LONG DONG SILVER: Hanson look-alike pics appear in old Danish porn mag

In the latest weird twist to the Pauline Hanson photo fraud row, it appears fraudster Jack Johnson and his accomplices sourced the fake pics from Danish porn mag where the unknown porn model appeared alongside a fellow whose stage name was Long Dong Silver, for reasons we feel we’d rather not know.

The fiend and cheating hound-dog, Jack Johnson, if that is in fact his real name, clearly has a prodigious porn collection dating at least as far back to 1982, when the publication of Pauline Lookalike and Mr Long Dong Silver first appeared.

We hope the authorities are closely looking at Johnson, with a view to bringing the fiendish fraudster fake photo peddler to justice.

The photos certainly provide another example of just how closely the Doppelganger and Ms Hanson resemble each other.

Those keen to denigrate the Sunday Tele for their mistake should consider carefully whether it is the criminal who is to blame in a fraud case or the victim of the fraud. Clearly the Sunday Tele were deceived and they probably should have done more to check out the fraudster’s bona fides. But isn’t that what anyone taken in by a con thinks? The newspaper’s mistake should be kept in proportion.

In other news, we hear on the grapevine that Hanson is still the focus of Police inquiries into her management of campaign funds. Developing…

GAME ON: Liberal preselection stoush over Kooyong commences

Liberal party members in Victoria have been told that it’s Game On in the Kooyong preselection fest. Nominations close April 21 in Kooyong where Josh Frydenberg will be the banker to beat. In Corangamite, the Libs will be looking to a young buck to take on Kim Carr’s little friend Darren the Cheeseman, whose elevation to federal parliament is still stunning in its sheer First Division of Tattslotto style unlikeliest.

And in Deakin, they’ll be hopeful that bad boss Mike Symons will be able to be defeated in an election where he won’t get anything like the same dollars backing him up as he did in the 2007 Workchoices election. Insiders say his spiritual leader Dean Mighell stumped up $800,000 for a suburban blitzkreig. We doubt he’ll be pulling out the Amex again for his offsider, seen by some in the ETU working family as a smidgeon ungrateful.

In the manner most adopt for appointments with the dentist, the Libs have put off the Higgins preselection for another time, hoping no-one notices.

 

To:                  Party Members

From:             State Director

Date:              23/03/2009

Subject:        Federal Preselections

An advertisement for preselections for the Federal seats of Kooyong, Corangamite and Deakin will appear in tomorrow’s papers. (VEXNEWS is truly tomorrow’s news today)

A copy of the advertisement setting out when applications must be lodged and other relevant information is attached.

Tony Nutt

State Director

HOW TO KILL A NEWSPAPER: The Age's page count goes down while its price goes up, again

See below for a missive just received by our friendly local newsagent just a few moments ago.  He’s pretty happy about it actually.  Because from Saturday, he can charge a full $2.50 for the Saturday Age.  That’s a remarkable 4% more since the last price increase, just 8 months ago, in July 2008. 

Either they must be really hurting over at Fairfax and Bryan McCarthy is sitting back in his Chesterfield barking orders: “Put it up another 10 cents you imbeciles – those latte sippers won’t notice.” or things are so bad that they need the money to just make up for the sales they appear to be losing week after week.

At VEXNEWS, we hear many sorry tales of friends of our website trading-in their Age home delivery arrangements for the Weekend Australian.  More power to them we say. It’s a much better read and is Catherine Deveny free.

MORE ON THE MADDY: Diane Anderson's brother lifts the lid on her life of crime

VEXNEWS Investigators have uncovered another stunning new chapter in the Diane Anderson elder abuse scandal.

Her brother has stepped forward, making sensational claims about Diane, once an operative in the ALP who enjoyed the support of its Socialist Left faction, former Premiers John Cain, Joan Kirner and then Senator Barney Cooney.

David Carl Anderson’s website was largely intended to rebut claims made on Diane’s website, that includes first person claimed testimony from a cat that appears to have been written by Diane in a fit of rage.

