Following a perfectly sensible Cabinet reshuffle story tonight, TV One News must have had this weird rush to the head because they sent an English (really silver spoon English too), white, tie wearing suit to interview the good people of South Auckland to find out…
From the NY Times: This Halloween, the Glindas, gladiators and harem boys of the Castro â€" along with untold numbers who plan to dress up as Senator Larry E. Craig, this year's camp celebrity â€" will be celebrating behind closed doors. The city's most popular…
Three new cabinet ministers (Maharey's retiring, Burton's returned to the backbench, and Benson-Pope's old place was still open): Steve Chadwick becomes Minister of Conservation, Women's Affairs, and Associate Health Maryan Street becomes Minister of Housing, Minister for ACC, along with Associate Minister for Economic Development…
Coming into an election when work rights is going to be a major issue, we've heard Ruth Dyson will be relinquishing her labour portfolio tomorrow. The big question is who's going to pick it up? Across the ditch work rights has become the defining issue…
Today's Herald Digipoll is not good news for Labour, coming off the back of last week's positive Roy Morgan poll which showed a centre-left majority. As the Herald notes, on the basis of this poll National has enough support to govern alone. But what it…
Interesting to see EPMU President Don Pryde has thrown his hat in the ring for the Dunedin South seat and has the full backing of his union. Having met Don at a conference a few years ago I've got to say I was taken by…
Actics.com is an online neworking site for "ethical" businesses. Businesses that sign up choose to nominate themselves as expressing various corporate values and also describe how they embody them. Users, clients and investors then get to rate the businesseson these criteria. The site's meant to…
Pol science lecturer and commentator Jon Johansson has given a lucid and scholarly account of the inexorable decline of John Key and National's prospects. In a speech to the NZ First conference at the weekend. Johansson told delegates that after a promising beginning, Key has…
The Guardian reports that: Cannabis use among young people has fallen significantly since its controversial reclassification in 2004, according to the latest British Crime Survey figures published today. The Home Office figures showed the proportion of 16 to 24-year-olds who had used cannabis in the…
Peter Bradshaw, at the Guardian, reviews Michael Moore's movie Sicko: Last week in this paper, Seumas Milne reported on the boa-constrictor-sized parasites of US private health insurance seeking to get their fangs into the British NHS. This magnificent new film from Michael Moore is a…
There's a new Roy Morgan out today. It covers the date range 1-14 October 2007. Gary Morgan said of the result: As was suggested in the previous New Zealand Morgan Poll, National Leader John Key's recent policy gaffes have handed Helen Clark and her Labour…
So now Tariana is calling for a police probe into the Mallard/Henare incident. Mallard came clean yesteday about his role in the incident but we still haven't heard much in the way of detail from Tau bar this kind of thing: "He just said to…
You've probably heard of the battle raging accross the ditch. You've probably even heard of the one in the Parliamentary lobby. In California they're still fighting fire. Here's a challenge that might be new to you. It's a an attempt to draw the world's superest…
The Australian Council of Social Services has highlighted an update on the numbers living in poverty. New figures released by Australia Fair show that the number of Australians in poverty increased from 9.8% to 11.1% of the population between 2003-04 and 2005-06. This is based…
Bob Hawke still tells it like it is; watch his devastating rebuttal of the Liberals' attempts to demonise unions here. He points out how the union movement was crucial to Australia's successful economic transformation in the 1980's. Labour in Australia in 1983 and New Zealand…
The Dom yesterday ran a front page story by Tracy Watkins which used National Party figures aimed at showing that "Joanna Average" isn't much better off than seven years ago despite significant wage rises. Turns out that neither Bill English nor John Key got the…
The Guardian has launched a three year aid project with the objective of 'together, lifting one village out of the middle ages'. The village is Katine, located in northern Uganda. The challenge is to see whether a newspaper, its readership, a bank and an NGO…
Liberal Party advertising in the Australian election looks desperate, and judging by the polls is ineffective. Witness this effort, using the old demon-union-official smear. It's a Tory hoary, and while it might have worked for Muldoon in 1975 with the dancing cossacks, it looks dreadfully…
The Press reports that Trevor Mallard allegedly slapped or hit Tau Henare after the National MP made references to Mallard's personal life in the Debating Chamber. Henare yesterday wouldn't say whether he had been struck or not. The PM was reportedly unimpressed and commented "both…
The NZ Institute needs to look a bit more closely before leaping into print. The strangest thing about its exhortation that NZ should be a climate change 'fast follower' is that is precisely the position we're in right now. The government has announced its emissions…
The Guardian reports that "Six Asiatic wild elephants were electrocuted as they went berserk after drinking rice beer in India's remote north-east". No word as yet on whether or not the surviving elephants have laid charges against 'pot smoking youths' known to frequent the area.…
With the British conservatives looking strong (and Labour embarassed by the costs of an election that never was) and the fresh new blood surging ahead across the Tasman (noting that the polls continue to be against Howard despite their proposal for a massive tax cut)…
Some server issues outside our control caused a bit of an outage this afternoon. We're up and running again now though, as you can see. Thanks to all those who wrote in to make sure we were ok, and our apologies for any inconvenience.
Lights Out San Francisco is a citywide energy conservation event next scheduled for March 29, 2008. On this night, they invite the entire city of San Francisco to install one compact fluorescent light bulb and turn off all non-essential lighting for one hour. Below are…
The New Zealand Institute has come out imploring us to be a "fast follower" rather than a leader in the race to reduce greenhouse gases. John Key was predictably on the spot to take the credit, claiming that the Institute was essentially "making the same…
We love remixes (well all except those German house ones of classic 80's pop). Imagine our delight when we found this in out inbox this morning - tempered only, of course, by the fact the Iraq war is still on. (Hat tip: youknowwhoyouare)