From medieval law and order policy to changing your bill of Rights

Remember that drunk on Eye to Eye who started a despicable slur against gay people by comparing them with paedophiles?

“Paedophiles, like homosexuals, 30 years ago homosexuals had, according to experts, a disease and they needed to be cured and it was a spectacular failure because homosexuality is a sexual orientation, so we decided that because there were 10 per cent of people who were homosexual it was no longer a disease.

"Paedophiles cannot be cured any better than…," he continued, before being interrupted by other panel members.

Yeah well that drunk is Sensible Sentencing hangman and ACT party MP David Garrett. Currently Garrett is pretending that his 3 strikes and you’re screwed won’t cost $30billion because second time offenders will get a maximum sentence (he hopes they will die before they re-offend for the 25 year 3rd strike) and because they will go overseas. Firstly the second offence can be for something as low as a 5 year sentence so maximizing the second crime may be for as little as 5 years, that won’t kill off the prison population and the idea that these prisoners will then leave overseas with their criminal convictions is just a bloody joke. So now our favorite jumped up little Reservoir Dog, David 'Mr Pink' Garrett not only wants to initiate law and order policy that National’s own Attorney-General describes as such ” severe punishment it would breach fundamental human rights of New Zealanders”, yeah well surprise surprise, Mr Pink wants to change the NZ Bill of Rights

His direct quote when told his brutal new law would breach the NZ Bill of Rights – wait for it “So what?”

His words now "Alter the Bill of Rights Act. We've got too hung up on people's rights."

We are too hung up on people’s rights??????? – his words, not mine. Start feeling very frightened now. Would anyone want a drunk homophobe who is promoting law and order legislation that would be so severe it would breach our bill of rights fucking around with our bill of rights in anyway shape or form?

It took a couple of months, but the real right wing are now starting to peep out from under the veneer of moderation, his opinion of our rights and his desire to circumvent them for only groups David deems as okay is an influence in Parliament that no free citizen would want to continue.

It's okay to torture in America because America loves 24 - only on Fox News

The audacity of dope (yes we can)

Here’s an idea, with the economy about to be hit hard, with up to 180 000 unemployed, soaring prison populations, dropping tourism and self mutilating our ‘clean green’ image, I think it’s time we legalized marijuana.

Think about it, a café system similar to Amsterdam, you have to pay a license to grow it commercially and you would need a license to sell it in a cafe. Where it could be sold would be tightly controlled and whom could sell it would also be tightly monitored, not only would we create a massive cash crop over night, we would stop sending weed growers and smokers to prison, saving us money and space.

Drug tourism would suddenly prop up our tourism industry and seeing as Key looks half baked most of the time, he will be the perfect front man as Minister of Tourism.

Legalizing would also make our ‘clean, green’ image more believable and the revenue would boost desperately depleted government coffers. Money could be put aside for chronic users and host responsibility would apply to being too stoned as much as it does to being too drunk. Advertising restrictions akin to tobacco regulations and extra services for that percentage of the population who are predisposed to mental health issues would also be funded with the focus on harm minimization rather than throwing people in prison.

So we decriminalize a vast swath of the population, we save them from having to go to jail, we make it illegal to sell without a license and put huge fines in place to make growers comply within the legal framework and we boost tourism numbers in one fell move.

Can we do it?

A very NZ coup and the silence from the mainstream media is deafening

Parliament holds last debate of the year
Parliament adjourned today for the summer recess after the traditional debate which gave parties the last opportunity of 2008 to complain about each other.

Well the sorry, disgusting pack rape of the select committee process has finished. Law rammed through Parliament in an unprecedented manner since 1998, a hard right blitzkrieg of daddy state legislation culminates in an apathy that has seen a very NZ coup. The lie that the Government have a mandate in an election that wasn’t about policy but some undefined ‘change’, well NZers are starting to see that undefined change and it’s ugly, very ugly. Right to sack powers, scrapping our research and development and kiwisaver for tax cuts that favour the rich, fining parents $3000 for truant children, the dismantling of the biofuel industry, the throwing open of Coal fuelled environment destroying power stations and populist bail and parole laws lowering the risk threshold so that hanging judges can lock more and more people up for longer and longer resulting in our overcrowded prison system becoming even more dangerous and introducing Dick Cheney’s private prison system as the solution. And throughout this entire disgusting abuse of power not a word from the mainstream media, they are blind, deaf and dumb on this entire issue, deciding instead to focus on Politicians calling mistaking eachother with different names – ARE YOU KIDDING ME – I don’t want to hear about how they got eachothers roles wrong I want to focus on this pack rape of the select committee, the mainstream medias silence is deafening.

