Just a question...

taxpayers may have to pay for part of the salvage and clean-up

Since the insurance for Rena is apparently capped at $14M and Smile and Wave is lining up to mop up any excess for cleanup costs from my wallet, I have a question.

From what I've seen on telly, all that oil seems to be beached on sand regularly washed by tides. On beaches with customary rights and under guardianship by a select group as we are often reminded.

Since Key with his homosexual cohort Finlayson have been in recent times ready to buy native votes by pandering to separatists with taxpayer funded ToW largesse, particularly through endorsing the giving away of the foreshore and seabed, maybe those same select groups will be ready to stump up for the cleanup costs of the foreshore and seabed below the highwater mark?

Storylines: If only...

... former Prime Minister ... was sentenced to seven years in prison Tuesday on charges of abuse of office ...

If only Smile and Wave Key had had the cojones to take the leader of the previous government to task, rather than giving her a sinecure in global corruption.

In New Zealand we too could be reading a similar storyline.

A Desperation of Unionists (tm)

• flag-of-convenience ships
• a vehicle for paying low wages and forcing long hours of work and unsafe working conditions
• half the world's merchant ships are registered in flag-of-convenience states
• unwilling to enforce international labour, safety and environmental laws and regulations

The unionised doing everything possible with their pet hobby horses. Their continued calls to insert expensive stroppy union labour into coastal shipping been very noticeable in the past few days, but they've been unable to pin any fault directly on the donkey. Just looking to up the union ante whilst the world is looking.

Notice that they do not once acknowledge that the good ship Rena had passed multiple inspections, as recently as Bluff and Fremantle, no doubt aided and abetted by unionised staff, with only minor pickups.

The desperation of the irrelevant in the modern age. Unable let a good 'crisis' go to waste.

The real entertainment begins

As much as 350 tonnes of oil had escaped the ship this morning after it shifted in big seas overnight and crushed part of the reef it was stuck on

Fears the ship would break up and its 2000 containers fall in to the sea were growing as bad weather continued.

With the stern hanging over deep water, it is only matter of time before those containers are afloat and all that heavy fuel oil is sent to Davy Jone's locker.

Has iPredict got a tab on when the arse end falls off the wreck?

Pull up the armchair, the real entertainment is beginning. Watch Smile and Wave disappear. Will we have a national emergency before lunchtime as those with the high-viz vests go into overdrive?

Eight oiled penguins attract the PM

Prime Minister John Key is also expected to fly into the city today to see the situation for himself

I see the photo-op is in for today. Smile and Wave and a few oiled birds.

Unbelievable. In the real world there are other options than spending thousands on rescuing bloody oiled birds. All you need is a shovel to dig a hole.

But I see the oil leaking out the bottom of the now capped oil tanks has been reported as stopped. Amazing physics how a capped tank builds suction as dense viscuous liquid attempts to ooze out the damaged bottom.

All the greenie talking heads, like Gareth 'Ronald McDonald' Hughes and EDS's Taylor, or photos with Smile and Wave will not stop one litre of oil leaving the ship. Think of how many ships have sunk around the NZ and Pacific coasts in past years without any oil recovery or cleanups. The environment goes on.

Need more popcorn...

Yes, I am in for weekend of entertaining sport.

Petrol head heaven starting at 0930 Sun on 3. Annual outing to Mt Panorama and 300Kmh on Con-Rod Straight via my couch. Pity you can't smell all those climate warming hydrocarbons being consumed on telly.

Speaking of imminent climate change, the other sporting entertainment is watching that container ship bouncing on the bricks as various agencies perform like trained seals and headless chooks. Top entertainment, developing by the hour, absolutely nothing done so far. What's the weather for Sunday and beyond? How many days has it been now? Not one tow line has been put any where near the hull in near perfect conditions.

Enough sporting entertainment to get you half hard! No doubt those wanting the full load will also watch some on paddock thuggery with an oval ball. Not me, haven't watched one yet.

Must get more popcorn.

