Rees ail value

FORMER NSW premier Nathan Rees may have been rolled this week, going down while lobbing hand grenades, but he's still leader where it counts.

FORMER NSW premier Nathan Rees may have been rolled this week, going down while lobbing hand grenades, but he's still leader where it counts.

Yes, Twitter still has him up as "Premier of NSW", complete with the state logo (a very lotus-like waratah) and a photo of what may be Lake Mungo, an eerily prescient selection given that it looks like a far-flung, empty wasteland. (Lake Mungo is also incredibly atmospheric, but this isn't the time or the place for that discussion.) But the bubble pops the moment you click on the website listed in the details box, which sends you hurtling straight to his successor Kristina Keneally (or Christen Cleanly, as spellcheck prefers it). Among her stated aims is "caring for the most vulnerable in the community". Well, with one exception, obviously.

Bear essentials

STILL on the subject of Keneally, given that (a) the NSW parliament is nicknamed the bear pit, and (b) Rees said whoever succeeded him was going to be the puppet of powerbrokers Joe Tripodi and Eddie Obeid, we were amused when we visited a gallery of Keneally photos on the website of Sydney's The Daily Telegraph. The first image that came up was an ad from an animal protection mob, showing a bear in a muzzle. Meanwhile, Kevin Rudd issued his thoughts while in Sydney: "People of NSW are sick to death of fighting, infighting and divisions in the government of NSW. I'm sick to death of fighting and infighting and divisions in the government of NSW. The time has come for the NSW government to get its act together and to get on with governing for the people of NSW." Not too much reading between the lines, was there.

Election aids

STREWTH is not enrolled in Higgins or Bradfield so there'll be no ballot box thrills for us today, which is the same situation in which Labor carelessly finds itself. (We shall just have to content ourselves by gently stroking the cover of our autographed copy of Tony Abbott's Battlelines, whispering "precious" as we calculate how much its value has soared this week. Oops, sorry, lost our inner monologue there for a moment.) Unlike the ALP, the Australian Sex Party is fielding candidates in both by-elections, although in Bradfield its candidate Mariane Leishman (aka Zahra Stardust) is only one of 22 and her party is cross with Fred Nile's Christian Democratic Party for supplying so many of the people on the ballot paper. To be on the safe side, the ASP is distributing how-to-vote condoms that bear a picture of Pope Benedict XVI on the wrapper and the message "Enough is enough!! -- 22 candidates is too many". The ASP hopes they may "become a collector's item among psephologists".

Breath friends

ALSO in campaigning mode is former Howard government adviser turned public affairs consultant Ian Hanke, whose Agitate! blog is pushing Save Your Breath Day. Bearing the catchy slogan "Go green by turning blue", SYBD aims to radically cut CO2 emissions by getting "the world's seven billion people to simultaneously stop breathing for one minute" on the eve of the Copenhagen talks. As Hanke explains to Strewth, "International Save Your Breath day is designed to highlight the stupidity of some of the campaigns that have been conducted recently and some of the more outrageous claims, the claims that we should all become vegetarians if we want the planet to survive. These campaigns are based on falsehoods and ridiculous assertions." He adds: "We've sold a number of T-shirts, and the proceeds are going to pay for the T-shirts." We're guessing Hanke's not really into Earth Hour, either.

Tiger titters

MANY thanks to all Strewth readers who responded to our small item yesterday by flooding our inbox with additional Tiger Woods gags, none of which we can run. We had no idea so many of you were so grubby. Strewth salutes you.