Archive for July, 2009

Toast

Written By: - Date published: 3:00 pm, July 12th, 2009 - 34 comments

What a horrifying sight today’s Q+A interview with Minister of Food Safety Kate Wilkinson made. It was a shameful performance from a media point of view, with Wilkinson looking ineffectual, implausible and well out of her depth. But from a political point of view it was gobsmacking. Wilkinson enthusiastically admitted that she didn’t agree with new […]

Sunday weirdness

Written By: - Date published: 1:38 pm, July 12th, 2009 - 57 comments

Cameron Slater has had a big media day today with the Herald on Sunday pointing out his role in the cyber-bullying of some young woman called Pearl Going and the Sunday Star Times doing a feature on the odd fellow. I don’t generally read Slater’s blog so I’d missed the business with Going but a […]

Not Yours To Sell

Written By: - Date published: 8:11 pm, July 11th, 2009 - 26 comments

Labour MP Phil Twyford is launching a campaign around his bill to protect Auckland’s community assets. www.notyourstosell.co.nz Phil Twyford’s private members bill, the Local Government (Protection of Auckland Assets) Amendment Bill, was pulled from the ballot last week. It will force a referendum before any of Auckland’s public assets are sold off. Criticism from the […]

Another new left blog

Written By: - Date published: 1:13 pm, July 11th, 2009 - 12 comments

Elsewoman. We’ve been remiss in not getting this on the blogroll earlier. Anne’s been giving us hassles. And rightly so, her blog is good reading. Anne describes herself as “Editor, writer, grumpy second wave feminist”, a bit of a different perspective from the other feminst blogs, which are by and large third wave. Like Mars […]

New left blog

Written By: - Date published: 12:50 pm, July 11th, 2009 - Comments Off on New left blog

Mars 2 Earth is one of the vanishingly few blogs written from a Maori perspective (with quite a bit of environmentalism thrown in). Muscular discourse and some sharp writing. Thankfully, it’s not just identity politics either, some good materialist values coming through too. While Maori Party successes are celebrated, he doesn’t go that step further that […]

The Daily Refrain on swine flu

Written By: - Date published: 7:45 am, July 11th, 2009 - 1 comment

Sometimes writing is hard. Especially when one is hungover for the third morning in a row. Thank God for Youtube.  This one goes out to all our readers who are, or will be, addled by swine flu. Honestly, if you aren’t watching The Daily Refrain, you’re wasting your life.

F*ck you, the NZ collaboration

Written By: - Date published: 4:45 pm, July 10th, 2009 - 31 comments

Kick arse: Hat tip: Russell Brown

Political violence

Written By: - Date published: 3:30 pm, July 10th, 2009 - 15 comments

A Nelson man attempted to buy a gun to shoot Nick Smith. Details are scant. What could have been a nasty situation looks like is has been well-handled by the Police and DPS. It must be one of the gnawing worries of being an MP. You and your family are exposed to people who blame […]

Beginning of the end

Written By: - Date published: 3:00 pm, July 10th, 2009 - 3 comments

American news report from 1981 about the coming age of “newspapers by computer”. Classic.

Good news for care workers

Written By: - Date published: 1:30 pm, July 10th, 2009 - 8 comments

It’s good news that carers for people with intellectual disabilities are getting more recognition. A court decision has found that sleep-over shifts are work and, so, workers need to be paid at least the minimum wage for the whole shift, not just when they have to get up to assist the person. Apparently, that will […]

From the archives

Written By: - Date published: 12:15 pm, July 10th, 2009 - 14 comments

I figured this was deserving of a post of its own. It’s a cartoon from The Standard (v1.0) sent in by Anita in reference to the post on Labour and Nazis below. Thanks! Front page, 23 May 1940. Click for enlargements.

Greenpeace to Obama: Show some leadership

Written By: - Date published: 11:55 am, July 10th, 2009 - Comments Off on Greenpeace to Obama: Show some leadership

From Greenpeace USA: Greenpeace climbers hung a banner on Mount Rushmore challenging President Obama to show real leadership on global warming. The banner read “America honors leaders not politicians: Stop Global Warming.” The demonstration comes as President Obama meets other G8 leaders in L’Aquila, Italy to discuss the global warming crisis in the lead-up to […]

Seriously, there are better uses for $10 mil

Written By: - Date published: 11:18 am, July 10th, 2009 - 35 comments

Why are we giving $10 million a year in aid to Niue with a population of 1600? It’s $6250 per person each bloody year. About half their GDP (most of the rest is remittances). We finance their whole government. We’ve given them an extra $20 million (ie one whole year’s GDP) over the last five […]

Trevett, Watkins, simultaneously jump shark

Written By: - Date published: 9:41 am, July 10th, 2009 - 14 comments

Yesterday Eddie pleaded for some real reporting from the journos accompanying Key on his tour of the Pacific. Just a day later they confirm that, yes, that is indeed too much to ask for. Claire Trevett and Tracy Watkins have simultaneously jumped the shark – both running stories on John Key dancing at a reception […]

Labour always hated the Nazis

Written By: - Date published: 9:51 pm, July 9th, 2009 - 51 comments

I have to confess some confusion about this study that supposedly shows the First Labour Government was tight with Hitler. They were real, deep-red socialists. To get to power they had to overcome the fascist New Zealand Legion that backed National. Fascism was anathema to socialism – the biggest battles of all time were fought out […]

Fisking Farrar’s fisking

Written By: - Date published: 2:30 pm, July 9th, 2009 - 40 comments

Yesterday David Farrar presented us with his analysis of Labour’s electoral finance submission. There is a lot of ‘Nya Nya I Told You So!’ in there every time Labour’s position changed from 2007 to now, and a fair bit of ‘Nya Nya They Haven’t Learned Anything!’ when its position did not change. That kind of […]

