Let them eat gruel!

Good god. While I am not one to run about hysterically when it comes to MP expenses, I have to chuckle that Bellamys is saying they need every penny of their $316,000 annual subsidy to maintain "the quality and extent of services" for our MPs.

Gosh I bet the MPs would hate to be told to go and find their own meals after sitting in the house spending our money, and in Labours case doing it in breathtakingly extortionate amounts. Sure Wellington and indeed the area surrounding the Beehive have some shocking excuses of restaurants available in the later hours of the day, but MPs - just like other people - have legs and can walk down to grab a feed on Courtney Place. Winston was able to wander down to the Green Parrot and still had the energy to drink vast quantities of alcohol and start fights.

What gives? Parliamentary services needs to start thinking like the Mums and Dads of NZ and provide a service that provides the good honest basics each day. Add to that the good old ACT ethos to help somebody enough to help themselves and we may have MPs trotting off to their taxpayer funded Wellington flats to cook for themselves, heavens forbid.

MPs have it too easy and I don't have any sympathy for them whatsoever.

Story here

Matt talks Nonsense

Mc Carten espouses crap this morning as per usual

Even the United States, where these neo-liberal ideas came from, is pouring massive amounts of public money into the economy to stimulate demand and keep people in work. The last thing they are thinking about is paying off debt. Yet we are moving in the opposite direction: cutting costs and paying off our creditors.

Yup Matt, america had double the unemployment of NZ and no end or way possible end to the ability to meet its debts. Wonderful socialism in action. As long as you are spending other people money, it MUST be good (despite the facts)

The Treasury made a sensible pre-Budget suggestion that our Government stimulates the economy by giving $1200 each to beneficiaries and superannuitants, on the basis this group would spend it on local goods and services.


Yup the aussies tried this and they too appear to be fucked with rising unemployment!



Frankly it's somehow insulting that any government feels it's okay to use taxpayers' money to subsidise a successful private business. It's nothing more than shareholder welfare. In fact in the past year McDonald's and the other fast food companies' profits have increased and all of them are opening up new outlets.

Matt, this is exactly the sort of thing that The Obama Messiah has been doing in the states but on a bigger scale..........and you began your poor excuse for an opinion piece eulogising the States approach.


Mat you are nothing but a reactionary dinosaur. The only thing that will ensure long term sustainable jobs is sensible economic management and an environment for private sector growth. Key and English clearly aren't doing everything we on the right think should be done but thank Christ they aren't doing what nutbars like you Gofff and Cunliffe would commit the country to...............generations of debt for the sheer vanity of political expediency.

Clint in the Papers again!

Mr Heine made "best of the blogs" in the Dom today with his excellent post on Jetstar.

Clint's consistent, controversial, insightful and sometimes down right hilarious blogging is what first got me into blogging and I am glad that he has committed to this site.

I was going to make this a resignation post for "Boomtownprat" as the life behind the pseudonym has become intense, hectic and as a result rather stressful.

But this is an ACT leaning blog and just because things get difficult doesn't mean you give up. Seeing Clint in the blog newsprint again made me realise that this is a worthwhile media for people like us that believe in liberty, opportunity and freedom, to continue to engage in.

There is still a fight to be fought.

The Iranian debacle highlights the crisis that islamofascisim poses to the civilised world. The Labour Party and it's spendathon economic illiteracy needs constant exposure. The ongoing failure of socialism in South America and the continual but pertinent ironies of life in New Zealand are all topics that New Zealanders at home and abroad should write about............I intend to continue to do that.

Thanks Clint...........and cheers

Just don't blame it on the boogie

Geeze, amazing amount of publicity about this... and the webpage www.tmz.com is calling it that he is indeed dead. I can imagine the embarrassing amount of news coverage about this.. the endless stories...oh god, how annoying.

Blog snippets (with ranting!)

