Unbusiness-like long term interests

While her indoors is off to meet HRH, the poodles are to drip feed media releases to keep the red machine firmly on the front page as it were.

Stevie 'I won't be back next year' Maharey is first off the blocks when he obviously noticed at PN airport this morning that OzJet had abandoned the paddock and wouldn't be coming here anytime soon with these gems.

We need to make it clear that the region does want an international airline...

clearly in the region's interests, long term

Pity the airline the taxpayer has so dearly propped up invested in wasn't made to support the long term interests of the region by its overpaid political masters. Feigned interest at this late stage only serves to rile voters even more.

Early Election

What we have here is the classic case of ... a lame duck government, the operation of the country is paralysed and it is falling apart...

We must have early elections.

When and how I don't know yet, but it is inevitable

No, unfortunately the Cullen coup isn't premature. Just another socialist state with a similarly functioning government.

Chain yanking

Helen's poodle has had his chain yanked and is gearing up to make an apology.

Such an action might look good and grab some votes.

Now just remind me. Wasn't this the result of serious criminal activities that were under investigation for around a year prior? And the only reason charges of terrorism failed because her indoors' legislature was weakly worded?

As far as I can see, the action was fully warranted and no apology is required. The firearms charges are yet to go through the mill, must be soon if he is about to apologise. Hell, she will be apologising to Tibetans next for Genghis Khan and his rampant hordes next.

Carefully orchestrated jitters

Her indoors still does not have an invite from the panda to sign away our souls.

"Trust us" she says whilst sitting on the fence over Tibet. Like the desire to retain control in a fourth term, she will do anything to get that invite. Who believes a pollie telling us to trust them?

Good to see the EU is at least discussing options and that Germany's Merkel has had the guts to say no to attending the Olympics. Pity our her indoors can't get off the fence, ditch the careful, proportionate jitters and do the same with the FTA singing.

If she did that, then she might even earn some trust, but no, she will do anything to get her name on that document.

FTA = Free Tibet Abandoned

Religious Tolerance

CR has been looking at the recently released Fitna movie on religious tolerance which has provoked considerable negative reaction and asks why there has not been a similar one examining the Bible. He even submits a possible script for the movie...

But of course! Why did nobody think of that?
Oh yes, it ought to be easy enough to make. Why, all we have to do is send people armed with cameras to all those places where Christians are executing gays, driving schoolgirls into burning buildings, sodomising and shooting schoolchildren, stoning adulterers..
There must be more. Hang on a second--it'll come to me...

Ah yes! The stoning to death of (female) adulterers in St. Peter's square ought to be good for several minute's worth of movie time. And perhaps while we're there it'll be possible to capture some shots of loving Italian Catholic mothers sawing parts off their daughter's genitals.
Did I miss any other fine Christian traditions? Beheadings maybe? Killing Buddhist schoolteachers in Thailand?
Cameras in local churches will be essential--to capture shots of priests as they preach death to the Western pigs and apes and the destruction of Israel.
We could wind up the movie with some interviews with the Pope and the Archbishop of Canterbury, as they call for the killing of any who dare to leave the Christian church. That ought to round it out nicely and end on a fine multicultural, tolerant note.

Politicians with real spine?

Finally a pollie showing some spine and another keeping his options open. Dunne has refused to spend long hours travelling with her indoors. Winnie has done the same, doing what he does best, keeping Winston First ever ready to chase any falling baubles that may be on offer.

It is only five days till her indoors will probably be in London seeing the Queen at the Sir Ed Memorial. After that, if she gets an invite, she might be off to Beijing to sign the FTA with the fast drying blood of Tibetans.

I wonder if the imminent coup is only days away. Are Goff or Cullen about to show some real spine and roll her indoors whilst enroute? Maybe Mikee will take out both, as Phil has been sent to Coventry Timor. Otherwise seven and half months is far too long to wait.

I eagerly await the fallout, but alas, I also feel a change of guard will not help their odds, just hasten their demise.

Flag waving on core business

Manukau City Ratepayer Robbers have been discussing whether there is a need for a flags policy and will find that in future they have shot themselves in the foot by allowing ethnic flags to be flown on council buildings.

Seems when the subject was broached, a councillor rightly asked why council was creating a flags policy. The topic was shot down as being racist because two flags were to be specifically excluded and all others allowed on extraordinary occasion. So the council defeated the motion and now wants to waste ratepayer funds getting a report that will take 3 months.

