Mossad 10; Iran 0?

Update 2:
Oh dear, does anyone really believe them? Looks like the Yids are onto a good thing.

Update:
Now AP is running the story. 60% of the 45,000 computers infected worldwide happen to be in Iran. How quaint that nearly all countries infected begin with the letter 'I.'



Adolf first saw this story two days ago on Pajamas Media where there was speculation Seimens Corporation might have been the source of the virus.

More interesting was the suggestion that in fact Mossad has delivered a mortal blow via the internet to Iran's nuclear capability by literally frying every computer which controls a centrifuge in their uranium enrichment plants. Sure as hell beats trying to bomb the bastards.



Even more interesting still was the notion that the Yids and the Krauts kept this one well and truly secret from the Americans as the Yanks could not have been trusted not to forewarn the barking mad Iranian regime.

One thing you can always rely on is Israel's ability to innovate and to use the element of surprise. History tells you that and this time it appears they have struck with a vengeance - and not one casualty. If true, this will be one of the stand out stories of clandestine warfare ever.

I must admit to having wondered many times at the reliance placed by modern military officers on electronics and GPS. In 1944 the critical factor was control of the air. Today it is control of satellites and cyberspace.

One has to ask, who really IS in control?

Question Time

What's the difference between a Nigerian drug dealer and a Canterbury DHB trick cyclist?

Nothing, actually.

The most amazing aspect of this story is that the DHB found his handling of patients to be entirely satisfactory.

Hell, just think what they could do if they employed bus drivers as brain surgeons? Be back into budgetary surplus before you could say sick sick sick sickyat aaah bugger it, bloody shrink.

A QUESTION FOR MR BROWN

Gueez ... all those TV ads in prime time must be costing you a fortune so, where's the dosh coming from?

Not the Labour Party because they admit they're flat broke and having to fight the Mana bi-election doesn't help one bit. Neither will the lawyers fees resulting from the Chris Carter debacle.

Not Owen Glenn after his experiences last time round.

That leaves the UNIONS and that leaves you beholden to them to the detriment of the ratepayers ... 'he who pays the piper etc'

Or might the dosh be coming out of the huge redundancy payment that you negotiated with the Manakau City Chief Executive (on the basis of 'one for me and one for you').

So many questions. So few answers.

A Bloody Good Effort!!

On behalf of DOC staff and expert helpers at Doubtless Bay.



This would have to have been a pretty dangerous enterprise for all those involved, expert perhaps, the whale.

Immediately after its release, the whale headed "steadily out to sea," Ms Smith said.

Well done!

Another Huge Aftershock

This one was felt today in Christchurch around noon and measured well over 7 on the sphincter scale.



Jom Anderton's sphincter, that is. And it was delivered by Labour's very own favorite polling company.


It looks as though richter mortis is setting for poor silly old Jim.

$90 Million Savings For Ratepayers

No, that's not the headline chosen by Radio Left Wing.

Here's their version of this great news.

More than 1500 to lose jobs in super city reform

What I'd like to know is how many ratepayers there are in the new Auckland City and how much of an individual saving for each of us is represented by that $90 million saving each and every year.

Labour Swings Axe...

....misses tree, hits knees.

Here's Labour's GST policy. Pretty unequivocal but nevertheless remarkable. They want to get rid of GST, so they said. Was it? Are you sure?




Hang on, you mean that's NOT what they say? Looks pretty clear to me. All those dumbarses (the thirty percenters) who vote Labour think they'll get a 12.5% pay rise when Goff gets in. That's was the purpose of the message, of course.

Here's Phil Goff with his axe in action yesterday.



Here's Phil Goff's itty bitty little tax axe.



Here's the tax he was going to axe with his little red socialist axe.



Hang on, you mean that's NOT what they say? They're NOT going to axe the tax? You mean they are now talking about MAXING the tax?

I can't find the link but only yesterday I saw somewhere a quote from Goff to the effect Labour would increase GST on non-food items to compensate for the removal of GST on so called healthy foods.

THE SAD FACE OF LABOUR X2

#1 To exempt fruit and vegetables from GST. FFS, is this the BEST Goff can offer after nearly two years in Opposition?

The morphing of GST from a 'clean' tax into a 'dirty' tax. And nary a mention on how the $250m loss in government revenue will impact .... less money for hospitals; schools, more borrowing ... so many questions, so few answers.

But did you see the smirking Cunliffe standing behind Goff at the announcement ... having set his leader up he is now waiting to put the knife in post the election when this policy will be consigned to the dustbin of history.

#2 The manner in which the NZEI Conference greeted the Minister of Education.

A 'Pavlovian' response in the best traditions of North Korea. Well, the Labour Party in Drag better get used to National Standards.

It was a KEY policy endorsed by the electorate and with the Government on 54% support and you on 32% ... it's not rocket science to figure out that you are pushing shit uphill.

Teachers are Public (Government) Servants. If they can't stomach what the Government is doing then they should at least have the moral courage to resign and seek alternative employment ... otherwise stand for Labour at the next election, get elected and change the policy.

Big ask I know to be tested and found wanting.

Labour, a headline looking for an issue. Teachers, an issue looking for a headline.

Retarded ideas of our time.

Create even more jobs for useless gobshites at IRD

Is this the best they have got?
Two years in opposition, one daft poof who will not go away, more corrupt Indians than a subcontinent changing shed, no apology for enabling and covering up for Taito, trying to reinflate Peters as a potential coalition partner and now a tax break on spuds.

This is not good, we need effective opposition. And NO, the greens are not opposition. Retreaded communists and unicorn collectors are never going to be a mainstream opposition which means Labour is it.
FFS, look at the nonsense national have got away with since they came in. We have Joyce trampling on our rights with even more grimness than the last lot, Simon FIGJAM Powers spending all day staring at the mirror, English doing........... Well, fucked if I know what he is doing actually and ACT.............. Shit, what can you say about ACT?

Sort it out Goff.
Contract Mansons to put Carter in a hole.
Vet all your Indian candidates properly.
Kick Winston and his fisheries/ horse racing paymasters into touch.
Stop listening to whatever spintard came up with the Kumara tax break and start being a proper opposition.
Recovery recovery recovery. That is what you and the collection of queers and union retreads need to start working on. A plan to repair the damage you did in a decade of spraying taxpayers money around like a mad ladies piss. Own your mistakes and work on a plan to fix things.

A few cents off a bag of onions is not going to get you back in charge, no matter how much taxpayers cash you waste on big red buses.

Workers Not Bludgers

Adolf ventured down country yesterday morning to insure a young Fijian Indian family against the financial ravages of premature death and or disability.

There was a moment of hilarity before we got down to business. I asked if I could visit the 'little boy's room,' and my client took me down the passage and opened the door to his five year old son's bed room. Oh, the traps of literal translation.

Anyway, after we had concluded the business of the day, we chatted about Fiji.

