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Clown-in-chief
A hilarious send up of Key that pretty much everyone would have missed because it aired on Nightline on Friday.
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Search · 2009-09-01 to 2009-09-30 · Page 2
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Banks bullshits on North Shore – shows up Bhatnager as a hypocrite
This week John Banks took his faltering super mayoralty campaign to the Takapuna Rotary Club on Auckland's North Shore. Banks tried to butter up the locals by talking about the time he was elected to the Birkenhead Borough Council waaaaaaaaaay back in 1977 (hint: you're…
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Billalice in Wonderwelly
Things must be getting decidedly trippy for Deputy PM Bill English about now, and not in a good way. While his glorious leader is off overseas playing the Jester Statesman, back home Bill's future is looking gloomier by the day. With the Auditor General looking…
bill english corruption john key national parliamentary spending
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Pecuniary interest
John Key has repeatedly said Bill English did not have a"pecuniary interest" in the house he lives in in Wellington with his family. It was apparently the Richard Worth test No 1 - Bill told him so. The Auditor-General's website deals with the issue of…
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Armstrong takes on Double Dipton
John Armstrong joins the list of commentators saying Bill English shouldn't get a cent for his housing rort: The time has come for Bill "Double Dipton" English to end the charade. Now, being Armstrong, the reasons aren't principled, it's all about limiting the damage to National: The…
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Reverse Midas Touch
And so ends a great day's trading under the erstwhile eye of Mr Key. Looks like they won't be inviting John back to give the opening bell at the NYSE.
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Trivial
The more I think about it, the more Key's Letterman approach is demeaning both to his office and New Zealand. Sure he did the stand up comedy competently but is that what we want our PM reduced to? A gag to be treated at best…
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Socialist America
The health care debate going on in America is a very serious debate, and who wins it has important implications for what kind of direction America takes from here (more in a later post perhaps). The Republican / Conservative / talk back radio framing of…
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Yo John, I’m happy for you and imma let you finish…
Sent in by a reader:
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David Clendon
Following Sue Bradford's resignation, next into Parliament on the Greens' list is David Clendon, an Auckland business advisor and lecturer in resource management of Pakeha and Ngapuhi me Te Roroa descent. As the Greens' candidate in Helensville last year, Clendon won more candidate votes (6%)…
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Caption competition
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Auditor-General to enquire re English
Herald reports that AG will make preliminary enquiries into English's housing payment. This follows a suggestion in today's Business Herald that his credibility is affected by ongoing questions and the AG should investigate.
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Curiouser and curiouser
It's not just Bill English that's twisting in the wind over the rearrangement of his affairs to provide a pecuniary benefit to his family. Here is a copy (PDF link) of the Parliamentary Services email tabled in the House by Pete Hodgson this week. It…
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Key’s Top Ten
Obviously, the most important thing ever is how John Key did on Letterman. It's quite cute actually, Key's clearly a bit nervous standing out on the big stage. It really does remind you that we're a little country. But Letterman's very nice, although he does…
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Stupid hypocritical ACE cuts
Night classes - Adult and Community Education (ACE). An incredibly cost effective and valuable part of the NZ education sector for decades. The ACE budget has been eviscerated by National, cut from $16m to $3m. Effectively a death blow, most of the infrastructure and expertise…
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A sad day for the parliamentary Left
Stuff has announced the resignation of Sue Bradford from parliament. Over the years Sue has championed more pro-worker legislation than just about any MP I can think of and has in the last few years been a backroom powerhouse for the Greens through her ability…
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Informative journalism
Colin Espiner: "For some reason that I don't quite understand, unemployment usually continues to rise at the end of recessions, and there's normally a lag time of something like a year before it falls." I can help with that one. When a down-turn starts, employers…
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Secret ballots for strikes
Tau Henare has put a private members' bill in the ballot that would require ballots by union members on strike action to be held in secret. Henare draws on his memories from the 1980s as a union organiser and reckons that open ballots are used…
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The economy of hero worship
I wish that I got praise heaped on me at my job for exchanging a bit of small-talk with the popular dude. Don't want to take away from Key's achievement. I mean wow, he shook the Obama's hand and didn't muck it up. I'm looking…
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Chauvel on the ETS
In his speech as Labour climate change spokesperson, Charles Chauvel confirmed the new information on the ETS that Jeanette Fitzsimons revealed today. It was a pretty good speech, especially the conclusion: "Labour will have no option but to repeal these changes when next in power. We…
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Nats to subsidise big polluters by $2 billion a year
Last night, non-government parties finally got a peak at the new emissions trading bill. Nick Smith still didn't have it finished, it was in draft form, and by all accounts it's a mess. As Jeanette Fitzsimons reports, however, the draft ETS did reveal something important.…
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Building constituencies
On Tuesday, both Sue Kedgley and Sue Moroney tabled petitions in Parliament with over 15,000 signatures, on food standards in schools and pay equity respectively. That's an incredible achievement. Most petitions get a few hundred, maybe a thousand signatures. Generally, not a lot of organising…
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Sir Howard Morrison dies
This was always a favourite of mine.
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Banning smoking
I have a lot of respect for Hone Harawira. The voting for a Tory government thing has lessened it but his hatred for the tobacco companies balances things out. Harawira wants smoking banned. Says he would love to whip or worse the smoking company bosses (you know…
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Drinking Liberally Wellington and Dunedin
**Wellington** Today - September 24, 2009, from 5.30pm. The Southern Cross Abel Smith Street Phil Saxby on drug law reform *Dunedin** Tuesday September 29th, 2009, from 7pm CIRCADIAN RHYTHM <-- we've changed venue! St Andrew St Green MP Sue Bradford
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Get it in writing
Watching the Maori Party get done over by National is getting painful. The MP thought they had a good faith dialogue on the issue of Maori seats on the Auckland Council, but before the select committee process was even finished Key announced that there would…
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Open Country now assaulting workers
The Talleys-owned Open Country Cheese dispute took a new turn today after it was revealed that a senior manager, not content with just bullying workers, has assaulted one of them. Here's what Giovanni Moana, the worker concerned, had to say: "I was told to put…
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Wee gripes: Bad looks
Espiner the Younger wrote: Hutch's biggest mistake wasn't reading and driving, in my opinion. It was reading and driving in a sign-written car with his name on it. Now, that is silly. No. The problem is doing something dangerous and probably illegal (got to constitute…
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Farmers Weekly on Open Country
Reader sent in this cartoon from the latest NZ Farmers Weekly. Things have got to be bad for Open Country when even the farming press is turning on them.
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Yes, we’re screwed
On Monday, New Yorkers discovered their free rightwing rag, the New York Post, had suddenly come over all green. The front-page was typical NYP: a headline screaming "we're screwed". The difference was that, in a reversal of the norm, the paper was fake but the facts…