The Sunday News Roast

On the Sunday News Roast tonight at 7pm, Sky Digital 65, Alt Tvs News and weekend newspaper critique show that is Unfair & Unbalanced, THE SPIN STARTS HERE with the best political news team on television with your host, Bomber - head of Current Affairs at Alt Tv, Ben Thomas - Political Editor of the NBR, and Blogger Tim Selwyn - the last man to be convicted of sedition in NZ.

Kick the show off with our thoughts on The Hollow Man doco we all saw on Thursday night…my thoughts were how interesting the similarities were between the last election and this election – last election the hard right Don Brash was spun as a moderate, 3 years later John Key is spun the same way, last election National used the inoculation tactic of declaring all privatization would occur in a second term, 3 years later National are claiming the same thing, last election National had a secret radical right wing privatization agenda they kept hidden, 3 years later who knows?

News that caught the eye this week
1: Hangover Finance – how can we close down the SFO right when we have our 25th Finance Company collapse? Are Finance Advisors worse than used car salesmen, lawyers and real estate agents combined? Kudos to Mr Selwyn and Mr Thomas who have been pointing out anomalies in the Hanover Finance façade for many months. Oh and did anyone notice this week Annette King confirmed for the first time that they would transfer not having the right to silence powers from the SFO to the Police, bringing to fruition another prediction made here on the Sunday News Roast that the Police were lusting for that power and we now predict the blurring of that power from serious fraud to everyday use by demonizing gangs thus defending any erosion of civil liberty.

2: The Winston Peters fiasco: How can a man who has spent his political life building a legacy of railing against corporate influence and corrupt ethics when it has been revealed that he has taken large sums from those corporate interests in a way to avoid laws for their public disclosure and transparency.
The Conspiracy Theory: Winston’s being set up by backers who have an interest in seeing NZ First collapse and bring votes to National – the racing allegations have surfaced from an industry who were 100% in the pocket of the National Party last election and the sudden profile pieces that surfaced about those who are alleged to have given Winston the money seems very convenient and spun. Even if that Conspiracy is true, it is no defense against what Peters has been accused of doing.
Prediction: If he realizes he is about to be executed for what is common practice by the other political parties, my bet is that he will blow the charges on every piece of dirt he has ever been given in a massive Mutually Assured Destruction launch , if Winston goes down, he’ll bring everyone with him .

3: Policy Pending – According to a poll out this week - 55% of NZers want National to show their policy – as we pointed out last week, most National Party policy is diminutive at best, their Broadcasting policy is 339 words long…

Art and Culture - Policy : Chris Finlayson
Broadcasting - Policy : Jonathan Coleman
Communications & IT - Broadband Policy : Maurice Williamson
Community Affairs - Policy : Paula Bennett
Defence and Security - 2007 Discussion Paper : Wayne Mapp
Education - Policies : Anne Tolley
Environment - Outdoor recreation Policy : Nick Smith
Foreign Affairs - John Key Speech : Murray McCully
Health - Policies : Tony Ryall
Justice - Law & Order - Policies : Simon Power
Primary Sector - 2007 Discussion paper : David Carter
Social Services - Policies : Judith Collins
State Services - Policies : Gerry Brownlee
Trade - 2007 Discussion Paper : Tim Groser
Housing - Policy : Phil Heatley


… here is what National has no policy or anything close to it, on…

Auckland Issues - nothing : Wayne Mapp
Building & Construction - nothing : Nick Smith
Commerce - nothing : Simon power
Consumer Affairs - nothing : Kate Wilkinson
Economic Development - nothing : Richard Worth
Energy - nothing : Gerry Brownlee
Ethnic Affairs - nothing : Pansy Wong
Finance and Taxation - nothing : Bill English
Immigration - nothing : Lockwood Smith
Labour & Industrial Relations - nothing : Kate Wilkinson
Local Government - nothing : John Carter
Maori Affairs - Culture & Development - nothing : Georgina Te Heuheu
Maori Affairs - Education & TPK - nothing : Tau Henare
Pacific Island Affairs - nothing : Judith Collins
Small Business - nothing : Lindsay Tisch
Tourism - nothing : Lindsay Tisch
Transport - nothing : Maurice Williamson
Treaty Negotiations - nothing : Christopher Finlayson
Women's Affairs - nothing : Jackie Blue

John Key hasn’t held a set press conference in over a year (the last one was the embarrassing Health policy release where journalists ended up pointing out National didn’t seem to be aware of their own policy), is this hopeless 2 part 16 page unauthorized biography of John Key in the Herald an attempt to make people think they know the unknown 6 year politician? How could it be unauthorized when Key gives an interview in it and has obviously authorized people to talk to the Herald Journalists – where were the questions about his not having a position on the Springboks or his claim to have never met with the Exclusive Brethren when in the Hollow Men doco we see him clearly meeting face to face with the Exclusive Brethren or how he first supported the Iraq war but then didn’t – how come an unauthorized biography of him didn’t focus on those issues?

