The ultimate responsibility for the fiasco in Tirgiran lies with John Key!
In a footnote at the end of Hager and Stephenson’s book ‘Hit and Run’:
“In the case of the Tirgiran raid, it is likely Key could legitimately blame the SAS and Defence Force for not telling him everything. But he knew enough. When news stories appeared, one after another, with evidence that his decision had led to a disaster, the whole concept of accountability is that it was his duty to investigate and take action.”
Further on: “He [Key] made the decision as prime minister to let the SAS go ahead with an attack in civilian villages. He appears not to have followed up properly when news of the tragedy emerged. He has shown a lack of interest and remorse.”
Well, that’s what you can expect when you make a one-dimensional money-trader the leader of a democracy.
“Well, that’s what you can expect when you make a one-dimensional money-trader the leader of a democracy.”
I agree with you here, however the bigger question is how has Labour become so discredited, so unloved by most NZ workers and the poor that it was completely and utterly powerless to combat a gambling addict like Key on any level? and still is….
To Adrian Thornton:
I don’t think that Labour has become so discredited, so unloved by most NZ workers and the poor. Typically, we in New Zealand vote political parties out!
We are very kind people, we let a political party have-a-go and if they fuck-up, we vote them out.
Well if workers and the poor love Labour so much,as you assert, then why doesn’t that demographic vote vote for Labour in any kind of substantial numbers anymore?
We are very kind people…what the hell does that mean, all counties in the world have kind people and people who are not kind, we are no better or worse than any other, so I fail to see how that statement has any relevance to this conversation.
To Adrian Thornton:
There are still many people who like Labour ( please let’s not use the words loved and unloved). The problem is that the leaders don’t always represent their party. eg. Douglas and Prebble. There is nothing wrong with Labour as a party, the problem lies with their representatives and how they project Labour Party philosophy.
When Labour 4 started hacking into union laws and support they were badically gutting their voting base. At the time to maintain this group they needed to be developing a strategy to get similar support from the service industry which typically has lower union membership rates.
The renterfication of the U.S.
We have discussed the unrelenting trend of renter household formation for years largely because younger households are having a tougher time paying inflated prices for crap shacks. The flood of Millennials buying households just did not materialize. What did happen is that inventory remained tight, investors stepped in, foreign money hit, and a mania took place. Basically an artificially constrained market made crap shacks look attractive. Look, even old hardened bread must appear like paradise to the starving person. Still doesn’t change the fact that the bread is old and stale.
Many people including professional couple households are balking at paying ridiculous prices for dumpy old shacks just so they can say they own and “hey, now I can paint my wall magenta.”
The outgoing deputy PM is useless, she sympathised with those at the meeting but did not offer any help or solutions. No wonder she is not popular and is absent on the prefer PM polls.
Could be – but look what they are asking for. More police, cracking down on the poor, criminal classes, the (mostly brown) people who are a threat to the rest of us decent people.
There’s no desire to lift up rather than crack down, no asking of the ‘why’ questions. If that sort of voter is shifting they’re shifting to Winston, not to the social democratic left
And of course Bubbles Bennett is just terminally incompetent and spouts constant drivel. And that makes people cross too.
“The Republican Party has made its nominations this year at the dictation of those who, we all know, always place money ahead of human progress.
The Democratic Convention, as appears clear from the events of today, is divided on this fundamental issue. Until the Democratic Party through this convention makes overwhelmingly clear its stand in favor of social progress and liberalism, and shakes off all the shackles of control fastened upon it by the forces of conservatism, reaction, and appeasement, it will not continue its march of victory. ”
“It is best not to straddle ideals. ”
“I wish to give the Democratic Party the opportunity to make its historic decision clearly and without equivocation. The party must go wholly one way or wholly the other. It cannot face in both directions at the same time. “
Wayne Mapp speaks out:
“Operation Burnham
by Wayne Mapp
We can honour both our soldiers and the Afghanis, but only by finding out what really happened on that August night in 2010… though that may not require a full inquiry….
…As much as anything this explains why I agreed to be interviewed by Jon Stephenson. He has spent more time in Afghanistan than any other New Zealand journalist. As with many independent journalists reporting from war zones this has not been without controversy.
