Search Results

  1. #Sheepgate – did National ask the Saudi Sheep Farmer to sue NZ?

    Written By:  mickysavage -  Date published: 8:36 am, June 24th, 2015 -  42 comments
    Categories: david parker, Economy, farming, john key, national, national/act government, same old national, spin, the praiseworthy and the pitiful, you couldn't make this shit up
    Tags: , ,

    It seems crazy but it appears that National may have asked the Saudi sheep farmer to sue New Zealand.  And John Key seems to be relaxed about facilitation payments aka bribes.

  2. Keep on rocking in the free world

    Written By:  mickysavage -  Date published: 8:19 am, June 19th, 2015 -  25 comments
    Categories: john key, music, national, same old national, the praiseworthy and the pitiful, us politics
    Tags: , , , ,

    Donald Trump has attracted adverse comment for using Neil Young’s song “keep on rocking in the free world” during his campaign launch.  There are a number of other examples, both local and in the US, where right wing candidates have misappropriated progressive musicians’ music for campaign purposes.

  3. Costly government

    Written By:  Stephanie Rodgers -  Date published: 3:00 pm, June 14th, 2015 -  43 comments
    Categories: child welfare, health, housing, national, poverty
    Tags: , , ,

    This is the true irony of National governments. Their entire platform is one of “fiscal responsibility” and “good economic management” yet time and time again they spend money the way I did when I was a teenager: false economies and short-term wish fulfilment.

  4. The Responsibilities of Government

    Written By:  Guest post -  Date published: 9:00 am, June 14th, 2015 -  45 comments
    Categories: bill english, Economy, health, housing, housing insulation
    Tags: , ,

    The death of Emma-Lita Bourne is not just a personal tragedy for the family: it is an event that should make New Zealand angry with the powerful people in our society who control the purse strings. They are responsible for condemning thousands of children to life-threatening conditions. And they are doing it in our name!

  5. Cameron Slater’s statement on Ben Rachinger

    Written By:  mickysavage -  Date published: 8:10 am, June 8th, 2015 -  77 comments
    Categories: uncategorized
    Tags: , ,

    Cameron Slater has posted one statement in response to Ben Rachinger’s allegations.  It was by way of a jpg and was not searchable.  As a public service broadcast I thought that New Zealand should have the benefit of the text of his response.

  6. Sky City redux – the house still wins

    Written By:  mickysavage -  Date published: 8:25 am, May 27th, 2015 -  101 comments
    Categories: Abuse of power, corruption, john key, national, Politics, Public Private Partnerships, same old national, Steven Joyce
    Tags:

    Sky City has managed to persuade the Government to allow it to build a cheaper building while retaining the same valuable gambling regulatory concessions.  Update: and the Government appears to have made further contractual concessions to Sky City.

  7. Budget Blues

    Written By:  Bryan Gould -  Date published: 4:33 pm, May 22nd, 2015 -  139 comments
    Categories: benefits, Economy
    Tags:

    Twenty five dollars a week can’t be bad, can it? For families on the breadline, it’s surely better than nothing and every little helps. And when the total spend is $790 million, that’s not peanuts, is it? – even if multiplying $25 up to this total should surely tell just how many qualifying families there […]

  8. Dotcom’s open letter to Banks

    Written By:  Anthony R0bins -  Date published: 7:21 am, May 21st, 2015 -  59 comments
    Categories: accountability, john banks, law
    Tags: ,

    Last night Kim Dotcom released an open letter to John Banks.

  9. Human Synergistics, Richard Prebble, and the end of government

    Written By:  BLiP -  Date published: 6:08 am, May 17th, 2015 -  64 comments
    Categories: Abuse of power, act, benefits, bill english, business, capitalism, child welfare, Economy, employment, john key, labour, national/act government, phil goff, political parties, Politics, poverty, privatisation, Privatisation, Public Private Partnerships, public services, social democracy, unemployment, welfare
    Tags: , , , , , , , ,

    Back in March 1988 David Lange had a clear idea about what lay ahead for New Zealanders as the long-term consequences of Roger Douglas’ psychopathic worshipping of the metaphysical Invisible Hand gradually materialised.

  10. Calling people names

    Written By:  Anthony R0bins -  Date published: 9:22 am, May 14th, 2015 -  24 comments
    Categories: humour, john key, Minister for International Embarrassment, spin
    Tags: ,

    Pulling ponytails and calling people names – I guess it’s true, the PM is 11 years old.

