Open mike 06/03/2014

77 comments on “Open mike 06/03/2014 ”

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1. Paul 1

   6 March 2014 at 7:30 am

   This is what happens when you encourage the Gambling industry.
   They “grow sales and strengthen” their “product portfolio by expanding” their “portfolio across the week”.
   Not nice.
   http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11214677
2. Paul 2

   6 March 2014 at 7:35 am

   Continued daily media bias from the Herald, who are clearly wanting National re-elected.
   More on the Cunliffe story, no mention of Collins.

   Derp is not the word to describe the PM. I can think of more colourful terms.
   As to the media, paid puppets is about as generous as I can get. I don’t wish to get a ban.

   http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11214656
   • Paul 2.1

     6 March 2014 at 7:44 am

     Just in case people start paying attention to the state of New Zealand, distract them with a foreign crime story involving a celebrity.
     Crime…tick
     Celebrity …tick

     http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11214771
     • Naki Man 2.1.1

       6 March 2014 at 11:35 am

       “Just in case people start paying attention to the state of New Zealand”
       The NZ economy is doing pretty well compared with others so most kiwi’s are thankful for the way the government has managed it. That is why National is polling at around 50%
       So you don’t think a famous athlete murdering a beautiful model is news worthy. These people are trying to sell newspapers not bore people to death. Most of us are sick to death of hearing about parents who don’t look after their kids and people trying to pedal poverty.
       • Draco T Bastard 2.1.1.1

         6 March 2014 at 12:12 pm

         ^^ More wishful thinking by a RWNJ
       • Paul 2.1.1.2

         6 March 2014 at 9:12 pm

         “Sociopathic people like me are sick to death of hearing about kids in poverty”
         FIFY
   • Draco T Bastard 2.2

     6 March 2014 at 12:04 pm

     And yet they failed to mention all the National MPs that were on the same list.
3. risildowgtn 3

   6 March 2014 at 7:35 am

   Pieman Brownlee finally admits he is useless.. NOT!

   http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/9795245/Brownlee-let-down-by-EQC
4. Paul 4

   6 March 2014 at 7:42 am

   I have never seen the Herald investigate how much Key has increased New Zealand’s debt since his party came to power in 2008.
   Wonder why?
   http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11214657
   • bad12 4.1

     6 March 2014 at 8:42 am

     Paul, your link, it took me to a story of Len Brown increasing Auckland City debt, i agree with you whole-heartedly on the debt issue,

     While i realize that the GFC meant there were 4 options for Governments, cut spending to match the shortfall in Government revenue, increase taxation to match the shortfall in Government revenue, borrow the money to match the shortfall in Government spending, or, print the needed monies, there is still an economic narrative that Labour should be putting befor the public,

     Again obviously, it is a hard narrative to establish as Slippery the Prime Minister will simply use the tame media to reverse the issue in a what would Labour have done differently spin,

     The Rock-Bottom Economy, 80 billion gross Government debt,an ongoing Government yearly deficit of 1.79 Billion dollars and a business tax take again light by +300 odd million dollars because the National Government has stripped the IRD of employees leaving it unable to follow up on owed taxes,

     Attached to that narrative need be the fact that Labour would not have kneecapped the economy in 2009 with a raise in GST, would have raised the top tax rate for those earning the most and would have bolstered the number of IRD employees allowing them to chase owed taxes and chase the 1–5 billion dollars a year of tax avoided/evaded by those in a position to do so which would have seen far less government borrowing across the period,

     It is the economy which sways a large demographic of the vote, while Labour remains mainly out of the limelight, not having an ongoing narrative with which to sway the minds of voters, Slipperry’s National Government then have the floor able to claim to be a safe pair of hands…
     • Ad 4.1.1

       6 March 2014 at 10:01 am

       +1
     • Naki Man 4.1.2

       6 March 2014 at 12:10 pm

       The Christchurch Earthquake is also a part of that debt. Borrow and spend was the only way to keep the economy moving at that time given that most people agree that printing money is not a good idea. The trick now is to balance the books and start paying the debt back.
       • Draco T Bastard 4.1.2.1

         6 March 2014 at 12:23 pm

         The Christchurch Earthquake is also a part of that debt.