My client and his wife have been in NZ for four years, he working for the same farm owner the whole time, now managing a herd of 500 cows. His parents own and farm some 40 ha freehold land in Fiji, growing sugar cane. Here, he is paid $40k and has a nice comfortable but small home provided. She works down the road at a glass house complex for $12.75 per hour. They have three school aged children.

In four years they have saved a deposit of over $50k for a house and will apply for residency next year. Apparently five years employment history is significant.

You'd have to wonder how many of our indigenous brothers and sisters have worked their arses off and done as well in just four short years.

You see, part of the answer is "Ve are not drrrinking de alcohol and smoking de cigarettes."

I asked "What do you think of Mr Bainimarama?" The answer was unequivocal and surprisingly vehement.

"He is a werry Grreat Man. No more corruption. All gone. No more crime. All gone."

Now you know why the ordinary working people in Fiji don't want a return to democracy, Qarase style.

Why would you give people democracy when what they really need is a decent feed?

OH DEAR ADOLPH, YOU SURE UPSET THE ACTOIDS

with your latest post. I have said it before and I repeat it now that as a National supporter I want to see a strong and responsible ACT Party in coalition with us (and yes, as counter to any coalition partners we might have to our 'Left').

And the Hide and Boscowan ACT faction are exactly those people. They understand what is achievable and what is not and the fact that MMP politics requires all parties to compromise to a greater or lessor degree in order to achieve the possible.

The Douglas/Roy faction are by nature wreckers; incapable of recognising the reality of MMP politics. They would much prefer to see ACT remain ideologically 'pure' even if it means the destruction of ACT as a parliamentary force.

Consider this. It is acknowledged (by Rodney) that he, Roy, Douglas and Boscowan were all briefed on the Garrett false passport issue at the time Garrett was parachuted into their number five List spot. Question ... who 'leaked' the info to Espiner two weeks ago. Certainly not Hide, Boscowan or Garrett. That leaves only Douglas and Roy and the motive ... utu for the dumping of Roy and a further attempt to destabilise/depose Hide.

And a side-bar to this. They were quite happy to break the suppression order still in force at that time in leaking the information. Question ... why shouldn't they be prosecuted exactly the same as Whaleoil.

ACT is better without those two. FFS, Phil Goff spends his waking hours waiting for Cunliffe to stick the knife in. Rodney doesn't need that distraction.

Finally Adolph and back to your post. Very few would see the Anglican church as captured by 'fundamentalists'. Captured by the Liberal elite yes ... and their adherents decrease by the minute as they walk away from a Church where PC rules supreme and bugger the 'Confession of Faith'.

CAPTION CONTEST

To Start ... The public respond to 'Mayor' Brown's decision to introduce congestion pricing in the Auckland CBD.

Fundamentalists

All fundamentalists are dangerous. They come in many guises:-

• Christian fundamentalists, for whom the Bible starts and ends with the book of Leviticus. They are referred to in scripture as Zealots and are to be found today largely in protestant churches which call them selves 'bible based,' implying that anyone who doesn't agree with their hard line literal beliefs is somehow not 'bible' based.
• Islamo fundamentalists, for whom lying to and killing non believers is OK because some child molester said so 800 years ago.
• ACT Party fundamentalists, for whom nothing the National Party ever does can meet with approval because it should have been done yesterday and anyway Roger didn't suggest it.
• Greens Party activists who regard all other humans as earth destroying vermin who should be culled in order to make room for more frogs and snails.

The funny thing about Christian fundamentalists is that they talk big about grace, love and compassion but when you watch them in action there is no resemblance whatever to the genuine grace, love and compassion demonstrated by Jesus Christ when he was wandering around the Middle East two thousand years ago. They are the ecclesiastical version of socialists and some go very close to being national socialists. They know best what everyone else should do and woe betide any person who dares to indulge in original thought or to question their orthodoxy.

ACT Party fundamentalists are a little different but not much. They worship Roger Douglas. God knows where they will go for policy when he's dead for not one of them appears to have an ounce of initiative or original thought. Perhaps they'll rescue his lamb skin rug from parliament and create their very own Shroud of Reform . If you look really closely you will see the distinctive features of the once prominent Douglas derriere. (The Douglarse)

Sadly, it appears to Adolf that the protestant churches in New Zealand are being taken over by fundamentalists. The result is that many people are leaving these institutions in droves. Their departure is hailed by some as a move away from Christian faith but I think it is more to do with a rejection of the institutions themselves. Most people don't make a fuss, they quietly leave and never return. Just like they do in a restaurant.

Fortunately for temporal New Zealand, the fundies are not doing so well in politics. The vast majority of ordinary hard working Kiwis are centrists politically. Not for them the strident caterwauling of the rabid Actoids or the loony schemes of the demented Greens. No, most Kiwis are damned pleased to see co-operation between the Maori Party, ACT and National. They are intelligent enough to know that such an arrangement ensures the excesses of ACT or Maori Party policy will never get a run while the bland same old same old so beloved by some elements within National gets a bit of a hurry up.

Adolf is all for the principle of MMP but he'd like to see it tidied up so that the political fundamentalists from all sides are emasculated while the pragmatists from ACT, Greens (if they have any) and Maori Party continue to thrive.

What about New Zealand First? I hear you ask.

Well, fundamentally they are fundamentalist liars.

ON SKYHAWKS AND THINGS

I usually stay clear of commenting on things military. My time in the sun is long gone and I am conscious that I am no longer up with the state of the play ... I far prefer to advocate on matters concerning Veterans and on which I have some small knowledge.

But the shambles of the on again, off again Skyhawk disposal that was Labour's legacy does deserve comment. Latest reports has the cost in the order of $145+ million and counting.

First Point. At the time Labour decided to scrap the air combat wing they were prevented from selling the fleet because of restrictions imposed by the US. That Labour was so out of favour with firstly the Bush Snr and the later Bill Clinton administrations this took years to work through by which time the value of the aircraft was diminishing by the day and remember always that 'She' had labelled the aircraft as "clapped out" (hardly a welcome endorsement for a potential buyer).

Second. And then Labour with a great fanfare announced that they has secured a deal with Tactical Air Services which went on and on and on and on .... and we well remember Phil Goff's breathless statement just before the 2006 election that it was a done deal and then it went on and on and on because it wasn't a done deal and never was.

Tactical Air Services is now revealed as a toothless tiger short of the readies. Sort of a company that would offer you the Sydney Harbour Bridge at a price and fail to deliver.

And all the while the poor old NZ taxpayer was picking up the tab for maintaining aircraft whose book value had been written down to zero.

Just how many hip operations can you buy for $145m and why did Labour ever really think Tactical Air Services would do the deal. So many questions and so few answers although I know I would never trust Phil G to organise a piss up in a brewery.

The Government has it about right in deciding to cut their losses and offer them up as museum pieces.

And as for those academic worthies who are calling for the Macchi jet trainers to be recommissioned as some sort of make believe. poor mans, strike force I say back to your Chardonnay quaffing. The Macchi are a trainer FFS ... with some well documented engine problems. And even if you were prepared to commit the hundreds of millions necessary to resurrect them then all you would be doing is training pilots to be poached by other air forces at the first opportunity.

