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I hadn't been to a protest in months. After everything I've been through, activist stuff tends to make me more than a little angry, which is part of the reason I've kept away from the front line for a while. Of course, being as assertive…
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Just noticed the interview with Garrett in the Sunday-Star Times: "Garrett, who "wore overalls and not a suit" while working as a roughneck on oil rigs as a young man, makes no apologies for being a politician that calls a spade "a bloody shovel"." A…
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Anti-violence campaigners are urging Auckland parents to be especially vigilant in the wake of news that "Vote No" campaigner Larry Baldock is planning a referrendum victory party at a secret Auckland hotel. Local supermarkets have reported selling out of wooden spoons, extension cords and lengths…
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Jon Stewart talks to Austan Goolsbee, Chief Economist for President Obama's Economic Recovery Board: "when you're looking in the face of the next great depression, that's not the time to tighten the belt" Now, I'm not as optimisitc as Goolsbee about the long-term outlook but…
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A media release yesterday from the Justice NOW collective! shows how both police and corporate spies are still taking a major interest in the activities of small peaceful protest groups. From the media release: The anti-terror police are still spying on legitimate political protest, and…
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I see Paula Bennett has been busy dog-whistling on beneficiaries, firstly by releasing figures showing 307 beneficiaries receive more than $1000 a week and then by claiming she "suspects" special needs grants are being abused. Given the hatefest her potentially unlawful release of Natasha Fuller…
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The climate change debate is over (apart from a few luntatics of course). The debate is now about what to do, and the current focus is on the costs of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Unfortunately we're only getting half of the story on the costs.…
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This video from Phil Twyford, Labour's spokesperson on the campaign to make sure that Rodney Hide is prevented from buggering Auckland by selling critical assets to his mates in the business community so they can raise prices, diminish maintenance, stop capacity building, and make more…
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It's a pretty rare thing for a conviction for manslaughter not to lead to some jail time. In the past 28 years, only 69 of 814 convictions haven't resulted in a custodial sentence*. I would have thought that not getting jail time would be especially…
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Reading the Herald on Sunday piece about this senior political figure in the domestic violence dispute, I'm surprised his party hasn't made him step down yet. I know that he has a right to fair process in the legal issue but from the facts that are public,…
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Call me old fashioned if you will, but I like the idea that reforms of government activity should be concieved and implemented by experts in the particular field in question. Which makes me wonder, why the hell has Tony Ryall appointed a financial guy, Murray…
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Something about the title of this press release from Peter Dunne yesterday just made me laugh: Call for leadership, vision from pharmacy workshop And, inevitably, it led to this:
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In former journalist John Armstrong's piece today, he also writes: "a frustration and impatience towards National still displayed by some of the shriller Labour-aligned blogs, which find fault with anything and everything the Key Government does while expecting their breathless critiques to somehow bring forward…
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John Armstrong quotes a man who ran into Phil Goff during Labour's reconnection tour last week: "Listen, mate. You know we voted these guys in seven months ago. You don't expect us to come up and say we did the wrong thing yet, do you?"…
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John Key's policy to get kids into sport turns out to be a transfer of dollars from low decile schools to high decile ones. When I say "policy" what I should say is "photo opportunity" as Key launched the scheme at a South Auckland school…
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For just a moment today, perhaps set aside a little time for reflection on, or to lift a glass and toast those New Zealanders who are 'one of us' and not 'one of them'. Ivor Lloyd Richardson, Silvia Rose Cartwright, Leonard Ramsay Castle, Witi Ihimaera-Smiler,…
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One of Bill English's favourite lines is that New Zealand entered recession ahead of the rest of the world 'due to Labour's mismanagement of the economy' and that's why his government is unable to get off its arse now. Pity that Agriculture Minister David Carter…
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In the wake of a rather nasty piece of 'satire' on another blog earlier this week, I've been thinking about over-population. It's a pretty sensitive topic, and one that is easily derailed by the kind of 'forced abortion' scaremongering that Farrar practices so well. I'm…
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What is the difference between a newspaper editorial and a post on a popular political blog? I was pondering this question because I was struck recently by the difference in quality in a couple of recent Herald editorials. This one was an utter disgrace, cheering…
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You may have noticed the article on Stuff about a 'senior political figure' in court today. A woman is seeking a protection order against him. [Deleted] Whichever party they belong to, if it is established in the court proceedings that he has behaving violently or…
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Well, there goes our clean, green image. After Key announced the pathetic 10-20% emissions reduction target, we were declared 'fossil of the day' by environmental groups attending the Copenhagen climate change conference. Here's Eco, talking about the failure of New Zealand and other developed countries:"The…
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Breaking up the old Electricity Corporation into a bunch of artificially competing companies has been a 15-year failure. They've poured heaps of money into competing with each other (despite mostly being owned by the same people, us), they've under invested, and prices have gone up…
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It's a rare day that I agree with Bill English but he's right about the danger of another housing boom. The last bubble has not deflated yet we are already seeing prices start to grow again. There are now projections of 24% growth housing prices…
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Remember the petition to state your opposition to Paula Bennett's attack on our privacy rights. The idea is it will be tabled in Parliament next week. It's a chance to take a symbolic stand against this bullying Key Government. You can download the pdf here or…
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Unemployment has shot up to 133,500, nearly doubling in 18 months. But that's not the whole story. The official 'unemployed' are only the people without work who looking for work and able to start now. Add to that the 'jobless', people who want work but…
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Service & Food Workers Union national secretary John Ryall has a new blog. His first post takes aim at the claim by Ngai Tahu Runanga Chair Mark Solomon that the National Government should be considering Iwi for public-private partnerships because they have a greater commitment…
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The Minister of Labour, Kate Wilkinson, is holding a meeting today with 25 top CEOs on the number of New Zealanders who are killed every year at work. The fact it's being billed as an example of 'partnership' shows a lot about this Government's worldview,…
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Farrar has come back with a defence of his icky and outragous 'satire' post that proports to be a Green press statement announcing a policy of complusory mass abortions to fight climate change. If people are seriously going to propose policies such as reducing the…
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Two cool fundraisers coming up for the Greens and Labour. The Greens are holding a screening of Kiwi 's The Age of Stupid, a movie set in 2055 looking back at today and asking the painful, obvious question - 'if we could see all these…
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It was a bit strange listening to Key's interview on RNZ yesterday morning about deploying the SAS to Afghanistan. He kept on awkwardly saying 'the people of Afghanistan' rather than just 'the Afghans' or 'the Afghanis'*. The reason soon became clear: "[if they take any…