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Open mike 02/12/09
Topics of interest, announcements, general discussion. The usual rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
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Archives · 2009-12-01 to 2009-12-06 · Page 2
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President punches kid in face
The Associated Press reports: Romania's government has collapsed and its economy is in shambles but its presidential campaign has been dominated in recent days by a video that appears to show the president striking a 10-year-old boy in the face. Well, he's got the pro-smacking…
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With some time to consider….
I've been thinking about the reaction Phil Goff has had to his Nationhood speech, and whether Team Labour would be happy with the way it's rolled out. Got headlines, tick, got commentators to notice, tick, appealed to demographic 'non-Labour voting male', tick, made some positioning…
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Dubai: Subprime state
Dubai is the subprime folly writ large. In the US, they built 'exurbs' in the Californian high desert, two hours each way from LA; rows of McMansions bought by people who couldn't afford them whose lifestyles were dependent on cheap petrol*. In Dubai, they built…
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Undoing the trouser button
Recall that last week Speaker Lockwood Smith tried to heavy the press, demanding that they stop doing stories on MP's expenses or he would do away with the Press Gallery. I suspected at the time that this was a tactical blunder, any hack worth their…
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Tony Abbott elected Liberal leader
According Melbourne paper The Age, Tony Abbott is the new leader of the Liberal Party, winning the leadership by one vote over Malcolm Turnbull. Abbott becomes the Liberals' fourth leader in two years. I guess that now means Rudd will have to call a general election to…
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Remember this?
Pascal's Bookie dug up this classic in the comments: Congratulations.... You always knew that politics would be exciting, but I guess that neither of us thought that it would get quite this exciting quite so soon. Don, I wish you all the very best I…
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Tax Working Group report preview
Let's hope the Tax Working Group's report out today is more worthwhile than the effort of the 2025 Taskforce. The basic idea that has emerged from the interim reports is that we should try to take tax off income and put it on land. If…
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No more jobs for Nats’ old mates
Apart from keeping Don Brash well stocked with corned beef in his dotage, what exactly are we getting out of the Government's half million dollar 2025 Taskforce? The Brash Report is a joke. It reads like nothing so much as a collective ramblings of half a…
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Sorry, I wasn’t paying attention
Everyone played their part in reacting to the Brash Report. Bosses uncritically applauded it. Unions forcefully rejected it. Labour and the Greens exposed it as a strawman. Key bravely slew the strawman. And the Maori Party, well: "One of the recommendations in the report promoted…
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Open mike 01/12/09
Topics of interest, announcements, general discussion. The usual rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...