         Pretty sure that Christchurch was supposed to be mostly funded by the private insurance companies. Doesn’t seem to have worked out to well – probably because they’re spending their time trying not to pay out.

         Borrow and spend was the only way to keep the economy moving at that time given that most people agree that printing money is not a good idea.

         Almost all of that borrowed money would have been printed by the private banks so it really doesn’t appear to have made any difference in that regard. Of course the private banks, because they charge interest on the money that they print, get to make a killing.

         The trick now is to balance the books and start paying the debt back.

         See, that actually really easy – just print some money back to the private banks.
         • PapaMike 4.1.2.1.1

           6 March 2014 at 1:52 pm

           I read recently, in the Herald I think, that the Taxpayer share of the Christchurch rebuild is expected to be $16 Billion.
           The balance of $24 Billion has/is being paid by Insurance Companies.
           That is with an estimated $40 Billion, which may well reach $50 Billion.
           • Naki Man 4.1.2.1.1.1

             6 March 2014 at 5:55 pm

             15 or $16 Billion that is about what I was thinking, The estimate keeps getting bigger.
             You have to admit it would be a difficult time for any government.
       • bad12 4.1.2.2

         6 March 2014 at 1:35 pm

         Nakahi Man, i would suggest that ‘most people’ have very little understanding of what can be achieved ‘printing money’, having to rely instead on the words of Slippery the Prime Minister happily broadcast by the media decrying such ‘money printing’ as pixie dust,

         Obviously the up-side to the Government having produced the money to cover the 100–300 million dollar weekly shortfall are that we would not be saddled with the current 80 billion dollars of gross government debt,

         The downside to this of course is that the NZdollar remains highly valued at a level that is said to have cost 40,000+ manufacturing jobs since the borrowing binge began,

         Would ‘printing’ that 100–300 million dollars a week have become highly inflationary,???, i say NO, ‘printed money’ is no different than ‘borrowed money’ and in simple terms there is no difference in inflationary expectations between the two,

         YES, we could expect some inflation as the ‘printing’ of money would obviously have lowered the value of the NZdollar,

         Could we have avoided most of that inflation, i say YES, most of such inflation would have an inescapable cost to the consumer at the petrol pump and the flow on effect in the economy of higher fuel costs through having a lower dollar,

         The Solution,??? pretty simple, as the value of the NZDollar slid any Government would have only needed to direct a sum of the printed monies into the budget gained from taxation upon fuels, currently at 30% of the cost of a liter of fuel such taxation could have been lowered and the budget shortfall ‘plugged’ by the same amount as the lowering of the fuel taxes, such would have stopped any fuel price rises creating inflation in the wider economy,

         Other imports???, obviously with a lower dollar value which would be the result of ‘printing’ money other imports would have become more expensive, most of such imports from the point of view of the consumer are a matter of ‘choice’,

         Sugar,??? another import widely used,(mis-used), in manufacturing would become more expensive but then according to Health statistics we need to dramatically lower our use of sugar so a price push might have gone some way to achieving this aim,

         LOLZ, close the 1.8 annual deficit between what the Government takes in tax and what it spends, currently 10 billion dollars of the current Government debt, WE TOLD YOU SO, the tax cuts given by Slippery’s National government created this Hole, we told you so at the time, reverse the tax cuts for the rich and the Hole is closed…
5. David H 5

   6 March 2014 at 7:52 am

   WTF Gower having a go at Collins and Key calling them Arrogant and out of touch…. Wow now the Colin Craig gets a beating from mccully
   • Paul 5.1

     6 March 2014 at 7:55 am

     Link?
     • David H 5.1.1

       6 March 2014 at 8:57 am

       Oh hang on I’ll go to the TV3 website and find it for you. It was on TV this morning. So it’s not up yet, but it may never turn up there as TV3 may hide it, as no Gower wrap up of the week in politics has been on the site since feb 11

       But here’s a little good news.
       http://www.3news.co.nz/Cunliffe-turns-tables-in-donations-saga/tabid/1607/articleID/334635/Default.aspx
       • Arfamo 5.1.1.1

         6 March 2014 at 11:52 am

         Here’s the link:

         http://www.3news.co.nz/This-week-in-politics-March-6-2014/tabid/370/articleID/334804/Default.aspx
         • David H 5.1.1.1.1

           6 March 2014 at 1:11 pm

           Cheers
6. Morrissey 6

   6 March 2014 at 7:52 am

   Heard the One About Obama Denouncing a Breach of International Law?
   http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article37824.htm
   by NORMAN SOLOMON

   March 03, 2014 “Information Clearing House – International law is suddenly very popular in Washington. President Obama responded to Russian military intervention in the Crimea by accusing Russia of a “breach of international law.” Secretary of State John Kerry followed up by declaring that Russia is “in direct, overt violation of international law.”