PM of NZ has blogged about the upcoming Roger Awards. Get ready for the freaky sideshow that happens annually when the hardcore unwashed left get together for a circle jerk about the evil corporations. Organised by CAFCA and GATT Watchdog in the past you would be sure of seeing "visionary" judges such as Jane Kelsey, Sue Bradford, John Minto (I think) and Dunedins (mailorder) ex Mayor Sukhi Turner on the voting panel. This year the judges include Paul Corliss from the RMT Union - so sad he's a lifetime member of this union and Waikato Universities very own Bryan Gould... and words do not explain what kind of a wet blanket he is.
Why do they do it? Because academics have little else to do apart from brainwashing first year students and this is a rallying point for the stupid left. More info here.

Whoever thought organising a bus service for the students of Otago is a moron. Dave Gee has blogged that this has cost $400,000 - and passenger numbers are on average TWO per journey. OUSA, of course pressured the Otago Regional Council to have this and in 2008 suggested that ALL students paid a compulsory levy of $35 p/a to allow students to use any bus, any time - for free. if you didn't use the bus - tough, you still had to pay the levy. The justification for this wacky idea was that "it’s generally expected that all students should support the provision of these services because they promote activities that are beneficial to the student community." This coming from an association that has less than 11% voter turnout for student elections, legendary apathy and is bitterly opposed to allowing students to choose not to join them.
Note on this link, page 6, where OUSA try and get away with a dodgy survey stating that 70% of students surveyed support a compulsory levy for a bus pass. This from the same OUSA who used to pass budgets counting people walking through meetings to count as a quorum. A charming use of student democracy in action!

And finally..Comrades Sue Bradford and Catherine Delahunty were rattled by the admission that the SIS were watching them since they were little teeny weeny 14 and 15 year olds. Give it up ladies. You supported and still sympathise with an ideology that doesn't blink at kids informing on their parents. An ideology that has murdered hundreds of millions of people, that spies on its population in order to control it. John Key, a prince of a man, has stopped the SIS continuing their investigations on these two - and other Green MPs. You're off, for now but I have no problems keeping an eye on people like them and it doesn't infringe on human rights if you yourself support the constant watching of citizens.

On a light note, check out this page. Awkward family photos.. very funny. Cheers.

An apt quote for these times

"Gold is the money of kings; silver is the money of gentlemen; barter
is the money of peasants; but debt is the money of slaves."

Money and Wealth in the New Millennium, by Norm Franz

Oh happy days.... The Standard down again

The Standard, twice in a week has gone down and been suspended.
Was it because Labour spent everything defending their safest seat in the country? Bussing and flying in the Labour Youth from Wellington and Dunedin?

I know that in an hour or tomorrow the Stranded will be back online, filling the NZ blogsphere with their brand of angry selfishness and left wing greed - complete with fake identities. Like any of the private sector would snap them. If they have gone for good, nobody rational could point to anything positive they have contributed to the blogosphere. When blogs disappear we look at why we read them - this week Blair Mulholland shut his down, I read his blog as when he was an ACT boy he had some good ideas and wasn't afraid to piss off people. No fear I say. But the Standard have helped pull the blogosphere to an all time low. These guys were connected right to the top of the Labour Party and the EPMU and had a mission to smear, attack and lie in order to distort the truth. They failed, but we do know who most of them were.

Rot in peace... although I'm sure you'll be back polluting the blogosphere again soon.

Still think a missile shield is a bad idea?

"If the U.S. imperialists start another war, the army and people of Korea will ... wipe out the aggressors on the globe once and for all,"

Kind words from the North Koreans on what would happen if their ships, carrying illicit weapons, were to be intercepted by US navy ships.

Recently North Korea has been testing Americans patience and seeing what Obama is made of. So far it is all North Korea and it is becoming quite worrying.
China are now worried, Japan is worried, South Korea is damn worried - so why is the UN still delivering aid to this hellhole? Why is the UN still allowing light arms to be imported to this regime and why does Russia seem to want to allow North Korea to get away with these threats?

If the US had a missile shield that protected itself and its allies the fear of all out war from an aggressive and backwards nuclear powered nation would be lessened. I don't care anymore for the MAD doctrine, as this was only successful during the Cold War when we had two players. Now any mad communist nation can stockpile arms and threaten the US in order to build itself some credibility, nuclear or non nuclear - while its people starve.

