TUMEKE!

Murderous left wing envy

2009-11-09T10:55:00.005+13:00

One of our brave anonymous right wing on-line mafia were complaining about murderous left wing envy, that we on the left hate those nice rich people out of envy. What a silly kitten, the left have righteous murderous anger towards the wealthy elite, as this memo from Citibank helps explain.Michael Moore points out in his new movie, Capitalism: A love story, Citigroup's research department wrote three memos for investors concluding that wealth and power in the U.S. were increasingly concentrated in the hands of the top 1%, stating the top 1% of the population now have more financial wealth than the bottom 95% combined.
Citigroup Mar 5 2006 Plutonomy Report Part 2

These pricks are actively seeking to circumvent democracy so that a plutocracy wins. The neo liberal deregulation, tax cut, free market dogma dressed up as economic policy that allowed these maggots to destabilize the global economy are the exact same neo liberal deregulation, tax cut, free market dogma National are trying to sneak past the electorate under the smokescreen of change. The very policies Rodney Hide was boasting about being able to get past his idiot Cabinet mates.

If you are not angry, you haven't been paying attention.

Police vodka chasers

2009-11-09T09:18:00.000+13:00

Drink-drive police get off charges
Half of all police officers caught drink-driving in the past three years have beaten the charge, raising allegations of one law for police and another for the public. Three officers are still fighting their cases in the courts, including one caught driving while more than three times the legal limit. Even the police's top personnel manager admits it is hard to secure a conviction against an officer. The average conviction rate for all drink-drivers in the past three years was more than 95 per cent, compared with less than 38 per cent for police officers.

95% of us who are charged with drink driving get convicted, amazingly only 38% of Police charged with drink driving get convicted? How come I never see that on Police 10-7? Why can’t we have a cop show on tele where we film cops without them knowing that we are filming them? Wouldn’t that make for actual reality television rather than the pro-cop cheerleader recruitment tool we are currently served up on television screens weekly?

I love how even the Police can’t explain the low conviction rate.

If you drink then drive, you’re a bloody idiot (unless you’re a cop, then Shhhh, we’ll look after you)

The bias in covering National’s one year in power

2009-11-09T08:53:00.004+13:00

I am astounded by the bias of the corporate mainstream media of late. Forget the fact a former National Party candidate hosts Breakfast, forget the fact that the public broadcaster gave National a free million dollar party political broadcast (and wasn’t TVNZ’s claim that they didn’t have to be balanced because it wasn’t in the 6 weeks of an election hilarious? It means that the other 150 weeks of the 3 year election term, TVNZ can be as one sided as North Korean state television, when did TVNZ become LESS fair and balanced than Fox News?).

It was the one year anniversary of the National Party in power that was the corporate media’s lowest point so far, they couldn’t leap at John Key’s lap fast enough to lavish praise upon this god that walks amongst insects. The NZ Herald blushed and literally ran love sonnets as political commentary while Garth George, the sad old family Labrador that messes in the lounge room but no one hits any longer, wrote one of his worst articles since claiming Global Warming won’t flood the earth because God promised Noah he wouldn’t with a rainbow. Garth breathlessly wrote, “You feel comfortable in his presence” and went on to demand that Key’s family gets to travel for free anytime, anywhere and that NZers should consider bowing when the Key family pass. I was waiting for Garth to suggest that we should bring sick children out to the steps of Parliament where John Key could bath them in his optimistic aspiration.

The bias is so extreme you feel the corporate mainstream media are actually living on a different planet. This year hasn’t been a triumph of the will, John Key’s bumblingly inept political management has been jaw dropping and that the corporate mainstream media have glossed over that to hump the leg of the National Party is extraordinary.

Remember the Richard Worth sacking brainfart that Key couldn’t explain? Remember the abortion that was Melissa Lee’s by-election campaign where we all thought to ourselves, “My God, monkeys, actual banana eating monkey’s could’ve run the National Party campaign in Mt Albert better than this, not the ones trained by NASA, just garden variety steal-handbags-from-fat-American-tourists monkeys’. And let’s not forget the most recent bumblingly inept political management fiasco, the Rugby World Cup broadcasting rights, where half the bloody Cabinet were involved and ended up trying to out bid each other with taxpayer money!

And the WORST thing Key has done in his one year in power, is oversee the wholesale dismantling of democratic oversight by ramming more ill-thought out legislation through under urgency than any one since Rodger Douglas’s love sonnet to Milton Friedman in the 80’s. 35% of hours passing legislation in the last year has been done misusing urgency, If Labour had pulled shit like that, NZ Herald editorial staff would’ve been firebombing Government buildings.

