The credibility of National rests on Key's smile and wave

NZers like John Key, he has an amazing rags to riches story. From State home to Merchant Banker who made his millions betting against NZ, he is the father figure to a solo mother nation. His vacant aspiration seems at times medicated making his multi-millionaire optimism eery and when that eeriness overwhelms the moment he offers up his spin dr induced mantra "I'm being self deprecating".

Vacant aspiration however drives a lot of middle class and working class dreams that one day you too can be rich enough to join the Sam Morgan club and not pay tax, there fore we put our trust in John the Free Market Banker Baptist.

This trust starts to turn once the dream is interrupted by the cold hard light of reality kicking it repeatedly in the face with it's heavy boot of global economic recession. To date John has promised punters will be better off from his mass transfer of wealth focused on the top 2% of society, and mostly the biased brainfart corporate news polls suggest the public have believed him. Currently John Key is so popular, he could eat a kitten live on TV and the public would still blame the kitten for being delicious.

The reality however of a GST increase with the soaring power bill costs while public services are slashed will evaporate public good will faster than an Australian corporate mining coup.

If reality proves Optimist Prime wrong, he'll look like an out of touch space cadet floating around while people are hurting. This makes the spin required to sell privatisation as a social good much more difficult as the trust credit card of the voter will get maxed out.

First strike of the 3 strikes - the worst of the worst?

First strike for new crime law
An Upper Hutt man has been served with New Zealand's first warning under the controversial "three strikes" law after being convicted of groping a woman. Dwyane Christopher Mercer, 32, was convicted in Upper Hutt District Court last week after pleading guilty to indecently assaulting his friend's partner. Indecent assault is one of 40 serious violent offences that attract "strikes" upon conviction. The law came into force on June 1.

So we get our first look at the 3 strikes in action, now remember our friendly baying mob from the Sensible Sentencing Trust and the National Party told us this law was for the worst of the worst, that we were going to remove parole (the only mechanism we have to moderate behaviour inside prison) for the worst of the worst.

Critics (and I put myself in that group) have argued this won't be used on the worst of the worst and a whole bunch of people will get caught by this legal drift net, throwing even more NZers into our underfunded, corrupt and violent prison nation to feed the private prison industry more revenue. This will see more damaged individuals emerging from the prison system without any skills to moderate their own behaviour (because Parole has been eliminated) which will cause even more crime because these individuals with no skills to moderate their behaviour will explode once released only to be thrown (to the glee of the private prison industry) straight back into prison.

So this is our first strike (remember this law is for the worst of the worst) so what happened here? Dwyane Christopher Mercer got drunk, stayed at a woman's house, entered her room, tried it on, groped the woman over her clothes, she screamed and told him to leave, he leaves.

Defence lawyer Phyllis Strachan said: "The touching was over clothing and I think that is important.

Now this sexual assault was pretty awful for the woman involved (it is her home, she should never have to feel fear in her own space) and Dwyane Christopher Mercer obviously let himself down horribly as an individual with his drunken pursuit of someone who clearly wanted nothing more than to sleep.

As awful as that situation was though, how on earth could his groping of a woman through their clothes EVER be considered 'the worst of the worst'? In the pantheon of awful acts human beings can commit on one another, this act deeply underwhelms. This law will NOT be used on the worst of the worst as we have been conned into thinking, Dwyane Christopher Mercer's actions while illegal and deplorable, clearly are NOT the worst of the worst. This bullshit 3 strikes and you're screwed will produce a prison nation starved of funds for rehabilitation. The toxic venom of this weeping wound will then slowly drip back into society, but the thing that really will annoy me is having to watch the puzzled look on Garth McVicars face 5 years from now proclaiming this wasn't what he wanted as increasingly violent prisoners start getting released from a no parole prison environment which has simply warped and damaged them further.

We have a media who leads if it bleeds (in March 2006, crime was 22% of the monthly One Network News and was in the headlines 29%, but by March 2010, crime was only 14% of the monthly One Network News yet was in the headlines 35% of the time) so the viewer is bombarded with news designed to push their buttons for ratings gain, but the knock on impact is that residual hatred that is created by the media's myopic focus on ratings driven crime leaks into the political sphere where it gets twisted to promote kneejerk 'get tough on crime' crap which push for punitive policy which only produces counter productive outcomes (this fear of crime that is over promoted by the ratings hungry media will of course benefit the new Police Political Party running in Council elections THIS YEAR that National rammed through under urgency last week).

Look at the smoking ban in prison, it's not being done for prisoner health, it's being done because the over crowding demands double bunking and the Government would face a myriad of second hand smoke claims from former prisoners. Angry nicotine addicted prisoners forced to go cold turkey so that they can be locked up with other nicotine addicted prisoners who are also going through withdrawal? I can’t see how this double bunking policy won’t bring anything other than sunshine and rainbows.

Well done NZ! Our ability to implement counter productive policy to feed our vengeance never ceases to amaze me.

UPDATE
Reflections in the Hand Mirror
I think the Hand Mirror is one of the top 10 blogs in the NZ Blogosphere. Their well reasoned, well argued critiques on a myriad of social justice issues often have me hurting my neck because I am nodding my head in agreement so often. I have known Julie almost 2 decades from Uni and have an immense amount of respect for her intellect and her personal ethics, so to be called on something I've blogged about by her demands a moment of considered reflection.

At no point was I suggesting Mercer should not be punished, my point was that his offending, his indecent assault, was not the 'worst of the worst' as sold by the supporters of this 3 strikes bill and the assertion by Julie that I was in some way attempting to defend sexual assault seems well off balance. I respect Julie immensely but on this issue we simply won't agree.

Sweating the line calls

@2am - watching the tennis. Serena Williams is up against a no-name Bulgarian at Wimbledon, but she's struggling to get the better of her lowly ranked opponent. Not sure if this is live. Sense something awry...

Down 2% on Wall Street. Dow has fallen below 10,000 again. CNBC fueling the gloom: the all pervasive 'Euro debt worries' lead on TV, online there are many possible reasons provided via the headlines:
It's as if the Congress forcing Wall street to clean itself up is causing a lack of confidence in the markets.

@2:30am Sorry make that 2.5%
@2:31 Match point at Wimbledon. Game Miss Williams - she's hanging in there against this golden, lithe Bulgarian - Pirinkova.

Having a hell of a time deciding what to watch. Backwards, forwards, backwards. Pirinkova's cute little dance-jig she does as part of her service lead up? or the scrolling, red, blow-by-blow, real-time quantification of the collapse of global capitalism.

@2:35am Dow still tanking. America is a screaming fucking wreck.
I want to see it wreck in slo-mo.

But sorry, America.

