Former environment Minister Nick Smith provided $180,000 for meetings to resolve disputes over the Mackenzie Basin, despite officials advising it was expensive and unlikely to work.
Smith resigned from Cabinet this year over scandals at ACC, and the Sunday Star-Times has learned ministry chief executive Paul Reynolds has met new minister Amy Adams over concerns about the funding applications.
The Mackenzie Sustainable Futures Trust, set up to mediate between farmers and environmentalists clashing over projects in the Mackenzie Basin and Waitaki Valley, was chaired by National MP Jacqui Dean.
And Ecologic, a firm run by Smith’s friend Guy Salmon, received about $87,000 in consultancy fees from the “collaborative process”, documents released under the Official Information Act show.
Meetings cost around $25,000 each, of which around $18,000 a time went to Ecologic.
Labour environment spokesman Grant Robertson said the documents showed: “Money for mates and special treatment.”
How has this government got any credibility with, even a small percentage, of NZ voters?
And any return to cabinet by Nick Smith looks likely to be later, not sooner.
I’m sure he used to be, Fortran – I was surprised, to say the least when he turned up as a Nat candidate. I always look sideways at converts, be it politics, religion or health issues. I used to be a relatively heavy smoker but threw it away, cold turkey in 1991. I’m now extremely intolerant of any smoker and nearly always gag at the smell of cigarette smoke, but I digress. Over the last 20 odd years there has been heaps of ‘converts’ on the political stage, some these make me gag too!
Isn’t he leading the auckland Council’s report into alternative transport funding? So he can’t be a mate of Brownlee (which gives him some credibility)
Perhaps the stuff’s “story” is an underhanded way by one Nats faction to undermine the Council’s work and take a shot at Smith’s camp at the same time. The timing is too perfect.
An extraordinarily radical, and optimistic series of articles from the Financial Times.
Financial Times, 3:40pm Tuesday June 12th, 2012
[Beyond scarcity] Redefining labour
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Izabella Kaminska
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This is the third installment in FT Alphaville’s “Beyond Scarcity” series, a somewhat radical look at the impact of technological progress
Which is why I’m not watching The Nation. Is he blaming Labour still, and talking about “Planet Labour”, while saying his (distorted) figures are the basis for building a brighter future?
I know I’ll just get angry and start shouting at the screen.
I understand how you might feel Carol, but just keep up your incisive comments in the comment pages, and you will be doing a most effective thing, have confidence in what you are doing for it will count in the end.
Dr Terry, I agree with your sentiment to Carol to keep posting her posts are throughtful and interesting, but the comment about it coming right in the end, is likely to be incorrect.
Something I have wondered about having been on this site among others for some time, is that there are some clever people, who seem to have common sense about them. Sure not all of us will agree on everything, nor should it be that way, but on the core components of what NZ needs to function, and for communiities to reconnect, and propser again, all of them, not just the ruling/corporate class.
What might it take for some of those people of common sense and logic to begin to work together in a way that might lead to some actual “coming right” of the political landscape?
Supporting any part of the current system is, in my opinion supporting the accellerating misery, of more and more sectors of society. As greater numbers drop off the bottom rungs, including people who thought their life was comfortable.
Until the people take back, through active political participation, not just voting or protesting, and certainly not just blogging, the coming right, was lost decades ago.
What might it take for some of those people of common sense and logic to begin to work together in a way that might lead to some actual “coming right” of the political landscape?
You my man, are on the money.
1) A media organisation
2) Financing
3) The attention and support of interest groups from across the political spectrum who value a strong, independent, livable NZ.
Some analysis of slim margin electorate seats, at either regional or national level, depending on where one would target.
A well thought out , delivered speech or intervention at an opportune moment, which could grab some media attention, as I feel it would only require something fleeting to “catch a break”
Behind that none the less would require some time and planning, no question, but I believe it can be done, with the right core start up.
Which interest groups would be necessary you think?
Some analysis of slim margin electorate seats, at either regional or national level, depending on where one would target.
Absolutely. You apply co-ordinated pressure from the grass roots from the start, to both sitting MPs and aspiring candidates. I found this recent exchange relevant (not sure if you caught it).
Behind that none the less would require some time and planning, no question, but I believe it can be done, with the right core start up.
Which interest groups would be necessary you think?
Sure can. You will already know a few capable people who would be in. As do I. As do many here.
As for the specific interest groups. That’s a bit tricky to answer, and in reality depends on who is leading the group and the nature of their exec, as to how productive discussions might be. It would have to be a cross section of provincial/rural and city interests without doubt, however.
Undoubtedly we will know some capable people, and there are a number on this site for sure.
Can’t understand why people who put their energy into supporting failed parties. which no longer represent them, or most of this country, would not want to put that energy into trying something very different.
The way to get in, is to be able to relate to all people, know what it is thats important to them, should be the same things important to you and me, which would make it wasy enough to tap into. Representing exactly what the current system does not, would be straight forward enough, and picking a small number of key facets that one would stand for, a start for ten.
Not so much that it would require “negative campaining”, because that can always be turned into positive easily enough, just that any independents, or working in tandem, would not require a full policy set in order to appeal.
x2. I’ve learned a lot here from contributors like Carol and the informative links and analysis they provide. If I can learn new stuff, so can the hundreds of other readers. Learning makes (and is) a difference.
Muzza below, I don’t see anyone claiming things will “come right”, just that Carol’s contribution can and will “count”
edit – Muzza’s post has turned out to be above rather than below.
JS – for something to count, to me would imply that things come right, and I guess there are a couple of points I would make.
If anyone does a good deed, or gives wise information or knowledge etc, whatever it might be that is positive, or leads to a positive outcome, means that action has counted. The other side can also be that , it counted, but in a way which may not have been intended, either way all actions count in the end, its what that end, or the journey towards it becomes…
With politics still playing such big part in affecting negatively, and the media supporting in its role, in order to make it count, things have to change, they have to come right, but how will that happen?
Its a very broad query, with many possible ansers, but ultimately only a small number really matters, like people finding out what really natters in life, not just to them, but to all of us. Those things which really matter to sustain life are relatively few, we all need them, the rest is simply not necessary, the reason people are not getting what they need, greed!
DT’s comment on it counting is correct, what it might count for if we dont all inspire in some way, is the variable.
Going by those parts of the speech which were broadcast on The Nation, he seems not to have mentioned Labour at all. In fact within the limitations of the neoliberal outlook it was a reasonably sensible speech, stressing the need to reduce NZ’s high indebtedness, the “black clouds” on the horizon overseas etc.
When I heard the Nats conference was being held at Sky City, I was overcome with joy. Finally, the nastiest criminals in NZ are off our streets for a few hours.
Which must be why the Nats needed 80 Police officers.
80 Police to stand guard inside a private commercial premises? (to keep the riffraff in?)
80 sworn Officers paid from the public purse to stand guard in Sky City ???
Is that not a job for, i don’t know, the Security Guards of Sky City? Why are NZ Police being used as security guards for a private meeting of a radical and dangerous political group that is threatening to overthrow the sovereignty of Aotearoa? Is this a good use of public funds?
It’s not like anyone ever gets got robbed or raped or hurt or runover or damaged or threatened in Auckland so i guess they were just lucky there were plenty of spare hands to help out.
Exactly freedom. I had the same thought. National want to privatise everything but when it comes to shielding themselves against protests over their nasty policies they rely on our tax-payer funded Police Force. It’s par for the course for them though, they happily call other people bludgers while they themselves shove their snouts into as many troughs as they can.
Thank you to the moderators for creating a pfree zone this week – i have enjoyed it a lot and i’ve found I have much more inclination to enter debates, instead of dissipating energy on unowho – my choice of course but thanks.
i wonder about macrons. If we are going to use te reo Māori then surely macrons need to be used, even if just in the original post. Please I am not getting at anyone because I slip up as much as anyone else. For me, I cut and paste from a document into the comment. āĀ ēĒ īĪ ōŌ ūŪ. I am just raising this for discussion and i wonder what others think and i repeat i’m not getting at anyone.
I’d love to know how to make my computer do macrons. I feel guilty omitting them. In the meantime, I’ve often wondered if doubling the letter that should have a macron is equivalent, (for example Maaori)?
cut and paste is old school but it works – for instance if someone cut and pasted the letters with macrons in my comment above into a doc and then added common macroned words to that file then they have it sorted, apart from knowing what macron, and where. For that i check with the Māori dictionary where I cut and paste words into that doc. The comments area can take cut and paste direct from the doc or the dictionary – but as i say – old school but works.
Making a file of copied macroned words, good lateral thinking.
Once in the file, I guess you can change the font etc. to match that in the text you are writing?
Bit complicated for a non-whizz like me. But if that’s how it’s done…
On a windows operating system, you can find macrons and much much more in the “character map”. Look for it in the “system tools” submenu, in the “accessories” folder on your “start” menu. I keep a link to it in the task bar.
Thanks Kotahi Tane Huna.
Wow, so many interesting things in ‘accessories’.
I’ve found the macroned letters. How do I transfer them to the text I’m writing?
Click on whichever special character you want to use, and press “select” and “copy” – then go to whatever you are typing and hold the “ctrl” (control) key down and press “v”. Alternatively right-click and choose “paste”.
That is a brilliant short-cut. For other novices, Win + R allows you to browse (and run) all your computer’s programmes, documents and folders, – instantly.
I really appreciate these sort of tips. I’ve got a notebook…
I’ve also been enjoying the PG-free week. The debate has felt quite different this week. I wonder how people are going to deal with him when he returns.
