Sacha Baron Cohen on Letterman show, 15.8.09 (WARNING: It’s disgusting.)
Imagine if there’d been vacuous TV talkshows in the Third Reich…
August 15th, 2009
It’s 1942. Brave little Germany is under the terrorist threat posed by the continued existence of the Warsaw ghetto, which all thoughtful analysts, journalists and comedians agree is just a terrorist scourge that has to be eliminated. Mein host David Leitermann’s guest tonight is a zany Nazi comedian who’s fooled the desperate Jewish resistance in Poland into granting him an interview, then used this to further the Nazi state’s campaign of vilification against the Jewish resistance.
Imagine the chilling atmosphere of such an occasion. Imagine the braying of abuse, the obscene indifference to reality of the host and the murderous idiocy of the audience. Imagine laughter being elicited in the service of a totalitarian state.
Imagine something, in other words, like the following interview, which actually took place on CBS television the other day….
DAVID LETTERMAN: You interviewed a terrorist. SACHA BARON COHEN: Yeah, I interviewed a terrorist. LETTERMAN: How’d you do that? It can’t be EASY to find a terrorist! BARON COHEN: Well it’s not easy to get in touch with a terrorist. Your government has been trying to find one for the past nine years! [turns and mugs to audience, repeatedly raising eyebrows Groucho Marx-style] AUDIENCE: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! LETTERMAN: Ha ha ha ha ha! You’re right! AUDIENCE: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! BARON COHEN: To get in touch with the terrorist, I used a CIA contact. LEITERMANN:[spluttering with laughter] Bruno has a CIA contact!?!?!? AUDIENCE: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! BARON COHEN: Yes. These were really nasty terrorists, from the Al Aqsa Martyr’s Brigade, the world’s leading suicide bombers. AUDIENCE: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! LEITERMANN: Ha ha ha ha ha! Okay, now, what’s this clip we’re going to see from the movie? BARON COHEN: Here’s where I talk to the terrorist, and insult him, and he hasn’t got a CLUE what I was saying! AUDIENCE: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
[Cue clip from show] BRUNO: Here’s a tip, you guys should lose the beards. Your King Osama looks like a dirty Santa Claus! CONTEMPTIBLE ARAB FALL-GUY:[to interpreter] What’s he saying? [End of clip]
AUDIENCE: Ha ha ha ha ha!
[Hearty, sustained applause, general mirthfulness]
LETTERMAN: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! So funny, and so brave! Bruno opens this Thursday. Sacha Baron Cohen! AUDIENCE: Heil! Heil! Heil!…..
ALAN KALTER:[sotto voce] Am I the only one who’s noticed the guy’s unfunny? PAUL SHAFFER:[sotto voce] Somebody get a can of deodorant….
Was there an admission of defamation in the settlement?
I’m sure the lawyers made sure that no such admission was made. Maybe the hardline Israel shill Sacha Baron Cohen decided to part with a substantial sum of money simply as a humanitarian gesture to the Christian Palestinian peace activist group he so thoroughly derided and defamed. Or perhaps it was just another example of Baron Cohen’s brilliant “irony”.
Note how the Hollywood Reporter tries to minimize and distort the issue, turning it into a joke by running an accompanying feature called “18 of Hollywood’s Outrageous Entertainment Lawsuits”—as if it was a case about entertainment, rather than libel.
Otherwise your “found guilty” line might have taken you well within the territory of defamation, yourself.
I’ve already conceded that he wasn’t found guilty, and pointed out his humanitarian donation to the peace activist.
Now, will that be enough to stave off the lawyers?
Nope. At legal fees of hundreds or thousands of dollars an hour, settlements are often cheaper than successfully defending a suit.
In case you don’t recall your assertions, this case was supposed to be evidence that SBC was a “hardline Israel shill”. Now you can’t even prove he actually defamed anyone. And if he was factually wrong, his producers and himself might have been misled into thinking the guy was a terrorist by locals eager to pick up a commission.
You seem to have put a lot of structural load on that wee aluminium truss.
Okay, he traveled to the Occupied Territories and accidentally told lies about a Christian peace activist. He’s a moral and serious person, and it was all done for a laugh.
Not that there’s anything notable about the interview…
Really?
You don’t think there’s anything notable about someone humiliating and slandering a man for the sake of “entertainment”, and then slandering him further by repeating the lie on television?
The courts obviously were a lot less indulgent than you are.
Morrissey seems to think that calling the dude a terrorist was untrue (seems to be the case). If so it was defamation, fair enough. But the quantum leap seems to be that because the person who was apparently defamed was from the Levant, this means that SBC is a Zionist propagandist of the worst order.
And that’s assuming it wasn’t simply a frivolous lawsuit settled because it was the most cost-effective method of resolution.
But the quantum leap seems to be that because the person who was apparently defamed was from the Levant, this means that SBC is a Zionist propagandist of the worst order.
There is no “quantum leap” involved. The facts speak for themselves. In his zeal to deride, ridicule and demean the people in the Occupied Territories (not the gun-toting, violent illegal “settlers”, but the indigenous Arabs) Baron Cohen set up an interview with a Christian peace activist in Hebron and then pretended he had bravely interviewed a Muslim terrorist. I think that libeling a Christian peace activist like that is indeed propaganda of the worst sort.
…assuming it wasn’t simply a frivolous lawsuit…
I wonder if a malicious ideologue said that YOU were a terrorist and placed your life in peril like that, whether you would appreciate people laughingly speaking of your predicament as “frivolous”.
Assuming that I:
a) wasn’t a terrorist; or
b) had not misled the producers into thinking I was a terrorist so I got money;
then yes, the my lawsuit would be valid.
and if:
c) someone else had told the producers that I was a terrorist so they got a commission
then my lawsuit would be merely due to the fact that the producers hadn’t checked their informants’ bona fides.
But you have done nothing to say that b and c were false, even if I grant you that a is false. Which it almost certainly is, because terrorists aren’t known for suing for defamation.
And yeah, it’s a quantum leap to assume that one person’s being possibly defamed is indicative that SBC is a rabid Zionist propagandist.
Why don’t you just explain what you mean instead of expecting us to read your mind?
What? I’ve not only explained it exhaustively, I’ve posted a transcript* and the television clip itself.
All I saw was Cohen being interviewed about his movie. Tell me what I’m missing, if you can find the time.
I’m happy to go through it for you, and I assume you’re genuine.
You need to read the transcript. You’ll see that Sasha Baron Cohen—not pretending to be Bruno, but speaking as Sasha Baron Cohen—uses the word “terrorist” four times, and the term “suicide bombers”. He leads Letterman and the audience to believe that Abu Aita, a Christian peace activist, is a member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, and then shows a clip of himself as Bruno abusively interviewing Abu Aita, joking about “your king Osama” to the bewildered Palestinian.
There were real and serious repercussions for Abu Aita after this; not only was he libeled in front of the world, but he was suspected by the locals in the Occupied Territories of deliberately and knowingly participating in the unfunny charade.
You really should watch it, and read the transcript I provided. Then you’ll see why Sasha Baron Cohen handed over a huge amount of money to people he would otherwise see exterminated.
* Okay, okay, Te Reo, it segues (appropriately) into a Nazi rally at the end, but everything up to that is genuine.
He met Abu Aita and filmed his humiliation in Hebron, in the Occupied West Bank.
Your other fantasy, about the cunning Arab criminal masterminds duping the gullible English and Americans into thinking they were terrorists is beyond idiotic.
I was going to save this for tomorrow, but I couldn’t wait for you to open your present.
Just like all the other aliens here, regardless of who came first, this country is special.
All who wash up on these shores, or indeed, crash land to earth here, are special.
I truly believe if we unite behind what binds us rather than fight over what divides us, we can set an example and save the world from itself.
As a real al1en, to my extended kiwi family. Song six and the album’s title track @www.al1en.org
Human (R)evolution.
A particle tide, we glide and revolve and revolve and revolve.
Then gravity slides, collide and evolve and evolve and evolve.
Such a little thing, sailed the solar wind. Became the spark to a new evolution.
Such a pretty thing, could be anything. Could be the start of a new revolution.
We are home. We are arrived. We are the stardust that fell from the sky.
