For his safety and ours, the name of Edward Snowden should not be allowed to drop out of the public memory.
Already, after an initial flurry of interest, (lasting all of one day), Snowden’s name has been pushed down the media memory hole. And is no longer mentioned.
With a reputation for democracy and freedom, New Zealand should be in the lead of countries offering Edward Snowden political asylum.
As well as being the right thing to do;
A gesture like this would hugely lift this country’s profile in the world as an honest broker. Such a courageous and humanitarian act, would earn us international respect as an outlier of democracy freedom.
Since abandoning his life in Hawaii last month, Snowden has gone into hiding in Hong Kong, saying he feared he could be captured by the CIA, another foreign government or Asian organised crime gangs.
“That’s a fear I’ll live under for the rest of my life, however long that happens to be,” he said in the video.
In his secretive dealings with the Washington Post, he took the codename Verax – Latin to describe a truth teller – the paper said.
“He’s very intelligent, calm, (but) always scared that someone would knock on the door and he’d be taken away,” said Ewen MacAskill, one of the Guardian journalists who worked on the story.
Why would the National party bite the hand that feeds it. According to the leaks National are just a fifth column of the neo-con, extreme right faction of the Republican party.
“Why would the National party bite the hand that feeds it? According to the leaks National are just a fifth column of the neo-con, extreme right faction of the Republican party.”
National is certainly the party of the toady and the craven coward.
But so is Labour: don’t forget who it was that persecuted Ahmed Zaoui just over a decade ago.
The Prime Minister is afraid that just such an eventuality could occur. And to head of this very possibility,being they US toady he is, the PM has publicly tried to warn Snowden away.
Key: Snowden not welcome in New Zealand
Prime Minister John Key says American whistleblower Edward Snowden is not welcome here….
Key said today the former security contractor did not meet the requirements for asylum and it was ridiculous to suggest he would.
“He wouldn’t be welcome,” he said.
Key couldn’t rule out Snowden coming to New Zealand under another immigration category because he was not facing criminal charges.
But the prime minister expected the Government would oppose any asylum application.
“I can’t see why we’d want him to turn up,” he said.
However this disgusting toady does not speak for all New Zealanders, not even a majority of us.
And Key and his secret police mates aren’t the only ones who have a say here.
I would say to Edward Snowden, don’t listen to John Key;
Listen to Te Whanau a Apanui, send an email to Kim Dotcom, ask him what he thinks. Ask the tens of thousands of New Zealanders who marched to stop the Nacts raping schedule 4 land, if John Key speaks for New Zealanders. Ask Amed Zouie if the vast majority of New Zealanders make strangers welcome here, despite some of our leaders making biased and prejudiced public statements against him.
New Zealanders of good will who value democracy and freedoom will welcome Edward Snowden as a global hero for freedom and truth.
Edward you are not safe in China.
Edward you will not even be safe in Australia.
If you can make it here you will be safe.
You have my promise.
We will look after you.
You may even give you a job. Kim Dotcom needs people with your IT skills, he may even put you up in his mansion till you get on your feet.
NZ is furtherest from the reach of the Northern Hemisphere superpowers than any other nation on earth.
Our remoteness makes you safer for a start.
New Zealand is a small country surrounded by hundreds of miles of open ocean.
New Zealand is small. The cliche is everyone knows everyone else. This is not quite true. But nothing can happen to you here that everyone wouldn’t know, and be able to identify those responsible.
If you doubt what I say refer to the Rainbow Warrior bombers who murdered Nando Fereira in New Zealand. The security services and the police let these terrorists slip through their hands. It was average everyday New Zealanders who identified Mafar and Prieur, and found them out leaving them no where to go. If it had been left solely up to the police and the state forces they would have walked away free.
The same will happen to anyone who dares touch you while you are in this country.
Finally the traitors and toadies that John Key speaks for are a tiny minority. Fhose who favour democracy and freedom, and who respect courage and self sacrifiice in the cause of truth, are the vast majority. (I suspect this true for most countries, but for a number of factors those of us who feel this way here, have a greater say.)
New Zealand has a reputation for protecting and defending the underdog. Ask Nelson Mandela or Desmond Tutu.
Edward If you can get here you will be treated like the hero you are.
Green Party co-leader Russel Norman said he couldn’t understand why anyone would not want Snowden here.
“He was a whistleblower inside the organisation, he made a moral decision I think most people on planet Earth would agree with the morality of his decision,” Norman said.
And finally the last word from the Prime Minister who makes himself look ridiculous ,relating to the revelations released by Edward Snowden:
Key has also been asked about the presence of US spy software company Palantir which has established a base in Wellington.
He said he knew who they were but didn’t speak for the company.
Key wasn’t asked if he spoke for Palantir, he was asked if he was aware of their presence.
Why would John Key possibly think it would need to be stated that, he didn’t speak for a US spy agency?
What an idiot, what a traitor.
He should stop fouling this country’s international reputation and scuttle back to his own luxurious ‘safe haven’ in Hawaii and leave New Zealander to rest of us who love it and who don’t divide our loyalties between Wall Street and Washington.
I was too polite CV, to mention your past rabid cheerleading on this site for the mass murder and war crimes committed by the Syrian State against it’s own people. I had generously imagined that your admiration and support for Assad’s facist state was a grotesque mistake was a thing of the past, springing from your ignorance of Syria and the Arab world .
It says more about you than the Syrian opposition, that in a sea of atrocities and war crimes, you zero in on one particular admittedly disgusting desecration of a dead Syrian soldiers body, (deliberately caught on video and distributed to intimidate Bashar Assad’s troops), and not on the many cases of mass murder of innocents from the air by your hero.
You are not the leftist democrat you posit you are.
‘
The war in Syria has been going on for more than two years now. And there is no sign of it ending soon.
People like Colonial Viper who has never been to Syria, and who racistly dismiss the Arab Spring as a conspiracy by the Western Powers and the CIA. May wonder how on earth the Syrian conflict could have lasted so long and become so protracted and brutal.
At present the rebels seem to be getting the worst of it. But they won’t surrender, they can’t. Even before the massive slaughter started, 30 thousand Syrian citizens were “disappeared” by the Syrian State in the preceding year, and this was before the people started fighting back.
A defeat for the rebels will mean massive extermination on a scale not matched during this conflict, when the rebels are able to, at least manage to defend themselves and are still managing to hold their own in what is a war of extermination. This battle has become an existential one for the rebels. If they fight they might be killed by the regime, if they don’t fight they will be killed by the regime. On the other side of the conflict, Basha Assad’s exploitation of sectarian divisions to weld a minority religious sect to his cause, has also made this an existential struggle for them as well. These fighters know full well the atrocities they have committed on Basha’s behalf, and the likely fate they may suffer because of it.
Another factor that has prolonged this conflict, is the West’s growing publicly expressed fear of the rebels. Whether true or not, Western media, more and more are coming to depict the rebels who spontaneously took up arms against the regime as being primarily Al Qaeda militants. There is some truth in this, as these elements have been attracted to this struggle against this Western ally. The Islamist Al Nusra Front have the most experienced fighters and are the most well equipped, of the rebel factions. Coming as many of them do, from the war zones of Afghanistan and Iraq. While the secular rebel forces are being left high and dry by everyone. Many of the secular fighters are defecting to Al Nusra. They are doing this, rather than die starved of weapons and ammunition, and basic supplies, defenceless in the face of Basha Assad’s military machine.
But Al Nusra is not quite as black and white as it has been portrayed in the West. Instead of being a monolithic Al Qaida front, as depicted by the West. Al Nusra has been described by secular Syrian leaders as being made up of many different fractions and strands. (And they are more likely to know than one eyed, frightened western journalists interviewing their typwriters in Washington, or London. Worried that the whole applecart of Western domination is being toppled over.)
‘
What has been described as the Turkish Spring has begun.
Turkey is another majority Islamic country.
I must ask Colonial Viper:
CV; Do you also consider this popular people’s movement to also be a US CIA plot to undermine a Heroic anti Western moderate democracy?
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is facing a Syria moment of his own. Does he back down in the face of popular though peaceful mass protest, or does he crack down with brutal force, and risk creating even more resistance?
Erdogan should take as warning, the lesson of Syria.
Taking a hard line against peaceful protesters with violent repression, may quell the unrest. But just as likely it may create more unrest, outraging even moderate citizens who will be moved by their outrage to join the protests against the regime.
(Every budding autocrat around the world, who would choose repression over finding solutions to popular grievances ought to take note.)
Attacking Western criticism of the crackdown in Turkey, and justifying the violence against peaceful unarmed protesters, the prime minister of Turkey was quoted as saying they took their guide from the US government’s crushing of the Occupy Wall Street protests.
Despite Western government’s loud hurumphing at this accusation, the links are there.
The increasing turn to autocracy and repression by governments globally is not a coincidence. Governing authorities around the world know better than anyone that the twin dangers of financial crisis and climate collapse are undermining their legitimacy. Many are choosing to counter that loss of popular legitimacy to their rule by replacing it with repression.
But more repression creates more resistance to repression, and even less legitimacy for the rulers
.
Finally:
John Key should be one of those autocratic leaders who should take note; The massive increase in jail terms and fines against protesters trying to protect the environment will not deter them. The increase in state repression will not stop protests against the rape of the environment by deep sea oil. Repression only creates more resistance, and more and greater protest. And what will you do then John?
When the prisons are full of political prisoners and still people are protesting against the looting of the Seabed and Forshore on behalf of foreign multinationals?
Jenny, all the article does is to confirm my point: i.e. why would Snowden want to come to NZ as it is at the moment? Why would any Kiwi seriously suggest it, knowing Snowden would just be handed over to the US agencies, by NZ’s agencies?
After arrival on the Auckland airport tarmac, Snowden would be escorted off his plane by armed NZ police in front of all other seated passengers, taken to a nearby disused gate, handed over to American officials, marched onboard an unmarked private jet, and after it was given priority clearance to take off, that would be that for Snowden.
PM John Key: “Not only has the man committed serious crimes against our allies the United States and potentially aided terrorists around the world, but he was also without doubt a massive risk to our national security simply by being in this country. We did the right thing today by ensuring that he faces justice for the crimes he committed in the United States.”
cue statement from the US embassy on how valuable a partner in international security NZ is.
For the answer to this question karol. You only have to see what a difficult time the authorities have had in handing Amed Zouie or Kim Dotcom over to their tormenters and jailers. To know that New Zealand is still a democratic country that protects civil rights and jurisprudence.
Jenny, I’ve read at least ten stories from today already on Snowden. It’s a pretty shallow Memory Hole!
And NZ has an extradition treaty with the US. He is a US citizen who has most likley committed a crime under US law. Our courts would be no protection for him as they would grant extradition.
I just checked the Treaty ( available here: http://newzealand.usembassy.gov/us_treaties.html ) and it’s arguable that he might be safe here. But it would still be a huge risk given the politics of it. And the chances of NZ ‘offerring political asylum’ are nil.
I think it might be nice if we did, but it’s still just gesture politics. To get real international advantage we should pass laws protecting privacy such that it is seen as an economic and political advantage to have companies based here. Our govt should be saying that we do not allow NSA or others to snoop, and that we actively take steps to prevent them. But again, chances: nil.
Jenny’s just got to be first to post to open mike again? But today really takes the cake for wishful thinking! PB neatly sums up the glaring flaws in her suggestion for me.
Jenny, I’ve read at least ten stories from today already on Snowden.
Pascal’s bookie
Of course you have Pb. And to prove you are not full of it. You have put up the full ten links to the stories you have already read today, to prove it. (or not).
Turn it up, there was no need for me to go through my browser history and find the links to the stories I’d read.
The existence of the stories is readily available to anyone with a browser that can search news sites.
You made a claim:
Already, after an initial flurry of interest, (lasting all of one day), Snowden’s name has been pushed down the media memory hole. And is no longer mentioned.
Which is just flat out false. Where’s your link to a search engine result showing no mentions of Snowden in the last few hours? Just to prove you’re not full of it?
Ridiculous right? But the same!
Care to test those two claims in a search and see what happens?
It’s all only a couple of google.news clicks away.
karol
And its true. They say that you can find anything on the internet. Annd that is it’s greatest strength. Nothing can be hidden or suppressed any longer. Even across borders and frontiers, even during a war.
CV, maybe you and karol are right and my comment missed the mark.
But look at all the mainstream news sites and you will see that the Snowden story is either completely missing or pushed way down the news cycle.
Stuff.co.nz for instance had nothing on Snowden this morning.
For interest I checked out the NZ Herald website. The only story on Snowden was a related story on the sudden boom in sales of the novel 1984 by George Orwell.
It is interesting that many people can relate to the message in this book. The all pervasive surveillance described and the outrageous mainstream media lies promulgated as truth.
“We are at war with East Asia, we have always been at war with East Asia”
“We are opposed to Saddam Hussein, we have always been opposed to Saddam Hussein”
This book should be updated and remade as a movie. The two way interactive communication screen described by Orwell that could never be turned off. That was everywhere and let the authorities peer into every aspect of your work and private life. He could have been describing a dystopian version of the internet and cell phone technology. Even the story of Peter Dunne has echoes of 1984. Where Dunne’s illicit email flirting with Andrea Vance is used to bring him down. Just as electronic snooping into Winston Smith’s illicit romantic affair with Julia is used to destroy them both.
Winston Peters could take the part of O’Brian the smooth talking and deeply corrupt bully and torturer with secret links to the government and state, who gloats with sadistic pleasure in bringing down Winston Smith.
But I suppose it is a movie that we will never see, cutting to close to the bone, and way too critical of authority..
“For interest I checked out the NZ Herald website. The only story on Snowden was a related story on the sudden boom in sales of the novel 1984 by George Orwell.”
Your demands are absurd Jenny. The links from PB above show that the NZ Herald covered the story far more than you realised.
Colonial Viper
Indeed and the telling words here are; “far more than you realised.” Or probably any other ‘normal’ reader of the news would have realised either. But even you must admit CV that by his own admission Pascal’s bookie is an outlier when it comes to trawling the news feeds. What normal reader of the news would spend four hours of the morning and presumably the rest of the day combing the news to become aware of so many stories about the misdeeds of the secret intelligence community?
I bet that if you walked out onto any city street today and did a vox pop on everyone you met and asked them, Do you know who Edward Snowden is? Nine out of ten, maybe more, would have no idea
“Being in a minority, even in a minority of one, did not make you mad. There was truth and there was untruth, and if you clung to the truth even against the whole world, you were not mad.”
― George Orwell, 1984
“You are a slow learner, Winston.”
“How can I help it? How can I help but see what is in front of my eyes? Two and two are four.”
“Sometimes, Winston. Sometimes they are five. Sometimes they are three. Sometimes they are all of them at once. You must try harder. It is not easy to become sane.”
― George Orwell, 1984
Bullshit. Its only the law if everyone is held to the same standard. And at the moment corporations, the wealthy and the powerful in the US can and have been doing whatever they like, and getting away with it under the rubric of “war against terrorism”
EDIT the irony of Russia offering to consider asylum to protect a conscientious objector from the state security apparatus
James, why are you so concerned about the application of laws that have been implemented for the purpose of securing power to large organisations who already have more power than they know what to do with and routinely use and abuse that power (i.e. break the law, as they have admitted if you didn’t know) to further their own ends to the detriment of the manwoman in the street?
Your approach is touching and naive in the extreme imo.
No – thats bullshit. If he broke the law of his own country when he was there – then he should be held to account.
It’s only the rule of law if the law holds everyone to account equally. Don’t you see that? Because otherwise it’s merely a tool of state repression. The classic case at the moment is the trial of Private Manning. His defence is not even allowed to present any evidence or testimony critical to understanding his motives and his rationale. It’s a show trial in other words.
In the USA, the law is only applied to targets of the Govt, whereas friends of the Government, banksters and other, get off scott free.
Further, Snowden is a no-one. It’s his revelations of what politicians, the government and intelligence machine has been doing behind all our backs, unconstitutionally and without public knowledge, which is the real story.
I notice they even took down the head of the CIA, Patreous, this year.
Here’s a little Poem James on what happens to the Disobedient. And the Disobedient one was Never Seen Again. This demonstrates how one should never do anything that isn’t permitted by authorities, who know best about everything. http://ingeb.org/songs/jamesjam.html
Disobedience (A.A.Milne)
James James Morrison’s Mother
Said to herself, said she:
“I can get right down
to the end of the town
and be back in time for tea.”
King John
Put up a notice,
“LOST or STOLEN or STRAYED!
JAMES JAMES MORRISON’S MOTHER
SEEMS TO HAVE BEEN MISLAID.
LAST SEEN
WANDERING VAGUELY:
QUITE OF HER OWN ACCORD,
SHE TRIED TO GET DOWN
TO THE END OF THE TOWN –
FORTY SHILLINGS REWARD!”
(For those attuned sensitively to capitals, they appear this way in the poem on the internet.)
One who breaks an unjust law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law.
If he has broken the law – he should be held to account.
James
And in your opinion James, if the GCSB has broken the law – should they be held to account?
I wonder James if you are one of those right wing hypocrites who fears anyone defies authority and is prepared to risk everything for truth, while at the same time covering for the secret agencies that flout the laws of our democracy and illegally spy on us all like we are criminals.
Hekia Parata made to look like the Minister of Cliche by Kim Hill.
Had no answers to her questions, except repeating her press release over and over again.
What an incompetent minister!
Yep the questioning was exquisite and Kim put the contradictions in National’s position to Parata and they went completely over Parata’s head.
So a miniscule improvement in unmoderated statistics is trumpeted as vindication of National Standards even though it showed us something that was known already and there is no plan for what to do next. What a mess …
but according to brian edwards shes a stellar performer! listen again!
…..When she returned to the green room to collect her belongings I said to her, “That was absolutely brilliant”…..Finally, has she the capacity to stand up to media scrutiny, to look after herself in probing media interviews? Well, if the interview with Smalley is anything to go by, the answer to that has got be a resounding Yes…….
Kim on TV was not a success because she twitches and flings herself about – a lot! Which seems to make her nervous and less effective. TV people have to be pretty still because movements are exaggerated. Pity.
ianmac
Thanks for that. I had forgotten about Kim and her tv effect. She is too natural compared to the scaled down immobility of others. But compare her screen image to Graham Norton? In a more relaxed environment couldn’t her animation give vitality to her show? Interviewing interesting people on tv in a group like Graham Norton. Then the camera doesn’t linger on just her and the interviewee.
If there’s ever any big Latin American news; Democracy Now is the first site to which I go…
Amy Goodman is a lot calmer than Kim Hill though: I guess after you’ve been the last journalist out of Timor Este as the Indonesian shock troops roll in, it takes a lot to phase you.
