TUMEKE!

Congratulations TVNZ7

2009-11-24T08:04:00.001+13:00

Well done TVNZ7 for an amazing show last night. After such an inglorious start with the Bill English promo farce, Beyond The Recession was brilliant and intelligent television, congratulations to Corin Dann who hosted this brilliantly and allowed so many informed voices discuss the challenges facing the NZ economy.

Housing, capital gains tax, the reality of a w recession, all were thoughtfully discussed like adults and it was fascinating.

Don Braid of Mainfreight had some really good ideas, John Whitehead from Treasury had some interesting things to say on property tax. Geoff Ross and Pauline Kingi from TPK were highlights as was Helen Kelly from the CTU. Robert Reid from NDU was fired up about the dollar. Interestingly it was the Banker David Green from ANZ who was the most nervous (what does he know that he wasn’t saying?). Poor Anna Stretton came across like she would eat her first born.

It was so refreshing to see adults discussing important issues of the day. As things get much worse economically, we will need to have many more of these debates.

It was public broadcasting at it’s best, well done TVNZ7.

Israeli settlers attack Palestinian children

2009-11-23T12:53:00.002+13:00

School Run Security For West Bank Children
Military protection for Palestinian children on their way to and from school has been ordered by the Israeli Knesset after attacks by settlers near the settlement of Ma'on and outpost of Havat Ma'on. But Palestinians say their children are still in danger. The soldiers do not always turn up and they only escort the children some of the way, leaving them exposed to the risk of further attacks.

Those whacky Israeli settlers, attacking Palestinian children on the way to school ON LAND THE SETTLERS STOLE. I wonder why so many find this behaviour unacceptable after a brutal 4 decade long occupation that has turned Gaza and the West Bank into the largest open aired prisons on the planet.

There can’t be peace until there is justice and the Israeli’s are forced to leave land they have stolen.

National to enter urgency (again) to pass flawed ETS as a pathetic response to climate change

2009-11-23T12:41:00.000+13:00

I know some poor liddle NZers are sick of being told they are destroying the planet and that the usual quack climate deniers are waving a bunch of leaked emails as proof that man made climate change isn’t real while National are ramming through under ANOTHER misuse of urgency an ETS that will subsidize their corporate chums big pollution till when the Artic Pole is predicted to be ice free – I know all that, yet still the evidence comes that erratic climate change caused by man made pollution as predicted in the climate change models is increasingly impacting upon us…

World's largest ice sheet melting faster than expected
The world's largest ice sheet has started to melt along its coastal fringes, raising fears that global sea levels will rise faster than scientists expected. The East Antarctic ice sheet, which makes up three-quarters of the continent's 14,000 sq km, is losing around 57bn tonnes of ice a year into surrounding waters, according to a satellite survey of the region.
Scientists had thought the ice sheet was reasonably stable, but measurements taken from Nasa's gravity recovery and climate experiment (Grace) show that it started to lose ice steadily from 2006. The measurements suggest the polar continent could soon contribute more to global sea level rises than Greenland, which is shedding more than 250bn tonnes of ice a year, adding 0.7mm to annual sea level rises. Satellite data from the whole of Antarctica show the region is now losing around 190bn tonnes of ice a year. Uncertainties in the measurements mean the true ice loss could be between 113bn and 267bn tonnes.

And it goes on…

Worst UK floods in a 1000 years
THE worst rains "in 1000 years" have turned streets in the United Kingdom and Ireland into rivers, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of homes in dozens of towns. In Cumbria, bridges collapsed and main streets lay more than two metres under water as 314.4mm of rain fell in 24 hours.

…all the while Kiwibloogh and Ian Wishart continue to pretend global warming isn’t happening because of man made pollution and Kiwibloogh continues to run propaganda lines for the climate denial circus despite what the scientists have to say…

Weather to get more extreme, say scientists
Weather forecast for 2100: more rain in winter and spring for the West Coast and Southland, getting drier for those in the east and north. Sea levels higher than average. Scientists gave an update yesterday on the state of the climate ahead of next month's world negotiations in Copenhagen at which countries will decide how much to curb greenhouse gas pollution by from 2012. Scientists believe some global warming is inevitable even if emissions were halted today - meaning an increase in westerly wind flows over New Zealand bringing more rain to the west and south.

…and pretending that NZ is only a small player in emissions is a lie…

Nasa: Methane effect worse than thought
Climate change specialists say New Zealand would face environmental challenges if the danger of methane gas is revised. Photo / Supplied New Zealand may be making a bigger contribution to global warming than scientists thought. A Nasa study says climate scientists have underestimated by 20 to 40 per cent how much methane warms the planet - even though it is already believed to be 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

…while our Australian neighbors face their own climate change meltdown and mass coastal erosion…

Soaring temperatures threaten another crisis
CANBERRA - Spring across the southeast of Australia has become a furnace, breaking records with heatwaves scorching Melbourne and Adelaide and turning vast tracts of bush and farmland into tinder.

…the fact is climate change from man made pollution is now out of control and fast becoming a run away event. Capitalism has a problem, I’m not talking about the inherent injustice of a few having all the money or the slavish ideological worship of the free market or even the IMF and worldbank genocide of poor people they commit every day with policies that promote Western mega corporations and their ability to dump heavily subsidized mass produced food on countries thus destroying the local markets – oh no, I’m talking about it’s impact on the environment. The reality is that the filth we pump into our planet has an impact on that planets health, a truth that the right wing desperately want to cover up.

We have had to put up with oil funded skeptics claiming the entire global warming idea is a hoax created by Greenpeace to make money for tree huggers for too long. The reality is that our pollution created by an unsustainable consumer greed capitalism is killing the planet and we push the environment to its very edges of being able to sustain our civilization with our denial of this fact. Right now we have a climate change denial Government in power, led by a man who initially didn’t believe in global warming supported by a political party that claim C02 is a misunderstood nutrient and that a 2 degree rise in temperatures would be “beneficial” for NZ, who took this position after climate change denier Alan Gibbs donated $100 000 to ACT. In their first week in power, nACTional have destroyed the Emission Trading Scheme and they embarrassingly set up a select committee to examine the 'science' behind global warming to provide pollution Industry funded quack science with a platform.

