Open mike 30/04/2011

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, April 30th, 2011 - 40 comments
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40 comments on “Open mike 30/04/2011 ”

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  1. Carol 1
    30 April 2011 at 7:22 am

    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/

    • Armchair Critic 1.1
      30 April 2011 at 9:35 am

      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.

  3. Robert Atack 3
    30 April 2011 at 7:58 am

    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 )

  4. joe90 4
    30 April 2011 at 8:38 am

    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.

  5. ianmac 5
    30 April 2011 at 10:09 am

    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.

  6. Deadly_NZ 6
    30 April 2011 at 11:27 am

    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.

    • Herodotus 6.1
      30 April 2011 at 12:54 pm

      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.

  7. Pascal's bookie 7
    30 April 2011 at 1:30 pm

    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:

    It has long claimed that evolution is a myth believed in only by whiny liberals – and it turns out it was on to something. Every six months, the party venerates a new hero, and each time it is somebody further back on the evolutionary scale.

    Sarah Palin told cheering rallies that her message to the world was: “We’ll put a boot in your ass, it’s the American way!” – but that wasn’t enough. So the party found Michele Bachmann, who said darkly it was an “interesting coincidence” that swine flu only breaks out under Democratic presidents, claims the message of The Lion King is “I’m better at what I do because I’m gay”, and argues “there isn’t even one study that can be produced that shows carbon dioxide is a harmful gas.”

    That wasn’t enough. I half-expected the next contender to be a lung-fish draped in the Stars and Stripes. But it wasn’t anything so sophisticated. Enter stage (far) right Donald Trump, the bewigged billionaire who has filled America with phallic symbols and plastered his name across more surfaces than the average Central Asian dictator. CNN’s polling suggests he is the most popular candidate among Republican voters. It’s not hard to see why. Trump is every trend in Republican politics over the past 35 years taken to its logical conclusion. He is the Republican id, finally entirely unleashed from all restraint and all reality.

    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:

    Trump probably won’t become the Republican nominee, but not because most Republicans reject his premisses. No: it will be because he states these arguments too crudely for mass public consumption. He takes the whispered dogmas of the Reagan, Bush and Tea Party years and shrieks them through a megaphone. The nominee will share similar ideas, but express them more subtly. In case you think these ideas are marginal to the party, remember – it has united behind the budget plan of Wisconsin Representative Paul Ryan. It’s simple: it halves taxes on the richest 1 percent and ends all taxes on corporate income, dividends, and inheritance. It pays for it by slashing spending on food stamps, healthcare for the poor and the elderly, and basic services. It aims to return the US to the spending levels of the 1920s – and while Ryan frames it as a response to the deficit, it would actually increase it according to the independent Center for Budget and Policy Priorities

    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.

  9. ianmac 9
    30 April 2011 at 4:06 pm

    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?

    • Herodotus 9.1
      30 April 2011 at 5:16 pm

      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?

      • Pascal's bookie 9.1.1
        30 April 2011 at 5:35 pm

        Here’s what the electoral commission says:

        http://www.elections.org.nz/elections/by-elections/by-elections.html

        When a vacancy arises, the Speaker of the House of Representatives publishes a notice of the vacancy in the New Zealand Gazette. Within 21 days of that notice, the Governor-General must issue the writ directing the Chief Electoral Officer to conduct an election in the electorate. The writ sets out the key dates for the by-election: namely, the last day for the lodging of nominations of candidates, election day, and the last day for the return of the writ with the name of the elected candidate endorsed on its back….

        …A by-election is not required if –

        (a)The vacancy arises within 6 months of the date on which Parliament would expire (the six month period for the 49th Parliament begins on 28 May 2011); or

        (b)The Prime Minister informs the House of Representatives in writing that a general election will be held witin 6 months of the vacancy –

        and 75% or more members of the House of Representatives resolve that a writ for a by-election not be issued.

        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.

        • MrSmith 9.1.1.1
          30 April 2011 at 6:54 pm

          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?

  10. ianmac 10
    30 April 2011 at 6:07 pm

    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/

    • Pascal's bookie 10.1
      30 April 2011 at 6:24 pm

      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.

    • Carol 10.2
      30 April 2011 at 6:54 pm

      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?

      • ianmac 10.2.1
        30 April 2011 at 7:25 pm

        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.

  11. higherstandard 11
    30 April 2011 at 6:24 pm

    people I would like to punch in the face at the mo.

    Wendy Petrie
    John Key
    Hone Hariwira
    Don Brash

    • ianmac 11.1
      30 April 2011 at 6:37 pm

      Just go easy with Don. He’s an old frail man.

      • higherstandard 11.1.1
        30 April 2011 at 7:26 pm

        Can I kick him in the butt ?

      • Colonial Viper 11.1.2
        30 April 2011 at 7:37 pm

        Who wears glasses.

        But, he is willing to sell off both your children and their assets.

        So, close call, surely.

        • higherstandard 11.1.2.1
          30 April 2011 at 7:40 pm

          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.

          • Colonial Viper 11.1.2.1.1
            30 April 2011 at 7:45 pm

            I’ve always found Rescue Remedy good for times like this 🙂

            • felix 11.1.2.1.1.1
              30 April 2011 at 10:23 pm

              If by “rescue remedy” you mean “pharmaceutical grade morphine” then yes, it is.

              • ak …
                30 April 2011 at 10:37 pm

                higherstandard: straddling the centre like a galoshes. Still, it’s progress…(the curse of a good memory, eh liarstan?)

  12. gobsmacked 12
    30 April 2011 at 6:55 pm

    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.

    • alexanderossipon 12.1
      30 April 2011 at 7:53 pm

      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..

      • gobsmacked 12.1.1
        30 April 2011 at 9:16 pm

        “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.

    • rosy 12.2
      30 April 2011 at 8:26 pm

      “Yep, John Key owes Hone a big bunch of flowers.”

      Agreed.

  13. Lanthanide 13
    30 April 2011 at 8:46 pm

    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.

  14. ak 14
    30 April 2011 at 10:52 pm

    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?

  15. ak 15
    30 April 2011 at 11:40 pm

    …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

  16. M 16
    1 May 2011 at 2:28 am

    Helen gives it to you straight:

    Don’t eat food from Europe and don’t eat Turkish apricots:

  17. Peter 17
    2 May 2011 at 9:59 pm

    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.