- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Friday, February 28, 2014

Briefly

Just briefly, some hunches:

Tony Ryall is bailing early after seeing how well Simon Power has done out of an early exit from the scrutiny and pressure of politics and into the security and prosperity of the crony capitalism circuit.  Joy!  Anne Tolley's departure will hopefully follow - it can't come soon enough.

Scotland gets a vote on independence from Britain before we do? I think they will get very close, but no cigar - like Quebec.  The EU Commission President Barosso in threatening the Scots with a tough ride to EU entry is in stark contrast to the EU's misguided nation-building project of Kosovo (which is an invitation for a confrontation with Russia and a repeat scenario of WW1).

John Stevenson over in Afghanistan for RNZ must be smoking some good shit.  He's relaying a story told by one of the interpreters who wants NZ entry that he was tortured by the Taliban.  The Taliban set him free after that?  I don't know I'm buying this.  And he's described as a 'loyal' NZer!?  The guy is a collaborator with the foreign enemy, no wonder he's a marked man, he has after all betrayed his own country that is why he is 'loyal' - to the foreign power.  These refugees the NZ forces have generated is one of the reasons NZ should never have got involved in the occupation.  A border patrol to keep arms and insurgents out and nothing more - the foreign occupiers and foreign forces inside are the problem.  I don't have much sympathy for those translators - they knew the risks and they got every penny of their pay.  Everyone knows there was never any expectation or contract or obligation for the employing country to take them.  The NZ government whores off citizenship like they were cards in a wheatbix box. 

TVNZ inquiry into Shane Taurima's possible bias.  The Pakeha panel will find none.  But what they won't do is look at the Pakeha content to calibrate their assessment.  How will their department fair under the same microscope?

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Sentry

Just before close of business today, 4:49PM - the day they said they would release the name of the person that died in their custody in a South Auckland police station - the NZ Police issue a statement.  The heaving of the family, trying to keep the media away, and refusing to release any basic information is what this cursory press release represents.

That family needs a lawyer not cops.  The last one that family had contact with most likely killed him.

--

Police name man who died in Police custody



Counties Manukau

Counties Manukau Police can now name the man who died in Police custody on Sunday 23 February.  He was Sentry Taitoko of Manurewa.
The multiple investigations into Sentry's death are ongoing. 
The family has asked Police to share a message with media:
"Whanau have suffered a huge loss. There are many people whose emotions are running high. We ask that the public and media have patience regarding the situation as we need police to get on with their investigation into this case, and we ask for our family to be left alone to grieve for our loved one."

Counties Manukau District Commander Superintendent John Tims
ENDS
--

The family so obviously need legal representation here, the cops are running rings around them to 
cover up and suppress what they have done.  The family need some answers, not enforced isolation by the police.  The public demand answers and if the police aren't forthcoming then the media should and will go to the family for them.  They also should be speaking to the ambulance staff who attended.

As you can see by the tactics of the press release timing today the NZ Police are in spin mode.  The least you can do when your organisation kills someone is have some decent Comms.  The give away is the "we need police to get on with their investigation" bit. Only the police would put it that way, not a grieving family.  What that family needs is anyone but the police to do this investigation.  Families, especially Maori families, don't want "to be left alone" in times like this, quite the contrary, they want support.  So who made them sign this? It doesn't sound like the words of the family it sounds like the words of cops hushing things up.

RIP Sentry Taitoko

Labour hard

The election just got very serious.  Matt McCarten is the street fighter's street fighter.  He is a great campaigner for sure, I don't know how much of a great chief-of-staff he will be.  Like Cunliffe's whip for the party.  Is this an internal purge of the right going on?  That is one way of achieving unity before the election.

--
The thing Cunliffe’s Labour needs is a Chief-of-Staff not afraid to bang Caucus heads together and force some unity into the Party. In Matt McCarten the Right have a political operator unlike any they have encountered. His ability to out-mobilise, out-organise and out-argue them has been demonstrated time and time and time again in a political career that is unmatched.
He is a ruthless strategist and brilliant tactician. His ascendency should cheer every genuine left wing and progressive heart in NZ. The mainstream media may like to try and paint Cunliffe as an ideological chameleon, but let’s see the NBR, John Armstrong. Patrick Leyland or Kiwipolitico try and claim McCarten is secretly a right winger.
The only sadness about the appointment of Matt McCarten as David Cunliffe’s Chief-of-staff is that I didn’t get to see John Key’s or Cameron Slater’s or Jane Clifton’s or Trevor Mallard’s or Matthew Hooton’s or David Farrar’s faces when they heard the news.
--

