June 2010

The hand-wringiners are out in force.

A comprehensive cessation programme must be available to prisoners if smoking is banned in jails, the Rethinking Crime and Punishment group says.

The Government is reportedly looking at making prisons smokefree from next year, with Corrections Minister Judith Collins expected to make an announcement early this week.

The Corrections Department is concerned taxpayers could be liable for legal action from prison officers exposed to inmates’ second-hand smoke and also the potential threat of lawsuits from nonsmoking prisoners, bunking with prisoners who do smoke.

Corrections Association president Beven Hanlon told Radio New Zealand prisoners did not like change.

“People coming off nicotine can be very unpredictable, can be very anxious, aggressive and we’re going to have a large part of our prison population going through that and we’re (prison officers) going to have to manage them,” he said.

You can’t get a more comprehensive cessation programme than cold-turkey. Once the crim enters the doors of the prison, they stop smoking, and they stop for the entire stretch. My bet is that troughers like Shane Bradbrook will be lining up to line their own pocket to provide smoking cessation programmes to criminals in jail. They are not needed. Cold Turkey will stop them smoking for sure.

Implementation is simple too. Announce a date when smoking ceases, enforce it, end of implementation  programme.

The family of Auckland woman Folole Muliaga plan to sue both Mercury Energy and Middlemore Hospital over the mother of four’s tragic death.

Legal papers are to be filed at the Auckland High Court seeking financial redress from Mercury and the hospital regarding Mrs Muliaga’s death, which followed power being cut to her Mangere home in 2007, Fairfax media reported.

Mrs Muliaga, 45, a morbidly obese woman, was using a mains-powered oxygen machine and died three hours after a contractor to Mercury Energy disconnected her power over an unpaid bill of $168.40.

Brenden Sheehan making a political comeback? Wants to further his career off the corpse of his relative? Who knows, he has done it before but here is my take on this.

See the attached wills checklist published in the latest LawNews (Auckland District Law Society) publication.

Usually these advertisements are placed a few months after the death if the law firm does not hold a current will of the deceased client.  They are also published if someone (usually a complaining beneficiary) thinks a more recent will is held somewhere, and they might benefit from it.

It is strange to find an ad 3 years after the person has died.

My pick is that some lowlife potential beneficiary has decided the lady had no assets and therefore no will.  But if they sue the Crown and win then there will be assets.  So this ad will be to see if a will exists that might give those assets to somebody else other than the person making the enquiry (probably the person pursuing the legal action).

I could be wrong, but that’s my hunch.

I wouldn’t give them much odds on winning either. Remember this is a case where a morbidly obese woman had been refused any further medical care due to her size, was sent home to die and went about doing exactly that, with her sons strumming the guitar and singing to her instead of picking her up (ok, that’s a stretch, wheeling her wheelchair) and taking her to the neighbours for some power, or even at the very least stringing an extension power lead. I do note that though they couldn’t carry her next door for some power they had no trouble at all carrying her coffin.

It is purely coincidental that the power man fortuitously arrived to coincide with her demise. The simple facts with regards for culpability for her death lies entirely with the dead woman who fed herself to death. Harsh but true. If she hadn’t scoffed up so much that the hospital refused to give her anymore treatment then she wouldn’t have needed an oxygen machine and wouldn’t have died when the power went off.

Coincidentally there have been three city wide power outages, that I can recall,  in the time since her death and not a single person died as a result of those mishaps.

via email,

Hello

Two years ago, I emailed you an invitation to participate in the New Zealand Political Bloggers’ & Blog Readers’ Surveys, as part of my thesis toward a Master of Arts from the University of Auckland.

Over 160 New Zealand political bloggers and 789 readers of New Zealand political blogs responded to these invitations, which far exceeded my expectations. The responses to these surveys provide a massive amount of data regarding the nature of the New Zealand political blogosphere, and the motivations and opinions of the political bloggers and blog readers that participate in it. Thank you again to all of those who participated – I very much appreciate it!

I am now able to share the final outcome of this research, which many of you indicated an interest in. Please follow this link to the University of Auckland ResearchSpace website, where my thesis is available in full: http://hdl.handle.net/2292/5809

I am interested in continuing to track how New Zealand political blogging continues to evolve over time, and to build a time series of data that may inform further research. With that objective in mind, I intend to conduct these surveys again during July and August 2010.

