Open mike 21/08/2011

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, August 21st, 2011 - 59 comments
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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…

59 comments on “Open mike 21/08/2011 ”

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  1. M 1
    21 August 2011 at 7:05 am

    Scary stuff:

    • Bill 1.1
      21 August 2011 at 9:21 am

      What’s scary about it?

      The intro says it all. Paraphrasing – ‘We support free speech, but we don’t support free speech.’ And then calls for google to excercise a more stringent censorship regime.

      The ‘shouldn’t be allowed’ sites, offered an interesting hodge podge. Alongside the usual images and indignia associated with the unpleasant guys of WW2, there were sites callng for an end to the bombing of Gaza, something on Venezuela, references to Zionism, another on Iran, Palestine…and so it went on.

      I couldn’t be bothered to endlessly pause the video to check out the sites, but anyway.

      As I asked at the beginning, why was it scary in your opinion?

  2. M 2
    21 August 2011 at 7:16 am

    Love Colin Campbell – bachelor and spinsterhood could be high on the agenda in future particularly with no pill or condoms.

    http://cassandralegacy.blogspot.com/2011/08/colin-campbell-on-embedded-energy.html

  3. logie97 3
    21 August 2011 at 9:43 am

    Cards to monitor or control the spending by beneficiaries.

    Judging by the outfits one or two of the cards proponents wear to mask their considerable girths, some of whom have had a history of benefit support, or being on the public purse as members of parliament, perhaps the cards should be given to them as well. The Petulant Bean has obviously been guilty of spending her money unwisely (junk food for one) and a couple of her colleagues could possibly also be guilty. What say MP’s be held to account on how they spend the money they get paid to attend parliament and debate issues – it’s all tax payers money afterall.

  4. Gina 4
    21 August 2011 at 9:45 am

    You want to be creeped out take a look at three short video’s showing 3 swastika shaped buildings on Google eartth. In the US, Greece and Nairobi. In Greece there is one that looks pretty well identical to the one in the US. In Nairobi there is a set of four buildings with each one being shaped like a swasticka. The proportions of these builings from Google earth all look similar to identical at a glance.

    The one in the US is in Coronado Naval Base built in 1967 more than 20 gyears after the war. Check out this news report about it.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWkls1v6vJE&playnext=1&list=PLFF0A40AAFABBA0F1

    The second one is in Greece. Listen to a news report about it that you cannot understand unless you speak Greek. Not sure when this one was built but the pictures say it all.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DzMlF_jvY4&feature=autoplay&list=PLFF0A40AAFABBA0F1&index=9&playnext=2

    The third one is in Nairobi either in or Near their main hospital. In this group of four builings all of them are shaped like swastikas. I checked these out ages ago. This one was built just after WW2 by imigrants. There seems to be very little information available about it.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M8Dsw29AYU

    I contacted New Zealand media people who said they don’t do stories on this sort of thing. Looks like they do news reports on it in the US and Greece so why not here. We know all about Arnie’s and Maria’s divorce so why is this subject off limits to our media.

    • history is lies 4.1
      21 August 2011 at 2:38 pm

      Remember this building occured in post WWII when the German SS, the Gestapo and various other nefarious agencies were being systematically implanted into the new Security and Investigation Units being developed by the US government. Namely the CIA and the NSA. SO yes real evil, but a building is a building, concern yourself with how the intelligence machines of the Third reich ended up in Washington DC and you will have much more to be concerned about.

      I would like to remind you that the swastika is one of the oldest forms in Human history. The sooner its short term association with our very dark and recent history is forgotten the sooner the world can return to the roots of its meaning. The swastika is a symbol borne of unity, love and repsect for each other.

    • The Voice of Reason 5.1
      21 August 2011 at 10:10 am

      What’s gotta hurt, Chris? If you didn’t want your photo taken with Phil Goff, you shouldn’t have stood there.

      • chris73 5.1.1
        21 August 2011 at 10:13 am

        Thats me on the right (naturally) and Jacinda Ardern on the left

        oh and this probably isn’t helpful either:

        http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/comment/5470134/Trotter-A-swing-right-could-tear-us-apart

        • The Voice of Reason 5.1.1.1
          21 August 2011 at 10:17 am

          No problem there, Chris. Conservative columnist with no connection to Labour quotes flea while praising Key. Yawn.

