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