by frog
Published in THE GAME by frog on Sat, February 20th, 2010
Tags: general debate
General debate, February 20, 2010
Published: February 20, 2010
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on the trolls and those who are unable to keep on topic
Hey Mark!
All well?
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Hello Dear Fly – the short answer is Yes.
I’m always innit – only the depth varies.
Well in that I don’t have to shore up my seaside home against rising oceans.
Well in that I do not live on a snow covered hillside in Afghanistan – my only warmth coming from napalm and white phosphorus.
Well in that I dont sit on Death Row in Texas, innocent and about to die.
Are you keeping the Deep South in Order?
I see the Mayor of Invercargill on the Telly – my he does like dressing up don’t he? Keep him away from the Latex Store I say!
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Too many Generals Frog?
Not enough Privates?
Mayhap the jolly Kiwi’s are out squeezing those last rays from Ra – and checking the Hatches for leaks!
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Good to hear Mark, indeed we are blessed.
Met Key last week. Just can’t get rid of that odour ( It clings! It clings!! )
Shadders in rubber? I suspect it’s too late – between Him and His Mayoral Robes, we can only wonder (sometimes he walks funny!)
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Funnily enough, I met the Local Labour (Runner up) Rep this week.
I mentioned the sobriquiet “Moggy John” to him and he collapsed in fits of laughter!
He reckons that if GST hits 15%, John and his Party may smell no more – perhaps he meant ‘stink’ instead – I don’t know – when I left, he was still laughing.
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Had an unpleasant run in with a young fella in a car the other day that taught me an important lesson.
After a series of tailgating and an attempted overtaking manoeuvre that almost resulted in a head on crash, I extended the “bird” finger in disgust.
Wrong move.
To cut a long story short I was chased for approx 3km, right along side at times and eventually had to call the police on the cell.
What shocked me was how enraged this young fellow became after I gestured my disgust at his stupid driving.
What is making the young men in NZ so damned angry?
I will not be giving the bird to anyone in the future, all it did was cause a dramatic escalation in an already dangerous situation, it is just not worth it.
But then the question I have is how do we combat young fellas that just don’t give a sh!t?
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Ah – Shunda; The Great Nation is in need of a Plethora of serious Anger Management programmes
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Shunda,
People do some crazy things in cars. A couple of days ago I was in the bus when a car driver became pissed off with the bus for some reason. He overtook the bus and slammed on his brakes in front of the bus, almost resulting in the bus hitting him from behind. Whatever sin the bus driver committed didn’t warrant the car driver risking his own life and that of the 30 or 40 passengers in the bus. People who act like that should have their license suspended, irrespective of what “motivated” the road rage.
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“Increased numbers in the milking herd have resulted in there being one milking cow for every New Zealander,” agriculture statistics manager Gary Dunnet said.(I’m greatly encouraged to know that I have my own dopplecow)
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/3307299/Dairy-cow-numbers-soar
Pike River Coal (PRC) has toasted its first export shipment of coal to India, saying the formation of its West Coast mine was helped considerably by existing leases on what became national park land.
(Ah! So it’s a good thing!)
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/3352107/Crown-land-access-boost-for-miner
A controversial scheme to tag and trace cattle and deer could trigger a hi-tech revolution boosting farm productivity and profit, according to some in the industry.(Ah! So it’s a good thing!)
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/farming/3302670/Tagging-could-unleash-farm-innovation
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(Finlay MacDonald eviscerates Act’s stupid plan for Education.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/sunday-star-times/opinion/3354409/Ingenious-term-promises-life-to-tired-cliche-ridden-ideas
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Key, English and co.
STEALTH
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How come there has been no comment from the Greens on the Animal Welfare Code (Dairy Cattle)? I would’ve thought you’d have something to say about it? Have you commented and I missed it? How about the Minister saying it’ll be a couple of years before cubicle-farming is considered? What happens to all applications for new factory farms in the meantime? Fed Farmers are pushing for the minimum rather than best practice so why not have a crack at that twat Don Nicholson and the fact that the minimum is probably more ‘minimal’ due to his insidious presence on NAWAC? What about a general comment of the future of dairying in NZ? Do you guys have a clever plan or are you just slow on the uptake?
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The consequences of following the Americans on welfare reform – the consequences in the lives of real people.
http://www.alternet.org/economy/145703/the_human_recession:_selling_food_stamps_for_kid's_shoes?page=entire
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Skinman – there have been lots of Green comments about the dairying issues, from cubicles for cows to pollution of rivers, from Russel and Meyt in particular as well as Sue K. Not everything gets into the mainstream press unfortunately, but they have been seen on tv and heard on radio on these issues.
