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Unbelievable. Key has been very busy defending sacked Minister Pansy Wong. He has been desperately ignoring the calls for an Auditor General's investigation as the cracks in the whitewash report on her illegal spending continue to grow. But Key is very quick to call for…
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Do you feel better off after the great tax swindle? If you do you're one of the few lucky ones. Key's tax cut favoured the rich, and he broke his promise to raise GST for everyone. Net result -- bugger all -- unless you're a…
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National are consistently attacking the vulnerable in society - those who cannot fight back and complain. This is where a lot of their cuts are aimed at - those who need it most. Be it in health, education or welfare. And in several recent health…
class war crime education employment health national poverty welfare
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Remember during the 2008 campaign when John Key was telling us we didn't have a debt problem, we had a growth problem? Well, now he's admitting we've got both. That's pretty sharp work: just two years to leave one of the best government balance sheets…
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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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On RealClimate.org I ran across this amusing example of the capacity of the media to inflate a science story to whatever their headlines demand - "Coldest Winter in 1000 Years Cometh - not", which is adapted from the German original at KilmaLounge It all starts…
climate change humour making shit up Media science the praiseworthy and the pitiful
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Interesting piece by Sue Bradford over at Pundit. If the quote attributed to John Key is for real, it's a shocker. Bradford writes: Divine intervention and the Key welfare agenda Comments from the Prime Minister suggest that the government's willingness to act tough on welfare…
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So ACT, through Rodney (who's so careful with the taxpayer's money) and Jami-Lee Ross, are trying to make an issue with Len Brown's spending. The TelstraClear Pacific Events Centre decided to allow candidates to use its billboard space and Brown did? Shocking! He accepted $15,000…
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So John Key predicts an unhappy New Year for Phil Goff who is at risk of being rolled... Because the ShonKey DonKey knows so much about the Labour Party (I guess he did claim to lead it at one point...) and the extra-secret hidden leadership…
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I was in Christchurch this weekend for the second time since the quake. It felt like things are gradually getting worse. Compared to the pre-Christmas bustle in other cities, Christchurch CBD was a ghost-town. The public service's emergency preparedness got us through the initial disaster…
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The UN climate change talks at Cancun, Mexico, are now over. On the plus side they weren't the fiasco that Copenhagen was, and they have restored some confidence in the negotiating process. There is agreement on the need to cut emissions, and on side issues…
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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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One of the central tenets of Brand Key is that he can do what 'normal' politicians can't. With his boundless optimism and those mysterious trader skills, he can solve problems no-one else can. For a while, some believed he can satisfied both Maori and the…
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A documentary that aired in Sweden last night. Fascinating. The origional can be viewed here. The following is from YouTube as it is more likely to handle the load. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhTfOL9_HBE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRF3gYxz1XQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6TRb40Km6A http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8imkYy_hJ4E
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In naming John Key as politician of the year, and having a little snipe at the left while he does it, John Armstrong has largely missed the left's point. It's the classic political columnist viewpoint – political commentary is treated exactly the same as sporting…
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Today Labour choose their candidate for Manurewa to replace George Hawkins. It'll be a show of the party in good health, with 500 expected to turn up and vote on 7 candidates: Jerome Mika, Louisa Wall, Ashraf Choudhary MP, Ian Dunwoodie, Amelia Schaaf, Shane Te…
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Deborah Coddington, trying to justify leaving solo mums and their kids with no state support, says: "I'm nearly 60 and my generation were at it like rabbits when we were teenagers but there weren't masses of teenage pregnancies because there was no DPB. You couldn't…
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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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National - and Gerry Brownlee in particular - are disorganised to the point of making bad law. He was quite rightly accused in the House of: pious hypocrisy, bad faith, an utter inability to manage Parliament and a ghastly approach to cross-party co-operation. They tried…
democracy under attack Gerry Brownlee national/act government
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Letting his prejudices off the leash for a spot of fresh air, John Armstrong writes: Within the deep recesses of the Labour Party and elsewhere on the left, there is a lingering arrogance saturated with an intellectual snobbery which blinds and deludes its sufferers. Pot…
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It's been a momentous week on the foreshore. Labour announced that it was dropping its support for the Nats’ Marine and Coastal Areas Bill (replacement for the Foreshore and Seabed Act 2004). All indications are that this is not a stunt, but a recognition that…
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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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To arms! To arms! The Food Police are coming! Remember how I led you in the battle to get junk food back into schools? It was a near-run thing. If we hadn't acted, the days of the 12 year-old who can't climb a flight of…
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OIA papers show how the Nats prostrated themselves for Warners. $6K was spent treating the movie execs like foreign dignitaries - ministerial cars, customs 'facilitation'. Nats wanted to "present an image of an effective government that is worth working with". All they showed was they…
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The usual suspects are accusing Labour of "flip flopping" on its position on the foreshore and seabed. You have to admire their bare-faced gall eh?
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The Auditor-General seems certain to launch an investigation into the Wongs' taxpayer-funded travel as even more evidence shows the Parliamentary report isn't worth the paper it's written on. A majority of Kiwis want her to resign. Why John Key hasn't already called on the A-G…
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The sum Phil Heatley has so far spent trying to get three women and their families evicted from their state houses, an effort to look tough, is the equivalent to the cost of building two new state houses. Over half a million spent on an…
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John Armstrong pulls no punches on the government's constitutional review: Disgraceful plan flawed at every step Shame on National and the Maori Party too. The so-called review of New Zealand's "constitutional arrangements" is little short of a disgrace. If a review is really necessary then…
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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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When it looked like the Nats' Marine and Coastal Areas Bill (replacement for the Foreshore and Seabed Act 2004) was going to be a successful and enduring solution to the foreshore debate in NZ I was relieved and supportive. The new Bill had cross party…
foreshore and seabed labour Maori Issues maori party national