I know you're hurting - trillions and trillions of hurt - and it would be really fascinating to watch, it would be ordinarily, but goddamn... that's a sexy little dance thing she's doing out there. If airliners were flying into whatever's left of the New York skyline I would probably still keep changing the channel back just to see that ("There you go - that's the shot - look: it's all the way down the East River. We've got at least 30 seconds before it hits anything, c'mon).

@2:39am: Pirinkova beats the World's No.2. Impressive, but Serena fell into a funk early on in the second set and couldn't shake it. Serves her right for all that bloody shrieking. It got her nowhere in the end - it's all an annoying tactic. Shut up and play tennis FFS.

@2:50 Her sister, Venus, is playing now and she's going to ace Li out of the tournament in a few minutes at this ferocious rate. That's on TVNZ 2.

@3am: On Fox: Sen. Orin Hatch quizzing a Obama's Supreme Court nominee, Elena Kagan, on her past rulings. He's really just grandstanding: waving documents around and making long statements. All the time Kagan holds her poker face.

If this is what we are missing each night then it all starts to make sense as far as the news cycle goes. No wonder NZ news seems so parochial and boring - all the action internationally is already over by the time we're awake. The only breaking news all day is our own, Australia and to some extent Asia (which is mainly business-related non-news as far as TV goes anyway). It's all old news by the time we get it. Which is ironic given our time zone of half a day into the future.

The Goff and Carter ill communication

It was all one big miscommunication. Phil had said to Chris, “Man it up bitch", where as Chris thought Phil had said, “Bitch it up man”.

The last thing America needs is more bloody guns

Top US court extends gun owners' rights
WASHINGTON - The top US court, in a blow to gun control advocates, has ruled that Americans throughout the United States have the right to own a gun. The ruling by a narrowly divided Supreme Court said states and cities cannot bar Americans from owning firearms.

Those crazy bloody Americans, what a staggering ruling! How on earth does flooding America with guns make America safer? They just look at half a sentence with no context of the trained militia bit, just right to bear arms? WTF? Just such a crap ruling.

The 14 apostles

NZ Herald reporting on a petition of hand-wringing/Christian wowsers:

One of the highest-powered delegations ever to petition Parliament plans to speak out at the Beehive tomorrow [...] in a call to raise the drinking age, raise alcohol prices and implement other recommendations from a recent Law Commission report.

They also want MPs to abandon their traditional "conscience vote" on liquor issues so the Law Commission's proposals can be implemented as a consistent package.

Sir Paul Reeves, the former Governor-General who convened the group, said the 14 members shared general public concerns about New Zealand's binge-drinking culture.

Who do these people think they are?

Paul Reeve's last great achievement was a fatally flawed racial constitution for Fiji, Cartwright signed the detested Foreshore & Seabed confiscation into law without reading it while she was on holiday; and the majority of these so-called "icons" are nothing more than cultists and people who play sports. They have as much credibility on alcohol policy as any other person, so why would the MPs listen to the over-reactions of people setting themselves up as moral guardians? Because they are famous?

Stripping away rights from 18 and 19 year olds based on paranoia and media hype - those in favour:

* Sir Paul Reeves, former Governor-General (convenor).
* Dame Silvia Cartwright, former Governor-General.
* Archbishop John Dew, Catholic primate.
* Professor Sir Mason Durie, Maori health expert.
* Georgina Earl (Evers-Swindell), rowing gold medallist.
* Jeanette Fitzsimons, former Green Party co-leader.
* Sir Lloyd Geering, theologian.
* Dame Te Muranga Batley-Jackson, Manukau Urban Maori Authority founder.
* Michael Jones, ex-All Black.
* Dr Semisi Maia'i, Pacific Medical Association co-founder.
* Caroline Meyer (Evers-Swindell), rowing gold medallist.
* Archbishop David Moxon, Anglican leader.
* Inga Tuigamala, ex-All Black.
* Archbishop Brown Turei, Anglican leader.

Gerry's magical mystery mining money machine

Mining royalties shafted
Mining the estimated $54 billion of minerals in the Coromandel would net the Government just $1 billion in royalties over the course of a decade, official calculations show.

Finally brothers and sisters, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, the actual revenue projected to be generated from Mining the Coromandel is in.

Now you might recall that Gerry had used his magical mystery mining money machine to claim that there was $54 billion of minerals in the Coromandel, remember how I claimed that after all the bullshit promises of billions under dem der hills, we would all find out the actual revenue would be a pittance and we would turn to Gerry asking where our cow was and he would excitedly inform us he’s swapped it for some magic beans.

Yeah well what do we get out of the $54 billion to desecrate conservation land on the Coromandel? Over ten years? 1 Billion dollars. That’s barely $100 million per year for a decade and far less than the $54 billion valuation insinuated isn’t it?

Now Gerry argues that mining conservation land won’t damage our clean green image because mines can actually become tourist destinations as they have done in Australia.

Gerry, when I say mining damages our clean green global brand I’m not referring to the possible increase in foot traffic to a mine I’m talking about it damaging our clean green global brand . NZ exports can charge a premium because we have a clean green image right when clean and green are in short supply. Mine conservation land for a measly $108million per year for a decade and you put every export at risk because you damage the very reason they can charge that premium. Gerry you seem to have a ‘build it and they will come’ mentality towards open pit arsenic mines which suggests you aren’t really doing this for NZ economic gain at all, but are in fact doing it for the benefit of the mining industry.

In 2006 National told the mining industry what their intentions were on mining conservation land giving the mining industry plenty of time to donate money into the anonymous Waitamata trust yet for some reason John Key didn’t mention this mining of conservation land policy much during the 2008 election. He also forgot to mention those Australian mining shares he didn’t declare.

We only need to look at Australia to see what happens when an industry like mining has the power to finance a corporate coup and overthrow a Prime Minister they way they did with Kevin Rudd last week. It was Rudd’s righteous mining tax on massive windfall profits that caused the mining industry to fund attack adverts blitzed through the corporate news media, to manipulate spooked opinion polls which were then used to heavy the right wing faction of the labour party and overthrow Rudd.

Isn’t it hilarious that a corporate coup can be sold as a win for feminism?

Bomber's Blog - The War on News - TONIGHT 10.30pm Sky 89 & Freeview 21

The War on News 2010 – NZ News Satire on Stratos Sky 89 10.30pm Tuesday & simulcast on Freeview 21. Replayed on Triangle TV 9.45pm Wednesday and posted online at Scoop.co.nz as their Weekend Watch.

It’s just like 7 days on TV3 but with fewer dick jokes.

Facebook Group

Garner on Garner

The allegation that Duncan Garner said to Chris Carter "I am going to fucking get you, Carter. If it takes me to Christmas I am going to fucking destroy you." seems to be nothing more than an urban myth. Garner has come out on Brian Edwards blog and he has stated he never said any such thing and unless Bazely is going to say otherwise, that is where the issue ends...

