Welcome to NZ

Alt Tv/Fleet FM Breakfast News Comment
Welcome to NZ
An Australian tourist says he is "disgusted" with the way he has been treated by New Zealand police after he was pepper-sprayed while handcuffed and seated in the back of a police car. Fred Klutke, 50, who owns a post shop in northern New South Wales, says he became involved in a confrontation in an Ohakune pub on Tuesday after which he was arrested and charged with assaulting police, resisting arrest and disorderly behaviour likely to cause violence. While Mr Klutke admits he was "reasonably drunk" at the time, he denies all charges and has made an official complaint with the Police Complaints Authority. He has accused police of using pepper spray on him unfairly after an incident which started when a patron at the hotel accused him on two separate occasions of staring at his girlfriend. He said an argument followed which ended in some "pushing". Then, he said, he was restrained by bouncers who dragged him across the ground, grazing his face in the process. The bouncers held him down until police officers arrived and handcuffed him, he said. "They had me in handcuffs ... how could I have assaulted a police officer? I'm disgusted with the fact that he pepper-sprayed someone who was handcuffed. And then when I got back in the car he turned around from the front and pepper-sprayed me again."
Unbelievably there are no rules saying that Police can’t pepper spray a handcuffed man, and we won’t know what the outcome of the complaint will be because the Police get to censor any part of the report they like and don’t have to say if the Officer was found guilty and if so what punishment he receives. Welcome to NZ, come again.

Report on jail garage corruption a 'whitewash'

Alt Tv/Fleet FM Breakfast News Comment
Report on jail garage corruption a 'whitewash'
A Corrections Department investigation that found nothing to support claims of corruption at the Auckland Prison garage has ordered the garage to improve its record-keeping. But National dismissed the investigation as a whitewash that was never going to find documented evidence of illegal activity, especially if those records were sub-standard. The investigation was triggered after a former inmate, who was attached to the garage, told the Herald that prisoners had brought their own cars to the garage for service. "Prisoners are subject to standover tactics, and officers aren't going to nark on each other." Within any good prison you need a certain amount of discretion to make the place function, the ability to reward good behaviour is an essential tool in helping to reform behaviour, however without transparency of that process it can be abused by those in power to the point allegations have been made here. Rehabilitation doesn’t seem likely in a prison run by stand over tactics via the guards.

Weapons Of Mass Destruction Finally Found – 10 years later

Alt Tv/Fleet FM Breakfast News Comment
Weapons Of Mass Destruction Finally Found – 10 years later
United Nations officials have discovered a dangerous collection of vials with the chemical Phosgene, a chemical warfare agent, in a UN building in New York. Vials of dangerous materials that were removed from Iraq approximately 10 years ago have been discovered at a UN building in New York and was reportedly found last Friday. Iraq had a lot of chemical weapons sold to them by most of the West and Russia so there was no doubt Iraq HAD chemical weapons once which is what these vials prove, however President Bush made out that Saddam still had them and was seconds away from using them at the time America launched their war for democracy/freedom(trademark pending). The Iraqi weapons inspectors came across the material as they were closing their offices, which are housed in a building near the U.N. headquarters in Manhattan,
Well, we finally found those WMDs in Iraq, they are 10 years out of date, but what the hell, the West don’t have any other good excuse to be there.

Whitey wins again - Officer found not guilty of Abu Ghraib abuse – American justice Southern style

Alt Tv/Fleet FM Breakfast News Comment
Whitey wins again - Officer found not guilty of Abu Ghraib abuse – American justice Southern style
A court-martial has ruled a US Army officer was not responsible for abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, but was guilty of disobeying an order not to discuss an investigation into the case. Are any of us surprised? The fact only one Officer was charged in the first place was always suspect (what happened to all those Intelligence Officers you can see in the background of those photos?), and the fact the only Officer who was charged was found not guilty is as unsurprising as the 4 white Officers let off the Rodney King beatings – if Americans can treat their own citizens with such contempt, Christ knows what they can do to other races and cultures they are currently illegally invading. Land of the brave, home of the free.