Ditto about the PG free week. I commented to Clare Curran on her Facebook page [about buying shares in Mighty River Power] and guess who sprung up with a typical comment, yep Pete George.
Just heard on the radio news that weet-bix brain Crusher Collins has told the pro-gambling skyshity brown nosers that crime in NZ always increases when there is a Labour Govt in power.
I hope one of those pokie machines malfunctions real soon and takes the roof off.
Analysis of Earth’s geologic record can reveal how the climate has changed over time. Scientists in New Zealand are examining samples from the rocky landscape once dominated by glaciers. They are employing a new technique called surface exposure dating, which uses chemical analysis to determine how long minerals within rocks have been exposed to the air since the glaciers around them melted. Comparisons of this data with other climate records have revealed a link between glacial retreat and rising levels of carbon dioxide in the air, findings that are informing scientists’ understanding of global climate change today.
The authors conclude that climate change has become perceived as a form of cultural affiliation for most people: their acceptance of it is mostly a way of reinforcing their ties to the political and ideological communities they belong to. And, since temperatures have become the primary thing the public associates with climate change, people now interpret the temperatures through a filter based on their affiliations, a process termed “cultural cognition.” In other words, we tend to interpret the temperatures in a way that reinforces our identity, and our connections with others who share similar political persuasions.
On June 19, in a final bid to avoid extradition to Sweden, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange requested asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
Credible commentators argue that Assange has good reason to fear extradition to the United States from Sweden. Ray McGovern, who was a CIA analyst for 30 years, commented: ‘Not only is Julian Assange within his rights to seek asylum, he is also in his right mind. Consider this: he was about to be sent to faux-neutral Sweden, which has a recent history of bowing to U.S. demands in dealing with those that Washington says are some kind of threat to U.S. security.’
Former US constitutional and civil rights lawyer Glenn Greenwald supplied some detail: ‘The evidence that the US seeks to prosecute and extradite Assange is substantial. There is no question that the Obama justice department has convened an active grand jury to investigate whether WikiLeaks violated the draconian Espionage Act of 1917. Key senators from President Obama’s party, including Senate intelligence committee chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, have publicly called for his prosecution under that statute. A leaked email from the security firm Stratfor – hardly a dispositive source, but still probative – indicated that a sealed indictment has already been obtained against him. Prominent American figures in both parties have demanded Assange’s lifelong imprisonment, called him a terrorist, and even advocated his assassination.’
Greenwald argued that smaller countries like Sweden are more vulnerable to American manipulation. Moreover, Sweden ‘has a disturbing history of lawlessly handing over suspects to the US. A 2006 UN ruling found Sweden in violation of the global ban on torture for helping the CIA render two suspected terrorists to Egypt, where they were brutally tortured.’
Greenwald concluded that Assange’s ‘fear of ending up in the clutches of the US is plainly rational and well-grounded’.
Michael Ratner, president emeritus of the Center for Constitutional Rights and attorney for Julian Assange and WikiLeaks, explained the risks associated with extradition to Sweden:
‘Sweden does not have bail. Now, these are on allegations of sex charges — allegations, no charges — and they’re to interrogate Julian Assange. But despite that, he would have been in prison in Sweden. At that point, our view is that there was a substantial chance that the U.S. would ask for his extradition to the United States.
‘So here you have him walking the streets in London – sure, under bail conditions – going to a jail in Sweden, where he’s in prison, almost an incommunicado prison; U.S. files extradition; he remains in prison; and the next thing that happens is whatever time it takes him to fight the extradition in Sweden, he’s taken to the United States. There’s no chance then to make political asylum application any longer. In addition, once he comes to the United States—we just hold up Bradley Manning as example one of what will happen to Julian Assange: a underground cell, essentially abuse, torture, no ability to communicate with anybody, facing certainly good chance of a life sentence, with a possibility, of course, of one of these charges being a death penalty charge…
‘So, he was in an impossible situation… This is what Julian Assange was facing: never to see the light of day again, in my view, had he gone to Sweden.’
Journalist Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers, stated:
‘Political asylum was made for cases like this. Freedom for Julian in Ecuador would serve the cause of freedom of speech and of the press worldwide. It would be good for us all; and it would be cause to honor, respect and thank Ecuador.’
In considering Assange’s plight, it is also worth considering the tremendous good he has done at extreme personal risk. Coleen Rowley, a former FBI Special Agent and Division Counsel, commented:
‘WikiLeaks’ efforts combating undue secrecy, exposing illegal cover-ups and championing transparency in government have already benefited the world. And I’m convinced, more than ever, that if that type of anti-secrecy publication had existed and enabled the proper information sharing in early 2001, it could have not only prevented the 9/11 attacks but it could have exposed the fabricating of intelligence and deceptive propaganda which enabled the Bush Administration to unjustifiably launch war on Iraq.’
Newsweek recently placed Assange first in its list of ‘digital revolutionaries’.
Consideration of the hideous suffering inflicted on Bradley Manning, who is alleged to have leaked information to WikiLeaks, should generate further concern for Assange’s plight. A UN investigation found that Manning’s pre-trial conditions of severe solitary confinement were ‘cruel, inhuman and degrading’.
As a serving US soldier, rather than a journalist, Manning was certainly more vulnerable to this type of punishment. But consider the ferocity with which US elites are pursuing Assange. A leading article in the Washington Post commented of Ecuador’s president Rafael Correa:
‘There is one potential check on Mr. Correa’s ambitions. The U.S. “empire” he professes to despise happens to grant Ecuador (which uses the dollar as its currency) special trade preferences that allow it to export many goods duty-free. A full third of Ecuadoran foreign sales ($10 billion in 2011) go to the United States, supporting some 400,000 jobs in a country of 14 million people. Those preferences come up for renewal by Congress early next year. If Mr. Correa seeks to appoint himself America’s chief Latin American enemy and Julian Assange’s protector between now and then, it’s not hard to imagine the outcome.’
On Fox News, Roger Noriega, US Ambassador to the Organization of American States from 2001-2003 and Assistant Secretary of State from 2003-2005, observed:
‘It remains to be seen whether Correa will grant Assange asylum in Ecuador. If he does, it will put his country on a collision course with Britain, Sweden, and the United States, which has spoken publicly of charging Assange with crimes for publishing classified government documents.’
‘The Most Massive Turd’ Goes To Harrods
The evidence, then, that Assange has plenty to fear is overwhelming. But not for the great and the good of liberal journalism. The Guardian’s Suzanne Moore set the tone on Twitter on June 19:
‘Seems like Assange’s supporters did not expect him to skip bail? Really? Who has this guy not let down?’
She added: ‘I bet Assange is stuffing himself full of flattened guinea pigs. He really is the most massive turd.’
Moore later complained that, after writing articles about Assange, she had suffered ‘vile abuse’. We wrote to her:
‘That’s a real shame, sorry to hear that. But how would you describe calling someone “the most massive turd”? Vile abuse?’
Moore replied: ‘no I wouldnt call that vile abuse. I mean nasty threats etc.’
She added: ‘also I would advise you to stop sounding so bloody patronising’.
Moore later commented to Deborah Orr of the Guardian and ‘Victoria Peckham’ (Janice Turner) of The Times: ‘I never met him [Assange]. Did you?’
Journalists found Assange’s predicament endlessly amusing. The Guardian’s Luke Harding commented:
‘Assange’s plight seems reminiscent of the scene in Monty Python where…..
IIRC, you’ve been pulled up before about such massive copy/paste. Also, you got the format wrong disregarding all of the quotes in the stuff you did quote (the article you quoted was quoting other articles).
Really, we don’t need the full thing, just a teaser paragraph or two and your own comments on it.
IIRC, you’ve been pulled up before about such massive copy/paste.
It was actually much bigger than this one. And I wasn’t just “pulled up”, I was banned for a month.
Also, you got the format wrong disregarding all of the quotes in the stuff you did quote (the article you quoted was quoting other articles).
You mean I missed out the hyperlinks. The article still reads perfectly well without them.
Really, we don’t need the full thing, just a teaser paragraph or two and your own comments on it.
Fair comment, except in this case, there was a long first part to the article, quoting serious and intelligent commentators (Ray McGovern, Glenn Greenwald, Michael Ratner, Daniel Ellsberg, Colleen Rowley) before contrasting their rigorous arguments with the ridiculous, cynical attacks on dissent by the hounds of the Murdoch empire, the Grauniad, and the rest of the “liberal” media.
In other words, to appreciate just how atrocious and intellectually impoverished the herd behaviour of the corporate media is, some context was necessary. Those who want a context-free, unchallenging read, should read the Herald on Sunday.
You mean I missed out the hyperlinks. The article still reads perfectly well without them.
Nope, I mean you fucked up the formatting and no it doesn’t. Here’s the second paragraph with it’s own quote:
Credible commentators argue that Assange has good reason to fear extradition to the United States from Sweden. Ray McGovern, who was a CIA analyst for 30 years, commented:
‘Not only is Julian Assange within his rights to seek asylum, he is also in his right mind. Consider this: he was about to be sent to faux-neutral Sweden, which has a recent history of bowing to U.S. demands in dealing with those that Washington says are some kind of threat to U.S. security.’
Quite significantly different from how you have it. Formatting is really quite important especially when you’re quoting an article quoting others. It makes it far more readable and shows who said what.
Fair comment, except in this case, there was a long first part to the article,
But that’s just it – you didn’t need to quote the entire first part. One paragraph is enough.
