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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
The Jackal’s position on Peter Dunne is fairly straight forward; Dunne’s position is untenable. More than that, if the Police can prove that Dunne leaked the Kitteridge Report, then it’s possibly a (maximum) three year jail time and a Snap Election in New Zealand.
Jackal says,
“The choice Dunne has to make is whether he wants to drag things out in the vain hope that his teams prospects of winning the next election improve. In my opinion, the discredited Peter Dunne should do the honorable thing and resign from parliament forthwith. Of course that would mean an end to his numerous perks of the job, so he’s likely to hang on as long as he can.”
Maori Maps – the mapping of Maraes across the country. Cool stuff! And something unique to be proud of in our nation.
Bryce Edwards on Liberation has some interesting Top tweets & images about Peter Dunne’s resignation. Interesting. Especially Helen Kelly’s comment about Big Brother.
Didn’t Dunne indicate he’d vote in favour of extending the GCSB’s powers?
Snapped.
No Right Turn’s Idiot Savant asks precisely that all-important question – “will Dunne now be voting for National’s spy bills and their massive expansion of GCSB powers?” Especially since it appears he may have been caught out by spooks from the S.I.S. or G.C.S.B. or C.I.A. or U.N.C.L.E. or whatever.
Hey, Karma – slow down! Dunne hasn’t voted on the bill yet.
Also on No Right Turn, regarding The Henry report which resulted in Dunne’s resignation, Savant makes the point that if Dunne was the leaker then that makes him a whistleblower and not a villain. Accordingly, Savant suggests,
“…if Dunne did leak this report, he did us all a service. He deserves our thanks for being willing to inform the public of GCSB wrongdoing – not our condemnation. His resignation is entirely understandable, given that it is a question of key’s confidence in him. But whistleblowers are heroes, not villains.”
On the other hand, Savant’s response to a drone-pilot, Brandon Bryant’s resignation is to go Boo-hoo. I think Savant is being unfair. After all, people do things out of a mis-guided sense of patriotism until, finally, one day, they realise the enormity of their actions…
On the other, other hand, this case in Texas is Utterly barbaric. In fact, I think it makes Saudi Arabia positively liberal in contrast.
Read.
Believe.
Weep.
Only in Texas.
Some justice for Kenya at last – sort of. Britain’s attempt to compensate Kenyans for past mis-treatment at British imperial hands comes across as “cheap” and “half hearted”, according to Savant. Releasing the details, yeah, I agree. Cheap and half-hearted.
Meanwhile, in the United States of America, in the Land of the Free II, our American cousins are are waking up in Amerika – land of the Surveilled Police State.
Well, isn’t that what they voted for?
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Jeez, some people are never satisfied.
Meanwhile, as Savant points out, John Key is preparing to turn New Zealand into a satrap of Orwell’s Oceania.
Denise Roche reports on Frogblog that there’s Bad news for SkyCity workers health. Fresh from their dodgy deal with Dear Leader, which includes an amendment to gambling legislation, Skycity now wants anti-smoking legislation amended to allow smoking in some areas of the casino.
Gambling. Smoking. What’s the next vice on their list – prostitution? Drugs? Pornography?
What a great little Sleaze Industry developing in our own country.
If our forebears had known what would result two hundred years after colonisation, they would probably have upped-stakes; apologised to Maori for any inconvenience caused; and sailed back to England.
Meanwhile, Kennedy Graham is Searching for a consensus on climate change: seeking a genuine dialogue with National. Concensus dialogue with National? Yeah… good luck with that. The only “dialogue” the Nats are interested in is where a big fat bank account is involved.
Chris Trotter on Bowalley Road gives us “Hidden” – The New Zealand Version – and it’s a nightmarish scenario, to put it mildly. Especially Chris’s punch-line, which I shan’t repeat here.
Gordon Campbell on the Speaker’s lifeline to Peter Dunne makes a very interesting point about Speaker of the House, David Carter, allowing Peter Dunne to receive on-going funding for a Party that has since been de-registered by the Electoral Commission,
” One needs only to make the contrast with the likely outcome if Dunne had been a beneficiary, and had knowingly kept on receiving taxpayer funds after the legislated basis of the entitlement to them had lapsed. Would that beneficiary be told that well…don’t worry. Back then, you met the conditions, so you can keep on getting the money while you see whether you can manage to fulfil the proper requirements again. And hey, don’t worry about paying back the money you’ve had in the interim on what looks like false premises. To state the bleedingly obvious: beneficiaries are not extended the same courtesies being extended so charitably yesterday by Mr Speaker, to Peter Dunne.”
Yeah, one can imagine the Nats being “relaxed” if a welfare beneficiary received payment s/he was not entitled to. All feckin hell would break loose.
Imperator Fish has his own take on Dunne’s resignation. Read his EXCLUSIVE: Shock as Dunne resigns. Ummm, it’s… different.
Meanwhile, there is Panic in Hamilton as chemicals discovered in schools and anti-flouro nutcases activists are in a lather after the discovery of dihydrogen monoxide in the main pool.
Meanwhile, this blogger is discarding all fruit in the house with the announcement by the anti-flouro activists that it is contaminated with L-ascorbic acid. Damn Illuminatii – contaminating everything with their fiendish chemicals!!
The good folk over at The Pundit have been busy little bunnies…
- What the daft fluoride decision says about a Kiwi culture shift, writes Tim Watkin, ands makes several good points about the ‘Holy Grail’ of personal choice – even to the detriment of the community.
Hamilton City Council’s decision to stop flourodating water may have given personal choice to a few (even to those not living in Hamiltion), but in the long run, it’ll be kids with increasing dental decay that pay the price.
Tim also points out the bad rep scientists and doctors are getting – whilst We Know Best individuals vote for John “Brain Fade” Key because he seems like a nice chap.
