Open mike 02/10/2011

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, October 2nd, 2011 - 63 comments
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Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose.

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Step right up to the mike…

63 comments on “Open mike 02/10/2011 ”

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  1. tc 1
    2 October 2011 at 8:08 am

    The emperors clothes may finally be seen by the bulk of the subjects of granny/ TVNZ for what they are….nothing. His vacuous demeanor is wearing thin and he doesn’t even bother to appear concerned about a global economy that has every other leader genuinely worried.

    Time for the opposition to hit the trail hard, keep it simple and expose the shysters for plundering a zero nett debt position to give tax cuts to the already well off, reward their backers and generally degrade our standing on all the wrong indicators like child poverty, inequality, minimum wage buying power etc.

    The only trick they’ve got is Asset sales …….imagine your power prices over the next 10yrs with the likes of Fay, Richwhite, Goldman Sachs etc behind the generators…..scary indeed.

    Not to mention the privatization they’ve already undergone in ACC, health and other juicy govt funded sectors for their mates to plunder.

  2. Colonial Viper 2
    2 October 2011 at 8:28 am

    Must watch: MELTDOWN part 2 – an Al Jazeera special – “A Global Financial Tsunami”

    American government and business leaders incompetently contrive to fuck the American people.

    http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/meltdown/2011/09/201191713542357406.html

    • Afewknowthetruth 2.1
      2 October 2011 at 10:32 am

      It’s not just a financial meltdown, of course. There is an ongoing environmental meltdown. For example.

      http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/

      (That particular graphic has hadly changed in 3 months and the drought has affected Texas for nearly a year now). Similar things are happening all over the world. And Fukishima is still spewing radiation into the atmosphere and into the ocean.

      Add to that the social meltdown and a health meltdown (cancer rates are rising spectacularly) throughout most of the western world)..

      Clearly the vast majority of politiicans could not care less about any of it.

      Either that or they are acting as agents to bring it all about. My experience of talking with politicians over many years indicates the latter.

      It is long past time we threw out the dinosaurs and saboteurs, and put in the their place some people who have some knowledge of things other than how to operate rorts, long past time we put in place people who actually care about the people they are supposed to be representing and care about the future. Unfortunately, such people are probably unelectable because the general populace has been trained to believe in short- termism and trained to think that distractions, such as rugby, have some significance. The stupidity we have witnessed over recent weeks bears withness to that.

      A friend of mine, now around 70 years old, told me yesterday that for the first time in his life he was seriously thinking about not voting because he now realised that voting made no difference.

      Yes, systemic collapse is getting very close CV. And anyone who thinks the government or the local council will be of much (any?) assistance is utterly deluded.

  3. mickysavage 3
    2 October 2011 at 9:47 am

    Memo to all RWNJs
    From Crosby Textor NZ

    We are in a really difficult position.  Our advice in 2009 to focus on the threat of a Credit Rating downgrade to measure the success of the budget has come back to bite big time.  It allowed National to get through tax cuts for the wealthy without any major damage.

    But last week’s double downgrade poses major problems.  Our carefully cultivated veneer of competent economic management is in tatters.

    So we need to divert attention.  Two Labour MPs said something not very nice about Peter Leitch and there were a few comments on the Standard what were not complimentary either.  For the type of debates that occur on blogs they were not out of the ordinary but this presents us with a unique chance to try and divert attention.

    So go for it.  Talk about the two female MPs being “unleashed from their kennels” and be disparaging as you like.  Don’t worry about the irony (look it up in the dictionary if you do not know what this means).  Attack and be as pointed as you can be.

    Message ends.

    • Anne 3.1
      2 October 2011 at 11:51 am

      PS: And have a go at anyone who supports the two female MPs. Especaily if they’re also female. Be as venal as you can…paint them as silly bitches who don’t know nothing. It goes down well with Waitakere man.

    • Joe Bloggs 3.2
      2 October 2011 at 3:14 pm

      Memo to all LWNJs
      From Mark Textor

      Former Prime Minister of Australia John Howard once said “people who exercise free speech have an obligation to do so in a sensitive and caring fashion. That has always been my credo.”

      But Howard also said: “It has also been my credo that, if someone disagrees with the prevailing orthodoxy of the day, that person should not be denigrated as a narrow-minded bigot.”

      Perhaps what is missing though is what I first learnt in Territory politics and that is to play politics and business like you would a game of rugby: hard on the field, but to the rules, in the spirit of the game, with some simple courtesies before and after the game to demonstrate there is something bigger at stake.

      That is the nature of a civil society; not the absence of conflict but the presence of civility, respect and the acceptance that there is a diversity of views out there.

      Message ends.

      • KJT 3.2.1
        2 October 2011 at 3:32 pm

        The words sound good.