..and yes I’ve been a life-time fan of Kim Hill’s too. Best they’ve ever had, although I objectively think that like many of us her best days are in the rear view mirror.
The last rugby match I went to was an ABs-England match at Twickenham. A couple of guys in front of us kept yelling “sheep shaggers” & “cheats” throughout the match. I could have put up with them calling it once or twice, but the mindless and unimaginative repetition was just unpleasant.
But being subjected to homophobic chants and abuse would turn watching a match into a trial instead of being a bit of fun and entertainment. And then they pull out the “PC” justification. That excuse is well past its use-by date.
The PC justification was also used in the ‘debate’ over the food in schools cartoons. The way I see PC is “proper conduct” or “polite consideration” and usage of the “PC” defence usually defends the opposite behaviour.
Eden Park spokeswoman Tracy Morgan said harassment of a patron would not be condoned and the men could have been evicted for that.
But unless everyone else around Ms Spyksma was offended by the men’s slurs, they would likely not have been kicked out. Ms Morgan said it wasn’t Eden Park’s place to “be the PC police”.
“If she’s saying that she was isolated and that it shouldn’t be acceptable, it’s not our job – I don’t believe – to try to move the cultural morals of society.”
Ah rugby culture, good on ya.
The lack of acknowledgement of the vulnerable situation the complainant was in once she spoke up is disturbing.
The stadium has a text service where people can complain about any anti-social or offensive behaviour without them becoming a target.
General manager of public affairs at New Zealand Rugby, Nick Brown, urged anyone with concerns about other patrons to alert security.
That’s better. Can’t find the text number on the Eden Park website though.
There is this piece of impenetrable information on complaints
University of Auckland psychology lecturer Danny Osborne has researched the relationship between participation in core sport, such as rugby, and homophobia.
“That somebody can stand up for what’s right should be applauded.”
Agree entirely with that statement – good on her for standing up in that environment. And shame on the spectators: the main antagonists, but also the rest of those in the area for not following her example of giving a damn.
Ah, the good ole ‘PC’ hammer, used to smash anyone who stands up against a bully. Fuck you, Eden Park. I’m with Karol, I avoid rugby and this is one reason why. Very proud of these women, standing up to mean (drunk?) men is scary.
On top of the vulnerable situation of the complainant: this game is supposed to be NZ’s national sport. Rugby stadiums get priority treatment from the government’s spend of tax payers’ money. So, are only some sections of the public considered to be part of this wonderful [/sarc] nation?
While quite a few Herald readers came to the abused wommen’s defense, some replied with the “get over yourselves” kind of comment addressed to the women. And then there was this reply:
“Rugby is the mans domain you are just a guest.”
So, where ever did I get the idea it was supposed to be the game for the whole nation?
There is enough information on public record, and also if the media’s life-cycle and good practices are appreciated, that point to an(other) earlier leak.
If and when free, I might post something. (Off to work soon. Tony was looking so very pleased with himself yesterday. I wonder what colour and pattern tie he will be wearing today hehe.)
I get the feeling Karol that Dunne is telling the truth, of sorts, when he says he never leaked the report. Maybe he did not show Vance the report. But I would really like to see the emails to see if the information subsequently reported by Vance was contained in them.
Winston is saying that Dunne not only leaked the Kitteridge report but there is a trail of leaks from ‘the Hairdo’ which Winston says He has evidence supporting His assertion,
Interestingly or not, i got a squizz at the member for Ohariu a few months back and commented here on ‘Open Mike’ that He was looking more than a bit s**t and had a little speculating moment over whether He, (Dunne), would make it through to the 2014 election,
When i seen Him downtown He looked like He had seen a ghost,(perhaps He thought i was going to mug Him), or perhaps wee Petey had had that long dormant part of His anatomy brought rushing back to life by the DomPost reporter, He knew He was trapped like a moth circling a naked light-bulb and the situation was scaring the crap outta Him…
As I understand it, the original Kitteridge Report contained 7 appendices but only the first 2 of these: a tabulated summary of findings and Terms of Reference were made public or ever intended to be made public. There were therefore 5 remaining appendices including inter alia the list of the names of people spoken to and a canvassing of legal issues involved that remained confidential. It would cerainly be interesting to know whether Peter Dunne (if he were the leaker) apprised the leakee of this material. If he did so then this rather white-ants the defence that “the report was going to be released anyway” and may indeed raise the legal stakes.
once again the final line of the article seems to hold the biggest questions . .
“A spokeswoman for the Prime Minister said the only copy Mr Key ever received was released in full with classified appendices withheld.”
The PM does not have clearance to read the appendices of the department he is meant to have control over yet we are to implicitly trust his statements that life is hunky dory and there is nothing to concern ourselves with ?
btw, want some spine chilling fun with way too many “it’s just a big co-incidence” results:
do some searches around “Booz Allen Hamilton & Palintir”
recommend throwing in words like “NZ” “US” “employment” “lobbyists” etc
“A spokeswoman for the Prime Minister said the only copy Mr Key ever received was released in full with classified appendices withheld.
I read that twice freedom. The first time interpreted it the same way. The second time I read it as:
The copy that Mr Key received was released in full with the classified appendices only removed. In other words he has seen the appendices but they were withheld from the released version. If that is correct, why is he trying to obfuscate? We would expect him to see more than the rest of us.
Is it because he’s so used to lying and cheating that he automatically does it even when it isn’t necessary?
cheers for that Anne, I was guilty of wearing the very blinkers that I try so hard to remove from others. Though it does balance on that fence a little too well not to be crafted as such.
I call for helmets to be made compulsory when riding in all motor vehicles. The highest number of head and brain injuries in New Zealand results from people not wearing helmets when in their cars especially. People only have one brains and when its gone there’s not much that can done. I am not anti-risk or anti-fun, we are pro-safety.
Next week we will be launching a campaign to make open-toed jandals illegal.
Better education on using scooters might help too. Does anyone teach kids much about what is safe.
The journo really should have compared ACC scooter head injury stats in that report. Just saying there has been an x increase in overall claims doesn’t tell us much.
Is it legal for kids to use a scooter in the road?
“I am not anti-risk or anti-fun, we are pro-safety.”
Can you translate that into English please? I know that may be hard for your one brains, but before I contradict you I’d like to know who; “we” are, and how they can be simultaneously “anti-risk” and “pro-safety”. A link to data supporting your assertions (which I imagine relate to; absolute numbers, rather than; injury proportions/ hour traveled by transportation means), would be appreciated too.
We want to make sure that nobody taking part in a risky activity like riding a bike or a scooter gets harmed. And of course when people take part in an even more risky activity like riding in a car then it is even more important that safety equipment such as seat belts and helmets are worn.
We don’t link to data because, you know, lies lies and statistics. We just ask ourselves – how many people come out of a car crash without head injuries? If these head-injured people had been wearing helmets then they would still have their one brains.
Our eventual aim is continual compulsory wearing of helmets all day long.
Ah… Thanks VTO; I missed the irony the first time around, what with the word salad (though missing out; “not” in the “not anti-risk” quote, reduced the comprehensibilty of my own reply). I still don’t agree that; safety precautions shouldn’t be mandatory with vehicles, but at least now I know what I’m disagreeing with.
Strangely enough, you are on firmer ground with: “People only have one brains and when its gone there’s not much that can done”. Though I’d say; one central nervous system (CNS) comprosing of; two cerbral hemispheres (each themselves divisable into cortical areas), ocular receptors (eyes), olfactory bulb, limbic system, and cerebellum, plus peripheral nervous system (PNS) and associated receptors. Where the PNS is (largely) capable of neuronal regeneration (barring spinal damage), while in the CNS cell-death is permanent (though synaptic profusion is lifelong). Which is why helmets are such a good idea!
Personally I prefer the; Calvin Party song “lies, lies, lies, and government”, to your; “lies, [damned] lies, and statistics” Twain (?) quote. But then to borrow another phrase (I wish I knew from who): “Facts!.. Hah; you can prove anything with facts”.
Yes, it was a bit of a word salad sorry. A result of a knock to the head and brains when I stood up into the corner of an open kitchen cupboard. If only I had been wearing a helmet.
Who would have thunk it, more on the little debate we have been having about by-elections and their ability to upset the proportionality of the Parliament,
The latest gem from the electoral Commission: ”There is no one provision in the Electoral Act 1993 that states that a by-election can change the proportionality of (the ) Parliament” unquote,
It appears that the Electoral Commission has arrived at such decision to allow it’self the luxury of being, in the case of a by-election, able to alter the Parliaments proportionality on the basis of ”key definitions” which include the ”definition of an election and a by-election in section 2 of the 1993 Electoral Act,
So, the nose goes back into the 1993 Act to see if i can ascertain how the Electoral Commission arrived at such ‘definitions’ giving it the power to upset the Parliaments proportionality,
i was saying yesterday that this situation vis a vis by-elections and their ability to alter the Parliaments proportionality smelled a little of someone(s) making up the rules as they went along given that there is no specific Legislated provisions in the 1993 Electoral Act that address this issue,
It’s now starting to pong a bit more, my view is that the people of New Zealand at general elections are the final arbiter of the proportional representation of the Parliament and it is not the privilege of appointed civil servants to alter that proportionality based upon definitions, (i assume), they have made from sections of the electoral Act…
Is our democracy of ‘proportional representation’ at the whim of public servants to be turned into a shoddy shonky sham ???,
You bet, in certain situations ‘proportional representation’ would end up in the dustbin on the whim of Legislation with holes in it big enough to drive a bus through and the ‘interpretation’ of the Electoral Act by the Electoral Commission regarding by-elections,
Here’s 2 ‘live’ situations that admittedly are unlikely to occur but could,
(1), “the Hairdo from Ohariu” resigns from the Parliament and a by-election is held, National win this by-election but NO adjustment is made to their number of list MP’s thus giving National an extra MP in the Parliament over and above what the 2011 election dictates they have,
(2), Parekura’s old seat Ikaroa-Rawhiti, should Mana win this by-election under the rules of proportional representation Labour would be entitled to an extra List MP in the Parliament to maintain their proportion of MP’s as dictated by the 2011 election but NO adjustment would be made to the number of Labour list MP’s in the house,
Welcome to the Mickey Mouse democracy brought to you by a piece of shoddy electoral law and a handful of unelected civil servants who when questioned on this issue reply citing ‘definitions’ in the Electoral Law which do appear not to exist and sections of the same law which in word and intent have nothing whatsoever to do with the proportionality of the Parliament,
Dappled forest light caught the Oracle’s hair and the strange smoke that curled around her face. She swayed, eyes curled upward.
Russel found himself trying to grab Metiria’s hand as even he felt the power descend.
“Welcome.”
The voice that came from the Oracle’s mouth seeming too deep and wide for such a lean body to produce. The co-leaders fell to their knees.
“Hear the Earth’s message. Know that these troubled times will end. Each injury to the fabric of the world wins another follower to our cause. Remember this in the storm to come. But beware. I am now unable to intuit the times ahead with clarity. A distortion in the ley lines from an unknown source is making its impact felt. The White Rooster has been sacrificed before the time foretold.”
Russel’s brow crinkled.
“You mean Peter Dunne?”
“Yes.”
“Surely he just suffered the normal fate of furry animals that sit in the middle of the road?”
“His fall was the result of a cause I cannot descry.”
“It wasn’t Dotcom?” said Russel. “I assumed it being the GCSB and that…”
“Be assured The Count of Mansion Chrisco is as surprised as you are.
To the HBO wing of the political blogosphere, Key may be vain and shallow and Joyce may be a bag of wind who has failed hopelessly to foster economic growth – but that sort of detail is felt to belong on a “Making Of “ featurette, and not in prime time. In prime time, the politicians may well come across as awkwardly shifty political tools – but the nightly displays of their fallibility merely confirm the wisdom of having low expectations in the first place. Routinely, journalists function as enablers of that process. The process readily becomes a duet of cynicism, and not a genuine holding to account. That’s the evil genius of television politics, and media theorist Mark Crispin Miller described its elements pretty well in his “Divide and Conquer” essay way back in 1986. For “TV” read “politics.”
TV solicits each viewer’s allegiance by reflecting back his or her own automatic skepticism toward TV. Thus, TV protects itself from criticism or rejection by incorporating our very animus against the spectacle into the spectacle itself.
.
so the bank numty, I mean manager, rings and says ‘sorry we are cancelling your miniscule overdraft because you never completely pay it off’.
* cough, splutter, gasp * …. ‘what?’ say I ‘ but just last week you sent me another one of those letters offering to double my credit card limit again. What on earth are you talking about? How do those two things make sense mr numty, I mean manager? Why do you offer a massive credit card, while at the same time crying credit failure over a teency tiny oevrdraft?’
‘Oh that’s a different department * nervous giggle *’ replies numty.
Seriously, banks are the most dangerous of corporate creatures with a blood as cold as this morning’s river flow. Needless to say both matters have been cancelled completely and they can go f… themselves. Sticking the money under the mattress from now on, but don’t tell anyone (although I suppose the New Zealand government people spying on me will make a note)
It was confirmation again that the MO of banks is the same as drug dealers – give the punters lots of lolly to get them hooked and then when they are addicted and can’t keep up move in and hoover the assets (on a nationwide scale of course, not so much individual)
Buried in the vaults of the Bank of Tane Mahuta is a far better, (and safer), option for any spare cash you want to keep out of the fraudulent money go round operated by the banking system,
The joy of banking with Tane Mahuta is that He has branches everywhere, snigger…
Funnily enough we do have some buried within some tane mahutas. Being the fast growing high value trees that they are we planted a small crop some years ago.
That’s what I said before realising of course that if they can push that overdraft debt onto even more expensive credit card debt then, whammo, it’s win win win for the bank!
But there evil ways have backfired he he he he – all debts now paid in full and no overdraft, credit card, and especially no business banking for them which is the real loss for them given our business banking dwarfs this numpty stuff. Seriously, they seem to operate by computer program. There appears little or no thinking inside day-to-day bank operations and customer relations.
yup, since the redundancy and the current pick’n’mix of haphazard income, my very small OD has grown a little and the interest and fees that are accruing have resulted in the most attentive and generous banking services I have ever experienced 🙂
I am confident I will go back to being a nobody as soon as I get regular work again, or finally succumb to signing on for assistance which I have somehow managed to stave off so far, but hunger is beginning to bore me.
You do realise that WINZ start their stand-down period from when you apply, rather than when you lost employment income? Your pride in refusing to accept a benefit which your taxes have paid for, seems akin to that of; someone refusing to apply for an insurance payment on which they’ve always kept the premiums up to date: I’m sure that Paula Bennett would rub her hands, with much the same glee as the insurance company executives would, on hearing of your plight.
At the pre-application meeting I did not appreciate being told my skill base and non-paid work commitments were irrelevant to what jobs I got sent for. It did get my gander up, so I am the first to admit that stubbornness (and a loathing of the senseless aggression inherent in the current processes) is certainly part of it.
I was made redundant so there is no long term stand down in my circumstance, but it is a complex situation re the tax grounds you reference 🙁 and that plays its part also, as I do have reservations of asking for help when my taxes are not fully up to date.
“Despite, and maybe because of, the events of the last week involving party leader Hon Peter Dunne MP we have had continuing membership applications from across the country, with huge levels of support for what the party stands for…”
“Whatever the hell that might be”, he forgot to add.
Translation, Facing the loss of 100 thou Pete furiously emailed ‘everyone’ He had ever met cajoling them to join the party sweat pouring from His fevered brow as He contemplated life without the Ministerial salary, perks AND the loss of the leadership allowance…
Signed paper copies… The GP has been using online registration for years and I think if you set up an AP your membership just rolls over.
I wonder if the Electoral Commission’s requirement of UF is because they want to double check that they are in fact above 500 members, rather than it being a blanket requirement for every party to have signed paper copies.
Get the members to print out the membership forms and send them to you. It’s what every other bloody party does and have been doing for several decades – well, ok, fine, a few decades ago the parties probably even printed the forms themselves. The point being that it’s how it’s been done for fucken decades and probably was how UF managed to get registered in the first place so claiming that they can’t do it is total BS.
Draco, the GP doesn’t require paper copies. You can join the party online without any other documentation. If the EC were to require the GP to provide signed copies, they would have to go back to the membership and ask them to fill in a form, sign it and post it in (because no such forms exist currently for those that joined online).
” Hard copies of the report were distributed to 34 people before it was released.
Inquiry head David Henry focused only on the three people of the 34 who had been known to have contact with the reporter over a two-week period.”
What! Is it possible that any one of the other 31 people leaked? Perhaps not by email and just handed over the brown paper parcel? No. Of course not. Only an email trail would indicate any possible answer to the leak. No Minister would have a private cell phone would they, and a who these days would have a brown paper to wrap up a report? Nah. Must be Peter Scapegoat.
“Inquiry head David Henry focused only on the three people of the 34 who had been known to have contact with the reporter over a two-week period.”
Whoever wrote this got the story very very wrong and should be ashamed to be a journalist.
What they were trying to say, is this:
“Of the 34 people that had access to the report, Inquiry head David Henry focused only on the three of them who had been known to have contact with the reporter over a two-week period.”
Yesterday Chris Hipkins asked an important question relating to National Standards and their moderation. From reading through what I imagine to be the (not exactly easy to locate) section referred to by the Minister I fail to see how any of the information can be said to relate to a National Standard. There are numerous outlines of moderation handy-hints but there is certainly nothing pertaining to a well laid out standard for national moderation objectives. It certainly suggests if Schools choose to go outside of their own conversation they may find it useful, when developing their own techniques of assessment, but surely this only highlights the mainly insular nature of the moderation process.
I obviously posted in the wrong thread , could a moderator please shift it . . I already spilt a coffee broke a carving and sliced my thumb, generally not having a good day
You are on to it freedom.
Today Q12 CCHRIS HIPKINS to the Minister of Education: Does she stand by all of the answers she gave to Oral Questions yesterday?
Do you reckon Parata will make a correction at the beginning of Q Time today?
btw, I have no problem with Mallard raising the issue. A top cop praising a crooked cop is worthy of being discussed at that committee, though Trevor does seem to have blown a foofoo valve when challenged about it.
Yes, although given the lovely nature of this crop of nats it was probably understandable.
Some of the nats seem to think that if AAT were innocent, the police wouldn’t have fitted him up (or at least that’s what their unblinking defense of police in the face of serious questions would imply).
It’s appropriate to question the decision to give the eulogy, let alone its content, but attempting to hold some sort of de-facto employment tribunal was stupid and counter-productive Mallard.
Just heard Joyce in the house saying that Labour members have accepted hospitality from Sky City – a corporate box at some event or other – and complaining that they still voted against the Sky City conference centre deal.
