Congratulations to Len Brown
It’s official, Len Brown is the first ever super city mayor. My congratulations to him and to his team who have worked so […]
Election results – Brown Wins!
There are various good online sources for following the local body election results. Here’s a quick roundup.
“John Key’s smile only goes so far”
National Party pollster David Farrar must have seen bad numbers on the Mana by-election, he’s already making excuses. Apparently, Hekia Parata is a top candidate but it’s the voters’ fault – they’ll be confused by having two elections close together. It’s Farrar’s comment about Key, though, that is most revealing.
Phil Goff – Evil SuperGenius?
Is Phil Goff an Evil SuperGenius? Is Labour still secretly running the country, controlling MPs, cabinet ministers and government departments? Political sleuth David P Farrar makes a pretty strong case! Or does he…
Paul Henry’s jokes about women, deaf people and infant deaths, proudly brought to you by TVNZ
Here’s a compilation from TV7’s Russell Brown from April this year, highlighting the value for money taxpayers get from paying Breakfast Bigot Paul […]
Open mike 09/10/2010
Open mike is your post. It’s open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. Comment on whatever takes […]
Growth and Money: Means, not Ends
This government seems to have confused the means and the ends. Growth and money have become the ends, when they only ever should have been the means. Surely what should matter now is that we have a happy, fulfilled society, where people have the opportunity to do what they want.
Finding the rotten apple
Labour candidate for the Otara-Papatoetoe Local Board Daljit Singh has been named as one of two people charged over false voter registrations. This seems a pretty crude attempt at perverting an election and a stupid one that no sophisticated political player would ever think they could get away with.
Caption Contest
The audience tell us over and over again that one of the things they love about Paul Henry is that he’s prepared to […]
People Aren’t Beans
This government doesn’t seem to have the human touch. It fails to see the personal, just the numbers. So it’s sending 3 New Zealand children to live as ‘untouchables’ in an Indian slum, without the limited access to schools or hospitals that even the locals have – as they won’t (and can’t) be Indian citizens.
Friday funny: Paul Henry
Due to widespread demand (ie BLiP), I’m going to try to find a Friday funny each week. This particular video is a pretty good spoof on Paul Henry. The only problem is that for comedic effect you’d normally need to go further than the origional. However going further than Henry requires more international incidents. TVNZ needs to fire him.
Disaster tourism
The Christchurch earthquake required the suspension of democracy nationwide for 18 months. But Key had time to take a week in Hawaii. And the Social Development Minister is able to go off on a ‘study’ holiday in the US. And Gerry Brownlee, who needed all those powers to rush through laws, has spare time to intervene in The Hobbit dispute.
Tilly Solley
Hot on the heels of massive cuts to Early Childhood Education Tolley has formed a taskforce to ‘take a look at the provision of ECE services‘. That’s hot on the heels of a similar taskforce to have a gander at why the National Standards won’t work. Has the goose ever thought that maybe, just maybe, you should think before you act?
Gilmore’s fake CV
Aaron Gilmore became an MP in 2008 by a hair’s breadth. Something like 40 more votes to Labour and his list seat would have gone to them. His Parliamentary career has been as undistinguished as the manner in which he got in. Now, it appears his CV isn’t as impressive as he would like us to believe either.
Open mike 08/10/2010
Open mike is your post. It’s open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. Comment on whatever takes […]
Paul Henry case now a diplomatic incident
Paul Henry’s racism on state funded television has now reached the level of a full fledged diplomatic incident. The New Zealand High Commission in India has issued a press release apologising and stating that Henry’s views do not represent “the New Zealand Government or people”. Fine words, but they need to be followed up with appropriate action. Henry has to go.
Fire Paul Henry activism update, Boycott TVNZ Advertisers campaign gearing up
India’s External Affairs Minister SM Krishna has summoned the New Zealand High Commissioner in New Delhi to please explain Paul Henry’s ultra-racist outburt […]
Little Mr Key, the spider & the sunny day
Had a crack at writing my kid a story. What do you reckon?
Once upon a time there was a little man called John Key. He told everyone that if they trusted him he would lead them to a brighter future. Some of the people said he was lying to get power. More people said that they liked that nice man, Mr Key, and wanted the brighter future he promised…
Murray “The Meddler” McCully
Our Minister for Sport now gets to pick the teams. He’s pushing out two of our best ever Olympians from coaching, because Murray knows best.
