...but why is Mclay in court and Hide in parliament.
They did much the same thing, didn't they?

...is there no pile of putrescent behaviour in this country that doesn't have that "Energiser bunny of evil", Rodney Hide, crawling from the core of it?

It'd be darkly funny and ironic – not to mention hypocritical – if Mr Hyde abolished the local body system he designed, out of sheer sour grapes.

Hopefully by the time it would become apparent if Brown was going to be as adversarial toward a right-wing government as Livingtone was,…

Who needs the National Party when we have this class Act. Creep.

Wagging. The. Dog.

Then again, they probably didn't count on the country's top unionist monkeywrenching free trade talks with the US. No big loss anyway, better no deal than a bad deal – just ask Australia's farmers and [[http://action.eff.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ADV_australiacab|tech…

Back with the creepy party. Like fleas on a dogs tail. No actually, more like around the arsehole. I knew this would happen.

I've mentioned it before, but this could very well lead to the NZ edition of Livingstone vs Thatcher, if the people of Auckland elect Len Brown. It'd…

"Don't Flame my arse"

pictures here...*
;- )

...no but seriously it's the crashing radioactive boars I worry about, one likes one's bacon cooked further down the spectrum...

*[edit] plenty of helium there too!

And the dental X-ray analogy is misleading.

Also the people that regularly take x-rays (currently striking) stand behind a protective shield when they take x-rays of me in hospital.

And the dental X-ray analogy is misleading. That's high level exposure for a fraction of a second. Some ingested radionucleides, like Sr-90 are with you for life.

According to the…

The rest of us mostly would rather not, hence farmers with fallout in their fields don't get to sell product.

And the dental X-ray analogy is…

That's it for party balloons, and steampunk dirigibles then.

Hydrogen works just as well so long as you don't smoke.

personally I think that is the exact position NZ could be taking – as a biological control zone (and possibly even in Antarctica)...

Totally agree.

In the mean time though, we are running out of Helium. That's it for party balloons, and steampunk dirigibles then.

Not the most uplifting of reads, is it?

No. Great book though. I'm not watching the film for love or money.

I think the recent Russian fires threatened not only nuclear power plants (and created airborne radioactive ash from around Chernobyl)

Now don't get me wrong here and start flaming my arse but...
There is a lot of misunderstanding around Nuclear Power and its associated risks, even today there are pastures…

My mother gave me a copy of the book two years ago when I visited, and I made the mistake of reading it on the plane. It set me up for a classic "crying in an enclosed public space" moment.

Not the most uplifting of reads, is it?

I'm thinking…

I was from a developing country I'd find it terribly wearying to be expected to be so *aspirational* all the time

I think they just need to learn to be more relaxed about their aspirations

There must be the seeds of an Onion article in there somewhere. Something about how…

there are honest to god sweathshops in the textile industry

For those who are interested, the first part of Roberto Saviano's 'Gomorrah' will give you a good background to that.

An extract from this review:

His Chinese employer introduces him to the world of dressmaking sweatshops. We learn to distinguish…

Musing: if I was from a developing country I'd find it terribly wearying to be expected to be so *aspirational* all the time

I think they just need to learn to be more relaxed about their aspirations.

If anyone has a few spare billions, and some ships, we could relocate it to New Zealand maybe?

personally I think that is the exact position NZ could be taking – as a biological control zone (and possibly even in Antarctica)...
– No GM/GE or nuclear power and seed…

I am currently reading The Windup Girl, seems like
a very possible future to me...

Yes, I have been having nightmares since reading that, and then there was all this about the Russian Seed bank stuff. If anyone has a few spare billions, and some ships, we could relocate it…

horrifying conditions in which the largely foreign seasonal workers are kept in the agricultural industry

Sorry, confused here – are you talking about Italy, or NZ's agricultural sector – most notably our wine industry?