Diane Anderson stands accused by her brother, an eminent lawyer and judicial candidate, of:

â–  Having “untreated mental health issues” and a “pathological hatred” of her brother, a respected member of the community and his sister, a Michigan judge;

â–  Committing acts of burglary and illegal entry that were reported to local Police, see Police reports here [pdf] and here [pdf].;

â–  Regularly and blatantly perjuring herself in court;

â–  Defrauding her mother of her retirement savings through misappropriation of many tens of thousands of dollars and systematically draining her mother of money to support her over twenty years for funds to purchase “clothing and books”;

â–  Allowing her frail and vulnerable mum to be injured while she was “blogging with her Labor comrades” in Australia when her mum was meant to be under her supervision;

â–  Being a student radical including with the militant and violent sect Students for a Democratic Society;

â–  Being “heavily involved with the drug culture” while at University in the late 1960s (LSD has much to answer for);

â–  Being “chronically unemployable”;

â–  Having a fraught personal life, upon which we’d rather not elaborate on here, as a responsible and high-minded publisher;

â–  Being a “pariah in Australian society”; and

â–  Being sent to jail for contempt of court and being sanctioned with thousands of dollars in penalties for filing vexatious and harassing law suits in the United States.

The cat we wrote about last week was also not spared in Diane’s brother’s catalogue of accusations. The eminent lawyer explained the much-quoted cat “Toupee” was almost as vicious as Diane herself:

On at least two (2) different occasions, Diane Anderson allowed Jewell Anderson’s cat to bite her, causing significant lacerations to Jewell Anderson’s legs.  During the second biting of Jewell Anderson by her cat, Jewell Anderson had a serious infection of her wound, which Diane Anderson allowed to go untreated and resulted in a need for medical intervention and significant doses of antibiotics.

The cat has been silent about these claims on Diane’s website, possibly on the advice of counsel.

It gets worse though, and this shocking story certainly explains why Diane’s distressed siblings were so worried:

Again while Diane Anderson was down in the basement using Jewell Anderson’s computer, she allowed Jewell Anderson to take a bath, unattended, and when Jewell Anderson attempted to exit the bathtub, Jewell Anderson lost her balance and fell between the bathtub and the toilet commode, and was wedged in this area for a two (2) hour period, while Diane Anderson ignored her pleas for help.  When questioned regarding how she could have allowed these injury events to occur while being with Jewell Anderson twenty-four (24) hours a day, seven (7) days a week, Diane Anderson simply shrugged her shoulders and said, “Old people get hurt.”

The voice of compassion didn’t seem to have much at all. And her brother – who knows the “con artist” well – explains her philosophy that many Victorian ALP members saw in action over a decade or so:

DIANE ANDERSON’S PERSONAL PHILOSOPHY – IF I CAN’T HAVE IT MY WAY, I’LL HURT EVERYBODY ELSE THAT STANDS IN MY WAY

Since being a little girl until the present, Diane Anderson has been a person who demands to get things her way, or else she ridicules, disparages, and hurts anyone that stands in the way of her objective. 

While living in Australia, Diane Anderson violated the precepts of the Melbourne Unitarian Church.  In addition to violating the tenants of the Melbourne Unitarian Church, Diane Anderson also treated her fellow church members in a totally disrespectful fashion, and attempted to get her way regarding disputed issues between she and the church members by using the same bullying, disparaging, and hurtful tactics she has used in her false elder abuse campaign against David Anderson and Martha Anderson. 

The informed and strong people of Australia finally could not put up anymore with Diane Anderson’s above-said tactics, and she was excommunicated from the Melbourne Unitarian Church and ostracized from the Australian community.  Thoroughly chastised by the Australian citizenry, Diane Anderson returned to the United States an extremely bitter person with no friends to her name.

Excellent Socialist Lefistas Joan Kirner, John Cain, Rolf Sorensen and the cackling Margot Carroll might still count Diane Anderson as a friend, but in light of the above, it seems not unreasonable for them to question any previous political association. The Socialist Left – and people like Dean Mighell – were willing to take Anderson’s vote at ALP State Conferences as late as 2006, as she would repeatedly accuse every Labor leader and every Labor government of selling out, being Liberal stooges or whatever madness spewed out of her mouth at the time. Perhaps they have evolved to the point where they will be a little more discerning in future.

