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A good week for Mr Z | Nov 26, 2004 12:09
What odds then, on the government actually presenting any evidence now that Ahmed Zaoui has been granted his bail hearing by the Supreme Court? It would be ironic if a man's two years of internment ended because no case was made against bail.
No Right Turn links to and assesses the judgement, and scrutinises the political responses, which, in the case of New Zealand First, veer towards the flat-out wacky.
Stephen Franks continues to choose his friends strangely. He's calling for the removal of Jacquie Grant from the Human Rights Review Tribunal after she sent a couple of angry emails to the keepers of the Campaign Against Civil Unions website.
Grant, rightly in my view, hasn't resiled from her criticism of the content of the site, but has acknowledged that it was unwise to note her role as a tribunal member (she was appointed two weeks ago) and said she would recuse herself from any hearing involving the campaign.
This isn't enough for Franks, who wants her fired on account of her "sinister agenda of bias" and says he won't deign to give his vote to the Civil Unions Bill unless it contains a provision explicitly protecting people who "oppose homosexuality".
Personally, I think opposing homosexuality is a bit like opposing freckles, but we'll leave that for the moment and actually look at what these people say, she we? They are feral.
Their "myths" page cites unspecified "scientific research" saying that there is no biologiocal cause for the "psychological condition" of homosexuality, and that "psychotherapists around the world who treat homosexuals report that significant numbers of their clients have experienced substantial healing."
Well yes, except those associated with The American Academy of Pediatrics, American Counseling Association, American Association of School Administrators, American Federation of Teachers, American Psychological Association, American School Health Association, Interfaith Alliance Foundation, National Association of School Psychologists, National Association of Social Workers, and National Education Association. Indeed, only a tiny fringe minority of therapists endorses, let alone practices the "healing" of homosexuals. More information here.
But young people should, apparently, be strongly warned off the "potentially deadly lifestyle" of homosexuality. And that's always worked so well, hasn't it?
The site's aptly-named "silly reasoning" page justifies discrimination against homosexuals on the basis that the law discriminates "against numerous other crimes".
They claim, improbably, that "no person has the 'right' to immoral, illegal or socially destructive behaviour," which also includes "all sexual activity outside marriage". They think homosexuality should be recriminalised, but on that basis, so should fornication, gambling and - for all I know - blogging.
Craig Young has some useful background on who exactly who these people are and what they believe. They spring from the Reformed Church, whose leaders were prescribing capital punishment for homosexuality as recently as the mid-1980s. Call me crazy, but I have a little trouble with the idea that these people are victims and liberals are the fascists. Stephen Franks can have them around for tea if he likes, but if the bastards set foot in my street I'm calling the cops …
Also on GayNZ, Scott Stevens has a highly amusing look at the Maxim Institute and the meaning of "facts".
Remarkable similarities between this Society for the Promotion of Community Standards press release on Marilyn Waring's attitude to civil unions (nothing short of gay marriage will do her) and this one from the Campaign Against Civil Unions, posted a couple of hours later. They both rather miss the point …
The Daily Outrage tots up some alarming numbers on Iraq, including a near-doubling of acute malnutrition amongst children since the invasion.
Good story on the hilarious pork-barrelling provisions in the spending bill being sent to the president by US lawmakers.
DogBitingMen's David Young raises an eyebrow at a couple of questions in the 2004 NCEA Economics Exam. And I must say I agree with him. To invite argument only towards an ideologically-correct answer is hardly the role of our examiners. You want people to think and argue, don't you? On the other hand, arguments against the free market are unlikely to win you a Business Roundtable scholarship …
Also, Mediacow oversees another who-is-really-who scandal in the blogosphere involving Mystery Man Matt Nippert that has completely lost me …
Odds on a lumpy-looking All Black team overcoming the French have improved with news that France's halfback and goalkicker is lame, along with apparently the only other two halfbacks in the country. First-five Michalak will wear the number 9 jersey and - hopefully - many bruising tackles from Jerry Collins.
