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Musical Interlude: Forgot about Key
Some jokers have given new lyrics to the Dr. Dre and Eminem classic. Hilarious. My favourite part is Hide's cameo. Hattip: Dolla$Trada
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Archives · 2008-01-01 to 2008-12-31 · Page 7
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Goff announces shadow cabinet
Labour leader Phil Goff has announced his shadow cabinet. As announced already Cunliffe takes finance, Clark takes foreign affairs, Hughes and Chadwick are whips. Annette King takes on social development in addition to the deputy leadership - a smart move, she'll make mincemeat out of…
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NZ Labour supporters site launched
NZ Labour Supporters has been launched as an unofficial online hub for Labour supporters. It looks like a good wee site. Along the lines of g.blog for Greens supporters, any registered user can write blog posts. Looks like there are forums and the ability to…
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Delaying tactics
The National Party's decision to resurrect the idea of a carbon tax is one of the most cynical plays I've seen in a while, coming from a party that opposed a carbon tax from day one. In fact, for all their hollow attacks on Labour's…
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A chance to make his mark
John Key's off on his first trip as PM tomorrow - APEC in Peru. When I saw him interviewed about this he seemed to think it would be 'a good chance to meet other world leaders' which, as former member of the dip corp, made…
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Farewell
A crowd several hundred strong turned out this morning to farewell Helen Clark as she left Parliament as Prime Minister for the last time to present her Government's official resignation to the Governor-General. Even though I'm a Greenie, I always find Labour events amazingly heart-warming…
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Credit where it’s due
It's exam season for high school students. So, for 10 points explain how the following statement (in the ACT-National agreement and repeated uncritically by the media) can be true, closing the income gap with Australia by 2025... will require a sustained lift in New Zealand's…
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Wellington party vote breakdown
The Wellingtonista has a cool post up with a breakdown of Left vs Right voting patterns in Wellington this election. The map above shows party vote on a booth by booth level. The blue bloc represents National, Act and United Future, and the red bloc…
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A break from the honeymoon
While most of the big media are giving John Key his criticism-free honeymoon ("OMG! A solo mum! An Asian! And a gay chap!") the good old ODT has seen through the centrist spin: Prime Minister-elect John Key showed a clear intention yesterday to move the…
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The Game
The press gallery is ebullient at the moment and I can understand why. After years of having to analyse the same old government faces and drain the collective wisdom about political personalities to the point of seemingly-endless repetition they now have a new toy to…
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What should Clark do?
There's a lot of talk about Helen Clark leaving Parliament in a year or so to head for an international role. While Clark would obviously be more than capable of performing well at that level, I would prefer to see her do something completely different.…
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Trotter back blogging
Chris Trotter has a new blog. Good to see he's left those creeps over at policy.net and gone out on his own. I don't always agree with Trotter, in fact at times I find him infuriating, but he's a smart guy and always worth a…
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Right plans give away to rich at your expense
Part of the National/ACT government's agreement is that a top tax rate of 30% will be the target for the 'medium term'. Such a cut would cost about $2 billion a year. Now, I have nothing in principle against reducing tax (and nothing in principle…
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Obama launches weekly YouTube address
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Retro
It seems 80's retro has finally moved from being manifest only as the return of skinny jeans and naff facial hair and is now rearing its ugly big-haired head in parliament. Of course I'm talking not just about 80's rock legend Roger Douglas but also…
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Cabinet announced
National's cabinet has been announced. No major surprises, though Maurice Williamson has been dumped outside cabinet and unpopular newcomer Steven Joyce has taken Transport. Lockwood Smith is speaker. More detail and analysis later, but for now the full list is over the break. THE CABINET…
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Undefeated
Paul Holmes wrote yesterday: "While Labour moves to the Opposition benches, it does so weirdly unmolested by the election defeat, weirdly undefeated" Damn right, the Left seems undefeated, and so it should. The Right has only won power by masquerading as the Left; Key's mandate…
activism greens labour maori party Media national/act government
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John Key’s victory parade
No, not the one the Herald's organising. Over at Scoop Lyndon Hood's unveiled his own victory parade for John Key and I gotta say, it's his best effort yet. Go over and have a look.
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Key reneges on PSA promise
Well, just days after a high profile meeting with PSA head Brenda Pilott and a promise to engage with unions John Key has decided to exclude the PSA from his Task Force on the future of the public sector. The National/ACT government will instead appoint…
national/act government public services spin workers' rights
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Local Govt minister wants to privatise water
As you'll have read, John Key has made ACT leader Rodney Hide his Minister of Local Government. So, what's ACT's local government policy? Commercial activities are best performed by the private sector because they have more incentive to innovate and deliver better services. Local government…
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Some questions
The Maori Party voted against the ETS because they thought it doesn't go far enough; they want a stronger ETS. Will they be supporting National/ACT's amendments to first delay then weaken or even scrap it? ACT opposes the existence of the Maori seats, while paradoxically…
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Snouts in the trough
No Right Turn blogs on the National/ACT coalition agreement. Of particular interest is the clause he's pulled out that shows ACT will be funded by the taxpayer for consultants and research: To enable ACT to make a substantive contribution to the government's programme, it will…
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Nats step to the right with ACT
As we predicted, National has used a confidence and supply agreement with ACT as a vehicle for its true right-wing agenda. National has given a wide range of concessions to ACT, far more than is necessary to gain ACT's already pledged support. Together, they amount…
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More optimization
I've just put another round of optimizations into the system. In this case caching the p-code generated by php into shared memory This should usually result in faster page display where content is changing rapidly. Posts with fast growing comments should get the major benefit…
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The Bard offers chance for new Minister
This afternoon I read with a degree of surprise that Shakespeare's days as standard classroom fare could be numbered: Shakespeare's plays and other great works of literature considered too difficult for some pupils will disappear from classrooms under proposed changes to the curriculum, alarmed principals…
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Time for a Green New Deal
With a masterful awareness of the import of his actions, President Roosevelt termed his economic program to lift the US out of the Great Depression 'the New Deal'. Laissez-faire capitalism, whereby the 'invisible hand of the market' ruled, had failed to fulfil the conditions of…
climate change economy Environment International workers' rights
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Crosby/Textor on repeat
The topic of Crosby Textor has emerged again with a story in the NZ Herald. While it is unsurprising to read that Crosby Textor is "drumming up business after last week's election by offering insights into the new Government and its personalities" there's another aspect…
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Post traumatic Obama disorder
While there have been reports here of distraught voters calling the police and helplines for assistance in dealing with the trauma of a National/Act government, spare a thought for the millions of Obama supporters around the world who, now victorious, find themselves with no purpose…
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Stimulating
One of the things I like about being left wing is how often the best moral decision is also the best economic decision. Take economic stimulus for example. In a recession it's the most vulnerable such as beneficiaries, low paid workers and youth that are…
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Chainmail
Thanks to the two people have mailed election leaflets authorised in my name back to me. And such lovely messages you've attached to them. Glad to see you're so in favour of free speech. Of course, sending intimidating or threatening messages through the mail is…