Open mike 25/04/2011

30 comments on “Open mike 25/04/2011 ”

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1. lprent 1

   25 April 2011 at 4:45 am

   It is ANZAC day.

   But I’m off to bed after quite few hours getting the two site servers to act cleanly in a master/slave relationship ready to put a GeoDNS into place. This should get rid of all of the pesky bots away from hogging the CPU’s and annoying (most of) the humans on site because NZ/aussie will be on the local server and everyone and everything else will be on the US server.

   Consequently I won’t be at the dawn parade having spent the evening in the service of political blogging. It feels a bit like doing overnight duty in the army – just somewhat warmer :twisted:. But I’ll skip the dawn guard, and I’ll be awake again sometime before lunch

   The change to the header logo was put in by me (urged on by rocky last year) while doing the various updates. If anyone wants to discuss it, feel free to leave comment here and I”ll catch on it later today.
   • LynW 1.1

     25 April 2011 at 9:12 am

     Much appreciated
2. Jenny 2

   25 April 2011 at 7:23 am

   thanks
3. Carol 3

   25 April 2011 at 8:41 am

   Hone Harawira says:

   it’s a national disgrace that the police used a naval vessel to arrest the captain of a fishing boat, who was blocking an oil exploration ship.
   …
   Mr Teddy is the skipper of a Te Whanau a Apanui fishing boat,
   ….
   Mr Harawira says with Anzac Day on Monday, the police’s use of a naval vessel to detain Mr Teddy is an insult to Te Whanau a Apanui soldiers who gave their lives fighting for the country.
    
   He says no citizen should ever be threatened by their own military.

    
4. felix 4

   25 April 2011 at 9:07 am

   What’s Labour’s position on secretly negotiated trade deals?
   • Draco T Bastard 4.1

     25 April 2011 at 11:09 am

     Didn’t they secretly negotiate one themselves? ACTA or something?
   • Campbell Larsen 4.2

     25 April 2011 at 3:16 pm

     Looks like Labours position is ‘no comment’ Felix – at least thus far. Good point to raise though – the TPP is a travesty – there is literally no point even having political parties and elections when undemocratic secret ‘trade deals’ like the TPP are being negotiated and signed.
     • Draco T Bastard 4.2.1

       25 April 2011 at 5:18 pm

       IMO, any such agreement negotiated in secret is null and void. The people didn’t get a say in its terms and conditions and so there is no reason to honour it.
       • Campbell Larsen 4.2.1.1

         25 April 2011 at 6:36 pm

         You are of course correct Draco – however it would be helpful to the cause if the Labour party would ratify this position and thus provide a mandate to the resistance movement beyond that which common sense and sovereignty provide. It would also send the correct message to our Government and trade partners about the need to consult with their citizens.
         • Draco T Bastard 4.2.1.1.1

           25 April 2011 at 8:17 pm

           Clare Curran made some noise about secrecy over on Red Alert (here and here) back in December/January but haven’t heard a lot since. And, of course, Red Alert isn’t the official voice of Labour.
            
           I too would like to see some general statement from parties that they will not negotiate in secret as it’s an affront to democracy.
     • rosy 4.2.2

       25 April 2011 at 7:06 pm

       This is Phil Goff’s territory. He was seen as an extremely competent trade minister (must have been seeing NAct haven’t used this as a stick to beat him with) and so could be analysing the TPP to death. No comment send me the message that he supports this deal.
       • KJT 4.2.2.1

         26 April 2011 at 10:21 am

         That is why I have not voted Labour since the 80’s. They are Neo-Liberal, with a human face, but still Neo-Liberal.
         I vocally opposed asset sales, globalisation and the policies of meanness then and I am disgusted we are still having to do so.
         Labour needs to give us a real choice between NACT, Government for foreign corporates, and a Government for the people of NZ.
         Goff, Mallard and the rest still represent a failed paradigm just as much as NACT’s attempts to get an electable puppet to continue the theft..
5. joe90 5

   25 April 2011 at 11:16 am

   Remembering my uncles who died before I was born and the deep sadness of my mother and father.

   Campbell and Christopher rest at Bourail and Brian rests at Malta.
6. joe90 6

   25 April 2011 at 12:23 pm

   Allende’s death.