This isn’t a debate about science because the science has been ‘settled’ in the same way evolution science has been ‘settled’, this is a culture war. Those in denial will not accept that their lifestyle is part of the problem and their ego’s are so inflated that to admit ‘tree huggers’ (a group they despise as much as their mythical ‘nanny state’ bullshit) are right and they are wrong would be such a devaluation of their status driven personalities that they fight with the venom of vanity. Would Paul Henry or any of his ilk ever admit they were wrong? We know the answer to that. They’re petty denial should be viewed with the contempt it deserves and their role in the debate should be as marginalized as much as one would marginalize someone trying to argue the planet is only 5000 years old at an evolution conference.

How will we explain all of this to the next generation? That we didn’t know? How will we explain the way we ignored the warning signs? We didn’t see this…

Iceberg 'halfway to Australia'
A large iceberg has been spotted off an island about halfway between Antarctica and Australia, a rare sight in waters so far north. Australian Antarctic Division researchers working on Macquarie Island, about 1500km southeast of Tasmania, first saw the iceberg last Thursday about 8km off the northwest coast of the island. The iceberg, about 50m high and 500m long, is probably part of one of several larger icebergs that broke off Antarctica's Ross Ice Shelf between 2000 and 2002, Australian Antarctic Division glaciologist Neal Young said. Several icebergs have been drifting slowly northward with the ocean current toward the island over the past year, but it is uncommon for them to move so far into warmer northern waters, he said.

…chunks of fucking Antarctica are floating past us folks. This bullshit response by the Government to subsidize big polluters is not a solution, it’s a greenwash sell out.

If you are not angry, you haven't been paying attention.

Aucklanders get shafted by National’s new boundaries

2009-11-23T11:06:00.001+13:00

You have to hand it to National, after annexing the entire city via a misuse of urgency, after killing off Maori representation, after hand appointing Rodney Hide’s mates to run the transition team, National now get a dream run by setting the boundaries to favour their white rich provincial voting base.

As Labour’s Auckland Issues spokesperson Phil Twyford points out…

“For example, the changes would give Rodney residents a third more voting power than a central Auckland resident, which is clearly unjust. And a vote in Waitakere is worth almost 3/4 of one Hibiscus-Albany-East Coast Bays vote.

“Labour will strongly oppose the current structure and is urging all Aucklanders to make submissions in favour of fairer ward boundaries.

“I’m also concerned the proposal for eight two-councillor wards will further disenfranchise some voters, especially in particularly diverse communities.

“In the Orakei/Maungakiekie ward there are extremely wealthy communities and others with entrenched poverty. Labour’s concern is that the voices of the more vulnerable might be shut out of local democracy as a result – and that smaller single-councillor wards would help counter this,” Phil Twyford says.

“The Government’s decision to restrict the number of councillors to 20 for a population of 1.4 million does, of course, lie at the heart of all these representation problems,

How is that change feeling Auckland? Rodney gets a third more voting power than central city Aucklanders? WTF?

You’ve been had Auckland.

March for democracy threat to be taken to other cities? LMAO

2009-11-23T10:53:00.003+13:00

Anti-smacking march may move to other cities
The organisers of an Auckland protest against the anti-smacking legislation are threatening to take their march to other cities, but say their next step will be determined by Prime Minister John Key.

LMAO – Oh god if you were Colin Craig’s accountant you’d be contemplating suicide wouldn’t you? After blowing $450 000 and promising 45 000 protestors on an ego wank of a march trying to sell a narrow social agenda as broad based in a fight for democracy, Colin’s march only attracted 2000 people!

WHERE WERE THE OTHER 43 000 PROTESTORS?

Where were they? And now he’s threatening to take it to other cities? LMAO, knock yourself out buddy, the law isn’t going to get changed, you are not marching for democracy, you obviously don’t understand what a non-binding referendum is and if you really have all this cash to blow and you really are concerned with child abuse donate the money to Women’s refuge.

“Threatening to take it to other cities” – hilarious.

Auckland Central just got interesting

2009-11-23T10:36:00.003+13:00

Young gun targets city seat
A political battle is set to play out in Auckland Central, with Parliament's two youngest members, Jacinda Ardern and Nikki Kaye, contesting the seat. Ms Ardern has confirmed she is putting her name forward to be Labour's candidate in 2011, meaning the high-profile race will start almost two years before the election. Ms Kaye won the seat for National for the first time at the last election, and Labour is desperate to get it back. The two women are both 29, but Ms Ardern is younger by a few months.

The battle for Auckland Central just got interesting, I hosted the interview between Kaye and Tizard last time and the interview clearly signaled a changing of the generation guard, Arden will give Kaye a run for her money, but Kaye is a very strong candidate.

Creeping police state

2009-11-23T10:18:00.005+13:00

Police join forces in booze crackdown
Police are piggy-backing on an Australian sting and will be using covert methods to nab violent drunks in a two-day operation. But they have laid out exactly when they are going to swoop, and what they are going to do to catch out-of-control drinkers. The move is as much to raise awareness about the problems associated with alcohol, estimated to cost Kiwis $5.3 billion a year, as to get offenders behind bars. Police in Australia and New Zealand announced the crackdown, codenamed Operation Unite, yesterday. Thousands of extra police officers will be deployed in main centres in both countries on December 11 and 12. The operation will involve using CCTV footage and random breath-testing to catch offenders.

I’m sorry, random stop and search powers? If you are behind the wheel of a car, we all get that the Police have the power to stop you and test you, but just wandering around on foot? Stop and Search powers and no outcry because it’s aimed at drunk youth?

This is a trend that is developing with the Police to try and push their luck and haven’t we seen a spate of that occur with their new powers?

I thought it was sweet that the Police were quick to point out they bugged the immigrant parents of a dead baby to get their conviction (that way you won’t be concerned with the new surveillance powers they are trying to quietly gain) and the new asset seizure powers during ‘Operation Cobra’

…won’t concern anyone because it’s aimed at filthy dirty drug people who are probably gang members and of course no right to silence even if you are a defence lawyer like Chris Comeskey.

Oh and how about those instant punishment powers the Police are set to get alongside ludicrous drug driving powers (that the Drug Foundation rolled over for) and the taking of your DNA for mere suspicion.

Don’t worry NZ, the Police state is aimed at immigrant baby killers, gang members, drunk stoned youth and defence lawyers so we don’t need to worry or demand checks and balances over our perfect Police force.

