The Sunday Newspaper Brunch Club

On the Sunday Newspaper Brunch Club today at 11am, Sky Digital 65, Ben Thomas from the NBR

News that caught my eye –
1: National’s Weekess Horriblus - Sale of State Owned Assets, hiding the removal of Dr fee limits in their Health Policy and Bills kid doesn’t seem to like queer folk – is there only so much John Keys smile can cover up? And then on Saturday, in the Herald - Dramatic clawback has Govt breathing down Nats' neck - Labour has fought back to within 5.2 points of National in the latest Herald-DigiPoll opinion survey. The Greens are the only other party to pass the crucial 5 per cent threshold, rising 1.2 points to 7.2 per cent.
2: Story in the Dominion Post yesterday regarding Louise Nicholas’s new Book, and her allegations around the first Police Officer she says raped her when she was 13. This cop was granted permenant name suppression after 3 trials found him innocent, only because the cop in charge of the prosecution, John Dewar threw the case because Louise’s accusation included his mates Shipton, Schollum and Ricards. But the cop she alleges raped her first was then caught out on line when he posted comments about hooking women up with dates for Shipton and Schollum in prison and another Trade Me user who claims she was raped by this name protected cop, at around the same time Louise claims she was first raped by him called him out on line by identifying him. But because he was found not guilty (even though the prosecuting cop threw the case) he can’t be trialed again for Louise’s claim of rape.
3: Ahmedinejad Visiting America – land of free speech?
4: Spanish eyes are shining – released transcript from the 2003 meeting of the then Spanish Prime Minister Aznar and Bush where it’s discussed that Saddam had offered to step down for $1Billion, but Bush thought they could just assassinate him instead. Hasn’t the war cost – according to former world bank chief economist and nobel prize winner - Joseph Stiglitz – well over a Trillion now? A Billion would’ve been a steal.

STORY 1 – 'Don't name shooter cop' - sst
The Police Association has appealed for the media not to name the officer who fatally shot a man in Christchurch, after details were revealed about his history in the force. Newspapers said yesterday the officer who shot Stephen Bellingham had previously shot and injured another person and has also successfully defended charges of assaulting prisoners. He has served on the frontline for more than 30 years. Should this case be the real push to gain an independent police complaints authority?


STORY 2 - Sacked lecturer asks for dole - HOS
Sacked Auckland University lecturer Paul Buchanan says he has been forced to seek help from Winz after being unemployed for two months. The high-profile academic and intelligence expert says he has lost his income and has filed an appeal against his dismissal. Buchanan said some of his speaking engagements had been cancelled as a result of the row with the university, which sacked him in July after he sent a blunt email to a student, refusing an assignment extension. Was the University right to sack Paul for an ill tempered a-mail to a student criticiisng her ability to pass the class, does the University enroll ill-prepared students just for the money and what about the young Muslim student in all of this?


STORY 3 - Police to get power to test drug drivers - HOS
The government is to introduce new laws within a fortnight that will give police new powers to administer a blood test on drivers thought to be driving under the influence of drugs. Police already have the power to charge those considered to be incapable of driving through suspected drug use, but it is legally difficult to prove, and rarely used.
The Land Transport Amendment Bill would lower the legal threshold of being impaired by illegal drugs and give police the power to do roadside co-ordination tests if a driver seemed impaired but passed a breath test. Is it really that good an idea to give the Police such unclear and ill defined powers over the entire driving public that are open to the discretion of the cop on the street?


STORY 4 – UN envoy flies into Myanmar maelstrom - HOS
YANGON - A UN envoy has flown to Myanmar to persuade its ruling generals to use talks instead of guns to end mass protests, but the US expressed concern that Ibrahim Gambari had been moved away from troubled Yangon. What pressure is possible on someone so out of line as the regime in Burma? What is China, it's largest trading partner doing?


Final Word
US carries out successful missile defence test
A US interceptor missile has shot down a dummy warhead replicating an incoming North Korean missile in the seventh successful test of Boeing's long-range missile shield, the Pentagon said. The Missile Defence Agency said in a statement it completed a test "involving a successful intercept by a ground-based interceptor missile designed to protect the United States against a limited long-range ballistic missile attack". BUT North Korea and Iran have nothing that would come close to being able to hit the American Homeland, this entire multi-multi billion dollar military industrial complex corporate welfare is driven by non public tendered contracts feed by paid every month tax payer funds. It has little to do with 'National Defense' and everything to do with fat cats lining their already well carpeted worlds.