Those who want a context-free, unchallenging read, should read the Herald on Sunday.
What we really wanted was your own thoughts and comments which you didn’t supply. If I was just after a ‘read’ I’d go read a book (sci-fi or fantasy) but on the blogs I’m looking for discussion.
Quite significantly different from how you have it.
No it’s not. I missed nothing. If that article was to be reproduced in a book, it would be reproduced as I did it.
Formatting is really quite important especially when you’re quoting an article quoting others. It makes it far more readable and shows who said what.
I made it more concise, actually. You are being quite ornery and willful here, but I think you can appreciate my point perfectly well.
But that’s just it – you didn’t need to quote the entire first part. One paragraph is enough.
In this case, one paragraph was not enough. As I’ve already explained to you, the entire first part of the article was necessary, in order to establish something of the weight of intellectual and legal backing for Julian Assange. It puts into perspective just how insultingly trivial, vicious and lightweight the corporate media attack on him has been, and continues to be.
If that article was to be reproduced in a book, it would be reproduced as I did it.
This blog isn’t a book and, considering the books I’ve read, it probably wouldn’t be done that way there either. It may have been years ago to keep costs down.
As I’ve already explained to you, the entire first part of the article was necessary, in order to establish something of the weight of intellectual and legal backing for Julian Assange.
No it wasn’t. A single paragraph should suffice to get people to go and read the article you linked to.
Boag discovers that education in our schools isn’t as bad as her leaders would have us believe. What a shame they don’t all visit the classrooms instead of listening to phone-in radio to establish their arguments.
55 seconds into the Panel on Friday, listen to what the wind bag has to say. (leaving aside the fact that she was probably visiting Bayfield Primary School and not Bayview which is on the North Shore somewhere – can’t expect her to get it 100 pcnt right.
After that brief dose of realism, however, Boag was back to her very worst for the rest of the programme, indulging in her trademark swingeing rants against democratic institutions. Her “Soapbox” contribution consisted of a denunciation of the very idea of protesting against the government. It’s “way out of proportion”, according to Boag, and what the HELL are celebrities like Lucy Lawless THINKING of?
But that’s what we expect from Michelle Boag. Far worse was to hear Brian Edwards eagerly endorsing and amplifying every single thing she said. After Boag’s condemnation of celebrity protestors, Edwards named a couple more: “We see Sue Bradford and John Minto at every single protest, whatever the issue,” he said, untruthfully.
“Rent-a-mob!” said Boag.
“Exactly!” shouted Edwards. “That’s exactly what they are! They’re a rent-a-mob!”
You know, I think all those people at the protest should now take a class action defamation suit against both of them. Bankrupt the bastards while showing that they’re amoral.
Boag (the dominant one in this case) and Edwards (her sycophant) are entitled to say what they like. The way to challenge people like them is, for a start, to ask them to back up what they say with at least some evidence.
The person whose job it was to do that was the host, Jim Mora. He failed to do his job, again.
…the protesters need to do it and that’s where the defamation suit comes in.
In this case, however, all Boag did was spray her customary abuse. There was nothing defamatory—unlike Dr Michael Bassett calling Nicky Hager a “holocaust denier” on Mora’s programme a few years ago.
I would call being called rent a mob defamatory as it’s an attack upon your credibility.
It’s patently absurd and untruthful, but it’s about as defamatory as calling someone a bastard.
Bassett’s brutal slander, on the other hand, was defamatory, not only because it was malicious and untruthful, but because he alleged that Hager had said or written something that is not only morally repellent, but possibly a cause for prosecution.
Boag and Edwards truly reflect the values of the different political parties they support.
On Friday, every single thing Edwards said was in support of the National Party. He was so desperate to earn the approbation of Michelle Boag that he even parroted the prime minister’s lie about there being “little opposition to asset sales.”
“What a heart breaking story,” writes Pearce. “Had someone been prepared and armed they could have stopped this `bad’ man from most of this tragedy. He was two and three feet away from folks, I understand he had to stop and reload. Where were the men of flight 93???? Someone should have stopped this man. Someone could have stopped this man.
“Lives were lost because of a bad man, not because he had a weapon, but because noone [sic] was prepared to stop it. Had they been prepared to save their lives or lives of others, lives would have been saved. All that was needed is one Courages/Brave [sic] man prepared mentally or otherwise to stop this it could have been done.”
The by stander effect or Genovese syndrome is when a group of people expect someone else to help the victim or assume that help is on the way. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bystander_effect
What I see in the latest gunman going beserk is that someone else is expected to stop the offender. Due to these awful firearm killings and woundings, research/education is required to equip people on how to react, providing this can be done with a high level of success.
When carrying a concealed weapon for self-defense is understood not as a failure of civil society, to be mourned, but as an act of citizenship, to be vaunted, there is little civilian life left.
I will read the supplied link as I have only skimmed through it.
On World Watch this morning after 7.30 am on RNZ in Honduras someone is killed every 72 minutes; with help from the US a couple of drug lords have been killed. People in Honduras are too frightened to leave their home and there are some suburbs where you do not stop your car.
As lethal as class 1 drugs are in Honduras and that they end up in the US, guns are just as lethal in the US. I find it interesting how the US can see the damage that class 1 drugs cause, but not the damage of legally owning a firearm.
Um Treetop, the US sees how good the drug trade is around the world, because their military machine props it up, and in many cases actively participates in the trade.
By the time you throw in the arming of drug gangs in Mexico for example, and the laundering of hundreds of billions of dollars in drug cash, I reckon what you have in america, is exactly what the fa*cists which have run the place for decades, will be pretty pleased with!
America is a very sick country, and they are heading in a direction which is going to a severe impact globally, as if its administrators have not done enough damage of late!
Yep but the corruption is trans-national. Look at the stories recently about HSBC washing drug money
And then, given our lax company and tax laws we’ve now earnt the reputation as a grubby little nation too. Not to worry though, as it’s good for the PM’s mates
Good stuff joe – i wouldn’t have believed this unless i read it. Seems like the senator wanted people men to jump the gunman, while he was shooting potentially 50 to 60 rounds a minute out of that drum magazine, whether they had weapons or not.
As a mother I cannot get my head around this abomination from dear Paula, blood still boiling. Thank God for the Standard so I can vent a little.
“We will be introducing social obligations, so they will have to enrol their child in early childhood education and get well checks at the doctor by enrolling the local PHO,” says Paula Bennett.
So if you’re on the DPB not only will you be expected to go back to work, but from next year you must fulfil these new obligations or you will be punished..
“If you have kids, then you will lose 50 percent of your benefit,” says Ms Bennett. “That’s the worst case scenario. We hope it doesn’t get to that.”
No chance of choosing to keep your child with you. Not every one is qualified at the early childhood centres, thanks to Anne Tolley, and parents who find themselves in a difficult situation i.e. suddenly alone with a very young child/children who they would do anything to protect,are being forced to hand them over to strangers ( possibly unqualified) whether they want to or not.
As a mother I would find that very hard to do. And now parents in dire straits will have to make a diabolical choice between this or starvation. Workhouse anyone?
No chance of choosing to keep your child with you. Not every one is qualified at the early childhood centres, thanks to Anne Tolley, and parents who find themselves in a difficult situation i.e. suddenly alone with a very young child/children who they would do anything to protect,are being forced to hand them over to strangers ( possibly unqualified) whether they want to or not.
Exactly! I was fortunate to have a proper pre-school just up the road *when my son was small, and I went with him for the first year… it was not a day care centre masquerading as an early childhood place, but genuinely educational. If DPB mums can actually find a place like that near them now, it’ll be a miracle.
(* The Aro Valley parents co-operative, 1987-90, I wonder if it still exists? It was lovely!)
… and this comes from the woman who has been a major beneficiary of what the state has had to offer for decades and is now being paid mega-bucks (again from taxation) to lessen the chances of others getting on.
People who have taken in their neglected grandchildren are among the $2000-a-week beneficiaries who will be returning to work under welfare reforms, passed through Parliament this week…
It included a 60-year-old East Coast grandparent, the second highest paid, with nine grandchildren – several of whom have disabilities. Their partner works full-time so the couple do not receive any unemployment benefits.
The grandparent receives $1822 each week in Unsupported Child Benefit, for people caring for children who are not their own.
Apart from the thousands of hours a year in lost productivity this will cost NZ, are not the tobacco products going to be constantly and repetitively in breach of the law when the roller door is lifted for every single sale hour after hour day in day out that in a world on the brink of major War and a thousand other horrors is little more than an accommodation of pointless mindless nimby bullshit. How many new ACC cases will there be from RSI or damaged hands as these roller mechanisms are simply not designed for that sort of repitative tasking, especially the cheap stuff that will be the most commonly type installed.
At least all the holier than thou’s will be free to drive their carbon spewing barely maintained combustion engines along bitumen soaked highways arriving at the local store to select their fresh hypocrisy from aisle after aisle of wine and beer and gaze lovingly at the ever present GM tainted products filling the anti-competitively priced goods spewing from the shelves at their local supermarket before retiring to their central bank debt traps to enjoy some heartwarming vouyerism on their flatscreen guilt machine that was put together by a migrant worker whose once rich life on the land is now a mash up of drudgery and despair that keeps them one knockoff sneaker ahead of destituion.
So glad the right Honourable Tariana Turia is looking out for New Zealand, how’s that TPP coming?
“Most dairies will have a roller door which comes down to cover the displays.”