   Unfortunately, during the last five years, no world leader has done more to undermine international law than Barack Obama. He treats it with rhetorical adulation and behavioral contempt, helping to further normalize a might-makes-right approach to global affairs that is the antithesis of international law.

   Fifty years ago, another former law professor, Senator Wayne Morse, condemned such arrogance of power. “I don’t know why we think, just because we’re mighty, that we have the right to try to substitute might for right,” Morse said on national TV in 1964. “And that’s the American policy in Southeast Asia — just as unsound when we do it as when Russia does it.”

   Today, Uncle Sam continues to preen as the globe’s big sheriff on the side of international law even while functioning as the world’s biggest outlaw.

   Rather than striving for an evenhanded assessment of how “international law” has become so much coin of the hypocrisy realm, mainline U.S. media are now transfixed with Kremlin villainy.

   On Sunday night, the top of the New York Times home page reported: “Russian President Vladimir V. Putin has pursued his strategy with subterfuge, propaganda and brazen military threat, taking aim as much at the United States and Europe as Ukraine itself.” That was news coverage.

   Following close behind, a Times editorial appeared in print Monday morning, headlined “Russia’s Aggression,” condemning “Putin’s cynical and outrageous exploitation of the Ukrainian crisis to seize control of Crimea.” The liberal newspaper’s editorial board said that the United States and the European Union “must make clear to him that he has stepped far outside the bounds of civilized behavior.”

   Such demands are righteous — but lack integrity and credibility when the same standards are not applied to President Obama, whose continuation of the Bush “war on terror” under revamped rhetoric has bypassed international law as well as “civilized behavior.”

   In these circumstances, major U.S. media coverage rarely extends to delving into deviational irony or spotlighting White House hypocrisy. Yet it’s not as if large media outlets have entirely excluded key information and tough criticism.

   For instance, last October the McClatchy news service reported that “the Obama administration violated international law with top-secret targeted-killing operations that claimed dozens of civilian lives in Yemen and Pakistan,” according to reports released by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

   Last week, just before Obama leapt to high dudgeon with condemnation of Putin for his “breach of international law,” the Los Angeles Times published an op-ed piece that provided illuminating context for such presidential righteousness.

   “Despite the president’s insistence on placing limits on war, and on the defense budget, his brand of warfare has helped lay the basis for a permanent state of global warfare via ‘low footprint’ drone campaigns and special forces operations aimed at an ever-morphing enemy usually identified as some form of Al Qaeda,” wrote Karen J. Greenberg, director of the Center on National Security at Fordham University’s law school.

   Greenberg went on to indicate the scope of the U.S. government’s ongoing contempt for international law: “According to Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), the Obama administration has killed 4,700 individuals in numerous countries, including Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia. Obama has successfully embedded the process of drone killings into the executive branch in such a way that any future president will inherit it, along with the White House ‘kill list’ and its ‘terror Tuesday’ meetings. Unbounded global war is now part of what it means to be president.”

   But especially in times of crisis, as with the current Ukraine situation, such inconvenient contradictions go out the mass-media window. What remains is an Orwellian baseline, melding conformist ideology and nationalism into red-white-and-blue doublethink.

   Norman Solomon is co-founder of RootsAction.org and founding director of the Institute for Public Accuracy. His books include War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death. Information about the documentary based on the book is at http://www.WarMadeEasyTheMovie.org.
7. travellerev 7

   6 March 2014 at 8:23 am

   Oops, Another Leaked Conversation: The Murderers Are Now The Masters In The Ukraine
   • Paul 7.1

     6 March 2014 at 9:14 pm

     We are not being told the truth about the Ukraine.
     Information Clearing House a good site for other perspectives.
8. vto 8

   6 March 2014 at 8:37 am

   When EQC insures an entire city against an earthquake disaster how then can it complain that the event, when it happens, is unprecedented ?