All the Nats in the house tut-tutted in faux-outrage.
Note what’s they’re expressing here: they think it’s scandalous to accept corporate hospitality and not be influenced by it!
Could there be a clearer illustration of the bankrupt, backwards, and corrupt ethical framework followed by this government?
I suspect it didn’t have anything to do with being influenced and more to do with accepting gifts from people they accuse of being involved in crony corruption or dirty deals.
But it’s about the level we’ve come to expect from you lately. Reminiscent of when you recently spent all day arguing that blatantly racist cartoons were actually making fun of racists.
But while you’re still pretending to be making a serious point, would you care to outline the ethical principle in play in your interpretation, and explain how National’s acceptance of favours differs?
Am I to take that to mean you have no wish to compare the ethical positions of the two parties in question according to your own interpretation as stated above?
I would have been happy to discuss it but your inability to state why you disagree and why without being a sneery asshole makes one think “Why would I talk to that, dick?”
So fuck off Felix.
Oh and for the record, dick, I recanted my position of the cartoons within a couple hours of my first a comment and admitted in light of other peoples arguments that I was incorrect. So again, fuck off.
Yeah, I can totally see why you wouldn’t want to discuss things with someone who was all rude and sneery.
Totally.
And yep I know you recanted your absurd position on the obviously racist cartoons, the point I was making is that you spent all day defending the indefensible before finally agreeing to look at them from the point of view of a normal fucking human being.
All available indications are that had you deigned to lower yourself to discuss my observation above with my rude, sneery self, the outcome would be no different.
Frankly it’s a waste of everyone’s time and it’s probably for the best that you’ve decided to centre the discussion around your twattish nature and lack of self awareness instead.
Yeah, I must with regret say I agree with TC on this one.
It’s fucking amateur to decry businesses getting special treatment from government in return for favours … then accept those favours. Someone remind me, has Labour made any commitment to explore any and all options to end the 35-year pokies deal yet?
As for “not being influenced by it” – they’re in Opposition. They’re not in a position to make policy now. But if they’re accepting corporate hospitality barely a year out from a general election … what fun new deal might 2014 bring for all concerned?
Not to mention that it’s a fantastic look for a party trying once again to brand itself as the supporter of Kiwi battlers to be sitting in corporate boxes hobnobbing with executives at rugby matches. Let me guess, they were being ~aspirational~.
Let me be clear, I don’t give a rat’s whether it’s a good look for Labour or not. I’ve pretty much come to accept that they’re useless at this stuff and I’ve given up expecting them to get any better at it any time soon. My comment was about the criticism leveled by Joyce (and then Ryall in the gen debate).
Their criticism gets all the relevant principles of ethics, conflicts of interest, and transparency 180 degrees backwards.
“As for “not being influenced by it” – they’re in Opposition. They’re not in a position to make policy now. “
They’re in a position to either vote for or against the shonky deal, and they voted against. And that’s what Joyce and Ryall were pointing to as a hypocrisy – that if they were going to take the gifts they should bloody well knuckle down and get to work for the corporate overlords.
tc
How can Labour participate in society if It doesn’t have anything to do with things it is not in agreement with? Attending something being held at Sky City seems reasonable. Objecting to having a corporate box would just make them look precious.
What was to be gained by refusing it at that time? They have to make a case for change where they can have some effect. But first they need to see what’s going on. So they attend. If they hadn’t they ‘d probably be called wowsers so Labour can’t win.
No need to make a big song and dance of things and outright refuse, one can politely decline.
But outside of that – this is a politically ‘hot’ issue and one that Labour has been very vocal about. It provides talking points and ammunition for National to make an issue of.
What was to be gained by refusing it at that time? They have to make a case for change where they can have some effect. But first they need to see what’s going on. So they attend. If they hadn’t they ‘d probably be called wowsers so Labour can’t win.
What the fuck? So according to you, first they need to see what is going on in a fully catered, free bar corporate box, THEN they can make a case for change? Politiely put, what the FUCK are you on about?
And according to you, the risk of being called a fucking “WOWSER” or looking “PRECIOUS” is supposed to influence the behaviour of our MPs? Sticks and stones may break my bones…for fucks sake, just grow up.
I mean seriously, did you even think about what you wrote, before you wasted data storage space expressing it?
Let’s be real clear here. Our politicians are not supposed to be trying to cajole and persuade and convince the corporates of anything. They are not supposed to be creating closer ties and working relationships with the corporate community and the top 0.1%. Instead, they are supposed to acting in the best interests of the nation and the people.
We, the ordinary people are supposed to be the constituency they represent NOT the multimillionaire corporate class (nor the MSM for that matter).
These politicians are Members of the Sovereign Fucking Parliament of the Land and being called a fucking “WOWSER” and buddying up with the SkyCity Board of Directors should be the least of their fucking concerns. And the way you “have an effect” is by judicious and firm use of the sovereign powers and authority of the Crown. Not by trying to grease up to the top 0.1%.
Just asked Sean Plunket this question on his facebook page :
“Sean Plunket- sorry – but I really do have to ask you this question:
Do you have a genuinely investigative bone in your body, when it comes to the fluoridation of public water supplies issue – or are you just a National Party ‘political HACK’?
(Meant of course, in a caring way 😉
Are you interested in ‘seeking truth from FACTS’?
Have you yet carefully read this new study in the Journal of Environmental and Public Health which delivers a significant blow to fluoridation? :
“..chronic effects of fluoride involve alterations in the chemical activity of calcium by the fluoride ion. Natural calcium fluoride with low solubility and toxicity from ingestion is distinct from fully soluble toxic industrial fluorides …”
“Industrial fluoride ingested from treated water enters saliva at levels too low to affect dental caries. Blood levels during lifelong consumption can harm heart, bone, brain, and even developing teeth enamel.
The widespread policy known as water fluoridation is discussed in light of these findings. ….”
Which questions whether either the Ministry of Health and Watercare Services be trusted, given their proven track record in supporting the use of Waikato water, as a ‘raw’ source of drinking water supplies for the Auckland region?”
For the public record, I again state my considered opinion, that as a 2013 Auckland Mayoral candidate, I do NOT support the fluoridation of public drinking water supplies.
“Do you have a genuinely investigative bone in your body, when it comes to the fluoridation of public water supplies issue – or are you just a National Party ‘political HACK’?”
Wait, what? Believing fluoridation of water as a good public health policy in line with the CDC, American Dental Association, The UN, the American Medical Association etc etc now makes one a National Party hack?
I will listen to Dr Gluckman – and the other illustrious scientific bodies mentioned by TC – on the subject before amateur hacks any day.
Let me inform the uninformed the following. Did you know:
That a person would have to drink 40 bath-fulls of fluoridated water (at the level allowed by law in NZ) in one sitting before that person would be affected by an overdose of fluoride. How do I know this? It was part of a lecture by a professor of dentistry during my dental training… albeit several decades ago. Nothing has changed since then.
Some communities have been fluoridated for over 50 years, some have never been fluoridated. Given the time and population sizes one should be able to show a difference in health between the fluoridated and non-fluoridated communities.
No such difference has been demonstrated. Fluoridated communities have no significant health problems in comparison to the non-fluoridated.
That is correct TC. What annoys me most about this recently resurrected debate is the attempt to infer that the population has been exposed to serious side effects from the fluoridation of water. Yes, there are side effects but only at levels far in excess of that which exists in controlled conditions. We also have minute quantities of other chemicals present in water (some naturally and some added) that would also pose a risk to health if they were present at excessive levels. They’re not… and never will be.
One only has to compare the state of children’s teeth before the addition of fluoride, to those children who have been the beneficiaries of fluoridation. The difference has been enormous. What is more, fluoride provides an additional topical protection for adults too, which also helps to at least delay serious tooth decay.
Yes good old Aotearoa leads the way again – the Helenhate filth worked such a treat so now years of Ozgeny rips Julia to shreds and leads into the final phase of self-fulfilling poll saturation. Ah well, chin up, maybe it means racism’s done its dash there too.
“Haqq-Misra is leading a team of scientists and entrepreneurs who are launching a new initiative called “Lone Signal” which will send the first continuous mass “hailing messages” out into space, starting later this month.”
Surely something like this should have to be ‘approved’ by the human race before they do it – but no the scientists have decided.
From what I recall, besides a couple of exceptions, various collections of scientists, philosophers and sociologists (he – see what I did there? Qual/quant fight go! :)) have looked at the issue and generally come down with a “generally bad idea” conclusion.
But of course the key word in the article is “entrepreneur”: I suspect their business plan is strictly terrestrial.
Time for me to watch Mars Attack again. Quite funny. And the green ones are so direct. We approach extending the hand of friendship. They shoot and deal with any problems before they arrive.
Perhaps they’re just trying to phone home , Marty!
My opinion its the people who are funding the project, made the decision, semantics possibly, but its my issue with the misuse of science, which seems to be working against humanities better interests!
I’m quite certain the reason the planet continues to be trashed, is that the psychopaths in charge, expect to be able to leave the planet, and head elsewhere, once its game over!
Perhaps its how things are meant to be, the evolutionists should appreciate it!
I’m quite certain the reason the planet continues to be trashed, is that the psychopaths in charge, expect to be able to leave the planet, and head elsewhere, once its game over!
And oblivious to the possibility that, any intelligent life out there could look at their “hail”, and say Piss Off. You’re not the kind we want in our Hood!”
Donkey has just given a short sharp answer to Russel Norman that he is not interested in the operational matters of the methods and practices of intelligence agencies supplying our NZ intelligence and this seems meant to apply to private companies working for the government. Palantir? has advertised for an embedded analyst. Sounds like they’re in bed with the government all right. But embedded means sunk into the midst of something! Anyway we don’t need to bother about it, Jokey Hen thinks it’s all hunky-dory.
NEWSFLASH!
Karl du Fresne manages a whole hour and a quarter of normality
Radio NZ National, The Panel, Wednesday 12 June 2013
Jim Mora, Karl du Fresne, Finlay Macdonald
Preshow chat, 3:45 to 4:00 p.m.—nothing. Well, one thing of interest: Karl du Fresne notes that the U.S. regime lied continuously and grossly about what it was doing in Vietnam. That’s a remarkable change in his behaviour; a tilt toward honesty.
First half hour: nothing eventful. Some interesting discussions, about Peter Dunne and Winston Peters, and something else about Sir Bruce Ferguson, but nothing eventful.
At 4:30, the News. Nothing exciting.
Karl du Fresne on his best behaviour. So far. Mora and Macdonald pleasant and urbane as always.
At 4:40, a discussion with Phil Ruthven, chairman and founder of Ibis World, from Melbourne, about use of leisure time. Diverting, but nothing special.
Next it’s time for the “Soapbox” segment, where the guests deliver a prepared rumination on something they’ve been thinking about. Or, in the case of guests like Christine (Spankin’) Rankin, a confused and incoherent rant against Māori. So, maybe du Fresne will say something stupid in this segment….
MORA: Finlay I think you want to mention Nelson Mandela.
FINLAY MACDONALD: He’s been there for all of my life. I was born in 1961, when he was just starting his revolutionary movement. He went to jail soon after and he was in Robben Island all during my youth. I was thirty when he was released from jail, and my oldest child was born the year that he was elected president of South Africa. I just wonder who are we sending to his funeral? The prime minister, who can’t remember what side he was on in 1981? Or one of those public figures who called him a terrorist?
MORA:[with a slight edge of facetiousness] John Minto!
FINLAY MACDONALD:[refusing to rise to Mora’s provocation] Yeah, maybe. Or I think possibly John Graham, who went to the townships—he asked to be taken there—and came back to New Zealand and said “I don’t think we should play with those people”. That took a lot of courage.
KARL DU FRESNE: Mmmm, mmmmm.
MORA: Mmmmm, mmmmm. Karl, what’s been on YOUR mind?
KARL DU FRESNE: I want to have a bit of a grizzle about incomprehensible sets of instructions.
MORA: Hur hur hur hur.
KARL DU FRESNE: There are some things where you CAN’T disregard the instructions and charge ahead. Particularly electronic things. My brother is a builder, well accustomed to dealing with technical challenges. But he’s tearing his hair out trying to work the electronic equipment in his house. ….
This monologue continues for some time, and is actually very amusing.
MORA: Lots of suggestions on the texts about who to send over to the funeral: Phil Recordon, Jim Bolger, Sandy McNicol…
FINLAY MACDONALD: There’s a whole planeload of them!
At 4:50, a discussion about crude and offensive language at the football on Saturday night.
At 4:55, an amusing discussion with the sly and hilarious Patrick Morgan, about scooter safety. Once again, Karl du Fresne’s comments are pertinent and positive.
VERDICTS:
Good work, Jim. Keep it up! (A minus.)
Well done, Karl du Fresne. See, you CAN act like a normal human being. (A minus.)
Finlay Macdonald: Badly misjudged assessment of John Graham. That one comment aside, he took nothing like the stance against apartheid, or racism, that you say he did. (B minus.)
I hope you enjoyed SkyCity’s corporate box. Unlike your blood-sucking chums, I don’t have anything to offer you, except my vote. It’s not much, I know, but it’s all I’ve got. And you don’t seem to want it, so you won’t be getting it.
Please fuck off out of Parliament and into the National Party, where you belong.
Yes. Or more accurately, they are agents of capitalism.
For several reasons, but primarily because they make a living from other people exchanging capital assets where they are not paid by the hour but as a % commission of the value of those assets – nothing to do with the input or physical value of their labour.
Well, I am getting heartily sick of estate agents ringing me, assuming I am the “home owner” rather than actually being a renter, and trying to encourage me to put my property on the market. Basically, the scumbags are trying to get landlords to sell property from under the renters, thus contributing to housing inflation and rising and insecure rents.
“The science of fluoride in water is effectively settled. It has been one of the most thoroughly worked questions in public health science over many decades,” says Sir Peter Gluckman, the Prime Minister’s Chief Science Advisor.
In a statement released today on the issue of fluoride in public water supplies, Sir Peter reiterates the scientific facts, saying “it is absolutely clear that at doses used in New Zealand to adjust the natural level to one that is consistent with beneficial effects (0.7-1.0mg/litre), there is no health risk from fluoride in the water.”
So why is there any issue at all?
Sir Peter points to the importance of the values debate around fluoridation, but warns that this should not be misrepresented as a scientific debate. …”
“..chronic effects of fluoride involve alterations in the chemical activity of calcium by the fluoride ion. Natural calcium fluoride with low solubility and toxicity from ingestion is distinct from fully soluble toxic industrial fluorides …”
“Industrial fluoride ingested from treated water enters saliva at levels too low to affect dental caries. Blood levels during lifelong consumption can harm heart, bone, brain, and even developing teeth enamel.
The widespread policy known as water fluoridation is discussed in light of these findings. ….”
FYI – I have spent some hundreds of hours researching the decisions of the Ministry of Health and Watercare Services to use Waikato river water as a ‘raw’ source of drinking water supplies for the Auckland region.
I respectfully suggest that you read the following document which I prepared for a meeting of the Auckland City Council Finance and Business Committee back in October 2002, so that you can understand why a number of persons, such as myself, do NOT trust either the Ministry of Health, or Watercare Services Ltd, when it comes to safeguarding public health and drinking water supplies.
What a sad country and state of affairs this place has become. Day in day out the same posters and crowd, no growth, no appeal, the MSM misinforming and getting away with it even more than before, the wider public dumber than they have ever been (outracing previous records of dumbness and ignorance daily), and trivia and misinformation being the staple diet of the most dumbed down people within the OECD, that is – guess what, New Zealand.
It is the best place to leave for good, and to never come back to, it is a lost place, full of emptiness, especially in the minds of too many, it is not even on the map, that is for most in the world, as it just dropped off, before the map got the final current print run.
The point to remember, is that NZ is still part of a major experiment, there is a reason we have all those *firsts*, they are not anything to do with being progressive, much as the peeps would like to believe.
NZ’ers, generally take the view , that the world is *just like them*, its not, it never was, and never will be, primarily because, NZ’ers have little to no sense of identity, or their place in the world., which is what comes from being such a young nation.
TPTB are having their way with NZ, it started in in 1840, but really kicked off in 1961. You can see NZ’s decline in the OECD rankings, from the end of the 60’s onwards, which tells the timeline of the experiment.
It saddens me greatly, to understand that NZ remains under attack, and worst of all, that there are so many who , not only are unaware, but in fact they believe so much , in their *worldly understandings*, they are actively supporting the propagation of evil, and effectively digging their own graves!
Try to enjoy what you can in this life, X, its important that we all give, and receive joy, it can be found everywhere, even when the clouds are at their most sinister!
If you spend too much time on this site, or tracking the gloom around, the joy will become ever more difficult to engage with, and if you are feeling that way, my advise would be, stop tracking the system, its going to continue regardless. Just do what you need to, I appreciate from your posts, that there are restrictions, and changes which are directly going to affect you, if I recall, that being the case, I wish you well, and keep up the good fight, but don’t let the fight kill you, eh!
Thanks for your help in exposing some of the shit. And muzza is on to it – go and have an actual look around at the beauty everywhere and get off the fucken internet for a while – you’re alive start living.
Now that he has done the Dunne business …Lets see what Winnie is really made of …. Hope Winston gets on the case of Palantir?….This really is an outrage!
Private companies spying on NZers?…What for? Who exactly is Palantir? Where do they come from? ….AND ….Why doesnt John Key know about them and what they are up to ?…Surely that is his job ?
Any more leaks ? ( or is that a naughty word?)
GOOD ON THE GREENS !…. for fishing this one from out under the bed.
Also I totally thank all for sympathy, we live in a world that we have little input in, and I welcome you all to take a solid stand, just bit by bit!
So raising voices and disagreeing is just part of the agenda to let em know, there are others that do NOT support your one system, largely corporate focused. Bear that in mind, the corporates RUN the system and all words of them are lies and hollow. Do NOT believe them and create your own individual, independent, democratic systems and islands all over, thanks!
moderator : can you put this onto tomorrow’s notice please.
Nasty racism times ahead for Aotearoa-New Zealand’s people. 1-law-4-All is stepping up its pace,
and I note the advertisement from ACT on The Standard today about a public meeting on The Constitution Mon 17 June St Heliers. This will be part of the same sick stuff which is spewing forth from Muriel Newman as director of NZ Centre for Political Research. The following is part of their creed :
” We reject reference to the Treaty of Waitangi or its principles in any constitutional document.
We ask that such references be removed from all existing legislation.
We ask that race-based Parliamentary seats be abolished.
We ask that race-based representation on local bodies be abolished.
We ask that the Waitangi Tribunal, which has outlived any usefulness it may have had, be abolished.”