Drunk, unruly police punished
Police officers have turned up to work drunk, sped unnecessarily in police cars, and while off duty have unlawfully used their police ID, and been charged with assault. Information released to The Dominion Post under the Official Information Act reveals that 51 officers have been disciplined so far this year. Twenty were stood down while being investigated and 17 faced criminal charges.

Oh and let’s remind ourselves, why drug driving is bullshit?

Okay, here’s the drill, the Police will be able to take your blood by force to test you for drugs, here’s the problem.

1: The test is completely subjective, only the most naive police cheerleader or Greg O’Conner would pretend that the Police won’t abuse this subjective power. If you think I’m wrong, get up from your computer right now and do the heel toe, heel toe walk. You will be surprised by how hard that walk actually is, that’s one of the ;subjective tests’. When you are breathalyzed the machine makes an objective scientific decision on your impairment, but under this test some cop decides if you have passed or not. We all know it won’t be the rich white guy in his rich white car that will get asked to do the test, we all know who the bloody cops will be dragging out onto the street to fail this subjective bullshit drift net law.

2: Okay so you’ve failed this bullshit subjective test that the cop man decides if you pass or not, so what now? The Police can forcibly take your blood, so what happens then? Because there is no ‘impairment’ level for marijuana, and because THC can stay in your system for months, a joint you smoked last week will turn up in these tests, meaning you will fail the test EVEN THOUGH you are not under the influence of weed. This is not about impairment, this then becomes a tool to arrest people based on THC levels in their blood which could be days or weeks old. See how that doesn’t work? It’s about impairment right, not what’s in your system that’s not impairing your driving ability.

(here’s the come back, you’ll love it)

“But weed is illegal and you shouldn’t be smoking it anyway” – AHA! See it’s not about impairment, it’s about arresting people for having a joint out of sight of the state and getting punished for it. Just what our overcrowded prison nation needs, more people thrown in prison for smoking a joint and getting caught with THC in your system even if that THC hasn’t impaired your driving abilities which is the original excuse to take your blood in the first place.

Remember – this ill thought out bullshit was rammed through with zero oversight and zero public scrutiny, thanks to National abusing Parliamentary process again.

Why is the new evidential threshold changes so bad?

Why is everyone cheering the removal of sacrosanct legal powers that protect the individual? Where the hell are the anonymous right wing on line mafia SCREAMING about the attacks on property rights?

Let me slowly explain for my fellow sheep what’s actually happening. The State when it faces off against an individual HAS to do so within certain powers, the evidential threshold for example is ‘BEYOND REASONABLE DOUBT’ – let’s just say those 3 words again to force that point…

BEYOND

REASONABLE

DOUBT

…everyone got that? These new sweeping unprecedented powers mean that the Police don’t need to meet beyond reasonable doubt any longer as an evidential threshold. NOW it’s only BALANCE OF PROBABILITIES that’s right, the full power of the State can be used against you on the same level as a citizen facing off against another citizen, this perversion of law refuses to recognize that the individual has to have protections around them so that the State can’t simply walk all over them, and lowering the evidential threshold to balance of probabilities does this.

I know what you are going to say NZ, here’s what you are going to say

“So fucking what you dirty filthy lefty bitch! It’s all aimed at da gangs, da gangs so who cares”.

And here is where the mainstream media have done such a poor job, because has anyone actually read the definition by the Police of who a gang is? Has anyone actually read the law that was rammed through without anyone reading it?

See the perception is that it’s all da gangs, da gangs when that is absolute bullshit. A gang, as defined by the bloody Police, and this is the definition that triggers all these new surveillance powers to allow the Cops to break into your home and plant spy cameras without a warrant AND triggers these new powers of asset seizure IS 3 PEOPLE!

That’s right folks, as defined by the Police ‘a gang’ is just 3 people, here’s the law

"As per the "Gangs and Organised Crime Bill 10-2 (2009)" dictates: Every person commits an offence and is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 10 years who participates in an organised criminal group—

*

“(a) knowing that 3 or more people share any 1 or more of the objectives (the particular objective or particular objectives) described in paragraphs (a) to (d) of subsection (2) (whether or not the person himself or herself shares the particular objective or particular objectives); and

*

“(b) either knowing that his or her conduct contributes, or being reckless as to whether his or her conduct may contribute, to the occurrence of any criminal activity; and

*

“(c) either knowing that the criminal activity contributes, or being reckless as to whether the criminal activity may contribute, to achieving the particular objective or particular objectives of the organised criminal group.”

IT’S NOT AIMED AT THE GANGS AT ALL YOU MORONS – it can just be 3 bloody people who know eachother. Under this law, Me and my co-bloggers planning a protest action could fall foul of this Police definition, you all think it’s just da gangs da gangs, but the law is MUCH broader in its definition.

We have just given the Police an enormous expansion of power without knowing what that involves and without any public discussion at all. So stupid are we as a country that we will blindly erode century long legal protections around the power of the State and the rights of the individual if it’s wrapped up as something to attack da gangs, da gangs.

And why is allowing the Police to take your DNA on mere suspicion a bad idea?

Here is the list of offences that now allows the Police the excuse to remove by force your DNA…

List of offences which replaces "indictable offence" in previous version;
Part 3
Offences Provision of Act
Animal Welfare Act 1999
Wilful ill-treatment of animals ... Read more
section 28
Arms Act 1983
Carrying or possession of firearms, airguns, pistols, restricted weapons, or explosives, except for lawful, proper, and sufficient purpose
section 45
Unlawful possession of pistol or restricted weapon section 50
Unlawful carriage or possession in public place of firearm, airgun, pistol, ammunition, explosive, or restricted weapon
section 54(2)
Carrying firearm, airgun, pistol, imitation firearm, restricted weapon, ammunition, or explosive with criminal intent section 55
Crimes Act 1961
Indecent act in public place
section 125
Indecent act with intent to insult or offend
section 126
Aggravated assault
section 192
Assault with intent to injure
section 193
Male assaults female
section 194(b)
Cruelty to a child
section 195
Disabling
section 197
Possession of offensive weapons or disabling substances
section 202A
Assault with weapon
section 202C
Receiving (if the value of the property does not exceed $1,000)
section 246
Threatening acts
section 308
Land Transport Act 1998
Contravention of section 7 or section 22
involving injury or death
section 36
Person in charge of motor vehicle causing injury or death
section 61
Summary Offences Act 1981
Peeping or peering into dwellinghouse

See how these new expansion of what the Police can take your DNA for is so much wider than has been pretended?

