Archive for July, 2014

The FBI also wanted DotCom to stay in New Zealand

Written By: - Date published: 6:25 pm, July 15th, 2014 - 38 comments

The FBI had been working with the New Zealand authorities for a year before he was arrested. They wanted to arrest him on his birthday “because it would be a big party and all the assets would be there.”A Department of Justice official revealed this to ex-Senator Dodd, chief lobbyist for the Motion Picture Association of America.  The FBI is a Justice Department agency. The “party assets” were why he had to be kept here.

NZ First conference – the kingmakers?

Written By: - Date published: 4:48 pm, July 15th, 2014 - 50 comments

It looks like I’ll be able to head to the NZ First conference at Alexandra Park racecourse on the weekend as media. This election the position of NZ First party members is probably going to be crucial for any coalition that forms. In this rather long post I explain my (and other peoples) thinking on possible coalition results for National after the election. They aren’t good because they really depend on a political group that National has been denigrating for quite a while.

Dear Greenpeace – difficult cases make bad law

Written By: - Date published: 12:06 pm, July 15th, 2014 - 55 comments

Greenpeace has been told by the Electoral Commission that its Climate Voter Website requires third party authorisation and that a cap on the amount that can be spent applies.  There is an exception in the law if the site is a “news media” site which is paradoxically the same defence Cameron Slater is running in his case against Matt Blomfield justifying his refusal to disclose who his informant is.  The sense of irony is strong here …

NRT: Election 2014: A clear choice on clean rivers

Written By: - Date published: 11:37 am, July 15th, 2014 - 6 comments

The National government’s policy for economic growth has been simple: pump up dairy production, export more low-value milk powder, and keep low-value farmers as the “backbone of the economy”. To achieve this, they have dismantled the protections for and then defiled our fresh water on an industrial scale. The Greens want to reverse that and thereby ensure a long-term future for both our farming and peoples. Updated.

Polity: Armstrong on Labour, turnout, MMP

Written By: - Date published: 11:36 am, July 15th, 2014 - 28 comments

Over the weekend John Armstrong had a column about youth voter turnout in the upcoming election. Much of the material was familiar – young people don’t vote so much – nobody talks their language, yo! – parties are Trying Very Hard, but they are also old fuddy-duddies – and so on. He then blamed much of it on a perceived trend toward centrist politics under MPP. But runs directly-if-casually contrary to at least two large research programmes in political science.

National wanted Dotcom to stay in NZ

Written By: - Date published: 8:30 am, July 15th, 2014 - 202 comments

The Herald is reporting that direct political pressure was applied on Immigration NZ to grant Kim Dotcom and his family residence in New Zealand. And the SIS tried to block the application but dropped their objection after being told there was “political pressure”.

Updated with more links

Open mike 15/07/2014

Written By: - Date published: 6:30 am, July 15th, 2014 - 142 comments

Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step up to the mike …

Polity: Judith Collins on crime

Written By: - Date published: 2:36 pm, July 14th, 2014 - 32 comments

Last week, new information became public about potential stat-juking by our Police. The practice of reclassifying crimes as “incidents” has the effect of artificially reducing the apparent crime rate. This practice occurred mainly in the Counties-Manukau police district, which operates in the electorate of then-Police Minister Judith Collins.  That is, of course, troubling on a number of levels.

Updated.

Labour Party Policy on Sexual Violence – A Closer Look

Written By: - Date published: 12:32 pm, July 14th, 2014 - 71 comments

This past week has seen both mainstream media and political blogs of all persuasions, opine with fact-free ranting on the reversal of the burden of proof in sexual offence cases.

A bit of a plea . Sexual Violence is a sensitive issue. The least that ought be done, by those releasing policy around it; the media reporting it; the bloggers opining on it; and us, the individual’s commenting on it; the least we can do is try and make sure we have our facts in order first. Please?

The Worm turns: serves the media not democracy

Written By: - Date published: 11:11 am, July 14th, 2014 - 35 comments

I am really sorry to see the return of the Worm this election.   It’s bad enough we have way more polling than we need, interfering with democratic process.  Now we have even more of the same, with the way the Worm is to be implemented. [Updated]

Palestine

Written By: - Date published: 10:17 am, July 14th, 2014 - 333 comments

Palestine in in the news again for all the wrong reasons. A one sided relentless series of Palestinian civilian deaths suggests that Israel is not acting in legitimate self defence.

Open mike 14/07/2014

Written By: - Date published: 6:57 am, July 14th, 2014 - 156 comments

Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step up to the mike …

Cops cooking crime stats

Written By: - Date published: 8:37 am, July 13th, 2014 - 45 comments

The Herald on Sunday is reporting that South Auckland police have doctored crime statistics for the area by reclassifying burglary offences as less serious offences.

Open mike 13/07/2014

Written By: - Date published: 7:33 am, July 13th, 2014 - 86 comments

Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step up to the mike …

Green Party election priorities launch

Written By: - Date published: 1:56 pm, July 12th, 2014 - 107 comments

Today the Green Party launched the first of it’s election priorities in Hamilton at 11. 00 am.  The focus is on building a cleaner, fairer, smarter New Zealand.  The Internet Party is onboard with a new environment policy.  There are differences between these 2 parties and Labour on oil and gas exploration.  Equality continues to be a key priority for the Green Party. [Updated]

National and Pasifika

Written By: - Date published: 8:30 am, July 12th, 2014 - 86 comments

National’s desire of increasing its support among Pasifika is understandable in an MMP world. But John Key’s and National’s selection of socially conservative candidates in South Auckland in an attempt to be attractive to some socially conservative voters is more than a little disingenuous.

