June 2011

High-profile sports identity arrested for assaulting woman

Why didn’t they say Olympian?

The tough guy afraid of his own name bashes another woman. A perfect case of why name suppression stinks.

Via the tipline – that shabby bunch of socialists, the NZPF, aided and abetted by Labour’s NZEI buddies, will be protesting at Ministry of Education offices against National Standards on Friday. These losers just don’t know when to leave the party. You have lost – now move on.

Anyway, I can reveal that principals negotiated a cosy agreement in recent pay rounds. Each one gets an extra $2000 on top of their not inconsiderable salaries to implement the Government’s literacy and numeracy programmes – e.g. National Standards. This amounts to $6 million dollars a year. So my question is – will these tossers be returning this payment as part of the protest? I can guess the answer to that. Will Perry Rush be dropping off a cheque to the Ministry for his $2000? Not likely.

I do wonder though who is in charge of their schools while they are protesting? Are they still getting paid while deserting their posts?

What a luxury for these civil servants to take time off and pick and choose what they want to do – while one in five kids is failing at school.

My spies tell me Anne Tolley is biding her time, but that the money tap is about to be turned off and the troops sent in to sort these guys out.

I can’t wait.

It is high time that our politicians took a leaf out of the playbooks of Scott Walker and Chris Christie and sorted our the state sector unions including the uppity teachers.

300 military personnel are to lose their jobs according to Stuff:

More than three hundred military personnel have been told this morning that they have lost their jobs.

They include 81 officers and 227 personnel from other ranks.

The biggest impact is in Wellington where 108 jobs are to go, with 70 job losses at Trentham and 38 in Wellington.

Other bases to be hit are Waiouru (28), Devonport (45) Linton (20), Ohakea (21),Whenuapai (28) and Burnham (28).

Many of the people affected are long serving personnel. There are 110 warrant offices, 83 sergeants and senior sergeants and 61 majors or those holding equivalent ranks in the navy or air force.

Fourteen Lieutenant Colonels will also lose their military ranks.

» Rank and location of affected staff

The decision affects less than 5 per cent of total military personnel and the Defence Force said that many of those who have lost their jobs were encouraged to apply for civilian roles.

The tipline has been running hot for months about Murray McCully’s extensive use of the 757. I’m reliably told that if the finest of Blue Cheeses aren’t on the menu much yelling and screaming ensues.

On Monday the Vote for Change campaign was launched. Perhaps un-surprisingly the hatchet jobs started soon after. With the sole exception of Graeme Edgeler, the commentary from supporters of MMP has been to attack the messenger rather than  actually debate the issues. The tone has pretty much been to shout, spit and hurl abuse. They like to say know your enemy for the people fronting the campaign or helping finance it. Well I think that should also apply to their side of the debate.

Vernon Small (Stuff): Anti-MMP campaign attacked

The campaign wasn’t attacked, the people involved were.

Rob Salmond (Pundit): Behind the Curtain at Vote for Change

Rob Salmond is a former Labour staffer. He focusses on the establishment of the Vote for Change Society like it is some closely held secret, yet all the documentation is in the public domain. If the Society wanted to keep secrets then they could have simply established a trust. I note he is yet to inquire into the set up and backgrounds of the Campaign for MMP. He attacks an 80 year old retired man who is spending his own money. From his tone you would think he thinks that there shouldn’t be a debate at all.

Trevor Mallard (Red Alert): Lusk and Williams out themselves

Trevor Mallard is Labour’s campaign manager and he spends an entire post attacking the people involved. He repeats his lies of previous posts and as is usual fails to present any evidence other than the hearsay of several bunker smashed ACT members and one National party traitor who will be revealed on this blog soon. Labour continued the assault on the people rather than the policies with Phil Goff’s pronouncements on the issue. Labour is locked in behind and providing heavy resources to the pro-MMP lobby.

The Standard: Shirtcliffe’s anti-MMP campaign launches, (Another) Tory astroturf fail, Vote for Change Incorporated, Shirtcliffe’s anti-MMP campaign launches

Just like when I blogged about Labour’s appalling website issues The Standard authors, amongst them the former General Secretary of the Labour party, Mike Smith, and of course Eddie attacked everything except the details of the campaign. They launched an all out attack on Peter Shirtcliffe , Jordan Williams and Simon Lusk, all from their comfortable anonymity. Eddie is particularly distasteful. When they attacked me this blogger called into question my mental health, my employment status and mounted a personal attack with so much vitriol and hate anyone would think that they masquerade as Bomber Bradbury. Not s single post at The Standard has so much as mentioned any other electoral system, they have simply attacked the people who are brave enough to put their names to a public campaign.

Their politics of personal destruction is the nasty legacy of Helen Clark.

John Armstrong likewise does the same thing in this morning’s Herald. He attacks the Voter for Change Campaign because they won’t say what they prefer.

Put up or shut up. The new anti-MMP lobby group, Vote for Change, does not deserve to be taken seriously until it answers this question: change to what, exactly?

The organisation is not saying “at this stage” which alternative voting system it will support in the referendum. It will make an announcement once it has a “substantial” membership whose views have been heard.

Very democratic-sounding. And very convenient. By not indicating a preference, Vote for Change can keep pointing out the flaws of MMP without supporters of MMP being able to retort.

