Open mike 03/10/2010

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, October 3rd, 2010 - 35 comments
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35 comments on “Open mike 03/10/2010 ”

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  1. outofbed 1
    3 October 2010 at 7:41 am

    if you do nothing else today watch this

    Brilliant new 10:10 comedy short vid by Richard Curtis

    • The Voice of Reason 2.1
      3 October 2010 at 8:31 am

      Thanks for the link, Bluey. For the sake of accuracy and comprehension’s sake, I hope he doesn’t use the article’s author as his ghost writer.

      “Controversial MP Chris Carter plans to spill the beans on Labour’s nine years in power.

      He’s now parliament’s only independent MP, leaving the party after publicly questioning Phil Goff’s ability to lead. The comments came after revelations of his excessive spending of taxpayer funds on international travel.

      Phil Goff says he’s not concerned about the autobiography, which is due out around the time next year’s election campaign begins.

      Labour’s president Andrew Little says he’s been told the final chapter of the book will be called ‘Man Overboard’.

      The book is expected to give insight into the running of government, with Chris Carter the first openly gay man appointed as a Cabinet Minister, chief whip and a close friend of Helen Clark.”

      Carter is still a Labour Party member and the only thing he has taken leave of is his senses. Love the last line, as well! I too wish to be appointed a close friend of Helen Clark; anybody know where the application forms are?

      • Anne 2.1.1
        3 October 2010 at 4:06 pm

        I understand nominations for the Te Atatu electorate close this coming Friday. Chris Carter is the only nomination. This is absurd. If Labour doesn’t have the situation sorted by Friday then they are their own worst enemy. The Te Atatu electorate committee is pushing for his selection as the Labour candidate. Looks to me like Carter isn’t the only one living in a parallel universe.

        A claim has been made in the HoS that Labour members support Chris Carter’s nomination. I don’t believe it! Havn’t met a Labour person yet who isn’t hacked off with the man.

  3. john 3
    3 October 2010 at 10:57 am

    European Labour are fighting back against unfair austerity cuts against them compared to US Labour
    which has been destroyed in every way possible by NeoLiberal insanity Refer link:
    http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/10/02
    Refer the following on how the NL elites in the US have sold their own country down the road and continue to do so for PROFIT:

    The following are 19 facts about the deindustrialization of America that will blow your mind….
    #1 The United States has lost approximately 42,400 factories since 2001. About 75 percent of those factories employed over 500 people when they were still in operation.
    #2 Dell Inc., one of America’s largest manufacturers of computers, has announced plans to dramatically expand its operations in China with an investment of over $100 billion over the next decade.
    #3 Dell has announced that it will be closing its last large U.S. manufacturing facility in Winston-Salem, North Carolina in November. Approximately 900 jobs will be lost.
    #4 In 2008, 1.2 billion cellphones were sold worldwide. So how many of them were manufactured inside the United States? Zero.
    #5 According to a new study conducted by the Economic Policy Institute, if the U.S. trade deficit with China continues to increase at its current rate, the U.S. economy will lose over half a million jobs this year alone.
    #6 As of the end of July, the U.S. trade deficit with China had risen 18 percent compared to the same time period a year ago.
    #7 The United States has lost a total of about 5.5 million manufacturing jobs since October 2000.
    #8 According to Tax Notes, between 1999 and 2008 employment at the foreign affiliates of U.S. parent companies increased an astounding 30 percent to 10.1 million. During that exact same time period, U.S. employment at American multinational corporations declined 8 percent to 21.1 million.
    #9 In 1959, manufacturing represented 28 percent of U.S. economic output. In 2008, it represented 11.5 percent.
    #10 Ford Motor Company recently announced the closure of a factory that produces the Ford Ranger in St. Paul, Minnesota. Approximately 750 good paying middle class jobs are going to be lost because making Ford Rangers in Minnesota does not fit in with Ford’s new “global” manufacturing strategy.
    #11 As of the end of 2009, less than 12 million Americans worked in manufacturing. The last time less than 12 million Americans were employed in manufacturing was in 1941.
    #12 In the United States today, consumption accounts for 70 percent of GDP. Of this 70 percent, over half is spent on services.
    #13 The United States has lost a whopping 32 percent of its manufacturing jobs since the year 2000.
    #14 In 2001, the United States ranked fourth in the world in per capita broadband Internet use. Today it ranks 15th.
    #15 Manufacturing employment in the U.S. computer industry is actually lower in 2010 than it was in 1975.
    #16 Printed circuit boards are used in tens of thousands of different products. Asia now produces 84 percent of them worldwide.
    #17 The United States spends approximately $3.90 on Chinese goods for every $1 that the Chinese spend on goods from the United States.
    #18 One prominent economist is projecting that the Chinese economy will be three times larger than the U.S. economy by the year 2040.
    #19 The U.S. Census Bureau says that 43.6 million Americans are now living in poverty and according to them that is the highest number of poor Americans in the 51 years that records have been kept.