Global warming causing feedback loops right when Australia and NZ go into global warming denial

Changes 'amplify Arctic warming'
Scientists say they now have unambiguous evidence that the warming in the Arctic is accelerating.
Computer models have long predicted that decreasing sea ice should amplify temperature changes in the northern polar region. Julienne Stroeve, from the US National Snow and Ice Data Center, told a meeting of the American Geophysical Union that this process was under way. Arctic ice cover in summer has seen rapid retreat in recent years. The minimum extents reached in 2007 and 2008 were the smallest recorded in the satellite age. "The sea ice is entering a new state where the ice cover has become so thin that no matter what happens during the summer in terms of temperature or circulation patterns, you're still going to have very low ice conditions," she told the meeting. Theory predicts that as ice is lost in the Arctic, more of the ocean's surface will be exposed to solar radiation and will warm up. When the autumn comes and the Sun goes down on the Arctic, that warmth should be released back into the atmosphere, delaying the fall in air temperatures. Ultimately, this feedback process should result in Arctic temperatures rising faster than the global mean.

Right when Rudd destroys all hope that he was more than Greenwash with his pathetic 5% reduction, right when the nACTional coalition destroy local renewable biofuel, allow back thermal power generation and dismantle the ETS for a climate denial select committee, right as all these things are happening the Arctic is now melting so fast that the dreaded feedback loops are starting to rear their heads, this latest news that we are probing these new limits comes on the heels of research by Igor Semiletov, the Russian scientist with the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Pacific Oceanological Institute, that shows the permafrost on the undersea shelf off the northern Siberian coast is starting to melt releasing methane, there is an estimated 950 gigatons of carbon locked up there, while it is estimated that currently in the environment we have a total of 730 gigatons of carbon in the atmosphere – this extra release would be catastrophic for the planet, and while our leaders live in denial the realities and the consequences of those realities keep getting closer and closer.

Police-paid spy infiltrated office - Green Party

Police-paid spy infiltrated office - Green Party
The Green Party is furious that police-paid spy Rob Gilchrist infiltrated its offices and was used to report on the party's activities.
Green MP Keith Locke said there were rules about how police could act in Parliament's precincts and he would be writing to Prime Minister John Key, Police Minister Judith Collins and Police Commissioner Howard Broad with his concerns.
Mr Locke said that former MP Nandor Tanczos' secretary Rayna Fahey called the party after the story about Mr Gilchrist's activities broke. Rochelle Rees, the ex-partner of Mr Gilchrist, alleged at the weekend that he had been spying on peaceful protests groups for years. Ms Rees, an animal rights and Labour Party activist, discovered Mr Gilchrist had been paid by counter-terrorism police to spy on the protest groups when she helped him fix his computer. She discovered emails between him and police. Ms Fahey told the Green Party that Mr Gilchrist had befriended her and had been "keen" to visit the office and asked a lot of questions. This happened in 2005, some time around the election. "There are clear police protocols in Parliament between the Speaker and the police," Mr Locke said. "It is very disturbing that police would be conducting surveillance on a political party, including its MPs." Mr Locke said Mr Gilchrist had also been on a Green Party database getting access to information about policy and activities.

This story just keeps getting worse doesn’t it. How the hell could we have given cops all these powers when they are using them to infiltrate legitimate protest groups like Greenpeace and SAFE to find out activists sex lives – is that what they have extra Police powers for, to spy on the sex lives of activists, how the hell is that in the national security interest? And now their Police spy was involved in probing the Green party – a political party, cops have filthy spies inside a Political Party – this is despicable within a democracy and it makes Judith Collins assurances from Howard Broad seem very weak.

It’s a reminder to work in very small cell groups for all your actions against the state in 2009.

