Extracts from the West Australian Newspaper:

Bowler on the ropes as CCC bugs Grill’s house
27th February 2007, 6:00 WST

Local Government Minister John Bowler’s political career was in the balance last night after the Corruption and Crime Commission played a secret tape of conversations he had at the home of lobbyist Julian Grill, allegedly about confidential Cabinet information. 

In a conversation recorded at the lobbyist’s home on June 19 last year, Mr Bowler told Mr Grill that a couple of “big decisions” had been deferred in Cabinet that morning. 
 
The CCC heard another secret tape, recorded the day after Norm Marlborough was elevated to the Carpenter Cabinet, of Mr Bowler congratulating Mr Burke on the success of a “candidate”. The CCC also produced a hand-written note in which Mr Bowler said he would cherish Mr Burke’s advice “all his life”.  
Mr Bowler: Now, Woodstock Abydos (the Fortescue site), apparently Carps says he’s happy in the way it’s going, that although they said, you know, the decision of the, of that committee. 

Mr Bowler: ACMC . . . Sheila, Sheila understands that they have to say that and that she’ll now overturn it. Mr Grill: Um, all right so if I can just take a note on this, err.

Mr Bowler: So it is expected that um Sheila will overturn the ACMC decision.
  
Mr Grill: So Carpenter just told you that um Sheila should overturn the decision?
  
Mr Bowler: ... She will. 

This man is my boss, well as much as any public servant considers some hack politician is his boss. If you read his bio, you'll see that it is remarkably similar to the recently departed Norm Marborough's. They have a lot in common. Lack of respect for ethical processes being one of them.  

This man is an uneducated, working class buffoon who hasn't got the wherewithal to stand up properly in a toilet, never mind about parliament. These people are a cancer that needs to be cut out the mess of festering carrion that is politics in this state.

No doubt today will bring more good news about the man. 

Goodbye John. Drop dead anytime soon you piece of shit. 

This stuff gets to me more than mere words can describe. Truthfully, I put dishonest politicians in a class just below murderers. We may well be better served however, to put them in the same class and not let them out until at least a few of them have been killed off. 

There is no shortage of fireworks around this house and that has nothing whatsoever to do with people and their temper tantrums. Living in Como, we are in close proximity to an amazing array of firework shows from New’s Eve to the end of February.

There are fireworks at Gloucester Park on New Year’s Eve. There is another display at Shelley by the Canning River on New Year’s Day. There are fireworks on the Swan River for Australia Day, there are fireworks at Cannington Greyhounds and there are fireworks at Burswood for Chinese New Year. Oh. I had best not forget the fireworks down the road at Curtin University which heralds the arrival of overseas students.

To me, it becomes a little bit passé by the time it is all done. This doesn’t stop me from thoroughly enjoying each show if I can, but what it does is prevents me from making the effort to go and see them. I wander outside at the first thunderous blast, sometimes not realising that a show has begun and dreading that some mindless act of terrorism has befallen the city.

The thought of standing in crowds in the blazing heat to secure a vantage spot to watch fireworks for half an hour (if you’re lucky), then meandering off to your car wherein you spend the next hour or so trying to get away from the rabble, holds no appeal. There is only so much of “Great Southern Land’ and “Land Down Under’ that you can take before you feel that you are trapped in a time warp of Groundhog (Australia) Day proportions. It needs a bit of pepping up. It needs some thing new.

I propose that next year we torch Parliament House, the governor’s residence, the head offices of the ALP and Liberal Party and for good measure, we’ll put a giant exploding Catherine wheel at the top of the damned bell tower too.

Any other positive steps to make next year’s show a real crowd-pleaser?