Brian,

I ’swear’ I did not say to Chris; “I am going to fucking get you, if it takes me to Christmas I am going to destroy you.”

And I certainly did not touch Carter - that’s not my style. If I touched Carter why doesn’t he lay an assault charge? Because it simply did not happen.

Brian you have taken the Carter version and you have taken it hook line and sinker. It is wrong. Simple.

As I have always said there was an exchange. I was first to talk about it. Carter never said anything about it for months.

It’s Carter who is now running to you almost a year later still trying to make excuses for his behaviour.

As I have said Darren Hughes was there - he saw it - he may wish to put his version on the website. But I totally refute and reject your version.

Happy to debate the facts Brian - not the hysteria and hype.
Duncan Garner post on Brian's blog

...and Harman is 1000% behind Duncan's Flamboyant Flaming Homosexual pinko flys to Europe on your taxpayer money (probably to spend it all on expensive cocktails and lube) style

I have the privelege of producing Duncan on “the Nation”. I have questioned him about your allegations. I am satisfied they are substantially wrong. I thought his reportage of Chris Carter’s indulgent travel was excellent. I can testify that both Duncan and “The Nation” continue to have excellent relations with the Labour caucus. I think Duncan did journalism proud with his journalistic pursuit of Mr Carter. However I would not expect Duncan to get any credit on this blog which seems to have a vendetta against him — and any programme he is associated with.

And there the issue ends. Apparently Duncan Garner is the new Edward R Murrow.

UPDATE: Nice to see Tumeke was the first blog on this issue as it still rumbles along in the media world, with slightly different wording now emerging -

Media pair slug it out over Carter affair
Two media heavyweights are slugging it out on the internet over claims of vendettas against politicians and bias

Brown: Jesus wept

Carolyne Meng-Yee in the Herald on Sunday has done a masterly job at kicking Len Brown's political fortunes right in the balls. With steel caps.

We are talking Joe Pesci type violence here - and not nicey, nicey Sesame Street violence.
We're talking real street violence:
After reading this how can the man be anything other than toast? Burnt toast. Yesterday's toast. I will update the odds soon.

Meng-Yee paints him as a shifty, psychologically unstable dolt. Her method - pejorative phrasing, selective quoting and a relentless focus on negatives - is a superb example of her art. Turning a nice chat around the family table into: De Niro type violence.

Anger isn't going to quell this storm. Even if it isn't Watergate he's being as evasive as Nixon and it's a bad look, one that Meng-Yee exploits without mercy:

And he has utterly refused to identify who he and mayoress Shan Inglis hosted at their table for an $810 fundraiser dinner at Volare restaurant in Manurewa.
[...]
Inglis supported his secrecy around his guests at the dinner. "I can say, it was a business function. There was nothing personal about the dinner. There were no family members there at all - none."

None - except her. Begging the question: why is your wife at a business function so secret that commercial sensitivity is being invoked to protect the identities of those present? He has opened it up to the public thinking the worst.

Brown added: "I'm under extraordinary scrutiny and maybe Jesus Christ was the only one to withstand that and come out completely pure."

Comparing himself to Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is - to be generous - clumsy.

He's playing his political hand like an ingénue against the most formidable and experienced nemesis the Left could ever contemplate. If the trajectory continues, and if he gives more suicidal interviews like this, his vote will collapse in favour of a competent "non-political" third candidate when they enter the race as a fresh face much later in the campaign.
WTF!? Clumsy is an understatement.

Government policy will cause prison riots

Prisons to become smoke-free from next year
Corrections minister Judith Collins is expected to announce this week that a 12-month preparation plan will be rolled out that should see all prisons go smoke-free by July next year.

Okay, so the Government's raw meat, medieval law and order policy is seeing more and more NZers thrown into these shipping containers (prison rape pens would be a better description for them) and because of the double bunking policy it means prisoners who are exposed to second hand smoke could prosecute the Government (they are pretending it's the guards health they are protecting to avoid highlighting that its the double bunking policy that is provoking this change). So all Prisons will be forced to become smoke free, oh really? Let's imagine how prisoners are going to behave without their ciggies AND THEN forced to double bunk?

It's going to become a hell hole in there with prison riots and a jump in assaults the only prospects available from this stupid. stupid double bunking programme.

I love watching counter productive knee jerk redneck law and order policy produce such wonderful results.

It was a roast Dave, not a genocide

TV3 star attacks Jews
A top TV star unleashed a racist outburst at a high-profile media event this week - claiming that "Jews were expendable". David Fane, one of the creators of bro'Town, told an audience including Jason Gunn, Mike Hosking, Kate Hawkesby and John Tamihere, that "Hitler had a right" and HIV sufferers deserved to be "roasted". Fane, who is best known for film and TV roles including Outrageous Fortune, Sione's Wedding and Radiradirah, also hosts a breakfast show on radio station Flava. His employers at the The Radio Network and TV3 were last night ducking for cover, with both refusing to apologise. Fane made the tirade on Wednesday night at the inaugural Radio Roast at the exclusive Northern Club in Auckland. He said: "You are the worst motherf*****s in the world, you agency guys," referring to advertising bosses in the audience. He said: "I want to eat you, but I won't because I don't want to get HIV. Would you roast an HIV person? You'd roast them because they're expendable. Like the Jews. Hitler had a right, you know. "You've all got f****** Aids, c****!"

Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, WTF? It was a roast Dave, not an open invite to commit comedic genocide. Roasts are certainly supposed to be hilariously raw events, and no one deserves as much contempt as the 'Agency guys', but questioning the way one should roast someone with AIDS and concluding roasting them was in fact acceptable because Hitler roasted Jews would have had me choking into my $50 a glass wine as well.

At least there's a reason now based on this level of humour that helps explains why Radiradirah is so unfunny! It's like you can actually hear the tumble weeds while the skits uncomfortably go on and on and on. I think TV3 comedy needs to stick to the 7days dick jokes level (which jaw droppingly always edits Michele A'Court completely out of them).

Is it true Radiradirah is a colloquial Maori word for. "I can't believe we got funding for this'?

Goff's Daughter caught by Aussie Drug paranoia

Phil Goff's daughter busted for drugs
Labour leader Phil Goff last night confirmed his daughter had appeared in an Australian court after being caught with drugs in her bra – but escaped a criminal record.

Sara Goff, 25, had her case called earlier this year at Downing Centre Local Court after being nabbed with four Ecstasy tablets outside a New Year celebration. She did not front in person but instead entered a written guilty plea.

