Otaaaanoooooooo

Sigh

Hawke’s Bay have made comfortable work of their opening Shield challenge, producing a first half onslaught to account for Otago 41-0.

The match was effectively over after 40 minutes, the Magpies having run in five tries to lead 31-0 at the half. . . .

Word of the day

Douceur – a financial inducement or bribe; money given as a gratuity or tip.

Rural round-up

No need for capital gains tax – experts – Andrea Fox:

Labour’s proposal to introduce a capital gains tax will reduce farmland values and add a new layer of bureaucracy but will give farm business succession planning a positive boost, tax experts say.

However, mostly it would simply duplicate taxes already enshrined in income tax law, they said.

Labour’s election policy promotes a capital gains tax from 2016 on property sales, including farmland, though not the farm family home. 

The party is targeting property speculators in the housing market, but farmers would be affected. . . .

We’re mobile milking – Milking on the Moove:

I’ve been milking for 3 weeks now and it’s been a hectic 3 weeks. I’ve finally got a moment for a quick update.

I’m really happy with how the cowshed is operating. The second hand milking plant runs really well, the cows are walking on to the cowshed happily & I’ve learned how to manoeuvre the cowshed through gateways and up and down hills, while keeping both gateways & the cowshed in one piece.

It’s funny how over the last year I have thought about how to design various parts of the cowshed & pondered every little detail. Yet it only took 10 minutes of the first milking for me realise I had made mistakes with the layout of equipment etc.”>I’ll be honest, the first milking did not go to plan. I have bought 7 Heifer cows. They had just calved and they have never being milked before let alone on a mobile trailer with no yards to contain them. . .

Environment research focus for red meat sector – Sue O’Dowd:

An organisation funded by the country’s sheep and beef farmers is doing its best to help them deal with the juggernaut that is the environment, says a director.

Beef+Lamb NZ (B+L NZ) director Kirsten Bryant was addressing this week’s annual meeting of the Western North Island Farmer Council (WNIFC) in Stratford.

Increasingly, B+L NZ was turning its attention to helping farmers manage the challenges of the environment.

“It’s like digging a hole and throwing money into it,” she said.

“But it’s not a conversation we can avoid. We want outcomes that are great for sheep and beef farmers and to show leadership around environmental responsibilities.” . . .

 WEL change opens door to PWC shareholding – Jackie Harrigan:

Wool Growers are no longer the only group allowed to own shares in wool investment holding company Wool Equities Ltd (WEL).

A special WEL meeting on Friday changed the constitution to allow share ownership by any entity engaged in wool activities, including woolgrowers, grower groups, trading entities, and wool processors.

The change was sought to allow WEL to issue 5% of its equity to grower group Primary Wool Co-operative (PWC) for $50,000. . .

Scholarship win scores US beef industry conference – Gerald Piddock:

King Country rural professional James Bryan will travel to the United States next month after being selected as an ambassador at this year’s Five Nations Beef Alliance conference and young leaders programme.

Bryan beat 13 other applicants to win the Beef + Lamb New Zealand scholarship, which covered the full cost of travelling to and attending the conference, to be held in Corpus Christi and Austin, Texas in October.

The scholarship is offered annually to New Zealanders aged 22-32, who are working in, and have a passion for, the beef industry. . .

Sowing in New Zealand today and Harvesting with test plot harvester with weight measurement in Wales @farmersjournal pic.twitter.com/cQ2vtLQD3o

— SAMCO System (@samcosystem) September 13, 2014

Foulers cry foul

Internet Mana  is complaining about Prime Minister John Key’s decision to declassify documents which will prove accusations against him are baseless.

. . .In a joint statement, Mr Harawira and Ms Harre say the reported intention of the Prime Minister “to arrange the selective declassification and release of documents for his own political purposes” represents an abuse of the Prime Minister’s authority in his capacity as the Minister in charge of the GCSB and the SIS. . .

If the PM didn’t release documents they’d accuse him of hiding something but when he says he will release documents they’re still complaining.

This is a case of the foulers crying foul.

They’re the ones who’ve allowed themselves to be bought by Kim Dotcom who is doing his best to interfere in the election.

The PM not only has the right to release this he has a duty.

This isn’t just about him. It’s about New Zealand, New Zealanders and our security.