I have a lot of respect for Matt and this is a smart move by Cunliffe.  I immediately thought of Mallard.  Good job!  It cuts the right and the Wellington establishment, it links unions and it links with Mana.  It suits the internal politics within the caucus and the party, it suits the election campaign, and it doesn't suit the people, like Hipkins et al. who aren't team players and need to get out of Wellington more often.  It promises to motivate the potential voter base everyone knows is out there, waiting, latent.  If the campaign against the National government (and the rogernomes within the caucus) is to be co-ordinated on a front then Matt is your man.  This will bond and unify, but maybe more in fear.

Law and order coincidence

On the same day the government announces a new police commissioner they also announce the Auckland Crown Solicitor is being promoted to the High Court and the office is being filled by someone from his law firm.

Both of these offices are crucial to the functioning of the NZ government's law and order policy.  They are expected to collaborate - as they did with the Urewera 'terrorist' show trial.  Both are also appointed by the government in secretive fashion from within a narrow clique.  Both are virtually unaccountable once their warrants are signed.  The institutions they lead are unaccountable.  Both are symptoms and causes of what in most other countries would be viewed as corruption.

The Commissioner of NZ Police has no board to report to, they - and it is always a he - only reports to the Minister of Police (even though it is the PM that actually appoints him and the deputy Commissioners).  The Commissioner has an executive group, but there is no governance entity - that is what the ploddingly inept Anne Tolley is supposed to do single-handedly as Minister. 

The Crown Solicitor at Auckland prosecutes the big cases including the politically sensitive cases of which there are more than you think.  The Attorney-General just appoints a mate and his law firm from what I understand.  And that is that.  The Crown Solicitor seems to be only accountable via their firm's invoicing.  Other jurisdictions have state prosecutors and services, in NZ we have an old boys club.

As for the out-going office-holders, they haven't done much to endear themselves to the cause of freedom and justice particularly, probably the opposite.  In the case of Commissioner Marshall it is more clear cut: he still vouches for the Roast Busters rape club and has allowed them to walk free with something akin to a personal guarantee of immunity because one of the gang members has a father who is a cop.  Simon Moore QC, now Justice Moore, commented on the Roast Busters case to say that he couldn't really be arsed prosecuting these sorts of rape cases and wouldn't be worth bothering to try in this instance.  Moore joins the substantial list of ex-Crown Solicitors who now sit on the High Court bench: Goddard, Pankhurst, Lang, Brewer, Toogood and Collins (former Solicitor-General).

As for Bush's outrageous eulogy comments praising the ethics and integrity of a cop - Hutton - whose planting of evidence in the Crewe murders to fit- up Arthur Alan Thomas has become a notorious incident and black mark that has forever tarnished the reputation and trust in the NZ Police... it seems  his 'on reflection' moment of contrition and regret is nothing more than a PR job.  This new stance - contrary to what he has said up until yesterday - was based solely on doing what is necessary to be appointed commissioner.  The fact is he has, until yesterday, excused and stood up for corrupt cops and corrupt practices.

Sunday, February 23, 2014

NZ Police: violent and aggressive [+UPDATES]

---
UPDATE 9:30PM 25/02/2014:
Video of the police statement via Stuff.

He says in the video (which is edited) that the cause of death is unknown and toxicology report will take a fortnight.  Sounds like an unreasonably, implausibly long time to test for alcohol and drugs.  Delay.  How convenient to take the heat out of this.  That assumes the toxicology report will be definitive - it may not be; or it may be needed to rule out a cause, rather than rule in a cause.  It may be that the doctor doing the post-mortem is reluctant to give a cause that appears obvious and prefers to see the report first.  Conveniently we don't know and won't know for another two weeks.
---

