Written By: - Date published: 6:26 am, June 14th, 2011 - 383 comments
National’s raid on Labour donor data was a grubby, amoral little operation, with no point except to intimidate innocent individuals.
Unfortunately for the Nats it has blown up in their faces.
Written By: - Date published: 7:34 am, June 13th, 2011 - 126 comments
At 9am today Slater is probably going to publish a list of some of the donors to the Labour Party. A big thank you to every person on that list! To anyone who is angry at being named, please don’t blame some hapless web admin working for Labour. Please blame the people who took this information and illegally made it public.
Written By: - Date published: 12:55 pm, June 7th, 2011 - 2 comments
The Arab Spring has become an increasingly bloody Arab Summer as dictators unleash their security forces to try to stop the wave of protests and revolutions sweeping the Arab world. Yemen’s dictator, wounded in the fighting, left for treatment in Saudi Arabia and seems unlikely to return.
Written By: - Date published: 8:04 am, June 4th, 2011 - 36 comments
Visionary climate change scientist James Hansen recently toured New Zealand, giving several public lectures. Here’s a quick summary, and a link to the podcast of the talk he gave at the University of Otago. As expected, it’s an excellent talk, with some fascinating suggestions about what we the people need to do. Interesting also to get Hansen’s take on Nick Smith…
Written By: - Date published: 8:53 am, May 29th, 2011 - 8 comments
José Cláudio Ribeiro da Silva and Maria do Espírito Santo are heroes. Like Chico Mendes before them, they have paid for their activism with their lives.
Written By: - Date published: 11:50 am, May 27th, 2011 - 66 comments
A new organisation, the Coalition for Social Justice, is calling for a march in Auckland tomorrow.
Written By: - Date published: 9:10 am, May 15th, 2011 - 45 comments
At midday on May 27, New Zealanders will take to Queen St to spit in the face of the pathetic, racist Rightwing Resistance. Actually, the march organisers say it’s to “express how we actually LOVE having diversity in our communities and we want to accommodate and be inclusive”. Be there.
Written By: - Date published: 8:53 am, May 8th, 2011 - 62 comments
George Monbiot on the psychology of political debate (and why we’re all screwed).
Written By: - Date published: 8:46 pm, April 19th, 2011 - 15 comments
Last night walking into the film screening in Auckland I was a bit apprehensive about how it would all be put together. Fortunately my fears were unfounded and the film did justice to the complex issues involved.
Written By: - Date published: 4:47 pm, April 19th, 2011 - 3 comments
No Right Turn put up a post on the latest in the police foulup that is Operation 8.
Written By: - Date published: 1:00 pm, April 14th, 2011 - 41 comments
Next time some righties are protesting in Queen St, will the government call out an army LAV to clear a path for my car so I can go about my lawful business without being blocked by protesters? Or do only foreign multinationals have this government at their beck and call?
Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, April 9th, 2011 - 15 comments
When I went to China on a private visit in 2008, Helen Clark sent me a text message telling me on no account to leave my cellphone or computer unattended. Over the last few years I noticed baskets in Ministers’ offices for visitors and officials to deposit their cellphones before they went in to see …
Written By: - Date published: 11:53 am, April 7th, 2011 - 3 comments
In many parts of Christchurch, aid and communication from Government and large NGOs was virtually non-existent for some time after the quake, and it was left up to pre-existing organisations, neighbours, families and friendship networks to ensure that people were able to access the resources and information they needed.
Written By: - Date published: 10:27 am, March 28th, 2011 - 36 comments
I’ve been checking out some of the amazing footage and photos from friends who were in the London ‘March for the Alternative’. 500,000 people turned out to show the depth of feeling against the slash and burn budget of the Conservative-Lib Dem government. As the Nats plan their own shock doctrine budget, I hope they’re taking notes.
Written By: - Date published: 3:35 pm, March 25th, 2011 - 15 comments
Where does a year go? Tomorrow is Earth Hour 2011. Will you go beyond the hour?
Written By: - Date published: 8:24 am, March 17th, 2011 - 14 comments
With so much going on in terms of large scale disasters at the moment, it is easy to lose track of the stories of a mere individuals. But there are two individuals who’s stories should not be forgotten. They are facing the full might and anger of the American establishment. Their “crime” was to tell the truth.
Written By: - Date published: 12:30 pm, February 22nd, 2011 - 4 comments
It looks like Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi will be the next dictator to fall to the wave of protests and revolts sweeping the Arab world. The military initially sided with the regime and fired on the protesters, killing hundreds. But the loyalty of the security forces to the Gaddafi regime seems to be wavering. If this hard-man can crumble, who next?