I disagreed with the scrapping of the air combat force but it's a done deal with the support infrastructure long gone and you can't wind back the clock.

Continued Good Times

Fonterra has announced its second highest ever dairy payout and, more importantly, a significant reduction in it's gearing resulting from the earlier decision to allow limited trading of its shares by farmers. Coincidentally, last nights international auction saw prices rise a further 1.9%.

Any cow cocky who is struggling to pay his interest bill under these blissfully generous conditions deserves to be sold up and the banker who lent him the money deserves to take a bath.

Panic in Upper Hutt

A business has been evacuated.

One is not told what sort of business.

I hope it's not a bakery

It's raining

Dad asked me about the history of beached whales and I found this. Truly classic

http://www.theexplodingwhale.com/evidence/the-video/

ACT Joins Labour

Poor Roger Douglas.

The silly old goat is about to find out what Filk Off already knows.

Nobody's listening. Especially when your party is polling at 1% and you are showing your true colours - those of a destructive and disruptive loner who has never worked within a team and never will.

People are turned off by this strident same old same old tired Actoid silver bullet stuff churned out now by the redoubtable John Ansell who doesn't seem to know how to pick losers.

John Key is quite right to relegate Douglas to the same back paddock as Peters.

Adolf is having quite a chuckle at the discomfort of all those fundamentalist Actoids who have been screaming for the PM to be resolute and decisive.

Well, you got your wish. He's just drop kicked Roger Douglas into the crowd, never to be seen again. The game will continue with a new ball.

TV3 link Labour candidate to voting fraud

TV3 have discovered a big coincidence in the voting fraud allegations in South Auckland. Here's the video clip of the TV3 story.

1. The work offices of the Labour candidate Daljit Singh were raided under search warrant by the police.
3. Indo Spice World, a business in Papatoetoe was also visited. Coincidentally, a political support car for Daljit Singh was parked outsid at the time TV3 visited.
3. The owner of Indo Spice World is also the owner of one of the Papatoetoe houses where 40 plus voters were found to have been enrolled.

Someone's going to jail.

Futile and Puny

Adolf happened to see a little of Question Time yesterday as some little known short arse attempted to trip up the PM over wording in the cabinet manual. My immediate reaction was 'futile and puny.' Kinda sums up Labour really.

The Herald belatedly takes up the theme and prints some of Goff's ridiculous hyperbole.

This is the party whose administration's:-

• own leader was found guilty of prima facie fraud and then conspired to have the evidence destroyed.
• own leader demanded an excessively high speed dash through Canterbury to make a photo op and then blamed her drivers and wrecked their careers.
• own leader embezzled $850,000 tax payer funds for personal political aggrandizement and then legislated to make her crime legal.
  
• minister is now in jail for taking bribes in the performance of ministerial duties and was not sacked until he murmured he might stand as an independent.
  
• minister taped a school boys hands to the table and stuffed a tennis ball in his mouth and who regularly perved on teenage school girls.
• cabinet minister (now party leader) showed the good judgment of having his photo published world wide showing him holding hands with the world's most notorious, murderous and bloodthirsty terrorist.
• minister granted residency and special citizenship to a known Chinese gangster in return for massive donations to the party coffers.
• two ministers conspired to sack a lawful DHB to hide the shady and corrupt dealings of one of those ministers' spouses.
• foreign minister lied to the public about his party's donations; lied to the PM about his party's donations; lied to the privileges committee about his party's donations; and embezzled $158,000 tax payer funds which have yet to be repaid.

The page is not long enough to document ALL the appalling and egregious ethical and judgmental lapses of the Clark Cullen Goff administration.

Yet this intellectual dwarf accuses Rodney Hide of poor judgment and a 'cover up' when, to paraphrase Helen Clark's own words, 'All he is guilty of is obeying a judicial order for name suppression.'

Even the Herald got that bit right.

He was granted permanent name suppression, which was later lifted.

Some cover up it is when he made sure to tell all the members of his caucus. Apparently none of them said boo, so where are they all now?

Allegations of voting fraud in South Auckland

The Veteran's post underneath couldn't have been better timed.

Police are swarming all over South Auckland with news that voting irregularities and outright fraud have been alleged.

Homes and businesses have been raided, according to the Stuff website.

In a previous Herald article the other week, Labour candidate Daljit Singh denied involvement in any voting fraud.

No doubt the police have been closely looking at the various allegations, and have sniffed around the obvious places where fraud might take place, either at a candidate's home, their neighbours, or any friends or relatives who live locally.

Any number of recent registrations at those homes will be a clear sign that something is amiss.

POSTAL VOTING IS A RORT

All of you registered to vote will have received your voting papers courtesy of NZ Post. We were over at our Paihia property at the weekend and in our mailbox were the papers for the previous occupants.

There are a lot of unoccupied houses in our street (holiday homes etc). Our next door neighbour's home falls into that category and they have asked us to check their mail which we did and low and behold another four voting papers for their long gone tenants. I suspect if I went along the street and checked the mailboxes of all unoccupied houses I would find many more.

So right now we have six additional voting papers. We will of course return them unopened to the Returning Officer.

But does everyone in that position play ball? I suspect not and especially in the 'dark' depths of South Auckland where rorting the (voting) system is elevated to art form status.

And that is why Postal Voting is a rort. A system designed to encourage 'participation'. Problem is the amount of participation. And the 'Left' love it.

Real democracy requires people to get off their arse and vote. In some countries they die for that. It's a small price to pay in order to get an honest result.

Postal voting is a rort and should be consigned to the dustbin of history.

Old Images, New Players

The sight of the coup d'etat unravelling the ACT Party brought to the TV screen of Adolf's mind a near forgotten image from a 1940s propaganda poster. I can't remember whether it was the Nazis or the Soviets. It depicted a small diverse group of civilians, all Caucasian of course, resolutely marching forward against a buffeting gale toward the sun lit hills of their brave new world order, beckoned on invitingly by their aging heroic great leader.

You could just see Roy, Earwig and Tashkent, gazing adoringly at a benignly smiling and inviting Roger Douglas.

They all fitted so well. These vain heroes, blindly striding off to inevitable defeat and death, underpinned by lies, deceit and treachery masquerading as virtue. (I couldn't find the one I remembered but these are pretty close.)




At the same time as these images were crowding in, a couple of wonderful old TV shows started their own little rerun. I found myself watching Dad's Army with a touch of The Last of The Summer Wine. There they all were, rushing around aimlessly, tilting at wills o the wisp and chasing windmills. The only difference of course, was that in the real TV shows, nobody got seriously hurt and there was always a happy ending.

Life and politics is not like that.

And our very own Dad's Army will find that out, come the morning after election day when they wake up and discover they have neither an electorate nor anywhere near five percent.

This Time It's Associated Press......

