Open mike 28/10/2010

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, October 28th, 2010 - 56 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.

The usual good behaviour rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner).

Step right up to the mike…

56 comments on “Open mike 28/10/2010 ”

  • Comments are now closed

  1. Bored 1
    28 October 2010 at 6:34 am

    Capcha noticed as I looked for any postings: COMPROMISES.

    To all those compromised Standardistas and others who feel duped…we have been. Its been done with your money, and more importantly with your legislated hard fought for working conditions. It all started with tax breaks being promised to a venal electorate by a vacuous National party, followed by the non delivery of this to the multitude. They (the idiots who voted National against their own interests) are the compromised goods. Most amazingly as the polls demonstrate they have yet to realise they are no better off.

    Also compromised are those dolts who work in the film industry. Celebrate today, you have another year to make hay, the sun will however go behind a cloud, and you too will be out of work as sure as eggs are eggs. Unless perchance the government bends over and gives away our cash to the next foreign film bandit. Well done guys, I for one resent subsidising your jobs when those of my workers are not. Its a total compromise.

  2. Tigger 2
    28 October 2010 at 6:56 am

    So the All Black coach drives more than 30k over the speed limit and gets no fine? Wonder what Key will say about it. Oh come on, he has to be asked his opinion about everything, it’s media law in NZ.

    • Bored 2.1
      28 October 2010 at 6:58 am

      He is after all more important than a Priminister…..

    • luva 2.2
      28 October 2010 at 7:17 am

      Lets not get into the debate abour Prime Ministers rugby games and speeding cars again…..

      • Bored 2.2.1
        28 October 2010 at 7:26 am

        Why not? Given last time it happened the Right kicked up merry hell at a non driver, it will be instructive to see if they apply the same hysteria to an actual driver.

        • luva 2.2.1.1
          28 October 2010 at 7:29 am

          It’s not hard to get a bite from you is it

        • Bed Rater 2.2.1.2
          28 October 2010 at 9:08 am

          I’ll say, Helen Clark gets it for months, while extreme right wing rugby coach, Graham Henry is let off easy.

          • Bored 2.2.1.2.1
            28 October 2010 at 9:42 am

            Are rugby coaches extreme right wingers? Does that give them an overlap or do they run into touch?

            • Vicky32 2.2.1.2.1.1
              28 October 2010 at 6:33 pm

              No, but they are idiots, as far as I can see… and they get away with murder (at least one rugby player almost literally – he bashed his wife to within an inch of her life, and got name suppression.
              Rugby players are not gods, they are knuckle draggers…
              Deb

          • marsman 2.2.1.2.2
            28 October 2010 at 8:20 pm

            Helen Clark got it for years even after she quit office but it stopped after John Key was in the back of a speeding limo because he wanted a shower. Crony Media.

  3. mickysavage 3
    28 October 2010 at 7:18 am

    What I want to know is why should Warners be compensated for potential increased staff costs when they are not employing the actors?

  4. mickysavage 4
    28 October 2010 at 8:22 am

    I just managed to score a copy of the bill to be introduced today. Text follows:

    Employment Relations (The Hobbit enslavement of workers) Amendment Bill

    1 Title

    This Act is the Employment Relations Amendment Act 2010.

    2 Commencement

    (1) This Act comes into force as soon as Parliament can get the GG to sign off a copy.

    3 Principal Act amended
    This Act amends the Employment Relations Act 2000.

    4 New section 67C inserted
    The following sections are inserted after section 67B:

    “67C Status of Employment Contract to be at the unfettered whim of Sir Peter Jackson and/or Warner Bros
    “(1) Notwithstanding that a contract entered into by a worker with Three Foot Seven Limited or any other entity having anything to do with the film industry is clearly an employment contract, if Sir Peter Jackson and/or Warner Bros decide for whatever reason that it is a contract for the provision of services then tough bikkies to the worker.
    (2) Unions are evil.”