But none of this was mentioned in the one year appraisal of Key’s leadership in any of the mainstream media critiques of his year in power.

No wonder National are so high in the Polls when such biased kid glove treatment is willingly given to multi-millionaire Key by the multi-millionaire corporate media.

Hone bad, Hide good

2009-11-09T08:07:00.004+13:00

Hone ‘we’ll always have Paris’ Harawira is BAD, Rodney ‘I would do anything for love but I won’t pay my girlfriends fare perk bluster’ Hide is GOOD.

Hmmm, Hone makes reference to the white mofos, which was first brought up by Bunnie in his original email you’ll note, and that Hone dare mention race means he’s the bad guy, but Rodney who has said that he can get any of his crazy right wing ideology through Cabinet is the good guy because he’s been guilted into paying the public back.

ADVICE FOR HONE:

Mate, you can’t ever EVER point out that the white mofos raped the land or ripped Maori off, it’s one of those quiet delusions we need to live by, like throwing people into prisons that don’t work. In future don’t defend your misuse of taxpayer funds by falling back on historic facts, that white mofos stole land doesn’t mean you get to go to Paris. What’s worse than your bullshit trip is that you’ve given every talkhate radio listening gimps the pompous self importance to now argue that it’s okay for then to call Maori black motherfuckers. As if you wanted to give them anymore ridiculous self justification.

ADVICE FOR RODNEY:

Mate, you’ve gotta be smarter than this, you’re walking around like a teenager with a hard on, it must be exciting being able to get all these hard core right wing Ayn Rand wet dream crap through without any debate, but NZers’s get shitty when they think you’re up your arse…

(NOTE: NZers are too dumb to get shitty about the policy you’ll pass, but they WILL get shitty if they think you think you’re better than them. It’s hilarious, offend their weak self esteem you’re in the dog box, pass legislation that will ultimately hurt most of them, they smile like sheep waiting at the abbitoir).

…stop being a Perk buster and be a Perk defender. Argue that it's right to give MPs these Perks, think about it, do we really want our sexually repressed frat team that is the Government Front bench roaming overseas without the tight leash of their partners to keep them in line at the after function cocktail party? Otherwise we'll have photos on the front page of The Sydney Morning Herald of Bill English topless on a bar table someplace in Phuket for the OECD Finance Ministers conference.

Auckland City Council: poster-children of redundancy

2009-11-08T14:21:00.013+13:00

Just read the proposed posters bylaw from the Auckland City Council in the local City Scene newsletter. That in itself is not extraordinary (apart from the authoritarian presumption asserted), but the gross failure in delivering timely, fulsome and accurate public information online in regard to what this bylaw change is all about is extraordinary. At this crucial time - when every group is under scrutiny as the merger approaches - it looks like the ACC is failing at consultation and communications - that they aren't taking it seriously. Maybe they will put more online tomorrow when the official consultation begins; but it doesn't look that way.

The nature of the changes sounds as though it is in reaction to the more restrictive billboards bylaw - the outdoor advertising market will move to using bigger posters on sites and will end up as something akin to billboards if nothing is done - I can understand that, but the control of posters on private property sounds very iffy to me. Restricting what can and cannot go up on ever increasing council controlled sites is also potentially nefarious. However they don't want us seeing the exact details as it transpires.

Posters - for events at least - provide a proof of vitality as well as public information. I suppose the bylaw is directed against non-event commercial advertising in the nature of a billboard, rather than designed to stop public notices being pasted up on private property. It better be. They seem to be buying more trouble for themselves here - first it was the bar/drinking changes that upset everyone, the Queen's Wharf design process has imploded and now this poster stuff. I don't know whether it will be the next crisis or not either because the council are making it as difficult as possible to get to the information.

Can't find it on the ACC website front page - poor comms. Do I have to type it out from the newsletter? This is the "Your Council" page - it's up there in the contents bar at the top.No consultation/submission information though - and nothing on sign bylaw. Nothing under "Plans, policies and reports" either.Nothing under council meetings and members. "Different ways to have your say" - but you can't have your say on it if they hide it like this. And then in to "find out more" brings us to "Have your say" - current consultations. And then you go into "Bylaws" and finally:And... this is it? This doesn't have any information or even confirmation on what is being consulted on - just a standard form.