..... employing socialist educated children from Journalist School

A shooting has left several people dead at a hospital in southern Germany, and some people have been killed and wounded.

Reminds me of a conversation between a group of old blokes at Gisborne a couple of decades ago.

"I was talking to Joe at Bill Bloggs' funeral last week and he told me blah blah blah...."

Is that right? What happened to Bill Bloggs?

"Oh, he died."

The Nuclear Option?

Out of deference to my friends in the ACT Party, thus far I have refrained from posting on the train wreck created as its very own landmine exploded under its tracks this week.

However, John Armstrong this morning has published almost all I would have had to say.

Sadly, I too think this is the end of ACT. A party torn apart by internecine squabbling, the appointment of candidates who just were not up to the job and of late, I'm very sorry to say, leadership that was simply not up to standard. I'm afraid you just can't have a leader who regularly has to go public and tell people he screwed up. As you go into the polling place on election day your subconscious mind keeps asking you "What will he fuck up next?"

Armstrong highlights the risk for National in the demise of a reliable coalition partner on the right but equally National can't afford to be seen 'managing' or 'meddling in' ACT's affairs.

About the only thing that can save Act from extinction would be for Hide to step down and Don Brash - or someone of like stature - be installed as the party's leader outside Parliament while Boscawen retains the deputy-leadership inside......

.......Fanciful stuff maybe. But such lateral thinking is desperately required on Act's and National's part if Act is to survive and cater for a minority on the right, thereby allowing National more latitude to hug the centre.

That's the best piece of political analysis you'll ever see.

The insertion of Dr brash is the 'nuclear option' but Adolf can't see Dr Brash being silly enough to take it on. Why on earth would he want to endure the horrors of dealing with venomous fools like Roy, Tashcoff, Douglas, Earwig-Jones and Mallard? No, Dr Brash already has indicated a preference for a quieter relaxed lifestyle. Wise man.

The alternative is to let Act die and set up a new party on the right. That may be easier. For Act, the last 12 months have been disaster after disaster.

Now that's more like it! Such a party doesn't really need to be properly bedded in until the 2014 election and Epsom will provide the safety net for 2011.

Here, Adolf has some invaluable advice for the Gnats. Have John Boscowan resign from ACT and join a new party, standing for election in Epsom. Persuade Buck Shelford to be the party figurehead and put him in at No 1 on the list. His mere presence would ensure the magical five percent party vote. And the name of the new party?

THE BUCK PARTY

So Much Easier

Now Gillard will be able to just fly them in.

So much easier than those damn pesky boat trips.

Mother Mary you are an atheist.

What has the world come to when the self described libertarian leaning David Farrar is posting apologia in favour of the complete suspension of democracy and Chris Trotter is arguing against the increased power of the state.

I have to say that my own sympathy is with Chris Trotter. Like NOT PC I am conflicted. On the one hand a whole raft of regulation has been eliminated at a stroke in the name of faster recovery and economic growth. If we believe that why not apply it to all of New Zealand so we can catch up with Australia faster. On the other hand the rule of law has been suspended and some of the regulations were what ensured the damage was limited.

Auckland supercity election. Vote count update.

Labour -306
Everybody else 0

More name suppression excellence

Clearly it's vital that the women of NZ have this guy's identity kept from them - otherwise, where's his next victim going to come from? You've gotta give a sick fuck an even break, it's only fair.

IT IS NOT MY JOB TO DEFEND ACT MP

David Garrett, but I do think the media fixation on what appears to be a stupid prank undertaken by him over a quarter of a century ago (for which he was taken to Court and discharged without conviction) is somewhat unfortunate and entirely predictable.

You can read it here at Stuff

It would equate to my going on about Phil Goff's membership/dalliance with the Progressive Youth Movement back in the 1960s and their active support for the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War.

Both Garrett and Goff have moved on since then.

Watch Them All Run For Cover

Would you go to a dentist if you were suffering from a severe guts ache?

So why would you go to a bank to organise your house insurance?

Trading banks have been dicking around clipping the ticket on gullible clients' insurance business for years. They tried it with personal superannuation and failed. Who remembers ASB's massive advertising campaign claiming their staff were paid salaries therefore somehow clients would be better off? Trouble was their clients just couldn't seem ever to see any profits in their accounts and after three or four years ASB gave the game away.

This sorry story of ANZ incompetence demonstrates the need to have a specialist broker look after your house insurance. It is not something which you can glibly 'clip on' to the loan transaction.

Johnson said ANZ had organised their house insurance through Tower.

He said ANZ had asked the house's size, but when the couple said they did not know, the bank said it would find out for them.

Only 120sqm were recorded on the policy. It was not until a friend visited after the earthquake that they realised the house was much bigger.

In Adolf's view, on the face of information thus far available, the ANZ should be liable. It has given professional advice in an area for which it has no expertise and which is outside its competence.

QUESTIONS SO SIMPLE

that even our resident 'leftie' apologists should have no difficulty answering them.

The 'nice' Mr Goff has lambasted the recruiting agency; the New Zealand Defence Force and the Security Intelligence Service over the decision to employ Stephen Wilce as the Chief Defence Force Scientist now that investigations suggest he 'embellished' his C.V.

Question #1 ... Who was the Minister of Defence at the time of his employment.

Question #2 ... Who was the Minister in Charge of the SIS at that time of his employment.

Question #3 ... and just where does the buck stop.

p.s. And isn't it sad that Trevor Mallard appears incapable of undertaking even basic research in his pathetic attempt to link sometime National Party President, Michelle Boag, to the recruitment. Clearly he is a living example of the need for National Standards in Maths. Wise was employed five years ago. Boag joined the agency 3 years ago ... duhhhhhh

Smart Arse Liberal Elitists

Have you noticed how the self appointed elite who populate the Labour and Greens parties have been keeping pretty quiet lately about their recently much shouted wisdom of borrowing to pour money into the Cullen Fund?

They reckon Christcurch is a 'labour' city but I doubt there'd be much support there for that little piece of socialist insanity. Hell, it won't surprise me if Blenglish looks to 'direct' some of the Cullen Fund investment into the Christchurch recovery. You can imagine the howls and yells from the left and yet such is an eminently sensible thing to do.

The other amusing characteristic of the liberal elite commies was their habit of decrying anything which appeared on Fox News. Adolf well remembers the scorn and ridicule poured over Fox by the wankerati of the blogosphere five years ago when Adolf first poked his nose in to see what it was all about. That's where I first heard about Fox News.

Of course, all that was before Dan Rather destroyed the MSM and Fox grew it's ratings to outstrip the combined aggregate of ALL the other cable news channels so beloved and respected by those same wankerati. Since then the wankerati have seen their blackassed jackass installed in the White House by the same media who managed to persuade Americans to elect a symbol when they really needed a president. Coincidentally they have seen the Democrat Party flagship New York Times pretty much go bust.

It really is such joyous fun watching the whole corrupt, self centred arrogant artifice falling to bits in front of their very eyes.