Which explained why my local dairy had one today! The locums for the usual owner, did not look very happy about it, as it seemed to be very unwieldy and uncomfortable…
Excellent post, Freedom! I wonder who much the dairy owners had to pay for this unnecessary piece of nonsense? I can bet they’re unhappy about it, they’re on thin ice anyway..
Couple of supermarkets I’ve been to already have the solution and have had it for years – a closed cylinder with a sliding door and an internal turnstile that the check-out person operates when someone asks for cigarettes.
a little better locus, but it has more to do with what is actually outlined in the rant as i for one have very good control of my addiction(s) be it tobacco or Family Guy or that source of all life’s goodness, coffee 🙂 (ok I admit I have no control over coffee )
Why do people believe tobacco is an incredibly unique mass that somehow affects our world and its inhabitants independant of all other matter in the Universe? Mainly though, the real power for that rant came from the exessant hypocrisy ignorance greed and violence that is fuelling the destruction of the few vestiges of human potential left on this f’d up little planet.
Loved the woman who was protesting outside Skycity on TVNZ news to night who said many of our forefathers had come to New Zealand to get away from the inhumanity that was Victorian England, and now Nastional has almost replicated those hellish times again for us here and now – unfortunately with no Charles Dickens in sight! http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/security-cost-conference-questioned-4979230/video
Lindsay Mitchell writes – One of reasons Oranga Tamariki exists is to prevent child neglect. But could the organisation itself be guilty of the same?Oranga Tamariki’s statistics show a decrease in the number and age of children in care. “There are less children ...
David Farrar writes: Graeme Edgeler wrote in 2017: In the first five years after three strikes came into effect 5248 offenders received a ‘first strike’ (that is, a “stage-1 conviction” under the three strikes sentencing regime), and 68 offenders received a ‘second strike’. In the five years prior to ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in politics. That’s refreshing and will be extremely ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the two days to 6:06am on Thursday, April 25:Politics: PM Christopher Luxon has set up a dual standard for ministerial competence by demoting two National Cabinet ministers while leaving also-struggling ...
Hi,Today I mainly want to share some of your thoughts about the recent piece I wrote about success and failure, and the forces that seemingly guide our lives. But first, a quick bit of housekeeping: I am doing a Webworm popup in Los Angeles on Saturday May 11 at 2pm. ...
It is hard to see what Melissa Lee might have done to “save” the media. National went into the election with no public media policy and appears not to have developed one subsequently. Lee claimed that she had prepared a policy paper before the election but it had been decided ...
Open access notablesIce acceleration and rotation in the Greenland Ice Sheet interior in recent decades, Løkkegaard et al., Communications Earth & Environment:In the past two decades, mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet has accelerated, partly due to the speedup of glaciers. However, uncertainty in speed derived from satellite products ...
Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
Mr Bombastic:Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
It's hard times try to make a livingYou wake up every morning in the unforgivingOut there somewhere in the cityThere's people living lives without mercy or pityI feel good, yeah I'm feeling fineI feel better then I have for the longest timeI think these pills have been good for meI ...
In 1974, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Nixon, finding that the President was not a King, but was subject to the law and was required to turn over the evidence of his wrongdoing to the courts. It was a landmark decision for the rule ...
Every day now just seems to bring in more fresh meat for the grinder.In their relentlessly ideological drive to cut back on the “excessive bloat” (as they see it) of the previous Labour-led government, on the mountains of evidence accumulated in such a short period of time do not ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Megan Valére SosouMarket gardening site of the Itchèléré de Itagui agricultural cooperative in Dassa-Zoumè (Image credit: Megan Valère Sossou) For the residents of Dassa-Zoumè, a city in the West African country of Benin, choosing between drinking water and having enough ...
Buzz from the Beehive Melissa Lee – as may be discerned from the screenshot above – has not been demoted for doing something seriously wrong as Minister of ...
Morning in London Mother hugs beloved daughter outside the converted shoe factory in which she is living.Afternoon in London Travelling writer takes himself and his wrist down to A&E, just to be sure. Read more ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – The recent announcement of the University Advisory Group, chaired by Sir Peter Gluckman, makes very clear where the Government’s focus and priorities lie. The remit of the Advisory Group is that Group members will consider challenges and opportunities for improvement in the university sector including: ...
Eric Crampton writes – The Reserve Bank of New Zealand desperately wants to find reasons to have workstreams in climate change. It makes little sense. They’ve run another stress test on the banks looking to see if they could find a prudential regulation case. They couldn’t. They ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Pundits from the left and the right are arguing that National’s Fast Track Bill that is designed to speed up infrastructure decisions could end up becoming mired in a cesspool of corruption. Political commentator ...
Looking at the headlines this morning it’s hard to feel anything other than pessimistic about the future of humanity.Note that I’m not speaking about the future of mankind, but the survival of our humanity. The values that we believe in seem to be ebbing away, by the day.Perhaps every generation ...
Swabbing mixed breed baby chicks to test for avian influenzaUh oh. Bird flu – often deadly to humans – is not only being transmitted from infected birds to dairy cows, but is now travelling between dairy cows. As of last Friday, Bloomberg News reports, there were 32 American dairy herds ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
What is it with the mining industry? Its not enough for them to pillage the earth - they apparently can't even be bothered getting resource consent to do so: The proponent behind a major mine near the Clutha River had already been undertaking activity in the area without a ...
Photo # 1 I am a huge fan of Singapore’s approach to housing, as described here two years ago by copying and pasting from The ConversationWhat Singapore has that Australia does not is a public housing developer, the Housing Development Board, which puts new dwellings on public and reclaimed land, ...
Buzz from the Beehive Reactions to news of the government’s readiness to make urgent changes to “the resource management system” through a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) suggest a balanced approach is being taken. The Taxpayers’ Union says the proposed changes don’t go far enough. Greenpeace says ...
I’m starting to wonder if Anna Burns-Francis might be the best political interviewer we’ve got. That might sound unlikely to you, it came as a bit of a surprise to me.Jack Tame can be excellent, but has some pretty average days. I like Rebecca Wright on Newshub, she asks good ...
Chris Trotter writes – Willie Jackson is said to be planning a “media summit” to discuss “the state of the media and how to protect Fourth Estate Journalism”. Not only does the Editor of The Daily Blog, Martyn Bradbury, think this is a good idea, but he has also ...
Graeme Edgeler writes – This morning [April 21], the Wellington High Court is hearing a judicial review brought by Hon. Karen Chhour, the Minister for Children, against a decision of the Waitangi Tribunal. This is unusual, judicial reviews are much more likely to brought against ministers, rather than ...
Both of Parliament’s watchdogs have now ripped into the Government’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s political economy and beyond on the morning of Tuesday, April 23 are:The Lead: The Auditor General,John Ryan, has joined the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Sarah SpengemanPeople wait to board an electric bus in Pune, India. (Image credit: courtesy of ITDP) Public transportation riders in Pune, India, love the city’s new electric buses so much they will actually skip an older diesel bus that ...
The infrastructure industry yesterday issued a “hurry up” message to the Government, telling it to get cracking on developing a pipeline of infrastructure projects.The hiatus around the change of Government has seen some major projects cancelled and others delayed, and there is uncertainty about what will happen with the new ...
Hi,Over the weekend I revisited a podcast I really adore, Dead Eyes. It’s about a guy who got fired from Band of Brothers over two decades ago because Tom Hanks said he had “dead eyes”.If you don’t recall — 2001’s Band of Brothers was part of the emerging trend of ...
Buzz from the Beehive The 180 or so recipients of letters from the Government telling them how to submit infrastructure projects for “fast track” consideration includes some whose project applications previously have been rejected by the courts. News media were quick to feature these in their reports after RMA Reform Minister Chris ...
It would not be a desirable way to start your holiday by breaking your back, your head, or your wrist, but on our first hour in Singapore I gave it a try.We were chatting, last week, before we started a meeting of Hazel’s Enviro Trust, about the things that can ...
Calling all journalists, academics, planners, lawyers, political activists, environmentalists, and other members of the public who believe that the relationships between vested interests and politicians need to be scrutinised. We need to work together to make sure that the new Fast-Track Approvals Bill – currently being pushed through by the ...
Feel worried. Shane Jones and a couple of his Cabinet colleagues are about to be granted the power to override any and all objections to projects like dams, mines, roads etc even if: said projects will harm biodiversity, increase global warming and cause other environmental harms, and even if ...
Bryce Edwards writes- The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. ...
Michael Bassett writes – If you think there is a move afoot by the radical Maori fringe of New Zealand society to create a parallel system of government to the one that we elect at our triennial elections, you aren’t wrong. Over the last few days we have ...
Without a corresponding drop in interest rates, it’s doubtful any changes to the CCCFA will unleash a massive rush of home buyers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Monday, April 22 included:The Government making a ...
Sunday was a lazy day. I started watching Jack Tame on Q&A, the interviews are usually good for something to write about. Saying the things that the politicians won’t, but are quite possibly thinking. Things that are true and need to be extracted from between the lines.As you might know ...
In our Weekly Roundup last week we covered news from Auckland Transport that the WX1 Western Express is going to get an upgrade next year with double decker electric buses. As part of the announcement, AT also said “Since we introduced the WX1 Western Express last November we have seen ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 29 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Stats NZ releases its statutory report on Census 2023 tomorrow.Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivers a pre-Budget speech at ...
A listing of 29 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 14, 2024 thru Sat, April 20, 2024. Story of the week Our story of the week hinges on these words from the abstract of a fresh academic ...