UPDATE 5:30PM 25/02/2014:
NZ Herald reporting this afternoon that a post-mortem was carried out yesterday (cause of death unknown awaiting toxicology report) and that the victim would be named tomorrow.
I note here the "laboured breathing" claim is mentioned again.  The police statement said the chronology is after the doctor has viewed him through a window shortly after being placed in a cell: 1. staff saw laboured breathing,
2. staff put him into the recovery position,
3.  staff then start CPR,
4.  then they call "paramedics" (ie. St. John ambulance)
5.  Paramedics arrive, CPR for 40 minutes.
6.  Pronounced dead at 6:10pm.
Points one and two are at approx. 5 am.  What is unclear is whether or not he was still breathing when in the recovery position, because doing CPR indicates he is not breathing and already dead.  This is why I ask about the "laboured breathing" - when was that observed and by whom?  They said they never recalled the doctor, just go into CPR.  Must have been too critical to bother with the doctor.  Being a "monitored cell" there will most definitely have been video at the time, as well as video from other parts of the station where he was processed.  The question is, after 48 hours of evasion, stymying and collusion, does that video still exist now?  Or has someone taped over it?
---

UPDATE 10:30AM 25/02/2014:
The victim is still unnamed at the direction of the NZ Police.  Keeping him without a name is an effective tactic to dehumanise and deflect what the police have done, to ensure a gap remains between the public and the victim.  Without a name (or any images) it is all random static to the public and no empathy can be established.  This is mainly why the story was so far down the news bulletins on the TV networks last night (Monday) and no updates on the story have been published today in the media that I have seen.
The NZ Police have stated they are supporting the victim's family.  What this means is they are working on them not to push charges - as if they were their friends, but nothing could be further from the truth.  They have told the media that the family does not wish to be contacted.  If that was to be believed - and I don't believe it - it is because the police have heavied/'advised' them not to.  The media will ask them what the state of the deceased was and so on, the public would see real people are involved not just anonymous unidentified victims - this is why the NZ Police are trying to keep this secret and hushed up for as long as they can.
Their standard operating procedure is in play: Disclose nothing, start investigating yourself after everyone has had time to collude on the story, stop the media getting to the victim's families, stop them getting to the paramedics, drag out the investigation and then, three, four, five years down the track - in order to delay the Coroner's investigation - when the IPCA report finally comes out, no matter what the report actually says or recommends, claim the NZ Police have been exonerated.
Already though the cop version of events is changing.  The half-arsed criminals can't even get their story straight after 24 hours.
RNZ:
--
A doctor called to assess a man in custody in South Auckland hours before he died did not physically examine him, police have revealed.
On Sunday police said the arrested man, who was aggressive and violent, was assessed by a doctor, but on Monday said that assessment was only a look through a cell window.
[...]
Superintendent John Tims on Monday clarified exactly what police meant when they said the man had been assessed by a doctor.
"He looked through the glass door at him, but because of his violent and aggressive nature, the assessment was made by the doctor that he wouldn't go into the cell, and so the doctor then left."
Mr Tims wouldn't give any further details about the man, how he was restrained or whether he had a pre-existing medical condition. He said investigations are underway and the cause of death is still unknown.
--
RNZ Audio
--
Supt Tims says after being "placed" in a cell the doctor saw him a "short-time later" but the doctor did not return.  Nek minit cops doing CPR on a corpse.

So according to yesterday's account by the police (which as we know may change from day to day to suit their circumstances of trying to make it not look like they killed someone) the Doctor made an assessment not to physically examine him.  But what was that assessment based on?  The word of the cop (who may have bashed him) that he was violent and would attack the doctor and so the doctor was 'advised' to only look through the window?  Or did the doctor look through the window, see he was violent, and that was their assessment of their behaviour?  Did the doctor see he was violent or did he see him asleep, unconscious.  Because if the doctor's notes say he was asleep or unconscious when he was viewed through the window then the Superintendent is lying.  Wouldn't be the first time a murder tried to be covered up by lying and that is what I expect here.  Expect to hear a litany of lies about a murder by gangsters at a gang pad? Well expect to hear a litany of lies about a murder by police at a police station.


---

UPDATE 1:40PM 24/02/2014:
They are to hold a press conference this afternoon, giving less than two hours notice.

Death in Police custody





Counties Manukau

Counties Manukau Police will hold a media stand up presented by Superintendent John Tims at 2:30pm at Manukau Police Station, 42 Manukau Station Road.
--

UPDATE 9:50AM 24/02/2014:
No updates from the NZ Herald, and only comment on radio I heard this morning was public relations man Snr Sgt Greg O'Connor of the Police Association saying we should be grateful and surprised that there weren't more deaths in custody!  Media are dutifully relaying the police statement and awaiting midday when they have told us they will take questions.  There is nothing to stop the media questioning the paramedics who the police say attended - or have they tried to gag St John as well like they did last year when they shot a man in the back that they had taken into custody?  The typical NZ Police response of secrecy, intimidation, collusion and delay is an obstruction of justice.  Is this a typical case?
---

The NZ Police have released a statement on the death in custody at the Manurewa station this morning.  This sounds like the cagey sort of thing the NZ Police say when they've killed someone, again.  RIP that man.

