Cracks in the wall

So here's the deal. Our Prime Minister, a month into her office, has decided to put us into another election. Ok, so LGEs have been long in coming, but I think it could have waited a few more months. The simplest explanation, and I am by no means a political analyst, is that the PM is trying to do what Patos did, try to catch the Opposition off guard. What she has done, however, is expose the seedy underbelly of the People's Partnership. The whole "Jobs for the Boys" attitude that I spoke about in my last post, is the axel that this wheel is running on.

To secure the UNC's strength as a viable party, the PM hopes to win ALL of the seats against the PNM in the local constituencies. Where in a NORMAL scenario this might make sense, the People's Partnership is by no means "normal."

We have the COP and the other "orbiting" parties that come into play. TOP is out of this one as they have to fight THA elections POSSIBLY in 2012. So in the end the UNC is faced with the question: What do we do with these little COP people who feel they bigger than they are?

The Answer? Bury them.

I have heard from a reliable source that the UNC officials organising the LGE this time around have firstly failed to show for meetings with the COP and others and have, when meeting, maintained that "We don't need you anymore, we will fight LGE on our own against any member you put up." Discussions are still happening but as f the writing of this post, the UNC wants 80-90% of the councils and the COP can have the rest (the PNM held areas like POS etc)

Like the PM putting Jack in the Co-Pilot's chair, the LGE is signaling the UNC's intention NOT to use this as an opportunity for growth, but as an opportunity for greed. Its an unholy mess. The UNC internally cannot exist without Warner AND with Kamla's popularity running out of gas as time moves on, the UNC NEEDS the other members  of the coalition just as much as they need them.

However the whole greedy nature of the UNC people have started to come through. They won, Patos is out, screw you COP and NJACK and MSJ people, WE IN CHARGE.

PNM style nepotism all over again.

I had a chance to meet the Councillor for a council on the east west corridor, I will not name names. But he's renting an apartment below his house and he ONLY managed to build these apartments because he's been "skimming" off the top for little things here and there from infrastructural developments in the area he's in. He had told me that the back of the house wasn't finished because he needed to wait to see what new projects are in the pipeline in the area so he can "get some more things to finish up." You believe this corruption?? He's been in there since the UNC was in power! Are we going to put another one like him in!? Now mind you he's a nice guy and he DOES do a lot for his community, his area is clean and relatively developed as far as East-West corridor places are "developed" so can you really fault the man for taking a little thing here or there to fix himself up?

I think stealing is stealing. That's what I think.

The UNC doesn't want the "new politics" peddled by the COP on the Local level because:

IT WILL SCREW WITH THE BUSINESS THAT THEY HAVE GROWN ACCUSTOMED TOO!

Under the PNM the UNC people had to survive SOMEHOW because yes this business of Government is just that. . . a BUSINESS and this is how they did it. The whole thing blew up in their faces when the "Sheriff" (who himself was a councillor steeped in the same corruption) put the whole stinking mess on the news with his "gun toting" antics and HE was labeled the "Best Minister!" Go figure.

The PNM is right, the darn LG NEEDS reform, the whole bloddy system needs reform! You think that's going to happen if the People's Partnership starts to crack internally because some small minded greedy individuals want to keep the status quo?

This is the beginning of the end. Where does it stop? when does the wheel of corruption grind to a halt?

Maybe never.

I guess we DO get the Governments we deserve.

We fight on.

Jack In the Box

I was going to call this "Jack Warner" but that's boring. The Jack's sprung and all those who warned us about the bogey man called "Jack" are "tut-tutting" and saying, "We told you so."

I am speaking about the appointment of Jack over Winston Dookeran as acting PM, by Kamla. "But DeepThought. . ." you say "What's the big deal?" The "big deal" is that the coalition is in the early stages of cracking.

I hate to admit it, but Patos was right. The PNM was right, I predict by the end of the year if maybe later, we will be going back to the polls.

Why would I say this?

Two things. Firstly the Government is 30+ days into its term and 30 days into its much touted on the Platform "120 days of immediate action." I have waited and not said anything up until now, but what is apparent to me, AND to a lot of other people is that the coalition is suffering from a simple disease. "Rudderlessness." Kamla has the people on her side, but that's slowly fading, all the running around beautifying things is to show she "cares" BUT so far things on the policy front seem quite grim. Jack Warner's appointment is only the last straw that has got me writing again. Why in heaven's name would you put the ONE man that has such a cloud of conspiracy and corruption, in charge of the country while you are away? "New Politics" my ass, you just replaced Lenny Saith with Jack Warner. Its a sign of "giving jobs to the boys" You fucked it up Kamla. Jack already is at loggerheads with the Integrity Commission, has a pall around him so think you can't see the nose on his own face, and HE'S LEADING THE COUNTRY!? This is not a fete. This is madness.

