The New Year is with US...

The New Year has arrived with a gust of wind and a lashing of rain, and it would seem that nothing has changed; our council continues to wade in trivia about motor-less Christmas parades and Feilding’s negative view of us.

Our local editor waxes eloquently about why the Occupy movement in NZ should pack it in, yet in the same breath via his editorial says that he agrees with their causes, yet offers no hope for achieving their worthy goals unless they become like other political parties…for Gods sake, that is what they are trying to change. If the main-stream media would actually listen to what they are saying and not continue to publish what those who oppose them pretend they are saying then maybe we’d get to the meat of the matter. While the Christchurch city council chief took a 14% wage increase taking his salary to over a half a million dollars [$536.000], he claims that’s the market rate, and that’s simply crap. If he believes his own PR then why won’t he and the CCC actually test the market…by seeking nominations from those who would do the job for less…then the council could select the lowest offer…that’s how the so-called market system works…now that would be really testing the market. CEO’s salaries might fall but we can’t have that happening that only happens to the little guys, you know the ones who do the real work.

Take our own council CEO, he gets well over three hundred thousand and now that the Christchurch CEO has had an increase of 14% we can all expect our CEO’s salary to move accordingly simply because a new top level has been established…and to give it some credence or legality the council pushes it off to some private salary advice type firm [experts?] to agree. It’s just bloody stupid, and its one of the reasons the country is broke, and the wealth gap has sky-rocketed.

There is only one market rate for wages and that’s $13.00 an hour as laid down by law and it’s even lower for youth workers and even that starvation figure is to be lowered even further later in the year to please the hard-right members of the Nats and Acts 0.45% sole member. Could you live on $13.00 per hour? Still this is what Kiwi Hobbits voted for.

When there are no jobs the market rate is in reality the dole. And that’s a fact. There are tens of thousands of people presently testing the market right at this very moment so I’m sure that if CEO’s jobs were put up for tender there would be plenty of bidders.

2.

A political analyst says the US military and/or law enforcement must arrest the current war criminals to prevent Washington from launching another “lie-started and unlawful war” on Iran.

“The basis of law provides US military and all with Oaths to defend the US Constitution to refuse unlawful orders and act to arrest those who issue them,” Carl Herman wrote on Global Research.  “If not, it will repeat by mass-murdering Iranians, and more ignorant/gullible US soldiers.”
Washington and Tel Aviv have repeatedly threatened Tehran with the "option" of a military strike, based on the allegation that Iran's nuclear work may consist of a covert military aspect. Iran, however, has refuted the allegations, saying that as a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), it has the right to develop and acquire nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.
Herman said the pretexts that Washington is putting forward to launch a military strike on Iran are “as false as the 'reasons' for war with Iraq,” where the US failed to find any Weapons of Mass Destruction, the cornerstone of its argument for the invasion of Iraq in 2003. “'All of Iran's nuclear material is fully accounted for peaceful and legal use for energy and medicine,” he stressed.
On December 26, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey said the US military is ready to launch a military strike against Iran, if occasion necessitates.
"We are examining a range of options. I'm satisfied that the options that we are developing are evolving to a point that they would be executable if necessary," Dempsey said.
Dempsey's warmongering tirades came hot on the heels of the equally aggressive remarks by US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta that "no options were off the table" regarding Iran's nuclear program.
Meanwhile, the Israeli officials have also recently stepped up their war rhetoric against Iran. On November 21, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak warned the "time has come" to deal with Iran.
Israeli President Shimon Peres also threatened on November 6 that an attack against Iran is becoming "more and more likely."
Iranian officials have promised a crushing response to any military strike against the country, warning that any such measure could result in a war that would spread beyond the Middle East. “Beware a false flag attack by the US or Israel to blame on Iran as pretext for another 'defensive' war,” Herman concluded.

3.

Heaps of predictions have been made about 2012, according to John Key a hundred thousand new jobs will be created and at the same time three thousand jobs will be cut from the public service, how’s that for contradiction. The Christchurch rebuild will get underway [If the ground stops shaking]. Palmerston North’s declining wage rates will be reversed and suddenly the military will start paying their people a livable wage, Child labour wage rates will be lowered so more youth can share the pain of not earning enough to live on. Oh it’s going to be a big year for those on low or fixed incomes. Manawatu District Council will buy back its own land by gifting rate payer’s money to the charitable trust that isn’t charitable in any sense of the word [The Manfeild Trust Board] so that it can pretend it’s a success.

Palmerston North will become a ward of greater Wellington super council, with three ward councillors and a chairperson [pictured].

Now all, or some or none of these predictions may come to pass, but they are worth thinking about for a moment or two