We have already established (outside of the Universities) that US styled, capitalist democracy is the best ideology available at present. Other "lesser" ideologies like socialism/communism, religious fundamentalism, fascism, feminism (heh) strive to deprive parts of society while capitalism is designed to reward anybody who puts in the effort. So we must preserve this in any way possible. Not by shutting down other ideologies, but by protecting what we have. The US should be allowed to let the missile shield to be completed or the current US Administration might have a lot of grovelling to do at election time if they start losing states to nuclear holocaust.
Russia are against it, but they are in bed with and supply arms to almost every single rogue nation on earth and therefore are not threatened.

The mid week totty

Enjoy a bit of mid week crumpet.

The company that customer service forgot....

There has been a little bit of an uproar about Jetstar over the weekend!

Having worked in customer service and having been a trainer in this very field I find the situation rather baffling. After reading the stories so far, the customer service and the lack of any form of "goodwill" from Jetstar is quite terrible.

In a small country like NZ bad publicity like this can hang around like a bad smell and for a newly launched airline to start treating passengers like this already doesn't bode too well for future customers.

From the facts I have gathered as well as the news coverage from many passengers this could have easily been avoided. Level headed Jetstar staff could have stopped this but chose not to, instead to treat customers like the dirt found on your shoes.

Rule number one of customer service is to stop a problem before it even happens.

What makes me laugh is that these airline staff seem to think that they have the right to ignore, hide their name badges from customers and to block customer access to airport exits. The arrogance, and I can imagine there is a lot of this, from the airline staff in believing that they are in any position to act like this is breathtaking.

Airline check in staff are elementary level jobs who have a lot of responsibility. Get it wrong and this makes everybody look bad. I would have hoped this would have spurred management into action, however it seems they have not learned at all.

My advice, considering the amount of times I have been in these wretched airports, exercise your right to choose your airline and arrive an hour before you fly. That way you'll avoid these nasty situations. And do your homework, I wouldn't fly on an airline that have these headlines for all to see:

Thousands caught in Jetstar rejig

Refunds likely for Jetstar fliers

Jetstar unrepentant about leaving fans behind

Equality in education

I had to chuckle when I saw the feedback from Pita Sharples suggestion that Maori should get free access to University. Stuff have stopped further comments after 468 people got pretty pissed off.

Fair call though, Kiwis are generally people who support equality.

Pita has his heart in the right place but he is still thinking like a silly leftie. He needs to sit down with his coalition partners ACT and hear what we think about education. It is good stuff. Furthermore on ACT policy, Maori should have the right to start their own schools and parents should have this choice. A schoo voucher system would work well if Maori thought the non Maori school system wasn't giving their people a fair go. I would have no complaints if a Maori school system was running alongside the current system, where their values were met. Instead of everybody paying taxes for a system that frankly cannot fit everybodys needs, why don't parents have a better say in how their children get educated?

I know we have critics of the voucher system in NZ, but the left are against anything that allows parents to take the decision making away from Wellington. They have already banned parents from disciplining their own children, something the previous PM said was against human nature. Human nature is what parents and NZers should be acting upon this and allowing us freedoms to do whats best for our children.

No more meddling. The only thing bureaucrats need to do is to maintain standards are met in the schools and leave it to the parents and teachers to educate the kids.

I'm sure Pita would support a system that allowed for everybody to get the best out of our kids, and an end to a system that doesn't recognise diversity. He won't need free access to University for all Maori if we get the basics right, one only has to look at the good Maori graduates we have today to understand we don't need another quota system.

High taxes and happiness...

I was emailed this interesting video about the myth that high taxed countries are the happiest, according to the OECD. Good viewing and thought provoking!

From Crackle: Happy High Taxes

The right to blogger privacy challenged?!

Spooky times in the Blogosphere in the UK!

In the first case dealing with the privacy of bloggers, Mr Justice Eady refused to protect the anonymity of a police officer who wrote a prize-winning blog called NightJack.

The officer, Richard Horton, 45, a detective constable with Lancashire Constabulary, had written a behind-the-scenes insight into policing.