"I don't believe the council needs a flag policy"...

"The council should focus its attention on its scheduled policy programme and deal with real issues such as crime and infrastructure" - issues which he said his constituents were more worried about.

Since when does flying flags other than the national and city flag become an issue councils should be involved in? The next thing will be that councils will have to keep an ever-growing flag inventory and have designated days to fly, wasting more time on decisions and promulgation. Which one of the 13 who voted for has a flag making business?

Councils should, as the good councillor suggests, stick to their core business reducing robbery of ratepayers. Any flag policy should be directed and fully funded from the LGA (they do nothing else that might be useful), under direction from central government, not each council wasting ratepayers monies and time on non-core business.

It is easy to see why councils are failing ratepayers. Failing to follow national building laws and possibly their own bylaws, core business that should be more pressing at this time. I always thought overcrowding was a well known pre-cursor to the spread of third world diseases, but do we see any action from councils on overcrowding evictions? Can we expect to see territorial bureaucracies mobilised from the gargantuan closed shop housing inspectorates feeding off the ratepayer teat to enforce such laws?

Like hell, too busy flying flags on non-core business.

Piractical Terrorists

Not content with aiding and abetting piracy on the high seas recently, greenie nutters are now resorting to piracy within our harbours. No doubt in conjunction and the blessing of the SHVC rent-a-mob terrorists. Six arrested, has the ship been impounded yet? Greenpeace added to the international blacklist of terrorists?

Piracy and terrorism must look good on any CV, although that I suspect not that many of these drop-kicks probably have ever entertained the notion of paid employment.

For as long as we can dig coal out of the shedload we have, we will continue to sell it to the highest bidder. Along with our souls, we will do free trade with any willing buyer for our cut of the thirty pieces of silver.

Law of common sense to be applied

Following on in the vein of Full Moon King and her cohorts in constructing shoddy legislature of late, today's editorial from the region she loves to hate examines what could be the common sense outcome a newly proposed piece of legislation.

Seems that while most Kiwis were attending church celebrating things religious and some enjoyed a well deserved break, those charged with absolute power were busy little secular beavers, releasing all sorts of propaganda on Easter Sunday of all days.

In a move to stave off any cause celebre mothers having to feed wee Johnny in scruffy loos, there is yet another Liarbour tax to be foisted upon businesses in providing rooms of a suitable nature via uncosted legislation.

Forgive me, I always thought a workplace was for work and core parenting was always done at home? Parents get already paid heaps with parenting leave.

But the editor examines the topic more closely and sums up well.

How does the prescriptive obligation affect small businesses which may have to provide crèche facilities for perhaps just a single staff member? Will the law of unintended consequences mean such an attempt to legislate for compassion will make ``potentially pregnant' job applicants liabilities for employers?

This is a time when a Government on the ebb might more usefully have shown it had a better grasp of the practical issues that face those in the small business community. Instead, the gesture shows that it is much easier to capitalise on the proven benefits of breastfeeding than to acknowledge (and to promote the view) that raising a baby ought to be a fulltime job.

Now there is an unintended consequence, if you can get pregnant you are a liability. Same thing I have been trying to drill into the better half for years, which side of a balance sheet she resides on. What a future our workplaces will enjoy, a workplace without the distraction of females.

The real world

kg over at CR has had a long night shift tending to those ambo patients in dire and timely need of treatment for ingrown toe nails and headaches in the early hours.

In a re-served old post, he discusses the need for real men in a real world vs the drivel of teamwork and sensitivity. Predictably a few have bitten hard, and garnered the similarly predictable response from one suffering from post-night shift rats:

Yeah, I'm a "bit touchy" all right.

I'm bloody sick of being told by women all that we men do wrong, sick to death of women lecturing us about health and safety, women deciding what constitutes acceptable family life, women denying small boys outlets for their masculine instincts, women fucking the quality of life by placing safety above all else to the point where life for a man is supposed to be some kind of bland supplier-role for mommy and the kids.

Men are more than just providers and robots to do some woman's bidding.

Thank God I know some real women who don't do those things, women such as my own wife and Diamond Mair (for example) who realize that men have a right to be men.

Take your half-baked, purse-lipped, ignorant disapproval elsewhere.

Or--in case you misunderstand me--piss off.

Well said kg, as Oswald suggests, tell us how you really feel.

Now, if only there some real world men like kg in the National Party or any party for that matter. Then we would have points of difference to discuss and vote for.

