Audacity of the right crying wolf over Quake

You know the right are scrambling for disinformation when they are in editorial goose step with one another.

In her latest blog, Right wing hate speech proponent Cathy Odgers refers to me as 'hate speecher' for my suggestion that it is that 'bloated public service' that National were boasting about slashing that are actually saving lives in Christchurch right now and that this new wave of solidarity flies in the face of the right wings 'me first and the gimmie, gimmies' mantra. Cathy calls me a 'hate speecher' after I called her out on her spiteful and bewildering attack on solo mothers and Cathy's plan for eugenics.

The ignorance is so apparent in Kates hate speech towards those she considers 'unpeople' it's almost No Minister-esk. Kate you may write with some finesse when it comes to exposing the internal lies within financial news, but sweet Jesus your social policy thinking is more akin to that moment in 12 Angry Men when they all get up and walk away from the bigot left raving at the table.

Your solution to pay every single solo mother money 'not to breed' isn't just the words of a racist you've managed to make solo mothering a crime in itself! No where do you limit your thinking to those women who have had previous abuse, at least that would mitigate the offensiveness of your post, you deem all solo mothers as, how did you so charmingly put it? The heaving pathetic underclass. By seamlessly merging child abusers with solo mothers, Kate has managed to be ignorant and stupid, it's a difficult self snooker, perhaps you should rename your blog 'the sound of one hand clapping'?

The difference between my and Cathy Odger's 'hate speech' of course is that I attack the powerful, Kate attacks the weak, and in her latest childish response, she simply succeeds in throwing shit to remove focus from herself.

The meme from the right wing is that the Left are using the quake for political posturing, and it's a meme David Farrar picks up and ridiculously tries to justify...

But within just three days of the earthquake, we had both politicians and media demanding tax increases, and insisting the PM rule things in or out. For fuck’s sake – couldn’t that wait until you know after we’ve stopped pulling bodies from the rubble?

...of course David would never use the quake to push an agenda, well, not until the last sentence of his blog attacking the Left for pushing an agenda...

Increasing taxes in a recession (which we surely will now be in) is plain dumb. And worse, its is being promoted by people who are just using the earthquake as an opportunity for their sock the rich mentality.

...oh I see, when the left ask questions of a Government that flies in the face of that Government's proven mantra of ideologically attacking the very same public sector now saving those lives David was standing up for at the beginning of his post, that's 'ghastly opportunism', but when he does it less than 500 words later, not a flicker.

Let's be clear about who is being the opportunists here - the bloody Government, as Rudman points out...

Brian Rudman: Politicians use Christchurch tragedy to push own agendas
It's not just the strong wind stirring up dust and trouble in the aftermath of the Christchurch earthquake. It's also politicians riding into the confusion on their favourite hobby-horses.

Opponents of Auckland's long-delayed inner-city rail loop are seeking an easy victory by saying sacrifices must be made for "the sake of Christchurch".

A "senior Government source" has told the Herald the $2 billion rail loop now has only a remote chance of being built. More openly, Finance Minister Bill English is drooling about the partial sale of state-owned power companies to help pay for Christchurch's recovery.

This softening up of the electorate comes long before there's any accurate estimate of the Government's share of rebuilding costs. The Treasury's rough estimate is $5 billion over several years. Despite this vagueness, targets are already being nominated without any discussion of the merits of the decision.

Take the proposed rail tunnel, one of Mayor Len Brown's election pledges. After his victory in November, Transport Minister Steven Joyce launched a review declaring "it would be irresponsible for the Government to even consider being involved with a project of this size without being confident about having the full facts".

...as McCarten points out...

Ugly policies dressed up as quake support
The Christchurch earthquake has quite rightly dominated our thoughts over the past fortnight - and will for some time yet. Other stories have paled into insignificance.

John Key did a pretty good early job on the crisis and other party leaders have taken a non-partisan approach, as they should.

Unfortunately, though, we're starting to see an ugly side of this Government as they marshal support for some of their unpopular pre-earthquake policies by dressing them up as necessary to raise sufficient money to rebuild Christchurch.

Saying that Family Support may have to be cut back, or that student loans will need to incur interest rates, or that we need to privatise to raise money for rebuilding is grotesque.

...even a bloody John Key cheerleader like John Armstrong critiques the Governments response time...

John Armstrong: Election year rethink on cards for National
A politician of Bill English's calibre should never have got into the pickle he land-ed himself in this week. Normally it just wouldn't happen. As English and other politicians are fast discovering, however, these are no longer normal times.

The Minister of Finance trapped himself in the old "won't rule anything in or out" refrain when asked what sacrifices the rest of the country would have to make so the Government could fund its share of the gigantic bill for rebuilding Christchurch.

English's fuzziness on a couple of sensitive options for raising cash generated the wrong sort of headlines, forcing the Prime Minister to intervene.

...Farrar and Cathy Odgers pretend that it's the left using the quake for political advantage - who is threatening to dump interest free student loans, cripple the Welfare State, cutbacks to kiwisaver and Working For Families for quake reconstruction? Oh that's right, the National Party.

No where is this sickening use of the quake for political advantage more disgustingly on display than by Jim Hopkins, the only man who thinks red rimmed glasses equates to wit. Farrar and Cathy Odgers claim the Left are terrible for asking questions and that the left are manipulating the quake for political posturing, folks, the fucking left don't have a card to play on Hopkins.

You can think a million thoughts in two minutes.

And we did. Then the silence stopped. We got on the bus and toured the mine. We saw the great holes in the ground, like meteor craters, with the 200 tonne trucks winding down to the diggers, small as toys below us.

We saw where the gold is gleaned, we saw the fish hatchery and the sheep on rolling paddocks that once were part of the mine. We saw the little lake below the road, nestled in bush and wild country.

Hopkins used the 2 minutes silence to go to a mine and uses the bloody opportunity to argue why we need to mine more in NZ???

Let's just put that in perspective shall we? The left are evil for asking questions about the Government's response, yet Jim Hopkins goes into a bloody mine for the 2minutes silence to write a column about why we need more mining? Sweet Jesus folks, if that's not manipulation from the right for political gain, then Charlie Sheen is a sober humble man who enjoys quiet nights at home with books and scrabble.

The Government are using the Quake to ram through their most treasured ideological reforms and counter spin by their most precious acolytes online won't dampen the attempts by the left to hold the Government to account for those manipulations.

The final word must go to Tracy Barnett who urges NZers to hold onto the moments that made us feel connected to one another...

What being a New Zealander means
It was just one moment, wasn't it? Just one image that made this disaster hit home for you. Maybe you watched hours of television coverage or read dozens of news stories. But just when you thought you were getting numb, I'll wager you can pinpoint one thing among the deluge that truly got to you.

Hold on to that image for a minute. Keep it safe. You'll need it.

...and we will need to hold onto that moment, as the right accuse any critiques of Government policy as unpatriotic while that very same Government use the quake as justification for their most fervent ideological extremes, we must not lose touch with that human moment that will immunize us from this intellectual muck racking.