Which you be an interesting question to put to Doctor Edwards – considering what he does to earn a crust nowadays. :)

Charles – who had?

It does seem that privacy breaches are treated extremely leniently, with an apology often being sufficient to avoid financial cost (and with damages being compensatory rather than punitive, a wealthy corporation or state body will always be in a position of nonchalance as to any action).

He was also involved in the drafting of the Commission's discussion paper. Not sure how ironic they were intending to be, but the only other blogger they?

Agency; (Production company); hey you should use Mr X
Client; (not the bill payer); Sure, lunch on you?

Done deal.

Quite. And their reputations and market worth have suffered accordingly. Edwards can call it what he wants, but this is clearly a case?

And because broadcasters were dependent on advertising?

Being kiss arsed, shallow, malleable and willful with it.

I disagree. The whole thing is a result of a lack of regulation and the markets being in a state anarchy.

For Paula Bennett her behavior damaged her credibility ? she has paid a price for that and is a List rather than an electorate MP.

Largo in Othello:

Men should be what they seem;
Or those that be not,?

When a maggot was found in a burger at a certain fast-food multi-national, it reputedly threatened to cancel its advertising unless the news story was dropped.

Red, that doesn?t really make sense to me in that the story about the company threatening to withdraw advertising is so much bigger than?

None – I bought some bean salad and found it had a maggot in it – I took it back to the deli and the guy wouldn't give me my money back – he first accused me?

as I turned to leave he tossed the balance back into the cabinet.

Heh, well that story certainly has entertainment value. You could sell it to Larry David.

Oh shit, or should that be more reverential. Fame? Or r u going latin on our arse.?

I think you'll find that Bennett won in Waitakere, after specials and recounts.

And the character in Othello is Iago. You're getting confused with National?

Exsqueeze me? Got Marmite???

Although by a razor-thin majority.

An?

No, it has all been planned since before the 2008 election. Not necessarily competently, which might be a more fruitful angle.

At least I didn't attribute the quote to the Bosa Nova – First Citizen John Key the First .

Politically it doesn't – unless an effective opposition can muster public understanding and support against the changes. All of them, not just one or two sacrificial elements. I'm sure the government would be happy to explicitly include libraries and swimming pools after a symbolic?

It works in theory if it doesn?t go too low.?

Another formula those types cling to could be best described by Malcolm X during one of his saner moments:

__"If you?re not?

It is not as they (the cabinet) have stood to be elected to local govt – to represent rate payers?

Some principles apply here:

1. If a person provides personal information to an agent that is supposed to be acting on their behalf, then that agent has a responsibility to protect their privacy.
2. If someone says or does something in public that?

Now. About Ms Boag's presence in all this.......

Yep, latest updates say he has indeed jumped ship. Even then, the deck chairs are still being rearranged.

On a brighter note, Auckland is getting double-deckers. Can Wellington have some, too?

I'm guessing they wouldn't play so well with the trolley bus lines.

The papers are certainly hinting thus. And when our researcher called his office today, his press sec opened by declaring that the minister would not answer any questions about his private life. Which she?

Hey, I could do that. Gizza Job!
Hat tip to Yosser Hughes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2inSqo3Q3c

TVNZ studios in the path of SkyCity centre

Doctor Smith (it's so Lost in Space) has an apparently smiley-friendly Facebook page, but the wet work is carried out by a functionary who's given to phrases like?

Mearly 5 times the minimum wage, poor dear.

From the Drinnan article...
Government intervention into commercial markets first came to public attention with the largely opaque deal with Warner Bros studios to secure production for?

There have been no approaches to TVNZ about purchasing that land since June 2011 because negotiations on the proposed convention centre are continuing, including on the design and size of the building

Yes. You see we will wait until we have designed it, the gummint will see the plans 'overlay'?

Sky City requries more space for a convention centre and the addition of more pokie machines so TVNZ goes sideways?

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10789904

We already gotsum, why we need more is beyond me.

jonkey thinks so apparently and I wondered how he had reached that conclusion.
I wonder if that is because we don't want those dole bludgers wasting their money on food, we?