Get your house in order

Written By: - Date published: 11:30 am, July 9th, 2009 - 72 comments

Here’s some advice I’d give Labour if I was Crosby Textor: You need three negative values you want associated with National (for example: arrogant, “out of touch”, corrupt ;)) You need three positive values you want associated with Labour (for example: democracy, justice, vision). Pick them using focus groups (for god’s sake don’t use UMR […]

Observation from the sideline

Written By: - Date published: 9:42 am, July 9th, 2009 - 12 comments

Some worthwhile questions raised by Vernon Small in today’s Dom Post: Eight months ago to the day Labour awoke to find itself out of power for the first time this century….Now, the cliched wisdom is that an electoral trouncing prescribes that an opposition take its medicine, learn its lessons, stay focused and constructive, avoid being […]

Great expectations?

Written By: - Date published: 9:05 am, July 9th, 2009 - 10 comments

Clare Trevett, I know it’s very exciting going on a free trip to the islands but could we have some actual reporting? You spent half your report from Tonga talking about the king’s dogs and how funny Key and the Dictator of Tonga are. Might have been nice to hear something about the start of […]

Who will mourn the MSM’s passing?

Written By: - Date published: 5:25 am, July 9th, 2009 - 22 comments

Can you believe that TV One had an hour long special on Michael Jackson’s funeral and then ten minutes in the news? Excuse my language but what the fuck is wrong with our media? A mate emailed me after he saw the TVNZ presser (yes, they put one out) announcing the one-hour special saying, ‘I […]

Should a…

Written By: - Date published: 5:00 pm, July 8th, 2009 - 37 comments

www.should-a.com, a website “created for the express purpose of openly mocking the citizen’s initiated referendum aimed at The Crimes (Substituted Section 59) Amendment Act 2007, popularly known as the Anti-smacking Amendment”. Awesome.

2020 target talks draw numbers

Written By: - Date published: 2:53 pm, July 8th, 2009 - 13 comments

Seems the Government’s public consultation over an emission reduction target for 2020 is having quite an impact. Hundreds of people have turned up to the Wellington and Auckland meetings, with some  rousing presentations (see haka at the end) and a general sense that it’s time for a bold target to be set. The consultation is […]

‘Frontline’ cut for phantom savings

Written By: - Date published: 2:00 pm, July 8th, 2009 - 9 comments

MAF Biosecurity is set to cut 60 jobs – 30 of them filled. It claims the fall in imports means it’s over budget and doesn’t need so many staff. I’ve got a few problems with that. Let’s assume these 30 workers about to get the sack are on the average wage ($48,000). The savings from […]

No use playing Canute

Written By: - Date published: 1:57 pm, July 8th, 2009 - 15 comments

I noted with obvious interest on Stuff today that News Ltd CEO John Hartigan is having a go at bloggers and blogs. “In return for their free content, we pretty much get what we’ve paid for – something of such limited intellectual value as to be barely discernible from massive ignorance,”. Blogs often give a […]

Privatising the high country

Written By: - Date published: 1:30 pm, July 8th, 2009 - 29 comments

According to Forest and Bird, John Key’s government has found a nice quiet way of hocking off New Zealand’s most prized assets to wealthy private interests. National has indicated radical changes to tenure review – that’s the process South Island high country leaseholders can use to privatise parts of the farm in exchange for returning […]

Fran pumping Brash for productivity taskforce

Written By: - Date published: 11:34 am, July 8th, 2009 - 18 comments

A few weeks ago the NZPA reported that the Government had agreed to establish a taskforce to “work on ways to close the productivity gap between Australia and New Zealand”. The taskforce would be selected by ACT leader Rodney Hide and would be announced within the month. The story then sank without a trace. So […]

Privileges complaints laid

Written By: - Date published: 10:56 am, July 8th, 2009 - 12 comments

A number of poor performing ministers like Paula Bennett, Kate Wilkinson, Anne Tolley, Pita Sharples, Tariana Turia, Rodney Hide, Pansy Wong, and Key himself, have tried to extradite themselves from sticky situations in the House by lying. It was only a matter of time until one of them lied so blatantly that a privileges complaint was […]

It’s not your government, it’s his

Written By: - Date published: 8:56 am, July 8th, 2009 - 12 comments

From Key’s post-Cabinet press conference: Journo: You don’t believe that the public have a right to know why a minister in cabinet would suddenly be booted out of cabinet and resign? Key: No. So, there you have it. This isn’t your government anymore. It’s his. You had the right to know under every previous government. […]

Unassailable Evidence

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, July 8th, 2009 - 101 comments

Inaugural Lectures are very traditional University events; held these days to permit outstanding researchers to present an overview of their work to the wider academic community and public. Last night Prof. Tim Naish delivered a clear and decisive verdict about human induced climate change; the evidence is unassailable. Held in the very formal surrounds of […]

The compensation that is and the compensation that is not

Written By: - Date published: 7:40 pm, July 7th, 2009 - 55 comments

Key has claimed the foreshore and seabed issue is not about compensation. Tariana’s answer? This has never been about money says Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia “I am astounded and disappointed that some critics of and commentators on the report of the ministerial review panel have chosen to highlight the possibility that compensation may become […]

A little test

Written By: - Date published: 5:43 pm, July 7th, 2009 - 20 comments

After a remark by all-your-base the other day, I’m testing how good Akismet (the WordPress anti-spambot) is. I’ve removed the need for entering a captcha for registered and logged-in users. That is a reasonable compromise for a test as the registration is protected with a captcha. If anything manages to get through it is (based […]

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