This is the worst comms and marketing ever. What a total fail. A dozen clicks later and it tells you to go look in the fucking City Scene - the cheeky pricks. So I'm now - in this age of the internet - going to have to type out several hundred words from the newsletter? And when I type in the website they mention in the City Scene just in case: www.aucklandcity.govt.nz/council/bylaw, we get:The comms and marketing department - and the whole Auckland City Council for that matter - is Error 404. Their file cannot be found. The question is can the ATA sack them for being useless bastards - right now - or does Mr Ford & Co. have to wait for next year to make them redundant? Seriously.

So running on instinct and gut feeling at this stage, back to submissions: click "public notice" - and there it is, finally, Amendment of the Signs Bylaw 2007. Joy.

Click. Oh, hang on....

From City Scene, published on 8 November 2009

Summary of information

So, no extra information. What a gawdawful fucking mission that was. Hopeless. At least I'm not going to have to type it all out I suppose. The relevant parts:

An increase in the size of directional (from 0.2m2 to 0.28m2) and real estate signs (from 1m2 to 1.5m2) are intended to assist with the marketing of properties during the current downturn in the housing market. The permitted duration of display of real estate signs is to be increased from three to six months and real estate signs are to be removed within seven days if properties are withdrawn from the market.

- another cheeky grab by the real estate egotists. The right wingers were quite prepared to give them larger signage last time, and I'll bet they'll see nothing wrong with this grab either. "It's only temporary" is as weak as "it's a downturn" as an excuse.

The council also intends to amend the provisions in the bylaw in relation to poster boards. The council intends to provide a clearer definition of the purpose of poster sites in the bylaw as part of an overall system of providing for the management of posters. The council intends restricting poster boards to advertising forthcoming artistic, cultural, religious, community or sporting events. This restriction will not stop sponsors from including their branding on posters advertising events.

The proposed amendment of the bylaw as part of an overall system of providing for the management of posters will have the effect of tightening the controls over postering on private land while facilitating the provision for postering opportunities on public land, all within a clearer definition under the bylaw as to the purpose of posters and the use of poster sites. By restricting the contents of poster boards in this manner, the original purpose of poster boards is clarified and the council will limit demand for poster boards on private and public land.

Well this could go horribly: whoring out public, council-owned sites to ads and defacto billboards on the one hand (like they have done with the quasi-privatised bus shelters); and restricting private property rights on the other hand by "tightening the controls over postering on private land."

Bylaw No. 27 - Signs 2007 And here's the fascism - already in evidence, so who knows how they plan to make it more restrictive:

A Poster may not: be displayed on private land except on the inside of a window of an occupied shop or on a dedicated poster board or poster site approved by the council and with the approval of the land owner or occupier

The Council has to approve where you can stick posters. I can't quite believe it is that plainly fascist - but there it is. The Auckland City Council purports to be able to ban posters too - therefore - that are not in their approved sites. I don't care so much about public area restrictions, but the blanket one on all private property not approved for it seems prima facie in breach of our Bill of Rights provisions relating to freedom of expression. Only posters inside of an occupied shop are allowed except for these designated, approved poster sites/boards.

If you would like to tell the council where they can stick their poster bylaw: click here. 10 December is the submissions deadline.

Foreshore & Seabed: Aquaculture carve up is the confiscation

2009-11-07T22:46:00.006+13:00

The Labour government - Clark, Cullen and Wilson - agreed to the confiscation option primarily because they assumed it was the easiest course to take to clear the way for the carve up of the marine space. The Labour government didn't set out to pick a fight with Maori, they didn't set out to use the issue as a cynical election ploy to attract conservative/racist Pakeha voters either. They simply carried out what every European-dominated government and administration always has, because in their understanding the purpose of the Crown is to facilitate Pakeha and foreign interests at the expense of Maori - that's the default setting for the the Crown. The government was prepared to ram through the confiscation law even though the Attorney-General's own advice was that it was discriminatory.

What they agreed to was a statutory fix that allowed the aquaculture legislation to have full effect and be incontestable in court. That is what the F&S Act did - it paved the way for the marine space allocation. There are billions of dollars at stake and the non-Maori are set to be the big recipients of the carve up - that is where the pressure is coming from.
So this is what it is all about. We would not have had the dispute were it not for the marine farming interests. At the heart of this is a deal "the Kidd deal" that allocates 20% of the space to Iwi Maori and 80% to everyone else. What this really means is that the government will confiscate 80% of marine space off Maori. Another way of looking at it is that the government will only recognise Maori marine farms if the government gets 400% of the space that they can lease out to whomever they want. Whatever angle you choose to view it from a split like 80/20 - or indeed any split at all - when Maori may well own, or have a traditional and continuing responsibility towards, 100% of the marine area (in places) is still a confiscation.

So, to this extent, public access on the beaches is something of a side show.

