Posts by Craig Ranapia
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Hard News: Angry and thrilled about Arie, in reply to Sacha,
Doesn’t have to upstage other policy either, just firmly demonstrate fitness to govern.
Certainly not – and if Labour decided that having Cosgrove stand up at Question Time and asking a question about the treatment of Arie would be a “distraction” from the CGT drip-feed media strategy… Well… politicians wonder why used care salesmen and hookers are more respected and trusted occupational groups?
That’s where the defensive culture of never being wrong causes problems. Everyone makes mistakes. More humility would lift the mana of the Police force.
Plus infinity minus 1. (And, yes, I know I could take that advice myself occasionally. But being a dick on the internet is a whole order of magnitude lower than being able to destroy someone's life out of sheer bloody-minded intransigence.)
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Hard News: Angry and thrilled about Arie, in reply to Hilary Stace,
To be fair to Grant, he has taken a long time interest in this situation, as he has in autism-related injustices generally, so just because he has not made public statements in the last few days, does not mean he is not strategising behind the scenes.
To be even fairer to Grant, he’s not Labour’s Police, Corrections and “Law and Order” spokesman. Clayton Cosgrove is. If Labour wants to keep outsourcing their spine to the Greens, I’m sure they’re happy to oblige. No do I think Keith Locke really cares whether the Insensible Sentencing Trust and their ilk think he's a crim-coddling soft cock.
I just think we should expect better. Arie certainly deserves it.
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Cracker: Another Capital Idea..., in reply to BenWilson,
Which part seems unfair to you?
I'm one of those awful right-wingers who doesn't automatically regard a capital gains tax as the work of the Evil One. But, damn, I really hope the actual policy isn't going to live down to my expectations that it's going to be so full of focus-group driven exemptions that the only sector of the economy really helped is the tax avoidance industry. I don't see anything fair about that.
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I guess this whole thread is moot, because right-wingers have absolutely nothing to fear from this piss-weak effort:
Labour hopes to swing public opinion behind its capital gains tax plan by including an exemption for hundreds of thousands of tradespeople and small owner-operated businesses.
And it is understood there will be a five-year moratorium on the tax applying to gains from the sale of residential and commercial property in earthquake-stricken Christchurch.
The exemptions come on top of those already leaked out in advance of today's launch of Labour's economic policy, which is being touted as a "bold" prescription for lifting New Zealand's economic game.
Other exemptions will include the family home and inherited assets, while dollar thresholds will be set before gains on the sale of other personal assets are subject to the otherwise broad-based tax, expected to be set at a rate of 15 per cent.
Sorry, but my cautious support of a CGT did not extend to estate protection for the middle-classes and wealthy. I know Key got mocked for saying this, but I predict the tax avoidance industry is going to love this. I'm just dubious that's what anyone means by a productive sector of the economy.
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Oh, well... looks like Phil Goff didn't get that spine implant after all:
Labour hopes to swing public opinion behind its capital gains tax plan by including an exemption for hundreds of thousands of tradespeople and small owner-operated businesses.
And it is understood there will be a five-year moratorium on the tax applying to gains from the sale of residential and commercial property in earthquake-stricken Christchurch.
The exemptions come on top of those already leaked out in advance of today's launch of Labour's economic policy, which is being touted as a "bold" prescription for lifting New Zealand's economic game.
Other exemptions will include the family home and inherited assets, while dollar thresholds will be set before gains on the sale of other personal assets are subject to the otherwise broad-based tax, expected to be set at a rate of 15 per cent.
Fair my fucking arse.
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Hard News: Angry and thrilled about Arie, in reply to Steve Barnes,
Perhaps we will see a minister of the crown resign over this, someone put the hard word on Police HQ.
This is a serious question and I'm truly not trolling for a fight, Steve, but what do you expect Collins to do? Engage in blatant, direct and (I believe) illegal ministerial interference in Police operational matters by picking up the phone and ordering Erasmus to drop the case?
While I find the treatment of Arie repulsive, I don't know if opening that door wouldn't create more injustice than it solved.
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Hard News: Angry and thrilled about Arie, in reply to Steve Barnes,
The Police could have just dropped the charges and it may have just gone away if it weren’t for those pesky ministers of police, yes, Judith Collins, who still hasn’t replied to my eMail requesting an explanation about her “In Jail with a Cell Mate” remark.
Que? I know Collins is the anti-Christ-ette around these parts, and God knows I'm not her biggest fan. But I really think she gets acquitted of blame in this case -- especially when it seems the beef from some people is that the Police Minister isn't engaging in blatant political interference. Which strikes me as a very very bad idea on principle.
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Up Front: Respectably-Dressed Sensible…, in reply to Emma Hart,
SlutWalk was basically a franchise operation. So the organisers of any particular SlutWalk were always locals.
Oh, quite. But I think Richard was being a teeny tad disingenuous because, yeah, can we all just take as read that the Global Femme-Borg Collective doesn't exist? Really. Please.
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Up Front: Respectably-Dressed Sensible…, in reply to Emma Hart,
ETA: And yes, SlutWalk is culturally-specific. That’s because it’s a protest against an aspect of Western culture. Ergo, it may not translate well in other cultural contexts. Why should it have to?
And I suspect many Western feminists would be (or should be) very leery of swinging into Mumbai and giving Indian women a good scolding for not being sufficiently "authentic". Because talking out your (often) white privileged arse to women of colour and those who exist in very different socio-political contexts is every bit as nasty as it sounds.
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Hard News: Meanwhile in Epsom ..., in reply to Craig Young,
Epsom is an urban liberal seat and I wonder, is Banks an appropriate candidate for it?
Well, if they make the wrong choice those silly simple-minded voters get to make their own call in the time-honoured fashion -- in Epsom as everywhere else.
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