The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. The Government says this will ...
This is a column to say thank you. So many of have been in touch since Mum died to say so many kind and thoughtful things. You’re wonderful, all of you. You’ve asked how we’re doing, how Dad’s doing. A little more realisation each day, of the irretrievable finality of ...
Identifying the engine type in your car is crucial for various reasons, including maintenance, repairs, and performance upgrades. Knowing the specific engine model allows you to access detailed technical information, locate compatible parts, and make informed decisions about modifications. This comprehensive guide will provide you with a step-by-step approach to ...
Introduction: The allure of racing is undeniable. The thrill of speed, the roar of engines, and the exhilaration of competition all contribute to the allure of this adrenaline-driven sport. For those who yearn to experience the pinnacle of racing, becoming a race car driver is the ultimate dream. However, the ...
Introduction Automobiles have become ubiquitous in modern society, serving as a primary mode of transportation and a symbol of economic growth and personal mobility. With countless vehicles traversing roads and highways worldwide, it begs the question: how many cars are there in the world? Determining the precise number is a ...
Maintaining a safe and reliable vehicle requires regular inspections. Whether it’s a routine maintenance checkup or a safety inspection, knowing how long the process will take can help you plan your day accordingly. This article delves into the factors that influence the duration of a car inspection and provides an ...
Mazda Motor Corporation, commonly known as Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automaker headquartered in Fuchu, Aki District, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. The company was founded in 1920 as the Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd., and began producing vehicles in 1931. Mazda is primarily known for its production of passenger cars, but ...
Your car battery is an essential component that provides power to start your engine, operate your electrical systems, and store energy. Over time, batteries can weaken and lose their ability to hold a charge, which can lead to starting problems, power failures, and other issues. Replacing your battery before it ...
In most states, you cannot register a car without a valid driver’s license. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule. Exceptions to the RuleIf you are under 18 years old: In some states, you can register a car in your name even if you do not ...
Mazda, a Japanese automotive manufacturer with a rich history of innovation and engineering excellence, has emerged as a formidable player in the global car market. Known for its reputation of producing high-quality, fuel-efficient, and driver-oriented vehicles, Mazda has consistently garnered praise from industry experts and consumers alike. In this article, ...
Struts are an essential part of a car’s suspension system. They are responsible for supporting the weight of the car and damping the oscillations of the springs. Struts are typically made of steel or aluminum and are filled with hydraulic fluid. How Do Struts Work? Struts work by transferring the ...
Car registration is a mandatory process that all vehicle owners must complete annually. This process involves registering your car with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and paying an associated fee. The registration process ensures that your vehicle is properly licensed and insured, and helps law enforcement and other authorities ...
Zoom is a video conferencing service that allows you to share your screen, webcam, and audio with other participants. In addition to sharing your own audio, you can also share the audio from your computer with other participants. This can be useful for playing music, sharing presentations with audio, or ...
Building your own computer can be a rewarding and cost-effective way to get a high-performance machine tailored to your specific needs. However, it also requires careful planning and execution, and one of the most important factors to consider is the time it will take. The exact time it takes to ...
Sleep mode is a power-saving state that allows your computer to quickly resume operation without having to boot up from scratch. This can be useful if you need to step away from your computer for a short period of time but don’t want to shut it down completely. There are ...
Introduction Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) has revolutionized the field of translation by harnessing the power of technology to assist human translators in their work. This innovative approach combines specialized software with human expertise to improve the efficiency, accuracy, and consistency of translations. In this comprehensive article, we will delve into the ...
In today’s digital age, mobile devices have become an indispensable part of our daily lives. Among the vast array of portable computing options available, iPads and tablet computers stand out as two prominent contenders. While both offer similar functionalities, there are subtle yet significant differences between these two devices. This ...
A computer is an electronic device that can be programmed to carry out a set of instructions. The basic components of a computer are the processor, memory, storage, input devices, and output devices. The Processor The processor, also known as the central processing unit (CPU), is the brain of the ...
Voice Memos is a convenient app on your iPhone that allows you to quickly record and store audio snippets. These recordings can be useful for a variety of purposes, such as taking notes, capturing ideas, or recording interviews. While you can listen to your voice memos on your iPhone, you ...
Laptop screens are essential for interacting with our devices and accessing information. However, when lines appear on the screen, it can be frustrating and disrupt productivity. Understanding the underlying causes of these lines is crucial for finding effective solutions. Types of Screen Lines Horizontal lines: Also known as scan ...
Right-clicking is a common and essential computer operation that allows users to access additional options and settings. While most desktop computers have dedicated right-click buttons on their mice, laptops often do not have these buttons due to space limitations. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on how to right-click ...
Powering up and shutting down your ASUS laptop is an essential task for any laptop user. Locating the power button can sometimes be a hassle, especially if you’re new to ASUS laptops. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on where to find the power button on different ASUS laptop ...
Dell laptops are renowned for their reliability, performance, and versatility. Whether you’re a student, a professional, or just someone who needs a reliable computing device, a Dell laptop can meet your needs. However, if you’re new to Dell laptops, you may be wondering how to get started. In this comprehensive ...
Two-thirds of the country think that “New Zealand’s economy is rigged to advantage the rich and powerful”. They also believe that “New Zealand needs a strong leader to take the country back from the rich and powerful”. These are just two of a handful of stunning new survey results released ...
In today’s digital world, screenshots have become an indispensable tool for communication and documentation. Whether you need to capture an important email, preserve a website page, or share an error message, screenshots allow you to quickly and easily preserve digital information. If you’re an Asus laptop user, there are several ...
A factory reset restores your Gateway laptop to its original factory settings, erasing all data, apps, and personalizations. This can be necessary to resolve software issues, remove viruses, or prepare your laptop for sale or transfer. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to factory reset your Gateway laptop: Method 1: ...
“You talking about me?”The neoliberal denigration of the past was nowhere more unrelenting than in its depiction of the public service. The Post Office and the Railways were held up as being both irremediably inefficient and scandalously over-manned. Playwright Roger Hall’s “Glide Time” caricatures were presented as accurate depictions of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
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More crony capitalism, this time from Nick Smith?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/7324559/Money-for-mates-claim
How has this government got any credibility with, even a small percentage, of NZ voters?
And any return to cabinet by Nick Smith looks likely to be later, not sooner.
This Government knows just one thing – that New Zealanders, in large part, give not a toss about “credibility”.
Carol
I always thought that Salmon was an out and out Greenie – opposed to National in every way ?
Am I wrong ?
He was on the National party list in 2002 (I think). Missed out narrowly because of English’ and National’s abysmal showing.
I’m sure he used to be, Fortran – I was surprised, to say the least when he turned up as a Nat candidate. I always look sideways at converts, be it politics, religion or health issues. I used to be a relatively heavy smoker but threw it away, cold turkey in 1991. I’m now extremely intolerant of any smoker and nearly always gag at the smell of cigarette smoke, but I digress. Over the last 20 odd years there has been heaps of ‘converts’ on the political stage, some these make me gag too!
Isn’t he leading the auckland Council’s report into alternative transport funding? So he can’t be a mate of Brownlee (which gives him some credibility)
Perhaps the stuff’s “story” is an underhanded way by one Nats faction to undermine the Council’s work and take a shot at Smith’s camp at the same time. The timing is too perfect.
An extraordinarily radical, and optimistic series of articles from the Financial Times.
Financial Times, 3:40pm Tuesday June 12th, 2012
[Beyond scarcity] Redefining labour
—
Izabella Kaminska
—
This is the third installment in FT Alphaville’s “Beyond Scarcity” series, a somewhat radical look at the impact of technological progress
Read the full article at: http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2012/06/12/1037001/redefining-labour
They got English on the Nation spouting the same old bullshit that I have heard every time he has opened his mouth in the last 20 years.
Which is why I’m not watching The Nation. Is he blaming Labour still, and talking about “Planet Labour”, while saying his (distorted) figures are the basis for building a brighter future?
I know I’ll just get angry and start shouting at the screen.
I understand how you might feel Carol, but just keep up your incisive comments in the comment pages, and you will be doing a most effective thing, have confidence in what you are doing for it will count in the end.
Dr Terry, I agree with your sentiment to Carol to keep posting her posts are throughtful and interesting, but the comment about it coming right in the end, is likely to be incorrect.
Something I have wondered about having been on this site among others for some time, is that there are some clever people, who seem to have common sense about them. Sure not all of us will agree on everything, nor should it be that way, but on the core components of what NZ needs to function, and for communiities to reconnect, and propser again, all of them, not just the ruling/corporate class.
What might it take for some of those people of common sense and logic to begin to work together in a way that might lead to some actual “coming right” of the political landscape?
Supporting any part of the current system is, in my opinion supporting the accellerating misery, of more and more sectors of society. As greater numbers drop off the bottom rungs, including people who thought their life was comfortable.
Until the people take back, through active political participation, not just voting or protesting, and certainly not just blogging, the coming right, was lost decades ago.
Cheers
You my man, are on the money.
1) A media organisation
2) Financing
3) The attention and support of interest groups from across the political spectrum who value a strong, independent, livable NZ.
Indeed CV, I will add to the list..
Some analysis of slim margin electorate seats, at either regional or national level, depending on where one would target.
A well thought out , delivered speech or intervention at an opportune moment, which could grab some media attention, as I feel it would only require something fleeting to “catch a break”
Behind that none the less would require some time and planning, no question, but I believe it can be done, with the right core start up.