Adolf is prepared to predict that Obama will not see out his four year term. He will be removed, most likely by way of successful challenge to his eligibility to hold office. The presidency would pass to Biden the Buffoon who would confound the whole world because even Biden himself hasn't a clue what he will say next, let alone what he said five minutes ago.

Perverse incentives

I didn't think I'd miss the previous govt. It was well past its use-by date, and for all that National indulges in a lot of nanny state enthusiasms, it has nothing on Labour when it comes to stuff like considering yourself in loco parentis over the grown-ups who elected you.

That said, there was one respect in which the last Labour administration had it all over National - it knew what to do with the tertiary education sector (unsurprising, given the backgrounds of much of its Cabinet). National, on the other hand, takes an approach to tertiary education that involves the application of Perverse Incentives, or as they prefer to call it, Performance Measurement.

It sounds reasonable enough - tertiary ed soaks up a huge wodge of taxpayer cash, and if you don't measure performance, how do you know whether you're getting value for money or not? Well, yes. Except that measuring universities' and polytechs' performance is a bit harder than establishing which salesman shifted the most appliances last year. With higher ed, you really need to have a good think about what behaviour you're going to encourage by rewarding it financially. So, an incoming National govt will naturally get experts in the field to advise them on appropriate performance measurement for it, right? Er, wrong. You see, people who have some knowledge of the sector are what right-wingers call "vested interests." Instead, it's apparently much more sensible to take advice on this from Treasury staff who know little of the sector other than that they went to university once, but who have full confidence that their ideology constitutes a magic toolbox equipped to offer sound advice on any public service.

So the last time National was in power, Treasury had a quick squizz at tertiary ed, decided that universities and polytechs are selling a product (education) to consumers (students), and therefore correct performance measurement = how many student consumers purchase your education product. The govt accordingly based funding on the ability to attract student enrolments.

This Perverse Incentive became known as the "bums on seats" model and had some predictable consequences: it became important that courses were popular and that they were easy enough that students didn't fail them; it was important to encroach on competitors' territories and try to lure their customers away; it was important for universities to diversify into polytechs' more popular fields of study and vice versa; it was important to direct taxpayers' money into TV ad campaigns aimed at bringing in more taxpayers' money; in fact, the only thing seemingly lacking in importance under this performance measurement regime was that students should receive a good education. I began working in the sector at the beginning of 1999 and could barely believe that a govt would pursue such lunacy. It was a positive relief when Labour was elected at the end of the year and promptly put a stop to my employer's next takeover bid.

So much for the unlamented 1990s. Few in National now would want to go back to the idiocy of bums-on-seats performance measurement, they have at least learnt that much. Unfortunately, they don't seem to have learned not to ask Treasury for advice on tertiary ed policy.

The latest performance measures have just been announced by TEC (Tertiary Education Commission). It's announced as though it's TEC's system, but in fact it's National's system, as suggested by the Treasury. TEC, being thoroughly knowledgable about the sector, counts as a "vested interest" and is therefore unwanted in the development of policy for it.

Tertiary Education Minister Stephen Joyce (the govt accepted a while back that the sector wouldn't take Anne Tolley seriously) is now measuring performance on completion rates rather than enrolments. Well, it is a better system - if only in the sense that breaking your leg is "better" than breaking your pelvis.

The idea behind this measurement is that the taxpayer is best served by tertiary ed institutions concentrating on turning school leavers into people with job qualifications. This means that institutions with young, internal, full-time students succeeding in courses that involve training for a particular career will be counted as a success. On the face of it, a laudable and sensible performance measure that few could describe as a Perverse Incentive, surely? Well, no. Because the flip side of it is that those institutions that indulge students in part-time study or extramural study, institutions that welcome mature students, re-trainers, second-chancers, people trying to fit study in around work or child-rearing, beneficiaries or prisoners trying to improve themselves and suchlike, will not only be appropriately financially punished for their contradiction of govt intent, but will be declared poor performers on a publicly available league table.

You can tell from the fact I'm grumpy about it that my institution is not looking any too flash on that league table. We're the national flagship for extramural study, which basically means we're in the shit. The Perverse Incentive is about to go into action - next year, the govt's view that extramural or part-time study is a Bad Thing will take tangible form in a serious cut in funding for my institution, and it will begin trying to divest itself of these Jonahs and replace them with full-time internal students fresh out of school. The president of our Extramural Students Society, Ralph Springett, summed it up thus: "It is ridiculous that students who avoid taking a student loan and work productively are the ones singled out as non-performers." Yes it is ridiculous, but that's Perverse Incentives - sorry, Performance Measurement for you. Welcome to another 9 years of tertiary ed buffoonery.

Labour Chardonnay Sippers' Lexicon

• Burka.................................... What Ruth Dyson needs to improve her personality
• Caucus.................................. Mountain range in Eastern Europe
• Conventions......................... What other parties observe to their detriment
• Death Watch........................ Vote counting in Mangere and Otara
• Deceit.................................... What de Labour candidate uses to win de election
• Dilute.................................... Di money from Parliamentary Services
• Disaster................................ What happened to the Labour activist who sat on the railway
  
• Disreputable........................ Dis Punjabi candidate from Papatoetoe
• Factions ............................... Where the Right knoweth not what the Left doeth - or when
  
• Flatulence............................ Labour Party owned apartment used by David Cunliffe.
• Florida.................................. Spiritual home of Darren Hughes
• Forward Planning............... Who will be ripped apart next week by the Speaker?
• Labour Party Funds........... Parliamentary Services
• LINO......................................Leader In Name Only
• Loggerheads........................ Labour Party activists
• Loyalty................................. The word which must never be spoken
• Maladjusted......................... Trevor after anger management course
• New Blood............................ Plasma transfusions from TVNZ
• Oxymoron............................ Brain damaged Labour voter
  
• Personality........................... What Ruth Dyson missed out on
• Points of Order................... Things the Speaker wishes Labour one day might understand.
• Quackery............................. Mallard's never ending repetitive questions to Anne Tolley
• Quorum................................ What you do to apples
• Soundbite............................. Goshe being crushed by Collins
• Temperamental.................. Trevor Mallard
• Turd from the left............... Irish Labour voter
• Voice Over (and over)........ David Cunliffe
• Well Rounded...................... Parekura and Nanaia

You'd Think Someone Would Have Told The Dope By Now

What a marvelous present the Blackass Jackass has given Democrat congressmen and senators on the anniversary of NineEleven.



He has guaranteed a one billion dollar loan to the Mexican national oil company so that it can expand its drilling activities in the Gulf of Mexico.

Well so what? You might ask. Well, this same president has banned US oil companies from drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, that's so what.

You don't need to be Karl Rove to work out how many oil industry workers in Southern USA have lost their jobs since this youthful and inexperienced president introduced his foolish moratorium on drilling in the Gulf. You can be sure they and their families will NOT be voting Democrat as they see their president handing off their jobs to Mexicans and then rubbing it in by funding the Mexicans with US tax dollars.

