Well this guy has completely skewed the stats on his blog and showed up as the most popular blogger as he was overcome by spam as he had forgotten to turn on the word verification software meaning that spammers had run rife and posted many times on his blogs leaving him as the most commented BigPond Blogger Brilliance.

So not just is Connell now absent from Caucus it turns out he is also absent from his electorate. He does not live in his electorate and claims by persons from his electorate are that he doesn't stand for the electorate and his workload has been non-existant. Comparing Connell to Nick Smith as stuff has done shows these shocking figures.

Connell has produced just three press releases since entering Parliament in 2002. His last release was in September 2004. Nelson MP Nick Smith has put out 18 this year alone.

Connell has asked 14 written parliamentary questions this term. Smith asked 14 in May. (Figures c/o The Press)

Connell rejects these charges of absenteeism, but he would wouldn't he?
These figures are accurate and no MP should have such lowly figures as this MP does he has 3 press releases in 4 years, this is in comparison to Nick Smith with 18 this year. Thats 1 for every 24...Not on then we get Connell with 14 questions in the term of 12 months and Smith with 14 in one month so thats 1 for every 12. These figures seem almost outrageous.

How has he got away with so much?? he is representing an electorate but never there he is in Parliament, but doesn't do anything, he abuses his leaders publicly, and he has a shocking Haircut.

I say out with Connell

The Greens have come out and said they think there should be Nutritional labelling of Fast Food, I personally agree with them, as stated many times on this blog I don't normally agree with the Greens on anything, but in this case they make a very good point. Why is Fast Food exempt???

I can agree with this, but I don't agree with regulating the food market as stated in several posts.

Delays in hearings coming to court are getting longer and longer. the average waits for a case to come to trial have jumped, thye worst case being Palmerston North where the average wait for a case to appear in the High Court has lengthened to 248 days, with one case taking 557 days to come to trial.

This is getting horrendous with pain and suffering for both the accused and the victims, and even the victims families and friends. I personally know of a case that the eventual wait is going to be close to 800days for a case to get to the Wellington High Court for trial...this is completely disgraceful in a Murder case.

My biggest problem with these waiting times is that if the police have got the wrong person accused of the crime and they get to the trial and are found not guilty then by the time it gets there all of a sudden the police are nearly 2 years behind in trying to use the evidence to find the right person who has had all this time to get away. Something seriously needs to be done about this and soon. Whether it means investing more money in the court system to get cases through quicker or more money into the police force to catch people quicker or more money into the corrections system to get more people in there.

Actually NO...i have the solution: Harsher Sentences these have been the solution all along. If you give out harsher sentences then you don't have so many repeat offenders as they are not out onto the streets so often, you don't get as many first time offenders as they are scared away by the length of sentence they will get and thirdly the courts won't then have as many cases to work through...Problem Solved

All this works simply because all humans are Rationalising Cost/Benefit Creatures at heart, when a person commits a crime they are weighing up the benefits against the possible costs and currently it seems that the benefits well and truly outweigh the costs, so its simple increase the costs and then you will have less crime.

"I'd trust a Brethren before I trusted a Labour Party member."
- Bob Clarkson

Good on ya Bob...

I think Bob Clarkson has a bad case of not knowing when to shut his mouth...

'Bob the Builder' backs Brethren

Two Bodies have been discovered in West Auckland, this just increases the deaths in West and South Auckland in the past few months.

It is getting completely out of hand. But see these 2 posts, The Police Know and Arrest the Fucker for my current opinion about the policing in New Zealand. I really think a lot of these problems lead from us having a joke of a corrections system and a useless Police Force that seem to care more about Revenue and Speeding than Serious assaults and Murders.

These two factors are just compounding an already serious problem.

Thanks to Jeremy for the heads up. But what follows is my opinion on the topic.

