Posts by Sacha
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Hard News: Wikileaks: The Cable Guys, in reply to ,
And for those complaining about the dumbing down of journalism, just look at which of those two options this thread has returned to time after time..
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Speaker: Dancing with Dingoes, Part II, in reply to Joe Wylie,
He'd be a goer at the local RSA..
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Hard News: Popular Paranoiac Politics, in reply to BenWilson,
They've all got benefits, even though clearly some are more beneficial than others.
There's little evidence that the Puhoi hoilday highway will benefit anyone much - and it will throw away between 20 and 60 dollars for every 100 invested from the public purse - unless you accept the flaky reasoning that trucks getting to Auckland five or ten minutes faster will jump-start Northland's economy. Sound like prudent decision-making to you?
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Hard News: Popular Paranoiac Politics, in reply to BenWilson,
The 'one against the other' thing is a response to Joyce, English. Key and Brownlee's inisistence that the kitty is empty (except for things like bailouts and tax cuts that benefit the wealthy). That's driven by their underlying ideology that public budgets must be slashed because of private (mainly financial sector) debt.
Accepting that proposition and its framing is not the only way, of course, but try telling that to our piss-weak political opposition.
The argument also doesn't have to be an 'either-or' one - there are very good right-wing reasons for investing in the CBD rail loop tunnel. It single-handedly more than doubles capacity for the entire Auckland rail network, allowing trains every 10 minutes which means people will rely on them more and stop driving. Also enables more intensive development of the CBD and fringe without turning all the roads into bus lanes as the business case identified. Even a car nut like Joyce should be backing that, rather than lying through his teeth that the case doesn't stack up but that his pet highway project does.
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Hard News: Popular Paranoiac Politics, in reply to Matthew Poole,
The "sell public assets" cry is hardly novel for unrecosntructed neolib tossers from the time of big shouldered suits and bigger hair. They have no shame about repeating their exhortations to faith despite real-world evidence of failure. You'd think the biggest economic collapse for 80 years might have brought some humility.
Solid analysis by Joshua Arbury of the comparative economic cases of the Auckland train tunnel and Puhoi holiday highway - with clip of further recent bullshittery by the Minister in Parliament.
In short, while the CBD tunnel is definitely the more expensive project, its benefits – no matter which way you measure them, are enormously greater than the benefits of the Puhoi-Wellsford road. Under none of the scenarios for including wider economic benefits does the holiday highway make economic sense, just as under all the scenarios we see the CBD Rail Tunnel making economic sense.
There are other matters that make me think Puhoi-Wellsford’s cost benefit ratio is enormously inflated (like the unrealistic time savings and the fact that the effects of tolling haven’t been considered), but even with the most generous interpretation of that project’s economic benefits, it simply can’t compare to the CBD Rail Tunnel on all measures.
So why are we building it first again?
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Hard News: Spinning and soldiering, in reply to Sam F,
politicians riding into Parliament on the convicted felon vote
this just has to be about restoring integrity :)
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Hard News: Spinning and soldiering, in reply to BenWilson,
show up for a recording
I highly recommend the experience
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Idiot/Savant notes the irony of the US announcing that it will host World Press Freedom Day next year
The theme for next year’s commemoration will be 21st Century Media: New Frontiers, New Barriers. The United States places technology and innovation at the forefront of its diplomatic and development efforts. New media has empowered citizens around the world to report on their circumstances, express opinions on world events, and exchange information in environments sometimes hostile to such exercises of individuals’ right to freedom of expression. At the same time, we are concerned about the determination of some governments to censor and silence individuals, and to restrict the free flow of information. We mark events such as World Press Freedom Day in the context of our enduring commitment to support and expand press freedom and the free flow of information in this digital age.
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Hard News: Wikileaks: The Cable Guys, in reply to BenWilson,
I'm finding it interesting in all the paper news how few references there are to Assange having handed himself in. Not mentioning this casts quite a different light on his arrest
Quite. I spotted that on Twitter as the news came through last night.
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OnPoint: Pay Attention, in reply to John Holley,
none of these documents are likely to be "news" to many foreign governments
Too true - but the faux outrage at their release provides a nice distraction from their content