Archive for October, 2010

Open mike 23/10/2010

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, October 23rd, 2010 - 21 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, my precious…

Caption Contest

Written By: - Date published: 8:46 pm, October 22nd, 2010 - 60 comments

It was not until last night that we received confirmation of the retraction from SAG, NZ Equity and AFTRA through press reports.

New Line Cinema

Hobbit producers caught in a lie?

Written By: - Date published: 7:03 pm, October 22nd, 2010 - 134 comments

Emails have surfaced showing the Hobbit dispute was settled early this late last week.

So why did Jackson go on the offensive on Thursday?

Is he not talking to Warners or is there more in play in this than the actors dispute?

Why they burn cars in France & we protest peacefully

Written By: - Date published: 1:00 pm, October 22nd, 2010 - 31 comments

Vernon Small had an atypically disappointing piece in the Dom yesterday concluding that everyone must be happy in NZ because the 20,000 protesters who turned out on October 20th did so peacefully and legally, whereas in France there is rioting in the streets. I/S explains why people have to take to the streets to get affect political change in France.

Nats’ golden handshake to disgraced judge

Written By: - Date published: 11:30 am, October 22nd, 2010 - 32 comments

When Justice Bill Wilson was accused of serious misconduct, Attorney-General Chris Finlayson didn’t want to investigate telling fellow National MP Colin King “Justice Wilson is a mate of mine and there’s no way I am pursuing this any further”. Now, Wilson’s got a $885,000 golden handshake from the government to make the issue go away.

The Hobbit ‘crisis’: cui bono?

Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, October 22nd, 2010 - 171 comments

Does anyone believe that a $660 million project moves countries over the ‘threat’ of a few actors wanting better standards? Would Jackson really betray NZ when Weta is based here, the casting is underway, and Hobbiton is built? Cui bono, this talk of ‘crisis’: how much will the Government fork over to appease the threat of foreign capital flight?

A noose around students’ necks

Written By: - Date published: 9:35 am, October 22nd, 2010 - 27 comments

Every time I think John Key can’t get any more cynical and hypocritical in his messaging, he manages to take it to a new level.  Apparently spending money on the education system will create “a noose around the neck of young New Zealanders”…

A quick note on the Hobbit and labour stability

Written By: - Date published: 8:07 am, October 22nd, 2010 - 84 comments

If labour stability is the big issue with keeping the Hobbit here the answer is very simple.

Employ workers as employees, not contractors.

Open mike 22/10/2010

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, October 22nd, 2010 - 81 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…

Who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes?

Written By: - Date published: 12:00 am, October 22nd, 2010 - 30 comments

Things are quickly turning to custard for National. The economy is going south fast and Key’s Teflon-coating is so damaged the mainstream media is openly saying we deserve better than a ‘smile and wave’ PM. The Nats’ strategy – try to convince us nothing is wrong – is really bad. It makes them look either duplicitous or out of touch.

Why Russell Brown is wrong

Written By: - Date published: 10:58 pm, October 21st, 2010 - 69 comments

Russell Brown’s anti-union take on the Hobbit dispute has been cited by righties all over the internet as “evidence” the union is wrong.

So let’s take a look at what he’s saying and how it matches up with employment law, industrial relations and all the rest of that good stuff.

Nats find freedom of speech offensive

Written By: - Date published: 1:30 pm, October 21st, 2010 - 72 comments

National’s bully-boy tactics continue. Young people are trying to voice their concern to the select committee that is looking at the extension of the Fire at Will law to all workers. The Nats on the committee don’t want to listen so they’re bullying submitters and refusing to even accept submissions that don’t toe their line.

Why the Right is worried 4: Polls

Written By: - Date published: 11:57 am, October 21st, 2010 - 41 comments

The trend is quite clear now. The Right’s support peaked and the Left’s support reached is nadir last year. The gap has been gradually closing ever since. From a 24.5% gap between National and ACT a year ago, the gap in the latest Roy Morgan has fallen to 5.5%.  About quarter of a million Kiwis have switched their support to the Left in a single year.

The deaf and dumb government

Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, October 21st, 2010 - 11 comments

In just two years, we’ve had three protests eclipsing anything we saw under Labour. What will the next year bring? What would a second term see as the public reacts to an agenda of privatisation and public service cuts that go well beyond the ‘back office’? Will this deaf and dumb government ever wake up and hear the concerns of New Zealanders?

Jackson’s bad faith posturing

Written By: - Date published: 8:15 am, October 21st, 2010 - 516 comments

It looked like Actors Equity and Peter Jackson had come to an agreement.

They’d even written a joint statement to announce the boycott was off.

So why has the whole thing blown up?

Key’s economic bravado now reduced to whining

Written By: - Date published: 7:04 am, October 21st, 2010 - 25 comments

In three short years John Key and National have gone from economic bravado, to failure, to lies, excuses and whining.  As the economy languishes they will have nothing to offer except more lies and excuses.

This is a time for fresh thinking, both globally and locally.  But we won’t get it from National.