We are the face of this world come alive. We are the children born to survive.
The genesis tribes, divide and get old and devolve and dissolve.
Let unity bind, combine and evolve and evolve and evolve.
Such a simple thing, but it’s everything. It’s like the start of our own evolution.
Such a little thing, but we’re everything. We are the start of the Human revolution.
We are the hope. We are the light. We are the stardust caught on the tide.
We are the face of a world come undone. We are the children who sail round the sun.
We are the hope, the welcoming might. We are the stardust that blinds in night.
We are the fate of this world come undone. But we’re still the children borne from a sun.
The ninth track will go up tomorrow and is for my own and all other solo mums.
Merry xmas, Paula Bennett. 😉
Track seven is my Dr Evil song, and one I’ll send to One Direction unless the world pays me one million dollars 😆
Track eight, woke up at my desktop and it was playing. Thank you very much who or whatever.
And that’s only the half of it.
I started writing in April, and it turns out I’m as prolific as I am committed to my battle.
Just shows that with the right motivation, even al1ens can be aspirational, though I don’t think I’m what John had in mind.
James Galbraith recently said that “at the root of the crisis we find the largest financial swindle in world history”, where “counterfeit” mortgages were “laundered” by the banks.
As he has repeatedly noted, the economy will not recover until the perpetrators of the frauds which caused our current economic crisis are held accountable, so that trust can be restored. See this, this and this.
No wonder James Galbraith has said economists should move into the background, and “criminologists to the forefront.”
The bottom line is that the Departments of Justice and Treasury have it exactly backwards: by failing to prosecute criminal fraud, they are destabilizing the economy … and ensuring future crashes.
Over the years governments and the justice system have become less and less likely to prosecute banks and other white collar criminals when they breach the law. This is, of course, resulting in ever increasing amounts of such crime which is inevitably increasing the instability of the financial system.
Econoovbmists should move to the background. They are actually part of the problem. Economists deal with the question of how best to allocate resources and what system to use to do this. For most it is simpler still they believe the best system is capitalism so they then have a much narrower focus around which levers need to be pulled under capitalism to get the desired effect those running an economy is seeking.
What is instead needed is the skillset of a Business Analyst and not an Economist. A good Busiiness Analyst instead identifies the root of the problem that needs to be solved and starts from there. Another way to put this is that they identify the true and base requirement.
The root of the problem or base requirement is that we need a system to satisfy the needs and wants of human beings. The question then becomes how to we do this. Once this has been established (not a small exercise but it IS be a logical one) it can then be compared with where our current system is and what needs to change to meet the system derived from the base requirement.
Four years later, their story seems less like a tribute to upward mobility than a study of obstacles in an age of soaring economic inequality. Not one of them has a four-year degree. Only one is still studying full time, and two have crushing debts. Angelica, who left Emory owing more than $60,000, is a clerk in a Galveston furniture store.
Each showed the ability to do college work, even excel at it. But the need to earn money brought one set of strains, campus alienation brought others, and ties to boyfriends not in school added complications. With little guidance from family or school officials, college became a leap that they braved without a safety net.
The society has, quite simply, thrown away all that talent and, IMO, we’ll see such waste here in NZ as well and it’s that waste that prevents NZ from progressing as well as it should.
There is an”interesting” story doing the rounds of right wing blogs bagging Claire Curran and the Union for not handing out a hamper to someone not in the Union
What do they think unions are for, carrying the load for non members
I don’t think so!
Aye it shows the typical response by the right to the trade union movement. Of course they should share the benefits that the members have created and no way should they be forced to contribute …
The collection was organised by the union. If they didn’t want to pass on the proceeds to a scab, who can blame them? After all, passing on union benefits to non-union members is illegal in NZ under our employment law, so why shouldn’t it apply to other union activities?
“It seems” the only person claiming he’s been called a National Party supporting scab is a National Party supporter.
‘Mr Ingram said he was disappointed Mr Fenwick had contacted the Otago Daily Times instead of raising the matter with him. He did not see the list of recipients but said ”many” people who were not in the union got hampers and it was ”probably an oversight”.’
So perhaps the real headline is “Tory tells stories, other Tories listen.”
Enter the Freedom of the Press Foundation. Headed by a combination of independent media enthusiasts, journalists, and free speech activists (and in most cases, probably all of the above), the new organisation launched this past week, taking in over $100,000 before the end of its first week. While the financial blockade placed on Wikileaks initially inspired the organisation, its goals are much broader: The Foundation plans to leverage crowd power to fund a variety of journalism organisations focused on transparency. Selection will focus on organisations that do innovative work but may not receive enough public attention.
Visitors to the site choose the amount they wish to donate, and are presented with sliding bars that can be toggled to decide how much money goes to each of four organisations. In addition to Wikileaks, donors can give to MuckRock News, an organisation that helps citizens easily file Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests in the United States; The Uptake, a local journalism site focused on government transparency looking to go national; and The National Security Archive, an organisation with the lofty goal of expanding citizen access to government information.
Timm says that they plan to expand to include “a variety of innovative transparency and journalism organisations that tackle the problem of secrecy from different angles”, both in the United States and internationally.
MuckRock News has an article on the new foundation:
The just-launched Freedom of the Press Foundation has identified MuckRock as one of four news organizations that will benefit from its system of crowdsourced donations. The best-known of the four is WikiLeaks.
The foundation’s board is a who’s who of media activists, including Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, Electronic Frontier Foundation co-founder John Perry Barlow, Josh Stearns of Free Press and the journalist Glenn Greenwald, now with The Guardian.
“The Freedom of the Press Foundation can be a first step away from the edge of a cliff,” writes Dan Gillmor, author of We the Media and Mediactive. “But it needs to be recognized and used by as many people as possible, as fast as possible. And journalists, in particular, need to offer their support in every way. This is ultimately about their future, whether they recognize it or not. But it’s more fundamentally about all of us.”
continue to keep that “clit” hard karol 🙂 (well, that is a little bit n0rty i know), Hey, whatta ya gonna do? sit back and bend over forward? i been meditating on that n0rtiness today meslf: Oh Well 🙂
may have been “abuse”; may have been invited? ;): however, as i have described to a couple of pastors, sets one up for future blessings (lest we search in the Dark). no it wasn’t abuse :), (Nietzsche)
-(pastor said i was the first man he had met who came to Our Lord through Fred)
The high Court has given the Corrections Department and it’s Minister Ann Tolley a slap saying that the ban on prison inmates smoking is unlawful,
Having been challenged in the Court on the legality of the ban by an inmate of the maximum security Auckland Prison at Paremoremo it appears that the Minister has produced a ‘new’ set of regulations which She and the Corrections Department believe legitimize it’s stance as it appears that the High Court challenge to the legitimacy of the smoking ban only covered the ‘old’ set of regulations,
Obviously the inmate, (Arthur Taylor), who approached the High Court with the claim that the original regulations were not lawful can now repeat the whole process with a fair chance of having the High Court agree with Him,
Corrections this morning told RadioNZ National that should this occur the Minister will then pass legislation to overturn any Judges ruling upon the legality of the smoking ban,
A marvelous mis-use of the power of the Executive, lock up offenders in our jails and offend against them while you do so, when called to account simply retrospectively legislate your unlawful actions to be legal…
vv, LOLZ, i am not so sure about attaching the epithet ‘great’ to the pile atop my shoulders, although feel free to do so for yourself,
Incidently i know the inmate,(Arthur Taylor), quite well, and we managed to mis-spend quite a number of the years of our youth in the same institutions…
Just as an afterthought i have to wonder if the Minister of Corrections Ann Tolley came up with the ‘new’ set of regulations banning smoking in prisons after the paperwork had been filed at the High Court at Auckland challenging the legality of the original smoking ban,
If so, it would seem that Tolley has at least acted in a manner contemptuous of the High Court and more to the point has attempted to pervert the course of justice…
Just another thing to add to the list of court decisions that go against the nact govt,
‘Headline on the herald, ‘Prison smokes ban unlawful’
A judge has ruled a smoking ban is unlawful, – a victory for a career criminal
Arthur Taylor,who challenged it in court.
Corrections minister say’s it has been a great success and the govt will
change the law if it has to.