In August 2010 when Operation Burnham took place I was in Afghanistan on a visit arranged months before. I understood that the operation was among the most significant operations that New Zealand had undertaken in Afghanistan.
I had been fully briefed on the plan on the morning before it took place. Based on the briefing, and on the advice of the military professionals, I recommended that it proceed.”
Lawyers defending clients from Afghanistan spell out how the NZDF information relied upon to defend SAS actions during Operation Burnham is ‘plainly incorrect and unreliable’.
“….8. To summarise, the NZDF map relied on by the NZDF in its recent media release and media conference concerning “Operation Burnham – Area of Operation” labels three villages.
One of those villages does not exist while the other two have been incorrectly named and mis-identified by the NZDF as our clients’ villages.
It is unclear to us whether the creation of this flawed document has been the result of misunderstanding, error or otherwise.
However, it is plainly incorrect and unreliable.
It must follow that so too are the conclusions which the NZDF seeks to draw from this map, namely that they have never operated in our clients’ villages.
Indeed on our instructions, the latest NZDF statements are effectively an admission that they did so.
9. We reiterate that the villages of Naik and Khak Khuday Dad were raided by international forces on 22 August 2010, and that six civilians – non-combatants – were killed and fifteen were seriously injured.
Our clients therefore stand by their claim that no other military operations took place in the area on that date (or indeed on any other date around that time).
It follows that it is clear, for all of the reasons set out in our 2correspondence of 28 March 2017, that the NZDF’s Operation Burnham took place in our clients’ villages of Naik and Khak Khuday Dad.
10. The flawed NZDF map and its derived conclusions therefore reinforce our view that it is untenable for the NZDF to assert that Operation Burnham was a separate operation on the night of 22 August 2010 to the military operation that was carried out that same night in our clients’ villages – or indeed that no NZDF military operations occurred in relation to our clients’ villages.
11. For the sake of our clients and the New Zealand public, it is imperative that the truth of what happened during the military operation of 22 August 2010 in Tirgiran be established.
Allegations of serious human rights violations have been made against the NZDF Operation Burnham.
These must be addressed now and at the outset by way of a formal inquiry as outlined in our letter of yesterday.
12. As per our recent correspondence, we therefore repeat our request for an independent and full inquiry to commence into Operation Burnham.
13. We await your response.
Yours sincerely
McLEOD & ASSOCIATES
RICHARD McLEOD richard@mcleod.law.co.nz
Cc:
Hon. Gerry Brownlee
Minister of Defence
Parliament Buildings
Wellington 6160
New Zealand g.brownlee@ministers.govt.nz
BY FAX: (04) 817 6502
Cc:
Wayne Eagleson
Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff
Parliament Buildings
Wellington 6160
New Zealand wayne.eagleson@parliament.govt.nz“
Oh crap. More alarming statistics indicating the worsening of social health in New Zealand.
A record number of children have been taken into state care in the last year – a sign of serious underfunding as Child, Youth and Family (CYF) transitions into the new Ministry for Vulnerable Children, say the Greens.
Figures released by CYF this week, show 5453 children were placed in the custody of the chief executive in the year to December 2016. It’s a leap of more than 300 on the 5139 children that were taken out of their families the year prior.
“These figures show that we’re going the wrong way, that Child Youth and Family is having to pick up the pieces of a society that’s really struggling to get by and our children are suffering as a result,” Greens social development spokeswoman Jan Logie.
Great last paragraph Muttonbird. Expect National Party government spokespersons increasingly to resemble the screechy/vacuous cackles types constantly deployed by the Republicans on US TV panels as apologists for the incompetent lout Trump. Like making the US presidency a laughing stock. Same as casting this nation’s child horror in blaming soundbites. Gee thanks Paula. Mum, onetime Social Welfare bludger, still troughing. Piece of crap.
..Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.The Regulatory Standards Bill, as I understand it, seeks to bind parliament to a specific range of law-making.For example, it seems to ensure primacy of individual rights over that of community, environment, te Tiriti ...
Happy New Year!I had a lovely break, thanks very much for asking: friends, family, sunshine, books, podcasts, refreshing swims, barbecues, bike rides. So good to step away from the firehose for a while, to have less Trump and Seymour in your day. Who needs the Luxons in their risible PJs ...