Open mike 12/07/2014

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, July 12th, 2014 - 158 comments

Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step up to the mike …

John Oliver, the media and climate change

Written By: - Date published: 8:21 pm, July 11th, 2014 - 49 comments

If you ever wanted an entertaining, succinct, yet devastating critique of the media handling of Climate Change then John Oliver’s recent attempt from his Last Week Tonight show should be compulsory viewing.

Polity: National rejects helping the most vulnerable kids

Written By: - Date published: 11:45 am, July 11th, 2014 - 48 comments

Reposted from Polity. Here is Vernon Small this morning: The Government rejected plans to include beneficiaries in a package to help families with newborn babies, despite official advice they were the most vulnerable. Budget papers show that last November, Treasury, Inland Revenue and Social Development jointly considered ways to give more help to families after […]

Jon Stephenson vs NZDF retrial

Written By: - Date published: 11:20 am, July 11th, 2014 - 9 comments

The NZ Defense Force have been defending themselves in a defamation case against some grossly inaccurate claims that they made about reporter Jon Stephenson back in 2011 (and that John Key recklessly and foolishly chimed in on). They have been forced to concede that their claims were inaccurate. But a hung jury about how defamatory the claims were is causing it to proceeding to second trial. It looks like legal maneuvering by the NZDF has failed. My view is that the NZDF are being completely stupid about owning up to their screwup.

Polity: The ENV debate: Some more data

Written By: - Date published: 10:27 am, July 11th, 2014 - 14 comments

Rob Salmond presents the David Farrar / Steven Joyce / John Key argument that 2011 non voters are a National-leaning bunch. Then he shows that a better look at their own data undermines their claim. This matters because it helps us understand which bloc has more to gain from voter mobilization efforts in 2014.  This means the left has a lot more to gain than the right from mobilization in 2014.

Labour on digital

Written By: - Date published: 7:52 am, July 11th, 2014 - 59 comments

This morning Labour will be announcing it’s Digital Economic Upgrade (ICT policy).  “Streamed live to the world” at 8am. As a dedicated member of the programming fraternity and often aghast at the stupidity of the how the government treats the digital community, I want to hear this.

So I will live blog some of this as it goes through.

 

Open mike 11/07/2014

Written By: - Date published: 6:50 am, July 11th, 2014 - 172 comments

Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step up to the mike …

Repost: Not the war on men you’re looking for

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 pm, July 10th, 2014 - 224 comments

It’s headline news again: Labour is trying to take away men’s rights and exile you all to a desert island. If you believe David Farrar, that is.

Polity: MSD dumps on National’s “net tax” nonsense

Written By: - Date published: 3:33 pm, July 10th, 2014 - 47 comments

Rob Salmond has been looking through the newly released  Ministry of Social Development’s Household Incomes Report. It really is invaluable. 

Murray McCully must go

Written By: - Date published: 12:17 pm, July 10th, 2014 - 65 comments

Tania Billingsley’s public comments and her suggestion that Murray McCully should resign as Minister of Foreign Affairs are cogent and compelling. For his failure to look after New Zealand’s interests and for his inept handling of issues for Tania he should resign as Minister.

Tania Billingsley’s statement

Written By: - Date published: 9:16 am, July 10th, 2014 - 97 comments

Tania Billingsley has waived her right to name suppression in the case against the Malaysian diplomat accused of attempted rape – and a Minister of Foreign Affairs who wants the finger pointed at anyone but him.

She’s spoken to 3rd Degree about it, and I think she’s a big damn hero.

Open mike 10/07/2014

Written By: - Date published: 9:04 am, July 10th, 2014 - 312 comments

Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step up to the mike …

Open mike 09/07/2014

Written By: - Date published: 6:30 am, July 9th, 2014 - 22 comments

Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step up to the mike …

Clear choices in Labour’s mini-Manifesto

Written By: - Date published: 8:53 pm, July 8th, 2014 - 35 comments

Kiwi voters are going to be offered clear election choices across a wide range of policies that matter. This is clear from Labour’s mini-Manifesto, released at the weekend Congress. As promised Labour’s offerings are positive and forward-looking.  Besides education, there are policies on work, economy, schools, children, jobs, homes, environment, democracy, health, living costs and budget – put the commitments together and it’s a recipe for positive change.

NRT: So much for the surplus

Written By: - Date published: 1:21 pm, July 8th, 2014 - 40 comments

As was generally expected by anyone who’d been watching the actual economy rather than just the dairy exports, business profits are lower than expected. And there aren’t the jobs and pay increases in our “rockstar” economy. So consumer spending measured by GST is low as well. Meanwhile the price inflation keeps increasing government costs. So we are already on track for a large deficit next year rather than the government’s much-touted imaginary surplus. You have to ask why we deserve a government that appears to live more in a universe of wishful thinking than reality.