You may or may not have noticed changes in Public Address this week. Our developers, CactusLab, have been stirred into action by this standards validation test that found that none of the finalists in the NetGuide Web Awards was fully compliant. Over to Matty B for the lowdown:
Partially because we've been meaning to do it for a while, we have completely gutted and rebuilt the layout code for the Public Address site. Instead of the old-skool approach of using tables for layout, which ties up the presentational code with the actual content, we've used XHTML and CSS the way they were supposed to be used, resulting in all of the layout stuff now residing externally in a couple of stylesheets. This means pages on the site are leaner (so will download more quickly) and more accessible to people with disabilities (users of screen readers, etc). And it's generally a much tidier approach to building websites.
The site now also validates, which means it keeps to the spec where necessary (the fact that browsers are so forgiving of errors means that non-validating sites usually still display fine so most visitors would never know the difference, but it's much tidier to have all those errors and omissions fixed, and means the page probably renders faster in compliant browsers.)
It should also be noted that just because a site validates does not mean that it follows web standards, something interface7 should take notice of. A site can validate but still use all manner of horrible coding practices, like tables for layout.
The upgrade has thrown up a few issues for people with older browsers. Feel free to let us know of any problems.
Damian was the only one to notice that Public Address turned two years old this week (which of course is actually an entire era in Internet years, etc, etc. And big Che's back in town. Dude, I've got our names on the door for the D4 tonight. It'll rock, a lot.
Thanks to a couple of people who got in touch yesterday with their views regarding the Deborah Coddington-Tony Holden business. I'd want legal advice before I said anything more than that it doesn't look like it will go away just yet.
And, finally. Noelle from bFM says she'll take Ahmed Zaoui to the Big Day Out if he gets out in time. Now there's something to look forward to …
PS: Word back from the Zaoui connections is that, bail conditions permitting, he rather likes the idea of accompanying Noelle to the BDO. He's a Goldenhorse fan, apparently ...
Inquiry on, dudes | Nov 25, 2004 10:48
And so the fencing begins. Helen Clark announces an inquiry into claims that the SIS illegally spied on Maori groups and individuals - and then implies that the Sunday Star Times should surrender its sources to the inquiry. The SST quite rightly says it will do no such thing. Clark presumably knew quite well that would be the case.
Ironically, although the SST's editorial last Sunday declared that "it would not be enough for the government simply to hand the whole affair over to the inspector-general of security," that path actually has a key virtue for the paper: the maximum penalty it and its reporters can suffer for declining to provide evidence is a $5000 fine, which the paper ought to be happy to pay.
Also yesterday, Scoop declared that its source on Operation Leaf was not the obviously-dodgy Jack Sanders, and SST reporter Anthony Hubbard stood by the story, saying that "The allegations made about a small part of the story do not prove the central story is wrong. We stick by the story and we are quite confident."
I tried to get one of the Herald's reporters on the Sanders story on my Wire show yesterday, but he left a message politely declining, saying that anyway, "everything we know is in the paper ... well, everything we can *say* ..."
Meanwhile, Bev Harris may have turned up the first strong indication - involving physical evidence rather than supposition - of serious electoral misconduct in the US elections: the disposal of signed voting machine record tapes from a Florida county and their apparent replacement with new tapes that don't match. There may be a benign explanation, but it's hard to think of one. A lawsuit has been filed and Black Box Voting has updates. A group of Democrat congressmen has announced that the Government Accountability Office is to investigate irregularities with voting machines and provisional ballots, after 57,000 complaints were received.
Thanks to Stephen Walker for drawing my attention to The Economist's consideration of The Dollar's Demise, and a closed-doors briefing by the chief economist at Morgan Stanley, claiming that the US has only a 10% chance of avoiding economic "Armageddon". The numbers in the latter story are pretty stunning.
The Financial Times was among those to report the impending departure of Bush's senior economic advisor, Stephen Friedman, and noted that Friedman, who hails from a group that opposes fiscal deficits, "was not seen as having great influence on policy." Well, obviously …
Those Deborah Coddington questions finally got an answer when Ian Fraser appeared before the finance and expenditure selection committee yesterday, but probably not the one she was after. Word was already rife that the target of her questions about "TVNZ managers, producers commissioners of programmes or executives being dismissed from previous employment due to alleged financial mismanagement or dishonesty" was Tony Holden, who left South Pacific Pictures in 2001.
