banned need to face the appropriate consequences as well.

Both the AFL and NRL have acted pretty swiftly in response actually, with the AFL already having an Action Plan announced last night including a major beefing up of their integrity unit and NRL officials appointing a former judge to investigate and work with the ACC. But you have to be a little suspicious of any of this turning into multiple life bans or court appearances. Even the ACC, a crime enforcement entity with the powers of a standing Royal Commission, has refused to name names so they must have some concerns about the 'beyond reasonable doubt' nature of the evidence they've obtained.

It hasn't stopped the opinion-makers though and we've had no shortage of cheap headlines proclaiming it all as the blackest days in Australian sport ever and the football codes as being in crisis with their integrity in shreds as a result. There's also been some pious rants about the nature of modern sport and all the money involved ruining everything. Like we could go back to the grand old amateur days where apparently all was well with the world and our heroes were pure as the driven snow.

All in all, it's been a pretty big few days for sport in this country. Understatement of the century perhaps. It's certainly been the strangest off-season period I've ever seen for the football codes with all sorts of coverage, not just this latest drugs drama, being front-page news and not even a footy has been kicked in anger yet to commence the 2013 seasons.

It might prompt the AFL and NRL to bring those seasons forward and kick them off next weekend the way things are going. Just to get the actual playing of football in the news. At least there's no worries about my AFL team, Melbourne, being involved in all this. Whatever they were taking last year, it certainly wasn't performance enhancing.

EDM.

EDM Extract - The Election Announcement & All Manner Of Stupid

"All told, I think the last 20 hours is the Australian media's worst performance since the 2010 campaign." 

Crikey's Bernard Keane the day after the Prime Minister announced the election date. And the eight days since haven't been much better.

Yes, it was historic for Gillard to announce the actual election date seven months in advance. It was a bold move and time will tell if it will pay off. One thing it did do though is it completely wrong-footed the Canberra Press Gallery who like to think they know every little nuance of this Government and its office-holders. Basically, they were left scratching their heads saying "but no-one leaked it to us". "No-one ran it passed us first".

Yes, Gillard did it for strategic reasons of her own, like every Australian Prime Minister has since Federation. That's the go with non-fixed terms. The leader of the day has the prerogative to call it when he/she sees fit. And the strategy seems to be about catching the Opposition off guard and trying to force Abbott and the Opposition to announce some costed policies, any costed policies, before the election.

And yes, the early election call did prompt the resignation of two of her Ministers. But they were going to quit anyway, as they told the PM last year, and they merely thought it best to step down now rather than create instability later on and closer to the election. Common sense really.

But according to our nation's media, the Canberra Press Gallery in particular, Gillard did it to distract from the immiment arrest of Craig Thomson. She did it to ward off a future challenge from Kevin Rudd. Her Government is in disarray and chaos because of the two Ministerial resignations. Her Government disrespects Jews by having the election on the date of Yom Kippur. Julia just wanted to show off her new flashy glasses.

FFS! There's so much stupid in all that I don't even know where to start. The Craig Thomson one stands out the most though. Just why the hell would Gillard want to start day one of her election campaign knowing full well the papers would be leading with a scandal about Thomson. Nonsensical. And one for the conspiracy theorists in long coats and wearing aluminium hats rather than those who are meant to be preeminent political journalists.

The Rudd thing is pretty damn stupid also as even the man himself has categorically denied any interest in a leadership spill before the election. If you'd seen his reaction yesterday morning to such a question you'd see how genuine that is. Only Kevin knows what Kevin plans on doing, but you'd think he has a better chance of being Prime Minister again by holding fire and perhaps rolling Abbott in three years time. Rather than bringing on another messy leadership challenge before the election that would no doubt bring down the Government that he might potentially lead for a mere few months.

Not a lot of sense behind the Yom Kippur/Jewish claims either seeing every election is held on the Jewish Sabbath (Saturday) and the concepts of pre-poll votes, postal votes and absentee votes are long established. But that didn't stop news.com.au coming up with this disgraceful picture of the PM doing a 'Sieg Heil' with its Nazi connotations (thanks to Mr Denmore).

And finally, the new glasses. Again, FFS! When this nation's media can actually concentrate on what the PM is saying and doing rather than how she is looking than I'll raise a toast once again to journalistic integrity. But to be honest, I'm not expecting that to occur anytime soon. Especially during this election campaign. And if we are going to go down that track, why hasn't there been any mainstream media mention of Abbott's very own 'makeover' when he attended his recent Press Gallery lunch.

There is a major concern that some of this coverage is rooted down in bias, particularly with a lot of it coming from News Ltd ("Hello, Rupert calling"). But I actually think its more rooted down in lazy journalism, incompetence and failures to distinguish between opinion and analysis. Quite simply, political journalism in this country is failing us and our democracy, and is trapped in a narrative of "he-said, she-said" whether its Gillard vs Abbott or Gillard vs Rudd or the truth vs a spectacle.