As I said in the original Ministerial review back in 2003 all the government needs do is pass a very short law stating that public access and rights of navigation apply to all unenclosed areas of the foreshore and seabed regardless of the property status. The rest - aquaculture space, property titles etc - are complex and need time to be dealt with properly. For what seems like the thousandth time, I recommend passing a very short bill addressing public access concerns (and something like that exists in the early part of the Foreshore & Seabed Act) and start the work on aquaculture and title after that.

Of course the marine farming interests that are about to get "free" grants from the Crown for exclusivity over marine space are driving the agenda here. It will be a massive windfall gain for these operators.

Hide: "I will do anything for love, but I won't pay my girlfriends fare"

2009-11-07T18:05:00.003+13:00

Rodney and Louise's other holiday perk
"Perk-buster" Rodney Hide whisked his girlfriend away on another tax-payer funded trip - a mid-winter tropical break in Hawaii. The Weekend Herald can reveal that the Act leader - under intense scrutiny after taking Louise Crome on a ministerial trip to Europe and America in September - also took her on a $10,000 holiday to Hawaii in July. This week, Mr Hide quietly repaid the money without publicly revealing anything about the holiday.

Rodney Hide, Perk Bluster? He just can't help himself can he? He took her to Hawaii for god's sake - what political function required that? Weddings, Theme parks, plush hotels, tropical resorts - are you fucking kidding me? Does he want to do a Cabinet meeting at Disneyland?

Look Rodney, you need a new line of attack mate, you're a joke looking for a punchline right now. Instead of 'Perk Buster', Rodney should be the 'Perk Defender'. Argue that it's right to give MPs these Perks, think about it, do we really want our sexually repressed frat team that is the Government Front bench roaming overseas without the tight leash of their partners to keep them in line at the after function cocktail party? Otherwise we'll have photos on the front page of The Sydney Morning Herald of Bill English topless on a bar table someplace in Phuket for the OECD Finance Ministers conference.

Better we the humble taxpayer pay for Rodney's co-dependency issues and subsidize his girlfriend's global travel and Hawaiian holidays, or else he won't be able to concentrate on his mass privatization of NZ post 2011 plans.

Hone should jump waka to the Greens

2009-11-06T18:50:00.003+13:00

The first rip in John Key's Big Blue Tent?

If Hone wants to make his mark the Greens should call him over the weekend and he should jump party on principle. Have a coffee on Saturday, make sure the sst times photographer is tipped off, hey presto, media platform for a live 6pm Sunday press conference by Hone.

Here's what he gets:
He should apologise for his out burst, explain that he has been under a lot of pressure having to give his support to policy that he did not join the Maori Party to vote for. Because the Maori Party have received so little for their support and the policy that has been passed under urgency demands a stronger stance than being inside the Maori Party allows he is joining the greens.

What they get:
Replace the support Sue took with her when she left, regain their edge that has made the Greens drop below 5%

Labour should shut up and watch the Maori Party meltdown if he walks.

Hone and the white mofos

2009-11-06T12:00:00.003+13:00

PM: Harawira's white tirade 'deeply offensive'
Prime Minister John Key has labelled MP Hone Harawira's email on white people "deeply offensive" and he wants action from coalition partner the Maori Party. "Hone has a history of making intemperate and outrageous comments and this one is right up there," Mr Key told reporters a short time ago. The Maori Party needed to deal with it.

GRIN – Oh dear, he just doesn’t know when to stop digging does he? Now, while it is certainly true that white mo fos have been raping the land and ripping Maori off for centuries (well barely 2 centuries) I’m not sure how that fact helps justify Hone buggering off to Paris to go sight seeing and promising to hook the conference convener up with the All Blacks as pay back. His current explanation to date which was, "I've been to paradise, but I've never been to me", may have been a better one to stick to than the white mofos have raped and ripped Maori off.

Gone before kai time? Hone’s getting dangerously close.

Bomber's Blog - The War on News

2009-11-06T09:15:00.000+13:00

Rodney Hide: “I will do anything for love but I won’t pay her fare”

2009-11-06T08:55:00.002+13:00

Hide's overseas trip included LA theme park and wedding
Act leader Rodney Hide took his girlfriend, Louise Crome, to an amusement park in Los Angeles during their taxpayer-funded trip that was also timed to coincide with her brother's wedding near London. The Herald has learned Mr Hide squeezed in a visit to Universal Studios after an official meeting with a top Los Angeles City Council official.

