Search Results

  1. Clawback

    Written By:  IrishBill -  Date published: 6:44 pm, March 23rd, 2009 -  39 comments
    Categories: same old national, workers' rights
    Tags:

    That’s John Key speaking about Labour’s new fourth week of leave legislation back when the Nats thought they were going to win in 2005. His plan was to take your fourth week off you before it started happening in 2007 because that way you wouldn’t miss it. Now they’re trying plan “b” – put your […]

  2. Three strikes and you’re garrotted

    Written By:  Eddie -  Date published: 12:10 pm, March 23rd, 2009 -  16 comments
    Categories: act, humour, law and "order", national/act government
    Tags:

    The Toad’s ‘interview’ with ACT’s David Garrett is so good we had to steal it. Like all good parody, it’s easy to believe it could be real. An interview with ACT Party Law and Order spokesperson David Garrotte Toad: David, for many people, you first came to public attention when you appeared drunk on Eye […]

  3. Where would you get that idea?

    Written By:  Eddie -  Date published: 9:55 am, March 22nd, 2009 -  19 comments
    Categories: flip-flop, john key, Media
    Tags: ,

    John Armstrong March 21 2009 – “So the National Government is variously inching, shifting, drifting, veering or lurching to the right, depending on where you stand on the political spectrum. Surprise, surprise… John Key may have portrayed himself as a moderate pragmatist in Opposition – indeed he is still doing exactly that as Prime Minister […]

  4. Four wheels good, two wheels bad

    Written By:  Eddie -  Date published: 10:08 am, March 20th, 2009 -  34 comments
    Categories: climate change, economy, Environment, honeymoon, Media, national/act government, spin, transport
    Tags:

    The Government is taking nearly half a billion dollars out of public transport, cycling, walking, road maintance, and traffic policing to pay for more state highways. Transport Minister Steven Joyce’s reasoning for this – ‘86% of people go to work by car’. Doesn’t he get that people have to go by car because there aren’t […]

  5. Third party returns

    Written By:  Eddie -  Date published: 1:06 pm, March 19th, 2009 -  10 comments
    Categories: election 2008, election funding
    Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

    The Electoral Commission has released the third party spending returns for the 2008 election campaign and it looks like for all National and ACT’s fears that the $120,000 third party cap would stop groups from being able to express themselves, only the Council of Trade Unions came close with a spend of around $100k. Other […]

  6. Death knell for print media?

    Written By:  Dancer -  Date published: 11:32 am, March 16th, 2009 -  13 comments
    Categories: articles, Media
    Tags:

    A conversation that seems to be occuring more and more frequently is asking what’s the future of our newspapers? It’s a global question and is examined in some depth in this interesting article from The American which says: Speculation about the future of the newspaper or its equivalents should start with a review of the […]

  7. Stewart vs Cramer

    Written By:  Eddie -  Date published: 10:29 am, March 15th, 2009 -  10 comments
    Categories: uncategorized
    Tags:

    Earlier this week, I posted on the feud that erupted when the Daily Show criticised CNBC and the business media. Last night, CNBC’s Cramer came on the Daily Show. The results were funny and informative about how the financial crisis was allowed to develop. “We’re both snakeoil salesmen to some extent but we label it […]

  8. Daily show vs CNBC

    Written By:  Eddie -  Date published: 3:32 pm, March 12th, 2009 -  17 comments
    Categories: economy, humour, national/act government
    Tags:

    Last week, Jon Stewart poked fun at the media who cheer-led the housing and stockmarket bubbles and are now blaming the people who took on subprime mortgages for the financial crisis. They bit back with hilarious results. Jon is interviewing Cramer today, it will screen Friday night here on C4.

  9. Bennett’s lame excuse

    Written By:  IrishBill -  Date published: 10:22 am, March 12th, 2009 -  15 comments
    Categories: national/act government, wages, workers' rights
    Tags: , ,

    Morning Report asked Paula Bennett why the public sector had been cut out of the 9 day fortnight scheme this morning and her answer was that it was for businesses that have been hit by the effects of the recession and the public service doesn’t fall into that category. That’s not true. Crown owned company […]

  10. Shafted

    Written By:  Tane -  Date published: 9:30 am, March 11th, 2009 -  17 comments
    Categories: ACC, national/act government, privatisation
    Tags:

