Search Results

  1. ImperatorFish: Judith Collins explains

    Written By:  notices and features -  Date published: 8:14 am, April 18th, 2014 -  30 comments
    Categories: Judith Collins, Satire
    Tags:

    Judith can’t believe she has to explain this all again

  2. NRT: Needlessly shitty

    Written By:  notices and features -  Date published: 1:18 pm, April 17th, 2014 -  12 comments
    Categories: democracy under attack, Parliament
    Tags: , , ,

    No Right Turn points out here about a select committee filtering out submissions because they were not in an official NZ language. This seems needlessly shitty – not to mention undemocratic. Parliament is supposed to represent all New Zealanders, not just those who write their submissions in one of our official languages.

  3. Polity: The Greens’ proposed pre-election deal

    Written By:  notices and features -  Date published: 2:45 pm, April 10th, 2014 -  58 comments
    Categories: greens, labour, MMP, nz first
    Tags:

    Last night, via One News, the public became aware that the Greens had proposed a pre-election coalition with Labour, but Labour had rejected it. While the Greens’ offer is nothing unusual internationally, New Zealand’s comparatively fair electoral system doesn’t provide Labour much incentive to accept it. Which, I think, makes Labour’s rejection of the proposal much less noteworthy.

  4. The politics of the Royal Tour

    Written By:  mickysavage -  Date published: 7:04 am, April 8th, 2014 -  85 comments
    Categories: john key, national, same old national
    Tags:

    Is it just me or is John Key politicising the Royal Tour in a way that has not occurred before?  And is he a Royalist or a Republican or both at the same time but for different parts of the electorate?

  5. Winning song urges Key to leave politics

    Written By:  susannact -  Date published: 10:30 am, April 7th, 2014 -  7 comments
    Categories: bill english, david cunliffe, john key, peter dunne, Satire
    Tags: , , ,

    Tracy Whatshite, Cadet Reporter, attended the “Bellies” (held at Bellamy’s) and found out who the winners were in this year’s competition for the Best Political Song of 2014. She spoke with the judge Frankie Stevens.

    “Competition was particularly intense this year and the top entries included some old favourites, but also some surprizing new comers,” he said.

  6. Go Annette!

    Written By:  karol -  Date published: 9:35 am, April 4th, 2014 -  53 comments
    Categories: child welfare, class war, election 2014, mana-party, Maori Issues, poverty, sustainability
    Tags: , ,

    Mana Party candidate Annette Sykes has been developing an effective organisation in her electorate.  Her speech at the TPPA rally laid out its threats to livelihoods in the Bay of Plenty.  Her views on the Internet Party will be listened to when discussed by the Mana Party.

  7. NRT: Time to see if the Ombudsman will keep their word

    Written By:  notices and features -  Date published: 2:20 pm, April 3rd, 2014 -  3 comments
    Categories: corruption, john key, Judith Collins, law
    Tags: ,

    Last month, we learned that Judith Collins had taken time off a taxpayer-funded trip to China to endorse her husband’s company – a company which had also donated significant sums of money to the National Party. The endorsement appeared to violate the Cabinet Manual, but John Key stepped up and claimed that the Cabinet Office said it was all OK. Then, just a few days later, he admitted that he’d lied about that. In the process, he implicitly raised serious questions about the quality of the Cabinet Office’s advice.

  8. Rogernomics, income inequality & gender politics

    Written By:  karol -  Date published: 12:22 pm, April 3rd, 2014 -  22 comments
    Categories: activism, capitalism, class war, community democracy, election 2014, feminism, Left, same old national, sustainability, workers' rights
    Tags:

    All of us, in our diversity, can make a big impact this election year. Time to end the “neoliberal” tyranny!  Crime stats are celebrated masking the continuing impact of income & social inequalities. Rogernomics fractured gender politics & rape crisis intiatives.

  9. Op Ed: Press want to control political blogs?

    Written By:  karol -  Date published: 3:02 pm, March 26th, 2014 -  41 comments
    Categories: accountability, blogs, democratic participation, news, newspapers
    Tags:

    John Drinnan has written on the upcoming opening of Press Council membership to bloggers.  He offers some positives.  But I don’t see anything much in it for political bloggers.  It would mean being dominated by a flawed Mainstream Media – the very thing many blogs aim to critique independently.

  10. Closing the Gaps – Education & work

    Written By:  karol -  Date published: 10:10 am, March 17th, 2014 -  8 comments
    Categories: benefits, education, employment, equality, Maori Issues, pasifika, poverty, Public Private Partnerships
    Tags:

    Simon Collins article on reducing inequalities for Māori & Pacific people. Māori and Pacific youth have become significantly disadvantaged in employment.  However, the article supports charter schools, without examining how such neoliberal intitatives are ultimately damaging for Māori & Pacific people.

