Hard News by Russell Brown

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Hard News: Dial O for Obama

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  • Craig Ranapia,

    Right, that's torn it, what's Winnie's policy platform then?

    Oooh,, me me! It's all the fault of those fucking Asians, but that should be no barrier to opening lots of consulates and trade missions in the countries we've just sent them back to.

    Do I get a prize?

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report

  • Craig Ranapia,

    Except it's not Cullen and Clark that Key's having a go at here, is it?

    Well, he bloody better - otherwise he's got a pretty steep learning curve on the whole election campaign thing.

    It's the politically neutral public service. Who then have to walk past all those giant Stephen Franks billboards scattered around Wellington Central inviting them to vote for the party who will 'review' their positions in the interests of 'efficiency'.

    Oh, poor dears. Sorry for being snippy, Caleb, but nobody at KiwiRail (including my partner and the main income-earner in this household) is assuming they're going to have a job in six months regardless of who wins the election.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report

  • Gareth Ward,

    Do I get a prize?

    Four more years of WPs confusingly righteous indignation?
    And a toaster oven.

    Auckland, NZ • Since Mar 2007 • 1727 posts Report

  • Kyle Matthews,

    I can understand why National has reduced the kiwisaver contributions. Not for me, but I can see that as a National thing.

    Taking away tax breaks for R & D? That I both 1. don't get, and 2. dont' see why National has put it in. It'll turn off a moderate portion of the business sector right after they've finished going "great" after reading about more tax cuts.

    I would have thought the R & D tax breaks National would have been right behind.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

  • Jeremy Eade,

    "But if people want different things, we're just stuck with it."

    I take the view that nothing is stuck that cannot be unstuck. Heaps of shit has been unstuck.

    I can't accept the norm , it's unhealthy and against my evolutionary conditioning.

    by the way ....what do people want that is so contradictory?

    auckland • Since Mar 2008 • 1112 posts Report

  • Jeremy Eade,

    "big billboard brother says we are extremely overtaxed, we are business unfriendly, we have out of control crime, we have unprecedented floods of migration of our best people."

    "To be scrupulously fair, the first three of those things are matters of opinion, since they depend on your personal assessment of what ideal levels of taxation, friendliness to business, and crime are."

    "But to be scrupulously honest we have been business friendly over the past nine years - it's just that business hasn't acknowledged it:"

    I think we can measure ourselves meaningfully in a political sense within an oecd context unless you want to preach "new deal" type concepts but i haven't seen a new deal yet . The oecd is the economic and social club we operate in and we sit very averagely in nearly all peer comparisons, but hey the oecd has just left the middle ages in social law so let's not get too excited.

    auckland • Since Mar 2008 • 1112 posts Report

  • Michael Savidge,

    I take the view that nothing is stuck that cannot be unstuck. Heaps of shit has been unstuck.

    I can't accept the norm , it's unhealthy and against my evolutionary conditioning.

    by the way ....what do people want that is so contradictory?

    Somewhere near Wellington… • Since Nov 2006 • 324 posts Report

  • Jan Farr,

    The oecd is the economic and social club we operate in and we sit very averagely in nearly all peer comparisons,

    Jeremy - According to the World Bank we are the second most business-friendly country in THE WORLD - you must have missed this:
    http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/09/06/business/compete.php

    Carterton • Since Apr 2008 • 395 posts Report

  • Michael Savidge,

    Ummm...and also.

    Therefore can anything ever stick around?

    So even if the norm was ideal, you'd be driven to unstick it?

    More.

    Somewhere near Wellington… • Since Nov 2006 • 324 posts Report

  • Jan Farr,

    And now, according to George Monbiot the car manufacturers of America and Europe are demanding a bailout so that they can finally become green:
    http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2008/10/07/the-other-bail-out/
    (how do we make the link thingy work?)

    Carterton • Since Apr 2008 • 395 posts Report

  • Jan Farr,

    Done it:
    George Monbiot

    Carterton • Since Apr 2008 • 395 posts Report

  • Jeremy Eade,

    "Jeremy - According to the World Bank we are the second most business-friendly country in THE WORLD - you must have missed this:
    http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/09/06/business/compete.php"

    sure we do suprisingly well on some individual measures, i guess it would be correct to say we are a normal oecd economy with nothing socially or financially to out of the ordinary , that's what the data says.

    The billboards make out we are a on a path to basketcase status failing excepted first world measure.

    auckland • Since Mar 2008 • 1112 posts Report

  • Jeremy Eade,

    "Ummm...and also.
    Therefore can anything ever stick around?
    So even if the norm was ideal, you'd be driven to unstick it?
    More."

    If the norm can be bettered make the argument but an ideal norm sounds pretty unbeatable ., i'd vote for an ideal norm

    .....I'm saying it's 2008 and progression doesn't stop just because our two parties have started shadowing each other and in some ways regressing our politics.

    take for example boot camps , jesus that's just the failed politics of 30, 40 years ago. We have a far greater understanding of delinquency than ever before, it's complex and it will take considered social programmes to remedy but forget that, let's just put the boot-camp answer back on the table..maybe we could just put all wayward citizens into bootcamp.

    auckland • Since Mar 2008 • 1112 posts Report

  • Kumara Republic,

    Kyle M:

    Taking away tax breaks for R & D? That I both 1. don't get, and 2. dont' see why National has put it in. It'll turn off a moderate portion of the business sector right after they've finished going "great" after reading about more tax cuts.

    I would have thought the R & D tax breaks National would have been right behind.

    Already the exporters have fired a salvo. The not-very-socialistic Jo Doolan has also fired in the hole. Even Biz NZ seems to have trained its guns.

    Jeremy E:

    sure we do suprisingly well on some individual measures, i guess it would be correct to say we are a normal oecd economy with nothing socially or financially to out of the ordinary , that's what the data says.

    The billboards make out we are a on a path to basketcase status failing excepted first world measure.

    It's funny how certain elements of the 'race to the bottom' lobby exhibit the very insularity and bloody-mindedness of the 1970s trade union culture they purportedly despise.

    The southernmost capital … • Since Nov 2006 • 5446 posts Report

  • Craig Ranapia,

    Already the exporters have fired a salvo. The not-very-socialistic Jo Doolan has also fired in the hole. Even Biz NZ seems to have trained its guns.

    And here's reason #1,978,042 why I'd make a lousy politician. As a general principle, I don't have a lot of time for corporate welfare bludgers either. Hey, I've no problem about business sector groups advocating for their interests as vigorously as trade unions, and there's a serious argument to be had around R&D tax credits. But I do find it rather ironic that they very people who want open markets, a light-handed regulatory framework, cheap credit and low taxes (and a puppy from Santa) don't like it when there's a price tag attached. Or the very idea that the people who actually have to get electoral and Parliamentary mandates, might actually have to make trade-offs.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report

  • Idiot Savant,

    But we're pretty confident Sarah P will never read it.

    Hadn't you heard? She reads all the magazines...

    Palmerston North • Since Nov 2006 • 1717 posts Report

  • Craig Ranapia,

    Hadn't you heard? She reads all the magazines...

    Playboy, Penthouse, Hustler, Leg Show, Barely Legal, Inches ... And that's just since she started collecting Track mail while he's in Iraq.

    Speaking of which, the impossible has happened and I feel a twinge of sympathy for Sarah Palin. Thanks Larry Flint!

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report

  • Alan Perrott,

    sometimes it's the most banal issues that are the knottiest - google Norm Coleman for background if you need to.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 438 posts Report

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