Posts by Matthew Poole
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Hard News: Spinning and soldiering, in reply to Kumara Republic,
That'd only happen if the prisons were run by the state. State-operated is bad, privately-operated is good. The IMF wouldn't bat an eyelid if half your GDP went on prisons, provided they were run by good capitalists.
ETA: We're also a long, long way short of the high-water mark set by the US's rates of incarceration.
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What's with all these people saying Auckland should fund the whole tunnel by flogging off assets? NZ's been down the "short-term cash, long-term pain" path before, and it hasn't ended well. How many billions a year do we send to Aussie banks' shareholders?
Why didn't she suggest that Northland stump up some asset sales to fund their own damned highway for holiday-makers?
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Hard News: Popular Paranoiac Politics, in reply to BenWilson,
Would require a hell of a lot of eroding before National and Labour got sufficiently close to make a grand coalition a possibility. For all the little bits they agree on, they also disagree fairly loudly on some quite fundamental issues. If we use Key and Clark as the benchmarks (because Goff still has quite the odour of the Rogernome) for centrist on each side, getting them to see eye-to-eye on taxation and welfare, to pick but two major issues, would be quite a struggle. It's possible that the loss of radical aspects from each side would moderate the discussion enough to give peace a chance, but I just don't see it.
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Random Play: Alt.Republic: The rolling mall, in reply to Chukkkker,
The only stuff I've seen like a topo map is artists' impressions.
As for building, they haven't got past the inevitable appeals to the Environment Court yet. Construction is at least three years away, probably more like five, and from what Westfield have said it'll be a staged project - doubtless starting with the extra carparks, just in time for Christmas of whatever year they start building. -
Hard News: Wikileaks: The Cable Guys, in reply to Rich Lock,
Japan also has Patriot missile batteries and Aegis missile cruisers, and DPRK wasn't throwing an ICBM. So even if DPRK has the capability to fire ballistic objects in Japan's direction they're not objects against which Japan is defenceless.
There is not, however, a defence against incoming artillery fire that doesn't rely on many metres of dirt and concrete between you and the shells. So ROK is very seriously at risk, both its infrastructure and citizens.
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Anyone else wondered how much it's going to cost in *gasp* welfare to support the ECE teachers who're being laid off because National had to pay for tax cuts somehow? There's a serious lack of cause-effect nous going on down there *points vaguely in the direction of the Beehive*
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The tragedy, Graham, is that you are beaten for farce by the planning commissioners who waved this ludicrous plan through
To be fair to the commissioners, they didn't feel they had a choice thanks to a previous (and I believe non-notified) District Plan change that designated St Lukes as a "town centre". This plan just allows that designation to be fulfilled.
The real shame is that the incoming Council didn't vote it through (I understand why they didn't demand a full re-hearing) with strict conditions about public transport links with Dominion Rd and the Western Line, all at Westfield's expense. Compelling them to spend 10s-of-millions of dollars to mitigate traffic impacts is not unreasonable, IMO.
Am also a little concerned about what the possible traffic chaos will do for cross-town emergency traffic. That stretch is used fairly heavily by emergency vehicles, and Balmoral fire station is smack in the middle of the impending insanity. -
Hard News: Wikileaks: The Cable Guys, in reply to BenWilson,
My understanding is that the term "double jeopardy" means the protection against it, so saying "they don't have double jeopardy" means "they" don't have legal prohibitions against prosecution following acquittal.
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Hard News: Wikileaks: The Cable Guys, in reply to BenWilson,
Double jeopardy is the concept of not being prosecuted for the same crime twice. So no missing negatives. We still have it, mostly, but I believe the current loophole of perjury by the defendant is being expanded to include "substantial new evidence" or the like to allow a new trial.
The Australians have no such legal concept, so the state can keep on coming back and coming back as often as it so chooses. -
Hard News: Wikileaks: The Cable Guys, in reply to Graeme Edgeler,
Absolute double jeopardy may be bad, but the other extreme is worse. Better 100 guilty men go free, etc. In this case the discussion was around refusal to release encryption keys, and the situation in Australia where you could be found guilty of refusing to disclose for as long as the government wishes to pursue the matter. For those of us who believe in the absolute right against self-incrimination, that's a scary, scary thought.