Royal decree on democracy

Scenes such as the great unwashed lining up to vote for a free and fair democratic election as in this article are such we will never see in the adjacent country where human rights abuse is the norm.

The monarchy recently had a change of guard from father to enlightened son who has moved toward democracy by royal decree.

The fifth king, ... urged all his people to exercise their franchise in a statement issued at the weekend, and the Bhutanese people do not ignore a royal command

Seems the locals are overawed with the change, but are going along for the ride.

We are very excited to vote because it is going to make a big difference to our country

There are two main parties and also a militant Nepali contigent hell bent taking over Bhutan in play. The militants have been blocked at the border for the elections, while

The parties' manifestoes are almost identical, both based on "His Majesty's vision" of gross national happiness or GNH, the idea that economic growth be balanced by respect for traditions and the environment.

Now that is a nice touch. Possibly we will need a large dose of GNH when we suck up to those murdering Chinese signing away our souls in a week's time without a whimper for the pursuit of money.

Monopoly to abandon home users

The incumbent comms monopoly has announced that it will ditch pain in the backside home users in favour of supporting paying business customers when it comes to broadband.

As if after the recent Bubble fiasco and the lack of support that can be had from Telecom was not enough, they are now about to totally cut off the home user. Seems they want yet more monies from users to deliver a 'guaranteed service'. I thought there was a law stating offerings had to be commercially fit for purpose.

I suppose, at least they are being honest about it. Instead of offering 'all you can eat', they are stating what customers have long known about the non-existent support. For a 'slightly differently priced service' (read well increased, although Telecom and the word service remain mutually exclusive)

there will be some guarantees about helpdesk and support

Still I expect nothing less from the monopoly. BTW, just how is the breakup of said monopoly going Minister of Comms?

Technically, a recession?

Like weather forecasters foretelling rain of late, I see today is another cloudless effort here at 40S. So much for predicting heaps of rain not 3 days ago, another stellar performance by the met service. The only time to believe a weather crystal ball gazer is when the water is in the rain gauge.

Similarly, never being one to count chickens early over matters electoral, I note that latest poll from the esteemed Mr Morgan reflects possibly that the country is well over the comedic duo of her indoors and the historian.

Indeed, history might show the continued large negativity for over 2 quarters as perhaps, a technical recession in those matters?

Priorities?

While most might forgo a $10K holiday financed by a loan shark with penalties at 36%, this loser stands to lose his home.

An obvious case of failing to prioritise the $6K needed to pay the mortgage.

Also, must have purchased at the top of the market, because you could be hard pressed to find a house in that location worth $290K.

Boycott soon?

Whilst the most of the world key players roundly condemn China for murdering its citizens in the streets, her indoors lamely suggest we await 'more accurate info'.

What a fence-sitting response. Does she think these abusers, expert in looking good, will deliver anything but the diluted message they want us to see?

I expect nothing less when she is about to sign NZ over to the human rights abusers that are the Chinese Government. She wants her name etched in ink as the first to sign.

Next she will be muttering about sport should not be involved with politics. The two are inextricably linked, just like the power play that went on over rugby in SA. We should have never gone then, as we should not here. An international boycott is the only way.

The Tibetans have only one chance and these games are where they stand or die as a nation invaded some years ago by China. Unfortunately I do not like the odds when we have fence sitters like her indoors.

There is no need to sign a FTA in ink, Helen your name is being permanently etched in Tibetan blood as you procrastinate on this matter.

Resurgent Vote Spoiler

Liarbour must be laughing all the way to a fourth term after ACT's recent resurgence. The Nats will be cringing in their corner, for day by day the endgame slips from their grasp.

As was recently noted somewhere I was reading, somebody removed the stake out of ACT's old leader and now he is apparently to stand in Hunua against JC as noted by No Minister and WhaleOil. The blogosphere is all a-twitter. It now appears that a lot of what I thought were right wing commentariat possibly supporting Nats, are actually closet ACT supporters rapidly outing themselves. Some have been for a free feed and talkfest at the conference. What next? Put forward the retired rabid dog Prebble?

Why bother ACT, if an ancient Knight and a stripped down Rodney is all that is on offer?

Is ACT just a flash in the pan and the vote spoiler for the Nats?

Great Day

A good day was had at Field Days in Fielding today drooling over the serious big boys toys. Followed by a quiet one in the boozer at Ashhurst on the way home.

Nice touch just inside the gate with the local Nat MP candidate parking his well marked vehicle in full view at the edge of the parking area. Not a red vehicle or tent anywhere to be seen, except some WFF drones peddling their wares.