Mana enhancing and $3000 truancy fines

So we have one of the most bullied school populations in the world and we have just passed under a misuse of urgency unquestioned legislation that will see parents fined $3000 for truant children – and the Maori Party voted for this as part of their ‘mana enhancing’ relationship with NationalACT. How’s that mana enhancement feeling now? How reprehensible is it for a Government to ram through legislation that fines parents $3000 for skipping school when we have so many young people bullied, how about we make the school environments safer before we start fining parents, doesn’t it make sense that kids who are being beaten up and bullied at school are going to go truant and how offensive is it to have a fine system that starts at $300 but then jumps immediately to $3000? This fine system isn’t a solution it’s bullshit populist crap that is ill thought through and will actually make the situation worse, keep the kids safe at school and you will do more to decrease truancy than any nonsense fine system.

Mana enhancement huh?

When hate warps social policy

Call for urgent action on jails
Up to four more prisons will be needed in the next eight years and there are concerns public safety may be at risk unless more prison staff can be found, Corrections has told the Government.
The department's briefing to Corrections Minister Judith Collins says urgent solutions are needed. Community probation services are already understaffed and struggling, and the prison muster will balloon beyond capacity in the next 18 months.
National's tough-on-crime policies, such as harsher bail laws now being considered under urgency and no parole for repeat violent offenders, will make the situation even worse, the report says. "Government decisions are required within the next few months on strategies to address looming capacity deficits, in both the community and prison settings."
Probation staff are already struggling, with 200 more probation officers, 17 psychologists and 50 support staff needed to meet current demand. Without more staff, public safety could be affected, the report says.
In prisons, existing beds will be filled by mid-2010, and 2200 more beds - the equivalent of four new prisons - will be needed in the next eight years.

When the hate that someone like Simon Powers uses to paint prison out to be some sort of under floor heated, plasma TV adult 3 star hotel to whip up public disgust and scream for harsher and harder sentences, and when you ram through Parliament in an unprecedented misuse of power changes to parole and bail laws, you get a ballooning of our prison system. Instead of giving extra funding to prisons, National will propose to privatize the current prison system by importing Dick Cheney’s private prison industry as the solution. We know prison is a corroding experience that dehumanizes the prisoner and yet we all keep that surprised look on our faces when they often re-offend. National want to lock up more NZers into this corrosive environment and in fact make it worse by having corporations run prisons, their profit incentive has NOTHING to do with the limited rehabilitation services we currently run and in fact their profit incentive only focuses on MORE people in MORE prisons for LONGER. We are exacerbating the current social hemorrhage that passes as our prison system, but the intrinsic hatred that has been fed by National and ACT makes an reasonable debate on the issue near impossible. We will reap a bitter harvest from this poisoned crop.

How’s that change feeling folks, is it like Obama yet?

Back Benches

Every week cult-host Wallace Chapman speaks to political figures, groups and commentators, filmed at the historic Back Benches pub opposite the Beehive in Wellington. This week on the cusp of our own b-grade election and the night that Obama was elected US president, the show had a bloggers special (we're the future don't you know LOL). Anyway in a cunning twist both me and Bomber are on the panel of four (yussss) and I'm not sure if they put us on the left side on purpose (ho-ho-ho watch me get into parliamentary humour).

So bask in my mellow montone, listen to Bombers comedic burns and props to our fellow Mental Detoxers who help keep blogging, the site and alternative media in NZ alive. Click here to stream the show

Mauri ora.