   Now, 38 years after the event, Chilean justice officials have ordered the exhumation of Dr. Allende’s body for an autopsy to determine if the 65-year-old physician-turned-politician committed suicide or was murdered by General Augusto Pinochet’s troops.

   Government internet ID. 

   An expert on electronic privacy walks through the possibilities and perils on a national online security system designed, in part, by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

   Germany’s schools. 

   German public education makes it possible for qualified kids to study up to university level, regardless of their families’ financial status.
7. Robert Atack 7

   25 April 2011 at 1:42 pm

   MINAMISANRIKU (Kyodo) — Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard on Saturday visited a Japanese coastal town devastated by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, becoming the first foreign leader to travel to the disaster-hit area.

   Maybe smile and wave could pop into Fukushima on his way back from his UK photo op?
   Go on John do us all a favour
   • ianmac 7.1

     25 April 2011 at 2:05 pm

     Perhaps he might oblige by being helicoptered to the broken reactor and pose draped over it whilst hugging one of his fancy girls?
     • travellerev 7.1.1

       25 April 2011 at 4:28 pm

       We can dream can’t we?
8. Campbell Larsen 8

   25 April 2011 at 2:28 pm

   Defection and Defecation – A Tale of Wagging the Bog

   Few could have missed the spectacular disloyalty recently exhibited by two supposedly pro Labour has-beens – Damien O’Connor and John Pagani.  Lack of accuracy and insight aside it would be difficult to script comments more calculated to harm Labours cause than those uttered by these two men – given that this is so the question must be asked was it really them holding the pen?

   An examination of both men’s careers prior to ‘busting out the Brutus’ may shed some light on motivations for their respective betrayals.

   Mr O’Connor has declared, practically posthumously, that he will only accept a position as MP if he is elected by the people of the coast – since his position on the Labour list was insufficient to return him to Parliament otherwise this is an obvious case of attempting to make a virtue of a fact of life.

   Political oblivion was beckoning for Damien – and desperate times make for a desperate man – how else does one describe a man who embarks on a vendetta against his own party wielding catchphrases borrowed from the armoury of spin-weasels? What could he hope to gain from this spectacular outburst? As it is a certainty that such utterances would never find favour with his own party a speculative eye turns inevitably to those that have gained from the distraction provided by this sorry saga – namely the National party.

   What does the future hold for Damien…a cushy role in a soon to be privatised SOE perhaps? It will no doubt depend on what the polls say about his personal support in his home electorate.  If his bigoted comments have resonated sufficiently with coasters we may well be witness to a first in NZ politics – the defection of an MP across the political divide to an opposing party – something that the spin doctors would no doubt jizz in their pants over. One thing is certain – the public should keep a close eye on his fortunes both professional and personal – for no Judas goes without his pieces of tainted silver.

   Hot on his heels is another man facing oblivion who should have known better but didn’t – John Pagani. Judging by Labours performance during his tenure as advisor one could safely assume that this man is far from irreplaceable, and certainly ineffective – a conclusion that Labour had come to itself. In the time honoured tradition of disgruntled ex-employees Mr Pagani has wasted little time before dipping his dagger into the poisoned chalice of political spin and turning it on his former masters.

   In business loyalty is a tradable commodity as this man’s actions vividly demonstrate. His final piece of advice, certainly the last that he will be paid for anyway, was that we should be talking about toilets – even as Jerry Brownlee and the National party shit all over our democracy.

   P.S. this was written almost a week ago but I only just got to typing it up (yes some of us still use a pen and paper from time to time).  These teacup storms are largely dead and rightfully so – I would not have them resurrected – however a story is a bit like a child – you can’t just throw them out no matter how they turn out.

   
   
9. felix 9

   25 April 2011 at 3:09 pm

   Oh look, more blatant bullshit from the SST: http://ideologicallyimpure.wordpress.com/2011/04/25/sweet-sweet-laworder-smackdown-from-kim-workman/
    
   • NickS 9.1

     25 April 2011 at 4:09 pm

     http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/4921693/NZ-laws-encourage-criminals
     And there\’s the book…
     The problem is, crime is not a rational activity, thus longer sentences don\\\’t appear to have significant impacts on crime rates, compared to stuff like employment levels. And then there\\\’s rehabilitation, for which first time offenders is usually a lot more effective at keeping them out of crime than locking them up for long times. Dependant of course on any pre-existing serious personality problems, that require treatment.
     And I see Ian is once more evading and bullshitting.
   • QoT 9.2