Which interest groups would be necessary you think?
Absolutely. You apply co-ordinated pressure from the grass roots from the start, to both sitting MPs and aspiring candidates. I found this recent exchange relevant (not sure if you caught it).
http://thestandard.org.nz/an-auckland-view-on-labours-changes/comment-page-1/#comment-495717
Sure can. You will already know a few capable people who would be in. As do I. As do many here.
As for the specific interest groups. That’s a bit tricky to answer, and in reality depends on who is leading the group and the nature of their exec, as to how productive discussions might be. It would have to be a cross section of provincial/rural and city interests without doubt, however.
Undoubtedly we will know some capable people, and there are a number on this site for sure.
Can’t understand why people who put their energy into supporting failed parties. which no longer represent them, or most of this country, would not want to put that energy into trying something very different.
The way to get in, is to be able to relate to all people, know what it is thats important to them, should be the same things important to you and me, which would make it wasy enough to tap into. Representing exactly what the current system does not, would be straight forward enough, and picking a small number of key facets that one would stand for, a start for ten.
Not so much that it would require “negative campaining”, because that can always be turned into positive easily enough, just that any independents, or working in tandem, would not require a full policy set in order to appeal.
x2. I’ve learned a lot here from contributors like Carol and the informative links and analysis they provide. If I can learn new stuff, so can the hundreds of other readers. Learning makes (and is) a difference.
Muzza below, I don’t see anyone claiming things will “come right”, just that Carol’s contribution can and will “count”
edit – Muzza’s post has turned out to be above rather than below.
JS – for something to count, to me would imply that things come right, and I guess there are a couple of points I would make.
If anyone does a good deed, or gives wise information or knowledge etc, whatever it might be that is positive, or leads to a positive outcome, means that action has counted. The other side can also be that , it counted, but in a way which may not have been intended, either way all actions count in the end, its what that end, or the journey towards it becomes…
With politics still playing such big part in affecting negatively, and the media supporting in its role, in order to make it count, things have to change, they have to come right, but how will that happen?
Its a very broad query, with many possible ansers, but ultimately only a small number really matters, like people finding out what really natters in life, not just to them, but to all of us. Those things which really matter to sustain life are relatively few, we all need them, the rest is simply not necessary, the reason people are not getting what they need, greed!
DT’s comment on it counting is correct, what it might count for if we dont all inspire in some way, is the variable.
Going by those parts of the speech which were broadcast on The Nation, he seems not to have mentioned Labour at all. In fact within the limitations of the neoliberal outlook it was a reasonably sensible speech, stressing the need to reduce NZ’s high indebtedness, the “black clouds” on the horizon overseas etc.
You make Labour irrelevant by not mentioning Labour.
When I heard the Nats conference was being held at Sky City, I was overcome with joy. Finally, the nastiest criminals in NZ are off our streets for a few hours.
Which must be why the Nats needed 80 Police officers.
80 Police to stand guard inside a private commercial premises? (to keep the riffraff in?)
80 sworn Officers paid from the public purse to stand guard in Sky City ???
Is that not a job for, i don’t know, the Security Guards of Sky City? Why are NZ Police being used as security guards for a private meeting of a radical and dangerous political group that is threatening to overthrow the sovereignty of Aotearoa? Is this a good use of public funds?
It’s not like anyone ever gets got robbed or raped or hurt or runover or damaged or threatened in Auckland so i guess they were just lucky there were plenty of spare hands to help out.
(p.s. loving the new comments editor)
Exactly freedom. I had the same thought. National want to privatise everything but when it comes to shielding themselves against protests over their nasty policies they rely on our tax-payer funded Police Force. It’s par for the course for them though, they happily call other people bludgers while they themselves shove their snouts into as many troughs as they can.
That’s pretty blatant!
Kia ora koutou
Thank you to the moderators for creating a pfree zone this week – i have enjoyed it a lot and i’ve found I have much more inclination to enter debates, instead of dissipating energy on unowho – my choice of course but thanks.
i wonder about macrons. If we are going to use te reo Māori then surely macrons need to be used, even if just in the original post. Please I am not getting at anyone because I slip up as much as anyone else. For me, I cut and paste from a document into the comment. āĀ ēĒ īĪ ōŌ ūŪ. I am just raising this for discussion and i wonder what others think and i repeat i’m not getting at anyone.
I’d love to know how to make my computer do macrons. I feel guilty omitting them. In the meantime, I’ve often wondered if doubling the letter that should have a macron is equivalent, (for example Maaori)?
cut and paste is old school but it works – for instance if someone cut and pasted the letters with macrons in my comment above into a doc and then added common macroned words to that file then they have it sorted, apart from knowing what macron, and where. For that i check with the Māori dictionary where I cut and paste words into that doc. The comments area can take cut and paste direct from the doc or the dictionary – but as i say – old school but works.
http://www.maoridictionary.co.nz/
Making a file of copied macroned words, good lateral thinking.
Once in the file, I guess you can change the font etc. to match that in the text you are writing?
Bit complicated for a non-whizz like me. But if that’s how it’s done…
On a windows operating system, you can find macrons and much much more in the “character map”. Look for it in the “system tools” submenu, in the “accessories” folder on your “start” menu. I keep a link to it in the task bar.
Thanks Kotahi Tane Huna.
Wow, so many interesting things in ‘accessories’.
I’ve found the macroned letters. How do I transfer them to the text I’m writing?
Click on whichever special character you want to use, and press “select” and “copy” – then go to whatever you are typing and hold the “ctrl” (control) key down and press “v”. Alternatively right-click and choose “paste”.
Testing: Māori.
Cool. Thanks KTH and marty mars. The letter seems to just transform into the correct form and size. Learning this is long overdue.
On windows, hit [Win]+[R] then type “charmap”, the keyboard is the fastest way to do anything
That is a brilliant short-cut. For other novices, Win + R allows you to browse (and run) all your computer’s programmes, documents and folders, – instantly.
I really appreciate these sort of tips. I’ve got a notebook…
Nothing like an old fashioned command line.
Nice one. Thanks.
this site seems to convert automatically to Times New Roman the text when copied, but i haven’t checked too many fonts
Thank you to the moderators for creating a pfree zone this week
You beat me to it by a few minutes marty mars. My thoughts entirely. I find I’m now incentivised to read all the comments.
Fiddling around with some of the alt codes myself with no success, yet.
.http://usefulshortcuts.com/alt-codes
http://www.personal.psu.edu/ejp10/psu/gotunicode/macron.html
I agree, using macrons would be a good thing. Here is a resource on setting up macrons on computer keyboards and in emails.
http://kupu.maori.nz/Show.aspx?page=10
I’ve also been enjoying the PG-free week. The debate has felt quite different this week. I wonder how people are going to deal with him when he returns.
Ditto about the PG free week. I commented to Clare Curran on her Facebook page [about buying shares in Mighty River Power] and guess who sprung up with a typical comment, yep Pete George.
Just heard on the radio news that weet-bix brain Crusher Collins has told the pro-gambling skyshity brown nosers that crime in NZ always increases when there is a Labour Govt in power.
I hope one of those pokie machines malfunctions real soon and takes the roof off.
rofl at the thought!!! thanks fender
Why we need Greens in the next government: http://localbodies-bsprout.blogspot.co.nz/2012/07/save-fiordland-green-perspective.html
Here we go. Anyone care to comment on the legality of Key’s share loyalty package?
would love to but the excessive profanity would make the comment unintelligible 🙂
Something else to ignore.
http://www.desmogblog.com/black-day-july-greenland-ice-sheet?utm
Oh great. Another positive feedback kicks in much earlier than expected.
Science Bulletins: Shrinking Glaciers—A Chronology of Climate Change
Analysis of Earth’s geologic record can reveal how the climate has changed over time. Scientists in New Zealand are examining samples from the rocky landscape once dominated by glaciers. They are employing a new technique called surface exposure dating, which uses chemical analysis to determine how long minerals within rocks have been exposed to the air since the glaciers around them melted. Comparisons of this data with other climate records have revealed a link between glacial retreat and rising levels of carbon dioxide in the air, findings that are informing scientists’ understanding of global climate change today.
Interesting, it’s the high altitudes that are showing that drop while the lower altitudes track close to normal.
Thought so.
http://arstechnica.com/science/2012/07/ideology-clouds-how-we-perceive-the-temperatures/
The authors conclude that climate change has become perceived as a form of cultural affiliation for most people: their acceptance of it is mostly a way of reinforcing their ties to the political and ideological communities they belong to. And, since temperatures have become the primary thing the public associates with climate change, people now interpret the temperatures through a filter based on their affiliations, a process termed “cultural cognition.” In other words, we tend to interpret the temperatures in a way that reinforces our identity, and our connections with others who share similar political persuasions.
http://www.medialens.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=686:incinerating-assange-the-liberal-media-go-to-work&catid=25:alerts-2012&Itemid=69
June 27, 2012
Incinerating Assange – The Liberal Media Go To Work
by David Edwards
On June 19, in a final bid to avoid extradition to Sweden, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange requested asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
Credible commentators argue that Assange has good reason to fear extradition to the United States from Sweden. Ray McGovern, who was a CIA analyst for 30 years, commented: ‘Not only is Julian Assange within his rights to seek asylum, he is also in his right mind. Consider this: he was about to be sent to faux-neutral Sweden, which has a recent history of bowing to U.S. demands in dealing with those that Washington says are some kind of threat to U.S. security.’