By all means, get stuck into the Government and demand answers/solutions on real policy issues and their vision and plan for Australia. That's what the fourth estate should be doing and that is why a fourth estate is so important in a democracy. But what we're getting isn't policy reporting and policy analysis. It's gossip, and rumour, and innuendo, and spin.

It's going to be a long seven months then if we're served up this drivel the whole time. This country needs more than ever a real election with a mature debate on the issues and the policies. Especially after everyone's performance during the last one; the politicians, the parties, the media, and even us the people.

But god help me if we don't get that. Because I better warn you now that I'll take no responsibility for my actions. It'll be the medication's fault. The stuff I'll need to be on to get through it all.

EDM.

EDM Extract - Kochie, A Captain's Pick, and The Big Wet

And there goes another week in the life of EDM. It's late January already and the news (and hits) just keep on coming.

First up, a big story for the week seems to have been the Kochie-breastfeeding-in-public saga. Uncle Kochie, the old scallywag, made some comments on Sunrise that he thought breastfeeding mothers should show more respect and some "common courtesy" by covering up if they're going to indulge, sorry, if their babies are going to indulge in public (Bit rich if you ask me...common courtesy not a redeeming trait of most Port supporters).

Not that suprising I guess that an elder TV man has an opinion that he wishes to share with the rest of us and certainly not that suprising that an elder TV man has that view. But perhaps he went a little too far when he said topless sunbathing was OK. Just not topless breastfeeding. Controversy was a-foot of course with it being national news for a few days and mothers storming Sunrise HQ (not quite the Bastille) on Monday and dropping their tops right under Koch's nose and on national television to protest at his remarks.

The footage was quite entertaining actually with Kochie eventually fronting the mothers flanked by a phalanx of security (hell hath no fury and all that) and some of his fellow female presenters looking a tad uncomfortable. But no doubt thoroughly appreciated by Channel 7 and Sunrise bosses with all manner of publicity and exposure being the result. What's the saying about any publicity being...

The political story of the week has been the Prime Minister's 'Captains Pick' of preselecting Olympian Nova Peris for the top spot on the Northern Territory Senate ticket for the Federal Election later this year. The current Labor NT Senator, Trish Crossin, was obviously not happy and didn't hold back in her attacks on the PM or Peris herself.

Labor was subsequently divided with some MPs claiming it was a good move while others didn't like the fact the normal preselection processes were supplanted. The attacks were nothing though in comparison to the personal remarks aimed at Peris from Alison Anderson, a NT politician, who claimed Peris would be nothing but a maid serving tea to her white party members. So it's definitely been a baptism of fire for Peris and she's probably wondering what the hell she's got herself into. At least she's already lasted longer than another sporting candidate, Mal Meninga, who didn't even get 30 sec into his first political interview before quitting.

Now I must admit I raised an eyebrow myself upon hearing the news of the Captain's Pick and just knew for sure there'd be the usual loud shouts and knashing of teeth about celebrity candidates, the bypassing of preselection procedures and rank and file members not getting a say. But a lot of that was dismissed once I read this article outlining Peris' achievements, other than sporting related, and I was impressed. Certainly her background of community work is a damn sight more impressive than about 95% of candidates we'll get at the next Federal election.

Another aspect of this issue has been the insight into something very new for me. Because until now, I never knew LNP MPs and conservative opinion-makers had such concern for the wants and needs of ALP rank and file members. Yes, it was truly enlightening the way they rounded on the PM and defended the rights of local ALP members to select their candidate. Others might say it was pure political opportunism, but I think that's selling them short. Solidarity forever hey comrades.

In other news, we have the big wet cometh to Queensland, including to the south east this long weekend where nearly 300mm is expected to fall. Quite a contrast to just two weeks ago when I wrote about the heatwave across the nation and I was bemoaning the late monsoon and very little in rain and storms for Queensland.

As I said at the time, I was a little unsure about doing a raindance seeing last time it resulted in the 2011 floods. Alas, some James Brown on the stereo brought it on and here we are about to receive a major dump again and all sorts of warnings about flash flooding and dam releases. My apologies people.

In all seriousness, while it's not expected to be anywhere as devastating as the 2011 floods, there is a level of nervousness about our first big wet since. As I wrote back then, the events of two years ago are not easily forgotten and there will be thousands of people across Queensland who've only just rebuilt who will have a wary eye on their local creek or river this weekend.

It's actually being reported that some Queensland towns are likely to have their second or third 1 in a 100 year flood in the last five years. And this only a few weeks after a record heatwave across the eastern seaboard and hundreds of temperature records being broken. But as you were, move along, nothing to see here. Climate change is crap and we should all just settle the hell down (sarcasm btw). But at the very least we should probably change the way we describe floods. This '1 in a' thing certainly isn't working anymore.

Anyway, as I type this it's thundering down outside and I'm keeping an eye on the neighbours rainwater tank as it has a tendency to overflow into our backyard. It's a given to happen sometime over this weekend though so maybe I should just give up watching and settle in for the drenching. It's not like I had an immense keenness to mow the lawns or anything. In fact, it's saved me a number of jobs this weekend. Maybe I should put some more James Brown on?

