- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Saturday, November 21, 2009

March for Demokracy flop


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)

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.

Friday, November 20, 2009

Bomber's Blog - The War on News

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’


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


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.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

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


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)


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


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



$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?