The only reason those places have to be big is not for the number of people but the size of them. I have seen those movies about large Americans attending conferences and the motivation for attending?

If you could get even?

If my experience of large conferences is anything to go by, the Govt will also need to?

Really? You might want to try making that argument in San Diego — because the 100,000+ geeks who pour in the San Diego Convention Center for Comic-Con sure seem to produce an awful?

This is precisely my view.

I think the phrase used to be "Get real,"

I think the phrase now is, "In a pig's arse."

The bottom ground of the conversation is always HERE-

A bunch of things are their thing, really. The main hotel and Sky City Grand, the various ballrooms and conference rooms at each of them, the bars and restaurants ? and the substantial telecommunications revenue from the tower.

And, of?

Islander, if you can't be bothered responding to what I said – and trying to wrap your head around the full context – I'm not going to repay?

As for casinos, they're really just part of the FIRE sector with a tourism veneer. Again, the issue here isn't the conference industry,?

bet that's how it would be spun too :)

You could apply the same logic to a brothel.

The simple answer is they shouldn't, and everyone who claims to live by the market should be left to die by it as well. But good luck porting that over to the world we live in, and?

Or the possibility of giving Prostetnic Vogon Joyce a free rein on energising the demolition beams.

My compression?

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10794477

Mike Hosking has done regular work for the casino, and Paul Henry has a ?long-standing association? with it. SkyCity sponsors several big-name sports stars and provides a ?chairman?s card? for a small number of celebrities allowing them free five-star hotel rooms,?

"I know nothing about SkyCity's programme. I'm not aware of any of our employees being a part of it. Mike is a contractor with us."

Another use of contracting to deflect any responsibility.

I was talking to a guy last night who is a manager for a large real estate agency, he told me he was regarded as a contractor and as such if he wanted to take a holiday he had to find and?

Really phuck working for yourself – I'm off to buy myself a bicycle and an income protection policy?

Cos working to hard can give you a heart Atack acc acc acc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6J1jgQs1Cg&feature=related
You ought a know by now...

I don't know if he rode a bicycle or had an income protection policy – so I guess he is not as much a puller as people may?

One tiny point: actor Jared Turner was already well established as the 'Energy Spot Guy' when he was cast in The Almighty Johnsons. So in this case, no-one is trading on his fictional image as a God of cold?

Thought that was his missus? Or his brother. Or several other characters, now that I think about it.

Funny to hear, for one, that someone who made some now infamous comments in defense of Paul Henry?s equally infamous?

To be honest, I found Aline Sandilands? ethical compass a little suspect considering (IIRC) on her watch there were one or two questions around TVNZ ?personalities? appearing in women?s magazines??

And TV3's 60 Minutes has a big doco/exposé on the Sky City deal.

It was a fine bit of political interviewing in a very solid current affairs story. Would watch again.

Emperor Rooten to the Core Joyce tripped over his own duplicity in attempting to give a crooked answer to a straight question.

It would have been hilarious excepting the consequences of "all this" will be dire.

http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/203833/acc-vip-claims-policy-under-fire

I finally got round to actually watching the 60 Minutes story, and needless to say, I was tempted to have a shoot-the-TV moment when Prostetnic Vogon Joyce and the Sky City spokesman?

I find that apt on many, many levels.

ah, Florida..

See, see the insane cry
Marvel at the big black depth sky.
Tell me, Tell me, Tell me,
Oh hapless, tea-drinking ape like creatures
rate payer or tax payer, homeless tree dweller perhaps
Do you wonder why the Nightmare Browne, and
Key Man ignore?

Aw. no – it was inventive creative selective adjective-rich eerrrm, response.
I kind of enjoyed it.

I wish you would stop referring to them as Atlases, however ironicly. It is Atlas's shoulders they stand on i.e the work of others that went before. When he does, eventually, shrug, they will all fall off.

SkyCity to earn $42m a year in pokie deal
Goldman Sachs analyst Marcus Curley,?