By hell, you'd need to be Einstein in reverse to think this latest move will not have the GOP and the Tea Party chortling onto their cornflakes this morning.

READ THIS AND WEEP

HEADLINE - 'Legal Aid for P Addict Lawyer who Defrauded Legal Aid'. You can read it all at ....

http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/legal-aid-p-addict-lawyer-who-defrauded-legal-aid-129837

and don't you just love the little bit at the end "Ironically, had Flewitt not been on legal aid at the (Lawyers and Conveyancers Disciplinary) Tribunal, he would have been liable to pay $1424 Law Society costs".

I'm sure this will generate a response from my very good friend 'The Realist'.

Never A Truer Word

Here's a very good exposition on the geology surrounding the Canterbury quake.



It's written by the ever reliable John Roughan but I wonder whether he knew how close he is here to an undeniable truism.

Canterbury, Otago and Southland are being carried in the opposite direction to the rest of the country.

Hmmmmmmmmmmm.

It's A Big House

Oh the cultural insensitivity of it. Fancy accusing these wonderful people of fraud! Really!



Fancy complaining about the notion that forty nine people might be living in one house. Judging by the photos there are at least twelve rooms and that's only four people per room.

By Punjabi standards that rates as a luxury apartment on the Gold Coast.

Don't they know it's the sardine vote?

Nearly all the 87 people listed as living at the first two properties, in Pembroke St and Puhinui Rd, have Indian surnames.

Four of the nine people standing for four seats on the Otara-Papatoetoe board are Indian - Daljit Singh and Sukhdev Singh Hundal of the Labour Party and Avtar Hans and Narinder Kumar Singla of the Citizens and Ratepayers group.

Now seriously folks. If they had been Koran wielding Muslim Ayrabs, would the oleaginous Herald have revealed their race? Not on your life.


Where is that Joris fellow?

Oh I See. No Travel Insurance?

Adolf wonders where the money is coming from for all the legal bills.

A woman goes on holiday to the US after having a flu jab in New Zealand. She is struck down by an illness allegedly related to the flu jab and is hospitalised in the US. Medical bill comes to NZ$250k.

After a full blown tirade about what a pack of bastards ACC is for refusing to pay, you find in the very last line that the cheeky bitch didn't have travel insurance. I kid you not.

He was unsure whether Mrs Cottle had travel insurance when she went on holiday.

Let her and her skin flint husband who wouldn't pay the premiums for cover in the US sell their bloody house and pay their own bloody way.

Heights Hitherto Unscaled

The blackassed Jackass continues his relentless pursuit of political irrelevance.



The volatility of the polling is of interest. This is a rolling three day average of likely voters so there needs to be a huge swing from one day to the next for a major change to be reflected in the poll result.

Date	Presidential Approval Index	Strongly Approve	Strongly Disapprove	Total Approve	Total Disapprove
9/09/2010	-24	23%	47%	41%	58%
9/08/2010	-18	26%	44%	45%	54%
9/07/2010	-18	27%	45%	45%	55%
9/06/2010	-20	26%	46%	45%	54%
9/05/2010	-23	24%	47%	42%	57%
9/04/2010	-21	24%	45%	42%	56%

However, volatile or not volatile, the trend is inexorably pointing to the end of the road for this fraudster in November.

The only question remaining is 'Can he make it to net disapproval of 30%?

FREEDOM IS NOT AND NEVER HAS BEEN ABSOLUTE

In exercising those freedoms one is required to act responsibly. Where that freedom is abused then condemnation follows just as surely as night follows day.

And so it is that the intention of American Pastor Terry Jones to burn 200 copies of the Quran on the anniversary of 9/11 can be rightly condemned.

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/08/florida-pastor-says-koran-burning-still-on/

All religions (like political parties) have their rogue elements. Jones qualifies as such because his action gives aid and comfort to radical Islam and will undoubtedly put the lives of western soldiers and civilians further at risk.

Just as during WW2 when members of the British Union of Fascists were
interned under Regulation 18B as posing a danger to the war effort so similar legislation should be enacted to sideline the likes of Pastor Jones (and those 'Western' Muslim Clerics who equally abuse 'freedom' by calling for Jihad against the infidel majority in their respective countries).

I end where I started. Freedom is not and never has been absolute.

Triple A Rated Mayor

During World War Two, American airmen over Europe used the term to describe what the Poms call flack. Fire from AntiAircraft Artillery

In modern times the term is used as a measure of credit rating.

On Auckland's North Shore it is applied to one of the Mayoral candidates

Arrogant Alcoholic Arsehole

Ratings by Absolut.

If you're not careful Whaleoil, you might win this damned thing!

"Anti-fascists" grotesquely misnamed as usual

It doesn't take a huge amount of imagination to figure out how differently "700 bodies found in WWII grave" would be reported if the murderers had been fascists, rather than communists, or "anti-fascists seeking revenge on Nazi collaborators" as AP disarmingly puts it without even chucking an "alleged" in there. (Not that there's anyone around to allege anything about the victims, the journos just pull this stuff out of their arses because the alternative is to accept that there were two murderous totalitarian ideologies fighting in WWII, and we allied ourselves with one of them.)

The Telegraph has more on this evidence of the heroic victory of the "anti-fascists," including the information that "Slovenia alone has an estimated 600 mass graves containing the remains of at least 100,000 people." Hooray for our side!

TV3 SUX

Mostly I despair at the quality of NZ TV news.

I do however give kudos to TV1 for its coverage of the
Canterbury quake throughout the Saturday.

Equally, I condemn TV3 for not having the wit nor intelligence to 'pull' their continuous run of infomercials that morning to cover the developing situation.

And now in a further demonstration of insensitivity and crass stupidity the TV3 website is promoting as its lead article coverage of another website that alleges ChCh Mayor Bob Parker 'engineered' the quake. See

http://http//www.3news.co.nz/Bizarre-website-claims-mayor-caused-earthquake/tabid/423/articleID/174708/Default.aspx

Yes, the site may be a spoof. Equally, this is not the time to give it oxygen.

TV3, you've blown it yet again.

IT GIVES ME NO GREAT SATISFACTION

to know that I called the Australian election (almost) right. Labor will form the next Government. Where I got it wrong was to opine that Bob Katter would stand aloof. Instead he opted for Tony Abbot.

The rather rambling speeches by both Katter and Rob Oakeshott in justifying their respective positions give a sense that this is likely to be 'interesting times' for the Oz body politik. Tony Windsor and Oakeshott especially will have difficulty in justifying unpopular decisions of the Gillard Government (and there will be many) to their respective (essentially conservative) constituencies.

I discount the influence of the Senate. Many Oz Governments have had to deal with a hostile Senate (in this case only 8 months).

The real action with be in the Lower House and that is where the fun begins.