   This constant complaint by EQC that the Chch earthquake was not foreseen is the very best example in existence of spin and lies by government bullshitters…

   How can it be unforeseen when they insured for it?

   gives me the shits
9. Ray 9

   6 March 2014 at 8:52 am

   What sort of lawyer would suggest to an MP that they don’t need to disclose their Trusts
   I have said this before but it is time the left got their game together and stopped making silly mistakes
   David has made mistakes but he has been quick to own them but it would be nice if those around him stopped stuffing about and showed some Unity
   • cricklewood 9.1

     6 March 2014 at 9:48 am

     Yep, there is a lot of wailing against the bias msm but surely it would be a good start to stop giving them the stick to beat you round the head with…
     Not to mention that its highly likely certain long in the tooth mp’s are whispering sweet nothings into Gowers ears rather than accept they didn’t get their choice as leader and to pitch in or at least shut up.
     • McFlock 9.1.1

       6 March 2014 at 12:42 pm

       more likely that the speakers office has published a list that includes mps from almost all parties, and the media cherry-picks.
10. bad12 10

    6 March 2014 at 8:58 am

    Grant Robertson is onto it, making the point this morning that He wants to ‘see’ the Cabinet Office’s advice to Slippery the Prime Minister tabled in the House,

    Allowing Slippery the PM to stand up in the House and claim to have received such advice without ‘tabling’ the relevant document from the Cabinet Office is simply asking to be played for a fool by a Prime Minister with only a passing relationship with the truth,

    Collins visiting of this company while on official taxpayer business and later appearing in printed literature with claims that She directly supports that companies products when Her husband is a director of the company in question is shifty enough,

    Add in the $50,000 this company gave directly to the National Party and the reek of corruption creeps into the story,

    IF, the Cabinet Office gave the PM advice that such an endorsement is within the rules then there should be a paper trail of such advice and Robertson is right in demanding it be produced,

    The next question being begged here would be: in light of the revelation of the $50,000 donation to the National party from the company in question would the Cabinet Office,still claim that Collins open endorsement of the company and it’s products was within the rules as laid out in the Cabinet Manual…
    • PapaMike 10.1

      6 March 2014 at 2:02 pm

      This visit was published in the Herald in October 2013.
      Why drag it up now – when David Cunliffe’s mis-demeanours are the flavour ?
      Obfuscation abounds.
      • Hayden 10.1.1

        6 March 2014 at 2:17 pm

        October 2013 was later than either of those two “mis-demeanours”. And wasn’t it first dragged up by Brooke (son of Mike) Sabin on TV3?
      • bad12 10.1.2

        6 March 2014 at 3:19 pm

        Was the fact that Collins was shown in printed literature to be personally endorsing the companies products also discussed in that Herald article,

        Was the fact that this particular company which just happens to have Collins husband as a Director also gave 50,000 dollars to the National Party also discussed by this article in the Herald…
11. David H 11

    6 March 2014 at 9:00 am

    A NaT/Bennet U turn for the day..
    Proposed child harm prevention orders are being shelved by the Government.
    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11214336
12. s y d 12

    6 March 2014 at 9:03 am

    PPPrivatising coming soon……Just gets better and better for Christchurch. They also won’t say where the Auckland one is as there are already too many schools in the area!

    “1.4. Project Scope
    The Project scope includes the design, construction, finance and maintenance of four schools.
    The table below presents the opening dates and estimated rolls for the included schools.
    Table 1: Project Scope School Opening Dates Estimated Roll
    Aranui Community School Jan 2017 1,300
    Rolleston Secondary Jan 2017 1,500
    Wakatipu Secondary School Jan 2018 1,200
    An Auckland School Jan 2017 1,130”
13. David H 13

    6 March 2014 at 9:06 am

    As a Father this really does worry me. And yes I do have a dog. And she’s trained but I still keep an eye on her especially at feeding time. And she’s just had pups too so we kept the runt for her.

