Written By: - Date published: 4:30 pm, November 8th, 2009 - 18 comments
I’m not against Prime Ministers making limited use of Airforce aircraft when necessary – when commercial flights or (better) surface travel aren’t practical. It’s cheaper and more efficient than having dedicated aircraft that would hardly ever be used. But Key using two Iroquois, each flying for eight hours, just so he could get from Blenheim to Kiakoura […]
Written By: - Date published: 1:30 pm, November 8th, 2009 - 5 comments
A shout out on a Sunday to a family who are walking the talk: Pastor Murray Smith preaches a message of generosity in his sermons and says people need few material things in order to live happy and fulfilling lives. So Pastor Smith, his wife, Michelle, and their three young children are giving up their […]
Written By: - Date published: 11:25 am, November 8th, 2009 - 32 comments
Matt McCarten’s Herald column this week is a call for every working New Zealander to go and see Michael Moore’s Capitalism: A Love Story. I haven’t managed to catch it yet, but judging by McCarten’s review Moore’s latest will be a must-see: Some of the points he raises – such as workers having representation on […]
Written By: - Date published: 7:30 am, November 8th, 2009 - 35 comments
One of these things is not like the other, One of these things is not quite the same… Can you guess which one is not like the other, Can you tell me before I finish the game?
Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, November 8th, 2009 - 12 comments
Topics of interest, announcements, general discussion. The usual rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Over to you…
Written By: - Date published: 4:52 pm, November 7th, 2009 - 33 comments
Some pretty damning pieces on on Hide today from John Armstrong, Tracy Watkins, and Fran O’Sullivan. They compare him to Winston Peters and say he ought to apologise to various groups for his troughing and his comments that John Key “doesn’t do anything”. What I find fascinating, though, is that a senior and powerful minister gave his […]
Written By: - Date published: 2:00 pm, November 7th, 2009 - 10 comments
Hattip: tumeke
Written By: - Date published: 1:01 pm, November 7th, 2009 - 9 comments
We are continuing our chilling progress towards a surveillance state. The Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act 2009 is another brick in the wall. Apparently this act reverses the fundamental presumption of innocence with respect to assets (possessions, wealth). If the police decide that your possessions were gained via “significant criminal activity” you are guilty unless you […]
Written By: - Date published: 11:28 am, November 7th, 2009 - 2 comments
God knows you’ll never hear this sort of stuff from the transnational corporate duopolies that are our erstwhile msm, so many thanks to one of our readers who kindly put me on to this excellent US grassroots site by Jerold Block. It’s a repository of podcasts that basically just contain countless well put counter-arguments to […]
Written By: - Date published: 8:50 am, November 7th, 2009 - 82 comments
The Dom Post reports that Hone Harawira is considering leaving the Maori Party. Hone told the Dom this before Hone’s offensive email hit the media later in the week. Firebrand Maori Party MP Hone Harawira under attack for an explosive email says he could quit at the next election over his party’s support for National. […]
Written By: - Date published: 8:38 am, November 7th, 2009 - 11 comments
The government and the Police are spinning all the new security measures as a national security matter and a crack-down ONLY on the leaders of organised crime, watching how the worst villains spend their ill-gotten gains and preventing them from corrupting police and politicians (snort) etc. Police minister Judith Crusher Collins: “Gang bosses have grown […]
Written By: - Date published: 7:24 am, November 7th, 2009 - 8 comments
Hypocrisy is such a difficult tag to shake in NZ politics. After blowing $50,000 of tax payer money on a trip with his girlfriend to visit her brother and wander around Disneyland, it seems like Rodney Hide has been caught yet again pilfering public funds to help with his romantic chances, this time another $10,000 […]
Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, November 7th, 2009 - 5 comments
Topics of interest, announcements, general discussion. The usual rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Over to you…
Written By: - Date published: 3:22 pm, November 6th, 2009 - 38 comments
Documents that the government was forced to release under the Official Information Act reveal that Bill English exercised extensive control and sign-off over each stage of his million dollar political propaganda ad, funded by publicly-owned broadcaster TVNZ. The documents (which, unfortunately, the media organisations have not seen fit to release to the public in full) […]
Written By: - Date published: 2:40 pm, November 6th, 2009 - 6 comments
Fresh from pulling the pin (then blaming others) on a Queen’s Wharf redesign competition he himself conceived, led and championed, Remuera mayor John ‘in your guts you know he’s nuts’ Banks has again flip-flopped on a policy proposal from his council. Yesterday the Banks’ and C&R led proposal for after-hours car parking charges for Auckland’s […]
Written By: - Date published: 1:15 pm, November 6th, 2009 - 121 comments
Rob Salmond In attempting to cover for DPF’s embarrassing disaster of a post on climate change, in his comments section some prominent right wingers (most notably John Ansell) pointed to a recent presentation by Lord Monckton. The presentation got a lot of publicity this month, including thinly veiled advertising from Fox News’ Glenn Beck, for arguing […]