Blokes being blokes on the construction site

'Dry humping' and 'genital flicking' in the construction industry
A recent construction industry case demonstrates that this argument only goes so far. The employee who brought the claim worked for the company between 2005 and 2008 (the Employment Relations Authority made an order preventing publication of the names of those involved). The employee complained about a series of incidents involving workplace antics such as "dry humping" and "genital flicking". He said in one 2007 incident, the company's managing director approached him from behind while he was bending over and "rubbed his genital area" against his backside - a term the Authority described as "dry humping". The employee said he was shocked and immediately took evasive action. At a Christmas function the same year, the employee said he was the subject of another unpleasant experience, which the Employment Relations Authority referred to as "genital flicking". "This was a process where, when a group of workmates were standing together, typically in a social environment, one or other of them would flick at or near the genitals of a colleague nearby, allegedly with purpose of making the recipient spill his drink." The managing director acknowledged the genital flicking had taken place, and after the employee had protested twice, he desisted, and told staff "not to flick [the employee's] balls because he doesn't like it". The employee's solicitor wrote to the company warning of the behaviour but the company replied by suggesting it was endemic within the industry. After the genital flicking incident, the employee was left out of a Christmas fishing trip because "the company could not guarantee his physical safety". He also alleged the managing director had made offensive remarks about what the MD would like to do to his daughter. The Company's witnesses gave evidence that all women related to company personnel were "fair game", in terms of this sort of teasing, including the MD's wife. The employee left his job as a result of the stress he had suffered, and ended up a sickness beneficiary. Interestingly, the Authority said that the witnesses accepted many of these incidents probably happened, but that the behaviour is endemic in the industry and the employee in effect needed to "harden up". The Company referred in its defence to "rituals of Kiwi mateship", and said that "such rituals underpin the culture of the building and construction industry. It is not intended as sexual and is not viewed by those in the industry as sexual." The Authority said this view was misconceived, and it was difficult to see how it could be anything other than sexual. The Authority had no hesitation in concluding that the employee had suffered an unjustified disadvantage.

Who would have thought that there was so much deeply repressed sexuality on the NZ construction work site? Don’t you love how the Company tried to claim that such activity was endemic in NZ and was just blokes being blokes – dry humping by your boss, flicking one’s genitals and being told what the boss would like to do to your Daughter – that’s all normal is it? Shouldn’t we publish the name of this company – how can they hide who they are if they think this behaviour is acceptable? Note the company doesn’t deny any of this has happened, they actually try and fucking defend it! I would love to see how many of these Management types went to private boys schools and have all been through the fagging process that Teachers turn a blind eye to because it’ll condition boys up to be men - psychologically damaged and bullying men. This company didn’t deny any of this behaviour and try to justify it, are they really saying that across the many, many, many construction sites of NZ this level of unacceptable behaviour is not only rampant but so entrenched that it has its own set of justifications? If that is true, if what they say is true, then the full weight of Public disgust should be vented and noted and the loss of business and scrutiny be allowed to roast them the way it has roasted Contact to pull back from their greedy and ugly pay rise. If this level of sexual bullying is as widespread as this Company claims it is, then shouldn’t this Company’s public crucifixion be a very clear signal to the rest of the Industry that this level of behaviour is simply not tolerated in the same way racism or homophobia or sexism is not tolerated – or have we given up on those progressions, is that too, how does Talkback put it, ‘Politically Correct’ – basic respect and treatment towards eachother is too ‘Politically Correct’ is it NZ? Is there some other level of behaviour that is acceptable to working class men that isn’t acceptable to the rest? Basic human respect for one another demands much better treatment than this disgraceful and debasing behaviour and demanding that basic human respect shouldn’t be decried as nanny state, and recognize that those accusations of politically correct are actually part of the problem.

Key says one thing in public, another thing in private

Two weeks ago I interviewed Dr Pita Sharples on Let’s be Frank for ALT TV the day John Key launched his abolition of the Maori Seats policy. I put to Dr Sharples that the policy announcement was an ambush, I asked if they had talked before Key announced it and Dr Sharples stated that he had talked to Key and was assured by him that he would not abolish the Maori seats, that effectively he was being told by Key one thing in private and Key was saying something else in public. The NBR was the only newspaper that picked up on this until Shane Taurima put the allegation directly to John Key during the TVNZ debate on Tuesday night. John Key responded that Dr Sharples had it wrong. Disgusted by the mainstream media smothering the election debate process, Alt Tv hosted it’s own ‘Minor Party Right of Reply’ debate last night and Oliver put to Dr Pita Sharples the claim by John Key that he was wrong about any assurance not to abolish the Maori seats and Dr. Pita Sharples adamantly responded that wasn’t true and that John Key was wrong. Since then a staffer present at the meeting has now come out backing Sharples’ version of events.

John Key is telling the Maori Party one thing in private and his more reactionary electorate another thing in public. This is an election about 'trust' - John Key can't be trusted on meeting Lord Ashcroft, he can't be trusted on the amount of Tranz Rail shares and now we can't trust what he's saying regarding the political voice of Maoridom.