DIRT FLIES: Poor tenants make Basil de Jong filthy rich while local councillors might find the mud sticks

A politically ambitious outer suburban Melbourne councillor has been linked to a controversial landlord Bastiaan (Basil) De Jong. De Jong has been slammed by critics for creating a business model that exploits the poorest and most vulnerable in the community.

The property developer’s business strategy is to operate boarding houses in the Ferntree Gully area.

He also operated the legendary Swagman that once dominated the late-night airwaves with some of the most annoying TV ads ever broadcast and another business that emerged Phoenix style from the ashes of the Swagman, a nightclub Stylus that also went belly up, without paying employees all their entitlements. So Basil is a class act.

De Jong is as popular as a scantily clad female pork chop vendor in Mecca after Stylus went down causing community groups to lose deposits for Christmas functions that were being accepted in the days prior to the closure of the facility.

Local Liberals are said to be worried about Sue McMillan’s decision to associate with De Jong. They want her to run for State Parliament and fear she could be the victim of guilt by association and for supporting De Jong’s unpopular business activities.

Rosemarie Moore – De Jong’s wife – has publicly expressed support for Councillor McMillan, including letters to the editor. Some think it could be a kiss of death.

One female resident who’d been campaigning against the boarding houses questioned Councillor McMillan about her views on the issue and her willingness to support boarding house proposals in the Knox municipality.

After the council meeting, it got personal. McMillan’s husband Greg Hyams who is believed to work for the company that brought us Myki, which the Sunday Herald Sun Peter Rolfe amusingly pointed out on the weekend is costing more than various NASA space exploration programmes, has been accused of accosting the civic-minded questioner.

He threateningly demanded to know “who put her up” to her question which he thought was dirty pool. Formal complaints were made, although Hyams denied all wrong-doing.

Boarding houses are not popular but of course play an important role in providing low income earners with accommodation.

That’s De Jong’s spin too.

But what isn’t really consistent with his community-minded words is his willingness to charge rent for properties grossly out of proportion to their market value and normal rents that would be paid by tenants.

We are told by interested observers that De Jong operates 41 rooms in six different properties in the area, booking between around $120 to $160 a room. Industry insiders say this can give a slumlord like De Jong a yield or return on each property of at least double or tripe what he could have got for renting the property to a single tenant.

He is able to charge that much because of the welfare payments received by many of De Jong’s tenants. In effect the Commonwealth Government is his blue-ribbon low-risk tenant, but in practice he charges them well over the odds.

It’s a great earn. Couple the super-profits with De Jong’s past exploits in the community and it prompts considerable community concern.

And it’s political poison for McMillan, insiders say and she’ll need to be careful to avoid an association with him, especially if the highly presentable candidate is to achieve her parliamentary aspirations.

GO FIGURE: Bligh loses campaign but wins election

But with the finger pointing already beginning in earnest, it seems Bligh, Kaiser and Wood may have already boarded a slow train to political oblivion. (Crikey email newsletter, last Thursday)

Poor old Andrew Crook at Crikey doesn’t have much of a clue but it does seem that Anna Bligh’s campaign team headed by Queensland ALP secretary Anthony Chisholm and her chief of staff Mike Kaiser have been vindicated by an astonishingly good result.

Both are products of that state’s AWU, the largest union in Queensland and a strong moderate force in a Labor branch that – like Victoria – was gutted in the 1950s after it purged most of its moderates (and Catholics).

We should not be too tough on Crook though. Many people thought Bligh was gone. Including Bligh it seems who had written a concession speech in anticipation of losing in a monster swing. At one stage she seemed to produce a gaffe per day. It was her performance – coupled with the published opinion polls – that fuelled the widespread assumption among political insiders that she was going to lose big.

SPRUCE BRUCE GOOSE
This perception was aided by the wily lobbyist Bruce Hawker, said to be displeased that he was being frozen out a tad from running the show. The Crook story and one that appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald were said by critics to have his fingerprints all over them. His offsider Eamon Fitzpatrick – fresh from disaster in WA and near-disaster in the NT – was said to be frustrated about their lack of say. If you cut out Brucey, he briefs against you seems to be the general rule.

