Open mike 10/12/2010

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, December 10th, 2010 - 38 comments
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38 comments on “Open mike 10/12/2010 ”

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  1. BLiP 1
    10 December 2010 at 7:25 am

    MORE BLETHERING FROM BLiP

    Many of you were far too kind to me last week, so kind in fact that I have become so emboldened as to attempt another musing on the week that’s been. So, with the indulgence of The Standard, where to start . . . hmmm . . . I know:

    The Labour Party: last week I climbed into the leadership and closed one comment saying something like “BIG improvement needed”. Well, what a week its been. Pansy Wong has presented a gift from heaven which, despite his clumsy questions, Hodgson seems to be taking great delight in unwrapping. Brendon Burns appears to be keeping a vigilant eye on the goings on in Christchurch. Mallard continues his patient and deliberate excoriation of the twitching Tolley. The decision to come on board with the Greens and scuttle cross-party consensus on the foreshore legislation has, finally, got some serious MSM traction. But, for me, the week’s parliamentary highlight was Clayton Cosgrove’s thundering speech in the general debate on Wednesday. Watch here as he skewers National Ltd™ on John Key’s promised “higher standards” and sends Bill English “dodging, weaving and squirming” from the House like a whimpering school boy. Top marks Labour.

    Helen: WTF was Stuff doing running the headline: Clark’s legacy – brothels on the golden mile . It ran across the top of an opinion piece by born-again-Tory lady-who-lunches Rosemary Mcleod. Not once in her article did she mention Clark. And, since when was Helen Clark responsible for Wellington City Council’s zoning regulations? It seems there are still deep pools of National Ltd™ slime left over from the 2008 Crosby/Textor-run Hollow Men coup. Fuckers.

    How lucky We Are: Hasn’t the Wikileaks drama been fascinating? The freedom of speech battle is just warming up and peeling back the suppurating scab that is US foreign policy shows its about time a dose of sunlight was administered. Heartening, for me anyway, is confirmation of just how benign our wee tin-pot pacific island democracy really is. We don’t have real terrorists in the hills arming themselves with rocket launchers, we’re not the gateway for an international narcotic ring and suffering the real crime that sort of thing brings about, our feeble economy is not in a “death spiral” and nor is it really being run by a blood thirsty dictator, and nor is our military rife with criminals – to mention just a few global realities . Its good to be a Kiwi.

    Finally, and on the day when he should be in Stockholm receiving his Nobel Prize, last word to Liu Xiaobo:

    A Small Rat in Prison

    for Little Xia

    a small rat passes through the iron bars
    paces back and forth on the window ledge
    the peeling walls are watching him
    the blood-filled mosquitoes are watching him
    he even draws the moon from the sky, silver
    shadow casts down
    beauty, as if in flight

    a very gentryman the rat tonight
    doesn’t eat nor drink nor grind his teeth
    as he stares with his sly bright eyes
    strolling in the moonlight

    • felix 1.1
      10 December 2010 at 8:18 am

      A weekly spot on the front page perhaps?

    • Anne 1.2
      10 December 2010 at 8:29 am

      I vote that BLiP be signed up for a weekly “Blethering Post” every Friday from now until the General Election.

    • ianmac 1.3
      10 December 2010 at 8:46 am

      A worthy read thank you BLiP. A touch of optimism?

    • Jim Nald 1.4
      10 December 2010 at 12:34 pm

      It was pointed out to me that someone quoted me last week when commenting on your, shall I say, blistering blethering.

      Instead of leaving it to being quoted (or misquoted) this week, I shall take the opportunity now to commend you for your scream of confectioneriness !

      Well done. Looking forward to next week’s.

  2. Cnr Joe 2
    10 December 2010 at 7:26 am

    loving it, sources in Medvedev’s office urge a Nobel nomination for Julian

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/dec/09/julian-assange-nobel-peace-prize

  3. Pascal's bookie 3
    10 December 2010 at 7:28 am

    From the scuttlebutty column “the insider” in today’s Herald (pge 23 of ‘the business’ liftout)

    Long-serving public servants in ministers’ offices are becoming increasingly worried at the administration’s paranoid tendencies despite a dream run in the polls and generally warm relations with the media. Even those who are generally supportive of the Government’s direction are attacked in front of business audiences for having “subversive” tendencies for even mild criticism or questioning. Public servants who have seen governments come and go say it is most unusual for one to adopt the bunker mentality so early in the cycle of political popularity. There are predictions that a few veins may pop when ministers feel the blowtorch of media scrutiny in election year.