     25 April 2011 at 6:04 pm

     The SST and Ian Wishart, felix.  It’s a wonderful quinella of lizard-brain-based-policy stupid.
10. Herodotus 10

    25 April 2011 at 4:36 pm

    Was $35/night now $350/night
    So how do those who benefit rip off others so as to make as much money as possible from the RWC then leach off the rest of us in paying for the honor
    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10721386
    A case example of exploitation at its best, and what is their excuse? By charging so much deters Yahoos
    • ianmac 10.1

      25 April 2011 at 5:01 pm

      I wonder if the fruits of the RWC are really for the ruthless pluckers, and not the Mums and Dads?
      • Draco T Bastard 10.1.1

        25 April 2011 at 5:31 pm

        It was never for the mum & dads and always for the ruthless and parasitic pluckers. The IRL makes millions, the TV companies make millions, the NRU and the taxpayers lose millions. All in the hope that more money comes into the country than leaves.
11. Vicky32 11

    25 April 2011 at 6:16 pm

    Listening to 3 News coverage of the ANZAC Day propaganda fest, and feeling honestly ill! A 10 year old girl, sounding much younger,  lisps “It’s about men who went to war and didn’t come back”.
    My English father used to say about New Zealanders that they “had never even heard a door slammed in anger”. Maybe if non-immigrant New Zealanders actually had, they wouldn’t go all “Veterans Day” once a year? I was hearing ghastly things on the BBC about massive bombings and killings in Libya and Syria today. That’s the reality of war!
    One of the best TV comedies I ever saw, was ‘Only Fools and Horses’ (The writer John Sullivan, died today at 64). There was a side-splittingly funny episode in which Del Boy has got hold of a shipment of fallout shelters, and is busy hocking them off for people to put on the roofs of their council flats. Then, the humour abruptly goes, as Grand-dad talks about what war is really like, and what use exactly, a bunch of knock-off fallout shelters (basically, just tents!) would actually be.
    
    The coverage is all about persuading every New Zealand child or teenager to believe that it would be a glorious thing to enlist, and nowadays, go off and kills ‘Muslims’ in a war for oil, not that they know that’s what it is about.
    
     
12. M 12

    25 April 2011 at 6:43 pm

      

    The peaking of oil prices and the coming Depression. Resource Wars to follow.

     On the Financial Sense Newshour</em> this week, Jim Puplava is pleased to welcome back Nicole Foss. Nicole M. Foss is co-editor of The Automatic Earth, where she writes under the name Stoneleigh. She and her writing partner have been chronicling and interpreting the on-going credit crunch as the most pressing aspect of our current multi-faceted predicament. The site integrates finance, energy, environment, psychology, population and real politik in order to explain why we find ourselves in a state of crisis and what we can do about it. Prior to the establishment of TAE….

     http://www.financialsense.com/financial-sense-newshour/big-picture/2011/04/23/02/nicole-foss/preparing-for-the-next-tsunami
13. rosy 13

    25 April 2011 at 6:50 pm

    The Guantanamo files have been leaked It’s easy to see why these men cannot be tried in a civil court – the presumption of guilt and tainted evidence is so outrageous that a trial would be farcical. Th U.S military has a lot explaining to do. What they’ve done is morally bankrupt and completely inept. Unbelievable that they speak of freedom and justice.

    The 759 Guantánamo files, classified “secret”, cover almost every inmate since the camp was opened in 2002. More than two years after President Obama ordered the closure of the prison, 172 are still held there.
    • rosy 13.1

      25 April 2011 at 11:30 pm

      And all the files are now online

      The interactive database has details on all 779 detainees – “some of them 9/11 masterminds, many of them Afghan farmers.
      • Vicky32 13.1.1

        26 April 2011 at 12:43 am

        I’m reading that now!
        Vicky
14. M 14

    25 April 2011 at 7:12 pm

    No inflation -are you sure?
     
    How is the U.S. economy – really?
     
    Robotic animations – not bad on the state of play:
     
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxwxeLUCGU0&feature=related
     
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oU47Voe7DA&feature=related
     
    Maybe these comic book types might help Key get it and stop bail outs here.
     

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