Dramatic clawback has Govt breathing down Nats' neck

Dramatic clawback has Govt breathing down Nats' neck

Labour has fought back to within 5.2 points of National in the latest Herald-DigiPoll opinion survey. The clawback comes in a month when National's leader, John Key, has not been in the media spotlight nearly as much as Prime Minister Helen Clark. The poll rounds out a bad week for National, which fumbled the announcement of its intentions for health policy and also drew a hot public response when its deputy leader, Bill English, talked about partially selling some state-owned assets. The full impact of those events will not be seen until future polls, meaning the gap could close even further. The DigiPoll survey puts National on 44.8 per cent support, down 5.5 points on the August poll. That's its lowest rating in the survey since February. Labour is up 2.8 points to 39.6 per cent. The Greens are the only other party to pass the crucial 5 per cent threshold, rising 1.2 points to 7.2 per cent.

The inane joy our friends on the right and the joyful trumpeting of our friends on Kiwi Blog was never going to last long. National was never going to hold on to it's lead, ever. When I was listening to pundits last month telling us all that it was a National Government I just laughed, the lead that National had created was more to do with NZers natural dislike of elite, and with Labour in Government for 3 terms, they are starting to reek like the elite. When it comes down to actual policy, POLICY - not John Key's smile, POLICY - National has nothing, and when it does have something (privatize prisons, privatize assets, tax cuts oh and not even telling people that they intend to scrap limits on Dr fees WHILE announcing their health policy) - it's just the same old conservative bullshit that we have all seen fail time and time and time again. I really hoped that Key had more, that his first attempts at the game, like giving Charities a tax break, taking poor kids to Waitangi - things like that would actually show a new side of National, but peel back the veneer and it's the same old crap.

I remember someone posted a comment a couple of weeks ago in response to me on the Sunday newspaper brunch club saying that the Maori Party and the Greens could be the key to Labour staying in power and someone ridiculing that comment. I think this poll goes somewhere to propping that possibility up.

Outrageous abuse of power

As we all start to rally from the shock that is the EFB (always pro shutting down plutocracy, never using plutocracy as the defense to start your own) comes another enormous and dreadful expansion of power. I blogged on this issue after Scoop first reported it a couple of months back, and it’s gone through – no longer will the decision as to who a terrorist is be decided on the legality of the situation, it will now be decided politically, by the Prime Minster. Again I can’t help but think if it was National pulling shit like this there would be rioting in the streets, but because Labour are pulling it, it is somehow okay – why would we allow a Politician of all people to decide if someone is a terrorist or not – of course a Judge should make that call, to allow the Prime Minster to decide who and who is not a terrorist is a grim day for law in this country.

PM not High Court recommended to decide who are terrorists
A Parliamentary select committee has decided the Prime Minister and not the High Court should decide who is a terrorist. The committee has reported back on the Terrorism Suppression Amendment Bill. It says the Prime Minister should conduct three-yearly reviews of individuals and groups designated as terrorists to decide if they should stay that way. At present, the High Court makes the decisions.

National Home Goal

National Home Goal
It has been a VERY bad week for National, after all the hopes in the world that they could simply skip to electoral victory next year, this week National suddenly look very damaged. Selling state assets and yesterdays accusation of a hidden agenda by scrapping controls on Drs fees reminded everyone that beyond the smile of John Key lurks the same old fears of cutting services and selling things that NZers have come to expect from their Governments.

National accused of running secret health agenda
The National Party is being accused of running a secret agenda after confirming it will scrap controls on doctors' fees.

Health spokesman Tony Ryall and Party leader John Key launched a discussion document, which made no mention of doctor costs.

Mr Ryall insisted he had previously announced that National would scrap the review system which forces doctors to explain fee increases which are above the inflation rate.
NZ Herald

OH COME ON TONY! National put out a Health Policy THAT DOESN’T MENTION THEIR INTENTION TO SCRAP CONTROLS ON DRS FEES?????????????????/????

HOME GOAL – Helen Clarke must be laughing all the way back to the Government benches, and it’s a chilling reminder that you can’t trust National as charming as their leader may well be.

What an absolute incompetent cock up.

Cops and Hammers

Alt Tv/Fleet FM Breakfast News Comment
Cops and Hammers
So we have different versions of events, one kid says the guy was charging, two others say he wasn’t – the cops are investigating cops in a secret none transparent system, and the Police Association has their cheerleaders out demanding the Public support the cops – really Greg, you demand the public support our cops? You’ve picked the wrong year to demand loyalty bub, and the way the Police have managed to twist this into a reason why cops need tasers, and go as far as to point the finger at ‘comfortable people in Auckland’ who have opposed cops getting tasers is astonishing for it’s shallowness. Why would we allow the cops more weapons when there isn’t an independent system in place to protect our rights if the cops over step their powers.

