Minister of Crown recommends elected official stand down based on lie from Sunday Paper

North Shore Mayor drank two bottles - bar staff
Bar staff who served embattled North Shore Mayor Andrew Williams on the night he urinated in public say the civic leader drank two bottles of wine - without a meal. Mr Williams is facing increasing pressure to stand down from his role after the Sunday Star-Times revealed he had drunk alcohol for several hours at Takapuna's GPK last Thursday. On his way to collect his mayoral vehicle, which he drove 6km home, he urinated against a tree outside council offices.

So in the Sunday Star-Times race to the bottom of the tabloid gutter by using Johnathan fucking Marshall as chief muck racker, they accuse North Shore Mayor Andrew Williams of drinking 2 bottles of wine by himself implying he was drunk driving.

A Minister of the Crown, Rodney Hide, then goes on to suggest the Mayor step down based on these allegations in the Sunday Star Times. This is outrageous because it now turns out that the insinuation of drunk driving is an utter false hood on behalf of the Sunday Star Times and I look forward to legal action against them.

It now turns out that two bar staff insist he and three companions drank just two bottles of wine over four hours.

Despite what the anonymous ACT party spin posters have tried to claim (that the North Shore Mayor was drunk driving), the fact is that there is simply no evidence of this and the Sunday Star Times insinuation is utterly defamatory and that a Minister of the Crown has decided to comment recommending the Mayor steps down on baseless allegations is an attempt at media manipulation of the news agenda that smokescreens legitimate criticism of the theft of Auckland by Hide and Joyce.

Shame on the Sunday Star Times, shame on ACT activists and shame on the mainstream media for allowing the lie to build.

3 things about Andrew Williams urinating on a tree
1: I’m surprised there are any trees left to urinate against on the North Shore.

2: So what, John Banks has been pissing on this city for years

3: I don't care what tree North Shore Mayor Andrew Williams pisses on.

I do however care about Auckland being annexed by Rodney Hide and Steven Joyce by a misuse of urgency. I do care that those two are the ones appointing people to run our city, I do care that booze barons who peddle alcohol to the youth market get to run our city. I do care that the Orwellian double-speak named 'Council-Controlled Organizations' will spend 75% of Auckland's budget all done behind secret meetings with no minutes or agendas published and I do care about the gerrymandering of National rump electorates like Rodney, (who will get more representation than someone actually living in Auckland Central), being included in the Super City.

Auckland - your city is being robbed from you by Wellington so Hide and Joyce can appoint an unelected corporate cabal to sell your city off, don't let a story about where the North Shore Mayor urinates take your attention off this theft.

Why Nikki cares about Great Barrier

So when the Economist were not attacking us on John Key’s new 80% Pure Tourism campaign to replace our 100% Pure tourism campaign...


Nikki Kaye was being allowed to voice a convenient opinion over mining the Great Barrier.

Whanau, It’s been pointed out on the war on news for some time that National will list a symbolic piece of land they never intended to mine in the first place and then remove it from the list to look like they have consulted with the public and moderated their stance. The Great Barrier is their symbolic piece of land they never intended to mine and Nikki Kaye is their desperate to show some green credentials champion. Kaye needs this win bad because Auckland Central has a huge number of Green voters, they gave Nandor 5 327 votes in 2005. Tizard got 15 794 and Pansy Wong took 11 910. Kaye had to convince Green voters in 2008 that she would be the most environmental voice in National, she’s done bugger all so far and needs this symbolic win over mining to hold her Auckland Central seat.

The political equation for Nikki Kaye is, how much weed do Green Party voters need to smoke before they’ll believe her Government give two shits about the environment and can be conned with dumping Great Barrier as a mining option.



The answer, approximately 7 pounds of high grade Coromandel gold per voter, which is ironic because the Coromandel will be the next place National mine.

I have the National Party Dream this day Brothers and Sisters

Paula Bennett said that for the beneficiaries, the dream was over. Yes, the dream to put food in welfare children’s hungry mouths...

...that dream is over.

The dream to keep children free from poverty diseases...

...oh you bet, that dream is over.


The dream to have welfare children get a decent shot at being productive members of society...

...oh you better believe, that fucking dream is well past it’s use by date.

If dirty filthy bennies don’t work for only a dollar an hour extra, they lose their benefit, oh I have a dream today brothers and sisters. Those welfare children burning under the injustice of discrimination need to have their benefits slashed so that we can sing the old whitey spiritual, “free at last to die in the street like a dog, free at last to die in the street like a dog, free at last to die in the street like a dog, Oh sweet Paula Bennett, Free at last. I have a National Party dream this day whanau.

YAWN

Are The Feelers the right band to promote the Rugby World Cup?
The backing song for the cup's ticketing campaign has been confirmed as Kiwi rock band The Feelers' version of the 1990 song Right Here, Right Now by Jesus Jones.

Seeing as I have officially decided to put my cynicism towards Rugby to one side and that I am going to get excited by the Rugby World Cup for the first time ever, I am investing emotional time and energy into this and have to say the choice of the Feelers to sing Right Here Right Now is a bit underwhelming. The song choice is aimed at exciting Generation Xers so nice try to get my attention, but the Feelers? The lyrics say it all for themselves...

"Right here, right now, there is no other place I want to be"

...which probably sums up the elation being felt by the Feelers when the cheque from Rugby NZ came through for their version of a Jesus Jones 1990's anthem. Personally 'Loyal' by Dave Dobbyn would've made me buy a ticket rather than a lacklustre attempt to reconnect me with the more embarrassing fashion elements of my wardrobe, but perhaps the Feelers represent a broader theme, that one can get a second shot at the Rugby World Cup even when your last attempt was shit. In this, The Feelers have a message that all NZers can connect with.

Still 'Loyal' would've been better.

Saving Rodney from ACT

Key shrugs off Act power struggle
Prime Minister John Key says it would not worry him if Act deputy leader Heather Roy became co-leader of the party with incumbent Rodney Hide. Responding to questions at his post-Cabinet press conference yesterday, he said he would not feel any need to renegotiate the confidence and supply agreement with Act. "The leadership of the Act Party is a matter for Act and not for National," he said.

