Posts by Angus Robertson
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...to the demonstrated failure of the [No] Child Left Behind policy of frequent testing in the US.
Which is unlikely to change under Obama. But the Act will be rebranded so that the name is less jarringly hok'um. Shall look forward Huffington Post and TPM offering extensive praise, focusing on the superior kudos inherent in the Obama brand.
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Yup. Sums up the Sensible Sentencing Trust (and the ACT party) in one.
And where would the Greens be without Sue Bradford saving all New Zealand children from child abuse?
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I'm guessing by the mist outside my window, that we aren't going to be seeing a result in the Rose Bowl today. Which is a shame. And even more of a shame if you are a fan of portents because so far it's been foreshadowing the men's games.
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Rendition is now cool?
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I hear Slumdog Millionaire is quite good.
Not enough cars, guns and explosions. And the producers exploit 3rd world children. But mostly not actiony enough.
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But here's the thing: why was the minister making this private call in search of a resignation anyway? If he truly believed there was a public case for Thomson's departure, why not publicly say so? Why not, with all due attention to process, actually sack the guy?
Because if he does that and produces a set of snowball reports on the board then he might have no choice but to sack them all. A quiet resignation would be politically preferable to that kind of debacle.
Case in point:
The irony, of course, is that Ryall has also made great play of reinstating seven dismissed Hawke's Bay District Health Board members; reversing what he claimed was the unacceptable political interference of his predecessor, David Cunliffe in sacking them. But at least the HBDHB had demonstrably lost the plot: reports were commissioned into its dysfunctional performance; the minister issued a public warning to the board. It looks like a model of process...
...in how a minister can make his government look like overbearing schmucks and lose politcal support the local (Hawkes Bay or Otago - take your pick) electorate. Something a quiet resignation would have avoided.
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I'm also wondering how the police so succesfully diverted traffic that there was only one other car involved, by the end (apart from the truck and the van).
They didn't. The police are asking for a driver who passed in the outside lane moments before shots were fired.
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If you answered "a close competition" then you are in agreement with most sports fans around the world.
Say's who?
People really want to see the best playing at their best, "close competition" is something we only say we want - mostly when our team is losing.
Tiger Woods dominated golf for 3 years, it became seriously uncompetitive - ratings went up or down? Federer did the same for tennis. Schumacher in F1. Rossi in MotoGP. Chicago Bulls with Michael Jordan were dominant in the NBA.
The most prestigious, widely watched yachting regatta is the Americas Cup - competitive close racing or a series of mostly one sided romps pre-rigged to favour the defending syndicate?
People want to see skill. Even these statisticians have selected - MLB, NBA, Super14, EPL, NFL - the apex competitions of all club competitions. They have waved some bogus closeness wand over these, meh.
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Yeah, but what size block are we discussing here? I can get a 500gm block of house-brand Edam at Countdown for under $10.
An open block of this has been in the fridge for 6 months. Extremely good value compared to all the other blocks that have been consumed in the period.
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Sadly, the bill won't apply to national's MPs. But they wouldn't dare subject themselves to the same standards they want to impose on everybody else.
MPs can be dismissed from their party at any stage and may be constructively fired at 3 year intervals by demotion on their party list. Disciplinary action may be taken for expressing dissenting opinion, even if it has no direct impact on job performance. And all this is without recourse to any employment tribunal.
I do not feel your "sadness" that this isn't how all workers are governed.