Open mike 19/08/2011

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, August 19th, 2011 - 43 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…

43 comments on “Open mike 19/08/2011 ”

  • Comments are now closed

  1. Bored 1
    19 August 2011 at 7:23 am

    Todays bitch…the MSM. It is far too easy to accept what these guys give you as “news”, slanted as it is you can filter it. What is worse is what they dont give you. Real news stories, ignored because they dont fit the world view of the MSM owners.

    Here is a classic example: did you know that an Arab Spring has been going on in Madrid? Spain has had a huge street protest going unreported. Shame MSM!

    http://www.energybulletin.net/stories/2011-08-18/pain-spain

    • logie97 1.1
      19 August 2011 at 7:40 am

      Related to that are the “clever” or subtle positioning and wording of paragraphs.
      In today’s Stuff there is an article on the economy affects on the election.
      Starts off with Nationals’s angle. Note the deliberate positioning of the “” marks.

      …Labour would scaremonger over the policy and misrepresent it as a repeat of the wholesale trade sales to largely foreign investors in the 1980s and 90s, he said. “Our job is to negate that and to be very clear about what it is that we are proposing. Long-term they will be extremely popular with investors and KiwiSavers.” …

      • Bored 1.1.1
        19 August 2011 at 7:49 am

        Saw that nasty little pro Nat steer as well, perfectly illustrates the issue.

        Where to look for news? Al Jazheera is also a bit bent but it is the straightest MSM channel I can find.

        • Tigger 1.1.1.1
          19 August 2011 at 10:10 am

          You need to check out Maori TV, Bored. I’ve found them the least biased of the MSM. Te Kaea especially.

          • Colonial Viper 1.1.1.1.1
            19 August 2011 at 12:03 pm

            Russia TV on YouTube. I find they are quite impartial unless it is news to do with Russia’s immediate sphere of influence.

            And they do love putting the boot into the USA I have to admit.

    • pollywog 1.2
      19 August 2011 at 9:59 am

      What is worse is what they dont give you. Real news stories, ignored because they dont fit the world view of the MSM owners.

      eh…WATCHUTALKINABOUTWILLIS ???

      STOP THE PRESS…Whaleoil is gonna write book.

      http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/5471925/Right-wing-blogger-planning-book

      …a how to book on aligning right wing views with being an obese, depressed, drug reliant, unemployable, bludging, criminal nark.

      it’s currently got a working titile of ‘Suckhole’, though i think ‘Bottomfeeder’ would be more apt.

      • Bored 1.2.1
        19 August 2011 at 10:05 am

        Best news for a while….yippee…….the book title should be “Lower than Shark Shit”….

        • travellerev 1.2.1.1
          19 August 2011 at 12:17 pm

          Be nice to sharks.

          • pollywog 1.2.1.1.1
            19 August 2011 at 1:07 pm

            eh!!!

            theres something like over 70 million sharks killed every year, by lopping off the fins and chucking the rest back, only for them to die slowly on the ocean floor. All to make shark fin soup. A snotlike, tasteless delicacy, favourite among yuppie asians and made popular by a bored emperor who wanted something exotic to eat and show off how rich and powerful he was.

        • McFlock 1.2.1.2
          19 August 2011 at 12:42 pm

          “Watersports: how I got paid to wallow in my own filth.”

      • Bob 1.2.2
        19 August 2011 at 10:32 am

        obese, depressed, drug reliant, unemployable, bludging, criminal nark.
        Has to be the best description of whaleoil , Jerry the Hutt , Paula the westie , Tim gross…r , D ick smith , muzza mcCully , Sandra “mangrove ” goudie …… ahhh the list could be quite long
        Oh nearly forgot the one who is the stand in on Little Britain , the one and only David ” im the only gay in the village ” Farrar .

        Morning Brothers and Sisters …..

      • lprent 1.2.3
        19 August 2011 at 3:07 pm

        Does anyone know who his ghost writer will be?
        😈

      • mik e 1.2.4
        19 August 2011 at 6:16 pm

        I thought it would be called composting because thats what slaters do.

    • Bill 1.3
      19 August 2011 at 10:39 am

      3 News is ‘brought to you’ by ASB.
      1 News is ‘brought to you’ by (fuck, I forget!) Is it AMP?

      Anyway, the main conduits for news are sponsored by financial institutions. So it’s only reasonable to assume that slants or filters news coverage….that it takes on a pro financial tinge and relegates those things that would show financial institutions in a somewhat negative light (Spain being a good example). And no, it’s not a conspiracy, it’s a natural consequence of the framework the news exists within.

      So there is propaganda by ommission as well as by feeding a particular focus. Syria. In the news. (Accompanied by blatent propaganda) Libya. In the news. (Accompanied with blatent propaganda) Bahrain. Not in the news. Spain. Not in the news. And so on.

      The culmutive effect is something like London. I mean, can you imagine the scenes if an angry, disenfranchised portion of the population was able to give their anger some focus? Fuel it with information gained from the mainstream? Of course there is no actual information going out there to people. The ‘news makers’ are sunk deep within their own world view and that world view is reinforced through time by the natural characteristics of news set within a particular, normalised ideological framework…the promotion and banishment of certain views and the individuals who espouse them.