One also has to look at the culture in these insular little worlds – 24 hours earlier staff in this Police area were e-mailing out a group emails showing a man knifed and the words, “If you have a knife you deserved to be shot” – 24 hours later a cop shoots someone with a hammer who may or may not have been advancing on him. One also has to ask why not a baton, pepper spray or calling in dogs? Of course at the end of the day, I wasn’t the guy being advanced on, if it was me, I’d probably freak out a little and pull a trigger too, but there’s a difference between me and a cop – I’M NOT A COP, I haven’t been trained or taught what to do, how to handle stressful and violent situations, the cops have – or have they? My biggest problem with cops has always been the pitiful amount of time it takes to be a cop 19 weeks IS NOT an appropriate amount of time to be trained as a cop, and one has to wonder if that had some part to play in this tragedy. We do expect more from our cops, we don’t want to live in a country where people get shot for smashing up cars for crying out loud.

Bills boy don’t like the fags much

Alt Tv/Fleet FM Breakfast News Comment
Bills boy don’t like the fags much
During the ‘moral crises’ of the ‘anti-smacking’ legislation, Bill English said he was "totally responsible for [his] children's physical and moral welfare," and that children need parental direction. Really Bill? Well what’s all this about his precious little sons unbelievable homophobic comments posted on his Bebo site? I appreciate the kids young, but sweet jesus the stuff he has to say is jaw dropping, this excellent story from the good people at www.gaynz.com…

A teenage son of National Party Deputy Leader and spokesperson on education, Bill English, who is also the MP for Clutha/Southland, has for some months been expressing beliefs such as that 'emos' (young people who openly express emotional angst through their fashion and music) - whom he constantly equates with homosexuals - are more hated than both blacks and Jews combined, "and for good reason too." He also refers to them as "whiney faggots".
Within the past week, the page has been updated to reference a soccer match with the words "some college fags are gonna to get stabbed with katanas [Japanese fighting swords] - which he believes is "excellent."
The profile also links to a page which idolises homophobic American rapper 50 Cent and states "hu ever goes ther [apparently Wellington College] is a col fag hu evas goin 2 go ther will be turned extrmely homosexual by the outstanding number of men and young boys and well dont go 2 coll... if u r thinking of goin 2 coll..u will extremley homosexual but also be coll fagerized," and "coll and scots have combined "all boys" dances, where ur ticket in is a condom."

This is all pretty desperately hateful stuff, and one cant help but wonder if Bill is totally responsible for his sons moral welfare, because if I had a child who was spouting septic hate like that, I’d want my money back from my Dad of the Year award. The response however has been the amazing bit, Bill attacked the website who had brought the issue to his attention and makes some ludicrous suggestion that it’s the doings of the Labour party, Bill – FORGET HELEN, this is your kid writing deeply hateful shit, you need to go do some Fathering here, not scream about how unfair it is, IF he wrote this and at no time have you actually denied that he did, you have some issues you need to work through with him. I wonder if he had used nigger would it simply be a Labour Party plot?

The kind of hate his son shows queer folk is the sort of hate one only learns at dads elbow.

The Crackdown begins

Alt Tv/Fleet FM Breakfast News Comment
The Crackdown begins
Up to 10,000 Burmese Buddhist monks and civilians have defied police tear gas and live bullets on the ninth day of protests against the military rulers. At least one monk was killed, hospital sources in the main city of Rangoon said. The government has confirmed one death, without giving details. Witnesses described monks with blood on their shaved heads as police charged at the Shwedagon pagoda in Rangoon. Seeing as the planet has pretty much stood by quietly for the last decade doing very little to support the people of Burma, it would be a wee bit unkind of us to not actually get off our arses and start putting pressure on the largest backer of Burma – being China – and start demanding some changes or else – the or else? Boycott the Beijing Olympics (notice how China seems to be supporting all these repugnant regimes – is China the new America, is America the old Russia, is the new Russia the old China? I can’t keep up with the different masks of the oligarchy).

Ahmadinejad can make a fool of himself without America building him into more than he is