Til next time,

EDM.

EDM Extract - Laming and Armstrong

Straight Face Tweets

You would have had to have been living under a rock to miss the Logan street violence story during the week.

What was first a neighbourhood dispute between two families quickly escalated into gang warfare between Indigenous and Pacific Islander youths, all played out on Douglas Street, Woodridge. For four days small skirmishes broke out on a regular basis with the police doing a fine effort to calm things down and often got themselves right in the firing line of metal bars and fence palings to keep the two groups apart.

Cue the media frenzy with headlines implying ‘our suburban streets are at a flashpoint’ so we had live crosses from everyone to the local ABC radio reporter to Kochie and Mel on Sunrise. Some serious questions were raised as to whether the media was actually contributing to the conflict with their sensationalist reporting, but of course they were drowned out by the latest live cross to a police press conference or opinion pieces blaming it all on out of control ‘yoofs’ and social media.

One thing that certainly did not work to resolve things and take the heat out of the situation was this tweet from Federal Liberal MP, Andrew Laming:

Andrew Laming ‏@AndrewLamingMP

Mobs tearing up Logan tonight. Did any of them do a day's work today, or was it business as usual and welfare on tap?

9:06 PM - 14 Jan 13

Notwithstanding the fact an elected Member of Parliament should actually be showing some leadership in a situation like this rather than inflaming things even more, this man is the Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Indigenous Health.

How on earth then, can someone who so readily employs massive generalisations and racial stereotypes about Indigenous people be responsible for promoting Indigenous health and holding the Government to account on Indigenous health issues?

It’s like a card-carrying member of the NRA being Shadow Minister for Gun Control. Or Pauline Hanson being Shadow Minister for Immigration. The mind truly boggles as to how the man still has that job.

But the funniest part of the whole saga was Laming’s ‘clarification’ the next day once he’d finished wiping the $hit from his fan and no doubt after a few calls from LNP HQ. Apparently what he really meant to convey was how unfortunate the situation was and he was merely raising concerns about training and employment prospects:

Andrew Laming ‏@AndrewLamingMP

To clarify: Working together to resolve these riots the priority. Training and a chance for jobs are key.

9:51 AM - 15 Jan 13

Being a tweet, it’s hard to tell if he said it with a straight face. But being a politician, I’m sure he did and he actually thought it would work.

Death Match Cometh

The other big story for the week so far (as mentioned last week) has been the impending Armstrong vs Oprah ‘no-holds-barred’ death match coming up later today and tomorrow our time. I say death match given the way it’s been promoted with the most unintentionally funny television promo I’ve ever seen. All deep voiceover and thunderous drum beats. I’m sure Saturday Night Live could not have done a better job of satirising it to be honest.

Anyway, the whole lead-up to the interview with the early announcement and selective leaks has been so blindingly obvious in its attempt to recuperate Armstrong’s image that it may actually work in reverse. The strategies and tactics are so transparent that Media Studies 101 students could easily rip it apart for what it is.

Alas, here and here are two of the best articles I’ve read on the whole sorry saga over the last week that really demonstrate how stage-managed the event has been.

The other topic of interest with this is the role the interview will play in heavily promoting Oprah’s fledging cable television network. The network has struggled big time since its launch and Oprah needs a big ‘catch’ and a big moment to try and gain some traction and put her name back up in lights once again. Even Oprah herself is spruiking the Armstrong interview as “big for my career”.

Anyway, just some points that are worth reading about before the interview is aired in a few hours time. Millions will be glued to their televisions and I’m sure it’ll be a ‘water cooler’ discussion for the days that follow.

Just remember though that Armstrong isn’t confessing because he feels guilty and is contrite and sorry for his actions. It’s because he got caught not just for cheating, but for lying to us all for nearly a decade about the cheating. And not just in the media and in interviews. But under oath during multiple legal proceedings and court cases.

And of course there’s millions of dollars at stake. Not the most altruistic of motives.

EDM.

EDM Extract - Kicking Off 2013

Welcome to the first EDM Extract of 2013. As advised late last year, there's a few changes-a-foot at Nah Seriously and I plan to provide more regular posts but in a less comprehensive fashion.

For instance, I used to wait until some form of inspiration struck me down before jotting down my thoughts with it usually being something that got me riled up or annoyed before I'd contemplate posting. With a busy life outside Nah Seriously, these moments didn't come around as often as I liked last year so I'm trying to be more regular (insert toilet humour here) while also being a little more light-hearted and light-on in terms of content.

Well, that's the plan anyway. Let's see how we go. So herein is my first post for the year. The EDM Extract from the week that was.

================

First up we have the Tony Abbott / Peta Credlin puff piece from News Ltd papers last Sunday. For those that missed it, here it is, but the gist of it is really about an interview with Abbott's Chief of Staff, Credlin, in which she denies Abbott has a problem with women and he's really a raving mad feminist because he let her put her IVF drugs in his office fridge. Offered to burn her bra for her as well I heard.

