Is Helen Clark channeling Muldoon?

Former Labour prime minister (for a nearly 2 months in 1990), Mike Moore, seems to think so here.

Since Robert Muldoon was the last 3 term Prime Minister in NZ I suppose some resemblance is inevitable. Does this mean we have to be on the watch for wage freezes, cabinet sackings/forced resignations, and snap elections?

On the other hand Muldoon lead a national government so instead of wage freezes perhaps we should be looking for the promise of more handouts to the working and lower middle classes from an aging Labour government instead.

If that is the case we now have 2 out of 3.

Now if National can stop flip flopping like a metronome and come up with some fresh policies they would be in like Flinn.

Stuff on my cat

Eldest kid just found out about this site.

She is getting ideas so I have a dilemma;

Do I play along and run the risk of wreaking my political career or leave home now?

Bubble Trouble

My secretary went off yesterday to help My Favourite Cat Sitter (MFCS) to install Xtra's new bubble service on her computer. Not that MFCS wanted Xtra Bubble and the fancy bells and whistles it apparently comes with, all she wanted to do was to check her emails and spam filter to see why spam was suddenly getting through.

Over two hours later my frazzled secretary returns and boy was she pissed off! MFCS still can't sign in to webmail and the sign up process was full of marketing that MFCS and my reasonably computer savvy secretary had difficulty working out which links were the ones that they should be following. All of this complicated by the joys of dial-up Internet access.

But wait there is more....

This morning my secretary access our webmail and finds that nearly half of the messages in the spam filter were not spam. Some were important. One was even a legitimate one from the bank. Some were my email!

I am seriously tempted to do a Dover Samuels and raise my lovely long white tail in the direction and close proximity to Xtra's servers and mark a bit of territory. I wonder if I can talk her into driving me over..........

Strange Laws

If you think we have some silly laws then a look at these.

I have to ask:
Does getting a fish drunk make them easier to catch?
If so how do I go about it? :P

New Zealand Airforce

Piggy Muldoon's Masterton based sign writer has a point. The only aircraft flying in and out of Whenuapai these days are Orions, Hercules and a Boeing 757 with what looks like a white ribbon fern frond on its tail.

Come to think about it I am sure I saw an Air New Zealand aircraft heading that way a few months back.......

Return of the reservoir dogs

It's election time again soon, for local bodies that is.

Voting starts the end of September/early October.

Hoardings and other temporary signs are appearing in the usual spots, like the local reservoir, which raises the question:

If votes tend to go to the people with the most signs why don't more sign writers stand for election?

p.s. Apologies for the old photo

Cosgrove vs boy racers

Labour minister, Clayton Cosgrove is very anti boy racers.
No surprise there.
Now boy racers are staging a campaign against him and his move to have cars confiscated from non law-abiding boy racers.

The boy racers, again not surprisingly, aren't sticking to legal means of protest.

Odd how they just can't see why Cosgrove and a lot of other law abiding citizens are so against them. It's not as if they will have their beloved cars snatched off them if they don't break the law is it?

That tax cut carrot

Guess what, Cullen dangling that tax cut carrot again.
Labour isn't good at giving across the board tax cuts but next year is election year so......

Will an extra couple of dollars in your pay packet buy your vote?

Another flip flop

Don Brash may have been the master of the flip flop, John Key nearly as bad and the entire Labour caucus seem to have mastered the art as well.

I thought that was the extent of it. That the minor parties were free of the jandel effect.

Not so.

Winston Peters - he who does not want the baubles of office yet is Minister of Foreign Affairs is the latest flipper of the thong. First he is not trying to get a diplomatic post in the Cook Islands for a colleague then he is.

The debating chamber must be starting to look like a jandel factory.

New Zealand Government for sale

"Now Available to the highest bidder. Comes with a $67 billion budget and control over our armed forces, police, health, education and welfare systems, international policy and much more. The Electoral Finance Bill does nothing to stop you bidding anonymously, or through a secret trust, so get in."

