Out of her depth II
As if any more evidence was needed that National’s Paula Bennett is completely out of her depth as Minister of Social Development, it […]
As predicted
Last week, John Key was bouncing on a new cloud. The Australian Government had teamed up with banks to help stop homeowners defaulting […]
Synovate lockout lifted
Indymedia reports that the lockout at research company Synovate has been lifted and a settlement has been reached: Late last night, union and […]
Teabagging fad sweeps US
In 1773, a group of Bostonians who objected to being forced to pay a tax on tea by the British Parliament, which they […]
Public service numbers
I’ve just stumbled across this killer graph from the PSA on public service numbers under Labour and National. It helpfully puts in graphical […]
Mana enhancement
The Maori Party MPs always read from pre-prepared speeches in the House. Here’s one they might like to read on Budget Day: We […]
Barbaric
Restaurant Association chairman Mike Egan on how to treat your staff during a recession: “if some of our employees cannot adapt fast enough […]
Workers locked out – bosses locked in
Forwarded to us from Indymedia: Call centre workers at Synovate in South Auckland were today locked out by their employer. The workers had […]
American Dream
The tax cut bandwagon
For the last two election campaigns we had to put up with National, aided and abetted by many commentators, dominating the agenda with […]
The next oil spike(s)
Remember the oil spike? Over the course of the last 4-5 years, oil kept on breaking records, culminating in a massive spike to […]
Good to hear it, Phil
Back during the election campaign, the Standard writers wrote a lot about the need for Labour’s leaders to talk more from their values, […]
Capitalism losing its allure
The capitalist doctrine sure has taken a beating lately. Not only have its raw excesses created a global crash which shows no signs […]
Sunday, bloody Sunday
Usually I’m working, so I don’t get to see Sunday on TVOne. Lucky me. I flicked over for the very end tonight, just […]
dick-o-meter
Russel Brown at Media7 doing a light-hearted take on how pathetic Paul Henry has been over time. You really have to ask if […]
Herald tells Kiwis to bend over
The Herald’s article this morning on how to ‘Future-proof your job in the recession’ tells Kiwi workers to bend over for your boss […]
Weak
We’ve all been subjected to mainstream journalists gushing over Key’s ‘strong leadership’ but now it’s being put to the test and we’re seeing […]
What comes around goes around
It wasn’t so long ago that National’s covert attack organ, the Free Speech Coalition, were squealing about how anti-democratic the last Labour government […]
Chopper’s vice
Trevor Mallard reminded us in comments of another story that illustrates Anne “Chopper” Tolley’s great intellect. Soon after she became minister, Tolley had […]
Statistical crimes and the media
You might have noticed that there was none of the traditional beat-up over crime when the crime statistics came out last week even […]
Obscene
Rob Fyfe, CEO of Air New Zealand has seen a pay rise of 93%. The Herald reports that before his pay was frozen […]
Creating venal politics
It appears that John Key and Rodney Hide are participating in an old political action in Auckland – the gerrymander. From a general […]
Too Big to Fail
Nassim Nicholas Taleb is one of those rare thinkers who has the priceless ability to express complex ideas in ways that are immediately […]
Dispatches from the Mirror Universe: Herald vows to fight super-council
Today, The Herald relaunched it’s ‘Democracy under attack’ campaign with a front page editorial. The editorial is damning of National/ACT’s plan for an […]
Key, a Worthless Prime Minister?
Yet another twist in the Worthless saga. It turns out that he used his diplomatic passport on the trip to India – which […]
One of these things is not like the other II
One of these things is not like the other… One of these things is not quite the same. Can you guess which one […]
Reminder: DL Wgtn tonight
If you’re not fleeing the city for the long weekend like every other sane person, Drinking Liberally Wellington is on at the Southern […]
Cyclewatch
Time: 14 days Jobs created: 0 Built (km): 0 out of 1500 Cost thus far: $0 Govt estimated cost: Not $50m this year, […]
Thanks, Helen
There goes the best leader we’ve had in a life-time. Was she perfect? No, far from it. There are many things she might […]
A message from the base
As regular readers will know I’ve been an active Green supporter since the Alliance left parliament. I’ve not agreed with all of their […]
Mana enhancement: Fail
Russian oligarch urges dump MMP
So, the Business Roundtable has resorted to calling in Russian oligarchs to aid their campaign against proportional represenation. Here’s what “Taranaki-born former Treasury […]
The Tolleycopter
Most people have focused on the utter hypocrisy of National’s Anne Tolley flying around Auckland in a helicopter looking at education buildings from […]
Burn baby burn
The future is starting to look decidedly sci fi. As the UN climate talks in Bonn draw to a close, developed countries have […]
Where would you get that idea? 2
Well, Granny Herald breaks the news: “NZ’s murder rate halved in past 20 years”: New Zealand’s murder rate appears to have almost halved […]
Higher education
Turns out Richard Worth’s not the only one with a passion for flying. Tertiary Education Minister Anne Tolley has been joyriding in helicopters […]