Author Archive

Matariki Public Holiday?

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 2:20 pm, July 22nd, 2009 - 17 comments

The Maori Party’s Matariki Day Bill was pulled in the ballot. Man, a public holiday in the middle of winter. Currently it’s one long drag from Queens Birthday to Labour Weekend. Will the Tories vote against a public holiday in the middle of winter and, once again, oppose the goals of the Maori Party? We’ll […]

Wee gripes: private=efficient

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 10:01 am, July 21st, 2009 - 54 comments

Can Treasury Secretary John Whitehead explain how paying profit-making companies to do what is already being done by non-profit-making departments will save money? Of course not. If there are efficiencies to be made by all means make them. Doesn’t need some company sucking off profit to do that. We know what happens when you get […]

Fighting the dittoheads

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 9:03 pm, July 20th, 2009 - 44 comments

One of the great strengths of the Right is that the rank and file supporters are such slavish followers of their leaders. It comes from the whole ‘triumph of the will’ mentality – ‘that dude’s rich and powerful, ipso facto, I must respect him and if I’m gonna get rich and powerful I’ll have to copy him’. It […]

Wee gripe: “lagging indicator”

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 1:48 pm, July 18th, 2009 - 51 comments

John Key, sunny grin in place, says the recession’s all but over. Admits that unemployment will continue to climb (barring a miricle like, say, his government getting off its arse) until mid-2010. But he’s ‘relaxed’ about that. Says unemployment is just a “lagging indicator”. Easy to say when you’re on $393,000 a year and have […]

Wee gripe: crime-porn

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 9:59 am, July 18th, 2009 - 27 comments

This endless crime-porn. Night after night of fetishistic coverage of the latest unusual crime or trial. Call yourselves journalists? Bollocks. You run this because it’s titallating and it’s cheap. There’s no news value. And there’s certainly no respect for the people whose lives are at the centre. You don’t get these are real human beings. […]

Wee gripes: 3 of 3

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 2:57 pm, July 17th, 2009 - 41 comments

Business New Zealand and other assorted tossers. Stop calling our country ‘New Zealand Inc’. This is our home. This is where we live our lives and raise our families. It’s not some profit-maximising engine for your shareholders.

Wee gripes: 2 of 3

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 3:52 pm, July 16th, 2009 - 30 comments

Maori unemployment is ballooning day by day but the most important thing that Maori Affairs Minister Sharples can spend his time on is debating which flag will fly on the Harbour Bridge next Waitangi Day. “Having a flag under which Maori can rally under is really, really, really important. And people might see it as […]

Wee gripes: 1 of 3

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 12:46 pm, July 16th, 2009 - 7 comments

It takes two days from folate blowing up as a political issue for Key to get Crown Law onto finding a way for us to get out of it. It’s been nine months and there’s still no action on the economy and jobs. Priorities? By now, we know what Key’s priorities are: Dampen down any […]

Stop press: Bosses support bosses’ party

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 9:51 am, July 14th, 2009 - 29 comments

The Herald’s ‘Mood of the Boardroom’ survey is predictable reading. Year after year, it’s the same ideologues with the same outdated ideas. The bosses are happy that their boy is in power. Can’t point to anything he’s actually done. But love him nontheless. Still hate Labour and the unions. As ever, their companies’ under-performance is […]

Seriously, there are better uses for $10 mil

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 11:18 am, July 10th, 2009 - 35 comments

Why are we giving $10 million a year in aid to Niue with a population of 1600? It’s $6250 per person each bloody year. About half their GDP (most of the rest is remittances). We finance their whole government. We’ve given them an extra $20 million (ie one whole year’s GDP) over the last five […]

It’s not your government, it’s his

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 8:56 am, July 8th, 2009 - 12 comments

From Key’s post-Cabinet press conference: Journo: You don’t believe that the public have a right to know why a minister in cabinet would suddenly be booted out of cabinet and resign? Key: No. So, there you have it. This isn’t your government anymore. It’s his. You had the right to know under every previous government. […]

Worth asking

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 3:55 pm, July 5th, 2009 - 23 comments

What a world where a supposed journalist writes this: The trouble is Key’s desire to be reasonable. Despite his intention to say no more about his reasons for losing confidence in Worth, he keeps responding to the media interrogation and seems unable to draw a line under the question. The best approach would be, simply […]

Abandoning a winner

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 1:37 pm, July 3rd, 2009 - 12 comments

Government’s put out this press release: “Finance Minister Bill English has welcomed news that the Budget operating deficit of $7.2 billion for the 11 months to May 31 is lower than the forecast $8.4 billion… Most of the $1.2 billion variance was due to higher-than-forecast investment gains by the NZ Superannuation Fund and ACC” Yup, […]

Elucidate

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 10:15 am, July 3rd, 2009 - 28 comments

The woman has dropped her criminal complaint over Worth. Says she is satisfied now the scumbag has lost his career. Police are expected to drop the investigation. Now, can we (pretty please) know why a minister in our government lost his job? Can Key, just for a day, pretend to give a damn about transparency […]

Atlas drops the ball again

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 5:48 am, July 1st, 2009 - 104 comments

Why does this myth that the private sector is better persist in this country? At every turn, the bosses show themselves to be a bunch of greedy, short-sighted half-wits. Take Line 7. Outsourced their production to China. Built their business model on the assumption that the NZD would stay high. Didn’t hedge. NZD, predictably, falls. Business model stuffed. […]

Tories fearing Goff

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 3:54 pm, June 30th, 2009 - 38 comments

