It’s in my personality not to be able to remain interested in something for long periods of time – so my humble little blog didn’t get updated all that often. But whenever I was outraged by something I’d always have to express myself. Increasingly I found myself becoming more and more cynical. My cynicism is deeply rooted now. If another Abu Ghraib, for example, happened tomorrow I’d probably just shrug my shoulders. I’ve lost the ability to be shocked. I used to need to scream out at the injustices in the world – now I feel like my voice is merely a whisper into a hurricane. I feel utterly powerless.

I hope one day I can regain my voice.

So long farewell, auf weidersehen good-bye…

Three more years. Three more f–king years.

I don’t know what to say. I feel kind of sick. I’m pissed because the lying rodent didn’t get kicked out like he oh so deserved to, but I’m also feeling sick because I feel disappointed with the Australians who voted for him. Why would they do such a thing? Are they intent on the destruction of Australia? The Liberals scare campaign over interest rates had better not be responsible for this. Howard and his cronies went on and on if Labour were elected interest rates would go up, even though the freaking government does not control interest rates and the majority of economists said interest rates would not be affected by who was in power. But it seems as if the terror campaign worked, which is so f–ked up. Winning an election by lying to your people, that’s just great.

Predictably George W. Bush was pleased that his deputy sheriff got re-elected, calling Howard from Air Force One to congratulate his “great victory.”

Just as the sun is rising over the dawn of another three years of Liberal rule I have the feeling things are not going to get better. And I suspect the children waking up this morning in detention centres around the country would be feeling the same way.

I have mixed feelings. I am certainly glad Howard is gone, but why not three years ago? (Or for that matter, six years ago?). It pisses me off when people mention the invasion of Iraq as one of the key reasons they would not be voting Liberal. Iraq was invaded in early 2003, while the last election here was late 2004. The idea of invasion was immoral back in 2002, and the actual invasion in 2003 only proved that. Why didn’t those people vote against Howard back then?

I hope Kevin Rudd can bring a renewed sense of morals to the Australia identity. The old government wore me down with its non-stop corruption, lies and hatred towards fairness. I’m not expecting a revolution. I don’t expect to be able to get married next week, but there is optimism in the air, for a brighter future for this country. The next three years will hopefully make me proud of this country again, something Mr Howard stole from me.

Here is the video I promised yesterday. It’s very informative and emotional, it left me with tears in my eyes. Kudos to the great Dateline team, who always do great stuff.

Tens of thousands of US soldiers are returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan, suffering from post traumatic stress disorder.

They say they’ve been abandoned by the Bush Administration and the Department of Veterans Affairs, claiming that government officials are actively trying to cover up the extent of America’s traumatised soldiers.

For many vets, this means not enough help is being offered and their lives are plagued by anxiety and mental health issues. But for some, the results are even more tragic.

Dateline video journalist Nick Lazaredes meets the widow of an Afghanistan veteran who was severely depressed by his recall to fight in Iraq.

He was killed in a police shootout on Christmas Day, his death dubbed ‘police-assisted suicide’.

As Dateline reveals, his story is not an isolated one.

Reporter/Camera.
NICK LAZAREDES

Additional Filming.
STEVE HARPER

Researchers.
YAARA BOU-MELHEM
TARA LIBERT

Editors.
WAYNE LOVE
NICK O’BRIEN

Producer.
AARON THOMAS

At least 852 American military personnel have died in Iraq so far this year – the highest annual toll since the war began in March 2003, according to AP figures. Some 850 troops died in 2004.

link

Well, well, well. So all we hear from the Bush crime gang’s mouth is that all is going swimmingly in Iraq (oh, they say there’s still “hard work” in front of them, but their asinine assessments attempt to paint a deluded view of the hell hole the US has made Iraq).

Pertinent to this issue is tonight’s episode of Australian current affairs programme Dateline. They will be airing a piece about post truamatic stress disorder plaguing US soldiers returning from Iraq, and the total nonchalance the Bush Admin. greets this. I’ll upload the video if I can.

Really hate it when the security people swarm her. Arrest Dr. Rice, you idiots. The blood of hundreds of thousands of dead  are on her hands, and they swarm the protester. Typical.

Much to be depressed about these days (what’s new?), so hopefully this brightens up your day.

Manly’s shame at flash dance
IT was the prank designed to bring some humour to a losing grand final dressing room.

But Manly were last night in major damage control after discovering that winger Michael Robertson inadvertently exposed himself on Fox Sports TV while a teammate was interviewed in the dressing room.

Robertson last night told of his acute “embarrassment” after the footage hit video-sharing website YouTube – where it was immediately dubbed the “wang dance”.

UPDATE: It seems the footage wasn’t actually broadcast (the broadcast footage I’ve seen has been cropped to exclude the cock swirling action), so it appears that the video was released in-house and has now found itself onto youtube.

Secondly, I saw Eli Pariser from MoveOn.org on Friday’s NBC Today show and I thought he was really cute.

This rating was determined based on the presence of the following words:

• fuck (12x)
• fucking (4x)
• sex (2x)
• crap (1x)

Ha, ha! I’ve sed “crap” once. Cool.

Joan Rivers goes wild at the 2006 Logies:

Rove’s “fucking awesome” speech at the 2005 Logies:

A drunk Glenn Milne pushes Stephen Mayne off the stage at the 2006 Walkley Awards:

And while I’m at it, here is a short clip of excerpts taken from Summer Heights High, a fantastic new Australian school satire: