Open mike 19/03/2010

39 comments on “Open mike 19/03/2010 ”

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1. freedom 1

   19 March 2010 at 8:07 am

   in light of the new focus of New Zealand’s spy agencies, namely us, i repost this challenge

   i challenge you to read page 26 of this leaked cia report
   then tell me who the criminals are
   http://www.aclu.org/files/assets/CIA.pdf

   of course many of the other pages also contain juicy bits too, but 26 is very clear in its message

   remember the whole focus of worldwide security changed because of this event and here is proof beyond doubt that the US government deliberately and knowingly acted against the truth
2. andy (the other one) 2

   19 March 2010 at 8:44 am

   What is it with the NZ Herald and pictures of Sharks?
   • Marty G 2.1

     19 March 2010 at 9:26 am

     Cheaper than hiring reporters to get actual news. Editing the Herald has written some hilarious pieces on it.
3. sk 3

   19 March 2010 at 8:49 am

   The extraordianrys story of the day is how NZ’s Madoff has been sentenced to just 6 years jail – and is likely to be out in 4. And yet he stole through a deliberate ponzi scheme nearly $18m.

   What is it with NZ that we refuse to take financial fraud – be it finance company or ponzi scheme swindles – seriously? He should have gone down for the maximum, yet the judge deducted time for his ‘co-operation’. Pathetic
   • Marty G 3.1

     19 March 2010 at 9:27 am

     Yeah, and if he had broken into their homes and stolen 10% of that amount form all those people, he would be locked up for far longer. One law for the ruling class…
   • travellerev 3.2

     19 March 2010 at 9:36 am

     Maybe he will run foul of the “criminals” and get what he deserves street level style. It seems Madoff did. Assholes like them never learn. It seems he thought he could con a big bad dude.
   • prism 3.3

     19 March 2010 at 12:55 pm

     Yes this conman “Stephen Gerard Versalko, 51, last year admitted stealing $17.76 million” has ripped off millions in money, but more than that has abused trust which is vital for us to have in each other. We take it for granted and feel angry with those who abuse it without realising that it may be the basis of our civil society.
   • mickysavage 3.4

     19 March 2010 at 8:33 pm

     Your average aggravated robbery attracts this sort of sentence even though the amount gained is in the hundreds or thousands of dollars worth. This was heavy heavy fraud, premeditated and it occurred over a number of years.

     I disagree with jail but in terms of relative treatment it was really light.
4. Sookie 4

   19 March 2010 at 8:58 am

   I heard the lovely Oliver Driver say this morning those Mackenzie McDairy farm proposals were to be withdrawn due to very high resource consent fees. Can it be true? Rejoice! However, what a lame excuse, blaming the hapless planners yet again, because they finally realised the whole country thought it was a shit idea and didn’t want to acknowledge they were wrong (except Fed Farmers was all for it, as they’re a national embarrassment).

   Anyway, kudos to the Greens, as if they hadn’t told everyone about that nasty little proposal back in November, it would have slipped through due process eventually.
   • NickS 4.1

     19 March 2010 at 11:40 am

     http://tvnz.co.nz/business-news/farming-cubicle-plans-dumped-over-cost-3421534

     Turns out the Minister for the Environment called it in for further work on the resource consent due to water quality issues, bumping up the cost by a couple of million dollars. Amusingly the people behind the project are saying it’s not intensive, comparing their stocking rate per hectare to far less fragile, higher productivity areas in the lowlands. Because, you know, the MacKenzie Basin is a highly productive, lush land of high rainfall and warm winters and mild summers.

     This ranks as about the smartest thing Dr Smith’s done thus far, however it remains to be seen if he’ll use the same solid reasoning to make mining the conservation estate difficult.
5. travellerev 5

   19 March 2010 at 9:30 am

   Good morning everyone,

   While the world is thundering towards WWIII and no doubt NZ will be asked to send troops to Iran when that happens I thought it would be interesting to put a link ,a href=’http://pilotsfor911truth.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=19732′>here from the website Pilots for 911 truth. they just put their latest analysis (Captcha is accidentally analysiss. LOL) of data with regards to the two planes who flew into the Twin towers. Those of you who have some knowledge about flying bloody great big Boeings, even if just in a flight simulator game, are cordially invited to give your opinion after viewing this. Also the first analysis of the flights into the Pentagon and Pennsylvania are available on this site.
   • Winston Smith 5.1

     19 March 2010 at 4:04 pm

     Good morning fool, your WW3 link is crapola – and that’s my cordial opinion.