We are all in this together, we only have the one Planet. When today's developed countries were, well, Developing, we didn't have the technology we have now.

quite...
and it will be interesting to see where that technology arc goes...
...after seeing it praised by other folk…

It will still be cheaper to produce in Vietnam or cambodia or China – just not quite as cheaper as it is now

And if it's not enough cheaper, the jobs will go away again. If it comes down to a 5% tax break to the company to get it…

Some places, like Venezuela have chosen not to be a big sweatshop for the West.

Venezuela being, of course, greatly aided in that choice by the presence of significant mineral reserves of great value to the West. Countries lacking in such natural bounty tend to have fewer choices about how…

(Sorry, just a thought. As you were.)

gio, and it's only western companies that exploit workers in developing economies, eh?

No, but we might have more jurisdiction on Western ones. Although I suppose so long as we mandate that it's the product that has restricted access, rather than this or that manufacturer, then it doesn't really matter…

what would be so bad about a reduction in the pace of the outsourcing from the developed world?

Hate to say it, but I'm something of a free-market purist when it comes to trade. I don't believe in artificial protection of industries. If your local supplier cannot make a convincing…

I also assume you don't want me to start rattling statistics and examples of brutal exploitation in factories controlled by Western companies…

If the requisite increase in wages brought the cost of manufacturing to roughly equal to the cost of manufacturing the States (and isn't that really the aim of your proposal?

No, it isn't. Cost of living in China is far lower to the cost of living in the US, so…

What do you think would happen, out of curiosity, if all of a sudden US sneaker companies who wanted to sell shoes in the US at abominable mark-ups were forced to quadruple their wages to continue manufacturing in China? Do you think they'd stop making shoes? Do you think they'd…

Yesterday I suggested Craig Ranapia wrote a letter to the Dominion Post a few years ago supporting George W's invasion of Iraq and warning of the imminent danger of Saddam's "weapons of mass destruction". This is what happens when you write something…

gio, you realise that you've just demolished the aspirations of the entire developing world, reducing them to beggars at the doorstep of the developed world, and ensured that global poverty will remain? Right?

Yeah, but that's really what I enjoy, so it's a win-win for me.

What do you think…

Gio: you do realise that there's absolutely no motivation for a company in a low-wage country to increase its wages when a tariff removes one of its advantages?

Actually if the tariff was set to increase your wages to a set amount, there's no motivation to pay less than that…

If I'm making shoes and paying my employee $2/shoe, and selling them to the States for $20/shoe, then I can afford to…

It's difficult to see how that would work in practice. What if my factory exports to 20 different countries, all with wildly different wage structures? Do I pick the top one? Won't I suddenly decide to stop selling to that country to reduce my wage bill?

Fine, do that. It's…

I see no problem with introducing a law that says you need to pay the minimum wage of the country in which you're selling your products

It's difficult to see how that would work in practice. What if my factory exports to 20 different countries, all with wildly different wage…

the big attraction for so-called "runaway productions" to places like Wellywood and the slave school of West Auckland is the access to high skill, relatively low-cost labour without having to deal with the US trade guilds.

Coincidentally, I have just been writing about these issues, for the forthcoming Te Papa…

I see no problem with introducing a law that says you need to pay the minimum wage of the country in which you're selling your products

It's difficult to see how that would work in practice. What if my factory exports to 20 different countries, all with wildly different wage…

I see no problem with introducing a law that says you need to pay the minimum wage of the country in which you're selling your products
...
Don't tell Peter Jackson

A technical quibble, but the current minimum wage in California is roughly NZ$11.35.

What you're describing is not a…

It was interesting to hear Linda Clark ranting against spokesman Dr Hugh Barr on Jim Mora’s show the other day.

Hugh was calmy laying out the facts and Linda was getting extremely huffy.

Emails the next day…

after all, the big attraction for so-called "runaway productions" to places like Wellywood and the slave school of West Auckland is the access to high skill, relatively low-cost labour without having to deal with the US trade guilds.