When sorry isn't really sorry

Aborigines say Australia intervention racist - study
Aborigines feel a strong sense of injustice over an Australian government intervention into scores of troubled remote communities and believe the programme is racist, an independent review said. Australia's former conservative government sent police and soldiers into outback towns and settlements in June 2007 to stamp out widespread child sex abuse, fuelled by chronic alcoholism from "rivers of grog" in indigenous communities. But an independent review of the intervention, set up by the centre-left Labour government after it won power last November, found widespread problems with the programme, which was aimed at 73 Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory. "In many communities there is a deep belief that the measures introduced by the Australian government. . . were a collective imposition based on race," said the review, released on Monday by Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin. Australia's 460,000 Aborigines make up about 2 per cent of the population. They suffer higher rates of unemployment, substance abuse and domestic violence, and have a life expectancy 17 years shorter than other Australians.

Beyond Rudd’s genuine symbolism of his historic apology and it’s deep necessity lies the fact that Rudd has not done a damned thing to stop Howard’s racist ‘Aboriginal emergency’ that took him 11 years to notice. The horrific underfunding into Australia’s indigenous communities that only exacerbate the worst effects of colonialism have not been dealt with while Rudd reviews this latest affront to indigenous rights. The sudden turn of the global economy doesn’t bode well for the return of Aboriginal land rights when there are minerals to dig up and offset the recent economic pain, if Australia couldn’t look after Aborigines when the boom was on, there is bugger all chance they will be looked after in the bust.

Your Parliament just voted in a Police State – and you aren’t even aware of it!

Policing Bill To Become Law
Police today welcomed the passing of the Policing Bill, following conclusion of its third reading with near unanimous party support in the House. Acting Commissioner Lyn Provost says it is an historic day for New Zealand Police and all the communities it serves. "Receiving such a resounding vote in Parliament is a welcome indication to Police that the new legislation is well balanced and widely supported." The Policing Bill now requires Royal Assent to formally become the Policing Act 2008. "I extend my thanks to everyone who had input into the Bill's development - including Police staff, service organisations, members of the public, government and non-government agencies, and those who guided the Bill through the select committee and parliamentary process," Acting Commissioner Provost says. A comprehensive implementation plan is well advanced within Police to effect the many changes the new Act will introduce following Royal Assent.

Unbelievable! Are you kidding me? WTF! When my co-blogger Tim Selwyn brought this to my attention months ago I argued that there was no way this could go through. I did not think for a minute we would be so stupid to give the Prime Minister of the day such unregulated power by appointing the Police Commissioner and the Deputy Commissioners while relegating the Police Minister under the Prime Minister. Meaning the Police are answerable to the Prime Minister and the Prime Minister hires and fires those who run the policy, it is a closed relationship that does as my co-blogger points out “invites political manipulation, under-performance and ultimately corruption”.

The exacerbating factor is that we are realigning accountability right when the Police are about to execute and mug the Serious Fraud Office of it’s existence and it’s no right to silence powers. As the Police immediately attempt to use this newly acquired power they will turn from white collar corporate crime to ‘da gangs’, so a power created to acknowledge the difference in power relationship between the state and the corporation is about to be used between the state and the individual within a system controlled by the Prime Minister of the day.

This is not acceptable in a country that likes to think of itself as fair and democratic, this is the sort of structure that builds a Police State.

Hard line on abuses not working say Aborigines

Hard line on abuses not working say Aborigines
Federal Government intervention into Aboriginal communities is a "mess", former Northern Territory Chief Minister Clare Martin says. The Labor Government has continued the plan Liberal Prime Minister John Howard introduced last year but Martin, a former Labor leader, criticised it at an Anglican Church forum in Melbourne yesterday. The federal Government marched into NT Aboriginal communities last year and committed A$1.3 billion ($1.6 billion) without consulting the state government, Martin said. The Foreign Minister at the time, Alexander Downer, said the day after the election loss that the Government wanted the intervention to improve its polling, she said. "Although the issues were important, the way the intervention was done was blatantly political. Mr Downer said: "When it didn't improve our ratings, we moved on to something else. "It broke my heart because they committed A$1.3 billion without consulting us and were spending tens of millions duplicating things we had done." The Government said at the time the intervention aimed to stop rampant sexual abuse of children, improve services and introduce welfare quarantines to ensure families spent money on essentials and not alcohol. Martin's government was criticised for not tackling the issue and she resigned five months later. Compulsory medical checks of children were ineffective at revealing sexual abuse unless families co-operated, while welfare quarantining hurt families that did the right thing, Martin said.