  4. Pascal's bookie 4
    3 October 2010 at 12:09 pm

    Goddamn but it’s good to be a banksta, part XVII

    http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/blighted-titles.html

    Foreclosure fraud in Florida and the US more generally. These fucking guys, I tell ya.

    Grayson, the congress critter in a clip at that link is pretty loose. Not as loose as your typical senior GOP senator or presidential candidate say, but a bit loose all the same. I don’t think there is much at all wrong with that. He’s a fighter, which is much more important. If there is a trade off between looseness and fight in the fight to save whatever is left of the working and middle classes, I’ll err on the side of fight every single fucking time.

    Seriously, check out that clip, where he lays out how the banks are foreclosing like lowland bailiffs doing the business on the highlanders. Forged sigs on docs, foreclosing on people that haven’t missed payments, foreclosing over a disputed 75$ late filing fee, foreclosing on houses that don’t even have a fucking mortgage.

    Average time for a foreclosure hearing in the court? Ninety seconds.

    Fuckers are asking for pitchforks. This is not, as they like to say, sustainable.

    • millsy 4.1
      3 October 2010 at 2:04 pm

      pitchforks are too good for them. They need to be tarred, feathered, drawn and quartered.

      Just finished watching In A Land of Plenty, courtesy of the links to the right >>>>

      Left me depressed and disgusted, really. Now, and it looks more and more like that things are going to get worse, especially if National win a second term (and lets face it, all signs point to yes- the only saving grace is that hopefully ACT will be in a greatly reduced form – and Roger will probably pack up his toys and go home).

      Government ministers, MP’s and their supporters are getting nastier and more Victorian-like in their attitudes towards those who earn less than 50,000 per year (or for that matter, anyone who doesnt own property or business, or is a wage or salaried employee), and already plans are afoot behind the scenes to unless Rogernomics and Ruthansia part II of the populace after 2011.

      This will pave the way for massive reforms that will make anything from 1984-1999 look timid in comparison and will sweep away what is left of the welfare state.

      • Colonial Viper 4.1.1
        3 October 2010 at 2:23 pm

        So this is the real question. When they hate the many so much – or maybe its just a callous disregard – why do the many vote for them?

        • Draco T Bastard 4.1.1.1
          3 October 2010 at 2:37 pm

          Because they buy the lies. Without knowledge of how the economy actually works rather than how the economists/politicians say how it works they don’t know enough to see the lies that NACT are peddling.

        • millsy 4.1.1.2
          3 October 2010 at 2:37 pm

          Because, between 1984 and 1999, we succeded in turning an entire society on its head and reinventing it. Our cultural revolution succeeded, where others failed. We completed in a few short years a complete turnaround in values and attitudes and the way things were run, we erased the past, revising it is some kind of communist, eastern european style hell-hole, which is ironic, because we actually inversely achived with no loss of life what communist countries set out and failed to achive with the deaths of litterally millions.

        • the pink postman 4.1.1.3
          3 October 2010 at 4:40 pm

          Well it beats me Colonial and always has . A couple of elections back I was canvassing for Labour. This young solo mum was in near poverty . When it was explained that Labour promised to reduce rent to a percentage of her pension she said ‘thats wonderful I could manage better if that happened.” My wife her who was with me said “Oh good so you will vote Labour.” “Oh no says Solo Mum I think I will give them one more chance”.!!. true story , its shows just how politically ignorant most NZers are. I for one despair..

        • Colonial Viper 4.1.1.4
          3 October 2010 at 5:17 pm

          Well in contrast, all the true National voters know exactly what they are doing when they vote National, and they will do so on the day come rain, hail, shine or sleet.

          true story , its shows just how politically ignorant most NZers are. I for one despair..

          Without knowledge of how the economy actually works rather than how the economists/politicians say how it works they don’t know enough to see the lies

          We completed in a few short years a complete turnaround in values and attitudes

          Well ladies and gentlemen, I think you have described the size and shape of the root problem very well.

          Now the fight is about educating and informing hearts and minds. Such that people in every street and in every neighbourhood can look at what we look at and at last, right in front of their noses, see what we see plain as day.

        • KJT 4.1.1.5
          3 October 2010 at 5:22 pm

          Because the only way in New Zealand to send a message to one lot of politicians who totally disregard the public is to vote in the lot we did not like the last time.

          NACT were not voted in. Labour were voted out when they became too arrogant.

          I would like to know where the reference came from, but I saw a statement recently that if policies only were presented people preferred the Green policies. If they were asked to rate a face they preferred J Key.

