Hard News by Russell Brown

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Hard News: Crash and Contempt

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  • LegBreak,

    Bloody Americans, if they’re not running round the world starting needless wars they’re bringing down the global economy instead.

    Although, is there anything on the right-wing blogs about how the first falling domino stared when some Islamist fundamentalists defaulted on a Sub Prime mortgage??

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 1162 posts Report Reply

  • Luke Williamson,

    Lehman Brothers Holdings, Inc. (symbol LEH)
    ANALYST RECOMMENDATIONS
    =====================
    11-Sep-08 Citigroup: Hold
    10-Sep-08 Argus: Hold
    10-Jun-08 Wachovia: Mkt Perform
    10-Jun-08 Credit Suisse: Neutral
    24-Mar-08 Oppenheimer: Perform

    16-Sep-08: Keep holding please

    Warkworth • Since Oct 2007 • 297 posts Report Reply

  • Mr Rooster,

    By the way the Affidavit seems to be released by a friend of locketts, not by locket himself, as he was in jail at the time and didn't even have a copy...

    Since Sep 2008 • 1 posts Report Reply

  • Tim Michie,

    So the price of bread goes up too? Will no-one think of the children?

    Look, I know they're a good source of protein but, really, some things are off the menu.

    Auckward • Since Nov 2006 • 614 posts Report Reply

  • Andrew E,

    But then, as I said, I'm not an economist, so what do I know?

    Then again..what do they know:

    Yeah. I've a mate who works for Merril in London and he was (like me) pretty much always sceptical of analysts' reports.

    How Citigroup could still be recommending a 'Hold' on 11 September is pretty amazing. The banks' profits have been dropping like stones, along with write-offs going through the roof, for over a year. Why anyone would still bother to have their scones in a financial stock as opposed to some company that actually makes a a tangible, necessary, product, I don't know.

    Seriously, buy some wheat, dairy, vegetable and even oil stocks, and get the hell outta Dodge.

    174.77 x 41.28 • Since Sep 2008 • 200 posts Report Reply

  • anjum rahman,

    Seriously, buy some wheat, dairy, vegetable and even oil stocks, and get the hell outta Dodge.

    oh thanks, and push all our food and petrol prices even higher, causing more riots in developing countries and truckie strikes in developed ones. do you really want the revolution to start right now?

    hamilton • Since Nov 2006 • 130 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    **I'm not talking McCain, Hagel, Snowe, or Lugar, here, the cool hard-ass Republicans who still operate in the real world.** I'm talking specifically about the guys running the party right now.

    (emphasis mine)

    And you know something, Josh, your choice of emphasis just gets what really disappoints me -- and "emo" Andrew Sullivan -- about McCain. It's like he saw his last chance for the Oval Office, and made a deal with the worse elements of his party that would have made Faust pause. There's still much you can respect about McCain -- whether you agree with it or not -- but not since he got on the pander-waggon during the primaries. And the Palin nomination (as someone else said here) is beyond risky and just downright irresponsible. And he's waging a campaign that is mendacious to a degree that is just contemptuous of the citizens he claims to want to serve. We're not talking about stretching a (debatable) point for rhetorical effect, but a string of flat out lies.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Stephen Judd,

    no pain, no gain.

    Well-played, sir.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 3122 posts Report Reply

  • Andrew E,

    Seriously, buy some wheat, dairy, vegetable and even oil stocks, and get the hell outta Dodge.

    oh thanks, and push all our food and petrol prices even higher, causing more riots in developing countries and truckie strikes in developed ones. do you really want the revolution to start right now?

    Like I said, I'm not an economist. So, if someone can explain to me the link between buying stocks in a company producing a product and the price those companies are able to get for their product on the open market, I'd be grateful.

    The revolution has to start sometime. The collapse of capital seems as good a time as any.