What a surprise, hard line tough guy moves against Aborigines were a) racist and a play for power and b) totally pointless, which forgive me was the exact points that were raised when that racist John Howard implemented this bullshit idea to a ‘sudden’ crises that took him almost a decade to notice. I’m glad that smarmy little prick isn’t in power, but Rudd has done bugger all in stopping this nightmare from continuing, Aboriginal communities need investment not the fucking army.

Large Hadron Rap

Will Dr Michio Kaku be right? Will the CERN show a multi-dimension universe? What an exciting time to be alive for physics!

Dawn Raids on hold

Islanders 'drain on economy' report out-of-date - de Bres
An academic report describing Pacific Islanders as a drain on the economy relied on out-of-date data and was misleading, according to a review by Race Relations Commissioner Joris de Bres. The report, Growing Pains: Evaluations and the Cost of Human Capital , was headed by economist Greg Clydesdale, of Massey University's management and international business department, and was released in May. The report said Pacific Island immigrants were less productive and less likely to contribute to economic growth. They had the highest unemployment in every age group, were less likely to start businesses, had lower rates of self-employment and were over-represented in crime statistics. In his review Mr de Bres said Dr Clydesdale's report contained "only a few paragraphs about Pacific peoples and relied on out-of-date data that gave a misleading impression of the situation". Peer reviews were critical of the report's academic standard and The Dominion Post, which originally carried the story, accepted a complaint about the accuracy of its headline and subsequently published a thorough feature on the issue, Mr de Bres said. "No evidence was provided to support the statement that they (Pacific people) were an underclass or a drain on the economy. They suffered disproportionately from the economic and social policies of the 80s and 90s. "Although they do continue to experience social and economic disadvantage their situation is generally improving and their economic, social and cultural contribution is significant," Mr de Bres said.

This research comes out from Massey University’s cash cow Northern branch, the large Columbian Drug Lord cocaine mansion look alike built in the very beige North Shore where the campus mascot is a large burning cross, so Massey proper were more bemused by the report than concerned when it first came out, but now that it is challenging their academic rigor the fun and games and well gelled Aryan haircut of the very crisp Dr Clydesdale are no longer a laughing matter. Garden variety bigotry is fine, but Massey needs to grow their overseas student numbers and these types of things never look good on the prospectus, I imagine Dr Clydesdale and his whining that he is the victim of Political Correctness will get shriller and shriller as he finds Massey slowly moves him further and further away. Perhaps a new campus on Stewart Island?

Maurice accidentally reveals agenda and gets a smack for being excited

Nats do fast u-turn over road-tolls gaffe
National is reversing away from an embarrassing blunder by one of its most senior MPs, Maurice Williamson, who now says he was wrong to suggest drivers might pay road tolls of $50 a week if his party becomes the government. National swung into full damage-control mode yesterday to limit fallout from Mr Williamson's weekend comments, which leader John Key has disowned and political opponents have seized upon. Mr Williamson said on Sunday that he didn't know anyone who wouldn't pay a $3 to $5 toll for a new road if they were going to save 40 minutes of commuting time - an equation that potentially added up to $50 a week. He also named five major projects that could be tolled, including the next harbour crossing in Auckland and the Waterview tunnel. But yesterday, Mr Williamson issued a statement to "clarify" that National would not be imposing $50 a week of road tolls on motorists as he had freely discussed in interviews. "I am passionate about roading projects and unfortunately let my enthusiasm go unchecked," he said. "In the National Party we are in the business of reducing people's costs, not increasing them." The gaffe is the latest in a string of mistakes in major policy areas that National MPs have had to correct or clarify in recent months. From KiwiSaver employer contributions to the sale of state-owned Kiwibank, National leader John Key has had to publicly say his MPs got it wrong three times since late May. Yesterday, he said Mr Williamson had got "overexcited" and his comments were not National's policy.