Former US constitutional and civil rights lawyer Glenn Greenwald supplied some detail: ‘The evidence that the US seeks to prosecute and extradite Assange is substantial. There is no question that the Obama justice department has convened an active grand jury to investigate whether WikiLeaks violated the draconian Espionage Act of 1917. Key senators from President Obama’s party, including Senate intelligence committee chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, have publicly called for his prosecution under that statute. A leaked email from the security firm Stratfor – hardly a dispositive source, but still probative – indicated that a sealed indictment has already been obtained against him. Prominent American figures in both parties have demanded Assange’s lifelong imprisonment, called him a terrorist, and even advocated his assassination.’
Greenwald argued that smaller countries like Sweden are more vulnerable to American manipulation. Moreover, Sweden ‘has a disturbing history of lawlessly handing over suspects to the US. A 2006 UN ruling found Sweden in violation of the global ban on torture for helping the CIA render two suspected terrorists to Egypt, where they were brutally tortured.’
Greenwald concluded that Assange’s ‘fear of ending up in the clutches of the US is plainly rational and well-grounded’.
Michael Ratner, president emeritus of the Center for Constitutional Rights and attorney for Julian Assange and WikiLeaks, explained the risks associated with extradition to Sweden:
‘Sweden does not have bail. Now, these are on allegations of sex charges — allegations, no charges — and they’re to interrogate Julian Assange. But despite that, he would have been in prison in Sweden. At that point, our view is that there was a substantial chance that the U.S. would ask for his extradition to the United States.
‘So here you have him walking the streets in London – sure, under bail conditions – going to a jail in Sweden, where he’s in prison, almost an incommunicado prison; U.S. files extradition; he remains in prison; and the next thing that happens is whatever time it takes him to fight the extradition in Sweden, he’s taken to the United States. There’s no chance then to make political asylum application any longer. In addition, once he comes to the United States—we just hold up Bradley Manning as example one of what will happen to Julian Assange: a underground cell, essentially abuse, torture, no ability to communicate with anybody, facing certainly good chance of a life sentence, with a possibility, of course, of one of these charges being a death penalty charge…
‘So, he was in an impossible situation… This is what Julian Assange was facing: never to see the light of day again, in my view, had he gone to Sweden.’
Journalist Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers, stated:
‘Political asylum was made for cases like this. Freedom for Julian in Ecuador would serve the cause of freedom of speech and of the press worldwide. It would be good for us all; and it would be cause to honor, respect and thank Ecuador.’
In considering Assange’s plight, it is also worth considering the tremendous good he has done at extreme personal risk. Coleen Rowley, a former FBI Special Agent and Division Counsel, commented:
‘WikiLeaks’ efforts combating undue secrecy, exposing illegal cover-ups and championing transparency in government have already benefited the world. And I’m convinced, more than ever, that if that type of anti-secrecy publication had existed and enabled the proper information sharing in early 2001, it could have not only prevented the 9/11 attacks but it could have exposed the fabricating of intelligence and deceptive propaganda which enabled the Bush Administration to unjustifiably launch war on Iraq.’
Newsweek recently placed Assange first in its list of ‘digital revolutionaries’.
Consideration of the hideous suffering inflicted on Bradley Manning, who is alleged to have leaked information to WikiLeaks, should generate further concern for Assange’s plight. A UN investigation found that Manning’s pre-trial conditions of severe solitary confinement were ‘cruel, inhuman and degrading’.
As a serving US soldier, rather than a journalist, Manning was certainly more vulnerable to this type of punishment. But consider the ferocity with which US elites are pursuing Assange. A leading article in the Washington Post commented of Ecuador’s president Rafael Correa:
‘There is one potential check on Mr. Correa’s ambitions. The U.S. “empire” he professes to despise happens to grant Ecuador (which uses the dollar as its currency) special trade preferences that allow it to export many goods duty-free. A full third of Ecuadoran foreign sales ($10 billion in 2011) go to the United States, supporting some 400,000 jobs in a country of 14 million people. Those preferences come up for renewal by Congress early next year. If Mr. Correa seeks to appoint himself America’s chief Latin American enemy and Julian Assange’s protector between now and then, it’s not hard to imagine the outcome.’
On Fox News, Roger Noriega, US Ambassador to the Organization of American States from 2001-2003 and Assistant Secretary of State from 2003-2005, observed:
‘It remains to be seen whether Correa will grant Assange asylum in Ecuador. If he does, it will put his country on a collision course with Britain, Sweden, and the United States, which has spoken publicly of charging Assange with crimes for publishing classified government documents.’
‘The Most Massive Turd’ Goes To Harrods
The evidence, then, that Assange has plenty to fear is overwhelming. But not for the great and the good of liberal journalism. The Guardian’s Suzanne Moore set the tone on Twitter on June 19:
‘Seems like Assange’s supporters did not expect him to skip bail? Really? Who has this guy not let down?’
She added: ‘I bet Assange is stuffing himself full of flattened guinea pigs. He really is the most massive turd.’
Moore later complained that, after writing articles about Assange, she had suffered ‘vile abuse’. We wrote to her:
‘That’s a real shame, sorry to hear that. But how would you describe calling someone “the most massive turd”? Vile abuse?’
Moore replied: ‘no I wouldnt call that vile abuse. I mean nasty threats etc.’
She added: ‘also I would advise you to stop sounding so bloody patronising’.
Moore later commented to Deborah Orr of the Guardian and ‘Victoria Peckham’ (Janice Turner) of The Times: ‘I never met him [Assange]. Did you?’
Journalists found Assange’s predicament endlessly amusing. The Guardian’s Luke Harding commented:
‘Assange’s plight seems reminiscent of the scene in Monty Python where…..
Read more ….
http://www.medialens.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=686:incinerating-assange-the-liberal-media-go-to-work&catid=25:alerts-2012&Itemid=69
IIRC, you’ve been pulled up before about such massive copy/paste. Also, you got the format wrong disregarding all of the quotes in the stuff you did quote (the article you quoted was quoting other articles).
Really, we don’t need the full thing, just a teaser paragraph or two and your own comments on it.
IIRC, you’ve been pulled up before about such massive copy/paste.
It was actually much bigger than this one. And I wasn’t just “pulled up”, I was banned for a month.
Also, you got the format wrong disregarding all of the quotes in the stuff you did quote (the article you quoted was quoting other articles).
You mean I missed out the hyperlinks. The article still reads perfectly well without them.
Really, we don’t need the full thing, just a teaser paragraph or two and your own comments on it.
Fair comment, except in this case, there was a long first part to the article, quoting serious and intelligent commentators (Ray McGovern, Glenn Greenwald, Michael Ratner, Daniel Ellsberg, Colleen Rowley) before contrasting their rigorous arguments with the ridiculous, cynical attacks on dissent by the hounds of the Murdoch empire, the Grauniad, and the rest of the “liberal” media.
In other words, to appreciate just how atrocious and intellectually impoverished the herd behaviour of the corporate media is, some context was necessary. Those who want a context-free, unchallenging read, should read the Herald on Sunday.
Yeah, whatever dude.
Nope, I mean you fucked up the formatting and no it doesn’t. Here’s the second paragraph with it’s own quote:
Quite significantly different from how you have it. Formatting is really quite important especially when you’re quoting an article quoting others. It makes it far more readable and shows who said what.
But that’s just it – you didn’t need to quote the entire first part. One paragraph is enough.
What we really wanted was your own thoughts and comments which you didn’t supply. If I was just after a ‘read’ I’d go read a book (sci-fi or fantasy) but on the blogs I’m looking for discussion.
Quite significantly different from how you have it.
No it’s not. I missed nothing. If that article was to be reproduced in a book, it would be reproduced as I did it.
Formatting is really quite important especially when you’re quoting an article quoting others. It makes it far more readable and shows who said what.
I made it more concise, actually. You are being quite ornery and willful here, but I think you can appreciate my point perfectly well.
But that’s just it – you didn’t need to quote the entire first part. One paragraph is enough.
In this case, one paragraph was not enough. As I’ve already explained to you, the entire first part of the article was necessary, in order to establish something of the weight of intellectual and legal backing for Julian Assange. It puts into perspective just how insultingly trivial, vicious and lightweight the corporate media attack on him has been, and continues to be.
This blog isn’t a book and, considering the books I’ve read, it probably wouldn’t be done that way there either. It may have been years ago to keep costs down.
No it wasn’t. A single paragraph should suffice to get people to go and read the article you linked to.
Hey Morrisey, that’s far too much information for a Sunday evenings viewing.
Boag discovers that education in our schools isn’t as bad as her leaders would have us believe. What a shame they don’t all visit the classrooms instead of listening to phone-in radio to establish their arguments.
55 seconds into the Panel on Friday, listen to what the wind bag has to say. (leaving aside the fact that she was probably visiting Bayfield Primary School and not Bayview which is on the North Shore somewhere – can’t expect her to get it 100 pcnt right.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/afternoons/audio/2525720/the-panel-with-michelle-boag-and-brian-edwards-part-1.asx
After that brief dose of realism, however, Boag was back to her very worst for the rest of the programme, indulging in her trademark swingeing rants against democratic institutions. Her “Soapbox” contribution consisted of a denunciation of the very idea of protesting against the government. It’s “way out of proportion”, according to Boag, and what the HELL are celebrities like Lucy Lawless THINKING of?
