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Today’s Daily Blog Watch Round-Up of matters that have attracted the attention, assessments, and articulations of this country’s leading bloggers…
NZ Left Blogosphere
Gordon Campbell on the GCSB appointment, and bird flu scares in Beijing – writes,
“In our political system, which has few checks and balances – a single chamber Parliament, no written Constitution, a weak Bill of Rights etc – a lot has to be taken on trust.”
– and delves further into the GCSB, Ian Fletcher, and John ‘The Amnesiac‘ Key affair. Gordon also offers a helpful suggestion for Key and Joyce and their upcoming trip to China. (No, the suggestion is not to stay there and don’t come back.)
On mars 2 earth, Marty reports on the struggles of indigenous peoples in other countries and gives a brief run-down on what are under-reported stories in our msm. Worth a read; marty’s piece is short and only a ten minute read – but you get an idea what’s happeningaround the world.
Clare Curran writes in Red Alert and asks, Should notification of data breaches be mandatory?. Considering the vast amount of data that the State (and private organisations) have on us all, it is obligatory for governments of all hues to keep that info secure and not have it leaked like a sieve. Clare isn’t whinging on the issue, she actually make a good suggestion to address these on-going problems. Onya, Clare! *thumbs up*
On The Dim-Post, Danyl makes a very short blog-post and poses one very simple question. This is for National supporters who think St John of The Brainfade can be trusted to make shonkey appointments. See Consider the precedent.
Julie writes about Ian Fletcher, John Key and dodgy partisan appointments on The Hand Mirror, and points out that there are ginormous differences between appointments in a corporate culture and in the realm of government. In case some people don’t understand why Key’s behaviour has been unacceptable, Julie sums it up with this bit of wisdom,
“In democratic governance the standards are different. For a start there are a whole lot of rules. And those rules are there for Good Reasons. “
God help us as a nation when we have to be reminded of that simple truism.
The Jackal writes about a 100 year old tree being cut down in Auckland – the result of rules changes which effectively mean that “inconvenient” trees can be cut down at the whim of owners. In Urban deforestation, Jackal shows us what is likely to happen once the RMA is gutted. And it doesn’t help that off-shore property owners will be the ones chopping down our native trees.
100 years to grow. 1 day to cut down. Some people are thick.
In the ‘engine room‘ of the Left, The Standard deals with the issues of the day,
- Eddie raises the issue of planned out-sourcing of work at the Wellington City Council, in Will Wellington’s Green mayor outsource council jobs?, and focuses on Mayor Wade-Brown’s response. Considering that Mayor Wade-Brown is being targetted by the Right – and certain elements on the “Left” – this is an issue that may determine her re-election prospects in October. (Up-date: Wellington City Council jobs outsourced)
- Karol writes that More pay for them; bigger bills for us will be the predictable consequence of National increasing the pay-packets of Mighty River Power’s directors by the gob-smacking amount of SEVENTYTHREE PERCENT! Nice for some.
- Karol also reports on the latest twists and turns in the GCSB-Fletcher-Key threesome; Rennie: Key vetoed the shortlist?
- Look over there! writes Bunji, who writes derisively about National’s new cyber-bullying laws, who describes the whole thing as a “Look – We’re Doing Something” exercise.
On The Daily Blog
– John Minto sez that the Key-GCSB thing is Stinking to high heaven, and points to similarities in Key’s behaviour with past dodgy events. Sky City, anyone?
– And Martyn Bradbury calls this issue John Key’s ‘speeding in the Prime Ministerial Limo’ moment, and points out that,
“If Helen Clark had pulled half the crap Key has in 4 years, the NZ Herald would be calling for charges of Treason, but that is the double standards the left will always have to compete with.”
– Martyn again – this time writing on TV Review – Campbell Live Vs 3rd Degree last night – comparing Campbell Live to TV3’s new-ish “Third Degree” (or should that be One Third of a Degree?). No contest. Campbell by a mile.
– The Daily Blog reposts this; Simon Bridges wants to criminalize protest. Which simply reinforces the reality that threatening people – who are passionate about an issue – with jail is a pointless exervise. Memo: to Dear Leader – “we gonna need more jails, bro!”
– And the Daily Blog re-post asks, Could The Use Of Flying Death Robots Be Hurting America’s Reputation Worldwide? Well shucks, aren’t the bad guys in SF movies usually the ones who use hi-tech, mega-tonnage, deadly weapons – not the good guys? (The good guys are usually armed with a rubber band; a square jaw; and the best lines.)
– Are Young Nats playing “teacher’s pet” with the cops? You decide; Young Nats sucking up to the cops – (warning: Ugly). Young Nats – the Uber Mensch of Key’s Bright New Sparkling White Future? *ick*
Interesting Post from the Right
In a departure from The Daily Post’s (short) tradition, the Post of The Week From The Right comes from David Farrar’s Kiwiblog, where he writes in The Fletcher appointment and takes a gentle swipe at Dear Leader (with a suitably damp bus ticket) over his machinations on the appointment of Ian Fletcher. Reading between the lines, this is one of those *facepalm* mnoments we all have when a government we support stuffs up.
In which case, David will be having many more *facepalms* in the months to come…
Sad about the tree. I had some 140 year old pines cut down by my place a few months ago. I’ve noticed that when you have a group of large old trees together, when the first one or two get the chop, there’s a sense of shock surrounding the others, as if they are aware of what has just happened to their neighbours. I read once that the spirit/energy of a tree comes out more at night. If you look at a large tree at night you will feel that it has a stronger presence. Old European fairy tales tend to emphasis this. We are not encouraged to believe this sort of thing, but I’m sure science will reveal it to be true soon enough.
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