If you are convicted of a serious crime, you should be forced to hand over your DNA, but to hand over your DNA on mere arrest, ON MERE SUSPICION?

You can take my DNA from my dead cold hands John Key. I will refuse to hand over my DNA, and I urge all NZers to point blank refuse to hand over their DNA. Make the pricks take it by force and then complain to the UN because this is a breach of our human rights, even National’s own Attorney General told them that.

The Maori party pointed it out …

Young men 'will fight back' against police, says Maori party

..and we should all adopt that approach.

Oh – and let’s not forget the new surveillance powers the Police are trying to pass that will allow ALL state departments to break into your home, plant spy cameras and film you without judicial oversight.

Remember – all this ill thought out bullshit was rammed through with zero oversight and zero public scrutiny, thanks to National abusing Parliamentary process again.

If you plant the seeds of a Police State, don’t be surprised when it starts growing. You have been conned and easily led once again.

John Key won't say sorry to massacred Palestinians (surprise, surprise)

2009-11-23T08:14:00.001+13:00

Surprise, surprise, John Key won’t apologize for NZ soldiers massacring 137 Bedouins 90 years ago. This utterly shocking and surprising (not really I’m being sarcastic) announcement occurred during the cuddle fest that John Key’s interviews have collapsed into on Breakfast, (Sunset isn’t much better).

The news that Mr Key won’t apologize to massacred Palestinians isn’t really a surprise is it? I’m more surprised that Key isn’t trying to award our brave civilian killing soldiers with posthumous Victoria Crosses.

National uses league table blueprint for false competition in Health

2009-11-23T07:56:00.002+13:00

Ratings point to DHBs' deficiencies
Hospital emergency departments in much of Auckland are performing below par on newly issued national rankings of district health boards. All seven district health boards from Taupo north scored well on access to cancer radiation therapy, but not on how long patients stay in emergency departments - a reflection of whole hospitals being overcrowded. The 21 DHBs' ratings on the Government's six health targets are being published nationally for the first time today in a bid to force them to improve.

I don’t trust Mr Ryall at all, I tagged him as ‘the great communicator’ a year before the election when he hosted a press release with John Key to launch National’s Health policy, embarrassingly Ryall didn’t seem to have noticed that his policy would lift restrictions on what Drs could charge, something Journalists gleefully and mercilessly exploited during the painfully uncomfortable press conference, (Key didn’t go on to do another set press conference till the election after that debacle). Then just before the election, Mallard got hold of their Health policy (with a couple of others he’d managed to ‘find’) and the Nats released theirs before Trevor could, but the interesting thing between the two was that in Mallards version the new 20 elective theatres were there, but in the one National released they mysteriously disappeared. This led me to suggest that what National actually had in plan was a health private-public partnership (the current euphemism for privatization) and with Ryall’s near impossible new standards he’s imposed, which Public Health providers will not be able to met without extra funding, one gets the sense that Ryall is setting the Public Health sector up to fail and claim in the interests of competition he’ll open the tendering process up to the private health sector.

Now we get Ryall testing the League Table to create fake competition which they intend to use on Education the second they get the national standards results in. Forget the creation of fake competition, how about continuing to fund Public Health rather than cut it.

March for Demokracy flop

2009-11-21T14:13:00.003+13:00

This bloody thing was right outside my apartment, so I wandered down and met up with about 30 other counter protesters and all I can say is poor Colin Craig, he blew $450 000 on this? He claimed he wanted 45 000 on the streets, there were a thin 2000 if he is lucky. My God, 2000 after blowing $450 000? I actually felt sorry for the poor anti-mmp, sensible sentencing lynch mobbers who want the legal right to belt their kids, it was like a birthday party for a kid no one likes that no one showed up to!

The event fell into farce when Hayley Westerna lookalike Yulia sang Dancing Queen with all the fake glee expressions of a ceroc dancer.

My favourite counter protest signs were...

ENOUGH IS NOT ENOUGH

DOWN WITH THIS SORT OF THING

HUH?

I'M WITH STUPID

SPANK ME

BRING BACK DANCING WITH THE STARS

BRIAN SPANKS HIS 700 SONS

I did an interview with TVNZ spoke my piece and left the March to wither away into obscurity, it was an utter, utter, utter failure. It seems most NZers actually understand what a non-binding referendum actually is, congratulations NZ, you didn't fall for the 'democracy' spin.

This was NOT a march for democracy, it was a march for demokracy. The propaganda model these people are using is more akin to the Republican and Fox News spawned Public Health protests in the states.

IF this was about democracy, why the hell don't they mention the word, 'Binding referendum' just once on their website?

This is not about binding referendums or the mechanics of how to legislate for a binding referendum, if it was it would actually mention binding referendums, but they don't. This is about dressing socially narrow talkhate radio knee jerks up as 'democracy', which is bullshit and someone needs to call them on that bullshit.

And today they were called on that.

Ouch, $450 000 blown on that? Colin equated him spending that sum of money to fighting the Nazi's, luckily for occupied France we didn't entrust the fight for democracy in Lt. Craig's hands.

Worst Dihydrogen Monoxide flop of the week (flogging a dead drama queen)

2009-11-21T08:21:00.006+13:00

You would think a secret memo suggesting journalists cut back on investigative journalism to avoid legal action would be big news, it would've been if it wasn't coming from Cactus Kate. Having the most right wing rabid on line voice claim there is a secret right wing agenda in a newspaper is like Kiwiblog claiming John Key is secretly optimistic for NZ. Having read this basic legal journalism law 101 memo that she is so frantic about I think she's over cooked her goose and getting a dreadful mauling over at Public Address for it. Ouch.

To whom ever decided to leak it to her, better luck next time.

Bomber's Blog - The War on News

2009-11-20T08:16:00.001+13:00

The War on News

Wank o the week

The show plays on Sky 89 & simulcast on Freeview 21 10pm Tuesdays. Replayed on Triangle TV 9.45pm Wednesday and posted on Scoop, Cheese on Toast and Tumeke by Friday.