          • RedLogix 5.1.1.1.1
            21 August 2011 at 10:52 am

            Social conservative Trotter may be… but he’s forgotten more about Labour than most of us will ever know.

            And frankly I think he’s pretty close to the mark here. While Key’s govt hasn’t swung hard right so far, and pretty much dangled about not doing much in the middle…. a further swing to the right in this election will see the same sort of destructive policies that we’ve seen in the UK this last several years… with much the same sort of outcome you would have to predict.

            Key is after all popular. You might not like that, but it’s stupid to try and ignore why.

        • Campbell Larsen 5.1.1.2
          21 August 2011 at 10:21 am

          Lol
          That article must be satire. Shonky saving NZ from terrorist attack. Next he will be changing quickly in phone booths and wearing his undies on the outside.

        • Bored 5.1.1.3
          21 August 2011 at 10:27 am

          Having fun Orcusman? Its all rather sad from you and the MSM…bit like the sad reporting yesterday on the “opening” of some more of the JKey Memorial Larceny aka cycleway. Tell me how a road, used by cars and trucks can all of a sudden be designated cycleway? Its a big fekkin joke, like yourself, Whale, and the rest of the opinions coming from your side of the tracks.

          • chris73 5.1.1.3.1
            21 August 2011 at 10:44 am

            You remind me of the scene in erik the viking where the island is sinking but the king refuses to believe whats happening

            But hey you’re happy 🙂

            • Bored 5.1.1.3.1.1
              21 August 2011 at 6:11 pm

              Fuckwit troll dullard thickshit..

            • Puddleglum 5.1.1.3.1.2
              21 August 2011 at 8:44 pm

              Chris73, I think you’ll find that both islands (or all three) are (metaphorically) already sinking as you describe.

              I’ve often wondered why there aren’t contracts on ipredict as to whether such indicators as child poverty, domestic violence, child abuse, rates of youth suicide, rates of depression and anxiety disorders, etc. will go up or down as a result of election outcomes.

              It would be interesting because, ‘I predict’,  that at least some New Zealanders would have to face the fact that the policies they support (e.g., tax cuts, fewer public services, privatisation of health, education and welfare provision, etc.) also come along with increases in these indicators (after all, putting your own money on trends in these indicators supposedly makes people more honest with themselves).

              It would make the trade off that, according to the polls, many New Zealanders appear willing to make, very clear.

              • Matthew Hooton …
                23 August 2011 at 6:37 am

                Puddlegum – social indicator stocks of the kind you suggest are a great idea. Which ones are published annually (or quarterly) and where, so that iPredict can begin with an experiment to see ones attract the most interest?

    • mickysavage 5.2
      21 August 2011 at 10:48 am

      Hubbard has as much credibility as Slater.

      An article about future leadership prospects and he does not mention David Cunliffe.

      Unbelievable. 

      • chris73 5.2.1
        21 August 2011 at 10:58 am

        Insider knowledge? (Might help my ipredict)

      • RedLogix 5.2.2
        21 August 2011 at 11:03 am

        Yeah, omitting Cunliffe did seem so odd I had to think it was deliberate. Still we all make dozy mistakes from time to time.

        But overall it was soberly written and a reasoned appraisal. I’ve repeatedly said that I do support Goff; he would make a very good PM if he ever got a fair crack at it. But I don’t think these are fair times, and I don’t think he is going to capture the imagination of the NZ public this election. Is that fair? No. But probably true all the same.

        And I think Hubbard nails the reasons why. And he’s likely correct that the best outcome for Labour in the longer run is a narrow and honourable loss. That’ll keep the right in sufficient check, while allowing the left time to build a solid platform for 2014.

        Sure that’s a somewhat sour pill to swallow, but not a wholly bitter one.

        • Colonial Viper 5.2.2.1
          21 August 2011 at 9:14 pm

          Labour need 40% or 41%. A hard ask but certainly not impossible.

          36% or 37% would mean that Labour would lose, but National would have a precarious hold on power. And many in NAT will want to go for three terms and so be moderate…while the neoliberals will realise that three terms is not likely and will want to go hard right to pocket what they can while they can.

          I’m dismayed though that after the CGT Labour has not rolled out more big brave new left wing policy. RWC is around the corner and there will be no chance to announce stuff then.

