Hard News: That Buzzing Sound
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Actually, I feel that the news story we're missing at the moment is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.....and Murray McCully knifing NZ Aid and snaffling its budget for his own purpose
No we're not missing it.We're not reporting it. Some journos just need to read the right blogs rather than print one sided opinion pieces from McCully, that's all.
http://big-news.blogspot.com/search/label/NZAID -
I popped over to see what Mr. Farrar had to say on the subject, but it appears that after his telling off by his beloved leader he has decided to play it safe and go with a culture war diversion by rarking up his base with an utterly irrelevant video of George Galloway.
Oh Dear. -
and the appointment's been roundly condemned throughout the media. And for what benefit?
The benefit is Rankin is above the fold and the important shit they are doing is page 3.
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It is genuinely difficult to see how she could work effectively with organisations like Barnado's given her comments about them in the past.
Not at all.
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The 6, no, 3 Degrees of Muriel Newman. Something that Paul L could dig dirt on.
You called? Yes, she has her fingers in every pie; but then they are all in it together: Rankin, Sax, the Grants, a whole bunch of former sportsmen; what they have in common is lots of money and lots of prejudices. They cannot abide the professional conduct of social services and education, so they use their money and influence to undermine it.
For that reason I am less relaxed than Russell about the appointment of Bruce Pilbrow. For a start, he has no expertise: his background is in marketing, not any social profession. But then neither do his employers, the Grants. They have strong opinions about how children should behave but no professional knowledge; their opinions are at variance with the knowledge of professionals. Yet, they have turned their opinions into a nice little earner: you might note that everything provided by Parents Inc comes at a price.
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So just a quick note for Sean Plunket: sometimes governments massage financial numbers to make their ideas look better, and in this case, it seems the numbers haven't been so much massaged as given a full-service rogering. And a corresponding note for Sean's interview subject, David Shearer: sometimes it's easier to just say "creative accounting" or "raiding the piggy bank" than to explain the details.
I don't think I have ever wished to reach over the radio waves and strangle someone *quite* as much as I did this morning, listening to that. (Although possibly not as much as Shearer must have.)
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Meanwhile, back at the ranch Melissa Lee may be discovering that the quickest way out of parliament is the slightest whiff of the misuse of public funds...
I wonder how she is going on iPredict... -
I popped over to see what Mr. Farrar had to say on the subject, but it appears that after his telling off by his beloved leader he has decided to play it safe and go with a culture war diversion by rarking up his base with an utterly irrelevant video of George Galloway.
And no discussion of the revelations regarding Ms Lee that were aired on Campbell Live last night.
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The benefit is Rankin is above the fold and the important shit they are doing is page 3.
I don't buy that. Her appointment will only serve to alarm many who previously thought Key and co were benign centrists. That perception helped the Nats win power. So again, what benefit?
I think it's a miscalculation, and when Rankin (inevitably?) loses the plot the people who appointed her will have egg all over their faces.
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Meanwhile, back at the ranch Melissa Lee may be discovering that the quickest way out of parliament is the slightest whiff of the misuse of public funds...
You beat me to it.. :)
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The issue of the relationship between his eventful private life and the Families Commission role is tricky: so much so that a story by Colin Espiner was amended after publication. The deleted section is still there on Kiwiblog. It refers to the suicide of the former wife of her new husband, six months ago. A comment under the original post claims that the suicide "was in part brought about by the discovery of the affair" between Rankin and the husband. It does sound messy.
Both TV news shows went out of their way to show footage of Rankin and her new husband Kim MacIntyre partying together at the National Party HQ on election night - an event that took place a few days after MacIntyre's wife's suicide. Something tells me we'll be seeing a lot more of that footage.
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I don't think I have ever wished to reach over the radio waves and strangle someone *quite* as much as I did this morning, listening to that.
Possibly rhetorical question: what is *up* with Sean Plunket? Sheez.
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I think that the Families Commission has been showing its political colours for some time. A month or so back, it gave a bunch of money to John Terris (George Bush-lover and Lower Hutt reactionary) and his bunch of advanced-age alarmists in Media Matters, to go into schools to warn students about all the 'gratuitous sex and violence' on TV.