An extract from – The Origins of 1 Law 4 All (a new political party – don’t know if its registered yet)
“Over recent years – and especially since National went into coalition with the Maori Party – there has been a step-by-step erosion of our traditional democratic rights in favour of the tribal elite, which the Maori Party represents.’
“However, it needed a catalyst to bring about a movement for political action and that catalyst was the (February, 2013) publication of “Twisting the Treaty”, an authoritative and terrifying account of the way that New Zealand is blindly going down the dark path of separatism and racism, with those who are not part-Maori being made to feel like second class citizens in their own country.’
“Twisting the Treaty” ……….. The book has made enough people angry enough to initiate political action and 1 Law 4 All is the result – a party that is determined to roll through the country like thunder, informing the people of how they are being cheated of long held rights by the two main parties in the spurious name of “Treatyism”.
“Treatyism is the false belief that the Treaty of Waitangi gave special rights to the Maori when it did not. Treatyism says that the Treaty of Waitangi created a “partnership” between Maori and other New Zealanders when it did not……..”
A listing of 25 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, December 15, 2024 thru Sat, December 21, 2024. Based on feedback we received, this week's roundup is the first one published soleley by category. We are still interested in ...
Well, I've been there, sitting in that same chairWhispering that same prayer half a million timesIt's a lie, though buried in disciplesOne page of the Bible isn't worth a lifeThere's nothing wrong with youIt's true, it's trueThere's something wrong with the villageWith the villageSomething wrong with the villageSongwriters: Andrew Jackson ...
ACT would like to dictate what universities can and can’t say. We knew it was coming. It was outlined in the coalition agreement and has become part of Seymour’s strategy of “emphasising public funding” to prevent people from opposing him and his views—something he also uses to try and de-platform ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park from the Gigafact team in collaboration with members from our team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Are we heading ...
So the Solstice has arrived – Summer in this part of the world, Winter for the Northern Hemisphere. And with it, the publication my new Norse dark-fantasy piece, As Our Power Lessens at Eternal Haunted Summer: https://eternalhauntedsummer.com/issues/winter-solstice-2024/as-our-power-lessens/ As previously noted, this one is very ‘wyrd’, and Northern Theory of Courage. ...
The Natural Choice: As a starter for ten percent of the Party Vote, “saving the planet” is a very respectable objective. Young voters, in particular, raised on the dire (if unheeded) warnings of climate scientists, and the irrefutable evidence of devastating weather events linked to global warming, vote Green. After ...
The Government cancelled 60% of Kāinga Ora’s new builds next year, even though the land for them was already bought, the consents were consented and there are builders unemployed all over the place. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political ...
Photo by CHUTTERSNAP on UnsplashEvery morning I get up at 3am to go around the traps of news sites in Aotearoa and globally. I pick out the top ones from my point of view and have been putting them into my Dawn Chorus email, which goes out with a podcast. ...
Over on Kikorangi Newsroom's Marc Daalder has published his annual OIA stats. So I thought I'd do mine: 82 OIA requests sent in 2024 7 posts based on those requests 20 average working days to receive a response Ministry of Justice was my most-requested entity, ...
Welcome to the December 2024 Economic Bulletin. We have two monthly features in this edition. In the first, we discuss what the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update from Treasury and the Budget Policy Statement from the Minister of Finance tell us about the fiscal position and what to ...
The NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi have submitted against the controversial Treaty Principles Bill, slamming the Bill as a breach of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and an attack on tino rangatiratanga and the collective rights of Tangata Whenua. “This Bill seeks to legislate for Te Tiriti o Waitangi principles that are ...
I don't knowHow to say what's got to be saidI don't know if it's black or whiteThere's others see it redI don't get the answers rightI'll leave that to youIs this love out of fashionOr is it the time of yearAre these words distraction?To the words you want to hearSongwriters: ...
Our economy has experienced its worst recession since 1991. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Friday, December 20 in The Kākā’s Dawn Chorus podcast above and the daily Pick ‘n’ Mix below ...
Twas the Friday before Christmas and all through the week we’ve been collecting stories for our final roundup of the year. As we start to wind down for the year we hope you all have a safe and happy Christmas and new year. If you’re travelling please be safe on ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the year’s news with: on climate. Her book of the year was Tim Winton’s cli-fi novel Juice and she also mentioned Mike Joy’s memoir The Fight for Fresh Water. ...
The Government can head off to the holidays, entitled to assure itself that it has done more or less what it said it would do. The campaign last year promised to “get New Zealand back on track.” When you look at the basic promises—to trim back Government expenditure, toughen up ...
Open access notables An intensification of surface Earth’s energy imbalance since the late 20th century, Li et al., Communications Earth & Environment:Tracking the energy balance of the Earth system is a key method for studying the contribution of human activities to climate change. However, accurately estimating the surface energy balance ...
Photo by Mauricio Fanfa on UnsplashKia oraCome and join us for our weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm today.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news with myself , plus regular guests and , ...
“Like you said, I’m an unreconstructed socialist. Everybody deserves to get something for Christmas.”“ONE OF THOSE had better be for me!” Hannah grinned, fascinated, as Laurie made his way, gingerly, to the bar, his arms full of gift-wrapped packages.“Of course!”, beamed Laurie. Depositing his armful on the bar-top and selecting ...
Data released by Statistics New Zealand today showed a significant slowdown in the economy over the past six months, with GDP falling by 1% in September, and 1.1% in June said CTU Economist Craig Renney. “The data shows that the size of the economy in GDP terms is now smaller ...
One last thing before I quitI never wanted any moreThan I could fit into my headI still remember every single word you saidAnd all the shit that somehow came along with itStill, there's one thing that comforts meSince I was always caged and now I'm freeSongwriters: David Grohl / Georg ...
Sparse offerings outside a Te Kauwhata church. Meanwhile, the Government is cutting spending in ways that make thousands of hungry children even hungrier, while also cutting funding for the charities that help them. It’s also doing that while winding back new building of affordable housing that would allow parents to ...
It is difficult to make sense of the Luxon Coalition Government’s economic management.This end-of-year review about the state of economic management – the state of the economy was last week – is not going to cover the National Party contribution. Frankly, like every other careful observer, I cannot make up ...
This morning I awoke to the lovely news that we are firmly back on track, that is if the scale was reversed.NZ ranks low in global economic comparisonsNew Zealand's economy has been ranked 33rd out of 37 in an international comparison of which have done best in 2024.Economies were ranked ...
Remember those silent movies where the heroine is tied to the railway tracks or going over the waterfall in a barrel? Finance Minister Nicola Willis seems intent on portraying herself as that damsel in distress. According to Willis, this country’s current economic problems have all been caused by the spending ...
Similar to the cuts and the austerity drive imposed by Ruth Richardson in the 1990’s, an era which to all intents and purposes we’ve largely fiddled around the edges with fixing in the time since – over, to be fair, several administrations – whilst trying our best it seems to ...
String-Pulling in the Dark: For the democratic process to be meaningful it must also be public. WITH TRUST AND CONFIDENCE in New Zealand’s politicians and journalists steadily declining, restoring those virtues poses a daunting challenge. Just how daunting is made clear by comparing the way politicians and journalists treated New Zealanders ...
Dear Nicola Willis, thank you for letting us know in so many words that the swingeing austerity hasn't worked.By in so many words I mean the bit where you said, Here is a sea of red ink in which we are drowning after twelve months of savage cost cutting and ...
The Open Government Partnership is a multilateral organisation committed to advancing open government. Countries which join are supposed to co-create regular action plans with civil society, committing to making verifiable improvements in transparency, accountability, participation, or technology and innovation for the above. And they're held to account through an Independent ...
Today I tuned into something strange: a press conference that didn’t make my stomach churn or the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. Which was strange, because it was about the torture of children. It was the announcement by Erica Stanford — on her own, unusually ...
This is a must watch, and puts on brilliant and practical display the implications and mechanics of fast-track law corruption and weakness.CLICK HERE: LINK TO WATCH VIDEOOur news media as it is set up is simply not equipped to deal with the brazen disinformation and corruption under this right wing ...
NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi Acting Secretary Erin Polaczuk is welcoming the announcement from Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety Brooke van Velden that she is opening consultation on engineered stone and is calling on her to listen to the evidence and implement a total ban of the product. “We need ...
The Government has announced a 1.5% increase in the minimum wage from 1 April 2025, well below forecast inflation of 2.5%. Unions have reacted strongly and denounced it as a real terms cut. PSA and the CTU are opposing a new round of staff cuts at WorkSafe, which they say ...
The decision to unilaterally repudiate the contract for new Cook Strait ferries is beginning to look like one of the stupidest decisions a New Zealand government ever made. While cancelling the ferries and their associated port infrastructure may have made this year's books look good, it means higher costs later, ...
Hi there! I’ve been overseas recently, looking after a situation with a family member. So apologies if there any less than focused posts! Vanuatu has just had a significant 7.3 earthquake. Two MFAT staff are unaccounted for with local fatalities.It’s always sad to hear of such things happening.I think of ...
Today is a special member's morning, scheduled to make up for the government's theft of member's days throughout the year. First up was the first reading of Greg Fleming's Crimes (Increased Penalties for Slavery Offences) Amendment Bill, which was passed unanimously. Currently the House is debating the third reading of ...
We're going backwardsIgnoring the realitiesGoing backwardsAre you counting all the casualties?We are not there yetWhere we need to beWe are still in debtTo our insanitiesSongwriter: Martin Gore Read more ...
Willis blamed Treasury for changing its productivity assumptions and Labour’s spending increases since Covid for the worsening Budget outlook. Photo: Getty ImagesMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, December 18 in The Kākā’s Dawn Chorus podcast above ...
Today the Auckland Transport board meet for the last time this year. For those interested (and with time to spare), you can follow along via this MS Teams link from 10am. I’ve taken a quick look through the agenda items to see what I think the most interesting aspects are. ...
Hi,If you’re a New Zealander — you know who Mike King is. He is the face of New Zealand’s battle against mental health problems. He can be loud and brash. He raises, and is entrusted with, a lot of cash. Last year his “I Am Hope” charity reported a revenue ...
Probably about the only consolation available from yesterday’s unveiling of the Half-Yearly Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU) is that it could have been worse. Though Finance Minister Nicola Willis has tightened the screws on future government spending, she has resisted the calls from hard-line academics, fiscal purists and fiscal hawks ...
The right have a stupid saying that is only occasionally true:When is democracy not democracy? When it hasn’t been voted on.While not true in regards to branches of government such as the judiciary, it’s a philosophy that probably should apply to recently-elected local government councillors. Nevertheless, this concept seemed to ...
Long story short: the Government’s austerity policy has driven the economy into a deeper and longer recession that means it will have to borrow $20 billion more over the next four years than it expected just six months ago. Treasury’s latest forecasts show the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s fiscal strategy of ...
Come and join myself and CTU Chief Economist for a pop-up ‘Hoon’ webinar on the Government’s Half Yearly Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU) with paying subscribers to The Kākā for 30 minutes at 5 pm today.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream to watch our chat. Don’t worry if ...
In 1998, in the wake of the Paremoremo Prison riot, the Department of Corrections established the "Behaviour Management Regime". Prisoners were locked in their cells for 22 or 23 hours a day, with no fresh air, no exercise, no social contact, no entertainment, and in some cases no clothes and ...
New data released by the Treasury shows that the economic policies of this Government have made things worse in the year since they took office, said NZCTU Economist Craig Renney. “Our fiscal indicators are all heading in the wrong direction – with higher levels of debt, a higher deficit, and ...
At the 2023 election, National basically ran on a platform of being better economic managers. So how'd that turn out for us? In just one year, they've fucked us for two full political terms: The government's books are set to remain deeply in the red for the near term ...
AUSTERITYText within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedMy spreadsheet insists This pain leads straight to glory (File not found) Read more ...
The NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi are saying that the Government should do the right thing and deliver minimum wage increases that don’t see workers fall further behind, in response to today’s announcement that the minimum wage will only be increased by 1.5%, well short of forecast inflation. “With inflation forecast ...
Oh, I weptFor daysFilled my eyesWith silly tearsOh, yeaBut I don'tCare no moreI don't care ifMy eyes get soreSongwriters: Paul Rodgers / Paul Kossoff. Read more ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Bob HensonIn this aerial view, fingers of meltwater flow from the melting Isunnguata Sermia glacier descending from the Greenland Ice Sheet on July 11, 2024, near Kangerlussuaq, Greenland. According to the Programme for Monitoring of the Greenland Ice Sheet (PROMICE), the ...
In August, I wrote an article about David Seymour1 with a video of his testimony, to warn that there were grave dangers to his Ministry of Regulation:David Seymour's Ministry of Slush Hides Far Greater RisksWhy Seymour's exorbitant waste of taxpayers' money could be the least of concernThe money for Seymour ...
Willis is expected to have to reveal the bitter fiscal fruits of her austerity strategy in the HYEFU later today. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/TheKakaMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Tuesday, December 17 in The Kākā’s Dawn Chorus podcast ...
On Friday the government announced it would double the number of toll roads in New Zealand as well as make a few other changes to how toll roads are used in the country. The real issue though is not that tolling is being used but the suggestion it will make ...
The Prime Minister yesterday engaged in what looked like a pre-emptive strike designed to counter what is likely to be a series of depressing economic statistics expected before the end of the week. He opened his weekly post-Cabinet press conference with a recitation of the Government’s achievements. “It certainly has ...
This whooping cough story from south Auckland is a good example of the coalition government’s approach to social need – spend money on urging people to get vaccinated but only after you’ve cut the funding to where they could get vaccinated. This has been the case all year with public ...
And if there is a GodI know he likes to rockHe likes his loud guitarsHis spiders from MarsAnd if there is a GodI know he's watching meHe likes what he seesBut there's trouble on the breezeSongwriter: William Patrick Corgan Read more ...
Here’s a quick round up of today’s political news:1. MORE FOOD BANKS, CHARITIES, DOMESTIC VIOLENCE SHELTERS AND YOUTH SOCIAL SERVICES SET TO CLOSE OR SCALE BACK AROUND THE COUNTRY AS GOVT CUTS FUNDINGSome of Auckland's largest foodbanks are warning they may need to close or significantly reduce food parcels after ...
Iain Rennie, CNZMSecretary and Chief Executive to the TreasuryDear Secretary, Undue restrictions on restricted briefings This week, the Treasury barred representatives from four organisations, including the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions Te Kauae Kaimahi, from attending the restricted briefing for the Half-Year Economic and Fiscal Update. We had been ...
This is a guest post by Tim Adriaansen, a community, climate, and accessibility advocate.I won’t shut up about climate breakdown, and whenever possible I try to shift the focus of a climate conversation towards solutions. But you’ll almost never hear me give more than a passing nod to ...
A grassroots backlash has forced a backdown from Brown, but he is still eyeing up plenty of tolls for other new roads. And the pressure is on Willis to ramp up the Government’s austerity strategy. Photo: Getty ImagesMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
Hi all,I'm pretty overwhelmed by all your messages and emails today; thank you so very much.As much as my newsletter this morning was about money, and we all need to earn money, it was mostly about world domination if I'm honest. 😉I really hate what’s happening to our country, and ...
A listing of 23 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, December 8, 2024 thru Sat, December 14, 2024. Listing by Category Like last week's summary this one contains the list of articles twice: based on categories and based on ...
I started writing this morning about Hobson’s Pledge, examining the claims they and their supporters make, basically ripping into them. But I kept getting notifications coming through, and not good ones.Each time I looked up, there was another un-subscription message, and I felt a bit sicker at the thought of ...
Once, long before there was Harry and Meghan and Dodi and all those episodes of The Crown, they came to spend some time with us, Charles and Diana. Was there anyone in the world more glamorous than the Princess of Wales?Dazzled as everyone was by their company, the leader of ...
The collective right have a problem.The entire foundation for their world view is antiscientific. Their preferred economic strategies have been disproven. Their whole neoliberal model faces accusations of corporate corruption and worsening inequality. Climate change not only definitely exists, its rapid progression demands an immediate and expensive response in order ...
Just ten days ago, South Korea's president attempted a self-coup, declaring martial law and attempting to have opposition MPs murdered or arrested in an effort to seize unconstrained power. The attempt was rapidly defeated by the national assembly voting it down and the people flooding the streets to defend democracy. ...
Hi,“What I love about New Zealanders is that sometimes you use these expressions that as Americans we have no idea what those things mean!"I am watching a 30-something year old American ramble on about how different New Zealanders are to Americans. It’s his podcast, and this man is doing a ...
What Chris Penk has granted holocaust-denier and equal-opportunity-bigot Candace Owens is not “freedom of speech”. It’s not even really freedom of movement, though that technically is the right she has been granted. What he has given her is permission to perform. Freedom of SpeechIn New Zealand, the right to freedom ...
All those tears on your cheeksJust like deja vu flow nowWhen grandmother speaksSo tell me a story (I'll tell you a story)Spell it out, I can't hear (What do you want to hear?)Why you wear black in the morning?Why there's smoke in the air? Songwriter: Greg Johnson.Mōrena all ☀️Something a ...
National has only been in power for a year, but everywhere you look, its choices are taking New Zealand a long way backwards. In no particular order, here are the National Government's Top 50 Greatest Misses of its first year in power. ...
The Government is quietly undertaking consultation on the dangerous Regulatory Standards Bill over the Christmas period to avoid too much attention. ...
The Government’s planned changes to the freedom of speech obligations of universities is little more than a front for stoking the political fires of disinformation and fear, placing teachers and students in the crosshairs. ...
The Ministry of Regulation’s report into Early Childhood Education (ECE) in Aotearoa raises serious concerns about the possibility of lowering qualification requirements, undermining quality and risking worse outcomes for tamariki, whānau, and kaiako. ...
A Bill to modernise the role of Justices of the Peace (JP), ensuring they remain active in their communities and connected with other JPs, has been put into the ballot. ...
Labour will continue to fight unsustainable and destructive projects that are able to leap-frog environment protection under National’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. ...
The Green Party has warned that a Green Government will revoke the consents of companies who override environmental protections as part of Fast-Track legislation being passed today. ...
The Green Party says the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update shows how the Government is failing to address the massive social and infrastructure deficits our country faces. ...
The Government’s latest move to reduce the earnings of migrant workers will not only hurt migrants but it will drive down the wages of Kiwi workers. ...
Te Pāti Māori has this morning issued a stern warning to Fast-Track applicants with interests in mining, pledging to hold them accountable through retrospective liability and to immediately revoke Fast-Track consents under a future Te Pāti Māori government. This warning comes ahead of today’s third reading of the Fast-Track Approvals ...
The Government’s announcement today of a 1.5 per cent increase to minimum wage is another blow for workers, with inflation projected to exceed the increase, meaning it’s a real terms pay reduction for many. ...
