Dow Jones down 252: 80 years later managed capitalism is in a crises of legitimacy

At 1pm on October 24th 1929, the vice president of the New York Stock Exchange, Richard Whitney marched onto the stock exchange floor after a morning of devastating losses and purchased well over the sale price in front of everyone $20million dollars worth of US. Steel stock. He then went on to purchase General Electric, AT&T and other blue chip stocks spending $130million. His move funded by the wealthiest elites at the time was an attempt to insert confidence into a financial system on the verge of collapse. It worked. Until Monday 28th of October, four days later.

80 years and one week later, Keynesian managed capitalism post Bretton Woods is on the verge of collapse because of the neo liberal deregulation free market virus that has infected much of the international financial hegemony. This collapse isn't just the boom bust of dynamic capitalism, it is a challenge to the legitimacy of capitalism in the exact same way the Great Depression was a challenge to the legitimacy of capitalism. The social destruction these crashes cause in terms of mass unemployment make large numbers of people disillusioned with the system, it was from this social malaise that Capitalism was forced to adopt a welfare state in order to avoid citizens rioting in the street and becoming tempted away by communism or fascism.

When the real economy is worth $8 Trillion per year and the financial economy is worth over $330 Trillion per, you can see how far detached the financial economy has become to the real economy. The weapons of financial destruction these wealthy elite created to rape and pillage for their corporate greed have damaged the global economy to the point of collapse. Adam Smith's invisible hand is about to give us a fisting.

As times get much harsher economically, watch for the rise of fascists in western society and mass radicalization of the poor as the billion dollar bonus payouts create a level of class hatred Osama Bin Laden would've been jealous of.

Our delusion that we are past the recession (Key scores top marks for crisis plan)is just that, a delusion. We saw the exact same false dawns post the 1929 crash before the social damage caused was fully felt 4 years later in 1934 with 25% of Americans unemployed. It took a world war to get out of that Depression.

Consumer capitalist culture of plasma TVs, SUVs and cosmetic surgery all paid for on credit cards was never sustainable economically or environmentally. We are in such denial about issues , we have moved to ignoring them now...

Sick of being told how we're all killing the planet?
A survey has found New Zealanders are suffering "green fatigue" through constant warnings of an approaching environmental armageddon.

...if you aren't guilty, you haven't been paying attention.

One Year under National

While the msm blows National's trumpet for their one year long daddy state rampage, more critical minds may wish to consider what National have gotten away with so far and imagine what they may try on post 2011.

-Vast erosions of your civil liberties with the Police, The Pork Industry, The Meat Board, and bloody Dog Control Officers with the power to break into your home and spy on us WITHOUT a warrant!
-Privatize ACC pretending there is a crises
-Abusing sexual abuse victims by forcing them to be diagnosed as mentally ill before they can get access to counselling
-recreating class stratification with sirs and dames on top and dirty bennies on the bottom.
-Planning to mine in conservation land and watch those ‘billions’ being sucked away to overseas trans national mining companies leaving us with crumbs as payment.
-bennie bashing anytime the media needs a distraction
-holding ‘consultation’ on Climate Change when they already had made up their mind.
-Holding ‘consultation’ meetings for Maori seats on the Auckland Super City when they already had made up their mind.
-subsidizing their big polluter mates by 55% up until 2050, the ice caps will melt before National stop protecting their big polluter mates
-a weak emission target that doesn’t do a bloody thing
-allowing the Dairy industry to set the new water standards for the country (seeing as they are one of the biggest polluters this is a joke)
-opening the country up for more foreign ownership
-privatizing NZ citizenship to millionaires (wonder which party they will vote for)
-taking the independence away from the Overseas Aid agency so McCully can make a buck out of it
-Sending NZ back to war in Afghanistan
-throwing the privacy laws and cabinet manual out the window to attack beneficiaries who complain about cut backs in training allowances.
-gutting the Adult Education programmes by a staggering 80% which will lead to massive community isolation.
-giving the private education industry $35 million while public schools suffer
-Annexing Auckland with a misuse of urgency and Rodney gets to appoint his mates to run the city.
-Denying Maori representation on Auckland Super City
-Government Departments no longer responsible for their carbon footprint
-canning physical activity programmes for children
-taking sports money off poor schools to give to rich schools
-live sheep exports
-Privatization of prisons EVEN THOUGH the head of Private Prisons from GEO told us at a select committee that private prisons WON’T be cheaper!
-creation of rape pen shipping container prison cells
-Giving the Police power to take your DNA based on mere arrest of a crime with no judicial oversight.
-Giving Police massive new unchecked powers and wiping out evidential thresholds to seize your assets
-a 9day fortnight that actually ends up costing workers
-preparing TVNZ for privatization
-10% employment cuts in the public sector when caps were promised as opposed to (knee)caps.
-dismantling pay equity for 46% of the working population because to National women don't matter as much as slashing wage costs
-90 day right to sack in an unemployment environment that ranges from 7% to 14%
-Borrowing for the Tax cut that favoured the rich
-Junk food back into schools
-The molestation of the select committee process with a misuse of urgency that you would need to go back to 1998 to find a comparison.
-Truancy fines raised to $3000
-$35 million on military boot camps that don’t work but make middle class voters feel smug (this amount has increased btw)
-Gutting the RMA pretending it’s cutting red tape when really it’s burning Green tape
-Dismantling the ETS and holding a right wing inquisition into the ‘science’ of global warming
-Medieval law and order policy pushed through by a right wing homophobic drunk who now wants to meddle with the NZ Bill of Rights so his $30 billion 3 strikes and you’re locked up forever raw meat law can pass

Hosking/Hide: perky

Rodney Hide can't look NZ in the eye - as he purported to do tonight - and have us believe we got good value from him when he made the government fork out for the airfares of his partner - giving her a 90% discount on the ten day round-the-world trip he went on as part of his local government portfolio. He told an unrelenting Hosking on Close Up this evening that yes, it was a perk, but if he couldn't be with his sweetheart he would fall to pieces and become substandard. That is basically what he said: if he is away from her for - I guess only a few days - he would do a terrible job.

Well, how flattering to his amour, or perhaps how controlling... but what he's describing is an unhealthy dependency and personality defect, not a reasonable excuse to trough it up in perksville USA after building a profile based on ending perks. And this isn't France either, Rodney. The paying-for-the-missus routine doesn't have such a deep and wide history as to be accepted without some complaint. The NZ public does not accept that the man who happily basked in the "Perk-busting" moniker can cart his girlfriend around on his travels as if it was a ministerial necessity that mere mortals cannot fathom.

In the interview Hide came out with every bullshit excuse in the manual: the PM said it was OK, it came under a different system and it doesn't really count, that he had never expressly criticised the specific partner element of the perk system before, and even the gem that the Remuneration Authority sets Ministerial salaries lower meaning they are supposed to compensate by soaking up the myriad and ultra-generous perks for whatever they can - a system so lavish they were forced to call a halt to it's worst excesses in the 90s - but not after Hide got a taste and got grandfathered over to the current regime. All the evidence of Rodney having perked it up has been admitted to by the man himself - it's just now it's OK. Rodney doesn't have a problem with it now, it's OK.