Exactly. Our competitive advantage in that market (as with most others) is…

Globalise labour, fine. I see no problem with introducing a law that says you need to pay the minimum wage of the country in which you're selling your products

Don't tell Peter Jackson that — after all, the big attraction for so-called "runaway productions" to places like Wellywood and the…

Generally, tariffs are considered to be a left-wing action because they're about job protection. The right-wing action would be to remove the tariffs and say "Let the market sort it out." Obviously the benefit accrues across class boundaries, but the rationales involved do fit roughly into the left-right paradigm.

I…

Good luck to him, and may Act's demise be swift and absolute.

I haven't checked in with any political economic theories on the matter, but I'd struggle to call tarriffs left-wing these days. In NZ tarriffs protected farmers and working class manufacturing employees (and their bosses).

Generally, tariffs are considered to be a left-wing action because they're about job protection. The right-wing…

On another note, Russell confirms my growing feeling that he's superbly liberal on what might be called 'moral' or 'identity' issues, but tends toward the slightly Right of Centre on Economics. Or is that too simplistic, Russell ?

I haven't checked in with any political economic theories on the matter,…

If it isn't applying decent environmental standards, it gets taxed by the notional cost of those standards. That way, providers have to compete on quality, not on exploitation and pollution.

Yeah, right. Don't they do that in Germany. Well Sort of.
We were told in the Eighties that…

If a country uses cheap labour to produce goods or services, its products get taxed by the difference.

A provision that wealthier countries would presumably happily use to nobble New Zealand exports while we continued to buy theirs, surely?

I see fair trade as the way to go. Not the tokenist fairt rade where the wealthy, liberal minority-in-a-minority buy fancy chocolate and hessian bags, but an actual level playing field for workers.

If a country uses cheap labour to produce goods or services, its products get taxed by the…

I see fair trade as the way to go. Not the tokenist…

fact is, the email failed yesterday (and later the webmail), and did ditto again today – and I'm a wee way away from Sky City...

I have a nice…

Bum, forgot what I was going to say. Fair point Craig, but who should have bailed out the BNZ, Fay,Richwhite & Co.?. After all, they did make a packet on the deal.

I think the word you're after with respect to Fay and Richwhite isn't "bailed". It's "jailed".

On another note, Russell confirms my growing feeling that he's superbly liberal on what might be called 'moral' or 'identity' issues, but tends toward the slightly Right of Centre on Economics. Or is that too simplistic, Russell ?

It's hardly recent. I'm supportive of both trade unions and rules-based free…

On another note, Russell confirms my growing feeling that he's superbly liberal on what might be called 'moral' or 'identity' issues, but tends toward the slightly Right of Centre on Economics. Or is that too simplistic, Russell?

Probably a bit simplistic. Russell's definitely of the lefty "tax and spend" persuasion,…

Indeed. I still remember angry, yet highly-articulate, outbursts in the letters section of Victoria University's Salient from a Mr "Craig M Ranapia, Young Nats" in the late 1990s.

And then, a little later, in 2003,…

To be fair, Steve, how many beneficiaries, pensioners and others would have been fucked fifty ways to Sunday if Bolger had been a real "neo-liberal" purist and let the BNZ fall over?

I think that one is a plague on both your houses deal.

Maybe, maybe not. You have to admit, though, he does fill the "flag-waving National member" niche for us with great panache.

Tush. Any political party is like a family — if you've got a mind of your own, you have to spend a lot of time saying "I adore 'em,…

Whose mistake was greater: Muldoon's, in doing it? Or the electorate's in letting him?

It was so dishonestly sold that I'd have to say the former.

Either way, the scrapping of compulsory super just as it was getting underway was a tragedy for New Zealand.

This meant that food security has always been a…

James fills the flag-waving niche for me, though I don't want to know which flag.

Normal people don't salute that sort of crap, &c.

I didn't have a problem with us getting out of those in favour of paying down our debts.

Like most things about the 4th Labour govt it's a story of "yes, but no, on the other hand, if....".