As a bit of PR, it certainly worked with top billing in a number of Sunday News Ltd tabloids with accompanying photos and highlighted quotes. One thing that a lot of people wouldn't have known as they read the article over their weet bix and vegemite toast though, is that Credlin's husband, and a big player in her IVF quest you'd imagine, is Mr Brian Loughnane, Liberal Party Director and the man who will run Abbott's 2013 campaign for Prime Minister.

Yep, big news then and something that just demanded a two-page spread across a lot of our Sunday papers - people on Tony Abbott's payroll support him. Ground breaking stuff that. And not even the really important issue raised - the appalling lack of adequate fridge facilities in Parliament House.

Next it's the heat and all this bloody heat. The whole country has been smashed with a massive heatwave from Alice Springs to Tasmania to Weipa and even as I type there's little end in sight with Birdsville expected to hit the 50 degree mark over the next couple of days. Records have been tumbling on a daily basis both nationally and locally with the first eight days of 2013 making it into the Top 20 hottest days recorded in Australia in terms of average maximum temperature.

On Monday, the average maximum daily temperature record for Australia was broken at 40.33°C. The previous record, 40.17°C on 21 December 1972, had stood for 40 years. The average maximum daily temperature on Tuesday was a close third at 40.11°C. The number of consecutive days where the national average maximum daily temperature exceeded 39°C was also broken this week - seven days, almost doubling the previous record of four in 1973.

It's the late monsoon apparently as the cause as there's just no damn moisture in the air to bring some relief. I'd do a raindance but last time I did that roughly two years today it didn't stop for weeks.

And of course all that heat has brought us plenty of bushfires with hundreds raging across Tasmania, Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland. Now I don't mean to turn this into a Tony-fest but hey, his actions just damn well make it that. I'm referring of course to the issue of Abbott attending one of the bushfires near Nowra in southern NSW as a Rural Fire Volunteer and the controversy that followed.

Basically, Federal Minister Brendan O'Connor copped plenty for calling it a stunt on twitter and there's been calls for his resignation because of it. But I gotta say I agree. By all means Tony, fulfil your volunteer duties and strap on the fire boots and helmet. It is admirable that you remain a Rural Fire Volunteer being such a busy man and you cut short your holidays to help out. But the minute your staff (Credlin and Loughnane again) put out a media release asking news agencies to attend and interview you and film you while you sat in a truck, well then sir, it did become a 'stunt' and should be called as such.

Getting more local for you Queenslanders out there, we had the return of the Captain of Ship, Arts and IT Minister Ros Bates after two months sick leave followed by a few weeks annual leave. There had been some other leave taken earlier in the year which means the Minister has been on some form of leave for a quarter of her tenure as a Minister. All of which has occurred as controversy surrounds the appointment of her son by the suspended Transport and Main Roads Director-General, Michael Caltabiano, meaning she's been able to avoid any questioning in Parliament and by the media.

While I'm not for a second claiming any bogus-ness in relation to her fall and ill health, it's certainly nice leave if you can get it. No-one else would get two months sick leave before they'd been in a job a year so the eye-raising and tut tuts are a little justified. And before you think that's it, came the news that Caltabiano himself will have earned $130,000 while suspended from duties awaiting investigation by the Parliamentary Ethics Committee. Garden leave is the new black apparently. Only in Queensland they say.

And finally came the news that Lance Armstong is due to go on Oprah Winfrey next week. No other news about the interview just yet but it's hard to see Armstrong actually admitting too much with all sorts of legal questions remaining and sponsors threatening to sue. But then again, the man has never done things by the book so it will be interesting to see what comes out of it and whether a mea culpa is coming our way.

Who knows, but I'll leave you with a tweet from Fairfax Sports Writer Richard Hinds that sums it all up for mine.

Richard Hinds ‏@rdhinds

Oprah asks "tough" question. Lance confesses. Lance cries. Oprah forgives. Audience goes nuts. "Yellow jerseys under your seats!"

6:54 PM - 9 Jan 13

Til next time,

EDM.

EDM's Holiday Reading Once Again

Well, it's that time of the year again. Where I bid farewell for the year and provide some holiday reading for you all.

I can announce that 2013 will be bringing some changes to Nah Seriously, some of which have occurred already regarding formatting and the like. The plan though is to narrow down my subject matter a bit more into current affairs / politics and maybe even create another blog for some of my sporting writing. I'll do some thinking over the break anyway and come up with an appropriately cunning plan.

A strange old year 2012 has been on so many fronts though. I'm a little tired and jaded from the experience to be honest with so much frustrating me and causing angst. I've certainly noticed that I'm more and more switching off the mainstream media as my source of news and opinion and I'm thinking that's only going to become more prominent in 2013. Twitter has certainly added to that movement as I've been able to access more independent news sources such as New Matilda, The Global Mail and The Conversation.