Patrick Reynolds is deputy chair of the Auckland City Centre Advisory Panel and a director of Greater Auckland In 2003, after much argument, including the election of a Mayor in 2001 who ran on stopping it, Britomart train station in downtown Auckland opened. A mere 1km twin track terminating branch ...
For the first time in a decade, a New Zealand Prime Minister is heading to the Middle East. The trip is more than just a courtesy call. New Zealand PMs frequently change planes in Dubai en route to destinations elsewhere. But Christopher Luxon’s visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) ...
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The decade between 1952 and the early 1960s was the peak period for the style of music we now call doo wop, after which it got dissolved into soul music, girl groups, and within pop music in general. Basically, doo wop was a form of small group harmonising with a ...
The future teaches you to be aloneThe present to be afraid and coldSo if I can shoot rabbits, then I can shoot fascists…And if you tolerate thisThen your children will be nextSongwriters: James Dean Bradfield / Sean Anthony Moore / Nicholas Allen Jones.Do you remember at school, studying the rise ...
When National won the New Zealand election in 2023, one of the first to congratulate Luxon was tech-billionaire and entrepreneur extraordinaire Elon Musk.And last year, after Luxon posted a video about a trip to Malaysia, Musk came forward again to heap praise on Christopher:So it was perhaps par for the ...
Hi,Today’s Webworm features a new short film from documentary maker Giorgio Angelini. It’s about Luigi Mangione — but it’s also, really, about everything in America right now.Bear with me.Shortly after I sent out my last missive from the fires on Wednesday, one broke out a little too close to home ...
So soon just after you've goneMy senses sharpenBut it always takes so damn longBefore I feel how much my eyes have darkenedFear hangs in a plane of gun smokeDrifting in our roomSo easy to disturb, with a thought, with a whisperWith a careless memorySongwriters: Andy Taylor / John Taylor / ...
Can we trust the Trump cabinet to act in the public interest?Nine of Trump’s closest advisers are billionaires. Their total net worth is in excess of $US375b (providing there is not a share-market crash). In contrast, the total net worth of Trump’s first Cabinet was about $6b. (Joe Biden’s Cabinet ...
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Sometimes I feel like I don't have a partnerSometimes I feel like my only friendIs the city I live in, The City of AngelsLonely as I am together we crySong: Anthony Kiedis, Chad Smith, Flea, John Frusciante.A home is engulfed in flames during the Eaton fire in the Altadena area. ...
Open access notablesLarge emissions of CO2 and CH4 due to active-layer warming in Arctic tundra, Torn et al., Nature Communications:Climate warming may accelerate decomposition of Arctic soil carbon, but few controlled experiments have manipulated the entire active layer. To determine surface-atmosphere fluxes of carbon dioxide and ...
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The lie is my expenseThe scope of my desireThe Party blessed me with its futureAnd I protect it with fireI am the Nina The Pinta The Santa MariaThe noose and the rapistAnd the fields overseerThe agents of orangeThe priests of HiroshimaThe cost of my desire…Sleep now in the fireSongwriters: Brad ...
This is a re-post from the Climate BrinkGlobal surface temperatures have risen around 1.3C since the preindustrial (1850-1900) period as a result of human activity.1 However, this aggregate number masks a lot of underlying factors that contribute to global surface temperature changes over time.These include CO2, which is the primary ...
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2024 was a tough year for working Kiwis. But together we’ve been able to fight back for a just and fair New Zealand and in 2025 we need to keep standing up for what’s right and having our voices heard. That starts with our Mood of the Workforce Survey. It’s your ...
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..I/We wish to make the following comments:I oppose the Treaty Principles Bill."5. Act binds the CrownThis Act binds the Crown."How does this Act "bind the Crown" when Te Tiriti o Waitangi, which the Act refers to, has been violated by the Crown on numerous occassions, resulting in massive loss of ...
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Welcome to 2025. After wrapping up 2024, here’s a look at some of the things we can expect to see this year along with a few predictions. Council and Elections Elections One of the biggest things this year will be local body elections in October. Will Mayor Wayne Brown ...
