.

.

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

Just Left, tells us about Two negotiations, one target: the Internet & our brighter future – and warns that,

“Big movies, big music, big telcos, Big Brother: they all hate the changes that the Internet has brought about. They don’t like their revenue disappearing. They don’t like the fact anyone can publish and distribute their views online to a global audience. They raise fierce claims of piracy and damage.”

It’s about the TPPA. It’s about when “someone has a pile of money they will fight hard to protect it, and by definition they usually have the ability to fight that fight“.

With some Frankly Speaking, Frank get’s stuck into this lying-hound-of-a-National-MP in Nats, Lies, and Videotape. It’s true what they say; if you repeat a lie often enough…

On Forest & Bird blog, a charming little piece on  The secret life of our bluegill bully. It’s one of those short stories that make you smile and reconfirm our desire to protect or natural environment.

It’s May Day 2013  and  Against The Current offers a couple of nice images for the reader.

Maui Street’s  Morgan Godfery shares a touching story about Parekura Horomia in Kua hinga he totara i te wao nui a Tane. It’s amazing how gentle political blogs can be when faced with a sad event.

QoT on Ideologically Impure is mightily pissed and describes why she has no truck with  Antichoicer lies 1.  When a cause has to rely on lies to convince people of their validity – then that’s a pretty good indication that it is corrupt.  But then, anti-choicers, climate-change deniers, anti-evolutionists, and other right-wing/religious groups  often engage such dubious tactics to win converts.

Having said said that, when people learn they’ve been lied to, they very quickly switch sides…

The Green’s Frogblog often has a good selection of stories on a variety of issues.  We look at three recent posts,

• Steffan Browning writes about why  We need to address bee health – and sez “We need to get the health of bees on the agenda of our Government so that we can protect these vital little insects”. Only the most narrow minded rightwing numbskull could argue with that. ‘Cos if we lose bees from our eco-system, then, my fellow Homo Sapiens-Sapiens, we are truly truly f****d.
  
  
•  Kennedy Graham reports about a  Green activist reportedly killed in Pakistan. It’s always a tragedy when a person from a  non-violent organisation suffers at the hands of bigotry and hatred. Sad day…
•  Denise Roche reveals how   Bad employers get May day bonus, “the problem with youth rates is that it will see unscrupulous employers game the system. As well as being a really bad deal for young people it will also likely see older workers displaced as some employers look to maximise the opportunity this Government has given them to pay below the adult minimum wage”. Indeed. So much for Dear Leader promising to raise wages.

On Redline, Yassamine Mather gives us an insight into   May Day in Iran and workers defy the regime. Iran is a  dangerous place for anyone to be an activist (though not much better in the US of A, what with Guantanmo Bay) and a worker’s movement is not something the ruling clique would view favourably. This is an interesting view of  workers’ activism in Iran than is different from the msm.

Hot Topic is publicising the arrival and tour of a climate-change activist and sez  it’s Time for NZ to Do The Maths – McKibben’s coming. Gareth writes,

“Bill McKibben — that most thoughtful and interesting of climate campaigners — is bringing his very successful Do The Maths campaign to New Zealand next month, and will be speaking in Auckland, Wellington and Dunedin. Bill’s argument is straightforward.”

Whoar makes the pertinent observation that  “..The trouble for National is that Gilmore has played up to exactly the sort of born-to-rule Tory – I’m-more-important-than-you stereotype that John Key has worked so hard to dismantle..”

Indeed.

Interesting point; after listening to right wing political commentator, Matthew Hooton,  launch a blistering attack on Gilmore, I think the Left can sit back and not bother any more.  Hooton’s criticism was probably more severe than everything else said by leftwing bloggers.

More here:  Listen to more on Checkpoint  *ouch!*

There’s a sense of sadness in a piece on Werewolf, by Giulia Dessi, in how  Iceland Walks Itself Backwards;  Iceland’s attempt to write a new Constitution hits an electoral headwind, and how only 49% of the population could bring itself to vote on a proposed Constitution. The consequence was that the conservative Old Guard are slowly taking back power. After such struggles, have Icelanders given up?

This next one from Waitakere News leaves me in two minds; do I laugh or cry at revelations that The GCSB has a top secret contact email address .

According to mickeysavage, the GCSB’s “mastery of cyberspace” may be somewhat overly optimistic. Maxwell Smart (aka Agent 86) probably concurs.

