The Daily Blog Watch – 4/5 February 2014

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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 and on-line satirists…

NZ Left Blogosphere

No Right Turn points out that National fails to protect our rivers with it’s new rules, including permitting dairy farmers to continue polluting rivers. Why are we not surprised?

So much for Key’s promises to protest the environment back in 2008. Lying prick.

Savant declares that  National’s gamble failed,

National’s big economic “strategy” for the past six years has been to gamble on finding oil. As part of their bet they’ve sold our right to protest to foreign oil companies and played Russian roulette with our beaches. And now that gamble has failed…

And the GCSB has broken the law yet again – More lawlessness from the GCSB!

Danyl on The Dim Post raises the same issue regarding the GCSB,  Aged off?

“Aged off” my arse. The GCSB has been busy deleting informating from it’s computer banks – especially stuff that can be used as evidence against it by Kim Dotcom’s lawyers.

TDB Recommends NewzEngine.com

Another criminal act by the GCSB.

Will Key legislate to make this legal as well?

Robert Guyton takes a swipt at right-wing blogger, Keeping Stock, for using the “Royal We” in their gushing support of environmental vandals, Anadarko. Check out Robert’s piece when he poses the question, Has Anardarko got lucky? – Keeping Stock

And on The Pundit, Andrew Geddis takes a swipe at David “How-Deep-Would-You-Like-That-Butt-Kiss-Mr-Prime-Minister Farrar, when he asks Won’t someone please think of poor Lesley?

Evidently, Comrade Farrar has been a bit of a H-Y-P-O-C-R-I-T-E with his criticism of Labour’s candidate selection in Invercargill. Find out why. As for Mr Farrar – “you’ve been a naughty boy”! Nanny Collins is going to spank you for that! (No charge. That’s a freebie.)

Bryce Edwards on Liberation presents NZ Politics Daily – 4 February 2014,

The main issues in NZ politics today are the Act Party leadership, debates about Metiria Turei’s clothes, NZ First, Labour Party, Maori politics, and inequality and poverty…

Gordon Campbell on further changes at Scoop, and the new Act Party leader;

The editorial content of Scoop will become my responsibility. From today, I will be Scoop’s Editor.

Gordon continues with this,

Well for one thing…within a month, the site will gradually begin to look better, and become easier to navigate. Beyond that, the journalistic challenge can be expressed very simply: my job will be to widen the range of contributors to Scoop and the diversity of opinion it carries, and by doing so, increase the readership. I could wrap that up in inspirational rhetoric but I believe good content will, over time, speak for itself. Clearly, there is an audience out there that’s hungry for quality feature journalism and for well written, well researched reportage and news evaluation. If the content is good and diverse, more readers will come.

Scoop is in good hands!

In Fightback, the question is asked if The Internet Party is: A progressive force? and makes this point,

When manufacturing based industries began to decline in the USA and intellectual property based industry (such as film, music and software) became a substantial part of the American economy, laws were written to favour copyright holders and protect intellectual property. Among other changes, copyright terms were extended and copyright violation was turned into a criminal offence rather than a civil matter.

While New Zealand may seem a long way from the US, that didn’t stop Dotcom’s mansion being raided by armed police due to alleged copyright violation. Something that should seem ridiculous. In fact,  leaked US embassy cables from the trove released by Chelsea Manning show that a great deal of lobbying went into an effort for local intellectual property laws to reflect those of the USA.

The lobbying efforts for US-friendly copyright and intellectual property law continue through the negotiations of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPPA), with John Key’s trip to Hollywood, and intellectual property negotiators from the US Trade Representative’s Office visiting Wellington.

On Tumeke, in  Short man, tall ask, Tim Selwyn declares that John Tamihere,

“…has gone feral.”

Read the full blogpost – Tim is pulling no punches on this one.

There are “cute fluffy animal stories” by the msm – and then there are “cute fluffy animal; stories” by Forest & Bird. Guess which one is more relevant? (Sorry, no chocolate fish for guessing .) Check out The secret life of Wellington cats – it’s a fascinating look at how a problematic issue raised last year by Gareth Morgan is being addressed.

Froglog’s Jan Logie writes, 155 human rights recommendations for NZ – how did this happen? Jan writes,

Last week the United Nations Human Rights Council reviewed New Zealand’s progress on human rights, in what’s called the Universal Periodic Review. This was our second assessment. The first was in 2009, and back then, 64 recommendations were made on things we could do better. This time 155 recommendations were made.  This does not bode well and should be seen by the National Government as a wake-up call.