    • ianmac 5.1
      28 October 2010 at 9:44 am

      To my simple mind it seems strange that when you cut taxes you cut revenue which is needed to pay for Services. This leads to “we don’t have enough money for some strange reason so we will have to cut Services.”
      What a way to run a home or business!

  6. millsy 6
    28 October 2010 at 8:42 am

    Meanwhile:

    It is now ok for people to stab children and get away with it

    One wonders if she got off from it. She looks like a repressed old lady who never gets any – so she takes it out on her kid.

    I really belive that people need to stop hitting their kids.

    • Draco T Bastard 6.1
      28 October 2010 at 10:20 am

      Family First director Bob McCoskrie, who cited the case in full-page advertisements on Tuesday as one of seven new examples where the new law was penalising good parents, said other parents had been convicted for similar minor assaults.

      And the nutters come out in her defence. Stabbing your child is not good parenting.

      • Vicky32 6.1.1
        28 October 2010 at 6:41 pm

        Absolutely not! Crazy old besom, I can’t believe she got away with it! How can McCoskrie defend the mad old bat? To make matters worse, she’s only the foster mother…
        Deb

        • KJT 6.1.1.1
          28 October 2010 at 9:27 pm

          Have you ever considered the challenges of parenting an ADHD child who is violent towards siblings and caregivers.
          Not to mention any other type of special needs. And the lack of really effective help available.

          You should think about whether this lady needs help, rather than judgment from people who have not been in the same situation.

          In Sweden when they introduced anti-smacking legislation they also increased the assistance available to struggling families.

          Here it is being sneakily cut by the day. As anyone who has family members with mental health issues can tell you.

          • Vicky32 6.1.1.1.1
            29 October 2010 at 7:00 pm

            OK, she probably does need help and advice – but does she even realise where she went wrong? I find it telling that the brother refused to retaliate, so she had to stab the perpetrator. What has she taught those boys? That authority figures are violent bullies who approve of violence and indeed, try to order it!
            Deb

  8. The Chairman 8
    28 October 2010 at 9:07 am

    Nobel Prize winning economist decries the institutionalised system of skewed incentives
    http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/investing/joseph-stiglitz-corporate-crooks-to-jail/19684353/?icid=sphere_copyright

  9. john 9
    28 October 2010 at 9:43 am

    The NeoLiberal shock doctrine (formulated by the Chicago school of economics) is being applied in the UK,where anti public, corporate domination policies are being implemented. Good potted explanation of the disastrous consequences of this destructive cult.Profiting out of a blown up false crisis has been applied here ( With the Hobbit,Like spoiled brats I believe the reaction is genuine) with the hysterical reaction to the actors union wanting to open discussions as to improved remuneration and working rights.
    An example of CAPITAL refusing to recognise the essential part played by LABOUR without which these films could not be made. In Germany it’s normal for management and the Union to cooperate and sit down and talk and work out fair arrangements like ADULTS. The US has exported 40,000 factories to China so they don’t have to negotiate with social fairness in their own declining country.
    Refer Monbiot:
    http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2010/10/18/britains-shock-doctrine/

    • ianmac 9.1
      28 October 2010 at 9:50 am

      The cuts to Services warned by English (see above The Chairman at 8:38) seem to connect to your piece john. Must watch where cuts to Services will be made.

  10. prism 10
    28 October 2010 at 10:15 am

    Recent political events have reminded me of Bruce Petty cartoons which I saw in the ’70s which are still relevant. He is an Oz, still cartooning, and a worthy to keep an eye on along with our great cartoonists.

    Can be seen here http://www.smh.com.au/photogallery/opinion/bruce-petty/20090907-fdvy.html

  11. Draco T Bastard 11
    28 October 2010 at 10:27 am

    Climate change and the Caribbean coral bleaching, again

    In a nutshell, our best analysis concluded the 2005 Caribbean “heat wave” would likely be on the order of a once in a thousand year event, had there been no human-generated greenhouse gas or aerosol emissions since the Industrial Revolution (“natural forcing”). By the 1990s, the human forcings increased the odds to once in 10-50 years. And continued warming under “business as usual” would make such heat waves happen in three out of every four years.