OK for him. Not for others. Hosking asks, plaintively, at the end of this remarkable interview if he thinks it is all right if he gets his boss to get TVNZ to pay for his girlfriend to be taken around the world with him if it makes him a better current affairs presenter. At this Rodney says directly, that it's not OK if Hosking does it, I think he even repeated it, something like: 'No, it's not OK for you.'

It's a nadir in the state of his credibility - and with Sir Roger wading in the trough beside him - also a sad state of affairs for the party that preaches prudence and the end of the old entitlement culture that rewarded waste and inefficiency. Act is voting through illiberal anti-freedom of the individual law and order fascist power-grabs and the budget increases that go with them - they're just rubber-stamping them through. There's no philosophy there's no thought, there's even less principles. Act used to have some sort of intellectual pretension, but even that is gone now. Sir Roger has traditional instincts despite the radical mantle, Boscawen is surprisingly pragmatic on many issues, Garrett is the excess baggage they risked when they took on his socially conservative lobby group they didn't think would make it into the House - this is the caucus. The surviving caucus member in the wilderness days of 2005-8 is the only good thing going for the Act Party right now - and she's so low profile as a Minister she doesn't seem like the strong personality it takes to lead a party - especially a right wing party. Where is Rodney Hide going?

Chinese VP visit - why only 48 hours notice?

I had no idea. Did anyone? Friday afternoon the Deputy PM announces that the Vice Premier of China (No.7 in the leadership [W]) will be arriving on Sunday for an official state visit with a 50-strong entourage.

At 48 hours notice - and buried in the Friday news dump.

Is this an attempt to short-circuit and pre-empt any protest activity from local activists? I query the announcement because the extraordinary lengths the NZ government - and the NZ Police - have gone through in the past to avoid any official Chinese delegation coming into contact with, or even being in a position to possibly be aware of, local protests about the nature and methods of the authoritarian and often brutal Chinese government. In Christchurch (I recall) buses were driven in and lined up outside a venue to prevent the protesters being seen, and there was much controversy over the Green MPs being ordered by police (in turn ordered by Chinese security) to take down a Tibetan flag they were holding in parliament grounds. There have also been incidents were some Chinese journalists suspected of being anti-Beijing have been turfed out of press conferences. Their hyper-sensitivity and the all too readily compliant NZ authorities is well known.

Meanwhile tonight in Auckland the usual suspects - the ones who most likely would protest the Chinese leadership's visit - will be zombie marching in town for a $15/hr minimum wage.It takes a lot of organisation and time to put together these rallies which is why I suspect the NZ government has given the public such short notice when it comes to the Chinese visit.

The War on News - ep 16 now on line

DADDY STATE ON THE RAMPAGE 1

I do not understand.

NZers threw a Government out last year because of the talkhate radio myth of the Nanny State. We threw Labour out because we were told the politically correct stormtroopers of Helengrad were kicking in the front door to ram energy saving lighbulbs and water saving shower heads down our throats. Such was NZers hate at being told what to do, (even if did save water and power). We apparently wanted ‘CHANGE’ without having any idea what that change was.

Now while I think it is immensely stupid to throw a Government out for those reasons NZers don’t like to be told what to do, so how can National Party voters look themselves in the eye seeing the abuse of process this Government in only 11 months has been able to rack up? David over at Kiwiblogh does a pathetic job (you should be ashamed David) of trying to justify this abuse of process, something Idiot Savant takes him righteously to task on.

Urgency is a pressure valve used if Parliament needs to urgently change a legislative loophole or has to enter to pass the budget, IT IS NOT SUPPOSED TO BE USED TO READ BILLS STRAIGHT INTO LAW!

It is not just the bullshit National are ramming through, it is the manner and process they are doing it by that is truly horrifying. It doesn’t matter what part of the political spectrum you come from, the fact that National has spent 35% of the time passing Bills in Parliament under urgency is a shocking disgrace for democracy. You would need to go back to Rodger Douglas for a comparable example of this abuse of process. Can we not all see that reading some crazy ill thought out bill (and I’ve gone through each of these changes below and pointed out the results of these ill thought out bills) straight into law with no debate, no select committee process and no oversight is a really, really, really bad idea?

You can see can’t you NZ that type of process is dangerous and not the way we should pass law, yet the process issue which we here at Tumeke have been blogging about the first time National abused this power is barely mentioned in the mainstream media. No wonder people aren’t aware if what is going on.

How is that change feeling?

The Fat cats of crime bullshit (TVNZ gets it wrong again)

DADDY STATE ON THE RAMPAGE 2
Police unit chasing crime profits will have hit list
A special police unit is being set up to seize criminal assets and it will have a hit list to work on. Police Minister Judith Collins and Police Commissioner Howard Broad announced the formation of the 22-member Assets Recovery Unit (ARU) today, saying it would hunt down and seize millions of dollars in profits from organised crime.

This issue again shows how braindead our media really are. Breakfast just screwed this issue up with their pointless interview that didn’t actually explain what is happening or the dangers of these new seizure powers, and this follows on from their report on the story yesterday on the 6pm news. Last night the reporter breathlessly explained that the Police had changed the goal posts, and then she cheerleaded this change. Unbelievable.

My question, why are NZers so stupid? Is it because we drink too much booze? Too much radiation from the Sun? Why is everyone cheering the removal of sacrosanct legal powers that protect the individual? Where the hell are the anonymous right wing on line mafia SCREAMING about the attacks on property rights?

Let me slowly explain for my fellow sheep what’s actually happening. The State when it faces off against an individual HAS to do so within certain powers, the evidential threshold for example is ‘BEYOND REASONABLE DOUBT’ – let’s just say those 3 words again to force that point…

BEYOND

REASONABLE

DOUBT

…everyone got that? These new sweeping unprecedented powers mean that the Police don’t need to meet beyond reasonable doubt any longer as an evidential threshold. NOW it’s only BALANCE OF PROBABILITIES that’s right, the full power of the State can be used against you on the same level as a citizen facing off against another citizen, this perversion of law refuses to recognize that the individual has to have protections around them so that the State can’t simply walk all over them, and lowering the evidential threshold to balance of probabilities does this.

I know what you are going to say NZ, here’s what you are going to say

“So fucking what you dirty filthy lefty bitch! It’s all aimed at da gangs, da gangs so who cares”.

And here is where the mainstream media have done such a poor job, because has anyone actually read the definition by the Police of who a gang is? Has anyone actually read the law that was rammed through without anyone reading it?

See the perception is that it’s all da gangs, da gangs when that is absolute bullshit. A gang, as defined by the bloody Police, and this is the definition that triggers all these new surveillance powers to allow the Cops to break into your home and plant spy cameras without a warrant AND triggers these new powers of asset seizure IS 3 PEOPLE!

That’s right folks, as defined by the Police ‘a gang’ is just 3 people, here’s the law

"As per the "Gangs and Organised Crime Bill 10-2 (2009)" dictates: Every person commits an offence and is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 10 years who participates in an organised criminal group—

*

“(a) knowing that 3 or more people share any 1 or more of the objectives (the particular objective or particular objectives) described in paragraphs (a) to (d) of subsection (2) (whether or not the person himself or herself shares the particular objective or particular objectives); and

*

“(b) either knowing that his or her conduct contributes, or being reckless as to whether his or her conduct may contribute, to the occurrence of any criminal activity; and

*

“(c) either knowing that the criminal activity contributes, or being reckless as to whether the criminal activity may contribute, to achieving the particular objective or particular objectives of the organised criminal group.”