The Sunday Star-Times can reveal Sara Goff, an Agriculture and Fisheries Ministry policy analyst, was stopped as she entered the main entrance of the Fuzzy Field Days Festival dance party in north Sydney's domain at 2.22pm on January 1 by Senior Constable Matthew Pople.

"Police charged [Goff] with one count of possession of a prohibited drug after allegedly finding four tablets, suspected of being Ecstasy," New South Wales police spokeswoman Joanne Elliott confirmed.

Sara Goff told police during the search the dark-coloured pills stamped with the letters "CK" were Ecstasy. "She was taken to the police command post and cautioned." She was charged under New South Wales' Drug Misuse and Trafficking Act.

She was one of 83 people caught with illicit substances by a specialist police squad running a drug-dog operation at the dance party. Large quantities of Ecstasy, amphetamines, cocaine, GHB and cannabis were seized during the sting, a police statement said. Eleven were charged with supplying drugs.

As much as this Government are ramming through vast expansions of power to the Police, we are not as bad as Australia yet. In their overblown response to the war on terror, cops were allowed to use sniffer dogs (originally to sniff bombs, then expanded to sniff drugs) to sniff anyone in public and so now at every rave these fascists get to sniff you for drugs. Oh and what a danger E is, there is more chance of you having an allergic reaction to panadol than dying from E, how many people have over dosed in NZ on E? I think we've had less than 5 deaths in NZ in almost two decades?

Perhaps before Phil blindly greenlights pointless expansions of police power (did Labour even vote against allowing the Police to create their own political party rammed through under urgency this week?), he should consider those caught, like his own Daughter, by these unnecessary expansions of power.

And while we are talking about the war on drugs crap, how about strip searching teenagers for drugs huh?

Report slams drug testing
A high school that forced students to strip to their underwear while they underwent drug tests has promised to adopt new disciplinary procedures. Investigators have found that Rotorua Boys' High may have infringed the Bill of Rights by conducting the draconian drug testing on pupils. But after conducting his own inquiry, the school's statutory manager Dennis Finn is refusing to apologise to parents. He said "letters of explanation" would be sent out instead. Finn had confidence in principal Chris Grinter and deputy principal Fred Whata after investigating the allegations. In February, the Herald on Sunday revealed that former student Chris Reid said he had been told to strip to his underwear and drink 15 cups of water over 90 minutes so he could urinate into a cup.

PS - Isn't the racker of muck, Johnathan Marshall, being given way too much room to destroy the Sunday Star Times with his gutter journalism? A 6month old grubby story that didn't result in a conviction isn't headline news.

That's pretty ugly Sunday Star Times, Brian Edwards with the moneyshot

Gutter Journalism from the Sunday Star Times
And to add insult to injury, it ends with this:
‘News of his daughter’s arrest has come at an unwelcome time for Phil Goff… Polls have had him lagging way behind National’s John Key.’

I agree with Paul Henry (I know, I'm shocked as well)

I never thought I would live to see the day where I agreed with Paul bloody Henry, but he is right, news at TVNZ and their dreadful 'celebration' of TV's 50 year history was shit...

Watch out TVNZ - the Breakfast big mouth strikes again
Straight-talking TV host Paul Henry has put his foot in it again, calling his employer's programmes "banal" and "unwatchable", and questioning the taste and intelligence of the TV-viewing public. Henry, who as presenter of TV One's Breakfast has delivered sniggering put-downs of targets including a hirsute Greenpeace spokeswoman and British singer Susan Boyle, said "banal" stories on TV One's news show Close Up and its TV3 rival Campbell Live end up being some of the "most-watched, the most commented-upon stuff" on television. "I sometimes see stuff and personally despair, and I think: is that current affairs? But it actually is."

I have blogged here about how awful the TVNZ 'celebration' was and have blogged here about how shocking it was that Rupert bloody Murdoch managed to do public broadcasting better than our very own public broadcaster with Prime's brilliant 50 year celebration of TV in NZ.

As for TVNZ's 50 year news show tonight, please, please, please don't tell me this won't just be a lazy compilation of 75 current affairs events that you will even more lazily have ranked based on nothing more academic than internet voters, please tell me it's not just that?

Q+A and The Nation

So what were the ratings last week? 223 280 viewers for Q+A and 117 010 viewers for The Nation - In the short time The Nation has been on air, they have built up over half the Q+A audience. When they have a boring suit on, their ratings slump. When they have good panelists on, they rate strongly so they should feel pretty happy with that! However Houston, we have a problem...

The Nation
I'm sorry for getting to this debate late, but Brian Edwards blogged last night on an allegation about an event that supposedly occurred 11 months ago. I say supposedly and allegation because the claim is so huge against Garner that it demands a certain amount of gravity and fairness because IF Duncan did in fact say what has been alleged, he simply can not remain on as the Political Editor of a TV network. And sadly, until the allegation is cleared, Duncan Garner can only be referred to as Duncan "I am going to fucking get you, Carter. If it takes me to Christmas I am going to fucking destroy you" Garner. The allegation of course is that 11 months ago, when boarding an Air NZ Flight, Garner said "I am going to fucking get you, Carter. If it takes me to Christmas I am going to fucking destroy you" directly to Chris Carters face AND that Dame Margaret Bazley witnessed the entire event. Now you don't get much more credibility than Bazley and if an investigation finds that she did in fact witness this, then Duncan "I am going to fucking get you, Carter. If it takes me to Christmas I am going to fucking destroy you" Garner simply can not remain as the Political Editor. I blogged on this last night (it's below this post), now there is a body of work by Garner...

Flamboyant Flaming Homosexual pinko flys to Europe on your taxpayer money (probably to spend it all on expensive cocktails and lube)

...where he has attacked Chris in the exact luxury gay boy manner that Carter has complained about, so shouldn't a Political Editor with a body of work against a Politician that borders on the homophobic and who is alleged to have said "I am going to fucking get you, Carter. If it takes me to Christmas I am going to fucking destroy you" be investigated? Because IF Duncan "I am going to fucking get you, Carter. If it takes me to Christmas I am going to fucking destroy you" Garner did infact say that, he simply can not remain on as the political editor of a TV network, he's their Political Editor, not a blogger slagging someone off online!

I know a lot of you read this blog, so don't pretend you don't know what the allegation against Duncan now is and you will have to address it publicly at some stage or this will start to grow online.

ANYWAY - to this weeks show, excellent Panel, Chris Trotter and Noelle McCarthy, they are both broadcasters who know how to make commentary interesting and because the show relys so heavily on the talent of the commentators, these are great picks. Note how well they rate when they have a good panel as opposed to the ratings they have with a weak panel.

FINALLY - using the scoop the way they started instead of that awful Jane Clifton from that awful Listener magazine. The Nation reported that Bill English hid his role in a cocktail evening speech about the role of Lobby groups in politics. Now that's a SCOOP! Well done!