There had been, Fraser explained, no wrongdoing or allegation of such, but a dispute over "money and content rights" between Holden and the company.
My source puts it as "the usual contractual negotiation dust up between Tony and John [Barnett], which ended fairly acrimoniously," with Holden apparently getting the better of things. TV is, I am given to understand, a bit like that. Fraser's bigger problem with his chum and head of commissioning and production is that Holden has managed to burn off nearly every shred of goodwill in the industry. Hardly an ideal situation for a charter broadcaster.
And in case you wondered, my team, The Oddities, reversed last year's travesty and triumphed in last night's Flying Nun Pub quiz. Oh yes.
Man of Mystery? | Nov 24, 2004 10:16
The news that one of the sources for the Sunday Star Times' SIS scoop is international man of mystery - and apparent fabulist - Jack Sanders certainly casts a new light on the story.
The Sanders story appears in this morning's Herald, whose journalists presumably pricked up their ears when they heard Whititera Kaihau describe how he had thought he was emailing Nauru's embassy in Beijing, only to discover, courtesy of the Star Times' reporters, that his emails were in fact going to two men in Hamilton.
Kaihua also claimed he had been invited by his mystery man to supply passports for misuse, and yesterday said, improbably, that the spies monitoring him had somehow hacked a book order he placed over the Internet and deleted a British law book from it.
A Herald backgrounder this morning notes that Sanders was last year "involved in a series of bitter claims and counter-claims over the alleged sale of illegal Nauruan passports," and made claims about the activities of Israeli spy Zev Barkan that were not borne out.
The Herald came across Sanders in May 2003, when he was officially charge d'affaires of the Beijing Embassy of Nauru, and peddling a startling story about the embassy being used as part of a secret plan to smuggle North Korean defectors to the West.
He was "said to be a representative of the American government" in another Herald story in August last year. In a story from The Australian last November, Sanders popped again up as "ostensibly an employee of US think tank the Hudson Institute," with an influential position within the Bush administration
I'm in no position to venture on the merits of other aspects of the SST story, but the emergence of Sanders as a source does seem to damage its credibility.
PA reader Gregor Ronald also provided an observation on the apparent bugging of Tariana Turia's phone before she left the Labour Party:
Why hasn't someone pointed out to Tariana Turia that when the SIS bug her phone they'd do it at the local Telecom exchange? The person who fiddled with the wiring on her household phone and caused noise to come through the radio was probably just someone in her household trying to get the thing to work. Or someone who selected a bad channel on her cordless handset. Or another Maori political competitor who's not very clever with the screwdriver... Think cockup before conspiracy, and you'll usually be right.
Tony Cochrane, chair of V8 race promoter Avesco, should pull his head in. His insulting comments since three independent commissioners rejected Auckland's proposed V8 race yesterday are just a bit too rich. Ditto for councillor Scott Milne.
If they really wanted Auckland to host the racing they shouldn't have proposed such a manifestly stupid site for it: a site that straddled some of the most vulnerable points in the city's transport infrastructure and, among other things, ran within a few metres of many residential properties and encircled a major New Zealand Post depot.
The fact that the old council, with all its resources and the manic support of the mayor, couldn't put together a credible proposal for the management of traffic and other issues rather clearly indicates that the idea was not sound in the first place. The fact that they made the original planning application without Transit NZ or the North Shore City Council on board only made it sillier. If anything sends a "bad message" to international promoters, it's the council's ineptitude in the first place.
Let's be clear about this: the council wanted to become a joint promoter in a race that would have imposed a substantial burden of cost and inconvenience on both residents and business who had nothing to gain from it. Are the race boosters really saying they had no rights?
The commissioners' report notes the heavy reliance in the proposal on "traffic suppression" (ie: telling Aucklanders not to use their cars) and "the lack of any form of contingency plan" should the promised level of suppression not be achieved. It noted a "distinct prospect of gridlock" around several points on the circuit (which touches access roads from three motorways), and found that residents as far away as the motorway feeder roads on the North Shore were likely to be affected, possibly seriously. And it described advice for residents to "pack up and leave town" as "an extraordinary means of mitigating the adverse effects of an event and simply not acceptable in the context of this application."