    174.77 x 41.28 • Since Sep 2008 • 200 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    You have conflated John Minto talking about the evidence from one set of intercepts about the defendant mentioned in his article, to being about all the intercepts. Minto makes it clear that he's talking very specifically here, yet you seem to ignore this. You've done this previously, I'm not sure why you continue to continue to misread the same article.

    In other words, he's doing exactly what I said -- and what the solictor general is so pissed off at the Dom Post for doing -- talking up a selected part of the evidence that suits his purposes. That was precisely my point.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    And lets not forget this was despite the breathless reporting of IRA-style attacks and napalm which as I understand it did not come from the leaked affadavit, as I don't believe it was yet in the defence's hands.

    The talk of the IRA manual is in the affidavit, but I suspect you're right and that it was fed to reporters very early on by police. I don't approve of that either, but several of the defendants and their surrogates subsequently crossed a line themselves. And like I said, Valerie Morse has a bloody nerve.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Roger,

    <quote>I've survived the collapse of some fairly major sponge cakes</quote

    Financially I was thinking soufflé

    Hamilton • Since Jun 2007 • 179 posts Report Reply

  • Don Christie,

    You can make a serious fiscally conservative argument against Obama's economic policies.

    Craig, I could hug you. I really do wish this case was being made by conservative movements across the globe.

    It is one that needs to be considered and argued for and against. I used to have a teacher (Mr. Gelling FWIW) who thought that Tory and Labour governments needed to alternate, one to spend the money and the other to save it for the spending. This ying and yang seems to have been lost to us.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 1645 posts Report Reply

  • Angus Robertson,

    Yippee, a US election post with only passing reference to the Governor of Alaska and in which an issue has actually been raised.

    Auckland • Since May 2007 • 984 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    __You can make a serious fiscally conservative argument against Obama's economic policies.__

    Craig, I could hug you. I really do wish this case was being made by conservative movements across the globe.

    What, instead of bad-faith ads about how the Scary Black Liberal wants to teach sex to six year-olds? Do tell.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    Yippee, a US election post with only passing reference to the Governor of Alaska and in which an issue has actually been raised.

    I couldn't do that to you, Angus.

    The McCain campaign announces that Palin will no longer co-operate with the official Troopergate enquiry, because it is "tainted".

    (Interestingly, the Palin camp's explanation for Monegan's firing -- that he disobeyed Palin and went to Washington to get federal funds to investigate sexual assault cases that his governor would not give him budget for -- kinda plays into the whole "rape kit" thing from Wasilla.)

    Also: former Palin crony backs up NYT account of Palin cronyism.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    Do tell.

    Because John McCain can't, or won't, articulate exactly how he's going to cut the size and reach of Government (and presumably slash Government spending), eliminate ear-marks and other pork in Congress, totally overhaul the regulatory framework around the finance/banking sector, and exactly how the federal government is going to turn around an economy in crisis. (A notion which, I thought, fiscal conservatives were highly sceptical about as a rule.)

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • HORansome,

    Two things:

    One: I think there's something interesting here to say about the Burden of Proof (something for a future blog post, methinks); given that we have a presumption of innocence in our justice system we might well think that people like Jamie Lockett and Valerie Morse are more entitled to make extraordinary claims in regards to their assumed until otherwise innocence than the Police are in respect to their postulated guilt.

    (This seems especially true when the Police-cum-the State, for example, don't seem to be playing fair, as I think may well have been the case in October of last year. A fair amount of material prejudicial to the defendants' cause did seem to come from the Crown.)

    Two: Like many who won't officially admit to having read the interception material I found it interesting. I suspect it depends on your base assumptions; I don't think anything much was going on and bugger if I can find evidence agin that proposition. Others (like, let's say, Russell) did find things in the interception material. I suspect a lot of it turns on whether you think the Police had reason to be suspicious. There's an awful lot of literature on this kind of cognitive bias and a lot of it is beginning to filter into discussion of how it influences jury trials.

