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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
Green Party Co-Leader, Russell Norman, on Frogblog asks Will Auckland’s housing price bubble be different this time round? and looks into Reserve Bank activity surrounding the current property “bubble”. Russell asks if the Reserve Bank will be lifting the OCR much sooner than expected – something that would be like using a fireman’s hose on a match, when it comes to stifling economic growth. Russell has excellent economic credentials in economic and fiscal issues – something that will stand the incoming Labour-Green government in good stead in 2014 (or earlier).
Meanwhile, the blogosphere is in hyperdrive over the GCSB-Key-Fletcher-Illegal Spying issue that simply refuses to die a natural 24-Hour-News-Cycle Death…
On Bowalley Road, Chris Trotter examines the reality that we We Know HOW Ian Fletcher Was Appointed, Now We Need To Know WHY – and makes the same conclusion that others have made. With Fletcher’s background in intellectual property; coupled American concerns about inellectual property; and taking into account China’s legendary talent for copying everything from Mickey Mouse watches to military hardware; and the heavy focus on intellectual property in TPPA negotiations… well, connect up the dots and see where it leads. Or read Chris’s excellent blogpost.
Gordon Campbell on the GCSB’s practice of spying on New Zealanders – condemns John Key’s proposal to legitimise what has been law-breaking by the Bureau, by changing the law.
How cool would it be if we could all get away with, say, driving at 120kph, and then simply amending the law if we got caught. It is outrageous that a government could even voice such a consideration… but then this IS John Key who is proposing legalising illegal acts.
Gordon also refers to the legislation that controls the GCSB and rightly states that the law is actually not that difficult to comprehend. (It’s not – I’ve read it. A monkey with brain fade could understand it.)
On Frankly Speaking, Frank lays out – word for word – precisely what the legislation states in The GCSB – when plain english simply won’t do. And it’s written in fairly damn plain english. Not latin. Not Yiddish. Not Swahili. Not Cantonese. Not Klingon.
English.
If the spooks at GCSB can’t understand a very simple piece of law – maybe they’re in the wrong job?
On The Dim Post, Danyl has been assessing the issues, including the GCSB,
- Now you’ll be humming that ‘No one is to blame’ song for the rest of the day – when a government agency is caught breaking the law, what should the government do? What should Key do? What will he do?
- Very good paragraphs: Russell Brand on Thatcher -Danyl, commenting further on Thatcher’s death.
- Implausible, blatant lie of the day, morning edition – on the lies of politicians and their senior staffers. Basically, Danyl confirms what we already knew – Key (and his cronies and Party apparatchiks) are lying to us on a regular basis.
Stargazer writes in The Handmirror on death and honesty, regarding the death of Thatcher and the quaint notion that “we shouldn’t speak ill of the dead”. Which is ironic really, as right wing nutjobs are usually the ones to squeal in delight when a prominent left-wing figure dies.
The Jackal writes a Most Excellent blogpost of the growing number of leaks faced this government and points out that National fails to fix leaks. This is a good little piece of writing and also makes English look like a prime twat in his replies in the Debating Chamber.
“Newby” blogger, The Civilian, writes with a caustic satire that has been sadly missing in the media, these days. (Seven Days on TV3 makes a good attempt at political humour.)
Today his report on Key’s visit to Shanghai actually makes for more interesting and informative reading than the MSM stories from the media entourage following Key. Read John Key asks to see location of Shanghai scene from Skyfall. Then ask the question why no one tried pushing the prick down the elevator shaft, a-la Bond fighting one of his nefarious arch-enemies.
And next time Key or English push their bullshit line that boatpeople are threatening to invade New Zealand – think of this; Asylum seekers return to sea after mistakenly arriving in Australia.
On The Standard,
- Anthony R0bins calls for Attention Mum and Dad investors, and reveals that sharebrokers will get a higher commission if they sell shares to foreign investors, rather than Kiwi “mums and dads”. So… Key lied to us? Good lord, say it ain’t so!!
- Key to make GCSB’s illegal spying legal, writes James Henderson and really puts the boot intro the outrageous actions of this government. James sums things up by saying, “It’s almost funny. Here’s a government that’s making everything from party pills to sunbeds illegal (to a surprising lack of cries of Nanny fucken State from the Right) but when their spies are caught illegally spying on New Zealanders, then they rush to make a illegal legal.”
- and more. Always a good read at The Standard, and the comments that are posted.
On The Daily Blog
Db – Sue Bradford writes about the The strange case of Paula Bennett and the impending welfare “reforms” that will see benefits being cut by up to 50%. But Bennett still has the cheek to whine,
“… I think living on the full DPB is hard. I don’t know how you can live on 50%.”
Bennett did very well out of welfare when she was on the DPB. Now she’s on a hate-mission to push the unemployed, solo-mums, widows, invalids, etc, further into poverty. Nice one, Paula. Your Josef Mengele medal in in the mail.
Db – It used to be a standing joke that two-legged New Zealanders shared a lot in common with our four-legged fleecy friends out in the back-paddocks. That wasn’t a joke. That was a valid cultural assessment of a country that has a worship-fetish for authoritarian governments. (I’m buggered if I know why Kiwis voted Muldoon out in 1984. Not authoritarian enough, maybe?) Anyhoo, in The Guts and the Authority: Curbing the Powers of the GCSB, Chris Trotter writes about National legalisation of the GCSB’s illegal activities.
Chris points out that whilst our American cuzzies in the Senate came down hard on FBI mis-use of their considerable powers – here in NZ we do things differently. We validate illegal activity by a government body.
What a sad, tragic, and pathetic society we’re become.
Db – Politics Aside: Why John Key Is Part Of The Intel Problem Not The Solution, writes Selwyn Manning. And he’s hit the nail on the head as to why. Selwyn’s blogpost is lengthy – but it’s a ‘meaty’ assessment of where things lie at the moment. Read this in conjunction with the other blogposts recommended here, and I promise you – you’ll be better informed than most msm journos in this country.
Db – Paid Parental Leave is a human right, not an employment right, sez Laila Harré, and gives us a run-down on where we’re at with PPL. It was one of the great achievements of the Labour-Alliance coalition.
Db – Labour Party Election Billboard 2014 – which raises a question that has been vexing me lately; will Labour undo the dangerous police state laws; the attacks on civil rights; the attacks on beneficiaries; the attacks on labour laws; the attacks on just about everyone and everything in this country? Or will they leave National’s rotten laws intact?
In the final analysis, this is the real question.
Blogpost of the Day
Systemic privacy breaches – Anthony R0bins details a lengthy list of privacy breaches during National’s term in office and ponders the possibility that this is the natural consequence of gutting the state sector?
What surprises me is that New Zealanders don’t seem to understand this. But by god, middle class Kiwi “mums and dads” sure reared up on their hind legs, in righteous anger, when the Nats were planning to cut teacher numbers and make classroom sizes bigger. They understood that only too well.
~oo~
