Posts by Steve Withers

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  • Hard News: Improving quality by cutting service,

    As for Iran, the same steps are being followed now by Bush and the Israelis as were followed prior to invading Iraq.

    The IAEA is being used as a propaganda tool by the US and Israel. The IAEA have said they have found nothing that supports any claim Iran is working on a nukes. To his credit, Mohamed El-Baradei has said he will resign in if there is an attack on Iran.

    The US and Israel talk about iranian nukes as thought they were a proven fact when there are from anything resembling a proven fact. US media appear to have been prevented by their owners from learning any lessons from the lies Bush told prior to invading Iraq.

    For example, CBS News, in the US, owned by Westinghouse, a major weapons contractor, always talks about Iranian nukes in its news copy as though they are a proven fact.

    Israel conducted a 100-aircraft dry run of an attack on Iran over the Mediterranean two weeks ago.

    Bush visited Olmert in Israel. A couple of weeks later, Olmert visited Bush in the US and used the opportunity to speak at AIPAC demanding the US attack Iran.

    Just so happens a senior US admiral is in Israel this week.....and so on. Military liaison is set to high-rotate right now.

    last year, the US Congress approved $400m to support what are essentially terrorists activities with Iran. Cars and mosques have been exploding ever since.

    I've been blogging on the steady build-up for weeks now. The progession is clear. The time table appears to be set for some time after the first of August. Maybe an "October Surpise" to take the wind out of Obama's sails and put McCain over the top.

    Murder seems to be OK if it helps you win elections.

    There will be a big surprise and we will all wonder where it came from.....having ignored the many warning signs for months now.

    Auckland • Since Mar 2008 • 312 posts Report

  • Hard News: Improving quality by cutting service,

    Fairfax already uses "Stuff" to impose what might be described as a centralised editorial interface. The CanWest newspapers in Canada (canada.com) provide a pointer to where this leads. The same folks own TV3 and C4 here in NZ (and may still own many radio stations?). It looks a lot like Stuff.

    Canoe.ca (Owned by Quebecor) have, in contrast, centralised much of the editorial functions so that local newspapers might write a portion of the leaders and opinion pieces, but most are distributed through the chain from the hubs or the centre.

    In either case, the formula is nails in the coffin for diversity of opinion, lost from cities years ago when newspapers became a local monopoly and now being choked off nationally as 50 newspapers speak - effectively - with one voice on topics aligned with the owner's interest.

    Auckland • Since Mar 2008 • 312 posts Report

  • Hard News: "Evil called: Can you make a…,

    Raymond: Key in the "real world"? London trader to wealthiest MP? That one spun right off my screen and thumped onto the floor.

    Auckland • Since Mar 2008 • 312 posts Report

  • Hard News: "Evil called: Can you make a…,

    IMHO, there is a growing resemblance between Key's unscripted, meandering sentence fragments in some reports and those of a guy elsewhere a lot of people "misunderestimated". Key's lack of precision is increasingly apparent and good on the Herald for noticing out loud.

    Auckland • Since Mar 2008 • 312 posts Report

  • Legal Beagle: If we only had time,

    Section 194(a) in the Crimes Act outlaws assulat on children. Section 59 offered a legal defence of reasonable force for purposes of correction. That Section was used to defend lip-swelling, eye-blckening, ear-drum-popping assaults on childrn by their parents. Assault on Children was never "legal".

    Auckland • Since Mar 2008 • 312 posts Report

  • Legal Beagle: If we only had time,

    I'm a fan of dmoecracy, but THIS petition has finally - after over 20 years - brought me down on the side of those opposed to citizens initiated referenda. At best we have had one that deserved any attention - the very first one on the fire service.

    The rest have been based on ignorance (the current one) and motherhood and apple pie. Of course we support the victims of violence.

    But this petition has me particularly excited because everything to so with it is so wrong. The lies told to get people to sign. The cynical misrepresentation of the rea lchange that was made to the Crimes Act. That (apparently) 390,000 Kiwis signed this petition should be occasion for mourning that so many among us are ill-informed and prepared to act on their apparent ignorance.

    I've blogged on this today. It's shameful.

    Auckland • Since Mar 2008 • 312 posts Report

  • Hard News: Google Trending and MGMT,

    Music companies and their marketing restrictions have put me right off. I used to buy several albums / week, but I haven't bought an album for over a year.

    I never listen to music radio anymore. Too many ads, moronic DJs and far too much rap and hiphop - or whatever name they have for it now.

    I never watch music videos on TV anymore. Viewing rap-laden soft porn with my teenage daughters and spouse doesn't work for any of us.

    So I'm out of the loop. It's quiet here. I like it. No DRM. No DVD regions. Whatever culture I now consume isn't owned by anyone and I'm buying THEIRS any more. Not that I never will......but I'm sour enough on it right now that it feels like forever.

    Auckland • Since Mar 2008 • 312 posts Report

  • Legal Beagle: I have this theory,

    The initiator can only be the authorisor. It cannot be said to have been done if it was not authorised. Once authorised, the impetus for it being done rests with the authorisor who allowed it to happen legally.

    The point being contested is a confusion f the practical with the legal.

    A person composing content and ordering paper and printing for leaflets isn't the "initiator"l if acting on authorisation to do so - or (arguably) the expectation of authorisation - from the person or body who can authorise it. Nothing has actually occurred until the material is composed and distributed having been authorised form.

    I could sit down right now and do everything short of distribution but gain authorisation. If I do not gain authorisation, clearly I am the initiator. if I do gain authorisation then the burden of initiating must shft to the person who has taken responsibility for it by athoritising it...otherwise what does athorising mean? Nothing.

    Auckland • Since Mar 2008 • 312 posts Report

  • Hard News: Tragedy into Crisis?,

    __ The victims are Asian because the scumbags who attack society may not know much about sociology or even what or where Asia is, but they sure as hell know how to find the weak spot to attack. The anti-Asian racism in NZ fuels and enables these attacks and it has got to stop. Immediately.__

    It certainly casts an interesting light on Deborah Coddington's "gathering tide" of Asian crime.

    The victims had liquor and were presumably close by. Do we know the shop was targeted because it was run by Asians? Or was it just close by?

    Auckland • Since Mar 2008 • 312 posts Report

  • Hard News: Tragedy into Crisis?,

    Agree the shooter is the one to blame for Navtej Singh's death. No one else.

    The Weekend Herald portraying safetyprocedures built up on a pile of dead cops as "bureaucracy" pissed me off deeply.

    The police absolutely did the right thing. They organised to meet an unknown armed threat. They ensured the reaction by armed officers was co-ordinated. We don't need police shooting each other. They ensured no one was going to be sniping at them or ambulance staff on the scene.

    All prudent and necessary. Every public servant wants to go home to family in one piece at the end of their shift. No reasonable person should be expecting them to die on the job.

    Having been a Corrections Officer, I would not discard procedures designed to ensure my own safety to satisfy some gung-ho desk-jockey at a daily newspaper or big-mouth politician or pundit.

    If it goes wrong, management - and the public - would blame me for whatever happened and they would be right.

    Auckland • Since Mar 2008 • 312 posts Report

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