Alt Tv/Fleet FM Breakfast News Comment
Ahmadinejad can make a fool of himself without America building him into more than he is
With American tabloid headlines screaming “The Evil has landed”, and “Madman Iran Prez”, the way Fox News America have gone about demonizing Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad should be a deep embarrassment for a country that supposedly protects free speech. If they can allow the Klu Klux Clan to march down mainstreets, you would think they could allow the President of a country they are threatening to bomb to say a few words first. The funny thing is that when you look at much of what Ahmadinejad had to say in his speech, it was all pretty reasonable stuff that most rational people would agree to. He pointed out the sheer injustice within Palestine and the arrogance of American foreign policy, all valid stuff (and for the record Ahmadinejad never said that Israel should be wiped off the face of the earth and he never claimed the holocaust never happened – he challenges the reason why Palestinians had to suffer for European guilt, and for that he gets misquoted for self serving interests). But here’s the thing, Iran isn’t a free country, it is a deeply repressive country, and give a clown enough rope and they will at some point hang themselves, which Ahmadinejad did when he claimed that there were no homosexuals in his country. This might be technically true as Iran tends to hang them from cranes, so perhaps he’s killed them all – but then again Saudi Arabia is a dreadful abuser of human rights as well and we ain’t lookin to invade them. So while Iran has some way to go to becoming a progressive nation, suggesting bombing them into the stone age seems churlish. The other dumb reason to demonise Ahmadinejad is that he isn’t the power in Iran, the Ayatollah is, the Ayatollah determines nuclear policy, by insulting Ahmadinejad all America does is make him more popular at home, not a smart idea if you are genuine about diplomacy.

Forget plan to sell assets, Grey Power tells National

Alt Tv/Fleet FM Breakfast News Comment
Forget plan to sell assets, Grey Power tells National
Grey Power has warned the National Party it won't win next year's election if it intends selling state-owned assets. "Nobody will be naive enough to believe that this is not going to be a step to full privatisation," said Graham Stairmand, national president of the politically powerful organisation which represents pensioners. "This will seal the fate of the National Party ... Labour will be rubbing their hands with glee." The Government and other political parties have also criticised National since its deputy leader, Bill English, said at the weekend his party was looking at the partial sale of some state-owned enterprises (SOEs). He said a National-led government would favour a mixed ownership model and suggested selling 20 per cent of SOEs would give people good investment opportunities. Mr Stairmand said efficiencies had been promised when power companies were privatised but 15 years on consumers were struggling to pay their electricity bills. God bless grandpa and grandma, NZers still old enough to remember the lies of yesterday and all the bullshit promises we were given last time to the utopia NZ was supposed to become if we privatized. Of course the National supporting corporate mates who ‘anonymously’ donate large amounts of cash to National and who will magically end up benefiting from facilitating the sale to companies they have an interest in, will do all they can to get National in power to make sure they push their privatization agenda along, luckily we have Grey Power to remind us that the Utopia simply benefits the few, not the many.

Cops shoot another NZer dead

Alt Tv/Fleet FM Breakfast News Comment
Cops shoot another NZer dead
Police shot and killed a man in Christchurch last night after being called to a domestic incident. The incident began in a house near inner-city Avonside Drive, where a 37-year-old man was reported to be smashing a flat with a hammer. When police arrived, he was in nearby Stanmore Rd attacking a vehicle with the hammer. Police said he was shot at 8.36pm, and died at the scene at about 9pm. A resident told One News he heard what sounded like someone kicking and banging a car, then what he described as four gun shots. Ummmm, if all this guy had was a hammer, why did the cops shoot him dead? Why didn’t they call the dogs and set them on him if he wasn’t going to put his hammer down? Do we really want an ill trained Police force (who if not participating in questionable sadomasochistic gang rapes) shoot citizens at the drop of a hat? It might be a bit quick to jump to conclusions, but seeing as the Police Complaints Authority (where cops investigate cops in a none transparent secret manner) will simply put out another whitewash report, they may well be the only conclusions one can get.

Guess who is back - back again, Tim is back - tell a friend

Mr Selwyn will be back writing sometime after the 1st October as he will be out of prison after being granted Home Detention. We have missed him and I'm pleased to see him out and he will be stepping up and taking back his writing responsibilties for this blogsite, with me continuing to post daily.

The Communist Buddhist monk threat

Alt Tv/Fleet FM Breakfast News Comment
The Communist Buddhist monk threat
The leaders of Burma’s ruling military junta who have held power and brutally repressed the people of Burma have attempted to suggest that the Buddhist monks are actually influenced by communists – hmmm, Communist Buddhists? Is that like Libertarian Environmentalists? Republican Socialists? Trade Union Billionaires (well maybe the last one is possible) – instead of making up political groups that don’t exist, perhaps the military junta in Burma need to understand that people don’t like being repressed, and that sooner or latter people start to rebel against brutal repression.

Crackdown on incompetence

Alt Tv/Fleet FM Breakfast News Comment
Crackdown on incompetence
New teachers are slipping into the classroom without the skills, knowledge and temperament needed to do the job, according to a major review of teacher training. The discussion document, just released by the Ministry of Education, called for a crackdown to ensure all newly registered teachers were up to scratch. The Teachers Council admitted it didn't know if incompetent teachers were entering the workforce as national measures to test certain skills didn't exist. It comes amid a drive to push up teacher numbers to fill a predicted shortfall of up to 1000 next year. Seeing as we have no nationally centralized body to control entry to teaching and rely on the schools to decide if a teacher is good enough, the very same schools desperate to keep those teachers, you can see how bad teachers get to be kept. Isn’t it time to start looking at bonding teachers with free education so that we get 100% of trained Teacher students staying in NZ rather than 40%?