Pots, Kettles and Maoris

There's a small enclave in the far north which harbours some of the most extreme Maori radicalism to be found in New Zealand. Some of its flag bearers include the ratbag Professor Margaret Mutu and the blowhard John Hatfield, alias Hone Harawira.

Today's Herald gave them a lift along the way with this puff piece.

Read between the lines and wonder why six long years is not enough for Maori to prove their long term ties to a piece of foreshore. Funny thing is, that was plenty long enough for the Allies to defeat Hitler and the Japs. Here's what Haami Piripi had to say.

"It's an evil little piece of legislation.

"What it forces iwi to do is to spend thousands of dollars on historical research; that's before you even know if you have a winnable case.

"The fact that there's a six-year time limit just serves to lock out iwi."

An evil little comment from an venal little tribe, if you ask me.

What he really is saying, I think, is that it will take him and his mates in academe more than six years to cook up the 'newly found' oral history necessary to convince a gullible court that he and his mates should be given half the coastline of Northland.

Chasing Its Tail

The Commerce Commission chairman should be summarily dismissed.



While finance companies blithely advertised multi million dollar lies the Commerce Commission ignored them because it was too busy prosecuting Shell Company for telling the truth about its products.

However, Judge Michael Behrens, in a decision released today, dismissed the charges, saying the evidence did not make him think Shell was guilty.

Shell's claim was literally true and there was no doubt the petrol was designed to take the motorist further, he said.

Adolf hopes Shell sends a stiff lawyers letter to the Herald over its own disgracefully misleading headline.

Shell cleared over misleading claims

At It Again

Will somebody please tell The Herald this is a bulldozer:



And THIS is a digger:

Video Demolition begins in central Christchurch (1:12) The bulldozers move in to demolish unsafe buildings in the centre of Christchurch following a major earthquake.

Who Would Have Guessed?

Sometimes little gems are found in amongst the dross.

Here's one from Reserve Bank Governor Bollard in today's Herald.

New Zealand officials set about devising a local version, with a cap and with a risk-based fee for the institutions covered.

But the more Finance Minister Michael Cullen heard about the likely parameters of the Australian scheme the more concerned he became, Bollard recalls.

Article continues below

"He now wanted to introduce a more generous guarantee, as the Australian one apparently would be. He thought the scheme should have free entry ... Such a plan would be very costly and would leave the way open for entrepreneurial finance companies to undertake risky investments at taxpayers' expense."

So now you know. It was MICHAEL CULLEN who let South Canterbury Finance in for a free ride on the tax payer.

A New Low

Look what a vapid speech from the Oval Office can do for you.

SERIOUS QUESTION - AND I DON'T HAVE THE ANSWER

In the wake of yesterday's earthquake there are likely to a substantial number of home owners (let's for the moment restrict this to home owners) who are under insured or have no insurance at all.

Some of those homes will have to be demolished while others will require a substantial rebuild.

Question .... does society have a responsibility to help those who by omission or commission have contributed to their own misfortune?

Well we do in many other instances i.e. the drunk driver who injures him/herself.

Do we just say to the family involved "on your bike down to the nearest HNZ office and get your name on the waiting list and buy a tent until your number comes up" or, should the State adopt a much more proactive and innovative response such as offering suspensory loans, secured against the property (where sufficient equity remains) to be repayed at some future date.

Not easy and I can think of as many cons as pros.

Interested in your thoughts though.

Now That IS Funny

No, not the chewed down finger nails.



The front page of The Adelaide Advertiser, courtesy of Tim Blair.

Reality TV

I see the 'half breed Ayrab freak' in the White House is attempting to persuade the Israeli PM to make concessions to his neighboring Arab terrorists BEFORE they come together for 'negotiations.'

Here's what Mr Netanyahu should say to the worst ever president of the US.

"Mr Obama, here is a message for your friend Mr Abbas and his mates from Hamas and Iran.

We know where every weapons cache is in Gaza. Yes, the ones you have hidden in schools, hospitals and residential apartment blocks.

From today onwards we are regarding these as legitimate targets. I invite you to view this little hand held TV screen on which you can see one such arms store. This one is in a school and as we watch live you will see the result of an unfortunate accident within the arms dump.

"pause................ "boom."

There will be one such tragic accident in Gaza every day until your friends publicly affirm Israel's right to exist and publicly renounce terrorism against the people of Israel.

Then we will talk.

IS THIS THE VETERAN UNMASKED? - CAPTION CONTEST

What Price The Guarantee?

Amongst all the blog, talk back, letters to the editor and other hysteria surrounding the invoking of the Retail Deposit Guarantee for the benefit of SCF depositors (note, NOT for the benefit of SCF shareholders or directors) there is a huge vacuum where there should be informed and reliable commentary on the benefits New Zealanders have enjoyed as a result of the guarantee's existence.

I sincerely hope Fran O'Sullivan reads this and produces an authoritative and professional dissertation. Meanwhile Adolf will attempt a few amateur guesses at what might have been, had Cullen, Key and English not acted responsibly and astutely in times of crisis.

Michael Cullen introduced the scheme to stop a massive withdrawal of capital from New Zealand by foreign investors on whom we rely for the nation's working capital. We rely on them because too many brainless New Zelanders have all their investment eggs in residential property which in turn earns the nation not one penny of real (export) earnings.

Adolf is a rural valuer by profession so let's try and attach some values to the consequences of such a capital flight in late 2008.

• The banks would have immediately stopped All lending and would have called in many loans prematurely as they struggled to maintain their prudential capital ratios as required by the Reserve Bank. As a result businesses would have immediately ceased all investment and employment with many shedding staff. The cost to the taxpayer in loss of taxation revenue and increase in social welfare? Maybe $2 billion in 2009.

• Our international credit rating would immediately have been downgraded to junk status, resulting in a two, three or more percentage point increase in the cost of servicing our existing overseas gummint debt. The cost to the tax payer? Maybe $1.8 billion in 2009.

• A massive number of skilled people would have fled to Australia. Let's imagine an extra 20,000 more than usual with 15,000 of them wage and salary earners paying on average $15 k tax. The cost to the tax payer? Maybe $0.25 billion in 2009.

• As business and household spending contracted sharply amidst general panic and uncertainty, the nations GDP would have plummeted with resultant huge reductions in company tax and GST revenue as we moved into severe recession. The cost to the tax payer? Maybe $4.0 billion in 2009?

• The gummint is forced to borrow heavily at high rates just to pay the extra unemployment benefits created by this sudden recession. The cost to the tax payer for the interest and principal? Maybe $2.0 billion in 2009?

So there's ten billion in 2009. It goes on and on and on and that's just the first year.

Just as the decision to bomb Hiroshima in 1945 caused the deaths of half a million people in return for the lives of three million, the decision to put in place the retail deposit guarantee scheme was the choice of the lesser of two evils. Some potential for minor fiscal pain instead of the inevitable cataclysmic upheaval which was the alternative.