          • McFlock 5.2.2.1.1
            21 August 2011 at 9:39 pm

            I tend to agree about the policy rollouts -but it might be a tactic to get coverage after the cup.
            40% for labour would be good, but it all depends on the minor parties – if mana and nz1 get 4% each + and electorate, greens on 7, then that could be a workable coalition there with labour <40.
            What Labour gets is largely irrelevant (although, before some tory goes for broke, 30% would be too low) – it’s what National get, and whether they have any friends after the election. I seriously doubt they will get 50%+, so they’ll need to pray ACT make up the difference (with Brash), or the maori party can make up the difference and are prepared to do the coalition again, or etc etc etc.
             
             

            • Colonial Viper 5.2.2.1.1.1
              21 August 2011 at 9:42 pm

              Yes it seems to me that NZ1 will very likely fail to cross the 5% line – just the way Key has deliberately positioned it.

  6. William Joyce 6
    21 August 2011 at 11:05 am

    SST fills in more of the picture of who is doing what in the scandal of exploitation of cheap foreign workers to work on 27 aged hulks in order to harvest Maori fishing quota.
    – unsafe ships – one has sunk with loss of life.
    – third world wages paid to maximize profits for quota holders.
    – unsafe work environments.
    – abusive treatment of the workers.
    Our fish, from our waters, to benefit our economy and yet not answerable to our laws!

  7. lprent 7
    21 August 2011 at 11:11 am

    I see that Mallard vs Cameron bike ride that the right have been obsessing about for months is on today

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10746451 

    The race starts at 1.30pm at Musick Point Reserve at Bucklands Beach.

    Weather is nice, I think I will head along and watch the start

  8. William Joyce 8
    21 August 2011 at 11:22 am

    Government creates free-market property speculation bubble in Christchurch.
     
    This was, and is, an utterly foreseeable problem that Gerry has failed to see through the clouds of mortar dust from his haste to demolish Christchurch.
    A distorted market of sudden and overwhelming demand from a limited supply.
    Not that they have to do anything to create this bubble. They (National) just have to do what they have always done – just do nothing!
     
    Extra-ordinary situations require extra-ordinary measures (including price control legislation). This can be done so landowners make a profit, homeless get homes, everyone is happy.
    Instead we can expect, as an extension of National Party policy, excessive profit taking by those who have from those who haven’t – all to the soundtrack of Gerry standing on a plinth singing “It’s a beautiful world”.

    • aerobubble 8.1
      21 August 2011 at 12:02 pm

      NZ is cheap. It dumped an upper chamber and then went soft on its wealth creators,
      so much so that wealth creators immediately leave our shores either in person, or
      sold to foreign owners after taking on too much debt. NZ business sector is soft
      in the head for the most part, they believed they could not hack it in a
      level playing field so watered down parliament and regulation to secure an easy
      living and the detriment of NZ. Nz is cheap. Business if it want to be better would
      demand a upper chamber, demand a CGT, demand we respect customers. Duh.
      Your fed up being on the top of the rubbish dump when you know you could be
      half way up a mountain, well all I have to say is Hubbard.

      • Campbell Larsen 8.1.1
        21 August 2011 at 12:35 pm

        I think you will find that you are a lonely cheerleader in your routine promoting an upper house as the panacea for NZ.
        One of the saving graces of the current status quo is that ill-conceived policy can be overturned by a incoming government. This of course means that good policy can also be overturned however as another commentator here pointed out, it is better to have the opportunity to do some good than to be paralysed by different factions controlling the upper and lower houses and to not be able to achieve anything.

  9. jackal 9
    21 August 2011 at 12:32 pm

    Asshole of the Week Award – Gordon Brown

    I had the displeasure of reading an article in the Taranaki Daily News today written by Gordon Brown. He’s rubbishing a report (PDF) prepared by Infometrics Ltd for Every Child Counts, a coalition of organisations led by Barnardos, Plunket, Unicef, Save the Children and Te Kahui Mana Ririki. Brown pretty much cover’s all the bases of ill informed opinion that we so often see from far right commentators…

  10. MikeG 10
    21 August 2011 at 1:21 pm

    For the good of NZ (and the All Blacks) could Kevin Roberts please keep his mouth shut and his ideas to himself.

    • Tigger 10.1
      21 August 2011 at 1:36 pm

      Rugby is a whore to commerce these days. So in NZ for that matter. As far as I’m concerned we deserve all the pathetic advertising campaigns in the world – as a country we elected a vacuous PM leading a party of vile individuals. And we may do so again in November.

