Response from a mate of mine lioving in Michigan -- I sent him your page

the problem in the US is not tax cuts, but spending increases...both parties are truly fucked on this issue...and Americans living outside their means and greedy corp lenders that loaned money to people for houses they could never afford...they were loaning money to people who had no down payment and at high percentages of their income and then allowing them to take out 2nd mortgages on the equity as it built up, so a lot of people had property in which they owned with 100% load to worth ratio...and then they borrowed money (and the fucking lenders allowed this to happen), on variable interest rates so they could get a low "teaser" rate in the first few years...the banks and lenders loved this as they get a transaction fee every time someone refinances their house... so when property values declined and interest rates went up, they found themselves upside down owing more than it was worth if they sold with payments that they couldn't make...FUCKING STUPID...I have always bought the smallest house in the neighborhood...did it with a fixed rate mortgage and I will own my property free and clear in a half dozen years...I could have bought more...I could have built a McMansion like everyone else...but we will eat and have a place to sleep...so stupid American greed bastards and eveil greedy financial institutions...and ignorant government fools...as far as I am concerned they out to take them all into the back yard and shoot them to ensure that the gene pool is cleansed...

From WIki

Claims of Plagiarism
The January 18, 2002, issue of The Weekly Standard made a case for Doris Kearns Goodwin as a plagiarist, arguing that her book, "The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys," used without attribution numerous phrases and sentences from three other books: "Time to Remember," by Rose Kennedy; "The Lost Prince," by Hank Searl; and "Kathleen Kennedy: Her Life and Times," by Lynne McTaggart.

In a March 24, 2002, interview with the Associated Press, McTaggart said, "If somebody takes a third of somebody's book, which is what happened to me, they are lifting out the heart and guts of somebody else's individual expression."

Once this was made public – and the almost identical phrases in Goodwin’s book were placed in numerous newspaper and magazine articles side by side with the originals in question - Goodwin admitted that she had previously reached a large "private settlement" with McTaggart over the issue.

An August 2002 Los Angeles Times story by Peter King reported that there were many passages in Goodwin’s book on the Roosevelts ("No Ordinary Time") that were apparently lifted directly from Joseph Lash’s "Eleanor and Franklin" and Hugh Gregory Gallagher’s "FDR’s Splendid Deception," as well as other books. (See Timothy Noah, "Historians Rewrite History: The Campaign to Exonerate Doris Kearns Goodwin, Slate online, Nov. 13, 2003.) The claims of plagiarism have damaged her reputation; however, many in the academic, literary, and entertainment communities have continued to support her and her assertion of innocence.[1]

My immediate reaction to the article was similar to yours -- a nasty, spiteful little piece especially given that two high profile Nats were also honoured.

I want to cancel my subscription but it is such a bugger that we have a monopoly in Auckland.

I, like JK, was brought up in a state house.

The state house system was created to enable working class families to have some sort of security in which to bring up their kids in a safe environment. The state saw this as an investment as much as anything else. Give these kids stability and good schools and we will get a return.

So we got one (a return) from John (I suppose) but we also got it from many of the people that I grew up with -- doctors, engineers, mathemeticians, teachers all of whom have contributed to making this country a better place.

I too am proud of what I have achieved and I got my start in that system -- but unlike Mr Key, I still believe in it and have kept faithful to my roots.