Rodney Hide’s codependency issues continue to plague him. I’m all for taxpayer funded love Rodders, but paying for your codependency problem ain’t my bag baby. You know why I’m not keen to fund your co-dependency complex Rodney? It’s not just the hypocrisy of you calling for an end to a perk that you use, it’s not that. It’s the fact that we went from a $2 billion surplus last year to a $10 billion deficit this year and that money you’re blowing on your girlfriends trip is symbolic of all those slashed public services that NZers facing much more desperate life problems than missing their girlfriend for 10 days will have to face.

But this pales in comparison when you look at what Rodders had to say about how easy it is for him to get policy through Cabinet. Forget saying Key doesn’t do anything (that’s fairly apparent) it was this quote that really proves the tail owns the dog…

He was also amazed at how much he could get through Cabinet, because "you turn up with your papers" and "they are too busy with their own stuff they're not bothered".

…National are not going to want the perception that a far right nutbar like Rodders is able to quietly slip the mechanisms of mass privatization for post 2011 into Cabinet while the others are bickering over their own fiefdoms. People who voted Labour in 2005 and National in 2008 did so on vague change, not hard right economic policy as social policy.

Key could lose the big blue tent broad based strategy AND the crucial female vote if Rodders keeps pointing out the obvious.

Hone, at least we’ll always have Paris

2009-11-06T08:53:00.002+13:00

Harawira's sightseeing trip not in Speaker's travel guide
Parliament's Speaker has indicated Maori Party MP Hone Harawira will not be let off lightly for his decision to go daytripping in Paris instead of attending an official meeting, saying he would expect some of the taxpayers' money to be repaid in such cases.

Look I consider myself a huge fan of Hone Hawawira, I think he’s one of the few politicians who really calls it the way it is. I agreed with his desire to leave the Australian conference and go see how Aboriginals were really being treated, I think his blunt language is refreshing and I admire his passion.

That said. WTF? You buggered off to Paris because you won’t get a chance to see it again? Unless he has a terminal illness, this has got to be one of the worst excuses for pissing away the public purse we’ve heard since Rodney Hide’s “I would do anything for love, but I won’t do that” excuse.

I think it must show something deeper. The manner in which the Maori Party have snuggled up to National for little more than the repeal of the foreshore and seabed confiscation and making MTV the new public broadcaster post 2011 is nothing compared to the dead rats they’ve had to swallow and that taste is something Hone can’t get used to. Is this Paris fling his last? Is Hone sick of dead rat and is using public trips as quick-eeze to sooth his reflux ethics?

At least he’ll always have Paris.

TVNZ less fair and balanced than Fox News

2009-11-06T08:29:00.001+13:00

Bill's snip-snap zaps TV's script
Emails about a Television NZ promotion featuring Bill English reveal his staff rewrote parts of the script. But the changes saved the Finance Minister from appearing on national television making scissor gestures with his fingers and saying, "It's time to give the snip snap to the zip zap plastic fantastic."

National got to edit the party political broadcast that TVNZ ran for them? WTF? It’s official, TVNZ is actually LESS fair and balanced than Fox News. If I were National I’d be disappointed that I was only 60% in the polls with a million bucks worth of political party broadcast. The bias in the mainstream media towards National was apparent again this week. Funny how Bill English’s bash a bennie was accepted last week because apparently (for the 4th time) the Great Recession was over and yet this week, unemployment jumped .5% and yet not one word from the mainstream corporate media questioning Bill English on his bash a bennie moves. How can you bash a bennie based on the idea that it’s okay because the recession is over, when the unemployment rate continues to leap frog up? We don’t know the answer to that because the corporate mainstream media are so in love with National, the question hasn’t been asked.

A Government able to edit their own promo? When the hell did TVNZ become as fair and balanced as North Korean state television?

Political Management in National as disconnected as Destiny Church

2009-11-06T08:26:00.002+13:00

Papers show battle for the RWC rights
Papers released today reveal the extent of political infighting over Maori Television's (MTS) bid for the 2011 Rugby World Cup free-to-air television rights. Papers released to NZPA under the Official Information Act show MTS put up a bid only when invited to by the International Rugby Board (IRB), and that ministers were notified.

Bizarre isn’t it, the corporate news media can not throw themselves fast enough on John Ley’s lap in singing his praises after one year and have completely ignored his inept political management. That’s not surprising, when the public broadcaster is prepared to hand out a million dollars worth of free political party broadcasting it gives you an idea of the bias and muted criticism that has enveloped the corporate news media since National won last year.

Richard Worth’s sacking fiasco, Melissa Lee’s byelection fiasco and now the RWC fiasco, note how all the ministers were aware of this which goes against the original manner in which National sought to spin it which was that sneaky Sharples had pulled a fast one on all of them.