There was no consultation about the need nor the desirability of doing this.
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I reckon this is the week that will be remembered as the time that the Key government jumped the shark.
"National shits on Auckland" is a meme that they can not live down, and one which any Aucklander can see the basis.
The Rankin debacle is simply an arrogant icing on National's shark-jumping cake.
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I don't buy that. Her appointment will only serve to alarm many who previously thought Key and co were benign centrists. That perception helped the Nats win power. So again, what benefit?
I agree. So many better options to choose from, so why her?
I keep wondering if Key is keeping his powder dry for whatever it is he thinks matters most, meanwhile letting Rodney and co have enough rope to hang themselves.
But what is it that matters most to Key?
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to go into schools to warn students about all the 'gratuitous sex and violence' on TV.
And Steven Joyce wants to pump more porn into our homes!
Save Families: Stop Broadband.
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Meanwhile, back at the ranch Melissa Lee may be discovering that the quickest way out of parliament is the slightest whiff of the misuse of public funds...
The story's not quite right: Hone Harawira still has his northern media empire, but he seems to have managed potential conflicts well enough.
I would certainly have some sympathy with Lee given that hers was a business of long standing. The fact that it continued to receive funding to make a programme it has made for ages isn't a scandal.
But some of the rest ... hovering over a reporter editing a story about the Botany electorate race (where Pansy Wong was standing) after claiming to have withdrawn from any editorial role on the programme; possibly using time and staff paid for by the taxpayer to make a National Party campaign video. Those are bad.
The striking thing is how quickly Lee has become a liability to National. The fact that she pulled out of the Campbell Live interview speaks volumes.
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If people like Sax are effectively 'buying' seats on government commissions, then we definitely need to know how much money they donated to political parties and to whom.
There should be an online register of who gave what to whom so we can all judge for ourselves the context of some of these apparently bizarre appointments.
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The Rankin debacle is simply an arrogant icing on National's shark-jumping cake.
And someone left the cake out in the rain.. my point being, this is the most psychedelic mixed metaphor I have seen in a long time.
Going forward, I think we should declare a moratorium on the use of the shark-jumping metaphor. It was never really that clever or funny, and it serves to confuse. Instead, we should say 'going forward' constantly. It seems to work for the new men who are taking over the running of this country.
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Divorce is never an ideal outcome, but banning it will do sweet fsck-all to protect the family unit. More likely, it'll come to this.
A coronor once told my mother that we used to have poisoning and now we have divorce.
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What matters most to John Key is MONEY. The more of it the better and don't worry about who you have to step on to get it. Going forward, I think we can expect to see more of that philosophy from him.
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Having seen the draft bills for the Auckland reconstruction (I'm quoted by proxy in a Greens release this morning about the secondment of existing councils' staff to the Auckland Transitional Agency), I can safely say that no matter how much of a "jobs for the boys" look the MFAT appointment appears to be it's nothing against what will be done for the ATA. The Reconstruction Bill has no requirements whatsoever for experience or competence on the part of those who're appointed by the Minister. It's a board of 3-5, being Chair plus 2-4, and that's the extent of it. The Minister can appoint anyone they wish, achieve any composition they desire, and there's not even a requirement for a token lay person or iwi rep.
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The Minister can appoint anyone they wish, achieve any composition they desire, and there's not even a requirement for a token lay person or iwi rep.
Good grief. Did McCully write that one too?
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And someone left the cake out in the rain.. my point being, this is the most psychedelic mixed metaphor I have seen in a long time.
Heh!
Going forward, I think we should declare a moratorium on the use of the shark-jumping metaphor. It was never really that clever or funny, and it serves to confuse.
Mikaere's use of the phrase didn't strike me as an attempt to be either clever or funny. He has a point and, as usual, makes it rather well.
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Looks like we find out who Rodney Hide has picked for the ATA uber-board (which will have the final say on any decisions by elected councils) early next week.
I can hardly wait.
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