Ouch, Key spat out Maurice ‘got excited’ about 4 times in his interview as he publicly spanked Maurice for releasing policy on Agenda. How come we have to always wait 24 hours for National to clarify their position away from what they’ve just revealed. See why 50% of NZers polled last week don’t believe National, everytime we see some of their user pays agenda Key quickly smothers it, 3 times now since May. So what is it National, $50 a week for tolls on motorways built with our taxes which we will have to borrow for and pay interest on or not? How could Maurice get it wrong, he’s a front bencher and possible Infrastructure Minister so how did he get the entire policy completely wrong, or is it the real policy but Key doesn’t want it out yet? How do we really know what National are actually standing for when they don’t seem to know what they are standing for?

You can’t make this stuff up.

Is this what the West is fighting for in Afghanistan is it?

Afghan President pardons three found guilty of gang-rape
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has pardoned three men found guilty of gang-raping a woman in the northern province of Samangan. The woman, Sara, and her family found out about the pardon only when they saw the rapists back in their village. "Everyone was shocked," said Sara's husband, Dilawar, who, like many Afghans, uses only one name. "These were men who had been sentenced by the Supreme Court, walking around freely." Sara's case highlights concerns about the close relationship between the Afghan President and men accused of war crimes and human rights abuses. The men were freed discreetly but the rape was public and brutal. It took place in September 2005, in the run-up to Afghanistan's first democratic parliamentary elections.

Some of my ‘friends’ here criticized my less than enthusiastic embrace of the murder of civilians in Afghanistan and my lack of faith in America to win the war, I argued that there isn’t a military solution to this, but my ‘friends’ here decried that as anti-amerikkkanism and we should rally around and ignore the murdered civilians because we need to win. So here we have an example of what exactly the West is fighting for, corrupt warlords and a President who is letting pack rapists walk free, I only thought we had to put up with that in our own country with our own Police force, but apparently the West needs to put up with it from regimes we prop up in countries we invade now as well, and here was me believing the hype that the war in Afghanistan was all about feminism and giving women rights. There is no military victory here, none. We will lose this war, just like every country who has invaded Afghanistan has lost this war, why did we think we were so fucking special?

Remind me again why the West is in Afghanistan killing civillians? Hunting Osama Bin Laden? Women's rights? Pick one and make up a justification.

Crack dealer conference against P

PM warns on 'dirty' dangers
Overseas countries might exploit environmental concerns as new ways of creating trade barriers with exporters such as New Zealand, says Helen Clark. The Prime Minister, in a public dialogue with Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, yesterday told an Australasian climate change and business conference in Auckland that New Zealand could not risk being seen as a "dirty producer". She said that as protective quotas and subsidies were knocked over, countries would look for new ways to create trade barriers. "I suspect they will be environmental," she said.

You suspect right Helen but I hardly call a $940 a ticket environmental conference attended by the largest polluters in the region will do anything more than the usual greenwash bullshit all the while the Arctic is predicted to be ice free by 2013. It’s like a crack dealer convention where they are discussing how to ban P – the crack dealers have no intention of banning P, but they want to look like they will, Government has to do less talking and more telling major polluters in our country that it is no longer business as usual.

Law may make rape suspects prove consent

Law may make rape suspects prove consent
Accused rapists who plan to argue that sex with their victims was consensual may have to prove in court what measures they took to gain consent. The proposal is one of three changes to sexual violence legislation being put forward by the Justice Ministry. "Changing the law would send an important message about community standards and about what the law expects," ministry documents say. "In particular, there would be a reminder that consent has to be obtained on each separate occasion."
Under the proposal, if a defendant claimed sex was consensual the courts would have to look at what steps had been taken to find out that consent had been given.

This is a great idea, how many times have we had rape suspects tell us all that it was consensual and haven’t had to prove how they gained that consent – under this change rape suspects would have to prove how they gained that consent, forcing all people to have lift their game when out on the pull, consent is actual consent, and under this change suspects will have to tell a Court exactly how the victim claiming rape was consensually agreeing to that sex, it will have major social implications as to what consent means and with the high level of sexual assault in this country that is a debate that is desperately necessary.