So it's Tony Ryall on. What the Government is up to now is slashing and burning the Public sectors and learning how to spin the lines so that it's all couched in language NZers won't associate to privatization, and Tony Ryall is amazing at it. He spins as if the Public Sector is in fact being repaved with gold, it's a great strategy but can only limp on for the short term because at some point the numbers start showing the National Party lie and Stephen dropped the numbers while Tony back peddled and used lots of 'best service for the public productivity' words.

1480 public workers sacked

460 more public workers to be sacked

36 919 public workers left

Tony did admit that there were hundreds more above that 460. When National said the Public Service would be 'capped' he meant 'knee-capped'. The fact is NZers are facing the worst recession since the great depression and will need public services more now than ever, and yet this Government are slashing and burning them.

Chris gets stuck in and demands deeper philosophical answers from Tony, he is sweating being pushed by Chris to acknowledge that drowning a small Government is exactly what National Party's do every time they get into power.

Moment of current affairs gold - Tony Ryall to Chris Trotter, " We're not taking an ideological view to this Chris" - I laughed so hard I spilled my coffee.

Interesting they had an American Academic on pointing out that China ain't the freedom loving fun guys here to help and that they are very hard nosed and need a policy that is 'realistic'. Nice to see we are getting softened up to be the South Pacific Pinata between China and America.

The lighting and makeup makes Jane Clifton look like she is undead, it's so unflattering it's not fair of me to bring it up. I just think that we have a host of a show who used to be Gerry Brownlees Press Secretary so why have a commentator who is also Murray McCully's press secretary?

Oh and God isn't The Listener an awful wanky right wing lifestyle magazine for vacuous consumer housewives with a slight left wing aesthetic? I always forget to slag it off whenever I'm on the Panel with Joanna Black so I am glad in a way that I get to weekly flog it now.

Interesting bit on the South Island's richest man Alan Hubbard. Difficult to tell if he's a nice old bugger who's getting heavied by the G man or a scammer who has blown everyone's money.

I switched over to watch the lat ten minutes of 'Tomorrow's World' on Prime. It's a crazy evangelical 'news' show connecting current affairs with prophecy in the Book of Revelations. Apparently an army of 200 million is coming. I'm not sure how Haliburton will be able to pay everyone on time with that much data loading required for 200 million employees. It sounds like they could use Tony Ryall to slash some of those employees, does an Army REALLY need to be 200 million strong to cause an Armageddon? Couldn't some of that be contracted out to Black Water? I suggest a Public Private Partnership to slim down the size of the Army for Armageddon, we are after all having to belt tighten everywhere, and that includes the final battle between good and evil.

Q+A
Dr Jon Johansson is on the panel with former Green MP Sue Bradford and Business New Zealand CEO Phil O’Reilly, good to see Sue on the panel.

Rodney Hide is in the hot seat re his climate change lunacy (excellent) and they have Australian Labour Party insider Bruce Hawker on to explain the coup in Australia.

Paul's 'phone call' in the middle of his opening monologue is just genius! The opening monologue really is brilliant now, why can't Paul Holmes be like this all the time? (It was great seeing him and that Dennis Conner interview last night on Prime's brilliant 50 year history - isn't it an irony that Rupert Murdoch can do public broadcasting better than our own actual public broadcaster???).

So the Labour Party insider is on attempting to explain the speed of the corporate coup by the mining industry against Kevin Rudd. Hawker isn't explaining it well, no one likes having to explain a mining company coup.

The corporate media beholden to the corporate mining company opinion polls are heavily promoting that Gillard is now back in control to minimize the impact of the coup and are as obviously manipulated as the ones used to destabilize Rudd in the first place.

It's a bullshit interview because Hawker clearly had no idea what the bloody hell happened either, every one pussy foots around the power of the mining industry.

Next is Guyon taking on Rodney re climate change - this SHOULD be a bloodbath, Hide has said all sorts of crazy bullshit on climate change, he has claimed that a 2 degree rise in temperature would be ‘beneficial’ for NZ and that C02 is a ‘misunderstood nutrient’ and he changed his policy to climate denying after being given a donation from climate denier Alan Gibbs - roast him Guyon....

It waffles on for a bit, until Guyon finally gets to the real issue, which is that ACT are flat earth climate deniers. Rodney claims NIWA are liars and that work ACT has done has forced NIWA to admit climate change isn't happening. Guyon puts to Rodney that ACT are a bunch of conspiritorial nutters on climate change, Rodney babbles on proving Guyon right.

Rodney's argument that the tiny change NZ does won't do anything - really Mr Hide? Woman voting in NZ was a small thing, nuclear free was a small thing, a fair welfare state was a small thing - we have led on these issues in the past (the right wing argue we shouldn't lead now, those right wingers are called Australians).

Guyon should have goaded Hide on climate change, there is so much that could have been thrown at Hide, it's a shame he didn't get hammered like he should have. Well played Mr Hide, you escape real scrutiny once again. Personally I think this would be important...

Hide’s repositioning coincided with a major donation to ACT by Alan Gibbs, a wealthy NZ businessman best known here for his Aquada (a sportscar that thinks it’s a boat) and for his generous patronage of modern art. Gibbs, however, also plays a prominent role in climate crank organisations. He is on the “policy advisory board” of the International Climate Science Coalition (with such luminaries as Monckton, Bryan Leyland and Owen McShane), while his daughter Emma is listed as a director of the ICSC. In its election spending return to the Electoral Commission, ACT reveals that on April 9th 2008 Gibbs paid $100,000 into the party’s coffers. Within weeks, the party’s new climate denial line was being pushed to the press.

...apparently none of that is important enough to ask ACT questions about when discussing their climate denial policy.

What Duncan Garner said to Chris Carter

"I am going to fucking get you, Carter. If it takes me to Christmas I am going to fucking destroy you."

Explosive claim made by Brian Edwards over at his blog that Duncan Garner said that to Chris Carter on an Air NZ flight and that it was witnessed by Dame Margaret Bazley 11months ago.

Brian has made this claim before but in light of the way Garner has outrageously gone after Carter surely there needs to be an investigation of whether or not Garner said this, because if he did then can he seriously remain as the TV3 Political Editor? There is just no way the Political Editor can say...

"I am going to fucking get you, Carter. If it takes me to Christmas I am going to fucking destroy you."

...if this is true and not just an urban legend then Garner must be removed as the Political Editor, he can't hold a position of responsibility like that after declaring an outright bias especially as there is now a body of work proving Garner took his vengeance out on Carter.

