Ham Hocks' geniality disguises vacuity

How disappointing that the SMH's normally endearingly acrid Annabel Crabb has turned to sickening mush over Joe Hockey's "genial" personality.

Ham Hock's performance on Q&A last week left DH foaming at the mouth. She found him neither cute nor lovable nor funny. What she saw was an overconfident buffoon hogging the limelight, while having absolutely nothing of substance to say.

We're talking about the greatest crisis this country has faced since the Great Depression. If you're going to have the gall to drown out the other panellists it's not enough to be a likeable joe. It helps to have something constructive to say.

What is it about the Joes anyway? Hockey and Tripodi - two of a kind, the class attention seekers who play up in the front row. But all their capering and clowning can't hide the fact that they haven't done their homework.

If HamHocks keeps carrying on like this, he may become DH's new poster boy for the Banality of Evil.

CEC not welcome here

You know who you are. Do not spam this website.

 

And if you don't know who they are, watch out. They are a bunch of far right conspiracy theory losers who are gleefully trying to make hay out of the global capitalist meltdown. Some of what they say is plausible. Even if its only the obvious notion that bubbles eventually burst. Other than that, look out for their weird ideas.

So you think you can dance your way out of hypercapitalist bust?

Or "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?"

Reality TV is schooling young Australians to be the docile slaves of the new world economy. Note how alienated machine rhythms make up the most popular music. How sad to see our magnificently talented, beautiful and naive young people outbidding each other to imitate robots. Well, they'll need to be to compete internationally with 3rd world people who had any sense of their own rights and dignity beaten out of them long ago.

Role Model?

For years now, our young people have been in training. The name of the game is to swallow any humiliation your overseers can dish out. That way you can stay in the game and have a chance at the scarce prizes controlled by the pimps and whores of the corporations with the money.

And then you will be exploited and discarded.

DH was nearly sick with disgust when she watched an episode of "So you think you can dance".

Thank god her leaning disabled child who wouldn't harm a flea said she wouldn't watch another episode because she can't bear to watch people being hurt.

It makes you wonder who has a "disorder". All the cheering young things who have some saleable gifts which they can't wait to offer up for exploitation, or the learning disabled who will never get applauded, or rewarded for having nothing to give but love. And who will be forced btw to get by on a miserable pittance of about $500 a fortnight, when their support needs are so much more expensive than those of the able-bodied who can make their own way.

These shows are turning our young people into servile morons.

What a shame thatour censors focus on excising loving sex from prime television, but happily ignore shows like this, which are nothing but sado-masochism, both in attitude and content.

When these young people are not imitating machines, they are tarting themselves up to look like hyper-sexualised whores and pimps. I guess the judges like that because every criminal loves to hide the blackness of their own hearts by corrupting others.

The Biggest Loser

Now this is pure porn and takes our minds off the truly fat and ugly, those who consume most of the world's wealth, and can afford anorexic young women to make them look good.

Sickening!

DH's Housing Recovery Plan: Musical Houses

What hope is there for conventional responses to the rising tide of homelessness when according to the NY Times even the massive $275 billion thrown at the problem by Obama's recovery plan  will not come close to halting the tidal wave of foreclosures. Nor would it provide much help to millions of homeowners who are "under water," or holding mortgages that are bigger that the market value of their houses

 

So here's DH's stab at a simple solution: Musical Houses

 

After sufficient advance notice, at exactly midnight, the national broadcaster simply plays Advance Australia Fair. When the music stops... you aquire the title deeds to whatever residence your bum happens to be parked on. (Only one bum per household allowed!)

 

It's true that some worthy people might miss out. Well they shouldn't have been out on the tiles on Musical Houses night, should they?. But isn't it gratifying to know this simple measure simply wipes out private property and landlords at a stroke?

 

As for those who miss out because they're homeless and don't have a foot in any doors so what else is new? Besides they can be relocated in batches to liven up all those empty and forlorn holiday MacMansions currently blighting all our national beauty spots. .

 

In other parlance, you might call DH's scheme Nationalising Private Property, but Musical Houses sounds so much more fun.

 

Besides all decent, upstanding Australians have been schooled since our 3rd Birthday Party to cop it sweet when the music stops, and not throw a tanty.  If only the same could be said of the property-owning few, who scream blue murder and threaten to transfer their assets to the Bahamas everytime anyone tries to take their negative geary thingee off them.  

Is Hockey the best they can do???

Sadly, DH got it wrong in her entry Hockey's Last Stand: A Buffoon Capers to Oblivion

Read also DH's brief encounter with Joe at Howard govt housing inaction still coming home to roost

Not a lot of talent in the Libs is there?

