Posts by Russell Brown
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Gone too far? For crying out loud, it's not censorship, it's market economics. If family first have the irate numbers to convince companies that sponsoring the show is going to affect profits, then more power to them.
Ah, but Family First doesn't have the numbers: it's Bob McCroskie and a mailing list.
Its sway lies in the amazing level of media buy-in that McCroskie's been able to spin out of the exposure he got in the smacking debate. He's a risible rentaquote, and the news media are hiring.
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Via No Right Turn, a story you won't read in the Herald:
The Human Rights Commission has altered its view after the Justice and Electoral select committee's handling of the controversial Electoral Finance Bill, according to Green Party co- leader Russel Norman.
[...]Norman said he understood the commission has written again to the committee. In the second letter the commission says it has been impressed that the select committee has gone a long way towards alleviating its concerns in its redrafting of the legislation, Norman said.
Does that mean the march in support of the Human Rights Commission is off, and the righties can safely go back to regarding the HRC as a bunch of dangerously PC stooges for Helengrad?
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who knows. its even conceivable that malcontent weirdos might run around in the woods with guns, and spouting post-structuralist and revolutionary gibberish. then where would we be.
Actually, that would make a bloody great TV comedy sketch.
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I think this really all ultimately boils down to a conflict between the core structural concepts of object oriented and aspect oriented thinking patterns. Possibly a functional approach to considering the problem could contribute some real positive results also, but I think in terms of communicating effectively with urban Maori one really needs to keep object encapsulation carefully in mind and ensure proper separation of the model, view and controller.
Does that run on Linux?
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Sara:
Okay, so perhaps all this distaste about the anger expressed on the Hikoi is just a little ethnocentric, not to mention some of the interpretations of other responses such as Nanaia Mahuta’s. Correct me if I’m wrong because I wasn’t there, nor have I seen specific coverage of her crying, but there are lots and lots of reasons that she might have cried other than that she was scared of the nasty, noisy protesters.
I think it is likely that she would have had feelings of grief over the terrible things that happened at Ruatoki, grief at the idea that Maori-Government/Police relations had sustained real damage, and even possibly some grief and/or shame that she, as a member of government, has presided over this – even if from a somewhat marginalised position within government.Or, more likely, according to reports like this, because she was abused, shouted down and called a traitor:
The warm reaction to Dr Sharples contrasted sharply with the icy reception for Labour's Nanaia Mahuta and Maori Affairs Minister Parekura Horomia. Both spoke briefly to the crowd in Maori, but much of what they said was drowned out by abuse.
One heckler told Mr Horomia to speak up, because "your people won't listen to you", while Ms Mahuta endured chants of "traitor" through most of her brief address.
I think it was Donna-Marie Lever who said that Parekura Horomia stepped up after Nanaia retreated "almost in tears". I'm no expert, but I do think that calling Bob Mahuta's daughter a "traitor" won't go down well with many Tainui.
Your hopeful gloss on what happened just seems to me to yet another one of the rationalisations pouring out of this thread. I find it a bit frustrating.
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Gotta agree, Joe. We've been sharing sharply conflicting opinions in this thread without being abusive, but that was edging towards the line a bit. And I'm sure Finn will be happy to dial it back if you do.
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The Warehouse is the largest seller of New Zealand music in the country, provides a marketplace for NZ goods and fully supports the Buy NZ Made campaign. As do I.
Wouldn't "it's a gig" have done?
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Note that Minto's statement is in relation to Rongomai's bail hearing, so presumably the evidence in question consisted only of material involving Rongomai. It's very likely that none of the quotes published by the Dominion Post were aired in court that day.
I guess so. I thought the fact that quite a number of the Dom Post quotes came from bugged car trips suggested it might have been from the same bundle.
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Fortunately the NZ version only dragged out for a month rather than years, but that doesn't make it ok.
And it doesn't remotely justify your comparison either. The people arrested on October 15 had swift access to lawyers and actually appeared in a court, two features notably absent from the actual Guantanamo experience.
I'm also fairly sure that the 17 weren't physically or psychologically tortured; or picked up at random and stuffed into searingly hot containers to share with the dead and dying; or driven to suicide.
Honestly, your point is just plain silly if, unfortunately, typical of the rhetoric around this.
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I thought I should go back and read John Minto's Press column to make sure I wasn't misquoting him.
I wasn't, but parts of what he wrote seem a little ironic now, in that he wished the "laughable" evidence in court hadn't been suppressed so everyone could see it (and no, he wasn't referring to the full body of evidence, but what the police presented at bail hearings, which seems to represent part of the affadavit) and he wasn't satisfied with waiting for a day in court:
So the police proceeded to spend the next 20 minutes or so reading what they regarded as the juiciest excerpts from the surveillance transcripts. These were obtained by bugging conversations in a car on a couple of road trips.
I'd like to record here the details of these transcripts but that evidence is suppressed. Suffice to say, these conversations were nothing one wouldn't hear on a Saturday afternoon at any gun club around New Zealand – even before the beer comes out.
It was all quite surreal. Those of us sitting in court were incredulous. The lack of substance to the evidence we heard was frankly embarrassing.
Rongomai was given bail but the bigger question of how he ever came to be arrested in the first place is utterly beyond me and I have no confidence it will ever be answered satisfactorily.
On the police action in general the feeling of New Zealanders seems to be we should just let this whole legal process play out and see what's left after the evidence is tested in court. This seems the only sensible approach but it's just not good enough. It leaves very difficult questions unanswered ...
The case itself will take at least 18 months to get to court and whatever the outcome, enormous damage will be done in the meantime. The New Zealand public will be softened up to accept we have terrorist threats or potential terrorist threats in the country which justify the huge additional resources given to the police and SIS since September 11, 2001. This will be seen by many to validate the existing Terrorism Suppression Act and its various amendments and the unthinking will accept even greater restrictions on our civil liberties.
To be fair, he is now calling for a public inquiry with full disclosure.
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