The Sunday Newspaper Brunch Club

On the Sunday Newspaper Brunch Club today at 11am, Sky Digital 65, with Bomber from Alt, Kiwi FM Breakfast Host Wallace Chapman and Ben Thomas from the NBR

News that caught my eye –
1: Tasman aquaculture management area
More than 100 hectares of new aquaculture space in the Tasman region has received preliminary approval, Fisheries Minister Jim Anderton announced today. That’s it, Jim? A provisional 108 hectares for aquaculture?Phil Heatley – So after confiscating this through legislation, the Government start slicing it up with National on the sidelines braying they would cut it up faster –aren’t we just harvesting a righteous grievance?

2: Kosovo supported by US and EU so quickly and so forcefully – Serbia sees it as annexation, Albanian Kosovans see it as a tragically hard won independence in the shadow of ethnic cleansing but the wider question must be why force a confrontation with Russia? The beat is on that the Russians will test a missile hitting a satellite shortly after America ‘saved the people of Earth’ from a toxic death’ – this coming from the country that provides 20% of the planets greenhouse emissions from a 4% population

3: FLASHPOINT TURKEY! I’ve been questioning Turkey’s intentions wioth troop build ups along the Iraq border, the PKK want to drag the Turks into their own Vietnam to boost their support base and recruitment levels as Peace in Northern Iraq has led to a labour shortage of fanatical mercenaries – imagine that – the US have a joint command center with the Turk Army that provides real time battlefield intelligence so any suggestion that they are not actively greenlighting this invasion isn ‘t credible, just as in Somali where America are fighting a proxy war using Ethiopia to fight it, isn’t that what America is doing with Turkey? If America is to ‘drawdown’ it’s own forces to just be in the Green Zone, they need someone’s army to look after the rest of it – is this the reinforcements coming?

4: In the week that it looks like the pro-smacking lobby get their wish, Barbara Bishop, poster girl for the Nanny state coming in and destroying loving parents who refuse to spare the rod to spoil the child, was found guilty of hogtying and beating her son, aren’t we anti-smackers the patient ones here?

5: Democracy a step closer? Musharraf and Fidel both leave

6: Waist restraints as the response to Liam Ashley’s death in a prison van.

7: Putting Police into schools to gather intelligence flawed?

8: Quality Improvement Committee - 182 preventable injuries, including 40 deaths – but could be higher because the system to record mistakes is voluntary and we can’t make it compulsory because staff would be frightened?

9: Oh the irony of National lecturing Labour on Owen Glenn, the party built by secret donations – slow news week made fast by Mike Williams resignation offer?

10: Afghan opium now 1billion

STORY 1 – Suspected medal thief on bail after deal over Goldie theft - SST
A man suspected of stealing 96 medals, including nine Victoria Crosses, from the Waiouru Army Museum was on bail when the medals were taken. The man had struck a deal with police over the return of a Goldie painting taken in a similar crime, the New Zealand Herald reported today.
Could this get any better (then again Crighten has links to the Head Hunters and Black Power, making him a BlackHead) I doubted that the criminal fraternity had the forethought for this, Isn’t a week a long time, Chris Comeskey was a hero, after a week of talkback crucifixion he was protecting the crims and we got a real eyeful of what went into the sausage of dealing with the Underworld and we were put off our medal appetite – but isn’t the howling from Amanda, the daughter of Upham just too much – didn’t she try and pawn the medals off? Isn’t this necessary bartering?

STORY 2 – Campbell: Yes, we made a mistake - sst
John Campbell says he made a mistake by not explaining that his interview with an alleged Waiouru medals thief was a re-enactment, but insists he never set out to deceive viewers. TV3's Campbell Live screened an interview on Thursday with a man, wearing a hood and with his face in shadow, claiming to be responsible for the December 2 theft of the medals. But viewers were told only that an actor's voice had been used, not that the man on screen was an actor. Canterbury University media lecturer Associate Professor Jim Tully said the show had deceived viewers and tarnished a good news scoop.
It doubled his ratings, did they pull a fast one? Oh and someone tell John Campbell to put on a tie, it’s current affairs for crying out loud, not a beer at Galbraiths!

STORY 3 – Raided for library card - HOS
Police handling of the anti-terror raids is again under fire after officers stormed the home of an Auckland businessman in search of a library card, a Hawaiian shirt, a pair of khaki shorts and a copy of the leaked terror affidavit. A dozen plainclothes detectives raided the Whangaparaoa property of Vince Siemer on Thursday morning looking for anything connecting him with those accused of taking part last year in IRA-style training camps in the foothills of the Urewera Ranges.
This follows the arrest of 3 others on weapons charges – this is rapidly looking like a farce, when Hawaiian shirts are on the evidence list my faith in the system starts to diminish.

STORY 4 – John Key's face-off - hos
John Key has opened a new front on the political battlefield, with the launch of his official Facebook site. The social networking phenomenon has been credited with helping Labor's Kevin Rudd oust long-serving John Howard at the Australian polls last year.
Isn’t John down with the kids, Labour will copy it but there will be no smacking or superpoke if you are a child, and NZ first will investigate this ‘In-ter-net’ thing. In America the internet has shown how politicians can get to Gen Xers and Millennium kids in a way the traditional media don’t. And what about the latest polls in the Dominion Post? - Labour poll-axed
National has raced to 55 per cent support in the Fairfax Media-Nielsen poll, opening a 23-point lead over Labour.
It is the biggest lead National has held since Labour has been in government. But the sharp drop in Miss Clark's popularity may be the bigger worry for Labour, which has always believed her personal ratings would help it to close the gap. The plunge in her support is likely to spark speculation of a leadership coup. Leftwing commentator Chris Trotter has told The Dominion Post a change to Trade Minister Phil Goff may be Labour's only hope of regaining ground among struggling families.

FINAL WORD – Moment of Paul Henry Zen, when discussing the QE2 refurbishment in Dubai, Paul ponders “Do Arabs have any taste? I watched a documentary that showed the inside of a yacht owned by Saddam and it was very gauche”