Author Archive

Kick boot camps to the curb

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 10:15 am, July 21st, 2011 - 22 comments

Boot camps are a failure. $36K per head. 15 of 17 in the first two groups have reoffended already. That’s a worse recividism rate than prison. Even on dubious assumptions that the other 2 would have reoffended without boot camp and actually haven’t, that’s $612,000 to stop 2 offenders. Time for National to admit failure and stop wasting our money.

It’s what’s inside that counts

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 10:15 am, July 20th, 2011 - 7 comments

Rupert Murdoch got a pie in the face today. But it was only shaving foam. To really do the job, you need special ingredients.

A try hard in America

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 10:30 am, July 19th, 2011 - 43 comments

Key’s off on holiday again. 5 days of taxpayer-funded travel and the only real meeting will be half an hour with Obama. But first, he’s in LA solely to have dinner with Warners. Value for our money eh? Key’s more excited about standing in the Oval Office so he can pretend to be powerful than achieving anything solid from his time in the US.

Labour vs National on economic vision

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 12:00 pm, July 15th, 2011 - 34 comments

At the same time as Phil Goff and David Cunliffe were unveiling Labour’s economic vision, Bill English was defending National’s in Parliament.

Hone’s right

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 11:19 pm, July 14th, 2011 - 124 comments

You’ve gotta love Hone Harawira’s style. By refusing to use the right words in his oath, Hone exposed the ridiculousness of our representatives swearing allegiance to a Queen on the far side of the world and calling on the aid of a deity that only 50% of us believe in. Lockwood Smith had no choice. The oath is law. It’s the law that needs to change.

Equal opportunity employer

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 9:40 am, July 14th, 2011 - 9 comments

So, Don Brash is having trouble getting any Maori candidates for ACT. Apparently, he identified 3 possibles – 2 turned out to be “unsuitable” (not old white reactionaries?) and one wasn’t interested. My question, however, is this. If Brash does manage to headhunt a token Maori and give them a winnable list place, isn’t that race-based privilege?

Is Nicolson right for ACT?

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 10:41 am, July 13th, 2011 - 24 comments

There are murmurings in ACT today over their new ‘high profile’ candidate, ex-farming guy who’s on the telly sometimes ranting about climate change Don Nicolson. The party’s current policy priorities are lower wages for young people, weakening student unions, and beating up on Maori and there’s concern Nicolson isn’t the right face for the job.

Chart o’ the day: this brighter future

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 9:09 am, July 13th, 2011 - 19 comments

The get ACC levy con

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 11:52 am, July 12th, 2011 - 14 comments

After coming to office, National cried ‘crisis at ACC’ as an excuse for raising levies, cutting cover, and privatisation. Suddenly, the ‘crisis’ has disappeared and good ol’ National is cutting your ACC levies, back to where they were before National raised them. Now, just forget who put them up in the first place, and tick the blue box in November.

Elitist watch: Wayne Mapp

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 10:00 am, July 11th, 2011 - 14 comments

Wayne ‘Tipple’ Mapp went to Crete recently with veterans to commemorate our heroic defeat there in World War 2. Naturally, the old fellas who risked their lives and lost their mates 60 years ago got pride of place, like their Australian counterparts, eh? Nope. Mapp stayed in 26K of luxury while the vets had to fend for themselves.

Protests in the North and South

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 6:57 am, July 10th, 2011 - 6 comments

Yesterday, hundreds of parents protested cuts to early childhood education on Queen St and gave Phil Goff a 60,000 signature petition to take to Wellington. 1000 people in the Octagon called on the government to consider Kiwi jobs when awarding contracts. What is wrong with the priorities of this government that puts tax cuts ahead of kids and job?

Maths not a strong point

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 5:14 pm, July 9th, 2011 - 16 comments

English’s Budget that counted asset sale revenue but not costs appears to be part of a wider maths problem for our Finance Minister. Perhaps this explains the Double Dipton affair.

Thompson gone, Garrett back?

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 9:15 am, July 7th, 2011 - 11 comments

The right’s leadership resembles a merry go round of disgraced old white failures. Brash, English, Shirtcliffe, Douglas had their time at the front, were disgraced. Now they’re back. Thompson was fired for his appalling behaviour but got a payout. He’ll be back in due course. While Brash says he’d welcome baby ID stealer Garrett back to Parliament.

The National Party attitude

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 9:25 am, July 6th, 2011 - 60 comments

Retiring National MP John Carter has revealed that he has consumed $77K of public assets for no reason. But it’s all such a funny lark! Carter permanently housed two cars at Parliament for 16 years. Hardly drove them. When he got in trouble for using parking spaces at the expense of others, he just switched them into colleagues’ names.

Bring the SAS home

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 12:16 pm, July 5th, 2011 - 49 comments

First, Key denies the SAS were in the Kabul hotel gunfight. Then, media reveals they were there and were injured. Key admits that but denies it was friendly fire. Now, media says SAS got an apology. Key ‘can’t rule out’ friendly fire and is launching an investigation. Goff says its time for the SAS to leave Afghanistan. He’s right.