Noriega whitewash

Alt Tv/Fleet Breakfat News Comment
Noriega whitewash
A US judge's decision to extradite Manuel Noriega to France has denied Panama the chance to hand justice to the former strongman for killing opponents during his rule in the 1980s. What isn’t of course mentioned is the fact that Noriega was a client regime of the CIA who helped him shift drugs until Noriega started making noises about the canal, and then America wanted to invade him using a group of soldiers kn own as ‘The Hard Chargers’ to provoke a reaction from the Panamanian forces as a reason to inavde. There is no doubt Noriega has blood on his hands, but once again he was sponsored by the CIA to be able to do this and of course there is no mention of prosecution of US forces who killed an estimated 300-4000 Panamanians, again we don’t count them when they die.

Moore cops backlash for outburst

Alt Tv/Fleet FM Breakfast News Comment
Moore cops backlash for outburst
Former Labour Party leader Mike Moore claims to be surprised by the strong reaction that his searing criticism of Prime Minister Helen Clark has drawn. Mr Moore compared Helen Clark to former Prime Minister Sir Robert Muldoon in yesterday's Herald, highlighting the "politics of personal destruction" that he said were in use. Progressive Party leader Jim Anderton leaped to her defence - labelling Mr Moore as hypocritical, a bitter failure, and a seeker of the limelight. "I was in the Labour caucus when he was part of a vicious personal smear campaign against then Opposition leader Jim McLay - so his injured tone about John Key facing some scrutiny is a bit rich," Mr Anderton said. "He [Moore] was prime minister for six weeks, so now he is bitter at the success of someone who has been in the job for eight, going on nine, years." Hmmm, we of course forget about the knee capping of National Party leader Jim McLay, so for Mike to be attempting a transformation into Dr Phil is a little rich. At least all the bitching is making for some great one liners, in response to Anderton, Mike Moore replied, “"when was the last time Jim Anderton had an idea that wasn't forgotten in 1950? ... there is one thing I do envy him and that's his hair." Those aside for Mike to try and claim he is a staunch Labour Party supporter while pissing all over the Woman who stole his throne is about as believable as anything that comes out of the WTO (White Totalitarian Oppression)

Mummy and Daddy won't be happy

Alt Tv/Fleet FM Breakfast News Comment
Charges upgraded after Undie 500 riots
Dunedin police are upgrading charges against students caught up in the major disturbance in the university campus area over the weekend. Sixty-nine people were arrested for disorderly behaviour but 21 of them have had their charges upgraded to the more serious crime of rioting, TV3 reported last night. All those white middle class kids are going to have some explaining to do to Mum and Dad – I went to University and all I got was this riot charge – not so easy to explain away the to the Bar or medical practitioners council, what is the bet these 21 roll up to Court in the sharpest suits ever seen? I wonder if Otago will keep using their ‘Get Over it’ campaign and whether that can be entered as a defense to the judge. Don’t get me wrong, I love a riot as much as the next anarchist, but riots fuelled on nothing more than booze and middle class arrogance is just churlish.

Power line builders accused of ignoring community's needs

Alt Tv/Fleet FM Breakfast News Comment
Power line builders accused of ignoring community's needs
Architects of the electricity transmission lines straddling urban Auckland were accused at a hearing yesterday of an "amazing lack of foresight" at the expense of communities now living in their shadow. Manukau City transport manager Chris Freke said those who built the high-voltage overhead lines and pylons in the 1960s and preceding decades failed to make adequate provisions to compensate property owners enough to prevent homes from being built under them. "Transpower is in a difficult position because the people who put the lines in had an amazing lack of foresight and didn't protect property rights," he told a three-member board of inquiry into a Government proposal to enshrine the national importance of electricity transmission in council plans. Mr Freke said his council was concerned that a proposed national policy statement would reduce "what little regulatory tension" existed to require Transpower to address the effects of its transmission network on communities. Fascinating isn’t it – we have a spate of reports showing that growing up near power pylons have serious health side effects on children (and it’s always usually the poor who live beneath power lines which exacerbates health/poverty issues) and here we have Transpower about to have the ‘regulatory tension’ to protect those people being removed. We should force them to bury the cables along motorways and roads, but that would cost the precious mega companies too much money, and where would they find the money to play all those adverts by Jonah Lomu pretending to have a conscience about switching off the power for sick brown people and killing them?