          Maybe that is why NACT and Labour dislike democracy.

        • Vicky32 4.1.1.6
          3 October 2010 at 5:37 pm

          Because they are ignorant, I assume… I was thinking about this yesterday. I was working then, in serviced offices, and everyone in the building (it seemed) had voted National. I asked them why, and got the answer, in a scary zombified tone “Time for a change!” (with high-rising terminal and frightening rictus of a grin.) I wonder how many workers in small to medium businesses were told by the boss “if you don’t vote National, the company will go under and you’ll be unemployed by 2009” – and believed it! 🙁
          Deb

          • KJT 4.1.1.6.1
            3 October 2010 at 5:43 pm

            Vicky. What I just said. People want self-determination. If we had Swiss style democracy people would vote for good policy.

            As we can only vote for rotating very similar dictatorships voting “for a change” is as good a reason as any.

            Voting for NACT is like turkeys voting for Christmas. Labour is the same only we are slaughtered with anesthetic. The end results are the same.

            • Vicky32 4.1.1.6.1.1
              3 October 2010 at 6:39 pm

              Someone said on one of the threads here that she thought it was spillover from Obama’s ‘time for a change’ campaign, which was a good point. If only New Zealanders weren’t so slavishly influenced by the USA, which has culturally colonised us…
              Deb

  5. salsy 5
    3 October 2010 at 12:14 pm

    New evidence against the use of palm kernal in NZ dairy Products. When will fonterra learn?

    http://msn.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10677503&pnum=0

  6. Draco T Bastard 6
    3 October 2010 at 2:38 pm

    Who owns what
    The MSM really are the mouthpiece of big business.

  7. Quoth the Raven 7
    3 October 2010 at 5:38 pm

    It only mention donations to GWB when General Electric, Microsoft, Disney, and Time Warner all donate (some of them more so) to the Democrats as well as the Republicans .

    • Draco T Bastard 7.1
      3 October 2010 at 6:59 pm

      So? The democrats are as bad as the republicans. This is probably because they’re owned by the same people.

      • Colonial Viper 7.1.1
        3 October 2010 at 7:45 pm

        Yeah check out the new healthcare reform bill which got passed. It mandates an extra 30 million people need to buy health insurance from the private insurance companies, and provides no public option that people can choose to opt out of the private insurance system.

        So we are talking about billions more going into private insurance hands. Ka-ching ka-ching ka-ching.

        Goldman Sachs became one of the largest contributors to Obama’s campaign once it became clear he might actually win.

      • Quoth the Raven 7.1.2
        4 October 2010 at 11:11 am

        So? It’s biased. Trying to paint a black and white picture.

  8. Logie97 8
    3 October 2010 at 6:23 pm

    Watchout McVicar! Crusher Collins is becoming a bleeding heart liberal – she’s now talking “rehabilitation” 12 months out from an election…

    “Prisoners who have work skills and good literacy and maths skills are less likely to end up back in jail,” Collins said. “Too often a lack of these basic skills leads prisoners back to a life of crime. Approximately 43% of prisoners – and 65% of prisoners under 20 – reoffend within a year of their release. “If we are serious about cutting the number of prisoners behind bars in this country, we must do what we can to equip them with these skills,” said Collins.

  9. Draco T Bastard 9
    3 October 2010 at 7:41 pm

    IMF fears ‘social explosion’ from world jobs crisis

    A joint IMF-ILO report said 30m jobs had been lost since the crisis, three quarters in richer economies. Global unemployment has reached 210m. “The Great Recession has left gaping wounds. High and long-lasting unemployment represents a risk to the stability of existing democracies,” it said.

    Translation: The peasants may get uppity.

    • Colonial Viper 9.1
      3 October 2010 at 7:48 pm

      Yeah and a lot of those peasents may be former low and mid level investment banking execs from the likes of Bear Sterns and Lehman Brothers.

  10. Draco T Bastard 10
    3 October 2010 at 7:56 pm

    A People’s History of Koch Industries, Part II:

    Mainstream America is finally getting to know the billionaire brothers backing the libertarian movement, thanks to a pair of dueling profiles in New York and The New Yorker. Now that we’ve heard about their charitable giving, David’s 240-foot mega-yacht and role as patrons of the Tea Party movement, it’s time to ask a more serious question: How libertarian are they?

    The short answer…not very.

    But I really like this bit here:

    Savor the irony: While tea partiers wave Koch-funded placards comparing President Obama to Hugo Chavez, the Kochs are busy profiting off Chavez’s socialist economy—only to turn around and blame Venezuela’s poverty on Hugo Chavez’s socialist policies.

    They could actually be right about the poverty in Venezuela. Giving welfare to the foreign rich obviously doesn’t help the local poor that much.

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