--
--

Note what they say about 'continued to behave in a violent and aggressive manner while in custody.'  I take it that means they bashed him to death.  That is what the NZ Police are telling us most likely happened to him - why he died.  

 They are being ambiguous about why the police doctor was there too.  Look for what they aren't saying: was it a routine check for all the detox prisoners? or was this doctor checking on him because 
of a violent assault on him as telegraphed by the disclosure (for which there is no other reason surely?).   Why tell us he had acted in a 'violent and aggressive manner' if not to set up the Coroner and the other bullshit self-investigations the NZ Police run on themselves?  the question is how did the police staff react to his 'manner' - violently and aggressively?  Did they empty a couple of cans of chemical spray into his face?  So many questions.

We aren't allowed to ask them anything before midday tomorrow when they should have all their stories lined up by then.  Every death when a cop is involved is just bad luck, eh.

NZ Police statement:
--
A post mortem will be conducted to establish the cause of death.
A criminal investigation and policy and procedures investigation is underway and the incident has been referred to the IPCA.
Support is being offered to the family of the deceased and Police staff involved in the incident have been referred to welfare services.

The matter has been referred to the Coroner.
ENDS
Note: no more information will be available until after midday tomorrow (Monday 24 February).
Issued by Kimberley Mathews/Communications Manager, Counties Manukau Police
--

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

TVNZ executive mismanagement of Taurima excuse for purge

Shane slinks off into the sunset at the end of the movie (a lone kid shouts: Shane, come back!).  He's wounded, he's either off to die or to reappear in a sequel, but surely it is to die.  Shane Taurima ditto - but for TV.

--
3News reported last night that TVNZ offices were used to host a meeting of Labour's Tamaki Makaurau branch last year.
TVNZ staff emails were also used to organise a subsequent hui in January this year which Labour leader David Cunliffe and several others MPs attended.
Mr Taurima, the head of TVNZ's Maori and Pacific unit, had acted as a facilitator in a discussion about the Maori vote at that January hui and three other TVNZ staff were also invited.
--
Bad call with the hui.  Bad lapse with the email.  Bad look for TVNZ.  Bad start for Taurima with Labour.  The party meeting last month in which Taurima facilitated and Cunliffe attended is just plainly incompatible with his position as a journalist expected to interview people such as Cunliffe - and all of them: Taurima, Cunliffe and TVNZ executives - should have recognised this long before then.
But the way TVNZ management has gone about dealing with it make Taurima's perfunctory, textbook 101 official response and instant contrition (without actually conceding any point of culpability) look glowing in comparison with their actions. 
The three staff members in Taurima's unit are being hung out to dry by his boss TVNZ Head of News and Current Affairs.  His comments to media are unprofessional and prejudicial to any internal investigation.  I find these comments extraordinary - he is talking it up like it was a news spin, going on like it was the end of the world.  Compare this to his reticence in the original response to Paddy Gower that has just been put online at TV3 about a need for a meeting to discuss this last night.  That meeting must have been held by the way he's talking, but if it has not then it is just further evidence of his incompetent handling of this.
NZ Herald:
--
TVNZ head of news John Gillespie said the events reflected badly on the whole of TVNZ.
"I have to say that we are gutted by that...we take our editorial independence incredibly seriously - it's a cornerstone of what we do here everyday, it always will be a cornerstone of what we do here every day.
"These people have nailed their political colours to a TVNZ mast. It is untenable.''
He said an investigation would look into whether there were any other anomalies.
--

It is the staff who are being nailed here without being able to respond.  The political pressure from a National government must be palpable.

