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In the US banks that turned mortgages into "complex financial instruments" that were so complex nobody knows who owns what are now foreclosing on home owners. That's despite the banks failing to prove they have a right to do so. And the justice system is…
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We get some great stuff going on in the comments here. Often I think I should pull comments up as guest posts, this time I've actually got a round to it! A couple of days ago fatty despairingly questioned what Labour stood for, and how…
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When you boil it down, John Key's much-vaunted political nous is about keeping his personal brand clean. He farms out anything controversial to ministers and leaves them to it. The problem with that approach is muppets are left to run things with no oversight resulting…
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The Sunday show last week featured the Prescription for Change campaign of Dr Albert Makary. Dr Makary has set out on a mission to drive social change surrounding the culture of binge drinking within our country. He hits his audience with hard facts, some disturbing…
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20 years too late, Spud has announced that the neoliberal privatisation agenda has been a failure. He says we sold the wrong things, sold them the wrong way, got too little money, and created private monopolies. Of course, what we should have done is hold…
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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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Parliament has published a research paper called The Next Oil Shock. It's a pretty sober look at the difficulties the world is facing in producing enough oil to meet demand. The conclusions are inescapable: we can't produce enough oil and a cycle of oil-driven recessions…
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Nat 49.5%, Lab 36.5%, Gre 8%, NZF 2.5%, MAO 2.5% ACT 0.5% Highest Labour vote since Helen Clark was PM. Lowest ACT vote in many many years. Key's still holding the Nats up high.
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Congratulations to Celia Wade-Brown, Wellington's new Green mayor. Apart from the understandable exception of Christchurch, we've seen a Leftwing landslide across the main centres and in many of the provincial councils too. The people have voted for community, democracy, and sustainability, and against corporate cronyism.…
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In recent days, David Garrett has been spotted hanging around Parliament. Now, The Standard has acquired a picture of ACT's new MP, 'Hilary Calvert', arriving at Parliament. It raises further identity theft questions within the party. Some evidence suggests that the real Calvert was brain-dead…
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Whilst I realise I'm a little late on blogging on this, the latest ideological burp to come out of the right-wing think-tank that is our nation's Treasury still needs examining. Of course Treasury submitting to the Welfare Working Group is more a meeting of like-minds…
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Yesterday, the New Zealand Principals' Federation, joining the education union NZEI, launched their campaign opposing the Government's National Standards. The current status of the Standards controversy is this. The Government considers that the design phase of the Standards is over and done with. They are…
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According to Kerry Prendergast, STV may cost her election as mayor of Wellington, and therefore it is undemocratic. Good doublethink there Kerry. STV's other name is "Instant Run-off" - what it gives is the answer if there had been an election just between Celia Wade-Brown…
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If you resign from your job today will your boss give you half a year's pay as a parting gift? No? Funny because that, apparently, is standard practice for high-paid stars. It is being reported that Paul Henry received up to $150,000 from TVNZ when…
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It was a year ago that Paula Bennett first declared victory over rising unemployment. Since then, John Key has been working his economic strategy hard: high-fiving every schoolgirl he can find, playing with spiders, announcing and re-annoucing literally tens of kilometres of cycleway, smiling and…
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So after all that hoo-ha I did have to think for a while what it means to look and sound like a New Zealander. My personal opinion is that for a lot of us there isn't a particular look, but there probably is a sound.…
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John Key is a PM, but it is now clear that he isn't a leader. John Key can smile and wave, but it is now clear that he doesn't stand for anything. Consider two recent events on the international stage. First, India. A leader would…
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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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RNZ's Kathryn Ryan talks to Mike Williams and Chris Trotter about Chris Carter's expulsion. Update: asx in link above. mp3 below. [audio:http://podcast.radionz.co.nz/ntn/ntn-20101012-0909-Chris_Carters_expulsion_from_Labour-048.mp3]
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The following article published in Canada's Globe and Mail details how big business and the establishment "killed" the social democratic government of Ontario in 1990. It's short and worth reading its entirety. The article summarises the lengths to which the right will go to subvert…
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When the 2009 'streamlining and simplifying' amendment to the RMA was rushed through parliament last year, many concerns were raised about new abilities for the Minister for the Environment to use National Environmental Standards (NES) to override local government regulations, and how these could be…
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The CTU has just released its Alternative Economic Strategy. Well, they call it 'alternative' but it's not like the Nats have one beyond Key smiling and waving. Anyway, the CTU's Economic Strategy is an extremely impressive document. It goes through the current problems and suggests…
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Don't need to add much to these Herald headlines: 'Tight-fisted Key deals blow to Brown's rail plan'. Do Nothing strikes again. '30 homes on offer in flagship Govt scheme'. Thinking big. Genuine commitment. 'CV error made by 'somebody else''. For Nats, it's always someone else's…
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The Labour Party council has decided to expel Chris Carter from the party. While party members should be free to criticise the leadership, Carter went too far. He has repeatedly embarrassed and damaged the party. In doing so, he disrespected every member of the Labour…
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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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Chris Carter faces a disciplinary hearing at labour HQ this evening. Already evicted from caucus, this meeting could result in sanctions from the Party including revoking his membership. But I don't think it will come to that, and I don't think it should for both…
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Well this is a bit sad. Rodney Hide is now publicly begging for his political life: National needs us, Hide tells supporters Act leader Rodney Hide has sent a message to the National Party, saying it could lose power if it fails to give him…
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John Key has claimed that he doesn't turn down many interview requests - but he turned down another one from Morning Report this morning. In fact you can count on one hand the number of times he has appeared on Morning Report in each of…
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Last time I saw Breakfast I saw: Paul Henry trying desperately to offend someone. Spent most of the time talking about what to do when you have a bad tenant. Some blonde who smiled and looked pretty while Henry talked. Another blonde (Australian). Some old…