making shit up

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An apology to David Cunliffe

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 pm, November 19th, 2012 - 121 comments

I’m sorry, David Cunliffe, for the part I have played in your downfall.  Wait a minute, what?

Cunliffe Has Overplayed His Hand

Written By: - Date published: 1:52 pm, November 19th, 2012 - 100 comments

At the end of this weekend’s Labour Annual Conference, delegates were happy. Speaking as a delegate, we had made the first and most important changes to the party in its history. But every night, after we got home and turned on the TV or visited a news website (or even some of the blogs), we didn’t see those stories we felt proud about. We saw Patrick Gower and Brook Sabin and Jessica Mutch sticking the camera in David Cunliffe’s face

Some facts for today

Written By: - Date published: 11:42 pm, November 18th, 2012 - 27 comments

The Labour Conference was not ‘acrimonious’. The Party was not ‘split’. A good time was had. Shearer’s speech was fantastic. The Party was rejuvenated. The February vote can’t be brought forward. Labour showed great progressive values. The media showed great beat-up skills.

Queen of Thorns makes a move for Labour leadership

Written By: - Date published: 12:00 pm, November 18th, 2012 - 15 comments

The truth is out.  Under Patrick Gower’s incredibly cunning questioning, I have confessed that I will challenge Shearer in February.

Two faced John Key on Pike River

Written By: - Date published: 7:17 am, November 7th, 2012 - 54 comments

On Monday John Key admitted in an interview that Pike River Coal compromised safety for profits. On Tuesday Jon Key insisted in Parliament that such a suggestion was ridiculous. Which John Key should we believe? Can he even remember what he is saying from one day to the next? Does he care?

Charter schools shoot themselves in both feet

Written By: - Date published: 2:03 pm, October 23rd, 2012 - 16 comments

Evidence of the supposed success of charter schools in New York is doing the rounds. Unfortunately for the right-wing ideologues, charter schools shoot themselves in both feet when they use “relaxed” assessment standards and other methods of artificially “boosting” their results.

Key’s snub to unions and workers

Written By: - Date published: 6:37 am, October 9th, 2012 - 99 comments

National promised us an “unrelenting focus on jobs” and delivered record highs in unemployment and emigration.  Now Key is refusing to even attend a Union jobs summit,  because on Planet Key everything is just fine. The unwillingness to admit that anything is wrong is just blind arrogance.

Shane Jones: now pimping for Sealords

Written By: - Date published: 11:34 am, October 3rd, 2012 - 26 comments

As Shane Jones makes a complete dick of himself in public yet again in a traditional display of Labour party backbench egotism. I’m left shaking my head at the apparent complete inability of the Labour caucus to settle down to the task of being an effective opposition.

The Right tilts at class-size windmills

Written By: - Date published: 8:48 am, September 24th, 2012 - 10 comments

The Righties are wetting themselves because the national standards supposedly show higher results in larger classes. But the data is unmoderated – you can’t compare schools to get national data. And the apparent link is down to special schools and deciles. So, what have we learned? Nothing. Certainly nothing about the impact of class sizes, anyway. But maybe a little more about the Rights’ willful blindness.

Return to Planet Key

Written By: - Date published: 11:00 am, September 20th, 2012 - 17 comments

Does anyone have the number for John Key’s supplier? Because when he answered a question in the House yesterday about poverty and low pay by saying that in his paradise, Planet Key, there would be no toilets and no jobs, my first thought was ‘man, that guy is on some good drugs’. My second thought was he’s gone and made that Planet Key tease into a meme that’ll haunt him.

CV replies to Whaleoil

Written By: - Date published: 9:33 am, August 18th, 2012 - 143 comments

Guest poster Colonial Viper replies to some typically loopy accusations from Whaleoil.

NRT: Confirmed: Bennett made it up

Written By: - Date published: 10:48 am, July 13th, 2012 - 10 comments

Social Development Minister Paula Bennett caused outrage when she suggested somehow banning child abusers from having children. The suspicion at the time was that this was a desperate and cynical attempt to distract the public from the  deeply unpopular plans to increase class sizes.Now, thanks to FYI, the public OIA site, that interpretation looks to be the case.

DomPost “a joke”

Written By: - Date published: 10:23 am, July 12th, 2012 - 33 comments

Today’s DomPost says David Parker’s recent speech  “criticised National  for failing to boost imports and control housing prices.” That didn’t sound like David Parker. Sure enough he had put his finger on the real problem, the government’s failure to boost exports.  Key’s  reported “putdown” was Labour is “a joke.” One thing is certain, New Zealand’s ever-receding “brighter future”  is no joke. I’d like to see the DomPost put it right. Tell us all what Parker actually said, then let us decide which party is the joke.

John Key, the jobs fairy

Written By: - Date published: 9:05 am, June 5th, 2012 - 46 comments

Remember when John Key promised 4,000 new jobs from the cycleway and, in fact, a few hundred, short-term, part-time positions were created? Remember when John Key promised 170,000 new jobs and unemployment went up instead? Looks like Key’s being making it up on the pokies-for-convention centre deal too, which would create only a fraction of the jobs promised.

Selective memory

Written By: - Date published: 8:59 am, June 1st, 2012 - 37 comments

Things Key can’t remember: Position on Springbok tour: subject of mass protests under his idol, Muldoon. Position on the anti-nuclear issue: cornerstone policy of 4th Labour government, also triggered the schnapps election that brought down his hero. Things Key can remember: Never claiming the child tax rebate for his paper-run. Which is true because the rebate wasn’t introduced until Key was 17.