All the Government has achieved from its announcement today is to continue to push responsibility back on councils for its own lack of action to help bring down skyrocketing rates. ...
The Government has used its final post-Cabinet press conference of the year to punch down on local government without offering any credible solutions to the issues our councils are facing. ...
The Government has failed to keep its promise to ‘super charge’ the EV network, delivering just 292 chargers - less than half of the 670 chargers needed to meet its target. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Government to stop subsidising the largest user of the country’s gas supplies, Methanex, following a report highlighting the multi-national’s disproportionate influence on energy prices in Aotearoa. ...
The Green Party is appalled with the Government’s new child poverty targets that are based on a new ‘persistent poverty’ measure that could be met even with an increase in child poverty. ...
New independent analysis has revealed that the Government’s Emissions Reduction Plan (ERP) will reduce emissions by a measly 1 per cent by 2030, failing to set us up for the future and meeting upcoming targets. ...
The loss of 27 kaimahi at Whakaata Māori and the end of its daily news bulletin is a sad day for Māori media and another step backwards for Te Tiriti o Waitangi justice. ...
Yesterday the Government passed cruel legislation through first reading to establish a new beneficiary sanction regime that will ultimately mean more households cannot afford the basic essentials. ...
Today's passing of the Government's Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill–which allows landlords to end tenancies with no reason–ignores the voice of the people and leaves renters in limbo ahead of the festive season. ...
After wasting a year, Nicola Willis has delivered a worse deal for the Cook Strait ferries that will end up being more expensive and take longer to arrive. ...
Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick has today launched a Member’s Bill to sanction Israel for its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, as the All Out For Gaza rally reaches Parliament. ...
After years of advocacy, the Green Party is very happy to hear the Government has listened to our collective voices and announced the closure of the greyhound racing industry, by 1 August 2026. ...
In response to a new report from ERO, the Government has acknowledged the urgent need for consistency across the curriculum for Relationship and Sexuality Education (RSE) in schools. ...
The Green Party is appalled at the Government introducing legislation that will make it easier to penalise workers fighting for better pay and conditions. ...
Thank you for the invitation to speak with you tonight on behalf of the political party I belong to - which is New Zealand First. As we have heard before this evening the Kinleith Mill is proposing to reduce operations by focusing on pulp and discontinuing “lossmaking paper production”. They say that they are currently consulting on the plan to permanently shut ...
Auckland Central MP, Chlöe Swarbrick, has written to Mayor Wayne Brown requesting he stop the unnecessary delays on St James Theatre’s restoration. ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says Health New Zealand will move swiftly to support dozens of internationally-trained doctors already in New Zealand on their journey to employment here, after a tripling of sought-after examination places. “The Medical Council has delivered great news for hardworking overseas doctors who want to contribute ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has appointed Sarah Ottrey to the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC). “At my first APEC Summit in Lima, I experienced firsthand the role that ABAC plays in guaranteeing political leaders hear the voice of business,” Mr Luxon says. “New Zealand’s ABAC representatives are very well respected and ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced four appointments to New Zealand’s intelligence oversight functions. The Honourable Robert Dobson KC has been appointed Chief Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, and the Honourable Brendan Brown KC has been appointed as a Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants. The appointments of Hon Robert Dobson and Hon ...
Improvements in the average time it takes to process survey and title applications means housing developments can progress more quickly, Minister for Land Information Chris Penk says. “The government is resolutely focused on improving the building and construction pipeline,” Mr Penk says. “Applications to issue titles and subdivide land are ...
The Government’s measures to reduce airport wait times, and better transparency around flight disruptions is delivering encouraging early results for passengers ahead of the busy summer period, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Improving the efficiency of air travel is a priority for the Government to give passengers a smoother, more reliable ...
The Government today announced the intended closure of the Apollo Hotel as Contracted Emergency Housing (CEH) in Rotorua, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. This follows a 30 per cent reduction in the number of households in CEH in Rotorua since National came into Government. “Our focus is on ending CEH in the Whakarewarewa area starting ...
The Government will reshape vocational education and training to return decision making to regions and enable greater industry input into work-based learning Tertiary Education and Skills Minister, Penny Simmonds says. “The redesigned system will better meet the needs of learners, industry, and the economy. It includes re-establishing regional polytechnics that ...
The Government is taking action to better manage synthetic refrigerants and reduce emissions caused by greenhouse gases found in heating and cooling products, Environment Minister Penny Simmonds says. “Regulations will be drafted to support a product stewardship scheme for synthetic refrigerants, Ms. Simmonds says. “Synthetic refrigerants are found in a ...
People travelling on State Highway 1 north of Hamilton will be relieved that remedial works and safety improvements on the Ngāruawāhia section of the Waikato Expressway were finished today, with all lanes now open to traffic, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“I would like to acknowledge the patience of road users ...
Tertiary Education and Skills Minister, Penny Simmonds, has announced a new appointment to the board of Education New Zealand (ENZ). Dr Erik Lithander has been appointed as a new member of the ENZ board for a three-year term until 30 January 2028. “I would like to welcome Dr Erik Lithander to the ...
The Government will have senior representatives at Waitangi Day events around the country, including at the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, but next year Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has chosen to take part in celebrations elsewhere. “It has always been my intention to celebrate Waitangi Day around the country with different ...
Two more criminal gangs will be subject to the raft of laws passed by the Coalition Government that give Police more powers to disrupt gang activity, and the intimidation they impose in our communities, Police Minister Mark Mitchell says. Following an Order passed by Cabinet, from 3 February 2025 the ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Justice Christian Whata as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Whata’s appointment as a Judge of the Court of Appeal will take effect on 1 August 2025 and fill a vacancy created by the retirement of Hon Justice David Goddard on ...
The latest economic figures highlight the importance of the steps the Government has taken to restore respect for taxpayers’ money and drive economic growth, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Data released today by Stats NZ shows Gross Domestic Product fell 1 per cent in the September quarter. “Treasury and most ...
Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds and Associate Minister of Education David Seymour today announced legislation changes to strengthen freedom of speech obligations on universities. “Freedom of speech is fundamental to the concept of academic freedom and there is concern that universities seem to be taking a more risk-averse ...
Police Minister, Mark Mitchell, and Internal Affairs Minister, Brooke van Velden, today launched a further Public Safety Network cellular service that alongside last year’s Cellular Roaming roll-out, puts globally-leading cellular communications capability into the hands of our emergency responders. The Public Safety Network’s new Cellular Priority service means Police, Wellington ...
State Highway 1 through the Mangamuka Gorge has officially reopened today, providing a critical link for Northlanders and offering much-needed relief ahead of the busy summer period, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“The Mangamuka Gorge is a vital route for Northland, carrying around 1,300 vehicles per day and connecting the Far ...
The Government has welcomed decisions by the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) and Ashburton District Council confirming funding to boost resilience in the Canterbury region, with construction on a second Ashburton Bridge expected to begin in 2026, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Delivering a second Ashburton Bridge to improve resilience and ...
The Government is backing the response into high pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in Otago, Biosecurity Minister Andrew Hoggard says. “Cabinet has approved new funding of $20 million to enable MPI to meet unbudgeted ongoing expenses associated with the H7N6 response including rigorous scientific testing of samples at the enhanced PC3 ...
Legislation that will repeal all advertising restrictions for broadcasters on Sundays and public holidays has passed through first reading in Parliament today, Media Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “As a growing share of audiences get their news and entertainment from streaming services, these restrictions have become increasingly redundant. New Zealand on ...
Today the House agreed to Brendan Horsley being appointed Inspector-General of Defence, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Mr Horsley’s experience will be invaluable in overseeing the establishment of the new office and its support networks. “He is currently Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security, having held that role since June 2020. ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government has agreed to the final regulations for the levy on insurance contracts that will fund Fire and Emergency New Zealand from July 2026. “Earlier this year the Government agreed to a 2.2 percent increase to the rate of levy. Fire ...
The Government is delivering regulatory relief for New Zealand businesses through changes to the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act. “The Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Amendment Bill, which was introduced today, is the second Bill – the other being the Statutes Amendment Bill - that ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed further progress on the Hawke’s Bay Expressway Road of National Significance (RoNS), with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) Board approving funding for the detailed design of Stage 1, paving the way for main works construction to begin in late 2025.“The Government is moving at ...
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Come to New Zealand Edward you will be safe here.
For his safety and ours, the name of Edward Snowden should not be allowed to drop out of the public memory.
Already, after an initial flurry of interest, (lasting all of one day), Snowden’s name has been pushed down the media memory hole. And is no longer mentioned.
With a reputation for democracy and freedom, New Zealand should be in the lead of countries offering Edward Snowden political asylum.
As well as being the right thing to do;
A gesture like this would hugely lift this country’s profile in the world as an honest broker. Such a courageous and humanitarian act, would earn us international respect as an outlier of democracy freedom.
Why would the National party bite the hand that feeds it. According to the leaks National are just a fifth column of the neo-con, extreme right faction of the Republican party.
“Why would the National party bite the hand that feeds it? According to the leaks National are just a fifth column of the neo-con, extreme right faction of the Republican party.”
National is certainly the party of the toady and the craven coward.
But so is Labour: don’t forget who it was that persecuted Ahmed Zaoui just over a decade ago.
Ah yes. I have friends still pissed off about that. War on terrorism indeed.
Surely you jest? Why would Snowden come to Key’s Orwellian NZ, where anyone can be spied upon?
No joke karol.
The Prime Minister is afraid that just such an eventuality could occur. And to head of this very possibility,being they US toady he is, the PM has publicly tried to warn Snowden away.
Key: Snowden not welcome in New Zealand
However this disgusting toady does not speak for all New Zealanders, not even a majority of us.
And Key and his secret police mates aren’t the only ones who have a say here.
I would say to Edward Snowden, don’t listen to John Key;
Listen to Te Whanau a Apanui, send an email to Kim Dotcom, ask him what he thinks. Ask the tens of thousands of New Zealanders who marched to stop the Nacts raping schedule 4 land, if John Key speaks for New Zealanders. Ask Amed Zouie if the vast majority of New Zealanders make strangers welcome here, despite some of our leaders making biased and prejudiced public statements against him.
New Zealanders of good will who value democracy and freedoom will welcome Edward Snowden as a global hero for freedom and truth.
Edward you are not safe in China.
Edward you will not even be safe in Australia.
If you can make it here you will be safe.
You have my promise.
We will look after you.
You may even give you a job. Kim Dotcom needs people with your IT skills, he may even put you up in his mansion till you get on your feet.
NZ is furtherest from the reach of the Northern Hemisphere superpowers than any other nation on earth.
Our remoteness makes you safer for a start.
New Zealand is a small country surrounded by hundreds of miles of open ocean.
New Zealand is small. The cliche is everyone knows everyone else. This is not quite true. But nothing can happen to you here that everyone wouldn’t know, and be able to identify those responsible.
If you doubt what I say refer to the Rainbow Warrior bombers who murdered Nando Fereira in New Zealand. The security services and the police let these terrorists slip through their hands. It was average everyday New Zealanders who identified Mafar and Prieur, and found them out leaving them no where to go. If it had been left solely up to the police and the state forces they would have walked away free.
The same will happen to anyone who dares touch you while you are in this country.
Finally the traitors and toadies that John Key speaks for are a tiny minority. Fhose who favour democracy and freedom, and who respect courage and self sacrifiice in the cause of truth, are the vast majority. (I suspect this true for most countries, but for a number of factors those of us who feel this way here, have a greater say.)
New Zealand has a reputation for protecting and defending the underdog. Ask Nelson Mandela or Desmond Tutu.
Edward If you can get here you will be treated like the hero you are.
And finally the last word from the Prime Minister who makes himself look ridiculous ,relating to the revelations released by Edward Snowden:
Key wasn’t asked if he spoke for Palantir, he was asked if he was aware of their presence.
Why would John Key possibly think it would need to be stated that, he didn’t speak for a US spy agency?
What an idiot, what a traitor.
He should stop fouling this country’s international reputation and scuttle back to his own luxurious ‘safe haven’ in Hawaii and leave New Zealander to rest of us who love it and who don’t divide our loyalties between Wall Street and Washington.
Your judgement in this matter is ridiculous and dangerously flawed.
But you say that about all my opinions.
how’s the popular uprising in Syria going? I hear the Free Syria Army has a thing for the hearts of their opponents nowadays?
I was too polite CV, to mention your past rabid cheerleading on this site for the mass murder and war crimes committed by the Syrian State against it’s own people. I had generously imagined that your admiration and support for Assad’s facist state was a grotesque mistake was a thing of the past, springing from your ignorance of Syria and the Arab world .
It says more about you than the Syrian opposition, that in a sea of atrocities and war crimes, you zero in on one particular admittedly disgusting desecration of a dead Syrian soldiers body, (deliberately caught on video and distributed to intimidate Bashar Assad’s troops), and not on the many cases of mass murder of innocents from the air by your hero.
You are not the leftist democrat you posit you are.
‘
The war in Syria has been going on for more than two years now. And there is no sign of it ending soon.
People like Colonial Viper who has never been to Syria, and who racistly dismiss the Arab Spring as a conspiracy by the Western Powers and the CIA. May wonder how on earth the Syrian conflict could have lasted so long and become so protracted and brutal.
At present the rebels seem to be getting the worst of it. But they won’t surrender, they can’t. Even before the massive slaughter started, 30 thousand Syrian citizens were “disappeared” by the Syrian State in the preceding year, and this was before the people started fighting back.
A defeat for the rebels will mean massive extermination on a scale not matched during this conflict, when the rebels are able to, at least manage to defend themselves and are still managing to hold their own in what is a war of extermination. This battle has become an existential one for the rebels. If they fight they might be killed by the regime, if they don’t fight they will be killed by the regime. On the other side of the conflict, Basha Assad’s exploitation of sectarian divisions to weld a minority religious sect to his cause, has also made this an existential struggle for them as well. These fighters know full well the atrocities they have committed on Basha’s behalf, and the likely fate they may suffer because of it.
Another factor that has prolonged this conflict, is the West’s growing publicly expressed fear of the rebels. Whether true or not, Western media, more and more are coming to depict the rebels who spontaneously took up arms against the regime as being primarily Al Qaeda militants. There is some truth in this, as these elements have been attracted to this struggle against this Western ally. The Islamist Al Nusra Front have the most experienced fighters and are the most well equipped, of the rebel factions. Coming as many of them do, from the war zones of Afghanistan and Iraq. While the secular rebel forces are being left high and dry by everyone. Many of the secular fighters are defecting to Al Nusra. They are doing this, rather than die starved of weapons and ammunition, and basic supplies, defenceless in the face of Basha Assad’s military machine.
But Al Nusra is not quite as black and white as it has been portrayed in the West. Instead of being a monolithic Al Qaida front, as depicted by the West. Al Nusra has been described by secular Syrian leaders as being made up of many different fractions and strands. (And they are more likely to know than one eyed, frightened western journalists interviewing their typwriters in Washington, or London. Worried that the whole applecart of Western domination is being toppled over.)
‘
What has been described as the Turkish Spring has begun.
Turkey is another majority Islamic country.
I must ask Colonial Viper:
CV; Do you also consider this popular people’s movement to also be a US CIA plot to undermine a Heroic anti Western moderate democracy?
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is facing a Syria moment of his own. Does he back down in the face of popular though peaceful mass protest, or does he crack down with brutal force, and risk creating even more resistance?
Erdogan should take as warning, the lesson of Syria.
Taking a hard line against peaceful protesters with violent repression, may quell the unrest. But just as likely it may create more unrest, outraging even moderate citizens who will be moved by their outrage to join the protests against the regime.
(Every budding autocrat around the world, who would choose repression over finding solutions to popular grievances ought to take note.)
Attacking Western criticism of the crackdown in Turkey, and justifying the violence against peaceful unarmed protesters, the prime minister of Turkey was quoted as saying they took their guide from the US government’s crushing of the Occupy Wall Street protests.
Despite Western government’s loud hurumphing at this accusation, the links are there.
The increasing turn to autocracy and repression by governments globally is not a coincidence. Governing authorities around the world know better than anyone that the twin dangers of financial crisis and climate collapse are undermining their legitimacy. Many are choosing to counter that loss of popular legitimacy to their rule by replacing it with repression.
But more repression creates more resistance to repression, and even less legitimacy for the rulers
.
Finally:
John Key should be one of those autocratic leaders who should take note; The massive increase in jail terms and fines against protesters trying to protect the environment will not deter them. The increase in state repression will not stop protests against the rape of the environment by deep sea oil. Repression only creates more resistance, and more and greater protest. And what will you do then John?
When the prisons are full of political prisoners and still people are protesting against the looting of the Seabed and Forshore on behalf of foreign multinationals?
What will you do next?
Jenny, all the article does is to confirm my point: i.e. why would Snowden want to come to NZ as it is at the moment? Why would any Kiwi seriously suggest it, knowing Snowden would just be handed over to the US agencies, by NZ’s agencies?
After arrival on the Auckland airport tarmac, Snowden would be escorted off his plane by armed NZ police in front of all other seated passengers, taken to a nearby disused gate, handed over to American officials, marched onboard an unmarked private jet, and after it was given priority clearance to take off, that would be that for Snowden.
PM John Key: “Not only has the man committed serious crimes against our allies the United States and potentially aided terrorists around the world, but he was also without doubt a massive risk to our national security simply by being in this country. We did the right thing today by ensuring that he faces justice for the crimes he committed in the United States.”
cue statement from the US embassy on how valuable a partner in international security NZ is.
Such a rich fantasy life you have, CV. One to many James Bond movies, perhaps?
Maybe karol, you might like to suggest a country where Snowden would be safer?
One which doesn’t have an extradition treaty with the US and whose government’s security services aren’t tied at the hip to the NSA?
Why? I’m sure Snowden and his aids are well onto that.
And what Pb said.
For the answer to this question karol. You only have to see what a difficult time the authorities have had in handing Amed Zouie or Kim Dotcom over to their tormenters and jailers. To know that New Zealand is still a democratic country that protects civil rights and jurisprudence.
Edward Snowden would be safe here.
Jenny, I’ve read at least ten stories from today already on Snowden. It’s a pretty shallow Memory Hole!
And NZ has an extradition treaty with the US. He is a US citizen who has most likley committed a crime under US law. Our courts would be no protection for him as they would grant extradition.
I just checked the Treaty ( available here: http://newzealand.usembassy.gov/us_treaties.html ) and it’s arguable that he might be safe here. But it would still be a huge risk given the politics of it. And the chances of NZ ‘offerring political asylum’ are nil.