Readers may also be interested in Crikey's story last month about the politics and cock-ups around racing on Australia's Gold Coast, where the mayor was adamantly opposed. The annual race carnival attracted a record 309,000 spectators, but the state government, which subsidises the event to the tune of $11 million, refused to reveal the evidence for its claim that it provided $50 million in economic benefit for the state. Cochrane was spraying abuse at local authorities again.
Even an editorial on the local pro-V8 racing site V8fastalk in September declared that Cochrane "badly needs some tuition in the New Zealand character. The type of teaching that would inform him that New Zealanders do not respond well to threats, empty or otherwise, especially when they come from overseas." It continued:
The initial thumbs-down from planning commissioners spoke volumes of the lack of work by the race promoters. Undoubtedly, they have a marvellous product on their hands, one that would breathe life into the inner-city area. But it is still yet to be shown that feasible alternative transport can be arranged, and that the race will deliver significant economic benefit.
Despite some inflated claims by the Auckland City Council, that benefit now appears to be just $2.7 million to $4.1 million. Yet Mr Cochrane continues to portray Avesco as a kind of misunderstood benefactor. Why, he asks, cannot Auckland just accept this "gift". In reality, the company wants the race to be held in Auckland, and, whatever the threats, would be reluctant to go elsewhere. The city council package, including a $3.5 million interest-free loan, is undoubtedly highly attractive. As is the factor of New Zealanders' appreciation of, and participation in, this Australian event. The reception for V8 Supercars would be nowhere near as fulsome in Dubai or Cape Town. The loss if the event were to go to another city would not, as Mr Cochrane, suggests, be New Zealand's alone. Just as surely, it would be Avesco's.
Righto: that's my lot. I have a Wire show to prepare for, and - more challengingly - the second Flying Nun Pub Quiz tonight. As a team captain, I guess I face the potential for embarrassment if my recall of Nun trivia proves to be inadequate. And after being robbed on account of our star player's poor diction last time, we really need to stand up and dish it out.
But I'm sure it'll be a laugh again. It's at the King's Arms in Auckland, at 8pm tonight, and it's free. Y'all should come on down. You might even win a Christmas ham …
It's Hell that gets on my tits | Nov 23, 2004 10:43
The US election exit poll results that found "moral values" was the key issue in the minds of Republican voters have been shouted down by all sorts of people who found them inconvenient - but the first post-election Pew survey has reached almost the same conclusions; with some qualifications:
The survey findings parallel exit poll results showing that moral values is a top-tier issue for voters. But the relative importance of moral values depends greatly on how the question is framed. The post-election survey finds that, when moral values is pitted against issues like Iraq and terrorism, a plurality (27%) cites moral values as most important to their vote. But when a separate group of voters was asked to name in their own words the most important factor in their vote, significantly fewer (14%) mentioned moral values. Regardless of how the question is asked, the survey shows that moral values is the most frequently cited issue for Bush voters, but is seldom mentioned by Kerry voters.
In addition, those who cite moral values as a major factor offer varying interpretations of the concept. More than four-in-ten (44%) of those who chose moral values as the most important factor in their vote from the list of issues say the term relates to specific concerns over social issues, such as abortion and gay marriage. However, others did not cite specific policy issues, and instead pointed to factors like the candidates' personal qualities or made general allusions to religion and values.
From the closed list of seven options, 44% of Bush voters chose "moral values" as their most important issue, compared to only 7% of Kerry voters. The characterisation of "moral values" amongst those who cited it as their key issue was also quite clear: gay marriage, followed by abortion, "candidate qualities" and religious references.
Among Kerry voters, 36% chose the economy and jobs as their most important issue (compared to 7% of Republicans) and 34% chose Iraq (11% of Republicans). Interestingly, the survey also indicates that the Democrats had virtually lost the election before they started campaigning: 52% of Bush voters made up their minds last year, and 83% did before the presidential debates. One in five Americans cited their main source of television news on the campaign as Fox News, and young voters, those on higher incomes and liberal Democrats were most likely to get their news from the Internet.
More from the frontlines of unreason: more than a third of Americans still stay that the theory of evolution is not supported by evidence, and 45% say that "God created man in his present form" - that is, we never evolved from anything. (But if we really are God's perfect, static creation - why do teeth need flossing? Isn't that a bit of a design flaw?)