Written By: - Date published: 12:45 pm, November 6th, 2009 - 65 comments
Not content with living in a fantasy world, Rodney Hide had to spend taxpayer money to visit Disney World as well. OK, actually it was Universal Studios but it looks increasingly like Hide’s $50,000 trip kindly paid for by you and me was actually nothing more than a world tour with his girlfriend. Sure, they […]
Written By: - Date published: 11:36 am, November 6th, 2009 - 12 comments
We were offered two very different views of John Key PM yesterday. The first by a pair of love-struck journalists. We’ll start with them. Let’s have a big hand for Garth George folks! Garth George: We should all salute our wonderful PM It comes as no surprise that John Key and National remain top of […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:30 am, November 6th, 2009 - 5 comments
If there’s been a motto of this government, it’s the one above. We’ve been promised the world – tax cuts, better public services, higher wages, more growth, less regulation, lower crime, better education, lower carbon emissions – and none of it has been delivered or looks likely to be delivered at any time by this […]
Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, November 6th, 2009 - 62 comments
Yesterday, we looked at what a vastly unfair and unequal system capitalism is. The control of the fruits of production by the few means that wealth accumulates to them and the rest of us get a pittance. The wealthiest 10% of people own over half of the wealth of this country – net worths of […]
Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, November 6th, 2009 - 18 comments
Hide says his comment that Key “doesn’t do anything” was “taken out of context” by the reporter. It’s a direct attack on van Beyan’s professionalism. Reminiscent of Key’s smears after his “we would love to see wages drop” quoted was reported. Van Beyan should stand up for himself and his profession by releasing his full notes […]
Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, November 6th, 2009 - 22 comments
Topics of interest, announcements, general discussion. The usual rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Over to you…
Written By: - Date published: 5:22 am, November 6th, 2009 - 5 comments
The Herald was just about as damning as they get of National on Tuesday, with Claire Trevett’s piece on Anne Tolley. Of course, the Herald is never going to out and out criticise a National minister but between the fluff and odd anti-left remarks (“lippy unions”, “excessive regulation”) there’s some pretty tough comments. That Tolley […]
Written By: - Date published: 5:28 pm, November 5th, 2009 - 40 comments
Interesting comment from ‘gobsmacked’ on Rodney Hide’s statement that John Key “doesn’t do anything” and how he as a minister can ram pretty much anything he likes through cabinet: There’s a bigger story here, incidentally. Rodney Hide has been caught out in a lie. The whole ‘fundraiser’ row was all about whether Hide was acting […]
Written By: - Date published: 2:22 pm, November 5th, 2009 - 25 comments
These data, taken from the Elections NZ site, show election results since National’s inception up until the last First Past the Post (FPP) election in 1993. I think they show fairly clearly why National is so keen to dump our proportional electoral system in favour of FPP or its drag cousin Supplementary Member (SM), which […]
Written By: - Date published: 12:40 pm, November 5th, 2009 - 14 comments
The number of employed people fell from 2,170,000 to 2,154,000 in the three months to September*. There are 54,000 fewer people in jobs than December last year. 16,000 jobs were lost in three months – 240 per work day. Unemployment rose another 0.5% to 6.5%, the first time it has been that high since National […]
Written By: - Date published: 11:50 am, November 5th, 2009 - 100 comments
Let me start by saying I understand that Key is loved for his laid-back common touch, I don’t think it makes for good governance but I realise it makes for a good political product. However there’s a big difference between laid-back and weak and letting Rodney Hide spit on him in public only to claim […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:59 am, November 5th, 2009 - 66 comments
Most of the wealth in New Zealand is owned by a tiny fraction of the people because our political/economic system makes it that way. 10% of people have more income than 50% combined. That’s just income. The inequality of wealth distribution is far greater. The net wealth of 10% of people is 20 times […]
Written By: - Date published: 9:39 am, November 5th, 2009 - 39 comments
The Search and Surveillance Bill is making its way though the bowels of the government law making process. This is a terrible law, described by the Human Rights Commissioner as “disproportionately invasive” and “chilling“: Sweeping powers to spy, bug conversations and hack into private computers could be given to a web of state agencies as […]
Written By: - Date published: 8:57 am, November 5th, 2009 - 45 comments
It took a few cocktails to loosen Bill English’s tongue when he thought he was among friends. Rodney Hide just needed his coco pops. At his highly dubious ministerial function/ACT fundraiser breakfast*, Hide told his table that John Key “doesn’t do anything”. The only ‘achievement’ by Key that Hide could identify was the cycleway, which, […]
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