Less across the whole Auckland region, due to long-standing Council policies to reduce numbers in venues other than SkyCity. More in SkyCity.

Once MPs started canvassing their communities they would find most places are trying to get rid of pokies rather than put them back in.

All the MPs would be hit up by local licensing trusts complaining?

And the answer was about the region. Up to journalists and others like us to make the distinction clear when politicians can be trusted to mislead..

The Joyce Poetry is from his post Vogonic period where he literally rides in on the Dalek invasion that bought about the demise of hapless, tea-drinking ape like creatures.

It's not too late to walk away from an iniquitous deal which will see SkyCity underwrite the cost of building a new International Convention Centre adjoining its Auckland premises in return for being allowed to expand its casino business.

Other bidders are?

My comment to FranO's article is something to this effect (it's still in moderation at the time of writing):

__"Quite simple,?

Ae. That's my general feeling about the incompetent fools who diminish the true meaning of leadership, entrepreneurship, stewardship and caring.

?We need Tony Fitzgerald ? the QC who exposed Sir Joh ? to fly over here and sort things out.?

And if it's anything to go by, card-carrying libertarians are starting to sing from the same songbook as the Left on the Sky City?

All will be revealed on
FRIDAY APRIL 20, 7.30 p.m. (Tonight!!)
KNOX PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH HALL
28 Bealey Avenue , Christchurch

The eight finalists are: Adidas, Newmont?

... After leaving the police, Legge worked for a gaming machine trust which gave out poker machine grants. What he saw over the next decade shocked, disgusted and disillusioned him. He tried to brief his local?

And who needs the Theatre?
Well just get rid of the old licence conditions before anyone notices the finer details.

This is a point I have been trying to make for months and I just get told that Labour are being ineffective as an opposition. The fact is that National are acting as if?

Should that not be – " Meanwhile, the Colossus of Drones railroads on and on and on..........."

I look forward to his prosecution and resultant expulsion from Parliament.

http://www.3news.co.nz/Sky-City-deal-Mallard-v-Banks---extended-footage/tabid/315/articleID/251978/Default.aspx

let me guess – at the discretion of the Police

Perhaps not in his favour though, they have History...

According to Kim Dotcom, Banks asked him to split his $50k donation into 2 x $25k packets. It seems that both donations were recorded on Banks' return as "anonymous".

I call on John Banks to do the right thing?

And the vid is now up.

hahaha

I thought you'd like that. :)

With a National government that regards governance and?

This article sums up the events quite succinctly, and includes some new info. By rights, Banks is toast.

Won't be a (short term) problem though. They'll elect a National MP, or an ACT MP if NACT have the chutzpah to keep the deal going.

You can have corrupt electorates as well as corrupt politicians.

He seems more balanced and responsible ? less of a prick so to speak.

Bottom line is that if Banks goes and a by-election is called, Act?

That might happen if they WANTED to abandon it... but I expect they don't want to?

Mr Banks says surely it's not against the rules for him or his people to advise potential donators how they can do so anonymously if they want to...

I'd have to agree that seems reasonable....

And if some anonymous donations arrived shortly thereafter,?

it helps having a nutbar figleaf nearby, yes.

Hmm, advising people how to help break the law. But provably knowing where the donations come from is enough to make him guilty. Watch for smears agains Dotcom's reliability as a witness next.

Surely, advising them how to stay within the law, no? :)

(yes, I'm playing devil's advocate- I don't like it either)

Calling Graeme Edgeler.

Sounds like there were at least 3-4 witnesses on the Dotcom side. I'd imagine that if Kim is speaking out about this, then the others would probably be willing to testify.

It makes one laugh to think about why he's?

Anyway arise Sir Kim? Or will Banksie?

Nothing illegal about giving a donation. Asking someone to alter the way they do it for your own benefit could be interesting given that 'anonymous' relies on not knowing. Discussing the process with the donator makes that hard to claim.

John Banks: "nothing to hide" (except whether or not Kim Dotcom donated 50k to his campaign, which Banks refuses to answer 9 times).