Well the gist of the arguement is that National is only ahead in the polls because Labours Blunders are seen to be bigger than Nationals. I agree in part with this but my thought would be more that while Labours blunders have been political of nature and affect the way they can do their job, most of Nationals blunders (with the exception of the Eclusive Brethren) have been personal of Nature and not affecting the way they can do their job. National as the opposition have attacked Labours policies and their Ministers on grounds that should make them unable to be trusted or to do their jobs. while Labour has attempted to throw mud at the National MP's personal lives.



The Exclusive Brethren To me the reporting on this topic has been extremely one-sided. I don't know what others think, but look at it fairly...Labour is kicking up a stink because they get less money donated. This is pretty much the truth of it. Labour gets donations from a lot of large groups, most collectively can be called "The Unions" but there are other groups as well. Yet Labour is kicking up a stink about the EB. This was way out of line until the PI allegations came up, this was finally mud that could stick without Labour being under the same cloud. But I wonder how did Labour discover this?? did they have a PI investigating the PI following the Labour MPs??

I think Labour needs to move out of its glasshouse before it throws stones.

Ok moving on, National does not appear to be the right combination currently to lead NZ after the next election and it has always been my belief that Don will not win the next election. So I shall name my "Front Bench aka Key Leaders for National" I believe that John Key is the right pick to lead the national party. behind him as Deputy I would pick Judith Collins as this will a) get more women attracted to National and secondly she has been one of the top players in this term in opposition. The other key members of a strong National front bench would have to be Katherine Rich, Bill English, Simon Power, Nick Smith, Gerry Brownlee, Lockwood Smith and Tony Ryall. This combination I believe would be able to lead the party to a victory in the next election. Then behind these are an excellent team still with Murray McCully, David Carter and Maurice Williamson pushing them hard.

Well so in my belief we need a change at the top...Not going to move to far as the key players are already there but dropping Don has to happen. As for Nationals Blunders lately well I have to say that they have handled them better than Labour and this is why they are ahead in the polls.

Jack Neal briefly became the proud owner of a pink convertible car after he managed to buy it for 9,000 pounds ($NZ25,900) on the Internet despite being only three years old.
Jack's mother told the BBC she had left her password for the eBay auction site in her computer and her son used the "buy it now" option to complete the purchase.
"Jack's a whiz on the PC and just pressed all the right buttons," Rachel Neal said.
The seller of the second-hand car, a dealer from Worcestershire, central England, was amused by the bid and agreed not to force the sale through.
"Luckily he saw the funny side and said he would re-advertise," Neal said.

Rodney Hide is to appear as a Calender model in a calender aimed to raise money for stray and mistreated cats. He will be appearing alongside other celebraties as the only MP.

Auckland Cat Rescue chairman Jennie Allan said the calendar would feature the "hottest and most high-profile New Zealand celebrities".

Ok this is a brilliant quote and one Rodney should definitely use. Go Rodney for making the next step and Spending a month on thousands of kiwis fridges good on ya. I want to know which month he will be getting.

Well it turns out the greens make a huge charge to try and save something yet admit that they never use it themselves almost all of them do not use the train service, The Overlander, at all.

Green MP Sue Kedgley said that, apart from a publicity trip last week, she had used the train three times in recent years to go to Ohakune.

Fellow MP Sue Bradford used the train as a young woman, "but not as an MP because of the way we live. It takes too long. But I love trains".

Nandor Tanczos could not remember the last time he took the Overlander but said he had taken the overnight train between Wellington and Auckland regularly "a few years ago". Working as an MP he did not have time anymore.

Metiria Turei last caught the train in the late 1990s but now lives in the South Island. "I used to travel on it a lot when I was living in Palmerston North and going to Wellington."

Green Party co-leader Russel Norman said he took the train to visit friends in National Park about a month ago but, other than that, he had not used it much. "The Overlander is too slow, it needs to be sped up."

None of them use the train...and they wonder why it is going to be closed down???

I agree with Gman on this it is complete Hypocrisy. If you are going to Champion something at least use it yourselves...