This was on TV3's hour of Government cuddles, 'The Nation n Friends' so no one really noticed it, but Key's greenlight of a co-leader position is an acknowledgment that the radical wing within ACT hate Rodney and that like it or not Key has to do business with that radical fringe. Key's anointing of Heather Roy as co-leader is a big back down to Key's last desperate defence of Hide to stop the radical fringe from rolling Rodney.

ACT are fucked. They used to have this pretension of 10% support when they were a genuine liberal party, but now they are a one electorate seat, fringe sub 5% threshold Political Party that dabbles with the Sensible Sentencing Lynch Mob and Climate Change Denial, right now ACT have as much chance of being seen as a 10% wide based political party as the flat earth society does. Let the rats turn on one another, Key will keep the door open for Rodney to jump to National if ACT disintegrate by offering him the National seat of Epsom if the worst comes to the worst.

Goodbye Len?

Can I be your No2, Tamihere asks Banks
Auckland City Mayor John Banks' campaign team is distancing itself from suggestions of an unusual alliance with former Labour Cabinet minister John Tamihere if Mr Banks wins the mayoral race. Mr Tamihere's team had sounded out Mr Banks' team on the prospects of Mr Tamihere becoming deputy mayor of the new Super City if Mr Banks got the top job, TV3 reported last night.

If Tamihere teamed up with Banks, it could be goodbye Len - that would be a partnership that could reach out to the right wing and the really right wing. If Bill Ralston hasn't fallen asleep at the wheel of running Banksies campaign, he'll be meeting Matt McCarten, Matthew Hooton and Willie Jackson pronto. Team JT and Team JB would need to convince the left that the enemy is Wellington and a 'unified' Left/Right ticket is needed to defeat Rodney Hide's more unpalatable aspects of the Auckland SuperCity. Problem is Tamihere has a lousy record of working within the 'left' and Willie and Matt will be damned to purgatory for the rest of their lives if they deny a decent bloke like Len a shot at the Mayoralty by unleashing John Banks upon Auckland with no tangible results.

For Banks the offer is almost too good to refuse, if he turns it down it confirms suspicions that Banks has his own agenda and those won't be slowing the plans of Hide and Joyce down. Lens team need to be thinking about offering Tamihere the same offer, they'll be annoyed they weren't spoken to first, but if they want to win they'll need to look beyond that, if Tamihere won't play ball, Len Browns Team need to take the idea up elsewhere and find Len a running mate - how about Judy Bailey as Len Browns running mate?

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The War on News 2010 – NZ News Satire on Stratos Sky 89 10.10pm Tuesday & simulcast on Freeview 21. Replayed on Triangle TV 9.45pm Wednesday and posted online at Scoop.co.nz as their Weekend Watch.

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Downstream assets: Shell out

As long as Shell/Todd interests can keep their supply lines and contracts I suppose it is really the upstream assets that actually count. Let the Gulls have at it on the margins - that sort of ticket-clipping is not where the maximum value lies.

Royal Dutch Shell:

Shell will receive a cash payment of NZ$696.5 million together with a working capital adjustment. In addition, the companies have signed an agreement for Shell to continue to provide crude oil and refined products. The parties have also entered into a trademark licensing agreement which entitles the consortium to operate retail service stations under the Shell brand.

$696.5m is close to the amount of money Cullen pissed away on buying the Australians out of the unprofitable railways incidentally. Nowadays the Cullen Fund has to provide the means of nationalisation rather than the Finance Minister writing cheques from surpluses (not that any Tory treasurer of modern times could contemplate doing that). But $212.5 million looks more like ballast for other players in the shallow "downstream" retail distribution end. They'll be paying a lot for the conditional use of the Shell name while they attempt to operate it like a master franchise developing their own brand with all the sites - that's what $700m seems to be buying. But it's undoubtedly a seat at the cartel table:

Shell will sell its 17.1% shareholding in the 104,000-barrel per day refinery at Marsden Point

And how to sell an investment - a 50:50 private-public partnership - in the unsustainable mining and pollution sector? Call it something green...

It will trade under the name of Greenstone Energy Limited.

Involving the super fund does tie the nation's future to oil and that's a very good fit for the Nats and their chums. The lads will be very happy with this deal. Keep it all in the family. The Todd family in particular.

Through them also Exxon-Mobil. That's a fine club, with strong Anglo-Persian, British Petroleum pedigree. BP, incidentally, sees its own corporate history in NZ in terms of international and local politics - they say National governments sold out the Crown stake to them in the fifties and allowed them to put lead into regular petrol in the eighties (our third world regulations were appalling), amongst other achievements.

So who would want to try to fund a universal pension system by way of the sale and mass consumption of toxic hydrocarbons for generations to come? Yeah, us. 1.3% of the current value of the NZ Super Fund, by my back of the envelope figures, are now dedicated to operating this chain of petrol stations.

So what you want to do is pop along to the Greenstone energy centre - the Kiwibank of petrol stations - and choke our atmosphere with the fumes of petrol at least partially owned by New Zealanders. For us. For the future.

Go well, go Shell.

Shell NZ needs new slogan

Shell petrol stations now Kiwi-owned
Shell's New Zealand network of petrol stations are now locally owned, with Infratil and the Super Fund saying that a large chunk of its profits will now stay in this country. Infratil and the NZ Super Fund this morning announced they had finalised the purchase of Shell New Zealand in a $696.5 million joint venture deal after almost a year of negotiations. They say that dividends from the business will now mainly flow to New Zealand shareholders - and the public, via the investment by the Super Fund. It says there will also be more local jobs and staff training through the "on-shoring" of many roles now being performed overseas.

Shell NZ will need a new slogan, I suggest, "We used to murder poets, now we just murder NZ petrol prices"

Inspirational and uplifting thoughts for Monday

And it's almost entirely all shit. Both the mainstream news channels and the blogs: pointless shit.

Poorly written, poorly researched, formulaic, tedious fucking shit. The occasional small turds of consequence floating up only to be shat on by endless partisan repetition and pedantic tail chasing. Remarking upon the obvious - something that for any intelligent person never needed an explanation in the first place - is now considered the creme of intellectual discourse.

And we will all sit there - like fucking morons - staring at a fucking monitor, reading and watching and listening to all this fucking shit when we could have been doing something productive. Then we will go home and stare at a bigger monitor and repeat the whole process again with better technical quality. Wasting our precious seconds of existence sieving through this endless swamp of shite as if it were important, and for bloggers at least, as if it made a blind bit of difference - which of course it doesn't - hoping to find something substantial that isn't composed entirely of fecal matter...