How many people who don’t understand the word ‘non-binding referendum’ can you get to ‘March for demokracy’

2009-11-20T08:14:00.003+13:00

Boycott march, kids' advocate urges
Children's Commissioner John Angus has urged people to stay away from a "march for democracy" tomorrow. He said the march, sparked by the Government's refusal to change the law after an 87 per cent vote in an August referendum that smacking should not be a criminal offence, was "poorly named". "The march planned for Queen St, Auckland, tomorrow is not about democracy, it is about reinstating a law that allowed parents to assault their children and claim a defence of reasonable force," he said.

These anti-mmp, sensible sentencing lynch mob people who want the legal right to belt kids don’t understand what non-binding referendum means, and they hold up two examples of non-binding referendums that were so poorly worded they could mean anything.

This is NOT a march for democracy, it is a march for demokracy. The propaganda model these people are using is more akin to the Republican and Fox News spawned Public Health protests in the states.

IF this was about democracy, why the hell don't they mention the word, 'Binding referendum' just once on their website? (please note Ivan, if you suddenly rush to update your website by adding the word binding referendum, I will be the first to point it out).

This is not about binding referendums or the mechanics of how to legislate for a binding referendum, if it was it would actually mention binding referendums, but they don't. This is about dressing socially narrow talkhate radio knee jerks up as 'democracy', which is bullshit and someone needs to call them on that bullshit.

The NZ Herald Editorial, hardly a bastion of liberal agenda setting has even been forced to criticize this ‘March for Demokracy’ nonsense…

Editorial: Major pitfalls in making votes binding
Tomorrow's march organisers are advocating a different sort of democracy: "direct democracy" in which binding decisions are made by a majority of citizens who bother to vote in referendums. This country's law has provided for citizens to petition for non-binding referendums on any issue since 1994.

If Parliament had made those referendums binding, we would have been saddled by now with some strange decisions.

The number of paid firefighters would have been frozen at the number employed on January 1, 1995. That is what 87.8 per cent of voters wanted at the first referendum, initiated by opponents of a change to the way firefighters were deployed.

The number of MPs would have been frozen at 99 rather than the 120 a royal commission recommended for MMP. A smaller House would reduce proportional representation, which was chosen by referendum. Consistency would be a certain casualty of direct democracy.

At a referendum in 1999 nearly 92 per cent endorsed a call for the criminal justice system to put more emphasis on victims' restitution and compensation, plus minimum sentences and hard labour for all violent offences. Parliament introduced victims' impact statements at sentencings and decreed five years' non-parole for all serious violence. But the Sensible Sentencing Trust was evidently unsatisfied. It is a co-sponsor of tomorrow's march.

All of these referendums produced majorities in the region of the 87.4 per cent that wanted a smack to be permissible "as part of good parental correction" a few months ago. The Government is able to over-ride that decision because the question was biased, the voters were under a misapprehension that a smack for any purpose is now illegal. Few realised that the law expressly permits reasonable force for a range of stated purposes.

The issue, in short, was not as straight-forward as the citizens' initiative pretended. It was a subject better left to elected representatives with the time and interest to study the legal subtleties and social implications. If their legislation resulted in unreasonable prosecutions or caused too many difficulties for parents the representatives stand to suffer at the next election.

That is how representative democracy works. Decisions are made with advice, consultation and deliberation by people who must seek endorsement at elections. Rule by referendum would be far more rigid, which is why it is suitable for constitutional arrangements but not for the ordinary grind of good government.

If non-binding referendums have been a recipe for disappointment, binding polls in California have been a fiscal disaster. Many of those marching for direct democracy tomorrow would be the first to regret it.

Fundy Christians who want to change the law to push through their narrow social agenda should do so honestly without pretending it’s about democracy, tomorrow will be about democracy and the question ‘how many people don’t understand what non-binding referendum means will get answered.

The only joy I feel is that the entire thing will be a waste of time and a waste of $450 000, because John Key and no other political leader is going to budge on letting parents bash their kids and hide behind discipline as a defense, we have progressed and some NZers need to grow up and understand that.

Do your little song, do your little dance, proclaim it all as ‘democracy’ it ain’t going to change one tiny bit of the legislation.

It’s simple, don’t hit your kids, let's move on, there is an economy in freefall and a massive unemployment about to hit us from the double dip recession. We have much bigger fish to fry than bullshit like this.

Oh and let's not forget who these 'March for Demokracy' people are actually fighting for, these types of people...

Jailed for beating son with hosepipe
A woman has been jailed for beating her 10-year-old son with a hosepipe for wagging school.
Judge Roy Wade, in Manukau District Court yesterday, described the assault as "brutal and premeditated". The woman, referred to as Mrs N to protect her son's identity, pleaded guilty in July to assault with intent to injure. She was jailed for 15 months. Her husband admitted injuring the boy with intent to injure. He will be sentenced next month, and Judge Wade said he was considering home detention. The woman was last year sentenced to six months of supervision for assaulting one of her other children, also for missing school.

...If the repeal of section 59 had not occurred, these parents would've tried to use it as a defense. We should not let Parents dodge assault charges by offering them the defense of discipline.

Going Rogue: An Amerikan Life

2009-11-20T07:59:00.000+13:00

Sarah Palin has a new book called ‘Going Rogue: An American Life’, I’m surprised she can write or read, or count but it’s her ghost writer that’s drawing the interest. Lynn Vincent is Palin’s ghost writer, Lynn’s last ghost writing job was for retired American General William Boykin who believes his mission in the military is to defeat Satan, the dark Prince of Hell. Boykin also believes he has a spy satellite picture of a demon on the battlefield. A demon ladies and gentlemen, no not this demon,

this demon.

Based on Lynn’s previous work I’m really looking forward to her revelations of Palin, I hope it comes with a rapture colour coded book slip that helps warn readers when Obama officially transforms into the Anti-Christ after passing health care reform and gun control measures.

National can spend $110 Billion for their corporate polluter mates, but no cash for your hospital

2009-11-19T10:15:00.001+13:00

Health cuts loom as Govt refocuses spending
Auckland and the other district health boards have been forewarned that next year's rise in funding will probably be less than inflation. Photo / Sarah Ivey District health board chiefs are bracing themselves to make deep cuts to their services next year after receiving Government indications their funding will slip. Papers for an Auckland District Health Board committee meeting yesterday suggested it might have to cut as much as 5 to 10 per cent from its spending.