Army chiefs insist 'faulty' weapons are fine

Alt Tv/Fleet FM Breakfast News Comment
Army chiefs insist 'faulty' weapons are fine
Australian and New Zealand Army chiefs have rejected claims they are putting troops in the way of danger armed with unreliable weapons. Using documents obtained under freedom of information laws, Channel Seven reported that the Steyr rifles used by both armies were subject to locking, jamming and misfiring in the harsh conditions of Afghanistan and Iraq. The Austrian-designed, Australian-made Steyr is the two armies' standard infantry weapon and the backbone of combat forces deployed on operations from Timor Leste to the Middle East. It equips many of the 3500 Australian troops in Afghanistan, Iraq, Timor Leste and the Solomons, and most of the more than 300 New Zealanders serving in similar deployments. Channel Seven said the Australian Army was further plagued by problems with pistols used by its special forces and with heavy 50 calibre machine guns. The network said up to 20 per cent of Steyr rifles on operational duty with Australian troops were rated "unsatisfactory", that there were 44 serious failures of war stocks of ammunition - including hand grenades, bullets and rockets - in the two years to last March, and that SAS soldiers had been sent to war with faulty equipment. I’m not sure whether to laugh or cry, obviously guns that don’t work means fewer civilians ‘accidentally’ shot by our troops, but asking our soldiers to go and do something without giving them the protection to do the job because of faulty equipment is just careless.

Lawyers – the lowest of Gods creatures

Alt Tv/Fleet FM Breakfast News Comment
Lawyers snub abuse victims over low aid fees
The Family Court's top judge says some battered women are missing out on court orders to protect them from their partners because they can't find a lawyer willing to represent them on the current legal aid fees. Chief Judge Peter Boshier said the number of women applying for protection orders without a lawyer had increased in recent years to about 30 per cent. He believed this was a major reason why the proportion of applications for protection orders that were being placed "on notice" have risen since the late 1990s. “Sorry babe, I’d love to help you with the bit of biffo your husband has given you cause the dinner was cold, but I’ve got to pay the Golf fees this month and that car doesn’t come cheap, look how about buying a microwave, he won’t beat you as much if you just throw the dinner in there on high for a minute, sure I ‘feel’ for you, but ‘feelings’ don’t pay off the Gold Card now do they? Gotta cruise babe, I’m buying some art”.

I love Lawyers.

Moore blasts PM's 'politics of personal destruction - Yawn

Alt Tv/Fleet FM Breakfast News Comment
Moore blasts PM's 'politics of personal destruction'- Yawn
Former Labour Party leader Mike Moore has let fire with a searing criticism of Helen Clark, comparing the Prime Minister's "politics of personal destruction" with the highly divisive premiership of Sir Robert Muldoon. Writing in today's Herald in an opinion piece entitled "A Return to Muldoonism?" Mr Moore says he expects to see cartoons of Helen Clark showing her morphing into the former National leader, who was prime minister from 1975 until 1984.

Oh do shut up Mike, are you still bitter after all these years with Helen toppling you as leader? Only a Trade Unionist could hold a grudge that long, except of course for the fact that Mike has gone to the far, far, far right after his WTO metamorphose, but I do miss him, those long winded speeches he would make on the hoof where he would connect surf lifesaving in NZ with rice production in China, breathtaking and terrifying at the same time – in the words of David Lange, “God knows what Mike would have done if he had run the country again”.

God indeed.