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/9795025/Father-stunned-after-dog-charges-dropped
14. Pasupial 14

    6 March 2014 at 9:07 am

    Update on the slave-shackle sale:

    “Dunedin Mayor Dave Cull yesterday stepped in and stopped the auction of a historic item, claimed to be leg irons, and instigated an investigation into their authenticity… If they were found to be authentic leg irons, the Dunedin City Council would consider buying them as they would be significant to the Parihaka community in Taranaki.”

    http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/294040/mayor-stops-leg-irons-sale

    “Toitu Otago Settlers Museum acting director Jennifer Evans said it was working to authenticate the shackles. The release date of investigation findings was not yet known, she said. A Parihaka spokesman, Ruakere Hond, of New Plymouth, said the auction of the ”stolen” shackles was ”obscene and morally repugnant”.”

    So not over yet, but at least there’ll be some precedent for council control on the sale of taonga (which of course, may just push future sales underground). Many unanswered questions yet: Are they genuine (or if not a flatout fake, just horse hobbles)? How do you preserve old iron using a railway furnace (my guess, based on Tuesday’s ODT pic, is he replaced the chain links)? What happened to the other shackles reported to be in the cave in the 1970s?

    http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/293800/leg-irons-removed-cave-auction

    If only the finder had reported the find to the council or museum back in the 70s, we could know so much more by the examination of the artifacts in situ. But historical interest hardly seems to be his priority:

    “Mr McCormack said he would still sell the irons. He said Mr Hond should be appreciative he had preserved the leg irons and if the Parihaka people wanted the item, they could place a bid. ”I’m not giving them away”.”
    • Bill 14.1

      6 March 2014 at 9:37 am

      The auction got me thinking…beyond the shackles, burying the seawall those prisoners built below road works, having the caves blocked and inaccessible and a memorial set back ‘out the way’ at a busy intersection …is there anything in the museum that acknowledges that episode in Dunedin/NZ history?
      • Pasupial 14.1.1

        6 March 2014 at 10:54 am

        I think I once saw something at the Settlers Museum about the Māori prisoners back before it was refurbished into Toitu, the artifacts they possess are not always on exhibit. It is good to know that they are in charge of ascertaining authenticity as they will have any amount of contemporary ironwork with which to compare the shackles.

        In a way it doesn’t matter if they are genuine leg-irons, they were being sold as such; which is quite distasteful enough to be getting on with.

        This 2012 opinion article by Bill Dacker (who is quoted in today’s ODT article questioning the authenticity of cave and irons) mentions three monuments, and includes a pic of the one on Portsmouth Drive. The other two are at cemeteries (he notes 18 deaths in Pakakohe group, and 3 deaths in the Parihaka group of prisoners):

        http://www.odt.co.nz/opinion/opinion/221295/truths-far-greater-myths
15. David H 15

    6 March 2014 at 9:10 am

    Nice to see that the Govt has sorted out it’s E-Mail and privacy problems

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11214671
    • Draco T Bastard 15.1

      6 March 2014 at 12:53 pm

      I suspect that the government is just using Outlook and the operator just copy/pasted the addresses into the To: field. What they obviously need is some software that does mass mail-outs correctly.
16. Chooky 16

    6 March 2014 at 9:48 am

    So Christchurch has sunk….Brownley admits the obvious:

    Worth revisiting some of the theories as to why?

    http://www.codeotaku.com/journal/2011-03/why-are-we-having-earthquakes/index
    • Populuxe1 16.1

      6 March 2014 at 3:01 pm

      That doesn’t work. These were quite clearly fault-related events right across the region, not localised events that could be attributed to the aquifers. Also Christchurch has regularly experienced earthquakes throughout recorded history; the spire of the Cathedral was knocked off by quakes in 1888 and 1901.
      • Chooky 16.1.1

        6 March 2014 at 7:07 pm

        Christchurch sits on top of the underground flood plain of the Waimakariri…virtually all of the thousands of Christchurch hinterland earthquakes were within the parameters of this Waimakariri River underground flood plain

        …and water extraction can cause earthquakes

        http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-20025807
17. bad12 17

    6 March 2014 at 10:24 am

    Not very Bright,from the Herald Online’s economics editor Brian Fallow, no matter how much rhetoric Fallow tries to smother the issue of poverty under the truth cannot be escaped,

    Titled ”Playing poverty politics hides truth” Fallow attempts to make poverty and child poverty in particular take on the simple aspects of a ‘game’ in a gush of information in which the ‘real’ figures of poverty are given scant regard and the human cost of such poverty no mention what-so-ever,