    This is good. Here’s what ACC’s ads might look like once National’s had its way with it: [Hat tip: Clarke in the comments]

  11. Melting point

    Written By:  lprent -  Date published: 12:00 pm, March 10th, 2009 -  5 comments
    Categories: activism, police
    Tags:

    The Ecologist Film Unit’s second release documents how espionage, news manipulation, legal threats and even violence have become the knee-jerk response of Government and big business to the increasingly vocal concerns of environmental protesters in the UK. Ahead of next month’s Climate Camp at Kingsnorth power station, this exclusive and powerful film exposes the extraordinary […]

  12. No free trade deal

    Written By:  IrishBill -  Date published: 10:39 pm, March 8th, 2009 -  33 comments
    Categories: economy, same old national
    Tags:

    The Obama administration has halted free trade talks with New Zealand. On one hand free trade is simply increased freedom of capital and without equivalent freedom of labour lends itself toward increased disparity between rich and poor. On the other hand Douglas and his neo-liberal thugs left us with no protections at all in the […]

  13. HerStory – what’s happened to the quality chic-flick?

    Written By:  Dancer -  Date published: 5:07 pm, March 8th, 2009 -  5 comments
    Categories: articles, sexism
    Tags:

    A couple of weeks ago I listened to a very interesting interview with Dr Diane Purkiss (audio here) on Nine to Noon. I missed the opportunity to post on her findings of the  “dumbing down” effect, but then I spotted the same discussion in this Sydney Morning Herald article. Rom-com heroines used to be witty […]

  14. The Take

    Written By:  Eddie -  Date published: 9:21 am, March 8th, 2009 -  23 comments
    Categories: video, workers' rights
    Tags: , ,

    Following my post yesterday about the EPMU’s film on the recession, Socialist Aotearoa has alerted me to the fact The Take is now available on Google Video. In suburban Buenos Aires, thirty unemployed auto-parts workers walk into their idle factory, roll out sleeping mats, and refuse to leave. All they want is to re-start the […]

  15. Drinking Liberally – Auckland

    Written By:  notices and features -  Date published: 6:50 pm, March 6th, 2009 -  27 comments
    Categories: activism
    Tags: ,

    Drinking Liberally Auckland back for another round in 2009. Join all your favourite lefty liberal drinkers at Drinking Liberally Auckland. When: 7pm, Wednesday 11 March Where: London Bar – corner Queen and Victoria Streets, Auckland CBD Who: you and like-minded left-wingers. All welcome This month’s speaker is economic and business commentator Rod Oram. Rod’s in-depth […]

  16. Explaining the recession

    Written By:  Eddie -  Date published: 5:06 pm, March 6th, 2009 -  41 comments
    Categories: economy, employment, Unions
    Tags:

    The EPMU have released a short film on youtube explaining the recession and their response to it. It features Brian Easton, Gareth Morgan, Pete Conway and EPMU Secretary Andrew Little. It’s sobering viewing.

  17. Softening up

    Written By:  Steve Pierson -  Date published: 2:22 pm, March 5th, 2009 -  26 comments
    Categories: ACC, economy, spin
    Tags:

    A few points on the ACC issue and one on Kiwirail. Nick Smith says that, with assets of $10 and liabilities of $21 billion, if ACC were an insurance company it would have gone under years ago. But it’s not an insurance company. Because its costs can be met by the sovereign revenue raising power […]

  18. Fiddling while the world burns

    Written By:  Steve Pierson -  Date published: 7:58 am, March 5th, 2009 -  79 comments
    Categories: climate change, Environment
    Tags:

    The latest New Scientist brings together the work of thousands of scientists to describe what would happen to the world if the global temperature rises by 4 degrees, which is the mid-range for the projected increases due to climate change. Many of you will simply continue to reject the notion of climate change and its […]

  19. National’s ambition for your kids: a pie and a fag

    Written By:  all_your_base -  Date published: 8:09 pm, March 4th, 2009 -  44 comments
    Categories: health, national
    Tags: , , ,

    Last month Anne Tolley ditched the requirement that schools sell healthy food to kids. Not to be outdone, minister for tobacco Tony Ryall now wants to make cigarettes more accessible to them too. Ryall has rejected the health select committee recommendation that cigarettes and tobacco be kept out of sight in shops, choosing to favour […]