Those who don’t understand that should read Charles Finny’s excellent guest post at Kiwiblog:

. . .  The Labour Government that saw us through World War II, and those from 1957-60, 1972-75, 1984-90 and 1999-2008 have not sought to change our position in “five eyes” because the leaders and senior Ministers of those Governments have realized how lucky we are to be part of this agreement and knew how fundamental the intelligence derived from it was to the security of New Zealand.  Ultimately the most important function of government is to protect the people.  “Five eyes” plays a very important role in our ongoing security.  There was a wobble under Lange which saw New Zealand denied access to some processed intelligence from the US, but access to the raw communications intercepted by the four allies continued throughout.  Under Helen Clark the full flow of processed intelligence resumed.

I cannot believe what I have just heard David Cunliffe saying about GCSB today.  What we now call GCSB is as much a creation of Labour as it is the National Party.  It is crucial to our continuing security.  It protects us against the hostile actions of foreign governments, terrorist organizations, and international criminals.  Of course the same foreign governments, terrorist organizations and criminals hate the ‘’fives eyes agreement” and want it dismantled because it stands in their way.  I can’t believe that a Labour Leader would align himself with these forces and put this agreement and our position in it so much at risk.  If his senior colleagues do not call Cunliffe on this, shame on them too.  Our national security is too important to be put at risk by short term political opportunism.

Even when Helen Clark thought we lived in a benign strategic environment her government didn’t short-change  or subvert our security the way the left is now attempting to.

 

 

Young tomatoes

My grandma used to plant tomato seedlings in tin cans from tomato sauce & puree & crushed tomatoes she got from the Italian restaurant by her house, but she always soaked the labels off first. I don’t want them to be anxious about the future, she said. It’s not healthy.

©2014 Brian Andreas – published with permission.

If you’d like a daily dose of whimsy clicking on the link above will take you to where you can sign-up.

 

NZers want to work

New Zealanders want to work.

That requires a growing economy to sustain existing jobs and create new ones.

If those jobs are to be sustainable and pay well, wage rises must be based on productivity and profit not an election bribe by parties which haven’t learned to respect other people’s money.

Whose election is it?

Prime Minister John Key will declassify sensitive documents to prove the GCSB pulled the plug on plans to spy on New Zealanders.

The Prime Minister has admitted for the first time that New Zealand spies did look into a form of mass surveillance on Kiwis, but never actually went through with it.

John Key was responding to the arrival of journalist Glenn Greenwald, with thousands of documents taken by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden that he says prove New Zealanders have been subjected to wholesale spying by the Government.

Mr Key has always said that he would resign if that was proven, but tonight he’s launched a counterattack.

Mr Greenwald claims he will produce evidence that could take down the Prime Minister, but just a short while ago Mr Key hit back and upped the ante big time, promising to get ahead of Mr Greenwald and declassify top-secret documents that will prove him wrong.

Mr Key has repeatedly denied spy agency the GCSB conducts mass surveillance of New Zealanders, even saying he would resign if it were prove, and he was standing by that today. . .

“Kim Dotcom is a man who is trying to gerrymander the election,” says Mr Key. “He’s paying a guy who’s coming to New Zealand to make claims.”

Mr Greenwald denies he’s being paid by Kim Dotcom to be here and says he’s donating his fee to charity.

But Mr Key had little charity for Snowden, describing him as a hacker, not a whistleblower.

“Unfortunately he may have hacked some information, but not all of it,” says Mr Key.

Mr Key says that bit they missed is what he’s about to release.

Mr Key has admitted for the first time that yes, New Zealand spies did look into what he calls a “mass protection” option that he concedes could have been seen as “mass surveillance” or “wholesale spying”, but that, and this is the important bit, he says it never actually went ahead.

Mr Key has revealed that after two major cyber-attacks on New Zealand companies, in late 2011 and early 2012, the GCSB stared to look at options with the help of partner agencies like the NSA.

But Mr Key says this idea never got past the business case stage because he deemed it too invasive.

This was before the Snowden leaks, and Mr Key says the fact he said no is why he has been able to be so resolute that there was no mass spying on Kiwis. . .

Who do we believe?

The answer to that probably depends on our political views.

Those of us who know and trust the PM will believe him.

Those on the left of the spectrum won’t. They’ll back the hacker with the half-truths.

Those who aren’t political tragics might well be asking whose election is it?