The New Zealand government was for sale on TradeMe yesterday and I missed it!!!!!

My secretary can't be bothered searching through the zoo that passes for TradeMe community's general message board to find any references to it.

I have decided to get my own back by sampling the shaved ham for the kids lunches instead.

TradeMe pulled the plug on the auction by the time the bidding got to $6000. It seems that you can't sell the New Zealand Government on TradeMe. One must use another vehicle, like the business round table instead or a crackpot religious group with contacts instead.

Good try Steven Price.

Hot water

How green is the New Zealand Government? Not very it seems.

Near the end of last year the government set aside $15.5million to subsidise the installation of solar water heating systems. That is $500 worth of government assistance for people taking out a loan to install solar water heating.

Guess how many takers that have been to date?

Zip.
That's right, nobody, zero, zilch.

In fact there has even been a decline in the installation of solar water systems despite increasing electricity cost and all the publicity on climate change and the Kyoto Protocol.

It seems that in an effort to stop suppliers from upping the prices and effectively keeping the government hand out for themselves a price cap was set. The price cap is so low that no supplier can afford to sell a solar water system that qualifies for the government assistance.

A complete balls up really. I wonder who is going to land in the hot water this time?

The trouble with polls

The Problem - the latest poll puts National at 53% and Labour at only 36%. Better still it seems that John Key is now the preferred prime minister.

But how accurate are these polls? Only a thousand voters were sampled and there was an error margin of 3.1% which is more than United Future, Act and the Maori Party polled collectively.

In 1999 Labour formed a government after only polling 38% the day before which only goes to show, the only poll that matters in the one on election day.

I want a good photo editting program

I would love to edit this photo of my gorgeous self.
Can you imagine the prime minister or the media under my paw?
Heady stuff!

I want a photoshop program

Can you imagine what fun could be had with this photo of my gorgerous self?
Helen Clark or John Key under my paw?
Heady Stuff!

National needs to check its Key

The National Party is having it's conference. There current leader is John Key. That is all fine and dandy but given a quote directly from John Key's speech to party members I have to wonder if he knows that.

"Under a Labour Government I lead, child abusers will be severely punished."

Oh dear, how sad,
:D raoflmao

Country of Origin

Do you know where your food has come from?

This is an issue that the Green Party is concerned about, for good cause as it turns out.
Have you ever tried to work out where a tin of peaches has come from? Even those packed by Wattie's are to quote the label " made from local and imported ingredients". The sugar in the syrup may have been refined in New Zealand but it is not grown here but where are the peaches themselves from?

My favourite tin of Chef Jelly Meat (Beef and Kidney casserole, yum) is "manufactured by Heinz Wattie's New Zealand Ltd" and made from "meat by-products and meat derived from chicken, beef (including kidney); starch; fish by-product, vegetable protein; gelling agents; colourings; emulsifiers; flavour enhancers; essential minerals; vitamins and taurine." No mention where any of that came from.

Not even fresh fruit and vegetables are reliably labeled with the country of origin. Some of them aren't all that fresh either but that is nothing new. Storing apples and pumpkins, potatoes, onions and garlic has been done for centuries.

Why is this even an issue?

Food grown and manufactured overseas doesn't need to comply with the same rules and regulations as New Zealand grown and manufactured food.
If, for example, you knew that Chinese garlic was grown in ground contaminated by toxins would you chose to eat it? Can you tell the difference when you buy the garlic or consume it as part of a restaurant meal?

Food for thought huh?

Putting the tit where the mouth is

Breast is Best

We've all heard that slogan and now there is a bill proposing to give women (mothers) the right to breast feed where they like. There has been much comment about this from those who are perplexed as to why a law is needed in the first place to those who are worried that breastfeeding mothers will flaunt their naked boobs in public without attaching baby forthwith.

They have all missed the point.

I have been around enough babies to know it isn't the mother who decides when and where the baby gets fed.

It's the baby.

Any mother who doesn't ignore that is doing our eardrums a big favour.