     That BLU 117 is simply the naval version of the 2000 pound general purpose (GP) bomb. They’re not specialised penetrators and their transit to Diego Garcia has no particular significance – just another milk run.

     The only differences with the BLU 117s are that they have a coating on their casing and an fire-resistant explosive – they’re designed for naval operations and that sort of shit is good on ships.

     Whoever “leaked’ this information assumes that anything with “BLU’ is a penetrating weapon. That’s simply not true.

     Stand in the corner and wait for another acorn, Chicken Little
     • travellerev 5.1.1

       20 March 2010 at 12:34 pm

       Oh dear,

       I blew the link to what was of course the link I wanted most prominent in my comment: the analysis of the flight speed of the two planes impacting in the two towers so here it is again: The impossible speed of the two planes hitting the twin towers on 9/11.

       I take it, Winston, that you did not take the trouble to watch the two video’s made by pilots, one of whom actually flew two of the planes alleged to be hijacked that day? I may be a fool W. but I’m in great company
6. Pascal's bookie 6

   19 March 2010 at 9:35 am

   Looks like US healthcare bill comes up for the vote in about 72 hours

   Lot’s of details on the politics of it here

   It ain’t the best possible thing, but it’s still a hell of an achievement if they pull it off.

   Here’s Ezra Klein, (quoted at above link) on what Democratic congress critters with doubts about voting ‘yes’ have to decide:

   If you’re a liberal House Democrat, here’s what you’d be voting against: Legislation that covers 32 million people. A world in which 95 percent of all non-elderly, legal residents have health-care coverage. An end to insurers rescinding coverage for the sick, or discriminating based on preexisting conditions, or spending 30 cents of each premium dollar on things that aren’t medical care. Exchanges where insurers who want to jack up premiums will have to publicly explain their reason, where regulators will be able to toss them out based on bad behavior, and where consumers will be able to publicly rate them. Hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies to help lower-income Americans afford health-care insurance. The final closure of the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit’s “doughnut hole.”

   If you’re a conservative House Democrat, then probably you support many of those policies, too. But you also get the single most ambitious effort the government has ever made to control costs in the health-care sector.
   • Pete 6.1

     19 March 2010 at 1:07 pm

     Great quote – I’ll have my fingers crossed for them, though I am still amazed by the level of influence that the lobby groups have – at least with a House majority the Dems might be able to listen to reason…
7. prism 7

   19 March 2010 at 1:41 pm

   I hear that Israel and Palestine are at it again. The USA fluffs around on the outskirts of the fight wringing its hands ineffectually. A rocket came from the Palestinians and killed a poor little Thai worker. I would have thought that with all those pesky settlers pouring into the country that they have to build homes for on land that is claimed by Palestine, they would have workers galore.

   There is a pattern here in this drawn out debilitating argument. Every now and then Israel does something provocative and kills off any negotiations. I reckon they play the game as finely and brilliantly as they would play a violin. And most of their chief politicians are ex-army, along with the army service that the young people do, there seems to be a TINA approach of escalating retaliation to the problem of the angry, unsettled Palestinians. Which means that the old guys, and the right wing rigid hardliners will continue to rule as they create the choking fog of revenge and retaliation that smothers moves towards peace-positive action.
   • Mach1 7.1

     19 March 2010 at 2:15 pm

     Less than a choking fog of revenge and retaliation, more like dieing of thirst.
   • Pascal's bookie 7.2

     19 March 2010 at 8:41 pm

     Prism, there are some fascinating developments in the US/Israel relationship going on.

     http://www.newshoggers.com/blog/2010/03/still-more-on-the-usisrael-bru-ha-ha.html

     eg: General Petraeus, media superstar, has said that Israel’s actions are endangering US troops on the ground and hurting their strategic interests WRT the global conflagration against the dreaded terrisists. That’s huge for any number of reasons, and I’m pretty sure it’s unprecedented. On top of that:

     Since taking office, Obama has refused to approve any major Israeli requests for U.S. weapons platforms or advanced systems. Officials said this included proposed Israeli procurement of AH-64D Apache attack helicopters, refueling systems, advanced munitions and data on a stealth variant of the F-15E.

     “All signs indicate that this will continue in 2010,” a congressional source familiar with the Israeli military requests said. “This is really an embargo, but nobody talks about it publicly.”

     …that info has only just come out now, as a planned shipment of bsuter bunking bombs was cancelled, er, diverted.