If National are to implement their free market Ayn Rand wet dream privatization model in Health they need to have the system fall to pieces and get an angry response from the electorate, the way National are doing with prisons. It’s pretty simple, underfund a public service until it collapses, promise a beautiful tomorrow with their corporate chums running the service. It’s interesting that National have the dollars to protect their big polluting mates, but not extra money for our health services. With 6.5% unemployment ready to spike well above the pretense of the 7% ceiling Key has given NZers and when you consider that America is now knocking on 17.5% unemployed and under employed…

Roubini: For unemployment "the worst is yet to come"
Think the worst is over? Wrong. Conditions in the U.S. labor markets are awful and worsening. While the official unemployment rate is already 10.2% and another 200,000 jobs were lost in October, when you include discouraged workers and partially employed workers the figure is a whopping 17.5%…

…we can expect that job losses will continue until the end of 2010 at the earliest. In other words, if you are unemployed and looking for work and just waiting for the economy to turn the corner, you had better hunker down. All the economic numbers suggest this will take a while. The jobs just are not coming back.

…with this W recession only building higher, National decide to cut back on health services many desperate and increasingly poorer NZers will be more reliant on, not less reliant on.

Is Mr Key drinking? (I want my MTV)

2009-11-19T10:06:00.000+13:00

MTS upset over World Cup interference
Prime Minister John Key disagrees there was too much political interference over Maori Television's (MTS) bid to broadcast the free-to-air Rugby World Cup games.

I’m sorry, what did he say? Did John Key just say there WASN’T any political interference with the World Cup and Maori Television? Is he drinking? Half the fucking cabinet were involved and they ended up using OUR TAXPAYER MONEY to try and out bid each other? If that’s not fucking political interference, what the hell can be construed as political interference??

Conservative Catholic Bill and the House of Slitherin Murray ain’t happy with all this big blue tent stuff Optimist Prime has erected in the plantation fields around the grand southern mansion that is the National Party.

John’s new mates are supposed to like handle the hangi and welcome people to the mansion with that wonderful singing they do, not go out and erect rugby posts and buy the rights to the world fucking cup. The Maori Party see that TVNZ is being taken to the knackers yard post 2011 and have guessed National’s support of TVNZ is as strong as their commitment to making big polluters pay for their pollution. Having the main public broadcaster in ones pocket is going to help in the long term and no one can accuse the Maori Party of being short sighted.

Key made a deal with the Maori Party to set MTS up as the new public broadcaster post 2011 and his conservative Cabinet refused to accept that and they started a mini riot within the Cabinet. To hear Key describe the entire fiasco as not political interference has got to be one of the great spin jobs spun this year.

Hilarious.

Key bows over and takes it for China

2009-11-19T09:52:00.000+13:00

Key denies bowing to China on Dalai Lama
Prime Minister John Key has been accused of caving to pressure from China after saying he will not meet the Dalai Lama. Mr Key denied China had leaned on him, but conceded its well-known disapproval of world leaders who meet the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader was a factor in his decision. "I had some discussions with the Foreign Minister [Murray McCully] about it. I think we would understand the way the Chinese would deal with these things, but on the other side of the coin, that wasn't the over-riding factor. There were a number of factors involved."

How weak of Key, sending SAS troops back into Afghanistan to suck up to the American’s and now Key has refused to meet the Dalai Lama because he’s frightened of annoying the largest Totalitarian communist dictatorship on the planet.

Nice to see our 'independent foreign policy' is as gutless as ever. Weak Mr Key, very, very weak.

IF NZ has oil, watch the Eye of Mordor descend upon us

2009-11-19T09:45:00.003+13:00

$60b of oil off NZ coast?
The Government is rolling out the welcome mat to foreign oil explorers as new estimates show the country could be sitting on $60 billion of untapped black gold. Energy and Resources Minister Gerry Brownlee said yesterday that by 2025 the amount of now untapped oil and gas off the coast could be worth about $30b a year in export receipts. Mr Brownlee said the tax receipts would amount to about $10b a year – enough to wipe out the current cash deficit. The data is in a series of reports released by the Government yesterday. Chief among them is a survey of oil and gas reserves by GNS Science, which says there could be as many as 6.5b barrels of undiscovered oil in 10 areas off the coast, stretching from the Great South Basin to Cape Reinga. At current market value, that is worth about $67b.

Peak oil is here, the Guardian has been running a couple of articles about whistleblowers within the IEA who have been critical about the IEA’s pretend-o-nomics regarding oil levels…

The senior official claims the US has played an influential role in encouraging the watchdog to underplay the rate of decline from existing oil fields while overplaying the chances of finding new reserves.

The allegations raise serious questions about the accuracy of the organization’s latest World Energy Outlook on oil demand and supply to be published tomorrow – which is used by the British and many other governments to help guide their wider energy and climate change policies…

A second senior IEA source, who has now left but was also unwilling to give his name, said a key rule at the organization was that it was “imperative not to anger the Americans” but the fact was that there was not as much oil in the world as had been admitted. “We have [already] entered the ‘peak oil’ zone. I think that the situation is really bad,” he added.

So in a world where oil is peaking and the fear begins to drive up the price and China and America are locked in a Mexican stand off to be the next Super power, how will tiny, insignificant NZ be able to withstand the type of influence we would see if we found as much oil as the Government is hopeful of? Where ever oil has been found in such quantities, the corporate influence of war and political thuggery is not too far behind. Will we end up the slave of America or China and will NZ be tricked as easily as every other small country who has found oil into descending into the internal political chaos that makes extraction so easy by those outside influences?

Let's forget the wisdom of using MORE oil to release pollution into an increasingly fragile bio-sphere that is already struggling with the pollution we are currently pumping into the atmosphere, we should be careful what we wish for, if we, a little Frodo of a country do in fact have the Oil ‘ring’, the eye of Mordor will descend upon us. Are we strong enough?

Hone Harawira: expectations

2009-11-18T13:31:00.003+13:00

Hone Harawira's mofo moment has been a crisis for the Maori Party which shows up their chronically weak political management.

Behind the media vortex of the last week there was already some discontent with his behaviour from the other members of the caucus. At the recent party AGM I understand his behaviour there was also something of a precursor of the 'white mofo' missive. For these reasons of building tension I think perhaps the email respondent's calling of his bluff has been something of a handy excuse for some necessary chastising - a drama now taking on a life of its own (see the party president's statement below).

