"Goon squad" inquiry

For once I'll agree with NZFirst in saying "about time". The allegations against the Corrections department demand an answer, and it's outrageous that it's taken this long for the government to launch a proper inquiry. It is simply intolerable that Corrections department staff may have abused inmates, and I would expect prosecutions as well as dismissals if the allegations are substantiated.

Oh Shit

The Bush administration is reviving draft boards. No draft yet, but they're putting the machinery in place.

I hear Canada is a good place to move to...

Put Blair before the ICC

There's been some questions on the blogs over the past few days over whether Tony Blair could one day be prosecuted under international law for "initiating a war of aggression". The answer is yes (and there would seem to be an open-and-shut-case), however the ICC is currently not exercising their jurisdiction over crimes against peace because they are still waiting for the international community to supply an adequete definition of the crime. But it seems that there are plenty of other things to get him for:

Tony Blair is facing a formal complaint to the international war-crimes tribunal by a panel of senior international legal experts for unlawfully waging war in Iraq.

The charges focus around specific violations of the Geneva conventions and international human rights treaties, leading to excessive numbers of avoidable civilian deaths. Not as good as a simple charge of aggression IMHO, but you've got to go with the tools available. Unfortunately, the true architects of the invasion of Iraq - Bush, Cheney, and the NeoCon cabal - are beyond the ICC's jurisdiction. But the United Kingdom is a signatory, and Blair is well within their reach. He certainly has a case to answer; it's just a question of whether the ICC will live up to its mandate to prosecute crimes against humanity, or whether it will be subverted into another rubberstamp body for the major powers.

Party of the Center? Yeah, right!

United future is now trying to emulate Don Brash's policies by promising a $2.4 billion tax cut, to be funded by using public-private partnerships ("privatisation-lite"; we pay and they profit) to fund government services such as health, education, and prisons.

There is a small nod to the center - the tax cuts are not entirely focused on the wealthy, but include a slight decrease in the base tax rate - but the core focus on slashing corporate taxes and privatising public assets is more evidence that rather than being a center party of "common sense", United Future is just another bunch of right-wingers in drag.

Is this the occupation's "Somalia moment"?

Fifteen dead after their helicopter was shot down by a SAM. At least five more dead in other attacks during the day. And Iraqis cheering and dancing in the streets at the news...

Maybe this will cause the US public to sit up, take notice, and ask themselves what the hell they're doing over there.

The real reason for the breakdown between America and its allies: people outside the United States have stopped believing the American story...

Entirely appropriate

ACT are kicking and screaming about the case of the businessman jailed for clearing native bush, but I think its entirely appropriate. This wasn't just senseless environmental vandalism in violation of the local district plan, but also a willful violation of a previously imposed court order from the Environment Court.

ACT claims that he was simply exercising the "rights of ownership". Unfortunately, clearcutting native bush is not among those rights. Contrary to ACT's delusions, this is not (and never has been) a country where property ownership is absolute. Central and local government rightly have the power to limit actions with social and environmental impacts that extend beyond the boundries of a single property. Sadly, some rural neanderthals don't seem to understand this - but I would hope that at least one of them has got the message.

(Meanwhile, KiwiPete's reaction is that "someone should have strangled Simon Upton at birth!" Don't you just love the Right? Crims are bad, Saddam is evil, but people who disagree with you deserve to be murdered...)

The police think offending the hegemon is a crime

Scoop has posted the text of Bruce Hubbard's email to the US embassy. It reads:

To the USA, Embassy.

Fw: drop narparm on babys and kids in Afganistan and Iraq and have invaded 72 other nations since to install US backed military dictatorships to smash popular democratac freedom...

Why are the police wasting their time and our money with this? No matter how offended Americans are at being reminded of their country's actions (or poor spelling and grammar), there is no law saying "thou shalt not offend the hegemon".

The police are interfering with political protest and freedom of speech. They need to be hauled back into line and reminded that we live in a democracy, not a totalitarian state.

We got a flyer in the mail today for Massey University graduation memorabilia. It seems a William Bear with a PhD is $10 more expensive than one with a mere bachelor's.

I guess it has a bigger student loan to pay off...