        Until you remember that his job is to lie and bullshit us into voting for, outwardly impressive, thieves.

        The biggest crooks wear suits and ties, and open doors for Ladies.

        Google Psychopath again.

      • felix 3.2.2
        2 October 2011 at 3:38 pm

        I used to think you were a smart man putting on a dumb internet persona, Joe Bloggs.

        • Draco T Bastard 3.2.2.1
          2 October 2011 at 9:05 pm

          Really, I always thought he was an idiot putting on a dumb internet persona because he’s stupid.

          The nature of a civil society is one where everybody cooperates rather than one where individuals compete in a war of all against all.

      • prism 3.2.3
        2 October 2011 at 9:26 pm

        Joe Bloggs quoting john Howard as if he is a moral and noble person whose fine words actually represent his thinking? Mutual self-hypnosis I think.

  4. Puddleglum 4
    2 October 2011 at 9:57 am

    It’s not on podcast yet, but Mediawatch on National Radio had some good items.

    One about John Key’s Radio Live appearance which hit all the main points of criticism.

    One about the media focus on certain political leaders but not on any policies.

    One on media ownership.

    If you missed it then the podcast will be worth a listen. 

  5. mickysavage 5
    2 October 2011 at 10:04 am

    Panic in National’s ranks.

    Dan Carter has just been ruled out of the World cup with a torn tendon …

    Wonder how Smile and Wave is feeling? 

    • thejackal 5.1
      2 October 2011 at 10:48 am

      John Key is getting advice from the Mad Butcher… cheapest cuts ever.

      • Ianupnorth 5.1.1
        2 October 2011 at 12:04 pm

        He’s been on the phone to Ted telling him is is an all round sportsman (see his cricket performance anyone?) and also that he looks good in Jokey’s. 

        Hasn’t had time to  make a video, too busy out on the piss in Sydney. 

  6. mik e 6
    2 October 2011 at 10:05 am

    media works watch free fluff from celeb cat walk cat talk PM.Nzeds next top model.That only cost us taxpayers $ 43 million

  7. ianmac 7
    2 October 2011 at 10:15 am

    BREAKING NEWS: Dan Carter is out of the World Cup.
    The All Blacks first five-eighths has been ruled out of the rest of the tournament because of the groin injury he suffered at yesterday’s captains run and Colin Slade will now be expected to wear the No 10 jersey.

    • Pete George 7.1
      2 October 2011 at 10:19 am

      A challenge, like any greatv team if the ABs are good enough they will overcome this and still get a result. Tghey have to be good enough to do it without McCaw to if necessary.

    • tc 7.2
      2 October 2011 at 1:07 pm

      Time for grumpy graham to roll that plan B he’s had 4 years to perfect…..great players though they are they’re not young and backing up after a tri nations series.

    • mik e 7.3
      2 October 2011 at 1:47 pm

      Injury prone colin slade

  8. Morrissey 8
    2 October 2011 at 10:31 am

    SHOTGUN WEDDING IN PALESTINE

    Life goes on, even under brutal military occupation…
    http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/shotgun-wedding-in-palestine/

  9. thejackal 9
    2 October 2011 at 10:36 am

    National’s Downgrade

    Just over a month ago, it was revealed that National was borrowing a whopping $380 million per week; but $100 million of that was not required. That amounts to around $5.2 billion in additional debt per year. When questioned about this, Bill English said it was a good time to borrow because interest rates were low, but it would put additional pressure on the exchange rate…

  10. aerobubble 10
    2 October 2011 at 11:08 am

    for massive tax cuts, and suddenly they get a downgrade.
    They knew they were up for it, they pretty much insured
    that it would happen.

    So as Switzland finds that small country status ain’t
    so good either, probably wishing it had a bunch of nasty
    Nats running its economy (NOT, they ar emuch smarter),
    that it has to peg its currency to the EU.

    Small countries may be more stable in the crisis years
    while the big blocks sort out the new more intergrated
    world economic reality, but once we return to some
    new normal small countries will be far worse off.
    And their in lies the danger, as we enter the second
    phase, those smart money will withdraw their cash from
    Nz (its already started), farmers in Nz will be hit hard
    by a stalled China, higher energy costs, low
    commodity prices and still high currency as we still
    all need new TVs.

    So the stresses on European countries are actually
    adaptive pressures that NZ is missing out on!
    Because of the great short term management of National
    to avoid the problem, and leave it for the future.

    A shakeout of old tired thinkers, they sack their
    Douglas’s far quicker, Thatcher only lasted a little
    over a decade in the front shop! We have a Hubbard
    like fashionation will keeping success long after its
    use by date. aka Paul Holmes. Its hurts the economy
    because they had their day, decades ago.