I think it might be nice if we did, but it’s still just gesture politics. To get real international advantage we should pass laws protecting privacy such that it is seen as an economic and political advantage to have companies based here. Our govt should be saying that we do not allow NSA or others to snoop, and that we actively take steps to prevent them. But again, chances: nil.
Jenny’s just got to be first to post to open mike again? But today really takes the cake for wishful thinking! PB neatly sums up the glaring flaws in her suggestion for me.
We’re an interlocking part of the NSA network. Snowden would be a fool to come anywhere close to Australia or NZ.
Of course you have Pb. And to prove you are not full of it. You have put up the full ten links to the stories you have already read today, to prove it. (or not).
Turn it up, there was no need for me to go through my browser history and find the links to the stories I’d read.
The existence of the stories is readily available to anyone with a browser that can search news sites.
You made a claim:
Already, after an initial flurry of interest, (lasting all of one day), Snowden’s name has been pushed down the media memory hole. And is no longer mentioned.
Which is just flat out false. Where’s your link to a search engine result showing no mentions of Snowden in the last few hours? Just to prove you’re not full of it?
Ridiculous right? But the same!
Care to test those two claims in a search and see what happens?
Jenny’s just living up to her self styled reputation of integrity and role as the international conscience of The Standard.
It’s all only a couple of google.news clicks away.
PS; along with the totally unnecessary “pole-dancer” mentions.
And its true. They say that you can find anything on the internet. Annd that is it’s greatest strength. Nothing can be hidden or suppressed any longer. Even across borders and frontiers, even during a war.
CV, maybe you and karol are right and my comment missed the mark.
But look at all the mainstream news sites and you will see that the Snowden story is either completely missing or pushed way down the news cycle.
Stuff.co.nz for instance had nothing on Snowden this morning.
For interest I checked out the NZ Herald website. The only story on Snowden was a related story on the sudden boom in sales of the novel 1984 by George Orwell.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10890085
It is interesting that many people can relate to the message in this book. The all pervasive surveillance described and the outrageous mainstream media lies promulgated as truth.
“We are at war with East Asia, we have always been at war with East Asia”
“We are opposed to Saddam Hussein, we have always been opposed to Saddam Hussein”
This book should be updated and remade as a movie. The two way interactive communication screen described by Orwell that could never be turned off. That was everywhere and let the authorities peer into every aspect of your work and private life. He could have been describing a dystopian version of the internet and cell phone technology. Even the story of Peter Dunne has echoes of 1984. Where Dunne’s illicit email flirting with Andrea Vance is used to bring him down. Just as electronic snooping into Winston Smith’s illicit romantic affair with Julia is used to destroy them both.
Winston Peters could take the part of O’Brian the smooth talking and deeply corrupt bully and torturer with secret links to the government and state, who gloats with sadistic pleasure in bringing down Winston Smith.
But I suppose it is a movie that we will never see, cutting to close to the bone, and way too critical of authority..
“For interest I checked out the NZ Herald website. The only story on Snowden was a related story on the sudden boom in sales of the novel 1984 by George Orwell.”
And this one from this morning:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10889909
and this one later in the day:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10889960
And Fisher was all over the NZ links to the prism story today, and there was more on the international aspects of it.
Come on Pascal, I would still like to see the ten links you claimed to have read before your comment at 8:34am today.
What are you, chicken? Cluck, cluck, cluck.
You must had a very busy morning as by 8:42am you also claim to have checked out the US/NZ relating to extradition as it might affect Snowden.
Pascal you either make all this up, or have an interest in Edward Snowden bordering on compulsive.
Haven’t you got a job to go to?
By 830 I’ve been at work for nearly 4 hours Jenny.
I read, in my work, several hundred news stories a day. Following news stories that interest me is not a problem.
You claimed there were no stories on him. I simply noted that that was not actually true.
I’m going to bed.
They must be good then. Still waiting for those ten stories.
Your demands are absurd Jenny. The links from PB above show that the NZ Herald covered the story far more than you realised.
And the Guardian, The Huffington Post, and the New York Times have all run major stories and/or editorials on the Snowden stories today.
Further, PB sounds like a professional intensive consumer of news reporting, while you are not.
Indeed and the telling words here are; “far more than you realised.” Or probably any other ‘normal’ reader of the news would have realised either. But even you must admit CV that by his own admission Pascal’s bookie is an outlier when it comes to trawling the news feeds. What normal reader of the news would spend four hours of the morning and presumably the rest of the day combing the news to become aware of so many stories about the misdeeds of the secret intelligence community?
I bet that if you walked out onto any city street today and did a vox pop on everyone you met and asked them, Do you know who Edward Snowden is? Nine out of ten, maybe more, would have no idea
Oh don’t be silly Jenny, time for a holiday for you. Too much thinking drives people crazy.
“Being in a minority, even in a minority of one, did not make you mad. There was truth and there was untruth, and if you clung to the truth even against the whole world, you were not mad.”
― George Orwell, 1984
“You are a slow learner, Winston.”
“How can I help it? How can I help but see what is in front of my eyes? Two and two are four.”
“Sometimes, Winston. Sometimes they are five. Sometimes they are three. Sometimes they are all of them at once. You must try harder. It is not easy to become sane.”
― George Orwell, 1984
If he has broken the law – he should be held to account.
So send him back to the US I say.
Bullshit. Its only the law if everyone is held to the same standard. And at the moment corporations, the wealthy and the powerful in the US can and have been doing whatever they like, and getting away with it under the rubric of “war against terrorism”
EDIT the irony of Russia offering to consider asylum to protect a conscientious objector from the state security apparatus
No – thats bullshit. If he broke the law of his own country when he was there – then he should be held to account.
regardless if you agree with what he did, or did not do, should not come into it.
Blaming “the man” just makes you sound …well….silly.
So we should send people from Iran back to face the music if they broke any Iranian laws?
You really don’t understand the concept of whistleblower, do you?
James, why are you so concerned about the application of laws that have been implemented for the purpose of securing power to large organisations who already have more power than they know what to do with and routinely use and abuse that power (i.e. break the law, as they have admitted if you didn’t know) to further their own ends to the detriment of the manwoman in the street?
Your approach is touching and naive in the extreme imo.
It’s only the rule of law if the law holds everyone to account equally. Don’t you see that? Because otherwise it’s merely a tool of state repression. The classic case at the moment is the trial of Private Manning. His defence is not even allowed to present any evidence or testimony critical to understanding his motives and his rationale. It’s a show trial in other words.
In the USA, the law is only applied to targets of the Govt, whereas friends of the Government, banksters and other, get off scott free.
Further, Snowden is a no-one. It’s his revelations of what politicians, the government and intelligence machine has been doing behind all our backs, unconstitutionally and without public knowledge, which is the real story.
I notice they even took down the head of the CIA, Patreous, this year.
Here’s a little Poem James on what happens to the Disobedient. And the Disobedient one was Never Seen Again. This demonstrates how one should never do anything that isn’t permitted by authorities, who know best about everything.
http://ingeb.org/songs/jamesjam.html
Disobedience (A.A.Milne)
James James Morrison’s Mother
Said to herself, said she:
“I can get right down
to the end of the town
and be back in time for tea.”
King John
Put up a notice,
“LOST or STOLEN or STRAYED!
JAMES JAMES MORRISON’S MOTHER
SEEMS TO HAVE BEEN MISLAID.
LAST SEEN
WANDERING VAGUELY:
QUITE OF HER OWN ACCORD,
SHE TRIED TO GET DOWN
TO THE END OF THE TOWN –
FORTY SHILLINGS REWARD!”
(For those attuned sensitively to capitals, they appear this way in the poem on the internet.)
One who breaks an unjust law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
And in your opinion James, if the GCSB has broken the law – should they be held to account?
I wonder James if you are one of those right wing hypocrites who fears anyone defies authority and is prepared to risk everything for truth, while at the same time covering for the secret agencies that flout the laws of our democracy and illegally spy on us all like we are criminals.
Hekia Parata made to look like the Minister of Cliche by Kim Hill.
Had no answers to her questions, except repeating her press release over and over again.
What an incompetent minister!
Yep the questioning was exquisite and Kim put the contradictions in National’s position to Parata and they went completely over Parata’s head.
So a miniscule improvement in unmoderated statistics is trumpeted as vindication of National Standards even though it showed us something that was known already and there is no plan for what to do next. What a mess …
Sounds like 1984. Maybe National can increase education standards by another 100 percent.
but according to brian edwards shes a stellar performer! listen again!
…..When she returned to the green room to collect her belongings I said to her, “That was absolutely brilliant”…..Finally, has she the capacity to stand up to media scrutiny, to look after herself in probing media interviews? Well, if the interview with Smalley is anything to go by, the answer to that has got be a resounding Yes…….
http://brianedwardsmedia.co.nz/2013/06/when-hekia-met-rachel-a-sometime-interviewers-perspective/
btw – with Kim Hill on morning report I feel like radio is back in the morning – is Geoff away for a very very long time?
Afraid that Kim is expected for just 2 weeks on National Radio and this is her 2nd week. Pity.
nooo!!!!!
..i was holding my breath that she was back for good..
..i can’t listen to the other pairing..(far too polite for the job..)..and had just come back..!
..and why isn’t kim hill given her own telly-show again..?
..something along the lines of democracy now..
..where the interviewer is given enough room/time to be able to dig/roam widely..
please..!..we need an intelligent mainstream political show..
..(and ‘la’ hill should be given to option of turning up in trackies..(‘make-up..?..bah..!’..)..should that be what it takes to get her to agree..)
phillip ure..
and..is it too soon..?
..the funniest spook-trawling one-liner i have heard came in john olivers’ taking over of the daily show helm last nite..
“..I’ll bet the amish are feeling pretty smug about now..”
..(b.t.w..oliver kicked arse..the show is a recommended-watch..very funny..)
..phillip ure..
Kim on TV was not a success because she twitches and flings herself about – a lot! Which seems to make her nervous and less effective. TV people have to be pretty still because movements are exaggerated. Pity.
ianmac
Thanks for that. I had forgotten about Kim and her tv effect. She is too natural compared to the scaled down immobility of others. But compare her screen image to Graham Norton? In a more relaxed environment couldn’t her animation give vitality to her show? Interviewing interesting people on tv in a group like Graham Norton. Then the camera doesn’t linger on just her and the interviewee.
Strange that my comment at 8.10 pm went through as I got a message that the server had rejected me or something.
It will often reject a second “message” from a double click.
@ianmac..
have you watched democracy now!..?..
..amy goodman is a lot like hill..the intellect shines thru..
..i still think hill should have another crack at it..
..i would love to see the faces of politicians etc as she peels them..
..maybe all she really needs to do is broadcast her sat morn show online..?
..that would be a good way to test the market-appetite..
..i’d be there..
phillip ure..
@ Phillip Ure
Not to mention Juan Gonzales!..
If there’s ever any big Latin American news; Democracy Now is the first site to which I go…
Amy Goodman is a lot calmer than Kim Hill though: I guess after you’ve been the last journalist out of Timor Este as the Indonesian shock troops roll in, it takes a lot to phase you.
free vocab assist: phase = faze 🙂
..and yes I’ve been a life-time fan of Kim Hill’s too. Best they’ve ever had, although I objectively think that like many of us her best days are in the rear view mirror.
Why I don’t go to rugby matches and prefer to watch on TV at home.
The last rugby match I went to was an ABs-England match at Twickenham. A couple of guys in front of us kept yelling “sheep shaggers” & “cheats” throughout the match. I could have put up with them calling it once or twice, but the mindless and unimaginative repetition was just unpleasant.
But being subjected to homophobic chants and abuse would turn watching a match into a trial instead of being a bit of fun and entertainment. And then they pull out the “PC” justification. That excuse is well past its use-by date.
The PC justification was also used in the ‘debate’ over the food in schools cartoons. The way I see PC is “proper conduct” or “polite consideration” and usage of the “PC” defence usually defends the opposite behaviour.
A sort of “Prick’s Charter.”
QFT
Eden Park spokeswoman Tracy Morgan said harassment of a patron would not be condoned and the men could have been evicted for that.
But unless everyone else around Ms Spyksma was offended by the men’s slurs, they would likely not have been kicked out. Ms Morgan said it wasn’t Eden Park’s place to “be the PC police”.
“If she’s saying that she was isolated and that it shouldn’t be acceptable, it’s not our job – I don’t believe – to try to move the cultural morals of society.”
Ah rugby culture, good on ya.
The lack of acknowledgement of the vulnerable situation the complainant was in once she spoke up is disturbing.
The stadium has a text service where people can complain about any anti-social or offensive behaviour without them becoming a target.
General manager of public affairs at New Zealand Rugby, Nick Brown, urged anyone with concerns about other patrons to alert security.
That’s better. Can’t find the text number on the Eden Park website though.
There is this piece of impenetrable information on complaints
http://edenpark.co.nz/how-do-i/conditions-entry/
University of Auckland psychology lecturer Danny Osborne has researched the relationship between participation in core sport, such as rugby, and homophobia.
“That somebody can stand up for what’s right should be applauded.”
Agree entirely with that statement – good on her for standing up in that environment. And shame on the spectators: the main antagonists, but also the rest of those in the area for not following her example of giving a damn.
Ah, the good ole ‘PC’ hammer, used to smash anyone who stands up against a bully. Fuck you, Eden Park. I’m with Karol, I avoid rugby and this is one reason why. Very proud of these women, standing up to mean (drunk?) men is scary.
On top of the vulnerable situation of the complainant: this game is supposed to be NZ’s national sport. Rugby stadiums get priority treatment from the government’s spend of tax payers’ money. So, are only some sections of the public considered to be part of this wonderful [/sarc] nation?
PS: Oh. No. My mistake, rugby isn’t a game for women it seems.
While quite a few Herald readers came to the abused wommen’s defense, some replied with the “get over yourselves” kind of comment addressed to the women. And then there was this reply:
So, where ever did I get the idea it was supposed to be the game for the whole nation?
So there was a more detailed version of the Kitteridge report that was never released. Which one did Anderea Vance get to see?
There is enough information on public record, and also if the media’s life-cycle and good practices are appreciated, that point to an(other) earlier leak.
If and when free, I might post something. (Off to work soon. Tony was looking so very pleased with himself yesterday. I wonder what colour and pattern tie he will be wearing today hehe.)
I get the feeling Karol that Dunne is telling the truth, of sorts, when he says he never leaked the report. Maybe he did not show Vance the report. But I would really like to see the emails to see if the information subsequently reported by Vance was contained in them.
Winston is saying that Dunne not only leaked the Kitteridge report but there is a trail of leaks from ‘the Hairdo’ which Winston says He has evidence supporting His assertion,
Interestingly or not, i got a squizz at the member for Ohariu a few months back and commented here on ‘Open Mike’ that He was looking more than a bit s**t and had a little speculating moment over whether He, (Dunne), would make it through to the 2014 election,
When i seen Him downtown He looked like He had seen a ghost,(perhaps He thought i was going to mug Him), or perhaps wee Petey had had that long dormant part of His anatomy brought rushing back to life by the DomPost reporter, He knew He was trapped like a moth circling a naked light-bulb and the situation was scaring the crap outta Him…
As I understand it, the original Kitteridge Report contained 7 appendices but only the first 2 of these: a tabulated summary of findings and Terms of Reference were made public or ever intended to be made public. There were therefore 5 remaining appendices including inter alia the list of the names of people spoken to and a canvassing of legal issues involved that remained confidential. It would cerainly be interesting to know whether Peter Dunne (if he were the leaker) apprised the leakee of this material. If he did so then this rather white-ants the defence that “the report was going to be released anyway” and may indeed raise the legal stakes.
once again the final line of the article seems to hold the biggest questions . .
“A spokeswoman for the Prime Minister said the only copy Mr Key ever received was released in full with classified appendices withheld.”
The PM does not have clearance to read the appendices of the department he is meant to have control over yet we are to implicitly trust his statements that life is hunky dory and there is nothing to concern ourselves with ?
btw, want some spine chilling fun with way too many “it’s just a big co-incidence” results:
do some searches around “Booz Allen Hamilton & Palintir”
recommend throwing in words like “NZ” “US” “employment” “lobbyists” etc
I read that twice freedom. The first time interpreted it the same way. The second time I read it as:
The copy that Mr Key received was released in full with the classified appendices only removed. In other words he has seen the appendices but they were withheld from the released version. If that is correct, why is he trying to obfuscate? We would expect him to see more than the rest of us.
Is it because he’s so used to lying and cheating that he automatically does it even when it isn’t necessary?
cheers for that Anne, I was guilty of wearing the very blinkers that I try so hard to remove from others. Though it does balance on that fence a little too well not to be crafted as such.
Hi Freedom I tried your google list. Amazing what it will spit out.
There was this
http://www.thenation.com/blog/174741/how-spy-agency-contractors-have-already-abused-their-power
And this
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/06/silicon-valley-doesnt-just-help-the-surveillance-state-it-built-it/276700/
both make interesting reading as will all the other links in the articles.
Wowser-ville coming to a town near you once again …… http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/8784123/Helmet-call-for-scooter-users
I call for helmets to be made compulsory when riding in all motor vehicles. The highest number of head and brain injuries in New Zealand results from people not wearing helmets when in their cars especially. People only have one brains and when its gone there’s not much that can done. I am not anti-risk or anti-fun, we are pro-safety.
Next week we will be launching a campaign to make open-toed jandals illegal.
People only have one brains and when its gone there’s not much that can done.
Heh.
Well, I’m for better education on the use of moving vehicles: such education from a very early age.
Better education on using scooters might help too. Does anyone teach kids much about what is safe.
The journo really should have compared ACC scooter head injury stats in that report. Just saying there has been an x increase in overall claims doesn’t tell us much.
Is it legal for kids to use a scooter in the road?
@ VTO
“I am not anti-risk or anti-fun, we are pro-safety.”
Can you translate that into English please? I know that may be hard for your one brains, but before I contradict you I’d like to know who; “we” are, and how they can be simultaneously “anti-risk” and “pro-safety”. A link to data supporting your assertions (which I imagine relate to; absolute numbers, rather than; injury proportions/ hour traveled by transportation means), would be appreciated too.
We want to make sure that nobody taking part in a risky activity like riding a bike or a scooter gets harmed. And of course when people take part in an even more risky activity like riding in a car then it is even more important that safety equipment such as seat belts and helmets are worn.
We don’t link to data because, you know, lies lies and statistics. We just ask ourselves – how many people come out of a car crash without head injuries? If these head-injured people had been wearing helmets then they would still have their one brains.
Our eventual aim is continual compulsory wearing of helmets all day long.
“Our eventual aim is continual compulsory wearing of helmets all day long.”
Don’t be ridculous. A lot of people die in bed. A lot.
The policy must be: Our eventual aim is continual compulsory wearing of helmets at all times.