This brings me to believe that anything these happless generals bring in should
be tested in court,including their debilitating,discriminatory,oppressive welfare
changes next year,to name one.
Quote #1 “National are supported by small business people, but National’s interests are large corporate monopolies and the Party’s balancing act is to appeal to small business social morality while ignoring small business economic interests. Expect a lot more bennie bashing in 2013. ”
Quote #2 “Key’s ability to appeal to the anti-intellectualism of his supporters by dismantling the responsibilities of the Prime Ministership down to a pop culture youtube clip could come unstuck if we had a Jon Stewart type who could highlight this, sadly satire in this country is as dead as investigative journalism.”
What, over and above the cover up already put in place here!
Military bosses were told “it is important the RNZAF does not cover up” its illegal shipment of pyrotechnic canisters which endangered the lives of hundreds of passengers on an Air New Zealand flight.
Investigators found “a considerable number of larger organisational factors and preconditions” led to the safety breach. It also emerged the canisters flown to Canada were actually more dangerous than previously revealed. Neither was properly wrapped or had “safety pins” in place to stop accidental ignition, and one was damaged
“Too poor to buy electricity…” It doesn’t matter how many elements of truth you can cobble together if you’re not seeing the whole picture.
No-one is too poor to make electricity. The solutions to “third world problems” come from people in the developing world, not well-meaning citizens of the USA claiming that “the whole planet is our homeland”. Hubris much?
Ever been to a third world country? Or to somewhere without electricity….? If you had I doubt you would have made such a comment. Even though that is besidev the point. Try listening to the whole message….with an open mind, not just selecting one tiny part to focus in on, you might actually learn something OTV. Research a little on the history of US foreign policy. The overthrowing of democratically elected govts, the installation of dictators and what has happened thereafter and just ask one question – Why? The answer as with most things is to follow the money….
But just to be clear their are many many many people in the world without electricity, there are many people without things even more basic than that – try enough food and clean drinking water….. To pretty much say that if they don’t have elect ridiculous ricity it is their own fault is so beyond ridiculous it just isn’t funny. How are they supposed to get knowledge on how to create their own electricity? Perhaps you think they should use google? I’ll let you figure out the flaw there…
Now we know why the Xmas message is going out in 3D; the kill shot should be spectacular!
Just as an aside, the article reads like bs from start to finish. Big H? Really? More like the interview was conducted from the safety of Wapping and the interviewee was the hack’s typewriter.
Citing The Sun as valid source is a new low, even for you Morrissey. But at least we know have some idea of the gutters you go trawling around in to support your increasingly desperate accusations.
If your mother had been a ticking fruitcake, died in a blaze of press speculation, and you had always grown up knowing you were the spare, you might have some issues too – but only a spiteful little gimp like you with this weird obsession with famous people would be salivating at the prospect.
Merry Christmas to all who frequent TS; writers, commenters and even those who just read to to get another point-of-view. Off to Milford Sound to have Christmas with the whanau which I am looking forward to. Take care all and, if you are driving, be safe. All the best for 2013.
ahhh, before i forget to remember; locally there is some aquatic “desperation” apparently; “Desperado” (eagles shitting where they harvest) Welcome to water meterage in the “provinces”
“Americans are absolutely beside themselves, and very, very uptight.”
Was reading the Herald today, and this is full of total crap. Australia is the worst, every time I visit there I get searched. The US staff have always been polite to me, it seems that the Herald is pulling this whole article out of it’s ass. The US wouldn’t kick you out for spelling your name wrong, you would have to go out of your way to piss them off.
I ran across a recent essay from The Brothers Krynn, which attempts to map common horror monsters onto the Seven Deadly Sins: https://canadianculturecorner.substack.com/p/horror-monsters-and-vice My interest, however, is not in the meat of the piece, but rather the opening paragraph: It is an interesting fact that in recent decades, Vampires have ...
Buzz from the Beehive Transport Minister Simeon Brown dutifully issued advice to all road users to keep safe on our roads during the Easter weekend. He encouraged them to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. ...
Oliver Hartwich writes – New Zealanders recently learned about a new feature film. It will be about former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern – and taxpayers will subsidise it to the tune of NZ$800,000. Ardern had nothing personally to do with either the film or the subsidy. But her government’s ...
TL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above that was recorded yesterday afternoon above between and The Kākā’s climate correspondent : An independent review panel into the emergency response to Cyclone Gabrielle in Hawkes Bayconcluded “that ...
There are now only a few days left to give feedback on the Draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) on Land Transport 2024-34 (see our earlier post this week on GPS submission guides). As we’ve reported, the GPS is a disaster for Local Government, so we were particularly interested to hear ...
Willis has pledged to go ahead with the debt-funded tax cuts, despite growing opposition from her own supporters worried about appearing fiscally irresponsible. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for ...
Open access notables A survey of interventions to actively conserve the frozen North, van Wijngaarden et al., Climatic Change:The frozen elements of the high North are thawing as the region warms much faster than the global mean. The dangers of sea level rise due to melting glacier ice, increased ...
Bryce Edwards writes – New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure. The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On ...
In 2015, then-Prime Minister John Key announced plans for a huge ocean sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands, banning fishing and mining from 15% of Aotearoa's EEZ. It was bold, it was ambitious, and it suggested that National might actually care about the environment. Except they fucked it up: Key failed ...
1. Who has just been given the accolade New Zealander of the Year?a. The Kokakob. The Cook Strait Ferryc. Fair God. Dr Jim Salinger 2. Which of these is an affront to decent society?a. Dame Edna Everageb. Mrs Doubtfire c. Dr. Frank-N-Furterd. Brian 3. Who is Penny Simmonds?a. The aspiring actress in Big ...
New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure.The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On the face of it, the court found ...
Buzz from the Beehive Waves of rain are set to lash much of the North Island during Easter Weekend as a low-pressure system forms east of New Zealand, according to a weather forecast published in the past day or so. Niwa was warning of a “moisture-laden” long weekend, with rain expected ...
Look around us…Nicola Willis’ promises of balancing the books, of cutting spending without reducing services, and of delivering game changing tax cuts are disappearing before her eyes.Everyday we see stories of violent crime ending in horrific injuries, or worse. The cost of living worsens, whereas the PM claimed renters would ...
TL;DR: My top six news of note on the morning of Thursday, March 28 include:The Government will have to borrow between $10 billion to $15 billion more than previously expected in order to make up for a slowing economy and to pay for $14.9 billion of tax cuts, according to ...
This story by Naveena Sadasivam and Kate Yoder was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. The long-awaited jobs board for the American Climate Corps, promised early in the Biden administration, will open next month, according to details shared exclusively ...
Should landlords be able to deduct the interest on the loans they take out to bankroll their property speculation? The US Senate Budget Committee and Bloomberg News don’t think this is a good idea, for reasons set out below. Regardless, our coalition government has been burning through a ton of ...
Treasury’s first report on the economy since the change of government presents a damning indictment of Labour’s economic management. The problem for National is that it is so damning that logically, coupled with a rapidly slowing economy, Finance Minister Nicola Willis should respond to it by postponing or even cancelling ...
Budget tensions are becoming evident within the Coalition Government. Winston Peters made numerous political points in his speech to the NZF annual conference. But the attack on his own government’s fiscal policies raised issues of substance. ‘Today in the Sunday Star Times, journalist and former advisor to the Labour ...
Buzz from the Beehive The media – sure enough – have been binging on Finance Minister Nicola Willis’ release of the Budget Policy Statement and a statement headed Government announces Budget priorities This assures us – or rather, this parrots the Luxon team mantra – that the Budget “will deliver ...
The Ides of March brought me COVID followed by a bereavement. No wonder they tell you to be careful of them.I’m home now and have resumed the interrupted recuperation. Very much looking forward to getting back to regular things. Meanwhile, some thoughts…OneThis new Prime Minister guy just keeps getting more dire. ...
News that the Chinese ATP 40 cyber-hacking unit penetrated parliamentary internet networks in 2021 has renewed concerns about the PRC’s malign intentions in Aotearoa. But is the hack that significant given the length of time that has passed since its … Continue reading → ...