British Retreat From Iraq Begins

Alt Tv/Fleet FM Breakfast News Comment
British Retreat From Iraq Begins
Shiite militia loyal to the firebrand cleric Moqtada al-Sadr extended their control over Basra yesterday, causing the American military more troubles as British troops begin their withdrawal from Iraq. As soon as British forces had handed over the Basra joint police command centre to Iraqi police, Sadr's men moved in, according to reports. The handover was to be the first stage of the British troops' final withdrawal. The United States military is now reported to be planning to send 3000 troops to fill the void left by the British withdrawal. According to witnesses yesterday, Iraqi police left when the Shiite fighters arrived and began emptying the facility. They made off with generators, computers, furniture and even cars, saying it was war booty - and were still in the centre yesterday. The embarrassing episode, which comes as the British in Basra are preparing to move their remaining soldiers to the city airport as part of a planned withdrawal, again highlights the strength of the militia in the city. It further undermines Britain's hopes of a smooth transfer and gives the impression of a rout. Sadr boasted last week that the British had "given up" and were retreating because of the Iraqi resistance.

Ahhh – just like yesterday isn’t it? Remember all those right wing voices calling for us to invade Iraq – ACT and National wanting us to get involved in this pack rape of a nation because our mates were going (never a surprise so many cops become National Party MPs – what is it with men and power and pack rapes?), remember all those talkback callers and bloggers supporting the war – for freedom and democracy (forgetting America had built Saddam up in the first place, forgetting that there was no immediate threat from Saddam, forgetting that there were no nukes, no chemical weapons and no WMDs found) – and now the beginning of the end, as Britain rushes to leave Iraq to desperately shore up Afghanistan which looks very likely to topple over as another defeat we are all left wondering when the last helicopter from Saigon moment will be – and what the legacy the West will leave behind – it is too soon to start writing Footnotes to this tragedy, but let’s start reminding those fuckwits within our own society how dreadfully wrong they were to support this selfish little mis-adventure.

Another one bites the dust, Another one bites the dust, And another one gone, and another one gone, Another one bites the dust, Hey, I'm gonna get you

Bush ally Gonzales resigns post
US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, embroiled in a row over the sacking of eight US attorneys, has formally announced his resignation. In a brief news conference Mr Gonzales said he had met President George W Bush on Sunday to tender his resignation, which will take effect on 17 September. Members of Congress have accused Mr Gonzales of abuse of office over the sacking of federal prosecutors. He is the latest in a run of senior officials to leave the White House.

After being caught redhanded being responsible for getting rid of federal prosecutors BECAUSE they were ‘democrats’ it was only a matter of time before Gonzales went – sure America is as partisan as hell, but you aren’t allowed to be seen to be openly discriminatory towards one another. The only puzzle was why Bush didn’t get rid of him immediately, but seeing Bush’s intellectual capability by suggesting the lesson learnt from Vietnam was TO STAY, one could believe Bush assumed he could keep Gonzales on simply because Bush wanted him to stay.

It’s another nail in the coffin – oh joy to the day this abortion of an Administration leaves office – I swear I will party into the night the day Bush leaves office!

Judges soft on wife-beaters, say researchers

Alt Tv/Fleet FM Breakfast News Comment
Judges soft on wife-beaters, say researchers
A hardline review of domestic violence has slammed judges who try to reform rather than punish violent men, saying there is no evidence that children need to see their fathers if they are violent. The two-year study by Waikato University academics Ruth Busch and Neville Robertson says men who are violent to their partners are still getting off with much lesser punishments than they would get if they did the same things to strangers. They urge automatic arrests for breaches of protection orders and effective punishments for men who fail to complete anti-violence programmes. They also warn the Government against creating any more specialist Domestic Violence Courts which try to keep families together by convicting and discharging many offenders if they "voluntarily" complete anti-violence courses. "We still see this old idea that one might be a lousy partner but still bea good dad," said Dr Robertson, a psychologist. "That flies in the face of what is known to be needed to support children in response to violence. "I would have thought that the evidence of being a good dad is how you treat the children's mother. All of that is being set aside on the basis that children need their dads."

Interesting isn’t it – I think that boys DESPERATLY need good fathers – boys learn how to treat women and how to interact with other men from the watched day to day behaviour of their fathers, so while I agree fatherhood is incredibly important, it has to be good fatherhood, if Dad belts Mum because the dinner is cold, he is no longer a positive influence on the son standing at the doorway watching, the issue I sense from the Judicial masters is that they are conning themselves into the ‘son needs dad’ thing even when dad is a violent prick because if we packed all these domestic violence cases off to prison the prison population would skyrocket, hence the Judicial masters (being prodded by the Treasury eggheads) con themselves into this position. If we had prisons that rehabilitated rather than mangle prisoners we may well have a solution, but we don’t so the woman folk will have to take the strain once more by taking a couple of punches to face cause dinner is cold.

