The guvment is considering a “consultation blog” to engage folks in the democratic process. It’s all about e-government, Web2.0 and other funky buzzwords:

Government agencies in Australia have traditionally involved citizens and community in the processes and decisions that affect them. With the advent of e-government and the increasing use of information and communication technologies to enhance government service delivery, opportunities arise for agencies to engage and involve citizens and communities through new channels.

[...]

The rise of new multimedia broadband technologies such as Web 2.0 bring a stream of digital innovations that are transforming the way people use the Internet and the way in which they communicate. Specifically, Web 2.0 provides amongst other things, real time interaction, democratized web spaces, user generated content and citizen journalism. People’s use of these new innovations is driving expectations for new approaches to the way government interact. Governments cannot ignore these changing social dynamics, especially in relation to citizen engagement.

Sounds like a great idea on the face of it. However, perhaps these Web1.0 bureaucrats should spend some time reading political blog comment threads to see how little they resemble reasoned, intelligent debate. Just as only fanatic, partisan people and organisations bother to write submissions for government inquiries, only fanatic, partisan people and organisations will bother to engage with the e-forum. Plus there’s the added Godwin’s factor and the Iain; Hall factor.

And finally, blogs that don’t have pictures of cats can’t be taken seriously.

An ad in today’s Herald Sun:

AUSSIE PARTY

EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST

We are starting a new Political Party called “The Aussie Party”

The Primary Goal of our Party is to instigate change to our governed political system by abolishing State Government and returning to the true Westminster system, which has only Federal and Local Government(s).

The infrastructure of our Government needs to be controlled by Federal influence alone. There can be no time lost by Federal and State Governments blaming each other for their failures. This achieves nothing. The time has come for the Australian people to unite their voices to make changes of and for the Australian People.

Please visit our website for more details:
www.aussieparty.com.au

Changes “of” the Australian people? That sort of clumsy language combined with the random use of capital letters makes this look like another Iain; Hall effort.

But then there’s this from the policies page of the website:

The first policy we would strive for is the abolishment of the State Government’s (sic).

Is it possible that the Aussie Party is just a John Howard front for “aspirational nationalism”?

The secret behind Iain Hall:

Thanks for the kind words about my writing; I take to heart what Stephen King said in “The Danse Macabre” when he said that any one who wants to write, in any genre, should set out to write everyday and treat writing like a job, because only then do you have a chance of mastering the craft, and finding your own authorial voice.

No wonder he’s a shit writer, he takes advice from Stephen King, another shit writer. But I don’t think King had quite the way with semi-colons Iain has. He’s really made those things his own, and is possibly in line for a “semi-colon” award. The prize? I’ll give him a free semi-colonoscopy.

It’s Tuesday and the latest episode of Lachlan Connor, Independent is nowhere to be seen. In fact, I’ve been largely absent from this website recently with almost zero posts or comments in my name over the last week. But, Jesus, it’s been busy at work. I’m afraid that report writing will cause Lachlan to be a few more days yet; perhaps next week due to Jacob Billybob’s wedding on Friday. But in the meantime I urge you to go read the transcript of a great Radio National Perspective in the context of those bloggers who try to excuse their poor English by crapping on about the language being a “living, evolving creature.”

The English language is a living, breathing, constantly evolving beast. As exciting as this is for many of us, we must recognise the difference between new words, expressions and ways of communicating, and incorrect grammar bred from laziness, ignorance and stupidity.

Brave Victorian State Liberal MP Bruce Atkinson, concerned about the way them gays have been spreading HIV around and infecting OUR CHILDREN, has visited an inner-city Melbourne gay sex club for research purposes. Having the balls to expose himself to the same air that gay AIDS sex fiends were breathing has gained him the admiration and respect of his peers. Luckily Bruce escaped unscathed but was shocked at what he saw:

“I spent maybe five or 10 minutes in the venue; some of the venue is just a passive recreation area where alcohol is served … but there were sections which were available for sexual encounters and some of those horrified me.

“You have 30 or 40 men who were engaged in all sorts of sexual acts and it was dark and they couldn’t possibly tell who they were involved with.”

Bruce was given one free condom upon paying his $15 entry fee but wasn’t happy with that:

“In the context of the behaviours in that venue, I think a single condom was inadequate.”

Of course, it’s only them gays that engage in such promiscuous behaviour. In fact, it’s a foundational part of the “gay subculture”. However, if Bruce Atkinson had employed the favourite research tactic of lazy journalists he would know that searching for “swinger party Melbourne” returns 213,000 results on Google.

No heterosexual people would ever engage in unrestrained, unsafe and frenzied sexual activities with multiple partners. Only them gays.