This just adds to my low opinion of the police which was brought even lower on Saturday night in Wellington Central, some little Maori (would've been about 16 or 17) decided I offended him by walking along the street so he turned around verbally abused me and followed this up with a Headbutt to the face, coming extremely close to breaking my nose. I went to the police when I next saw them on the street and the officer proceded to tell me that there was nothing he could do he wouldn't take a statement from me, he knew who the group of kids were and could I report it on Monday, this is disgusting, by Monday its too fucking late, on Saturday night especially if the cop knew who they were all he had to do was arrest them and put them in a line up so I could point out the right one. this is disgusting.

A Recurring theme the police know who did it but refuse to do anything about it...disgusting.

"We know who it is.""

The Police have come out and said they know who it is who killed the twins yet they still havenm't made the arrest. If they know arrest them and put them behind bars for the rest of their natural lives, this crime was one of the most atrotious in recent times. Yet this Family has covered it up for over 3 months...100 days as of yesterday, this is disgusting, in my opinion the police should've arrested every single member of the "tight 12" and charged them with obstruction of Justice and accessory after the fact. these two charges alone would have each of them in Jail for 2 months plus and would've resulted in one of them breaking by now.

Low opinion of police see my next post...

Google earth is now being used by internet tourists to see unusual sites and bring about conspiracy theories and as well as this lately people have been spotted sunbathing nude on rooftops and other places...this seems to me to be an abuse of the software but is quite dodgy and surely an invasion of privacy..but this is what people use this sort of technology for and we have known this for years yet it keeps getting more sophisticated.

I love Google Earth, and couldn't care less about the people getting caught, find it funny actually.

The Brilliant headline on 3 News last night. This is ridiculous, the only reason National banishes him is so they can keep his vote without having his say and having to go to a byelection or have an independent. This is almost as much of a pussy move as Labour does with its MPs who misbehave I don't understand why they don't just get some balls and get rid of this Rebel right now.
Story is here Oh and also just so everyone knows Connell is not going to take this opportunity to resign he is going to stay on and just sit on the backbench like he has been sent to the doghouse or is sleeping on the couch. I don't understand how they can continue to do this...there are too many MPs in parliament who are out of control.

Well the Levy has gone up to $120 on these results...

For 95
Against 47
Abstentions 2

I have done the maths and 95/144 is only 65.97%, but I am told abstentions don't count therefore it is passed with 66.9% support 95 vs 47, one vote is all the difference...

I was sent this bny my female flatmate found it quite amusing so thought I should post it and see what others think.

Sing to the tune of 'I Will Survive!

SING IT!!!

At first I was afraid, I was petrified.
When you said you had 10 inches, Lord I almost died!
But I'd spent so many years just waiting for a man that long,

That I grew strong, And I knew that I could take you on...
But there you are, another lie,
I was ready for a Big Mac and you've brought me a French Fry!
I should have known that it was bulls***t, just a sad pathetic dream
Should have known there was no Anaconda lurking in those jeans!

Go on now - go, ! Walk out the door, Don't you promise me 10 inches,
then turn up with only 4! Weren't you a brat to think I wouldn't find
you out!? Don't you know we're only joking when we say size don't
count??!!

[Chorus]

I will survive! I will survive!
Cuz as long as I have batteries,
My sex life's gonna thrive!
I will always have good sex, with a handful of latex!
I will survive! I will survive! Hey! Hey!

It took all my self control not to laugh out loud, When I saw your
little weiner standing tall and proud!

But to hell with your ego and to hell with all your needs, Now I'm
saving all my lovin' for a cordless multispeed!

[Chorus]

I will survive! I will survive!
Cuz as long as I have batteries,
My sex life's gonna thrive!
I will always have good sex,
With a handful of latex!
I will survive! I will survive! Hey! Hey!

Well I have just finished reading this pair of books by Dan Simmons and they are absolutely amazing. They are Sci-fi Fantasy set in the future but also with a side story involving the story of the fall of Troy and the Greek Gods. These books if you read them are attractive to all readers who enjoy a bit of history in their Sci-fi novels.