Middle Class kids and the joy of tertiary education rioting

Alt Tv/Fleet FM Breakfast News Comment
Middle Class kids and the joy of tertiary education rioting
Canterbury University student leaders will meet with the Undie 500 organisers on Monday to discuss the weekend riots in Dunedin. More than 50 arrests were made, couches was set on fire, and bottles were thrown at police on Saturday, after the annual student car rally from Christchurch to Dunedin. Association president Belinda Bundy says it appears the Canterbury students don't know how to behave themselves, and they have to take some responsibility for that. She says it is likely the event will be canned. Once upon a time middle class Uni students were the social conscience of society, taking protest to the streets to confront the Government over issues of social justice and forcing Police to rush around to around to protect the US Embassy or the local National Party Headquarters, these days however students take to the streets to burn cars and sofas and start stupid drunken fights with cops who have MUCH better things to be doing than being forced into baton charging pissed Engineering students doing the Haka, ah – the joys of Tertiary education – tomorrows lawyers and doctors and accountants, mummy and daddy must be glowing with pride.

15year old victim thrown in Jail for not helping cops – that’ll teach her!

Alt Tv/Fleet FM Breakfast News Comment
15year old victim thrown in Jail for not helping cops – that’ll teach her!
A girl who was sent to jail for refusing to answer questions in court should be given more respect, Victim Support says. The 15-year-old spent 45 minutes in a court cell after refusing to testify against her father, who was facing several charges including indecent assault and unlawful sexual connection. The law has recently been changed so that it is unlawful to not help Police in a prosecution, this girl had been sexually violated by her Father, had decided not to testify and she was put in a court cell that’ll teach her for not helping the Police! What a cruel and unusual outcome from a system that demands co-operation with Police.

Punishing someone regardless of the outcome for not doing what the cops demand, how very NZ.

Afghanistan could fall soon

Alt Tv/Fleet FM Breakfast News Comment
Afghanistan could fall soon
While Politicians continue to paint a rosy picture of progress in Afghanistan, the reality is that the British Army is near snapping point and the possibility of defeat is looming. On July 23, a secret memorandum to fellow defence chiefs by General Sir Richard Dannatt, the head of the British Army, was leaked to the Daily Telegraph. Dannatt said, “We now have almost no capability to react to the unexpected.” Reinforcements for emergencies or for operations in Iraq or Afghanistan were “now almost non-existent.” “The enduring nature and scale of current operations continues to stretch people,” he continued, warning that the army had to “augment” 2,500 troops from other units for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan to bring up the total force to the 13,000 needed there. This remained “far higher than we ever assumed.” “When this is combined with the effects of under-manning (principally in the infantry and Royal Artillery) and the pace of training support needed to prepare units for operations, the tempo of life in the Field Army is intense.” An unnamed senior officer said, “General Dannatt’s appraisal means that we are unable to intervene if there is an emergency in Britain or elsewhere, that’s self-evident. “But this is a direct result of the decision to go into Afghanistan on the assumption that Iraq would diminish simultaneously. We are now reaping the reward of that assumption.” Alexander the Great was the last person to hold Afghanistan, is Bush the military strategic equivalent to Alexander? Oh and why are we in Afghanistan again? Where is Osama Bin Laden? And if we were after him, why didn’t we invade Saudi Arabia? Sorry for asking, but the reasons we are there just keep changing and it was never made clear what we were doing in the first place, I mean if America didn't want Afghanistan going to a bunch of crazy Islamists with backward views on equality, then America shouldn't have armed them to the teeth to fight the Soviets, or at the very least once their global game of chess was over, the Americans should have disarmed the militants and started nation building then and not have helped train Bin Laden, instead they walked away to let those wretched few to fight over the scraps and become the infected wound it now is.

Well done..

The Sunday Newspaper Brunch Club

On the Sunday Newspaper Brunch Club today at 11am, Sky Digital 65, Co-host Wallace Chapman from Kiwi FM Breakfast.