When Parliament passed the Intelligence and security Act in 2017, they assured us all that it was full of safeguards. Any intrusive surveillance of New Zealanders would be subject to a "triple lock", requiring the approval of the Minister and (supposedly independent) Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, as well as post-facto ...
Eric Crampton writes – Richard Harman’s Politik newsletter provides a bit of the context that ought to have been showing up in other media reports on potential reductions in public service staffing. Media has been reporting on staffing cuts on the order of about 7%. Is that ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – It’s becoming increasingly apparent that many perceive free speech to have become the preserve of the politically right wing, the religiously conservative, the libertarian fringe, the anti-trans, the anti-Māori and…. well, just fill in with whatever groups or individuals you don’t like and don’t ...
Don Brash writes – As everybody who is not blind and deaf is aware, there is a huge political preoccupation with climate change at the moment, a widespread (though by no means unanimous) belief that global temperatures are rising mainly as a result of the greenhouse gases created ...
TL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy on Wednesday, March 27 include:Chris Bishop laid out his vision for filling Aotearoa-NZ’s $100 billion infrastructure deficit in a speech yesterday, emphasising user pays and private funding, but failed to say how to achieve bipartisanship on population, public borrowing and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Former Finance Minister Grant Robertson and former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins have been conveying how unhappy they are with the tax system. Last week in his valedictory speech, Robertson called for the introduction of a wealth or capital gains tax. And this week Hipkins ...
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 ...
Buzz from the Beehive China has loomed large in Beehive considerations over the past 24 hours, largely because of that country’s mischief-making in the cyber espionage department. Two media statements emerged on that subject hard on the heels of the PM baulking at questions put to him on RNZ’s Morning ...
Chris Trotter writes – WHY IS THE NATIONAL PARTY doing so much for landlords, property developers, trucking, and construction companies, and so little for everybody who isn’t already pretty well-off? It’s as if protecting landlords’ investments and building apartments and roads now constitute the whole of National’s ...
Bryce Edwards writes – When she was campaigning to be Minister of Finance last year, Nicola Willis pledged that she would resign from the job if she failed to deliver tax cuts in her first Budget. Now, it’s that pledge, along with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s ...
Robert MacCulloch writes – The Reserve Bank has doubled staff numbers in five years to 510, with personnel costs rising to $80 million in 2023 from $32 million in 2018 – up by a whopping 150%. I guess when you print $50 billion and flood markets with liquidity, ...
The furore. In case you didn’t notice there was a controversy in the weekend involving dolphins in a little town off the South Island. Don’t panic, they haven’t declared independence and resumed whaling, this was simply a sailing event.The problem began when racing was cancelled on the opening day of ...
For 20 years or more, the case for a meaningful capital tax gains has been mulled over and analysed to death, including by the tax working group chaired by Sir Michael Cullen. More than once, the International Monetary Fund has said a CGT would be a good idea for New ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: The Public Health Communications Centre (PHCC) call for urgent preventive action and a risk assessment survey of long covid in this briefing noteLocal scoop: NZ road deaths surpass OECD rates, so why is the govt reversing safety plans? ...
This story was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. This story is part of a collaboration with Grist and WABE to demystify the Georgia Public Service Commission, the small but powerful state-elected board that makes critical decisions about everything from raising ...
This is a guest post from Robert McLachlan Global warming is accelerating; 2023 was off the charts. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. In New Zealand, transport accounts for half of all fossil fuels burnt. In the Emissions Reduction Plan, transport emissions fall 41% by 2035. As the ...
Labour productivity has been receding rapidly over the past two years, reversing a post-lockdown rise. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy as at 6:26am on Tuesday, March 26 include:Workers have been treading water in output per hour worked for 12 years, ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 2 include:Today, Parliament resumes sitting at 2pm for the second week of a two-week session. Officials for SIS and GCSB report their annual reviews in public to the Intelligence and Security Select Committee from 5.10pm.Tomorrow, ...
Faced with a barrage of criticism over the promised tax cuts from usually supportive commentators, Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday reaffirmed her intention to include them in this year’s Budget. The Government is up against it over the cuts just about every way it turns. Commentators like Fran O’Sullivan, Matthew ...
Here’s my pick of today’s substack posts as of 6:26pm on Monday, March 25: writes via his substack that Market-rate housing will make your city cheaper writes via his substack about the problems talking to double-cab ute (truck) drivers about their vehicles. today about moments of radicalisation in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Just before Christmas, Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivered something that was pitched as a mini-budget and brayed about the decisive action being taken to repair the Government books and support income tax relief in Budget 2024. In a statement headed Fiscal repair job underway. she introduced ...
My sister Belinda asked Dad yesterday what one word would describe Mum best. He said: vivacious.If you only knew her from the photos on the slideshow we've made for today,you might wonder about that, because the camera tended to lie with Mum.If ever she saw a camera pointed at her, she ...
There are two major public consultations closing in the next week, Auckland Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP), and the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS). Closing dates and times: LTP closes Thursday 28 February, at 11.59pm – a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon – note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinson’s analysis reveals that since March 2009, New Zealand has spent $158 billion more overseas than it has earned, but its NIIP has only fallen by $32 billion.Statistics New Zealand shows that receipts from overseas reinsurers have ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition? Brian Easton writes – The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could ...
Dear Nicola Willis,Right now you’ve probably got lots of competing demands coming at you. Ministers who’ve inherited quite a mess, or so you’ve told us, looking for money in the budget to improve things. I imagine that’s why they came to parliament - to make things better.You’ll have to make ...
The Local Government, Transport and Auckland Minister hasthreatened councils with intervention if they don’t merge water assets to take them off balance sheet, just as the now-repealed Three Waters plan directed. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things of note this morning for Monday, March 25 include:Simeon ...
A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.16pm on Friday, March 22: writes about New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It over at his substack. challenges the Auckland Council’s use of a 3.8 degrees of warming forecast to oppose a wave-park and data centre project ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
COMMENTARY:By Ronny Kareni Since the atrocious footage of the suffering of an indigenous Papuan man reverberates in the heart of Puncak by the brute force of Indonesia’s army in early February, shocking tactics deployed by those in power to silence critics has been unfolding. Nowhere is this more evident ...
Analysis - Nicola Willis is holding firm on tax cuts despite the economic outlook being worse than forecast and critics urging her to wait, writes Peter Wilson for The Week In Politics. ...
Opposition MPs and unions are criticising a proposal by New Zealand’s Ministry of Pacific Peoples to cut staff by 40 percent. The country’s largest trade union — The Public Service Association — says the ministry has informed staff that it is looking to shed 63 of 156 positions. Opposition MPs ...
A poem by Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook 2024 featured poet Carin Smeaton. Daughtr of the 90s when she gets promoted to usherette a baby blu eel carries her all the way up to mothership she’s hovering high she lets the underaged in to see keanu reeves she lets the only lonely ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Keith Rankin, trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand. My earlier article – Can ‘Good’ be the Greater Evil? – looked at the issue of how wars should end, and how Good versus Evil ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 AMMA by Saraid de Silva (Moa Press, $38)A stunning debut novel reviewed by Brannavan ...
From Steve Martin to Ricky Stanicky, a pick’n’mix of things worth watching and listening to this long weekend. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. If you’re at a loss for something to occupy yourself with this Easter, don’t panic: The Spinoff’s got ...
Jesus had dinner with his 12 disciples right before he died. Noted historian Madeleine Chapman finds out who really deserved to be there.First published in 2018 but let’s be honest, the subject is timeless. As you sit on your couch this Easter Sunday, eating a chocolate egg you know ...
The newly-promoted Northern League club is on a mission to return to the National League for the first time in two decades. Plenty about domestic football in New Zealand has changed in that time – but the sense that this amateur competition is not an entirely level playing field remains. ...
Comment: Every year on February 2, a dozen men in tuxedos and top hats approach the burrow of a groundhog in Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania and entice the beaver-like rodent to emerge and predict the weather. If the groundhog, named Punxsutawney Phil, sees its own shadow when it is summoned, legend ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[quiz],DIV[quiz],A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Friday 29 March appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Auckland Council has put a deadline on new weather-impacted property owners applying for categorisation as government funding looks set to run out. Councillors have voted to support a deadline of September 30 for property owners who haven’t accessed support to come forward and engage with the council’s recovery office. It ...