The Prime Minister is optimistic

Rudd's fate a lesson for us all, says Key
Prime Minister John Key says the leadership coup in Australia shows how brutal politics can be and how important it is for leaders to keep close to their caucuses and the voters. Yesterday, Mr Key was the first leader to congratulate Julia Gillard after the Labor caucus replaced former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd with her. "What it shows you is that things can move very rapidly in politics and you can't take for granted your position," Mr Key said later. "Hopefully, I won't repeat the same thing this side of the Tasman." Six months ago, Mr Rudd was Australia's second-most popular Prime Minister, after Bob Hawke. "So it is a dramatic fall in six months." Mr Key, who has high popularity himself, told reporters the leadership change did not make him nervous, "but it shows you the brutal side of politics in every part of the world and it shows you need to keep closer to your caucus and obviously to the people, the country you represent".

God I love our slightly spaced out Prime Minister. He just floats in that eerily medicated glazed world of his and sometimes you can see the wheels still spinning before he clicks where he is going. These weird lapses are covered over in the way Bush would have his weird little episodes glossed over, last week was a great example. While being interviewed at the airport for his comment on Gillard's rise via mining industry coup he started waffling on about had happened...

"What it shows you is that things can move very rapidly in politics and you can't take for granted your position,

...the look on his face during the interview as he says this when he clicks how that could relate to him is just priceless, he quickly adds...

Hopefully, I won't repeat the same thing this side of the Tasman."

...God, he just walks into these things doesn't he? He should be concerned, with his Government's deep links to the mining industry and his desire to allow them even more power in our tiny economy, NZ could become as beholden to the mining industry as the coup in Australia showed Canberra was.

Teachers revolt against National Standards that are really League Tables in disguise

Teachers told to boycott national standards
The Auckland Primary Principals' Association (APPA) is telling members to boycott training to implement national standards. APPA president Iain Taylor wrote to members that after "significant deliberation, APPA recommends that its members cease to attend any training around the implementation of the national standards". The organisation said the policy was too flawed to work.

Our top academics have damned National Standards, our Education Minister has lied about National Standards and now teachers aren't putting up with this farce any longer either.

And why aren't teachers putting up with this crap? Because these national standards have NOTHING to do with the educational betterment of NZ's children and has EVERYTHING to do with National implementing free market ideology into education. The standards will be used to create league tables, these league tables will create a false competition, which is what National have aimed for within education since day one.

Not one extra cent is being given to Schools to lift a child who is failing, they are only getting cash to 'measure' - why 'measure' if there isn't any money to help bring those measured who are failing?

This is NOT about the educational achievement of NZ children because national standards like this are pointless, they show nothing of any educational value because children develop at very different stages this early on in their educational life. How do we know this to be true? Because our undisputed educationalists like John Hattie bloody well tells us so!

Here is what he has said about National's failed experiment of free market ideology in education:

Could be the most disastrous education policy ever formulated.

Will only barely raise student achievement, if at all.

Could "pervert the nature of teaching" by pitting schools and teachers against one another.

Hattie also writes that the standards themselves – the targets students will be measured against – are "untested and experimental" and need to be drawn up based on evidence, not committees.

Hmmmm, “Could be the most disastrous education policy ever formulated”, see even if I was a humper for National, surely those kind of warnings could get through and make an impact. And let's not forget Tolley lied about parental support for her league tables by stealth...

'Three Rs' plan alarms parents
AN OFFICIAL report reveals one-third of parents had concerns about the new national school standards system before it was launched – despite the government's claims the system has a "strong mandate" from parents.

...these league tables National have been trying to smuggle in under the national standards regime have been sold to NZ as having the support of parents yet an official report released shows that 38% of parents made negative comments about National’s plans and only 14% made positive comments. Yet Education Minister Anne Tolley’s press release on the report read, ‘Parents support National Standards’ – no they didn’t only 14% did, 38% were negative.

Teachers have a responsibility to make sure educational policy is in the best interests of the students, these National Standards being forced upon schools with no extra money to help bring a child above a fail must be resisted because it is a sham attempt to inject false competition into the education system.

While National pump millions into their friends in the private education industry, they are setting up league tables by stealth in the public system, thankfully the teachers are willing to fight for public education.

I'd rather live in a Democracy of 120 MPS than a Dictatorship of 99

Dumping MMP huge setback for ethnic diversity, expert warns
The MMP electoral system has seen a vibrant and exciting explosion of ethnic diversity in Parliament and to move away from it would only lead to a future referendum to bring it back, a select committee has heard. Victoria University political scientist Jon Johansson said yesterday he did not support the referendum into MMP because it had led New Zealand to a "far more representative democracy, which is something we should celebrate".

Dumping MMP helps straight white rich old men take power in this country, and I just don't think they need any more help than they currently get! MMP allows our diverse country to have better representation and that provides for a better democracy. The whinging old white man voice you get croaking on about how evil MMP is seems more a cultural backlash against being forced to share power with other cultures, genders, ages and sexual orientation. Remember, MMP has only been around for a decade, in the bad old days of First Past The Post, Parliament was a rich white straight old boys club and white men saw themselves as the essence of power, being forced to share that power has caused a cultural backlash by that group towards all the perceived evils of MMP.

We must make sure there is a $500 000 cap for spending as suggested (currently there is no cap at all) so that those old rich straight white males can't buy themselves an electoral system that cements their interests into political power the way the mining Industry has been able to cause with their coup in Australia.

Gulf of Mexico worst case scenario

So what exactly happens in the Gulf if BP can't plug the hole? Well, the first thing is to note, just as in the 1979 Anchorage spill, nothing will plug this until the relief well is drilled...



...but what if the relief well doesn't work, what if BP have actually ruptured the Gulf floor?

Deepwater Horizon: The Worst-Case Scenario
So far, up to 3.6 million barrels of oil have spilled into the Gulf. The size of the Macondo oilfield has been estimated as being anywhere from 25 to 100 million barrels. It is unclear how much of that oil-in-place would escape upward into Gulf waters if its flow remained completely unchecked, but it is safe to assume that at least half, and probably a much greater proportion, would eventually drain upward. That means many times as much oil would enter the Gulf waters as has done so until now.

This is BP Apologist Tony Hayward telling graduates last year that BP had too many people trying to save the planet and as such he would focus on profits...

...your problem was too many people trying to save the planet? Well that ain't your problem any longer Tony, you've done plenty to damage the planet forever.

For the economies of coastal states, a worst-case leakage scenario would be utterly devastating. Not only the fishing industry, but the oil industry as well would be fatally crippled, due to the disruption of operations at refineries. Shipping via the Mississippi River, which handles 60 percent of all U.S. grain exports, could be imperiled, since the Port of South Louisiana, the largest bulk cargo port in the world, might have to be closed if ships are unable to operate in oil-drenched waters. Unemployment in the region would soar and economic refugees would scatter in all directions.