STORY 1 – Children's commissioner cops the abuse as Rankin speaks out - SST
An angry Christine Rankin slammed Children's Commissioner Cindy Kiro as a "waste of space" at a rally protesting the country's dismal child abuse record.
Rankin, chief executive of For the Sake of Our Children Trust, told about 500 marchers in Auckland's Queen St: "We want a children's commissioner who is not a waste of space, someone with courage who will make a difference." But Kiro, who refused an invitation to yesterday's march, hit back labelling Rankin's group and the Sensible Sentencing Trust as "the hang-'em high brigade". The debate in this country over what to do with Child abuse has denigrated into leaders of various schism groups calling eachother names in public, but out of the heat, is there any actual light on the issue?

STORY 2 – Drunk students cause mayhem – Get over it! HOS
Bottles were thrown at police during clashes with students in Dunedin last night, leaving so much broken glass ambulance crews were forced to abandon their vehicles and go into troubled areas on foot. Police reported 30 arrests late last night after the arrival of the annual Undie500 convoy of Canterbury University students to Dunedin. Ahhh – middles class kids rioting, the joys of tertiary education hu? Once they would have been on the streets protesting the injustice of society and trying to smash the state, now its getting so drunk you attack ambulance drivers during an event called the Undie 500. Add to this arrogance of youth the utter disregard the Police are held by young people now (there is NO illusion that he ain’t heavy, he’s my brother anymore) and get what we have here.

STORY 3 – Saving Private Hubbard HOS
An American soldier has been withdrawn from Iraq after his two brothers were killed, echoing the Oscar-winning film Saving Private Ryan. Jason Hubbard, 33, will return home to northern California after younger brother Nathan, 21, was one of 14 soldiers killed in a Black Hawk helicopter crash in northern Iraq on Wednesday. A roadside bombing had claimed the life of another sibling, Jared, 22, in Fallujah in 2004, reports said. Isn’t it bizarre that this is a news story, so one American Soldier is brought home, what about the 161 000 others forced to stay or for that matter what about the 655 000 dead Iraqis? Isn’t it weird that this story can get so much prominence because it can be associated to a mive that people have seen ‘Oh – I saw that movie, I can now connect with that news story’ – it is a smokescreen bullshit news story that is the only thing reporters can write now because conditions are so dangerous outside the greenzone they would be shot, so we are left with News filler stories like this.

STORY 4 – Shaken China declares 'war' on product safety woes - SST
China has launched a four-month "war" on tainted food, drugs and exports, state media reported, as beleaguered officials embraced time-tested campaign tactics to clean up the country's battered image. Don’t you love that they are declaring a ‘war’ on faulty goods – how does one wage a war on lead tainted goods? Isn’t China a victim of larger forces at work? The reason they have become the Wests manufacturer of choice is because they have massive cheap man power our companies want to exploit because consumers want the cheapest goods on the planet and they want them now! For the West to jump up and down and point the finger crying ‘your toys are poisonous’ also seems a wee bit churlish – China is a repressive totalitarian communist state, with a human rights violation record a mile long, but we only get cross with them when our toys have lead in them?

STORY 5 – US Navy watching for Pacific terrorists - sst
The US navy is sending more ships into the South Pacific for fear small islands might be used to launch terror attacks on it, a senior intelligence official has revealed. The comments were made at a two-day Micronesia Police Executive Association conference this week, a preliminary to a gathering of law enforcement authorities from 21 islands in the region in Wellington in October. If this a law enforcement gathering why are the US military involved? How are we having this creeping blur of police and military continuing and this is a conference in Wellington, we have been a nexus over the last couple of years for International Spy conferences and military meetings because NZers are generally too apathetic to cause the kind of chaos these meetings would attract if held anywhere else in the world.

