US Justice and Dotcom’s birthday
Judith Collins is going to the US and isn’t going to raise the Dotcom case we are told. I’ll bet the US Justice Department is though. They knew for a year Dotcom was going to be arrested on his birthday.
Politics
activism
Harawira’s arrest
On any other morning Hone Harawira’s arrest would be the big political news story of the day.
Shooting the moon
If I were in Labour, I would be looking at the polls and thinking that a small target strategy is best: preserve your credibility at all costs, keep your head down, pick up the votes as National self-destructs – it worked for Key in 2008. Instead, Shearer seems to be trying to shoot the moon with a knock out blow to Key (interesting parallel to Norman’s export policy there).
The incredibly incurious and forgetful Mr Key
“So what?” says Key as allegations emerge from within GCSB that Key cracked jokes about the spooks’ (illegal) involvement in the Dotcom raid when he was briefed by them on February 29th. It either means you realised their spying and are incompetent for not questioning its legality or that you knew all about the illegal spying and didn’t care – that’s what.
Affordable Housing: the way forward?
There is increasing concern about New Zealand’s housing situation, with an escalation in homelesssness, people living in totally unacceptable conditions, and the lack of sufficient affordable housing stock.Update: Government close to unveiling plans for “cheap” housing on city fringe and ‘brownfield’ sites.
From cock-up to cover-up
The narrative that the Government has tried to sell, and which has been largely accepted to date, is that the GCSB’s illegal spying on Dotcom was a cock-up. They claimed that Key wasn’t briefed, when he was. The Nats also claimed only a change in immigration law in 2009 protected Dotcom. Now, we know that’s rubbish. Cover-up it is.
National Day of action against Bennett’s welfare reforms
Today there have been protests around NZ, against Paula Bennett’s punitive welfare reforms.
Updates: Include ODT article link and extract, photos of Henderson protest, and links to several news articles.
A red herring?
Call me cynical but I just don’t think it’s credible that it took over two weeks after Key supposedly learned of the GCSB’s involvement in the Dotcom raid before they realised he given a presentation featuring Dotcom by GCSB a month after the raid. They’re amateur, they’re not that amateur. No, I think the ‘presentation on a laptop screen’ is a red herring.
One video exposes Key, GCSB’s & Banks’ Dotcom lies
Watch this video of John Key being interviewed by the media on January 24th. 1: Key is clearly well-briefed on Dotcom. 2: he knows that Dotcom is a resident, so why didn’t he raise that a month later with GCSB? 3: How did Key know that Dotcom was a resident and GCSB didn’t? 4: Banks has told media he had dined at the mansion with Dotcom – months before denying remembering that meeting.
Why was GCSB spying on Dotcom? Big business is watching you!
Kim Dotcom was arrested on charges related to copyright infringement, not national security or “terrorism”. There is a worrying trend that the GCSB is part of an international security networks that have shifted from their original mission related to national security and is providing support to corporate interests.
Key needs to read the GCSB Act
Key says that we would all be very scared if he had control over the GCSB. That’s wrong. Key is the only democratic control on our spies and he has extraordinary oversight. Every warrant the spooks need has to be approved by Key. Is he exercising that role properly, or is he just signing whatever the GCSB puts under his nose?
Key changes tune, orders GCSB review
Last week, Key tried to tell us that the illegal spying on Kim Dotcom – which he, the minister, we’re supposed to believe wasn’t told about for 8 months – was down to one agent’s ‘brain fade’. Uh huh. So, why has he now appointed a senior public servant to review and reform GCSB? You don’t do that when the problem was one person’s human error.
[Update: Lol at Key. Police are launching a high powered inquiry after he said there was no need for one]
‘Children of the Poor’ 1934 – 2012: Social Security for the Future?
Split Enz once sang, “History Never Repeats”… Or does it? Destructive prejudices separating ‘deserving’ and ‘undeserving’ poor have been around a very long time. When the likes of Paula Bennett pander to such ill-informed vindictiveness with punitive social welfare reforms, they will damage large numbers of children – our future citizens.
Neazor report proves inadequate cover for Key
Labour has written to Key calling for a much wider-ranging investigation into the Dotcom spying affair than Neazor’s narrow, tell-us-nothing-we-don’t-already-know report. They would have been better to go straight to the Auditor-General. The Greens have gone for the established illegality and called in the cops on the GCSB – cleverly citing the same offence Key claimed in the teapot tapes.