IT’S NOT AIMED AT THE GANGS AT ALL YOU MORONS – it can just be 3 bloody people who know eachother. Under this law, Me and my co-bloggers planning a protest action could fall foul of this Police definition, you all think it’s just da gangs da gangs, but the law is MUCH broader in its definition.

We have just given the Police an enormous expansion of power without knowing what that involves and without any public discussion at all. So stupid are we as a country that we will blindly erode century long legal protections around the power of the State and the rights of the individual if it’s wrapped up as something to attack da gangs, da gangs.

Remember – this ill thought out bullshit was rammed through with zero oversight and zero public scrutiny, thanks to National abusing Parliamentary process again.

If you plant the seeds of a Police State, don’t be surprised when it starts growing. You have been conned and easily led once again.

YOU CAN TAKE MY DNA FROM MY DEAD COLD HANDS JOHN KEY (2)

DADDY STATE ON THE RAMPAGE 3

The right wing apologists are in full voice on talkhate radio over the despicable move by the Police to forcibly remove your DNA based on mere arrest and in 2 years, based on mere fucking suspicion. The claim is if you have nothing to hide, you have no problems, this inane and stupid argument is made by people with little in the way of intellect.

Here is the list of offencses that now allows the Police the excuse to remove by force your DNA…

List of offences which replaces "indictable offence" in previous version;
Part 3
Offences Provision of Act
Animal Welfare Act 1999
Wilful ill-treatment of animals ... Read more
section 28
Arms Act 1983
Carrying or possession of firearms, airguns, pistols, restricted weapons, or explosives, except for lawful, proper, and sufficient purpose
section 45
Unlawful possession of pistol or restricted weapon section 50
Unlawful carriage or possession in public place of firearm, airgun, pistol, ammunition, explosive, or restricted weapon
section 54(2)
Carrying firearm, airgun, pistol, imitation firearm, restricted weapon, ammunition, or explosive with criminal intent section 55
Crimes Act 1961
Indecent act in public place
section 125
Indecent act with intent to insult or offend
section 126
Aggravated assault
section 192
Assault with intent to injure
section 193
Male assaults female
section 194(b)
Cruelty to a child
section 195
Disabling
section 197
Possession of offensive weapons or disabling substances
section 202A
Assault with weapon
section 202C
Receiving (if the value of the property does not exceed $1,000)
section 246
Threatening acts
section 308
Land Transport Act 1998
Contravention of section 7 or section 22
involving injury or death
section 36
Person in charge of motor vehicle causing injury or death
section 61
Summary Offences Act 1981
Peeping or peering into dwellinghouse

See how these new expansion of what the Police can take your DNA for is so much wider than has been pretended?

If you are convicted of a serious crime, you should be forced to hand over your DNA, but to hand over your DNA on mere arrest, ON MERE SUSPICION?

You can take my DNA from my dead cold hands John Key. I will refuse to hand over my DNA, and I urge all NZers to point blank refuse to hand over their DNA. Make the pricks take it by force and then complain to the UN because this is a breach of our human rights, even National’s own Attorney General told them that.

The Maori party pointed it out yesterday…

Young men 'will fight back' against police, says Maori party

..and we should all adopt that approach.

Remember – this ill thought out bullshit was rammed through with zero oversight and zero public scrutiny, thanks to National abusing Parliamentary process again.

If you plant the seeds of a Police State, don’t be surprised when it starts growing. You have been conned and easily led once again.

Drug Driving Bullshit

DADDY STATE ON THE RAMPAGE 4

Okay, here’s the drill, the Police will be able to take your blood by force to test you for drugs, here’s the problem.

1: The test is completely subjective, only the most naive police cheerleader or Greg O’Conner would pretend that the Police won’t abuse this subjective power. If you think I’m wrong, get up from your computer right now and do the heel toe, heel toe walk. You will be surprised by how hard that walk actually is, that’s one of the ;subjective tests’. When you are breathalyzed the machine makes an objective scientific decision on your impairment, but under this test some cop decides if you have passed or not. We all know it won’t be the rich white guy in his rich white car that will get asked to do the test, we all know who the bloody cops will be dragging out onto the street to fail this subjective bullshit drift net law.

2: Okay so you’ve failed this bullshit subjective test that the cop man decides if you pass or not, so what now? The Police can forcibly take your blood, so what happens then? Because there is no ‘impairment’ level for marijuana, and because THC can stay in your system for months, a joint you smoked last week will turn up in these tests, meaning you will fail the test EVEN THOUGH you are not under the influence of weed. This is not about impairment, this then becomes a tool to arrest people based on THC levels in their blood which could be days or weeks old. See how that doesn’t work? It’s about impairment right, not what’s in your system that’s not impairing your driving ability.

(here’s the come back, you’ll love it)

“But weed is illegal and you shouldn’t be smoking it anyway” – AHA! See it’s not about impairment, it’s about arresting people for having a joint out of sight of the state and getting punished for it. Just what our overcrowded prison nation needs, more people thrown in prison for smoking a joint and getting caught with THC in your system even if that THC hasn’t impaired your driving abilities which is the original excuse to take your blood in the first place.

Remember – this ill thought out bullshit was rammed through with zero oversight and zero public scrutiny, thanks to National abusing Parliamentary process again.

If you plant the seeds of a Police State, don’t be surprised when it starts growing. You have been conned and easily led once again.

TVNZ as fair & balanced as Fox News U-turn

TVNZ winding down English 'propaganda' ad
An ad Labour says is propaganda for the National Government will finish running its course before being replaced with another, TVNZ says.

This U-turn by TVNZ is not a time to gloat, the speed of the hard right blitzkrieg by Daddy State doesn’t give any of us the luxury for that. TVNZ are clearly changing the advertising schedule BECAUSE of the immense pressure put upon them from critics, the last thing on earth TVNZ wants to be perceived as is as ‘fair & balanced’ as Fox News.

Bloggers attacked the outright bias of these promos, Trevor Mallard at Red Alert linked through to our blog and our criticism, and it quickly snowballed from there, so change can be forced upon these buggers, we shouldn’t feel powerless in the face of this Governments outright abuse on democracy.

TVNZ have to ask themselves who will rally to support them as National plan their privatization post 2011. Now either the clowns there WANT to be privatized hence the arse kissing and suck job to the Nats, OR TVNZ think that by sucking up to the Nats they won’t be privatized – both strategies won’t work.

1: The Nats don’t consult with anyone when they privatize (unless it’s with ACT)
2: No one will rush to your support as the public broadcaster when you’ve shown no balls against National and have shown little more than contempt towards public broadcasting.

TVNZ has to have a liberal voice in their current affairs, if nothing else to pretend to look like they are balanced. Much better TVNZ has a Kim Hill to really take it to National Politicians than the pap they roll out at the moment.