People should not forget that if corporate doctor Maier had succeed in putting together a recapitalisation of SCF, the guarantee would not have been invoked and nobody would have said boo. That is why the gummint and the officials allowed SCF to remain in the guarantee system for so long, even though all was not well. It would have been irresponsible to have pulled the plug while there was a reasonable chance that the guarantee would not be needed. As soon as that last chance evaporated, the receivers were called in.

Talk of an electoral backlash is nothing but arrant nonsense from people who should know better. Instead, we have seen an example of superb economic management in the best interests of all New Zealanders, most of whom are intelligent enough to see the reality, notwithstanding many in the the media's best efforts to talk up a nonexistent disaster.

OZ ELECTION, IT'S ALL OVER BAR THE SHOUTING - FOR NOW

It gives no pleasure to the Veteran that he correctly called the 'Hung Parliament'. It gives no pleasure to the Veteran that he correctly called that Gillard would form the next Government. Shades of NZ 2006.

The decision of Andrew Wilkie ('Independent' Denison) to support a Gillard Labor Government on confidence and supply should come at no great shock. After all, the last Liberal Government tried to put him in the slammer for 'leaking' on the Iraqi WMD issue coupled with the fact that he had previously been a member of the Greens and that Denison has long been a safe Labor electorate. Think too that Abbott's hamfisted offer to him of $1b for the rebuilding of the Royal Hobart Hospital smacked of desperation politics.

So that brings the tally to Labor 74 and the Coalition to 73 (if we include the WA National member Crook who has declared he will not take the Coalition Whip.

My betting is that Windsor (New England) and Oakshott (Lyne) will now climb on board the Labor Gravy Train (ignoring the wishes of their electorate which is basically conservative) bringing the Labor total to the magic number of 76. Bob Kater (Kennedy) will do a Walter Nash and sit on the fence and declare he is neither 'for or against'.

And now the fun begins.

The Cannibal Islands

Adolf and The Cook returned a week or so ago from their annual winter sojourn in Fiji.

Some impressions of the countryside and people of Nadi and its surrounds.

• Ordinary people are very happy with the administration of the military regime. For them, democracy equates with Qarase, corruption and bad roads.
• The roads are vastly improved compared with just a year ago.
• Saw a mechanical cane harvester at work which I have not seen in previous years.
• Denarau golf course was almost deserted. (Adolf played above himself!)
• Plantation Resort and Musket Cove were near full capacity - outside school holidays
• The big flash joints at Denarau appeared to be struggling.
• Out walking early I met school kids in uniform off to their School Cadets day. In Fiji people respect the military while in NZ we are taught by our masters to denigrate the military.
• The only people unhappy about the 'lack of democracy' in Fiji are a few beltway boofheads and journos in Wellington and Canberra. The rest of the world has passed them by.
  

All in all, I have the distinct impression Fiji is getting on reasonably well thank you, in spite of NZ and Australia's clumsy bullying. Money is pouring in from China and India while our influence in Fiji and the rest of the Pacific has been substantially diminished.

Fiji will have an election one day. When Fiji is ready and not before. It's called Fiji Time which is something Wellington simply doesn't understand.

New Zealand's handling of Fiji by both Labour and National ranks as one of our most spectacular foreign policy failures ever. We failed to make any difference to the end result and in the process of failure, suffered a massive reversal of influence and goodwill in our own back yard.

THIS FROM 'RIPLEY'S' BELIEVE IT OR NOT

During my latest sojourn 'across the ditch' I decided to take memsahib, sister, b-i-l and nephew out to dinner.
Found a nice restaurant on the shores of Lake Macquarie and enjoyed a very pleasant meal supplemented by a few bottles of NZ and Australian wine.

Came time to leave and I fronted the cashier proffering my Mastercard only to be told "No cards, no eftpos that will be $256 cash please".

Hmmmmmmm, don't make a point of carrying cash ever and that pile of dirty dishes mounting up in the kitchen was starting to look ominous. Back to the table and with everyone emptying their wallets, purses onto the table found we could muster $261. Went and paid defying the cashiers pointed stare at the 'tips' bottle.

So, if ever you feel the urge to dine at 'Paulies Restaurant' well, you have been warned.

Does anyone know of any other mid to good level restaurant in Australasia that doesn't take credit cards. Tell us as a public service.

WHERE'S THE BALANCE?

Last night viewers of TV1 were 'treated' to a shock horror expose of how Alex Banks (son of John Banks) might have contributed to the death of King's College student James Webster by egging him on with his drinking. To his absolute credit John Banks fronted up where others wouldn't and talked openly about how it had impacted on his family.

It was also revealed that he (Banks) had fronted to the Webster family.

At the end you were left with the feeling that the media were more interested in promoting this as some sort of anti Banks story.

Contrast this to the latest revelations concerning Mayoral aspirant Brown and his 'heaving' of Manukau Council staff directly from his office to contribute to his election campaign. In that respect I notice on another blog a lawyer has suggested this may constitute a corrupt practice.

So question .... why hasn't/doesn't the MSM and particularly TV1 pick up on this? Look forward to PM's defence of the indefensible.

Disclosure ... yes, the Veteran has a connection to King's College. Used to work there.

$250 Million Every Week

So we are reminded at every opportunity, tiresome time after time, by the mechanical mouths from the right and the lunatic loons from the left. They shout about the fact that the NACTionalMP gummint is continuing to borrow, as NZ slowly recovers from Michael Cullen's recession we didn't need to have.

Just like the irresponsible and incompetent media who today are turning cartwheels in an effort to sensationalize the SCF depositors guarantee pay out, these foolish people fail to tell you the other side to the story. You see, there ALWAYS is another side to their stories which remains undisclosed.

Adolf doubts any of these fundamentalist shouters or lazy reporters has ever read a set of accounts. Had they done so they would know the cost of the SCF guarantee is not $1.7 billion but rather some insignificant sum or perhaps even zero once the receivership is concluded.

It is just as well newspaper reporters don't run the economy. They cant even get simple maths roight. On one hand the Herald shrieks shock and horror over the 'bailout' costing every man woman and child $405 while Stuff informs us the cost per person is $372. These are the nations LEADING newspapers, folks.

But back to the notorious and much hyped $250 per week borrowing. It simply ain't true.

If you go to the gummint accounts for the twelve months to May 2010 you'll see the increase in borrowings was not $250 million per week.

No, the actual figure is $166 million per week. If some of the fundamentalist fools who populate blog comments threads had bothered to look they might have learned that a major part of current borrowing simply rolls over existing debt. It's called refinancing, chaps.

Perhaps the right wingers (stop borrowing, stop benefits, slash gummint expenditure, let the market sort it out) would have preferred to simply let a quarter of the population starve and resort to crime to survive and perhaps the leftist zealots would have ramped up the borrowing to $500 mil per week so as to pour paper money into a paper tiger called the Cullen fund.

Adolf congratulates John Key and Bill English for getting the balance pretty much right.

The fiscal and personal consequences of moving to any of the positions advocated by the unbalanced extremists would have made the 1930s look like a church picnic.