I expected nothing different

Race Relations Commissioner Joris de Bres said that although he deplored Professor Mutu's suggestion that New Zealand should discriminate against white-skinned people from certain countries, the Bill of Rights Act allowed people to speak their mind

also said the Education Act protected the freedom of academic staff and students to put forward new ideas and to state controversial or unpopular opinions

One interpretation for those of the right skin colour, whilst there are interpretations of consequence for the rest of us 'white mofos'.

I expected nothing different from de Bres.

"Leonardo da Vinci of our age"

[He] embodied the Silicon Valley entrepreneur.

"He had no formal technical training and no real business experience. What he had instead was an appreciation of technology's elegance and a notion that computers could be more than a hobbyist's toy or a corporation's workhorse."

RIP Steve Jobs. One that inspired me in my early electronics and computing.

Truly a man of our age.

"Continue delivering the brilliance and excellence..."

Auckland Council tonight voted a further $1.5 million for the Rugby World Cup in a deeply divided debate that swung on the casting vote of Mayor Len Brown

Brown said the money was necessary to take precautionary steps to continue delivering the brilliance and excellence

Arthur Anae sums the council up...

Auckland was a bunch of idiots who could not run anything

Guess I'll see the effect of all that 'brilliance and excellence' in my next bloody rates bill, eh Len?

National to give East Cape away for native vote

iwi wanted to self-govern the area stretching from Opotiki to Putere on the Wairoa side, and the edge of Taupo and Rotorua on the other side

iwi could sign a settlement including self-government of Te Urewera National Park and Lake Waikaremoana as early as next year

National abandons all pretense of having any principles. The party used to have principles, but now fraudulently readies itself to secede East Cape (about 20% of North Island) for native votes. Another 'full and final settlement' coming right up.

iwi had already proven it could self-govern

That would have been their up and coming police force on a weapons training camp when the real New Zealand Police arrested those terrorists a few years ago? A very necessary part of the training for self-government!

National is nothing but a vote chasing fraud.

Manawatu Gorge to remain open for next 13 years

Closures of this extent only happen around once in a decade

while the scale of the slip looks set to surpass the slips of 2004, which kept the gorge closed for 70 days, that portion of State Highway 3 was expected to remain viable long-term

When it finally opens again around Christmas. So we can expect the gorge to be open for the next 13 years without event? You know, the one where the next Cook Strait is forming ever so slowly.

An NZTA talking head spouting bollocks. You've had two major road closure events in the last 7 years. Not to mention the rail derailment from a massive slip last year on the other side. And numerous small closures of varying lengths.

an unstable hillside that needs to shed more material before it stabilises

I have a suitable fix. Use some of that $62K a day it is costing the region to divert over the hill and buy some dynamite.

It is time a tunnel was driven through the hill. We're heartily sick of the detours.

One course coming right up!

A Christchurch bar has come under fire for allegedly ejecting a customer because of his moko

5..4..3..2..1, one course in cultural re-enlightenment for two coming right up. Yes, Sireee!

We await the mandatory complaint. We already know what the outcome will be once Joris has a squiz.

One down, hundreds to go

The architect of the much hated and expensive One Plan Greg Carlyon has suddenly recently resigned from Horizons. Councillors are under notice not to blab to media about their ex-head of regulatory and policy. Though, probably will be in for an obscene amount of ratepayer largesse upon the final handshake.

Wonder what he did? Probably scared of Nick smith's mooted inquiry into why PN Council can keep discharging truckloads of raw sewage into the Manawatu sewer. Without any repercussions from Horizons. Wonder if a kickback is to surface soon?

Most farmers in the region probably already had scratched him from their Christmas card lists and will not miss him crusading with his One Plan.

One down, unfortunately there are hundreds of shiny bums tarred with the same brush of fervent green zealotry ready to keep his chair warm.

notice sourced from the latest Rural News, not online.

New Zealand News Today

There is none.

The first 15 minutes on both Te News and Campbell's Shop of Breathless Reporting have been about some football games.

As I said, nothing happened in NZ today.

Vodafilth Business Skills - Looking after your info edition

Pssst! Wanna know where all the connection boxes are and who are VF customers in your street? Personal and business info free to a good home!

Just type in your address, without the house number, in the address finder to check if the Red network is near your abode. Available on this page, down the right side.

Isn't there a law against revealing this type of info? Good one Vodafilth.