  11. Polity: Endangered! Polls without cell phones

    Written By:  notices and features -  Date published: 5:07 pm, March 13th, 2014 -  28 comments
    Categories: Politics, polls, us politics
    Tags:

    Here’s a pretty astounding graphic from the US about cellphone vs landline use. The US is a few years ahead of New Zealand on mobile adoption and decoupling from landlines, but Rob Salmond thinks that within 5 years we will see these kinds of proportions in New Zealand. This will make current pollsters’ policies of refusing to call cell phones hugely problematic…

  12. Guest post – Who is David Cunliffe?

    Written By:  Guest post -  Date published: 8:41 am, March 10th, 2014 -  182 comments
    Categories: david cunliffe, election 2014, labour
    Tags:

    A guest post on the enigma that is David Cunliffe by David Craig.

  13. Filibustering

    Written By:  geoff -  Date published: 2:51 pm, March 9th, 2014 -  14 comments
    Categories: spin
    Tags:

    On the odd occasion when the media has picked up on the magnitude of a big issue, eg GCSB, Key was under the spotlight and he was sweating…

  14. Silver linings

    Written By:  geoff -  Date published: 10:12 pm, March 4th, 2014 -  124 comments
    Categories: internet
    Tags: ,

    When I first heard a Labour staffer had accidentally sent Amy Adams’ office a document on ICT my first thought was “here we go again.”

    But then I heard Adams’ weird and defensive interview on Checkpoint. So I took a look at the actual paper and realised just why she was so awkward and nervous on what should have been an easy political hit.

  15. Polity: X more thoughts on poll bias

    Written By:  notices and features -  Date published: 11:36 am, February 26th, 2014 -  26 comments
    Categories: national, nz first, polls
    Tags: , ,

    Whenever the media report on polls, they get accused of all manner of biases by the blinkered commentariat. Most of it is nonsense, of course. But some criticism of the polling methods themselves may have more merit that Rob Salmond first thought.  While he is not yelling “fire” at this stage, he does think there may be smoke. Something that he did not think that three years ago.

  16. LB: Rich Schools, Poor Schools

    Written By:  notices and features -  Date published: 3:33 pm, February 14th, 2014 -  6 comments
    Categories: education, schools
    Tags: ,

    Local bodies makes points about the changes in the school system over the years. The nett effect over decades has been to force the inter-generational inequality that a good school system is meant to prevent. The type of school system that this government favours appears to be designed to remove the opportunities for those whose parents aren’t lucky. Is it time to start again?

  17. Is John Key a shape shifting reptilian?

    Written By:  mickysavage -  Date published: 3:03 pm, February 12th, 2014 -  55 comments
    Categories: john key, Satire
    Tags:

    Recent allegations have surfaced suggesting that John Key is a shape shifting reptilian and the Labour Party is doing a deal with Ymir, King of the Frost Giants regarding the electorate of Ginnungagap in an attempt to win the 2014 election.  Is it just me or is politics getting really weird?

  18. Dotcom’s extradition and the 2014 general election

    Written By:  mickysavage -  Date published: 11:51 am, February 12th, 2014 -  94 comments
    Categories: act, david cunliffe, election 2014, greens, labour, national, russel norman
    Tags: ,

    In further news about Dotcom he has said that if the Internet Party has not reached 5% in the polls before the printing of the ballot papers he will endorse another party.  An endorsement could be the difference between the left winning and losing the next election.  And the Greens have raised the prospect of a Ministerial Veto of any extradition order.

  19. Polity: Kim Dotcom’s 5% gambit

    Written By:  notices and features -  Date published: 8:39 am, February 12th, 2014 -  92 comments
    Categories: accountability, activism, democratic participation, political alternatives, Politics
    Tags: , , , ,

    Rob Salmond looks at the implications of the Internet party failing to poll 5% and DotCom throws his support behind another party. A bidding war from competing parties? For the left this would be being both hypocritical and a bit icky. One of the reasons they worked hard to make election funding fairer in the late 2000s was to limit the ability of individuals seeking to buy government policy for cash. The right disagreed but is now caught by their own logic that it couldn’t happen.

  20. Role of Government

    Written By:  Bill -  Date published: 10:56 am, February 11th, 2014 -  46 comments
    Categories: capitalism, climate change, community democracy, democratic participation, economy, Environment, global warming, political alternatives, sustainability
    Tags: , ,

    Governments are holding on to their traditional roles and functions, but the world has changed. We need something else.