Let’s see who The Civilian has in his sights…

• John Key resorts to making up coalition partners ahead of 2014 election, and is a funny – if accurate – look at a dirth of potential coalition partners for the Nats.

• Kim Dotcom to help copyright activists by launching independent TV channel about Kim Dotcom is supposed to be satire.. Hmmm… Dunno. It almost sounds like a legit PR release from our favourite German rogue. I can’t help thinking “KimTV” will be on Freeview in the next week or so.
  

Despite his web-name, The Jackal is anything but a ruthless (and somewhat pongy) carnivore, as evidenced by his blogpost; Real men don’t shoot ducks. I have to admit, I agree. I could never understand why it’s called ‘sport’…

… Shouldn’t ducks also be armed with similar fire-power to shoot back?

The Jackal does bear his fangs, though, when he writes that Aaron Gilmore is the Asshole of the Week,

“What all this shows is that Aaron Gilmore is a lying asshole! In my opinion, he should be removed from his privileged position of power so there’s no longer any opportunity for him to threaten people’s livelihoods. Gilmore is clearly lacking something we should expect from all our elected officials, a moral compass.

Unfortunately Key is also lacking in this department and probably won’t remove Gilmore from the position he’s subsequently abused. In effect the Prime Minister was only paying lip service when he said he required high standards from his colleges. If Gilmore’s arrogant actions are what we should accept as the standard, then our expectations will be very low indeed.”

On The Standard today,

• Eddie writes a fantastic piece here;  Why Phil O’Reilly wants you to keep paying too much for power – and strips away the camouflage to reveal who Phil O’Reilly’s BusinessNZ representas. And it’s a shocker!!! This is the sort of investigative reporting that our MSM is failing to carry out, on a regular basis. If New Zealanders read this piece, O’Reilly would be assisted on the first flight out of this country to that Libertarian Nirvana, Somalia! (*dangles hook*)
• In Epsom by election? – Anthony R0bins discusses the real possibility of Banks losing the courtcase ranged against him, and a consequential by-election in Epsom. Unfortunately, it won’t change the government… Damn. But at least Act will be gone from Parliament.
  
• By Giving the game away, writes IrishBill, Aaron Gilmore has shown the public the true face of National’s born-to-rule culture. Which is hardly a surprise to most left-wingers – but it’s nice for the public to be reminded of this reality every so often. Some nice quotes from Dear Leader – which The Civilian will probably satirise later.
• And Karol presents a good case (or question) as to what constitutes Political Vision? Karol looks at the vision (or lack of) between past and present Mayoral candidates and makes some very astute observations.

Which leads us to the Auckland Transport Blog, with a story on The impact of Maurice standing for mayor. The blogpost looks as Williamson’s past record on issues and gives us a good look at the candidate from the Right. Well worth a read, especially if you live North of Dem Thar Bombay Hills. In closing, Matt L writes,

“However I’m not interested in this post turning into a political debate about who should or shouldn’t be mayor and I don’t want this turning into the kind of religious debate about left and right politics. So please try to keep comments to the issues of the impact Maurice running would have on the debate around transport (and housing).”

Yeah, right. Good luck with that one, Matt.

But one thing is for sure; if Williamson does stand as National’s candidate for Auckland, it’ll be an interesting race.

.

Blog Post of the Day

Take a walk down Bowalley Road, and take in Chris Trotter’s  Deep Waters And Broken Horizons – a dire warning about deep sea drilling of our coasts,

Disaster On The High Seas: The Deepwater Horizon tragedy took 87 days to contain – and that was in the Gulf of Mexico where salvage equipment was close by. A similar oil spill would take many more months to contain if it happened off the New Zealand coast.

.

This is a thoughtful, calmly-written piece which asks a very simple question; how will we deal with a disaster of Deepwater Horizon proportions?

And why is National prepared to used our military against sea-going protesters.

Every New Zealander should tear his/her eyes away from Shortland St, or XYZ Factor, or  Survivor Stewart Island and read this.

Read and share on social media.

.

Rightwing Post of the Day

This item from Farrar’s Kiwiblog;  Drury on IRD computer system, takes a swipe at National’s plan for a $1.5 billion new computer/software system for the IRD.

Why isn’t the contract going to a local firm(s)?

And what’s up with the $1.5 billion pricetag!!!

Farrar’s blogpost would fit nicely here on The Daily Blog. *winks*

.

Thought for the Day

.

.

~oo~