Archive for September, 2010

Open mike 18/09/2010

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, September 18th, 2010 - 33 comments

Open mike is your post. It’s open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. Comment on whatever takes your fancy. The usual good behaviour rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike…

A Busy Week In Politics

Written By: - Date published: 11:41 pm, September 17th, 2010 - 19 comments

It’s been a very big week this week, so I thought I’d do a round-up, just so we don’t forget some of the ‘lesser’ lights that may have been big news had we not had so much to go on…

Tashkoff: Hide lied to ACT Board about Garrett

Written By: - Date published: 4:08 pm, September 17th, 2010 - 83 comments

According to ACT’s Peter Tashkoff, Rodney Hide misled the ACT Party Board by hiding his knowledge of David Garrett’s passport dishonesty offence. So here we have a party leader who couldn’t see the problem with accepting someone who’d committed such a distasteful crime becoming not only an MP, but ACT’s Law and Order spokesman, and so […]

Garrett resigns from ACT

Written By: - Date published: 1:37 pm, September 17th, 2010 - 80 comments

David Garrett has resigned from ACT and has indicated he will almost certainly resign from Parliament. Good, He is a scumbag, a liar, and a hypocrite. He is only resigning because he was caught. Now attention must turn to Rodney Hide. He can’t now pretend to be administering justice when he harbored Garrett and kept […]

Caption contest

Written By: - Date published: 1:00 pm, September 17th, 2010 - 18 comments

Thanks to all the other writers for excellent pieces on the serious issues. Time for a lighter subject. Fortunately, when you’ve got a clown for PM, there’s always a laugh to be had. Couldn’t help wondering why Key’s sitting in the middle row here. Made way for Brownlee Maximus perhaps?

Digested Read – Spirit Level 1: The Problem

Written By: - Date published: 12:00 pm, September 17th, 2010 - 43 comments

We bang on about The Spirit Level from time to time, and I promised a series summarising the book… well here it is.  It’ll be six parts.

Garrett case another example of special treatment for elite

Written By: - Date published: 9:28 am, September 17th, 2010 - 67 comments

David Garrett’s theft of a dead child’s identity is a revolting offence that violated our passport system and distressed the family. He lied to the Police when arrested and lied to the Court about having no prior convictions. Why did he escape conviction when others were being jailed for the same offence? Because he’s a lawyer. The elite looks after its own.

Open mike 17/09/2010

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, September 17th, 2010 - 40 comments

Open mike is your post. It’s open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. Comment on whatever takes your fancy. The usual good behaviour rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike…

Do I stay or do I go?

Written By: - Date published: 8:32 pm, September 16th, 2010 - 105 comments

The Labour and Green parties’ activists are in uproar over their parliamentary wings’ decision to vote for the Gerry Brownlee Enabling Act. A lot of people are saying they won’t campaign for these parties and talking of voting for a minor party or independents. Is it time to damn them and leave them? No. We’re going to win our parties back.

More thoughts on the Gerry Brownlee Enabling Act

Written By: - Date published: 1:22 pm, September 16th, 2010 - 32 comments

The Gerry Brownlee Enabling Act is a Dictator’s Charter, and all we can do is hope Brownlee doesn’t abuse it. Even the Herald is against the unwarranted and excessive powers that have been conferred on one man with no meaningful checks or balances. This isn’t about Left or Right but too many on the Right seem happy with unfettered State power.

Does National care about animal welfare?

Written By: - Date published: 12:55 pm, September 16th, 2010 - 21 comments

National will vote against a Sue Kedgley’s member’s bill, which could see factory farms phased out within 5 years. Despite support from the Greens, Labour, United Future and the Maori Party, without National or ACT’s support this bill won’t pass it’s first reading. There’s no good excuse. The government needs to be shamed on this.

Key: No Surprises?

Written By: - Date published: 10:54 am, September 16th, 2010 - 22 comments

Under National & Act’s power-sharing agreement there is a ‘No Surprises’ clause.  So Rodney Hide should have told John Key about David Garrett’s assault conviction and dead baby identity stealing, as well as his own drunk and disorderly conviction in 2008.

Did he?

Good dictators

Written By: - Date published: 10:25 am, September 16th, 2010 - 41 comments

Dictatorships are good.

Or at least that’s what Farrar is saying now his team has one.

Brown to beat Banks, don’t tell Granny

Written By: - Date published: 9:28 am, September 16th, 2010 - 11 comments

Two more Supercity polls. Brown ahead 29% v 17% in a Horizon poll. Herald’s Digipoll has it closer – 29.8% v 27.8%. Brown still ahead. Naturally, the Herald calls it too close to call. Looks like the Right’s plan for an Auckland coup is coming unstuck. Guess they’re lucky Labour and the Greens supported their nation-wide coup instead.

Labour grassroots revolt against Quake Act betrayal

Written By: - Date published: 7:51 am, September 16th, 2010 - 154 comments

A couple of days ago Labour MP Brendon Burns posted a self-congratulatory piece over at Red Alert celebrating the ‘rare unity’ among parliamentary parties in voting to make Gerry Brownlee dictator of New Zealand for the next 18 months.
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The response from Labour’s grassroots in the comment section was swift and brutal. The Parliamentary Labour Party may have abdicated its role as opposition but that doesn’t mean everyone is happy.