NONFICTION 1 BBQ Economics by Liam Dann (Penguin Random House, $40) “It’s official,” wrote Dann nine days ago in the Herald, where he works as business editor at large, “we’re in recession.” Yeah, great. He delivered the bad stats: “GDP fell 0.1 percent in the December 2023 quarter, compared with ...
By Anneke Smith, RNZ News political reporter A petition urging the New Zealand government to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people has been tabled in the House. More than 200 people gathered on Parliament’s forecourt today and they were met by MPs from Labour, the Greens and Te ...
Pacific Media Watch The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog RSF (Reporters Without Borders) has appealed for information about the “disappearance” of Palestinian journalist Bayan Abusultan. She was reportedly last seen on March 19 among people “sequestered” in this week’s raid and siege of Al Shifa hospital by Israeli troops in ...
EDITORIAL:The Jakarta Post It happens again and again; indigenous Papuans fall victim to Indonesian soldiers. This time, we have photographic evidence for the brutality, with videos on social media showing a Papuan man being tortured by a group of plainclothes men alleged to be the Indonesian Military (TNI) members. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn J. Whitaker, Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity A strange and eclectic range of activities takes place across these few weeks of the year. Some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University It’s Easter weekend, which means many of us will be kicking back with the greatest hits on repeat. But whether you’re a boomer, or an ‘80s or ’90s kid, you might be ...
RNZ Pacific Fiji’s Acting Public Prosecutor has filed an appeal against the sentences of former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama and suspended police chief Sitiveni Qiliho in their corruption case. Bainimarama was granted an absolute discharge for attempting to pervert the course of justice while Qiliho received a conditional discharge with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arosha Weerakoon, Senior Lecturer and General Dentist, School of Dentistry, The University of Queensland Casezy idea/Shutterstock How does toothpaste work? What did people use before toothpaste was invented? – Amelia, age 7, Meanjin (Brisbane) Thanks for your ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brett Hallam, Associate professor, UNSW Sydney IM Imagery/Shutterstock Solar SunShot is well named. The Australian government announced today it would plough A$1 billion into bringing back solar manufacturing to Australia, boosting energy security, swapping coal and gas jobs for those ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Dix, Research Fellow in Nutrition & Dietetics, The University of Queensland Easter is the time for chocolate. The shops are full of fantastically packaged and shiny chocolates in all shapes and sizes, making trips to the supermarket with children more challenging ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Felton, Adjunct Senior Researcher, University of South Australia Even in a stubborn cost-of-living crisis, it seems there’s one luxury most Australians won’t sacrifice – their daily cup of coffee. Coffee sales have largely remained stable, even as financial pressures have ...
Mining company Trans-Tasman Resources has unexpectedly withdrawn its application for a consent to suck the valuable metals vanadium and titanium from the Taranaki seafloor, as it apparently wagers on the Government’s new fast-track process. It had spent two-and-a-half days putting its case to the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision-making committee, at ...
Contrary to the Associate Minister of Education’s claims, analysis of Healthy School Lunches Programme - Ka Ora, Ka Ako assessments has revealed it provides excellent value for the taxpayer dollar, as a groundswell of public opposition to Government ...
Greenpeace says wannabe Taranaki seabed miner Trans-Tasman Resources is likely banking on Christopher Luxon’s fast-track process to side-step proper scrutiny of its Taranaki seabed mining proposal by bailing out of the Environmental Protection Agency hearing ...
Kiwis Against Seabed mining today slammed Australian owned would-be seabed miner Trans Tasman Resources (TTR) for abandoning its application to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to mine the seabed of the South Taranaki Bight. The company ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katie Attwell, Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences, The University of Western Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Months after COVID vaccines were introduced in 2021, governments and private organisations mandated them for various groups. Health and aged care workers were among the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Dzurak, Scientia Professor Andrew Dzurak, CEO and Founder of Diraq, UNSW Sydney Diraq For decades, the pursuit of quantum computing has struggled with the need for extremely low temperatures, mere fractions of a degree above absolute zero (0 Kelvin or ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne A national Essential poll, conducted March 20–24 from a sample of 1,150, gave the Coalition a 50–44 lead including undecided, a reversal ...
The Taxpayers’ Union has today made a formal request under the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Open Government Information () for information held about how New Zealand Members of Parliament are spending taxpayer ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Nelson, Honorary Principal Fellow, The University of Melbourne A Byzantine depiction of the Eucharist in Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv.Jacek555/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA A nasty quarrel arose in the 11th century over what kind of bread should be used in holy ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick Hesp, Professor, Flinders University Patrick Hesp In some parts of Australia, coastal dunes are retreating from the ocean at an alarming rate, as waves carve up the beach and wind blows the sand inland. But coastal communities are largely ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Heemsbergen, Senior Lecturer, Digital, Political, Media, Deakin University With an impressive 60% of the US smartphone market, Apple is undeniably big, but not a clear monopoly. Yet, years of innovation by Apple have effectively given the company its own exclusive ...
Whether you’re facing layoffs or are just an emotional junior staffer, it’s always a good idea to scout out a good crying place before you need it. It’s an incredibly hard time for Wellington. Across the city, thousands of public servants are hearing tough news about redundancies and layoffs. Government ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Miller-Jones, Professor, Curtin University Nuclear explosions on a neutron star feed its jets. Danielle Futselaar and Nathalie Degenaar, Anton Pannekoek Institute, University of Amsterdam, CC BY-SA How fast can a neutron star drive powerful jets into space? The answer, it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daryl Adair, Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Technology Sydney Earlier this week, independent MP Andrew Wilkie accused the AFL of conducting “off the books” illicit drug testing to identify players using substances of abuse, then inappropriately withdrawing them from matches ...
The Government’s announcement that it will scrap plans for a vast marine sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands is ‘shameful’ and will make it impossible for Aotearoa New Zealand to meet its international commitments, says the World Wide Fund for Nature ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland Shutterstock The federal government has bowed to pressure from the car industry, announcing it will relax proposed emissions rules for utes and vans and delay enforcement of the new standards ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Suzanne Rutland, Professor Emerita, University of Sydney In his latest book, Jewish Life in Medieval Spain, Jonathan Ray focuses on the tumult of the 14th century in Spain – a time of the plague, civil strife and war between the two largest ...
While creating a slate of world-class shows, Whakaata Māori also developed a generation of world-class creatives. Television is an odd word. It mixes the Ancient Greek and Latin languages, and its most literal meaning is “far-off sight”. In the contemporary and living language of te reo Māori, “whakaata” as a ...
Yesterday the UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza. This significant step and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza prompted an urgent debate in the New Zealand Parliament. Leader ...
The Government’s decision to reduce access to continuous glucose monitors (CGM) not only threatens the lives of children with type 1 diabetes and increases the potential for ‘Dead in Bed’ syndrome, but also threatens the health of their parents an ...
Apples are available year-round, but the wide variety on offer involves intensive scientific research – and large-scale commercialisation. What’s beautiful, red, sweet and crunchy? Tony Martin’s favourite kind of apple: Sassy. The CEO of apple and pear breeding organisation Prevar, Martin’s fondness for Sassy represents professional success as well as ...
Family violence specialist service Shine is calling on employers to stop asking for proof of domestic violence in order for employees to access domestic violence leave. The call comes five years after the introduction of the Domestic Violence ...
The Deputy Chairperson of the Finance and Expenditure Committee is calling for public submissions on the Budget Policy Statement 2024. The Budget Policy Statement 2024 (BPS) sets out the Government's priorities for the 2024 Budget. It explains the approach ...
Brutal government spending cuts that will see the size of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples slashed by 40% will hit Pasifika communities hard, the PSA says. The Ministry has told staff that it is seeking voluntary redundancies, and to redeploy and reassign ...
