The Daily Blog Open Mic Thursday 14th May 2015

1. Yesterday morning RadioNZ National were quoting Paula Bennett as saying that ”HousingNZ could manage the State House properties in Tauraunga and Invercargill which will be sold off by the National Government”,

   Of course such a reported comment makes a mockery of the whole,(bullshit), reasoning put forward by National on why its hell bent on flogging off the State Housing portfolio,

   Supposedly ‘private providers’ can do a far better job of managing such a huge portfolio of property than what the staff at HousingNZ can according to everything the Government has so far said,

   This morning i went for a rummage through the RadioNZ website looking to provide a link to the reported comments made by Bennett,

   Surprise, surprise, i cannot find the particular item broadcast numerous times on ‘Morning Report’ yesterday morning,

   Perhaps i was hearing ‘things’???…

   • retrospective censorship?!…and not the first time link content has disappeared from the internet

     …I have in the past linked to an interview on radionz….only to find some days/weeks later that that to which my link refers to has disappeared…leaving a link in mid air referring to nothing

     …shows the Nacts are very sensitive imo…and quite unscrupulously indulging in censorship…not a good look in a democracy and what is supposed to be open and transparent government

     • Yes I was shocked once listening to Radio NZ when they censored a piece about the big craters appearing in thawing tundra in Siberia. The person talking mentioned the methane but this line was removed from the radio broadcast, as I had listened to the original uncensored version online I know that Radio NZ edited the methane connection line out. Why? Are we all frogs in the cooking pot now?

2. Reasons why Labour is not the Government 2#,

   The ‘flagship housing policy’,Labour proposed to build 150,000 ‘affordable’ houses and sell them to those who, (a)could raise the deposit, and (b),get a bank mortgage to buy these houses off of the Government,

   Now such a policy might have been maana from heaven to the children of the middle class in over-inflated cities like Auckland, but, to 40 percent of the electorate, those of us who will never have the wages or the hours of work to be able to save such a deposit or get such a mortgage this particular policy reeked of pandering to a select sliver of the middle class,

   Call it 2% politics, the basic maffmatics say that a 2% swing toward Labour in either 2011 or 2014 would have probably gained Labour the treasury benches,(in a coalition of course),so they went looking for that 2% among the children of the middle class finding it a little difficult to join the Monopoly game and get on ‘the property ladder’,

   For all i know Labour may have found them, gained the votes of that small sliver of the voting percentage, but, for every vote gained i would suggest that such 2% politics cost Labour votes from among the 40 plus percent of us who live and work in conditions of instability in both employment and housing best described as quicksand,

   When Labour begins to address the housing needs from those most in need among that 40 percent of us who live and work in that financial quicksand,(ie: the working class families with children who’s wages and hours of work leave them trapped paying 50-60% of their unstable earnings in rent),they may again begin to attract a significant % of the vote from among those who will not vote National, and, have had a gutfull of voting for the next ‘worse’ party which is how Labour is viewed by the missing million voters who enroll but do not vote,

   #1, in ‘reasons why Labour are not the Government’ was the policy of raising the age of superannuation entitlement…

3. This Pope is a goodie…another small victory for the Palestinians

   ‘Vatican officially recognizes Palestine, while Israel fumes’

   http://rt.com/news/258297-vatican-palestine-state-recognize/

   …”In 2012, the Vatican welcomed a decision by the UN General Assembly to recognize Palestine as a non-member observer state. However, the latest treaty is the first legal document between the Vatican and the state of Palestine, which can be considered as official diplomatic recognition.

   The treaty in question concerns the activity of the Catholic Church in Palestine. In April 2014, a Catholic Monastery was vandalized not far from the Israeli capital of Jerusalem in a hate crime carried out by Israelis. Slogans condemning peace talks with Palestine as well as graffiti disparaging Jesus and Mary was daubed on the walls….

   This is not the first time that Pope Francis has made a diplomatic decision that was not to everyone’s liking. In April, he honored the 100th anniversary of the slaughter of Armenians by Ottoman Turks and called it “the first genocide of the 20th century.”

   During a mass at the Armenian Catholic rite at Peter’s Basilica, the Pope said he had a duty to honor the innocent men, women, children, priests and bishops who were murdered by the Ottoman Turks.

   “Concealing or denying evil is like allowing a wound to keep bleeding without bandaging it,” said the pontiff.”

4. And while there’s an unfolding disaster in the Wellington region due to the bad weather hitting the area, msm continues to promote what it considers news!

   Newstalk ZB this morning, host Leighton Smith talks about his recent cruise around the Greek Islands and all the goodies that went with it!
   (Afternoon host Danny Watson, giving the crises some air time though)

   NZ Herald’s lunchtime headlines concentrate on the Graham McCready ponytail complaint being thrown out of court, while the disaster is given third headline space, further down the page!

   Good to know two major media news outlets have their priorities right! NOT!

5. Haven’t read comments, this might have been posted already. If not, prepare to be flabbergasted!

   http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11448772

   Some nice brainwashing care of those bastions of freedom of thought, the National Pardy!

6. @ Mary, its to expensive to have a decent MSM anymore. It has to be run on the smell of an oily rag now. Staff trimmed, work outsourced. No time or money for real reporting. And those in the business, put up and shut up in fear of losing their job.

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