Key fails to guard the guardians
Our government’s spies are overseen by two people – the Prime Minister and the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security. The former asked the latter to investigate he found out the GCSB had been illegally spying on two Kiwis. And, guess what, the report blamed underlings. It didn’t even investigate the question of oversight.
What does Key have to gain by lying?
John Key put on a display of incompetence in the House yesterday over the Dotcom spying affair. He claimed not to know a laundry list of basic facts that, if he didn’t know them before, he bloody well ought to have been briefed on by now. In some instances, his memory failed him over Dotcom. Yet he then showed he could recall exchange rates from 20 years ago. I think he’s lying. The alternative is too scary.
Will Key read the GCSB report?
Key has said we all have to wait and see what is in the Neazor Report on the GCSB spies’ illegal spying on Kim Dotcom.* He won’t even answer basic questions like: ‘what section of the law did the GCSB breach?’ Funny that Key’s so keen for us to wait to read this report. But will he read it? Or will it be like the Banks Police Report, which he won’t read? And when will anyone get to read Banks’ statement?
Key plays the “don’t read, don’t care” card again
A couple of days before it was surely all going to come out – very messily and very publicly – in the Dotcom court case, Key has revealed that his spies illegally spied on Kim Dotcom. But, beyond that, Key won’t tell us anything apart from that he signed no warrant for spying on Dotcom (such a warrant would have been illegal anyway). Key has chosen not to find out more so that he wouldn’t have to answer questions.
Cynical Key
So Key knew about the GCSB’s ‘unlawful’ actions for a week before he bothered to tell us. He happened to know that this Monday state owned companies would be announcing they were causing the loss of 500-600 jobs. Only one story would get its full due of airtime.
Community ‘March for Work’ in Greymouth tomorrow
Spring Creek miners and their families will lead a community March for Work in Greymouth tomorrow calling on Solid Energy and the Government to secure the future of the town and ensure the mine stays open.
Living Wage event
The Living Wage campaign is holding an event in Wellington on Thursday.
Gear change Labour
It was standing room only in Auckland last night with over 200 people packed into the Polish Society clubrooms to hear David Parker deliver a very positive message on Labour’s economic policy. Labour’s Auckland organisation is also getting into good shape. And there is more to come. Watch this space.
Advice to Labour: Fair, inclusive, positive
Hey Labour – here’s three words for you. Fair, inclusive, positive. You’ll win the next election, and the two after that.
Two little Pagis squeal and squeak
It seems the Standard is off the Paganis’ Christmas list. John Pagani tells the Listener that he much prefers Kiwiblog because it “has […]
The wrong conversation
There has been a lot of discussion on the direction Labour is heading and the direction it should go. There have been some […]
Bad behaviour puts Labour activists off
I have spent the better part of 17 years – eight of those as a paid organiser for the Labour Party – practicing […]
Why I’m In – a response to the disillusioned
A somewhat meandering and personal response to the disillusioned, prompted by Scott Yorke’s recent “Why I’m Out”.
Protests then and now
Looks like we should conclude that opposition to National in 2012 is much stronger and more vociferous than opposition to Labour in 2008.
Nat conference protests
This weekend the National Party is holding its annual conference at SkyCity (how appropriate) in Auckland. Protests are planned. Be careful, keep it peaceful.
Day of action against asset sales
17 year old Kiwi addresses the UN Earth Summit
Well said. What a tragedy that they heard, but did not listen.
Dunedin asset sales protest
Between 1 and 2 thousand people turned out in Dunedin today to march in protest at the National government’s plan to sell our assets.
25 years nuke free
Police Liaison = Police Trap
Last week I wrote about how the mass arrest of protesters last week was planned by police from the beginning. A couple of days later I was told that 10 minutes before the march a Police Liaison Officer spoke to protest organisers and stated that police were only there to facilitate the march. I have now managed to track down the video of this conversation.
While I have your attention class…
While the public’s attention is focused on educational issues, use the platform to press for change on the Nats other damaging educational initiatives, national standards and charter schools.
Protest in the smartphone age
There’s a lot of analogy between how a guerrilla movement succeeds against a superpower or a state in the era of mass communication and how protest movements can do the same. Unable to win head-on, losing becomes winning as long as the cameras are rolling. It’s about being seen as having a legitimate cause and just as importantly being seen as the victims of disproportionate force and abuse of power.