Archive for October, 2007

TV One News – oh shame you pakeha palangi

Written By: - Date published: 9:01 pm, October 31st, 2007 - 11 comments

Following a perfectly sensible Cabinet reshuffle story tonight, TV One News must have had this weird rush to the head because they sent an English (really silver spoon English too), white, tie wearing suit to interview the good people of South Auckland to find out what they thought of Labour’s Cabinet reshuffle. Is it me […]

Labour recycling Ministers, says National

Written By: - Date published: 3:39 pm, October 31st, 2007 - 29 comments

(Link)

Barnett not standing in Chch Central

Written By: - Date published: 2:29 pm, October 31st, 2007 - 2 comments

Latest reports suggest that Tim Barnett will not be standing for Christchurch Central in next year’s election but may still stand on Labour’s list.

Gaybourhood Halloween party cancelled

Written By: - Date published: 2:08 pm, October 31st, 2007 - Comments Off on Gaybourhood Halloween party cancelled

From the NY Times: This Halloween, the Glindas, gladiators and harem boys of the Castro — along with untold numbers who plan to dress up as Senator Larry E. Craig, this year’s camp celebrity — will be celebrating behind closed doors. The city’s most popular Halloween party, in America’s largest gay neighborhood, is canceled. The […]

Reshuffle

Written By: - Date published: 12:39 pm, October 31st, 2007 - 28 comments

Three new cabinet ministers (Maharey’s retiring, Burton’s returned to the backbench, and Benson-Pope’s old place was still open): Steve Chadwick becomes Minister of Conservation, Women’s Affairs, and Associate Health Maryan Street becomes Minister of Housing, Minister for ACC, along with Associate Minister for Economic Development and Associate Tertiary Education Shane Jones becomes Minister for Building […]

Labour: who’s gonna get it?

Written By: - Date published: 8:33 pm, October 30th, 2007 - 30 comments

Coming into an election when work rights is going to be a major issue, we’ve heard Ruth Dyson will be relinquishing her labour portfolio tomorrow. The big question is who’s going to pick it up? Across the ditch work rights has become the defining issue of the upcoming election and given National’s desperate attempts to […]

Herald Digipoll

Written By: - Date published: 3:21 pm, October 30th, 2007 - 15 comments

Today’s Herald Digipoll is not good news for Labour, coming off the back of last week’s positive Roy Morgan poll which showed a centre-left majority. As the Herald notes, on the basis of this poll National has enough support to govern alone. But what it also demonstrates is the mistake National has made in devouring […]

Pryde of the South

Written By: - Date published: 2:33 pm, October 30th, 2007 - 22 comments

Interesting to see EPMU President Don Pryde has thrown his hat in the ring for the Dunedin South seat and has the full backing of his union. Having met Don at a conference a few years ago I’ve got to say I was taken by his level-headedness and the way he’d think before passing comment […]

“Ethical Facebook” for businesses

Written By: - Date published: 12:28 pm, October 30th, 2007 - 1 comment

Actics.com is an online neworking site for “ethical” businesses. Businesses that sign up choose to nominate themselves as expressing various corporate values and also describe how they embody them. Users, clients and investors then get to rate the businesseson these criteria. The site’s meant to help individuals find businesses with values they share as well […]

Key losing his mojo

Written By: - Date published: 4:25 pm, October 29th, 2007 - 51 comments

Pol science lecturer and commentator Jon Johansson has given a lucid and scholarly account of the inexorable decline of John Key and National’s prospects. In a speech to the NZ First conference at the weekend. Johansson told delegates that after a promising beginning, Key has started to “unevenly walk the new generation walk…” An excerpt: […]

UK cannabis reclassification causes decline in use

Written By: - Date published: 8:47 am, October 29th, 2007 - 1 comment

The Guardian reports that: Cannabis use among young people has fallen significantly since its controversial reclassification in 2004, according to the latest British Crime Survey figures published today. The Home Office figures showed the proportion of 16 to 24-year-olds who had used cannabis in the past year fell from 25% when the change in the […]

National still to scrap GP fee cap

Written By: - Date published: 3:18 pm, October 27th, 2007 - 17 comments

Peter Bradshaw, at the Guardian, reviews Michael Moore’s movie Sicko: Last week in this paper, Seumas Milne reported on the boa-constrictor-sized parasites of US private health insurance seeking to get their fangs into the British NHS. This magnificent new film from Michael Moore is a timely reminder of the grotesque mess that Americans have made […]

Roy Morgan

Written By: - Date published: 6:25 pm, October 26th, 2007 - 36 comments

There’s a new Roy Morgan out today. It covers the date range 1-14 October 2007. Gary Morgan said of the result: As was suggested in the previous New Zealand Morgan Poll, National Leader John Key’s recent policy gaffes have handed Helen Clark and her Labour Government a golden opportunity to make up some ground. In […]

Turia weighs in

Written By: - Date published: 5:05 pm, October 26th, 2007 - 13 comments

So now Tariana is calling for a police probe into the Mallard/Henare incident. Mallard came clean yesteday about his role in the incident but we still haven’t heard much in the way of detail from Tau bar this kind of thing: “He just said to me ‘come outside’, and I went outside and, in the […]

The Superest

Written By: - Date published: 9:53 am, October 26th, 2007 - Comments Off on The Superest

You’ve probably heard of the battle raging accross the ditch. You’ve probably even heard of the one in the Parliamentary lobby. In California they’re still fighting fire. Here’s a challenge that might be new to you. It’s a an attempt to draw the world’s superest super hero: The rules are simple: Player 1 draws a […]