Protesting parasites

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 6:46 pm, July 3rd, 2011 - 31 comments

“Goodness” said the shocked TV3 news presenter tonight at protests against Prince William and Kate’s visit to Canada. What’s really shocking? That ordinary people protest these ‘special’ people living, literally, the life of royalty on the public purse and providing nothing in return, or members of the media still reflexively reinforcing this parasitic system?

Happy Kiwisaver Cuts Day

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 1:16 pm, July 1st, 2011 - 26 comments

From today, the government’s contribution to your Kiwisaver has been cut in half. ‘What?’, you say, ‘Didn’t they say that would only come in if they got re-elected?’ Yeah, nah. They were lying to you. From today on, the government contribution is a maximum of $10 a week. Remember, this was the central plank of National’s savings budget.

More holiday highways from Nats

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 9:39 am, June 30th, 2011 - 31 comments

National thinks more roads will fix the economy. Problem is: traffic volumes are falling. It’s called Peak Oil. Means they can’t come up with any projects that make sense. Puhoi to Wellsford would cost $1 for every 80 cents of benefit. The next 4 National wants to add to the build list will be even more worthless. Their solution? Weaken the rules.

Actoids defend “get raped” comment

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 11:08 am, June 29th, 2011 - 38 comments

Some uni political hacks arguing, calling each other names, on Facebook is nothing new. The Actoid telling the Greenie to “get raped” was beyond the Pale. Don’t think we’ve ever had to delete a comment that bad here. But the response from ACT on Campus’s leadership has made it worse. Confirms the far Right’s fundamental misogyny.

Howzat?

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 12:07 pm, June 28th, 2011 - 42 comments

Focus

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 7:34 am, June 28th, 2011 - 15 comments

Labour shouldn’t get distracted trying to stop a few votes going to Mana. (or racing benefit rorting bloggers, for that matter). If the worse thing post-election is needing Mana’s support to govern, Labour would be ecstatic. Concentrate on the real fight: getting back the 100K voters who voted Labour 3 times out of the last 4.

Questions mount over Nats’ red zone plan

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 10:04 am, June 27th, 2011 - 30 comments

Brownlee has known for months about the fishhooks in the red-zone buyout plan. Incredibly, he has done nothing to address them. The rules of the bailout package aren’t even written. It was rushed out unfinished for political reasons. How can it take so long to write these simple rules? Only explanation is a lazy, useless, incompetent minister.

Democracy an expensive waste of time – Key

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 10:11 pm, June 26th, 2011 - 152 comments

According to our Prime Minister democracy is simply an expensive waste of time. Not surprising as democracy isn’t exactly something this bully government gives a lot of thought to.

Where are Nats’ answers to Chch fishhooks?

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 11:47 am, June 25th, 2011 - 61 comments

The weaknesses in govt’s Christchurch buyout plan were pretty obvious. Option 1: GV for land & property, would not be enough to buy replacement for most. Option 2: GV for land – activate replacement clause in insurance contract for house, would only work if insurer agreed house was a complete write-off. Option 2 failing already.

That’s it?

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 12:22 pm, June 24th, 2011 - 10 comments

Amazing what political pressure can do. Christchurch package was clearly put together in the space of a couple of days. Buy-out at GV the obvious basic solution but will see many out of pocket. Option 2 is an admission of that but only open to some. None of the fish-hooks have been worked out. What’s Gerry been doing all this time?

Christchurch annoucement

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 12:30 pm, June 23rd, 2011 - 134 comments

Eddie called it. Christchurch announcement is today. There are very high hopes. Points to watch: how many in the ‘don’t know’ category & are payouts at pre-quake market values? Notable release is this afternoon just before Key leaves. Makes it difficult to get reaction from residents in time for TV news and follow-up with Key. This post will be updated after release.

Chart o’ the day: getting the hell out of dodge

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 11:43 am, June 22nd, 2011 - 18 comments

The wrong man for the job

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 12:07 pm, June 19th, 2011 - 46 comments

I haven’t seen the full interview of Brownlee on the Nation. If the clips on the news were anything to go by, it was more of the same. No info for Christchurch residents. No empathy for them either. More haughty bullshit. More vague excuses for delays. More focused on himself than the people who need help. He needs to go.

Nats to slash wages

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 6:38 pm, June 16th, 2011 - 155 comments

Patrick Gower has revealed the Nats are poised to announce a policy to reintroduce the youth minimum wage at a rate of about $10 an hour, and potentially make it apply to people in their 20s. Outrageous and a breach of human rights. You should get paid for the work you do. Not your gender. Not your ethnicity. Not your sexuality. Not your age.

Who is David Henderson?

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 10:51 am, June 15th, 2011 - 63 comments

Randian superhero David Henderson has withdrawn his genius from New Zealand in protest at the collectivist government that has persecuted him and attempted to distribute the fruits of his talent to parasites. In a short statement after leaving the country, Henderson said other Atlases would join him in strike and “stop the motor of New Zealand”.

SkyCity shows need to clamp down on lobbyists

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 11:11 am, June 14th, 2011 - 22 comments

“Substitute the words “convention centre” for “suitcase of cash” and the transaction looks very clear.”*

National wants to change the rules for another foreign corporate. Wouldn’t move an inch for Kiwirail jobs. Maybe that’s because Kiwirail didn’t donate 100K to National (and Labour) in the past decade like SkyCity did.