Her piece lists the separate categories of recommendations and how they were formulated. And that New Zealand is not doing so well.

Pablo looks at  Evaluating export growth on Kiwipolitico and asks some serious questions regarding our FTA with China. One of those questions haPPENS TO BE,

“…has the increase in bilateral exports led to an increase in employment in the export sectors affected?”

The 2013 Census survey would suggest not,

Manufacturing showed the largest decline, with 29,472 fewer people employed in this industry in 2013 than in 2006. This was a 13.5 percent decrease.

So remind me again, Labour and National what the point of the NZ-China FTA was??

Gareth on Hot Topic sends a Memo to Brill and his NZ climate cranks: pay up or shut up;

I suppose it had to happen. Jim Salinger’s excellent summary of the strange case of the climate cranks and their attempt to sue the New Zealand temperature record has attracted a response from deep inside La La Land. Barry Brill, chairman of the NZ Climate “Science” Coalition and litigant in chief, has posted a piece of piss-poor propaganda trying to make their actions seem reasonable. He fails spectacularly, as you might expect — but he also fails to mention the most salient fact of all.

Brill is the ex-lawyer who put the losing court case together. He, together with the trustees of the NZ Climate Science Education Trust — Terry Dunleavy, Bryan Leyland and Doug Edmeades — are in default of the costs awarded against them by the judge. It’s a cool $89,000, and if Brill et al don’t pay up, the NZ taxpayer will have to foot their bill. As one of those taxpayers, I object strenuously to funding their absurd political posturing.

Climate change skeptics might deny global warming – but denying Court-imposed costs is going to bite their fossil-fuelled man-fannies!

Frankly Speaking’s Frank reports that  Dear Leader  shoots from the lip. Again. And has an update on the  2014 – Ongoing jobless talley. Evidently the latest HLFS survey is out today (Wednesday).

On Bat, Bean, Beam, Giovanni Tiso looks at The cost of living, and like Chris Trotter, throws in a measure of history to give us some context;

It is such a loaded phrase, ‘the cost of living’. It can be stripped of all but one of its meanings by turning it into a statistical construct; or it can be allowed to retain all of its force, all of its inherent sense of injustice, by accounting in full for the effort it takes to work and be poor. The politics of this representation are immensely complex. But we have so many more instruments at our disposal, so many more media. So where is our progress?

The Standard’s fare today…

Sea Shepherd v the Institute of Cretinous Research – 

…Whaling is back in the news.  The Japanese continue in the scientific research of the number of whales remaining by slaughtering them and offering them up as food.  The Sea Shepherd is fighting the good fight or engaging in terrorist activities, depending on your world view.

Claims and counterclaims about sabotage and intentional damage have recently been raised by the parties.  The Institute for Cetacean Research’s spokesperson Glenn Inwood has entered into the fray.

He is one of those really annoying PR types who maintain that his client is completely innocent and the other side is totally in the wrong.  There are absolutely no shades of grey for Glenn…

The latest report from the UN Human Rights Council shows the NZ government has been slacking off with respect to its protection of and support for the human rights of all Kiwis. (Draft report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review* New Zealand)  The government tried to gloss over some of the most worrying of the reports findings and recommendations.  It is particularly avoiding focusing on some of the deep seated underlying causes of discrimination and suffering.

 So John Key was caught out today saying a little porkie.  In a big blow of the old racist dog whistle he said that Governor General Jerry Mateparae has been jostled while walking onto Te Tii Marae at Waitangi .

Roy Morgan survey reports on total real unemployment and underemployment in New Zealand. In total 19.8% of the workforce (519,000, up 69,000) New Zealanders were either unemployed or under-employed…

So, the whole big plan for the Key-led NZ Inc, has just become a bit of a fizzer. All that time, money and resources Anadarko wasted on looking for deep sea oil in the Taranaki has come to nothing…

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Blogpost of the Day

Chris Trotter on Bowalley Road looks at Wearing Racism, and makes a brilliant conflation between Black slaves in 1860s America – and a certain event last week involving a Maori woman.

The picture he paints is cleverly done – if not more than a little disturbing.

Thank goodness someone knows their history…

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Missing Action…

… and greatly missed;

The Jackal

Fearfactsexposed

Capitalism bad, Tree pretty

Hurry back folks!

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Thought for the Day

voting-is-not-a-privilege-its-a-right-1024x681

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~ Joe Blogger,

“The Daily Blog Watch” Editor, Imbiber of Fine Sugary Drinks,  & Moa-whisperer

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~oo~