Key speaks out in bid to defuse Labour 'bomb'

Alt Tv/Fleet FM Breakfast News Comment
Key speaks out in bid to defuse Labour 'bomb'
National leader John Key yesterday revealed that he was interviewed by the Serious Fraud Office over the multimillion-dollar Equiticorp scandal - but felt his evidence would have helped to convict those involved. In a bid to blunt Labour attacks on his credibility, Mr Key said he suspected his opponents would use either his role at Elders Merchant Finance or the fraud office interview in an attempt to slur his character. Senior Labour ministers have recently referred to the "H-Fee" in Parliament, and there are reports that Labour has been boasting of having a "neutron bomb" against Mr Key. The "H-Fee" term appears to be a reference to sham foreign exchange deals set up by Elders IXL for a A$66.5 million payment to Equiticorp boss Allan Hawkins in 1987. Mr Key says he had left three months before the deal had been cut so there can be no connection between him and the scam. If this is all true, then John Key should be voted a saint amongst men, because nearly everyone who was getting rich quick in 1987 were involved in these types of Gordan Gecko greed is good scams, it wouldn’t be right to leap to any conclusion, but by god John Key better be squeaky clean on this little forgotten piece of dirty white collar laundry.

Must try harder, schools told over sex education

Alt Tv/Fleet FM Breakfast News Comment
Must try harder, schools told over sex education
Most schools are failing to meet students' needs in sex education lessons, casting doubt on classroom efforts to cut the number of teenage pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases. Of special concern were the 20 per cent of schools that had "substantial weaknesses" in their teaching of sexuality education, the ERO found. Sex Education is not compulsory in NZ and it is no surprise that we have one of the highest rates of sexually transmittable diseases amongst young people, one of the highest teenage birth rates, and one of the highest teenage abortion rates in the OECD, by denying young people the information and self esteem to make informed decisions about becoming sexually active, we are doing them a great disservice all because of some conservative notion that if you mention condoms to teenagers, they immediately want to procreate with the next person they talk to. The Government is too frightened to push the issue, look at the mauling they got trying to stop parents hitting their kids, imagine how foamy flecked public debate would become if Labour started pushing condoms in schools.

Anger at Bush's Vietnam claim

Alt Tv/Fleet FM Breakfast News Comment
Anger at Bush's Vietnam claim
Bush drew parallels between the aftermath of the Vietnam war and the costs of pulling out of Iraq in a speech to thousands of veterans, many of whom served in Asia. Democrat John Kerry called the speech irresponsible and ignorant, and Senate leader Harry Reid dismissed the comparison and said the decision to invade Iraq was "one of the worst blunders in American history". But Bush said it was in the United States' interests to continue to work to stabilise Iraq, and cited modern democracies in Japan and South Korea as models. He also quoted the emergence of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia and violence in Vietnam after US troops pulled out to warn of the consequences of leaving Iraq. It is this part of Bush’s history lesson that is the most disturbing, because the Khmere Rouge only came to power after America had secretly bombed the place flat, trying to hit North Vietnamese troops who were crossing the border. The destruction and massive destabilization of Cambodia by America led to the Khmere Rouge talking over, declaring ‘Year Zero’ and then go on a genocidal murder rampage of a million people in the killing fields, how Bush can be so sheltered to not even know his own history helps explain how this moron got America stuck in the exact same place once again. I once was a big conspiracy believer regarding Sept 11th and the Iraq war because every move by this Administration seemed intent to only force aggression, the truth however seems much more frightening, Bush and his clowns are not Machiavellian geniuses, they are just idiots, they have no idea what they are doing and don’t understand the ramifications of their actions, they are Paris Hilton-esk in their basking of the moment minus any historical context – they are uneducated oil thugs used to the crony capitalism that builds their empires high, they are not soldiers who have sacrificed, they aren’t leaders of people, they are misguided crooks who looked for the quick buck at a moment of national emergency and hoped it would all be sorted out in time for the next election. It is the stupidity and the utter needlessness of Iraq that burns, and for Bush to try and defend this nightmare by invoking the ghosts of a million Cambodians who died because of Americas secret and completely illegal bombing campaign that destroyed their country is now at a point where reason now demands this buffoon step down, he’s like Mr Bean on ebola, stupidly contagious.