Mr Horton's blog ridiculed "a number of senior politicians" and advised "decent" members of the public under police investigation to "complain about every officer . . . show no respect to the legal system or anybody working in it."

If this was to be implemented in NZ we would be quite shocked at how deep inside Labour/Greens and the EPMU the Standard is!

Story here

Readers help required

Hi readers,

As some may be aware I work for a community organisation in London. My job is primarily careers advice - where I help unemployed people get off benefits and into jobs and training. One of our centres where we help the most of our clients is in desperate need of a make-over. The Times have shortlisted us for a competition to get this but we need votes. If you can click here, register, and vote for us I will be most grateful.

Cheers!

Another way to look at the news...

I am a fan of these guys, very cool. This is one of their latest clips. You can watch the end to give you details on the rest of their clips.

Yep - just as expected!

Hugo Chavez is threatening to shut down the last remaining TV network that isn't a cheerleader for him. Gee, what an original path he is following!

I am surprised the network was still operational apparently there is, but not for too much longer:

President Hugo Chavez threatened to close down an opposition-sided news network, saying the defiant Globovision channel's days on the airwaves will be numbered if its directors don't stand down.

The socialist leader has threatened Globovision before, demanding sanctions against the channel for its alleged violation of broadcast regulations. Chavez told a crowd of his supporters on Thursday that he "doesn't care" if such a decision were to draw international criticism.

Chavez recently called for sanctions against Globovision, and within a week Venezuela's tax agency slapped the network with a $2.3 million fine, prosecutors charged its president in a probe into alleged fraud and lawmakers began investigating the channel for purportedly joining an anti-government conspiracy.

Yawn. This is the same thing all other nasty despots do so it isn't winning any awards for originality. Soon he will overrun the country with his well equipped militia if they don't all bow down to him. Sad.

Story here.

The Full Tax Receipt Movement

I was passed this rather neat story from the Taxpayers Alliance in regards to showing people the true cost of what things cost and the hefty weight of taxes that everybody has to absorb. Companies are getting on board and producing full tax receipts for their customers to educate them about Government taxation and the share they pay in all of this.

It's a bloody great idea. The left will be completely 100% against it, so will a few Nats no doubt. If this was operating in NZ, we'd have an ACT government with National propping us up. Labour would be a centre party and the Greens would still be the laughing stock that they are now - voted by loonies and wave worshipers.

This also shows what profit a company makes on a transaction and where it all seems to go. Educational AND a political death note for the tax lovers in NZ therefore it will never take off. After all you voted in Helen for 9 years and think Cullen was a good FM.

Click the picture for a bigger size.

Story here.

More of the grubby union underbelly

Over the past 2 days, London has been severely crippled by yet more tube strikes. This is costing London 50 million pounds a day and means workers cannot get to work or if they do, get in late. For many, especially lower paid workers, they are forced to take leave or not get paid at all if they do not turn up for work at the set time. Does Bob Crow, the RMT (Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers Union) care about these people?

Not bloody likely.

Bob, a popular hate figure with commuters, relishes the publicity he gets from the strikes as it allows him to get on TV and yell it out against the “corporate fat cats” and his political enemies which going by his ideology is anybody on the right of Stalin. I am not exaggerating, Bob is an unashamed communist.

Bob ran for the European elections last week, for the No2EU - Yes to Democracy party, a loose collection of socialists who are opposed to privatisation. He didn’t win a seat in Brussels but I am sure he didn’t have time to commit to this as well as plan a strike at the same time. His RMT balloted up to 10,000 members, including drivers, station staff and maintenance workers for strike action. But less than a third - 2,810 - actually supported the strike, with 488 against and the rest not bothering to vote. He however claimed to have a mandate to hold the city to ransom and has been working the media lately to gain sympathy for the “poor workers” who are represented by the RMT.

However the truth is beginning to open peoples eyes - Tube drivers are among the best-paid manual workers in Britain. Their starting salary is £40,000 (going up to £50,000 with overtime). They get 43 days holiday a year and work only 36-hour week. They and their partners also receive free travel on the Tube and buses. No surprise there is a 2 year waiting list to become a tube driver!