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If I didn’t post these Owen McShane would ….
Building costs and access to land for housing. Issues that do have to be looked at when developing an effective affordable housing policy.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10627530&pnum=0
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10627446&pnum=0
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Yes SPC.
I see the land-banking stuff going on in several places around Wellington. The “developer” did some of the work and then stopped. There’s the right-of-way, and there are some section markers, and it isn’t for sale. Just sitting there for a decade or so. Appreciating because of the scarcity.
This simply reminds me of the nonsense of people “owning” the land in the first place.
The fees thing… that’s purely stupid. It cannot cost that much to inspect for the sewer connection, or the electrical connection. That’s several people working full time for several days, and so it is bnllshit that the council is simply collecting real costs. As for the house inspections by the council, that means taking the responsibility for habitability out of their hands entirely. As long as they can be lumbered with the costs of things like “leaky homes” they have to keep a huge staff of inspectors on the job. I’ve not seen the like. Never HEARD of it until I got here and I reckon that its an insanity that arrived with the British and has never been treated.
Thanks for those articles.
BJ
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Janine – but nothing in response to the new Animal Welfare code….
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Skinman, what are you talking about? Our response was under Russel’s name and is here: http://www.greens.org.nz/press-releases/biggest-issue-left-out-cow-welfare-code
I’m not sure what media pickup there has been around the country, but our response was strong and immediate.
For future reference, even if our releases aren’t widely picked up by media, they are always posted on our website.
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Take a look at Matthew Hooton’s column in the NBR dated 19 Feb, “An open letter to new Green MP Gareth Hughes”. Despite the obvious sniping antagonisms I reckon it’s a good prescription for the Greens’ near political future. “Gen Y will be better educated and have access to more information….If you want their votes you must define a new domestic environmentalism, which is heavy on real local issues….Your party is the Green Party of Aotearoa. New Zealanders have all the real domestic green issues that you need need”. Gotta say I kind of agree.
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BluePeter
http://www.stuff.co.nz/sunday-star-times/business/3350436/Epoch-defining-insight-and-the-govt-missed-it
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oh ‘fly:
(I’m a bit behind with my reading…)
Finlay McDonald -
Heather Roy is sooo sprung!
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Skinman the tactic of Hooton is not unique. It is to complain that if the Green Party has non environment policies, it is not focusing on the environment. If it only spoke on environment issues they would say, it was a lobby group or single issue activist group, not a real political party. The point is to guilt supporters for supporting a party not pure Green and possibly cause dissent within the ranks and otherwise give those not supporting the Green cause the idea that the Greens are without environmental purity because they are liberal and left wing (a bit like fundamentalists calling a religious group morally compromised for being associated with liberal and left wing clerics).
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# quietlyscanning (11) Says:
February 23rd, 2010 at 1:00 pm
as someone who has worked for you doing political polling with curia, I’d be careful passing judgment on other peoples ‘biased’ surverys, mr farrar. pot kettle black anyone?
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Fat Gerry spends up on us.
Big, bloated rorter!
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A large dinner is much more satisfying if the taxpayer is paying for it ‘fly.
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buuuuuuuuuuuurrrrrrrrrppppppp!
‘scuse!
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Looking for a laugh?
This letter, in today’s Southland Times. There’s ample opportunity here for having fun at Mr Crimp’s expense. rest assured, he’s a dolt!
Toad? Katie? Anyone who has the time?
Letters@stl.co.nz
The mean greens’ wrath … or homes
I see that the Invercargill City Council has commissioned a planning consultant to see if residential expansion for about 3000 houses is possible.
Bravo to the council for such a positive exploration for the city.
The main bugbear to this proposal is the “Public Consultation” needed to alter the status of the land from farm to residential.
The green-type people will be vehemently against changing the countryside for housing.
They have opposed all sorts of proposals throughout New Zealand for electricity and economic progress on the grounds that New Zealand should be left pristine for themselves and tourists.
To hell with the greenies and their opposition to progress.
The ACT party, through Local Government Minister Rodney Hide, will sluice away most of the local body rigmarole for town planning and approvals for everything.
So the council should ignore Public Consultation (Green Party opposition) and go straight ahead with the change of status of the land as though the law has already been changed.
Louis Crimp, Invercargill
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farmergeddon(mixedup)
You’re new here and not the sharpest knife etc.
Not a champion of democracy then, with your support for a dictatorial Government, dismissing a council that was the people’s choice?