...deluding ourselves that because it is in a text format it is at a higher level than the circus of ratings-driven TV, or any more worthy than a talk-hate radio session. We might as well be bodies in pods, suspended in goo, a la The Matrix for all it amounts to.

North Shore Mayor isn't the problem - the bloody Auckland SuperCity is!

I'm not going - defiant mayor digs in
A defiant North Shore Mayor, Andrew Williams, has denied he has a drinking problem and says he will not resign after allegedly urinating in public and driving home after drinking at a local restaurant. Speaking exclusively to the Herald yesterday, Mr Williams said he did drink alcohol, but he did not drink excessively. "I'm like any other normal Kiwi male. I'm very mindful of being reasonable."

I don't care what tree this Mayor pisses on. I do however care about Auckland being annexed by Rodney Hide and Steven Joyce by a misuse of urgency. I do care that those two are the ones appointing people to our city, I do care that booze barons get to run our city...

Booze peddler to spin democracy down the toilet
Would you believe it? We now have a guy who peddles alcohol to the youth market in charge of the new Super City. If this doesn't get your alarm bells going, nothing will.

...I do care that the Orwellian double-speak named 'Council-Controlled Organizations' which are anything but and that they will spend 75% of Auckland's budget all done behind secret meetings with no minutes or agendas published and I do care about the gerrymandering of National rump electorates like Rodney who will get more representation than someone actually living in Auckland Central being included in the Super City.

I care about all of those things, I don't care about the tree the Mayor pisses on. Allowing ourselves to be smoke screened by none issue like this allow National and ACT to win.

Auckland - your city is being robbed from you by Wellington so Hide and Joyce can appoint an unelected corporate cabal to sell the city off, don't let a story about where the North Shore Mayor urinates take your attention of this theft.

Why Rupert will drop charging for newspapers online

Press groups watch as Murdoch charges
International media juggernaut Rupert Murdoch has signalled his next offensive in the internet news game. From May, News International's centrepiece British newspapers The Times and the Sunday Times will be available online for 1 (NZ$2.11) a day or 2 for a week's subscription. Two new websites will replace the existing combined site, Times Online. The sites will be free to subscribers of the print editions of the two newspapers. Declining revenues in print media have forced newspapers and magazines to look at new ways of earning as the public increasingly expects free news online.

Here is why I think Rupert will drop this, it's because it will cost him something much more - influence. By leaving free news content to the BBC's of the world, Rupert will diminish his own editorial influence over the news population. Pay per view on line news will minimize his editorial power and I think that is something that will cost Rupert the wider debate of hard right politics which he is so desperate to weave into the narrative of society.

Breakfast MMP

Is there any reason why the anti-MMP lobby were able to take over Breakfast this morning? Why was that evil Peter Shirtcliffe and Rodney Hide (followed by John Key no less) able to attack MMP in three consecutive interviews without anyone speaking up for MMP? Is this the sort of 'fair and balanced' from TVNZ we saw them use when they were defending the million dollar free party political broadcast on TVNZ7(remember TVNZ arguing they didn't have to be fair and balanced outside the 6 week election campaign?), well it looks like we are seeing it again on Breakfast with the MMP debate.

Look I love the irony of having an electoral system that fights against the elites of society by putting power back into the hands of NZers being attacked by those elites who want to see the system changed but can someone remind TVNZ they are still the public broadcaster even though National have had them write the public broadcaster out of their brief?

There is no depression in NZ

While our Optimist Prime continues to sell his vacant aspiration to NZ with plans to go all 18th century with coal mining and whaling as possible new career options for the children of solo mothers, it seems other indicators are suggesting that there is in fact a deep depression in NZ...

Armed robberies 'reach historic level'
Police and the banking community are concerned about an armed robbery at the ASB Bank in Grey Lynn, which follows what a senior bank manager has described as "probably the highest number in history" of such robberies across New Zealand last year.

Domestic violence cases increasing
Domestic abuse cases are rising, but a high-profile campaign against family violence will run out of funding in June. Work on a new phase of the "It's Not OK" campaign is under way, but a decision on fresh funding is not due until the Budget in May. The number of assaults on women is rising, with attacks in Canterbury climbing faster than nationally, police statistics show.

More suicides feared if health funding cut
Mental health and addiction services in Wellington are to take a funding cut, sparking fears of more suicides and that seriously mentally ill people will have nowhere to go.

Higher suicide rates? More domestic violence? An increase in armed robberies? I know, let's mine the hell out of Great Barrier, that'll fix it.

Q+A and The Nation review

Goodness hasn't The Nation descended quickly to its hard right wing default tone? Seeing as the host was Gerry Brownlee's former press agent, you just knew the soft hug that passed as an interview this morning was never going to pass any critical review and having Mitch Harris, the most right wing Talkback boss in the country and Fran O'Sullivan the most right wing columnist in the country as their 'balance' made me run screaming to Q+A where Paula Bennett was roasted by Guyon Espiner although Q+A's 'balance' was John Tamihere and Christine bloody Rankin (interestingly TV3 are now replaying The Nation at 8am on Sunday mornings - perhaps their 11am Saturday screening isn't pulling the ratings)

Q+A actually attacked mining figures over and over and over again pointing out Brownlee's lies in a way The Nation totally avoided.

Guyon challenged Paula on her 'Rising tide of dependency' line and he argued that her numbers didn't prove that we were about to be swamped and that it was the economy stupid, not a culture of bludging. Paula did her usual, 'yeah nah' response where she agrees with the criticism being used against her but then denounces the lot. It seems her experience of being a Solo Mother has not given her empathy or sympathy, just a self righteous belief in justifying cutting others off from the same support she received.

Paula admitted with glee that 4000 were cut off Welfare altogether and her work sanctions would see those with mental health issues lose half their welfare if they failed those work sanctions, telling Guyon that it was better for these people to get with the program because being forced to work was good for those with depression even though Treasury recommended the work test not go ahead because the 15 hour forced work deal would only give that mentally unwell person an extra dollar an hour! Paula refused to listen to Guyon's argument with a gabble of homely 'I know best bullshit' wrapped up with some empty Dr Phil aspiration.