I'm also in favour of some of the things we got out…

Maybe, maybe not. You have to admit, though, he does fill the "flag-waving National member" niche for us with great panache.

He's broken ranks sufficiently for me to be confident he has his own mind and isn't afraid to use it. A failure as a flag-waver I'm afraid.

James fills…

We all believe that the state is obligated to provide healthcare, education, and all kinds of other social services, and to do so to a level at least roughly comparable to what the private sector can provide. That is what socialism is about.

Moreover, the evidence in favour of private…

I think you'll find Craig is gloriously ill-equipped to be a token anything.

Maybe, maybe not. You have to admit, though, he does fill the "flag-waving National member" niche for us with great panache.

To the vast majority of the occupants of PAS however, even including our token National member ...

I think you'll find Craig is gloriously ill-equipped to be a token anything.

The new Labour government did actually devalue the $NZ by 20% on July 20, 1984

Yes, the issue is what they did on top of that.

Wasn't Roger Douglas in a left-wing party? Doesn't he still claim to be a socialist in some sense? I'm confused.

You're kidding, right? Or inhabiting some weird, bizarre-o, parallel universe

I thought it was common knowledge, Bro. Douglas' parents have been rotating in their tombs since '87

Douglas was born…

Quite aside from the actual nature and gravity of the crisis, which is still a topic of debate, the problem is, what action? Faced with very similar crises, other countries (including mine) simply devalued their currency. It wasn't painless, but it was nowhere near as painful.

The new Labour government…

Tax is just the symptom.

That's a fine metaphor if you think that society is a disease.

Socialism believes that social good comes from increased government spending.

Let me stop you there. That's a crude stereotyping of Socialism. Go back to Go. Do not collect $200.

Socialism believes that social good comes from increased government spending. That's why under labour government spending rose from 33 Bn p.a. to 66 bn p.a.

That would…

Gio, did you mean to write "Mouldoon?" Because if you did, bravo. I usually hate the nicknames we give politicians (like "Hyde" for Rodney Hide) but the "mould" in Mouldoon is brilliant.

I could claim to be witty rather than ignorant, and you would probably all believe me because you…

Peter, the problems are less with the policies of Rogernomics and more with the attitudes, and the policies that followed. The selling-off of Telecom (it was doing very well as an SOE, by all accounts)

The good: the proceeds of the sale were used to pay down public debt.

I…

Even when the bulk of the money goes to large corporations? And poor countries are denied the ability to compete by rich countries? It's just mad.

I'm not saying they are implemented well, or not disproportionately in favour of corporations (what isn't?), I'm saying that they're not wrong in principle.…

Europe has that. In fact every other country in the world has that, pretty much. Are they all stupid?

What Russell said. Stupid, self-interested, selfish, and globally destructive. A lot of the sorry economic state of the third world can be traced fairly directly to the protectionist agricultural policies of…

Everybody agrees the €50bn a year common agricultural policy is rotten. Everybody, in public, promises reform. Everybody, in private, is out for what they can get. The result is an economic and environmental disaster. Poor farmers struggle…

You could certainly argue with that side of the equation, but the idea that we should subsidise primary producers is not wrong per se.

Even when the bulk of the money goes to large corporations? And poor countries are denied the ability to compete by rich countries? It's just mad.…

Even though some of the stuff that went on under Muldoon was dumb, and I totally disagree with the social conservatism, ordinary people were better off in those days.

They were. But as a whole, the economy was speeding towards a brick wall.

Unemployment was trending relentlessly upwards (and that's…

The resulting over-production is eventually dumped with developing economies, badly damaging their own small producers.

You could certainly argue with that side of the equation, but the idea that we should subsidise primary producers is not wrong per se. It's what keeps a lot of cultures going that would have…

Should we return to:
– A subsidized farming sector producing mountains of product no one wanted?

Europe has that. In fact every other country in the world has that, pretty much. Are they all stupid?

Yes, they are. And self-interested, profligate, etc.