Anyway, traditionally I provide a list of articles/stories for your holiday reading that I've put together throughout the year. However, this year is different and the below list is merely articles/stories from the last few weeks and even days. They should be quite topical then so here's hoping they engage you and provoke some thoughts/feelings as you too stop living life to a timetable and enjoy a break from the normal day-to-day.

So first up we have Jon Stewart on The Daily Show and the now infamous Fox News US Election moments "that will live forever".

One for the music fans and those who enjoy writing about music is this guy who must have spent an inordinate amount of time compiling the 500 worst reviews in Rolling Stone magazine.

In line with my recent post on the AFL Draft being a lottery and putting too much pressure on 17 year old kids, comes this republishing of an article by The Age's Emma Quayle on the very first AFL Draft held in 1986.

Another one from The Age is this article from Martin Flanagan that sheds some light on the experience of a grandfather of a premature birth. Flanagan is more known for his football writing but I must say I'm reading more and more of his other writing, including this one about Gough Whitlam and this one about Christopher Hitchens.

Getting political now, there's this piece in The Atlantic on the confusion and complexity of what is currently happening in Egypt. And domestically there's this blog post on the Ashby conspiracy if you don't mind a few choice words and colourful language.

There's plenty of other political articles and posts I could list here but given the year we've had both nationally and in Queensland I think we could all do with a bit of a cold shower and a nice lie-down.

Moving on to the media then, I've got Ben Eltham's take on 2012 in New Matilda here and this study of the bias of carbon price reporting from The Conversation here.

It's probably too late already but here's a great piece in The Sydney Morning Herald on the materialism of Xmas and our 'trashing of the planet for a talking piggy bank'. Very thought provoking.

And a change of pace comes from here then and a little op-ed from John Birmingham about his daughter's primary school upon her graduation to high school. One for some my family members who are teachers and hopefully enjoying a long break after a long year.

So there it is my friends. EDM's Holiday Reading for Xmas 2012.

I'll be back in 2013 I can assure you but I must say I'm looking forward to a break myself and a bit of a rejig of things here on Nah Seriously in the new year.

Til then my friends,

EDM.

Not Even A Week In Politics

Politics. It has no relation to morals, as Machiavelli once said. Ain’t that the truth.

So this week, and its only Wednesday mind you, we’ve already seen a tsunami (always wanted to say that) of ‘politics’, politicking and political scandal. And that’s not even with Parliament sitting in either Canberra or Brisbane. Both have wrapped up for the year but that hasn’t ended anything.

Number 1 would have to be the Slipper/Ashby affair. No-one has come out of it smelling roses including the likes of former Howard Minister Mal Brough and current Queensland Minister Mark McArdle. But in the end you’d have to say Ashby lost the battle but he did win the war.

As Margot Saville points out here, Justice Rares found the sexual harassment complaint was always vexatious and was made with the sole purpose of discrediting Slipper and bringing him down. “For the predominant purpose of causing a significant public, reputation and political damage to Mr Slipper” in his own words. It certainly achieved that.

But now Ashby’s reputation is also in tatters given his patsy role and he’s been handed a hefty court costs bill. Brough and McArdle have been outed as the brains behind it as well which is quite Machiavellian given Brough has been preselected by the LNP to take on Slipper at the next election. With a choice of those two, expect a massive increase in the amount of donkey votes in the seat of Fisher.

The Government itself does have some ammunition to fire back at the Opposition over the whole sorry ordeal but it’s got to be careful given it appointed Slipper to be Speaker of House in the first place and backed him in numerous motions in Parliament. Its settlement deal with Ashby of $50,000 might also be a source of some embarrassment.

Moving on, next we have Premier Newman’s backflip on the National Disability Insurance Scheme. Now I’m all for the backflip as it will mean life will get just a little bit easier for thousands of Queenslanders living with a disability and their families and carers.

But what a backflip its been. In July, the Premier said categorically that Queensland could not afford the scheme until at least 2014 and he revelled in the faux stoush with the Prime Minister at COAG. And he continued to claim that Queensland just couldn’t afford to contribute to the NDIS and called for the Commonwealth to fund it entirely. He even alluded to it having the potential to make Queensland the “Spain of Australia”.

Come early December though, after a few months of horrendous media coverage as his Government lurched from one crisis to another, all of a sudden the Premier could find some money and Queensland will now contribute nearly $900 million over four years to roll out the NDIS in this State.

So not just a backflip, but a close to $1 billion backflip. And if that sort of money can be found so easily in the face of just a few months of bad polling, imagine what else is sitting under the couch cushions waiting to be retrieved. Me thinks the budget situation and the hysterical talk of ‘debt’ might be a little overstated. But hey, that’s just me.

And finally, we have the Abbott Slush Fund affair. Now many of you probably haven’t heard of this one as it’s struggled to get any traction in the mainstream media. Basically, former Fairfax journalist Margo Kingston nearly spat out her tea when watching Tony Abbott calling for the Prime Minister to come clean on the AWU slush fund issue because she remembers Abbott having some very serious questions raised about his very own involvement in a slush fund controversy.

