Posts by Alfie
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Here's one for the books. The Herald is working with Nicky Hager on an exposé of New Zealand's Five Eyes role -- specifically which allies we spy on.
Hager said the information would show New Zealand was "far more involved than most people realise".
"The discussion about GCSB [Government Communications Security Bureau] in New Zealand has always been about GCSB spying on New Zealanders. What this is going to be about is all the other countries New Zealand spies on.
"Some of that won't be a surprise and some of it will be a great surprise."
Hager said the information would not only surprise the public but also "people all through the foreign policy and intelligence bureaucracy who will know much more about this subject at the end of these revelations than they did before.
"When I read through this material and see that New Zealand is doing these things, it seems bizarre to me - like it is from another era."
The collaboration with The Intercept extends to a series of stories with three newspapers - the New Zealand Herald, the Herald on Sunday and the Sunday Star-Times.
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While the usual fanboys including Fran O'Sullivan and Mike Hoskings publish the inevitable "Key is doing the right thing" puff pieces, John Armstrong's thoughtful article in the Herald makes a refreshing change. He quotes Terence O'Brien.
If last Monday's "misguided" decision by the Cabinet to dispatch a contingent to Iraq was the price of New Zealand's membership of the exclusive Five Eyes intelligence-gathering "club" - as the Prime Minister admitted a month ago - what did that say about the transparency and credibility of the country's supposedly "independent" foreign policy?
He concludes that something could go spectacularly wrong.
If that happens, it will be on Key's head alone.
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Our government wants to bring in a new law to sanitise the deaths of servicemen killed in the line of duty. Not for us the brutal truth of modern warfare -- as a nation we're far too sensitive for that. We'll be told that our loved one died a hero, not that he was shot in the back by a corrupt Iraqi soldier he was training.
Now coroners will only be allowed to investigate a soldier's death if the Attorney-General allows for it by determining the public interest and impact on New Zealand's security.
Defence Minister Gerry Brownlee said the changes wouldn't include self-inflicted deaths or training accidents but refused to comment further as the bill was before a select committee.
Don't worry petals... uncle Gerry always knows best. Remember how efficiently he oversaw the transformation of a broken city into the magical place filled with happy people that it is today.
This isn't even part of the price we're paying for Jonkey to belong to 'The Club'. We'll be unique in sanitising these inevitable disasters as the English and the Aussies both allow coronial enquiries for military deaths.
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This was discussed earlier in the thread so it's worth noting that a certain person is back in court -- the NZH headline reads, Prominent New Zealander charged with indecent assault loses name suppression. But that's not quite true as the judge concealed his identity for another month to allow him to lodge an appeal. The Herald story details the charges for the first time.
The charges faced by the man, who elected trial by jury, can now be revealed.
He is facing 12 charges of indecent assault against two people including two representative charges.
The charges, which include allegations of touching the complainants on the breast, buttocks, groin and thigh, are punishable by up to ten years' imprisonment.
Name suppression for the man expires on March 19 or until the appeal is heard.
The complainants' ages are also suppressed... you can draw your own conclusions from that.
Why does this case remind me of former prominent person, Graham Caphill?
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Hard News: Masters of Reality, in reply to Kumara Republic,
So it boils down to a couple of common threads: “PC wankers” and “anti-business Communists”. Or to compress it into one common thread, “cultural Marxism”. Did any of them relate from actual experiences, or is it a reflection of what they get from media?
As a greenie at heart I'd have to say that much of that nonsense eminated from the National Party PR machine. As Green support grew pre-election, so the Nats proportionally stepped up their "looney" accusations. Enough of middle NZ blindly accepted the line and decided to stick with Jonkey and his increasingly corrupt cronies -- because they're the "safe" option.
I'd recommend Dita De Boni's Now who will watch the spies? in today's Harold.
For those looking for answers, clues provided by Glen Greenwald and Edward Snowden would have to suffice, threaded together with the knowledge that New Zealand seems to lose its sovereignty in matters of intelligence, trade and security by the day.
The fact the Greens still bothered to ask the questions suggests they take their role as defender of the public good seriously. That might be all a bit of an unnecessary nuisance for the National Party, but why should the Labour Party, supposedly invigorated with the thought of holding the Government's feet to the fire, see fit to shaft them so publicly this week?
Pundits have it right: they've brought the National Party line that the Greens are too "scary" for "middle New Zealand" and are looking to place themselves at a safe, bland distance.
But Labour should wake up. Like many social democratic movements around the world, the corporate, comfortable left is losing support to insurgent left-wing parties with heart and a defining vision.
Look at the UK, where the Greens are now the fourth-largest political party. Look at the anti-austerity movements in Greece and Spain - and possibly Ireland and Portugal yet to come.
In New Zealand we've been too comfortable to seriously look for alternatives so far, but the time will undoubtedly come - and the danger to Labour is there may well be genuine alternatives sought.
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Southerly: This Week in Parliament: 2…, in reply to Steve Barnes,
Like Steve, I've been expecting a pithy PAS post on the SkyCity fiasco. I enjoyed Dave Armstrong's summary in today's Dom Post.
The odds seem to be stacked against those, like SkyCity, at the bottom of the corporate heap.
I've heard that children of SkyCity executives are turning up at their Auckland private schools without having had a decent cafe breakfast. At playtime the kids have to fill their bottles with tap water.
Even worse, Auckland's rising housing market has forced out some executives from Remuera and Herne Bay into nearby ghetto suburbs such as Meadowbank and Westmere, forcing their children to attend decile 9 schools.
Key is already re-writing history by claiming (RNZ this morning) that taxpayer funding for the casino was never an option. Hold on... didn't he say a few days ago that taxpayer funding for such a needy cause was likely? The man's hypocrisy is shocking.
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Today's Herald cartoon backs up Dame Anne's comments.
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Ian Fletcher, Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) director has unexpectly resigned. The official line says he's standing down for "family reasons". It was certainly a rather short (3 year) tenure for such a high profile position.
I'll bet that Johnkey is leafing through his old school photos as I write. Because as we all know, that's the best place to find someone suitably qualified for that sort of job.
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If you're wondering why so many people voted for the party which excels at match-fixing in our last election, this study from Brock University in Ontario may provide some solice. They analysed some major UK studies which compared childhood intelligence with political views in adulthood across more than 15,000 people. The Daily Mail summarises.
Crucially, people's educational level is not what determines whether they are racist or not - it's innate intelligence, according to the academics.
Social status also appears to play no part.
The study, published in Psychological Science, claims that right-wing ideology forms a 'pathway' for people with low reasoning ability to become prejudiced against groups such as other races and gay people.
The authors claim that there is a strong correlation between low intelligence both as a child and an adult, and right-wing politics.
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Hard News: The Sky is the limit, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
...it's not just the phone it's the telly and broadband as well
I had a similar experience with Vodafone the last time we moved house. We arranged to have the telco services transferred weeks in advance and were assured that everything would go smoothly. We arrived at our new home to find no phone, no internet and no SkyTV. This was worsened by no cellular coverage in our area.
We lived as luddites for the next three weeks with zero comms. Vodafone promised us numerous dates for resumed service, and broke them all. We got sick of trying to explain the situation to different call centre staff in the Phillipines and I eventually wrote to Vodafone CEO, Russell Stanners. Within a few days the problem was sorted and we received a $1,000 credit on our account.
I've emailed you his address Ian. Merry xmas!
