Open mike 23/11/2010

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, November 23rd, 2010 - 43 comments
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43 comments on “Open mike 23/11/2010 ”

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  1. Logie97 1
    23 November 2010 at 7:36 am

    Does this administration have a conscience?

    They are now introducing their own “Electoral Finance Act”. And their arguments to support it are exactly the ones that they vilified 2 years ago. How will the Penguin and the Cetacean defend this one? Perhaps they will jump ship and join Boscawen and his lot.

    Ummm…

    …now the conspiracist in me is suggesting that it gives ACT an issue to garner support in the electorate and thence get them over the 5 pcnt threshold, et voila, a natural ally again.

    Teflon man is not a strong enough word for Key.

  2. higherstandard 2
    23 November 2010 at 7:52 am

    How will the Penguin and the Cetacean defend this one?

    They appear to have gone feral.

    http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2010/11/return_of_the_efa.html
    http://whaleoil.gotcha.co.nz/2010/11/22/time-for-a-new-billboard-campaign/

    • mickysavage 2.1
      23 November 2010 at 8:07 am

      This is quite funny. National repeals the hated villified EFA and replaces it with … EFA mark 2!

      Not as good as the original but it recognises that third party campaigning has to be managed if our democratic system is to be preserved. Otherwise the corporates will take over through the weight of publicity they can afford.

      Admittedly the limit is higher and the period is shorter. But it is good to see the principle preserved.

      I look forward to the howls from the RWNJs. I wonder if Farrar will put up any more billboards?

      • Tigger 2.1.1
        23 November 2010 at 8:45 am

        Attack On Democracy banner in Granny anyone? Thought not…

        • ianmac 2.1.1.1
          23 November 2010 at 9:46 am

          Pity that the Trusts can easily by-pass the limits. If a rich mate gives $500,000 to the Trust who then gives it to the Party, then where is the transparency?

  3. swordfish 3
    23 November 2010 at 9:57 am

    @ To anyone who’s interested. (we’re probably talking about only 3, maybe 4, potential people, here):

    I’ve just set-out some comprehensive suburb-by-suburb stats comparing the 2008 Mana Party-Vote with the 2010 By-Election vote in comments on Red Alert (‘Reflections on Mana’, 22 November). Just look for the long, long table of stats. See also my following comments there on the accuracy or otherwise of Farrar’s analysis.

    These stats are my gift to you. Use them wisely.

  4. Carol 4
    23 November 2010 at 11:18 am

    Just listening to Fran O’Sullivan on Nine-to-Noon. As I understood it, she said that, re-the National idea of mining schedule 4 land, that Pike River mine was going to be held up as an eg of sustainable, surgical mining. IMO, it’s worth listening to it when it goes online, to check if I heard correctly.

    Of course, the first priority of a mining company should be the safety of its workers. It’s looking grim, but I still have some hope for survivors.

    • joe90 4.1
      23 November 2010 at 12:24 pm

      Yes, you heard correctly. Did some station surfing driving home this morning but a few minutes listening to Leighton Smith sermonising on the evils of health and safety legislation and honestly, I could have strangled the stupid prick. Laws was good though, patient and kept his snark to himself and sounded like he may actually have some empathy with those involved.

    • Sukie Damson 4.2
      23 November 2010 at 1:04 pm

      Whenever I see Brownlee & dubya Key together on tv it always reminds me of Laurel & Hardy. This picture would work on a post.

      [lprent: Goes somewhere else on that site.. ]

  5. john 5
    23 November 2010 at 11:22 am

    Ireland is being bloodsucked big time by the NeoLiberal protection of Capital at all costs–Costs being born by the ordinary people.
    Ireland should do what Argentina did cut loose and prosper, taking the dose of antitapeworm pills to eliminate the usurious capital parasites from its system!

    http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/11/22-2

    • Colonial Viper 5.1
      23 November 2010 at 11:28 am

      A tad too late I think.

      The Irish Govt has already bailed out the banks (Anglo Irish and others) to the tune of >€50B.

      In essence they turned private debts which should have been written off (and the institutions as they stand today destroyed), into publicly held Government debt.