Guyon then prodded Paula on where the jobs will be for all these DPB sluts who are wasting our taxpayer money by breeding once they are righteously forced back to work. Paula told Guyon that they will find 40 000 part time jobs for those 40 000 DPB sluts because that's the way it's going to be (damned DPB sluts). Paula didn't seem to care that much about the 70 000 welfare children who will be damaged by these policies.

The difference between The Nation and Q+A is now pretty obvious, Q+A are an attempt at public broadcasting and the democratic principle of holding the powerful to account (finally - and thanks only to there being competition for funding now), where as The Nation is user pays current affairs aimed at defending the corporate interests of the Government at all costs (seriously was today's show sponsored by the mining industry?)

National told mining industry what they intended to do, not the public

National admits dropping nugget to mining firms before election
National has admitted it may have told the mining industry it intended pursuing mining as an economic development policy two years before the 2008 election. Prime Minister John Key this week said National did not campaign on its plans to look at mineral wealth locked up in the conservation estate at the last election because it didn't have enough information at the time to make the call. However, Minerals Association chief executive Doug Gordon says the industry's representations to National - based on the data which underpins the Schedule Four Stocktake released last week - received an encouraging response as early as 2006.

So while John Key did not tell the people of NZ that he intended to mine conservation land, he did tell the mining industry what they were planning as far back as 2006.

Unbelievable!

Shhhh - National are still LYING about mining

Govt mining figures 'misleading' - geologist
The Government is misleading the public with "made-up" figures of mineral wealth in national parks, an exploration geologist says. People have until May 4 to comment on a discussion document released this week by the Government. It suggests removing 7058 hectares of conservation land – on Great Barrier Island, the Coromandel Peninsula and part of the West Coast's Paparoa National Park – from schedule 4 of the Crown Minerals Act, which bans mining in conservation areas. The Government will spend $4 million investigating mineral-rich areas in other protected areas of the conservation estate, including an estimated $7 billion of "rare earth elements", gold, nickel and platinum in part of Stewart Island's Rakiura National Park. Wanaka-based consultant geologist Stephen Leary, who has worked in New Zealand, Australia, Europe, Canada and South America, said he had read two of the Government's geological reports, which were "desktop" studies. The Stewart Island figure was "misleading" because it was "wildly optimistic" and had not been backed by exploration, he said. "The numbers they're throwing around, the value of the mineral wealth in Stewart Island and Great Barrier Island – it's basically just made up," Leary said.

Basically made up huh? This Government have made more lies about mining than any single issue (maybe National Standards would be a close second).The lies are difficult to keep up with...

Valuation - as has been pointed out, the valuations are all from corporate lobbyists and are simply bullshit.

What NZ actually gets - 1% is all we get back from these mining companies! National have underplayed this fact and over blown the supposed value.

1 post card on Eden Park - when in reality the size is 121 post cards, can't Gerry even get his lies to hide the size of mining operations correct?

Claiming Labour mined conservation land - Labour never mined schedule 4 land, they certainly allowed mining on DOC land, but they never greenlighted schedule 4 land, something National purposely don't tell people when they try to attack Labour's record.

Oh and since adopting this desire to destroy our conservation land, we have been attacked for destroying our 100% pure brand. Well done John Key, as our Tourism Minister you are brilliant!

Hows that change feeling folks? I'm getting a lot of feedback from people who voted for Key who are now furious with their decision and I think there's a real chance National could go in the next election.

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Legalizing Whaling & Mining conservation land


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National KNEW their bennie bash breached Bill of Rights

Welfare reforms discriminatory, Attorney-General finds
National's flagship welfare reforms have been found to unfairly discriminate against 43,000 solo mums and dads. In a report just tabled in Parliament, Attorney-General Chris Finlayson says the reforms breach the Bill of Rights Act on three grounds by discriminating on the basis of sex and family and marital status. He finds the breaches cannot be justified under the Act.

In a windowless room beneath Parliament, the National Party creche once a month has a Bennie Bash Pinata strung up for the kids to play with. Each National Party child is given a 'Paula' batten and they bash the bennie pinata until they crack its head open to feast on all the creamy taxpayer benefits.

THEY KNEW IT WAS DISCRIMINATORY BUT DID IT ANYWAY! It just get's worse and worse doesn't it? After claiming the 'dream was over' this sanctimonious and pompous Minister then said in Parliament about her discrimination that National tried to hide by releasing the report late yesterday,

"I think that is a discrimination that most New Zealanders will see as being fair and reasonable".

WTF? Paula not only admits it is discrimination but she says most NZers would agree with it?

Well I don't agree with it Paula! I think it is disgusting and you are simply creating the next generation decimated by the effects of poverty! Your experience as a solo mother has given you no empathy just a smug self righteousness that justifies you passing discriminatory law that actually makes the lives of solo mother children WORSE! It is sadistic, it is cruel and it is out right discrimination, and they bloody well knew it!

Forcing the sick back to work, discrimination against solo mothers, damaging the welfare of those children, making beneficiaries leap through more work testing hoops in a 7.3% unemployment environment with the threat to cut the benefit altogether is a disgusting social policy aimed at being divisive to pit NZers against NZer and which will only cause more damage.

Can I also just salute the courage of the Attorney-General Chris Finlayson who has stood against the Government over the 3 strikes law by pointing out they were also against the Bill of Rights. Finlayson is a true patriot and despite the demands of his Party is prepared to stand up for the human rights of ALL NZers, not just those who voted for his party.

National you are LYING about the valuation of mineral wealth, LYING about the return from mining and LYING about mining Great Barrier

Magazine joins clean, green NZ bashers
Critics say international ridicule of New Zealand's "100% Pure" brand has come home to roost with another scathing article in an influential international magazine. The publication of the article in the London-based Economist yesterday came as the Government was embarrassed by evidence that official figures touting the economic benefits of mining were too high. The article is headed: "A backlash to New Zealand's vow of purity." The magazine, with a global readership the size of New Zealand's population, says it is time for the country to find itself a more sustainable brand – "and soon". "The dilemma New Zealand faces is no different to that of other rich countries – how to balance economic growth with the need to address environmental degradation. "But it is particularly acute in a country so dependent on the export of commodities and landscape-driven tourism. The difference between New Zealand and other places is that New Zealand has actively sold itself as `100% Pure'." British newspaper The Guardian said in November that the clean green Kiwi brand amounted to a "shameless two fingers to the global community" in the face of a dirtier reality. In September, The New York Times ran a front-page story questioning the sustainability of the hoki fishery in New Zealand. It has also been revealed that a 1.3 million-strong American lobby group, the Sierra Club, wrote to Prime Minister John Key protesting against the mining proposals.