    So here you have it, summation of the NZ economy.
    Hollowed out by poor managers who won’t leave the
    front desk when they make a killing so others
    can, exposing NZ to exploitation and downgrades
    for short term political and finance benefit (that
    only pay out if they leave to retire in Hawaii!).

    we are moving into a low growth world economy,
    one where you either feed, house, doctor, your
    population or they get very uncivil. Only then
    can you pass the spoils on to your mates.

    Remember don’t vote for a party that doesn’t
    believe in government, doesn’t like the voting
    system, and so spends its time in opposition
    worried about lightbulbs rather than doing the
    best with the system that’s there for all NZ.

  11. Dave Kennedy 11
    2 October 2011 at 11:28 am

    Gareth Morgan and Sir Paul O’Callaghan highlighted a lack of balance and a loss of opportunities in our current economic management when interviewed on Q & A this morning.
    http://localbodies-bsprout.blogspot.com/2011/10/national-measures-balance-with-faulty.html

  12. Hilary 12
    2 October 2011 at 1:16 pm

    Good report about growing Occupy Wall Street movement from Stuff (of all places)!
    http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/5719337/Anti-Wall-St-protesters-block-Brooklyn-Bridge

  13. Cloaca 13
    2 October 2011 at 1:46 pm

    ACC cannot be privatised as no Insurance Company in New Zealand is in any position, with the Christchurch situation, to re-open ACC with a new book of business.

  14. thejackal 14
    2 October 2011 at 2:57 pm

    The Revolution will not be Televised

    Considering Billionaire George Soros owns Yahoo.com, is it any wonder that their search engines have been actively blocking communications containing the phrase Occupy Wall Street and OccupyWallStreet.org? Although Yahoo has been caught and apologized for blocking emails that contained content about the protests, doesn’t this show the underhanded way those controlling our media act?

    • Draco T Bastard 14.1
      2 October 2011 at 4:42 pm

      It’s unsurprising that the capitalists don’t want the people to know what’s happening in the world. If they knew, they’d probably do something about the people (the capitalists) causing the poverty and that wouldn’t suit the psychopaths at all.

    • Vicky32 14.2
      2 October 2011 at 8:03 pm

      Although Yahoo has been caught and apologized for blocking emails that contained content about the protests, doesn’t this show the underhanded way those controlling our media act?

      Oh good grief! I knew there were good reasons to ditch my Yahoo email, aside from the huge amount of spam and the fact that it doesn’t work very well..

      • thejackal 14.2.1
        2 October 2011 at 8:46 pm

        Unfortunately all the email services capitulated to the American government a while ago so there are non that keep your info private anymore.

        700 people arrested on Brooklyn Bridge today… not one word on New Zealand’s Six O’Clock news. Shame!

    • AAMC 14.3
      2 October 2011 at 9:54 pm

      The revolution will not be privatized!

  15. Ianupnorth 15
    2 October 2011 at 3:25 pm

    Lomu needs new kidney – http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10756006

    Lets see when Key offer his kidney! Now we know why Jonah wanted privacy; the story had been sold to NZ Womans Weekly.

    • Lanthanide 15.1
      2 October 2011 at 4:46 pm

      If the media are stupid enough to pay interesting amounts of money for a story, then I back him 100% for selling said story. He doesn’t owe the public anything.

    • Arthur 15.2
      2 October 2011 at 6:03 pm

      That’s odd. I heard he was donating his groin, maybe it’s both.

    • William Joyce 15.3
      2 October 2011 at 6:40 pm

      A sketch I would like to see……(a rewrite of Monty Python sketch)
      Part V: Live Organ Transplants…
      two paramedics (Chapman and Cleese) arrive at the doorstep of a card-carrying organ donor, Mr. John Key, to claim his kidney. Still being alive, he initially refuses. Not to be deterred, the paramedics burst through the door and brutally disembowel him, removing the organ “under condition of death”.

  16. Afewknowthetruth 16
    2 October 2011 at 8:06 pm

    Joe Bloggs

    Was that the John Howard, notorious liar, who told the Australian nation that boat people threw their children to the sharks? the same John Howard who lied to the Australian people about Iraq so he could get troops involved? the same John Howard who lied to the people of Australia about the economy and told them the way to prosperity was to increase their debt level and spend their money on imported consumer goods? the same John Howard who refused to apologise to indigenous people for the injustices and abuses perpetrated against them by previous generations of psychotic spociopaths?

    aerobubble

    ‘we are moving into a low growth world economy,
    one where you either feed, house, doctor, your
    population or they get very uncivil. Only then
    can you pass the spoils on to your mates.’

    We are in a negative growth world economy, due to the contraints of Peak Oil (peak practically everything actually).

    Practially everyone’s standard of living is falling. The elites mission is to transfer an ever-bigger portion of the diminishing cake to themselves, at the expense of everyone, intially throiugh the use of lies, but when they start wearing thin, via the use of ‘security forces’ (as per 1984).