Key has cut a long term deal with the Maori Party to keep his big blue broad based tent erected in the National Party plantation, McCully and English see John’s new mates as handling the hangi and doing that lovely singing welcome thing they do, not erect rugby posts and buy the broadcasting rights.

McCully and English see the relationship for what it is, the perception of moderation, Key on the other hand wants to be the next Holyoake and needs a long term partner, Maori TV becoming the new public broadcaster after TVNZ is privatized post 2011 is a platform for that long term relationship.

This RWC fiasco shows the power struggle which is occurring within the ideological vacuum that is John Key’s leadership as the hard right faction demand faster privatization. Key however knows he has to create the mechanisms for mass privatization to be implemented post 2011, not before it because NZers won’t trust him if National start flogging the country off to their corporate chums too quickly.

Confusing retirement messages

2009-11-05T13:06:00.004+13:00

Retirement Commissioner Reappointed.

Unemployment hits 6.5%

2009-11-05T12:08:00.003+13:00

Number of unemployed hits 15-year high
Unemployment has jumped from 6 per cent to 6.5 per cent in the September quarter. The number of unemployed rose by 12,000 to reach 150,000 people Statistics New Zealand said. The number of people unemployed is at its highest level since the March 1994 quarter.

Now the Government says that Unemployment will peak at 7%, yet we just jumped .5%. The optimism this Government is using to mask the deep crises we face is simply denial. The Great Depression was in full effect 4 years after the crash of 29, we are just over one year from the crash of 2008. Unemployment will be the drag that brings the economy down further. The public services that increasingly more and more NZers are reliant on need bolstering NOT cutting or privatizing.

Things are going to get much, much worse before they get any better.

Corporate fascist NZ dictator of the year?

2009-11-05T09:42:00.003+13:00

Gibbs to tell how he'd rule the world
A Kiwi multi-millionaire is to invite high-paying guests on to his Never Never Land-style farm to hear how he would rule New Zealand. Richlister Alan Gibbs will host former National Party leader Don Brash and ACT founder Sir Roger Douglas to discuss what they would do as "New Zealand's dictator for a year".

UGH – “NZ Dictator for a year” held by Gibbs, Don Brash and Rodger Douglas? Is this some sort of sick joke? Is everyone else throwing up a little in the back of their throats? Don't you love the tone of the article as if it's a laugh? Alan Gibbs IS already a dictator why haven’t the mainstream media picked up on this yet? Why did ACT suddenly change from ‘Smart Green’ environmental policy to Climate Change is a Hoax? Isn’t it interesting that after climate skeptic Alan Gibbs made a $100 000 donation to ACT Rodney suddenly changed his environmental policy?

The brilliant Gareth over at Hot Topic did the detective work…

The price of a policy
Hide’s repositioning coincided with a major donation to ACT by Alan Gibbs, a wealthy NZ businessman best known here for his Aquada (a sportscar that thinks it’s a boat) and for his generous patronage of modern art. Gibbs, however, also plays a prominent role in climate crank organisations. He is on the “policy advisory board” of the International Climate Science Coalition (with such luminaries as Monckton, Bryan Leyland and Owen McShane), while his daughter Emma is listed as a director of the ICSC. In its election spending return to the Electoral Commission, ACT reveals that on April 9th 2008 Gibbs paid $100,000 into the party’s coffers. Within weeks, the party’s new climate denial line was being pushed to the press.

Dictator for a year with corporate junkies like Gibbs, Don Brash and Rodger Douglas laughing it up over the expensive wine. Maybe after a couple of glasses does anyone think they wouldn’t chat about how they would take over the country?

Creepy, very fucking creepy.

National attacks workers, protects bosses

2009-11-05T09:32:00.001+13:00

Pay cut clause cut out of job support scheme proposals
It was originally intended that bosses whose companies moved to a Government subsidised nine-day fortnight would have had to take pay cuts as well, it was reported tonight. TVNZ news said the planned forced pay cut was dropped due to lobbying from business. The scheme lets private sector businesses, workers and unions negotiate voluntary agreements to reduce their hours of work to a nine-day fortnight. The Government pays employers $12.50 an hour per worker – the adult minimum wage – for up to five hours a fortnight. Management of at least one firm that took up the scheme took pay cuts but Social Development Minister Paula Bennett told TVNZ it would have been too complex to make it mandatory.

