story linking Len Brown's family to the Volare dinner in quite a creepy way.

By just saying who was at this dinner that he put on the rate payer's credit card
Simple really

By just saying who was at this dinner that he put on the rate payer's credit card
Simple really

[[http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10654759|Brown spoke with the Herald on Sunday after the Auditor-General chastened him for "mistakes" but decided not to further?

David Fane [[http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=10655151|cops a week's suspension?

By just saying who was at this dinner that he put on the rate payer's credit card
Simple really

Christ. It's not the ratepayers card. If it was, any rate payer could rock up and use it. People should be able to meet with the mayor and not have that?

Disclosure about meetings shouldn't be about money, it should be entirely unrelated to that.

It seems worth noting that dozens of ministers from either major party have had exactly the same kind of expenses accepted without naming everyone (or anyone) at the table.

Judith Collins spent $2000+ while in Canada?

It seems worth noting that dozens of ministers from either major party have had exactly the same kind of expenses accepted without naming everyone (or anyone) at the table.

I'd be much more concerned if they were meeting people for lunch/dinner and weren't paying. I think that Banks story listed?

People should be able to meet with the mayor and not have that become a public issue just because he paid for the meal.

@Kyle: With all due and sincere respect, Kyle, if those "people" were lobbyists, big-ticket campaign contributors or stood to make a hell of a lot of?

Can somebody remind me what befell Holmes after the cheekie darkie on air rant?

If I remember correctly Mitsubishi dropped its $1 million+ sponsorship of Holmes, one of the TV show's producers quit... and I believe that was it, since TVNZ said the comments were made outside its jurisdiction and?

... the coverage has been woeful. Who was being roasted at this event? Was it, as I suspect but can't find confirmed anywhere, a bunch of radio execs?

Danyl at the Dimpost notes:

But?

And I recall you being rather bemused why Jenny Shipley was so damn evasive about dining with Kevin Roberts.

Sure, but that wasn't about the price of dinner, or who paid for it. It directly related to tens of millions of dollars of government expenditure.

Bear in mind that the?

I'd be much more concerned if they were meeting people for lunch/dinner and weren't paying.

I don't know about that. Purely hypothetically, if I was standing for the Greater Auckland mayoralty $810 would strike me as a modest investment in a congenial, discreet evening to woo potential big-ticket donors or?

Who are the front runners in the race besides these two lunatics?

So far, only two others have even put their name forward...

Neither of which could be considered front-runners(so far)

Colin Craig – unknown self-made multi millionaire. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10655119

Simon Prast- semi-famous actor/director/producer and arts administrator

UPDATE ... those two?

UPDATE ... those two announced in the last week, I forgot earlier announcements of Ewen Gilmour (a former Waitakere councillor, more famous as a comedian, but I think he's a serious not 'joke' nominee?) and Penny Bright a long time campaigner on water issues

I gather Ewen's been a useful?

Penny Bright is ... unusual.

That's... polite. :)

I gather Ewen's been a useful councillor out West.

I thought Ewen's health had been a bit wobbly the last couple of years, so it's nice to know he's in the pink, as it were.

[Colin Craig] would also promote referendums on major issues and be guided by the results

Always the mark of someone with no ideas who just wants to be in charge, under the guise of being the people's voice.

faux-lesbian strip clubs

Where you would place the 'high school uniform' constituency?

– thanks to David Slack and Lyndon

Treat italics as strikethrough, which PAS don't allow:
__ – comment is most of the way down the page, I can't figure out how to get the neat URL to take?

Edit: Aaah, right there where the fine print says Permalink.

Must get new glasses and bigger screen.

New link for high school uniforms

@Kyle: With all due and sincere respect, Kyle, if those "people" were lobbyists, big-ticket campaign contributors or stood to make a hell of a lot of money from Greater Auckland contracts then it's a perfectly legitimate matter of public interest.

I don't have a problem with people asking the question?

Speaking as one of those who might take Fane's routine a bit personally than other people...
... the coverage has been woeful.

Yes I'd like to find out more background as well. Not to form a lynching party, I'd just like to know what precipitated David's Mel Gibson-The?

the provocative columnist Emma Hart

Wot? That loud mouth feminist?

Pardon diversion but this is quite amusing and mentions our good friend Russell Brown.

And to muddy the waters further, on Brian Edwards' blog, someone out there apparently pretended to be Duncan Garner and posted something more snarky than snarky. The real Garner eventually pointed out the discrepancies between the?

Mitsubishi dropped its $1 million+ sponsorship of Holmes

Which was taken up by Charlie's (sniff..)

Mainstream old-boy rugbyhead network helping its own, I guess.

I thought Ewen's health had been a bit wobbly the last couple of years

I understood he stood down as a Councillor (very well regarded, especially on youth issues) to look after his partner who was having health issues. Not mutually exclusive explanations I guess.