Followed by the banning of wearing helmets in bed, due to an alarming rise in the rate of death by “nocturnal strangulation”.
Or nocturnal decommission.
@VTO:
http://www.theonion.com/articles/life-jackets-issued-to-all-americans-for-some-reas,95/
Ah… Thanks VTO; I missed the irony the first time around, what with the word salad (though missing out; “not” in the “not anti-risk” quote, reduced the comprehensibilty of my own reply). I still don’t agree that; safety precautions shouldn’t be mandatory with vehicles, but at least now I know what I’m disagreeing with.
Strangely enough, you are on firmer ground with: “People only have one brains and when its gone there’s not much that can done”. Though I’d say; one central nervous system (CNS) comprosing of; two cerbral hemispheres (each themselves divisable into cortical areas), ocular receptors (eyes), olfactory bulb, limbic system, and cerebellum, plus peripheral nervous system (PNS) and associated receptors. Where the PNS is (largely) capable of neuronal regeneration (barring spinal damage), while in the CNS cell-death is permanent (though synaptic profusion is lifelong). Which is why helmets are such a good idea!
Personally I prefer the; Calvin Party song “lies, lies, lies, and government”, to your; “lies, [damned] lies, and statistics” Twain (?) quote. But then to borrow another phrase (I wish I knew from who): “Facts!.. Hah; you can prove anything with facts”.
Yes, it was a bit of a word salad sorry. A result of a knock to the head and brains when I stood up into the corner of an open kitchen cupboard. If only I had been wearing a helmet.
people should be made to wear helmets while watching third degree..(vacuity causing brain-damage risk..?..)
..and isn’t it funny when those surplus to needs co-comperes do their ‘my-underpants are too tight and full of itching powder!’ shuffle-duo number..?
..combined with their montgomery-burns stoops..it makes for quite the sight..
..and current affairs..it ain’t…
..phillip ure..
Who would have thunk it, more on the little debate we have been having about by-elections and their ability to upset the proportionality of the Parliament,
The latest gem from the electoral Commission: ”There is no one provision in the Electoral Act 1993 that states that a by-election can change the proportionality of (the ) Parliament” unquote,
It appears that the Electoral Commission has arrived at such decision to allow it’self the luxury of being, in the case of a by-election, able to alter the Parliaments proportionality on the basis of ”key definitions” which include the ”definition of an election and a by-election in section 2 of the 1993 Electoral Act,
So, the nose goes back into the 1993 Act to see if i can ascertain how the Electoral Commission arrived at such ‘definitions’ giving it the power to upset the Parliaments proportionality,
i was saying yesterday that this situation vis a vis by-elections and their ability to alter the Parliaments proportionality smelled a little of someone(s) making up the rules as they went along given that there is no specific Legislated provisions in the 1993 Electoral Act that address this issue,
It’s now starting to pong a bit more, my view is that the people of New Zealand at general elections are the final arbiter of the proportional representation of the Parliament and it is not the privilege of appointed civil servants to alter that proportionality based upon definitions, (i assume), they have made from sections of the electoral Act…
Is our democracy of ‘proportional representation’ at the whim of public servants to be turned into a shoddy shonky sham ???,
You bet, in certain situations ‘proportional representation’ would end up in the dustbin on the whim of Legislation with holes in it big enough to drive a bus through and the ‘interpretation’ of the Electoral Act by the Electoral Commission regarding by-elections,
Here’s 2 ‘live’ situations that admittedly are unlikely to occur but could,
(1), “the Hairdo from Ohariu” resigns from the Parliament and a by-election is held, National win this by-election but NO adjustment is made to their number of list MP’s thus giving National an extra MP in the Parliament over and above what the 2011 election dictates they have,
(2), Parekura’s old seat Ikaroa-Rawhiti, should Mana win this by-election under the rules of proportional representation Labour would be entitled to an extra List MP in the Parliament to maintain their proportion of MP’s as dictated by the 2011 election but NO adjustment would be made to the number of Labour list MP’s in the house,
Welcome to the Mickey Mouse democracy brought to you by a piece of shoddy electoral law and a handful of unelected civil servants who when questioned on this issue reply citing ‘definitions’ in the Electoral Law which do appear not to exist and sections of the same law which in word and intent have nothing whatsoever to do with the proportionality of the Parliament,
And now…back to the Email to tell them about it…
Hillary’s sorry state of affairs
Probes into her department’s sex scandals were quashed, memo says
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/06/10/CBS-News-Cover-Ups-In-Investigations-Of-State-Department-Cover-ups
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/06/11/Whistleblower-Hillarys-chief-of-staff-quashed-state-department-scandal-investigation
How the world, is run, and the types who run it!
Between this, and her involvement in Benghazi, Hilary, is being exposed as the criminal, she has always been!
A smile for the morning – satire from Lyndon Hood:
http://werewolf.co.nz/2013/06/from-the-hood-plot-mega-plot/
Wee snippet:
“Be assured The Count of Mansion Chrisco is as surprised as you are.”
That’s brilliant
+1
Werewolf is out today on ‘Scoop’ Always worth a read imo.
http://werewolf.co.nz/2013/03/the-crying-game/
Gordon Campbell on the blurring of politics and television.
A teaser:
.
so the bank numty, I mean manager, rings and says ‘sorry we are cancelling your miniscule overdraft because you never completely pay it off’.
* cough, splutter, gasp * …. ‘what?’ say I ‘ but just last week you sent me another one of those letters offering to double my credit card limit again. What on earth are you talking about? How do those two things make sense mr numty, I mean manager? Why do you offer a massive credit card, while at the same time crying credit failure over a teency tiny oevrdraft?’
‘Oh that’s a different department * nervous giggle *’ replies numty.
Seriously, banks are the most dangerous of corporate creatures with a blood as cold as this morning’s river flow. Needless to say both matters have been cancelled completely and they can go f… themselves. Sticking the money under the mattress from now on, but don’t tell anyone (although I suppose the New Zealand government people spying on me will make a note)
A bank is like someone happy to lend you an umbrella when it is sunny. And wants it back straight away when it starts raining.
BTW a big Oz bank?
Yes a big ozzie bank.
It was confirmation again that the MO of banks is the same as drug dealers – give the punters lots of lolly to get them hooked and then when they are addicted and can’t keep up move in and hoover the assets (on a nationwide scale of course, not so much individual)
Buried in the vaults of the Bank of Tane Mahuta is a far better, (and safer), option for any spare cash you want to keep out of the fraudulent money go round operated by the banking system,
The joy of banking with Tane Mahuta is that He has branches everywhere, snigger…
Funnily enough we do have some buried within some tane mahutas. Being the fast growing high value trees that they are we planted a small crop some years ago.
I thought someone that doesn’t pay off their interest-bearing overdraft would be a bank’s perfect customer?
That’s what I said before realising of course that if they can push that overdraft debt onto even more expensive credit card debt then, whammo, it’s win win win for the bank!
But there evil ways have backfired he he he he – all debts now paid in full and no overdraft, credit card, and especially no business banking for them which is the real loss for them given our business banking dwarfs this numpty stuff. Seriously, they seem to operate by computer program. There appears little or no thinking inside day-to-day bank operations and customer relations.
That’s what happens when you are part of a monopolistic industry with massive power, profitability and leverage.
yup, since the redundancy and the current pick’n’mix of haphazard income, my very small OD has grown a little and the interest and fees that are accruing have resulted in the most attentive and generous banking services I have ever experienced 🙂
I am confident I will go back to being a nobody as soon as I get regular work again, or finally succumb to signing on for assistance which I have somehow managed to stave off so far, but hunger is beginning to bore me.
@ Freedom
You do realise that WINZ start their stand-down period from when you apply, rather than when you lost employment income? Your pride in refusing to accept a benefit which your taxes have paid for, seems akin to that of; someone refusing to apply for an insurance payment on which they’ve always kept the premiums up to date: I’m sure that Paula Bennett would rub her hands, with much the same glee as the insurance company executives would, on hearing of your plight.
At the pre-application meeting I did not appreciate being told my skill base and non-paid work commitments were irrelevant to what jobs I got sent for. It did get my gander up, so I am the first to admit that stubbornness (and a loathing of the senseless aggression inherent in the current processes) is certainly part of it.
I was made redundant so there is no long term stand down in my circumstance, but it is a complex situation re the tax grounds you reference 🙁 and that plays its part also, as I do have reservations of asking for help when my taxes are not fully up to date.
He’s baaack! Well, not quite. United Future says it has the numbers to re-register, but not on paper.
Say what? Hasn’t every new party, like Mana, met the requirements?
So United Future members are just electronic entities?
“Whatever the hell that might be”, he forgot to add.
Translation, Facing the loss of 100 thou Pete furiously emailed ‘everyone’ He had ever met cajoling them to join the party sweat pouring from His fevered brow as He contemplated life without the Ministerial salary, perks AND the loss of the leadership allowance…
Signed paper copies… The GP has been using online registration for years and I think if you set up an AP your membership just rolls over.
I wonder if the Electoral Commission’s requirement of UF is because they want to double check that they are in fact above 500 members, rather than it being a blanket requirement for every party to have signed paper copies.
Yeah that’s my read of it too.
No-one is taking Dunne’s word for anything.
Yep, as previously noted, there may be a lot of George Peters, PG Bores, Pete R George’s etc on the list. Though probably not Vance, A.
Um, what?
Get the members to print out the membership forms and send them to you. It’s what every other bloody party does and have been doing for several decades – well, ok, fine, a few decades ago the parties probably even printed the forms themselves. The point being that it’s how it’s been done for fucken decades and probably was how UF managed to get registered in the first place so claiming that they can’t do it is total BS.
Draco, the GP doesn’t require paper copies. You can join the party online without any other documentation. If the EC were to require the GP to provide signed copies, they would have to go back to the membership and ask them to fill in a form, sign it and post it in (because no such forms exist currently for those that joined online).
” Hard copies of the report were distributed to 34 people before it was released.
Inquiry head David Henry focused only on the three people of the 34 who had been known to have contact with the reporter over a two-week period.”
What! Is it possible that any one of the other 31 people leaked? Perhaps not by email and just handed over the brown paper parcel? No. Of course not. Only an email trail would indicate any possible answer to the leak. No Minister would have a private cell phone would they, and a who these days would have a brown paper to wrap up a report? Nah. Must be Peter Scapegoat.
“Inquiry head David Henry focused only on the three people of the 34 who had been known to have contact with the reporter over a two-week period.”
Whoever wrote this got the story very very wrong and should be ashamed to be a journalist.
What they were trying to say, is this:
“Of the 34 people that had access to the report, Inquiry head David Henry focused only on the three of them who had been known to have contact with the reporter over a two-week period.”
Yesterday Chris Hipkins asked an important question relating to National Standards and their moderation. From reading through what I imagine to be the (not exactly easy to locate) section referred to by the Minister I fail to see how any of the information can be said to relate to a National Standard. There are numerous outlines of moderation handy-hints but there is certainly nothing pertaining to a well laid out standard for national moderation objectives. It certainly suggests if Schools choose to go outside of their own conversation they may find it useful, when developing their own techniques of assessment, but surely this only highlights the mainly insular nature of the moderation process.
I do not see anything which differs from what schools have genuinely been themselves developing over decades and certainly noticed nothing which could direct a school to what a National Standard of moderation should be aiming for.
http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/National-Standards/Key-information/Fact-sheets/Moderation
Q5- supplementary: http://www.parliament.nz/en-NZ/PB/Debates/Debates/1/5/b/50HansD_20130611_00000008-Questions-for-Oral-Answer-Questions-to-Ministers.htm
I obviously posted in the wrong thread , could a moderator please shift it . . I already spilt a coffee broke a carving and sliced my thumb, generally not having a good day
I am going for a walk,
Hope your afternoon is better than your morning. 🙂
You are on to it freedom.
Today Q12 CCHRIS HIPKINS to the Minister of Education: Does she stand by all of the answers she gave to Oral Questions yesterday?
Do you reckon Parata will make a correction at the beginning of Q Time today?
I actually facepalmed when I read of Trevor Mallard’s antics in threatening a copper’s job. Has the man learned nothing from the Aaron Gilmore debacle?
Your link is a bit crazy, but here you go:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/8786881/Drama-at-select-committee
Educational link, Pete! This one is better: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/8786881/Drama-at-select-committee
btw, I have no problem with Mallard raising the issue. A top cop praising a crooked cop is worthy of being discussed at that committee, though Trevor does seem to have blown a foofoo valve when challenged about it.
Yes, although given the lovely nature of this crop of nats it was probably understandable.
Some of the nats seem to think that if AAT were innocent, the police wouldn’t have fitted him up (or at least that’s what their unblinking defense of police in the face of serious questions would imply).
407 Examples of contempts
(o) reflecting on the character or conduct of the House or of a member in the member’s capacity as a member of the House:
(p) misconducting oneself in the presence of the House or a committee:
(u) intimidating, preventing, or hindering a witness from giving evidence, or giving evidence in full, to the House or a committee:
(x) assaulting, threatening, or disadvantaging a person on account of evidence given by that person to the House or a committee:
“We’re deciding whether or not to continue his salary, that’s what we’re deciding now,” he said.
– That sounds threatening, imagine if a national mp threatened a worker job…(absolutely no sarcasm at all)
Its a good thing nobody in the labour party has a relative that might profit from this in the form of a promotion/transfer
It’s appropriate to question the decision to give the eulogy, let alone its content, but attempting to hold some sort of de-facto employment tribunal was
stupid and counter-productiveMallard.Mallard could now be short hand for stupid and counter productive
500,000 private contractors and consultants have access to the NSA’s most secret systems and data
Are we feeling the love yet, people?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/10/nsa-leak-contractors_n_3418876.html?1370919691
Obsessed.
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/top-secret-america/map/
Just heard Joyce in the house saying that Labour members have accepted hospitality from Sky City – a corporate box at some event or other – and complaining that they still voted against the Sky City conference centre deal.
All the Nats in the house tut-tutted in faux-outrage.
Note what’s they’re expressing here: they think it’s scandalous to accept corporate hospitality and not be influenced by it!
Could there be a clearer illustration of the bankrupt, backwards, and corrupt ethical framework followed by this government?
I suspect it didn’t have anything to do with being influenced and more to do with accepting gifts from people they accuse of being involved in crony corruption or dirty deals.
That’s how I understood anyway
That’s not what “understood” means.
But it’s about the level we’ve come to expect from you lately. Reminiscent of when you recently spent all day arguing that blatantly racist cartoons were actually making fun of racists.
But while you’re still pretending to be making a serious point, would you care to outline the ethical principle in play in your interpretation, and explain how National’s acceptance of favours differs?
Nothing in my comment warranted your stupid response, so fuck off Felix.
Except for the words.
Care to answer the question? Or have you already ceased pretending to have a serious point to make?
I did, I said “fuck off Felix”.
Am I to take that to mean you have no wish to compare the ethical positions of the two parties in question according to your own interpretation as stated above?
How surprising.
I would have been happy to discuss it but your inability to state why you disagree and why without being a sneery asshole makes one think “Why would I talk to that, dick?”
So fuck off Felix.
Oh and for the record, dick, I recanted my position of the cartoons within a couple hours of my first a comment and admitted in light of other peoples arguments that I was incorrect. So again, fuck off.
Yeah, I can totally see why you wouldn’t want to discuss things with someone who was all rude and sneery.
Totally.
And yep I know you recanted your absurd position on the obviously racist cartoons, the point I was making is that you spent all day defending the indefensible before finally agreeing to look at them from the point of view of a normal fucking human being.
All available indications are that had you deigned to lower yourself to discuss my observation above with my rude, sneery self, the outcome would be no different.
Frankly it’s a waste of everyone’s time and it’s probably for the best that you’ve decided to centre the discussion around your twattish nature and lack of self awareness instead.
Yeah, I must with regret say I agree with TC on this one.
It’s fucking amateur to decry businesses getting special treatment from government in return for favours … then accept those favours. Someone remind me, has Labour made any commitment to explore any and all options to end the 35-year pokies deal yet?
As for “not being influenced by it” – they’re in Opposition. They’re not in a position to make policy now. But if they’re accepting corporate hospitality barely a year out from a general election … what fun new deal might 2014 bring for all concerned?
Not to mention that it’s a fantastic look for a party trying once again to brand itself as the supporter of Kiwi battlers to be sitting in corporate boxes hobnobbing with executives at rugby matches. Let me guess, they were being ~aspirational~.
Overseas foreign currency bank accounts, one for every working class battler
“It’s fucking amateur to decry businesses getting special treatment from government in return for favours … then accept those favours.”
The principled position, if you were to complain about the cronyism between the National and SkyCity would be to have nothing to do with SkyCity.
Which I think Joyce was trying to point out (though his point is kinda lost in the fact he is hardly principled himself).
Let me be clear, I don’t give a rat’s whether it’s a good look for Labour or not. I’ve pretty much come to accept that they’re useless at this stuff and I’ve given up expecting them to get any better at it any time soon. My comment was about the criticism leveled by Joyce (and then Ryall in the gen debate).
Their criticism gets all the relevant principles of ethics, conflicts of interest, and transparency 180 degrees backwards.
“As for “not being influenced by it” – they’re in Opposition. They’re not in a position to make policy now. “
They’re in a position to either vote for or against the shonky deal, and they voted against. And that’s what Joyce and Ryall were pointing to as a hypocrisy – that if they were going to take the gifts they should bloody well knuckle down and get to work for the corporate overlords.
tc
How can Labour participate in society if It doesn’t have anything to do with things it is not in agreement with? Attending something being held at Sky City seems reasonable. Objecting to having a corporate box would just make them look precious.
What was to be gained by refusing it at that time? They have to make a case for change where they can have some effect. But first they need to see what’s going on. So they attend. If they hadn’t they ‘d probably be called wowsers so Labour can’t win.
No need to make a big song and dance of things and outright refuse, one can politely decline.
But outside of that – this is a politically ‘hot’ issue and one that Labour has been very vocal about. It provides talking points and ammunition for National to make an issue of.
There’s no political issue with Sky City though. They’ve never done anything except try to advance their own interests.
The political issue is with the politicians and whose interests they are advancing, and that question is answered very clearly by the voting record.
What the fuck? So according to you, first they need to see what is going on in a fully catered, free bar corporate box, THEN they can make a case for change? Politiely put, what the FUCK are you on about?
And according to you, the risk of being called a fucking “WOWSER” or looking “PRECIOUS” is supposed to influence the behaviour of our MPs? Sticks and stones may break my bones…for fucks sake, just grow up.
I mean seriously, did you even think about what you wrote, before you wasted data storage space expressing it?