John Armstrong thinks that the campaign has no merit because they don’t have a preference. But why should they, the referendum is set up to allow voters a choice. It seems to have escaped John Armstrong that the referendum is asking voters what they prefer not what any particular group prefers. Much and all as the media wants the Vote for Change campaign to focus on one particular system over another the referendum is not set up like that and it would be a disservice to the voters to push for one particular system over another. What the media and the proponents of MMP seem to have forgotten is that there is choice for voters to make. It is up to the voters to make that choice. John Armstrong is better than this, it is strange he has chosen to be so dismissive.

Instead of attacking the messengers the pro-MMP lobby and their supporters, including the media, should be welcoming a contest of ideas. Instead they seem to want to shut down all debate, they seem to show the arrogance of politicians that the pubic has time and again shown a distaste for. The Vote for Change website shares some pledges to New Zealand, it is a pity that the pro-lobby don’t share some similar pledges. So far their only pledge seems to be to shout and abuse and act like MMP is the only democratic system in the whole world, never mind that only 4 countries in the world (Germany, NZ, Scotland and Wales) have MMP for electing their representatives.

We should embrace political discourse not attempt to shout it down. There is a referendum the very nature of such beasts requires a contest of ideas, it seems that the Campaign for MMP and their supporters didn’t want and still don’t want a contest of ideas. It seems that they believe that the referendum should be held in blissful ignorance without any debate. it seems this way because of their actions. If their support for the system is depedent on blind loyalty and unquestioning adherence then it clearly is a system that should be challenged.

John Key says that, unlike Labour, National won’t be campaigning on the referendum issues. Good, they need to concentrate on retaining the Treasury benches.

However John Key did see his way to making this statement:

Mr Key says MMP has settled down and has some real advantages.

“Proportional voting systems allow greater ethnic diversity and a better gender balance.”

Perhaps he would like to sort out his own party’s Gender balance before he praises up the benefits of MMP. Maybe he could suggest to the President and Board that National’s own selection processes start using MMP to ensure a better gender balance within the party. If he moves swiftly he could have it implemented in time for the list ranking before conference.

Of course he could bypass all that by introducing four new women to caucus through the board appointments and give high list positions to the three women candidates running in seats. The tip line has suggested a number of women who are going to get list only positions, and this will be covered in the next few days.

via the tipline

I’ve really been struggling to work out what Labour’s crippled campaign manager is trying to achieve with their crippled campaign plan.

I decided that South Park possibly offered a solution and I was right. I found out Duck’s cunning plan was actually contained in the Gnomes episode.

So here is Duck’s cunning campaign plan:

1. Steal underpants
2. ?
3. Win votes

The problem is that he has yet to work out how to steal underpants effectively without anyone noticing. Perhaps he could ask Darren Hughes for some advice. The good news for Duck is that there are plenty of Mr Garrison‘s in Labour to assist.

Perhaps, but the odds of her saying “I’m huggable and loveable” are about as high as Duck controlling his temper when baited by Whale.

Looks like Alasdair Thompson is safe for now, but I’m not so sure about David Farrar’s columns….looks like the Herald is polling for an answer.

I wonder if Bomber’s campaign of hate is having an effect?

Hard to know whether this press release is satire or not but it adds weight to Cactus Kate’s comments that she is”delighted” to see Heather Roy go. I mean really!

ACT New Zealand is delighted to be counted among the opposition parties calling for healthy eating policies following the release of a report showing New Zealand has one of the highest rates of diabetes among developed countries, says the party’s Forbidden Foods Spokeswomanperson, Heather Roy.

An international team of researchers, working with the World Health Organisation, has found that New Zealand is among the top five nations where blood glucose levels indicate diabetes.

Labour leader Phil Goff says the findings vindicate Labour’s call to remove GST from fresh fruit and vegetables.

The Greens’ Spokesperson on the Prohibition of Everything, Sue Kedgley, says that doesn’t go far enough. She wants a ban on the ingestion of any form of animal protein, and a law to make veganism compulsory.

“ACT supports all of the above,” says Ms Roy, over a breakfast of tofu and spirulina. “But none of it addresses causes instead of symptoms. The real problem lies with eating, period. There’s just too much eating going on. Studies have shown conclusively that the vast majority of participants who developed diabetes had been eating for years. Personally I put it down to all those free lunches that people had before Roger’s reforms of the 80s … hatched – shame on him – over fish and chips.

“Yes, even I find it difficult to resist culinary temptation,” Ms Roy sighs, lasciviously eyeing a side-dish of bean sprouts. “But we must bite the bullet (and very little else). Another recent study showed that diabetes can be reversed on a diet of 600 calories a day. While such a regime may fall short of the ideal, no-calorie diet, a law banning the consumption of more than 600 calories should be the minimum objective of all parties’ healthy eating policies.

“Failure to pass such a law will only encourage stroppy individualists in their perverse and anti-social belief that what they eat is up to them,” Ms Roy concludes.

ENDS

Nice to see Heather working hard, focussing on the really important issues that are core to ACT now there is no coups left to plot. This is what happens when you hire Lindsay Perigo as a press secretary. If ACT wants satire and smarmy writing then why don’t they just hire DimPost, at least it will be funny. Lindsay Perigo is ACTs answer to Bomber Bradbury.