    • BLiP 3.1
      10 December 2010 at 7:58 am

      Can’t say I’m all that surprised given John Key’s attitude towards his own, personal public servants. Listen here are 1:28 when he calls them a bunch of muppets. Interesting to hear John Key say New Zealand had come out of the recession a year ago. Watch towards the end when he talks about his vinyard, I thought the trust was “blind” ??? Funniest thing in the video, though, is watching his blonde minder put her head in her hands and cringe when the bozo tries to sing.

      • The Voice of Reason 3.1.1
        10 December 2010 at 8:13 am

        Jaysus, what an arse. Just before the ‘muppet’ comment he’s suggesting that the female DJ would need to be restrained from throwing herself at him. Arrogant, much?

        The comments are pretty sickmaking, too. Well, except this one:

        MsBLiP:

        “What a dick.”

        Couldn’t have said it better.

        • M 3.1.1.1
          10 December 2010 at 10:54 am

          ‘he’s suggesting that the female DJ would need to be restrained from throwing herself at him.’

          WTF?? Hell, the only things most sentient females would be doing is throwing themselves in front of a car.

      • felix 3.1.2
        10 December 2010 at 9:58 am

        “Can’t say I’m all that surprised given John Key’s attitude towards his own, personal public servants. ”

        For all his matey-matey schtick he doesn’t seem very respectful of the people in his life. Remember when he said his wife looked like a hobbit?

      • Jim Nald 3.1.3
        10 December 2010 at 12:16 pm

        The recession was over a year ago? Huh?

        Is that like the war in Iraq is over?
        http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2007/oct/03/iraqwarwhatiraqwar

        Or that NZ is “not a country that has come about through civil war or a lot of fighting internally. We’re a country that peacefully came together” ?

  4. pollywog 4
    10 December 2010 at 11:49 am

    Nice one BLiP…

    maybe Key thinks he’s da Maori King or sumfing ?

    Maori King Tuheitia has been accused of swearing at his own people at a public meeting.

    Tiwai Iti, the sister of Maori activist Tame Iti, was at a meeting at Waikare Marae in Te Kauwhata last Saturday when the king was questioned about the spending of the tribe’s executive board.

    When Iti criticised the king for swearing at a kaumatua, he allegedly said to her “if you don’t f…ing like it then you can f… off”. </

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/4444144/Maori-King-Tuheitia-accused-of-swearing

    …sounds like the people are revolting !!!

    slowly but surely…

    • pollywog 4.1
      10 December 2010 at 12:28 pm

      If our political leaders do not step in and prevent Tuheitia from succeeding where Charles I failed, then more than the whanau and hapu of Tainui have reason to feel afraid. Because, at that moment, all of us – Maori and Pakeha alike – will know that John Key’s deal with the Maori Party, has solidified into a dangerously intimate and profoundly undemocratic alliance between the executive arm of the Pakeha state, and a small, legally protected clique of aristocratic Maori politicians and businessmen.

      http://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/2010/12/injured-majesty.html

      all eyez on Tainui

      FIGHT THE POWER !!!

  5. prism 5
    10 December 2010 at 12:00 pm

    The red poppies commemorating the Flanders fields are to be made in Christchurch no more because the RSA will save $150,000 outsourcing them, on top of the $2m donations in NZ money they now get from NZs.

    It is NZ men and women that the poppies commemorate and the money is spent in NZ so we are (were) helping our own with our own donations. But that isn’t good enough for the neo lib business managers who have been brought up to think the world is their oyster, individual countries with pride and self-sufficiency don’t cut it in the international free market.

    Taking the making of our memorial flowers to China and Australia from Christchurch makes business sense if viewed as simple cost efficiency. Perhaps it would have been more efficient for us to have surrendered NZ to the opposing forces at the start of the war as decision makers don’t seem to value this country and we the people belonging here at all. They are prepared to give up everything we have achieved and fought for as NZs as if it was just dross.

    There’ll be no more red poppies for me Dad, if you’re looking over from your grave in France. I’ll be buying a white poppy for peace next Anzac Day.