      And now the Irish Govt and her peoples are frakked, while the high flying execs who led the collapse have mostly run overseas with their own monies and pension schemes intact.

    • Pascal's bookie 5.2
      23 November 2010 at 11:40 am

      Yeah. Every editor or journo that writes that ‘Ireland’ is getting a bailout needs to check their premises, pronto.

      If someone loans me a metric tonne of money
      based on nothing but my good word,
      and my good wrod turns out to be based on nothing but my good intentions and aspirations, which in turn prove to be unrealistic…

      and a third party turns up to give me enough money to avoid a bankruptcy hearing
      on the condition that the guy who loaned me the money gets all that money, and all my shit, going forward…

      …it aint me gettin bailed out.

      And I see the Irish govt is going to pass the brutal budget made necessary by this ‘bailout’ and promptly dissolve itself.

      addendum Why are bond holders the filthiest fuckers in creation?

      They flat refuse to take a bath, and no one dares make ’em.

      • Colonial Viper 5.2.1
        23 November 2010 at 1:17 pm

        A few pitchforks and bonfires should make the relevant parties see the light.

        Ireland is about to see its own lost generation.

  6. prism 6
    23 November 2010 at 11:39 am

    Ireland encouraged big business to set up there with an inducement of bidding lower company tax rates than other countries. Now those companies are threatening an exodus if tax rates are upped so they share in some of the costs of the financial mess that’s been finagled. Were’t we talking about lowering coy tax? Has it happened while I’ve been asleep?

    • Bored 6.1
      23 November 2010 at 3:53 pm

      Jonkey and crew only know a few mantras which they repeat, sing even on a nonstop basis: the revolutionaries had their own mantra and song, the Marsellaise…we all know what happened next.

  7. prism 7
    23 November 2010 at 11:49 am

    Jonkey announced this a.m. that among the clever and wise things that NZ had done in trying to cope with the recession was to change tax emphasis to discourage spending. He has achieved that for lower income people, but lowering the top tax rate where it was coming out of super-discretionary salary of the nicely-off-thank-yous well they aren’t going to rein in their spending.

    But true, they won’t be using borrowed money like the lower classes did, they have their Surpluses left at the end of the week, not vice versa. So NACT praises the approach of squeezing the poor and being kind to the captains of industry, mostly consumer industry – car and boat sales, gold jewellery, land speculation. travel. Nice work if you can get it.

    • Vicky32 7.1
      23 November 2010 at 5:46 pm

      Which reminds me that ever since NACT have been in power (well, since about 6 months later) there has been a booth at my local shopping centre, that offers : “We Buy Your Gold”, and which gives away zip-lock bags with monopoly money stapled to it.
      Every so often, I see little old women asking about hocking off their jewellery. Pity I have always preferred silver jewellery! (That being said, the only gold I have, I am keeping.) But is that what we have come to?
      Deb

  8. Draco T Bastard 8
    23 November 2010 at 1:07 pm

    Over on NRT the Environmental Protection Agency is shown to not be about protecting the environment.

    (a) [contribute] to the efficient, effective, and transparent management of New Zealand’s environment and natural and physical resources; and
    (b) [enable] New Zealand to meet its international obligations.

    Anyone surprised that NACT are doing everything in their power to remove environmental protection especially considering the absolute destruction that their farms are doing to the environment?

    • Armchair Critic 8.1
      23 November 2010 at 2:07 pm

      So it’s actually an Environment Management Agency.
      Ever since it was announced I’ve thought it would be a mechanism to centralise decision-making, over-riding the wishes of local communities. Which is disappointing, because there are already powers under the RMA to achieve this.
      Increasing the scope of issues that can be over-ridden by a centralised decision making body, and delegating responsibility to bureaucracy is just more anti-democratic shit from National and ACT. Another reason to vote them out.

  9. lprent 9
    23 November 2010 at 2:48 pm

    Heres a bit of trivia for the day.

    8th most read post on this relatively quiet day so far is

    http://thestandard.org.nz/trivia-the-milk-bottle-mystery/

    When this post was first put up in Feb it got a few hundred page views. The total for this year is now well over 3000 – which makes it a pretty well read post.