Growing poverty across the Tasman

Written By: - Date published: 9:27 am, October 26th, 2007 - 6 comments

The Australian Council of Social Services has highlighted an update on the numbers living in poverty. New figures released by Australia Fair show that the number of Australians in poverty increased from 9.8% to 11.1% of the population between 2003-04 and 2005-06. This is based on the standard measure used extensively in OECD countries, 50% […]

Wish we’d had the Silver Bodgie in 1984

Written By: - Date published: 9:06 am, October 26th, 2007 - 2 comments

Bob Hawke still tells it like it is; watch his devastating rebuttal of the Liberals’ attempts to demonise unions here. He points out how the union movement was crucial to Australia’s successful economic transformation in the 1980’s. Labour in Australia in 1983 and New Zealand in 1984 both faced the need to modernise their economies […]

Economic ‘Billiteracy’ infects National Party

Written By: - Date published: 4:00 pm, October 25th, 2007 - 12 comments

The Dom yesterday ran a front page story by Tracy Watkins which used National Party figures aimed at showing that “Joanna Average” isn’t much better off than seven years ago despite significant wage rises. Turns out that neither Bill English nor John Key got the maths right. From Cullen’s press release: On Tuesday, Bill English […]

Katine

Written By: - Date published: 3:29 pm, October 25th, 2007 - Comments Off on Katine

The Guardian has launched a three year aid project with the objective of ‘together, lifting one village out of the middle ages’. The village is Katine, located in northern Uganda. The challenge is to see whether a newspaper, its readership, a bank and an NGO can make a significant and lasting difference to the lives […]

What have the unions ever done for us?

Written By: - Date published: 2:49 pm, October 25th, 2007 - 6 comments

(Hat tip: Robert Owen – via comments)

Union bogey blunder backfires

Written By: - Date published: 1:30 pm, October 25th, 2007 - 7 comments

Liberal Party advertising in the Australian election looks desperate, and judging by the polls is ineffective. Witness this effort, using the old demon-union-official smear. It’s a Tory hoary, and while it might have worked for Muldoon in 1975 with the dancing cossacks, it looks dreadfully out of date in the 21st century. Aussie voters are […]

Debate allegedly turns physical

Written By: - Date published: 11:35 am, October 25th, 2007 - 31 comments

The Press reports that Trevor Mallard allegedly slapped or hit Tau Henare after the National MP made references to Mallard’s personal life in the Debating Chamber. Henare yesterday wouldn’t say whether he had been struck or not. The PM was reportedly unimpressed and commented “both men should look in the mirror”. Apparently an apology was […]

Up-Skilling Skilling

Written By: - Date published: 8:35 pm, October 24th, 2007 - 20 comments

The NZ Institute needs to look a bit more closely before leaping into print. The strangest thing about its exhortation that NZ should be a climate change ‘fast follower’ is that is precisely the position we’re in right now. The government has announced its emissions trading scheme. It will be fully up and running by […]

Elephants ‘do a Blumsky’

Written By: - Date published: 7:23 pm, October 24th, 2007 - 3 comments

The Guardian reports that “Six Asiatic wild elephants were electrocuted as they went berserk after drinking rice beer in India’s remote north-east”. No word as yet on whether or not the surviving elephants have laid charges against ‘pot smoking youths’ known to frequent the area. More news as it comes to hand.

National’s challenge

Written By: - Date published: 7:15 pm, October 24th, 2007 - 1 comment

With the British conservatives looking strong (and Labour embarassed by the costs of an election that never was) and the fresh new blood surging ahead across the Tasman (noting that the polls continue to be against Howard despite their proposal for a massive tax cut) I suspect National here will be feeling pretty pleased with […]

Outage

Written By: - Date published: 7:01 pm, October 24th, 2007 - Comments Off on Outage

Some server issues outside our control caused a bit of an outage this afternoon. We’re up and running again now though, as you can see. Thanks to all those who wrote in to make sure we were ok, and our apologies for any inconvenience.

Lights out San Francisco

Written By: - Date published: 2:10 pm, October 24th, 2007 - 4 comments

Lights Out San Francisco is a citywide energy conservation event next scheduled for March 29, 2008. On this night, they invite the entire city of San Francisco to install one compact fluorescent light bulb and turn off all non-essential lighting for one hour. Below are a couple of shots from the event run four days […]

NZ Institute turns up the heat

Written By: - Date published: 1:53 pm, October 24th, 2007 - 3 comments

The New Zealand Institute has come out imploring us to be a “fast follower” rather than a leader in the race to reduce greenhouse gases. John Key was predictably on the spot to take the credit, claiming that the Institute was essentially “making the same point I’ve been making around climate change”. Wasn’t the point […]

Mashup

Written By: - Date published: 10:37 am, October 24th, 2007 - 19 comments

We love remixes (well all except those German house ones of classic 80’s pop). Imagine our delight when we found this in out inbox this morning – tempered only, of course, by the fact the Iraq war is still on. (Hat tip: youknowwhoyouare)

YouTube campaigning

Written By: - Date published: 1:10 pm, October 23rd, 2007 - 6 comments

Mark Torley filed this piece on “YouTube campaigning” for One News last night.

FreeRice

Written By: - Date published: 11:53 am, October 23rd, 2007 - 5 comments

FreeRice is a vocabulary game. For each word you correctly identify, they’ll donate 10 grains of rice through the United Nations to help end world hunger. We are not sitting on a pile of riceâ€â€¢you are earning it 10 grains at a time. Here is how it works. When you play the game, advertisements appear […]