Open mike 08/12/2010

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, December 8th, 2010 - 26 comments
Categories: open mike - Tags:

Open mike is your post.

It’s open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose.

Comment on whatever takes your fancy.

The usual good behaviour rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner).

Step right up to the mike…

26 comments on “Open mike 08/12/2010 ”

  • Comments are now closed

  1. Bored 1
    8 December 2010 at 6:06 am

    From this mornings Herald The national cycleway has so far generated just 215 jobs – well short of Prime Minister John Key’s expectation of 4000.

    In May, Mr Key said he expected the $50 million project, which involves building 18 cycleways throughout the country, to generate 4000 jobs…

    Nice one John.

    • Draco T Bastard 1.1
      8 December 2010 at 7:07 am

      That’s about on par with every else that NACT have said regarding the economy.

      Recover aggressively = less than 1% growth
      Tax cuts for the rich will boost investment productivity and thus the tax base = 0% increase in investment and declining tax base
      Tax cuts will be neutral = massive tax cuts for the rich and tax increases for everyone else

      In other words, nothing that they've said about the economy has come true and, as we've seen over the last three decades, never will.

      • Tigger 1.1.1
        8 December 2010 at 8:28 am

        Full-time, long-term jobs also, or just part-time, contractor positions, short-term? For that amount of money I’m sure there are a bunch of other businesses who could have created some sustainable positions…

        • Lanthanide 1.1.1.1
          8 December 2010 at 10:14 am

          You must be talking about Labour, because all jobs created under National are ‘sustainable real jobs’ and not those ‘fake jobs’ that Labour created.

    • Colonial Viper 1.2
      8 December 2010 at 10:04 am

      There are a number of small signs that the MSM is changing course on the NATs.

      It must have their strategists scared shitless.

      More chardonnay and crayfish for the editors!!!

  2. Pascal's bookie 2
    8 December 2010 at 7:35 am

    Here’s good bloggage from australia on the wikileakaplosion, both for the posts themselves and the awesome aggregation, rounding up and putting in a handy place of more links than one could have the time to read.

    http://www.kadaitcha.com/2010/12/07/days-of-my-wikitweets/

    • Bored 2.1
      8 December 2010 at 11:47 am

      I see Assange was arrested and denied bail by the Poms last night, to be extradited to Sweden to face charges of being stupid enough to drop his zip for the benefit of pleasing celebrity groupies. Extraordinary are the lengths the elite international will go to when dealing with a miscreant challenging their hegemony on the truth.

      So far the said elite have failed:
      * to stop the truth of their dirty dealings come out into the light of day.
      * proven incapable of stopping proliferation of the message through shutting down internet servers / domains.
      * drawn more attention to the issue by doing the above and arresting / vilifying Assange.
      * arrested the co-ordiantor of the leaks on charges that will fail spectacularly if they go to court and merely result in more coverage of the misdeeds of the elite.

      Not only are the international elite ridiculous and stupid in their attempt to deflect blame to a single man: they are guilty of actually doing the “crimes” leaked in the Wiki. We should be giving them shit about what they are exposed asd having done, as opposed to the arrest of a player. They cannot deny any of that.

  3. Tigger 3
    8 December 2010 at 9:02 am

    Dob in your neighbour… Funny, I thought it was 2010, not 1984…
    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10692807

    • Lanthanide 3.1
      8 December 2010 at 10:40 am

      That article is pretty absurd and surreal. It reads like dull and uninspired Onion article; bump up the absurdity a little and add in a few jokes and it could pass, I think.

    • Bored 3.2
      8 December 2010 at 11:33 am

      Errrgggg!!!!! Ther SIS resides under the Priministers office (I think), which means that stupid initiatives like this will escape any scrutiny altogether. We are paying morons. When the SIS have to enlist public support to do their core job you know that “intellegence” has gone west.

  4. Foolsgold 4
    8 December 2010 at 9:52 am

    I know it is trite and a little bit snarky but the footage of Sarah Palin trying to hunt has made her lose credibility as a ‘real hunter’ and a gun enthusiast. Honestly watching the clip and reading some of the response around it on the internet she has some gun enthusiasts decrying her as being a sell-out for trying to appeal to them when it is obviously a charade.