    There can be no escape from the fact that between the years 2007 and 2013 child poverty in this country rose by an ugly 5%,

    What also cannot be escaped, although Fallow dare not produce a comparison,is the comparable fact that those who sit at the apex of the economy with the greater incomes and assets have seen their wealth increase by at least that 5%,

    This when described in terms of %’s might not move the average person to alarm, but, when considered against the income and wealth share of the poorest in society a 5% rise in both the income and wealth held by the richest sector of our society in dollar terms far out-weighs the total annual income of the poorest in our society,

    The 2009 tax switch, leaving those at the bottom of the economy to pay more as a % of their total income in taxes sure works for the already rich, Fallow seems to think that those who object to such Government redirection of wealth to the haves from the have not’s are simply playing a ‘game’…
    • Draco T Bastard 17.1

      6 March 2014 at 1:03 pm

      The 2009 tax switch, leaving those at the bottom of the economy to pay more as a % of their total income in taxes sure works for the already rich, Fallow seems to think that those who object to such Government redirection of wealth to the haves from the have not’s are simply playing a ‘game’…

      QFT

      Same seems to be true of all RWNJs. They really don’t understand that the people at the top having more means that the people at the bottom must have less.
18. Bill 18

    6 March 2014 at 10:58 am

    From an otherwise crappy wee piece in The Independent

    A report last year from the Centre for Economics and Business Research found that at least 4.7 million Brits could be described as being in food poverty. Food poverty is defined as having no choice but to spend 10 per cent or more of their household income on food.

    Anyone know the definition in NZ? 10% of income for an unemployed person would be no more than $30. 10% for a single person on $15 in a full time job would be $60 max. (Assuming the 10% is based on pre- tax income. Otherwise, it’s much less)
    • weka 18.1

      6 March 2014 at 11:29 am

      For a comparison with what a healthy diet costs in NZ, the Food Cost Survey (2013 figures are in the PDF).

      http://www.otago.ac.nz/humannutrition/research/food-cost-survey/index.html

      If we take an average of $65/wk, that’s 31% of the dole (post-tax) for a single adult. I’m working off the dole being $206/wk.

      I ‘m not sure that the UK comparison works here though, because aren’t our accommodation costs higher than elsewhere?
      • Draco T Bastard 18.1.1

        6 March 2014 at 1:06 pm

        Our food costs are higher as well.
      • Bill 18.1.2

        6 March 2014 at 9:12 pm

        Can’t see what accommodation costs or any other costs have to do with it. If 10% (or more) of a household’s income has to be spent on food, then, by the definition above, that household is living in food poverty.

        By your figures, anyone claiming unemployment entitlements having to spend $20.06 or more on food per week is in that category.

        Anyone on $15 an hour would have to spending no more than (at 20% PAYE) $58 per week.

        Now. How many hungry children are there again? And are we to believe that the parents of these hungry children are themselves well fed?

        I guess what I’m interested in is whether that 10% definition applies to NZ, and if not, then why not? And if not, then what is it here?
        • weka 18.1.2.1

          6 March 2014 at 10:09 pm

          Two people on the dole. One person has no accommodation costs, the other spends 50% of their income on rent. The 10% on food thing will affect those two people differently (First person can spend a lot more % on food without causing other hardship relative to the person with rent to pay).

          So I would want to know how the 10% figure came about. I’ve seen similar figures for accommodation (that it shouldn’t be above x% of income). But whereas accommodation costs can vary hugely, food costs can’t really. Everyone has to eat.
19. Scott 19

    6 March 2014 at 11:36 am

    Could the Pacific be the key to a Labour election victory in 2014?
    http://readingthemaps.blogspot.co.nz/2014/03/why-labour-needs-pacific-strategy.html
20. Hayden 20

    6 March 2014 at 3:37 pm

    Brownlee apologises:

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/9795547/Brownlee-apologises-to-Labour-M

    At a parliamentary select committee meeting yesterday, EQC chief executive Ian Simpson confirmed that there had been five “formal” requests for information, but information tabled in Parliament shows more than 200 approaches were made by Labour MPs.