The W recession which is about to pop the global economy’s post 2008 crash bubble will see more unemployed, desperate and frightened people sitting at home with little more to do than watch TV. These angry people will want answers and a sharp public broadcaster would move to start talking to that audience. The TV industry is in the perverse situation right now of having more viewers than ever before because people are staying at home watching TV rather than going out 5 nights each week while the advertising revenue collapses. More viewers no advertisers, only the public broadcaster is in a position to survive that situation.

The media fulfill an essential role in our democracy, they hold the powerful to account and as the global economic meltdown tsunami hits our shores the public will want much sharper criticism from their media.

It’s good TVNZ were forced to dump this party political broadcast, but they have much further to go to shake the fair and balanced as Fox News tag.

The Murupara situation

The draconian-style laws parliament is passing - both National and Labour - in respect to gangs are not designed to address the causes that create and the conditions that entrench gangs, they are designed by the officials (esp. the police) in order to expand their powers and budgets and passed by populist politicians who can only view solutions in terms of one dimensional, conventional, law and order crack downs. The solutions in vogue currently to "the gang problem" is an attack on the symptoms. At the flax roots however - under the radar of the media and the parliamentary slanging - there are community initiatives underway. As someone who has lived and worked with gang members in prison and with contacts concerned with tackling the escalating Murapara gang crisis I must comment on the exchange in parliament yesterday. NZ Herald:

Maori Party MP Te Ururoa Flavell said there were better ways to deal with gangs than ramping up enforcement and imprisonment.

Gang and community engagement was more effective than "short-term hysterics" such as putting offenders in jail and throwing away the key.

Communities needed to be empowered so they could help deal with issues on their own terms.

Mr Flavell referred to a situation in Murupara where two young people had been murdered in the past year. The town's community had recently imposed a rahui - a prohibition of violence in their town - and banned patches on a local marae.

I have had reports that this meeting was a break-through of sorts as there is now consensus amongst the Iwi affected to curtail the influence of gangs - starting with this marae patch ban. This is part of a cease-fire arrangement - and that language is not hyperbolic in the slightest. Unfortunately this has come after community leaders who have spoken up against the gangs have come under threat. The community are finding courage. For while the gangs seem pervasive and visible they are certainly not in the majority.

But then there was this from the great waha of the North:

Labour MP Shane Jones took offence at claims from the Maori Party that gang members were "our people".

"Stop calling them our people; they are not our people," he said.

"Our people don't go to jail for killing teenage boys, our people don't go to jail for raping, selling P and celebrating it as a mark of distinction and success.

"They're not our people. In fact they are not people ... They are the slaves that would have been dispatched before Christianity without a sliver of doubt."

Slaves? Who became a Labour MP after they passed the Foreshore and Seabed confiscation? And never crossed the floor I bet - a career of following orders even against "our people" - that's an order worse than slavery because he's chosen to be a tool of the Pakeha power elite.

That's the issue though - even if the fool from the Far North has grasped the wrong end of the stick. With the Crown undermining of traditional Maori society - where career paths are now largely determined by the economic and social policy of the government - what options for self-esteem and status do young Maori men have in provincial areas? The police and other Pakeha controlled, designed and dominated institutions are there to keep Maori in a state of subjection - to enforce the property rights and culture of the invaders and occupiers - they offer no authentic and credible inspiration to most Maori.

These are the meta issues that underlie the rise of the gangs and these are the issues that must be addressed to "solve" the "problem." Even if the gang lifestyle was once chosen by those deemed misfits and attracted to it by the rebellious notoriety it attracts and the camaraderie it provides it is now an inter-generational reality removed from those initial motivations. Kids are being brought up in gang households and they will find it almost impossible to opt out without moving away from their family and moving towns. Even if they choose not to define themselves by their family's gang affiliation the rival gangsters still will. That is one of the links in the chain that must be broken, and the community of Murupara are starting to do that themselves. The method of using social and cultural intolerance by their peers is a good first step and means much more than any law parliament can pass or that the police want to enforce. More and more statutes and regulations against gangs - that will be turned on any group of three or more people the police take a disliking to - is never going to be a solution because this is a social problem, not merely a crime problem.

Kiwiblogh lies about urgency

Some facts on urgency

Over on Kiwiblog, DPF is spinning frantically, trying to defend the government's indefensible and undemocratic use of urgency. His key argument boils down to "Labour did it too", and he makes much of Labour's use of urgency in its first term, trying to equate this with National's abuses. Having just spent the afternoon trawling Hansard, I think its time for some facts.

Firstly, DPF is correct on the numbers: Labour used urgency 22 times in its first term. But this disguises very real differences in how it was used. National, you may recall, hit the ground running, immediately using urgency to ram through key election promises, many of them without the scrutiny of a select committee. Since then, it has regularly called urgency to introduce major legislation without scrutiny and then advance it without public debate. It's a classic example of the Roger Douglas blitzkrieg principles: moving quickly to pre-empt opposition and present the public with a legislative fait accompli.

Labour's pattern was very different. They did not "hit the ground running" and use urgency to ram through their promises. Instead, these were advanced through the normal Parliamentary process. Only four times was urgency used to advance policy (twice for the ERA, once for income-related rents, and once for ACC renationalisation) - and each time it was to speed the committee stage. Urgency was not used to introduce "policy bills" - things the government wanted to do - at the last minute without debate as National has done.

Idiot Savant over at no right turn points out the lie David at Kiwiblogh is trying to spin to defend the despicable fact his party are abusing democracy so venally. 35% of the time considering Bills in Parliament since National's election have been done under urgency. That is a disgrace NZ, an utter, utter disgrace.

Why isn't the mainstream media even explaining this blitzkrieg of hard right legislation is being rammed through under a misuse of Parliamentary democratic process?

If Labour had pulled this shit, there would be riots inspired by the mainstream media in the streets, but as we can see with the TVNZ political party broadcast for Bill English, TVNZ is more in the pocket of Government than it has ever been before.

It was neo liberal policy that allowed the greedy to molest the global economy and create the Great Recession. National and ACT are attempting to react to that by passing more neo liberal domestic policy but are having to rely on shutting down normal democratic procedure to do it.

How is that change feeling?

Labour – why have you forsaken us?

The media have read Tumeke and they are now starting to question these outrageous new powers the Police have gained from National and ACT ramming through legislation late at night under a misuse of urgency. The media have read Tumeke and they are starting to question the outrageous bias of TVNZ with their party political broadcast adverts. The media have read Tumeke and they are questioning these vast new expansions of surveillance power to all state agencies.

The media have been reading Tumeke, but has Labour been reading Tumeke? Why have you forsaken us Labour? Why have you allowed those awful Union Thugs, Shane Jones and Clayton Cosgrove try and out red neck the Nats as these new erosions of civil liberties are rammed through straight into law!

Why have you forsaken progressive NZ Labour? Why have you voted for these breaches in our human rights? Are you still frightened by trying and losing at the 2008 election? Is that it? Are you frightened National will paint you out as ‘weak on crime’ if you stand up to these erosions of our civil liberties?

What if Phil Goff had challenged these powers? John Key isn’t in the country, Phil could have free hit after free hit. What if you filibuster the process again, this time turning on the biased media (and in the wake of the Bill English party political broadcasts, you can refer to the msm as biased now and people can see it) and attacking them for not covering the manner and process with which National are ramming these changes through.