Written By: - Date published: 12:28 pm, February 15th, 2011 - 25 comments
Democracy doesn’t suddenly magically appear as though from a conjurers hat. We know that, right? So why are revolutions seeking democracy D.O.A?
Written By: - Date published: 12:00 pm, February 15th, 2011 - 44 comments
To avoid another three years of backhanders to the rich, falling wages, rising unemployment, and asset sales, we have nine months to chip away at National’s support. As in 2008, The Standard will be running a campaign offering flyers etc for your to print off and deliver around your neighbourhood. Privatisation is an obvious first target.
Written By: - Date published: 11:50 am, February 14th, 2011 - 28 comments
John Key’s support for Mubarak arose from the American far-right’s fear of Egyptian democracy. We laugh at Glenn Beck’s crazy conspiracy theories and the hypocrites who invaded Iraq to ‘spread democracy’ yet oppose free elections in Egypt because of who might get elected but there’s a deeper story here: the end of the American Empire.
Written By: - Date published: 1:45 pm, February 11th, 2011 - 46 comments
Unprecedented protests have forced Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak to say he won’t stand at the next election and extracted concessions from the regime. So why don’t the protesters go home and wait until the elections in September? Because they know nothing will change if Mubarak is allowed to hang on, and the regime’s revenge will be brutal.
Written By: - Date published: 12:37 pm, February 6th, 2011 - 7 comments
An estimated 500 people gathered in Queen Street Auckland, to show solidarity with the Egyptian people in revolt against the Egyptian dictatorship.
Yesterday’s march was part of international solidarity actions.
Written By: - Date published: 12:19 pm, February 3rd, 2011 - 68 comments
John Key has been less cunning than some thought he would be. Going for a November election, he thinks, will let him leverage off the World Cup mini-boom, and enhance running Michael Jones and Inga Tuigamala as candidates. But it means 5 months for the Budget cuts to hurt and gives us 5 more months to work. So, what are we going to do?
Written By: - Date published: 2:27 am, February 3rd, 2011 - 12 comments
Periodically I run a scan to identify network parasites that are sucking up our bandwidth and processing resources in excess. Of course I leave the benign parasites that provide search facilities alone. But I stomp on the nasties.
Tonight the biggest parasite appears to have been a New Zealand government department – the Department of Internal Affairs.
Written By: - Date published: 9:47 am, January 29th, 2011 - 15 comments
Food and oil prices have sparked unrest across North Africa. The Tunisian Government has fallen. Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak has declared martial law. In Cairo, thousands of protesters shook hands with the soldiers, and chanted: “The army and the people are united” and “The revolution has come.”* Yup. Mubarak’s screwed.
Written By: - Date published: 10:21 am, December 25th, 2010 - 21 comments
So, it’s Christmas; the season of good will and all. But for some of our institutions, juggernauts of bad will that they are, they just roll on regardless . For what it’s worth there is an on line letter you can sign calling on the US to end it’s inhumane treatment of Bradley Manning. Maybe signing it constitutes a Christmas message of sorts.
Written By: - Date published: 8:34 am, December 22nd, 2010 - 107 comments
National and Act are attacking student unions. The cover story is freedom of association, but it’s bollocks, freedom of association is already protected. Without the unions students will still have to pay. But they will lose the rich social and cultural heritage of the unions, lose the learning experiences that the unions provide, and lose their independence. Hey students – does that sound like a good deal to you?
Written By: - Date published: 9:15 am, December 8th, 2010 - 49 comments
Now that the Swedish prosecutors have finally given the British police a document that they can work with, Assange turned himself in, and has gone before a British court on the extradition request from Sweden. The court has remanded him without bail. I have already commented on exactly what I think of the charges – …
Written By: - Date published: 8:57 am, December 5th, 2010 - 29 comments
David Cameron made the commendable decision to create a national happiness index to compliment GDP but there’s a lot of unhappiness in Merry Old England under his rule. To avert fiscal disaster, while allowing bankers and the elite to keep their wealth, Cameron is making savage cuts to public services. And the Police are going old school on the resulting protests.
Written By: - Date published: 4:28 pm, December 4th, 2010 - 114 comments
The Wikileaks release of US government diplomatic wires is less interesting to me than the behavior of the Sweden’s director of public prosecutions, Marianne Ny. Her charges and actions against Julian Assange indicate that she is driven more by the politics than respect for the law. I fail to see why Interpol is involved for such a minor charge. Apparently the charge is question is something pretty weird called “sex by surprise”
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