    DTB

    Exactly! 70% of NZers couldn’t care less about rugby, and of that 70%, about 30% loathe internationalised rugby and everythng it stands for -corporate bullshit wrapped in a platina of patriotism, money making by the few at the expense of the many, environmental and social degradation….. whorehouses and beer halls, smashed up hotel rooms and vomit.

    thejackel

    The [quoted] 400 people who control 99% of commercial activity in the western world will do whatever it takes to prevent the hundreds of millions of victims of the their scams from discovering the truth and throwing off the chains.

    I’m sure that censorship is just the opening round of the ultimate war that has been in the making since the time humans gave up the hunter-gatehrer lifestyle and submitted themselves to agriculture and all it spawned, i.e. hierarchical societies in which the fruits of the labours of those at the bottom are transferred to those at the top.

  18. Brett Dale 18
    2 October 2011 at 9:58 pm

    Maybe next season will be the year!!!!

  19. Herodotus 19
    2 October 2011 at 10:03 pm

    Another case of Russel Norman being out of touch with reality
    http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1110/S00006/govt-bungling-adds-cost-of-earthquake-levy-to-mortgages.htm
    So if we introduced a levy there would have been no down grade?
    With a levy kiwis would be facing interest increases AND this levy cost. Russel how does a household pay for this? There are not many households with surplus atthe moment, and with costs increasing all the time – just wait for the depreciating NZ$ to start taking hold.

    • Salsy 19.1
      2 October 2011 at 10:35 pm

      A levy of 1.5 percent on income between $48,001-$70,000 and a 3 percent levy on income above $70,000, with no change needed to the corporate tax rate of 30 percent, would raise $1.026b a year, according to Green Party estimates. People earning $50,000 a year would pay an extra 58c a week, and those on $70,000 a year would pay an extra $6.33 a week. People on $100,000 would pay an extra $23.59 a week.

      Whats the problem?

    • Colonial Viper 19.2
      2 October 2011 at 10:42 pm

      With a levy kiwis would be facing interest increases AND this levy cost. Russel how does a household pay for this? There are not many households with surplus atthe moment, and with costs increasing all the time – just wait for the depreciating NZ$ to start taking hold.

      I know households who have bought tickets to every All Blacks game they think will happen right up to and including the final.

      How the fuck did they afford that herod?

      This reminds me of a lesson from budgeting 101. Its about your priorities.

      How important is it that we help those New Zealanders (and those parts of New Zealand) who are most in need? We can assign the problem a high priority and deal with it as such, or put it in line behind a bunch of other shit.

    • queenstfarmer 19.3
      2 October 2011 at 11:21 pm

      Where economics is concerned, the Greens are generally never in touch with reality – it’s a nice luxury they have.

      So if we introduced a levy there would have been no down grade?

      No one knows. The agencies certainly didn’t say this, though Russel claims that’s what they meant. But the fact is no one knows.

      However in fairness to Russel, he may be right, and therefore his assertion isn’t one iota as silly as Phil Goff’s claims that the downgrade somehow justifies Labour’s loophole-laden Capital Gains Tax.

      (usual disclaimer: good on Labour for broaching the CGT rampart, support broad-based CGT in principle, brave move but poor execution, etc)

      • Draco T Bastard 19.3.1
        2 October 2011 at 11:31 pm

        Where economics is concerned, the Greens are generally never in touch with reality…

        They’re more connected to reality than pretty much any other party. Act is, of course, completely disconnected from reality and so is National. Unfortunately, so are the economists that advise the government.

      • Colonial Viper 19.3.2
        2 October 2011 at 11:44 pm

        Where economics is concerned, the Greens are generally never in touch with reality – it’s a nice luxury they have.

        Well thenm buddy, who is in touch with reality? Fitch? S&P?

        You notice that both those guys just downgraded our asses?

        Is that what you call reality, the incompetence of Key and English.

  20. logie97 20
    2 October 2011 at 11:56 pm

    How do the Road traffic department get controlling event and holiday traffic wrong?
    Drove to Hamilton this afternoon. At 4 pm there was a major problem
    of congestion north of Huntly – major traffic delays. Newstalkzb had
    given an indication that traffic around Hamilton was building for RWC at 3 pm.

    400 m, on a bend, sits a patrol car with lights flashing. Another one 200 metres with lights flashing. Neither indicating that as the expressway is finishing that the traffic is at a standstill or crawling.

    It seems to be obvious that, if you have heavy traffic using two lanes, when those lanes merge, there is twice the amount of traffic to get into one lane. The traffic department must have known that this was likely to happen. What about a mobile trailer giving a warning to traffic on the Bombays that they were going to reduce the Expressway to single traffic at say Rangiri – coning one lane off and reducing traffic speed to say 70 KMH.