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notices and features - Date published:
6:00 am, September 10th, 2010 - 29 comments
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The current rise of populism challenges the way we think about people’s relationship to the economy.We seem to be entering an era of populism, in which leadership in a democracy is based on preferences of the population which do not seem entirely rational nor serving their longer interests. ...
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Steve Joyce appears to be proceeding with a grand plan for us all. This fantastic act of largess by the government would appear to amount to this…
Each and every taxpayer will be contributing to pay for having the cabling to their gate. But each and every taxpayer will then have dig into his/her own pocket to buy into a connection. Is that what they mean by providing broadband for all?
No, each every taxpayer will be contributing to pay for having the cabling taken to the gates of those who live in the cities and towns. Those of us who live and work in the country will, as usual, get nothing for our taxes.
Or, those who live in the country will benefit from the increased wealth of the rest of the country, which flows to increased state taxation, which flows to improved (or at least maintained) services you enjoy in the rural area.
That’s just how things go, especially in a country with such a low population density.
Mayoral taunts on drinking, lying – http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10672350
“Several witnesses to Wednesday night’s confrontation said Mr Banks was taking a question from the floor when Mr Williams interjected, telling him to “stop lying”.
Mr Banks retorted, “Stop drinking.”
Manukau Mayor Len Brown reportedly stepped in to calm things down.”
“”I am happy to engage in vigorous and robust debate on the issues affecting Auckland. However, Mr Williams has been more interested in aggressive personal attacks,” the statement said.”
Wait, according to the article it was Banks making the personal attacks?
“Mayoral candidate Penny Bright said it was a disgraceful display by Mr Banks and his National Party supporters.”
Is it really all that suprising? Banks has always been a disgrace to this country and Auckland
Really what’s your problem apart from blind silly bias? Lying or drinking are equally wrong so it was simply a tit for tat situation started by Williams … from the way you have reported it.
No, lying is far worse than drinking. Drinking you just make an ass of yourself but when lying you’re purposefully misleading people.
Drinking kills people – both directly and through their actions. Lying usually doesn’t.
Did you have blinkers surgically inserted, so that you can only see the things you hate about the people and ideas you disagree with? I have never met a more immature, inflexible thinker.
The Bush Administration lied about Iraq having WMDs and that got about 1m people killed and several million displaced. It’s also poisoned the local area with uranium which is going to cause ongoing effects from radiation poisoning.
Same thing happened to start the Vietnam war. Same again for Guatamala and Nicaragua. Then there was the attempted coup Venezuela run by the right there. All based on lies.
When you lie it may not get people killed but when politicians lie then, due to the discrepancy in power, it can and does get people killed.
Yeah yeah I can read doom and gloom reports too. Your point being? Do you read anything other than Chomsky? Or do you just stick to what you know since it suits your wholly inflexible world view?
I say again – immature, inflexible, ignoramus. A bit more listening, a little less blahing on required from you me thinks.
You’re the one defending the indefensible. Accepting lies isn’t being “flexible” but being stupid or, more likely in your case, being psychotic.
When did I defend anything? Hell, you’re the only fanboy here Draco.
Speaking of which, which fringe candidate would you vote for? Which one is going to give your nutty brand of kumbaya, hatred based socialism to the workers of Auckland?
Whats that? NOONE?
Oh deary me, is that because you’re ideas were wholly rejected by everyone who had a democratic voice during the 20th century? And the only places that tried them out were those that enforced them with at gunpoint? What a dream!
Face it pal, your ideas have no place in modern society. Your best bet is to try find a time machine to take you back to the Paris Commune.
“Oh deary me, is that because you’re ideas were wholly rejected by everyone who had a democratic voice during the 20th century? And the only places that tried them out were those that enforced them with at gunpoint? What a dream!”
Sounds exactly like what’s been happening in the majority of South and Central America for the past ten or twenty years. The rise of democracy, the overthrow of the international money-men and their strong-arm military regimes, their replacement with socially motivated representatives working in the interest of their constituents for the first time since colonialism.
In short, your ideas rejected by anyone who has a vote.
Not that I’d expect you to have noticed – your thinking seems firmly rooted in cold-war era propaganda.
The Baron I do believe you said this:
Which seemed to be a defence of lying. (You do know that people can read your earlier comments, don’t you?)
Yeah, fixed that for you mate.
I sincerely believe this story is a lot bigger than anyone, including the DHB, want to admit.