Is John Key the solution for National??

Well of the possibilities if Brash is removed I would say he is the best current option for the position, but only because Simon Power is too young. I would like to see a full clean out though, remove Brownlee as well, Collins would be my choice for Deputy in the current line-up.

Of course if Brash loses the leadership, he will probably also be asked to resign by his peers so as to bring in a fresh face, does anyone know who is next on Nationals list?? Would like to know cause that may affect my decision on this.

But right now My opinion is that he should be rolled and Key should take over. I don't want it done because of his private life issues, but He lost the last election lets have a fresh start and try again.

Well this story has been discussed for many years, and Investigate coming out with new 'proof' is no need this rumor will continue.

It all started back when Helen was told to marry or get out of politics as New Zealand would not accept a high ranking unmarried woman in parliament although this wouldn't be the case these days. The rumor flowed from this that Helen found herself one of her gay friends, Peter Davis, and married him to make herself appear respectable. This is nothing new and has been discussed for years, and every few years more 'proof' comes out, so to say.

Now everything I have stated here is nothing but rumors and hearsay, but all I'm saying is this has been common rumor for years, nothing new lets not make a big thing of it. But I do believe it was Helen who said "The Leader of a Party should not be misleading the public" So if it is proven to be true would Helen resign, I think not, whats good for the goose is not good for the Gander.

My little Rumor Rant.

I was absolutely gutted to get home tonight to the news that another legend had passed this time, Peter Brock. I remember watching him around Bathurst every year when I was nothing but a little boy and growing up with Brock as one of the greatest drivers around, He was an amazing driver, a great guy and dedicated to helping the young and upcoming drivers to perform better. He passed on in a car accident while involved in a race this afternoon. It is extremely gutting for me another great man gone from this end of the world in such a little while.

Rest in Peace Brockie...I'll always remember

The Government has approved 5 applications to improve broadband from their Broadband Challange Fund. these are in certain areas, but will eventually lead to faster and better quality broadband being avaliable to more households, and improve New Zealand as a whole. I actually like the government doing this, but it has come too late and they aren't doing enough.

See the story here

Stuff ran a poll yesterday on whether there should be regulations on food and drinks that are high in Fat and Sugar. The results were very interesting...Yes came out on top with 50.5% No just behind with 46.5% and the Not Sures only 3%

These results annoy me, it seems that people think the state is responisble for what we eat. Why should I be punished and have to abide by regulations on the food I want to eat because others can't control themselves or don't try to stay fit and healthy?? this is completely unfair...I wanna be able to eat what I want when I want.

Accept your own responsibility for you life, and everything will be fine.

This week we saw the sentencing of a 'Murderer' (Yes in my opinion he murdered Chris Curry) to a mere 4 years. The Judge says she took into account the fact that he was remorseful, and that he made an early guilty plee as well as him being so young.

I don't care if this is what the judge says, what about the grieving family, who are likely to see this guy out on the streets 'before Christmas' this is disgusting. Something really needs to be done about the state of these sentences as it is completely pathetic to sentence someone who took another mans life to 4 years Jail.

A Sentence should act towards 2 main goals in my opinion,

1) As a punishment fit for the crime...
2) As a Deterent to others looking at commiting similar crimes...

This punishment does neither of these, it is not a punishment fitting the crime and it is also not a deterent to other possible criminals in the future. The Labour government likes to talk about rehabilitation, well ok then instead of releasing them early for 'good' behaviour, the last third of their sentence should be directed towards rehabilitating them into the community and preparing them for normal life.

Now I know that this will leads to cries that it will cost too much, well no it won't what do criminals need?? They need a bed, a simple bathroom and food. THATS IT. so ok put them in a small cell with a toilet and basin and bed in it, alone! then let them out once in the morning into a shower block to clean themselves then follow this up with breakfast then back to the cells til lunch, then again back to the cells til Dinner. Simple isn't it. Of course on top of this certain criminals should be taken out in Chain Gangs to do hard Labour for the benefit of the New Zealand community. And by doing this it will also prevent them getting into a criminal community as they will only have limited access to the other criminals so they won't learn.