    • The Voice of Reason 5.1
      10 December 2010 at 12:24 pm

      The RSA advise that the email adress for complaints is:

      [deleted]

      Karen is the secretary to the CEO, who is apparently too chickenshit to face the music himself, so under no circumstances email Dr Stephen Clarke directly at [deleted] or ring him on [deleted].

      Pip Pip!

      [lprent: We don’t allow either individuals e-mail addresses or phone numbers to be put up on the site (and I’m not even particularly keen about organisational ones). The correct way to do this is to put in a link to where ever these have been already listed in public by the people concerned.

      The reason for this is because many of the bots out there specifically harvest e-mail addresses and phone numbers. We don’t want to provide a source for them, and just as importantly we don’t want our bandwidth taken up by bots thinking that we are a source. ]

      • Rosy 5.1.1
        10 December 2010 at 12:44 pm

        I wouldn’t put that email address on my social networking page either *cough, cough*

        • gobsmacked 5.1.2.1
          10 December 2010 at 4:48 pm

          Don’t worry, the Prime Minister has stepped in.

          He has announced that he will personally lead the negotiations to make sure the ANZAC Day Poppies are made in New Zealand. Mr Key will offer the RSA a large slice of taxpayers’ money and rush a law change through Parliament today. “This is Middle Earth – sorry, I mean, New Zealand – so of course the poppies must be made here”, the Prime Minister declared. “Thousands of brave Kiwis fought against that big dragon or Sauron or whoever it was at Gallipolli, you know, the bad guys. Lest we forget, we can always rent the DVD.”

          • Colonial Viper 5.1.2.1.1
            10 December 2010 at 5:12 pm

            Yeah if Key wants another kicking from his Party’s free market right wing he’ll intervene.

    • Lats 5.2
      10 December 2010 at 1:24 pm

      If the $150,000 saved goes towards supporting the old diggers and other ex-servicemen who have risked their lives in service to our country then I don’t really have much of a problem with this decision. I note that Stephen Clark said the poppies are being sourced from the same company that supplies the Australian RSA, so you could argue that the decision embraces the ANZAC spirit in a way. I do feel for the good folk at Kilmarnock Enterprises here in Chch though, it isn’t the first contract they have lost for no really good reason.

    • Colonial Viper 5.3
      10 December 2010 at 1:41 pm

      Can someone tell me how higher wage unionised Australia can make these more cheaply than lower wage ununionised NZ’ers? 🙄

      (this is another reason why the low wage strategy of the NATs is stupid).

      • Draco T Bastard 5.3.1
        10 December 2010 at 2:55 pm

        And also transport them across the ditch.

        this is another reason why the low wage strategy of the NATs is stupid

        Yep, low wages, as Jonkey promised to deliver, leads to lack of R&D investment which means that all the better, more efficient ways of producing something aren’t investigated. This results in the costs actually going up in relation to all the other countries which actually do do the needed R&D such as China.

        Have I mentioned before that National have NFI as to how the economy works?

    • Vicky32 5.4
      10 December 2010 at 3:33 pm

      I tried to buy a white poppy (on principle) this year, but was told by an angry seller, that they don’t sell them in Auckland, only Wellington.
      No New Zealand family members ever fought anywhere (too old or too young), but my English family did. That’s why I am a total pacifist. I will donate but I will not wear poppies. It’s amazing how angry people get about that!
      Deb

      • prism 5.4.1
        10 December 2010 at 5:24 pm

        Watch it Deb wars or battles anyway, could result. The red poppies have always been in remembrance of the fallen, hapless or not, getting caught up in the turmoil and conflict of trying to protect your country from an invading force taking control. So I don’t see that red poppies are glorifying war and the sales go to help returned veterans.

        But after the world wars there were efforts to help the vets get employment here. For NZ jobs to be wiped so that product can be made cheaper overseas then sold here to be paid for with NZ currency, is not in the spirit of past help to assist returned forces to find jobs, start businesses in NZ. It appears that no NZ enterprise, even one with so much embedded national interest, is safe from being outsourced to other countries if it can be done more cheaply. We will sell our soul, if we still have one, if we get a good offer.

        People who try to sound caution, refuse to commit violence on principle and encourage peace can receive severe criticism even punishment. And the RSA can be strange, as when the World War vets became a tight club who would not open the ranks to include Vietnam vets for some years.