What if Phil Goff had focused on promoting a fair process where we sit down for dialogue rather than ram legislation through and the far reaching impact of these powers need to be debated. What if Phil Goff had argued that we demand fairness in our process and that was why Labour would filibuster every misuse of Parliamentary process, to camp out at Parliament, calling for other NZers who are concerned with the undemocratic haste of National and ACT ramming through law barely anyone has read. Imagine the focus point of all those groups who are being hurt by this process right now? Labour could have rebuilt their credibility by standing shoulder to shoulder with those groups.

What if Phil Goff stood up for NZers rights rather than roll over? Because that’s what you’ve done by voting with National and ACT on these erosions of our civil liberties by building the foundations of a Police State.

See if Phil Goff had stood up, that would show voters that Labour had the courage of their convictions. Just as the global economy is on the brink of the W recession, things are going to get much worse and a great social democrat is what NZers will want to turn to in times of deep uncertainty over leaders peddling hard right economic policy sold as social policy.

Why have you forsaken us Labour?

The Somnambulists

In September 1952, Bill Pearson wrote an influential article for the literary rag Landfall called 'Fretful Sleepers: A Sketch of New Zealand Behaviour and its Implications for the Artist'. In this article, Pearson argued that Kiwis have such a deferring attitude to politics that it would be easy for a dictator to take power without us even bating an eyelid. Pearson's article struck such a cultural chord that it became the inspiration for C. K. Stead's novel Smith's Dream and then adapted for the wide screen in Roger Donaldson's 1978 film Sleeping Dogs. In the Stead and Donaldson versions, Kiwi apathy towards politics sees the nation electing the authoritarian Volkner, based loosely on Rob Muldoon. As New Zealand spirals into industrial disputes, Volkner becomes increasingly fascist, bringing in American special forces to help control the communist Kiwi outposts that remain fighting in the bush.

While guerillas running around in the bush makes for great cinematic tension, as London School of Economics Professor Robert Wade reminded New Zealanders last night, danger exists in slightly more banal forms that are far more innocuous than a bunch of fascists running round with batons. In practice democracy can be just as dangerous. For Wade, the causes of the global recession are intimately bound up with the process of 'financialization', a process that has seen the development of an oligarchy that furthers its interests through the control of the financial sector in the much of the Western world.

Similar to the conditions that preceded the Great Depression, the last few decades have seen the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few together with an increasing crevasse between rich and poor. Just as economist John Kenneth Galbraith noted in the 1950s, such movements lay the preconditions for fundamental flaws in the functioning of the free market. With the top 1% of income earners in the US controlling more than 23.5% of the economy in 2007, and benefiting from a 62% growth in income from 2002 to 2007 (compared to the 4% growth of the bottom 80% of wage earners), the financial elite have literally built a house of cards that is bound to fail. The problem with such concentrations of wealth in the top 1% is that this income does not lead to a trickle-down effect, rather the wealthy tend to invest in the accumulation of assets, which stops money circulating through the rest of the economy.

For Wade, this concentration of wealth means that the top 1% of the world's population exhibit a dangerous level of control over the policy and governance of financial institutions, as these institutions work to preserve the interests of the elite. In practical terms in the US, this has meant the takeover of the Fed, the Treasury and the Congress by the financial oligarchy, who then propagate the notion that the best policies for the nation are those that support Wall Street's interests. This control can be seen in the growth of the corporate finance sector's profits in the US from under 16% in the period from 1973 - 1983 to over 43% in the year 2000 (Wade). There are now five lobbyists for each Congressman in the United States (Wade). As the IMF and other institutions export a Chicago-school model of economics to developing nations that is founded on the belief of a free, deregulated and self-correcting market, these policies begin to constitute a global matrix that glosses over the role that such policies have in furthering the interests of the elite.

The situation is just as bad in New Zealand, where we have seen the National Party grab power under the misguided assumption that Labour caused the financial crisis for Kiwis (putting it this way sounds better than the election being lost over lightbulbs, which in some sad sense is probably much more the reality of the situation). With 35% of the hours considering Bills in Parliament since their election done so under urgency so that other parties do not get the opportunity to debate their effects (hence circumventing the basic premises of both MMP and democracy), we have in New Zealand an example of a financial oligarchy that is out of step with the interests of the general population. While it is certainly true that New Zealand faces a dire economic situation (as do many other nations) with the Government haemmoraging $250 million per week, the sorts of policies we have seen introduced are not those that bolster the interests of the majority of wage earners. Rather, we see an example of a National Government, with its blind faith in the free market despite the obvious deficiencies of such a philosophy, introducing policies that benefit the top percentile of wage earners at the expense of the bottom. Similar to the US, in 2004 in New Zealand the top 10% of income earners controlled 50% of the total wealth.

We are now beginning to see the broad strokes of the real economic damage a National-led Government will do to those 90% of New Zealanders that fall outside of the top earning percentile, with broad changes to ACC, the privatisation of the prison system (which provides a return for vested interests on crime), the abolition of the Pay Equity Commission for women, changes to employment conditions, a referendum for MMP, unprecedented changes to surveillance laws that violate the rights of individual citizens and the privatization of the water systems, we are about to see a radically different New Zealand. Of course, for National, the real changes will occur if they win a second term in 2011 so we cannot really see the shape of how things will look yet.

Perhaps this is what we deserve for sleepwalking in New Zealand - for investing in the financial myths that drove this economic collapse at precisely the time that the rats began to swim away from the sinking ship. This is the point, New Zealand, where we need to wake up. The change we got is not the change many expected, and it is only over the next few generations that we will really begin to pay the financial and social cost of such ridiculous legislation.

Professor Robert Wade gave a lecture in Auckland last night for the Bruce Jesson Foundation at the University of Auckland.

Rodney Hide to privatize water - how’s that change feeling NZ?

You know that unspecified, wasn’t clear on policy ‘change’ NZ was sold at the last election? How’s it all feeling now NZ? Let’s see…

-Manufacture a crises at ACC and privatize it,
-Vast new surveillance powers for the Pork and Meat Boards,
-The power for the Police to break into your home, plant spy cameras and film you all without a warrant,
-Force you to take a test the cop subjectively decides if you have passed or not to take blood from you to see whether you have any THC in your system even if you are not impaired by that THC.
-The annexation of Auckland to force through under Rodney Hide a massive privatization agenda on Council assets…

What was that last one? In all the heat and sudden wake up of the mainstream media about what National are quietly ramming through Parliament comes this new revelation that Hide is now planning to privatize our water.

Hide opens door to privatised water deals
The Government is planning to make it easier for private companies to take over water and wastewater services from councils. Local Government Minister and Act leader Rodney Hide yesterday said "flexibility in delivery of water services" was part of changes to the Local Government Act 2002.
The Government wants to extend the 15-year limit on water-service contracts to 35 years and allow companies to build, own and operate new water and wastewater treatment plants during the contract period.
The law will also be changed to stop councils controlling the management of privately run water services, although they will retain final say on pricing and policy.

Un-fucking believable. How’s that change feeling NZ? If you voted Labour in 2005 and voted National in 2008 or you you lived in Auckland and voted Labour in 2005 but didn’t bother to vote for them out of disgust in 2008, then you will be kicking yourself.