  21. Send gummy bears to your representatives

    Written By:  lprent -  Date published: 3:43 pm, February 4th, 2014 -  25 comments
    Categories: food
    Tags:

    Last night Lyn was regaling me with an advertisement on amazon for a 5 pound bag of “Haribo Classic Sugar Free Gummy Bears” with its 643 product evaluations. In this fine example of online consumerism, all appeared to agree that these really were some of the tastiest snacks around. In fact they were so good that many were suggesting that they got sent to all members of congress. Should we do the same for MPs? Then they might get the concept behind food labelling

  22. Gower plays a shocker

    Written By:  mickysavage -  Date published: 8:46 am, January 29th, 2014 -  96 comments
    Categories: Media, tv
    Tags: , ,

    Paddy Gower yesterday accused David Cunliffe of walking out of a press conference and refusing to answer questions on Best Start.  The reality seems to be somewhat different …

  23. Useless and venal

    Written By:  Zetetic -  Date published: 7:53 am, January 28th, 2014 -  197 comments
    Categories: capitalism, making shit up, same old national
    Tags: , , ,

    Following David Cunliffe’s announcement of Best Start New Zealand’s right wing took it upon themselves to show how useless and venal they are. It started with Jordon “the new Cameron Slater” Williams and the National front group Taxpayers’ Union’s eviscerating attack on “Middleclass Welfare” (honestly guys that line’s so 2007) only to blame it on” “Labour […]

  24. Deep sea oil drilling

    Written By:  mickysavage -  Date published: 9:34 am, January 23rd, 2014 -  91 comments
    Categories: climate change, Economy, energy, Environment
    Tags:

    Deep sea oil drilling is in the news.  Labour’s position is to require increased environmental standards and drillers would have to display an effective ability to clean up any disasters.  The Greens would prefer to leave the oil in the ground.  If there is a change of Government this year resolving this issue will pose a fascinating test of the parties.

  25. There is science, and then there are dickheads

    Written By:  lprent -  Date published: 9:19 am, January 17th, 2014 -  153 comments
    Categories: climate change, global warming, rodney hide, science
    Tags:

    Over the last three centuries science has established a pretty robust technique for overturning consensus and examining the weirder areas of science. You have to publish. Waving an untestable vague idea of cause and effect around based on wordplay is something that is better left to politicians, con artists, and religionists. Waving his dick around like Rodney Hide did on Sunday merely proves that he doesn’t think with his brain.

  26. The Internet Party

    Written By:  mickysavage -  Date published: 3:01 pm, January 15th, 2014 -  304 comments
    Categories: uncategorized
    Tags: ,

    Kim Dotcom’s Internet Party appears to be ready to take off.  And if the rumours are true he has some heavyweight advisers and a strategy that may threaten National more than any other party.

  27. Snowden performed a public service

    Written By:  lprent -  Date published: 10:16 am, January 4th, 2014 -  99 comments
    Categories: International, internet, Media, Spying, us politics
    Tags: ,

    The New York Times has an editorial stating that Edward Snowden should be regarded as a whistleblower who has done the public there and elsewhere a service by revealing the illegal extent of the NSA’s surveillance. What is most interesting in the extremely well linked editorial is that there is this curious hole in the US whistle blower laws that many including Barack Obama have said he could have used. They don’t cover contractors….

  28. Forty Christmases

    Written By:  RedLogix -  Date published: 11:20 pm, December 25th, 2013 -  49 comments
    Categories: Economy, Left, quality of life, Social issues
    Tags: ,

    Exactly 40 years ago to the day I was having a white Christmas – on the summit of Mr Fyfe overlooking Kaikoura. Today I celebrate another Christmas, high on another mountain, in another part of the world – with a light dusting of very dry, very icy snow drifting on the wind. The decades in […]

  29. A more equitable society

    Written By:  Guest post -  Date published: 1:13 pm, December 11th, 2013 -  53 comments
    Categories: benefits, Economy, Politics, poverty, Social issues, tax, welfare
    Tags: ,

    Welfare benefits and how you provide for the disadvantaged is one of the primary distinguishing features of the difference between the left and right of the political spectrum. Here is a proposal on how to make sure that the wealth of society is better distributed. It would require consensus from most people to implement as it would fundamentally change the fabric of society.

  30. Cameron Slater and the protection of journalistic sources

    Written By:  mickysavage -  Date published: 9:53 am, December 2nd, 2013 -  339 comments
    Categories: blogs
    Tags: ,

    Cameron Slater has been ordered in the District Court to advise on who an otherwise confidential source for a story is.  While at one level many would agree entirely with this decision there may be general considerations for the blogosphere which make this less than ideal.

  31. Greenpeace v Simon Bridges

    Written By:  mickysavage -  Date published: 6:57 pm, November 20th, 2013 -  106 comments
    Categories: disaster, energy, Environment
    Tags:

    The Greenpeace Yacht Vega has set up camp in the area that Andarko wants to drill for deep sea oil.  The recent law changes designed by Simon Bridges was meant to cover all possible loopholes.  But has he left one open?

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