Government set to act on finance collapses

Alt Tv/Fleet FM Breakfast News Comment
Government set to act on finance collapses
The Government will consider interim changes to tighten finance company regulations after the latest failure in the sector. Commerce Minister Lianne Dalziel has resisted a kneejerk response to finance company failures but now has asked officials to look for "common threads". The recent failures have left "mum and dad" investors bewildered and angry. The minister said she wanted "to see whether any intermediate steps can be taken to improve the regulatory environment in the interim". Funny isn’t it, when ‘Mum and Dad’ investors (some unkind person might suggest that a euphemism for ‘white’) when some ‘mum and Dad’ investors are hurting we need intermediate steps to improve the regulatory environment in the interim – however at the other end of the spectrum when the Government were looking at loan shark rates some of them charging interest in the hundreds of a the percent and many in lower social economic need (another unkind person could suggest that term is a euphemism for ‘not white’) borrow the money for day to day living, (because relative poverty is actually a lot larger in this country than we want to admit), when the Government was looking at the regulatory environment for lower social economic people and interest rates charged to them by loan sharks, apparently the Government couldn’t do anything, however ‘Mum and Dad’ investors have been fleeced by a bunch of smooth talking cowboys (one of whom still has his luxery car and house) we have to take steps to improve the regulatory environment. Isn’t motivation a funny thing?

Suspended cops cost $1m a year (oh and they want tasers permanently)

Alt Tv/Fleet FM Breakfast News Comment
Suspended cops cost $1m a year (oh and they want tasers permanently)
Police accused of crimes are costing taxpayers more than $1 million a year. New figures released to ONE News under the Official Information Act show New Zealanders are currently paying the wages of 20 police officers facing charges. Most are accused of assault or of drinking and driving. Criminologist Greg Newbold says that the police are like the Catholic Church, in that in the past a lot of child abuse within the church was ignored or swept under the carpet. "Likewise within the police, assaults and beating up of suspects went on. Everybody knew about it and everyone pretended it didn't happen," says Newbold. When we talk about needing an Independent Police Complaints authority and not the current system of cops investigating cops, the debate needs urgent attention now as Police want to have Tasers as a permanent part of their arsenal, after their so called ‘year trial’ a trial during which the cops were caught out lying about Taser cock ups by their police officers, and during a year when pepper spray and police dogs were all found to have been used improperly. I don’t care if cops want laser guns – BUT GIVE US A PLACE TO COMPLAIN THAT IS INDEPENDENT AND TRANSPERANT- if abd when the cops go over the line, asking for the basic checks and balances over our Police force that any democracy needs seems an impossible task in the rednecked pro police at any cost media environment we live in.

Bush in Vietnam warning over Iraq

Alt Tv/Fleet FM Breakfast News Comment
Bush in Vietnam warning over Iraq
President George W Bush has warned a US withdrawal from Iraq could trigger the kind of upheaval seen in South East Asia after US forces quit Vietnam. "The price of America's withdrawal was paid by millions of innocent citizens," he told war veterans in Missouri. Mr Bush said the Vietnam War had taught the need for US patience over Iraq. I’m sorry, the lesson of Vietnam was to STAY???? America couldn’t stay in Vietnam due to public fury at watching little girls being napalmed and an entire country poisoned by Agent Orange, to suggest that America lost Vietnam because they weren’t patient is just so jaw dropping it suggests that Bush really is a myopic simpleton who understand little about history and explains how it is that he has made the exact same bullshit mistake in Iraq. You stupid, stupid, stupid American.

Howard secret sect meeting 'desperate'

Alt Tv/Fleet FM Breakfast News Comment
Howard secret sect meeting 'desperate'
The secret meeting of Australian Prime Minister John Howard with an ultra-conservative Christian group shows how desperate he is to win the next election, opposition frontbencher Anthony Albanese says. The Prime Minister's relationship with the Exclusive Brethren sect was a worry for Australians, Albanese said yesterday. "It is of a real concern that this sect can say that they can get a meeting with the Prime Minister of Australia on no notice and with no agenda," he told reporters. What is it with these right wingers wanting to cuddle up to crazy fringe religious fanatics like the National Party did in this country last election, at least Howard has realized that he desperately needs a miracle to survive the next Australian election.