The mainstream media honeymoon is well and truly over with real scrutiny now on National's obvious lies over mining, (congratulations to Gordon Campbell for breaking this story on line at Scoop.co.nz) with TVNZ last night attacking National over the bullshit valuation of minerals which we now know have thrown together by a Mining lobbyist...

Brownlee overvalued Great Barrier claims
Energy Minister Gerry Brownlee has been forced to admit that the government has overstated the potential value of minerals on Great Barrier Island. ONE News discovered the true value is less than third of the billions Brownlee has been claiming, could be mined from the Hauraki Gulf island. The government has claimed that there is up to $4.3 billion worth of gold, silver and other minerals, waiting to be mined. But a report from Richard Barker, the geologist Brownlee's officials used to assess Great Barrier minerals resources, put the island's mineral value at $1.2 billion. That number is nowhere near what Brownlee has been claiming it is worth.

...aND TVNZ attacked the actual return we get from the Mining companies - A MERE 1% - that's all we are going to get 1%!!!!!

1%!!!!!

So the actual amount Gerry wants us to destroy our clean and green image for is 1%! I pointed out we would be unhappy with Gerry and his magic beans, so how happy are you folks?

As for the Great Barrier, it is the smokescreen mine I argued National would use to try and slip mining through around the rest of the country, they will allow Nikki Kaye to do her song and dance and retreat there to make the policy look 'moderate' and that they are 'listening'.

Look - National have LIED about the mineral valuation, they have LIED about the supposed wealth we will actually get back and they are LYING about mining Great Barrier - and while they lie about mining they are destroying our clean green image.

For the first time since National were elected, I get a real sense that many people who voted for John Key are now regretting that decision.

Chickens. Roost. Coming home to. Make a sentence.

John, try and protect the country, don't sell it off to the Chinese

New Zealand dairy empire focus of $1.5b overseas offer
A New Zealand dairy empire is the target of what is thought to be the biggest farm purchase by an overseas buyer, with a Hong Kong company reported to be offering $1.5 billion.

Yay, the one thing we do well we are now allowing to be sold off to the Chinese in huge vast chunks. Labour moved to stop the Auckland International Airport from being sold to the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board because Labour considered the Airport to be a strategic asset, National should do the same with the Crafar family farm.

Come on John, protect NZ, don't sell it off.

It's not okay (unless you play rugby)

Lauaki decision sends message 'violence is ok' - campaigner
The decision to allow Sione Lauaki to play for the Chiefs is sending the message that "violence is ok" after the former All Black was found guilty of his third act of violence, says an anti-violence campaigner.

I remember when I was at school a student challenged the status quo of authority by writing an essay on the pointlessness of a detention (that couldn't be used for studying) by critiquing the unchallengeable teacher power of summary detention (of said student) with an essay alphabetically listing every possible swear word he could think of with the final sentence being,

"I know this is bullshit, you know this is bullshit, they all know this is bullshit".

The response by the teacher (who had placed the student on detention) was to read his alphabetical swear word essay, note immediately that what he had written was not the replication of school rules as had been specified and then alerted the Principle who promptly suspended the student for insubordination for 2 weeks.

At the same time, the First 15 Rugby team were hosting an Australian First 15 and 2 nights before the game, they broke into the 7th Form commons room, threw a massive party and trashed the place. Players were 'suspended' for 2 days before the game was to play, so that they could play the big Game on Saturday.

Rugby players HAVE ALWAYS been given differential treatment in NZ, they get away with an enormous amount. Example, after example, after example of rugby players who get off lightly are not hard to find, we are a culture that worships rugby as one of the few National identities we feel we can rally around so let's not be surprised that it happens. Disappointment that it happens? Sure feel that, but surprise? Come on!

Lauaki's greenlight to play also probably has more to do with the money in corporate rugby now than it does sending role model messages to society or holding the positives of team play for individual responsibility up as a public good innate of itself.

What would have interested me would have been the possible counter reaction if he had been stood down? How many 'political-correctness-gone-mad' calls on Leighton Smith's show would that have generated? I shudder thinking about the amount of angry 'boys-will-be-boys-blame-the-feminization-of-society-by-feminists' diatribes we would all have to sit through from Michael Laws if Lauaki HAD been punished by the Chiefs.

That said Violence is not okay. Unless you play rugby of course. Legally any All Black can get two car thefts wiped and one no questions asked downgrade to manslaughter if they make any World Cup team.

The 'dream' is over and the nightmare begins

Welfare crackdown: Solo parents targeted
The Government is taking aim at 43,000 solo parents who it says should go back to work. Prime Minister John Key and Social Development Minister Paula Bennett have this afternoon unveiled a major package of welfare reforms. Ms Bennett said that for some beneficiaries "the dream is over".

What the fuck did she say? What the fuck did she just say? What were the words? THE "DREAM" IS OVER? THE FUCKING "DREAM" IS OVER?????

WHAT FUCKING "DREAM" PAULA??? The audacity of this woman after she has been a solo mother almost made me throw up and how dare John Key start yesterday's disgusting announcement to pass draconian welfare change by invoking his dead father as a justification??? Their 'hey we've been there' bullshit has given them NO COMPASSION, NO EMPATHY just a self righteous view that they can pass this cruel set of changes with a sense of justification!

My God, our leaders are despicable in their smugness.

While Paula was ending the 'dream' the Standard pointed out that John Key was seeing his bloom, remember when he said he wanted to see wages fall on the 20th of December 2007? Yeah well John's cruel little dream has come to reality and he must be loving it!

Wages set to fall, Stuff, 23 March 2009
Real wages are set to fall over the coming year as rising prices and extended unemployment keep the labour market subdued, economists say. The value of wages will decline 0.5 per cent in the 12 months through March 2011 as inflation exceeds salary growth, while unemployment remains elevated, according to the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research’s consensus forecast of ten financial and economic agencies.