It was never National’s secret right wing agenda we should have feared, it was their out in the open duplicity towards their right wing agenda we should have feared.

YOU CAN TAKE MY DNA FROM MY DEAD COLD HANDS JOHN KEY!

Young men 'will fight back' against police, says Maori party
The Maori Party is warning young Maori will fight back against police trying to take a DNA swab. Parliament yesterday passed the Criminal Investigations (Bodily Samples) Amendment Bill, which will enable police to take samples from people charged with a range of serious offences, wider than the present category. From 2011, they will be allowed to take DNA samples from anyone they intend charging with an imprisonable offence. Consent will not be needed, and samples will be able to be taken without judicial approval. But Maori Party MP Rahui Katene warned of the potential for trouble with young Maori men. "They already distrust the police and (if) the police want to take a swab, they're not going to know what is going on at all," she told Radio New Zealand. "So they are, of course, going to fight back."


I will NOT hand over my DNA to any Police Officer on merely being arrested and I urge ALL NZers to refuse to comply with DNA testing as an act of outright civil disobedience.

Fuck em.

I would also suggest that any NZer refuse to give their blood for these draconian new drug driving powers they are implementing. Remember, the subjective test the cops uses on the side of the road with you is exactly that, subjective. The bloody cop gets to decide if you pass or not, and based on their bullshit subjective decision, they get to decide to take your blood from you. Remember any THC will turn up in that blood sample, you may have smoked a joint last week, it will still turn up, you may have been around a smoker and inhaled, it’ll still turn up. These tests can’t test impairment because there is no threshold for impairment.

This is an outrageous misuse of Police power that has been rammed through under a misuse of parliamentary process and as citizens we should refuse outright to play along. I have no problem with the State taking my DNA if I am convicted of a serious crime, no problem with that at all. But to take my DNA based on a mere arrest, and remember folks that changes in 2 years to taking your DNA on mere suspicion is an abuse of Police power in a democracy.

What a sad, dark day for NZ.

We CAN NOT give the Police unchecked powers that are rammed through without any debate, it is a sad, sad day for our Democracy.

My recommendation – refuse to give your DNA or blood as per the rights granted under the UN, force them to take the sample by force and then immediately contact the media (or us here at Tumeke) and lodge a complaint with the UN. If we all did it, it would blunt this move towards a Police State.

You can either let them win NZ, or you can fight them. How National Party supporters who voted against the ‘Nanny State’ can look themselves in the eye after these unnecessary, rushed through laws that allow for no Judicial oversight whatsoeve bewilders me.

Why the laws are outrageous:
Taking your DNA off you by force for mere arrest AND this gets expanded to mere suspicion in two years with zero judicial oversight breaches UN conventions on human rights which the Attorney General himself pointed out.

Taking your blood based on the subjective tests the cop uses is deeply flawed. Remember because there is no impairment limit, a joint you smoked a week ago will still turn up in these tests.

People who say, "If you're innocent you have nothing to fear by handing over your DNA' are morons and it is these types of quislings who would roll over to let the Police have all the power they want. Go tell David Dougherty who had his DNA misused by the Police to frame him for a rape he didn't commit that he should hand his DNA over because he was innocent and he had nothing to hide.

A salute to Sue Bradford!

A salute to departing Green Party MP, Sue Bradford. A true kiwi hero who has fought tirelessly for those less fortunate and who has achieved more as a backbencher than any other backbencher in NZ political history and all the while having to deal with an ugly talkhate radio redneck NZ who sneered at her working class accent and judged her on the most petty of standards.

As the woman brave enough to stand up for the rights of children from getting assaulted by parents, she has had to deal with death threats against her and her family. Her standing down leaves the Greens bleached mainstream, more a weak lime than a militant green.

A great Rimu tree has fallen in the forest. Her loss for the left will be deeply felt.

Kia Kaha Sue!

Whatever

No shit. Really?... the process is flawed and the designs chosen uninspiring... Anyone reading this blog and my previous posts on the subject - based on my experience of the Britomart design process - already knew that.

It's jacked up so that Warren & bloody Mahony - or someone with similarly austere track record - will win the contract. All the public consultation and submissions will count for naught because the deal is already done. That's how it works at our tin pot Tammany-type Town Hall and that's why I didn't bother wasting my time entering.

Mr Clarke, writing in the Herald yesterday, said three teams were chosen to go to the final stage even though they did not submit an entry at the first stage of the competition.

"For the three selected teams, it's a bit like being entitled to sit an exam after the answers have been published."

Mr Clarke, whose entry did not make it past the first stage, said poor management of the competition continued with a brief that was unwieldly, self contradictory and inadequate.
[...]
Architectural sources are picking the Tasman Studio team to win because two of the partners, Warren and Mahoney, and Moller Architects, are flavour of the month with the Government and Auckland City Council.

No shit. Unlike Clarke I said all this before the comp. and cannot be accused of being a sore loser - as Cr Bhatnagar suggests:He's the one who is defending the screwing of this scrum and it's a lame to non-existent defence.

The designs had to have a passenger terminal for cruise ships AND keep the ugly sheds. The wharf's primary focus is the RWC 2011 public space, but obviously another stage or two must be developed... afterwards. So why confuse things by putting in a terminal now? It's a mess.

The other wharves to the East are also blank slates and will, logically, become part of the recreational and cruise ship area - but these are excluded from the design brief. No doubt we will have separate comp's for them too - one having nothing to do with the next - no master plan - no strategic vision.

It's just another piecemeal muddle from the city and government that brought you a four lane harbour bridge, a motorway-only transport network that is still 20 years from completion when it was due to be finished "no later than 1973," an OTT Britomart rail station with no allowance to complete a loop that has been on various planning books in some form since the 1930s, an electrification of the rail lines that will never happen as long as Wellington pulls the purse strings and yet they keep spending money on earthworks and alignments for an overhead system etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. They can't even get a simple bus stop right without having to have two goes at doing it. They can't even arrange to have clocks to be put in the railway stations! These turkeys are hopeless.

Is it even worth bothering to look? Click the banner.Whatever.

Unreasonable search and torture laws pass without fuss

A chilly front of intrusive and unnecessary police-inspired laws are being run through parliament with the complicity of the big parties. They are statutes hostile to a free society, based on the presumption of guilt, and contrary to our own Bill of Rights...

...and yet the sheep just keep grazing, right next to the abattoir, oblivious...

DNA swabs:

At that time, Attorney-General Chris Finlayson issued a report saying the bill appeared to be inconsistent with the Bill of Rights Act's provisions against unreasonable search and seizure.

During the third reading debate Labour MPs said they were worried about the extent of the powers that were being given to the police and MP Charles Chauvel tried to amend the bill so a judicial warrant would be needed.

The amendment was voted down and the bill was passed into law on a vote of 108 to 13, with the Greens and Maori Party opposing.

The Labour Party, eh. We expect this fascist bullshit from the Tories - Judith Collins, the Rommel worshipper, is Police and Corrections Minister after all - but when the supposed defenders of the ordinary man and the underdog start attacking the fabric of justice and freedom there seems little hope. So much for an Opposition. The only liberals left in parliament are the Greens and the Maori Party.