Compulsory third-party policies loom

Alt Tv/Fleet FM Breakfast News Comment
Compulsory third-party policies loom
Third-party vehicle insurance could soon become compulsory for all drivers as the Government considers lowering the financial boom on dangerous street racers. The Cabinet yesterday gave the go-ahead for a public discussion document to be written on making insurance compulsory. Ummmmmm – if boy racers are happy to break the law as it is, other than make insurance companies richer, what the hell will demanding compulsory 3rd party insurance do? Wouldn’t you want to target the ability of young people to buy ridiculously cheap cars at ridiculously high interest rates?

One for our Global Warming denying mates

Ice withdrawal 'shatters record'
Arctic sea ice shrank to the smallest area on record this year, US scientists have confirmed.
The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) said the minimum extent of 4.13 million sq km (1.59 million sq miles) was reached on 16 September. The figure shatters all previous satellite surveys, including the previous record low of 5.32 million sq km measured in 2005. Earlier this month, it was reported that the Northwest Passage was open. The fabled Arctic shipping route from the Atlantic to the Pacific is normally ice-bound at some location throughout the year; but this year, ships have been able to complete an unimpeded navigation. Arctic sea ice loses area in summer months and regrows in the winter cold. The researchers at NSIDC judge the ice extent on a five-day mean. The minimum for 2007 falls below the minimum set on 20-21 September 2005 by an area roughly the size of Texas and California combined, or nearly five UKs. Speaking to BBC News on Monday this week, Mark Serreze, a senior research scientist at the NSIDC, said: "2005 was the previous record and what happened then had really astounded us; we had never seen anything like that, having so little sea ice at the end of summer. Then along comes 2007 and it has completely shattered that old record." He added: "We're on a strong spiral of decline; some would say a death spiral. I wouldn't go that far but we're certainly on a fast track. We know there is natural variability but the magnitude of change is too great to be caused by natural variability alone." The team will now follow the progress of recovery over the winter months. In December 2006, a study by US researchers forecast that the Arctic could be ice-free in summers by 2040. A team of scientists from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), the University of Washington, and McGill University, found that "positive feedbacks" were likely to accelerate the decline of the region's ice system. Sea ice has a bright surface which reflects 80% of the sunlight that strikes it back into space. However, as the ice melts during the summer, more of the dark ocean surface becomes exposed. Rather than reflecting sunlight, the ocean absorbs 90% of it, causing the waters to warm and increase the rate of melting. Scientists fear that this feedback mechanism will have major consequences for wildlife in the region, not least polar bears, which traverse ice floes in search of food. On a global scale, the Earth would lose a major reflective surface and so absorb more solar energy, potentially accelerating climatic change across the world.

The catastrophic climate event I've been banging on for years will occur through one of these positive feedbacks, what we don't seem to understand yet is that these climate events can be sudden and dramatic, the bullshit greenwash policy the Government announced last week goes no where towards addressing that.

The military privatization of murder was warned as far back as 2004

Alt Tv/Fleet FM Breakfast News Comment
The military privatization of murder was warned as far back as 2004
Senior officials in Iraq and the United States ignored multiple warnings about the operations of some of the biggest private military corporations dating back to at least 2004, new evidence shows. A series of congressional reports, testimony to congressional committees, lawsuits in the US, and leaked documents from the past two years have painted a picture of a lack of transparency and accountability of security firms working for the State Department and Department of Defence, including allegations of frequent shooting of civilians. The sheer scale of the failure to rein in the private military corporations comes in the wake of last week's killing of at least eight, and possibly as many as 28, civilians by Blackwater USA, a contractor working for the State Department, in what Iraq's Interior Ministry has said was an unprovoked attack. Ironically the need for regulation was first raised in March 2004 by the Private Security Working Group in Baghdad, representing the biggest operators in the country. The minutes of the meeting were later leaked. What was discussed that day contained a grim prediction of the controversies that would dog the companies in the years to come. The group warned of the need for self-regulation. Most urgently, in the light of hostile media coverage, it warned that the industry should be aware of an influx of "criminals and cowboys". The meeting's chairman, Lawrence Peter, described it as a gold rush for security guards in which he said the group's members were "creating a private army on an unprecedented scale". And thanks to America passing Order 17 in Iraq, that private army of unprecedented scale is legally exempt from Iraqi law, you have tens of thousands of mercenaries free from any legal responsibility and overwhelming evidence that these guys shoot innocent civilians all the time. Hardly the freedom and democracy we promised Iraq now is it?