    • William Joyce 10.2
      21 August 2011 at 2:02 pm

      You would think that New Zealand would have learned from the America’s Cup defections (Butterworth, Coutes et al) that a commercial entity has no national loyalty nor heart beyond that which it’s employees give it (or it’s legislated by government).
      America’s Cup, All Blacks, Super 14, Rugby World Cup will take whatever taxpayer dollars we give them but will piss-off when it is in their financial advantage to do so.
      Add to that Super V8’s, FIFA World Cup, Olympics, Ellerslie International Flower Show, World of Wearable Arts. All whores to the highest bidder and parasites hungry for Corporate Welfare!
      Cunliffe alluded to this problem on Q+A this morning when it comes to asset sales. Foreign buy-in will lead to calls to maximize profit (at the expense of NZ customers), leading to court cases against the NZ Government under international trade agreements. 
       
      No loyalty to New Zealand and screwing us for every dollar “the market can sustain”.
       

  11. Gina 11
    21 August 2011 at 3:37 pm

    Hi Viper

    Here’s a link to the video I was talking about yesterday. Its called “The elites plan for global extermination” by Webster Tarpley ( Histortian, Economist). Its about Obama’s appointee John Holdren the director of the White House office for science and technololgy. The film starts with Obama introducing John Holdren to the public in an address.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3Xv8CbMFcc

    “Today I am pleased to announce members of my science and technology team. Dr John Holdren has agreed to serve as assistant to the President for Science and Technology and director for the whitehouse office of science and technology policy…..”

    Mr Holdren co-wrote a book about 20 years ago called Ecoscience. In that book all manner of methods for population control both voluntary plus forced i.e methods such as putting chemicals in water are discussed. He had a figure of 1 billion people as and ideal global population.

    Tarpley shows us the quotes in Holdren’s books including one chapter heading entitled

    “De- development of Over Cevelpoed Countries”

    Holdren dislikes the idea that with good systems in place everyone on earth can live reasonably. My take on the austerity being introduced around the world is meant to shorten lifespan and thus reduce our population. Tarpley also talks about plans for de-industrialisation of the west and preventing countries like China and India developing. We have certainly have seen de industrialisation of the west in the last 30 years with an accompanying decrease in our standard of living with both parents having to work to make ends meet and when you don’t count immigration numbers most western countries have seen decreases in population.

    Holdren wants to create a science court where people could decide what inventions could be developed. Holdren apparantly hates technolgy and see’s people as polluters.

    According to Tarply Holdren is not the only nutter in the Obama administration. Cass Sunstein would like to give legal rights to animals to be represented in court. Holdren is even more extreme and would like to give legal rights to trees rather than having a plan to plant more trees which would be the correct solution as oppoed to his view of preventing development for the poor to save trees rather than getting the poor to go out and plant lots of trees.

    • Colonial Viper 11.1
      21 August 2011 at 4:19 pm

      Unfortunately I think that video you linked to is a have, it seems to have been manufactured by the pro-growth corporate crowd.

      I’ve watched the first ten minutes and Tarply attacks Holdren for being anti-economic growth, attacks Holdren for believing that there is a finite carrying capacity to the world, attacks Holdren for wanting tighter global regulation of pollution and resource exploitation, attacks Holdren for thinking that a more sustainable world population is closer to the one billion mark, attacks Holdren for saying that its not possible for every developing country in the world to strive for US levels of resource consumption and energy use.

      The thing is, I reckon Holdren is largely correct about the big picture on all those issues.

      Tarply continuously implies that Holdren will engineer the deaths of billions to get the population down to the carrying capacity, ignoring the fact that the earth is going to do that just fine by itself in the next ~100 or so years.

      So after all that I like Holdren more not less.

  12. Gina 12
    21 August 2011 at 4:41 pm

    Viper Maybe you should have watched the whole film before reaching a conclusion.

    So Viper you put the environment above hope for the poor. I say we can do both. Seems a real Labour party person would support the poor first and foremost. Its a long video where Tarply shows quotes in the book that say India should be Triaged. I.E. not be given any more food aid. I think thats where Tarply gets the idea he wants to commit genocide. And that is what is quietly happening as we speak.