WE SALUTE THE ATTACK ADS
Anyway Chisholm ran out some searing attack ads, particularly on the LNP Deputy Leader’s involvement in an unsuccessful investment scheme.

Those – at the Aged and elsewhere – who think negative or comparative political advertising is the focus of evil in the modern world should perhaps listen to outgoing former LNP leader Lawrence Springborg:

“We probably should have fought fire with fire, and we didn’t. We underestimated the desperation of the union movement to keep Labor in power, and the scare campaign and the personal attack ads.”

So clearly Chisholm did a very good job indeed, in very trying circumstances. He was won the unwinnable election.

That said, many say the LNP’s TV ads were quite effective, with one in particular of a sick girl with bandaged head in an empty stadium, with the voice-over saying she needs a hospital bed not another stadium. The electronic blackout kicked in from Wednesday night and any advantage the LNP might have had from their TV ended, with their vote plateauing and returning to the swing that had been registering before the oil slick so distracted Bligh.

A WAR FOUGHT ON THE GROUND
What did work very well for Labor was an on-the-ground campaign machine in the seats it needed to defend. Phone canvassing and some hard-working incumbents combined to restrict the big swings that appeared in non-battleground seats.

Bligh wasn’t much chop in the campaign, despite what the nation’s feminista commentariat will now rewrite as history. But while Springborg was coasting in the last week, she launched a frenzy of activity in what is now called her “rope-a-dope” strategy. A lot of this strikes us as ex post facto wisdom. They were getting very desperate and looking it. All of which makes her victory all the more astonishing, with many interpreting it to push their agenda, like Ross Gittins in The Aged who argued this morning it proves that losing a AAA credit rating is no longer a political negative.

The credit rating is one thing but governments that aren’t disciplined, competent and responsible in financial management will be punished by voters when the time comes. Rudd might win the next election, as much as anything because of a fair go factor, but should the Commonwealth’s finances be wrecked by 2013, he’ll be booted back to Brisbane. You wait and see.

EVERY SILVER LINING HAS ITS DARK CLOUD
And while the champagne is still fizzing up there after Saturday, the Queensland ALP faces some difficult times. Its Left is in the ascendant, normally a precursor for electoral oblivion. A union representing its state public servants is doing everything it can to affiliate with the ALP, despite that being a dreadful look for the public service and the government. That union was once AWU aligned but has joined with Left forces in order to get preselection outcomes not achievable otherwise.

The recent moves of the Community and Public Sector Union to formally affiliate to the ALP in the ACT and – in part – in Queensland ought to be the subject of considerable scandal. Australians are entitled to a politically neutral and independent public service. How a public service union could even contemplate affiliating with one of the major political parties is beyond comprehension. The internal politics of that union, dominated by various shades of Socialist Left and ultra left, could spill into the ALP itself in a way that could seriously imperil that party. More importantly, it could undermine public confidence in the public service they pay for.

Labor – and its AWU led machine – did well to win in Queensland. Astonishingly well. With the economy up there in a very parlous state, with the Left on the march, it’s all downhill from here though.

The pre-poll and postal votes were coming in very hard against Labor, suggesting a last-week turn-around. When the final Mackerras pendulum is done, it will show just how close it got. And just how little ground the LNP will need to make up to win next time.

Springborg was right to push for the LNP merger. And brilliant in the execution of that impossible dream. He would have made a decent Premier, he barely put a foot wrong in the campaign. But it’s the victors who write the history – unless you’re Gough Whitlam – so there’ll be very few inclined to give him the credit he deserves now. We wouldn’t be greatly surprised if emerges as leader again before the next Queensland state election. Three election defeats might have exhausted and frustrated him but they haven’t discredited him at all, oddly enough.

And while we’re making Andrew Crook style predictions, look out for the new government to review – and probably get rid of – optional preferential voting, which was calculated to make life difficult for the pre-merger conservatives. For most of the campaign, Bligh’s team were petrified about Greens political party votes exhausting. It appears that didn’t happen to a great extent but we doubt they’ll want to tempt fate a second time.