However difficult things might be between the five MPs and the party leadership concerning Hone Harawira the one thing you cannot do as a political movement is chuck MPs out because of a stupid email for which the MP has promptly apologised - if for no other reason than they will take their electorate bases with them and damage the party.

Many older members would have been appalled by those words coming from an MP, while for the younger generation the episode has merely been "lol". It is the older members that are more influential within the party and they don't see the unnecessary abuse as fair let alone as parliamentary. The kaupapa and the tikanga - the principles and operations manual - of the party cannot support his words.

What he did not articulate well - as one does when writing defensively and with great anger in the moment - is that the 'white mofo' "bullshit" is hypocritical because the 'white mofos' are demanding a standard of Hone Harawira to which they would not hold their fellow 'white mofos.' He didn't express that too well though, did he.

Everyone on eurojaunt09 or similar knows the convention - tikanga Pakeha - is that "everything that goes on at eurojaunt09 stays at eurojaunt09." Under the code Dr Prasad's drunken moonwalking on a Dusseldorf strip club catwalk, subsequent brawl and incident with a South American junior cultural attache will not be mentioned in official or public reports. Only thing is Hone Harawira goes and tells everyone about his because "I don't give a shit what people think!" - and he published his account of this slightly naughty excursion - I believe they call it "bunking" up in Northland - in the Age and online.

As for the fuss: he was reacting to a snarky email from a constituent (former Waitangi tribunal member) that took the presumptive 'white mofo' position. In that context I understand and accept the anger in which the email must have been received and that the reply back is a minor transgression and a lesson in communication and media management. But things spun out of control very fast. By the middle of the week the media - the 'white mofo' media - were dropping the "if" part of his quotes so as to make it appear as though he was seriously trying to commission the summary execution of Phil Goff and the Labour caucus. Mofo media at its worst - one hysterical over-reaction and beat-up upon another. Just the sort of 'white mofo' thing Hone Harawira was criticising in that email.

This unrelenting pressure seemed to take a toll on the party and affected the disciplinary process - if not triggering it.

There are many reasons why Hone Harawira should stay inside the party, but I think he has bristled against enough of the older membership that they feel they have to show him who determines the standards. He is a role model - whether he knows it or not - and that does require standards higher than off-hand belts of swearing; but I cannot believe that his personal relationships with the four other MPs that will really decide his future is anywhere near bad enough to warrant moving outside of the party.

I know that consultation through the branches of the party has been going on and that many members support him. I don't think he is as deeply polarising amongst the Maori electorate as the media have made out.

More concerning for the party is Whatarangi Winiata's unexpected continuation in office as party president. It is symptomatic of the succession issues facing a new political organisation with an already aging leadership. By all accounts Prof Winiata is a figure with immense respect and a man able to deliver consensus, but they seriously have to find someone to take the organisation into the next election who is not over 80.

I am really perplexed at the political wisdom shown here:

Independent Status would acknowledge reality – Maori Party
Professor Whatarangi Winiata, President
12 November 2009

The Maori Party says its request to Hone Harawira that he take up the opportunity to be an Independent MP simply acknowledges the reality of Mr Harawira’s stance as an independent MP for Te Tai Tokerau.

“Hone has said a number of times that he does not give a toss what anyone thinks except the people of Te Taitokerau, and his behaviour over the past couple of weeks has underlined that position,” said Party President Professor Whatarangi Winiata.

“If Hone believes he is not accountable to the Maori Party or its leadership, or the Party caucus in Parliament, then clearly he has placed himself outside the party,” said Professor Winiata.

“Membership of the Maori Party involves certain disciplines and obligations. Resignation from the party would free Hone from those constraints and allow him to act with the independence which he claims.

"We expect our people to act in accordance with the kaupapa and tikanga of the party, with integrity, respect and consideration for others," said Professor Winiata.

“We require our MPs to work as a team, and Hone clearly has difficulty with this, given his words and deeds, which have had a devastating effect on his colleagues and the party as a whole.

"However Hone has made a significant contribution to the Maori Party over the years. We obviously agree on many policy positions, and we expect to continue to work co-operatively with Hone in the House.

"This situation will cause upset and anxiety for Maori Party supporters in Te Tai Tokerau, who may feel their loyalties to the party and their MP are now conflicted. We assure them that the Party will maintain a presence in the electorate, and we will be in contact in due course.

"This recent time has been profoundly distressing for the Maori Party, for many New Zealanders and inevitably for the wider Harawira whanau.

We are looking for closure to bring with it an opportunity for us all to restore a sense of dignity and to rebuild relationships of trust and mutual respect," said Professor Winiata.

Show him whose the boss, make him do his time out, get him to apologise, but don't seriously suggest he's going to leave. He was at the front of building the party right after Tariana Turia was forced to quit Labour over the F&S confiscation.

Work through the logic and logisitcs of having the Maori Party competing with both Labour and him in Tai Tokerau when he has most of their members. It just cannot be seriously contemplated.

They don't seem to have the depth of experienced political management and personnel that other parties have. The recent departure of Derek Fox from the office may be a large measure of why this 'mofo' business was allowed to escalate to the point it has. The Maori party have had barely five years at it and seem to be making some elementary mistakes. Dropping any MP based on what non-members - and non-constituents - thought would be a huge mistake for any party when there is no credible alternative.

SIS have no place on campus

2009-11-18T08:10:00.000+13:00

SIS seeks varsity help in weapon watch
A suggestion that New Zealand's universities might become involved in the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction is far-fetched and paranoid, peace campaigners say. New Zealand's spy agency, the Security Intelligence Service (SIS), wants universities to alert the SIS to any illicit science relating to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. SIS director Dr Warren Tucker met the New Zealand Vice-Chancellors' Committee (NZVCC) and sent university managers a letter and a brochure called A Guide to Weapons of Mass Destruction: Your Role in Preventing Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction. The move has outraged the Tertiary Education Union (TEU), the Green Party and a peace group which described the request as unethical.

Not content with the vast surveillance powers that the State are about to pass that will allow any State department to break into your home, plant spy cameras and film you for a while before they need to get any judicial oversight, the SIS wants big brother to go to University and has asked them to spy on students.