    Goldman Sachs have an exculsusive exemption which allows them to manipulate the food commodities markets. Apparantly approx 200 million people starved to death due to the recent high food prices but there was no actual shortage of food, just price manipulation by Goldman Sachs to blame for all that misery and death.

    He also talks about women purchasing liscences to have children so we would probably have only the rich being allowed to breed. Holdren talks about forcibly taking babies away from unwed mothers putting contraceptives in the water. Is this what NZ lefties now aspire to.

    Holdren also talks about the history of killing newborn infants as a population control method.

    If you love these ideas should you really be a labour person.

    Your preducdice against the source of the video may have decided not to even hear it out. The sad thing is no one else is prepared or able to confront these issues without getting a source of income. they simply must pay the bills like the rest of us. If your average Jo fill the gap for free they would loose their jobs and their families starve so their must be money changing hands so whistle blowers are not silenced by impoverishment. And people involved with politics know this.

    We know that workers expressing extreme views publicly might be financially ruined and sacked.

    • Colonial Viper 12.1
      21 August 2011 at 5:35 pm

      Holdren’s specific suggestions from all those years back are bizarre and extreme. I’m not backing any of them.

      So Viper you put the environment above hope for the poor. I say we can do both. Seems a real Labour party person would support the poor first and foremost. Its a long video where Tarply shows quotes in the book that say India should be Triaged. I.E. not be given any more food aid. I think thats where Tarply gets the idea he wants to commit genocide. And that is what is quietly happening as we speak.

      1) If you mean ‘hope for the poor’ = the developed world aspiring to US levels of consumption and resource use, it can’t happen. There’s not enough cheap fossil fuels left in the world to make it happen. Note how even the US is unable to maintain US levels of consumption and resource use in an energy depleting world.

      2) Over the next few years its more likely that the US will need Indian aid (not the other way around).

      3) As I said, the earth is going to sort out the genocide itself. Modern agricultural production will plummet in the absence of fossil fuels.

      • Gina 12.1.1
        21 August 2011 at 6:44 pm

        First, peak oil is being distorted for propaganda purposes and being used by the elites to justify what they are doing in trying to secure global hegemony.
        The problems are not population based they are misuse of resources due to vested interests who wish to perpetuate and enlarge their power structure.

        Take a look here at a projected 500 year supply of oil coal and gas in the US once they decide to exploit it.

        http://ncwatch.typepad.com/media/2011/03/peak-energy-update-post-petroleum-reality-check.html

        As I have written before we are not running out of fossil energy resources with enough gas, coal, and oil for over 500 years when shale oil reserves are considered. It might not be a cheap as it once was be we are not running our of fossil energy reserves any time soon. The Congressional Research Service just published a new report that the US has the largest fuel reserve on earth. We just lack the political will to capture and use them.

        Bruce McQuain at Hot Air has posted a summary of this reality in a report by Peter C. Glover in the Energy Tribune. Glover’s analysis of a recent Congressional Research Service study confirms that
        we have hundreds of years of oil, gas and coal.

        Glover writes:

        In case anyone missed it, let me repeat something that is of a magnitude of 10 on the scale of news-quakes for Joe Public USA: Americas combined energy resources are, according to a new report from the Congressional Research Service (CSR), the largest on earth. They eclipse Saudi Arabia (3rd), China (4th) and Canada (6th) combined – and that’s without including America’s shale oil deposits and, in the future, the potentially astronomic impact of methane hydrates.

        The energy facts in the CRS report should be making front page news all over America. Mostly it isn’t. Given the devastating news from Japan and New Zealand, it may be right to postpone dancing in the streets. But something else is going on. Even though they are going to dominate global energy supply for decades to come the insidious war on vital fossil fuels continues apace.

        back to Gina
        New Developments in Natural gas Extraction give estimates that we have enough gas to supply all the worlds fossil fuel needs for 400 years. Most of that Gas is in Russia and Iran and that may be the target of all these vicous wars of theft we are being pushed into. Then their is the unlimited solar. Peak oil is just another BS excuse for the agenda of the wealthy to do untold evil.

        We want to be very certain we know what is really going on beyond all the propaganda before we support the poverty and misery of so many people many of whom have been our slaves over the last 30 years. They are human beings too and lets not toss out all vestiges of morality and treat them as though they are vermin because if we do that makes us the lowest of the low.