And what exactly is this 'dream' that Paula has ended? What 'dream' exactly? We will be forcing sick people back to work, forcing parents to leave their children and forcing the unemployed to reapply each year with the hope that the difficulty of reapplying forces them to fail all within a punitive system that will half or stop welfare in an unemployment environment that has hit 7.3% - the highest in a decade and a half!

What then folks? We've cut their welfare WHAT THEN? They are on the streets, solo mothers, the sick, those without the skills to be employed - we throw them all onto the streets in this cruel piece of social policy with 7.3% unemployment AND THEN WHAT? What do we do with them then? We just let them die like dogs in the street do we? What do we do to the children of these parents we are punishing? Where do they go? Because in their report Evaluating the February 1999 Domestic Purposes Benefit and Widows Benefit Reforms: Summary of key findings the Ministry of Social Development pointed out that solo parent work-testing like this last time only ended up making things worse for the children of beneficiaries - but we don't care about them do we? We only care about cutting the cost of welfare, not actually providing welfare.

What a sad, sad, sad day for NZ - the "dream" certainly is over and the nightmare begins.

Need to smokescreen plans to mine conservation land? BASH THE BENNIE TIME!

Govt announces tougher welfare criteria
The Government has announced it will toughen criteria for people to receive a benefit. Prime Minister John Key announced today that the Government would try to encourage beneficiaries to work with making policy changes to start in October.

The key changes are:

* Compulsory part-time work for single parents on the domestic purposes benefit when their child reaches six and for people on the sickness benefit deemed capable of part-time work.

* Allowing Work and Income case managers to cut benefits by half as a sanction, followed by a full suspension then a cancellation.

* Employment benefits limited to a year. Beneficiaries must reapply after a year with a comprehensive work assessment.

* More frequent assessments of people on a sickness benefit, with the first two medical assessments only good for four weeks each, and a compulsory reassessment after 12 months.

Don't you LOVE their timing? The day after the Government announces they will mine precious conservation land, National call a press conference to play out one of NZ's favourite cultural past times - BASH THE FILTHY BENNIE.

Last week National claimed there were $140 billion worth of minerals in NZ based on disputed figures given to them by a Mining lobbyist - THIS WEEK National now claim there's $194 Billion - where did Gerry pull the extra $54 billion out of? His arse?

By the end of the month National will claim there's a Trillion Billion infinity plus one dollars worth of magical money under dem dere hills. It's a bare faced lie that will all get ignored now National have thrown some raw meat bash the bennie policy out to the media in a desperate hope they can smokescreen the mining of conservation land issue.

It also looks like Nikki Kaye's position is less principled than first reported, turns out she had discussed it with Key yesterday...

Kaye says she discussed mining opposition with Key
Auckland Central MP Nikki Kaye and Prime Minister John Key say they discussed Ms Kaye's opposition to mining on Great Barrier Island before she went public with her views last night.

...this smells funny now. National's strategy is to oversell the value and fold on one symbolic mining site they don't have much intention of mining to make it look like they are being moderate while pushing ahead with the rest of the mining agenda.

Bomber's Blog - The War on News TONIGHT, sky 89, 10.10pm

The War on News 2010 – NZ News Satire on Stratos Sky 89 10.10pm 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

National you are LYING about mining

Cracks appear in mining plan
The Government is facing a fight within its own ranks over plans to open conservation land to mining. It announced yesterday plans to take land in Coromandel, Great Barrier Island and parts of Paparoa National Park on the West Coast out of the protection of schedule 4 in the Crown Minerals Act. The Government will also spend $4 million looking at "highly prospective" schedule 4 land in other parts of the Coromandel and in Paparoa National Park, as well as Rakiura National Park on Stewart Island. However, Auckland Central MP Nikki Kaye spoke out yesterday against proposals to allow mining on 705 hectares of Great Barrier Island. "My personal view is that when environmental and economic factors are taken into account, and given the island's status in the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park, mining on Great Barrier Island doesn't stack up. I'll be strongly advocating that position to my colleagues in the Government."

Two things here:

1: Well done Nikki! She won the 2008 election because the Central Auckland Green vote which went to Nandor in 2005 went to her after she argued that she would be an environmental voice within National. To date she has done bugger all to have won that green vote, but on this issue she has to say something about this outrageous attack on Conservation land. It will be very interesting to see how much freedom she will get to continue voicing an opinion other than the official line. If she is allowed to undermine the Governments assertions, Key will look weak, if she is gagged like the Government has gagged DOC then that Green vote will dump her at the next election. Rock, hard place, Nikki Kaye.

2: National are LYING about the value of supposed wealth, and note it's jumped from $140 billion to $194 Billion in the space of a week, where the hell did Gerry find another $54 billion in minerals?

As I pointed out in the weekend
The ever brilliant Gordon Campbell has sunk deep into the $140 billion claim and that it comes from mining lobbyist Richard Barker.

To date, the media has relied on an estimate of $140 billion for the minerals potentially up for grabs – a figure derived from a March 2008 paper by the Auckland consulting geologist Richard Barker.

So the man charged with trying to convince the Government to mine on conservation land has come up with a $140 billion pot of gold over the mining rainbow, how did he get that figure? Astoundingly, he calls it a ballpark figure - how big a ball park? When NZIER did the same research as Barker, they only came up with $85 Billion, Idiot Savant picks up the point on other surveys which showed even lower valuations...

Combining the two - minerals plus non-renewable energy resources - gives a total figure (for 2000) of NZ$3,683.2 million. Quite a difference from $140 billion, isn't it?

...so we have $3, 683.2 million from one valuation, $85 billion from NZIER and $140 billion from the mining lobbyist. Note: none of this takes into account that the ACTUAL amount NZers will gain will be nowhere near as high as any of these valuations, our laws are written for the Mining Industry, we get a fraction of the mineral wealth asserted to exist AND get the environmental fallout as well.

We have built a clean green brand right when the Planet is choking on its own filth, to damage that brand for mythical riches sold to us by a mining lobbyist sounds more like the mono-rail episode from the Simpsons than a wise economic decision.

NO to mining in conservation land. No if's, no buts, the promised wealth is a joke which if we fall for, will only serve to damage our international image for very little jobs and money.