      Things are as they should be. Everyone is in place according to fate. It’s the natural order of things as determined by the infallible, omniscient ‘hand of the market’.

      Or something like that.

      edit. Would a current affairs programme sponsored by a fast food chain do much negative coverage of said fast food chain or of associated issues that might cast fast food in a bad light?

  2. tc 2
    19 August 2011 at 7:44 am

    MSM nailed their colour to the mast years ago with their blatant pro nat angles through 08 and a personality nit issues based coverage.
    Here especially they ignore the many more important stories offshore where people are dying and countries are openly bitter with their leaders. Yemen, Syria, Bahrain, egypt and did any cover a 4 year old mauled to death by a pit bull in Melbourne yesterday, dunno but compare the authorities response to this death with our nasty dog attacks.
    I stopped watching in favor of SBS long ago.
    Shop around for freeview boxes that grab the SBS channels, excellent Oz public channel.

    • Bored 3.1
      19 August 2011 at 8:03 am

      Now there MS, dont be too worried..the nice man on the TV3 News market segment comes on screen with a big smile most nights and talks numbers most reassuringly….we dont really understand and it does sound a little like he is reading the racing odds and results…but we trust him, and what he is saying must be really important or they wouldnt put it on…and he is so reassuring that we will all be alright. And he wears a nice suite. Wonder if he has some of those what do you call them…shares?

      Now just settle down and stop worrying the children.

      • mickysavage 3.1.1
        19 August 2011 at 8:22 am

        Ha Bored, well put.

        The basic problem is that the various stimulation packages have failed and PIIGS is shortly to be FUKGPIIGS.

        And after that anything can happen.

        In good old godzone we should be OK.  We have plentiful fresh water and food, good energy sources and a subtropical climate.  And we have a nice smiley wavey leader who will keep us entertained.

        She’ll be right, won’t she? 

        • Bored 3.1.1.1
          19 August 2011 at 9:28 am

          Yeah course…we got Godzone…theres a couple of islands called Manukau and Ptown that are sort of outside Godzone, but it doesnt matter much cos the man with the smile reckons they spend the money I give them wrong, and they breed you know.

        • Bob 3.1.1.2
          19 August 2011 at 10:06 am

          I am sure she will be most impressed , because we have the Rubber Wool Cup to focus on and as long as we dont scare the tourists , focus on the pitch , all get our photos taken with at least one overseas visitor ………. then surely Junkey will save NZ from the evil Bankers and Robber Barons ?
          But then again he has been taking care of business for his mates that are in need of a hand up .

    • mik e 3.2
      19 August 2011 at 6:21 pm

      ms time to get printing some money again although Merkel and Sarkosy want to introduce a financial transaction tax how very right wing along with Berlusconi increasing Tax on the rich .Maybe Kiwis might see the con key is putting on us.gold price sky rockets.

  4. Janice 4
    19 August 2011 at 10:15 am

    Interesting that Michael Fay is sniffing around again. Cound it be he is on the scent of asset sales? NAH, he just loves this place.

    • idlegus 4.1
      19 August 2011 at 10:34 am

      it was reported on radiolive this morning that it was because he wanted to keep the farms in nz hands! lol!!!!! (the bigger the lie????)

    • the pink postman 4.2
      19 August 2011 at 3:44 pm

      That is certainly interesting Janice ,Also sniffing and fawning around Key and the Nats is Lord Michael Ashcroft buyer of insurance companies and past chairman of the Democratic Union.How disapointed they will be if the
      Nats lose the election .

    • Anne 4.3
      19 August 2011 at 7:19 pm

      @ Janice:
      He’s probably figured that after more than 15 years in the wilderness of Geneva, he can come back to Godzone without fear of police prosecution for his illegal wheeling and dealing and monstrous tax rip-offs in the 80s and 90s.

  5. travellerev 5
    19 August 2011 at 12:19 pm

    On Thursday 25th of August from 10-12 am I’ll be talking with Kiwi American Freedom radio host Vinnie Eastwood. I’ll be talking about The Financial Collapse we are witnessing and the BofA which is imploding and in which John Key has shares and what this means for New Zealand. I will also talk about Architects and Engineers for 911 truth and the release of their much anticipated campaign about WTC 7.

    [lprent: removed the bold. ]

  6. joe90 6
    19 August 2011 at 3:06 pm

    How long before the sceptics declare that the birds and the bees are part of the conspiracy

    “The more warming there’s been in an area, the more you would expect a species to move, and the more they have moved,” said Chris D. Thomas, a conservation biologist at the University of York in England, who led the work published Thursday in the journal Science. “This more or less puts to bed the issue of whether these shifts are related to climate change. There isn’t any obvious alternative explanation for why species should be moving poleward in studies around the world.”