    In the show apparently we see a gun being used as a walking stick, her not knowing how to load the gun or work the bolt and missing the animal in question 5 times. She also makes some very stupid mistakes with gun safety as well…

    • joe90 4.1
      8 December 2010 at 10:16 am

      The Awl puts the knife into Sarah.

      Of course, not everyone was convinced that the mystique of Palin as Alaskan hunter is a con job. In the tradition of justifying anything to preserve a dear illusion at any cost to reason, a commenter on Hannity’s forum dismissed questions like so: “You’d have seen her dad take a tumble while caring the gun she used. He must have knocked the scope out of alignment.” Another hunter in the 24 Hour Campfire forum reasoned, “I bet the producers of that show knocked that messed with the scope to make it more dramatic,” while another theorized, “If I had to guess, it’d be someone on the set messed with her scope with promises of wealth to make her look stupid.”

    • ianmac 4.2
      8 December 2010 at 7:57 pm

      Sarah Palin is pretty dumb to front up to such a demonstration of her inexperience with rifles. She said that her Daddy was usually by her side when she went hunting. He must have been an appalling teacher.That woman has not handled a rifle before!

  5. Colonial Viper 5
    8 December 2010 at 11:15 am

    On a lighter note, ahem, earlier in the year the US showed off a new $100 bill that it said would be near impossible to reproduce (the current $100 note is heavily and excellently counterfeited internationally).

    Seems like it is so hard to reproduce the US Govt can’t do it either.

    http://www.dailytech.com/US+Government+Misprints+110B+USD+in+High+Tech+Currency/article20338.htm

    During the initial printing run, a flaw in the printing process was encountered, which led to a layer of the paper folding over after inking, revealing an uninked portion.

    Approximately 30 percent of the the approximately $366B USD printed, or roughly $110B USD worth of bills, carry the flaw. That’s a whopping 1.1 billion botched bills.

    An official close to the process confided with CNBC, “There is something drastically wrong here. The frustration level is off the charts.”

    The fact that some kind of paper folding error occurred over an entire production run and was not caught in the first 5 minutes – especially in a mint – is close to bizarre.

  6. alloverrover 6
    8 December 2010 at 1:14 pm

    Dunedin City Council has commissioned a Peak Oil Vulnerability Analysis Report, which included surveys on travel habits, private fuel consumption and vehicle dependence and the effect of petrol prices and shortages. The report has 5 major objectives for mitigation.

    Go Dunedin ! Now will government (or Labour for that matter ?) follow their lead or are those pigs I see flying by?

    http://oilshockhorrorprobe.blogspot.com/2010/12/dunedin-city-leads-on-peak-oil.html

  7. BLiP 7
    8 December 2010 at 7:30 pm

    The saga continues . . . this time with a guest appearance from former National Ltd™ Prime Minister Jenny Shitley. Our current fearless leader? Well, he ain’t talking.

    • ianmac 7.1
      8 December 2010 at 7:59 pm

      Do you think that there is more to be drip fed BLiP?

      • Colonial Viper 7.1.1
        8 December 2010 at 8:04 pm

        Nothing to read about here, former PM Shipley is a well known Sino-phile and was probably accompanying Sammy for purely cultural and educational reasons. Good on her for broadening her horizons like this and isn’t it great of Sammy to share his family history with her.

        /sarcasm

  8. ianmac 8
    8 December 2010 at 10:54 pm

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10692767
    A bit late in the day but Fran O’ sullivan has some interesting ideas:
    “….. aren’t we all starting to get a bit concerned that the National-led Government seems asleep at the wheel when it comes to dealing with our snow-balling debt?

    Yes, there are working groups galore ………..
    But there’s plenty an action-minded John Key could get on with before the election rolls round.

    Here’s my Top 10: This list does not include asset sales or “co-ownership”, as the in-term now goes.
    Nor does it include axing the DPB, or other beneficiary imposts. But most fair-minded New Zealanders would surely agree to the following:”
    No 1.MASTERMIND A REAL TAX SWITCH
    no 2 – REVAMP SUPER
    No 3 SLASH MOST PUBLIC SECTOR PAY RATES BY AT LEAST 10PC
    No 4 AXE THE MINISTRY OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
    No 5 INTRODUCE A CAPITAL GAINS TAX AND/OR LAND TAX
    …….and so on to no 10.

Links to post

The server will be getting hardware changes this evening starting at 10pm NZDT.
The site will be off line for some hours.