4: The Herald's report this week that medical experts had found the MeNZB vaccine given to more than a million under-20-year-olds in the Government's $200 million-plus campaign provided protection for a period of only months. In a quote from the draft paper for a scientific journal, it said: "MeNZB vaccination was not expected to provide long-term protection. In the youngest age group studied (6- to 8-month-old infants) only 27.5 per cent had ... antibody [levels] likely to protect, at 7 months after the third dose of vaccine." It is outrageous that $200 million was spent on a vaccine that covered less than 30% for only 7 months, the drug company must be laughing all the way to the bank, seeing as this disease is mostly a poverty related one couldn’t $200 million on warmer insulated healthier homes do ore than a vaccine that lasted only months and could possibly lull parents into a false sense of security? The final insult is the Ministry of Healths defence that the following statement made it perfectly clear that this vaccine only lasted a few months for some people sometimes, "The majority of people are expected to be protected but the vaccine may not protect every person who receives the three doses. Protection is expected to last for a few years but the exact period is unknown."

5: Be careful for what you wish – McCain was goading Obama into visiting Iraq and playing up the foreign affairs inexperience so Obama visits the world and the world loves him leaving McCain to barely attended press conferences. The images of Obama surrounded by soldiers will be replayed each time the Republicans try and play the foreign affairs inexperience line in the campaign – interestingly though, rabid American Nationalism is so psychotic and feral that images of foreigners cheering Obama have a domestically negative impact on those more flag blinded knuckle dragging good ole boys who seem to get to determine which puppet of the military industrial complex sits in the White House.

In the Weekend Newspapers
STORY 1 – Young killer back in jail - hos
The country's youngest convicted killer is back behind bars after being picked up by police following allegations he has been using drugs. Bailey Junior Kurariki was arrested at 7.30pm on Friday and charged with breaching parole after his probation officer lodged a formal complaint with the Parole Board. The claim that Kurariki had been under the influence of drugs came after a routine check of his South Auckland address.
Is there an awful inevitability here? We’ve detailed the media hysteria that jailed Bailey, the media hysteria that whipped up his parole hearings, the media hysteria that published details on his parole conditions from the lost corrections file Tumeke was handed (btw Tumeke did not publish any personal details from the report where as the mainstream media did, meaning in this case, the much maligned blogging community upheld journalistic standards well above the mainstream) – we know the faults with our current lock em up and throw away the key sensible sentencing lynch mob debate and yet the Police Association wants to move to lower the criminal age of responsibility to 12 year old children and National claim their policies are so strict it will automatically require the building of a new private prison by a private prison company. Are we making progress on the challenge of punishment for crime in a way that doesn’t exacerbate the damaged people entering the prison system and is there anything on the horizon that suggests reason is coming back into the debate?

STORY 2 – Eye Scans, fingerprints to control NZ borders – sst
A new immigration law bill raises concerns about the level of secrecy iit allows. Border Control staff will be able to check passengers identities under major changes to NZ immigration rules. Despite criticism from Amnesty International at the level of secrecy permitted, the changes look set to become law, with the National Party pledging to support it.
So after the absolute abortion of the Ahmed Zaoui case where an innocent man was held for 10months in solitary confinement based on secret evidence that can not be challenged in a trial, it has been decided that 14 Government departments can label evidence as secret and based on that secret evidence deport people back to regimes including ones that torture while also streamlining any of the appeal processes. Cosgroves quote takes the cake, “We have only ever used classified information once in the immigration context (referring to the Zaoui debacle) I don’t think that after the bill is passed, we are going to be rushing out to use it more and more”.

STORY 3 – When Condi met Winnie - hos
Winston Peters managed to deflect embarrassing questions about funding at a stage-managed press conference with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice yesterday. Only four questions - two from the international press corps and two from local media - were allowed at Government House.
Condi in the house, the AUSA students association put a $5000 price tag on her head for any student who could manage to do a citizens arrest on Condi for war crimes – why are we allowing War Criminals to visit the country and how come someone so instrumental in falsely selling the Iraq War hasn’t been savaged by the mainstream media here?

STORY 4 - Jones gave $25,000 to NZ First - sst
Winston Peters faces mounting pressure over undeclared NZ First donations amid revelations that Sir Robert Jones gave the party $25,000 — which was banked into a trust administered by Mr Peters’ brother.
It’s two of our country’s most beloved grumpy old scotch lovers banging heads together over who is telling the truth. Don’t you love how Jones apparently gave Winston $25 000 to just shut him up during an argument? Who the hell does that?

FINAL WORD – Paul Holmes column in the HOS today is brilliantly funny, Season two of Let’s be Frank is up an running, 8.30pm Tuesday, Oliver interviews the National Party Broadcasting spokesperson Dr Johnathan Coleman on the future of Broadcasting in NZ. I interview Alister Barry and Nicky Hagar on Green Core 8pm Wednesday on their Hollow Men Doco.