Margo duly set about writing an article about it all before having all sorts of troubles getting anyone in the mainstream media to publish it. Along came Independent Australia and New Matilda who duly published and now there’s quite a campaign running asking the Australian Electoral Commission why it dropped an early 2000s investigation into Abbott’s conduct around the Australian’s for Honest Politics Slush Fund established to pursue Pauline Hanson for electoral fraud. You know, the case that put her in jail and all that.

The whole saga is better outlined by others here and here. Perhaps though it’s actually a case of some ‘good’ in politics as opposed to the two other examples above. Not from any politician or political party themselves, but from real people and citizen journalists who are working tirelessly to uncover an important issue that goes right to the character of our alternative Prime Minister.

But as I said, its only Wednesday. Who knows what else ‘politics’ will bring us before the week is out.

EDM.

Great Expectations - The AFL Draft Is A Lottery

For all the scouting, for all the analysis and for all the speculation, the AFL Draft is still very much a lottery. And one that puts great expectations on young men who are still only 17 years old.

The 2012 AFL Draft took place last night on the Gold Coast and the leadup had the usual 'toing and froing' over who will go when and to what club. The footy media ran phantom drafts and supporter sites were full of discussion and excitement about this kid and that. Stars were born last night apparently and every club rolled out the usual proclamations afterwards about getting what they wanted and believing they had picked up a few bargains.

There's no guarantees in AFL football though and history is littered with high-end draft picks who never got a game or who didn't live up to the expectations of the media and supporters. For years to come, there will be even more speculation about the success of each pick with an inordinate amount of footy media space questioning why Club A went with Player B instead of Player C. Ah yes, it'll keep many a footy reporter busy and in employment for years to come all that talk.

The thing is, we're talking about 17 year old boys here. And all this coverage and all this spotlight puts enormous pressure on these kids to deliver. Because in many cases they are expected to change the fortunes of entire clubs that are over a hundred years old and are made up of forty-odd players and immeasurable numbers of support staff. Not only that, they are expected to have an impact almost immediately and if they don't, then obviously Club A picked the wrong kid and it was a waste of a good draft pick.

It's quite ridiculous and very unfair if you ask me as many 17 year olds don't have and can't have the maturity, determination and dedication needed to be a successful AFL footballer. Its just human nature. Certainly I didn't at 17. Perhaps even at all. But every year so much pressure and expectation is put on kids this age to be the next star and to be a club's saviour. Especially as the average career of an AFL footballer is less than four years so a teenager drafted at 17 is more than likely to have finished his career by the time he is 21. Still very young.

It's also complete folly to put so much trust in draft picks and the nuances of 17 year old footballers. I should know, I'm a Melbourne supporter. As has been widely documented, the Melbourne Football Club had a blind faith in the draft and young kids bringing it success but look what that has achieved. Or more to the point, look what that hasn't achieved.

Conversely, look at someone like Jack Watts. He's copped all sorts of criticism for apparently not living up to 'our' expectations but he is still only 21 and might have another ten years as an AFL footballer. Brendon Goddard was in the same boat for a number of years as well before he eventually became one of the top three players in the league by the time of his mid-20s. 

Yes, teenagers can't instil success without some sort of example being provided to them by older and more experienced players on what it takes to be an AFL footballer and to be a successful club. Clubs like Sydney and Geelong have understood that from the beginning and have reaped recent success as a result.

That's why I don't fall into the camp that expects Gold Coast and GWS to dominate in a few years time as I just can't see the draft and the draft only delivering a premiership in such a short period. It's blind faith to think otherwise and I think some harsh lessons are in for those supporters who believe that their latest 17 year old will deliver them the ultimate success.

It's a lottery that's for sure, and it would be wise for all this excitement and all this speculation to be reigned in a little. But hey, considered and rational analysis doesn't sell newspapers or get x number of website hits so I'm not expecting any massive shift in the coverage any time soon.

But beware the faith in a bunch of 17 year olds delivering an AFL premiership for your team. Trust me, I've had all sorts of experience in that and have the emotional scars to prove it.

EDM.

Expectations & Disappointment - A Week In Qld Politics

Well, what a week it’s been for the Newman Government. Plastered all over the front page of The Courier Mail every day, and not for any good reasons. Scandals-a-plenty with nepotism and clandestine contact with lobbyists and other family matters being revealed and discovered.

The biggest scalp so far has been former Minister for Housing and Public Works, Dr Bruce Flegg. A couple of sackings of staff in his office raised quite a few eyebrows before one of them turned on him and released a bunch of emails showing the Minister had lied about the amount of contact he’d had with his lobbyist son.

The nature of that contact also came out with other emails showing that the son was making recommendations on who Flegg should appoint to senior management positions within his department. Most children of Doctors ask for a new car. Flegg junior asked for a new Deputy Director-General.

