Archive for April, 2012

Open mike 12/04/2012

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, April 12th, 2012 - 92 comments

Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike…

Romney vs. Obama

Written By: - Date published: 11:42 am, April 11th, 2012 - 28 comments

With the effective withdrawal of Rick Santorum from the Republican primary process, Mitt Romney is now all but certain to be the Republican nominee to go up against Barack Obama in the Presidential election this year.

Hidden away

Written By: - Date published: 9:51 am, April 11th, 2012 - 27 comments

Hidden away at the end of this story, hidden away out of most media view, hidden away from Housing New Zealand, and from society… ordinary people being shafted by National’s cuts.

Nats need better excuses on billion dollar tax cut borrowing

Written By: - Date published: 8:38 am, April 11th, 2012 - 12 comments

As the Nats try to spin us into accepting another zero budget, focus is turning to 2 big holes that their policy decisions have created. First, the $1b+ a year spend on the low to negative value Roads of National (Party) Significance. Second, the $1b+ annual cost of the 2010 tax changes. That’s $2b+ that could be spent elsewhere, avoiding spending cuts without more borrowing.

Choices, choices: parental leave too expensive?

Written By: - Date published: 6:40 am, April 11th, 2012 - 190 comments

The Rightwhingers are saying extending parental leave is too expensive. We’re talking about a tiny sliver of government spending – 0.2% to be precise. And a tiny fraction of what the government is borrowing. If money is really so tight, there’s plenty of poor quality decisions that National could reverse first.

Open mike 11/04/2012

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, April 11th, 2012 - 156 comments

Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose.

The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner).

Step right up to the mike…

Paid Parental

Written By: - Date published: 11:46 am, April 10th, 2012 - 133 comments

Sue Moroney’s 6 months of Paid Parental Bill looks like being a second Labour private member’s bill that will proceed against National’s wishes.

A three-legged stool

Written By: - Date published: 10:34 am, April 10th, 2012 - 4 comments

Ruth Richardson has forced every subsequent policy to be sized up for ‘fiscal responsibility’. I’d like them to be sized up for ‘social responsibility’ and ‘environmental responsibility’ as well.

Grubby politics

Written By: - Date published: 9:32 am, April 10th, 2012 - 8 comments

Cronyism. The politicisation of the public service. Internal power struggles. It’s all just grubby Nat politics as usual. Why do we put up with it?

Intro for International Organisation for a Participatory Society

Written By: - Date published: 8:51 am, April 10th, 2012 - 98 comments

Revolution in Springfield 😉

Nat Civil War: The perils of monolithism

Written By: - Date published: 7:15 am, April 10th, 2012 - 63 comments

Despite losing nearly 1 in 4 of its supporters, 300,000 voters, in a little over 6 months according to the Roy Morgans, National’s 44% still looks superficially impressive. Until you realise they need to be able to form a  majority more or less alone. The Right’s monolithism doesn’t just place extraordinary demands on National’s leader, it’s the root of the current civil war.

Open mike 10/04/2012

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, April 10th, 2012 - 78 comments

Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike…

Participate: a better criminal trial?

Written By: - Date published: 10:55 am, April 9th, 2012 - 4 comments

The Law Commission is reviewing trial process. Can we have a fairer justice system?

How wealthy do you feel?

Written By: - Date published: 9:14 am, April 9th, 2012 - 112 comments

If everyone earned the same amount (including babies) across the entire world, we’d each get about $USD10,000 each.  So a family of four anywhere in the world would get about $NZD49,000.  That figure makes world poverty pretty hard to stomach.  It’s not that there’s not enough in this world – only that some people haven’t learnt to share.

Open mike 09/04/2012

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, April 9th, 2012 - 100 comments

Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike…

Both sides of Joyce’s dirty deal bad for NZ

Written By: - Date published: 4:50 pm, April 8th, 2012 - 89 comments

We know that giving SkyCity more pokie machines will mean more problem gamblers, more crime. The Right says it’s worth it for the convention centre. But the official numbers show that’s a dog and we would pay for it in the long-run. It’s not one side of this equation that is bad for New Zealand, it’s both.