The last few Question Times, the Tories have been whipping out old Goff quotes. Patsies are set to bring them out. Key goes off on wild side-tracks as an excuse to use them. Labour asks serious questions like ‘what are you doing about jobs’ and get back: ‘In 1986, Goff said we have to get the […]

Asleep at the wheel

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 1:14 am, June 24th, 2009 - 25 comments

Yesterday, Goff asked Key for some evidence that his government is doing something to save jobs. Key squirmed and squirmed. Goff: What have the three main ideas that emerged from the Job Summit, and that he promised would save or create thousands of jobs, delivered in actual job numbers? Key: I would say that the […]

Knee-jerk wins again

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 8:32 am, June 22nd, 2009 - 90 comments

Does anyone understand why prisons are so expensive to construct? They’ve got to be secure They’ve got to be safe for the prisoners and for others They’ve got to live up to the basic conditions that are set by a civilised society (and I hope we want to be one of those) They’re designed to […]

My two cents on Garrett

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 3:06 pm, June 21st, 2009 - 52 comments

It’s a good outcome of the Worth scandal that these things are now being dealt with. Worth was known as a man women steered clear of around Parliament. Even back at Simpson Gierson. It was never dealt with until it got really serious. Garrett has been held to account for behaviour Worth got away with. […]

The Daily Refrain takes on Larry Baldock

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 8:31 pm, June 18th, 2009 - 15 comments

So. There’s this dude who writes a song a day (weekdays only) and puts it on Youtube. Calls it The Daily Refrain. He’s been going three weeks now. Mostly pretty funny and well written. Great little project. Seems like he’s a Kiwi. He’s put up one about the child-beating referendum which is brilliant. Hilarious. But […]

Thursday theorisin’

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 12:01 am, June 18th, 2009 - 15 comments

Great quote from Gordon Campbell: “Faced with the dying embers of the Richard Worth scandal at his press conference John Key reached for gasoline” By being secretive, Key has given members of the media a huge incentive to be the first to find out the secret and publish it. Journalists and media outlets get their kudos […]

Key’s female trouble

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 10:03 pm, June 16th, 2009 - 51 comments

Key is obviously lying about having an unavoidable commitment in Taupo keeping him from Melissa Lee’s election night do. He would tell us what it was if it were true. He would have told journos at the start that he wouldn’t be there if there really had been some long-standing commitment. Truth is he abandoned […]

Know when to fold ’em

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 2:11 pm, June 15th, 2009 - 40 comments

A string of high-profile stuff-ups. You were too smug and incompetent to deal with them. A disappointment to your boss. Key put a lot of faith in you. He defended you at first before cutting you loose to protect his brand. A devastating public humiliation. After which it is clear you have no political future. […]

Democracy in Iran? Not yet

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 4:08 pm, June 14th, 2009 - 21 comments

The Iranian election was clearly rigged. Formerly quite democratic by Middle East standards. Iran’s been going backwards fast. There have been violent protests in Tehran and other cities. Put down by security forces. They’ve cut off phone links out of the country. The protestors are on the right side, generally. Pro-democracy, less religious, progressive. They’re […]

Get ready for the spin

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 7:24 am, June 14th, 2009 - 64 comments

63% to 17%. That’s not a defeat. That’s a slaughter. An utter humiliation for the Tories. How will the Tories and their fanboys (Armstrong, Ralston, Laws, Farrar etc) spin it? Pretty obvious: It was Lee’s fault for the gaffes. It was Worth’s fault for the past fortnight. Mt Albert people are dole-bludging darkies (see Kiwiblog […]

Self-inflicted wounds

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 12:38 am, June 12th, 2009 - 5 comments

Whale Oil has a page of ‘trophies’. Little pictures of people he thinks he has dragged through the mud and embarrassed. Even made himself a little ‘harpooned’ image. Running this ‘ludicrous’ (as John Armstrong called it) honey-trap line. Getting Farrar to run it too. Only to have Key come out and say he believes the […]

Where’s the trap?

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 7:45 pm, June 10th, 2009 - 73 comments

Yeah. Great honey-trap. – First, target a minister that doesn’t matter with a woman who is openly Labour – Second, delete the most offensive texts and don’t record any phone calls – Third, don’t go public, refuse Goff’s offer to raise it privately with Key – Fourth, raise the issue privately with Key once the […]

A few facts unpin a lot of spin

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 1:06 am, June 10th, 2009 - 108 comments

The Tories are throwing all the muck they can at Goff. Trying to get him to back off on the Worth thing. Their latest is that Labour is spinning out this presentation of texts to Key to drag the issue out. Thought I would take a leaf out of Eddie’s book and do a timeline. Clear it […]

The Tory nose-dive roundup

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 11:38 am, June 9th, 2009 - 34 comments

I never seen a government crash so quickly, so hard. The Standard was saying before the election that Key was a two-faced facade and his government would push a rightwing agenda. The media chose to ignore the signs. Too caught up in the fun of getting their boy elected to care about what would happen […]

New Zealand’s weakest link

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 2:28 pm, June 7th, 2009 - 63 comments

Is its business leaders. There’s Keys, the Fyfes, the Weldons. Who all spend so much money to look good on the covers of magazines. Who expect us to love them. They want to be hailed as messiahs or Atlases carrying the rest of us. These are the muppets who banged their heads together for a […]

Looking forward to the weekend

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 8:24 pm, June 5th, 2009 - 31 comments

Will be fun to read the Armstrongs, Rolstons, Laws, Holmes, Hooton and the other assorted rightwingers that besmirch our weekend papers. See them desperately to turn Key’s handling of Worth’s philandering into an attack on Goff. There will be claims that Goff made the harassment issue public. When it was Key on Wednesday afternoon. They […]