Drumbeat for war continues

Alt Tv/Fleet FM Breakfast News Comment
Drumbeat for war continues
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is poised to deliver a defiant address to the United Nations general assembly this week amid a storm of opposition to his visit to New York. The growing attempt to put into the news media on a daily bases the unspoken desire to bomb Iran back into the stone ages goes unchallenged now and is part of the process of desensitizing the western masses into another war, so much so that we will start to blend wars, so that we were always at war with Iraq/Iran. Just like 1984, our never ending war with Eurasia continues, victory is just on the horizon.

500 drivers face charges after police blitz targets boy racers

Alt Tv/Fleet FM Breakfast News Comment
500 drivers face charges after police blitz targets boy racers
More than 500 cars from Dunedin, Gore and Invercargill are among the more than 500 who face prosecution after a weekend police blitz in Christchurch that saw 49 vehicles taken off the road and 21 people arrested. Operation Hornet was a high profile campaign targeting boy racers on Friday and Saturday night, to coincide with the Auto Salon Showcase car show in Christchurch, Canterbury road policing manager Inspector Derek Erasmus said. Finally a smarter approach to policing boy racers, by setting up this type of operation during massive car shows, instead of chasing the boy racers (and the inevitable car crashes that happen ‘seconds after the cops stop chasing’ – yeah right), setting up road blocks and catching the boys when they are peacock parading around during these shows is a much more effective and safer way to catch the kind of silly dickheads who give male drivers a bad name.

National confident plan for SOE part-sale will not lose votes

Alt Tv/Fleet FM Breakfast News Comment
National confident plan for SOE part-sale will not lose votes
The National Party is considering going into next year's election with a policy to partially sell some of the country's state-owned assets - and its deputy leader, Bill English, is confident the idea will not provoke a voter backlash. National has talked openly about the merits of partially selling state-owned enterprises before, but Mr English's comments yesterday have provoked a fierce response from Labour and effectively reopened the political debate about the future of SOEs.

I’ve been suspicious for sometime regarding National’s secret policy to sell off our assets, in his book, The Hollow Men, Nicky Hagar shows how deep that secret went. The National Party would say one thing on the issue to the public but secretly plan to sell off assets, with the businessmen who would have a vested interest in the sales on the sidelines cheering National along. Rather than trying to throw shit at John Key, Labour should point out to the electorate National’s real agenda to sell off our assets, we have tried that failed policy in the past, the public suffers and only the corporate swine who anonymously back the political party who pushes these policy changes through and who happen to ‘facilitate the sale’ benefit. These are our assets and we shouldn’t be selling them off, partial-sale my arse.

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 and Ben Thomas from the NBR

News that caught my eye –
1: An An Liu’s body was in the boot all that time – 45 hours?
2: Meteor crash in Peru
3: Greenwash from Labour
4: Greenspan admits Iraq was all about oil while a new tally of deaths in Iraq bring the numbers dead by results of the war to 1.2million and Ben Bernake’s warning that the sub prime mortgage problem was worse than the most pessimistic evaluations.
5: Monks in Burma
6: Shutting power off to Gaza – aren’t group punishment tactics illegal under the UN?

STORY 1 – Boy-racer mayhem – HOS/SST
A 19-year-old man is dead and another lucky to be alive after being stabbed during a weekend of boy-racer mayhem across the country. Police confiscated dozens of vehicles but could not stop the weekend's activities centred on Christchurch and New Plymouth from ending in tragedy. It’s chestnut news time my friends – the news media have already done P, dangerous Dogs, da gangs da gangs and poor kids beating up rich kids, so it’s back to ‘those bloody boy racers’ time.


STORY 2 – Rickards faces 10 misconduct charges while lodgiong complaints about Louise Nicholas and the Police who brought him down. – HOS /SST
It’s like watching a body twist and kick in the gallows isn’t it – anyone else see the irony in Rickards using the Police Complaints Authority to complain about Louise? National say dump him regardless, Helen says that’s irresponsible.


STORY 3 – Mandela still alive, despite embarrassing Bush remark - sst
Nelson Mandela is still very much alive despite an embarrassing gaffe by US President George W Bush, who alluded to the former South African leader's death in an attempt to explain sectarian violence in Iraq. In a speech defending his administration's Iraq policy, Bush said former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's brutality had made it impossible for a unifying leader to emerge and stop the sectarian violence that has engulfed the Middle Eastern nation. "I heard somebody say, Where's Mandela?' Well, Mandela's dead because Saddam Hussein killed all the Mandelas," Bush, who has a reputation for verbal faux pas, said in a press conference in Washington.