Canadians can take a while to get angry – but when they finally do, watch out. Canada has been falling out of love with Justin Trudeau for years, and his exit has to be the least surprising news event of the New Year. On recent polling, Trudeau’s Liberal party has ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Much like 2023, many climate and energy records were broken in 2024. It was Earth’s hottest year on record by a wide margin, breaking the previous record that was set just last year by an even larger margin. Human-caused climate-warming pollution and ...
Submissions on National's racist, white supremacist Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill are due tomorrow! So today, after a good long holiday from all that bullshit, I finally got my shit together to submit on it. As I noted here, people should write their own submissions in their own ...
Ooh, baby (ooh, baby)It's making me crazy (it's making me crazy)Every time I look around (look around)Every time I look around (every time I look around)Every time I look aroundIt's in my faceSongwriters: Alan Leo Jansson / Paul Lawrence L. Fuemana.Today, I’ll be talking about rich, middle-aged men who’ve made ...
A listing of 26 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, December 29, 2024 thru Sat, January 4, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
Hi,The thing that stood out at me while shopping for Christmas presents in New Zealand was how hard it was to avoid Zuru products. Toy manufacturer Zuru is a bit like Netflix, in that it has so much data on what people want they can flood the market with so ...
And when a child is born into this worldIt has no conceptOf the tone of skin it's living inAnd there's a million voicesAnd there's a million voicesTo tell you what you should be thinkingSong by Neneh Cherry and Youssou N'Dour.The moment you see that face, you can hear her voice; ...
While we may not always have quality political leadership, a couple of recently published autobiographies indicate sometimes we strike it lucky. When ranking our prime ministers, retired professor of history Erik Olssen commented that ‘neither Holland nor Nash was especially effective as prime minister – even his private secretary thought ...
Baby, be the class clownI'll be the beauty queen in tearsIt's a new art form, showin' people how little we care (yeah)We're so happy, even when we're smilin' out of fearLet's go down to the tennis court and talk it up like, yeah (yeah)Songwriters: Joel Little / Ella Yelich O ...
Open access notables Why Misinformation Must Not Be Ignored, Ecker et al., American Psychologist:Recent academic debate has seen the emergence of the claim that misinformation is not a significant societal problem. We argue that the arguments used to support this minimizing position are flawed, particularly if interpreted (e.g., by policymakers or the public) as suggesting ...
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This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by John Wihbey. A version of this article first appeared on Yale Climate Connections on Nov. 11, 2008. (Image credits: The White House, Jonathan Cutrer / CC BY 2.0; President Jimmy Carter, Trikosko/Library of Congress; Solar dedication, Bill Fitz-Patrick / Jimmy Carter Library; Solar ...
Morena folks,We’re having a good break, recharging the batteries. Hope you’re enjoying the holiday period. I’m not feeling terribly inspired by much at the moment, I’m afraid—not from a writing point of view, anyway.So, today, we’re travelling back in time. You’ll have to imagine the wavy lines and sci-fi sound ...
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Heavy disclaimer: Alpha/beta/omega dynamics is a popular trope that’s used in a wide range of stories and my thoughts on it do not apply to all cases. I’m most familiar with it through the lens of male-focused fanfic, typically m/m but sometimes also featuring m/f and that’s the situation I’m ...
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A listing of 23 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, December 22, 2024 thru Sat, December 28, 2024. This week's roundup is the second one published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, ...
We’ll have a climate change ChristmasFrom now until foreverWarming our hearts and mindsAnd planet all togetherSpirits high and oceans higherChestnuts roast on wildfiresIf coal is on your wishlistMerry Climate Change ChristmasSong by Ian McConnellReindeer emissions are not something I’d thought about in terms of climate change. I guess some significant ...
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I can see very wellThere's a boat on the reef with a broken backAnd I can see it very wellThere's a joke and I know it very wellIt's one of those that I told you long agoTake my word I'm a madman, don't you knowSongwriters: Bernie Taupin / Elton JohnIt ...
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Don't you cry tonightI still love you, babyAnd don't you cry tonightDon't you cry tonightThere's a heaven above you, babyAnd don't you cry tonightSong: Axl Rose and Izzy Stradlin“Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so”, said possibly the greatest philosopher ever to walk this earth, Douglas Adams.We have entered the ...