As usual, one person’s personal choice usually impacts on others.
- Tim Watkin writes about Edwards, Ralston & Drinnan on Shane Taurima and why they’re wrong, about Shane Taurima’s lack of impartiality in his interviews. It’s a fine response to Taurima’s critics and adds a new dimension to the debate.
- In A tale of two Speakers Andrew Geddis writes about Peter Dunne; his phantom Party; and Speaker David Carter’s decision to keep funding Dunne as a ‘Party’ leader.
Andrew explains the situation on pain-staking detail and quotes the relevent Standing Orders, section 34(1), to us.
- Vanessa L King writes about Family Care Payments a Bureaucratic Merry-Go-Round, and “explains why the Ministry of Health’s base model for caring for the disabled is based on factual error and discrimination”. This is the incredible situation where National is actually legislating away peoples’ rights to have their day in Court to challenge government policy.
Over on The Standard,
- Check out : Special pleading from the Electricity Authority. One of the best pieces of analytical citizen-journalism I’ve yet read. Good stuff. Mike tears apart Dr Brent Layton of the Electricity Authoritywho recently wrote a report condemning the Labour-Gree proposal for a single-buyer desk for electricity.
- de-constructs the Key-Muldoon comparisons… or does he?
- The NSA pwns the internet – “The NSA has direct access to servers at Google, Apple, Facebook, and other Internet giants, and they collect pretty much whatever data they like. We shouldn’t be surprised”. So much for Truth, Justice, and the American Way. Superman would’ve given up on us by now…
- And as Gone, he asks the next obvious question…
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On The Daily Blog
Homelessness – The Big Sleepout 2013 Appeal – Martyn Bradbury writes,
On the 4th July I will be going homeless. For one cold night in the dead of winter I will be stripped of my creature comforts, exposed to the elements and given insight into what it means to sleep rough.
I live in the central city and I have for almost two decades. The homeless problem in central Auckland, has to my eyes steadily increased.
If we don’t bring attention to the poverty that is driving this homelessness, we won’t ever generate the solutions necessary to solve homelessness.
EVERY dollar I fundraise will be directly applied to Lifewise’s unique “no band aids” approach to homelessness. The Lifewise response continues to be Auckland’s most successful answer to the issue of homelessness. So before I bed down on a slab of concrete I’d love to ask if you might sponsor me. Please back me and please back this worthy cause by digging deep today.
Thank you.
Social Commentary: Returning to NZ – Our identity – Brand Mika – Brand Maori – Mika writes,
A warm, wonderful piece by Mika asking, who are we?
And maybe, we don’t have to compare ourselves to other place. We are who we are – but read the whole piece to get the full flavour of Mika’s blogpost.
What if We’re Wrong? – Chris Trotter asks,
Did the nine years of Helen Clark’s government, and all the pent-up progressivism unleashed by Labour, the Alliance and the Greens between 1999 and 2008, lull the New Zealand Left – particularly its younger members – into believing that all the big battles against racism, sexism and homophobia have been won?
What if we’re wrong? What if the only battle we won was the battle to suppress the expression of ideas we don’t like to hear? What if, beneath that enforced silence, all the poisons in the New Zealand swamp continue to steam and bubble?
Really, if that is New Zealand society, then what hope is there?
Citizen A with Colin Craig & Dr Wayne Hope by Martyn Bradbury,
Is Key the new Muldoon?
What’s worsefor education – Novopay or Charter Schools
Why is Winston attacking Dunne?
Citizen A – always a good watch!
How to stop the rich thieving off us writes Mike Treen,
I get sick of reading how the rich continually steal money from the people and hardly ever get punished for it.
Just this week the NZ Herald reported that “Two-thirds of New Zealand’s richest people are not paying the top personal tax rate, with increasingly complex overseas schemes and bank accounts being used to evade the taxman.”
Mike makes some very simple, honest, and straight-forward suggestions how to implement a fairer tax system
The Bad Oil – Frank Macskasy writes,
Assuming that a similar disaster occurs here, of the east coast of New Zealand, at the Raukumara Basin – which is deeper than the Gulf of Mexico – how much oil could be released in those two weeks? A simple bit of math: 4.9 million barrels divided by 87 days equals: 56,322 (approx) barrels per day. At 56,322 barrels per day, that would see 788,500 barrels over two weeks.
Reading the whole thing, no wonder this has so many people peeing their pants. This is some serious shit here, people and the Nats are gambling with our environment. Crazy.
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Blogpost of the Day
It’s Time to Change Your (Facebook) Gender, says
Kind of make you think what all those uber-clever, oh-so-young, wide-eyed, totally-naive, and possibly very dangerous young folk at Facebook are up to…
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Action of the Week
Homelessness – The Big Sleepout 2013 Appeal – Martyn Bradbury writes,
On the 4th July I will be going homeless. For one cold night in the dead of winter I will be stripped of my creature comforts, exposed to the elements and given insight into what it means to sleep rough.
I live in the central city and I have for almost two decades. The homeless problem in central Auckland, has to my eyes steadily increased.
If we don’t bring attention to the poverty that is driving this homelessness, we won’t ever generate the solutions necessary to solve homelessness.
EVERY dollar I fundraise will be directly applied to Lifewise’s unique “no band aids” approach to homelessness. The Lifewise response continues to be Auckland’s most successful answer to the issue of homelessness. So before I bed down on a slab of concrete I’d love to ask if you might sponsor me. Please back me and please back this worthy cause by digging deep today.
Thank you.
Even a few dollars make all the difference!
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Thought for the Day
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~ Joe Blogger
“The Daily Blog Watch” Editor, Imbiber of Fine Sugary Drinks, & Cat Herder
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~oo~
