policy

I have been leaked a draft of part of the Green party Education policy.

The policy document looks like a work in progress, and a cut/paste job of a bunch of ideas…but the upshot of them is that the Green party appears to be going to spend millions in education and the main plank of the policy is to basically remove the role of parents in caring for children and instead making that the responsibility of a plethora of newly created positions and jobs.

There are some truly alarming ideas contained in the document which was authored by Green party spin-weasel and former Herald on Sunday and DominionPost journalist Leah Haines.

Many areas are vague, incomplete or missing data. It is as if they have decided to create a policy and are hoping the data will fit what they want to achieve.  Read more »

David Shearer’s state of the nation speech was a yawn fest. Full of promise to look at things but no specifics. Labour and Shearer are only promising to have a look at this or that, the speech was really just a bland collections of bumper stickers, and about as thick as the bumper sticker.

 ”Labour’s top priority would be jobs, boosted by its promise to build 10,000 affordable houses a year, leader David Shearer said today.

In his scene-setting speech for 2013, which contained no major new policy initiatives, Shearer said the country was looking for a government that would roll up its sleeves and back them.”

Bullshit. The country is looking for a leader who doesn’t throw taxpayers’ money around like lollies.

A leader who doesn’t make pie-in-the-sky promises.

Shearer can’t even run his own party, let alone the country.

Already the activists are talking up Meteria Turei’s speech against Shearer’s yawn fest.

John Tamihere continues to make friends in Labour…here are his thoughts from this afternoon on Radio Live about their housing policy:

↬ Andrew Sullivan

Mark Kleiman offers a policy proposal for reducing drug-related violence in the US and Mexico: refocus enforcement based on relative levels of violence and start a “race-to-the-bottom” among cartels in rates of violence.

Imagine doing this here…start with the most violent of gangs. Take them out…then move onto the next most violent.

So it’s time to start asking what Matthew Hooton’s Manchurian Candidate thinks about policy.

First up is private involvement in public assets.

Does the new Labour Leader, David Shearer, support contracted, professional prison managers?

It is a simple question.

Unfortunately, even when he has been asked – it’s hard to tell what David Shearer’s answer actually means…

Clare Curran is focussing on the things that matter….like television advert volume.

Some commenters have provided some thoughtful additional policies for Clare to implement along the same lines:

James Meager suggests Labour look at regulating supermarket checkouts:

While you’re at it, every time I go to the supermarket some lines are far longer than others. I find having to take risks between choosing lines with 4 young people and 20+ groceries paying by eftpos, and lines of one elderly person and 2 carrots paying by cheque. Could you please legislate to ensure people are given a maximum time to complete their transaction? This will result in the terrible amount of annoyance I suffer on my supermarket trips.

While Curious wants Clare to crack down on up-sizing at McDonalds:

I am bloody sick of being asked if I want to up-size my BigMac combo at McDonalds. I also find it very irritating when they ask me if I’d like fries with my meal.

Any chance of some legislation on this Clare?

J Mex wants the showerhead issue revisited:

Maybe Labour could take a look at our showerheads while they are at it???

In. 3 Years. Labour. Has. Not. Learnt. Anything.

Curious again:

Loud music in cafes/ restaurants – should be a uniform noise level for music.

Automatic hand dryers in public toilets – some are very noisy, new ones are quieter.

Lawn mowers – my neighbours is very noisy while mine is rather quiet.

I am announcing my Civic Sobriety Policy.

Drink Driving is an appalling offense, New Zealanders are constantly told that If you Drink and Drive you’re a Bloody Idiot.

We mount campaigns to catch drink drivers.

Is it too much that we also ask our legislators and councillors and mayors to be held to account as they drive our city?

I don’t think so.

Therefore as one of my policies moving forward as Albany Ward councillor would be to have all councillors attending meetings on public business to submit to random breath tests for alcohol.

We don’t want our councillors or mayor to be conducting “important council business” in bars or in a state of inebriation. We want probity and sobriety.

I’m not being a wowser, I just think that our politicians and city officials should be sober when making decisions.

Vote Slater for Albany, Keeping the Buggers Honest

Vote Slater - Vote for Whaleoil, not Well Oiled

The Standard has a post on “Ethical Meat“.