Will the Greens lead the next government?

Written By: - Date published: 9:20 am, April 8th, 2012 - 195 comments

Two recent pieces in The Herald draw opposite conclusions from recent polls (one of them, alas, is drivel). Matt McCarten asks if National’s free fall, and the rise of the Greens, foreshadows a Green led government in 2014…

Open mike 08/04/2012

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, April 8th, 2012 - 79 comments

Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike…

Nat Civil War: Collins faction turns on Key

Written By: - Date published: 1:04 pm, April 7th, 2012 - 119 comments

There’s series of posts from Simon Lusk on Whaleoil showing the Collins faction taking a distinctly anti-Key line for the first time. Key’s signaled he won’t go easily and he screwed Collins on the defamation suits.. And the polls show he won’t win a third term.

NRT: Voting against democracy

Written By: - Date published: 9:30 am, April 7th, 2012 - 14 comments

No Right Turn on another sad chapter for democracy in NZ.

Easter trading

Written By: - Date published: 8:11 am, April 7th, 2012 - 297 comments

It’s the annual Easter ritual – a slap on the wrist for the many shops caught flouting the trading law.

Open mike 07/04/2012

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, April 7th, 2012 - 121 comments

Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike…

Crushed Collins, the most over-rated minister of all?

Written By: - Date published: 2:17 pm, April 6th, 2012 - 54 comments

3 years on and Crusher Collins has yet to crush a single car. But she has crushed the career of a fellow Cabinet Minister and, as a result, crushed her own plans to be National leader within 3 years and put the squeeze on her own credibility so hard it is difficult to see how she can hold out as minister. Collins is proof that an enormous ego and a disturbing, Joker-like, fixed smile will get you far in politics, but only so far.

Friday Puzzle

Written By: - Date published: 2:00 pm, April 6th, 2012 - 33 comments

Here’s a puzzle for Friday…

Another “Zero budget”

Written By: - Date published: 9:34 am, April 6th, 2012 - 72 comments

Another “Zero budget” has been signaled. Some commentators think it’s a bold move. I beg to differ.

Weekend social 06/04/2012

Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, April 6th, 2012 - 13 comments

Weekend social is for non political chat. What’s on for the weekend, gigs, film or book reviews, sports, or whatever. No politics, no aggro, why can’t we all just get along?

Open mike 06/04/2012

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, April 6th, 2012 - 86 comments

Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike…

Updates, upgrades, and polls

Written By: - Date published: 9:28 pm, April 5th, 2012 - 111 comments

A bit of maintenance work coming up over Easter, and a Morgan poll that covered last week. National show the effects of their mutual collective suicide attempts, and the Greens pick up the benefits. Labour are doing sweet bugger all. Starting to wonder if Labour MP’s are catching the dogpack socializing disease from National. I have an impress ion of mutual arse sniffing and bugger all work. I’m unimpressed with the dog imitations from either party.

The Green Party mining our future community tour

Written By: - Date published: 12:29 pm, April 5th, 2012 - 77 comments

Green Party MPs Catherine Delahunty and Gareth Hughes invite you to a series of hui to discuss the Government’s broad “drill it, mine it” agenda for Aotearoa – what’s happening, what does it mean to our environment and communities and how do we stop it.

King Salmon hand out

Written By: - Date published: 10:27 am, April 5th, 2012 - 16 comments

MrSmith looks at the massive expansion of aquaculture in the Marlborough Sounds that King Salmon is planning, aided and abetted by National’s ‘Environmental Protection’ Agency. King Salmon got a public hand-out when it was having trouble selling its product but now it wants more public property to make more salmon, the public gets no voice.

When ‘fiscally neutral’ costs a billion+ a year

Written By: - Date published: 8:59 am, April 5th, 2012 - 30 comments

On Monday, Key said his tax cuts have been “literally fiscally neutral”. In Parliament yesterday, Russel Norman showed Treasury documents showing the 2010 tax changes were to forecast to cost $1.1b in 4 years, actually cost $1.1b in 9 months, and the cost has grown since. Key didn’t want to hear the Treasury numbers, instead waving some ‘billshit’ put together by the Finance Minister.