Written By: - Date published: 8:41 am, December 8th, 2009 - 5 comments
Governments use statistical tricks to lower the official unemployment rate. This fun video shows how many jobless people get swept under the carpet. It’s not that the statisticians aren’t aware of the jobless. In the US, they use different definitions of unemployment. ‘U-3’, the official unemployment rate only counts those people who are actively looking […]
Written By: - Date published: 6:15 am, December 8th, 2009 - 20 comments
Yesterday 56 newspapers in 45 countries published a “global editorial” – the same joint statement – most of them on their front page. This is an unprecedented step in the face of a profound emergency. You can find a list of the papers (with links to their copies of the editorial) here. It is sad […]
Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, December 8th, 2009 - 59 comments
Topics of interest, announcements, general discussion. The usual rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike…
Written By: - Date published: 7:55 pm, December 7th, 2009 - 29 comments
Following on from our report earlier this year about ideal places for libertarians to go, it appears that we are now seeing capitalism in its wonderful Ayn Rand style libertarian idealized form. Somali ‘maritime companies” have setup a stock exchange to help incubate free enterprise in its natural form. From Reuters we have this report. […]
Written By: - Date published: 6:46 pm, December 7th, 2009 - 11 comments
John Key is still claiming credit for the drop in the number of people on the unemployment benefit that occurs every October and November due to seasonal jobs that disappear after Christmas. In his press conference today Key said that the number of people on the dole had fallen to 58,500, a 300-odd drop […]
Written By: - Date published: 3:15 pm, December 7th, 2009 - 14 comments
When first writing about my thoughts on Phil Goff’s speech little did I realise that it was turning into an ongoing issue! Perhaps some closer consideration should have been given to the ‘internal communication’ – the speech now appears as a stand-alone issue (although maybe that counts as ‘got headlines – tick?), distracting from the […]
Written By: - Date published: 2:39 pm, December 7th, 2009 - 18 comments
In a sure sign the silly season is upon us, the Trans-Tasman has released its annual MP ratings. Considering the writers of the Trans-Tasman are rabid rightwingers who view John Key as the second-coming, it’s hardly a surprise that Nats get high scores and the Left get low ones. Anne Tolley, a woman so stupid […]
Written By: - Date published: 12:42 pm, December 7th, 2009 - 34 comments
The Brash Report was supposed to tell us how to catch up to Aussie, as per Key’s promise. It was just the same old ideas. No real analysis. A radical plan with no evidence it would work. It became, perhaps as always intended, just a PR exercise for National: ‘Look what crazy old Brash wants […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:53 am, December 7th, 2009 - 24 comments
Sarah Palin supporters, in their own words. Ok, it’s a cheap shot – I’m pretty sure you could eventually compile similar inane footage from the supporters almost any major political figure or party. But hey – never let it be said that I’m above cheap shots when it comes to Sarah Palin. Plus, it’s funny. […]
Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, December 7th, 2009 - 20 comments
All the arguments in one handy location – thank you Rod Oram, who in his SSTimes column says: …All it [the report] can say is: we’re not sure what the problems are or what we can do about them. But much lower taxes, government spending and regulation will do the trick. It offers no evidence […]
Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, December 7th, 2009 - 52 comments
Topics of interest, announcements, general discussion. The usual rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike…
Written By: - Date published: 2:27 pm, December 6th, 2009 - 53 comments
Newly uncovered correspondence between Melissa Lee and NZ on Air shows that she and her leader, John Key, seriously misled the media, the house and the public over the issue of her company’s misappropriation of $80,000 of NZ on Air funds. Documents obtained by The Standard show Lee’s claim to media that she had no […]
Written By: - Date published: 9:30 am, December 6th, 2009 - 4 comments
Got too much stuff? Know people with too much stuff? Do something different for your friends and family this Christmas. Instead of giving them a gift, give a gift in their name. Give a goat. Or a water pump. Or a pair of sandals. Or medical help. Or any one of a huge range of […]
Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, December 6th, 2009 - 13 comments
Topics of interest, announcements, general discussion. The usual rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike…
Written By: - Date published: 2:02 pm, December 5th, 2009 - 18 comments
Depressing reading in this piece by George Monbiot on Canada: So here I am, watching the astonishing spectacle of a beautiful, cultured nation turning itself into a corrupt petro-state. Canada is slipping down the development ladder, retreating from a complex, diverse economy towards dependence on a single primary resource, which happens to be the dirtiest […]
Written By: - Date published: 1:53 pm, December 5th, 2009 - 3 comments