This isn't new, of course - this summing-up of 1991 research shows that back then Americans were second only to the Poles and Philippinos in their certain belief God, and led the world in doubting evolution and in their belief in Hell. Some of the other results are amusing - marginally more Russians believed in the Devil than in God. At 29.3%, New Zealanders' certain belief in God was actually higher than some other surveys have shown - and higher than that in Britain.
It's Hell that gets on my tits. I fully understand the role of transcendence - there are some things best understood through the poetry of the religious imagination - but Hell is just silly; no more and no less than a handy construct for social control.
Kevin Sites, the NBC photojournalist who got slapped with a conservative fatwa after doing his job in Fallujah has a blog, and he has responded to the controversy.
No Right Turn pointed to Crooked Timber's largely positive expert assessment of the Lancet study that found that 100,000 Iraqis had died as a result of the war, but it's worth another look. Deltoid is also pretty funny about some of the leading Lancet naysayers, who don't seem to have actually read the study.
The Globe & Mail sums up election fraud theories with the headline No one cheated (but they could have) , which is roughly my conclusion.
I was pleased to see Tariana Turia take the system at its word and respond to the SIS scoop by writing to the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security, Justice Paul Neazor, and asking him to investigate. With most other parties pushing for a probe, I can't see that the government can avoid this one, and, indeed, if Clark hadn't (again!) been offshore for the blow-up, I suspect that Labour would already have been a bit more nimble.
Hip-hop economy report: TRN's fledgling Flava 96one has leapt into the Auckland radio ratings with a 4.9 - taking most of its listeners from Mai FM. A little further down, there was also a good result for 95bFM, which now rates above Radio Sport (and the Wire slot increased the rating for its daypart by nearly a point - yay!). Meanwhile, Holmes continues to rule the mornings. Median Strip has all the other survey results.
And, finally, Dubber, who has started audioblogging from Britain on the Monday Wire, deploys a complex argument to prove that Russell Brown hates me. It's alright folks: it's not what he actually means …
Spooky | Nov 22, 2004 10:47
Perhaps Scoop was on the money after all: The series of stories in yesterday's Sunday Star Times detailing claims by "dissident spies" that the SIS illegally bugged Maori individuals and organisations certainly warrants further scrutiny.
The SST stories, by Anthony Hubbard and Nicky Hager - Citizens targeted by SIS, Spies blow whistle on Operation Leaf, and 'We could see it was for dirt collection' - and an accompanying editorial actually don't go as far as Scoop's original November 11 story, in that they don't name the three individuals Scoop claimed had been subject to particular scrutiny - Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia, Nga Te Ata iwi affiliate Whititera Kaihau and Ngai Te Rangi's Brian Dickson - and they are justifiably cautious about alleging political direction of the surveillance. At least one of the contract spies says that, in principle, surveillance of groups that could be "manipulated" is appropriate. That is, after all, the task of an intelligence service.
The issues here are the extent and purpose of monitoring, and whether the checks and balances in the system - particularly with regard to the oversight of interception warrants - are being applied. I'm just old enough to recall the all-too-active role the SIS played in the Muldoon years and I have no wish to go back there. As a matter of historical interest, here are some quotes given to me by Brian Kirby in 1994, for a story I wrote in Planet magazine on occasion of the tenth anniversary of the 1984 hikoi, which took place while Muldoon seemed determined to stonewall Maori aspirations by any means necessary.
I have no doubt that from the late 70s and riught through to recent times, if not now, that government informers, most of them working for the SIS, infiltrated most Maori organisations and key positions in Maori authorities and trusts and the Ministry of maori Affairs as it was then …
I remember going to Richard Prebble in 1983 and saying there was a problem and did he realise the rumours and talk about Maori arming themselves may not be just rumours. I was very worried that all hell was going to break loose and that it was going to do so round about where I was living. He asked me how did I know that and I said there were some young Maori who lived just up the road from me who were determined to have a revolution and they'd got quite an arsenal.
Richard said 'are they all men?', and I said 'yes', and he said 'oh well, it's just boys letting off steam'. But he investigated and about a fortnight later he rang me and said 'hey, so Miss So-and-so and Miss-so-and-so are involved in that group?' I said 'yes', and he said, well, now we know women are involved we are worried!'