I live with five people I mostly love, but our different ideas about generosity are starting to really irk me.Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,This is a bit of a random one but here goes. I’m 22 and work an OK job (OK meaning I get paid ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Maria Nicholas, Senior Lecturer in Language and Literacy Education, Deakin University Earlier this month, the New South Wales government announced it would roll out programs for gifted students in every public school in the state. This comes amid concerns gifted school ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Rudge, Law lecturer, University of Sydney Massachusetts General Hospital In a world first, we heard last week that US surgeons had transplanted a kidney from a gene-edited pig into a living human. News reports said the procedure was a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Tombs, Howard Paterson Chair of Theology and Public Issues, University of Otago The 5th-century Maskell panel showing Jesus in a loincloth.British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA When Jesus is shown on the cross, he is almost always depicted wearing a loincloth around ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University Shutterstock When you think about a red object, you might picture a red carpet, or the massive ruby in the Queen’s crown. Indeed, Western monarchies and marketing from brands such ...
COMMENTARY:Jewish Voice for Peace The UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza on Monday — and for the first time since the beginning of the Israeli military’s genocide of Palestinians, the United States abstained rather than vetoing it. Security Council resolutions are legally binding, ...
Asia Pacific Report A New Zealand investigative journalist and author says the US spy system hosted by the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) appears to be a controversial intelligence system used in global capture-kill operations. Writing a commentary for RNZ News today, Nicky Hager, author of Secret Power, a 1996 ...
While Nicola Willis wouldn’t give any details on its size, she said a package of tax cuts is definitely still coming in this year’s budget, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming the investigation into the Department of Internal Affairs after it was revealed that the Department’s Chief Executive personally reached out to expedite a DJs passport application. Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns ...
Finance minister Nicola Willis delivers her first budget statement, and unwittingly helps Joel MacManus save his relationship. Nicola Willis strode into the Beehive Theatrette. Around me, on the green foldout seats, were the country’s top business and political journalists. They were all here to see her announce the Budget Policy ...
Twenty years ago today, Māori Television launched after much controversy. Jamie Tahana looks back on its survival and impact across two decades. Chad Chambers stepped onto the stage, the brim of his cap casting a shadow across his face. His smile beamed as bright as his white freezing works gumboots, ...
Tauranga, Rotorua, Wellsford, Onehunga, Westhaven marina – Gavin Strawhan walks the meanish streets of New Zealand in his entertaining debut novel The Call, almost sure to roar into the number 1 position on the Nielsen bestseller chart, its front cover bearing a rave from somebody: “A really good and genuinely ...
On a Thursday in February, at Wellington’s Conservation House, the Conservation Authority, a statutory body advising the eponymous department and minister, Tama Potaka, opened its 195th meeting. Under consideration that afternoon was an agenda item written by Tim Bamford, chief advisor in the Department of Conservation’s biodiversity, heritage and visitors ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[quiz],DIV[quiz],A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Thursday 28 March appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Sacha Baron Cohen on Letterman show, 15.8.09 (WARNING: It’s disgusting.)
Imagine if there’d been vacuous TV talkshows in the Third Reich…
August 15th, 2009
It’s 1942. Brave little Germany is under the terrorist threat posed by the continued existence of the Warsaw ghetto, which all thoughtful analysts, journalists and comedians agree is just a terrorist scourge that has to be eliminated. Mein host David Leitermann’s guest tonight is a zany Nazi comedian who’s fooled the desperate Jewish resistance in Poland into granting him an interview, then used this to further the Nazi state’s campaign of vilification against the Jewish resistance.
Imagine the chilling atmosphere of such an occasion. Imagine the braying of abuse, the obscene indifference to reality of the host and the murderous idiocy of the audience. Imagine laughter being elicited in the service of a totalitarian state.
Imagine something, in other words, like the following interview, which actually took place on CBS television the other day….
DAVID LETTERMAN: You interviewed a terrorist.
SACHA BARON COHEN: Yeah, I interviewed a terrorist.
LETTERMAN: How’d you do that? It can’t be EASY to find a terrorist!
BARON COHEN: Well it’s not easy to get in touch with a terrorist. Your government has been trying to find one for the past nine years! [turns and mugs to audience, repeatedly raising eyebrows Groucho Marx-style]
AUDIENCE: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
LETTERMAN: Ha ha ha ha ha! You’re right!
AUDIENCE: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
BARON COHEN: To get in touch with the terrorist, I used a CIA contact.
LEITERMANN: [spluttering with laughter] Bruno has a CIA contact!?!?!?
AUDIENCE: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
BARON COHEN: Yes. These were really nasty terrorists, from the Al Aqsa Martyr’s Brigade, the world’s leading suicide bombers.
AUDIENCE: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
LEITERMANN: Ha ha ha ha ha! Okay, now, what’s this clip we’re going to see from the movie?
BARON COHEN: Here’s where I talk to the terrorist, and insult him, and he hasn’t got a CLUE what I was saying!
AUDIENCE: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
[Cue clip from show]
BRUNO: Here’s a tip, you guys should lose the beards. Your King Osama looks like a dirty Santa Claus!
CONTEMPTIBLE ARAB FALL-GUY: [to interpreter] What’s he saying?
[End of clip]
AUDIENCE: Ha ha ha ha ha!
[Hearty, sustained applause, general mirthfulness]
LETTERMAN: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! So funny, and so brave! Bruno opens this Thursday. Sacha Baron Cohen!
AUDIENCE: Heil! Heil! Heil!…..
ALAN KALTER: [sotto voce] Am I the only one who’s noticed the guy’s unfunny?
PAUL SHAFFER: [sotto voce] Somebody get a can of deodorant….
———————————————————————————
Get into the spirit and dutifully laugh along with Letterman and his Pavlovian audience…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2GAwn7Xc0Q
You do, I hope, understand that SBC is in character. Yes?
You need to look at the video of the Letterman show. He was telling the lie as Sacha Baron Cohen. That’s why he was found guilty of libel.
really? “found guilty of libel”?
Normally these cases are settled with no judgement. Got any eviden- lol for a moment I forgot whom I was asking.
Sorry, you’re correct, McFliper. The slanderers settled out of court.
Was there an admission of defamation in the settlement? Links please.
Otherwise your “found guilty” line might have taken you well within the territory of defamation, yourself.
Was there an admission of defamation in the settlement?
I’m sure the lawyers made sure that no such admission was made. Maybe the hardline Israel shill Sacha Baron Cohen decided to part with a substantial sum of money simply as a humanitarian gesture to the Christian Palestinian peace activist group he so thoroughly derided and defamed. Or perhaps it was just another example of Baron Cohen’s brilliant “irony”.
Links please.
There you go…
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/david-letterman-sacha-baron-cohen-bruno-lawsuit–352162
Note how the Hollywood Reporter tries to minimize and distort the issue, turning it into a joke by running an accompanying feature called “18 of Hollywood’s Outrageous Entertainment Lawsuits”—as if it was a case about entertainment, rather than libel.
Otherwise your “found guilty” line might have taken you well within the territory of defamation, yourself.
I’ve already conceded that he wasn’t found guilty, and pointed out his humanitarian donation to the peace activist.
Now, will that be enough to stave off the lawyers?
Nope. At legal fees of hundreds or thousands of dollars an hour, settlements are often cheaper than successfully defending a suit.
In case you don’t recall your assertions, this case was supposed to be evidence that SBC was a “hardline Israel shill”. Now you can’t even prove he actually defamed anyone. And if he was factually wrong, his producers and himself might have been misled into thinking the guy was a terrorist by locals eager to pick up a commission.
You seem to have put a lot of structural load on that wee aluminium truss.
Okay, he traveled to the Occupied Territories and accidentally told lies about a Christian peace activist. He’s a moral and serious person, and it was all done for a laugh.
Have it your way.
No, that’s equally dumb. But because SBC probably made a dickish move it doesn’t mean that he’s a tool of Mossad’s propaganda wing, does it?
Oh, and didn’t he travel to Lebanon?
Nope, just as himself. Not that there’s anything notable about the interview, mind.
Not that there’s anything notable about the interview…
Really?
You don’t think there’s anything notable about someone humiliating and slandering a man for the sake of “entertainment”, and then slandering him further by repeating the lie on television?
The courts obviously were a lot less indulgent than you are.
Where’s the humiliation and slander? Are we watching the same video?
You are either drunk or stupid.
Why don’t you just explain what you mean instead of expecting us to read your mind?
All I saw was Cohen being interviewed about his movie. Tell me what I’m missing, if you can find the time.
