Key on welfare
Interesting piece by Sue Bradford over at Pundit. If the quote attributed to John Key is for real, it’s a shocker: “If we cancelled welfare to 330,000 people currently on welfare, how many would starve to death? Bugger all.”
Naff off Key
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 and the extra-secret hidden leadership battles that are certain to be going on, according to his own imagination.
Get on with running the country John, and get us out of a double-dip recession before you start speculating on things you know nothing about.
Is enough being done for Canterbury?
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 – has enough been done since? What are your impressions?
Cancun another non event
The UN climate change talks at Cancun, Mexico, are finished. There were some positives, but not on the big issues. Reduction targets are still voluntary and still too low. We’re still on a catastrophic collision course with the laws of physics.
Open mike 13/12/2010
Open mike is your post. It’s open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. Comment on whatever takes […]
You really can’t square the circle
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 Rednecks on the foreshore. Of course, really, he had just done a cheap rebrand of the existing law.
WikiRebels
A documentary that aired in Sweden last night. Fascinating. The origional can be viewed here. The following is from YouTube as it is […]
Winning the game
John Key deserves the award for Politician of the Year. But it’s not quite the honour Armstrong thinks it is. The Left wants a government to deliver results for the people’s health, wealth, family, safety, education, employment prospects etc. That’s why the Left is so critical of Key. He plays the ‘politician’ game well but does nothing meaningful.
Labour Selections
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.
Next week there are 8 going for Te Atatu.
So in a week’s time we’ll know which 2 quality candidates will replace 2 over-inflated egos in 2011. It looks good for the future health and direction of the party.
If you remember the 60s you weren’t there
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 raise a child on your own, therefore few women got pregnant.” A quick fact check.
Open mike 12/12/2010
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Ridiculous Urgency
National, under the direction of Gerry Brownlee, continue to abuse parliamentary procedure and make bad law. They tried to ram 12 bills through on Thursday, resulting in them sitting under urgency until Saturday night. There is no proper oversight, no thinking through the possible problems with bills, and far too little chance for the public to have their say. We have procedure for a reason…
Politician of the year?
After parading his prejudices about for a bit, John Armstrong lauds Key as “politician of the year”. Key is popular yes, but is he actually effective? Is he a good leader? It won’t surprise you to learn that my answer is a resounding no. Care to convince me that I’m wrong? Go ahead — make your case…
Time for Turia to go
Labour has opened the door on cross party negotiations to achieve a true consensus on the foreshore. But Tariana Turia is too locked in to ancient personal hatreds to do anything but reject the offer. In doing so she has become a huge obstacle to progress on the very goals that she claims to support. It’s time for Turia to step down.
Open mike 11/12/2010
Open mike is your post. It’s open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. Comment on whatever takes […]
Guest post: Beware Food Police!
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 stairs without wheezing and going red in the face might have been numbered. Now, National has hypocritically betrayed us.
$6K bill for Key’s kowtowing to Warners
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 had fallen for Warners’ hollow threats. Cost us $33 million.
Flip flopping on the beach
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?
A-G sure to launch Wong probe
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 to investigate, as he did with Phil Heatley, is beyond me.
Wastewatch: Heatley spends $500K for nothing
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 ultimately pointless exercise – one that’s far from finished.
Armstrong on the constitutional review
John Armstrong pulls no punches on the constitutional review, the second time in recent history that he has called the government a disgrace. Add it to the ever growing list of outrageous behaviour from the Nats. Is this the worst government for democracy in the history of NZ?
Open mike 10/12/2010
Open mike is your post. It’s open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. Comment on whatever takes […]
No closure on the foreshore
For a while it looked like the Nats’ Marine and Coastal Areas Bill was going to represent a successful and enduring solution to the foreshore debate in NZ. But Maori support evaporated. Now the new Bill has suffered a further massive blow to its credibility. Labour is pulling its support…
Standards don’t make the grade
Yesterday, the OECD released its annual comparison of educational achievement in different countries. This study compares half a million kids’ aptitude in reading, maths, and science. Kiwi kids come out pretty damn well: 7th in reading, 13th in maths, 8th in science. And, guess what, we beat countries with National Standards hands down.
Abomination becomes law
Paul Quinn’s appalling Electoral (Disqualification of Sentenced Prisoners) Amendment Act passed last night with the support of just two parties – ACT and National. We’ve talked about why this law is so bad in the past. The Attorney-General agreed it is an unjustified breach of our human rights. Why did ACT, the supposed ‘Liberal Party’ vote for it?
A Stupid Business
The Commissioner for the Environment’s “Lignite and Climate Change: The High Cost of Low Grade Coal” has been released today. Its release had been postponed because of concerns that it would become entangled with reports concerning the Pike River Mine disaster.
Ten ways to beat our snowballing debt
Even Fran O’ Sullivan has been moved to admit that debt is getting out of control and our current Emperor has no economic clothes. She sets out a top ten action list, the usual regressive right wing stuff. What would a leftie action list look like? What would be on your top ten list for reducing debt?
Open mike 09/12/2010
Open mike is your post. It’s open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. Comment on whatever takes […]
Auditor-General must investigate Wongs
Fresh evidence was presented in the House yesterday by rortbuster Pete Hodgson that makes a lie of testimony Sammy Wong gave to the investigation into his and his wife’s travel on taxpayer money. A proper inquiry by the Auditor-General must now be undertaken. There are also questions over John Key’s involvement.
Wikileaks shows internet’s resilience against fools
A fascinating side-effect of the attacks at various levels on Wikileaks in the last week has been a demonstration of exactly how tough it is to take out a site without widespread support from people on the net.
renesys.blog has a excellent post looking at what has been happening to keep Wikileaks alive on the net.
Afternoon funny
I saw this old American comic and the coincidence was just too bizarre. I had to share.
In search of Pansy’s legacy
In the Herald yesterday, there was a half-page ad thanking Pansy Wong for her “significant contribution” to National’s coffers the country. John Campbell went in hunt of that contribution. Worth watching all the way through for Duncan Garner’s assessment. As a bonus, Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi gets his first media mention that isn’t about corruption.
ISOC looks at the extra-legal activity aimed at Wikileaks
ISOC – the internet society that is probably the closest thing that the internet has as a governing body said “Unless and until appropriate laws are brought to bear to take the wikileaks.org domain down legally, technical solutions should be sought to reestablish its proper presence, and appropriate actions taken to pursue and prosecute entities (if any) that acted maliciously to take it off the air.”
We can probably expect that domain to be back on the air shortly.
When I’m 67
I’m in favour of lifting the retirement age. Life expectancy continues to rise and is now 80.4 years. A man aged 65 can expect to live on average another 18 years, a woman 20. That’s a hell of a long time to be getting the pension and an enormous cost. Rising the age to 67 would free up $1.5 billion a year to go into education and preventative health.
This Government Doesn’t Trust You
You not only can expect to be spied on more after an overhaul of the SIS, but you sure as hell shouldn’t be […]