Who woulda thunk it? National, the party of big business and farmers, who has tickled NZers with their aspirational promise of crumbs latter, decided after being told by their big boss mates, NOT to make the bosses part of taking a cut in pay. This 9 day fortnight was always a scam. Effectively it cuts 10% of a workers income in return for a $50 subsidy which is only available if you work 10 hours on your 10th day (not many workers do that) so it was always costing workers, and it was supposed to put bosses in the same boat. But after being lobbied by business, National gave their boss mates a get out of the 9 day fortnight card for free.

Nice to see where National’s heart is and how easily the business lobby were able to change it.

Hide attacks Key and charges you for the pleasure

2009-11-05T09:01:00.002+13:00

'Key doesn't do anything' – Hide
ACT leader Rodney Hide ripped into Prime Minister John Key's performance at a breakfast yesterday. Mr Hide, who is a minister outside Cabinet, said Mr Key "doesn't do anything" and was highly regarded, while "ACT did everything and we are hated", The Press reported.

Is this more codependency issues with Rodney? He can’t go anywhere without his girlfriend, now apparently he can’t pass policy without John Key holding his hand.

It is an extraordinary outburst to make, and it was in a scripted speech for crying out loud. I agree, Key seems to get away with anything People love him. His dorky, geeky, Dad routine with his blank optimism and empty aspiration is the perfect combination of visionless vision for a passionless people who don’t like them flashy educated types.

National celebrated 1 year in power in the weekend and the mainstream media threw themselves adoringly at John Key’s lap to lavish praise upon his stumblingly inept political management and wholesale dismantling of procedural democratic oversight . Some breathlessly spoke of a new type of politics, others suggested this may be the second coming. National’s polls are so high John Key could eat a kitten live on air, and NZers would blame the kitten for looking tasty.

But Rodney Hide’s outburst is a little weirder. This is the $45 rort that Hide was charging people to hear him, he’s a bloody Minister, why the hell should you have to pay to hear his opinion? This bit is my favourite, after boasting about slashing 700 jobs in the Supercity privatization rort and attacking Key…

Approached by the reporter, Mr Hide said the comments were off the record and it would be unethical to report them.…

OH! Reporting his comments would be unethical, charging people $45 to listen to a Minister of the Crown is fine?

Unbelievable.

The Summer of our discontent

2009-11-05T09:00:00.002+13:00

Bus drivers reject pay offer in stormy meeting
Bus drivers have rejected a NZ Bus pay-rise offer, despite a union recommendation that the offer be accepted. About 900 NZ Bus drivers and cleaners were invited to the meeting today to discuss the pay offer which amounted to an increase of $2 an hour over three years. The company had previously offered $1.80 over two years

You know when workers have had a gutsful when they ignore their union’s advice to take the crumbs the boss man has thrown them. The despicable manner in which NZ Bus has treated their workers by locking them out to try and muscle a decision was seen for what it was by others after NZ Bus’s contract was threatened by the ARC. This bullying manner has been seen across the industrial action spectrum ever since National and ACT won and bosses have felt they can try it on, the blowback however is that workers become so angry at being abused they go septic. Good on them, I hope they make NZ Bus hurt.

We face a Summer of discontent with industrial action.

Ae Marika!

2009-11-05T08:52:00.006+13:00

At least Harawira arranged with his delegation deputy and the head of the European delegation before he took his side trip - so it wasn't completely AWOL. Just a bit AWOL. What did he miss:

The meeting discussed relations between the EU and New Zealand, family and youth policies and multiculturalism.

Well, it's not as if he's derailed an FTA with the EU or anything of that magnitude by going to Paris. But here again is the spouse factor and how it impacts on - rather than assists - the work of an MP. I very much doubt that Harawira would have gone off to Paris if he was unaccompanied by his wife. The pressure, the demands, their agenda must also be taken account of musn't it?

Partners shouldn't go along on business trips - that's the lesson here. They are not more focussed on their parliamentary or governmental duties because of their partner's presence - they are more distracted.

Apart from the G-G and the PM why is there a need to send partners along? There isn't. It's a waste of resources and even if they paid their own way completely it's still an unnecessary distraction to have them along. Stephen Franks has given an example in defence of this practice - having his French-speaking wife on a tour helped him in a French-speaking country - but these serendipitous overlaps would be few and far between; too rare to justify the policy. It is interesting though, isn't it, no matter what side of the house - Maori Party, Act, National, Labour - everyone - once they get a taste of the perks find innumerable reasons why it is essential. How does carting their missus or mister around Europe make them better parliamentarians and advance the nation's cause. It screams junket - not business. While I wholly approved of his Outback expedition in Australia, this one is so obviously for personal benefit.