If you are interested in participating in this research again, please respond to this email so that I may include you in the next invitation. I also welcome any comments or questions that you may have about this research, or suggestions that would improve these future surveys.

Thanks again and kind regards,

Andrew Cushen

I think Len Brown is on to something with this Jesus lark.

Jesus fed the multitude with just a few loaves and a few fish. Len only needed a small strip of plastic.

Jesus turned water in to wine, Len ordered both and just put it on the council credit card.

Or perhaps more accurately, Jesus turned water in to wine when the booze had run out, Len Brown just had a case sent up on urgent courier

But while we are talking about parallels, have you ever watched The Wire? Quite an interesting show, especially when Senator Clay takes the stand. In the fifth season the state’s attorney brings a case against a State Senator who is profoundly corrupt – takes bribes from drug dealers, other politicians etc and steals from his constituents.

Quite astonishing the similarities between Senator Clay and Len Brown and Winston Peters. I wonder of the makers of the show studied up in New Zealand

I was thinking about Looney Len Brown’s insistence at dragging out his credit card scandal as long as possible and remembered a scene from The Life of Brian.

Given that Len Brown thinks he is the Mastercard Messiah and likes turning ratepayers cash into wine, then this video is appropriate.

I don’t like smoking, well actually I do, but the health issues mean I don’t smoke. Still a fine cuban cigar is something to be savoured.

For me smoking has always been a personal choice issue. However our governments over the years have deemed tobacco to be evil and that people shouldn’t smoke. Despite all the evidence about the negative health effects there are people who still choose to smoke. The government doesn’t want them to smoke but no politician, until today, has ever had the gumption to ban tobacco outright.

Smoking will be banned in all prisons from next year, the Herald on Sunday has learned.

Corrections minister Judith Collins is expected to announce this week that a 12-month preparation plan will be rolled out that should see all prisons go smoke-free by July next year.

Department of Corrections bosses found taxpayers could be liable for lawsuits from prison guards exposed to inmates’ second-hand smoke.

The potential threat of legal action was heightened after the Government’s decision to “double bunk” inmates in a single cell, raising the possibility of non-smoking prisoners suing the Government for being housed with smoking inmates.

There goes another cushy reason for life-time criminals to want to be banged up. No more baccy, and their health improves along with it so they get to feel the effects of being banging up a whole lot better.

The dangers of legal action were found after Collins instructed Corrections staff to investigate a ban, and its success rates overseas.

They found tobacco was used as currency inside prison and was the cause of disputes. Further reasons for the ban included the use of cigarette lighters and matches to melt plastic into which blades could be embedded, turning cell possessions into weapons.

Anti-smoking Maori Party MP Hone Harawira supported the move but warned a total ban could lead to an outbreak of violence among prisoners.

Hone Harawira is at least consistent in his approach to tobacco, but the threat of violence in prisons should be no barrier to making them smoke-free.

To my mind this is a move long overdue. If our veterans aren’t allowed to smoke in the RSA then why should criminals be allowed to smoke in prisons. Judith Collins is clearly a politician of her own personal convictions, and she will fight tooth and nail for things she believes in rather than the politically expedient. Oh that other politicians would have a spine such as hers.

Phil Goff’s daughter was busted in Australia for possession of 4 ecstasy tabs. The bust itself isn’t perhaps a big deal, other than she must have a death-wish if she wants to take 4 ‘e’ by herself. The comments of Phil Goff are much more interesting.

Speaking at Auckland airport yesterday Phil Goff confirmed his daughter’s arrest but said he was confident she had never taken drugs. “I can tell you something, that my daughter has never taken drugs, never taken drugs. I’m not challenging this [court document], she was discharged, she was not convicted.

“I’m not being naive as a father, I know she has not taken drugs apart from the legal drug of alcohol. People do make mistakes in their lives. Kids make mistakes in their lives.”

Phil Goff is in denial and a stupid idiot both at the same time. His daughter, who is an adult, admitted to carrying the drugs, and also admitted she was consume them herself. She would of course because to admit otherwise would have landed her two companions in the crap as well, and one of them has far too much crap going related to drugs anyway.

She admitted in writing to concealing the drugs and she admitted in writing she was going to consume them. Her father is in complete denial, but then he always has been when it comes to dealing with drugs. (You knows what I am talking about, don’t you Phil?  Gloves, tattoos, balaclava, cellphone, your lounge, remember now?)