ACC under National

ACC rejecting genuine claims, says surgeon
ACC is declining genuine claims for surgery on "unfair and unreasonable" grounds, a respected Wellington neurosurgeon says. Martin Hunn, a specialist at Wellington and Wakefield hospitals, has had three patients turned down for spinal surgery since January, with ACC saying their injuries were caused by pre-existing wear and tear, not accidents.

So anyone over 40 with spinal damage will get it rejected by ACC because it's normal 'wear and tear' is it, and in the example being used in this article that 'wear and tear' just happened to magically occur after the patient suffered a prolapsed disc in his neck during a collapsed scrum in a club rugby game last year.

Not content to re-traumatise sexual abuse victims by forcing them to claim they are mental just to get money for counselling, the stress the Government have put ACC under is now rejecting claims for legitimate surgery.

ACC is being privatized by a manufactured crises against the advice of Pricewaterhouse Coopers for the Australian Insurance shark industry who stand to make a $200 million killing and NZ, you’ve let John Key do it because you like him and don’t want to spoil your infatuation.

Is John Key's vacant aspiration varnish starting to wear off yet? Using domestic neoliberal tax cut, free market, deregulation policy to counter an economic crises caused by global neoliberal tax cut, free market, deregulation policy is the outright definition of insanity.

John Key's Facebook rules

Sideswipe: Key 'defriends' Facebook critic
Alesyia is hurt at being "de-friended" on Facebook by Prime Minister John Key: "I'd been one of around 5000 'friends' of John Key's for quite some time, and on Wednesday, for the first time, I posted a message on his wall. My polite but forthright paragraph voiced my concerns over his intention to support commercial whaling and suggested that he pay attention to the opinions of the people he was elected to represent. Within hours, my message had been deleted and I had been 'de-friended'.

John Key's Facebook rules:
Friends can not disagree with friends over legalizing whaling.
Friends do not question mining on conservation land.
Friends do not listen to Radio NZ
Friends love National Standards and hate teachers
Friends sing 'there is no depression in NZ' minus any hint of irony.
Friends give war a chance in Afghanistan
Friends let friends smack their kids
Friends only read Kiwiblog & Whaleoil
Friends don't really believe in global warming
Friends think NZ Herald and TV One is a bit politically correct sometimes
Friends LOVE Paul Henry
Friends never take public transport

Love the tie Prime Minister

John Key's tie and what he was reading in the Women's magazines took up more time on the Breakfast cuddle with Paul Henry this morning than the Government's plans to privatize prisons to companies who have a record of brutal prisoner killings overseas like GEO (the CEO of which told the select committee last year that private prisons WON'T save money) and a company that runs Guantanamo Bay detention centers.

Is it any surprise the public have no idea what is going on?

Maori Party rumblings

Working with Nats is tough, says Sharples
Maori Party co-leader Pita Sharples says working with the National Party in government is proving at times to be "very difficult and stressful". His comments - in a hard-hitting speech last night marking Race Relations Day - are the first time the Maori Party leadership has openly expressed such frustration and dissatisfaction with what Dr Sharples described as "tensions" in his party's relations with National.

Sharples is a shrewd old fox, he is firing a shot across the bow of the Government to remind them of the delicate position they are in if the Maori Party decided to walk. Leaving National to play with ACT would have as much public appeal as wanting to having infants babysat by rottweilers, John Key HAS to look much more broadbased and 'moderate' than his Government really is which is the camouflage reason Key went into a mana enhancing relationship with the Moari Party in the first place.

Peter is reminding John he gets the political equation as well.

The Maori Party NEED runs on the board and if the Government's real agenda to privatize and deregulate are enforced then that always hits Maoridom hardest. If the quiet policy Juggernaut of Rodney Hide and Steven Joyce continues to rumble along, the Maori Party may need to jump ship as a matter of principle if they wish to have any credibility come the 2011 election.

Good luck Mr President

Obama's healthcare reform cliffhanger
LATEST: Democratic leaders in the US House of Representatives say they have the votes to pass a landmark healthcare reform bill seen as critical to President Barack Obama's political standing and legislative agenda. "We have the votes now ... as we speak," Representative John Larson, head of the House Democratic Caucus, said on ABC's This Week when asked if the majority party had the 216 votes needed to pass the bill over unified Republican opposition.

Sure his foreign affairs policy leaves a lot to be desired (although America's recent denouncement of Israeli aggression for building MORE houses on stolen Palestinian land and Israel's outrageous economic blockade and strangulation of Gaza are welcome departures from 'Israel-as-the-51st-State-of-the-US' mantra), one has to admire his ability to pass desperately needed health care reform away from the interests of Insurance Corporations to the interests of the people all in the face of hysterical hate speech groups like the ridiculous Tea Party movement and self interested industry corporates.

Watching the debate and how any attempt to universally protect a nations health gets described as 'Socialism' is a reminder of how many Americans live in a Fox News la-la land and the level of self delusion the financial interests of an insurance industry has managed to inject into the psyche of America.

Reform is desperately needed and Obama's attempt would be the first real suggestion that Government of the people, by the people, in the interests of the people is really possible in the USA.

Good luck Mr President.

Fried Pork too spicy for public?

Police first to use Taser software
The United States firm that makes the Taser is hailing a move by New Zealand Police to buy software that will make it easier to monitor Taser use as a "watershed" for its business. Police are installing a system called Evidence.com that will let them securely store, analyse and manage thousands of videos from cameras attached to Tasers, under a three-year contract. The footage can be used as evidence in court cases.

"stored securely within the New Zealand Police system" sounds aspirational and hopeful rather than secure doesn't it? It is exceptionally odd that now we have bought this softwear to monitor all Taser cam footage that the NZ Police still refuse under the ridiculous defense of 'privacy' to release Taser cam footage to the public. I say ridiculous because we have entire TV shows made up of suspected criminals with their faces blurred, the privacy issue can easily be dealt with by pixelating peoples faces.

The reason I suspect the footage is NOT being released, and remember the Taser cams were sold by the Police to the public as a safety guard on excesses of use by the Police, the reason the footage is not being released is because the use of Tasers are much more tightly regulated than what many would realize and footage could easily identify such oversteps. The Police can't simply use Tasers for cohersion and there has to be a specific threat identified before Police can taser, also if our use of them is anything like the overseas experience, many being tasered will suffer from mental health issues and tasering the mentally ill won't help with the Police campaign to sell the taser to the public as everyones best friend.