Blood taking:So if the little roadside dance routine the cops force you to do is a little too funky then they can forcibly take your blood. With a needle of course, which is painful and frightening and basically a form of torture. And the NORML chap says that any trace amount will be taken as proof of impairment.

The blood alcohol level is at a set rate, but what he's saying is that there is no rate for cannabis. Is this correct? Can this be true? It will be the first aspect challenged in court because there has to be a rate set on scientific grounds, not just a trace amount. It must be an amount that equates to impairment or else it's just a persecution of people for their past rather than for their actual state at the time.

These laws need to be challenged vigorously in court.

[UPDATE-- And on it goes this afternoon:

TVNZ as ‘fair and balanced’ as Fox News

English: 'no influence' over controversial TV ad
Finance Minister Bill English says he had no influence over a promotion for a television show which Labour says could be mistaken for a National Party political broadcast.

Labour MPs asked questions about the TVNZ 7 Focus on the Economy ad in Parliament yesterday.

It features Mr English and has played more than 30 times since October 18.

It is set to continue to run on TV One, TV2, TVNZ 6 and TVNZ 7 until November 21.

Labour leader Phil Goff said people had complained to him about the ad.

"People have rung up and mentioned it to me, concerned that it seemed like a bit of a promo for Bill English being funded out of the television budget."

That was nonsense, Mr English told Radio New Zealand today.

"The TV people put up the script and the idea and I just went through with it," he said.

"We haven't had any influence over it at all."

A spokesman for Mr English had earlier outlined the process to The Dominion Post:

The script, showing Mr English using financial jargon and then a translation in everyday language, had been written by the broadcaster's advertising department. It was checked with Mr English for accuracy.

"They suggested the promo and came up with the scripting," the spokesman for Mr English said.

"We checked it for accuracy and made some minor changes [to the plain English version]."

But the spokesman said that turned out to be "irrelevant" because TVNZ came back with a revised script.

Mr English told RNZ this morning that the programme was getting attention because people were interested in the economy and what was going to happen to their jobs and their mortgages.

Don’t you love it, Bill doesn’t see a problem with getting a 60second free multi-rotated unchallenged pap pep talk on the public broadcaster, but then again Bill didn’t see anything wrong with double dipping his house allowance either did he?

I love his claim people are interested because it’s about the economy, no Bill, people are interested because the public broadcaster is supposed to hold you to critical account, not give you free air time to cheerlead unchallenged party propaganda. This month you were telling us it will take 2 decades to regain the losses of the last year and have told public service workers to expect a wage freeze for a decade, now you are on TVNZ7’s party political broadcast singing for us to accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative.

Why couldn’t TVNZ have put a reporter in there and asked Bill those questions while he was cheerleading?

I’ll make it easy for TVNZ, I’ll even script you the question you could’ve asked while filming so that you could’ve made a promo that showed you fulfilling your public broadcasting critical responsibilities rather than the party political broadcast you’ve made instead….

“But Mr English, only this month you were explaining the scale of the economic great recession, now it’s all happy, happy, joy, joy. Aren’t you simply trying to spin things Mr English?”

See how easy that could’ve been? But it gets worse.

Don’t you love the response to criticism of bias from TVNZ? They’ll have Sir Rodger Douglas on the actual programme with Bill English – THAT’S BALANCE IS IT? That’s supposed to make it okay? The right wing and the really, really, really, really, really, really far right? Having the most right wing economic Milton Friedman love nut on alongside Bill English somehow makes it balanced?

We pay 163 people over $100 000 a year and this and this is what we get for public broadcasting? Are you kidding me? A dozen of their bloody wages would’ve run ALT TV for a year, surely you can put out this intensely biased crap with only 151 people earning over $100 000 each year dammit?

TVNZ just became as fair and balanced as Fox News.

God I hate Breakfast

This clown who is blowing $450 000 of his own dollars for a bullshit march up Queen St for the legal right to hit your kids (can we counter protest these idiots?) is he a fundy Christian? Because it seems to me only a fundy Christian would blow half a million on trying to get back his God given right to belt his kids.

The ex-cheerleader on Breakfast said 87% of people voted blah blah. No ex cheerleader, 87% of those WHO VOTED voted that way. LESS THAN 50% VOTED YOU MORONS. Notice how they spun that? 87% of NZers supported this – no, no, no. That is an outright lie. Whoever is writing the questions for the ex-cheerleader needs to point out that it is 87% of LESS THAN 50% of the country.

TVNZ are so biased now, the cheerleader didn’t even challenge this guy, is it just an open door policy on crazy right wing crap now? Has TVNZ used the Bill English unchallenged pap promo advert as an editorial standard towards all right wing social policy now?

Still, it’s better than Sunrise I suppose.

There still seems to be some confusion on this whole repeal of section 59 thing. You’re not to blame, the media were outrageous in selling this as the criminalization of parents so it’s okay if you got a bit spooked. What the repeal of section 59 means is that IF you are charged with assaulting your child, IF, you can’t use discipline as a defense. The bloke who bashes his kid with a belt and gets charged with assault can't say, "But your honour, I was disciplining the kid" - that doesn't wash in Court any longer - that’s all it means, it doesn’t mean that if your toddler was about to put his hand on a burning stove while running onto the road into the path of a stolen car and you smack their hand lightly that the Police Eagle helicopter will suddenly spotlight you and through a loud hailer tell you to lie flat on the ground with your hands above your head.

Why not donate that $450 000 to actually help abused children rather than a vast ego wank for a piece of misunderstood legislation?

It fascinates me folks, $450 000 on the right to bash your kids because not letting you bash your kids is ‘nanny state political correctness gone mad’. The vast expansion of surveillance powers to allow the Pork Industry and Meat Board alongside the Police to break into our homes and spy on us without a warrant – oh that’s okay? How the hell can National voters who bitched so much about Nanny State be comfortable with vast unchecked powers to spy on you?

What a joke.

Human Rights breached late last night by National (but you can complain to the UN)

Review of ACC sex abuse compo
As parliament voted through the first stage of sweeping ACC cuts, the Government ordered a review of controversial new rules for sex abuse claims – on the day they took effect.

How do you feel this morning? Something amiss? An unsettling feeling that a right wing party has breached your human rights late at night while ramming legislation through Parliament that few have even had the chance to read? Because that’s what happened last night as you slept as once again this Government (to zero criticism from the msm) abused democratic Parliamentary process to ram through legislation straight into law.

First of all, let’s give Nick Smith a round of applause, (you’re getting a gold star from Murray McCully this week Nick) Operation ACC ‘manufacture a crises then privatize’ has been a screaming success. Even though Merryl Lynch were breathlessly telling the Australian Insurance Shark Industry that they would make a $200 million killing on Nationals privatization of ACC months before Cullens hole was detected, the crucifixion of ACC has gone swimmingly with National selling their decimation of the system as ‘choice’. Just as long as you don’t chose to be sexually assaulted that is.

Under National’s new slash and burn policy, that they rammed through last night under urgency, sexual abuse victims now have to go to a ACC emotion accountant to declare themselves mental before they can get counseling. Seeing as these ACC emotion accountants are there to do everything they can to deny the claim going through, it seems almost cruel that sexual abuse victims should be so badly treated by social policy.


