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Maintenance
The new server seems to be doing the job. I haven't seen it go over twenty percent CPU for more than a few seconds since it went active on Saturday morning. It is nice to have spare capacity for a change, which is likely to…
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Archives · 2010-04-01 to 2010-04-30 · Page 3
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Searching: posts Sorted by: newest Results: 61–90 of 168
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Can we save the Maori Party?
Rodney Hide was furious at John Key for going behind his back to sign the Declaration of Indigenous Rights but he'll get over it. ACT is getting tonnes of real policy wins (murder law, supercity, tax cuts for the rich). What's disturbing is seeing the…
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Lee eyeing up Wigram?
Odds are good Jim Anderton is standing for mayor of Christchurch. Should work out well for Labour/Progressive. The by-election will be a chance to rev up the machine again. Show it works. Labour plus Progressive had over 20,000 candidate votes last time. Should be pretty…
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A declaration of contempt
As John Key smiled and assured his National Party constituents that the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is aspirational, symbolic and legally non-binding, I started to feel a little incredulous. Key plainly has no intention of effecting any of the aspirations contained in…
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English misleads the House, again
Bill English continues to tell outright lies about the economic performance of this country under Labour. This time it's even more blatant. You don't have to do any maths to check if he's lying or not, you just have to go to the latest GDP…
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Open mike 21/04/2010
Open mike is your post. It's open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. Comment on whatever takes your fancy. The usual good behaviour rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
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Garrett defends murder increase law
We were, um, graced with the presence of ACT MP David Garrett on The Standard yesterday. Last time we saw him, Garrett was proposing sterilising the poor. Today, he was trying to defend the 3 strikes policy, which should really be renamed the murder increase…
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Call in Malcolm Tucker, we’ve got a live one
What the hell is going on in Labour? Phil Goff didn't ask the PM about the suppressed advice that 3 strikes may increase homicides. Why? Too busy heaping praise on John Key. Calling him a "good politician". Saying he deserves "credit where credit's due". One…
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Indigenous Declaration part of Nats’ clever game
What I think Pita Sharples fails to understand is that John Key and National don't see international agreements the way the Left does. The Maori Party is dead keen on the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples because they believe that by signing on…
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Help a brother out
So, Nick Smith's brother, Tim Smith, was up on 21 charges from Environment Canterbury for unconsented discharges and buildings at the very same time as Smith was vilifying ECan in the House, then ramming through legislation abolishing the democratically-elected council and replacing it with the…
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Paula Bennett prematurely opens the champagne, again
For about a year now, Paula Bennett has been almost continuously proclaiming victory over unemployment. First, it was the fact that unemployment only rose gradually at the start of the recession (due to the self-reinforcing effect of low unemployment and companies having plenty of over-time…
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Remember, John, you promised no asset sales
In 2008 John Key made this crystal clear promise: "That in the first term of the National government there will be no state assets that will be sold either partially or fully." Now, Land Information New Zealand is proposing the sale of seven high country…
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Open mike 20/04/2010
Open mike is your post. It's open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. Comment on whatever takes your fancy. The usual good behaviour rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
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3 strikes law could increase murders – Nats’ secret official advice
Curious as to why Simon Power suddenly stopped being lead minister on the 'three strikes' legislation, we sent off an Official Information Act request to his office. When the deadline for that request was extended beyond the usual 20 working days, we knew something was…
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Give that bludger a tax cut
Patent lawyer John David Hardie is a bludger. You and me, we pay our taxes. We know we get public services and a decent society out of it. This rich prick is trying to get out of a $10.3 million tax bill. I reckon that's tax…
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Under-invest now, reap what you sow later
The most over-rated man in New Zealand politics, Steven Joyce, has come up with a bright idea: let's increase the fees for getting high skill degrees in areas where there are big skill shortages. Honestly, what is this clown thinking? Increasing the cost of studying…
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Volcanoes and climate change
The eruption of the volcano under Eyjafjallajokull glacier in Iceland is an example of what we can expect more of due to climate change and actually has a cooling effect, slightly counteracting climate change. Volcanic eruptions have caused temporary cooling in the past - the…
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Copying is not theft
Here's a catchy tune for all you pirates out there. Get your kids to sing along!
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Bogus bullsh*t on the costs of copy and counterfeit
Over the last decade or two there have been some extraordinary claims about the cost of copying and counterfeiting on businesses and economies. However there has been little information that hasn't had some pretty major and almost certainly incorrect assumptions. The US Government Accountability Office…
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Open mike 19/04/2010
Open mike is your post. It's open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. Comment on whatever takes your fancy. The usual good behaviour rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
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The Eyjafjallajökull opportunity
As I'm sure everyone already knows, Europe is now in the fourth day of an extraordinary paralysis of air travel caused by the eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland. We haven't seen anything like this since the grounding of (almost) all flights in America…
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Lib Dems surge ahead in Britain
Just checked out the latest polling numbers over in the UK. It seems Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg's performance in the first leaders debate is paying off. Clegg's party has surged ahead at the expense of the Conservatives, taking the lead in several polls. (Latest…
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If smiles equaled FTAs Key wouldn’t be a do nothing PM
Listen up journos. Obama didn't happen to meet Key before dinner on a big stage in front of the media because it was just practical. The leaders didn't stand with awkward grins for the group photo because it was a crucial step in the diplomatic…
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NZ hero still prisoner of the Japanese State
Pete Bethune is one of New Zealand's heroes. He's been a successful entrepreneur and gone on to use his wealth to fight the big guys on the grounds of principle. As skipper of the New Zealand flagged hi-tech boat Earthrace, his circumnavigation attempts showcased kiwi ingenuity…
accountability activism john key leadership Minister for Overseas Holidays national
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2015 is closer than you think
Here's two fun facts about the American military. (1) People tend to take them pretty seriously, and (2) as an organisation they are the world's biggest consumer of petroleum products. So when the US Joint Forces Command makes claims about the state of the world's…
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Open mike 18/04/2010
Open mike is your post. It's open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. Comment on whatever takes your fancy. The usual good behaviour rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
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Nat-onomics: $30 million up in flames
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. That's even more than the $24 million I calculate, but…
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Key’s vomit-inducing Herald interview
If you want to read something vomit-inducing this morning, there's no need to go any further than Audrey Young's interview with Key about his overseas trip. Key talks about touching Barack Obama, sharing secrets with Stephen Harper, discussing Berlusconi's boat, and how Angela Merkel knew…
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How much is $50,000,000?
From time to time you hear mention of John Key's personal fortune of $50M. If you say fiftymilliondollars quickly enough it doesn't sound that much, especially in the context of politics where most budgets come in factors of millions anyway. But as a personal fortune,…
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Open mike 17/04/2010
Open mike is your post. It's open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. Comment on whatever takes your fancy. The usual good behaviour rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...