The knock on effect of BP rupturing the sea floor of the Gulf will have a massive impact on the ecology, economy and habitability of the entire region leading to environmental refugees and an oil industry wracked by a vast increase in insurance premiums causing the price to skyrocket.

So this is all happening right when the Minister for Mordor and Masochism, Gerry Brownlee greenlighted our own deep sea drilling...

East coast oil exploration approved
Energy Minister Gerry Brownlee has announced that one of the world's largest oil companies, Petrobras, has been awarded exploration rights for oil and gas in the previously unexplored Raukumara Basin on the east coast of the North Island.

...so will we like Canada demand relief wells dug in the same season? Of course not! Gerry tells us the voluntary code of 'Best Practice' will look after us. Really? A voluntary 'Best Practice' code is all that Gerry will implement? Gerry's press secretary knows 'Best Practice' unfortunately has the same initials as BP right?

If Gerry's vision of a water tight voluntary code that will protect us from oil spills and will be so carefully scrutinized that all the I's are dotted and all the T's crossed is so certain, then why the fuck weren't local Iwi even consulted over the Petrobras contract?

Maori ignored as Patrobras signed up
Labour's Maori affairs spokesperson is attacking the issue of a licence to Brazilian company to prospect for oil off the North Island East Coast. Parekura Horomia says energy minister Gerry Brownlee failed to consult Maori before signing over the Raukumara Basin to Petrobras International.

...so Gerry's eagle like vision to assure us this drilling deal will be safe couldn't even manage to remember to talk to local Maori about this arrangement?

A voluntary 'Best Practice' code and a deal that couldn't even remember to talk to local Maori are a sign that Gerry isn't protecting our interests at all and by refusing to even entertain a relief well drill clause into these deals to force the oil company to drill a relief well first suggests that Gerry is once again missing the point.

It's a point the residents of the Gulf are seeing bloom toxic before their eyes.

Mean

Schmuck is the first word that came to mind.

And as a tribute to Schmuck the Troll Blogger and his mullet fixation here's something random I came across yesterday that was just too beautiful not to find an excuse to use:You can only have hair like that if you are a musician or a magician - he's wasting that awesome chick-magnet look by being on the radio.

Why the new law being rammed through under urgency will lead to a Police State

Here is the reason why the new law being rammed through under urgency right now by National will lead to allowing the Police to create their own insidious local city political party.

The Officers running in local body elections will all talk to each other won't they? Let's say the Police stand someone in every position they can, all those elected Police Officers will get together, won't they? Will there be a rule none of them can discuss strategy? Of course not, will they be able to wear their uniforms while campaigning? Off course they will find a way, they will show in their billboards in some way that they are affiliated to the Police, that's their main sales point right? They will ensure they can in some way use it to let the old and frightened know they are a cop and the old and frightened will vote for them in vast numbers.

So the Police will enforce and write the bylaws, these elected Police Officers will meet eachother regularly to 'chat' about policy and bylaws and see if there is some resource they could all share to speed progress along, here are some of the 'policies' we will see getting promoted form our Police Officer local body politicians...

More surveillance cameras
More draconian bylaws against tagging
More draconian bylaws against boy racers
Police should be armed
More tasers
Anti-social abatement orders

...in fact they could just cut and paste that straight onto their billboards couldn't they?

I've read this weak defense by Andrew Geddis over at Pundit and am less convinced it is a justifiable position. Let's look at his argument...

First of all, is it really a problem to have a police officer sitting on a council at one time, then going out on the streets to arrest people for breaching the council's bylaws? Even if this is a technical breach of the separation of powers doctrine, what is the worst that could possibly happen? Do we think a police officer will only enforce those bylaws he or she supported at council, whilst ignoring any he or she opposed? I mean - we say the "separation of powers" matters as a general principle, but why does it matter in this specific instance?

Yes Geddis, yes it is a major issue you clown, look at his reasoning here and see how stupid it is. Geddis claims that there is no issue with the Police writing the law and then enforcing it, it is such a simplistic position I wonder how Geddis managed to get into the Legislation Advisory Committee in the first place. What Geddis seems to be unable to understand is not that it is an issue of a Police Officer choosing to enforce a bylaw they helped write, it is that the Police will swamp Councils with all the extra bylaws they want, like...

More surveillance cameras
More draconian bylaws against tagging
More draconian bylaws against boy racers
Police should be armed
More tasers
Anti-social abatement orders

...Geddis can't see that, Geddis just thinks it's an issue of a cop enforcing a bylaw they voted for. Sweet Jesus man, that is not the issue at all, it is that the Police Force will use these new Political Police to push their agenda of more Police Powers through the local councils.

That Geddis is unable to even sense that suggests he and his fellow bureaucrats are part of the problem.

Second, is not there some value to having the local police involved in all aspects of a community's activities - including its governance? If the aim really is "Safer Communities Together", then should we not treat constables and their supervisors as being a full part of that community, rather than as a potential threat to how it is run?

I'm gobsmacked at how naive this argument is (isn't it terrifying when you get a look into the star chamber to see how the wise and mighty make decisions and see it is as petty as this argument is?) If you want bloody 'safer communities' Geddis, then invite the community cop to come along and be part of discussions that are relevant to safer communities, DON'T GIVE THE POLICE THE ABILITY TO FORM THEIR OWN POLITICAL PARTY AND GIVE THEM FUCKING VOTING RIGHTS!!!

Third, is there not some mid-way solution to the potential problem of a police officer making bylaws which he or she then will enforce? After all, members of local authorities face all sorts of potential conflicts in their work which must be managed - from deliberating on matters that they have a personal financial interest in, to expressing a predetermined position before receiving all the evidence, to knowing the individuals who may be affected by a particular decision. Would not an internal rule that says "a member of the local authority who is a serving police officer may not debate nor vote on any bylaw" largely remove any constitutional concerns?

No Geddis, it wouldn't at all. The Police are supposed to be apolitical idiot, they aren't just another fucking public servant - THEY ARE THE ENFORCERS OF THE LAW! Allowing them ANYWHERE near the creation of the law as well as the enforcement of the law is a sacrosanct division needed.

What Geddis has defended is the Police creating their own insidious political party, here are the bitter fruits of this legislation..

Candidates will all use the same campaign material
Candidates will meet regularly to discuss blanket bylaw powers and have the laws written ready to be cut and pasted straight into the law books
Candidates will either follow the line they are told to tow by Police hierarchy or find themselves dumped from gaining 'support'.

It is utterly unacceptable that this major change is being rammed through under urgency, and it will create a defacto Police Party hidden under the veil of boredom local body politics descends to making the situation even more insidious.