Let’s be real clear here. Our politicians are not supposed to be trying to cajole and persuade and convince the corporates of anything. They are not supposed to be creating closer ties and working relationships with the corporate community and the top 0.1%. Instead, they are supposed to acting in the best interests of the nation and the people.
We, the ordinary people are supposed to be the constituency they represent NOT the multimillionaire corporate class (nor the MSM for that matter).
These politicians are Members of the Sovereign Fucking Parliament of the Land and being called a fucking “WOWSER” and buddying up with the SkyCity Board of Directors should be the least of their fucking concerns. And the way you “have an effect” is by judicious and firm use of the sovereign powers and authority of the Crown. Not by trying to grease up to the top 0.1%.
Just asked Sean Plunket this question on his facebook page :
“Sean Plunket- sorry – but I really do have to ask you this question:
Do you have a genuinely investigative bone in your body, when it comes to the fluoridation of public water supplies issue – or are you just a National Party ‘political HACK’?
(Meant of course, in a caring way 😉
Are you interested in ‘seeking truth from FACTS’?
Have you yet carefully read this new study in the Journal of Environmental and Public Health which delivers a significant blow to fluoridation? :
“..chronic effects of fluoride involve alterations in the chemical activity of calcium by the fluoride ion. Natural calcium fluoride with low solubility and toxicity from ingestion is distinct from fully soluble toxic industrial fluorides …”
“Industrial fluoride ingested from treated water enters saliva at levels too low to affect dental caries. Blood levels during lifelong consumption can harm heart, bone, brain, and even developing teeth enamel.
The widespread policy known as water fluoridation is discussed in light of these findings. ….”
http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jeph/2013/439490/
Or this?
http://www.occupyaucklandvsaucklandcouncilappeal.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Waikato-Amended-ACC-Presentation-18-10-02.pdf
Which questions whether either the Ministry of Health and Watercare Services be trusted, given their proven track record in supporting the use of Waikato water, as a ‘raw’ source of drinking water supplies for the Auckland region?”
For the public record, I again state my considered opinion, that as a 2013 Auckland Mayoral candidate, I do NOT support the fluoridation of public drinking water supplies.
Penny Bright
‘Anti-corruption / anti-privatisation’ campaigner.”
“Do you have a genuinely investigative bone in your body, when it comes to the fluoridation of public water supplies issue – or are you just a National Party ‘political HACK’?”
Wait, what? Believing fluoridation of water as a good public health policy in line with the CDC, American Dental Association, The UN, the American Medical Association etc etc now makes one a National Party hack?
For the anti-fluoridationists who have been rabbiting pseudo-science re-fluoride recently on this site:
The fluoride science is already settled
I will listen to Dr Gluckman – and the other illustrious scientific bodies mentioned by TC – on the subject before amateur hacks any day.
Let me inform the uninformed the following. Did you know:
That a person would have to drink 40 bath-fulls of fluoridated water (at the level allowed by law in NZ) in one sitting before that person would be affected by an overdose of fluoride. How do I know this? It was part of a lecture by a professor of dentistry during my dental training… albeit several decades ago. Nothing has changed since then.
Some communities have been fluoridated for over 50 years, some have never been fluoridated. Given the time and population sizes one should be able to show a difference in health between the fluoridated and non-fluoridated communities.
No such difference has been demonstrated. Fluoridated communities have no significant health problems in comparison to the non-fluoridated.
The reality speaks for itself.
That is correct TC. What annoys me most about this recently resurrected debate is the attempt to infer that the population has been exposed to serious side effects from the fluoridation of water. Yes, there are side effects but only at levels far in excess of that which exists in controlled conditions. We also have minute quantities of other chemicals present in water (some naturally and some added) that would also pose a risk to health if they were present at excessive levels. They’re not… and never will be.
One only has to compare the state of children’s teeth before the addition of fluoride, to those children who have been the beneficiaries of fluoridation. The difference has been enormous. What is more, fluoride provides an additional topical protection for adults too, which also helps to at least delay serious tooth decay.
Such behaviour puts the whole of the lobbying industry at risk. What next if we can’t trust people’s venal greed and self-serving interest?
Next we’ll have donations to the poor, honesty boxes and… and….. and…. friendship, dammit!
So how much dya reckon an Abbott government will improve things for Aussie women?
http://thehoopla.com.au/julia-gillard-kentucky-fried-quail/
Pretty sure that Gillard’s approval rate amongst women and Abbott’s approval rate amongst women are pretty close to each other.
Thankfully not! http://www.afr.com/p/national/politics/infographic_women_stick_to_gillard_AoAaw3G6zhU5PjNkP0o10N
Probably won’t matter soon anyway, can’t see her leading Labor into the election. KR to the rescue!
Yes good old Aotearoa leads the way again – the Helenhate filth worked such a treat so now years of Ozgeny rips Julia to shreds and leads into the final phase of self-fulfilling poll saturation. Ah well, chin up, maybe it means racism’s done its dash there too.
So much shit going down and now this
“Haqq-Misra is leading a team of scientists and entrepreneurs who are launching a new initiative called “Lone Signal” which will send the first continuous mass “hailing messages” out into space, starting later this month.”
Surely something like this should have to be ‘approved’ by the human race before they do it – but no the scientists have decided.
http://www.universetoday.com/102844/lone-signal-first-continous-message-beacon-to-find-and-say-hello-to-an-extraterrestrial-civilization/#more-102844
Those people decided.
From what I recall, besides a couple of exceptions, various collections of scientists, philosophers and sociologists (he – see what I did there? Qual/quant fight go! :)) have looked at the issue and generally come down with a “generally bad idea” conclusion.
But of course the key word in the article is “entrepreneur”: I suspect their business plan is strictly terrestrial.
Time for me to watch Mars Attack again. Quite funny. And the green ones are so direct. We approach extending the hand of friendship. They shoot and deal with any problems before they arrive.
What could possibly go wrong?
Perhaps they’re just trying to phone home , Marty!
My opinion its the people who are funding the project, made the decision, semantics possibly, but its my issue with the misuse of science, which seems to be working against humanities better interests!
I’m quite certain the reason the planet continues to be trashed, is that the psychopaths in charge, expect to be able to leave the planet, and head elsewhere, once its game over!
Perhaps its how things are meant to be, the evolutionists should appreciate it!
I’m quite certain the reason the planet continues to be trashed, is that the psychopaths in charge, expect to be able to leave the planet, and head elsewhere, once its game over!
And oblivious to the possibility that, any intelligent life out there could look at their “hail”, and say Piss Off. You’re not the kind we want in our Hood!”
Donkey has just given a short sharp answer to Russel Norman that he is not interested in the operational matters of the methods and practices of intelligence agencies supplying our NZ intelligence and this seems meant to apply to private companies working for the government. Palantir? has advertised for an embedded analyst. Sounds like they’re in bed with the government all right. But embedded means sunk into the midst of something! Anyway we don’t need to bother about it, Jokey Hen thinks it’s all hunky-dory.
NEWSFLASH!
Karl du Fresne manages a whole hour and a quarter of normality
Radio NZ National, The Panel, Wednesday 12 June 2013
Jim Mora, Karl du Fresne, Finlay Macdonald
Preshow chat, 3:45 to 4:00 p.m.—nothing. Well, one thing of interest: Karl du Fresne notes that the U.S. regime lied continuously and grossly about what it was doing in Vietnam. That’s a remarkable change in his behaviour; a tilt toward honesty.
First half hour: nothing eventful. Some interesting discussions, about Peter Dunne and Winston Peters, and something else about Sir Bruce Ferguson, but nothing eventful.
At 4:30, the News. Nothing exciting.
Karl du Fresne on his best behaviour. So far. Mora and Macdonald pleasant and urbane as always.
At 4:40, a discussion with Phil Ruthven, chairman and founder of Ibis World, from Melbourne, about use of leisure time. Diverting, but nothing special.
Next it’s time for the “Soapbox” segment, where the guests deliver a prepared rumination on something they’ve been thinking about. Or, in the case of guests like Christine (Spankin’) Rankin, a confused and incoherent rant against Māori. So, maybe du Fresne will say something stupid in this segment….
MORA: Finlay I think you want to mention Nelson Mandela.
FINLAY MACDONALD: He’s been there for all of my life. I was born in 1961, when he was just starting his revolutionary movement. He went to jail soon after and he was in Robben Island all during my youth. I was thirty when he was released from jail, and my oldest child was born the year that he was elected president of South Africa. I just wonder who are we sending to his funeral? The prime minister, who can’t remember what side he was on in 1981? Or one of those public figures who called him a terrorist?
MORA: [with a slight edge of facetiousness] John Minto!
FINLAY MACDONALD: [refusing to rise to Mora’s provocation] Yeah, maybe. Or I think possibly John Graham, who went to the townships—he asked to be taken there—and came back to New Zealand and said “I don’t think we should play with those people”. That took a lot of courage.
KARL DU FRESNE: Mmmm, mmmmm.
MORA: Mmmmm, mmmmm. Karl, what’s been on YOUR mind?
KARL DU FRESNE: I want to have a bit of a grizzle about incomprehensible sets of instructions.
MORA: Hur hur hur hur.
KARL DU FRESNE: There are some things where you CAN’T disregard the instructions and charge ahead. Particularly electronic things. My brother is a builder, well accustomed to dealing with technical challenges. But he’s tearing his hair out trying to work the electronic equipment in his house. ….
This monologue continues for some time, and is actually very amusing.
MORA: Lots of suggestions on the texts about who to send over to the funeral: Phil Recordon, Jim Bolger, Sandy McNicol…
FINLAY MACDONALD: There’s a whole planeload of them!
At 4:50, a discussion about crude and offensive language at the football on Saturday night.
At 4:55, an amusing discussion with the sly and hilarious Patrick Morgan, about scooter safety. Once again, Karl du Fresne’s comments are pertinent and positive.
VERDICTS:
Good work, Jim. Keep it up! (A minus.)
Well done, Karl du Fresne. See, you CAN act like a normal human being. (A minus.)
Finlay Macdonald: Badly misjudged assessment of John Graham. That one comment aside, he took nothing like the stance against apartheid, or racism, that you say he did. (B minus.)
Yep – I heard that and wondered if it could be the same man. He must have changed his underwear
I love how the company looking to embed an analyst into the goverment here is called Palantir. Still loving all that LOTR stuff eh John?
To: MPs Shearer, Cosgrove, Fa’afoi, Goff.
I hope you enjoyed SkyCity’s corporate box. Unlike your blood-sucking chums, I don’t have anything to offer you, except my vote. It’s not much, I know, but it’s all I’ve got. And you don’t seem to want it, so you won’t be getting it.
Please fuck off out of Parliament and into the National Party, where you belong.
But if they do that then they will get your vote. Think it through man.
Are estate agents, actually agents of the 1%?
Yes. Or more accurately, they are agents of capitalism.
For several reasons, but primarily because they make a living from other people exchanging capital assets where they are not paid by the hour but as a % commission of the value of those assets – nothing to do with the input or physical value of their labour.
Well, I am getting heartily sick of estate agents ringing me, assuming I am the “home owner” rather than actually being a renter, and trying to encourage me to put my property on the market. Basically, the scumbags are trying to get landlords to sell property from under the renters, thus contributing to housing inflation and rising and insecure rents.
FYI
12 June 2013
‘Open Letter’ / OIA to Professor Sir Peter Gluckman from Auckland Mayoral candidate Penny Bright:
“Upon what ‘science’ are you relying to support fluoride in water?”
OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER’S SCIENCE ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, KNZM FRSNZ FMedSci FRS
Chief Science Advisor
Dear Professor,
I read with interest your following ‘Media Release’:
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/GE1306/S00035/sir-peter-gluckman-statement-of-flouride.htm
“Media release
12 June 2013
“The science of fluoride in water is effectively settled. It has been one of the most thoroughly worked questions in public health science over many decades,” says Sir Peter Gluckman, the Prime Minister’s Chief Science Advisor.
In a statement released today on the issue of fluoride in public water supplies, Sir Peter reiterates the scientific facts, saying “it is absolutely clear that at doses used in New Zealand to adjust the natural level to one that is consistent with beneficial effects (0.7-1.0mg/litre), there is no health risk from fluoride in the water.”
So why is there any issue at all?
Sir Peter points to the importance of the values debate around fluoridation, but warns that this should not be misrepresented as a scientific debate. …”
______________________________________________________________________________
Can you please provide the information which confirms you have read the following research:
1) http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jeph/2013/439490/
“..chronic effects of fluoride involve alterations in the chemical activity of calcium by the fluoride ion. Natural calcium fluoride with low solubility and toxicity from ingestion is distinct from fully soluble toxic industrial fluorides …”
“Industrial fluoride ingested from treated water enters saliva at levels too low to affect dental caries. Blood levels during lifelong consumption can harm heart, bone, brain, and even developing teeth enamel.
The widespread policy known as water fluoridation is discussed in light of these findings. ….”
2) http://www.slweb.org/50reasons.html
50 Reasons to Oppose Fluoridation
Dr. Paul Connett
Professor of Chemistry
St. Lawrence University, NY 13617
__________________________________________________
FYI – I have spent some hundreds of hours researching the decisions of the Ministry of Health and Watercare Services to use Waikato river water as a ‘raw’ source of drinking water supplies for the Auckland region.
I respectfully suggest that you read the following document which I prepared for a meeting of the Auckland City Council Finance and Business Committee back in October 2002, so that you can understand why a number of persons, such as myself, do NOT trust either the Ministry of Health, or Watercare Services Ltd, when it comes to safeguarding public health and drinking water supplies.
http://www.occupyaucklandvsaucklandcouncilappeal.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Waikato-Amended-ACC-Presentation-18-10-02.pdf
FYI – as a 2013 Auckland Mayoral candidate, I do NOT support the fluoridation of public drinking water supplies.
Penny Bright
‘Anti-corruption / anti-privatisation’ campaigner.
http://www.occupyaucklandvsaucklandcouncilappeal.org.nz/?page_id=152
@ Penny Bright
see my 17.1.1
What a sad country and state of affairs this place has become. Day in day out the same posters and crowd, no growth, no appeal, the MSM misinforming and getting away with it even more than before, the wider public dumber than they have ever been (outracing previous records of dumbness and ignorance daily), and trivia and misinformation being the staple diet of the most dumbed down people within the OECD, that is – guess what, New Zealand.
It is the best place to leave for good, and to never come back to, it is a lost place, full of emptiness, especially in the minds of too many, it is not even on the map, that is for most in the world, as it just dropped off, before the map got the final current print run.
Good night, a waste of time, really! X
Feeling you, X!
The point to remember, is that NZ is still part of a major experiment, there is a reason we have all those *firsts*, they are not anything to do with being progressive, much as the peeps would like to believe.
NZ’ers, generally take the view , that the world is *just like them*, its not, it never was, and never will be, primarily because, NZ’ers have little to no sense of identity, or their place in the world., which is what comes from being such a young nation.
TPTB are having their way with NZ, it started in in 1840, but really kicked off in 1961. You can see NZ’s decline in the OECD rankings, from the end of the 60’s onwards, which tells the timeline of the experiment.
It saddens me greatly, to understand that NZ remains under attack, and worst of all, that there are so many who , not only are unaware, but in fact they believe so much , in their *worldly understandings*, they are actively supporting the propagation of evil, and effectively digging their own graves!
Try to enjoy what you can in this life, X, its important that we all give, and receive joy, it can be found everywhere, even when the clouds are at their most sinister!
If you spend too much time on this site, or tracking the gloom around, the joy will become ever more difficult to engage with, and if you are feeling that way, my advise would be, stop tracking the system, its going to continue regardless. Just do what you need to, I appreciate from your posts, that there are restrictions, and changes which are directly going to affect you, if I recall, that being the case, I wish you well, and keep up the good fight, but don’t let the fight kill you, eh!
Kia kaha
Thanks for your help in exposing some of the shit. And muzza is on to it – go and have an actual look around at the beauty everywhere and get off the fucken internet for a while – you’re alive start living.
Now that he has done the Dunne business …Lets see what Winnie is really made of …. Hope Winston gets on the case of Palantir?….This really is an outrage!
Private companies spying on NZers?…What for? Who exactly is Palantir? Where do they come from? ….AND ….Why doesnt John Key know about them and what they are up to ?…Surely that is his job ?
Any more leaks ? ( or is that a naughty word?)
GOOD ON THE GREENS !…. for fishing this one from out under the bed.
Winnie what can you do to help?
Stuff to be entertained or thinking about –
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IstzHJGydzU
A bit nutty:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5_8XN8K0HM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEEPDS_IKnc
Greens or not Greens, or whatever, we should be allowed some basic freedoms and to talk face to face.
Also I totally thank all for sympathy, we live in a world that we have little input in, and I welcome you all to take a solid stand, just bit by bit!
So raising voices and disagreeing is just part of the agenda to let em know, there are others that do NOT support your one system, largely corporate focused. Bear that in mind, the corporates RUN the system and all words of them are lies and hollow. Do NOT believe them and create your own individual, independent, democratic systems and islands all over, thanks!
moderator : can you put this onto tomorrow’s notice please.
Nasty racism times ahead for Aotearoa-New Zealand’s people. 1-law-4-All is stepping up its pace,
and I note the advertisement from ACT on The Standard today about a public meeting on The Constitution Mon 17 June St Heliers. This will be part of the same sick stuff which is spewing forth from Muriel Newman as director of NZ Centre for Political Research. The following is part of their creed :
” We reject reference to the Treaty of Waitangi or its principles in any constitutional document.
We ask that such references be removed from all existing legislation.
We ask that race-based Parliamentary seats be abolished.
We ask that race-based representation on local bodies be abolished.
We ask that the Waitangi Tribunal, which has outlived any usefulness it may have had, be abolished.”
An extract from – The Origins of 1 Law 4 All (a new political party – don’t know if its registered yet)
“Over recent years – and especially since National went into coalition with the Maori Party – there has been a step-by-step erosion of our traditional democratic rights in favour of the tribal elite, which the Maori Party represents.’
“However, it needed a catalyst to bring about a movement for political action and that catalyst was the (February, 2013) publication of “Twisting the Treaty”, an authoritative and terrifying account of the way that New Zealand is blindly going down the dark path of separatism and racism, with those who are not part-Maori being made to feel like second class citizens in their own country.’
“Twisting the Treaty” ……….. The book has made enough people angry enough to initiate political action and 1 Law 4 All is the result – a party that is determined to roll through the country like thunder, informing the people of how they are being cheated of long held rights by the two main parties in the spurious name of “Treatyism”.
“Treatyism is the false belief that the Treaty of Waitangi gave special rights to the Maori when it did not. Treatyism says that the Treaty of Waitangi created a “partnership” between Maori and other New Zealanders when it did not……..”