Search Results

  1. Joke? Or deliberate insult?

    Written By:  lprent -  Date published: 12:07 pm, May 13th, 2010 -  158 comments
    Categories: john key, maori party
    Tags: ,

    There appears to have been a recent and sudden shift in the attitude of John Key and the National party towards Maori. Marty Mars has drawn my attention with a ballistic comment to the latest insulting and distasteful ‘joke’ by John Key about the Tuhoe.

    Update: His ‘joke’ has now gone international. Our clueless Tourism Minister has just ‘lifted’ our profile abroad. Thanks John…

  2. Garner sez ‘take the fight to Key’

    Written By:  Marty G -  Date published: 9:02 am, May 13th, 2010 -  15 comments
    Categories: accountability, flip-flop, john key, leadership, phil goff
    Tags: , ,

    Phil Goff has put some good solid (if rather moderate) left-wing substance on the table in his pre-budget speech yesterday. Duncan Garner says that was the right move, but wonders if Labour now needs to focus on the questions surrounding John Key. Garner says in the wake of several questionable moves Key’s integrity is now on the line and Labour should exploit it.

  3. Hey “Chubby”…..

    Written By:  lprent -  Date published: 7:12 pm, May 12th, 2010 -  80 comments
    Categories: blogs, dpf
    Tags: ,

    It looks like Nationals favourite pollster and blogging spinster has been sniffing around trying to find out who our authors are. So I guess I’ll have to gently castigate him yet again. Such a child, always reaching for the cookie jar..

    In the process it appears that he has pissed off some journos, and it appears that David has acquired a new nickname.

  4. Science fights back

    Written By:  r0b -  Date published: 12:11 pm, May 12th, 2010 -  18 comments
    Categories: climate change, science
    Tags: ,

    A recent open letter from 255 members of the US National Academy of Sciences (including 11 Nobel laureates) calls for “an end to McCarthy-like threats of criminal prosecution against our colleagues …, the harassment of scientists by politicians seeking distractions to avoid taking action, and the outright lies being spread about them”.

  5. One more straw & the final one’s about to come

    Written By:  Eddie -  Date published: 11:26 pm, May 11th, 2010 -  56 comments
    Categories: foreshore and seabed, maori party, national, racism, treaty settlements
    Tags: , , ,

    You can’t mix oil and water. You can swirl things about for a while and it may appear you’ve mixed them but there is an essential difference that can’t be crossed. Likewise, there is an illusion that John Key, like some alchemist of old, has magically transcended fundamental political facts to make a National/Maori Party relationship work. But illusions can’t last forever.

  6. Economics on private prisons don’t add up

    Written By:  Marty G -  Date published: 2:03 pm, May 11th, 2010 -  15 comments
    Categories: prisons
    Tags: ,

    The argument against privatising prisons isn’t high principle (only the state should imprison people) or that this is an attempt at cost-cutting. No, the reason private prisons suck is they cost more. The last time Auckland Remand was privatised it didn’t save money. It cost $66,000 a year to imprison someone in Auckland remand vs $49,000 for a publicly-run equivalent.

  7. Stab in the back for Tuhoe

    Written By:  Marty G -  Date published: 10:15 am, May 11th, 2010 -  68 comments
    Categories: maori party, national, treaty settlements
    Tags: ,

    Tuhoe had settled their compensation deal with the Crown. It was to go to Cabinet for sign off and the deal would be announced at a hui on Friday.But then John Key was confronted by the Nat’s pissed off hick base at the regional conference. What was he to do? The right thing by a people whose land was stolen from them? Or the thing that would best help his poll ratings? Guess.

  8. Schedule 4 back-down won’t solve the problem

    Written By:  Guest post -  Date published: 12:30 pm, May 10th, 2010 -  11 comments
    Categories: climate change, Conservation, Mining
    Tags: , , , , ,

    If, as seems increasingly likely, the Government drops its plans to desecrate the best of schedule 4 land, will it be cause for celebration? In a word, no. Kathy at Greenpeace weblog examines Brownlee and his wet dreams

  9. Nat stalking-horse’s attack on Cullen Fund falls flat

    Written By:  Marty G -  Date published: 8:48 am, May 10th, 2010 -  23 comments
    Categories: scoundrels, superannuation
    Tags: ,

    Michael Littlewood, the Government’s anti-Cullen Fund stalking horse, is back – arguing we should wind up the Cullen Fund. The numbers are clear. The decision to cancel contributions to the Fund has cost New Zealand $48 million so far. If the Fund was canned last June like Littlewood wanted, we would be more than $2.9 billion worse off. Tip: never let this guy help with your home finances.

