August 2009

Ok, probably not quite like that but my usual retort to being called a cunt is to say that cunts are useful.

You won’t see any faux outrage on this blog about someone being called a cunt, and even more outrage because that person who called Rodney Hide a cunt was also an MP.

Tau Henare ives in West Auckland, cunt would be common vernacular out that way so I just don’t see a problem. I doubt Ridney sees a problem with it either.

There are worse things to be called than a cunt, like pinko, or socialist, even lickspittle, but to get all huffy over cunt sees just a bit over the top.

Good on Tau for speaking his mind, something that has been sadly lacking in NZ politics for some time. in fact Tau now stands a chance of tipping out Chris Carter with language like that. He could put up signs that say something like “get rid of the the useless cunt, vote for a good cunt”

I see on Aaron Bhatnagar’s AucklandBlog that there will be a free open day at the Auckland Zoo this Sunday for people to come by and say bye to Kashin and learn about elephant conservation (and wander around the zoo at the same time).

However, this is all being funded by ASB Bank, who have had a long corporate relationship with the Zoo and Kashin the Elephant. Excellent corporate citizenship, and good on them to honour their commitment even with Kashin’s passing.

I might have to take the pod in this Sunday for a wander around. it’ll certainly be much more entertaining than anything at One Tree Hill on Sunday.

North Shore City has several sister city relationships. One of those is Qingdao in China.

Mayor Williams, the Clown of Campbell’s Bay was feted there just a year ago in August 2008.

Last Saturday, just prior to the opening of the Sailing Olympics, in the presence of the NZ Governor-General Hon. Anand Satyanand, the Mayor signed a Sister City agreement with his counterpart in Qingdao – making North Shore City the 14th international city to become a sister city of Qingdao, alongside other coastal cities such as Southhampton, Long Beach, Miami, Odessa and Montevideo. Following these formalities, the North Shore City delegation, along with 800 guests, attended a welcome banquet to launch the Olympic Sailing Regatta, and they then travelled to the Olympic Sailing Centre for the official opening ceremony.

Visits for the North Shore delegation have taken place to the Ocean University of China and the Qingdao Tourism School and meetings with local representatives of the marine industry and sailing associations.

” Qingdao and North Shore have a great deal in common, both the sailing capitals of each country” said Mayor Andrew Williams. “There will be many opportunities for our respective companies, clubs and educational institutions to have bi-lateral co-operation. Qingdao is the home for the Chinese northern naval fleet and North Shore is home for the Royal New Zealand Navy. “This signing of the Sister City relationship with the Olympic sailing host city offers significant benefits, particularly maximising the potential of the free trade agreement now signed between New Zealand and China.” says Mayor Williams.

“These visits are of huge importance for the Chinese and Korean communities in our city, and of course it was great to see so many Kiwis doing business in Korea and China and further strengthening our trading, sporting, cultural and educational ties with such important countries in Asia.

So you can see that the Mad Mayor enjoyed himself immensely at the expense of the good city of Qingdao. You may also recall that this is the same trip that the Mad Mayor blamed for causing him to drink himself paralytic, fall into unconsciousness and punch an ambulance staff member trying to revive him.

I wonder then why the Mad Mayor didn’t have the time to spend with the delegation from Qingdao on their recent 3 week visit to the fair soon to be non-existent city of North Shore. The good folk from Qingdao were utterly perplexed that not once in their three week stay did they meet the Mental Mayor.

It did please them greatly though that the cab driver who took them to the airport was a long time friend of theirs as he had negotiated the Sister City agreement that the Clown of Campbells Bay took all the credit for. they shared many memories and also shared their disappointment of not meeting the new Mayor during their 3 week stay. The cab driver was of course George Wood the former mayor of North Shore.

What perplexes this blogger though is what has happened to the relationship between the two cities to deteriorate so badly in the space of a year that Andrew Williams refused tomeet the delegation even once?

