Angry sadsack still at it

Written By: - Date published: 3:00 pm, September 7th, 2009 - 27 comments
Categories: local government, scoundrels - Tags:

Michael Laws: get on with your job and stop prancing around on the media stage.

Laws has put out a second (yes, a second) press release justifying being rude to some schoolkids who wrote to him. Apparently, Laws can think of no better use of his time and of Whanganui ratepayers’ dollars than continuing to beat up on some Maori kids who had a nerve to tell him they thought he was wrong.

This whole ‘issue’ is a stupid waste of time and public money. The whole ‘h’ in Whanganui issue is stupid and Laws is entirely responsible for building it up into a national issue. It’s just a piece of racist dogwhistling (like the gang patches ban) that Laws has used to tap into the deep vein of bigotry that runs through Pakeha New Zealand to win himself votes. He made himself the poster-boy for angry impotent middle-aged Pakeha men who take their anger out on Maori, rather than the wealthy Pakeha business elite who are really the ones holding them down.

Laws has the nerve and the appalling taste to write “Not one of the 16 kiddies murdered since the passage of the anti-smacking bill has received this sort of press”. If he really cared about child abuse he would be devoting his council’s resources to the issue, rather than using it as the Michael Laws promotion vehicle.

Honestly, what a dick

27 comments on “Angry sadsack still at it ”

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  1. the sprout 1
    7 September 2009 at 3:27 pm

    really does speak volumes about just how unfit for the job Laws is

    • vidiot 1.1
      7 September 2009 at 3:39 pm

      Yes – with attitudes like that he should be the Childrens Commissioner !

      The H is a non-issue, the continued abuse of kids isn’t.

    • Lew 1.2
      7 September 2009 at 4:03 pm

      Sprout, the trouble is that (as Zet says) this sort of shit-stirring is the job.

      Qualifications to be Mayor of Wanganui:

      1. Get more votes than any other candidate.

      Unfortunately, due to the general damfoolishness of a large hunk (though by no means all) of the Wanganui population, Laws is uniquely suited to the task.

      I went on about this obliquely at some length here and in a much more brief and direct fashion here, if you’re short a few hours’ dull Monday afternoon reading ; )

      L

      • the sprout 1.2.1
        7 September 2009 at 4:45 pm

        good comments Lew, I fear you may be entirely correct in your observations.
        in which case, the good folk of WHanganui need to be forced to be free 😉

  2. lukas 2
    7 September 2009 at 3:40 pm

    Whilst not excusing the remarks made by Laws, your attacking of him here is off the mark on a couple of points.

    From memory he does not draw a salary from his job as Mayor of Wanganui so saying that this is a waste of ratepayers money is not entirely accurate.

    I agree the “h” in Wanganui issue is a beat up. It should be left to the people of Wanganui to decide and since 80% of them what the status quo, it should remain as such.

    “If he really cared about child abuse he would be devoting his council’s resources to the issue, rather than using it as the Michael Laws promotion vehicle.”

    That is a bit of a strange statement. That would be like me saying “If Zetetic really cared about child abuse he would be devoting his time at the standard to the issue, rather than using it as a New Zealand sucks campaign vehicle”

    I think Michael was wrong in the way he handled the letters of the kids, and should be reprimanded for it.

    • snoozer 2.1
      7 September 2009 at 4:02 pm

      but he’s publishing these press releases as mayor so there’s some council resource involved – presumably a media person plus the website etc.

      Zetty isn’t the one putting out press releases using child abuse as a distraction. Laws is behaving disgracefully.

      • Tigger 2.1.1
        7 September 2009 at 4:09 pm

        Why isn’t he drawing a salary? He’s doing a job – why not get paid and if he wants to give the money away – do so. It also strikes me as a great way to divest yourself of responsibility – you’re not paying me, I volunteer my time ergo I can spout off all types of tripe without impunity.

        P.S. If he’s not getting a salary how can he pay for all that eyeliner he’s using. He looks like a damn panda with all that makeup on. Surely radio doesn’t pay that well these days…

        • lukas 2.1.1.1
          7 September 2009 at 4:16 pm

          radio pays very well… Leighton Smith is on over $500 an hour.

          • Lew 2.1.1.1.1
            7 September 2009 at 4:23 pm

            lukas, correction:

            Radio pays very poorly, but being a blowhard demagogue who uses well-documented mass arousal techniques to distract people from their real problems, make them focus on today’s enemy of choice, and listen to advertising while doing so pays very well.

            Not quite so pithy, I know, but pithiness is secondary to accuracy.

            L

            captcha: ‘intelligences’. You can haz!

