Open mike 28/02/2010

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, February 28th, 2010 - 23 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…

23 comments on “Open mike 28/02/2010 ”

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  1. Brett Dale 1
    28 February 2010 at 8:19 am

    Head for the hills, not the beach.

  2. Brett Dale 2
    28 February 2010 at 8:46 am

    Wave warnings following earthquake in Chile.

  3. r0b 3
    28 February 2010 at 9:26 am

    NickS – moved your comment to the post on this topic.

    Suggestion to all, any further comments re the tsunami could be made in that post.

  4. Bill 4
    28 February 2010 at 10:27 am

    Meanwhile, on the possibility of initial rumblings leading to a quake and tsunami of a more positive nature….A Turning Point in Europe makes the observation that workers’ resistance to austerity measures flowing from bail outs is being opposed by trade unions as well as ‘left’ leaning governments.

    No matter your thoughts on that observation, which is of course informed by a particular political perspective and its embodied hopes, the quotes lifted below is surely uncontroversial and demands that many hard questions be asked and many difficult decisions made with regards the capture of national governments by corporates and global financial interests as well as, of course, the capture of trade unions by parliamentary parties.

    “They ( banksters) are speculating against any economy that is seen as debt-heavy and unwilling to carry forward the necessary attacks on the working class, thereby increasing the financial pressure on the targeted governments. ”

    “There is no national solution to the crisis facing workers in Greece, Spain, Portugal or anywhere else. They are being thrust into a common struggle against globally-organised capital.”

    Time to revisit the idea of internationalism?

  5. greenfly 5
    28 February 2010 at 11:22 am

    Felix has a dog ?

    (anti-spam, ‘silly’)

  6. prism 6
    28 February 2010 at 12:41 pm

    Is PayPal a USA based firm? If so have we no reliable currency transfer service based in NZ or Oceania? I notice that it seems the default service provider for internet payments on recent sites I have looked at.

    • Marty G 6.1
      28 February 2010 at 1:18 pm

      Yeah, it is the biggest online payments provider worldwide. And the donations through it go to paying for the server, which is paid in US dollars.

  7. Ed 7
    28 February 2010 at 2:04 pm

    There is another survey on Stuff

    Should there be limits on how much lobby groups spend on election campaigning?
    http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/
    This currently has 83% of respondents in favour of limits. Perhaps the thought of more Exclusive Brethren campaigns is too much for even the Nat-supporters.

    • Draco T Bastard 7.1
      28 February 2010 at 11:04 pm

      Actually, I think you’ll find that the hard core Nats, the ones who don’t support limits, just don’t make up that much of the population. Since the 2k2 election I’ve been working on the assumption that they, the people who will vote National no matter what, only make up about 20% of the population and even then some of them would be for limits. And don’t forget the 1% of the population who vote ACT – they would be against limits as well.

  8. BLiP 8
    28 February 2010 at 3:00 pm

    I see that former National Ltdâ„¢ President John Slater has come out in defence of his son Cameron’s alleged breaches of the Criminal Justice Act. In today’s Sunday Star Times (print version – p. A6 byline Sarah Harvey) Slater Snr. states that Blubber Boy has the support of many within National Ltdâ„¢.

    Now, wasn’t there a discussion recently about whether or not there was a link between Whale and National Ltdâ„¢ ?

    • lprent 8.1
      1 March 2010 at 10:16 am

      I saw that, but while I was at a cafe.. So I don’t have the hard copy. I couldn’t find a link on the SST website (which seemed somewhat unusual).

  9. Adders 9
    28 February 2010 at 4:49 pm

    “GST rise a bad move,’ says Bernard Hickey at

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/personal-finance/news/article.cfm?c_id=12&objectid=10628904

    and lists 10 reasons why.

    • Draco T Bastard 9.1
      28 February 2010 at 11:13 pm

      Labour really need to come out and say that they will reverse the GST hike ASAP and probably a lowering of GST back down to the 10% in line with another tax bracket at about $200k @ 45%. They also need to look very hard at the methods used for tax minimisation as tax alignment, although a good idea if done correctly (The TWG suggestion isn’t the correct way), only partially addresses that problem.

  10. the pinkpostman 10
    1 March 2010 at 4:19 pm

    Our small LP branch in the Tory Waikato has just had the Labour GST bus visit. This walkabout by Goff turned out very successful .I was amazed at the number of people in “once again” Tory stronghold who wished Labour was back.I was also amazed by the number of well heeled Nats who denied voting for National. Tell me Standard readers is the tide Turning ? are the gallop polls in error ?I await your true comments with interest

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