     The theory is, so I’ve read, that Obama:

     i) Isn’t as close to Israel as recent Presidents and views the relationship more objectively, with a focus on US interests as being the paramount factor.

     ii) The pentagon is a much more important lobby group than than Israel, no matter how important Israel’s lobby is.

     which leads to
     iii) high stakes attempts by Washington to replace Israel’s current coalition govt with one less crazy, err, I mean, use diplomacy to effect the political landscape in Israel such that their relationship with the US can return to a normal setting.

     If true, the domestic politics of this in both countries will be insane.
     • prism 7.2.1

       19 March 2010 at 10:06 pm

       Ha captcha – oh!
       This is dynamite stuff on Israel. Oh please can it continue to an end where wiser heads in that country get to be in control and they teach about Palestinian grievances in schools even, alongside their own history, then they will have a better understanding of the mess that has grown in the place of the idea of a sanctuary, a dedicated piece of land for their state. They are lucky still, I don’t think the gypsies have found a place to stand and be free yet.

       When intelligent Israelis get objective like Obama, in bigger numbers than the present activists now, we will gradually start to see a turn around in mutual relations with Palestine, a drop in anti-Israeli activity and a slow down in all this tension affecting us all. I hope to live to see it – it may take some time, but this could be an important step.
8. Lanthanide 8

   19 March 2010 at 2:33 pm

   Seems all of the database and 500 errors are gone today.
   • lprent 8.1

     19 March 2010 at 2:44 pm

     Yeah, was a bloody nuisance. But they think that they tracked down whatever it was on the server that was impacting our systems.
9. gingercrush 9

   19 March 2010 at 3:18 pm

   OK so apparently TV 3 on Saturday at 11am has some new current affairs show with Duncan Garner and Stephen Parker. Its called “The Nation”. This week it will feature Stephen Joyce. Why the hell are they not advertising this? Why is it at 11am on a Saturday and I thought Parker was Brownlee’s Press Secretary.

   Oh and I noticed TVNZ plans to cut more money from News and Current Affairs. But despite them making cuts. I have no doubt we can look forward to more stupid fucking live crosses. Bringing a news reporter live nearly never adds any value to the news story. Why the hell are they live anyway? Unless its a Court Case where a jury is deciding or some other major event where it is necessary for the reporter to be live then I don’t want to see the reporter live. I am sick of seeing useless newsreaders ask the live reporter a stupid question for the then useless reporter to be blustered and sound entirely incoherent. Only for that reporter to either repeat crap from the report they did earlier in the day or more useless information that I didn’t care about in the first place.
   • Lanthanide 9.1

     19 March 2010 at 4:16 pm

     My favourite was a story on Morrinsville and how the stock salesday (or something) had picked up from last year and it looked like the recession was easing. A reasonable story, focussing on a rural town that doesn’t get much screentime. The segment was about 4 minutes long.

     At the end of the segment they crossed live to their reporter to ask him some inane question that added no value to the story whatsoever.
     • BLiP 9.1.1

       19 March 2010 at 4:31 pm

       heh! And then there was that classic when, as the Nationalâ„¢ Standards policy was being announced, there was a “live cross” to some poor scribbler standing outside Rongotai College (I think) at night, during the school holidays . . .

       It’s at schools like this one . . .

       . . . and off she goes blethering nonsense. I should’ve taped it.

       I understand the reporters themselves are not that keen on the whole thing, either. Apparently the worst “live cross” an Auckland reporter can get is a travel related story which requires that that they be “live” out at the airport at 6pm – the worst possible time in the world to get to and from the airport from the central city where TV1 and 3 are housed. The charade is being driven by the marketing department who have got it into their thick heads that since families are clustered around the tele scoffing dinner, the network should reflect this by having as many members of their own “family” live in the living room “sharing” the day with each other.
   • Pete 9.2

     19 March 2010 at 4:35 pm

     Charlie Brooker’s ‘Newswipe’ cuts to the heart of all this garbage – and the death by a thousand inane cuts that inane cuts in the news-media bring upon us.

     My first thought about ‘The Nation’ is that I’ll almost certainly be turned off by Garner’s awful, ego-centric editorialising – of fucking everything, just as he does on the news every damn night…
10. mickysavage 10

    19 March 2010 at 5:05 pm

    Latest Roy Morgan poll.

    National down 2 to 51.5, Labour up 2 to 33.5.

    18 points to go …
    • BLiP 10.1

      19 March 2010 at 5:23 pm

      One click a month from now . . . gold card – check; mining the parks – check; raising GST – check; privatising Auckland – check; slashing the public service – check; the “dubya” recession – check; more unemployment – check; Chopper Tolley – check; Rugby World Cup tickets – check.

