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notices and features - Date published:
6:00 am, April 30th, 2011 - 40 comments
Categories: open mike -
Tags: open mike
https://player.vimeo.com/api/player.jsKatherine Mansfield left New Zealand when she was 19 years old and died at the age of 34.In her short life she became our most famous short story writer, acquiring an international reputation for her stories, poetry, letters, journals and reviews. Biographies on Mansfield have been translated into 51 ...
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Some interesting comments from Tim Watkin over at Pundit on Brash and Act:
http://www.pundit.co.nz/content/is-brash-really-the-saviour-of-the-right
Watkin tends to think that Brash will create more problems for National and Key than he solves, opening up questions about contentious issues that Key thought he’d laid to rest. I tend to see National as benefitting from a Brash-led Act, though.
And Watkin provides this link to an animated reminded of Brash of yesteryear:
http://www.labour.net.nz/gonebylunchtime/
Watkin is right – Brash gives Labour someone to discredit, whereas Rodney had already done the job (on) himself. It adds a measure of uncertainty that Brash’s opponents can use to drive their vote up.
A couple of other things that Brash has that Rodney doesn’t – (a) he has policy to frighten people with, and he doesn’t resile from it, and (b) there’s plenty of dirt on Brash that hasn’t come out, yet.
Having said that, Labour have had plenty of opportunities over the last 2.5 years and have missed more than they have hit. It seems like they forgot how to be the opposition, because they were in government for so long.
Stuff has an interesting poll on what people think of Brash as a minister. Keeping in mind that Stuff polls are not particularly reliable, it’s 20% for and 80% against. The results, as presented, indicate that it’s only the miniscule percent of the population that support ACT and less than half of National’s support that would like to see Brash as a minister. Food for thought for National.
From 1996: Toward an apartheid economy</a..
Is John Banks peak oil aware?
Well in 2002 (ish) when he had his radio show I faxed him a 2 page version of this – http://oilcrash.com/articles/running.htm I know he at least read some of it because he read a few lines out over the air.
Not that it mattered back then or now, as the pig ignorant public don’t give a toss )
Other than giving me the opportunity to laugh at the local loons as they make goats of themselves I’ve not paid much attention to the birther issue but this bloke calls it like it is.
So, tears in my eyes, pain in my heart and rage in my soul, I composed this video message. More than written text, it comes close to expressing my full pain at witnessing a white man who was handed everything call the President of the United States (and me) a nigger.
Even the experts have no agreement.
Fran O’Sullivan: “…..Don Brash has already staked a claim for a top finance role in John Key’s next Government.”
But John Armstrong says “Key’s ruling out of any likelihood of Brash becoming the finance minister is an important signal…….”
Armstrong again: “Brash also wants Key to strip Hide of his ministerial portfolios – an option which Key has now conveniently told Brash is within the Act leader’s discretion.”
After all Hide and Brash have been friends for more than 15 years.
And just to make us feel better we have the Herald running this nice little gem on the Bosses wage increases.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10722406
I see the workers got 1.7%
You could’nt spend 5 million every year.
But you HAVE to spend 50k a year to survive
And then there’s the other 70 odd% that dont even get 20k a year.
But then again no Politician seems to care, we don’t hear of them decrying these increases, and ol’ Shonkey and Blinglish will love this as it will add more fuel to their AVERAGE wages have increased by X% Bullshit.
All grist to the spin mill.
This to me is the real gem within the article “…But John McGill, chairman of remuneration consultants Strategic Pay, says the chief executives of New Zealand’s largest firms are not overpaid, especially when compared with their counterparts overseas..” Why then do we not do the same analysis for those below the CEO level. So the CEO deserves remuneration on a international scale yet the rest of us should be paid on a domestic scale. Something is not as consistenant as it should be.
Pity many political parties will base there tax system on these few but capture so many more who are just above the waterline in maintaining the household budget.
The gilded grifter, Donald Trump, got his little waterloo this week, Joe90 linked to a great piece above that folks should check out with regard to apart of what it all means on a human level.
Johann Hari writes about what it means for the GOP, and he gets much of it dead right:
As an intro to the grotesque that is the decaying corpse of the Party of Lincoln, that’s pretty much it. He goes on to describe the disease, again, pretty accurately in my view.
Naked imperialism.
Dog-whistled prejudice.
The raw worship of wealth as an end in itself.
The insistence that “any fact inconvenient to your world view simply doesn’t exist, or can be overcome by pure willpower”
There are a few symptoms I would be tempted to add to that list, but they are mostly subsets of those already listed. Those four are the core.
Where he goes wrong, I suspect, is in his conclusion:
I agree that Trump won’t be the nominee, but I think that whoever it is will either be just as crude, or fatally weak in support from the GOP electorate. The crudeness of Trump’s campaign is itself an expression of the fourth pillar. To be less in denial with reality is to compromise with the enemy. They are are party defined and refined into walking shibboleths. The extent to say these things is the extent to which a candidate is prepared to stick with the tribe of real ‘murkins. The extent to which they are one of ‘us’ rather than than one of ‘them’.
The reason Trump won’t get the candidacy is that, ironically enough, he won’t release his own documents, because if he did the gig would be up on his claim to be an exemplar of the third pillar.
Hone Harawira to quit – forces By-election
http://www.3news.co.nz/Hone-Harawira-to-resign-from-Parliament/tabid/419/articleID/209202/Default.aspx
Pity that Rodney didn’t do the same. Then there would be two fires raging. Actually I think that this close to an election the Parliament has the right to block such a by-election if 70% (?) vote to block it. After about the 20 May you can’t anyway.