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Ríu Ríu ChíuRíu Ríu Chíu is a Spanish Christmas song from the 16th Century. The traditional carol would likely have passed unnoticed by the English-speaking world had the made-for-television American band The Monkees not performed the song as part of their special Christmas show back in 1967. The show's ...
The Green Party welcomes the extension of the deadline for Treaty Principles Bill submissions but continues to call on the Government to abandon the Bill. ...
Complaints about disruptive behaviour now handled in around 13 days (down from around 60 days a year ago) 553 Section 55A notices issued by Kāinga Ora since July 2024, up from 41 issued during the same period in the previous year. Of that 553, first notices made up around 83 ...
The time it takes to process building determinations has improved significantly over the last year which means fewer delays in homes being built, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “New Zealand has a persistent shortage of houses. Making it easier and quicker for new homes to be built will ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden is pleased to announce the annual list of New Zealand’s most popular baby names for 2024. “For the second consecutive year, Noah has claimed the top spot for boys with 250 babies sharing the name, while Isla has returned to the most popular ...
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Uia te pō, rangahaua te pō, whakamāramatia mai he aha tō tango, he aha tō kāwhaki? Whitirere ki te ao, tirotiro kau au, kei hea taku rātā whakamarumaru i te au o te pakanga mo te mana motuhake? Au te pō, ngū te pō, ue hā! E te kahurangi māreikura, ...
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Every story about the Ministry of Regulation seems to be about staffing cost blow-outs. The red tape slashing Ministry needs teeth, sure, but all we seem to hear about are teething problems, says axpayers’ Union Policy and Public Affairs Manager James ...
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Summer reissue: The tide is turning on Insta-therapy. Good riddance, but actual therapy is still good and worth doing. The Spinoff needs to double the number of paying members we have to continue telling these kinds of stories. Please read our open letter and sign up to be a member ...
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The proposed Bill cuts across existing and soon-to-be-implemented frameworks, including Part 4 of the Legislation Act 2019, which is slated to come into force next year, and will make sensible improvements to regulation-making. ...
Summer reissue: For all the spectacle of WoW, Alex Casey couldn’t tear her eyes off Christopher Luxon in the front row. The Spinoff needs to double the number of paying members we have to continue telling these kinds of stories. Please read our open letter and sign up to be ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Pavlina Jasovska, Senior Lecturer in International Business & Strategy, University of Technology Sydney Multiculturalism is central to Australia’s identity, with more than half the population coming from overseas or having parents who did. Most Australians view multiculturalism positively. However, many experience ...
Treaty issues will dominate the first six months, but that’s not all, writes Stewart Sowman-Lund in the first Bulletin of 2025. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
Summer reissue: The Kim Dotcom challenge to John Key culminated in an extravaganza joining dots from the US, the UK, Russia – even North Korea. And it got very messy. Toby Manhire casts his eye back a decade.The Spinoff needs to double the number of paying members we have ...
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The ultimate responsibility for the fiasco in Tirgiran lies with John Key!
In a footnote at the end of Hager and Stephenson’s book ‘Hit and Run’:
“In the case of the Tirgiran raid, it is likely Key could legitimately blame the SAS and Defence Force for not telling him everything. But he knew enough. When news stories appeared, one after another, with evidence that his decision had led to a disaster, the whole concept of accountability is that it was his duty to investigate and take action.”
Further on: “He [Key] made the decision as prime minister to let the SAS go ahead with an attack in civilian villages. He appears not to have followed up properly when news of the tragedy emerged. He has shown a lack of interest and remorse.”
Well, that’s what you can expect when you make a one-dimensional money-trader the leader of a democracy.
“Well, that’s what you can expect when you make a one-dimensional money-trader the leader of a democracy.”
I agree with you here, however the bigger question is how has Labour become so discredited, so unloved by most NZ workers and the poor that it was completely and utterly powerless to combat a gambling addict like Key on any level? and still is….
To Adrian Thornton:
I don’t think that Labour has become so discredited, so unloved by most NZ workers and the poor. Typically, we in New Zealand vote political parties out!
We are very kind people, we let a political party have-a-go and if they fuck-up, we vote them out.
Well if workers and the poor love Labour so much,as you assert, then why doesn’t that demographic vote vote for Labour in any kind of substantial numbers anymore?