    The worrying thing about some of the literature is that it suggests that, despite protests to the contrary, people can know how reading (or hearing, et al) such information and forming such a bias could prejudice them (say, in a jury trial), will then claim that knowing this means that, of course, they won't be prejudiced (being aware of the bias) but still end up making prejudiced decisions.

    Also, long time reader, first time poster.

    Tāmaki Makaurau • Since Sep 2008 • 441 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    I don't think anything much was going on and bugger if I can find evidence agin that proposition.

    Call me crazy, but the accumulation of weapons kinda did that for me.

    When self-styled radicals start acquiring silencers for their rifles, I start to get more relaxed about them being under surveillance. I mean, seriously, are you okay with that?

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Don Christie,

    What, instead of bad-faith ads about how the Scary Black Liberal wants to teach sex to six year-olds? Do tell.

    Russell, that was my point, I think.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 1645 posts Report Reply

  • paulalambert,

    I read that document and what did it for me was the silencers too. I can understand being out in the bush shootin' things, but silencers indicate a whole new creepy level.

    Speaking of burden of proof, presumption of innocence: Didn't that one alrady go down the toilet quite a while ago for those unfortunate enough to be arrested on drugs charges.

    chch • Since Dec 2006 • 107 posts Report Reply

  • HORansome,

    Apparently I am, in the same respect that I'm okay with farmers arming themselves and gangs in Christchurch collecting weapons.

    Which is to say that I'm not all that comfortable with people having weapons but I'm more uncomfortable with what appears to be very selective condemnation of people for very similar behaviours. Especially given the paucity of weapons in respect to this particular `group' (and I use the term loosely).

    (There's also stuff to be said about the culture in and around Ruatoki, especially surrounding gun ownership, none of which I am culturally qualified to really comment upon, but I suspect an understanding of the people of Tuhoe probably explains a lot of it.)

    And the continued reference to molotov cocktails; I mean, really, anyone can make those. I'm fairly sure I can rattle one up right now.

    ...

    And, indeed, I have. I suppose I better turn this into a drink or something before it evaporates.

    Had there been (mere) arrests in respect to Firearms Charges the issue would have been less contentious (and, one hopes, the actions in Ruatoki would not have eventuated). But the Police charged people with terrorism. Now, I'm writing a PhD thesis on Conspiracy Theories and I make a habit of studying things that look conspiracy theoretic and the October 15th fiasco looks less like a conspiracy to overthrow Pakeha New Zealand and more like Police incompetence.

    Tāmaki Makaurau • Since Sep 2008 • 441 posts Report Reply

  • Islander,

    Or, HORansome, as Russell way back called it, the incompetence-cum-need of a specific police unit to justify themselves-

    incidentally, since you're doing a PhD on these matters - have you looked at the Aotearoa Cafe site? A friend of mine & self - who used to go on-line thought afterwards the site had become a sting operation.

    Big O, Mahitahi, Te Wahi … • Since Feb 2007 • 5643 posts Report Reply

  • Paul Litterick,

    There's also stuff to be said about the culture in and around Ruatoki, especially surrounding gun ownership, none of which I am culturally qualified to really comment upon, but I suspect an understanding of the people of Tuhoe probably explains a lot of it.

    At least two of the gunslingers were a long, long way from Ruatoki, both culturally and geographically.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 1000 posts Report Reply

  • HORansome,

    Well, not necessarily culturally; I was at Parihaka this year and I can say that Valerie Morse's te reo seemed stronger than Emily Bailey's.

    Valerie Morse does seem the wild card of the bunch; as I said to a friend of hers (somewhat inadvertently) she does seem to be the one most likely to forment revolt. But, even granting her extremism, to tar the others with such guilt by association (and the curious case of alleged associated ownership of the weapons in question) seems, well, unproven at this stage.

    Tāmaki Makaurau • Since Sep 2008 • 441 posts Report Reply

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