I posted this as a comment on Kiwiblog...

I am a current student at Vic, a member of ACT on Campus, and have previously been on the VUWSA exec, This year a lot of them are a bunch of muppets, I agree with this, I think Nick Kelly is probably the best of the lot, he has been a great president, probably the best in recent times, yes your just heard me supporting a Socialist...I know it seems amusing but its true he is good for students, and Nick himself admitted it was hypocritical to ask for a fee hike while opposing the Universities one. What Nick and I agree on is that the funding level from government and the current system of how it is awarded is a farce. Also Quorum for this meeting is 100 students, and chances are they may not even get that and if they do it will be because students hear about it and try to blcok the move, I can understand the need for an increase, but I am more inclined to go with ACT on Campuses position of voluntary as 90% of the services provided by the Student Associations would be provided by the University including club Funding and other such areas.

I am not able to attend the meeting today, and there is no proposal for a voluntary membership clause, but maybe there should be. The hypocriticalness of this has been admitted by Nick and he is a man of his word and a good guy, even if Him and myself disagree on a lot of policies we do agree on some areas and can understand and listen to each others views. As a Graduating student at the end of this year the fee hikes will not affect me any more, but its still adding to Students loans which seems ridiculous and I would vote against the rise, purely because I disagreed with the including of 3 new positions and believe there are currently 4 or more positions that should be removed from the VUWSA exec. I don't understand the need for an International Rep, Queer Rep, Envivromental Rep or a Womans Rights Officer, and even if there should be a position to cover these maybe it should be made as a single position naamed "The Rights Officer" it annoys me that certain groups get special treatment over others and if these positions were removed all of a sudden there appears to be 20k + a year extra on the books, then start looking at other services and you can begin to see the excesses

I say No to Todays Fee Hike

Well the Gas Crisis in Wellington doesn't matter to politicians yet they are all talking about Aucklands power blackouts, this is just more proof of the government caring more about Auckland than us. and this even when they can't have Fish and Chips at Bellamy.

A student at Albany Massey has gone on a hunger strike to protest about the fee rises at Massey University. He is eating only water sugars and Fruit Smoothies for 120 hours in protest at a proposed 10% Fee increase.

It seems he may have found a new way to save money so he can afford the fees.

Good on him I say, but its not going to really change anything, stunts rarely do anything except draw attention, mind you nothing seems to work with the Councils.

Last night I heard some very distressing news, a Living Legend has passed on. I remember watching Steve Irwin when I was younger and jumping away everytime he went in towards a crocodile thinking, "God, its going to get him" and scared out of my little tree. I am devastated by this loss, and the wildlife of this world I can assure you are going to be heart broken, He was always there helping out and doing what he could. Steve Irwin was an amazing man and has left an amazing legacy to the world.

Steve Irwin, A Wildlife Legend 1962-2006

The Large Auckland city councils are discussing a plan to form into one council to provide services to all of Auckland, creating a council with 1 Mayor and 25 Councillors.

I agree almost completely with the idea of centralisation, there are currently way too many councils amnd maybe Auckland is making the step in the right direction with this, if they amalgamte, they will house over 1/4 of the entire population of New Zealand and the result will be better economies of scale and lead to Aucklanders getting a better deal from their money and councils...Less is More

And I think everyone south of the Bombay Hills will agree that one Auckland is better than many :P

Who knows maybe the idea will catch on and the other regions around will join to be able to better serve their constiuents...In wellington we have way too many councillors many with similar job descriptions working no more than a few Kms from each other...Monopolies work better...