However if Hone resigns on Monday and next week MPs vote to block the by-election where will Hone be afterwards? Unprecedented?
Would “then this new party then lose out on funding for Nov’s general election- As they would not have a current party rep in parliament?
Here’s what the electoral commission says:
http://www.elections.org.nz/elections/by-elections/by-elections.html
As I understand that because he is resigning slightly more than 6 months out, then the by-election must be held. That can change only if Key brings the general election forward and 75% of the house vote to leave the seat empty.
Interesting , Hone is basically calling the Nacts out on an election date or the Nacts risk a vote that they need Labours support for. Am I reading this right?
Will it mean that once Hone resigns he would no longer enjoy the benefits of being an MP?
Will his by-election be funded given that it is a new Party and will have been long gone after the registration date in March?
Graeme Edgeler on Public Address” The process by which this money is allocated is convoluted. It starts many months before the election when parties (or prospective parties) are required to advise the Commission in writing that they wish to be considered. ………
…..And on 17 March this year, just before the 5pm deadline, I asked the Electoral Commission who had applied……….. The Maori Party has applied, but Hone Harawira’s Mana Party has not (Hone the candidate will be allowed radio and tv advertising as part of his $25k spending limit, but it won’t be able to push a party vote and it won’t be publicly funded).”
http://publicaddress.net/legalbeagle/adventures-in-the-oia-or-why-don-brash-wanted/
Yeah, he’s already missed the publicly funded tv stuff, so this won’t change that. He’ll still get his parliamentary funding, and I’m not sure what, if any, the effect of re-testing his mandate will be.
But if Hone is elected as a Mana Party candidate in a by-election, doesn’t that mean his Mana Party will get funding for the general election …. as he would be the sitting member for the Mana Party?
Not by my reading of the Edgeler post. If you haven’t applied by March 17 Hone misses out – I think.
Maybe it hasn’t arisen before Carol.
He is demonstrably a fucking halfwit
people I would like to punch in the face at the mo.
Wendy Petrie
John Key
Hone Hariwira
Don Brash
Just go easy with Don. He’s an old frail man.
Can I kick him in the butt ?
You didn’t put Winnie on that list 😈
You could probably punch him in the dick without mortally wounding him.
Who wears glasses.
But, he is willing to sell off both your children and their assets.
So, close call, surely.
The only reason more politicians aren’t on my list is none of the others were stinking up the TV news this evening………. if they piss me off this much now I expect to be homicidal in another few months.
I’ve always found Rescue Remedy good for times like this 🙂
If by “rescue remedy” you mean “pharmaceutical grade morphine” then yes, it is.
higherstandard: straddling the centre like a galoshes. Still, it’s progress…(the curse of a good memory, eh liarstan?)
Go suck the shriveled previous member for Tauranga.
I was going to write a long rant about all the reasons this by-election is a gift to the Right.
But it’s Saturday night and I can’t be bothered wasting time on such stupidity. All you need to do is ask yourselves what the media/country should be focusing on instead, and who doesn’t want to focus on those things. Yep, John Key owes Hone a big bunch of flowers.
Nuff said.
I think more of a gift to the Right, is Phil Goff ruling out working with the Mana Party.
The Mana Party is essentially the old Alliance remember them?
Mana Motuhake
New Labour
The Democrats
The Greens
They are probably capable of taking 5% of the vote and collecting 7/8 MP’s
They will most certainly take the hard lefties from the Green with them.. Which is great for the environmentally focused Greens.
Interestingly The Greens have been moving more to the centre in recent times and now have a party to the left of them [Mana]which is very interesting in terms of perception.
It could be argued that Greens now freed up to be a more environmental party will surely mop more then a few Blue/Greens votes The Greens list for example, has more environmentalists on it then lefties, the first in a long time.
If we had a resurgent Labour Party National may well be on the ropes in November.
If..
“I think more of a gift to the Right, is Phil Goff ruling out working with the Mana Party.”
The Mana Party’s first decision was to call an expensive, pointless, distracting, self-indulgent by-election that nobody needs. This will be opposed by 99% of the voters.
If that’s the level of stupidity that the party aspires to, Phil Goff – or any other Labour leader – should treat them with the contempt they deserve.
“Yep, John Key owes Hone a big bunch of flowers.”
Agreed.
Lynn – if you click on an authors name, it’ll take you to a listing of all of their posts.
But if their name has a space in it, eg Marty G or Mike Smith, then it just takes you to the main page. This is quite irritating, since search is broken at the moment.
Yes I found that one last month when I was looking for Marty G ‘s posts. I will do that today..
Apropos of very little, Pagani’s blogging is not too bad a read since the recent fox pass – certainly prolific and arguably terriffic, worthy of a comment I thought but beggared if I can manage one, any techspurts able to enlighten a relic as to how to log in when it keeps telling you you haven’t logged in so cant log in so email but sorry havent got ur email so you cant email or something?
…same applies to TUMEKE, yet i can slip into dimpost like a suppository smeared with Key-juice….barriers, tech brothers an sisters, break em down for us ole felks
Helen gives it to you straight:
Don’t eat food from Europe and don’t eat Turkish apricots:
In Australia the Government actually has plans to create jobs … !!!!!!!
NZ Govt aware of Aussie jobs threat
Australian Treasurer Wayne Swan said government’s budget would help create half a million jobs over the next two years to deal with a skills shortage in sectors such as mining, and to replace retiring baby boomers.