Even English’s made-up asset sales numbers don’t add up

Written By: - Date published: 10:59 am, February 17th, 2012 - 20 comments

Bill English admitted yesterday that his new estimate that asset sales will net $6b in revenue, $800m above book value, is just a guess – the midpoint of the previous guess of $5-7b. And that’s not all that’s made up. The forecast foregone profits are way under-estimated. Even with these fiscal frauds, English still can’t get asset sales to make economic sense.

ImperatorFish: A Plea To Jim Hopkins

Written By: - Date published: 7:32 pm, December 21st, 2011 - 14 comments

Scott at Imperator Fish has kindly given us permission to syndicate posts from his blog – the original of this post is here

Did you realise Jim Hopkins abolished Climate Change last Friday? It was awfully good of him and his craaaaaaaazy red-rimmed glasses.

“Blog king” no more

Written By: - Date published: 9:38 am, December 2nd, 2011 - 80 comments

Well we have just moved out of the election month, and we’re now getting the gradual fall back of readership and posts. About the only growth around NZ at present is in political blogging.

I’m happy to say that we now appear to consistently be either level pegging with Kiwiblog or exceeding their totals for a number of months. Since we have been ‘advised’ many times that this would never happen, I’m finding that it is rather more satisfying than I expected.

Key’s campaign super weapon

Written By: - Date published: 8:38 am, November 22nd, 2011 - 11 comments

Penguin: Key lies to help us

Written By: - Date published: 8:40 am, November 8th, 2011 - 30 comments

Yes, that’s an actual quote [sans ‘serfs’] from David Farrar lying about his master John Key’s lies about not raising GST.

hattip: frank macskasy

 

 

Treasury fudge

Written By: - Date published: 5:28 pm, September 6th, 2011 - 19 comments

Treasury has now adopted their masters’ political line on income statistics. The latest Treasury MEI uses average after-tax wages to argue that an average worker is better off by 2% since October 2010. In real terms the average worker’s gross wage less inflation means they are 1% worse off. The average of $50,000 a year is a long way above the median wage as indicated by the 2009 IRD distribution figures. In reality a few are hugely better off, some are ok, and most are still worse off.

NRT on Brownlee’s lies and cronyism

Written By: - Date published: 6:13 pm, August 6th, 2011 - 55 comments

Remember the fuss when Brownlee appointed Jenny Shipley and other cronies to the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Review Panel at triple the normal rate?  Brownlee tried to cover it up with a lie.  I/S at No Right Turn has the scoop – go read it there.

Climate of Deception at Fox News

Written By: - Date published: 11:42 am, July 22nd, 2011 - 98 comments

It has been long known that the name “Fox News” should really be known as “Faux News” because it doesn’t believe in reporting reality. It just makes crap up and spins everything to avoid dealing with reality. This video looks at their performance on climate change.

Yet more dodgy Nat numbers

Written By: - Date published: 6:56 pm, July 18th, 2011 - 61 comments

If you’re a blogosphere regular, you’ll have noticed that recently every monkey with a copy of the Fountainhead and a crush on John Key has been spouting the line that the top 10% of taxpayers pay 71% of net tax. Sounds incredible, eh? That’s because it’s not credible. It’s more cheap tricks from the Nats.

More dodgy Nat numbers

Written By: - Date published: 10:23 pm, July 17th, 2011 - 102 comments

The Nats can’t tell us how much their asset sales policy will cost in lost dividends and sales costs, yet they’ve magicked up some numbers with all kinds of dodgy assumptions that supposedly show Labour’s tax package doesn’t add up. Well, I suppose they would know something about borrowing for tax cuts but their attacks on Labour aren’t credible.

Monckton not worth debating

Written By: - Date published: 9:45 am, July 17th, 2011 - 74 comments

Local climate change deniers want to organise a debate featuring visiting “celebrity” Christopher Monckton.  I’m all for scientific debate of course.  But you can’t have such a debate with Monckton, because he’s a serial liar.

Australia: screaming backwards with CGT

Written By: - Date published: 1:51 pm, July 13th, 2011 - 57 comments

Russel Norman put a dagger into John Key yesterday in question time asking whether a series of national and international economic authorities really wanted to “put a dagger through the heart of growth” with a CGT. Key can waffle and whine all he likes, but he can’t avoid the truth of Australia’s enviable growth record with CGT.

Chart ‘o the day: Warming is over

Written By: - Date published: 9:51 am, June 23rd, 2011 - 77 comments

Scaremongering on credit cards

Written By: - Date published: 7:22 am, June 16th, 2011 - 100 comments

The Nats’ blogging poodles are still trying to spread disinformation about credit card details (we have the proof).  Are they just stupid, or do they know they’re spreading lies?  Either way it amounts to the same thing, they are deliberately trying to upset innocent members of the public.  The usual scummy tactics.

You can’t make this stuff up

Written By: - Date published: 10:21 am, June 12th, 2011 - 95 comments

The Nats, a party which runs as a franchise of an Australian company (Crosby Textor), reckon that the presence of a mate from Australia at a regional Labour Party meeting shows that Labour is “subject to foreign influence”.

Blame Goff?

Written By: - Date published: 4:14 pm, June 10th, 2011 - 61 comments

There are far more similarities than differences in the Hughes / Goff and Worth / Key affairs, but that doesn’t stop the Right trying to rewrite history and blame Goff!