Open mike 27/06/2010

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, June 27th, 2010 - 44 comments
Categories: open mike - Tags:

Open mike is your post.

It’s open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose.

Comment on whatever takes your fancy.

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Step right up to the mike…

44 comments on “Open mike 27/06/2010 ”

  1. freedom 1

    i have said it before and i will say it again

    In a world where we can put men on the moon, why do we have Paul Holmes?

    • Name 1.1

      In a world with dozens of available TV and radio station as well as the Internet, no-one needs to have Paul Holmes.

    • At this time Im suffering from some cracked ribs and In not supposed to laugh , so freedom you have caused me some pain. However I must say I

    • At this time I am suffering with cracked ribs. Im not supposed to laugh so Freedom you owe me one.Surely we deserve a decent current affairs programme after 50 years of TV, Not the third class Q&A chaired by a clown .

  2. big bruv 2

    Speaking of advisor’s..

    –deleted–

    Not putting up with any repeating Jonathan Marshall’s smut here. Anyone caught peddling that kind of personal family stuff in further comments will be banned permanently. – MF

    [lprent: This comment and the others related to it got moved to OpenMike because they don’t appear to be related to the post (despite bb’s weak attempt at a connection). Stay roughly in the context of the posts especially for level 1 comments or face the consequences. I can’t be bothered tidying up behind people too often. ]

    • BLiP 2.1

      Well, well well . . . look who’ stuck his broken arse, yellow backed, red necked, bald headed pasty face through the door. No plans to be keeping your word any time soon, I suppose?

      • felix 2.1.1

        No chance. big bruv is a proven liar and welcher, the worst kind of bludger, a no-good scumbag lowlife cheat.

    • Quoth the Raven 2.2

      Drug prohibition as we all know is incredibly harmful to our society. Phil Goff is pro-prohibiton. Phil Goff actively advocates state violence towards and kidnapping of people who possess drugs. No person should go to prison for having ecstasy or be threatened by the state for it.
      One would hope such an experience would change his disgusting attitude towards drug criminalisation and maybe it has personally, but for someone with such power lust I don’t think it’s going to change his public opinion or policy.

      • For goodness sake, Phil’s daughter is 25 years old !If You think Phil is still responsible for her you had better have clean sheets for all your own family for the rest of your life.The realty is that once the bird has flown the nest they are on their own .

  3. joe90 3

    Climate Action Tracker tracks the emission commitments and actions of countries and provides an up-to-date assessment of individual national pledges to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

  4. big bruv 4

    Well MF, I will remember that next time one of you guys has a crack at a family member of the Nat’s or ACT.

    We both know that this is the type of gutter level politics the left thrive on, you guys simply could not help yourself had this been a family member of a government minister.

    Mind you, double standards and hypocrisy are the norm for you chaps.

    • freedom 4.1

      at least the left have standards…. badaboom ching

      • joe bloggs 4.1.1

        the striking thing about this is Goff’s statement of denial – he’s living every parent’s nightmare to be sure but his response really was the worst possible response. What on earth were his PR advisors thinking???

    • lprent 4.2

      bb: If you track back you will find that we are pretty consistent about attacks on politicians families or (normally) people outside of the political frame both in posts and in comments. We don’t tolerate direct references, attempts to publish addresses or contact numbers, and tend to squelch even indirect ones.

      I suspect you’re referencing gotcha or the munsters who make no significant attempt to be civilized. That is why Cameron is up in front of the courts.

      DPF makes a credible effort but I suspect he is overwhelmed with his inherent need to be liked and a lot of clocked references get through. I seem to remember that you are one of the exponents of the clocked reference

    • BLiP 4.4

      I was wondering which of your political idols you were most like: Rodney “Perk Buster” Hide who fleeced the tax payer to pay for his girlfriend to attend her brother’s wedding overseas – or maybe John The Goober Key who thinks a lawyer’s weasel words can distort reality. You’re kind a combination of both.

    • Do you have an example, just one, any one will do.

      • Peter 4.5.1

        Paula Bennet’s Daughter and her past relationship.

        • mickysavage 4.5.1.1

          I can recall criticism of Bennett using her office to attempt to affect the judicial process. I can’t recall this site or Tumeke et al criticising her daughter or even mentioning her by name. Care to post any links?

  5. joe90 5

    Music for another shitty Sunday.

    Arcade Fire – My body is a cage.

    from

  6. ianmac 6

    What a strange writer for the Herald Carolyne Meng-Yee is. She writes of an interview with Len Brown who says, “I sit in this room. I don’t tell anybody I am having an interview with you today. It is between you and me. It is totally confidential.”
    Then she goes on to highlight those things which might be seen in a negative light. Journalists!
    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10654759

  7. Norma 7

    Now why am I not surprised that the reporter on the Sara Goff story is muckraker Jonathan Marshall.

    • IrishBill 7.1

      In the trade reporters like Marshall are sometimes known as pantie sniffers. I can’t think of a more apt term for him.

  8. joe bloggs 8

    So Chris Carter has finally come to his senses and offered a fulsome apology for his troughing – well 26 apologies in one long breath – in an outpouring of well-scripted pseudo-sincerity penned by the spin-doctors.

    However he’s still out of touch with the views of grass roots Kiwis – we’re all over apologies, when’s he paying the money back?

