Posts by Jimmy Hayes
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I think I've heard of the (tiny) Somalian community in Blenheim as suffering some racism
Coming from a proud top o' the South-er, I can't say I'm surprised one bit.
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Man, I thought I was in a strange headspace having to comprehend a panicky, fear-driven implementation of US-style passenger security on Link flights - but that McDonalds ad opened up a whole new realm of loco.
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Dammit. The one time I take the Herald at its headline/story face value, I get burned. Never again.
Thanks Kyle.
Point remains tho - Labour is going to have a fairly easy time of it making these unpopular, I feel.
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Heh, surely it's common knowledge that there's more to Bangkok than amazing history, art, architecture and shopping?
Yeah, but I still feel bad laughing about anyone in the sex trade. ARGH! THE PC NAZIS HAVE ME IN THEIR PINKO EMBRACE!
I think Key may have miscalculated here. Too much easy ammo for Labour:
Martin Lee Anderson was sent to the Bay County Sheriff’s Office boot camp on Jan. 5 for a probation violation. A surveillance video showed guards kicking and punching him after he collapsed while exercising on his first day at the camp, and he died at a hospital early the next day.
A noted pathologist who observed Monday’s 12-hour autopsy on behalf of Anderson’s family said it was clear the teen did not die from sickle cell trait, as the medical examiner for Bay County had determined, or from any other natural causes.
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Anderson entered the camp for a probation violation for trespassing at a school after he and his cousins were charged with stealing their grandmother’s car from a church parking lot. He was in his first day at the boot camp when he collapsed during exercises and then was seen on the tape being struck and kicked by several guards.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11823529/
So they're being used as an early intervention for petty crime? Perfect! That'll stop the damn devil tagging!
Now I'm not saying the above is widespread in those camps, but I do think it'll be fairly simple for Labour to portray boot camps as at least having the potential for horrific outcomes.
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Boot camps eh...?
There are some people out there who are going to be sweatily excited about that. Unfortunately I was stuck listening to them on Newstalk ZB for 10 long hours yesterday.
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I don't think there's any need to character assassinate Fallowell for having his opinion. He's really already done that and his reader base will have already discovered Bangkok as a much better alternative.
This made me snort with laughter, and then look around guiltily.
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Sorry, how exactly was it deceptive? I admit to not reading the whole decision but this part jumped out:
[17] The Authority asked the Labour Party to provide the information upon which it had based the claim that the Māori Party had voted the same way as National 227 times. The Labour Party provided a comprehensive bill-by-bill breakdown of the votes recorded by the Māori Party in Parliament. The total number of times that the Māori Party was recorded to have voted with National, excluding urgency and conscience votes, was 277.
[18] Following release of the original decision, the Labour Party explained the following:
The figures provided by the Parliamentary Library initially gave the number as 227
When the advertisement was first recorded, however, the number 277 was mistakenly used. It was this recording that was supplied to the Authority
This error was discovered by the Labour Party shortly before the advertisement aired, and the number in the advertisement was changed to 227
A subsequent manual check of the records by Labour Party staff, however, indicated that the number that should have been used was 277.
[19] A copy of the table supplied by the Labour Party, showing the result of 277, is annexed to this decision as Appendix Two.
Messy, but it does seem reasonably legit on Labour's part. And in the decision, the inaccuracy complaint is upheld because the broadcast number of times Maori Party voted with National was lower than the real number!
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Heh heh. For some perverse reason, I love terrible automated voice programs.
Had a bizarre experience last year when I encountered the public transport autovoice in Vancouver. It really did get quite shitty at me.
"Hello, and welcome to the Greater Vancouver Regional District public transport helpline. Are you wanting to find the most convenient transport option fiven your current situation?"
"Yes."
"Please state your current location."
"Broadway."
"Please state your desired destination."
"Um, Broadway."
"I'm sorry, your current location and destination appear to match. Would you like to revise your travel plan?"
"Well, actually, I'm going from 3756 Broadway to 6736 Broadway. It makes sense - can I just talk to a human?
"I'm sorry, I cannot understand you. Would you like to revise your travel plan?"
"Operator. Please."
'This is a YES. OR. NO. question. WOULD YOU LIKE TO REVISE YOUR TRAVEL PLAN!"
(idea)
"Fuck fuck fuck fuck..."
Then the voice hung up on me. I wonder occasionally whether it was a real person jerking me around. -
Ok, are we heading down the nicely 'differentiated' path of UK-market newspapers?
The Herald is getting fairly blatant with its angle.
Early this morning, the main headline was Key stays calm over threats to his life which was replaced by Eden Park upgrade bill rockets but then that was replaced (perhaps when they realised the headline was extremely disingenuous given the article content) by - again - Key stays calm over threats to his life.
I like JK as a person, I think he's a nice guy with some policies I don't agree with, and it must be horrible to have your name bandied about as a target by molotov-chucking separatists, but honestly - would the Herald ever, in a million years, use the same foppish language if Clark was in Key's position?
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Off topic slightly, but I've been having fun watching the Herald struggle to stick with a headline for the hikoi.
First it was: Hikoi arrives at Parliament
Then: Hikoi descends on Parliament
Now: Hikoi arrives in the capital
Any suggestions for next one? Looking at the process they seem to be using, I'd say Hikoi descends on helpless Pakehas is a distinct possibility.