(My top 3 favourite Bush quotes)
"The point now is how do we work together to achieve important goals. And one such goal is a democracy in Germany." (Bush in Washington, D.C., May 5, 2006)

"I'm not the expert on how the Iraqi people think, because I live in America, where it's nice and safe and secure." (Bush in Washington, D.C., Sept. 23, 2004)

"I'm honored to shake the hand of a brave Iraqi citizen who had his hand cut off by Saddam Hussein." (Bush in Washington, D.C., May 25, 2004)

485 days until Bush leaves office

STORY 4 – Iraq aims to end immunity of security firms – sst/hos
Iraq wants to tighten control over security contractors after a deadly shooting incident involving the US firm Blackwater, ending their long immunity from Iraqi prosecution, the Interior Ministry said. The problem here is that the mercenaries ARE immune from Iraqi law under Order 17, under international law they are culpable, but that needs the agreement of the American Authorities for any prosecution to go ahead. This case shows how weak the Iraq government is and the growing reliance on brutal mercenaries who are not legally responsible for their heavy handed tactics.

Final Word
– US military cemetery ran out of room to bury bodies in Kansa this week – to solve the issue they are looking to bury bodies on top of each other.
- If the answer is John Banks, the question must be stupid

Iran: We'll fight with oil and nukes

Alt Tv/Fleet FM Breakfast News Comment
Iran: We'll fight with oil and nukes
Iran, responding to Western debate about the possibility of war over its nuclear plans, said yesterday that it would use any means to defend itself if attacked and could bomb Israel if the Jewish state launched a strike. Its latest swipes came despite French efforts to row back from a comment by its Foreign Minister that publicly raised the spectre of war over Tehran's disputed nuclear activities. Let’s be very clear, only a madman would agree to bombing Iran, the sheer volume of hatred that would be exploded out towards the west by furious Muslims around the planet would be too much to contain, there is no strategic value to starting a culture war other than to sell more guns and erode civil rights under the rule of martial law. Iran has every right to be suspicious of America, the CIA helped bring to power the Shar in a coup America supported in the 1950s, which was so repressive the people of Iran chose radical isalm over the American puppet regime while America simply started backing Saddam in a murderous war with the Iranians, we forget this but they don’t, and now America has 160 000 troops across the border from them, they have everytright to feel threatened which in turn can be inspiring the desire for a nuke on their behalf. Yes Iran is a repressive state with crap human rights, but so is Saudi Arabia and we love to trade with them, and no one is suggesting that we bomb Saudi Arabia for human rights. There isn’t a military solution to this, there is only a diplomatic solution because the ramifications of bombing are simply too dire to consider.

Protesters highlight US race row

Alt Tv/Fleet FM Breakfast News Comment
Protesters highlight US race row
Hundreds of civil rights protesters are marching through the small US town of Jena in Louisiana against what they say is continuing racism in the state. The march has been organised in support of six black teenagers, who were initially charged with attempted murder after the beating of a white classmate. A string of incidents between pupils had began the previous summer. At that time, a black student had asked the school's principal whether he was permitted to sit under the shade of the school courtyard tree, where white students traditionally congregated. He was told he could sit where he liked. The following morning, when the students arrived at school, they found three nooses dangling from the tree. The school's head recommended the noose-hangers be expelled, but the governing board overruled him and the three white student perpetrators were briefly suspended. Following this a white teenage victim was beaten unconscious and had a badly swollen face, but was able to attend a school event the same evening. The black students involved in that incident were charged with attempted murder, where as the white students who hung nooses after a black kid sat under their tree weren’t charged with anything. The tree has ended up suffering the most, as details of this case got into the media, the school chopped down the tree.

Climate Bill Greenwash

Alt Tv/Fleet FM Breakfast News Comment
Climate Bill Greenwash
Households will pay up to 10 per cent more for electricity and 6c a litre more for petrol to reduce New Zealand's contribution to global warming. The Government's carbon emissions trading scheme revealed yesterday makes businesses pay for the amount of carbon they put into the atmosphere - costs that will generally be passed on to the consumer. After 5 years this is the best Labour can produce? A couple of piss poor attempts to make power more expensive, a lifting of their dumb claim to take pre-Koyoto Protocol Forestry Credits which has inadverdantly boosted deforestation to dairy farms and the Agriculture sector, responsible for nearly half our greenhouse gas emissions is exempt for 6 years. How the hell can we ask other countries to make real sacrifice in cutting back when we are only barely making an effort ourselves? Where is the increased research to help the Agriculture sector deal with methane from their animals, where is the solar power, the wind power, research for tide generators? This Climate Bill is 5 years too late and 6 years too slow. The reality is that the Political will to make these things happen simply isn’t there and it won’t be there until a clear environmental collapse that is connected to global warming occurs. Of course by then it may well be too late, but let’s not ruin all the politicians patting eachother on the back with their pitiful attempt.