More than 40% of the EU's budget is…

what he says is that socialism just doesn't work to achieve the [noble] aims it sets out to achieve.

Whereas his policies do, making him the only true socialist.

One could earn a decent living, land was cheap and hence house prices and rents were low, basics were cheaper and…

Muldoon and his think big beggared this country. The reforms of the 1980's were only necessary because of the mess he left behind him, and who is the hated man?

Not so sure about they were the only way to fix the mess.
And I would say Muldoon and Douglas…

asking her for a copy of Roger's book.

Believe it or not, I have read No Second Class Citizens. (It's the one that comes with Boscawen's inaugural speech at the end, right?) And as I recall in the first speech Douglas starts, as he always does, by claiming he's the…

If you are really interested in answers to the questions that you raise, you could make a good start by getting hold of Heidi Bale <> and asking her for a copy of Roger's book.

On the other hand, if you just looking for an argument. No thanks. that…

Should we return to:
– A subsidized farming sector producing mountains of product no one wanted?

Europe has that. In fact every other country in the world has that, pretty much. Are they all stupid?

- Tarriff barriers to ensure we can all pay more for goods?

And so that…

Wish me luck.

Why? I for one like the ACT party broken the way it is.

It's good to see there are still a few thinking people in this country that can see through Rodney Hide's BS (Whoops that word might get me fired).

I'd just like to add a few words to this if I may.

Firstly - here is my personal statement…

Wasn't Roger Douglas in a left-wing party? Doesn't he still claim to be a socialist in some sense? I'm confused.

Yes, he claims to be the only true socialist. It's at the beginning of every speech he's given since 1987.

You're kidding, right? Or inhabiting some weird, bizarre-o, parallel universe…

Wasn't Roger Douglas in a left-wing party? Doesn't he still claim to be a socialist in some sense? I'm confused.

Yes, he claims to be the only true socialist. It's at the beginning of every speech he's given since 1987.

It's actually quite amusing. I would think there would be more hard right economic liberals that started off as socialists than not.

There's nothing unusual there, especially the ones who start their political life as Marxists with a capital M. Even though many become middle-aged neo-cons, their zealotry remains constant.…

Hide's then-executive secretary, the most formidable personal assistant I've ever met, made a point of cautioning me within my first week that she knew that I'd been involved with socialists at university. His self-appointed "security advisor" later informed me, in all seriousness, that he had "checked me…

Peter Tashkoff has stepped in also to defend Roy , which, kinda does feel now as if she was bullied.

David Young has some more insights (can't get the hang of that linky thing)

http://www.pundit.co.nz/content/is-rodney-hide-a-bully

(salt is one of the few food items that is incontrovertibly *inorganic*)

...Wishartian undercurrent of Elders of Zion-esque conspiracism...

I just wanted to make sure that sentence fragment stood out; it's quite beautiful.

Are the CC/NZCPR that easy enough to dismiss as fringe lunatics?

I was hoping for a middle ground between "dismiss them" and "claiming they're Nazis". But I accept it's not quite where you were going with it.

But possibly the Association for Cretinous Tyrants?

As this country's last sufferer of endemic cretinism with hypothyroidism due to iodine deficiency supposedly passed away sometime around the early 60s, only tyrants are likely to cry discimination. Tough for them.

So what were you implying exactly?

Implying that if this sort of conspiracist propaganda spreads unchecked and widely enough, then enough scared and angry people could be gullible enough to believe it. The 'Big Lie' theory if I recall correctly.

Are the CC/NZCPR that easy enough to dismiss as fringe…

Yeah, the Association of Cunning Tax-evaders is a little too up-front :)

But possibly the Association for Cretinous Tyrants?

And for a more accurate description of the Coastal Coalition's manifesto, subsitute 'iwi' and 'Maori' for Jewish. For best results, take a time machine back to 75 years in the past, then draw your own conclusions.

Don't be fucking ridiculous.