    I wonder how that compares to the number raised by Brownlee and Wagner.
    • McFlock 20.1

      6 March 2014 at 3:41 pm

      He felt “totally let down” and had conveyed that to EQC chairman Sir Maarten Wevers in a phone message, Brownlee said.

      lol
      Someone’s been ducking the boss’s phone calls.
      Talk about a waste of space as a minister.
    • freedom 20.2

      6 March 2014 at 9:35 pm

      This event highlights something more serious, even more starkly.
      The Minister responsible for earthquake recovery appears not to have tasked anyone to ensure that elderly quake victims were priorities, or at the very least properly tracked and monitored.

      Three years on.
      Fourth winter approaching.
      The Minister tells us there is not a single person whose job it is to be aware of this information.

      actually Minister, there is!
21. karol 21

    6 March 2014 at 3:38 pm

    Tweeted invitation to bloggers from Bryce Edwards this afternoon.

    I’m writing a Political Roundup for tmrw on ‘National’s overconfidence problem’. Any bloggers wanna address this issue, so I can link?
    • bad12 21.1

      6 March 2014 at 4:13 pm

      Lolz, no thanks, i want National and the ‘wing-nuts’ to have the belief that they are sailing into the 2014 election with the numbers to Govern alone,

      While it can be said with some accuracy that the ‘Left’ vote is inclined to stay home if they think its all a done deal as far as elections go, the ‘Right’, having had it’s paid shills and news media create that impression in the first place are all likely to get lazy also thinking its a done deal, the lazy ‘Right’ will then be likely to put less effort into the campaign,

      Lolz again,i would suggest Labour analyze which policy ‘might’ have cost it 2+% of the vote last time round and modify such a policy,(and yes i do know that the persistent banging of ones head on a brick wall leads to brain damage, too late to stop now i already have it)…
      • JK 21.1.1

        6 March 2014 at 8:55 pm

        I’m with you on that one, Bad 12 – I’m still banging on about it ….. haven’t stopped … one day the message might get thru !

        As to Bryce Edwards – this guy is a charlatan. Pretending to be a political blogger when all he does is scan other people’s opinions/thoughts and then gets paid for putting them all into one article.
        I hope no-one from this site contributes to his “overconfidence prob”
        • Murray Olsen 21.1.1.1

          7 March 2014 at 2:40 am

          I regard Edwards the Lesser as just another Farrar. I can’t understand why his bias isn’t obvious to more people. Have a look at how he describes bloggers differently, depending on whether they are on the left or right of the great divide.

          Apart from his bias, he’s just a cut and paste merchant, as you say. How the hell is he a lecturer in political studies, or whatever it is?
      • karol 21.1.2

        6 March 2014 at 9:00 pm

        Edward’s question doesn’t interest me – it’s all part of the neoliberal way of focusing on the horse race – the game – and avoiding dealing with issues of substance. I’ve no motivation to write on his set topic.
        • fender 21.1.2.1

          6 March 2014 at 10:08 pm

          Maybe Edwards could write something about Key’s overconfidence that the rules are only a guideline..
22. Brett Dale 22

    6 March 2014 at 5:15 pm

    Yes, I said goodbye to the Internet and this is a plan, but there are moments in History, which dictates that you have to come back to the internet.

    PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE TELL ME THIS IS REAL.
    • Brett Dale 22.1

      6 March 2014 at 5:35 pm

      Goodbye for the last time (this time really)

      This is why im giving up the internet, tony fuckin hawke admitted it was fake, and
      hes selling the fake boards as a business/charity thing.

      seya internet, nothing you say is true.
      • phillip ure 22.1.1

        6 March 2014 at 5:38 pm

        link proving ‘fake’..?..surely..!

        phillip ure..
    • fender 22.2

      6 March 2014 at 5:37 pm

      Fake
      • RedLogix 22.2.1

        6 March 2014 at 7:17 pm

        The Net of a Million Lies

        A Fire Upon the Deep may be the most exciting and important of all modern space operas. Latter day purveyors of galactic epics like Alastair Reynolds and Pete Hamilton doubtless cut their teeth on it. Published at the advent of the information age, when the Internet was in most people’s future and even mobile phones were still a little exotic, Vernor Vinge had his finger on its pulse. While it isn’t accurate to say the book predicted the Internet — the geek elite were, after all, long entrenched in Usenet newsgroups even then — it can be said to have accurately bullseyed what became the Internet’s character. While it’s been a most wonderful innovation, certainly the most important epoch-making technology since the printing press, it is also, in many ways, a wretched hive of scum and villainy, a home for every crank, political extremist, sicko or malcontent you could imagine, giving them access to an audience they’d never have enjoyed otherwise. When Vinge nicknamed his fictitious interstellar network the “Net of a Million Lies,” he saw what was coming, even if a simple grasp of human nature at its dark core was as visionary as he had to be about it.