Pumpkin case: Police say 'We did the right thing over car'

Alt Tv/Fleet FM Breakfast News Comment
Pumpkin case: Police say 'We did the right thing over car'
Police are staunchly defending their handling of the An An Liu homicide inquiry, but remain under fire for taking days to discover her badly beaten body in the boot of her husband's car. Deputy Police Commissioner Rob Pope commended the inquiry yesterday, saying it had proceeded "in keeping with best professional practice". During the 45 hours between the Police arriving at the home and discovering the body in the boot, many of the journalists were leaning on the car writing their notes and joking that the body was in the boot. The incompetence of the Police is matched by the weird desire by the Media to call this little girl, ‘Pumpkin’ in an attempt to sell the story to a mainly white audience who obviously felt too alienated by her real name Qian Xun Xue so the media had to create a cute nickname for her. Dumb cops and a media dumbing down the story. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

Israel starts Group Punishment of Palestinians

Alt Tv/Fleet FM Breakfast News Comment
Israel starts Group Punishment of Palestinians
The Israeli government has declared the Gaza Strip a "hostile entity" in response to the continued rocket attacks by Palestinian militants there. Israeli officials told the BBC fuel and electricity supplies could be targeted, but not water, food or medicine. The militant group Hamas, which controls Gaza, said such a move would be considered a declaration of war.
Hmmm, I wonder why Gaza is a ‘hostile entity’, how about a 40 year brutal repressive occupation by Israel that is defended by bullshit ‘self defence’ claims by the people with the biggest guns. Israel has sown all the seeds for this hateful wine.

Campaigners call for Rickards' head

Alt Tv/Fleet FM Breakfast News Comment
Campaigners call for Rickards' head
A campaign has started to have suspended assistant police commissioner Clint Rickards sacked, but the Government has given assurances the issue will soon be resolved. Postcards were distributed in downtown Wellington yesterday, addressed to Police Minister Annette King, calling for New Zealand Police to fire Mr Rickards. The postcards, with free postage, say that while being paid more than $150,000 a year, Mr Rickards has:

* taken sexual advantage of vulnerable young women

* supported convicted rapists

* been involved in immoral, manipulative and unacceptable conduct.

The postcards say his actions have been "totally unacceptable to all New Zealanders". This case leaves a sour taste in everyones mouth, would the jury have seen things differently if they were aware of all the facts, how many rape allegations must you face before you lose confidence in a high ranking police officer? Of course there will be those who glibly point out he was let off and that should be that, however most NZers would feel that sadomasochistic ritualistic gang rape where Police batons are forced into women not once but three times with two of the cops being found guilty of gang rape leaves a lot of questions.

Gas tax will not to apply to farmers, says Govt

Alt Tv/Fleet FM Breakfast News Comment
Gas tax will not to apply to farmers, says Govt
Farmers will avoid having to pay for their greenhouse gas emissions for several years yet under the Government's flagship climate change policies, set to be unveiled today. It is understood that dairy farmers, who contribute a large part of New Zealand's emissions through cow belching, will not be part of the new emissions trading scheme at all during the first Kyoto Protocol commitment period, from 2008 until 2012. Surprise, surprise, the blessed farmers don’t have to pay the full cost of the damage to our environment from their industry which is one of the countries largest greenhouse gas emitters. It’s time to get bloody hard on the farmers, and make them pay the full cost of their farting belching cattle, when will this country start taking global warming seriously?

Coolest news story of the day

Scores ill in Peru 'meteor crash'
Some 600 people in Peru have required treatment after an object from space - said to be a meteorite - plummeted to Earth in a remote area, officials say. They say the object left a deep crater after crashing down over the weekend near the town of Carancas in the Andes. People who have visited scene have been complaining of headaches, vomiting and nausea after inhaling gases. A team of scientists is on its way to the site to collect samples and verify whether it was indeed a meteorite. "It [the object] is buried in the earth," local resident Heber Mamani told the BBC. "That is why we are asking for an analysis because we are worried for our people. They are afraid. A bull is dead and some other animals are already sick," he said. The incident began on Saturday night, when people near Carancas in the Puno region, some 1,300km (800 miles) south of Lima, reported seeing a fireball in the sky coming towards them. The object then hit the ground, leaving a 30m (98ft) wide and 6m (20ft) deep crater. The crater spewed what officials described as fetid, noxious gases. The gases are believed to have affected the health of about 600 people who visited the site. Most of the victims have been complaining of headaches, vomiting and nausea. Honorio Campoblanco, one of Peru's leading geologists, called on the authorities to stop people going near the crash site. But he discarded the possibility that the symptoms would have been caused by any form of radiation.