We are very kind people…what the hell does that mean, all counties in the world have kind people and people who are not kind, we are no better or worse than any other, so I fail to see how that statement has any relevance to this conversation.
To Adrian Thornton:
There are still many people who like Labour ( please let’s not use the words loved and unloved). The problem is that the leaders don’t always represent their party. eg. Douglas and Prebble. There is nothing wrong with Labour as a party, the problem lies with their representatives and how they project Labour Party philosophy.
Do you understand the underlying issues if ‘voting out’ is ‘typical’
It means the nation is without options and the those entities making up the government have become discredited in the eyes/mind of the electorate
Your comment verifies what AT actually said
NZLP is part of the problem and have little to no credibility..
Gatekeepers!
When Labour 4 started hacking into union laws and support they were badically gutting their voting base. At the time to maintain this group they needed to be developing a strategy to get similar support from the service industry which typically has lower union membership rates.
This is were we’re heading (minus the paradise part). Here is DrBubb..
http://www.doctorhousingbubble.com/renters-paradise-half-of-large-us-cities-now-renter-households/
The renterfication of the U.S.
We have discussed the unrelenting trend of renter household formation for years largely because younger households are having a tougher time paying inflated prices for crap shacks. The flood of Millennials buying households just did not materialize. What did happen is that inventory remained tight, investors stepped in, foreign money hit, and a mania took place. Basically an artificially constrained market made crap shacks look attractive. Look, even old hardened bread must appear like paradise to the starving person. Still doesn’t change the fact that the bread is old and stale.
Many people including professional couple households are balking at paying ridiculous prices for dumpy old shacks just so they can say they own and “hey, now I can paint my wall magenta.”
Sweden, despite the MSM attempt to shout down Trump is in fact a bit of a disaster.
http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/sweden-forced-to-build-heavily-fortified-police-station-in-notorious-migrant-no-go-zone_03282017
Sounds pretty terror like to me.
The deputy prime minister faced a hostile crowd, fed-up with escalating crime, when she visited Thames.”
The outgoing deputy PM is useless, she sympathised with those at the meeting but did not offer any help or solutions. No wonder she is not popular and is absent on the prefer PM polls.
Has the feeling of a change of regime in the air.
Could be – but look what they are asking for. More police, cracking down on the poor, criminal classes, the (mostly brown) people who are a threat to the rest of us decent people.
There’s no desire to lift up rather than crack down, no asking of the ‘why’ questions. If that sort of voter is shifting they’re shifting to Winston, not to the social democratic left
And of course Bubbles Bennett is just terminally incompetent and spouts constant drivel. And that makes people cross too.
@sab say what you mean about Bennett…..LOL
Here is a letter I think Andrew Little and all members and supporters of The NZ Labour Party should read and deeply consider….
Franklin D. Roosevelt Letter Criticizing Democratic Party and Declining 1940 Nomination
While of course much of the letter doesn’t relate to our political situation in NZ, some parts are sadly, very relevant.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021796184
Here is a taste of the tone of that letter,
“The Republican Party has made its nominations this year at the dictation of those who, we all know, always place money ahead of human progress.
The Democratic Convention, as appears clear from the events of today, is divided on this fundamental issue. Until the Democratic Party through this convention makes overwhelmingly clear its stand in favor of social progress and liberalism, and shakes off all the shackles of control fastened upon it by the forces of conservatism, reaction, and appeasement, it will not continue its march of victory. ”
“It is best not to straddle ideals. ”
“I wish to give the Democratic Party the opportunity to make its historic decision clearly and without equivocation. The party must go wholly one way or wholly the other. It cannot face in both directions at the same time. “
Good one Adrian.
FDR was the last good Democrat. The Party took to the Dark side after Roosevelt.
Little is more like a modern Democrat than an FDR.
Yep
Tucked safely aside on the NewstalkZB website is this little bit of news – SIS refuses to confirm or deny surveillance of NZ reporters http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/news/politics/sis-refuses-to-confirm-or-deny-surveillance-of-nz-reporters/
The silence in the media is deafening.
Why should they? They are a ‘secret service’
[maybe sarcastic … I can see two sides to the question.]
Wayne Mapp speaks out:
“Operation Burnham
by Wayne Mapp
We can honour both our soldiers and the Afghanis, but only by finding out what really happened on that August night in 2010… though that may not require a full inquiry….