The ease of tracking these images with this softwear now makes any claim that the footage can't be released once pixelated a scam, if the Police want to build good faith with the public then they have to open themselves to public scrutiny.

The truth about the Mining lie

This week has been a bad one for National's plan to mine in conservation land. What National are relying on are NZers pragmatism on this issue, while we face a record slump in the economy with 7.3% unemployment, NZers agree on the whole that we should have a 'stocktake' of what we have in dem dere hills.

But doing a 'stocktake' to gain a value of what we have is several thousand light years away from accepting open pit mining on sensitive conservation land. This is what National are starting to find which is why they are frantically trying to hide their report on Mining as they work out what to do (part of their report was released to the media last week and has ignited a witch hunt by the Government with them gagging DOC talking to the grand old dame of the environmental movement - the Royal Forest and Bird society).

National are starting to realize that while NZers would like a stocktake, they sure as hell don't want the actual mining itself and despite National's argument that we already allow 80 odd mines on Crown land now, their claim misses the fact that the majority of minerals being sought currently under these new schemes are in low scattered quantities meaning open pit mining is the only profitable means of extraction.

National can yell 'environmental surgical mining' as much as they like, the reality is an open pit mine doesn't con anyone just like 'scientific whaling' doesn't.

The most important part of the spin line from National is the supposed $140 billion dollars worth of wealth we supposedly have under the ground, and in this claim there seems to be nothing more than lies taped together with bullshit.

The ever brilliant Gordon Campbell has sunk deep into the $140 billion claim and that it comes from mining lobbyist Richard Barker.

To date, the media has relied on an estimate of $140 billion for the minerals potentially up for grabs – a figure derived from a March 2008 paper by the Auckland consulting geologist Richard Barker.

So the man charged with trying to convince the Government to mine on conservation land has come up with a $140 billion pot of gold over the mining rainbow, how did he get that figure? Astoundingly, he calls it a ballpark figure - how big a ball park? When NZIER did the same research as Barker, they only came up with $85 Billion, Idiot Savant picks up the point on other surveys which showed even lower valuations...

Combining the two - minerals plus non-renewable energy resources - gives a total figure (for 2000) of NZ$3,683.2 million. Quite a difference from $140 billion, isn't it?

...so we have $3, 683.2 million from one valuation, $85 billion from NZIER and $140 billion from the mining lobbyist. Note: none of this takes into account that the ACTUAL amount NZers will gain will be nowhere near as high as any of these valuations, our laws are written for the Mining Industry, we get a fraction of the mineral wealth asserted to exist AND get the environmental fallout as well.

So the $140 billion valuation is a lie, it's an attempt to keep NZers on side while National try and find a way to spin this. My guess is that they will 'find' minerals under an important National symbol, John Key will do an angry press conference demanding the National symbol be protected and while the media focus on him planting a tree at a press op, Gerry will quietly allow mining companies in through the back door.

We have built a clean green brand right when the Planet is choking on its own filth, to damage that brand for mythical riches sold to us by a mining lobbyist sounds more like the mono-rail episode from the Simpsons than a wise economic decision.

NO to mining in conservation land. No if's, no buts, the promised wealth is a joke which if we fall for, will only serve to damage our international image for very little jobs and money.

Guantanamo Bay Company wants to run Private NZ Prisons

Guantanamo Bay firm puts in fresh bid to run Kiwi prisons
A US company that runs an immigration detention centre at the notorious Guantanamo Bay detainment facility in Cuba wants to work again in New Zealand by managing the combined Auckland Central Remand Prison and the new Mt Eden prison.

Open mouthed shocked look now shall we folks? The company running a detention centre in Guantanamo Bay wants to run private prisons in NZ? Let's all collectively shudder. GEO is the company who are currently trying to get the private prison contracts and their competition is a firm who are associated with Guantanamo Bay, it almost makes GEO look good. Almost.

GEO has a pretty bad reputation overseas...

The GEO Group has in the past been accused of abusing prisoners and inadequate care resulting in preventable deaths, especially since 2005 at its US facilities in Pennsylvania, Texas and Indiana.

...and at the select committee meeting last year looking into Private Prisons, GEO Group Australia managing director Pieter Bezuidenhout had this to say...

While National MPs had emphasised cost savings, that should not be the only driver, Mr Bezuidenhout said. "Privatisation is not about cost savings. If that's all you want to achieve I am saying that you are knocking at the wrong door. "Privatisation will bring an enhanced public service because you've got a mixed economy, and in a mixed economy both the private operator and the public service will improve and enhance service."

What? Mixed economy? Is that the fucking best they’ve got? We should have a company take the rights off citizens and allow them to make profit from incarceration at the risk of their profit motivation sending us into a prison nation all for the none-definable reward of a ‘mixed economy’? Oh come on, someone paid for this guys airfare for crying out loud and that’s the best he’s got? Jesus mate did you come up with that in the taxi ride in? Oh the joy of a mixed economy, let us flutter in the memorial garden of Adam Smith, we have a mixed fucking economy. Mana from heaven brothers and sisters, there is no depression in NZ. Is he for real?

Private Prisons WON'T save us a cent, the bloody CEO himself has pointed that out, yet we are opening ourselves up to having corporate profit margins warp social policy on an issue as important as imprisoning people.

Here's my favourite bit from the story today..

But the Act Party's spokesman for corrections matters, David Garrett, said the criticism aimed at privately run prisons appeared to be ideological because the evidence suggested they outperformed publicly run facilities. "Where is it written in stone that running prisons is a state function?

...now of course David comes from the Sensible Sentencing Trust, who may or may not receive funding from GEO, we don't know because the SST protects their funding with the same tenacity that the Mafia do. Overseas corporate prisons fund victims rights groups to create a shrill anger in the public debate so that longer and harsher sentences becomes the only mantra. This is great for the private prison company because they directly profit from more people in prison doing longer time, indeed the only one who truly benefits from the recent 3 strikes raw meat policy is actually the private prison industry.

So we are either handing private prisons to make a profit off the forced labour of prisoners to GEO with a record of overseas prisoner deaths or a company associated with Guantanamo Bay. How have we allowed things to get this bad this quick under National?