Morrissey seems to think that calling the dude a terrorist was untrue (seems to be the case). If so it was defamation, fair enough. But the quantum leap seems to be that because the person who was apparently defamed was from the Levant, this means that SBC is a Zionist propagandist of the worst order.
And that’s assuming it wasn’t simply a frivolous lawsuit settled because it was the most cost-effective method of resolution.
Ah. And here’s me thinking he’s a particularly clever master of disguise when all along he was just a reptilian shape-shifter.
Cheated.
But the quantum leap seems to be that because the person who was apparently defamed was from the Levant, this means that SBC is a Zionist propagandist of the worst order.
There is no “quantum leap” involved. The facts speak for themselves. In his zeal to deride, ridicule and demean the people in the Occupied Territories (not the gun-toting, violent illegal “settlers”, but the indigenous Arabs) Baron Cohen set up an interview with a Christian peace activist in Hebron and then pretended he had bravely interviewed a Muslim terrorist. I think that libeling a Christian peace activist like that is indeed propaganda of the worst sort.
…assuming it wasn’t simply a frivolous lawsuit…
I wonder if a malicious ideologue said that YOU were a terrorist and placed your life in peril like that, whether you would appreciate people laughingly speaking of your predicament as “frivolous”.
Assuming that I:
a) wasn’t a terrorist; or
b) had not misled the producers into thinking I was a terrorist so I got money;
then yes, the my lawsuit would be valid.
and if:
c) someone else had told the producers that I was a terrorist so they got a commission
then my lawsuit would be merely due to the fact that the producers hadn’t checked their informants’ bona fides.
But you have done nothing to say that b and c were false, even if I grant you that a is false. Which it almost certainly is, because terrorists aren’t known for suing for defamation.
And yeah, it’s a quantum leap to assume that one person’s being possibly defamed is indicative that SBC is a rabid Zionist propagandist.
Why don’t you just explain what you mean instead of expecting us to read your mind?
What? I’ve not only explained it exhaustively, I’ve posted a transcript* and the television clip itself.
All I saw was Cohen being interviewed about his movie. Tell me what I’m missing, if you can find the time.
I’m happy to go through it for you, and I assume you’re genuine.
You need to read the transcript. You’ll see that Sasha Baron Cohen—not pretending to be Bruno, but speaking as Sasha Baron Cohen—uses the word “terrorist” four times, and the term “suicide bombers”. He leads Letterman and the audience to believe that Abu Aita, a Christian peace activist, is a member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, and then shows a clip of himself as Bruno abusively interviewing Abu Aita, joking about “your king Osama” to the bewildered Palestinian.
There were real and serious repercussions for Abu Aita after this; not only was he libeled in front of the world, but he was suspected by the locals in the Occupied Territories of deliberately and knowingly participating in the unfunny charade.
You really should watch it, and read the transcript I provided. Then you’ll see why Sasha Baron Cohen handed over a huge amount of money to people he would otherwise see exterminated.
* Okay, okay, Te Reo, it segues (appropriately) into a Nazi rally at the end, but everything up to that is genuine.
Morrissey, what was so hard about explaining that? None of that information was in the video, the transcript, or your comments until this one.
Not a fucking mind reader mate.
Morrissey, what was so hard about explaining that? None of that information was in the video, the transcript, or your comments until this one.
Not a fucking mind reader mate.
I hope it was of some help.
I’m sorry about calling you “drunk or stupid”; you know I didn’t mean it.
No worries, I’ve been called worse and often deserved it 😉
Merry Christmas.
Oh, and didn’t he travel to Lebanon?
He met Abu Aita and filmed his humiliation in Hebron, in the Occupied West Bank.
Your other fantasy, about the cunning Arab criminal masterminds duping the gullible English and Americans into thinking they were terrorists is beyond idiotic.
fair enough. I thought he said Beirut in the letterman clip, but what the hey.
And a merry Christmas to you and yours, McFliper.
I was going to save this for tomorrow, but I couldn’t wait for you to open your present.
Just like all the other aliens here, regardless of who came first, this country is special.
All who wash up on these shores, or indeed, crash land to earth here, are special.
I truly believe if we unite behind what binds us rather than fight over what divides us, we can set an example and save the world from itself.
As a real al1en, to my extended kiwi family. Song six and the album’s title track @www.al1en.org
Human (R)evolution.
A particle tide, we glide and revolve and revolve and revolve.
Then gravity slides, collide and evolve and evolve and evolve.
Such a little thing, sailed the solar wind. Became the spark to a new evolution.
Such a pretty thing, could be anything. Could be the start of a new revolution.
We are home. We are arrived. We are the stardust that fell from the sky.
We are the face of this world come alive. We are the children born to survive.
The genesis tribes, divide and get old and devolve and dissolve.
Let unity bind, combine and evolve and evolve and evolve.
Such a simple thing, but it’s everything. It’s like the start of our own evolution.
Such a little thing, but we’re everything. We are the start of the Human revolution.
We are the hope. We are the light. We are the stardust caught on the tide.
We are the face of a world come undone. We are the children who sail round the sun.
We are the hope, the welcoming might. We are the stardust that blinds in night.
We are the fate of this world come undone. But we’re still the children borne from a sun.
That’s why I always shine.
This.
Like! (now come and slice the cheese) 🙂
Thank you.
The ninth track will go up tomorrow and is for my own and all other solo mums.
Merry xmas, Paula Bennett. 😉
Track seven is my Dr Evil song, and one I’ll send to One Direction unless the world pays me one million dollars 😆
Track eight, woke up at my desktop and it was playing. Thank you very much who or whatever.
And that’s only the half of it.
I started writing in April, and it turns out I’m as prolific as I am committed to my battle.
Just shows that with the right motivation, even al1ens can be aspirational, though I don’t think I’m what John had in mind.
lovely 🙂
The Lie that Prosecuting Bank Fraud Will Destabilize the Economy Is What Is REALLY Destroying the Economy
Over the years governments and the justice system have become less and less likely to prosecute banks and other white collar criminals when they breach the law. This is, of course, resulting in ever increasing amounts of such crime which is inevitably increasing the instability of the financial system.
Yes, it appears that Too Big to Fail has now become Too Big to Jail. An unaccountable financial aristocracy.
Econoovbmists should move to the background. They are actually part of the problem. Economists deal with the question of how best to allocate resources and what system to use to do this. For most it is simpler still they believe the best system is capitalism so they then have a much narrower focus around which levers need to be pulled under capitalism to get the desired effect those running an economy is seeking.
What is instead needed is the skillset of a Business Analyst and not an Economist. A good Busiiness Analyst instead identifies the root of the problem that needs to be solved and starts from there. Another way to put this is that they identify the true and base requirement.
The root of the problem or base requirement is that we need a system to satisfy the needs and wants of human beings. The question then becomes how to we do this. Once this has been established (not a small exercise but it IS be a logical one) it can then be compared with where our current system is and what needs to change to meet the system derived from the base requirement.
For Poor, Leap to College Often Ends in a Hard Fall
Although it’s about upward social mobility and how it pretty much doesn’t exist any more I think the crucial point that it makes is this bit:
The society has, quite simply, thrown away all that talent and, IMO, we’ll see such waste here in NZ as well and it’s that waste that prevents NZ from progressing as well as it should.
There is an”interesting” story doing the rounds of right wing blogs bagging Claire Curran and the Union for not handing out a hamper to someone not in the Union
What do they think unions are for, carrying the load for non members
I don’t think so!
Aye it shows the typical response by the right to the trade union movement. Of course they should share the benefits that the members have created and no way should they be forced to contribute …
Really? It seems the hampers were donated by the public for those made redundant…
The collection was organised by the union. If they didn’t want to pass on the proceeds to a scab, who can blame them? After all, passing on union benefits to non-union members is illegal in NZ under our employment law, so why shouldn’t it apply to other union activities?
“It seems” the only person claiming he’s been called a National Party supporting scab is a National Party supporter.
‘Mr Ingram said he was disappointed Mr Fenwick had contacted the Otago Daily Times instead of raising the matter with him. He did not see the list of recipients but said ”many” people who were not in the union got hampers and it was ”probably an oversight”.’
So perhaps the real headline is “Tory tells stories, other Tories listen.”