    Five years later, a Caribbean “heat wave” has happened again.

    Last time I looked, coral was an important part of the oceans ecology and we’re losing it at an accelerating rate.

  12. john 12
    28 October 2010 at 10:30 am

    The French people have said an historic NO to only ordinary French People paying the costs of this crisis. The rich and their corporations must pay too with increased taxes so that the burden is shared.
    Refer link:
    http://www.zcommunications.org/why-france-matters-here-too-by-richard-d-wolff

    • john 12.1
      28 October 2010 at 11:01 am

      http://www.capitalismhitsthefan.com/

      This link gives a very clear explanation as to American Capitalism’s crisis:
      US wage levels increased yearly till 1970(US Peak Oil)—Since then wages have stayed static but Profits for corporations have skyrocketed due to productivity gains:- Computers and off-shored factories to China where cheap labour boosts the profit margin—corporations awash with cash invested into Banks(Not social goals to help all Americans such as universal health care)—What to do with all the surplus cash??!! Why lend it to static waged workers,mainly for housing which they pay back with interest!Also get into all the derivatives game too(This casino capitalism is done at the expense of ordinary Americans who miss out on the social application of this immense surplus wealth.—Result collapse as wage constricted Americans borrow too much(have no employment protections) and default on the borrowed money.—Ordinary Americans have been turned into economic serfs in their own country!—Finally dismantle social ability by reducing taxes dramatically increasing Profits and placating workers on static wage levels.

  13. ianmac 13
    28 October 2010 at 10:31 am

    John Armstrong:
    “Far more unseemly, however, is the Government’s kowtowing to Warner Bros and agreeing to put legislation before Parliament as soon as today to clarify the distinction between “independent contractors” and “employees” as it relates to the local film industry.

    Not only that. The legislation will be passed straight through all its stages, which means no select committee scrutiny.”

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10683580

  15. Lazy Susan 15
    28 October 2010 at 12:02 pm

    Just wondering which particular rock all the cheerleaders for the free market have hidden under.

    $100 million of state intervention distorting the sacred market place and not a whisper from the right.

  16. AndyB 16
    28 October 2010 at 12:12 pm

    SPADA’s response to the MEAA is quite telling really:

    4. MEAA Position:
    “Why is the studio behind The Hobbit talking about moving the production away from New Zealand? This is not due to industrial uncertainty.”

    SPADA response:
    This sort of disingenuous mischievous nonsense is sadly becoming the norm. Before the boycott the film would have been shot here without the events of the past few weeks.

    Boycott equals industrial uncertainty. Industrial uncertainty is what’s caused this mess. Without the boycott there is no question that the production would have calmly gone ahead without any visit required by a major delegation of Warner execs.

    • Bored 16.1
      28 October 2010 at 3:06 pm

      It good old fashioned management versus workers, except in this case most of the SPADA members are out of work / have patchy work / have bugger all prospect of long term work at a reasonable rate. Even so they are desparate fo their “industry” to be funded and propped up by anybody rather than stand on its own feet and merits. Let the buggers try and get a real job in the real world.

  17. Jum 17
    28 October 2010 at 1:07 pm

    Think we have problems with the stupid hobbit? Just been listening to a lovely lady from America, suffering from the depression there. Her words about the foreclosure on her house “the predators are moving in”.

    I could tell her that the predators now own our country. They’re called NActClub and they’re global.

    • prism 17.1
      28 October 2010 at 4:51 pm

      FPS We are getting work from our investment. That lady getting foreclosed couldn’t get work and couldn’t pay her bills as a result yet she had been in a long term responsible job.

      Just stop wallowing in cynicism and naive comments about dirty big business etc. If you didn’t foresee everything that has happened then you need to pay more attention to how the world actually works. Let’s button up and get on with making a good, popular movie that brings in squillions. The world is far from perfect. Now more of us know that than last month. Just keep up some of that indignation and apply it to other locations – you may be able to achieve a positive change in another matter.