Yeah, the Association of Cunning Tax-evaders is a little too up-front :)

Actually, make that the Consumers & Taxpayers Association, the Consumers & Taxpayers Popular Association, the Campaign for a Free New Zealand, and the Taxpayers Popular Association.

And for a more accurate description of the Coastal Coalition's manifesto, subsitute 'iwi' and…

They should change the party name to The Association of the Weird and Inappropriate.

Yeah, the Association of Cunning Tax-evaders is a little too up-front :)

To say this has become disgusting is an understatement.

Indeed. It says nothing good about the HoS when Ms. "ever fucked the Prime Minister in the shower?" Meng-Yee is looking like the class act in that newsroom.

BTW, I once spent the night at David Farrar's place — nudge nudge,…

Don’t do yourself a disservice by implicating anything inappropriate in the Roy-Ewing-Jarvie relationship.

The two families have been friends for years – spouses and children included. In fact, you’ll struggle to find two more…

Apart from all the vileness and stupidity — honestly, these people are all ghastly — Ewing-Jarvie's bumbling deep-throat stuff does make some good points about certain people working for the Minister of Local Government and playing significant roles in Super…

Here's [[http://www.voxy.co.nz/national/government-plans-225000-job-annual-subsidy-aluminium-smelter/5/28469|one…

We (NZ) could be using that for better things than helping foreign-owned company profits in an industry…

Is Chris Trotter a mole?

I was holding out for a dyspeptic marmoset, myself.

The good
* John Key seems to want to throw Act a lifeline.

Can someone please explain to me in plain English what about this statement meets any definition of 'good'?

Perhaps someone should show Mr Key this video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6w8R--CQ3Q&feature=related

The strategy now is to dump as much shit as possible on the advisor, Simon Ewing-Jarvie

Peter Tashkoff has stepped in also to defend Roy , which, kinda does feel now as if she was bullied.

The strategy now is to dump as much shit as possible on the advisor, Simon Ewing-Jarvie. David Fisher at the HoS has happily obliged with a piece of sleaze today..

Someone is going to have to refresh my memory, but wasn't David Fisher a real investigative journalist once upon a…

Ye Gaia. There's a Whaleoil link on Bowjangly Road...

Craig Y

shut down Tiwai Point

Except that global climate change is global.

If we shut down Tiwai Point (which runs off hydroelectricity), the demand for aluminium won't go away, and that demand will quite likely be met by a coal fueled smelter in Australia or China. Essentially, an aluminimum smelter in…

Not that I feel any sympathy for any of them. The picture appears to be one of a bunch of…

ACT are talking about a Lt Col as a rogue staffer.

Hmm. He's probably hiding upriver in the bush somewhere. We should send Martin Sheen in to...um...'deal'... with him.

I love the smell of ACT self-destructing in the morning.

Oh dear. Now that's just silly.

I should re-emphasise that the part of it I'm very happy to embrace is the exoneration of Nick Kearney, who, whether you dig his politics or not, is, I think, one of the people who help make democracy possible by working in good faith…

Thanks all-

And -as another extremely disgruntled Vodafone customer – anybody got any suggestions for an laternative ISP? Other locals use Orcon & Telstra Clear...

I decided to go with Actrix, cos they are (or were originally) Wellington-based and they did very well in the Consumer ISP customer satisfaction survey last year.

It's…

I've been emailed a Word document by Hide's press secretary Allan Swan that turns out to be a Whaleoil blog post.

Oh dear. Now that's just silly.

the message has now settled on "It was the rogue staffer!"

Oh great, so easily solved, get rid of Roy. Intelligence all round with that lot, not!
I guess Whalespoil is the "ex" blogger, the Harold has been mentioning.

I've been emailed a Word document by Hide's press secretary Allan Swan that turns out to be a Whaleoil blog post.

I suppose I'll have to read it properly at some point. But when…

...vast surplus of cheap hydro-electricity Muldoon was ensuring we were soon to have with the urgent construction of the Clyde high dam etc on the upper Clutha

Muldoon was a dick, but without him, we'd have way less renewable electricity than we do. Funny how it works.