Ours or that of a foreigner with a very dodgy background who’s admitted:

“I hacked our German credit rating system and put our Prime Minister’s credit rating to zero because I didn’t like the guy,” said Dotcom. “You have all figured by now there’s another Prime Minister I don’t like.”

Yesterday Paul Thomas wrote: Millions have been splashed out and a pigsty’s worth of mud slung but what have we actually learned from this election campaign?

. . . A number of individuals, ranging from Colin Craig at one end of the socio-political spectrum to the mystery hacker Rawshark at the other, have set out to influence this election in ways and to degrees not previously seen in this country.

History may show the overwhelming focus was on the least significant and troubling of the various interventions and that Whaledump was exactly that: a cloud of waste matter floating through the (air)waves.

Within hours we had revelations from another foreigner paid by Kim Dotcom in an attempt to influence the election

Accusations of big money buying elections usually come from the left.  How ironic that this time it is the puppets in Internet Mana who’ve allowed themselves to be bought.

Sunday soapbox

Sunday’s soapbox is yours to use as you will – within the bounds of decency and absence of defamation. You’re welcome to look back or forward, discuss issues of the moment, to pontificate, ponder or point us to something of interest, to educate, elucidate or entertain, amuse, bemuse or simply muse, but not abuse.

September 14 in history

81 Domitian became Emperor of the Roman Empire upon the death of his brother Titus.

786  Harun al-Rashid became the Abbasid caliph upon the death of his brother al-Hadi.

1180  Battle of Ishibashiyama in Japan.

1607 Flight of the Earls from Lough Swilly, Donegal, Ireland.

1682  Bishop Gore School, one of the oldest schools in Wales, was founded.

1752  The British Empire adopted the Gregorian calendar, skipping eleven days (the previous day was September 2).

1769 Alexander von Humboldt, German naturalist and explorer, was born (d. 1859).

1812  Napoleonic Wars: French grenadiers entered Moscow. The Fire of Moscow began as soon as Russian troops left the city.

1829 The Ottoman Empire signed the Treaty of Adrianople with Russia,  ending the Russo-Turkish War.

1847  Mexican-American War: Winfield Scott captured Mexico City.

1862  American Civil War: The Battle of South Mountain, part of the Maryland Campaign.

1864 Robert Cecil, 1st Viscount Cecil of Chelwood, English lawyer and politician, Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Nobel Prize laureate was born, (d. 1958).

1901 President  William McKinley died after an assassination attempt on September 6, and was succeeded by Theodore Roosevelt.

1917  Russia was officially proclaimed a republic.

1923 Miguel Primo de Rivera became dictator of Spain.

1938 The cornerstone of the first Labour government’s welfare policies, the Social Security Act, introduced revised pensions and extended benefits for families, invalids and the unemployed.

1944 World War II: Maastricht became the first Dutch city to be liberated by allied forces.

1947  Sam Neill, New Zealand actor, was born.

1948  Groundbreaking for the United Nations headquarters in New York City.

1953  Judy Playfair, Australian swimmer, was born.

1958  The first two German post-war rockets, designed by the German engineer Ernst Mohr, reached the upper atmosphere.

1959 The Soviet probe Luna 2 crashed onto the Moon, becoming the first man-made object to reach it.

1960 The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) was founded.

1961 Wendy Thomas, namesake of the eponymous restaurant (Wendy’s), was born.

1971 Jeff Loomis, American guitarist (Nevermore), was born.

1975 The first American saint, Elizabeth Ann Seton, was canonized by Pope Paul VI.

1982  President-elect of Lebanon, Bachir Gemayel, was assassinated.

1984 Joe Kittinger became the first person to fly a hot air balloon alone across the Atlantic Ocean.

1995 Body Worlds opened in Tokyo.

1998 Telecommunications companies MCI Communications and WorldCom completed their $37 billion merger to form MCI WorldCom.

2001  Historic National Prayer Service held at Washington National Cathedral for victims of the September 11 attacks. A similar service was held in Canada on Parliament Hill, the largest vigil ever held in the nation’s capital.

2003 In a referendum, Estonia approved joining the European Union.

2007 – Late-2000s financial crisis: The Northern Rock bank experienced the first bank run in the United Kingdom in 150 years.

2008 – All 88 people on board Aeroflot Flight 821 were killed when the plane crashed on approach to Perm Airport.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia