Do we still get a music, vid and usual Friday post Russell?

It's coming. It just seemed inappropriate to combine it with the above.

He gave various examples of infiltration and how that paid informant Russell mentions had been identified by Unite members.

This is really going to get nasty and the?

On a personal note Russell,As a long?

Kept asking questions just seriously enough to keep the suit talking and digging an ever deeper hole. In one interview Driver has to have ended the guy's career since nobody could possibly take him seriously after that.

Pita Sharples shares a caucus room with Hone Harawira, who (according to Matt McCarten) has been one of the people monitored, to keep?

John was wearing a lovely salmon coloured shirt...

In one interview Driver has to have ended the guy's career since nobody could possibly take him seriously after that.

Hey, if you can take Oliver ("__Naked News__ is a post-modern meta-parody of the vacuity of modern media NOT a tawdry attempt to get attention") Driver seriously, anything is possible.?

Hey, if you can take Oliver ("Naked News is a post-modern meta-parody of the vacuity of modern media NOT a tawdry attempt to get attention") Driver seriously, anything is possible.

To start arguing with myself (and how meta is that), I do take Driver very seriously as an actor --?

We can't have a civil society without confidence that our legislators, civil servants, judiciary and law enforcement are as virtuous as Caesar's wife. And those who fail to be scrupulous in their observance of the rule of law cannot be tolerated.

Quite, and reporting pollies real thoughts as opposed the?

[bugger]

But keep in mind that if the Police weren't doing it, who would? (Hint: TLA)

And have a think about the scope of this guy... I think that might be the root of?

Corrections Minister makes historic visit to prison

Corrections Minister Judith Collins today visited Rimutaka Prison in the first official inspection of a New Zealand prison by a woman Corrections Minister.

?

Still, isn't it rather funny how a few months ago most people around here were clapping their hands with glee at the secret taping of people at a cocktail party whose politics you didn't like at all?

Well, I recall specifically saying that things like wire taps, bugging a person's?

And so it appeared this morning in the Dompost alongside a report of Judith and Pita's trip?

Like this wee quote from the Minister:

?The Corrections sector was sadly neglected by the Labour government. It is clear?

An 'I'm-so-above-this-shit' attitude.

More of an 'Are-you-for-real' attitude, I'd say.

And so it appeared this morning in the Dompost alongside a report of Judith and Pita's trip to Rimutaka prison with Pita Sharples proclaiming it was better than you would get in many restaurants

Others have noticed this too.

Speech by Dr Pita Sharples, 22 April 2008:

"Every Christmas, there?

Paul Buchanan has an article up on Scoop placing police surveillance operations in context.

Somehow, I'm not seeing an equivalence between gangs running drugs and a political party or a protest group (especially a protest group being encouraged by the informer to commit crimes so he can report on them.?

And so it appeared this morning in the Dompost alongside a report of Judith and Pita's trip to Rimutaka prison with Pita Sharples proclaiming it was better than you would get in many restaurants.

Is it Correction's fault that Pita eats lunch in crap restaurants and so has no comparison??

Have you been taking morning tea with Craig, Bob?

Perhaps metaphorically I have :)

There's a long history of protest groups being infiltrated by officialdom. It was taken as read in the HART group I was part of in the seventies. I certainly agree that there is false equivalence between?

Re: taping and "moral equivalence"

Well, I recall specifically saying?

?The Corrections sector was sadly neglected by the Labour government. It is clear that prisons are under pressure as a result, and that more beds are required around the country.

It's especially transparent because in the PR this comment arises when the minister visits the building works.

Somehow, I'm not seeing?

I never said I took Oliver seriously. He's a breakfast TV host FFS! Of course as an actor and director he's seems pretty talented, but what do I know.

What I did say is that he did a great job of interviewing a total loony.

I also opined that?

I would only support an inquiry if it also looked into the Te Quaeda raids. Spying on groups is spying on groups whether they are Greenpeace or Maori activists.

I'd like a Te Qaeda inquiry too, but I certainly wouldn't equate the two.

The Rama lot were putting the frighteners?

Hey, if you can take Oliver ("__Naked News__ is a post-modern meta-parody of the vacuity of modern media NOT a tawdry attempt to get attention") Driver seriously, anything is possible. And someone should tell Oliver that he's doing breakfast television, and adopting a 'I'm so above this shit' attitude?

The front page banner ad for Greenpeace on their website has me somewhat perplexed...

I smell financial links to these "extremist" groups with "one world view".

I think Oliver Driver is very talented

That's what I'd heard but as I said, I really have not got the experience to know.

I enjoy him at times on Sunrise. I like his dog. And as I said it's a good light way to let the first coffee work?

I think Oliver Driver is very talented, if maddening at times, and that he's making a good fist of the Sunrise gig when not many people thought he would.

Seconded.

The Gilchrist spying was on conventional, public organisations undertaking no covert or illegal activities. It's of a different order, to my mind.

To me it feels very different, but I'm trying not to trust my feelings on the matter, because they could just be my prejudices. You can't know that?

You can't know that a group you are thinking of spying on is doing illegal stuff until you look into it deeply.

Presumably you'd have no objection to having a police webcam in your bedroom then.

After all, they don't know you're not doing anything illegal until they check...

What is "Te Quaeda"?

I also opined that said loony probably ought to be out of a job as an editor. And I'm sure some would disagree.

If you want to talk about "loonies" who shouldn't be editing a newspaper, I'd rank the editor of the Herald on Sunday (who apparently saw nothing ethically?

BTW, flase moral equivalence. But you knew that.

Load of siht, Mark.

I'll take Oliver Driver over Paul "This is a dream come true for you, isn't it, Mr. Key?" Henry over on One any day of the week.

I'd find gonorrhoea marginally preferable to syphilis. But I'd avoid getting VD full stop, by preference.

I'll take Oliver Driver over Paul "This is a dream come true for you, isn't it, Mr. Key?" Henry over on One any day of the week.

I'd find gonorrhoea marginally preferable to syphilis. But I'd avoid getting VD full stop, by preference.

Would you go ballistic if Chris Trotter?

I'd find gonorrhoea marginally preferable to syphilis. But I'd avoid getting VD full stop, by preference.

Ranapian!

No Ben, this "Ryan" character is just seeing what you know and what else you can tell him ... Can't be too careful these days.

Oh, I was just going to offer to fix his computer. Dot dot dot.

I wonder how much damage this has done to activism in?

You can't know that a group you are thinking of spying on is doing illegal stuff until you look into it deeply.

A lot of police surveillance is done when the police already know that a crime is being committed, the surveillance is being done to get enough evidence for?

At least some of the Te Qaeda surveillance was done with a search warrant issued by a judge. Based on information presented to the judge which they presumably found at least moderately compelling.

Legally, when does the evidence seen by the judge, which... warranted the warrant, become public? Does anyone?

I wonder how much damage this has done to activism in exactly that sense – "can't be too careful these days". It could make people too wary of each other to become too friendly, reducing trust, etc.

Less than you might think – there is in fact little new about?

I think you're right but it's one of those beliefs that's based far more on theory than evidence. Evidence for the absence of?

That would be Paul "Scandinavian men all look like homosexuals" Henry, wouldn't it?

That would be Paul "Georgina Beyer deserves a very large cheque from the National Party for keeping me out of their caucus" Henry.

Would you go ballistic if Chris Trotter applied the same metaphor to John Key?

I wonder how much damage this has done to activism in exactly that sense – "can't be too careful these days". It could make people too wary of each other to become too friendly, reducing trust, etc.

I don't know. I wouldn't in the least be surprised if there's always?

Legally, when does the evidence seen by the judge, which... warranted the warrant, become public? Does anyone know?

I believe the arrests were timed because the expiry of the suppression of the evidence which led to the warrants was coming up, and once that expired, the media were going to?

To me the principle is: "police should only 'spy' on people, when they have a reasonable suspicion that they have, or are going to, commit a crime of some serious nature".

So I see no common principle here. In Te Qaeda, that principle applied, in the material that Gilchrist passed?

Judith Collins has always come across to me as the worst sort of party hack

She has no heart. There was a time I feared she would be put in charge of WINZ...

Dodgy, dodgy, dodgy.

One rather cheery seasonal thought is that anyone who wants to compare New Zealand to Ireland is really going to push the hyperbole button hard.

In any case unless SIG can show that any of the groups mentioned set out to "terrorise" any people (rather than their onions), then they seem to be operating?

Unfortunately for Nevil Gibson, "endangering exports" is not grounds for police action.

I think we covered this issue during the Te Queda raids last year. I can't remember the ins and outs of it all but SIG were involved in investigating the incident near Ashburton where a worker poisoned the?

I wouldn't be too upset if Three quietly cancelled Sunriseand put the money and resources into saving Three News and Campbell Live from terminal brain death,

Yeah, as I asked on me blog recently, what happened to Campbell Live? I'm sure it was good once.

And that reporter (who's name?