Underpaid Housing staff comment

[DH thought this comment on her post about underpaid housing staff was worth lifting out of obscurity].

 

Yes, I would think $23 p.h. is definitely below par for someone with SW experience - though it's a bit hard to tell unless you're familiar with all the relevant Classes & Years, as per the Award rates for the Community sector which are accessible on the net, at least for Victoria. I get $25.58p.h. for my casual work in the welfare sector.

In Victoria Office of Housing staff are known to be paid at the lowest rate on the State Public Service Award. Yet their caseloads are just as described in the ad you've reprinted from NSW. When I talked to the CPSU official responsible for public housing staff a couple of years ago he said that their workloads were basically unmanageable and that he was worried about the psycho-emotional health of some of his OH staff.

This week an OH worker told me that all the rent rebate reviews which were due to be processed by Nov 23, '08 were still underway (the new rebate system has everyone's rent fixed for an identical 6 month period, so they all have the same processing date).

But ultimately pay and conditions should be lobbied on by the CPSU. Could it be that the union's ties to Labor are impeding their capacity to be a robust union? I wonder how these examples from NSW & Vic compare to other states?

There's no doubt that public tenants would benefit from having better paid & qualified staff.

D'oH recruitment drive stalls 5 months on

While D'oH is appealing for temp CSO contractors for the minimalist remuneration of $23 an hour, what happened to the recruitment drive launched last October for new CSO's? Eager applicants who may have devoted a day or two of their lives filling in the typical government applications with its long lists of selection criteria are still waiting to hear yay or nay 5 months on.

 

 

Wanted by D'oH: Strong minded social workers prepared to work for $23ph

Any takers for this lucrative career opportunity with D'oH?

Any "social workers" prepared to work for $23 an hour?

What does "strong minded" mean exactly?

Does that $23 include a "strong-mindedness" bonus to explain the largesse

Don't forget that $23 doesn't include sick pay or holiday pay

DH's learning disabled child's first menial job pays $21 an hour!

With this kind of offer, no wonder all the you beaut things dreamed up in head office never get implemented down at the branch offices.

Dept of Housing - Client Services Officer - Northern Shores

Department of Housing requires customer service rep for their office in the Northern Shores $23

Our client requires a strong minded and experienced customer service representative preferably with a background in social work or community care to assist with managing a portfolio of clients. Your role will be to manage your portfolio of clients while under the guide and with support from your team leader to ensure you provide high level customer service while juggling a large workload of differing priorities.

You will work in small, friendly and supportive team and where your days will be varied with tasks such as Counter Service, Office Administration and Client Visits. While the role is a temporary position there is a lot of potential to possibly advance your career within the department.

Located close to Buses. Paying $23 P/H your duties will include but won't be limited to:

• Managing a portfolio of clients and looking after their special needs
• Counter customer service
• Client visits
• General Administration

Must have:

• Previous experience in a customer service background
• Social Work or Case Work desirable
• Excellent open and friendly communication skills both verbal and written
• Proven conflict resolution skills
• Ability to understand and interpret policy
• A current driver's license a must
• Ability to work well under pressure as well as in a team environment
• Understanding of confidentiality and a strong work ethic

No additional funding to house bushfire victims

Kevin Rudd has just announced on Question Time that  "the Victorian Govt can draw on the $6.4 billlion social housing fund", or $1.x billion of it to house those left homeless. Let's hope that most of those who lost their homes were insured, otherwise what about the people that have been on the wait lists for years? Will they be displaced by those who are the "more deserving" new poor?

Bubbles' r 'us, or, the Banality of Greed (from the Brown Couch)

For those of you who prefer facts and figures to opinion, check out Debt and blame from the Tenants Union's new blog, The Brown Couch.  In it "Chris" illustrates with graphs and all just exactly how "with his Capital Gains Tax reforms, Peter Costello behaved like a tout at the door to the casino", while greedy mums and dads gambled our prosperity away.

 

It confirms DH's point of view about the detested Howard Government. Sure she despised Howard and Co. But who voted for him? Who demanded continual pandering? The coalition of the small-time Greedy and the Resentful, and the Comfortably Amoral.

 

The bubble ' r ' us

 

What hope for the human race when we're no smarter than locusts. Like them, we eat everything out till there's nothing left. Then we wonder why there's nothing left...

What's a $Billion here or there?

DH hopes that her old Political Economy lecturer, Prof Frank Stilwell, will straighten her out about the global financial crisis this Friday at Politics in the Pub.

Alas all she recalls of from her days as a student of Economics is the Golden Rule as expounded to all first year PE students at Sydney Uni

The Golden Rule of Economics

Whoever has the gold, makes the rules

Still, she avers, that is all ye need to know, other than its corrollary, never be intimidated by economic jargon.