A Very Australian Coup

Julia Gillard prepares for battle
Julia Gillard has vowed to "fight with every ounce of my being" to take Labor to victory at the next election from her historic position as Australia's first female prime minister. She will go to the polls "within months" after Kevin Rudd stepped aside on Thursday morning, handing her the leadership unopposed after an unprecedented 24 hours in Australian politics. And, in another shock development, Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner signalled on Thursday he would stand aside at the next election to spend more time with his family.

So what the bloody hell just happened in Australia? The most chilling corporate coup the country has ever faced to prop up a Lady Macbeth PM is what just happened and this should serve as a warning to us as this Government attempts to strengthen the power of corporate mining in this country.

The mining industry had initiated a corporate funded coup against the Government after Rudd announced his mining tax. They blitzed the corporate news media with advert after advert after advert of claims Rudd was about to destroy the economy by enforcing real distribution of wealth from these greedy corporate mining companies. The mining industry then set in motion promoting any Polls that showed the impact of their propoganda working, add to this the power of the climate denial nutbags who have been flexing their muscles ever since the failed climate gate fizzer and momentum was artificially built against Rudd.

The mining industry then turned their attention on the unions and right wing faction of the Labour Party, bought them off, Rudd was gone.

The ease with which the mining industry in Australia has been able to implement a coup to halt the mining tax, and then to have the entire event wrapped up as some type of win for bloody feminism would be funny if it wasn't so awful for democracy.

While you are handing out $4.8million to PEDA, I'll have a $100 000 thanks Bill

National ties denied by Budget recipient
The man at the centre of a political storm over funding for a Pacific employment scheme says there is no truth to rumours that he has National Party links.

A great man has been dragged into the street and shot like a dog ladies and gentlemen! Who am I speaking of? The great man, Efeso Collins who hosts Auckland's Radio 531 PI Saturday Show and he has been stood down and gagged from the Radio station for daring to question this shonky, shonky, shonky, shonky, shonky National Party uncontested $4.8million to a PI group with deep links to the PI sports stars John Key used to con the PI electorate in the last election.

Why has a great leader in his community and all round freedom fighter Efeso Collins been gagged and stood down? Well it just turns out that one of the Brothers involved in PEDA also just happens to run Radio 531 PI.

We don't have time to talk about $4.8million uncontested to a group the Government's own Ministry has warned against giving money because we have a mainstream media more interested in the petty spending habits of Chris Carter than real issues.

The spending of a couple of hundred dollars by a homosexual Minister on flowers for his gay partner IS MORE IMPORTANT than the uncontested handing out of $4.8million to a group who helped the Government gain votes from the PI electorate.

PS: Since Phil Goff is so intent on bashing Chris Carter for public effect, my thinking is that Carter's apology today should be total and that Chris stands down from all portfolio's robbing Goff of all the built up thunder he intends to unleash. One gets the feeling no matter what Chris says today Phil will still take that as 'not enough' and use it as another opportunity to appear tough and strip Carter of everything. Better for Chris to show the grace he has been so lacking in and add real contrition and focus just on his electorate by standing down from the lot, that will do more to rehabilitate Chris in the public's mind and denies Goff his whipping boy (seriously Labour, Chris has been a solid foot soldier for the Party, to turn on him so viciously when it's expedient isn't winning any friends within those Auckland liberal Labour voters who didn't bother to vote in 2008 and whom you desperately need to win back).

Is it possible for the Labour Party to focus back on the real issues at all? Rather than National holidays for the All Whites and bashing Chris Carter, how about the legislation being rammed under urgency through Parliament right now that allows the Police to form their own political party?

Off duty drunk cops guilty of assault

Police pair guilty of attacking students
A victim of two off-duty policemen yesterday found guilty of a drunken assault is calling for justice after their bid for a discharge without conviction. Auckland District Court Judge Heather Simpson yesterday rejected claims that former Auckland City constables Patrick Garty, 32, and Wiremu Bowers Rakatau, 21, acted in self-defence when they kicked and punched a group of students in March.

Well, well, well - it's been the news story that has just kept giving hasn't it folks? Three drunk off duty cops turn on a group of teenagers on my very own inner city street and bash the shit out of them, and it turns out one of the teenagers they beat up was a Detectives son - it just doesn't get any better than this folks.

Normally the Police get away with bashing anyone they like, the reason they didn't get away with it this time is because they were dumb enough to smash a Detectives son, don't you just wish we could have seen the look on their faces when they were told they had bashed a Detectives son, I imagine a look like this...

...now the little pricks want to be discharged without conviction! Two of them are still with the NZ Police and the third is trying to get a job with the Australian Police - they beat the shit out of these kids, lied through their teeth with bullshit stories (I mean really boys, you've had since St Paddy's Day last year to get your lie right and you cocked it up, you were 'shadow boxing' were you princess? Like fuck mate) these drunk off duty alpha male dickhead cops followed the teens into Little High st, broke into their apartment foyer, beat the shit out of who they could grab and then lied through their teeth to try and hide their assaults - are these the people we want in the NZ Police force?

Look if they had all admitted they were drunk and aggro and wrongly took it out on these young guys and said sorry then we could move on and they could have a future in the Police, after all, we all make mistakes, but they didn't do that. Their arrogance has been the only thing on display during this case and now they want a discharge without conviction? How many other people could drunkenly break into anothers apartment foyer, bash them, claim they did nothing wrong and then demand a discharge without conviction?

The important lesson is let's keep the Police in their Police bars and NOT allow them to drink with the general public, we must protect the Public from these violent drunk dangerous Police officers, can we get the cops to protect us from the cops?

There's one more trial to go so we all get to relive the glee this story has provided. It ain't a good day for all those sheep in NZ who bleat that the NZ Police force wouldn't have butter melt in their mouths because they are so pure.

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The War on News: There is insufficient evidence that Russel Norman was assaulted in the same way there is insufficient evidence China ever invaded Tibet, the last temptation of Len Brown and the Herald's 'online readers panel', how fresh meat helps terrorists


Wank o the week: NZ Pork Board telling porkies about pig welfare, while you are handing out $4.8million to PEDA - I'll have $100 000 thanks Bill, how can Rupert Murdoch do public broadcasting better than TVNZ?


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FAQ: is Julia Gillard a lesbian?

She's the Prime Minister of Australia as of today - and it's none of anyone's business - but some people, of the Right:— have asked:Wikipedia says:
Hairdresser? Partner?

That will not be definitive proof of non-lesbianism for the prurient, conspiratorial Right, but this footage is conclusive for me:That's a very poor job of being a lesbian and a very good job on the interviewer's part of similarly not being homosexual.It's the longest i/v I've seen yet of her that is available. Have put part one (as above) in sidebar.