In the awkward wording of the BSA findings: no uphold

Apparently, to be truly offensive to us New Zillunders, race-based comments have to be uttered by a brown person about white folk (the opposite of any informed understanding of what racism is).

That's why naughty Mr Fane and the dangerous?

(the opposite of any informed understanding of what racism is)

I wouldn't go that far.

What, you're saying racism doesn't involve power? Or am I missing a more subtle position in my tiredness?

I'm saying that a Samoan saying that Hitler was right to exterminate the Jews is still racist – unless in fact he didn't mean it at all, as I suspect.

What, you're saying racism doesn't involve power? Or am I missing a more subtle position in my tiredness?

You're a hard arse liberal which is great because you are smart and make the team look good but i think this needs wider eyes.

Fane aint a racist and neither is?

Uh, I think the cultural power balance in this situation is illustrated nicely by the respective outcomes for David Fane and Stephen Goodman (understanding and pleasant chap though he is). And Paul Holmes, the cheeky whitey with the free pass.

I'm not disputing that, I'm just saying that you made?

Disparaging any group of people based on stereotypes is not good. Power comes into it but not (forgive me here) in black and white terms. I also get the historical basis?

Disparaging any group of people based on stereotypes is not good.

nice to know the hardwired Kiwi's knee-jerk Aussie-bashing will soon be a thing of the past!
I see a softening on the Kick It threads already, world peace through football*...

*even if it is just the Irish dancing version?

Apparently, to be truly offensive to us New Zillunders, race-based comments have to be uttered by a brown person about white folk (the opposite of any informed understanding of what racism is).

That's why naughty Mr Fane and the dangerous Hone Harawira get in so much trouble compared with that?

He made the news because he lost the plot and said stupid and offensive things in front of a room full of media people.

Today it's been reported as a 'roast', a la Stephen Colbert at the White House Correspondents Dinner. If that's true, I guess he was under the?

As for Brian Edwards' blog, perhaps someone needs to explain to him (and Duncan Garner, amongst others) that misusing a web text field that?

Roasts as a concept are a great idea but the trick lies in being good with words, and manipulating them to a) sound clever?

He made the news because he lost the plot and said stupid and offensive things in front of a room full of media people.

One can make a tasteless joke about Gypsies or the Rwandan holocaust without it becoming national news, or being accused of being a racist who hates?

Roasts as a concept are a great idea but the trick lies in being good with words, and manipulating them to a) sound clever b) poke someone and c) do it all without offending anyone.

Yeah right.
I have been known to flip over to a channel (often the comedy?

Not because i don't think the holocaust was a uniquely horrific event, but because of the way an insincere hyper-sensitivity over the holocaust is used by right wing commentators to shut down anyone who might dare criticise Jewish lobbyists, or the Jewish state.

And it's a damn shame no one?

If anything, Holmes generated more controversy than the others; or about as much as Harawira. I don't agree at all that Fane has been treated worse because he's Polynesian.

I'm talking consequences as well as attention. Remind me how long Holmes was suspended from air as Fane has just been?

Fane was doing a roast, which are mostly disgusting (imo) but meant to be derogatory and insulting albeit supposedly funny.

Bad Feminist/Lefty/Everything Alert: I really love the Friars Club roasts. They're so mind-blowingly offensive that they're beyond taking seriously, because they're like a kind of free-floating performance art of hostility.?

I'm talking consequences as well as attention. Remind me how long Holmes was suspended from air as Fane has just been?

Holmes' boss as Newstalk ZB, Bill Francis, was always loyal, literally to a fault, to his broadcasters. It's not sustainable to say that Holmes would have been given a?

it is interested in making an example of anyone who might question the policies of the Jewish state.

Again Tom, I deeply regret that the Herald on Sunday neglected to report Fane's nuanced commentary on Middle East politics.

If you're an older, well-respected lady comic, you can be very surprising indeed: I actually cried with laughter at Bea Arthur's bit during the roast of Pamela Anderson

Yeah, but you know something: I have the the oddest suspicion that Pamela Anderson's big-titted airhead persona aside, she's actually smart enough?

New Zealand Jewish Council president Stephen Goodman said Fane's apology supported his contention that it was simply a stupid act with no anti-semitic intent.

"It was just somebody getting carried away with the situation and saying silly?

Ta for response, Russell.
Now, back to that grindstone with me..

Shit — that reminds me. I have to make a TV show!

We were informally told he'd slagged off his boss on air, and that was the issue. I expect Collins will be keen to respond.

Wonder if he wants to roast him?
OK, Bad Joke.

Wish I could be there – love watching other people work :)

It came up bloody well. We got lots of context and clarification on the PEDA story (Efeso Collins is a very impressive young man), and a good little chat with Simon Wilson about the new Metro. I was?