        http://sfreviews.net/vvinge_fire_upon_the_deep.html
    • the pigman 22.3

      7 March 2014 at 1:57 am

      http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/digital-living/30021154/hoverboard-hoax-leaves-fan-stinging

      wave I’ll let the Police know that your death need not be treated as suspicious.
23. phillip ure 23

    6 March 2014 at 5:20 pm

    (jim mora had a personal-nadir during his panel-segment today..

    ..this is the email i have set him..)

    the scoffing treatment of/loaded-questions around yr coverage of the meat/dairy causing cancer/diabetes etc..

    ..was the most biased coverage i have ever heard on yr show..(and factually wrong..to boot..!..)

    ..(and given the seriousness of the topic..for shame..!..eh..?..)

    ..are you seriously denying the (long-proven) fact that red meat/animal-fat is a carcinogen/diabetes-causer….?

    ..are you seriously denying the (recently-proven) fact that dairy is a carcinogen/diabetes-causer..?

    ..and are yr denials based on any facts/research at all..?..

    ..or is it just a disbelieving-opinion – underpinned by yr defence of yr personal lifestyle/diet..?

    ..it is the latter..isn’t it..?

    ..and if not..i wd like to see this groundbreaking-research proving meat/dairy are not carcinogens..

    ..(‘proof’ of this outright lie that you have peddled..)

    ..’cos it ain’t bloody there..jim..

    ..at the very least i wd expect a retraction from you..

    ..and an apology to yr listeners wouldn’t hurt either..

    ..and..how can you be in such deep denial..?

    ..phillip ure..

    (for a man of his intelligence..on such a powerful forum..

    ..to peddle these/such lies..

    ..has kinda done my head in..

    ..mora could not have been more sneering..)
24. chris73 24

    6 March 2014 at 6:35 pm

    http://www.tv3.co.nz/tabid/3692/MCat/3901/Default.aspx

    Skip to 7.45 for a good summation of David Cunliffe
25. Clemgeopin 25

    6 March 2014 at 6:58 pm

    Q and A in the house today, funny at the end of Q 9:

    Hon Trevor Mallard: Has he discussed his oneirataxia with the Prime Minister?

    Hon PETER DUNNE: I have discussed a number of things with the Prime Minister, but, frankly, the meaning of that word escapes me and I am sure it is something that if I had a dictionary I might bother to look up.
    • karol 25.1

      6 March 2014 at 7:01 pm

      Found a definition:

      oneirataxia The inability to differentiate between dreams and reality.
      • Clemgeopin 25.1.1

        6 March 2014 at 7:34 pm

        Yes! Nice word.

        Next time, Trevor should ask this question:

        Does he realise that both he and the Prime Minister have been koshing about the Kitteridge report leaking?
        • karol 25.1.1.1

          6 March 2014 at 9:12 pm

          koshing
          • Clemgeopin 25.1.1.1.1

            6 March 2014 at 10:00 pm

            A nice obscure word for contumelious lying bastards.
26. JK 26

    6 March 2014 at 9:04 pm

    Clemgeopin – I give up ! I thought it was something to do with gold trading, but that doesn’t make sense with the context you’ve put it in.
    • Clemgeopin 26.1

      6 March 2014 at 10:07 pm

      No?
      May be you could rephrase it better?
      Come on, have a go.
27. Blue 27

    6 March 2014 at 9:06 pm

    Some good viewing from Australia (Green Senator telling Tony Abbott to stick it):

    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/greens-senator-scott-ludlams-blunt-speech-to-an-almost-empty-room-goes-viral-20140306-348zx.html

    Quite a bit of it is about Western Australia, but don’t let that put you off. It could almost as easily be said to John Key.
    • freedom 27.1

      6 March 2014 at 9:15 pm

      link to a transcript
      I think you can safely say it drives the message home
      the message being how a growing number of people have had enough of greed as a social imperative

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