 Can't recall the Broadcasting Minister intervening with the Chairman of the TVNZ board and the CEO when it was Mike Hosking and his Sky City backhanders? Funny that. How the Nats and the conservative Pakeha consider one thing scandalous and another thing - that just involves a Pakeha show pony for example - isn't. What was TVNZ management's first day reaction to the Tony Veitch wife-bashing revelations? They kept him on air like nothing had fucking happened! Compare this to Taurima's treatment. Gone before lunchtime? Gone before dinner the previous day - that's how fast when a Maori fucks up. A white guy would have to actually kill his misses rather than just put her in hospital to get fired as fast as a Maori for doing something he was led by management that he could do. The staff under him have acted inappropriately in two instances definitely, but that is a matter for an employment investigation not a witch-hunt to purge the card-carrying Lefties out of TVNZ.  The wrong decision was firstly, foremostly and primarily that of Taurima's management - the CEO - who allowed Taurima to continue as a General Manager after his unsuccessful contest of the Ikaroa-Rawhiti Labour nomination.  Taurima publicly professed determination to seek nomination for Labour in the upcoming election. Astoundingly everyone was cool with that. This is why Gillispie is hanging these three out - as a defensive reaction to place blame away from himself and on sackable underlings. The alternative is that it is his job on the line for such poor judgement. It is ultimately his responsibility and he should be accountable for it. 



Monday, February 17, 2014

Guess who's coming to dinner?

The revelation in parliament that the Prime Minister knew of three clandestine meetings between Winston Peters and Kim Dotcom were supposed to be taken, how?  As a spy taunt - the security agencies have Billy Big Steps under surveillance?  That was my first thought.  But, no - it turns out it's all totally harmless, it's just that the Prime Minister is making and taking telephone calls to Cam Slater from time to time, that's all.  Nothing more concerning than the hate merchant of the Kiwi blogosphere being outed as having a clandestine relationship with the leader of the New Zealand Government.  No need for alarm.

The problem is not that he is publicly damaged or tainted by association with the hate merchant of the Kiwi blogosphere - I doubt most people would care - but the relationship between them and how that can be both the source and confirmation of rumour at the fringes of journalism.  So for example the PM can leak something to Whaleoil and can then claim he got it independently and vice versa.  That cover has now been blown.  Second problem is the web John Key started spinning was not quite the one he finished up with as far as his evolving story goes.   Maybe it's just that it is difficult to believe a lot of what he has been saying in relation to security issues lately, but the PM's defensive play made it appear he was hiding more than he was revealing.

--
Mr Peters and Kim Dotcom have both alleged they were spied on after Mr Key spoke about Mr Peters' three visits to the mansion.
Mr Key has earlier denied it was a spy agency, but would not say who told him, although he said it was not someone in the National Party. He said somebody had contacted him about it, and there were reports of the visits in the Herald by Rachel Glucina and on Cameron Slater's Whaleoil blog a week ago.
"Contrary to what [Peters] might want to believe, I can read. A member of the public, for want of a better term rang me up and said what was the case. I assumed it was right. I said it, it turned out to be right. I didn't think it was that controversial, to be honest."
--
First contradiction right there: he says he can read as if he read a report of it and then he says someone rang him about it.  Which is it?  What he means is someone told him on the phone and then he went and had a look, or more likely: his helpers have found the earlier Glucina/Whaleoil posts to provide a defence of having read it himself.
A member of the public?  Rang up the Prime Minister?  Just rang up the PM, apparently.  Either the member of the public had the PM's private number, somehow or other as you do; or, through the byzantine maze of the Beehive gatekeepers surrounding the Head of Government a member of the public rang up bearing such incredible news that they were connected directly to the PM himself to tell the details.  Naturally a member of the public telephoning the PM was taken at their word and the PM dutifully relayed this information to the public at an opportune moment.  This is what the PM expected people to believe.
The PM knew it was correct or else he wouldn't have said it, simple as that - he
wouldn't just throw around assertions and rumours without knowing the facts. He says on the video that this source is reliable and that they have seen it. Hmmm.  
--
He would not confirm it was Mr Slater, but said he did speak to Mr Slater "every so often," and had called him earlier this week during which they briefly discussed Kim Dotcom. He said that did not mean he agreed with everything Mr Slater wrote on his blog. "I speak to lots of blogsters [sic]."

--
Yeah, lots of Blogsters like, say, David Farrar.