            • lukas 2.1.1.1.1.1
              7 September 2009 at 4:37 pm

              You wont get an argument from me on that 😀

              One only has to listen to Willie Jackson to prove that point!

              It may also explain the advertisement running on Live at the moment about Radio Live having less advertising than ZB… probably because not many people listen to Live!

        • Rex Widerstrom 2.1.1.2
          7 September 2009 at 5:29 pm

          He draws the salary but claims to give it all away. Last time I looked… which admittedly was a few years back… he was giving it to things like a “Mayoral Mile” which, surprise surprise, placed the focus where he always wants it to be — on Michael Laws.

          He repeatedly refused requests to divulge the causes to which he donates the salary, saying it’s his salary and thus none of anyone’s business. Which it isn’t — unless you try to win votes and support by claiming you give it all away… a nice little circular argument if ever there was.

          Let’s face it, this is a man who’d leverage his own child’s tragic illness into a double page spread in some Woman’s Daze article.

          His entire reason for having the mayoralty is to provide a shred of credibility to his self-aggrandisement by providing a firmer platform from which to rant.

          After all, “Wanganui Mayor Michael Laws…” sounds so much better on a press release than “Disgraced former MP and remaindered author Michael Laws…”.

        • The Voice of Reason 2.1.1.3
          7 September 2009 at 5:36 pm

          Couple of good questions there, Tigger.

          He makes enough from his media work to sustain himself without needing the mayoral salary. While that actually makes him a part-time mayor he is able to garner votes by being ‘cheaper’ than any potential opponent. It’s kind of smug, wealthier than thou stuff. The Monty Burns school of political entitlement. But the money still gets wasted on endless self promotion via the council, all paid out of the public coffers. Lose/lose.

          The eyeliner is supposedly tattooed in, so at least there is no further cost there.

  3. willaspish 3
    7 September 2009 at 3:59 pm

    Is nothing sacred?
    It’s bad enough I have to share a country with this f*cking moron, now his ugly mug is appearing in the international press…
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/sep/07/maverick-mayors

  4. ak 4
    7 September 2009 at 4:45 pm

    Weasel in bantam’s clothing

    what’s it like, little stoat

    ripping out a fledgling’s throat

    do her screams soothe the hole

    that once contained a soul

    and do the chooks in your wee roost

    give your tiny heart a boost

    as they cackle at your feet

    when you slash again the weak

    or do your eyes, brother stoat

    and your white-skull scowl

    gleaming bright through the cloak

    of that gaudy little fowl

    reveal the tortured ghoul inside

    that mascara cannot hide

    sleep well brother stoat

    in your filthy bantam coat

    may you wake as a louse

    in the anus of a mouse

    • greenfly 4.1
      7 September 2009 at 7:39 pm

      ak – pardon my ignorance but… is that original? If so, it’s incandescently good! If you’ve borrowed it, your choice was superb. Until I hear otherwise, I’ll believe it’s yours and be consumed by envy.

      • Marty G 4.1.1
        8 September 2009 at 12:56 am

        it is brilliant. some day when the standard is rich and famous, ak can be our poet in residence.

        • ak 4.1.1.1
          8 September 2009 at 10:41 am

          aww shucks, thanks fellas….glad you like my little slanging rhymes, try it for yourselves – great catharsis!

  5. richgraham 5
    7 September 2009 at 5:13 pm

    Democracy – that damned word again.
    Mr Laws was re-elected as Mayor – so he does represent a majority.
    He initiated the referendum on the naming of his town to local voters – they voted to leave it as Wanganui.
    Damn this Democracy – why does it return results we don’t agree with !
    It looks as if most of the voting population of Wanganui are “angry impotent middle-aged Pakeha men ” – why don’t they vote the way we want them to ? it’s not fair ! it’s not fair !
    I love the “deep vein of bigotry ” as a description for the majority of the voters there – wow ! such respect man !

    • So Bored 5.1
      7 September 2009 at 6:48 pm

      How right you are, democracy can suck. Lots of little “sad sacks” get to be elected by equally sad constituancies. Remember Muldoon, very amusing fellow, genuinely elected by a sad sack electorate and like Laws a bigoted sad sack.

      I was in Wanganui recently, I did not notice any deep vein of bigotry from the middle aged Pakehas, and the Mob looked positively well behaved compared to the boy racer louts. Still once the patches are out of town Laws will need another target. How very boring.

  6. Tim Ellis 6
    7 September 2009 at 6:16 pm

    There is something vaguely ironic in the title post about an “angry sadsack” that has a category of “f*ckwits”.

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