…As much as anything this explains why I agreed to be interviewed by Jon Stephenson. He has spent more time in Afghanistan than any other New Zealand journalist. As with many independent journalists reporting from war zones this has not been without controversy.
In August 2010 when Operation Burnham took place I was in Afghanistan on a visit arranged months before. I understood that the operation was among the most significant operations that New Zealand had undertaken in Afghanistan.
I had been fully briefed on the plan on the morning before it took place. Based on the briefing, and on the advice of the military professionals, I recommended that it proceed.”
http://www.pundit.co.nz/node/4104
Lawyers defending clients from Afghanistan spell out how the NZDF information relied upon to defend SAS actions during Operation Burnham is ‘plainly incorrect and unreliable’.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1703/S00363/further-information-on-operation-burnham.htm
“….8. To summarise, the NZDF map relied on by the NZDF in its recent media release and media conference concerning “Operation Burnham – Area of Operation” labels three villages.
One of those villages does not exist while the other two have been incorrectly named and mis-identified by the NZDF as our clients’ villages.
It is unclear to us whether the creation of this flawed document has been the result of misunderstanding, error or otherwise.
However, it is plainly incorrect and unreliable.
It must follow that so too are the conclusions which the NZDF seeks to draw from this map, namely that they have never operated in our clients’ villages.
Indeed on our instructions, the latest NZDF statements are effectively an admission that they did so.
9. We reiterate that the villages of Naik and Khak Khuday Dad were raided by international forces on 22 August 2010, and that six civilians – non-combatants – were killed and fifteen were seriously injured.
Our clients therefore stand by their claim that no other military operations took place in the area on that date (or indeed on any other date around that time).
It follows that it is clear, for all of the reasons set out in our 2correspondence of 28 March 2017, that the NZDF’s Operation Burnham took place in our clients’ villages of Naik and Khak Khuday Dad.
10. The flawed NZDF map and its derived conclusions therefore reinforce our view that it is untenable for the NZDF to assert that Operation Burnham was a separate operation on the night of 22 August 2010 to the military operation that was carried out that same night in our clients’ villages – or indeed that no NZDF military operations occurred in relation to our clients’ villages.
11. For the sake of our clients and the New Zealand public, it is imperative that the truth of what happened during the military operation of 22 August 2010 in Tirgiran be established.
Allegations of serious human rights violations have been made against the NZDF Operation Burnham.
These must be addressed now and at the outset by way of a formal inquiry as outlined in our letter of yesterday.
12. As per our recent correspondence, we therefore repeat our request for an independent and full inquiry to commence into Operation Burnham.
13. We await your response.
Yours sincerely
McLEOD & ASSOCIATES
RICHARD McLEOD
richard@mcleod.law.co.nz
Cc:
Hon. Gerry Brownlee
Minister of Defence
Parliament Buildings
Wellington 6160
New Zealand
g.brownlee@ministers.govt.nz
BY FAX: (04) 817 6502
Cc:
Wayne Eagleson
Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff
Parliament Buildings
Wellington 6160
New Zealand
wayne.eagleson@parliament.govt.nz“
Read this?
Eyes Wide Shut: The Government’s Guilty Secrets in Afghanistan
by Jon Stephenson / 22 March, 2017
http://admin.noted.co.nz/media/5713/eyes-wide-shut.jpg
Read this?
I Could Pee on This perfectly capture the inner workings of the cat psyche.
http://www.chroniclebooks.com/titles/i-could-pee-on-this.html
Oh crap. More alarming statistics indicating the worsening of social health in New Zealand.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/90964435/record-numbers-of-children-in-the-care-of-cyf-as-govt-prepares-for-new-era-in-state-care
No doubt our resident rwnjs will explain this away as kids not choosing their parents wisely, or something.
Great last paragraph Muttonbird. Expect National Party government spokespersons increasingly to resemble the screechy/vacuous cackles types constantly deployed by the Republicans on US TV panels as apologists for the incompetent lout Trump. Like making the US presidency a laughing stock. Same as casting this nation’s child horror in blaming soundbites. Gee thanks Paula. Mum, onetime Social Welfare bludger, still troughing. Piece of crap.