  10. PM’s Technical Advisory

    Written By:  the sprout -  Date published: 9:31 am, May 9th, 2010 -  12 comments
    Categories: humour, interweb, john key
    Tags:

    Prime Minister John Key has released a multimedia demonstration prepared by his Technical Advisory Panel to explain why, despite election ‘promises’, New Zealand will not be getting ultra-fast broadband any time soon under National. Yes folks, like John Key’s Magical Cycleway To Salvation, there are a myriad of previously unconsidered reasons why we just can’t […]

  11. So much for ‘ambitious for New Zealand’

    Written By:  Marty G -  Date published: 12:35 pm, May 3rd, 2010 -  161 comments
    Categories: Economy, jobs, national, public transport, same old national, Unions
    Tags: , , ,

    A new report says that building the half a billion worth of new rail rolling stock for Auckland in New Zealand would boost GDP by $250 million, improve our current account deficit by over $100 million, add $70 million to government revenue, and create 1200 skilled jobs. But the Government just want the cheapest price for the rail cars, and that means going overseas.

  12. On GEO group, conservative politicians, lobbyist groups, and prisons

    Written By:  lprent -  Date published: 11:06 am, May 2nd, 2010 -  9 comments
    Categories: accountability, corruption, election funding, International, law and "order", national/act government, prisons, The Standard, us politics, youtube
    Tags: , , ,

    In Florida, a legislative plan to close as many as five state prisons and ship inmates to a private prison run by GEO Group was scaled back last month.

    The feds may be searching to see if former state House Speaker Sansom received any kickbacks from the company. The GEO group are also contenders for running private prisons here.

  13. Understanding and trust

    Written By:  Marty G -  Date published: 9:50 am, May 2nd, 2010 -  10 comments
    Categories: Deep stuff, Left
    Tags:

    Nat MP Michael Woodhouse was speaking on the amendment bill weakening workers’ rights to a break and said “I was heard it said that political discourse requites two things: trust and understanding. And it’s certainly true here. Labour don’t trust us and we sure as hell don’t understand them”. I think it’s very enlightening that he chose to put it that way.

  14. Choices are becoming clear

    Written By:  r0b -  Date published: 3:00 pm, April 29th, 2010 -  39 comments
    Categories: election 2011, labour, national
    Tags: , , ,

    The choices between Labour and National are becoming clearer by the day. Next election the public is going to be offered two very different futures for New Zealand. Not between Labour and a dissembling “Labour Lite”, but between Labour and the true National agenda exposed.

  15. David Cameron is like a hollow Easter egg, with no bag of sweets inside. He’s nothing. He’s no one

    Written By:  Michael Foxglove -  Date published: 7:43 pm, April 26th, 2010 -  31 comments
    Categories: International, uk politics
    Tags: ,

    A classic opinion piece on David Cameron by Charlie Brooker. It was written 3 years ago, but arguably more relevant now with Cameron poised to take 10 Downing St. Also, one can’t but help make comparisons with John Key: “David Cameron is an idiot. A simpering, say-anything, dough-faced, preposterous waddling idiot with a feeble, insincere voice and an irritating tendency to squat near the top of opinion polls…”

  16. Xena and Sheryl do the dirty on Brownlee

    Written By:  Demeter -  Date published: 11:22 am, April 26th, 2010 -  22 comments
    Categories: uncategorized
    Tags: , , , ,

    Remember back in 2007 when Gerry Brownlee took some really bad PR advice and unfathomably released a video entitled “Sexy Coal”? It was bound to come back and bite him; it’s the 21st century after all. What’s particularly salacious is that Lucy Lawless is doing the biting….

  17. Stewart vs. Fox

    Written By:  r0b -  Date published: 3:02 pm, April 22nd, 2010 -  19 comments
    Categories: humour, news, us politics
    Tags: ,

    When will conservative commentators stop picking fights with Jon Stewart? It never ends well for them.

  18. Copying is not theft

    Written By:  the sprout -  Date published: 8:33 am, April 19th, 2010 -  25 comments
    Categories: humour, interweb, music, youtube
    Tags: , , ,

    Here’s a catchy tune for all you pirates out there. Get your kids to sing along!

  19. Nat-onomics: $30 million up in flames

    Written By:  Marty G -  Date published: 1:15 pm, April 17th, 2010 -  11 comments
    Categories: dpf, national, spin, superannuation
    Tags: ,

    Vernon Small calculates that if the Cullen Fund had continued getting its monthly contributions, rather than just the one-off $250 million the government gave in July, we would be $30 million better off by now. Predictably, the financially illiterate Key apologists are having a cry about being shown to have stuffed this one up so badly.

  20. Pig Code of Welfare – last day to send submissions

    Written By:  rocky -  Date published: 12:00 am, April 16th, 2010 -  18 comments
    Categories: animal welfare, farming
    Tags: ,

    Today is the last day to send in your submission on NAWAC’s draft Code of Welfare for Pigs. New Zealand Open Rescue have put out a new video containing footage from many different farms around the country, to remind you why it is important to have your say. You can send a submission using SAFE’s template at www.lovepigs.org.nz.

  21. NZ should be a proud world leader on nukes

    Written By:  Eddie -  Date published: 10:54 pm, April 13th, 2010 -  49 comments
    Categories: International, us politics, war
    Tags: ,

    How wonderful it is to have a US President that rejects the evil of nuclear weapons. Finally the world is catching up with us. While the powers were locked in the stand-off of Mutually Assured Destruction, New Zealand rejected the madness of that logic and we declared ourselves nuclear-free. Our Prime Minister should be celebrating that fact and pointing to our achievement as a model for the whole world.