Key loves to see wages drop
The just released Income Survey is more evidence of the Key Government’s failure to deliver for working Kiwis. After inflation, this is the third successive year in which the median income of New Zealanders has fallen. It’s now nearly 5% lower than when National came to power. This year alone, the median income fell 3.5%.
Gerry’s vision for New Zealand
A tailings dam in Hungary has burst. Toxic sludge over 16 square miles has killed four. If the sludge, laden with heavy metals and radioactive elements, makes it into waterways including the Danube the disaster will magnify. If Brownlee had his way, our countryside would be covered in tailings dams as miners plunder our national parks.
Hickey on fighting the currency war
Bernard Hickey continues his politico-economic rebirth. Yesterday, he wrote on how New Zealand can protect itself from dangerous international capital flows that undermine our economy and our ability to choose our own path. We shouldn’t leave the guidance of our economy to the invisible hand of blind, fallible, and valueless markets.
Team Anderton should remain confident
Bob Parker has milked the earthquake for maximum political gain. As a result, Jim Anderton is understandably the underdog in the mayoral race. No-one could blame him for losing in this situation but don’t rule him out just yet. People haven’t suddenly forgotten why they wanted rid of Parker or Anderton’s record of service.
Yet more of Paul Henry’s racism, proudly brought to you by TVNZ
More anti-Indian racism from Paul Henry… and Paul Henry being racist about hispanics (you can tune out through the middle, but listen to […]
Open mike 07/10/2010
Open mike is your post. It’s open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. Comment on whatever takes […]
A Case of IHG?
Seems these days that when people get in to financial strife, the Government is all too happy to offer a helping hand loaded down with wadges of cash. Sometimes…
And then sometimes something altogether more short and sharp is offered. Depending…
Fonterra – killing Orangutans.
There has been an interesting ad from Greenpeace running around the site today. It is obviously intended to go viral before the lawyers […]
Auckland electoral fraud case
The alleged electoral roll fraud in Auckland has plenty of angles and dimensions for political junkies. But the underlying issue is simple. Electoral fraud of any kind is not OK, perpetrators should be found and prosecuted. We have one of the most robust and respected democracies in the world. Let’s keep it that way.
Analysing Henry’s ‘apology’, TVNZ & Key’s mishandling
We’ve had a lot of coverage of the issue of TVNZ’s bigoted host but I want to chip in with a few points: Paul Henry’s ‘apology’ is in fact a calculated dog whistle to bigots, the blame for Henry goes to a deeper rot in TVNZ, and we have seen prove positive of John Key’s complete inability to lead and stand up for what’s right.
Banks desperate
As it goes down to the wire in Auckland, John Banks’ desperation is on full display. It’s not a pretty sight. Banks seem to have nothing to offer but negative campaigning, personal attacks, and South Auckland dogwhistles. He deserves to lose.
Paul Henry Asks Questions of Government
What future for TVNZ? Paul Henry’s words show us their current car-crash course – bigotry for ratings, price over quality, drivel over culture. Isn’t it time we asked for something better?
Fabians on privatisation
Fabian Society seminar tonight in Wellington:
“Are there any new arguments for privatisation?”
5:30-7:30 at Connolly Hall, Guildford Terrace.
Business wants permanent rightwing dictatorship
The capitalist elite is anti-democratic to its core. The Canterbury Earthquake Response and Recovery Act (CERRA) is being held up as business’s ideal form of government. Ex-National staffer Richard Long says that Gerry Brownlee should use his CERRA powers to ‘sort out’ a slew of other ‘problems’. We should never have trusted them with this power.
Why are the National ministers so afraid of each other?
Ministerial staffers who have worked under the National and Labour governments of recent years have begun commenting on some of the differences between each.
Apparently, one key difference has been that National ministers refuse to hire staff from other ministerial offices to avoid being labelled by their ministerial colleagues as staff-poachers.
Paul Henry: “It’s so appropriate coz she’s Indian”
In case you were wondering why Breakfast Bigot Paul Henry has to go – here’s another great example of his work. Watch it […]
Back into recession
The NZIER survey of business opinion shows that the economy shrank in the September Quarter. The December Quarter was already forecast to be negative and the Christchurch quake will make it worse. So, we’re almost certainly back into recession. That’s going to blow out the government’s debt. The underlying cause is peak oil.