Bringing freedom to Iraq

The Guardian's daily roundup of bad news from Iraq had this little snippet:

Before dawn on Friday, U.S. troops sealed off Saddam's birthplace village of Uja, about 95 miles north of Baghdad, where relatives of Saddam and adherents of his Baath Party have long been suspected of maintaining contacts with the ousted leader.

The 4th Infantry Division troops ringed the village with razor wire, set up checkpoints and began issuing identity cards to villagers to control their movements.

This is the American version of freedom? Razor wire, checkpoints, and armed guards saying "papers, please" while fingering their assault rifles?

Note to KiwiPundit

What I find rather telling is all those "after about 5 years", and "after about 20 years" your argument is littered with. You can indeed prove anything with suitably optimistic baseline assumptions and the miracle of compound interest over a long enough time period. Meanwhile, the fact remains that cutting taxes on the wealthy will lead to an immediate reduction in government income, and a consequent reduction in government services until the magic payoff point is reached.

As someone who cares more about government services (and equality, and social justice, and actual human welfare) than economic growth, I don't find your argument terribly compelling.

New Fisk

"This is a Resistance Movement, Whether We Like It or Not" - Democracy Now interviews Robert Fisk.

Is he "paranoid" too?

Even NZPundit is concerned about the police investigation of Bruce Hubbard for sending an email to the US embassy objecting to the war on Iraq.

As he says, it depends on the content of the email. Unless an actual threat of violence was made, it's difficult to see how the police have any justification for their actions.

Confirming what we already knew, part II

More confirmation of what we already knew: an independent study of companies awarded US government contracts to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan has linked Iraq deals to Bush donations. The comapnies involved collectively gave Bush over US$500,000 - "more than they gave collectively to any other politician over the past dozen years." There were also strong family and business linkages with members of the Bush administration.

Corruption and cronyism. Who'd have thunk it?

And people wonder why the left are suspicious of the police...

An Auckland peace activist who sent an email to the United States embassy objecting to the war on Iraq has been charged with the misuse of a telephone. [...]

Mr Hubbard last night said he had been charged under the Telecommunications Act and had been told by police they would seize information from his computer under the Counter-Terrorism Act.

Full story here.

I think this is a perfect example of why we should be extremely cautious of granting the police wider powers for anything. They've proven here that they cannot be trusted, and that (despite the government's assurances to the contrary) they regard political protests as terrorism.

Meanwhile, the Sock Thief's reaction to this? He's amused at watching the "paranoid Left waste time and energy on conspiracy theories". The "intelligent left", it seems, are not concerned with such petty things as civil liberties...

Brash and taxes

NZPols quotes Don Brash as saying:

I myself do not know ... whether there is any causal relationship between low tax levels and high growth

She also has an excellent response to KiwiPundit's claim that the wealthy would be paying more if taxes were cut (a Tui-able statement if ever there was one).

Confirming what we already knew

Experiments have shown that there's very little difference between tap water and the stuff you buy in a bottle. In other words, the people who buy bottled water are fools. But didn't we already know that?

For those interested in the differences: tap water contains more flouride (fairly standard in NZ domestic water supplies), while some bottled waters contain levels of boron or bromate (a carcinogen) in excess of NZ drinking water standards.

(Oh, and that's Auckland tap-water at that. People drinking bottled water in Christchurch are even bigger fools...)

No surprises

Don Brash's first policy prescriptions since becoming leader of the opposition? Tax cuts for the rich, and a massive selloff of state assetts...

Meanwhile, KiwPundit has the gall to claim that "this change will actually see the wealthy paying more tax than they currently do". Of course, he relies on the discredited monetarist dogma that cutting taxes increases government income - and we have only to look at the effects of Bush's tax cuts in the US to see what a steaming pile of shit that idea is.

Will linking to this get me into trouble?

Salon has a review of the play I'm Going To Kill the President. It sounds amusing, has a good gimmick, and pokes a sharp pointy stick at the current state of affairs in America. Like the reviewer says, "The sign of the times isn't the play itself, uproarious as it is. It's the fact that one might have to worry about having seen it."

Neca eos omnes. Deus suos agnoset

US Senator Trent Lott's "solution" to Iraq? Kill them all:

"If we have to, we just mow the whole place down, see what happens. You’re dealing with insane suicide bombers who are killing our people, and we need to be very aggressive in taking them out."

"Mow the whole place down". And they wonder why people hate them...