For a Kaumatua to publicly criticise her own brother and others, not to mention the reference to wider events, does point to a level of wrongdoing that desereves further investigation, and perhaps an actual audit would not be such a bad idea after all?
This is more than the family stoush they tried to paint it as in April . I get a sinking feeling that some underhand tactics have been used to silence this issue and perhaps the DHB really is hiding a much bigger problem
to quote the Kaumatua
‘She said other iwi were facing similar issues and it was time to stop people using money meant to “uplift our people” for the wrong purposes. “Our iwi is standing up and saying: `This is wrong.’
Uncle Garth’s column in yesterday’s herald was revealing on three fronts:
Firstly, Garth thanks God that print newspapers still exist, cos apparently if they didn’t we wouldn’t have known much about the Christchurch earthquake.
The print media, in the world according to Garth, has defied
He notes:
Did you catch that? Dear old uncle Garth thinks that the “electronic media” threatening the future of print newspaper is radio and television. Has anyone ever shown him the interwebs? Does he even know he’s published on them? Or does he just scrawl on the wall of his cave in his own faeces and have no concept of what happens to his pronouncements beyond that?
Secondly, he
Que? There are people older than Garth? Get te fuck.
Thirdly and most interestingly, in a tirade of bitterness directed at Jim Anderton, he comes out strongly opposed to John Banks as mayor of Auckland:
Innaressing.
haha a prayer and THEN phones family. Sort of the wrong way round methinks. He must have had to say another prayer afterwards to thank the lord the family was ok. How is that efficient? Need to get some of those organisational process people on to him.
anti-spam: exist 🙂
For the ‘don’t know whether to laugh or cry’ file:
Christchurch’s Bishop announcing that their big service at the week-end will be held in the Square rather than the Cathedral, in case an aftershock brings the roof down on the worshippers.
What are they holding the service for? To thank God for the earthquake? To thank God for not killing anyone? To beg God not to keep shaking the earth, as per Haggai 2.v6? And it hardly says much for their faith if they’re afraid their God is going to drop a Cathedral on them.
And the lunatic pastor in the US who wants to burn the Koran because… Well I’ve no idea and neither, it seems, has he.
And the furore in the US over the desire to build a social club for the mentally challenged near Ground Zero.
And the Irans proposing to bury a woman in the ground up to her waist and reduce her to a pulp with stones because she had consensual sex .
God save me from the idiots who believe in Him
And the lunatic pastor in the US who wants to burn the Koran because… Well I’ve no idea and neither, it seems, has he.
Clearly he hasn’t read as far as Matthew 7:12
Nor is he familiar with one of Heinrich Heine’s most famous quotes: “Where one burns books, one in the end burns men”.
http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=22322
Tom Behan, another major figure of the left passes into history: He spanned the UK, Italy and Australia
News again that NZ is dropping in wealth stats etc etc compared to other’s economies. One reason given is that we can’t get enough investment money (get the monkey to wind the handle on the pork barrel organ again and hold out its cap). What a crock. We are always hearing this.
When thought is given to the amount of moolah that disappeared with the finance companies, and much of it does seem to be lost not just changed hands. this makes such regular dirges ridiculous and mendacious too.
Robert Scheer on The Great American Stickup: How Reagan Republicans and Clinton Democrats Enriched Wall Street While Mugging Main Street
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/9/7/robert_scheer_on__the_great
NZ slips in global competitiveness index
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10672321
http://www.imperatorfish.com/
Imperator fish has created a flow chart of the interrelationships between the main players and organisations of the right. He’s interested in any further info that might add to it.
Interesting stuff – many sticky fingers in the same pies.
What is this garbage about independents vying for positions on the local boards? Christine Rankin pretending to be an ‘independent’ when everyone knows she’s totally Cits and Rats. Ever since the truth came out about the block voting they’ve been trying to scam people by pretending to be independents – pondscum!
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/AK1009/S00348.htm
At last. The Green machine is onto it: it’s the swinging voter that rules. Literally.
“The Mad Right that has dominated NZ politics for decades said you don’t have to set standards for finance or building. The result is a $1.7 billion bill for South Canterbury Finance and a $20 billion bill for leaky houses. Thank you Roger, Ruth and the NZ Treasury.”
Onya Russ Norm. Simple and True. Anomie Times is screaming for norms.
Big Norm II in fact.
Half-way there.
Now add gravitas.
Any suggestions how to add gravitas and I will pass them on 😉
Clinton and Blair had it. Brown and Bush didn’t. Is it something that you can add and stir in? Not sure but don’t think so.