It’s the sort of paranoid nonsense I remember when I was at Uni. In 1995 I published how to make a nuclear bomb in Craccum, it earned me a visit from the Cops who promptly took me in for questioning. It was a such a farce, there was the old cop and the young cop who interviewed me and I delighted in answering their questions with as much sarcasm as humanly possible, they even did the good cop, bad cop routine for me, I ended up laughing at them during most of the interview. They demanded to know what would happen if a terrorist picked up the issue and used the information in it to make a bomb. My response (between giggling) was a counter question, “Why would a terrorist travel all the way to NZ, come onto Auckland University to pick up a copy of the magazine to build a nuclear bomb? The information is readily available on the internet and most of it can be seen in any science book in any school throughout the country”. They didn’t really have much of an answer for that, and it seems the State’s paranoia of people with an education is still as ridiculous now as it was then.

Let’s make sure the dirty filthy SIS are not allowed on any campus and let’s make sure National do not pass these new surveillance powers.

National Party greenwash – Key to miss Copenhagen

2009-11-18T07:54:00.003+13:00

Key to miss Copenhagen meeting
Prime Minister John Key says the international climate change meeting in Copenhagen next month is unlikely to result in a binding treaty. He stood by his decision not to attend the meeting.

In light of the bullshit ETS National have passed by bribing the Maori Party, it would have been embarrassing if Key had gone to Copenhagen. His plan to give billions to big polluters rather than force those polluters to change their ways is something all NZers should be disgusted with and after the Guardian pointed out that we are eco-hypocrites, our Tourism Minister is trashing our clean green image.

The political leadership is in the pocket of the big industry who makes the pollution so it is up to people power to force change and that forced change has to increasingly be aimed at shutting these big industry’s down.

Well done Greenpeace for yesterdays protest at highlighting the environmental damage Fonterra cause. If we continue to bring up the truth of these industries we can get environmentally conscious consumers overseas to boycott NZ products. Let’s hit the pricks in their pockets, they only care when they are made to pay.

The right wing continue to pretend climate change has nothing to do with man made pollution, remember the mouthpiece for National on line – Kiwibloogh, only last week pretending that Al Gore claimed oceans would rise 67 meters in an attempt to discredit the environmental movement, when it turned out Kiwibloogh was actually lying they had to back down.

As bits of a melting Antarctica bump into our country, the next generation should judge us harshly on our inaction, and celebrate those that forced change through civil disobedience.

Violent Cop pays for sex now

2009-11-18T07:31:00.002+13:00

Former officer faces prison
A former Christchurch policeman faces a jail term after being found guilty of using his position to get free sex from a prostitute. The final chapter in the chequered police career of Nathan Thorose Connolly came to a close yesterday when a jury returned their guilty verdict about 4.15pm. The Press can now reveal Connolly, 31, was successfully sued for police brutality in 2008 after he assaulted a handcuffed prisoner in the back of a patrol car in Greymouth in 2005.

Oh, he beats up handcuffed prisoners as well as threatens prostitutes for free sex? What a little charmer we have here. While he is about to get what he deserves, I’m more in favour of him being given home detention and forced to pay reparation than sending him to prison if he had showed any remorse, but the behaviour of this married, church going father does raise those questions once again about police culture.

I was talking with a woman last month who dated a cop. She told me a couple of months ago after she broke it off, he waited at the end of her street and flashed his lights at her, She pulled over, pretty frightened and he told her he wanted to ‘talk’ about the break up. He pulled her over in his bloody Police car for no reason other than to ‘talk’.

What did happen to those recommendations that Margaret Bazely demanded had to be implemented to change Police sexual culture that led to the Louise Nicholas case? The ones she said the Police would be unable to implement without an independent body forcing them to do so? Oh yeah, they weren’t all implemented were they?

Bomber's Blog - 10pm tonight Sky 89 & Freeview 21

2009-11-17T11:00:00.000+13:00

Bomber's Blog - the war on news is on tonight, 10pm simulcast on Sky 89 and Freeview 21. It's replayed on Triangle 9.45pm Wednesday. It will be posted on Tumeke, Youtube and Scoop on Friday.

Referendumb

2009-11-17T10:55:00.002+13:00

Group calls for veto of referendum
A high-powered government committee has called for a veto of a proposed referendum aimed at making citizen-initiated referendums binding. The Legislation Advisory Committee, chaired by former Prime Minister Sir Geoffrey Palmer, says the proposed public vote should not be allowed because it would contradict the fundamental purpose of the Citizens Initiated Referenda Act 1993, which provided for non-binding referendums.

People I can’t stress this enough, having a none binding referendum to make none binding referendums retrospectively binding requires a mental flexibility only years of not reading could allow.

There still seems to be some confusion on this whole repeal of section 59 thing. You’re not to blame, the media were outrageous in selling this as the criminalization of parents so it’s okay if you got a bit spooked. What the repeal of section 59 means is that IF you are charged with assaulting your child, IF, you can’t use discipline as a defense. The bloke who bashes his kid with a belt and gets charged with assault can't say, "But your honour, I was disciplining the kid" - that doesn't wash in Court any longer - that’s all it means, it doesn’t mean that if your toddler was about to put his hand on a burning stove while running onto the road into the path of a stolen car and you smack their hand lightly that the Police Eagle helicopter will suddenly spotlight you and through a loud hailer tell you to lie flat on the ground with your hands above your head.

National privatizes citizenship

2009-11-17T10:51:00.002+13:00

Residency 'carrot' lures rich investors
Thousands of wealthy foreigners are lining up to move here, just weeks out from the introduction of business migration laws that will grant them residency almost immediately. Under a new Entrepreneur Plus immigration category - effective on November 30 - entrepreneurial migrants who create at least three fulltime jobs and invest $500,000 in their business will be offered a fast track to residency. Currently, entrepreneur migrants are issued with a long-term business permit and can apply for residency only after two years. Although there is no minimum investment capital required, neither is there a guarantee their residency application will be approved. The new scheme will grant conditional residence virtually as soon as an application is made.

It’s pretty clever by National, privatize citizenship. Any rich person who wants to buy in to John Key’s South Pacific poker match gets granted residency, and I’m sure they will be very grateful possible new donors to the Political Party who sold it to them.

Just what we needed, an imported massive imbalance of wealth.

Genius.