Posts by Craig Ranapia
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Cracker: RIght On., in reply to Andrew E,
Well, so far their fighting has been pretty toothless. Hopefully the nails will prove somewhat more effective.
Honestly, I think Labour has to do a lot better than "lookit, SEEKRITAGENDA" - again. Really, I think people have gotten sick of waiting for John Key to reveal he's actually Ruth Richardson in man-drag.
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Cracker: RIght On., in reply to Russell Brown,
Indeed – the internal contradictions have been there right from the very beginning.
There's also similar contradictions in the Greens -- but they at least have some discipline and civility at the organisational and caucus levels.
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Same the real problem hasn't changed: ACT is neither libertarian fish nor populist right-wing foul, and it's tendency to foul its linen in public isn't clearing things up .for anyone. Bugger.
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Steve:
Thanks for the party political broadcast on behalf of the Labour Party. Now, I'd like to know whether we've had a string of Ministers over the last decade TELLING BALD FACED LIES TO THE PUBLIC AND PARLIAMENT about possible complicity on the part of New Zealand troops handing foreign nationals to torturers in contravention of international law.
And, yes, I think we've all got a serious credibility problem if New Zealand was practically enabling the very war crimes enlightened opinion at home condemned.
Seriously, not trying to make a partisan score here because there are a lot of people who have a lot of questions to answer. Turthfully. Or face real consequences.
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Hard News: More Secrets and Lies, in reply to Bart Janssen,
But we don’t vote for honest answers, we vote for the best spin.
Oh, bullshit. Perhaps I'm hyper-sensitive because members of my family are in the military -- and none of them signed up to be, at best, unwitting torture enablers if not outright war criminals. What they have done done is accepted that part of their job is potentially being in harm's way; that they implicitly trust their leaders with their lives and reputations.
I'm a pretty cynical guy, but I'd really like to believe thousands of people didn't go out in crap-tastic weather yesterday to honour dishonour.
I've say this right here and now, because I've already said this in an e-mail to the Prime Minister and Defence Minister (who happens to be my retiring local MP). If they won't hold an inquiry to defend the reputation of this country and its servicemen and women I will be otherwise engaged on November 26.
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Hard News: More Secrets and Lies, in reply to Russell Brown,
He’d admit himself that he’s not always the easiest guy for an editor to work with, so extra props to Simon Wilson for making that commitment.
And would I be wrong to suspect that Wilson and Stephenson spent many, very expensive hours with lawyers vetting every syllable and punctuation mark before the story went to press?
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Hard News: More Secrets and Lies, in reply to Russell Brown,
No. I do suspect this isn't going to be good for Goff.
Well I would agree with you there, wouldn't I? :) But more seriously, I don't think New Zealand's reputation at home or abroad should come out of this unscathed. God knows we've collectively done enough moral high horse riding to score Olympic equestrian gold.
Weirdly enough, I suspect most people could swallow surprisingly high levels of upfront cynical Realpolitik but Nixon's First Law always comes back to bite. It's never the crime that trips you up, but the lies you tell to cover it up.
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Busytown: A new (old) sensation, in reply to Islander,
Islander:
I've obviously said or quoted something to heinously piss you off, just not entirely clear what.
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The Prime Minister has, inevitably, dismissed any prospect of an inquiry. We should not let him off so easily.
Well, no we shouldn't -- but at least he'd answer questions about the SAS, as Jon Stephenson pointed out. I don't think anyone is naive enough to think the SAS are in Afghanistan to hand out sweeties and toilet paper, but nor should we tolerate being lied to (whether by commission or omission) by successive governments.
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Muse: Monday Linky Love (With Added Geekery), in reply to Matthew Littlewood,
Me, I just find it more hilarious when Liberterians and Randians invoke Orwell or try to "rehabilitate" him as some proto-cold warrior.
And I also find it rather amusing when Orwell gets a rather extreme makeover in the other direction -- politely squinting past his rather cranky disdain for homosexuals, feminists and birth control. Eric Arthur Blair was a rather prickly mass of contradictions, blind spots, prejudices (both reasoned and not) and inconsistencies; no interesting person isn't.
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