  7. jackal 7
    19 August 2011 at 3:59 pm

    Someone to Blame

    Last month, the Nation ran a story on Iain Duncan Smith, who is the United Kingdoms Work & Pension Secretary. As always it was a complete beat up to promote National’s archaic beneficiary bashing policies that have in fact been a complete disaster for New Zealand. So far all their right wing agenda has achieved is an increase in inequality and unemployment…

  8. Keeping My Head Below The Parapet 8
    19 August 2011 at 4:08 pm

    Normally I don’t have any problem posting comments under my own name, but today is an exception. I live in Hawke’s Bay, which is about as feral as it gets in New Zealand, and putting your head above the parapet by commenting on one of its favourite inbreds, I mean sons, can have repercussions. So…

    The Member for Napier in the blue corner has not been paying attention when it comes to ensuring his propaganda has the correct authorisation on it.

    Approximately 40,000 magazines have recently been printed with a 2 page article about him, crowing about his accomplishments as an MP. Unfortunately, no authorisation. Stuart Nash seemed to manage it without a problem in his article

    40,000 Labels have had to be printed and applied to the offending pages.

    Looking forward to the RWNJ comments on this one 🙂

  9. the pink postman 9
    19 August 2011 at 4:12 pm

    The move to the far Right by this government is scary and is not far from becoming Fascist .The stamps for food /rent was used in the 1920/30s and caused misery and shame among the poor and unemployed. It created second class people and the recipients were often abused and treated with contempt. That it is likely to be used in Aotearoa is an insult to our way of life and should be resisted by us all . However I’m sorry to say the red necks and old blue rinses will be shouting their support. Having said that the recent statement by Bennett that this foul idea may be extended to all benificiaries may get even this group worried.
    I recommend the wonderfull “Graped of Wrath ‘ to people whom wish to know just what misery coupons for good brings.

  10. joe90 10
    19 August 2011 at 7:15 pm

    The thing the yanks lost last week, turns out it wasn’t a completely successful flight but it was a successful crash.

    And though DARPA isn’t sure what the “anomaly” was, HTV-2 also demonstrated that its autonomous systems worked perfectly–at least according to DARPA. You can’t have a rogue hypersonic missile out there roaming the skies out of control. When something went awry, HTV-2 offed itself in the controlled manner prescribed by its engineers.

    • Reality Bytes 10.1
      19 August 2011 at 9:36 pm

      How do they know that? they lost contact with it. Therefore they can only ASSUME it self destructed itself correctly. For all we know it could have slammed into some unseaworthy slave-fishing vessel withins NZ’s EEZ, and the owner of slave-vessel ASSUME’d it was lost due to it being an unseaworthy rust bucket, like so many others that sink on a regular basis.

  11. Reality Bytes 11
    19 August 2011 at 9:19 pm

    QueenStFarmer’s will no longer muster 1000 sheep down QueenSt.

    This makes me happy for less animal cruelty reasons, less stupid spectacle and all sorts of things that could go wrong reasons, and less getting taken the piss out of reasons.

  12. rosy 12
    19 August 2011 at 9:35 pm

    A damning report on private finance initiatives by a cross-party committee in the UK. The cost of capital for the PFIs can be twice what the government would pay, adding extraordinary costs and making PFIs significantly more expensive over the lifetime of the project.

    the Treasury select committee says that with the yield on government bonds at near-record lows, using a PFI deal for a new infrastructure project could end up costing up to 1.7 times as much as paying for it directly out of the public purse.

  13. jackal 13
    19 August 2011 at 9:44 pm

    Friday Fun With Photos #13

    Jokey hen didn’t want to answer some hard questions about youth unemployment last Tuesday. When it came time for him to front up, he scurried from parliament’s debating chamber. Trevor Mallard was the only MP game enough to call it… John Key is a chicken, and is running scared from the fowl results of National’s failed policies…

    • Chris 14.1
      20 August 2011 at 1:50 pm

      It says in the article you linked that it’s a consortium of companies which include Fletcher Building?

      So there is no company called well connected?

      • Jum 14.1.1
        20 August 2011 at 6:49 pm

        No Chris, there does not appear to be.

        But I do like to know what sort of people are coming in to control our country’s future and apart from Fletcher Building which is up to its nostrils in Gerry Brownlee’s entrails down in Christchurch there appears to be nothing called Well Connected.

        Then I found this which does nothing to alleviate my impression of pigs in troughs.

        http://www.nzta.govt.nz/about/about/media/releases/1349/news.html

        ‘NZTA awards contract for New Zealand’s biggest-ever roading project
        19 Aug 2011 | Auckland Motorways
        New Zealand’s biggest and most complex roading project – Auckland’s Waterview Connection – is a step closer to completion with the NZ Transport Agency’s announcement today that it has chosen the preferred tenderer for the project’s construction.
        The successful tenderer is the Well-Connected consortium. Well-Connected includes New Zealand and international companies: Fletcher Construction, McConnell Dowell Constructors, Obayashi Corporation, PB New Zealand, Beca Infrastructure and Tonkin & Taylor. The consortium includes five sub-alliance partners and contractors: SICE, Wilson Tunnelling, Downer EDI Works, Boffa Miskell and Warren and Mahoney. Well-Connected will now enter into an alliance with the NZTA to deliver the project. etc etc etc.’

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