    Images on google really attract visitors (and I have no idea why this bottle is quite so attractive to google.)

    • Bill Browne 9.1
      23 November 2010 at 3:07 pm

      Post’s worth reading again just for the KT wind-ups. That shit just doesn’t get old.

      • The Voice of Reason 9.1.1
        23 November 2010 at 3:55 pm

        Ah, poor Kiwiteen. Last time I checked his site it was chock full of ill disguised lusting over the gay members (oooer!) of the Labour Party caucus. The teenage years are soooo confusing …..

  10. ak 10
    23 November 2010 at 3:10 pm

    Here’s a quote from Slippery on Hickey’s blog today that might warrant filing alongside Dipper’s similar:

    “Fundamentally we had, I’ll put it in these terms, a ‘strong balance sheet’ when we went into the global financial crisis, and that put us in good stead.”

  11. Draco T Bastard 11
    23 November 2010 at 4:08 pm

    Climate Change: We’re doing it wrong

    On allocation, the IEA is quite clear: free allocation to existing polluters, as seen in the NZETS, is a Bad Thing. It blunts prise signals, encourages high-emissions activities, produces windfall profits, and leads to over-allocation.

    Gee, thanx NACT, we really did want to give all our money and wealth away to your rich mates – NOT.

  12. Pascal's bookie 12
    23 November 2010 at 4:18 pm

    Go see Andrew Geddis, in comments, eat Chris Diack as a tasty snack.

  13. William Joyce 13
    23 November 2010 at 5:43 pm

    What a sight! JonKey, in Parliament, reading his statement on Pike River with the spontaneity of a school report on “what I did on my holidays” and the prose of romance novel. If he didn’t write then at least he gets points for reading the correct speech.

    As for Rodney Hide! Talk about political theatre! It was like watching Punch feigning tears while the children booed. The man does not do compassion well.

  14. bobo 14
    23 November 2010 at 7:41 pm

    Is it possible the S&P downgrade is what Key wants as an excuse next year to roll out more cuts in order re-assure the credit rating agencies with a austerity package, scare tactics running up to an election.. ? He made out early in his term how he saved NZ from a credit rating downgrade so either he is bullshitting about his influence or he actually has credit rating connections, take your pick..

    S&P , Moodys all in it together with banks and governments dumping the debt and blame on the general masses, then you get labeled a terrorist when you get angry about it.

  16. Pascal's bookie 16
    23 November 2010 at 9:13 pm

    WAPO adds that Afghan officials “now believe the man was a lowly shopkeeper from the Pakistani city of Quetta.”

    Not to be outdone by Afghan officials or Pakistani shopkeepers in the taking the piss stakes, a US official sez:

    “One would suspect that in our multibillion-dollar intel community there would be the means to differentiate between an authentic Quetta Shura emissary and a shopkeeper. On the other hand, it doesn’t surprise me in the slightest. It may have been Mullah Omar posing as a shopkeeper; I’m sure that our intel whizzes wouldn’t have known.”

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/23/AR2010112300075.html

  17. Bruce 17
    24 November 2010 at 12:40 am

    So 90 days probation for employees has passed after its third reading … http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/4378279/90-day-employment-bill-passed
    Should we as voters now be entitled to vote 90 days probation on those in government? I believe we should:

    Rorting the taxpayer while claiming politician perks .. 90 days probation fail
    Closing the wage gap with Australia .. 90 days probation fail
    More transparency and accountability over the previous government .. 90 days probation fail
    Tax cuts that will close the wage gap with Australia .. 90 days probation fail
    Overall increased costs to workers (ACC, cost of living), together with little if no increase to wages ..90 days probation fail
    Making the rules to suit themselves .. 90 days probation fail
    Attacking already weak trade unions (the one and only voice to fight for fair wages and conditions).. 90 days probation fail

  18. Akber Khan Bugti 18
    28 November 2010 at 3:24 pm

    [No one is going to read a comment that long. Please just post a link to your similar comments. — r0b]

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