When National weren’t re-abusing sexual assault survivors they were breaching our human rights by ramming through more draconian legislation to allow the Police to take your DNA WITHOUT JUDICIAL OVERSIGHT on mere arrest.

Chester Burrows should be ashamed of himself for defending this breach of our human rights, (come on Chester, you’re smarter than this dammit). The real performer on the night however was Charles Chauvel (who really does live up to the hype about him). He pointed out that UN conventions that we have signed prohibit the Police from seizing body samples without Judicial oversight AND pointed out that these UN treaties we’ve signed allows for an avenue of compliant if the Police do seize your DNA and don’t charge you with a crime or you’re found innocent. The Police have to not only get rid of the original DNA sample, they have to get rid of any record of it.

You can complain to the UN via the rights given us under these UN human rights treaties which is a massive relief. Thank God that even when the Government is abusing our human rights we are able to go to the UN to fight for them to be recognized.

What a sad day for Democracy, to not only have the legislation pass, but to have it passed in such an abusive manner and without a whimper from the whipped msm to criticize this bloody Government.

Couldn’t TVNZ get their mouth off National’s arse for two seconds to complain about this breach of human rights? Oh that’s right, they are too busy promoting a 25 second party political broadcast featuring unchallenged pap from the Finance Minister.

By the way, does it strike anyone else that Bill English’s sudden media prozak TVNZ7 political party broadcast is as bipolar as Nick Smith? This is the Finance Minister that was telling everyone last week that it will take 2 decades to gain back the economic losses of the last year and that there will be a near decade long pay freeze on public servants, yet here he is on TVNZ7s party political broadcast eliminating the negative and accentuating the positive. Has Bill English got into John Keys aspirationally optimistic happy medication? Because damn it folks, I want an ounce of whatever it is their smoking!

Labour’s secret polls are mind numbing home goals

Labour MP rescinds false-names advice
Senior Labour MP Rick Barker says Labour will tell its pollsters to use their own names in future, after it was revealed that he told volunteers to use false names. But he appeared to defend the use of a company front-name, not associated with the party, as a better way to get reliable data. Mr Barker told reporters yesterday that he had not intended to deceive, and the suggestion to use false names was aimed at making the pollsters feel more comfortable. He had not used one himself, but had told workers: "for example, I could be Bill".

Why the bloody hell is the former Minister of Toupees in the media? Whenever Rik Barker’s name pops up I start sweating, what’s he done and why is he doing it I immediately ask.

I don’t know if you’ve noticed Labour, but the mainstream media are SOOOOOO biased against you at the moment anything you do will be greeted by them like a fart in a church. Look at those shocking TVNZ 7 promo’s for Bill English or the fact that the msm don’t even point out the Government’s abuse of democracy by misusing urgency to ram legislation through. Is it a double standard, Christ yes, but that’s the way it is, you need to start relying on creating your own on-line media and not rely on the msm for anything! Sorry I digress, let’s get back into giving you the boot.

This should’ve been a non-story! I appreciate that Labour is broke and that Barker running the polling out of his office was probably the cheaper option, but you have to do it properly, yes people are going to be more honest in a poll if they think the information is going via a 3rd party, but that’s no defence for creating that illusion for cheaper purposes. Knowing the msm is going to be as fair and balanced as Fox News, you have to be much better than this, can I just remind you where the attack should be? That rather than fucking around having to explain secret names and Poll companies that don’t exist and the criticism this opens you up to, The Nats are screwing over the country, let’s just remind ourselves what we are fighting against here…


-Vast erosions of your civil liberties with the Police, The Pork Industry, The Meat Board, and bloody Dog Control Officers with the power to break into your home and spy on us WITHOUT a warrant!
-Privatize ACC pretending there is a crises
-Abusing sexual abuse victims by forcing them to be diagnosed as mentally ill before they can get access to counselling
-recreating class stratification with sirs and dames on top and dirty bennies on the bottom.
-Planning to mine in conservation land and watch those ‘billions’ being sucked away to overseas trans national mining companies leaving us with crumbs as payment.
-bennie bashing anytime the media needs a distraction
-holding ‘consultation’ on Climate Change when they already had made up their mind.
-Holding ‘consultation’ meetings for Maori seats on the Auckland Super City when they already had made up their mind.
-subsidizing their big polluter mates by 55% up until 2050, the ice caps will melt before National stop protecting their big polluter mates
-a weak emission target that doesn’t do a bloody thing
-allowing the Dairy industry to set the new water standards for the country (seeing as they are one of the biggest polluters this is a joke)
-opening the country up for more foreign ownership
-privatizing NZ citizenship to millionaires (wonder which party they will vote for)
-taking the independence away from the Overseas Aid agency so McCully can make a buck out of it
-Sending NZ back to war in Afghanistan
-throwing the privacy laws and cabinet manual out the window to attack beneficiaries who complain about cut backs in training allowances.
-gutting the Adult Education programmes by a staggering 80% which will lead to massive community isolation.
-giving the private education industry $35 million while public schools suffer
-Annexing Auckland with a misuse of urgency and Rodney gets to appoint his mates to run the city.
-Denying Maori representation on Auckland Super City
-Government Departments no longer responsible for their carbon footprint
-canning physical activity programmes for children
-taking sports money off poor schools to give to rich schools
-live sheep exports
-Privatization of prisons EVEN THOUGH the head of Private Prisons from GEO told us at a select committee that private prisons WON’T be cheaper!
-creation of rape pen shipping container prison cells
-Giving the Police power to take your DNA based on mere arrest of a crime with no judicial oversight.
-Giving Police massive new unchecked powers and wiping out evidential thresholds to seize your assets
-a 9day fortnight that actually ends up costing workers
-preparing TVNZ for privatization
-10% employment cuts in the public sector when caps were promised as opposed to (knee)caps.
-dismantling pay equity for 46% of the working population because to National women don't matter as much as slashing wage costs
-90 day right to sack in an unemployment environment that ranges from 7% to 14%
-Borrowing for the Tax cut that favoured the rich
-Junk food back into schools
-The molestation of the select committee process with a misuse of urgency that you would need to go back to 1998 to find a comparison.
-Truancy fines raised to $3000
-$35 million on military boot camps that don’t work but make middle class voters feel smug (this amount has increased btw)
-Gutting the RMA pretending it’s cutting red tape when really it’s burning Green tape
-Dismantling the ETS and holding a right wing inquisition into the ‘science’ of global warming
-Medieval law and order policy pushed through by a right wing homophobic drunk who now wants to meddle with the NZ Bill of Rights so his $30 billion 3 strikes and you’re locked up forever raw meat law can pass

Advice for Rick on running Polls:

1: If you have to save money, do polling the way National does it, directly through Kiwiblogh
2: NEVER appoint Green Party members to do anything! They are too ethical!
3: For crying out loud, put your bloody hand in your bloody pocket and make sure you buy the researchers pizza and a couple of beers so that they all aren’t grumbling away later on bitching about the secrecy thing until one of them (always a Green Party person) say’s, ‘Yeah, I’m gonna tell someone’.
4: If Rick Barker turns up in the News you know you have failed.