Boris Johnson needs to act. Ken Livingstone our previous mayor, the same one who rubbed shoulders with Fidel Castro and Huga Chavez was unable to deal with him. The tube unions have to be smashed if we are to receive a first world system. A city the size and prestige of London should have a 24 hour system. Currently we have a system that stops just after midnight and starts around 5am, starting later on the weekends. This is because of the rules set by the unions. If people want to get around after hours they have to negotiate the infamous night buses which are late, often dangerous and a mission to get home on unless you are a regular user. I am ok with them, but I feel sorry for people who are new to London.

I read a good article about the siuation, selected quotes for me were:

Ken's Legacy

Ken Livingstone attempted to buy off the RMT Union while he was Mayor of London, even putting Bob Crow on the board of Transport for London for two years (until he resigned).

At the time, Livingstone made much of his connection with the Labour Left as a means of keeping the militants under control, but the RMT always had the whip hand, even calling a strike on the day of the 2004 mayoral election.

There have been strikes or the threat of strikes every year since Bob Crow became general secretary in 2002, and at the same time the membership of the RMT union has bucked the national trend, increasing from 57,000 to 80,000.

The RMT has been successful because Mr Crow's tactics paid off with Tube workers being well-remunerated. So Livingstone's real legacy - and his appointee Peter Hendy still runs Transport for London - was to talk big and refuse to budge in public but pay up in private.

What Boris Could Do

London's economic output is worth £1billion a day, and Tube strikes typically cost £50million for every day they continue. So the RMT has a strong bargaining position. Paying railmen a bit more looks cheaper in the short term, but the problem is that the militants - like all blackmailers - always come back for more. So Boris must act.
Until Labour changed the employment laws, making sacking striking workers illegal, the Mayor could simply have sacked all the strikers and replaced them. This is what Ronald Reagan did with 11,000 air traffic controllers who went on strike in America in 1981.

Full story here.

The strike is over for now... but we have another threat coming up... and this isn't the growing fears that Bob has planned more for a weeks time. This one is that the post office workers are set to strike next week. The Union say that Royal Mail don't want to modernise - but the Union are against partial privatisation or job cuts to keep Royal Mail competitive. Oh dear.

(the other picture in this post is a letter from the RMT to the other tube union, the ASLEF - who represents 40% of tube workers. The ASLEF didn't strike and support negotiations to sort it out without this sort of militant action. In the past ASLEF have regularly supported Crow but not this time. They are worried by Crows distrust of Boris because he is a Conservative, therefore politicising the situation)

More on the Labour "funny honey" trap

Richard Worth is a plonker. Why would he go for somebody so heavily involved with the Labour Party?

How heavily involved?



I am not even friends with the ACT party president and I consider myself pretty friendly with most of the party at all levels.

Neelam is a big Helen supporter too, and is a member of Grassroots Labour.





I wonder how long she waited before she told her mates about her special friendship with Richard?

Update: I thought I was ever so clever but it seems everybody is in on this... I suggest you go to Whale Oil to read the full story.

Strikingly beautiful???

Guys come on! Neelam Choudary is not anything of the sort. Goff has been sitting with his Labour "women" for too long. And Worth... well the words "could do better" come to mind.

Filthy

Story here

Errr Sorry New Zealand but Lithuania is better!

I had to chuckle at the smallmindedness shown by Immigration New Zealand when refusing a visa for a heavily pregnant woman to come in with her husband, initially on a visitors visa but was later going to become a a long-term business visa.

It seems that they suspected that these "poor" Eastern Europeans were going to have a kid here and then claim citizenship or something for their child or even try and stay here, obviously because their poor country is terrible and New Zealand is so great...blah blah blah.

I have news for you Immigration NZ, Labour, Greens and anybody else thinking that you live in wonderful wealthy country... you're living in the wrong country.

Lithuania (emphasis in bold)

In 2003, before joining the European Union, Lithuania had the highest economic growth rate amongst all candidate and member countries, reaching 8.8% in the third quarter. In 2004 — 7.3%; 2005 — 7.6%; 2006 — 7.4%; 2007 — 8.8%, 2008 Q1 — 7.0% growth in GDP reflects the impressive economic development. Most of the trade Lithuania conducts is within the European Union.