        There are massive amounts of US money being spent on War, far higher than the costs of Medicare or any form of welfare. There are far better ways to limit consumption than deliberately impoverishing the most vulnerable people in society. Regulation on manufacture and recycling.

        Make all manufactured goods comply with codes for recycling. I.E. Demand that a television set can be made so that it can be disassembled in 5 minutes. Everything made in a modular way where things don’t have to be smashed into one big mixed up mess which makes recycling impossible. Every piece of that TV must be easily recycled. Once we have that type of system firmly in place we can then demand that if someone wants a New TV they must have the old one completely disassembled before they can get another. Same for mobile phones. You can only have one or in some instances 2. we can fix the problem without hoping that the poor people of Africa and China will just die out after we have used all their recourses for our mean greedy selves.

        There is no need for people to be thrown out into the streets and mark my word, kids are being thrown on the scrapheap right now as fodder for new wars where the desperate will be driven to enlist just to get a job.

        • Colonial Viper 12.1.1.1
          21 August 2011 at 7:25 pm

          Take a look here at a projected 500 year supply of oil coal and gas in the US once they decide to exploit it.

          That can’t be correct IMO. Firstly, oil, coal and gas are not interchangeable sources of energy. How can you then say that you have 500 years worth of each one? It’s a very convenient round number.

          Secondly, focussing on oil, the US hit peak oil production in 1970. No decision they make to open up natural parks, drill in Alaska, issue permits for new deep sea wells, etc. can compensate for the continuing productivity drop from existing wells. New production is not replacing production declines, and the Hubbert curve is largely holding.

          Thirdly. Both cost and EROEI (energy returned on energy invested) matter. Focussing again on oil, US wealth was built on oil which cost $15-$20/barrel to produce. Many of the sources of oil they are talking about exploiting now cost three, four, five times as much per barrel. And instead of energy returns of 50:1 like the old days, energy returns are dropping to 10:1, 5:1 and sometimes even less.

          Why is this important? Because the dynamics between price and EROEI will likely mean that massive amounts of the fossil fuel reserves they speak of will stay in the ground permanently. In other words, there’s a big difference between “technically recoverable reserves” and proven usable reserves.

          For more serious discussion on peak energy I can recommend the oil drum

          http://www.theoildrum.com/

          As an aside the shale gas phenomenon in the US has been massive, but the track records of the deposits are short and so no one can tell how they will produce over the long term. Further there are signs that some declared shale gas deposits may have been exaggerated for financial reasons.

          http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/26/us/26gas.html?pagewanted=all

  13. prism 13
    21 August 2011 at 5:25 pm

    Jon Stewart making some funnies about the real USA and world and welfare and taxes (I think I heard that only 50% of liable people paid tax there over one period, the subsidies etc covered any ordinary citizen tax that was estimated).

    http://hahajk.com/videos/video-jon-stewart-on-world-of-class-warfare/

  14. happynz 14
    21 August 2011 at 6:10 pm

    TV1 just breathlessly wanked on about Colmar-Brunton’s latest poll about the National Party winning 120% of the party vote whilst picking up 100% of electorates not only in New Zealand, but also in the UK, Maui, and several provinces in China. Phil Goff, who apparently has blood on his hands from throttling puppies, registered a negative 12%.

    Sheesh…

    • William Joyce 14.1
      21 August 2011 at 6:30 pm

      Don’t worry, the real NZland voter is probably watching “New Zealand’s Next Anorexic Coked-UpWhore” or “New Zealand Idle” or “Amazing Race – the Neo-Nazi Edition”
       
      The country is safe in their hands….

  15. randal 15
    21 August 2011 at 6:37 pm

    well they are just whistling in the dark to keep their spirits up.
    New Zealanders know that we have been ill served by a motley collection of non-entities and a PM who is starting to show cracks in his facade.
    The world is going through big changes at the moment and National and its myrmidons are totally unable to grasp the fact that they are becoming increasingly irrelavant and that they were yesterdays men ten years ago.

  16. Campbell Larsen 16
    21 August 2011 at 6:58 pm

    Rap news 8 Osamacide

    http://m.youtube.com/index?desktop_uri=%2F&gl=NZ#/watch?v=L6O6sM2Shok

    For those that haven’t seen a rap news before : )

  17. Blue 17
    21 August 2011 at 7:02 pm

    Key performs his signature ‘dodge and wriggle’ dance move:

    http://nz.news.yahoo.com/a/-/top-stories/10079949/key-defends-non-attendance-decision/

    This time avoiding quake victims.