        • Vicky32 5.4.1.1
          10 December 2010 at 6:32 pm

          I have agonised about buying red poppies for years, prism… having been brought up in New Zealand. It was when a lot of the publicity turned from supporting elderly WW1 veterans to glorifying their (necessary) deeds and those of more recent veterans and also wars, that I made up my mind!
          It’s true, I saw the woman interviewed on Clive last night, about losing the contract – she was very upset, and I fully understand why…
          I have had nothing to do with the RSA – except that when my father died, the RSA wanted to get involved in his funeral… because he was a WW2 veteran from England. I don’t think my mother was all that keen, from what I remember. (I was 20, but my sibs were much younger, so it was left to my Mum, who already had disabilities and died herself within a few years.)
          My problem with Vietnam vets is that they were all (the NZ ones) volunteers, who chose to take part in a war of imperialism (maybe because it was American imperialism, they didn’t recognise it for what it was?) There has always been a strong anti-English sentiment in NZ and an equally strong pro-American stance. My Dutch friend was beaten up in the street when she was five, for speaking Dutch to her 3 year old sister. My sister and I at 7 and 5 years old, were attacked at school for having “Pommy” accents. True!)
          So I am quite “relaxed” about not buying poppies!
          Deb

          • Draco T Bastard 5.4.1.1.1
            10 December 2010 at 10:26 pm

            except that when my father died, the RSA wanted to get involved in his funeral… because he was a WW2 veteran from England.

            Really? Amazing – didn’t have any interest in my fathers funeral (he was also a WWII vet).

            There has always been a strong anti-English sentiment in NZ and an equally strong pro-American stance.

            True

            Personally, I just ignore Anzac day anyway as it has become overly sentimental/patriotic (to the point of actually being negative rather than positive) in recent years.

            • Vicky32 5.4.1.1.1.1
              10 December 2010 at 11:03 pm

              “Really? Amazing – didn’t have any interest in my fathers funeral (he was also a WWII vet).”
              I do remember my Mum talking about it, but this was 36 years back! (My sister and I had moved to Auckland and we literally flew in and back to Ak again, we were teenagers, and there may well be things I don’t know about.. ) Mum did this very Scottish stiff upper lip I don’t want to talk about it thing – so we didn’t. But I know had the positions been reversed, Dad would have talked a lot, which told the English stiff upper lip thing is not at all true (or maybe it’s a class thing?)

    • g says 5.5
      10 December 2010 at 8:54 pm

      The red poppies commemorating the Flanders fields are to be made in Christchurch no more because the RSA will save $150,000 outsourcing them….
      o.k. if it’s just about money… our family budget saves $5 if we don’t buy a poppy….

  6. Draco T Bastard 6
    10 December 2010 at 1:01 pm

    Growth And Elections

    Anyone who’s read the classic Larry Bartels paper on politics and the income distribution (pdf) should know this; one of the key points in that paper is that Republicans have fared better than Democrats, even though they have generally presided over worse economic performance, because they tend to have faster growth in year that precedes an election.

    hmmm, should be good news for the left then as NACT have outright screwed the economy – we’re not going to see the sudden boost just before the election but we will see that the economy will decrease again.

  7. felix 7
    10 December 2010 at 1:14 pm

    Hey look! Dirty filthy cowardly sociopathic pigs!

    So glad our own law enforcement officers are the cream of NZ society and would never, ever do anything like this:

    http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/shocking-new-footage-of-spratt-tasering-released-to-ccc-20101209-18qkx.html

    (in fairness to these disgusting maggots, there were only nine of them so they pretty much had to tase him 14 times to get him out of the cell).

  8. Colonial Viper 8
    10 December 2010 at 5:20 pm

    Well waddya you know.

    US complicity in Big Oil/Corporate Interference in Nigerian Affairs

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/dec/08/wikileaks-cables-shell-nigeria-spying

    wikileaks have moved on from wars and international relations to how US diplomats are intertwined with big business. And here is the US aware that Pfizer was blackmailing Nigerian officials.

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/dec/09/wikileaks-cables-pfizer-nigeria

    • Draco T Bastard 8.1
      10 December 2010 at 10:34 pm

      And is anybody really surprised by that? The US government has been owned by big business for quite some time (At least 100 years).

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