The revelations obviously meant Flegg had to resign and he did. But not without a mea culpa where he blamed it all on ‘sloppy administrative processes’ on the part of his former staffers and even had a go at the media and Opposition for dragging his family into the whole sorry mess.

Ah mate, I think your son brought himself into it and with your compliance. If he didn’t want to be involved in politics, why is he working as a lobbyist and attempting to take advantage of the fact his father is a Minister?

The other big story this week has been the continuing saga of Ros Bates, Minister for Science, Information Technology, Innovation and the Arts, the fact her son gained a public service job when thousands were being sacked, and her very own lobbyist register.

The son and his job issue has been played out for months and is still the subject of investigations by the Crime and Misconduct Commission and Parliament’s Ethics Committee. Consequently, the inns and outs of it have been well-documented so I won’t go over them again.

But this week Bates was forced to correct her lobbyists register for the fourth time since April to include details of 11 discussions she’d had with a lobbyist Luke Myers, who is the brother of the Premier’s Chief of Staff, and a whole string of meetings she’d had with Santo Santoro, former Liberal Party Senator and probably the most notorious lobbyist in the State.

It obviously begs the question how such significant contact and numerous meetings with lobbyists could be left out of the report in the beginning. And it’s certainly not a good look for the Minister to keep having to come back and report to Parliament, that yet again, the original report was incorrect and incomplete.

Once or twice maybe you’d say fair enough. But four times really makes you wonder about what’s trying to be hidden. And her reasons for this latest correction? “Teething problems” and errors made by her staff. Or in layman’s terms, ‘the dog ate my homework’.

And then the inevitable happened yesterday. The Premier took to the airwaves defending his former and current Minister and crying poor over the media coverage. “These things happen”. “Nepotism is just how the world works”. “Lobbyist contact is fine as long as its (eventually) declared”. “Labor was worse”, was basically the jist of it.

Yes, there is nothing wrong with having contact with lobbyists, and yes, it’s not unethical to talk with lobbyists just because they are family members of other Cabinet members and their senior management.

The thing is though, the ‘other side did it too’ claim misses the point by a country mile. There was certainly no shortage of scandals from Labor over their 12 year reign, particularly in relation to lobbyists, but Newman and the LNP promised us they’d be different and that they’d hold themselves up against a higher standard of ethics and integrity.

In fact, they promised us that ad nauseum during the election campaign with one of their main election commitments being:

"We will establish a real Ministerial Code of Conduct and set the highest standards of performance and behaviour of our Ministers and staff, including restoring the Westminster convention of Ministerial Responsibility."

So that’s where the public and the media’s disappointment and disgust are coming from. It’s not so much the acts themselves which really aren’t too dissimilar to what went on before under Labor. No, it’s about the fact the Newman Government was voted in because they promised they’d be different and they’d be better in terms of accountability and integrity.

That’s why there is so much dissatisfaction with these ongoing scandals and continual sagas. Our expectations were raised, but now they’re being dashed on an almost daily basis. And trying to hark back to say “the other mob did it” as an excuse just doesn’t cut it in those circumstances.

But good luck to Minister Bates in her efforts to survive this latest scandal. Although lady luck has already smiled on her by ensuring Flegg’s ‘administrative error’ was discovered and revealed before hers.

To paraphrase Oscar Wilde, ‘to lose one Cabinet Minister in a week could be regarded as misfortune, but to lose two Cabinet Ministers in a week looks like carelessness’.

EDM.

Radiohead - 9 November 2012 - Brisbane

First, a disclaimer. It is impossible for me to be objective when it comes to Radiohead. I've always been a massive fan and await every new album like an Apple fanboy awaits the latest iPhone. I have spent an inordinate amount of time listening and watching (via TV/internet) these boys from Oxford so if you've come here expecting a critical and purely impartial take on their gig on Friday night, you're out of luck.

So yes, I have spent an inordinate amount of time enjoying the delights of Radiohead over the years. To the point of them almost being the soundtrack of my life. I've sat on the train with my eyes closed and my toes a-tapping. I've lied down on my bed with my head rocking and my hands a-flicking. There's just something about them in that they always seem to come up with the perfect melody or lyrical prose to sum up my particular mood(s).

However, I've never seen Radiohead live and in the person before. Friday night was to be the first time in the flesh then, and not even the prospect of having to trek out to darkest, furthest Boondall could dampen my spirits. I couldn't help thinking how good it would be to see them in a smaller, more intimate venue, but hey, beggars can't be choosers and the 'trek' was made with excitement and anticipation levels at an all-time high.

So my colleagues and I made our entry into the arena about 20 minutes before Radiohead were due to come on. As I moved down the stairs to the standing admission areas in front of the stage, I couldn't help but think back to the Brisbane Bullets and what used to fill these seats. We were in for something a hell of a lot different I knew that for sure.

And so it began. They opened with Lotus Flower and then Bloom from their most recent album, King of Limbs, before a classic from OK Computer in Airbag. Thom Yorke and his solo piano then brought us the unreleased The Daily Mail with a cheeky cockney accent before a suprising cheer went around the arena for Hail To The Thief's Myxomatosis.

