Open mike 09/04/2011

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, April 9th, 2011 - 30 comments
Categories: open mike - Tags:

Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose.

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

Step right up to the mike…

30 comments on “Open mike 09/04/2011 ”

  1. NickS 1

    http://tvnz.co.nz/business-news/hide-s-bonds-bank-should-get-top-credit-rating-4109029

    Is it just the sleep debt, or is this teh first non-shit idea Hide’s come up with? 

    • McFlock 1.1

      It coming from Hide, my immediate reaction is “how is he looking to use this for privatisation?”

  2. Such a shame I can’t make money out of I TOLD YA SO 😉

    WASHINGTON (AFP) – The International Monetary Fund warned Thursday that nations should brace for dwindling oil supplies that could drive prices skyward as demand increases, especially in emerging economies .

    [deleted]

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110407/bs_afp/imfeconomyoilemerge
     
     

    [lprent: Do not cut and paste here. We are interested in your opinions. Link to news or opinion that is available on the net. Wasting my time cleaning this up is a fast way towards collecting a ban. ]

  3. johnm 3

    Re IMF Report<b> another wake up call about Oil’s supply decline!</b>
    “The International Monetary Fund warned Thursday that nations should brace for <b>dwindling oil supplies</b> that could drive prices skyward as demand increases”
    “The IMF urged authorities to prepare buffers”
    “On Wednesday, London’s benchmark Brent crude reached $123.37, the highest level since early August 2008.”
     
    Let’s stop wasting money on Motorways and concentrate on a World Class Public Transport system.

  4. freedom 4

    obvious thought for the day,

    imagine how much oil there would be if we just stopped killing each other

    capcha: dreams
    never give up on yours

  5. Tiger Mountain 5

    The “Great Rock ’n Roll Swindle” continues, people are being encouraged to buy online, ditty “God Save the Queen” by the Sex Pistols in numbers sufficient (which shouldn’t be too difficult with todays dodgy chart system) to have the song at no.1 position for the Royal wedding.

    While it is “flogging a dead horse” for the profiteering sods involved, anyone familiar with the rather offensive to Queenie lyrics, can predict the reaction in England will be f***king hilarious.

  6. Jim Nald 6

    The Adventures of Unemployed Man
    by Erich Origen and Gan Golan
     
    “… should be read by everyone: by the forgotten, hardworking heroes of our desperate economy, who must toil increasingly hard merely to keep the wolf from the door, but also by its villains, who caused all the trouble in the first place. This book is so good it might cause a rare outbreak of shame among the ruling classes …”

    Book review
    by Rachel Cooke (Observer)

  7. aj 7

    I’m wondering if it will be sinking into people’s heads exactly how right Michael Cullen was to focus on surpluses and savings during his years as finance minister. Even with the e’quakes and financial meltdowns our books are better than many others, and have given the current government room to spend – even if we can question some things, eg SCF

    • Luva 7.1

      What happened to private debt while Cullen was reducing sovereign debt

      • lprent 7.1.1

        It blew out. But I would have thought you’d have been the first to say that was no business of the government to pry into private debt.

        Perhaps you’d like to explain what Cullen should have done? I am looking forward to the explanation of reluctant socialism..

  8. Pascal's bookie 8

    That whole Rodney National party selection foofawfaw, with the fundies and whatnot that the whale has been banging on about, got a good working over on Q+A this morning. Folks that didn’t see it might want to catch the replay 2moro or when they throw it up in the net.

  9. Draco T Bastard 9

    ISPs at risk of being ‘left out in the cold’

    Pacific FibreContent owners and internet service providers need to forge a new relationship if the ultra-fast broadband scheme is going to be profitable, said a panel discussing the future of internet in New Zealand. Executives from TelstraClear, Orcon, Pacific Fibre and the Telecommunications Carriers Forum at this week’s Tel.Con11 summit, agreed that if the status quo continues, content owners rather than telcos would reap the rewards of fast internet.

    Hint: It’s supposed to be the content providers making the profit and not the network.
    Why should ISPs make money on something that isn’t theirs?

    The fucken arseholes really are demanding a way to clip the ticket.

  10. Tigger 10

    The Maori Party prove themselves to be a bunch of tories as far as abortion is concerned.
    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10717863
    Interesting to see who voted against appointing the anti-abortion doctor to the Abortion Supervisory Committee.  Personally surprised to see Dunne on the noes list…
     

    • Ms C 10.1

      would have been nice to have not seen the Minister of Women’s Affairs on the ayes list thou…..

  11. Fat Uncle 11

    http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-march-28-2011/i-give-up—pay-anything—

    And I thought we had it bad…we’re not too far behind I guess.