Giving Dookeran the acting PM job is a SYMBOL. You remember the symbols of the campaign Kamla? By putting Dooks you signal to the people that you TRUST him and the COP to be EQUAL partners! He is MORE than qualified! If he had turned it down I can understand, but at this point you pull a Patos and didn't consult, you just DID it, or SEEMED to have done it without "consulting." Was this the "deal" you struck during the internal elections and the GE? That once you won Jack will be the right hand man forever?!

Fuck Dooks you say, Jack is more suited.

I say Fuck YOU Kamla. You did shit. MONUMENTAL Shit.

The second thing is leading off from the first. A rudderless gov't is the result of the whole "Job for the boys thing" seen in the appointment of Jack. For example, one such "job for the boys" appointment was Minister of the People, Mr Glen Ramhadarsing. He has not a CLUE what he's doing. That "Ministry of the People" is a PAPPY SHOW. Its only a matter of time before the people start burning tires. . . wait the squatters have done that already haven't they? Wait and see, mark my words, the burning of tires and all that coming RIGHT back to bun Ramhadahr in he ass. The man's on Facebook apparently and "frennen" ONE SETTA gyual (watch all the other UNC MPS eh, they doing it too, ONE setta young girl with "sexy pics") You think we stupid?

Get OFF YOUR ASS and do some work.

The ONLY people doing any stinking work is the COP people. Anil reopen Wallerfield for racing, good move, tour the Tarouba Stadium and basically LAID it out that Fellas, big steups, we broke in this Ministry you hear? Dooks already sound off, Treasury in a mess and we have PLENTY wok to do. All Jack could FUCKING do is open the PBR from 4am to 6am WHEN NOBODY ON THE FUCKING ROAD! This government start bad. I have more ranting to do. But suffice to say, we need to start making noise. I have one more post that will rock your world* related to this. Stay tuned.

a note on the picture. That particular "Jack-in-the-box" is under a recall since 2003. See more here. How appropriate! :)


*or at least make you go hmmmm

THIS. IS. ELECTIONS!

So we have a date. The country took a breath and everyone started running around like headless chickens trying to get registered, and checking lists and so on. DeepThought has been telling you about voting for the last few weeks and should you want to read it you can read about "Why you should Vote," "Why the Numbers Tell you to vote," and "How to get registered." As of today, the EBC is in full registration mode only 5 more days to get on that golden list. So before I start thinking about the events of the last week I just want to say a few key things.

1. That I will try to update this page everyday with thoughts, it will be difficult as the shits going to be flying fast and furious for the next 40 days.
2. I am hoping to start posting the lists of candidates hopefully by the end of next week, as the PNM has already nearly finished it nominations, I'm just waiting on UNCOP/TOP to solidify their agreement and get the candidates out the door.
3. I will try to concentrate on the marginals and see what the feeling is on the ground.
4. No I won't tell you what constituency I am in, DeepThought has to have his own privacy!
5. and No. DeepThought will NOT tell you what he's going to do in the voting booth, BUT I think you already know!

So onto this week in review. Well we'll start with Friday. May 24th is the day of election. No fanfare, no trumpeting from the pulpit by the PM Pastor, he simply called up his partner Max and after all the bullshit talk about free tickets to this fete and who was at the other fete, he conversationally said "May 24th breds" and the notaries rushed to the one fax machine in the new PM's office, and started faxing to everyone. I wouldn't be surprised which radio station got it first, that would be Citadel Radio, run by our very own PNM-ite Louis LeeSing. Good for him, he got a sccop. So now the opposition has a chance to do what they couldn't do in 2007.

Meanwhile the PM continued his screening and Wednesday and Thursday were not free from Bobol. In fact Monday and Tuesday had even MORE bobol. The bobol for the PNM started on the weekend when Penelope Beckles was asked to take a "diplomatic posting" and car named Laurel, oooppss I meant a GIRL (for she is a VERY young girl) CALLED Laurel Lezema-Leesing (see a connection?) was put in Penelope's place. The Arima PNM-ites placarded late into the night shouting "No Penelope, NO VOTE!" Hmmm sounds familiar doesn't it? (excuse the language, I couldn't find the newspaper article) So the PNM-ites love to do the same things over and over. They placarded for Ken but the voted in that idiot Amery Brown, when they "claimed" they would vote for the COP. Hmmm What were the final results in that constiuency I wonder. Here check it yourself Amery Brown 9,301 votes. Not bad for the people who said they'd vote COP. (BTW the Vasant Barath people on the UNC side were saying the same thing. . . Trini's so predictable!)

