the last days of chez rodent?

Coupla random things...watching telly the other night the news segment about Iraq had a banner that said "US offensive" and I had to think wryly, yeah, it is a bit...the news segment about the election spent five seconds lovingly lingering across the naked bellies of two young girls in low-rise jeans, justified I guess because the segment mentioned students in passing. This is on the same night they're announcing the huge child porn raids...Amongst all the lame election ads there's a very good ad running for the Red Cross. The ad simply introduces all the crew of the ad. I was watching it thinking, oh clever, how self-referential, how postmodern, etc but then I started wondering what the ad was actually for. In the final scene there's a crew member lying there with a needle in his arm and now you're thinking what? And then it explains how every person who worked on the ad donated blood, and it ends with a shot of the voice-over man asking you to donate blood. Something like that. Anyway, it's a good ad, which is rare these days...I think the Labor ad team missed a great opportunity to present Howard as the rat and Latham as the pest controller. You could've had Latho going into Kirribilli House and blasting a scurrying little Howard out the door. Heh heh....I was thinking Medicare Gold is really a great idea. Just the message it sends our older citizens: we'll look after you no matter what, full stop. It's about respect. It says, this is how we value our older citizens in this society. But will it be enough to get Latham over the line?...Maybe not. Here's a vox pop. I was chatting to a young married mother (hubby unemployed, on pensions) about the election and she said, "Labor's gonna take away the family lump sum payment and instead give you four bucks a week. They are telling parents they don't trust them. Now which would you rather have, $600 now or $4 a week for the year?" And this is the sole factor that is making her vote Liberal. That's a worry.