    Labour’s slogan for the next election should be:

    Labour means work

    but you didn’t need national standards to tell you that

    Labour means work

    duh

    Labour means work

    for everyone not just Brazilian oil drillers and BMW salesmen

    Labour means work

    from Invercargill to Cape Reinga 

    Labour means working for you

    not for private prison, tobacco, cable tv, finance and trucking companies

    Labour means work

    building the country not carving it up for sale

  12. sean 12

    Haha, I love it.  Here are some more very apt ones for ya….
     
     
    Labour means Working…..
     
    For other peoples Families
     
     
    Labour means Working hard……
     
    So we can spend it for you
     
     
    Labour wants you to work….
     
    So we can keep our voters in the lifestyles they’ve become accustomed to
     
     
     

    • Draco T Bastard 12.1

      You forgot one thing – Unlike National, Labour doesn’t lie to get into power.

      Also, it’s been NACT that’s been giving away our money freely.

      • sean 12.1.1

        No, but they do far worse, by bribing people to vote for them with policies that the country can’t afford and that end up holding the country back from economic growth (see the OECD damage that Clark/Cullen et al did).

        • millsy 12.1.1.1

          So you would rather people live on the street then?

          • Jim Nald 12.1.1.1.1

            How about bribe people to vote for tax cuts north of $50 p.w. and no GST increase?
            This Government’s wasted opportunities and lousy priorities have been holding back the country’s economic growth and weakening our future. Classic case of fiddling and muddling through while Rome burns.

        • Draco T Bastard 12.1.1.2

          It’s the policies that NACT propound that we can’t afford. Quite literally, we cannot afford the rich so catering to them is bad for the country.

  13. Salsy 13

    Where everyone gets a Chinese Bargain
    Terrifying, but a perhaps a great springboard to launch a Buy NZ Made campaign…

    • Draco T Bastard 13.1

      Corrected link

      It’s the free-market paradigm turning us into a has-been developed and is now defunct and bankrupt nation.

      • sean 13.1.1

        Oh for the good old days when tariffs and subsidies kept local ‘hard-working’ kiwi companies in business right?   Seems like you think that the reason we are a “has-been” developed country is because we import cheap stuff?
         
        The only reason we ever got developed was due to our agricultural exports.  Last time I checked we are still doing pretty well there.
         
        Your bitterness is horrid.  Or maybe its your envy seeping through?

        • joe90 13.1.1.1

          If you were actually been around at the time sean you’d know that our primary exports were to a place that was still a pile of rubble. By the mid 1960s western Europe had been rebuilt, their industrial might had been restored and their agriculture was able to keep up with demand. So it was that as demand for our products declined the powers that be decided to industrialise and began to import labour to the cities to work in the new factories. But that didn’t work so well and by the eighties things were on the down despite barriers put in place to protect New Zealand businesses imports undercut manufacturers. So the only way up was to cut tariff protections and increase productivity which agriculture managed to do. But manufacturing couldn’t stand on its own feet without support and so began the export of plant and equipment to places with much more generous taxpayers who subsidised the owners businesses. Which brought us to the Bolger Richardson years, mad Max Bradford and the dental nurse Shipely who though fuck it, we don’t care so we’ll open the gates and let her rip.

          By 1999 the place was fucked with jobs disappearing, assets flowed off shore and peoples bellies were empty so we elected a Labour government and things were on the up again. By 2008 our bellies were full so we elected the current mob of assorted charlatans but as peoples bellies empty expect a change sean and then you’ll have to go elsewhere to fantasise and tell lies about how marvellous you are.

          Hope that helps, bai.

        • Draco T Bastard 13.1.1.2

          The only reason we ever got developed was due to our agricultural exports.

          Repeat the lie often enough and it becomes true. Is that it? We became developed because we were self-sufficient, developed our own tech base, our own finances and government. Removal of that self-sufficiency through the Washington Consensus has taken us back to being a dependant nation rather than independent.
           
          Why else do you think our imports exceed our exports?

  14. johnm 14

    R A Atack above has noticed the IMF report that we’re running out of cheap fuel to keep the present show on the road!!! This is epochal changing and scary and upsetting but if fact still must be dealt with! Let me say I’m scared! What are we going to do people? This is the real deal going down now!

  15. joe90 15

    Khaled al-Johani , the bravest man in Saudi Arabia.

    Khaled al-Johani, who teaches religion to elementary school students in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, is neither a revolutionary nor an activist, according to his brother. But even though no one in the country knew it at the time, the 40-year-old father of a 5-year-old autistic boy was imprisoned and cut off from his family after speaking out at last month’s planned “day of rage.”

    Facebook: Where is Khaled.

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