Thursday, February 13, 2014

John Key refutes he is shape-shifting reptilian alien - silent on ushering humanity towards enslavement

Well a shape-shifting reptilian alien would deny it, wouldn't they.  He denied the alien bit, no so much the enslavement of humanity bit.  If by enslavement of humanity you mean a development of an advanced modern surveillance state able to track and read every communication so you are without any privacy and the money/wage/debt/tax system and a government based on control of the person then it hardly needs any ushering - it's already here.
---
Mr Key was unusually forced to deny any previously non-declared extraterrestrial connections to reporters after an Auckland man put in an Official Information Act (OIA) request asking for proof he might be one.
"To the best of my knowledge, no. Having been asked that question directly, I've taken the unusual step of not only seeing a doctor but a vet, and both have confirmed I'm not a reptile," a smiling Mr Key said today.
"So I'm certainly not a reptile. I've never been in a spaceship, never been in outer space, and my tongue's not overly long either."
Last month, Auckland man Shane Warbrooke put in an OIA request to the prime minister's office, asking for "any evidence to disprove the theory that Mr John Key is in fact a David Icke style shapeshifting reptilian alien ushering humanity towards enslavement".
---

The Anunnaki translation is preferable at some Cabinet Meetings.  Mukark a, aka, rak, ak, akak, rak a, Kankak, a, ar, ka, karak, ak, ak...  yeah, Joycie is almost making sense now.

Here is the official response via The Standard:
Alternative second paragraphs:
--
I can confirm that the information specific to your request may be located in the Draco Constellation and using the inferior technology of us humans will take approximately 3 million of our Earth years 
to download, by which time humanity may have long been enslaved to our shape-shifting reptilian overlords.
--

Thursday, February 06, 2014

Waitangi Day 2014

The one day a year Maori get to have a say is the one day most Pakeha wish they'd shut up and stop reminding them of that fact. Talkback radio is tense with those who want selected memories and silence, struggling to believe the artifice of "New Zealand" is anything other than an endpoint - and those whose land was seized to create it voicing their longing for justice.
 
The Treaty has and remains broken by both the NZ government and the UK government for the purpose of advancing the interests of the European settlers by way of subduing and repressing the Maori - this is the source of the tension.  

The Europeans and later migrants on the one side insisting the colonial project is over by way of 19th century British warfare, that they and their colonial state have won conclusively and that the twin pillars of immigration (to suppress the Maori population and therefore diminish their democratic power) and freehold land (the system of European land ownership on a detached, absentee and money basis imposed over Maori land) is absolutely, unquestionably, unthinkably unchallengeable and unchangeable.  The Maori on the other side wondering when the very clear undertakings by the British government of its protection will ever eventuate following the colonial regime's effective abdication of the Treaty beginning substantially in 1860.

Tuesday, February 04, 2014

Short man, tall ask

JT has gone feral.

--
Tamihere is seeking damages of over $620,000 in a suit filed with the High Court on December 23 last year.
[...]
*Tamihere claims MediaWorks had agreed to renew his $10,000-a-month contract for 2014 and he is suing for the full amount after the contract was not renewed following the scandal.
*Tamihere alleges MediaWorks intentionally damaged his reputation. The company failed to follow an agreed strategy to manage the publicity around his departure from his talkback show, instead announcing via a tweet linked to a story on its website that Alison Mau would replace him as Jackson's co-host in 2014.
--
What to say other than never hire a lawyer to do a gig? Where to start?

* Over-valued and under-performing for the last twenty years on all fronts incl. the corruption of his accepting payments from Waipareira Trust while serving as an MP and his involvement with the distribution of fisheries money to urban entities... such as Waipareira Trust and his similarly litigious, entitlement-prone and double-dipping part-time CEO mate, Willie Jackson from the Manukau Urban Maori Authority (who is suing over not being gifted a spot on the Auckland Council's Maori statutory board).

* He's suing over a tweet, FFS. A tweet.

* He's on six figures with MediaWorks doing afternoon shifts weekdays when he is supposedly the CEO of the Waipareira Trust.  The two roles are incompatible with the time necessary to do either job satisfactorily.  He would have to knock off work every day as CEO before midday!  If the traffic was normal he might get back out West before 5pm, maybe, on a good day.  That is seriously taking the piss.

* So he used his gardening leave, his early Christmas holidays, from his employer to arrange a law suit against them for over half a million dollars.  He didn't use his time and skills and connections as a criminal lawyer and a former Minister to help the victims of the rape gang get justice, instead he pursued his own selfish, egotistical ends.  He could have volunteered that time to make amends, to tautoko and awhi the victims and in doing so rehabilitate his mana, but that would never has crossed his mind.  It's all about the money.  He's the victim too, not them, they can fend for themselves against the Waitemata police-sanctioned rape club and the Commissioner who covers for them.  JT is all about JT.