While I chewed on my morning bacon, (Porkie, you were a true friend who always listened!) I observe the tendency of people on the left to insist on suddenly labeling everyday activities as “unethical”.

Then the solution struck me, ethical left wing blogging!

It has the potential to be vastly more energy efficient. Only 1% of the propoganda a left wing blogger ingests in its lifetime ends up as blog posts on our computers but ethical left-wing blogging doesn’t require a whole activist (evolved as a spin reproduction machine with production only clamped by the moderation required to make radical left-wing views palatable to a sufficiently large sector of the public). Just feeding them the spin that can be written quickly by the Greens or Labour means far less energy wasted. Not to mention all the reductions in transport energy - ethical left-wing blogs could be grown in the countryside, meaning less commuting fromfar-flung “ethical communities” to city based union paid jobs.

Then there’s the greenhouse gases. As New Zealand knows all too well, left wing bloggers produce a lot of methane. Ethical ones still will, but they wont be near enough to the rest of us to notice it.

Sure, the best we can do now is like ’soggy spin’ (getting spin to reproduce is relatively easy, but it’s completely unbelievable in blog form without traditional left wing bloggers involved) but this is the way of the future. This is an exciting area and New Zealand would be wise to get involved in the research.

Now, does anyone have Jon Stewart’s number?

What do you mean, “He’s the prototype”?

Regular readers would be aware that I have being harrassed by a mad cow, her mad father and now by her mad lawyer (all honestly held beliefs) all because I dared draw attention to the fantasy that is She Who Must Not Be Named.

Her lawyer is prize numpty and fool Steven Price (honestly held belief), who coincidentally advised Tricky Nicky Hager about how he should present his stolen emails without being sued.

Steven also conveniently has a website and it is to that site we now go to find out just how much of a hypocrite this numpty is.

On his site he blogs about another blogger who had to put up an apology after being heavied by a media outlets lawyer…..hmmmthis is sounding familiar.

 He then sets about reproducing the link to the alleged defamation just in case it is taken down.

“In the comments section of the correction and apology, someone has
helpfully posted a link to a copy of HotTopic’s original post. Don’t
you just love the internet? On the off-chance that the link is removed
in the near future, let me take the liberty of reproducing it here.
By all means, pay a visit, and encourage others to do likewise. I hope
that the post receives exponentially greater attention as a result of
this legal threat.

I don’t say that because I’m a free speech absolutist, or because I
think the internet ought to be a law-free zone. In general, I think
people who defame others online deserve all they get. I doubt this is
the first time internet material has been removed in NZ as a result of
a legal threat, and I’m sure it won’t be the last. Nope, I object to
this because I think the Listener has used a tenuous legal claim to
bully a blogger into retracting some moderate and reasonable
criticisms. I don’t like it when anyone does this, but it’s
particularly ugly when the heavies are acting for the media.”

Well, well, well, isn’t Steven Price just a hypocrite. He goes further though and I think you will find this, dear readers, highly ironic considering he is the lawyer that is currently harrassing me and my hosting company.

“Those familiar with the laws of defamation will see where I’m going. It
looks to me as if there’s an honest opinion defence available here. The
law lets people air their opinions, as long as they’re clearly
expressed as opinions, honestly held, and based on facts accurately set
out or referred to. Those elements seem to be present. (A caveat: I
don’t know whether there were significant inaccuracies in the post, and
there’s an interesting legal question about whether facts can be said
to be accurate if something important is left out……”

The numpty Price also lets the reader know that the other defence to a defamation case is truth. But I will leave the last words of this post on the honestly held belief that I hold that Steven Price is a first class numpty and a hypocrite to boot to Steven Price himself.

“The proper response would have been a one-line letter politely telling
the Listener to sit on its thumb. I doubt that any further action would
have been taken. But bloggers, and those who host their blogs, can’t
always be that brave. That’s what makes leaning on assertions of legal
rights in situations like this reprehensible, I think. I would have
been much more persuaded by a thoughtful and factual response from the
Listener’s editor on the blog itself setting out the magazine’s version
of the story. It would have been much cheaper. And much more in keeping
with the Listener’s commitment to open inquiry. And it wouldn’t have
produced what’s likely to be an explosion of interest in the criticisms…”

Yes, well quite, how about Steven you go sit on your thumb and reap the whirlwind you and your client who must not be named have sown.