Over the top of all this were huge screens floating above the band showing different images of each member in playing mode and providing quite a visual spectacle. From a close-up of Yorke as he played the piano in a look of pure concentration, to Colin Greenwood's fingers flying over and under the strings of his massive bass guitar. Bright red. Then green. Then blue.

By the time the tamborine intro from Reckoner came around, I couldn't help but feel like I was inside one of those kaleidoscope toys I had as a kid with the changing colours and images as you twisted the bottom piece. The song itself was just as beautiful and my mind pondered "is this what taking acid is like?" I was stone cold sober but things were getting a little bit religious.

Another classic Climbing Up The Walls got another big cheer and its chaotic brillance was all there to be seen. Mellow acoustic guitar and some electro that almost got the lighters out from the crowd, before it exploded into 'hard-and-fast' that meant you had no way of stopping yourself from moving. I noticed a small space had been created around me. Guess I was moving a little more than I realised.

Over the next few songs we had a newie in Staircase as well as some old school triumphs such as There There and National Anthem before the electronics returned via Feral and Bodysnatchers. And that was it. Or so it seemed. Or how it was meant to seem. Because no-one went anywhere. An encore surely.

And yes, they didn't disappoint. A few minutes later they returned to the stage to massive applause with the slow,early wallow of Give Up The Ghost from Kings of Limbs. Just Thom and an acoustic guitar started things off before Josh Greenwood joined in on the cello (is there no instrument this man can't play?). This continued with a loop of the first lyric which made it sound like Thom was actually duetting with himself. It was majestic. You could have heard a pin drop as the audience stood/sat in silence, mesmerised and awestruck.

The emotion continued with Pyramid Song before the strong beats of Morning Mr Magpie let loose and brought things back around to percussion and movement. This was one hell of an encore, especially as one was thinking each song would probably be the last and it would all be over. 

Alas, things had not reached any sort of peak just yet. Not by a long stretch. For the early bass sounds from Paranoid Android soon followed and a massive response from the audience occurred. While the band itself seemed a little disinterested at this point (playing it for the 1000th time might do that), the crowd certainly were not and a massive singalong, the first for the night, took place.

What came next was probably my personal highlight for night. If I had to pick one. I stood waiting for what was next as the band rearranged themselves and soon the intricate guitar intro to Street Spirit (Fade Out) was heard. For long time fans this was exquisite. The lone track from their second album The Bends (1995), and one of my most favourite tracks of all time. I sang along in unison to "Faaaadddeee Ouuuutttt Aggggaaaaiiiinnn" and the emotion nearly bubbled out before I shook my head at the end with a silly, mad grin across my face. Wow. Just wow.

And that was the encore. Or should I say Encore 1. The lads moved off stage once again but we all stayed and the slow hand-clapping commenced. The mandatory few minutes ensued and the band came back out while the floating screens arranged themselves in unison to act as a ceiling above them. It was a beautiful affect as it gave the impression they were inside a small, more intimate venue rather than a 12,000 person arena.

The hardcore bongo drum beat from 15 Step then filled the air as the lyrics began with "How come I always end up where I started". Again, my head was rocking and my toes were tapping as Thom looked like a new-age Ian Curtis jerking and pulsating across the stage.

All this before they moved effortlessly into Everything In Its Right Place. Another classic from Kid A (2000) and it was magnificent. It started off with its slow looped-over lyrics before turning into a jam of epic proportions. Each band member then left at different intervals until there was only one instrument (keyboards) being played. Build it up, and then bring it back down. Awesome.

The audience then stood/sat in awe themselves, trying to take it all then. Personally, I was exhausted from the emotion and from the experience. Really, an experience like no other. No-one wanted to leave though and the crowd stayed where they were. A loud cheer then came from up front and everyone looked closely for a sign. And there it was. The band were returning for Encore No. 3. Three bloody encores. Not in my wildest dreams did I expect this.

The heavy bass from Idioteque then blasted out from the massive speakers and it continued to rise into a mish-mash jam of electronics, percussion, rap-like lyrics and looped-over calling. In a way, it was almost too much despite its brilliance. A wall of sound that crashed into and through every one of our senses.

By this stage of the night the crowd were feeling a little delicate after what they'd been through and this last song came to an end with everyone in shock and awe at what they'd just witnessed. My colleagues and I filed out of the arena feeling just the same way and hardly a word was spoken on the long trip home.

It probably took the next day for it to all sink in for me. I woke up with that same insane grin and spent the morning thinking back to the night before and shaking my head all over again. Involuntary movements would occur as I found myself tapping my fingers or rolling my body in time to one of last night's songs while making a coffee or walking to the car.

It was that sort of experience. No easily-digested affair or a mere fleeting beige-like moment in time. It was intense. It was sublime. It was epic.

Sydney and Melbourne, look out!

EDM.