Because Vodafone had a glitch in their network on thurs night leading into all day friday, some consumers are going to be left out of pocket. This is completely horrendous, Vodafone stuffed up and many people believed that it was just an extension of their free weekend texting...My assumption was that they were responding to Random Acts of Kindness Day with Free Texting, but it now turns out that when you top up your phone you will be charged for it. The problem here is that if the customers believed it was free texting then they are more likely to have sent more texts that they wouldn't have sent on a normalday this could be proven by checking records and seeing that there was an excessive texting frenzy on Friday, I hope Vodafone comes to their senses, sorts it out and lets these people have that day free, because otherwise they are worse than Telecom and its continuous over Charging.

It seems that Non-Union members in this dispute have been offered a pay-rise on their indiviual contracts, these workers have been the ones who have not been striking and as such in my opinion are being rewarded for their loyalty to the company, this is completely fair by me, as for those who are striking if I hear one more complaint about not being paid I'll flip..
IF YOU WANT TO BE PAID GO BACK TO WORK....PROBLEM SOLVED

TV3 has been heading up in the ratings for many years, and even more so with its 6-7:30 news slots, but it has finally pegged it past TV One in the target market of both stations. TV3 in general targets a slightly younger market, but their share has climbed past TV One as they go into a complete tailspin losing the plot in more ways than ONE. it seems that they have been on the back foot for many years, but TV3 has been climbing in this time and seems a lot more intune with their Market, though some of this can be accounted for by TV3's market getting older and with the targetting younger generations they are getting more coming in whereas TV One has its main viewers getting older and slowly losing more numbers this way while not attracting the younger market in.

This is completely disgraceful, and shows no remorse I hope this guy is locked up for the rest of his natural life, and maybe for some of his unnatural one.

This also shows how much the youth of today is fucked up, I am quite disgraced to be a member of this generation. If this is the future of New Zealand I say No Thanks, I'll peddle my wares elsewhere.

Well it seems the people have spoken with their votes. According to Stuff's latest poll the public of New Zealand "Hate Telemarketers with a passion" I don't feel quite that strongly about them, but it is a worry when a pollster calling your house has the first line out of his mouth as "Don't worry I'm not going to try and sell you something" Yes I was called by a survey company on Friday and these were the first words he spoke, I found it amusing in general, but quite horrifying on another level that he would have to say that

Well the results are in and NZUSA has 1 Co-President 3 candidates not elected and No NWRO this doesn't suprise me, a) The Quality of the Candidates was very low, and b) it seems that the Student bodies weren't that interested.

In the latest TV3 poll Labour has lost its lead from 7 points down to 3 points though this seems to fit with the general flucuations as for all the minor parties bar the greens being below 5% this is normal one year into the term and they always pick up and get more support as the election comes around.

Had a great discussion with Franki (of Fighting for Peace is like Screwing for Virginity) last Sunday ended up discussing the future and deciding that when our generation get into power rather than having less parties we are likely to gradually get more parties as our generation is the one that is in small groups with set opinions and are likely to break into these groups and only work together for mutual benefit.

This is a really sad story, and I can understand why his parents put him in the care of the justice system. What I can't understand is how the hell the justice system thought it was right to put him in with some hardened criminals and have him transported in a Chubb van.

Now I am all for the privatisation of our prisons, but Chubb is not a prison firm they are a security firm used to carrying money and other goods not prisoners, this is a gross form of misconduct by our government and justice department and something really needs to be done about it seriously and sooner rather than later.

Liam Ashley did not deserve this death and his family and others in a similar situation need to know that everything is going to be dealt with better than this in the future.

Well I'm starting to get back into the flow of things now and posting more regularly. as the top hints this is my 200th post and its only taken 2 years of blogging to get this far, mind you I don't think a lot of blogs even make it this far, I'm up and going strong again and my opinion is ready to roll

Well Field has only been out for one day and already Labour is busy looking for a replacement for him, yet if the police find him innocent of any wrongdoing then this will all be in vain even though they want him gone...but amusing nonetheless.

The Police are finally investigating that Phillip Feild Character and H1 denies involvement in it, I suspect it may have something to do with him choosing not to resign, but there is no way he should be on leave with full pay...

Bloody Bias in the Labour Government.....