Seemed to be a great turnout, one day to go tomorrow.

Winston First confirms policy

The acolyte of the Baubles Minister, Ronnie, has confirmed that Winston First is to run with the bash the refugee policy as has been the case in previous electioneering.

Seems that decent hard working would be dole bludger Kiwis are not able to rent vacant Housing Corp stock. These are being held over for future dole bludging imports yet to arrive and sing the praises Helen.

How typical of Winston First, who would have guessed?

Wordplay working at last

What a difference a week makes.

So much more pleasing to see a man acting like a man and telling reporters what is what, not lamely offering some obviously wishy-washy back peddling PC answer. Something your immediate opposition will never to be able to claim ownership of. Cojones.

Keep it up JK, you may just be the PM later this year.

Take that Mickey

38% reached during Close Up tonight. Deadline tomorrow at 1700.

That's telling the Doctor where to stick his hasty changes to OIA laws last week.

Finally, a stake in the ground

In a week about exciting as extracting teeth, apart from Baygate, Key has finally drawn a line on the rampant bureaucracy.

In the first term of a National government we will not grow the size of the core bureaucracy. Enough is enough. We are going to make do with the resource we have and work to get more value out of it.

As in 1990, pity such a poisoned chalice is coming his way.

Truth finally clarified

Long after all the words over the statement 'we would love to see wages drop', the truth has been outed with a 'point of clarification' by the Bay Report.

that the paper is not disowning the reporter's transcript. It is is saying that if what Key had said left the impression he wanted to lower wages, that would be incorrect.

Not an apology or a retraction. Just an acknowledgment that a fair interpretation of the whole transcript would be quite the reverse. So why did it take the paper so bloody long to issue the clarification? Maximising political points?

Now maybe this over-flogged horse the Labour leeches settled upon will be left to peacefully rot and Mr Key takes on board a salutary lesson in wordplay.

Too long?

"It was only a tad over $3 mil and it was a victimless crime, Yer Honour!"

did not get enough credit for co-operating with authorities, or for his early guilty plea and the sentence was excessive

Repentant only when caught the third time, in Massey of all places, living the high life on the taxpayer.

Sentence too long? Like hell, 3 times the sentence, without parole, is too short for this, the ultimate welfare bludger.

The day the Cold war began?

On this day, just over a year before I was born, one Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili died of 'sharp disturbances of the heart functions'.

Yes, the terror of USSR was on his way to meet his maker.

Joseph Stalin (1879 - 1953)
Joseph Stalin, 1922

One of the most powerful and murderous dictators in history, Stalin was the supreme ruler of the Soviet Union for a quarter of a century. His regime of terror caused the death and suffering of tens of millions, but he also oversaw the war machine that played a key role in the defeat of Nazism. Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili was born on 18 December 1879 in Gori, Georgia, which was then part of the Russian empire. His father was a cobbler and Stalin grew up in modest circumstances. He studied at a theological seminary where he began to read Marxist literature. He never graduated, instead devoting his time to the revolutionary movement against the Russian monarchy. He spent the next 15 years as an activist and on a number of occasions was arrested and exiled to Siberia. Stalin was not one of the decisive players in the Bolshevik seizure of power in 1917, but he soon rose through the ranks of the party. In 1922 he was made general secretary of the Communist Party, a post not considered particularly significant at the time but which gave him control over appointments and thus allowed him to build up a base of support. After Lenin's death in 1924, Stalin promoted himself as his political heir and gradually outmanoeuvred his rivals. By the late 1920s, Stalin was effectively the dictator of the Soviet Union. His forced collectivisation of agriculture cost millions of lives, while his programme of rapid industrialisation achieved huge increases in Soviet productivity and economic growth but at great cost. Moreover, the population suffered immensely during the Great Terror of the 1930s, during which Stalin purged the party of 'enemies of the people', resulting in the execution of thousands and the exile of millions to the gulag system of slave labour camps. These purges severely depleted the Red Army, and despite repeated warnings, Stalin was ill prepared for Hitler's attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941. His political future, and that of the Soviet Union, hung in the balance, but Stalin recovered to lead his country to victory. The human cost was enormous but that mattered little to him. After World War Two, the Soviet Union entered the nuclear age and ruled over an empire which included most of eastern Europe. Increasingly paranoid, Stalin died of a stroke on 5 March 1953.