It is a member of the World Trade Organization, and the European Union. By UN classification, Lithuania is a country with a high average income. The country boasts a well developed modern infrastructure of railways, airports and four-lane highways.

As of October 2008, the unemployment rate is 4.7%.

According to officially published figures, EU membership fueled a booming economy, increased outsourcing into the country, and boosted the tourism sector. The litas, the national currency, has been pegged to the Euro since February 2, 2002 at the rate of EUR 1.00 = LTL 3.4528,[33] and Lithuania is expecting to switch to the Euro on January 1, 2013. There is gradual but consistent shift towards a knowledge-based economy with special emphasis on biotechnology (industrial and diagnostic) – major biotechnology producers in the Baltic countries are concentrated in Lithuania – as well as laser equipment. Also mechatronics and information technology (IT) are seen as prospective knowledge-based economy directions in Lithuania.

Lithuania has a flat tax rate rather than a progressive scheme. Lithuanian income levels are lower than in the older EU Member States, with per capita GDP in 2007 at 60% of the EU average. Lower wages have been a factor that in 2004 fueled emigration to wealthier EU countries, something that has been made legally possible as a result of accession to the European Union. In 2006, personal income tax was reduced to 27% and a reduction to 24% was made in October 2007. Income tax reduction and 19.1% annual wage growth is starting to make an impact with some emigrants gradually beginning to come back.
The latest official data show emigration in early 2006 to be 30% lower than the previous year, with 3,483 people leaving in four months.

Corporate tax rate is one of the lowest in the European Union at 15%. The government offers special incentives for investments into the high-technology sectors and high value-added products.

Lithuania has the highest rating of Baltic states in the Economist Intelligence Unit’s quality of life index.

And to think that New Zealand could be getting them citizens back, paying a fairer flat tax and having corportations lining up to invest in our country.

I expect Lithuania will be turning away Kiwis in the not too distant future. National and Labour seem compelled to keeping us buried in poverty and heavy Government, the type that Lithuania turned their backs on at the end of the Cold War back in 1990. They even have nuclear power and apparently have the fastest internet speed in the world!

Not to mention the women...

Good bye to the Iron Curtain.....

The Euro election results are trickling in and from all exit polls, the centre right is dominating most seats throughout Europe. Sky News is reporting that the centre left and the socialists are losing votes as well.

France, Germany and Italy - ruled by the centre right ae showing healthy returns for the ruling parties and on the other end of the scale Gordon Browns Labour party in the UK is looking very fragile. Odds from William Hill are offering 9/4 that he will be out of office as prime minister by midnight next Saturday, and 6/4 that he will be gone before the next election.

At this stage this is a great sign for the right, who will triumph over the left who have already, historically, destroyed Europe. Socialist policies also turned France into a basketcase which is slowly being turned around while the success stories of the Czech Republic and Slovakia who are enjoying low flat taxes are also keeping the faith with the centre right.

I won't be blogging live results, but you can follow them here on a live ticker - my favourite update so far was the rumour that Labour was running SIXTH in Cornwall behind the Tories, Lib Dems, UKIP, Greens and the Cornish nationalist Mebyon Kernow party. Hilarious!

You can also follow the results:

BBC live ticker

There is some Twittering going on as well here.

Also there is a neat article getting European perspectives here.

What's the big deal Jim?

Jim Anderton. The guy who helped split the Labour Party as it wasn't left wing enough, then set up New Labour - a group of far left ragtags, who then set up the Alliance - that he then helped split and then he was left almost all alone as the Progressives... who campaigns as Jim Andertons Progressives in case people don't know what the party is.

Reports from the old Alliance said that the Greens hated being inside such a negative environment and that Sue Kedgley said the Alliance caucus was a poisonous atmosphere. That says something for Jims people skills! Jim collectively gathers 21,241 votes throughout the country, and yet gets $164,000 of taxpayers dollars to his "party" and he collects a party leaders salary of $144,500. And he has the gall to ask, "what's the big deal?".