Gordon Campbell: Central vs Local Government

Written By: - Date published: 7:02 am, October 21st, 2010 - 12 comments

Gordon Campbell on central government’s reaction to the local government elections.  Campbell argues that National has a vested interest in the failure of both Len Brown in Auckland and Celia Wade-Brown in Wellington, and that voters have rejected the “1980s model of political leadership”.

Open mike 21/10/2010

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, October 21st, 2010 - 75 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…

Selling assets to finance current account deficit = good?

Written By: - Date published: 2:00 pm, October 20th, 2010 - 58 comments

I’m generally a fan of Gareth Morgan, but boy his facts are wrong in yesterday’s Herald, leading  him to really bad conclusions. Basically, Morgan argues that we have to let foreigners buy our assets because we use that money to buy more imports than we export, which we won’t be able to do if we block asset sales. Why is that a bad thing?

National day of action for work rights

Written By: - Date published: 12:51 pm, October 20th, 2010 - 115 comments

Thousands of workers are now leaving their work places to attend one of the 27 protests taking place today from Kaiatia to the Bluff against National’s draconian anti-worker policies. This one could be big. This is the day that Kiwi workers stand up and say that they have had enough of this government attacking our wages and work conditions. Update: 5-6 thousand at Parliament.

Why the Right is worried 3: Policy

Written By: - Date published: 11:59 am, October 20th, 2010 - 8 comments

In contrast to National’s policy vacuum on the economy, Labour has been focusing its policy work on a major change in direction. It’s obvious that the hands-off approach introduced in the 1980s has failed, leading to mal-investment in housing with an economy stripped of its manufacturing capability and geared for import-dependent consumerism.

I’m confused

Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, October 20th, 2010 - 32 comments

Trying to get my head around the economic arguments going on. Hearing contradictory things. Who’s telling the truth? ls Labour’s new overseas investment policy Stalinism that will  ruin the economy, as Key claimed on Monday and Tuesday? Or is the same as the existing law, as Key claimed on Monday and Tuesday?

I’ve had a gut’s full too, Hone

Written By: - Date published: 8:59 am, October 20th, 2010 - 88 comments

I get Hone Harawira’s anger over National’s pandering to rednecks over the Foreshore and Seabed new legislation. That was the same anger that led to the Maori Party being formed in the first place (ironic that they’re voting for the new law). But I can’t abide by the racist language and actions he resorts to.

Keith Ng: Nat bullshit on inflation and earnings

Written By: - Date published: 7:02 am, October 20th, 2010 - 44 comments

National have been running some fine lines of bullshit lately.  Keith Ng’s recent post at Public Address calls them out on two of them.  The first, National is trying to claim credit for low inflation.  The Second, National is trying to claim that recent wage increases have been better than the previous 9 years.  Keith takes the bullshit apart – dirty work, but someone has to do it.

Open mike 20/10/2010

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, October 20th, 2010 - 31 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…

Nats’ ideology costing us millions

Written By: - Date published: 11:24 pm, October 19th, 2010 - 40 comments

This post isn’t about National cutting education at every level, which will damage our country for decades to come. Nor is it about how they’re cutting cost-efficient preventative medicine to fund ‘sexy’ elective surgery. It’s not even about how they’re pouring billions into holiday highways in the era of peak oil. This is about the Cullen Fund.

Key: good that foreign buyers increase land prices

Written By: - Date published: 2:00 pm, October 19th, 2010 - 37 comments

John Key says that if we don’t let overseas buyers snap up our farmland then land prices will decrease and some over-leveraged farmers will go underwater. And that’s supposedly a bad thing. Key wants us to believe that foreigners putting our farmland out of the reach of Kiwis and making us borrow more from the Aussie banks is a good thing.

Do Nothing Key desperate to claim credit for something

Written By: - Date published: 1:00 pm, October 19th, 2010 - 27 comments

The Nats are trying to take credit for the fact that annual inflation in the year to September was the lowest since 2004. What exactly did they do? Dig into the numbers and the cause of the lower inflation is a weak global economy, not National. Already, inflation is climbing, 1.1% this quarter, and will break 5% next year thanks to the GST hike.

Why the Right is worried 2: Key

Written By: - Date published: 11:59 am, October 19th, 2010 - 56 comments

While the economy burns, Key is  fiddling with spiders. He is the good times PM. He’s all about getting  himself in front of a camera and having a grin, as if he’s on a 3 year  project in collecting pictures for his photo album, rather than Prime  Minister. Key’s inability to handle Paul Henry like a real leader put a deep scratch in his Teflon. The brand is fading.

National’s anti-Public Transport message

Written By: - Date published: 11:00 am, October 19th, 2010 - 16 comments

Different voice, same message: instead of Stephen Joyce or John Key, we now have Bill English saying that they don’t have any money for Public Transport.  Just money for roads.  They’ve been forced to commit to $1.5 billion of ongoing Auckland rail projects, and that’s all it’s going to get, thank-you.

Nats’ war on education: cutting wages

Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, October 19th, 2010 - 87 comments

For some reason, the Nats hate public education. Even an elitist fool should be able to see that a well-educated workforce is valuable and public education is the cheapest way to achieve it. Yet National is attacking education at every level. The latest ‘offer’ to the secondary teachers would see them take 2 years of after-inflation pay cuts.