The party faithfull over at Helen's bunker will today no doubt remember him as the founding father of their brand of socialism. Always for the good of the people, mind you.

That worked, didn't it?

Somehow we have value for money in instantly wiping millions off the books through an interfering pollie.

Also, just like here.

Another reasonable NZ company, previously worth something on the global market, now hamstrung by regulation.

The phoney war

Her indoors has seen the odds on the long game are not good and is talking about the phoney war ending when the Opposition actually issues policy. No need for policy to upset the cart, Liarbour shoots itself in the foot every day in this one-sided war.

It will be too late, for by then hopefully she will have been rolled. But, as always, shoot the messenger first - the poll methodology is shonky she says. Also, another messenger, the NZ Law Journal Editor gets a blast for being on the 'opposite side of the political spectrum'. No gong for him, I'd bet.

But I've made it very clear that the strategy going forward is to be a competent government, get on with appropriately leading and running public affairs, get on with rolling out our plan for the future.

Recent events this side of Christmas suggest otherwise. Health board fired, pissed quacks on the job, ongoing soft sentencing and crims on holiday at home are just a few that come to mind.

she was not planning a "circuit-breaker" to arrest the run of bad polls

More like, fresh out of ideas. Nothing other than a few measly tax-cut bribes in the budget to be proffered. The economic sea-change of the imminent dreaded 'R' word has put paid to all inducements as the war chest is plundered.

She is so wrong suggesting that voters are not focussed on the election yet and that her party will be competitive. I have yet to find someone who actually admits to voting for Liarbour, the word I hear everywhere is (and has been for ages) anti-Helen. By her own words, I will watch happily her and her cohorts in this corrupt government 'cruise to defeat'.

Not so blind

A bit of light relief from ZenTiger to start the day and open your eyes. Well done.

Helen Clark and Mike Williams are taking a stroll when they come upon a little girl carrying a basket with a blanket over it. Curious, Clark asks the girl, "What's in the basket?"

"New baby kittens," she replies, and she opens the basket to show her. "How nice," says Clark. "What kind are they?"

The little girl says, "that one is Labour and the other is Greens" and
Clark smiles, pats the little girl on the head and continues on.

Three weeks later, Clark is taking another stroll, this time with Jeanette Fitzsimons. They see the little girl again with the same basket.

Clark says, "Watch this, Jeanette -- it's really cute."

They approach the little girl. Clark greets her and asks how the kittens are doing, and she says, "Fine."

Then, smirking, she nudges Jeanette with her elbow and asks the little girl, "And can you tell us what kind of kittens they are?"

She replies, "National and Act".
Aghast, Clark says, "But three weeks ago you said they were Labour and Greens!"

"I know," she says. "But now their eyes are open."

HT No Minister

One more us, one less of them

Murray hammers home the advantage after sowing the seeds of discontent in a mis-guided lefty.

“Chemist”: I’ve discovered something! (Yep still there)

RWFB: No you’ve learned something. It was already discovered.

“Chemist”: Its turns out that CO2 levels are actually following temperature change not driving it…

RWFB: Shit. Who’d a thunk it. (You see the conservative delivers a dead pan response because his prey is already the walking dead and the game is all but over)

“Chemist”: But this is the opposite of what was in Al Gores film…

RWFB: The politician?

“Chemist”:… er yeah…. He … … …lied to us?

About a week old, but none the less, a classy result.

HT to Scrubone over at HalfDone

Corpse chasing admitted

While the power is still off in last year's despicable case of vote chasing in deepest tiling country, Key has suggested the following about her indoors

in fact she got enormous coverage from the Hillary funeral ... not that that was political

As I know, he confirms that, like any pollie, they will stoop to any level to garner votes.

The drought breaker?

Here at 40S east of the Ruahines, the precipitation has just started at 1530, but is faltering.

Any is better than none, I can only hope we get at least 50mm over the next 48 hours.

The weather forecast looks promising for the first low to cross tonight, heading for the Chathams. Seems the second low off the West Coast will also cross afterwards.

Barely 50mm since Christmas is not good, although the grass here is still just green and needs mowing. Normally we get some that rain just sneaks over the hills, but we know when our lawn goes brown, the rest of NZ is deep in the muck.

Long may the drizzle continue.

Update: 0730 Sun 2nd - 12mm overnight, not a lot happening on rain radar

Update: 0730 Mon 3rd - Barely 8mm overnight, big high halfway up mainland. Not a drought breaker, nice to have tanks full.