In the light of the ways wikileaks was starved of funding, a new Freedom of the Press Foundation has been launched:
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/12/20121222155259710309.html
MuckRock News has an article on the new foundation:
http://www.niemanlab.org/2012/12/for-muckrock-com-the-new-freedom-of-the-press-association-will-mean-more-muck-more-rocks/
Thanks for posting that – its great to see things starting to change for the better.
continue to keep that “clit” hard karol 🙂 (well, that is a little bit n0rty i know), Hey, whatta ya gonna do? sit back and bend over forward? i been meditating on that n0rtiness today meslf: Oh Well 🙂
may have been “abuse”; may have been invited? ;): however, as i have described to a couple of pastors, sets one up for future blessings (lest we search in the Dark). no it wasn’t abuse :), (Nietzsche)
-(pastor said i was the first man he had met who came to Our Lord through Fred)
The high Court has given the Corrections Department and it’s Minister Ann Tolley a slap saying that the ban on prison inmates smoking is unlawful,
Having been challenged in the Court on the legality of the ban by an inmate of the maximum security Auckland Prison at Paremoremo it appears that the Minister has produced a ‘new’ set of regulations which She and the Corrections Department believe legitimize it’s stance as it appears that the High Court challenge to the legitimacy of the smoking ban only covered the ‘old’ set of regulations,
Obviously the inmate, (Arthur Taylor), who approached the High Court with the claim that the original regulations were not lawful can now repeat the whole process with a fair chance of having the High Court agree with Him,
Corrections this morning told RadioNZ National that should this occur the Minister will then pass legislation to overturn any Judges ruling upon the legality of the smoking ban,
A marvelous mis-use of the power of the Executive, lock up offenders in our jails and offend against them while you do so, when called to account simply retrospectively legislate your unlawful actions to be legal…
@Bad12,Lol, It also looks like great minds think alike,they were posted at the same time 🙂
Nacts are the ‘cowboy warriors’ of NZ politics.
vv, LOLZ, i am not so sure about attaching the epithet ‘great’ to the pile atop my shoulders, although feel free to do so for yourself,
Incidently i know the inmate,(Arthur Taylor), quite well, and we managed to mis-spend quite a number of the years of our youth in the same institutions…
thats the “Right” for ya;
while i think of it, reform is not viable; we are back to the big R(evolution).
just keep sowing them seeds pa’
This government has only one policy toward the unfortunate, and that is “punish and punish again”, just as much as possible.
Just as an afterthought i have to wonder if the Minister of Corrections Ann Tolley came up with the ‘new’ set of regulations banning smoking in prisons after the paperwork had been filed at the High Court at Auckland challenging the legality of the original smoking ban,
If so, it would seem that Tolley has at least acted in a manner contemptuous of the High Court and more to the point has attempted to pervert the course of justice…
Just another thing to add to the list of court decisions that go against the nact govt,
‘Headline on the herald, ‘Prison smokes ban unlawful’
A judge has ruled a smoking ban is unlawful, – a victory for a career criminal
Arthur Taylor,who challenged it in court.
Corrections minister say’s it has been a great success and the govt will
change the law if it has to.
This brings me to believe that anything these happless generals bring in should
be tested in court,including their debilitating,discriminatory,oppressive welfare
changes next year,to name one.
Snap !!!…
Quote #1 “National are supported by small business people, but National’s interests are large corporate monopolies and the Party’s balancing act is to appeal to small business social morality while ignoring small business economic interests. Expect a lot more bennie bashing in 2013. ”
Quote #2 “Key’s ability to appeal to the anti-intellectualism of his supporters by dismantling the responsibilities of the Prime Ministership down to a pop culture youtube clip could come unstuck if we had a Jon Stewart type who could highlight this, sadly satire in this country is as dead as investigative journalism.”
http://tumeke.blogspot.co.nz/2012/12/tumeke-political-review-2012-2013.html
Scott Yorke, please get onto #2
Military warned : No cover-ups
What, over and above the cover up already put in place here!
What a bloody shambles!
A big part of what is wrong with the world
http://www.trueactivist.com/gab_gallery/economic-hitmen-how-it-is-done/
“Too poor to buy electricity…” It doesn’t matter how many elements of truth you can cobble together if you’re not seeing the whole picture.
No-one is too poor to make electricity. The solutions to “third world problems” come from people in the developing world, not well-meaning citizens of the USA claiming that “the whole planet is our homeland”. Hubris much?
Ever been to a third world country? Or to somewhere without electricity….? If you had I doubt you would have made such a comment. Even though that is besidev the point. Try listening to the whole message….with an open mind, not just selecting one tiny part to focus in on, you might actually learn something OTV. Research a little on the history of US foreign policy. The overthrowing of democratically elected govts, the installation of dictators and what has happened thereafter and just ask one question – Why? The answer as with most things is to follow the money….
But just to be clear their are many many many people in the world without electricity, there are many people without things even more basic than that – try enough food and clean drinking water….. To pretty much say that if they don’t have elect ridiculous ricity it is their own fault is so beyond ridiculous it just isn’t funny. How are they supposed to get knowledge on how to create their own electricity? Perhaps you think they should use google? I’ll let you figure out the flaw there…
Perhaps you should take a look at the book instead. You could read it and then make up your own mind.
http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/product-reviews/0452287081/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1
It’s been a big year for Prince Hal
Drinking, snorting coke, cavorting with prostitutes and now….
And now he’s killed a peasant…
Wonder if the Queen will incorporate this splendid news into her speech tomorrow…
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4711647/prince-harry-kills-first-taliban-chief.html
Now we know why the Xmas message is going out in 3D; the kill shot should be spectacular!
Just as an aside, the article reads like bs from start to finish. Big H? Really? More like the interview was conducted from the safety of Wapping and the interviewee was the hack’s typewriter.
+1
Have to agree with TRP – This article like so much of the *news* is totally staged BS!
Maybe he’s an “embedded journalist.”
With his or her tongue firmly embedded in Rupert Murdoch’s nether regions?
Don’t make jokes like that, Te Reo—Populuxe1 is lurking.
Why don’t they just call him Lieutenant Kijé and have done with it?
Citing The Sun as valid source is a new low, even for you Morrissey. But at least we know have some idea of the gutters you go trawling around in to support your increasingly desperate accusations.
Good Lord!
Talk about terminally bewildered.
If your mother had been a ticking fruitcake, died in a blaze of press speculation, and you had always grown up knowing you were the spare, you might have some issues too – but only a spiteful little gimp like you with this weird obsession with famous people would be salivating at the prospect.
Good Lord, you sound like a Sun four-page feature spread yourself!
I don’t mean to upset you, my friend.
I wish you a merry Christmas.
Merry Christmas to all who frequent TS; writers, commenters and even those who just read to to get another point-of-view. Off to Milford Sound to have Christmas with the whanau which I am looking forward to. Take care all and, if you are driving, be safe. All the best for 2013.
Blessings and a very merry Christmas to all!
Do they even know it’s Xmas Time?!
SANTA IS COMING…
Meanwhile, at ground level in Afghanistan….
http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/breaking-news/us-soldier-pleads-guilty-to-urinating-on-afghan-bodies/story-e6freoo6-1226542198975
here is a seed that fell my way this morning;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinmonopolet
much more to share, yet i better go and collect my thoughts.
-“Silver Springs” (i shall be back)
Hebrews 1:2
1:7
Proverbs 10-
Hebrews 2:1,6,8,10,11,12,17,18.
-John (may God Bless you all tomorrow)
(crush that over some ice this season Judith as you watch the carnage unfold)
btw, Excellent work Mark. Story!!! (sooner you replace that colonialist clown the better) 🙂
ahhh, before i forget to remember; locally there is some aquatic “desperation” apparently; “Desperado” (eagles shitting where they harvest) Welcome to water meterage in the “provinces”
-why don’t you come to your senses?
“Americans are absolutely beside themselves, and very, very uptight.”
Was reading the Herald today, and this is full of total crap. Australia is the worst, every time I visit there I get searched. The US staff have always been polite to me, it seems that the Herald is pulling this whole article out of it’s ass. The US wouldn’t kick you out for spelling your name wrong, you would have to go out of your way to piss them off.