  11. English welcomes Reserve Bank doing his job for him

    Written By:  Anthony R0bins -  Date published: 9:03 am, May 14th, 2015 -  54 comments
    Categories: bill english, housing, leadership
    Tags: , , , ,

    Why is it left to the Reserve Bank to try and tackle the property bubble? It’s true – this government is recklessly complacent.

  12. Andrew Little’s pre budget speech

    Written By:  notices and features -  Date published: 8:42 am, May 13th, 2015 -  174 comments
    Categories: Andrew Little, Economy, john key, labour, Politics
    Tags:

    “National’s talk now is about how achieving surplus was an “artificial target” and that getting a surplus is “like landing a 747 on the head of a pin.” A lot of effort has gone into glossing over the broken promise. But I see it for what it is – one of the biggest political deceptions in a lifetime.”

  13. Rachinger on dirty politics 4 – Ben asks for help

    Written By:  notices and features -  Date published: 3:08 pm, May 11th, 2015 -  48 comments
    Categories: Dirty Politics
    Tags: , ,

    Ben Rachinger was a dirty politics insider, he is telling his story. Ben has asked for help.

  14. The rise of Collins and the decline of Key

    Written By:  mickysavage -  Date published: 8:48 am, May 4th, 2015 -  82 comments
    Categories: john key, Judith Collins, national
    Tags:

    John Key is back in the country and going by his interview on Morning Report this morning has been affected significantly by ponygate.  And Judith Collins has suddenly burst back into public view with the obvious goal of seeking a return to cabinet.  Or is it that she wants to be the next National leader?

  15. Ports of Auckland is out of control

    Written By:  mickysavage -  Date published: 8:33 am, May 3rd, 2015 -  30 comments
    Categories: auckland supercity, Conservation, Environment, len brown, local government, Politics, supercity
    Tags: ,

    Ports of Auckland’s recent behaviour outlines a major weakness with Auckland super city.  Corporate interests are able to take precedence over the wishes of our democratically elected representatives.

  16. The pope and climate change

    Written By:  Anthony R0bins -  Date published: 9:51 am, April 30th, 2015 -  32 comments
    Categories: climate change, global warming, International, religion, science
    Tags: , ,

    The Pope is calling for action on climate change. Naturally, he is being attacked for it.

  17. I Fought the Law

    Written By:  te reo putake -  Date published: 8:28 pm, April 28th, 2015 -  148 comments
    Categories: Ethics, human rights, john key, law, Minister for International Embarrassment, national, uncategorized
    Tags: , ,

    A quick look at the legalities of Ponytailgate as it affects the worker, the cafe, the NZ Herald and the PM. There could be court, tribunal and commission hearings that drag on for months, with potential big financial and political implications for the players.

  18. Pull the other one… ponytails, minimisation and male privilege

    Written By:  mhager -  Date published: 5:48 pm, April 25th, 2015 -  407 comments
    Categories: Abuse of power, blogs, broadcasting, corruption, discrimination, feminism, gender, john key, Left, news, patriarchy
    Tags: , ,

    From pulling ponytails to police minimisation, there is a deep problem in our country with attitudes towards women and to sexual violence.

  19. My Little Ponytail

    Written By:  te reo putake -  Date published: 9:49 am, April 22nd, 2015 -  407 comments
    Categories: Abuse of power, blogs, health and safety, john key, workers' rights
    Tags: , , , ,

    A really strange story has appeared on The Daily Blog. It claims to be a first person account of PM John Key regularly physically harrassing a staff member in his local cafe over the summer. While it may be much ado about nothing, the Prime Minister really should tell NZ his side of the story. Or resign if it’s true.

    Update: It’s true. Key’s office has confirmed the harassment.

  20. Deborah Russell: does New Zealand actually have a capital gains tax?

    Written By:  Guest post -  Date published: 2:00 pm, April 17th, 2015 -  65 comments
    Categories: capital gains, class war, tax
    Tags: ,

    A guest post by Deborah Russell responding to Government claims that we already have a capital gains tax  on the sale of land.