I don't think the either the temperature of radical sentiment or the degree of surveillance now are anything like they were then (indeed, it's tempting to see Operation Leaf as the work of an agency that doesn't have enough else to do). And we don't have any equivalent of Ripeka Evans declaring "I feel I have the right to take the blood or white people if necessary," either.
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister's denial of the claims, based on advice from SIS director Richard Woods, was unusually forthright - in that it was issued at all - and Newstalk ZB is reporting a flat-out dismissal of the "disgusting" claims, by Peter Cozens at Victoria University's School of Strategic Studies.
Both Helen Clark and Jim Anderton, who also sits on the committee overseeing the work of the SIS, have called for the dissident spooks to take their claims to Paul Neazor, QC, the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security. Perhaps that is what should now happen, although the SST's reporters, who have done a good job here (and utterly trumped the Herald on Sunday's Rodney Hide-inspired non-story about Hubbard Foods, um, getting a grant), clearly can't give up their sources. The system theoretically allows for whistleblowing and, even though oversight of the SIS has not been particularly encouraging in the past year, it ought to be given a chance to work. (Although No Right Turn is noting that going to the authorities would potentially expose the dissidents to prosecution under the SIS Act. It would be very helpful for the Prime Minister to clearly state this will not happen.)
(NB: Just got an email from someone who discussed the story yesterday, in an off-duty context, with a Fairfax executive. He confirmed that Fairfax saw it as a key work of reporting in the context of the Sunday paper battle, and got the impression there might be more to come ...)
Clark is, of course, in Chile on Apec duty, and her discussions on a trade agreement with China have predictably attracted the ire of the Green Party. The MFAT joint study released on Saturday predicts a trade boost, in New Zealand's favour, of around $400 million annually from such a deal. China's tariff barriers on New Zealand exports currently range as high as 20% on kiwifruit, 23% on seafood, 38% on over-quota wool and 14% on dishwashing machines (by comparison, our tariff rate on whiteware imports is 5%). New Zealand, on the other hand, applies a zero tariff to 95% of all imports by volume, and by 2009 is committed to reducing tariffs on clothing, footwear and carpets.
In the end, I think we have too much to gain to not pursue a robust deal with a large and expanding economy such as China's, but the devil will be in the detail of the "adjustment implications" for some New Zealand manufacturers. The points made in the Council of Trade Unions' submission to MFAT are not unreasonable; most notably that the manufacturing sector employs 300,000 New Zealanders - twice as many as agriculture and forestry combined. The impact on Fisher & Paykel's business has been much speculated-upon, but as Andrew Little of the EPMU said recently, F&P's ability to expand into the international premium appliance industry " is a sign that New Zealand manufacturers can foot it in the face of global competition."
So anyway, I did go to the P Money show on Friday night after all, and the house was duly rocked. The show's highlights involved Scribe, who, it must be said, remains miles ahead of anyone else in the game in terms of both skills and charisma. Half the reason I went out was to see what was happening, and, with the Coolies and others packing Eden's Bar on K Road, Jakob attracting a decent crowd a few doors down at the Rising Sun and Somerset selling out the nearby King's Arms, it seemed like a lot was happening.
After an early morning up to see the All Blacks - thankfully - edge out Wales in a thriller of a test match, I participated in a joint production between National Radio's Outspoken and the BBC Service's Outloook, on the topic of 'The Changing face of New Zealand'. It seemed all-too-short but was quite good fun, and it was nice to meet Kim Hill, Raybon Kan and Gaylene Preston. You might think all us media types would know each other, but we don't. Got home in time to see the blogging story in Frontseat, and found myself cringing at the footage of my unfortunate typing style. I just got a job involving typewriter use before I ever learned to type, alright? But they are two very productive fingers …
Then, today, it was another short sleep and early rise to be on Breakfast with Michael Wallmansberger, talking to Paul Henry about why I signed the civil unions ad. I don't mind the getting up, it's leaving the house that gets me. Really, the things you gotta do for human rights …
PS: If you skipped over the new Great New Zealand Argument posting, Jim Traue's Ancestors of the Mind, hop on over and read it.
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