Even more election posters

Angela D'Amore still has her office going, even though she won't be the local member any more in 2 1/2 weeks time. That's not preventing her from using up her printing allowance in a misguided attempt to puff up her legacy. By April 1, people will be saying, "Angela Who?"

The alternative Angelo Tsirekas poster - the one that is not a leftover from a previous mayoral campaign. I don't get the use of slogans - "One of Us". What the hell does that mean? That he's not an alien from the Planet Zog?

Found this in a backstreet - almost fell of the bike when I saw it. It's the only one I've seen so far. Adam - here's a hint. Get a haircut before your next formal photo session. My motto is, "Never trust a Green in a suit". That goes for business suit, lounge suit or koala suit.

Ah, the missing poster from my last trawl - James Falk, the Liberal candidate for Balmain. We've heard very little about him in the media, because the media are obsessed with the battle between the Green and the Labortard. Poor old James gets no oxygen because he appears to be normal. My suggestion is that he takes drugs, crashes his car into a gay bar and then runs naked down the main street of Balmain with a flaming torch stuck up his bum. If he does that, he might cop a line in the local rag.

More election posters

As requested by the Tizona Group, I bring you four more election posters. I did a special ride today, just for you guys. First off, we have the current Mayor of Canada Bay, Angelo Tsirekas. He has a few different posters, all similar to the one above. I think this is actually his old mayoral campaign poster, with a "Drummoyne" sticker stuck over his old mayoral election slogan. Labor have written this seat off, so he's having to make do with a budget of sweet FA.

God knows why he went with yellow - I always associate that colour with cowardice. One thing I have noticed though - he doesn't try to chat my partner up when I accompany her to functions he's attending. Rumour has it that he got a bit too friendly with ladies other than his wife last year, and was booted out of the marital abode. It appears things have since been patched up. He's got excellent name recognition though, having been mayor for years, so I think he is in with a reasonable chance. The Labor voters that were walking around six months ago saying that they'd never vote for D'Amore (since hauled up before ICAC on corruption charges and suspended from the Labor party) will vote for Tsirekas. His name doesn't stink like D'Amore's did (she is also Joe Tripodi's sister-in-law). As a newbie, he also isn't associated with the wretched Labor government.

Jamie Parker, who is the Mayor of Leichhardt. He's hoping to knock off Verity Firth in Balmain. Although he's a Green, he's been spotted parking his big black Mercedes some distance from functions and then walking so that people don't get the idea that he is in fact a rich, capitalist plutocrat. He's certainly richer than the other candidates shown here. I hope that all that blue sky in the background isn't full of CO2.

Alex Elliot - never heard of him, and don't ask me why he went with black and white. Cost perhaps? It stands out though.

John Sidoti, currently Mayor of Burwood and the Liberal candidate (sorry about the distant photo - the road was too busy to cross - will try to get a better photo). It's always fun around here when the elections are Greeks vs Italians. Sidoti has added a large format poster to his repertoire - the ones on the right of the trailer. They really stand out. Interesting how the Liberal is photographed on a green background, and the Green on a blue background (traditionally the conservative colour).

More to follow after the next ride. I didn't spot a poster for the Liberal candidate for Balmain this morning - I know they are out there, but there weren't any in the spots that I rode around today.

Stuff happens

Tony Abbott was stitched up nicely today by a Channel 7 "reporter". For some reason, the tool asking the questions thought that saying "Shit happens" was being insensitive.

Well, putting on my old giggle hat and writing as a rather useless part time soldier, I have only one comment to make - what a load of crap.

Soldiers have a vernacular all of their own, and most of it is incredibly offensive. We use the term "swear like a trooper" instead of "swear like a teacher" for good reason. Soldiering is hard work -physically and mentally harder than just about any other occupation - and it comes with a reasonable risk of death, injury or wounding. Soldiers think, talk and joke in a way that would make many civilians fall over in astonishment. The black humour of soldiers is something to wonder at - shrinks would call it a "coping mechanism".

Soldiers train and train and train and train - and then train some more - because the battlefield is one big bucket of "shit happens". Even though I was just a humble chocko that never had to run around a two way firing range, I was trained quite thoroughly to deal with and handle the wide variety of shit that comes your way on operations. And funnily enough, we used to regularly use expressions like "shit happens", because incredible as this might sound - shit happens in war! War is messy and unpleasant and things rarely go to plan.

Take the ending of the siege of the Iranian Embassy in London by the SAS. You had the best train assault teams in the world doing the work, and they were equipped with the best stuff available at the time. They'd rehearsed the entry many times, yet when they actually started blowing stuff up, one bloke got tangled in his ropes and was nearly roasted alive when flash bangs set the curtains on fire.

Even when you have a well planned op, with highly trained troops, good intelligence and the best equipment, things still go pear shaped. Shit happens - it's how you deal with it that matters.

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PS - the SAS op was called "Operation Nimrod". We used to use the term "nimrod" to denote a complete and utter fuckhead - like Mark Riley. Some crafty sods have been vandalising his Wikipedia entry - at 11.39 yesterday, someone added this to his entry (which has since been locked down):

He is a total fuckface who had [[sex]] with [[Julia Gillard]] in return for a bullshit story about Tony Abbott

Wasn't me by the way. And I don't believe this accusation for one moment. For crying out loud - who would want to screw Gillard?