I agree with you. I also think this comment

“While it was good to see democracy in action our collective intelligence took an exponential nosedive on Saturday.”

can be almost directly attributable to two things;

the method of politiking being about branding, slogans, “hot buttons” etc and less about actual policies.

the media which seems to repeat verbatim the slogans branding efforts and hot buttons without examining and prsenting and educating its listeners, readers, and watchers on ACTUAL policy

I wont exucse 20-somethings from responsibility to go online and read policies. It’s what I did and I am twice that age. I found that apart from Nat Rad and the occasional journalist piece (usually deep within a newspaper and nowhere near the front) actually policy was hard to find.

People cant know what they dont know, and that is surely one of the goals of the media?

I’m wondering if our political journos are too embroiled/ensconsed in the political culture and in fact have on many occassions slanted their reporting whenever they think an election will get boring (ie one-sided) they have done this to both Nat and Lab Governments in our past. The only other possibility is that they actually take everythig thrown their way at face value. If that is the case the collective intelligence of our media is frightening.

We need some editors with balls, to pay their people to investiugate not regurgitate. Frabkly these days a democracy is only as good as its press is responsible and journalistic. We seem to have reporters moe than journalists.

Thanks for those links.

With what I wonder will we work our way back up the OECD I wonder, in three years time.
With the collapse of America’s currency in the next 12 months looming. The US bankrupt and not in a position to rebuild since it’s lost all it’s jobs to China.

With China collapsing because it’s biggest market is gone and Europe will fall too because they don’t have jobs any more either, other than the service industry.

Half off all the big container ship companies have gone bankrupt already because nobody is ordering anything.

The world economy is gone, kaput, because of the machinations of a few Wall street banksters. Irreparable, Unfixable, no longer there.

We are just going through the motions of some semblance of normalcy but Fonterra has a hole of 300 million in it’s budget. The reserve bank has been offered loans of billions by the Federal Reserve in order to keep this bankrupt system tagging a long just a bit longer so the Banksters can get a couple of more bailouts for their thieving banking mates.

So with nobody able to buy our expensive milk and beef and with the US house market no longer in existence and nobody needing our wood, what will we sell for that pie in the sky growth?

Because Mike, JK’s promise of growth is untenable and will remain just that: a pie in the sky promise but it’s my guess you’ll find that out for yourself any day now.

I agree, but the second term should be easier as we work our way back up the OECD

To which the only response was WTF.

Price of infotainment I guess.

2008, 1928, 1876, so what?

Look at China today the elephant to our gnat.
http://indymedia.org.nz/newswire/display/76356/index.php

Class struggle on the up, Marx to the max, finance capital relying on the world economy being baled out by China. oops
http://japanfocus.org/_Nouriel_Roubini-The_Rising_Risk_of_a_Hard_Landing_in_China__The_Two_Engines_of_Global_Growth_____U_S__and_China___are_Stalling___A_Debate_

And keep thinking your pathetic thoughts about what a Key government will do. We on the right will sure be proud as Labour looks forward to a second term in opposition.

Key played as a ‘centrist’ or ‘Labour lite’ which denies the reality of class.

Many Labour voters took him at his word and thought he would win so didnt bother voting.

Most newer voters wouldnt even know a real class struggle or know where to look.

But now theyre in for one because Key and co have to pay for their falling profits and speculative losses by driving down wages, siphoning our savings and ripping off the Cullen fund.

Once this sort of ‘centrism’ bites us, it’ll be interesting to see where the centrifugal spin ends up.

Wahooo, can tell the wife now we can get that second plasma

Criminy! And all you lefties seem to be complaining about how stupid the voters are. Seems like you’ve started your own little “New Zealand Sucks” campaign.

I’m sick of hearing from people earning that much who think they’re “struggling” if they can’t afford a 3rd car or a second plasma screen or a 4th overseas trip this year.