Open mike 16/09/2010

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, September 16th, 2010 - 42 comments

Open mike is your post. It’s open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. Comment on whatever takes your fancy. The usual good behaviour rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike…

Hide’s dilemma

Written By: - Date published: 6:31 pm, September 15th, 2010 - 102 comments

Rodney Hide can either ditch Garrett and likely lose his leadership.

Or he can back him and likely kill off Act.

It’s a classic individual versus collective dilemma.

Day of the Jackoff

Written By: - Date published: 4:04 pm, September 15th, 2010 - 87 comments

So ACT’s nutcase extraordinaire, the man whose only talent is to make John Boscawen look stable, has done it yet again. Forever getting attention for all the wrong reasons, David Garrett has now admitted he’s been found guilty of a particularly distasteful dishonesty offence – stealing the identity of a dead infant for the purpose of […]

Democracy only for Luddites?

Written By: - Date published: 1:59 pm, September 15th, 2010 - 19 comments

In the Today in Politics column in the DomPost there’s a snippy little piece about the Fairness at Work submissions.  The CTU reckons around 6000 people have made submssions against the Bill. A lot of these were made via its website. Not bad going considering the government gave people just over three weeks to have their voice heard. Anyway, the chair of […]

Government To Screw Health Next

Written By: - Date published: 12:00 pm, September 15th, 2010 - 17 comments

Not content with destroying education to get at teachers, now National are after your health to get at doctors and nurses.

Farmers see light on OCR

Written By: - Date published: 10:35 am, September 15th, 2010 - 7 comments

The feds want the OCR frozen.

But that’s not a sustainable answer for exporters.

It’s time to look at better ways of controlling inflation.

Losing Momentum

Written By: - Date published: 9:28 am, September 15th, 2010 - 32 comments

Momentum Recruitment is in the gun yet again, this time for placing a woman in an accounting firm when she did not have the qualifications she claimed. The fake accountant then went on to defraud the company Momentum had placed her with of $60,000. Momentum is the same company that placed fantasist Stephen Wilce in […]

Absolute power? Absolutely

Written By: - Date published: 8:27 am, September 15th, 2010 - 151 comments

The Canterbury Earthquake Response and Recovery Act gives the Government the power to pass Orders in Council overriding nearly every law. That makes ministers, not Parliament, the sovereign power in this country. Scary stuff, which I haven’t seen justified by the facts of the quake recovery.

Nats’ new health head: ‘Fewer doctors OK’

Written By: - Date published: 6:55 am, September 15th, 2010 - 12 comments

The state sector is in turmoil. Secondary teachers and medical technicians are striking for fair pay and against claw-backs in their work conditions. Junior doctors look set to join them. What’s the Nats’ reaction? They’ve appointed the Scottish ‘smiling assassin’, Dr Kevin Woods, who  fired 1,500 nurses from the Scottish NHS and will apply the same formula here.

Open mike 15/09/2010

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, September 15th, 2010 - 25 comments

Open mike is your post. It’s open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. Comment on whatever takes your fancy. The usual good behaviour rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike…

Caption Competition

Written By: - Date published: 4:08 pm, September 14th, 2010 - 43 comments

Cameron Slater, aka Whaleoil, found guilty today in the Auckland District Court on eight breaches of suppression orders and one of identifying a victim.

The contradictions of charity

Written By: - Date published: 1:44 pm, September 14th, 2010 - 24 comments

Continental Philosopher Slavoj Zizek talks about ethical buying and charity and the contradictions they entail. I’m not sure I agree with him (I often don’t) but it’s certainly worth thinking about.

Teachers strike tomorrow

Written By: - Date published: 1:42 pm, September 14th, 2010 - 13 comments

Here are the reasons for tomorrows strike from a member of the PPTA (Post Primary Teachers Association) in a guest post.  The Ministry of Education has rejected them all.

You’d have to expect the spinners for the government to carefully ignore these issues in favour of their usual simplistic meaningless dogwhistling messages. That is the level they’d prefer that kids are educated to.

Desperation from Banks team

Written By: - Date published: 12:29 pm, September 14th, 2010 - 32 comments

John Banks’ team really jumped the shark yesterday with their bizarre ‘poll tax’ attack on Len Brown. Banks claimed Brown was proposing a Thatcher-style poll tax to fund the Supercity instead of rates. Of course, Brown is proposing no such thing – he is saying we should look at replacing rates with income tax. Desperate, Banksie, desperate.

Hone stands by principles on foreshore

Written By: - Date published: 11:20 am, September 14th, 2010 - 52 comments

Stuff is reporting that Hone Harawira will not vote for the Nats’ foreshore and seabed legislation. And John Key is clearly upset. Sounds like someone needs the whambulance. Key’s just lost the ability to claim that he has genuinely circled the square, giving Pakeha and Maori both what they want. All he has really done is bought off the Maori Party leadership.

Good luck I say

Written By: - Date published: 11:10 am, September 14th, 2010 - 24 comments

It seems Sarah Palin is stepping up her campaign to be the Republican’s candidate to run against President Obama in 2012. The world couldn’t ask for a better candidate to oppose Obama: She won’t have a show in hell.