The difference with Harawira is that he publicises these things rather than covers it up. Too funny:

Bloomberg's price of prostitution $161 a trick.

2009-11-04T18:31:00.010+13:00

Standing around in photo ops. Just another day being the man.He looks very proud of himself.90,000,000 US dollars - as of July 2008 New York City's population was 8,363,710. So that's $10.76c per person Bloomberg [W] has spent in this campaign - according to the NY Times. But it's much more lavish than that if it's broken down on the actual voters:So Bloomberg's 557,059 votes cost him $90,000,000 - that's $161.56 he had to spend per voter. On a turn-out that looks barely above 20% of the age-eligible population. And then he was only ahead of the Democrat by 50,000 votes.

Based on Act's performance I doubt it is possible to buy an election. They threw so many millions at their campaigns, but couldn't break through the 6-8% barrier. But we have spending limits and so on and it doesn't appear that they do that in the States. It seems that money can buy an office in the US, but the cost is so enormous that only one of the wealthiest people in America can do it, and even then only by a whisker.

'Aotearoa' Minuit

2009-11-04T18:23:00.001+13:00

This just became the new NZ anthem, well done Minuit. I'm very proud to have been included.

NZ Bus industrial breakdown

2009-11-04T15:21:00.006+13:00

The kids are getting out of school now and there are still no buses on the road despite the union meeting having scheduled to end a few hours ago.

There was such confidence last week that this meeting would fix it. After an entire week of the company's lock-out and hard ball tactics the bus patrons of Auckland had moved beyond the initial inconvenience experiencing the novelty of it to an angrier and less tolerant place. We were so glad to see the lock-out ended and the unions go away with something they could recommend to their members...

and now this afternoon: The members have decided against the agreement.Oh dear. The company are taking a breath. The union bosses are probably also taking a breath. This is bad news for the regular passengers.

I don't know the ins and outs of what the "11.5%" deal actually means to the drivers on the lowest rates or how or if the various work conditions will change, so I don't know the reasons it would have been rejected. My fear is that - given the intransigent attitude of NZ Bus to industrial negotiations - they will shut down the entire system again calculating that public sympathy has gone out on the drivers. Hopefully this won't happen and it can be resolved, but it doesn't look good.

[UPDATE-- 3:24pm: two buses packed with school kids - many standing in the aisle - pass by. That's the first buses I've seen this afternoon. It's been nice and quiet without them. It looks like normal scheduled buses are running again.]

[UPDATE-- 4PM: RNZ reporting a split vote and angry scenes at the union meeting when they tried to call for another vote.]

Fiji coup "new legal order" repercussions [+UPDATE]

2009-11-04T00:57:00.012+13:00

[UPDATE --12:30PM Thursday:This is a thug regime run by witless bullies and a treacherous, rogue Attorney-General behind the scenes conducting it all - with a Christchurch lawyer as his right-hand man. And this is all part of what they are signing off on. Arbitrary arrests, disappearances, incommunicado detention, the list goes on. --]

The Attorney-General is the one behind the coup and the "new legal order" that has purportedly superseded the constitution. He's the one making it all happen. Unfortunately his right-hand man, the Solicitor-General, is a NZ lawyer and is collaborating with this military junta and the string-pulling Attorney-General. It's incredibly sordid. Some of the old judges who sold out and have sworn their treasonous oaths to a junta that has as it's defining centre piece policy never having an election again are now bleating that the anarchy they have enabled is having personal costs to them. They are complaining. They are lucky the NZ authorities don't arrest them. They are lucky they are all not struck off the law society's lists - but , oh, that's right - they abolished that in Fiji too. They can manipulate things inside Fiji, but there's no reason the NZ government should let them get away with it when they come back here and pretend they aren't part of an illegal and anti-democratic military government who have torn up the constitution. They are part of the problem. It is their decision to join the regime - plenty haven't.

Ideally, they should be arrested on Fijian warrants for treason or swearing an illegal oath or whatever the relevant Fijian crimes are - signed by the appropriate judiciary still sworn under the Fijian constitution - and acted upon in NZ. NZ should hold these treasonous suspects for the future constitutional government of Fiji to deal with when it is restored - they can be repatriated to face the constitutional judicial process of Fiji once one has been re-established.

Via: wires yesterday. Lectures on media freedom from the Attorney-General. Note the huge difference between the censored and self-censoring above .fj article and the tone of the context of the .org report:
The absurdity of this thuggery. From an rss feed at the time of the latest coup (Fiji's fifth?):From a Fiji news report a month or so back when they had men from the military over their shoulders and couldn't report on anything at all with any perceived potential political connotation or suggestion: