Archive for the ‘Politics’ Category

The slippery slope: Dissent > Protest > Politics

Rick Falkvinge on civil liberties in the age of the internet. “The old guard is introducing censorship, wire-tapping, an end to anonymity — a crackdown on free speech.” “If the old politicians understood that the laws they are making are the equivalent of putting microphones under every cafe table … ” (cf: like Urban Cafe? […]

Photos from the ‘Stop the GCSB Bill’ public meeting

I went along to the packed public meeting at the Mt Albert War Memorial Hall. Standing room only. Here are some photos. Click to view them larger. Feel free to use these images if you wish (with picture credit to Peter Aranyi, please) or contact me to get a higher resolution file.

Wry

via Juha Saarinen @juhasaarinen

You’re doing ‘hit-pieces’ on government critics, now David? Seriously?

You may remember the name David Farrar. I write about him here now and then, usually fairly affectionately (well, comparatively). David Farrar showing WhaleOil how it’s done Negative credibility sux, eh @whaleoil? eh @dpfdpf? I’d double-check if they told me what day it was A study in spin. And Farrar lends a hand … Wailing […]

‘…the classic kind of despotic manoeuvre Muldoon would have tried to pull off at his most power-drunk.’

NZ Herald columnist Deborah Hill Cone lets John Key and Steven Joyce have it with both barrels in her piece today: Govt’s event-veto powers in SkyCity deal bizarre relating to a ‘bizarre‘ clause in the just-inked SkyCity convention-centre-for-casino-licence-extension-and-hundreds-of-extra-poker-machines deal with the National-led government. I’m a fan of Hill Cone’s writing, as we have discussed before. […]

Winston Peters — no stars in his eyes about John Key’s GCSB Bill

New Zealand First Party leader Winston Peters is one of the current NZ Parliament’s most experienced MPs, a lawyer, and someone who (whether you agree with him or not) has thought and spoken about NZ’s constitutional issues for decades. Here’s his interview on TVNZ’s Q&A programme this morning about John Key’s controversial proposed expansion of […]

Shearer on Shearer — on Radio NZ’s Focus on Politics

I listen to a couple of Radio NZ podcasts fairly religiously each week: Mediawatch and Focus on Politics. The latest (Friday’s) helping of Focus on Politics featured a good-length interview with Labour Party leader David Shearer by RNZ political editor Brent Edwards. I found it interesting, and noted it was far from the um-er stammering […]

Spotted in comments on Fran O’Sullivan’s double-minded article on the SkyCity casino licence extension deal with John Key

Fran O’Sullivan is a smart person. I do sometimes wish she’d be more forthright, however. Her article ‘Too soon to say if SkyCity deal is buy of the century‘ seems a brave attempt to couch mild criticism of the John Key/Steven Joyce/SkyCity ‘negotiation’ (cough) with a semblance of evenhandedness by dredging up the former Labour […]

Simon Bridges #PantsOnFire poster for the record

Simon Bridges may pretend to be ‘chuffed’ about this. I don’t think so. pic Greenpeace NZ via @Elipsister

When you can’t trust the Night Watchman. @MediawatchNZ on Duncan Garner’s spasm

Here’s Radio NZ’s Mediawatch review of the (let’s be kind): pre-reporting of a Labour Party leadership coup, and Duncan Garner’s part in further lowering the public’s trust in the media — if that was possible. [Discussed earlier in my post, Leave Duncan Garner alone! (And stop blaming the weed.)] It’s worth a listen. — extract […]

Must-read essay on John Key’s proposed spying laws

New Zealander of the Year Dame Anne Salmond has used Prime Minister John Key’s own warnings while Leader of the Opposition about ‘threats to democracy’ to condemn his planned law changes empowering the country’s spy agencies. In an essay published by the NZ Herald today, the highly respected author accuses the National Party-led government of […]

Perhaps Judith Collins’ mysterious Wikipedia chimney sweep is a shy hobbyist #WhoisClarke43?

The question: ‘WHO is trying to clean up Judith Collins’ Wikipedia “reputation”?’ continues to intrigue. (See my earlier post: Suppressing free speech and editing Wikipedia. Is that why we pay taxes, Mrs Collins?) Tonight, investigative reporter Phil Taylor had this to say in the NZ Herald … Is that a drawbridge I hear being pulled up? […]

Juxtapositions — David Shearer’s ‘price of power’

If you read The Paepae much you’ll know I’m often struck by humorous or ironic juxtapositions. This, from the latest Auckland Today giveaway, popped out at me. Just the headlines: ‘The personality profiles of top salespeople’ and David Shearer’s column ‘Addressing the price of power’. I don’t know Mr Shearer. I talked with him briefly […]

Do you find John Key’s case for expanding the powers of the GCSB convincing?

Courtesy of the NZ Herald, Key: Cyber attacks, espionage targeting NZ Do you find that clearly-scripted (by whom?) statement convincing? Because it seems the New Zealand Law Society (hardly a bunch of far-left conspiracy theorists) doesn’t appear to: Here’s the New Zealand Law Society’s view: Summary 3 The Bill changes the Government Communications Security Bureau […]

Plain sailing?

Pretty sharp cartoon from Emmerson in today’s NZ Herald: But last night’s Campbell Live report on the GCSB bill featuring an international observer* expressing astonishment at the Key Administration ‘kissing the feet’ of Washington DC, tells a different story. Watch it: Dissecting the GCSB bill The team Campbell Live is doing a sterling job … […]