You’re exhibiting worrying Authoritarian signs already. Not a fundamentalist of one stripe or another, I hope!
Canterbury Feds want long-term control of the region’s water. Any particular reason why you believe they should have privileged access, simply because they were able to lever their political buddies into an undemocratic attack on the people of Canterbury?
John Key was promising them this prior to the election and this development smells to the high heavens of corrupt practice.
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Need for new housing pokicy… SPC cited Owen McShane, and Owen himself has commented on the cost of housing in NZ….
It is indeed a serious issue, and one that will become more so.
Prior to the escalation of the price of housing in the last 20 years or so a majority of pensioners owned their own home. This is changing, and more and more of the soon-to-be pensioners will be renters by the time they turn 65, and will have been rerters their entire lives. In fact, more and more of the recent pensioners are and have been renters – AND very many renters are on limited/low incomes and have housing costs of more than 30% of their disposable incomes.
This statistic for all of us has grown from 11% of the population in 1988 to over 25% now. It will continue to rise.
Some of the sugegstions of the Tax Working Group (and rejected by Key) are needed along with other changes in housing policy (in terms of increased central, local govt and community based residental provision) are much needed.
Sadly the two main parties do not have the whit to do anything.
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This is lifted from The Standard but is a ‘must read’ imo.
Jenny
25 February 2010 at 6:42 am
“Right now there’s a revolution in local government, arguably the biggest development since the big bang of 1989.”
Don Nicolson, president of Federated Farmers, to the Local Government New Zealand Rural and Provincial Group, 18 February 2010
With the rise in GST to 15% tied to income tax cuts, the wealthy are succeeding, with the help of their right wing friends in parliament, to transfer the central tax burden away from themselves and onto the rest of the community.
After this ongoing success at central government level, the battle ground for neo liberal restructuring and deregulation of the economy, is now set to move on to the local government level.
Hoping to take the advantage of Rodney Hide’s enforced amalgamation and centralisation, of councils. Right wing business lobby group, Federated Farmers are lobbying government and the new “Super” councils themselves to be able to impose a Maggie Thatcher type poll tax, which they call a “Residents Tax”, coupled with a complete, yes complete, abolishment of property rates.
The Fed President calls this reorganisation, part of the change in the three Fs for councils.
“Form, Function, Funding.”
Now that the Form and Function of councils is well under way.
And considering the domination of new Super Councils by the Right, a fore gone conclusion, Don Nicolson says, “I do look forward to taking this third ‘F’ out of the shadows and into the light
of day.”
http://WWW.FEDFARM.ORG.NZ/n1912.html
If they are successful the Feds and other right wing political lobbyists, seek to to transfer the cost of this huge rates cut for themselves and their rich business mates, by imposing a poll tax on every single adult, including pensioners and the disabled. Quoting from a speech by Federation’s President, Don Nicolson, they want a Residents Tax, “That includes beneficiaries too.”
From Nicolson’s speech:
“We want local government to get its tax income from every resident and not just
those who are considered to be ‘landed’.
The ‘landed’ should not be expected to subsidise the rest of the community as a
result of a theoretical value placed on their property.
Our future must be one where everyone pays for activities where everyone
benefits equally – perhaps through a fixed charge on every adult resident.
I believe if it looks like a tax, feels like a tax and impacts your wallet like
a tax, then let’s stop calling it rates. Let’s call a spade a spade.
A Residents’ Tax is our preferred outcome as it impacts 100 percent not just 64
percent. Our starting point is that every adult should pay a Residents’ Tax.
Handing over your hard-earned money to a local council changes the
psychological stake you have in a community. That includes beneficiaries too.
Building community wellbeing starts with having an investment in a place. That
place being your community.”
As well as a poll tax the Feds are demanding much more user pays for council services.
The not quite overt message from Federated Farmers, is that the bulk of the urban and rural working poor are bludgers on the farm and business owners.
As race and class are often very much intertwined you can detect the silent dog whistle behind these statements.
Further from the Feds statement.
“While local government has been modernised in many ways – it continues to rely
for a large part of its income on rates based on property value. A Victorian
notion of the landed class.
Although councils have tools to reduce their reliance on these rates, such as
user charges and uniform per property charges, the value of property remains
key to allocating the cost of a council onto its community.
Despite a growing use of targeted rates and the continued use of differentials
by some councils, any funding system that is reliant upon property values
places a disproportionate burden on those who either have valuable land or land
intensive businesses.”
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Not even the Nats would be stupid enough to bring in a poll tax ‘fly.
The kiss of death for any government.
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The Feds killed the land tax, Toad.
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