Muldoon's…

Muldoon was a dick, but without him, we'd have way less renewable electricity than we do. Funny how it works.

Yeah, I think it's almost time for a reevaluation of that government. There are plenty who rightly and wrongly had a lot invested in saying it was an awful government…

...vast surplus of cheap hydro-electricity Muldoon was ensuring we were soon to have with the urgent construction of the Clyde high dam etc on the upper Clutha

Muldoon was a dick, but without him, we'd have way less renewable electricity than we do. Funny how it works.

exit stage left, then starts wandering all over the place, then finally falls off the stage...???

Craig Y
;)

The man is the right's tame leftoid. He…

exit stage left muttering darkly

I love that story! Did he have the moustache then? I feel that a man can only truly mutter darkly if he has that moustache.

ACT are hoping for 8 % of the party vote and exactly 8 % of respondents believe no one has been discredited !!!

Charitably, some 5%+ of those could be seeing it impossible to discredit those who are without any credit.

He is the kind of really archaic/not truly
leftist anti-woman…

Oh, I feel so unclean...

Craig Y ;)

ACT truly live in a parallel universe, don't they ?

No weirder than Helen Clark not only seeing off an assassination attempt, but getting on rather well with the wannabe Brutuses for the next twelve years or so.

The TV3 60minutes on "The Miracle Story" about Alan Smith and H1N1 and Vitamin C injections.

Sciblogs has a good post and asks some folk who might be able to guess the benefit or oterwise of Vit C injections.

Given the "communication in Sciece"…

__There's also a poll on the Herald's front page with the question "Who has been most discredited by the Act leadership row ?" – Heather Roy 15% / Rodney Hide 77% / No one has been discredited 8 %. All of which...does not bode well for Mr Hide or…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAg0lUYHHFc&feature=search

And -as another extremely disgruntled Vodafone customer – anybody got any suggestions for an laternative ISP? Other locals use Orcon & Telstra Clear...

Went to Orcon earlier this week after a couple of weeks of zero international connectivity on Vodafone.

So far the change has resolved all my international lag, and…

'Twould seem a blog post approving of the CC stance on the Foreshore and Seabed and having writing approvingly hosted on the Coastal Coalition's resources page doesn't mean actual support until Chris…

It was she who actively shafted the much more competent and visible Muriel Newman

Is it even possible to be less competent than Muriel Newman?

That's hilarious. Whatever slim grip Ansell had on reality appears to have completely deserted him now.

Did I mention he's also a vociferous climate denier?…

Lines like "we're talking about the speed the titanic is sinking" (or words to that effect) make Heather (& her advisor) out to be a big govt spender. – I like.

This sale of "excess"…

John Ansell and Hone Harawira are but flip sides of the same coin. A coin that simply isn't legal tender in NZ.

The keywords cited by Reading the Maps are…

It was she who actively shafted the much more competent and visible Muriel Newman

Is it even possible to be less competent than Muriel Newman?

Will we start to talk about "Going Coastal" here in NZ as code for vileness?

Rodney is no bully. He may look like Benito Mussolini, but in private he barely raises his voice. I once delivered a speech to him seconds before he was due to deliver it on TV.…

The official campaign website includes contributions from luminaries such as…

Richard Pamatatau calls it a U-turn. Well done that man.

But, while the connection speed is not brilliant (1.4-1.6 Mbps), they have responded to my queries and rescinded disputed charges promptly and without argument.

Also, while my…

"anybody got any suggestions for an laternative ISP?"

I find Orcon's deals the best and not having to sign up for a contract (which really F##ks me off about Vdfn and Tcom). But their customer service is usually pretty/very ordinary, especially if you're not on an unbundled box with their…

Russ, are you using Google Apps for email and hosting? You still need a NZ ISP (and backup?) to connect though don't you?

And did you look…