Citizen A - ONLINE NOW!
Citizen A this week with bloggers Phoebe Fletcher and that awful Cameron Slater
Issue one: Mana won the by-election well beyond the 1% parroted from the mainstream media, Cam now owes me $200, what are the ramifications and how dull is the anti-MMP campaign?
Issue two: Is Alasdair Thompson the Grand Cyclops of Chauvinist pigs? How alive and well is sexism in NZ and we'll get your thoughts on the slutwalk
Issue three tonight: Far right hate merchant Cathy Odgers is standing for the ACT Party? One more extremist on their Party list and ACT get banned from making overseas finical transactions.
Citizen A now plays 7.30pm Stratos Freeview 21 & Sky 89 Fridays
posted by Bomber @ 2:20 pm
6 comments
6 Comments:
Thanks for posting this clip. I enjoyed the show (first time viewer) and particularly the extravagant way host Martyn Bradbury introduces his points. It's fun viewing.
While Bradbury's well-scripted invective was very entertaining, I actually found myself agreeing with (shudder) Cam Slater on the democracy/Cactus Kate candidacy issue. Should Ms Odger be selected as an ACT candidate? Well, that's ACT's call to make, surely — whatever democratic (or other) method the Party decides to employ to reach it.
Equally Bradbury (and anyone else) is entitled to express a a pro- or anti- opinion on the 'Should they pick her?' question ... highlighting/interpreting whatever elements of her track record and past or present public statements they see fit, short of false accusations/defamation.
But the decision re candidacy is ACT's and ACT's alone.
Forgive me for stating the obvious, but Martyn Bradbury probably doesn't fall into ACT's natural constituency ... so, guess what? he won't be consulted. (Groucho Marx's 'I refuse join any club that will accept me as a member' springs to mind.)
--
On the other hand, I strongly agree with Bradbury on the transparently shallow differing interpretations of Hone Harawira's margin ('landslide' vs 'scraped in') ... what you see depends on where you stand.
Bradbury's comparisons to the Botany by-election aren't convincing to me, though. (Different triggers, different drivers).
I don't see myself as Mana-leaning, but whether you like him or not, congratulations to Harawira are in order. I can see - and support - his need (desire?) to gain an explicit mandate ...
John Armstong NZHerald: "He cannot claim the electorate has given him an unqualified mandate, given his small majority and the low turnout."
Well, maybe not 'unqualified' but so? A win is a win ... ask Obama, ask GW Bush ... like the Catcus Kate question, everyone is free to express an opinion but they don't necessarily have a say ... that was Te Tai Tokerau voters' call.
- Peter
www.ThePaepae.com
fyi sent to greek ambassador and all nz papers re: audacity of hope/flotilla
Dear Sir/Madam,
I wish to inform you of the following:
That I have grievous concerns regarding your nations actions:
Intercepting and other interference based on DESTINATION of foreign flagged vessels
The lack of investigation of sabotage toward vessels associated with the Audacity
Inconsistently with above, to act on a complaint some the vessels were unsafe, from a nation/organisation with a vested POLITICAL interest in halting them ( a clear moral double standard )
The subsequent blocking of such vessels and their being denied free passage from port as guaranteed under international maritime law.
The Arrest, incarceration and prosecution of captain of the vessel Audacity of hope by armed agents in your territorial waters.
The impounding of said vessel.
The theft of international humanitarian aid from the vessel and those associated. Sending the goods to a nearby territory to be delivered on the whim of a 3rd party does not mitigate this being theft.
Accordingly, I will be boycotting all products, services and tourism related to your nation until this matter is resolved in accordance with international law
I have blind copied all New Zealand newspapers and eagerly await your response.
Regards,
(withheld online)
As well as Ms Odgers, perhaps ACT could put Alex Fogerty (late of 'Vote for Change') onto their Party List?
Hmmmm, I dunno. Just how big a neo-nazi voter-base is there in this country?
Yeah OK, Frank 11.39PM. We get it. You don't like ACT.
But conflating White supremacists with ACT with neo-Nazis seems a bit of a big stretch.
IMO, it smacks of demonising your political 'opponents' so you don't have to take them seriously/accord them a hearing, too.
Which is up to you, of course, but makes me uncomfortable — but so what?
Alex Fogerty's stigma is its own reward and punishment. Worse than a runaway Facebook page...? He's a marked man.
- Peter
www.ThePaepae.com
Peter A (8.40) - "IMO, it smacks of demonising your political 'opponents' so you don't have to take them seriously/accord them a hearing, too."
Perhaps I've been reading too many comments from right wingers who constantly demonise the Greens, Labour, Sue Bradford, Phil Goff, Darren Hughes, etc, etc, etc?
Or perhaps reading the vile comments from Ms Odgers demands a certain like-response?
Funny, how right wingers seem to make all manner of unpleasant, bigotted comments - often about the most vulnerable people in our society - but if one tries to take the proverbial, then we are "demonising" them?
You'll forgive me if I don't share your sensitivities.
Cheers Frank. Thanks for your comments. Good to know you were just ‘taking the proverbial’ and didn’t mean it!
I agree with you: a clichéd, tiresome and ugly tone often characterises political debate ... with an attendant writing-off of an opponent's POV as bigoted and (your word:) 'vile'. But it doesn’t seem limited to right-wingers ...
Some commenters — left- or right-leaning — judging by their public statements, strike me as unvarnished bigots, with precious few, if any, redeeming features. (Some barely scrape by on entertainment value.)
But in my observation, over time the NZ political process often has a way of shepherding issues to the ‘centre’ or into the ‘mainstream’ ... with extreme or one-eyed views such as those expressed by Alex Fogerty squeezed to the sideline of any real debate.
I might be stating the obvious, but I don’t buy the description of Cathy Odgers as a ‘far right hate merchant’, despite her use of the phrase ‘pathetic heaving underclass’ ... You’re free to, of course, but I think extravagant, exaggerated polemic like that (hers and Martyn Bradbury’s) actually weakens an argument.
- Peter
www.ThePaepae.com
Post a Comment
<< Home