  20. You’ve got to know to understand (and be able to talk about it)

    Written By:  Steve Pierson -  Date published: 1:15 pm, March 1st, 2009 -  58 comments
    Categories: economy, Media, national/act government
    Tags: , ,

    In the greatest economic crisis in a lifetime, we remain the only country in the world whose government has done nothing to try to stimulate the economy. In fact, the net effect of National’s policies is de-stimulatory, taking money out of the economy when it most needs an injection of spending. And I blame the […]

  21. It’s raining men

    Written By:  all_your_base -  Date published: 5:21 pm, February 27th, 2009 -  60 comments
    Categories: john key, national/act government
    Tags: , , ,

    A reader just sent us this one minute montage of photos from John Key’s jobs summit. Enjoy.

  22. I wish my house was clean coal clean

    Written By:  all_your_base -  Date published: 12:16 pm, February 27th, 2009 -  1 comment
    Categories: climate change, Environment
    Tags: ,

  23. The cost of doing (next to) nothing

    Written By:  Steve Pierson -  Date published: 11:26 am, February 27th, 2009 -  18 comments
    Categories: economy
    Tags:

    Bill English is holding the country’s purse like an old woman on the subway. Far from doing what every other country is doing, injecting an adrenaline shot of spending into the economy to restore confidence by breaking the negative cycle, English is repeating the mistakes he made when he was Finance Minister during the Asian Crisis […]

  24. ‘Iconic’ bailouts

    Written By:  lprent -  Date published: 11:34 am, February 26th, 2009 -  9 comments
    Categories: humour, john key
    Tags:

    Bailing out a company like Air New Zealand is one thing. It has a multiplier effect on the local economy in tourism marketing, air freight, and just having a airline that is interested in having routes in and out of NZ. Giving money to your mates because they are your mates… Well this is the […]

  25. Shepard Fairey

    Written By:  all_your_base -  Date published: 4:12 pm, February 24th, 2009 -  2 comments
    Categories: interweb
    Tags: ,

  26. Good Copy Bad Copy (repost)

    Written By:  all_your_base -  Date published: 2:06 pm, February 24th, 2009 -  Comments Off on Good Copy Bad Copy (repost)
    Categories: culture, interweb
    Tags: ,

    I posted on this in the early days of The Standard but now might be a good time to check it out if you haven’t seen it already – the copyright, piracy, free culture documentary “Good Copy Bad Copy”. You can (legally) download the hi res version from bittorrent here – if you do, consider […]

  27. Fitzsimons to step down from Greens’ co-leadership

    Written By:  Steve Pierson -  Date published: 1:54 pm, February 23rd, 2009 -  20 comments
    Categories: greens
    Tags:

    Jeanette  has announced she will be stepping down at co-leader of the Greens. Technically, she will just not be putting her name up for re-election – the Greens elect/re-confirm their leaders at their annual conference (the only party that elects their leaders with the votes of the membership, not just the MPs). Jeanette has made […]

  28. Granny’s baked some patsies for you, dearie

    Written By:  Steve Pierson -  Date published: 10:48 am, February 21st, 2009 -  24 comments
    Categories: john key, Media
    Tags: ,

    Can you spot the question that wasn’t asked of Key by Armstrong and Young in their six page interview with him in today’s Herald? Is there too much “doom and gloom” talk at the moment, especially by and in the media? There’s a lot of debate among commentators as to whether your stimulus package will […]

  29. Obama’s elf

    Written By:  all_your_base -  Date published: 5:01 pm, February 18th, 2009 -  11 comments
    Categories: interweb
    Tags: ,

    I’ve tried all day not to post this, now I’m giving in to get a good night’s sleep.

  30. Free doco

    Written By:  Tane -  Date published: 9:59 pm, February 17th, 2009 -  13 comments
    Categories: International
    Tags: , , , ,

    There’s been a lot of talk over the last couple of days on Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez and the controversial referendum on removing the two-term limit on standing for re-election. As it happens I recently discovered John Pilger’s recent documentary The War on Democracy is now available for free on Google Video. Granted, Pilger’s a […]

  31. Do they know its credit crunch time?

    Written By:  Steve Pierson -  Date published: 8:22 am, February 15th, 2009 -  11 comments
    Categories: economy, humour
    Tags:

    Great video for the real victims of this recession, the ‘smartest men in the room’ who cocked everything up, the money-men. Bleed the World/ Let them know it’s credit crunch time

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