Archive for November, 2009
Monday, November 30th, 2009
The ‘gone by lunchtime’ response to legal aid that the Key government has chosen to adopt in the wake of Margaret Bazley report needs to be stopped - and not only because Bazley has been willing to make sweeping condemnations of the lawyers involved, while being so short on actual ...
Posted in Articles | 9 Comments »
Friday, November 27th, 2009
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Playing the race card is one of those claims that is meant to shut down any further debate, and Phil Goff knew the risk that he was running – since he referred to the likely criticism on that front quite explicitly in his speech to Grey Power in ...
Posted in Articles | 9 Comments »
Wednesday, November 25th, 2009
Over the past 30 years, the public has regularly been treated as laboratory rats for this or that ideological hobby horse of government. Crash on through and pick up the pieces later is the Kiwi style of management, possibly because those in power feel too insecure to tolerate a genuine ...
Posted in Articles | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, November 18th, 2009
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For years, human rights advocates have argued that terrorism is essentially criminal behaviour, and terrorists should therefore be tried under the rules of due process that democratic states have developed over centuries for dealing fairly with crime, and punishment. For that reason, the news last week that the ...
Posted in Articles | 7 Comments »
Monday, November 16th, 2009
Reportedly, Big Day Out organizers have backed down from their original intention to include the Jamaican dancehall musician Beenie Man in the next BDO festival line-up in January. The reason has been the public pressure from gay activists who have been expressing vocal opposition to the anti-gay sentiments in some ...
Posted in Articles | Comments Off on The selective targeting of Beenie Man
Thursday, November 12th, 2009
President Barack Obama’s single most important foreign policy decision during 2009 has been his recent backdown over requiring Israel to abandon the building of settlements in the occupied territories. Beforehand, this was to be a precondition for peace talks.
Posted in Articles | 7 Comments »
Tuesday, November 10th, 2009
Does the Search and Surveillance Bill, as the NZ Herald has recently maintained, really give a web of state agencies ‘sweeping powers to spy, bug conversations and hack into private computers’ ? Or is this all based on a ‘remarkable misunderstanding’ of the actual provisions of the Bill, as deputy ...
Posted in Articles | Comments Off on The powers of search and surveillance
Friday, November 6th, 2009
At least the coalition government has shown itself to be united this week – it seems intent on junketing at taxpayer expense across a broad and unified front. Hone Harawira of the Maori Party, Rodney Hide of the Act and the deputy leader of the National Party have all of ...
Posted in Articles | 8 Comments »
Monday, November 2nd, 2009
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So today, the government formally agrees to dump the foreshore and seabed legislation. On one level, this means karma retribution for National, which made so much of the iwi vs kiwi billboards in 2005 – since it will now fall to a National-led government to sort out a ...
Posted in Articles | 6 Comments »
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