I did some small interface changes on Friday morning. The main effect was to widen the page from 950 pixels to 1024 pixels to allow for a wider sidebars and central content. I also cleaned up the header graphic a bit. Consequently I’ve just increased the depth of thread discussions from six deep to seven […]
Written By: - Date published: 11:34 am, December 5th, 2009 - Comments Off on In a land of plenty
Alister Barry’s other classic documentary on the effects of the Right’s neoliberal revolution on every day New Zealanders, In a Land of Plenty, is also now online thanks to NZ On Screen. Check it out below:
Written By: - Date published: 9:32 am, December 5th, 2009 - 32 comments
The Government, stung by criticism of its inept education policies, is trying to silence teachers. Their plan is to make teachers, principals, and Board of Trustee members subject to the public service code of conduct. The, which currently applies only to people in the core public service (the ones the Right calls bureaucrats) bars people […]
Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, December 5th, 2009 - 8 comments
Topics of interest, announcements, general discussion. The usual rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike…
Written By: - Date published: 11:55 am, December 4th, 2009 - 21 comments
[Post reproduced with permission from No Right Turn] This is a picture of the north-western part of Mount Aspiring National Park, which the government wants to dig up. There’s a full album here. As can be seen, it is a rather distinctive area, flowing from lowland forest like that pictured to the barren subalpine red […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:23 am, December 4th, 2009 - 7 comments
Some dude sent me this from the awful Trans-Tasman: “More than five months after Richard Worth resigned as a minister and quit Parliament amid a sex scandal, police have closed their file and decided he won’t face any charges. A complaint laid by a Korean businesswoman and revelations of an incident involving a woman member […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, December 4th, 2009 - 36 comments
According to Vernon Small: Labour leader Phil Goff will be asked to explain his controversial “nationhood” speech at next week’s party caucus meeting. Discontent, especially on the Left of the party, has centred around Mr Goff’s comments on the foreshore and seabed policy. Insiders say the speech was discussed during a “robust” national council meeting […]
Written By: - Date published: 9:10 am, December 4th, 2009 - 19 comments
So John Key has finally dropped his veils* and is going to Copenhagen. Well, Rob Emmerson correctly predicted how the ineffectual Emissions Trading Scheme amendments by NACT did wind up. Taxpayers pay almost all of the cost, our kids pay even more, and polluters have no incentive to reduce emissions. Now imagine what happens when […]
Written By: - Date published: 7:58 am, December 4th, 2009 - 20 comments
Jon Stewart covers developments in the science around making meat without raising and killing an animal. Jon has a laugh of course but this is actually really exciting stuff. I’ve been following the developing science around this for a while. The upsides are huge. You can grow meat without the animal. That means no sow […]
Written By: - Date published: 6:08 am, December 4th, 2009 - 16 comments
Tomorrow Saturday it’s the Planet A Concert and March (the concert to be webcast live): In Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, you’ll be able to march, dance, listen to speakers, sing, and jump on bouncy castles in support of a good outcome in Copenhagen. From a massive free public concert in Auckland featuring top NZ bands […]
Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, December 4th, 2009 - 16 comments
Topics of interest, announcements, general discussion. The usual rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike…
Written By: - Date published: 5:26 pm, December 3rd, 2009 - 25 comments
We all know the 2025 Taskforce is a farce and a waste of taxpayers’ money. The Government has disowned it, the critics have panned it. Even Garth George has come out calling for its first report to be recycled into toilet paper. It genuinely appears to serve no function but to subsidise the wacky right-wing […]
Written By: - Date published: 3:33 pm, December 3rd, 2009 - 8 comments
So Hone Harawira has been readmitted into the fold of the Maori Party. It’s hard to see how excluding him from Parliament until the end of the year is a punishment, given that he has repeatedly said he detests the place (and who can blame him?). It seems more like political convenience for the Maori […]
Written By: - Date published: 12:30 pm, December 3rd, 2009 - 29 comments
It started with me agreeing wholeheartedly with Fran about youth unemployment. Now I can add Garth George and Bruce Sheppard to this strange confluence of opinions. For a start Garth George has provided one of the few decent media critiques of Brash’s batshit crazy proposal: The description of the report by Finance Minister Bill English […]
Written By: - Date published: 12:05 pm, December 3rd, 2009 - 5 comments
One of the most amusing things in the granny today is Garth George, our iconoclast from Rotorua ripping another hole into the credibility of the Brash Taskforce 2025. Absurdities abound, the first of which was the appointment of people like Dr Brash and Mr Caygill who, along with their soulmate, Act Party seat-warmer Roger Douglas, […]
Recent Comments