So that leads us to the biggest bobol yet. Mr Keith "Rotweiler" Rowley. His seat is the ONLY seat I will consider a safe right now. The PNM knows it. The PM, KNOWS that he cannot lose Rowley this time around. See how politics makes strange bedfellows? Keith's nomination was secured and his crowd was just as big as Penelope. So how is this going to work? How is Keith going to go on a platform and extoll the virtues of his party, prepare speeches on PNM policy that has been proven bad for the country AND push the election of his Political Leader back in as PM. My thoughts are that Rowley can say ANYTHING at this point, even say vote for the COP, they can't stop him. So we'll just have to see what tricks he's going to turn on the hustings. We'll have to watch Mr Rowley over the next 40 days.

Now onto the Opposition. They've had the headlines for most of the week. Accommodation this and meeting that and "72 hour deadline" this. In the end what seems to have occurred is that Jack Warner has laid down the law. "Look we have 15 safe seats, you can give us MAYBE 4 more. You have nothing to bargain with. BUT we don't want you running off to your supporters and turning them away OR splitting the vote again. So here wha Dooks, you can run in St Augustine if you want, and other than San Juan/Barataria and our 15 seats and Tobago, you run anywhere you like." That leaves Tunapuna and the rest of the marginals for the COP to fight. Is this a good strategy? I will reserve comment on this until the analysts have sounded off some more as the election starts to get into full swing.

What I do know is that in certain PNM held seats if the voter turn out increases and enough people vote against the PNM, we could have a repeat of 1986. But we shall have to wait and see.

Kamla's speech on Friday night waffled some more and kept imploring people to vote out the PNM, but with no clear idea WHAT they plan to do when in Government, its seems that the only person to save Kamla and the UNC from itself is the logistics and policy making of the COP and THEIR track record hasn't been good at that either. How do you provide an alternative to something so solid as "Vision 2020?" while the "back to Basics" idea sounds nice, it DOES sound like a lot of hard work, and let's face it, Trini's lazy, they would rather someone TELL them that by 2020 they will be developed than someone tell them "You have to WORK to get 2020 status." So we shall see.

I am still formulating my last part to my "Manifesto for We." post on "culture" Stay tuned for that.

The Mother of All Battles

So I heard a little rumor today that Patos callin his election on 17th May. That's almost two months away. Can I handle another 6 weeks or more of noise, placarding, tomfoolery and bill posting and environment destroying paper wastage this time around? I'll tell you something I can deal with it as long as I know at the end of it it brings an end to PNM rule. . .

FOREVER

You hear me? FOREVER! So all that mudslinging, pain and suffering has to have some fruit and this time around someone in the COP should tell good ol Dooks, run for your seat, win and then we go make you Minster of Finance or something, because like the man or not, is Kamla who go win this election! If Kamla not in the leadership front in this thing, PNM win for sure! You don't have to go far to see the sentiment you know! "Kamla for PM" "Kamla is de best!" "I voting Kamla!" are common sentiments expressed in the papers and on the streets.

But youse STILL an asshole is you think like that!

I go tell you why. In the end Kamla may be the leader but its the REPRESENTATIVES who you will have to deal with AFTER the election, the one's you should be concentrating on. In other words this damn shit called "Voting party and voting leader" should stop. Is your "representatives" NOW, who playing the ass. . . so. . .

STOP VOTING PARTY!

You might as well be voting race if you do that!

We too damn stupid in this country! This is why the PNM keeps winning. They vote race yes, but party too and leader as well! Not who can do the job, but who can take the best on the hustings! You tink patrick go talk shit on the political platforms, like he talking now? Of course not, is milk and honey and the promised land for all from now till that magical date of 17th May. (IF that's the date!) and YOU will run like lemmings to vote. "Ah sorry boss, why did I ever doubt you! Vision 2020 IS a reality! we WILL be all prosperous by that magical year!"

lol All I can do is laugh yes. Reminds me of the Simpsons' episode when Homer went to vote between Quimby and Sideshow Bob. Even though he KNOWS Bob will kill Bart if elected. . .he votes him on ISSUES! lol "When are people going to realise that Democracy just doesn't work!"

Ok here's my prediction:

Manning going to go to his No Confidence motion, with PNM-ites in the square, WITH permission this time and Police "Protection" and before the debate can open, he will. . .

DISSOLVE PARLIAMENT

and call the election date.

Think I'm thinking nonsense?

Lets see what happens.

Now stop thinking and go DO something!

image via dsaltsman.blogspot.com