More interesting though is Phil Goff’s response about the charges and the events following her plea of guilty. He isn’t being quite straight-forward with his answer. She was convicted then something funny happened.

Now, how can someone who has admitted they are guilty, got convicted and fined, then appealed the sentence, get the case kicked up to a more superior judge and suddenly have that conviction quashed? It just doesn’t happen that way, even in NZ with diversion. I smell something more in this story, and Marshall is the master of death by a thousand cuts.

Why Phil Goff just didn’t say something like “This is every parent’s nightmare, that their children become involved with drugs. Of course you stand by your children when they are in trouble, but they have to understand that there are consequences for their actions. This is a family matter and there will be no further comment”, is beyond me?

Instead he answer like a politician and it now makes it look like there is something more to this story. DimPost has a very good post about this. I suggest that Phil and his spinners watch the video too.

Oh dear Aucklanders have a new Mad Mayor contender. Previously the Mad Mayor of North Shore, Andrew Williams, the Clown of Campbells Bay, had compared himself to Jesus Christ. Now it is Len Brown’s turn.

He said only Jesus Christ had withstood such a high level of scrutiny as him, and come out clean. If ratepayers demand that he identifies who he meets with, then he will quit as Manukau mayor.

Looney Len built his own cross, then lay down on it and handed the nails to the press. It is an affront to all Christians, and Looney Len is supposed to be one to cast yourself as only the second person to walk this earth who is without sin. Unfortunately Looney Len has forgotten about the sin of pride. Comparing himself to the Son of God just lost him the Brown Christian vote in South Auckland.

Worse still though is his refusal to think that transparency is essential in local government. He says that if the ratepayers expect him to detail who he has meeting with then he will resign. Well this ratepayer says resign. I do expect that if the council pays for the meeting, that it is council business, then we can expect under the laws of this land and the rules of the council to know who was at that meeting. Looney Len is essentially saying that he is above the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act.

The council’s own rules require him to say who was at the Last Supper at Volare, and he should, the ratepayers through their council require it because that is what rules are for. No man is above the law. Except Len Brown. The Mastercard Messiah doesn’t want to tell us who was at the Last Supper, even Jesus did that.

And he has utterly refused to identify who he and mayoress Shan Inglis hosted at their table for an $810 fundraiser dinner at Volare restaurant in Manurewa.

He had good reasons for refusing to identify his guests, he said.

“It is against my principles. I am fighting back on what I believe are the key issues of this campaign and what people are vitally interested in.”

He shouted: “I clearly don’t give a damn about this stuff.”

“It’s critical for me as a point of basic principle as a leader and mayor of the city.

“I sit in this room. I don’t tell anybody I am having an interview with you today. It is between you and me. It is totally confidential.”

He said there was no requirement for him to disclose who he spent council money on.

“Transparency is not a perfect thing,” he added.

“Transparency doesn’t just happen in a perfect world. You have to measure that up against other significant principles and that’s what I’m doing and I will live or die on that.

“If people make a judgment and say, ‘we all agree you should tell everybody who you are seeing all the time’, then I’ll say, ‘that’s it – I am not the mayor any more’.

Truly bizarre behaviour, thinking talking to the Minger is confidential for a start and then saying that transparency shouldn’t be complete. That it’s ok to hide things from the people paying. To shout at a repeater that he doesn’t give a damn about this stuff just shows the man is clearly in the middle of a breakdown.

It might be against Looney Len’s principles to tell us who he shared a nice evening at the Opera with, but since the council paid for it and he has declared it as council business, it is the LAW that he tells us and the council’s policy that he do so as well. His principles don’t matter a single bit.

“If you ask me, do you have good office management around your credit card, clearly not brilliant but not worse than some, I can tell you. I am not running to be office manager.”

Right now Looney Len, isn’t even running a bath. The only thing he is running is a race to see who can be more ridiculous between him and Andrew Williams. Right now I think has a nose in front. All he would have to do now is take a leak on a tree outside the council offices and he is winner.

No blogs since april for Tracy. Maybe she missed the budget, or the expenses scandal or the seabed and foreshore, or Chris Carter’s meltdown.

They should do what the US media have done and buy up existing blogs to give them existing traffic to build on, rather than masquerading that one post two months ago is a blog.

But then if they don’t have blo-jo’s masquerading as bloggers then they wouldn’t have anyone to make the finals of the Qantas Media Awards so they can win because of Syntax.