* He puts the most notorious NZ Police pack rapist to ever stand trial (let off in large part by wearing his full uniform to court), Clint Rickards, into positions and now on the board of the Wapareira Trust, fatally undermining the credibility and confidence in the social arm of the organisation.


Monday, February 03, 2014

'Spoiled' Lorde/Royals

This is the Royals parody I did last night as part of a music review for The Daily Blog - posted here.  I went to the same primary, intermediate and high school as she did, so if it's a bit hating it's because I know what Devo is like.

Spoiled

Lyrics: T Selwyn/E Yelich-O'Connor/J Little
To be performed by Borde and the Royal Treatment
[Verse One]
I’ve never seen a black man in the flesh
Oh, I saw one once – serving at the movies
And it’s on account of my address
Devonport proud, postcode trendy
[Chorus]
But my cliché is like: black guys, bad dudes, junky shit in the bathroom
Gang-bangers, ill-mannered, trashing our taboo rule
We don’t care, we’re living where the house prices are obscene
But my cliché is like: Cristal, Maybach – how can they afford that?
Jet planes, islands – I haven’t seen them!
They aren’t here and we have it all and nothing to fear
-
And we’ll always be spoiled (spoiled)
It’s our European blood
That kind of luck is just for us
The kind you get being born a boss
I’m already your ruler (ruler)
Can you dig the hypocrisy?

Of a Devonport school girl, a rich girl, a white girl [see Alt]
Lecturing on sociology [see Alt]

[Alt last lines:
Of dissing American culture, culture, culture
And then getting a Grammy]

[Verse Two]

My friends all agree – I’m fucking awesome
After five years in development you’d hope so
And Universal owns us and we’re fine with this
We didn’t run from the money

[Chorus with Alt end lines]
Ohh ohh oh
And this is the little bit
Where Joel’s lyrics are quite shit
Ohh ohh oh
Life was great with an au pair
They’ve spent a fortune on my career

[Chorus - last half]





Helen's world

A gushing poppet from the Guardian reckons aunty Helen will rule the world.  As long as she learns French then most likely yes, she will be the next UN Secretary-General.  That has been obvious since this National government facilitated Clark and Cullen's exit from the NZ political scene to secure their own peace.  Move on.  Opportune for the new government, but just another transit lounge before getting back in first class for her.  Just like she planned it in her girly swat journal from university, along with being PM.  Move on, move up.

The first woman head of the UN.  The first from the Euro bloc since Kurt Waldheim. If they can get Nazi officers from the brutal Balkan campaign of Army Group E to run the world then Helen Clark and the baggage from her insulated regime - an Antipodean dykocracy - is comparatively benign.

The smug veneer that covers every multitude of colonial exploitation in New Zealand was already wearing thin during her three terms; but her refusal to sign up to the UN's declaration on the rights of indigenous people and her confiscation of Maori customary land interests in all the foreshore and seabed in 2004 put Helen Clark into the regressive, reactionary, racist side of the political ledger.  None of this seems to matter to most New Zealanders, and none of this will matter to the 192 other members of the UN either.

When you are in league with war criminals these issues become trivial.  It doesn't matter she once insisted East Timor belonged to Indonesia, that she sent troops to help occupy Afghanistan (against the wishes of coalition members), that she sent troops to Iraq despite not engaging in the initial invasion and then pretends as though her hands are clean, that she put through terrorist laws that were then turned against indigenous activists who were put on a show trial in Auckland only to be found guilty of nothing more than a few offences against the Arms Act.  This stained record on human rights doesn't count against her in this world.  This malgovernance is acceptable, ordinary, normal, unremarkable.  Despite the posturing she never waivered from the Anglo-American alliance and they have no reason to waiver in their sport of her when she is formally promoted as candidate for Secretary-General.

--
Clark went on to become New Zealand's first elected female prime minister in 1999 – leading for three consecutive terms – and is now the most powerful woman at the United Nations, working her second term as head of the UN development programme. She could well become the first woman to lead the organisation once the incumbent Ban Ki-Moon stands down in a few years.
--

Here we go again with her relentless CV photoshopping to make it fit her girly-swat planned career.  She was supposed to be the first woman PM and she can't make that concession, she can't live down that she wasn't and so she opts to mislead.  This is her vanity.  Ask yourself how this journalist would have introduced Jenny Shipley?  As the first appointed female PM?