I'll tell you what the big deal is Jim. You claim to represent the poor, the needy, the downtrodden. You have spent thousands of hours pushing your socialist styled policies onto New Zealanders and have for the past few years kept your mouth shut while Labour ran roughshod over Kiwis rights to discipline their own kids as well as said nothing about Winston

Jim thinks that $164,000 is nothing when the economy is falling over and every day people are struggling. Jim thinks that by having his cult of personality party fully funded by each of us is ok despite the fact that he hasn't released an original idea in decades. And Peter Dunne isn't any more special than him, albeit United did get more votes nationwide but other than that Dunne should look at himself and think that he should either join National or Labour.

Jim doesn't stand for the people he claims to, he is another boring, has been left wing political dinosaur who thinks everybody owes him a favour. He needs to go.

Story here

No Minister also makes more good points, as does Whale Oil.

Sports Porn

All I have to say is tee hee hee:

England BEATEN by Holand in the opening game of the 20/20 world cup!
Good god. I remember going to watch the Clog Wogs in Nelson, up against Central Districts and getting thrashed too. I got all the autographs as well. Little did I know they were potential worldbeaters!

And the story about Liverpool?? It is a beat up.
Liverpool will always be part of the EPL - unless they do a Newcastle :)

Ok, well maybe then they ARE doing a lNewcastle, buuuuuuuut the fact is why are the fans blaming the American owners? Is it typical Northern predjuice against Americans? I think so.

Rafa has spent a hilarious amount of money for absolutely NO return. He was lucky to win the champions league in his first year.... but since then? He is as bad as my boys over in North London.... and no, not those filthy Spurs.

The fact that the fans love Rafa over the Owners is crazy.... but I will be happy to be proven otherwise...

Go on.

DAVID FUCKING BAIN

Every normal person knows what I am thinking right now.

However I cannot put it into words. Thankfully my co-blogger Boomtown Prat has put it into the most articulate words of all the blogosphere. Pass it on to your friends, it's that good.

And he is right. Read it again if you have to.

Getting away with familicide

I am saddened at the verdict today, but I understand it.

I am very sad that Robin Bain is now, based on a popular misunderstanding, considered a mass murderer.

Was there doubt? Of course there is doubt. There is doubt that anything exists at all as stated in Heisenberg's principal of uncertainty (as soon as you look at it).

Was it reasonable? ...Well the prosecution in providing varying forensic evidence provided that.

Were the Dunedin Police crap?.......obviously.

I agree with other commentators, David Bain is "not proven" in the Scottish judicial system.

But why is New Zealand now engaging in the glorification of this man who so clearly killed his family but was acquitted after a sustained campaign of half truths, fantasies and legal technicalities?

What are we celebrating?

I suppose in the wash up he has done time and I doubt he will get compensation.

One thing to note......


He will not give unscripted interviews, there are questions for him which are too difficult to answer (why he didn't take the stand)

I was in Dunedin that day in 1994. I knew many people devastated by the senseless murder of innocents.

I knew the pathologist who was a gifted and honest man who told me he had no doubt that it was David that killed that family.

That though is the justice system we inherited, and its as good as it gets.

But please New Zealand let us not develop the concept of St David Bain. He killed his family and got away with it......and as another commentator has said on kiwiblog.....he will meet his maker and there the final judgemant will be made.

What is it with Torys and Sex?

If ever a man deserved to be called Richard then Worth has really gone and done it this time... according to the gossip mill, various statements from the left and right and of course some excellent analysis by Whale Oil on Close up and summarised by Cactus Kate

So what is it with Torys and sex? Many people remember the British Conservatives and their dodgy sexual apetites during the 80s. But what has led this coming back to the Nats via Dicky boy Worth? I guess in time the full story may come out.