    Mind you, I’m still surprised Carter didn’t pull out the Jesus Defence – you know the one that’s been well used by mayors around the Auckland region:

    …only Jesus Christ had with­stood such a high level of scrutiny as him, and come out clean. If ratepay­ers demand that he iden­ti­fies who he meets with, then he will quit as [insert mayoral role here] …

    And what’s up with Labour’s leadership – no sign of a coup yet? Come on team! Goff couldn’t even demote Clark’s allies without them running to her to complain about their treatment. At least Gillard had the balls to roll Rudd the moment his popularity fell behind that of Opposition Leader Tony Abbott.

    Now that Clark’s neck and neck with Goff in the popularity stakes surely the knives are being sharpened down Waimak way…

    captcha: UNABLE – ha – very apt

  9. Ignoring a story does not make it go away.

    • lprent 9.1

      Telling us what story is being ignored (or even better using the reply button) would probably give some context to your statement. This is open mike. There are at least 10 “stories” being talked about here

  10. john 10

    Rogernomics a direct copy of Reaganomics, the American Friedman neo-liberal economic social greed model has done catastrophic damage to America’s economic and social fabric. yet the key regime continues down the same path of concentrating wealth and income upwards,plus evisceration of the State’s ability to help its own people,via privatization

    View this link for this report on the system they have put on us since the early 80s
    http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25823.htm

    • just saying 10.1

      Thanks for posting this John,
      Chilling.

    • Draco T Bastard 10.2

      Quoting from Article:

      It certainly doesn’t help that the supposed “party of the people’ is every bit as much a part of the problem as anyone else,

      So true and most definitely applies to Labour who got co-opted into the theft of the poor by the rich in the late 1970s.

    • marsman 10.3

      Very succinctly put John. Argentina is another example of a once wealthy nation plundered under the same neoliberal ‘improvements’. And then there is Iceland and…..etc.etc. How can we stop them? How do we stop a cancer from spreading?

      • Bill 10.3.1

        How to stop them? Maybe we should identify ‘them’ for a start. Because ‘them’ come shuffling along in every colour of the political spectrum.

        Remember the moderating influence that middle/left party in Britain (the Lib/dems) was going to have over there? Well…

        “The impact of George Osborne’s emergency budget on the poor has been revealed in a study that finds the country’s least well-off families face cuts equivalent to 21.7% of their household income. That means they will be hit six times harder than the very richest by the coalition’s deficit-cutting measures.”

        http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jun/27/osborne-budget-cuts-hit-poorest

        And they are cutting state budgets by a min of 25% in each department.

        Meanwhile, over here there are the cuttings back of state departments and the backhanded dropping of state responsibilities to the packs of slavering dogs roaming outside in ‘Privateville’.

        We stop them by scaring the fuck out of them. We stop them when we demand (with menaces if necessary) that it all stops.

  11. G8 11

    Interesting article in NBR that states people on Banks team made a direct approach to NBR to try and smear Brown. Banks is a changed man – Yer Right.

    • ianmac 11.1

      Hadn’t realised that NBR now a subscriber pay site. Hadn’t been there for a while. Pity.

  12. Carol2 12

    Michael Hudson on

    Europes Fiscal Dystopia: the “New Austerity” road

    http://counterpunch.org/hudson06252010.html

    • just saying 12.1

      It’s heartbreaking. And to have a merchant banker as PM, and no opposition to the principle of the trajectory we’re on. Talk about being driven to drink.
      What else can we do?

      • Bill 12.1.1

        Be the opposition to the trajectory…in every and any little way in your daily life…and look for all the rest of us who are doing the same and when we come together and demand an end to this shit and make it clear that we’re not interested in a compromise deal where the shit slows down or where the shit is merely a little less…..

  13. Pascal's bookie 13

    Local body politics Iceland styles.

    Last month, in the depressed aftermath of the country’s financial collapse, the Best Party emerged as the biggest winner in Reykjavik’s elections, with 34.7 percent of the vote, and Mr. Gnarr — who also promised a classroom of kindergartners he would build a Disneyland at the airport — is now the fourth mayor in four years of a city that is home to more than a third of the island’s 320,000 people.

    In his acceptance speech he tried to calm the fears of the other 65.3 percent. “No one has to be afraid of the Best Party,’ he said, “because it is the best party. If it wasn’t, it would be called the Worst Party or the Bad Party. We would never work with a party like that.’

    With his party having won 6 of the City Council’s 15 seats, Mr. Gnarr needed a coalition partner, but ruled out any party whose members had not seen all five seasons of “The Wire.’…

    …The Best Party, whose members include a who’s who of Iceland’s punk rock scene, formed a coalition with the center-left Social Democrats (despite Mr. Gnarr’s suspicion that party leaders had assigned an underling to watch “The Wire’ and take notes). With that, Mr. Gnarr took office last week, hoping to serve out a full, four-year term, and the new government granted free admission to swimming pools for everyone under 18. Its plans include turning Reykjavik, with its plentiful supply of geothermal energy, into a hub for electric cars.

    “Just because something is funny doesn’t mean it isn’t serious,’ said Mr. Gnarr, whose foreign relations experience includes a radio show in which he regularly crank-called the White House, the C.I.A., the F.B.I. and police stations in the Bronx to see if they had found his lost wallet.

    Sweet.

    • ianmac 13.1

      Thanks Pascals Bookie. I am going to Iceland next month and will look forward to Disneyland at the Airport. Great to hear that they are making the best of a bad job seem the Best it could be instead of the Worst it could be or even moderately mediocre that it could be if you didn’t know to Look On the Bright Side of Life.

    • prism 13.2

      How intriguing – did Mr Gnarr ever find his lost wallet or even get a reply? I think we need this type of serious politicking to balance all the farce we daily have to live with.

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