  18. logie97 18
    21 August 2011 at 7:40 pm

    I wonder if the Petulant Bean will put her investigators onto people who spend a lot of time blogging while claiming to be unfit for work. Understand, after events today, that one or two could possibly be rethinking their positions.

    • Ianupnorth 18.1
      21 August 2011 at 11:07 pm

      They’ll be going into therapy courtesy of ACC, maybe having a Tariana stomach stapling and then getting a paid role for the Nats.
      They are lucky they are over 16 (even though their mental age/level of understanding is about 5)

  19. Morrissey 19
    21 August 2011 at 11:22 pm

    If you think that Fox News is disgusting…
    Sunday 21 August 2011

    At 11 p.m. a serious-sounding voice comes out of my radio: “The all-too-familiar cycle of Israeli-Palestinian violence in the Gaza Strip…. militant rocket attacks followed by Israeli reprisals.”

    Where does that piece of perfect inversion of the truth come from?

    If you guessed it was the Israeli (Dis)information Ministry, your guess would be an intelligent and justified guess, but it would be wrong. In fact, this nonsense comes courtesy of the BBC.

    The BBC: as fair and balanced as Fox News…

    • McFlock 19.1
      21 August 2011 at 11:27 pm

      yeah, regarding british interests and israel. Like the u.s. channels with us interests and israel. Or russian tv on, say, the balkans.
       
       

    • The Voice of Reason 19.2
      22 August 2011 at 7:20 am

      But isn’t that report accurate, Morrisey? I assume it was the recent attack on Israel’s south that you are referring to, which was followed by Israeli attacks on Gaza. Or is it something different?

      • Morrissey 19.2.1
        22 August 2011 at 8:53 pm

        But isn’t that report accurate, Morrisey? I assume it was the recent attack on Israel’s south that you are referring to, which was followed by Israeli attacks on Gaza. Or is it something different?

        It’s not at all accurate. It frames the story the Israeli way, as the BBC almost always does. So the firing of a few rockets from Gaza is presented as something that happens out of the blue, for no reason. What the BBC coverage ignores—perhaps deliberately—is the fact that since 2006 Israel has continued to drop bombs and incendiary devices on Gaza, and has continued with its illegal blockade. Israel regularly destroys crops, uproots trees, cuts off water, and electricity—an Israeli spokesman laughed that “we are putting them on a diet”—and kidnaps and imprisons Gaza’s citizens at will.

        Any resistance at all by the people of Gaza is invariably presented as an “attack” on Israel.

        Even you, and I regard you as a fair and thoughtful person, have framed this as Palestinian aggression followed by an Israeli “response”. I think if you look at the situation in Gaza more carefully, you will soon realize who the aggressor is.

        I recommend anyone who wants to learn about what has happened and is happening in Gaza, to have a look at the following…

        http://antonyloewenstein.com/tag/gaza/

        http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/amira-hass-the-one-thing-worse-than-denying-the-gaza-report-1.7747

        http://www.fpif.org/articles/chomsky_undermining_gaza

        http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/democracy-now-analysis-of-goldstone-report/

        • The Voice of Reason 19.2.1.1
          22 August 2011 at 9:30 pm

          Cheers, Morrissey. I’d have to say the cycle of attacks is so routine, I’m still not sure which particular incident you heard reported. The one I most recently heard reported on the BBC and elsewhere was on Thursday.
           
          There was an attack on buses in Israel’s south. The attackers trekked through the Gaza/Egypt and Egypt/Israel borders and killed 8 people. Israel retaliated in the usual way by bombing the shit out of Gaza. They also apparently killed 3 Egyptian soldiers, which has caused a major diplomatic incident. I guess the BBC’s problem is that they report the news in 3 minutes every hour and can’t give the context you and I both agree on in such a short bulletin. So they stick to the facts. I bet if you asked the IDF, they’d probably also claim that the BBC is biased, but in the other direction!
           
          However, I know that there have been indications of a pro-Israel bias in the past, but I’d like to think they’ve improved. I thought their coverage of the flotilla massacre was pretty on the money, for example.
           
           

    • Vicky32 19.3
      22 August 2011 at 5:59 pm

      Sadly, it’s become typical of them…