  18. Gina 18
    28 October 2010 at 3:14 pm

    I posted about a proposed law change to the electoral role updating rules in open mike on the 25th oct 2010.

    “A law change is planned that will allow people to re-enrol or update their enrolment details online, without the need for a signed enrolment form.

    When people enrol or update their details now they can fill in the information online but they must complete the process by signing the completed form.

    The proposed law change in the Electoral (Administration) Amendment Bill No.2 will let people re-enrol and make changes to their details online using the ‘igovt’ government logon service which will require a password to protect security.

    The new online enrolment update facility is expected to be available for the next General Election, once the new bill has been passed.”

    I have just checked the Australian, the English, and the Canadian election registration sites. All of them require voters to return a signed document for the registration process. This new system of updating without signatures required is without precedent in the west and far more vulnerable to hacking than electronic voting.
    Prey tell me Labour, Green CERRA co-conspirators that you are going to oppose this. Anyone who votes for this ammendment is a fool or a traitor.

  19. bobo 19
    28 October 2010 at 4:07 pm

    Wilce, recruiter under fire in Defence report
    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10683687

    Another fuckup to add to Michelle Boag’s C.V at least she’s consistent..
    http://nz.linkedin.com/pub/michelle-boag/b/202/b1

  20. Pascal's bookie 20
    28 October 2010 at 4:51 pm

    Remember back when them USians were working themselves up to try and pass some sort of health care reform and a bunch of Democratic congress-critters had themselves some townhall meetings and a bunch of concerned citizens showed up and heckled and disrupted and brought guns in a totally spontaneous outpouring of free speech that was not astroturfed thuggery no matter what the documents say so stop saying that?

    Sure you do.

    Anyone that said these tea partying citizens with their guns and ‘tree of liberty needs to watered with the blood of patriots’ T-Shirts were perhaps getting a bit OTT with the rhetoric and were acting a bit dangerous were totally overreacting to what was just normal activism and political protest.

    Obviously what the democratic party activists should have done, what would have been appropriate, would have been to tackle a few of them to the pavement, head stomp them and demand an apology.

    So I’m glad that’s all cleared all up everyone knows that the US libertarians and teaparty are a new thing, separate and unattached to the old school birchers, racists and protofasclst arseholes of the southern gop so just stop saying that.

    http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/for-thee-but-not-for-me-by-digby-its.html

  21. marty mars 21
    28 October 2010 at 8:54 pm

    For those not aware already there is an interesting intertwined discussion going on in the comments within at least 3 blogs about the issue of unions and solidarity.

    Mr trotter http://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/2010/10/greatest-story-ever-told.html

    Maps http://readingthemaps.blogspot.com/2010/10/off-fence-comrade.html

    Lew http://www.kiwipolitico.com/2010/10/lessons-from-the-hobbit-more-unionisation-not-less/

    Well worth a read

  22. prism 22
    28 October 2010 at 9:32 pm

    marty mars – I like Lew – attempts to think the thing through looking at the facts not just repeating old saws, exercising political propensities.
    Chris Trotter’s piece is reminiscent of his No Left Turn.
    Maps soon strays off the proximity of the Hobbit case and on to the British miners strike in Thatcher’s time.
    It seems hard for some people not to make every employment protest an emblem for some earlier struggle. By all means remember history but don’t glorify yourselves by trying to echo those struggles.

  23. Draco T Bastard 23
    28 October 2010 at 11:13 pm

    Prison Economics Help Drive Ariz. Immigration Law

    But while the debate raged, few people were aware of how the law came about.

    NPR spent the past several months analyzing hundreds of pages of campaign finance reports, lobbying documents and corporate records. What they show is a quiet, behind-the-scenes effort to help draft and pass Arizona Senate Bill 1070 by an industry that stands to benefit from it: the private prison industry.

    Corporate America: Run by big business for big business.

Links to post

The server will be getting hardware changes this evening starting at 10pm NZDT.
The site will be off line for some hours.