      Keem ’em coming Johnny-boy.
    • gingercrush 10.2

      19 March 2010 at 6:42 pm

      That is what the numbers were in November 2009 and August-September 2009. The poll has been rather static for months. For anything to celebrate for Labour. They need to be 34% or over and National needs to dip below 50%. Additionally you want a higher number saying the Country is heading in the wrong direction.

      I guess the one good thing about Roy Morgan numbers is that Labour is polling what they got in Election 2008 whereas National is polling far higher than what they got in 2008. Which tends to be bad because when they do go down its going to put Labour up above what they got in 2008.
    • The Voice of Reason 10.3

      19 March 2010 at 7:11 pm

      Not even 18 pts to go, Mickey. Once Labour gets within striking distance of 40%, it’s all bets off. Particularly if the voting public tells Dunne and Rodders to do one, as seems likely. The brown tories aren’t going to increase their seats, probably be lucky to hold all the ones they’ve got now. And if the Greens don’t mess it up and Anderton hangs on for one more trot round the paddock, Phil Goff is PM.
    • Lew 10.4

      19 March 2010 at 7:43 pm

      On the other hand, that’s within the margin of error.

      L
      • mickysavage 10.4.1

        19 March 2010 at 8:41 pm

        Oh Lew you are such a sad sack …

        Can you think of any wingnut who would say the equivalent?
11. Anne 11

    19 March 2010 at 6:31 pm

    Then there was the cold and gloomy night last year when a trainee (?) reporter stood in front of a Rangitoto College entrance gate (which was shut) blathering on about a handful of pupils who were miles away tucked up in bed recovering from a mild dose of Swine Flu… wot we already knew about cos the announcer in the studio had told us. Pointless and stupid.
12. bobo 12

    19 March 2010 at 11:38 pm

    Just watched a great clip from Aussie political satire show called “hungry Beast” which set up a fake institute stating Sydney is the most gullible city in a press release sent out to test which news outlets actually fact check their sources, makes interesting viewing, I guess nz media isn’t any different.
    • Pete 12.1

      20 March 2010 at 12:14 pm

      Thanks bobo – very interesting indeed. A well made point, that would be easily transferable to the NZ context. Though I do wonder whether it would pass through Morning Report unnoticed?
    • felix 12.2

      20 March 2010 at 1:14 pm

      Ditto from me, well played.

      And to think this happens many times each day.
      • bobo 12.2.1

        20 March 2010 at 3:09 pm

        Maybe someone on this side of the tasman should put our media to the test 😛 Something that reinforces the current government policy that they themselves pick up and use then later comes out it is bogus would be clever and funny. “Mining helps environmental destruction of rain forests says acme think tank” blah blah.
        • lprent 12.2.1.1

          20 March 2010 at 3:15 pm

          Ummm post on that is already done… I was wondering where I’d gotten the link from..
13. gingercrush 13

    20 March 2010 at 12:38 pm

    Anyone watch “The Nation” on TV 3 at 11am? It’s very agenda-like. Its obvious they have a few kinks to sort out and I’m not sure Duncan Garner is the best person to interview politicians. He didn’t get much out of Joyce. Joyce didn’t do much wrong but he didn’t do anything right either. Stephen Parker as host was pretty good but does need a few episodes to sort himself. The Panel which comprises of two people was decent. Though I hope its not just a bunch of Newspapers reporters/columnists. I thought the piece on River access etc was good. Though it could have been shorter.

    I guess the big difference to Q&A is where Q&A provides plenty of news for TV One. The Nation just doesn’t have that. Particularly as any news would then go on a Saturday which isn’t a rich day for political stories. Also I can’t imagine their viewer numbers were very good since they didn’t advertise the show.

    The main problem with now having three political shows is how similar they are. Both The Nation and Q&A have a panel and a guest who is interviewed while Backbenchers has four MPs and isn’t that substantive. There is no political show in New Zealand that can handle substantial issues.Personally, I’d love to see a political & current affairs show where the first 30 minutes is political news covering stuff we wouldn’t ordinarily see on the evening news then devote the last 30 minutes to a talk-fest
    • bobo 13.1

      20 March 2010 at 3:01 pm

      Linda Clark was good back in the day with her hour political interview show on tv, kind of a NZ version of hard talk, had nothing of that type of show since which gets more into detail interviewing politicians which they don’t like as soundbites wear very thin after a few minutes.

      I will check out tv3 new show thanks for the info ginger.

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