  21. Which Deficit?

    Written By:  Bryan Gould -  Date published: 4:08 pm, April 12th, 2015 -  64 comments
    Categories: Economy
    Tags:

    So, the much-touted and long-awaited government surplus looks unlikely to arrive this year. Is that a surprise? No. Does it matter? Not much. The only reason for sparing much time on the failure to eliminate the government deficit is that it relates to a target that the government itself identified as the crucial test of […]

  22. Open Internet and New Zealand media companies

    Written By:  mickysavage -  Date published: 10:53 am, April 5th, 2015 -  33 comments
    Categories: internet, interweb, Media
    Tags: , ,

    Spark, MediaWorks, Sky TV and TVNZ are threatening to take Callplus to Court because it, like many overseas companies, offers the ability to locals to obtain an American IP address.

  23. The implications of Winston Peters’ Northland win

    Written By:  mickysavage -  Date published: 8:30 am, April 4th, 2015 -  90 comments
    Categories: Andrew Little, articles, david cunliffe, john key, journalism, Judith Collins, labour, Media, national, national/act government, newspapers, nz first, winston peters
    Tags:

    John Armstrong in the Herald and Tracy Watkins in the Dominion Post have both written opinion pieces on the implications of Winston Peters’ win in Northland which reach very similar conclusions.

  24. April fool Pete George released from ban…

    Written By:  lprent -  Date published: 1:53 pm, April 1st, 2015 -  113 comments
    Categories: admin, scoundrels, The Standard
    Tags:

    Pete George was released from his ban this morning. Something that he was clearly bracing himself for yesterday when he directly lied about this site yet again…

  25. Some random thoughts on the Northland result

    Written By:  mickysavage -  Date published: 9:51 am, March 29th, 2015 -  62 comments
    Categories: Andrew Little, by-election, labour, national, national/act government, nz first, same old national, winston peters
    Tags:

    Winston Peters’ win in Northland yesterday was based on turnout that was significantly higher than turnout for any other recent by election.  And occurred in no small part because of some adept handling of messaging of support by Andrew Little.

  26. John Key’s Lies Since The 2014 Election

    Written By:  BLiP -  Date published: 9:00 am, March 26th, 2015 -  109 comments
    Categories: Abuse of power, accountability, Dirty Politics, Ethics, john key, Maori Issues, national, Politics
    Tags: , ,

    The most egregious feature remains the sheer banality. Its like John Key can’t help himself. Because most National Ltd™ voters really don’t care and because the MSM just accepts the deceit as “one of those things,” he’s been able to get away with it scot-free for more than six years.

  27. Defining the truth

    Written By:  Anthony R0bins -  Date published: 10:31 am, March 17th, 2015 -  12 comments
    Categories: Deep stuff, internet
    Tags: , ,

    Changes being considered at Google have far reaching implications. Who gets to decide what is true?

  28. Surveillance newspeak

    Written By:  notices and features -  Date published: 1:03 pm, March 16th, 2015 -  18 comments
    Categories: Abuse of power, International, Spying
    Tags: , , ,

    Key’s attempt to play cute with the semantics of surveillance is part of an international strategy. Here’s Glenn Greenwald at The Intercept.

  29. Catching up with Key

    Written By:  Anthony R0bins -  Date published: 8:36 am, March 14th, 2015 -  140 comments
    Categories: john key
    Tags: , ,

    You can only bungle and lie for so long before people get sick of it. Seems like it’s all starting to catch up with Key at last.

  30. Labour media commentators

    Written By:  mickysavage -  Date published: 8:00 am, March 14th, 2015 -  70 comments
    Categories: labour, Politics
    Tags: ,

    Self styled Labour activist Phil Quin has chosen to criticise the party’s commitment to democracy despite the clearly democratic structure the party has.  And to repeat criticisms of Labour pre election despite the strong evidence of change that has occurred since.  Yet the media go to Phil for comment on what is happening within the Labour Party even though I get the feeling he would prefer that Roger Douglas was still involved, despite the wishes of pretty well everyone else

  31. Time for the Greens to transcend left vs. right.

    Written By:  shantiahluwalia -  Date published: 5:00 am, March 14th, 2015 -  267 comments
    Categories: greens, leadership, Left, uncategorized
    Tags:

    The co-leadership race within the Greens has shown that they’re alive and kicking – if nursing a few wounds from the last election. Both Kevin Hague and Gareth Hughes have managed to enter the race with minimal belittlement – an impressive feat in itself, for a party as controversial as the Greens. Most interesting of […]

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