  22. English should follow Bennett’s lead

    Written By:  Marty G -  Date published: 11:02 am, April 13th, 2010 -  27 comments
    Categories: benefits, bill english
    Tags: , , ,

    Well, I’m pleasantly surprised. For once, Paula Bennett has played it straight on the benefit numbers. She hasn’t slapped herself on the back, even though last month’s benefit numbers are the best we’ve seen on her watch (in line with normal seasonal variation). If only Bill English could follow suit, rather than claiming credit for illusionary movements in the government’s books.

  23. Fox News – driven by conservative bullshit

    Written By:  lprent -  Date published: 4:00 pm, April 11th, 2010 -  24 comments
    Categories: Media, tv, uncategorized
    Tags: , , ,

    Rachel Maddow has a look at exactly how much Fox News just makes stuff up and calls it news. It uses selectively edited stories like the ACORN ‘pimp’ story, the ‘climategate’ e-mails, and many other highly inaccurate ‘stories’, and promotes them for ratings.

    In effect Fox News is the (un)official spin channel for conservative activists to peddle garbage entertainment on. Have a watch of Rachael as she tears the facade of conservative story telling apart.

  24. Will Winston be back in 2011?

    Written By:  Michael Foxglove -  Date published: 7:41 am, April 10th, 2010 -  100 comments
    Categories: election 2011, Parliament, Politics
    Tags:

    In politics nothing lasts forever. That is it seems, except the Rt Hon Winston Peters. The latest Roy Morgan poll has NZ First at 3%, just below the 5% threshold (Nats 49%, Lab 33%). With Peters once again creeping back into the media spotlight, you’ve got to wonder: Will Rodney Hide’s nightmare come true with the return of Winston Peters to Parliament in 2011?

  25. Allied with murderers

    Written By:  Eddie -  Date published: 10:25 am, April 7th, 2010 -  41 comments
    Categories: afghanistan, crime, iraq, war
    Tags: ,

    Wikileaks has revealed footage shot from a US Apache helicopter in Iraq in 2007 as they callously murder a dozen Iraqi civilians. Every time you read of some wedding convey being shot up or a houseful of ‘insurgents’ being bombed remember this video and remember that our soldiers are now part of the combat force that is committing these same barbaric acts in Afghanistan.

  26. Gung Ho

    Written By:  lprent -  Date published: 8:01 pm, April 5th, 2010 -  3 comments
    Categories: music, youtube
    Tags:

    This is eleven minutes of pure Patti Smith singing about Vietnam in her usual ambiguous poetical style. Came up on the playlist while coding, and I had to stop to listen to the sheer menace in her voice. I had a look for a video. A powerful song, and a powerful rendition by its creator.

  27. Nats fail on crime

    Written By:  Marty G -  Date published: 2:07 am, April 4th, 2010 -  45 comments
    Categories: crime, national, unemployment
    Tags: , ,

    Regular readers of The Standard will know that a primary driver of crime is joblessness. It’s no surprise, therefore, to see that crime went up in the last year. Fewer jobs to go around = more crime. Crime is a symptom of socio-economic distress. It is not, primarily, ‘bad’ people behaving badly because they are […]

  28. No one owns foreshore – Govt “solution”

    Written By:  Marty G -  Date published: 3:28 pm, March 31st, 2010 -  16 comments
    Categories: foreshore and seabed
    Tags:

    The Government has released its Foreshore and Seabed policy. It will put the F&S into ‘public domain’ where it will be owned by no one. Maori will be able to take claims for customary rights over parts of the F&S to Court(except those parts that are already owned by private, Pakeha, interests of course).

  29. Facts don’t matter

    Written By:  r0b -  Date published: 11:24 am, March 28th, 2010 -  19 comments
    Categories: climate change, Deep stuff, science
    Tags:

    Anyone who has been involved in debating issues has probably come to suspect that facts don’t matter. Facts don’t change people’s minds, there are other, stronger influences that shape opinions.

    A recent article by George Monbiot in The Guardian reviews some of the psychological evidence for this fact blindness in the context of the climate change debate.

  30. Earth hour tonight

    Written By:  notices and features -  Date published: 9:37 am, March 27th, 2010 -  17 comments
    Categories: activism, Environment, International
    Tags:

    Tonight, 8:30 – 9:30pm is Earth Hour 2010. New Zealand is among the first in the world, kicking off the event. Turn off, tune out, drop in.

  31. Jobs only real benefit reduction policy

    Written By:  Marty G -  Date published: 9:02 am, March 24th, 2010 -  18 comments
    Categories: benefits, class war, unemployment
    Tags: , ,

    You can’t ‘force beneficiaries back into work’ by ‘giving them a kick in the pants’ if there’s no jobs for them to go into. This supposed ‘get tough’ approach won’t get people off the benefit. It’s a cynical exercise in political marketing to make the government look active and distract from the real issues. It is no coincidence that this policy was released a day after the mining policy.

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