Apparently there is a hostage situation at Paremoremo.

Since you don’t get to go to Paremoremo unless you are one of life’s shit-bags therefore I propose they end the situation by shooting both of them.

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Those Tizards are still hanging around Auckland local government like hair on a old dogs blanket.

Rumours are now doing the rounds that Judith and the old Matriarch Catherine will be at Len Brown’s Mayoral launch this Sunday (you will have seen the page 7,  four paragraph article in the Herald), and that a deal has been struck where in return for Empress Catherine’s endorsement, Judith gets to join the team and gets a tilt at whatever seat emerges from the Grey Lynn-Pt Chevalier area.

We here at Gotcha! fulsomely support and welcome the Tizard support for Len Brown, and also hope that Dick Hubbard and Andrew Williams offer their endorsements to Len Brown too, so lazy, incompetent and drunk Aucklanders all know who to vote for.

Remember – vote Brown – get Tizard!

The only Mayor in the Auckland region to challenge the Clown from Campbells Bay in the fool stakes is Len Brown.

If  you didn’t think he could do anything more cringe-worthy than his Mayoral Rap then think again. He can, and does, meet the Mayoral Monkey Dance .

What next – an album recorded with the Labour Party Lesbians? Maybe a dance video recorded with Pete Hodgson and Trevor Mallard?

Jim Anderton is a fraud. He is no more a party leader than Peter Dunne. One man bands troughing it up at taxpayers expense getting additional funding because they are supposed to be party leaders.

Labour leader Phil Goff’s defeated choice for party general secretary has been parachuted into a top job in his parliamentary office.

John Pagani, a long-time adviser to Progressive leader Jim Anderton, will start work as one of four “directors” in Labour’s leadership team next week.

Mr Goff said he would be focusing on non-media communications. “John has skills that will be very useful for Labour in opposition and I am looking forward to having him in the office as communications director.”

So, the Progressives main strategist now works for Phil Goff. Exactly how many members remain in the Progressives and are they in fact just  branch of Labour now?

Time an investigation by Parliamentary Services was launched into both Peter Dunne and Jim Anderton.

Judith Collins is on the warpath after finding out that her department has been funding the Corrections Association to the tune of $130,000 per annum when they are sitting on a war chest of over $2million.

This is simply untenable for the union to be bludging off of the state when the reality of the situation is that they are flush with funds.

How many other unions are similarly rorting taxpayers to fund their officials salaries and travel perks?

If we are asking our representatives to end the troughing then we must also cut this extravagant spending from the public service. Clearly the funds have been asked for under false pretenses.

I think that it is high time that there was an independent Comptroller General of Unions that regularly audited them and their financing arrangements.

The troughing must end and end now.

This is turning out to be a bad week for John Key. if I was him I’d be looking very closely at his advisors, they seem to be stuck on stupid.

Firstly he paints himself into a corner over the pro-tem president Peter Goodfellow, that will be a decision he will regret inside a week.

Today he has made the incredibly arrogant and silly decision not to back John Boscawen’s bill that was drawn today and instead said that National will oppose it.

FFS John you will now be painted as a Prime minister who ignores the more than a million voters who said the law sucks. The next poll may well see a backlash and support for Act rising.

For me that will be a good thing because if ACT can rise to a more useful number, say 10 or 11% then we can rid ourselves of wets like Nick Smith and prevaricators like Bill English and get some bloody action happening in the parliament to set New Zealand on the path to prosperity. As it stands now we seem to have got a bunch of panty-waists scared of even saying boo lest someone get upset.

Senator Ted Kennedy has died and he can now finally make his peace with Mary Jo Kopechne forty years after he killed her. In the 1969 Chappaquiddick incident, the car Kennedy was driving ran off a bridge and plunged into water, resulting in the death of passenger Mary Jo Kopechne.

As the old joke goes, more people have died in Ted Kennedy’s car than in US nuclear accidents.