But that’s what we expect from Michelle Boag. Far worse was to hear Brian Edwards eagerly endorsing and amplifying every single thing she said. After Boag’s condemnation of celebrity protestors, Edwards named a couple more: “We see Sue Bradford and John Minto at every single protest, whatever the issue,” he said, untruthfully.
“Rent-a-mob!” said Boag.
“Exactly!” shouted Edwards. “That’s exactly what they are! They’re a rent-a-mob!”
You know, I think all those people at the protest should now take a class action defamation suit against both of them. Bankrupt the bastards while showing that they’re amoral.
Boag (the dominant one in this case) and Edwards (her sycophant) are entitled to say what they like. The way to challenge people like them is, for a start, to ask them to back up what they say with at least some evidence.
The person whose job it was to do that was the host, Jim Mora. He failed to do his job, again.
Well, considering that the host failed in his job then the protesters need to do it and that’s where the defamation suit comes in.
…the protesters need to do it and that’s where the defamation suit comes in.
In this case, however, all Boag did was spray her customary abuse. There was nothing defamatory—unlike Dr Michael Bassett calling Nicky Hager a “holocaust denier” on Mora’s programme a few years ago.
Even on that occasion, Mora said nothing.
I would call being called rent a mob defamatory as it’s an attack upon your credibility.
I would call being called rent a mob defamatory as it’s an attack upon your credibility.
It’s patently absurd and untruthful, but it’s about as defamatory as calling someone a bastard.
Bassett’s brutal slander, on the other hand, was defamatory, not only because it was malicious and untruthful, but because he alleged that Hager had said or written something that is not only morally repellent, but possibly a cause for prosecution.
It’s the untruthful bit that makes it defamatory as some people will believe it.
Boag and Edwards truly reflect the values of the different political parties they support.
The bully and their enabler.
Astute remark
Boag and Edwards truly reflect the values of the different political parties they support.
On Friday, every single thing Edwards said was in support of the National Party. He was so desperate to earn the approbation of Michelle Boag that he even parroted the prime minister’s lie about there being “little opposition to asset sales.”
Great, blame the victims.
http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/bastard/2012/07/russell_pearce_responds_to_bis.php
“What a heart breaking story,” writes Pearce. “Had someone been prepared and armed they could have stopped this `bad’ man from most of this tragedy. He was two and three feet away from folks, I understand he had to stop and reload. Where were the men of flight 93???? Someone should have stopped this man. Someone could have stopped this man.
“Lives were lost because of a bad man, not because he had a weapon, but because noone [sic] was prepared to stop it. Had they been prepared to save their lives or lives of others, lives would have been saved. All that was needed is one Courages/Brave [sic] man prepared mentally or otherwise to stop this it could have been done.”
Arseholes.
http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/hate-group-leaders-use-colorado-massacre-to-attack-gay-people/news/2012/07/20/44108
The by stander effect or Genovese syndrome is when a group of people expect someone else to help the victim or assume that help is on the way.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bystander_effect
What I see in the latest gunman going beserk is that someone else is expected to stop the offender. Due to these awful firearm killings and woundings, research/education is required to equip people on how to react, providing this can be done with a high level of success.
This piece from The New Yorker makes me think it’s a little to late Treetop.
Battleground America.
When carrying a concealed weapon for self-defense is understood not as a failure of civil society, to be mourned, but as an act of citizenship, to be vaunted, there is little civilian life left.
outstanding line.
I will read the supplied link as I have only skimmed through it.
On World Watch this morning after 7.30 am on RNZ in Honduras someone is killed every 72 minutes; with help from the US a couple of drug lords have been killed. People in Honduras are too frightened to leave their home and there are some suburbs where you do not stop your car.
As lethal as class 1 drugs are in Honduras and that they end up in the US, guns are just as lethal in the US. I find it interesting how the US can see the damage that class 1 drugs cause, but not the damage of legally owning a firearm.
Um Treetop, the US sees how good the drug trade is around the world, because their military machine props it up, and in many cases actively participates in the trade.
By the time you throw in the arming of drug gangs in Mexico for example, and the laundering of hundreds of billions of dollars in drug cash, I reckon what you have in america, is exactly what the fa*cists which have run the place for decades, will be pretty pleased with!
America is a very sick country, and they are heading in a direction which is going to a severe impact globally, as if its administrators have not done enough damage of late!
Yep but the corruption is trans-national. Look at the stories recently about HSBC washing drug money
And then, given our lax company and tax laws we’ve now earnt the reputation as a grubby little nation too. Not to worry though, as it’s good for the PM’s mates
Good stuff joe – i wouldn’t have believed this unless i read it. Seems like the senator wanted people men to jump the gunman, while he was shooting potentially 50 to 60 rounds a minute out of that drum magazine, whether they had weapons or not.
Test post
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As a mother I cannot get my head around this abomination from dear Paula, blood still boiling. Thank God for the Standard so I can vent a little.
“We will be introducing social obligations, so they will have to enrol their child in early childhood education and get well checks at the doctor by enrolling the local PHO,” says Paula Bennett.
So if you’re on the DPB not only will you be expected to go back to work, but from next year you must fulfil these new obligations or you will be punished..
“If you have kids, then you will lose 50 percent of your benefit,” says Ms Bennett. “That’s the worst case scenario. We hope it doesn’t get to that.”
No chance of choosing to keep your child with you. Not every one is qualified at the early childhood centres, thanks to Anne Tolley, and parents who find themselves in a difficult situation i.e. suddenly alone with a very young child/children who they would do anything to protect,are being forced to hand them over to strangers ( possibly unqualified) whether they want to or not.
As a mother I would find that very hard to do. And now parents in dire straits will have to make a diabolical choice between this or starvation. Workhouse anyone?
Read more: http://www.3news.co.nz/National-outlines-welfare-reforms/tabid/1607/articleID/262127/Default.aspx#ixzz21JkYNmUj
rwnj nats need an alt. media narrative to distract from their financial crimes against nz…
Exactly! I was fortunate to have a proper pre-school just up the road *when my son was small, and I went with him for the first year… it was not a day care centre masquerading as an early childhood place, but genuinely educational. If DPB mums can actually find a place like that near them now, it’ll be a miracle.
(* The Aro Valley parents co-operative, 1987-90, I wonder if it still exists? It was lovely!)
National sees ECE centers as profit making baby farms, not institutes to stimulate young minds..
+1
Exactly, hence Paula Benefit’s new rules to make using them compulsory.
… and this comes from the woman who has been a major beneficiary of what the state has had to offer for decades and is now being paid mega-bucks (again from taxation) to lessen the chances of others getting on.
a little music, dedicated to Our Brighter Future
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukVNEwRLOUc&feature=related *
*the only future the National Party policies will deliver to New Zealand
Interesting framing from The Herald.
Can’t see that being a vote winner.
Big ups to the Maori Party over the tobacco industry. When will they start on the alcohol industry?
“Most dairies will have a roller door which comes down to cover the displays.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10821353
Apart from the thousands of hours a year in lost productivity this will cost NZ, are not the tobacco products going to be constantly and repetitively in breach of the law when the roller door is lifted for every single sale hour after hour day in day out that in a world on the brink of major War and a thousand other horrors is little more than an accommodation of pointless mindless nimby bullshit. How many new ACC cases will there be from RSI or damaged hands as these roller mechanisms are simply not designed for that sort of repitative tasking, especially the cheap stuff that will be the most commonly type installed.
At least all the holier than thou’s will be free to drive their carbon spewing barely maintained combustion engines along bitumen soaked highways arriving at the local store to select their fresh hypocrisy from aisle after aisle of wine and beer and gaze lovingly at the ever present GM tainted products filling the anti-competitively priced goods spewing from the shelves at their local supermarket before retiring to their central bank debt traps to enjoy some heartwarming vouyerism on their flatscreen guilt machine that was put together by a migrant worker whose once rich life on the land is now a mash up of drudgery and despair that keeps them one knockoff sneaker ahead of destituion.
So glad the right Honourable Tariana Turia is looking out for New Zealand, how’s that TPP coming?
Which explained why my local dairy had one today! The locums for the usual owner, did not look very happy about it, as it seemed to be very unwieldy and uncomfortable…
Excellent post, Freedom! I wonder who much the dairy owners had to pay for this unnecessary piece of nonsense? I can bet they’re unhappy about it, they’re on thin ice anyway..
I saw dairies with those decades ago – put in place along with the one on the front to stop the smash and grab. It just wasn’t operated all the time.
Couple of supermarkets I’ve been to already have the solution and have had it for years – a closed cylinder with a sliding door and an internal turnstile that the check-out person operates when someone asks for cigarettes.
feel better now Freedom?
awesome rant… which i guess may in part be due to the power of tobacco addiction
a little better locus, but it has more to do with what is actually outlined in the rant as i for one have very good control of my addiction(s) be it tobacco or Family Guy or that source of all life’s goodness, coffee 🙂 (ok I admit I have no control over coffee )
Why do people believe tobacco is an incredibly unique mass that somehow affects our world and its inhabitants independant of all other matter in the Universe? Mainly though, the real power for that rant came from the exessant hypocrisy ignorance greed and violence that is fuelling the destruction of the few vestiges of human potential left on this f’d up little planet.
Loved the woman who was protesting outside Skycity on TVNZ news to night who said many of our forefathers had come to New Zealand to get away from the inhumanity that was Victorian England, and now Nastional has almost replicated those hellish times again for us here and now – unfortunately with no Charles Dickens in sight!
http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/security-cost-conference-questioned-4979230/video
Who would have believed this could happen again?