One thing that has come out of this is the leadership of John Key. Labour can crow all they like but when faced with MPs with dodgy criminal actions they bottled it and Helen Clark defended nasty people like Winston and Taito rather than force them to resign. Clark ignored the many calls for Benson Pope to be removed from his position despite evidence that this man had some rather dodgy incidents while looking after children. Any attempt by Labour to ride in on some moral high-horse is taking the complete piss. Key is going to walk away from this looking like a leader who understands the mood of the nation and who will not let any MP get away with anything that could put him in the same boat as Helen.



Story here

Now that's a stimulus package I agree with!

Several hundred blonde women marched through the Latvian capital Riga yesterday in a bid to cheer up the crisis-hit Baltic nation, suffering the worst recession of all 27EU member states.

Organisers said they were determined to bring positive energy to their country, expected to see its economy contract by 16 per cent this year.

Following the parade, blondes climbed into open-topped cars and drove to the local shopping centre.

The money collected during the event will be donated to support children's safety and playgrounds for disabled children in Riga and across Latvia.

The organisers want to make May 31 official Blondes' Day in Latvia.

Latvia, a small Baltic nation with the population of 2.3 million people has been going through the deepest recession in the European Union, which it joined in 2004.


A brilliant idea that is best pulled off in these sorts of countries. I wish all Baltic, Scandinavian, Central and Eastern European countries did this!

Story here



Unfortunately for you poor Kiwis back home you got a National Party budget that kept taxes high, that spent all the savings ACT helped create, that kept WFF, and generally disappointed everybody except Labour supporters who are only complaining for the sake of it. I'm sure Cullen is gleeful of his legacy being successfully continued under a National Government.

And that isn't sexy by any stretch of the imagination.

Get tough? Yeah right!

Good grief - yet more stupidity on our streets, this time in Wellington. When will people take more seriously the responsibility of looking after their families?

Tania Tai-Albert's prepaid power cut out at 8am yesterday, when it was 7 degrees celsius in Porirua.

Yesterday afternoon the family, including her three children and nephew, were rugged up trying to keep warm. A friend brought a flask to fill hot water bottles. "She's going to be freezing, mate. I've told the kids they're not to get outta bed."

They had to forgo breakfast. "We're not the sort of family that can afford to go to McDonald's. We'd rather put our money into power and cook our own kai."

Angry and upset, Mrs Tai-Albert said she was disgusted at the way she had been treated by Genesis Energy. "I was told, `Get tough, you'll have to go without."'

During a 29-minute call to her power company, she was put on hold for 22 minutes, then shunted between four employees. They told her it could be another day before power was restored.

"I'm not going to be bullied by a big company," she said.

And then we read this:

HOW PREPAY POWER WORKS

Genesis offers a system called "InCharge" that lets people top up their power before they use it. There are 10,000 users nationwide.

Customers can top up in increments between $20 and $300 by entering a pin obtained from Genesis into a keypad in their home.

When a customer's credit falls to $10, they hear a low-volume tone from the keypad, which repeats every half hour.

The meter can tell customers how many days of credit they have left.

Genesis says people who need power for medical treatment should not be on the plan.

Information on Genesis Energy's InCharge system from its website says: "It's designed to make it easier for you to control your electricity usage.

"Your Genesis Energy InCharge meter tells you if your credit is running low You'll get plenty of warning before you run out of electricity."

So during record cold temperatures, when your power keypad is down to $10 and it beeps every 30 minutes, surely you'd go and top it up right away, especially if you have children. Right? There is a little bit of responsibility for the mother to go do this - not get antsy for a power fuck up which she could have avoided. This reminds me of the hysteria surrounding the Folole Muliaga case before all the facts surfaced.

Genesis is responsible for keeping a power supply as what appears on the service level agreement they hold with each customer, but Genesis shouldn't be responsible for parental negligence. If it was me I'd not put my children in this situation, especially during the freezing weather. I'd also have FOOD available in my house that didn't require a microwave. How they had to miss breakfast just beggars belief.

Oh and I don't believe they were told to toughen up either. It's dead easy to prove if a customer service rep said it or not.

Story here.

European Elections are coming...

Another fine speech by UKIP's Nigel Farage..



UKIP have some great policies but have one major flaw, they want independence from Europe and I am quite partial to European membership, if anything to bring *some* culture to the United Kingdom :)