DH looks forward to meeting followers of the Diary on the night, though she regrets that she will not be wearing a lobster on her head for easy identification.

Tripodi: Jump, jump, jump!

Who is this man, and why does have so much power? And who's his partner in skulduggery, Eddie Obeid?

As Housing Minister, Tripodi introduced the infamous "Reshaping Public Housing", against the advice of all housing NGO's and activists, which seems to be transforming public housing into a statewide free-range psychiatric hospital with no services on site for the inmates.

We can have some sympathy with the view that State governments had no choice but to tighten up eligibility criteria for public housing to those "most in need" when the dastardly Howard government gutted the the C'wealth State Housing agreement to the tune of $3 billion over 10 years. (Or so Labor used to say, though now they seem to be revising that to $1 billion).

But Tripodi had infinite choice on how to promote this policy. He chose the cheap populist route of drumming up hatred and resentment for the people his brief was to protect. His only reported public comment during his tenure as Housing Minister was to vow to stamp out the BMWs threatening to eat public housing (according to him and his acolytes Cherie Burton and Matt Brown)

DH has only once witnessed Tripodi's parliamentary performance. She's been trying to track it down in Hansard with no luck. The gist: In response to a serious question from the opposition on the state of NSW transport, Tripodi was the class clown, all bumptious posturing and schoolboy hooting and hollering. Anyone who has ever taught young bullyboys will immediately recognise the sure sign that they haven't done their homework. And let's not forget the oil-slick of sleaze that surrounds Tripodi wherever he surfaces.

If he won't jump, can't somebody push him?

Rudd and Gillard cream Turnbull and Bishop.

Happened to watch Question time yesterday. Even DH's daughter who hates politics cheered at the way Rudd wiped the floor with a shamefaced looking Opposition. All poor Malcolm could do was to sit there smiling in a desperate attempt to appear confident.

But the cake had to go to the Leader of the Nationals, ... er... what's his name? who tried to dredge some political capital out of appealing to the Resentful Classes about the 80 million going to overseas pensioners. How pitiful. Every nation has reciprocal arrangements for payment of pensions because it's in their own interests, and besides its all about free markets and global flows. . To try and make hay out of something they themselves support shows how low they will go. Or is Mr W's H. Name just that ignorant?

No, DH is not in the Labor party, and she's incredibly dirty with them for not squarely standing up to the mistreatment of people on Newstart. But still...

Housing design matters

Driving down Bourke St, Alexandria today made DH's heart sing! The sun was shining, and life seemed full of creative possibilities. Why can't social and disability housing design be like that? Why is there so little public discussion about the importance of design in welfare housing? What does it mean to someone society hopes to rehabilitate when they come home to some hideous concrete or redbrick structure that says "This is all you are worth".

OK, so we're living with legacy housing from a more punitive era. DH understands that HNSW is now looking at building housing that is not distinguishable from private housing. May relief come quickly! And may this not be forgotten in the rush to put affordable housing down on the ground as quickly as possible.

If you go down to Centrelink today...

If you go down to the C'link today, you're in for a big surprise.

If you stand at the end of a C'link queue, you'll never believe your eyes

For every bear market victim that ever there was is gathered there for certain because

Today's the day they hand in their forms for dole payments

Unbelievable. Last year there was just a handful of us desperados down there. Now there are lengthening queues, and pity the people waiting 20 deep for interviews. And there's lots of well-to-do looking young people. DH hopes they are all former Liberal bankers getting a free education in neo-classical economics

What message is Labor sending the unemployed?

If you went down to Centrelink two weeks ago, you would have seen the sorry people in the unemployed queues. How anecdotal of DH, but there were few tanned sybarites amongst their number dressed in borrowed rags just to claim their 250 bucks. The clientele is mostly Aborigines, people with ravaged faces or bodies, bad teeth, and for respectability, a smattering of people close to retirement age, who are finding it hard to get work.

The unemployed have the lowest rates of benefit, and even that little they have, they will pay tax on.

What is Labor's message here?

1. Hang in there, we'll give you an extra $30 a week someday
2. You should be trying harder to find work, and it's your own fault
3. We're running as scared of the resentful lower middle class as the Liberals were
4. We're practising triage here, we'll have to let the weakest go the wall. You're the group that will do us the least electoral damage

Bouquets to Rudd Government

Thanks to Tanya Plibersek and co, for the 6.6 billion to build 20,000 new dwellings. A stimulus to the economy that won't send silvertails whingeing to the media that money spent on the great unwashed will end up as a stimulus to the Chinese economy.