July 2010

For those who don’t believe there is a God, I give you irrefutable proof. My prayers have been answered.

Speculation is rife that NZ First leader Winston Peters and his former adviser Michael Laws are to team up again as part of a “relaunch” of the party this year.

Neither Mr Laws, who is to stand down as Whanganui mayor this year, nor Mr Peters would confirm the rumours. But MPs from both sides of the House and sources close to NZ First said they were aware of plans.

One source said Mr Peters had indicated he wanted to relaunch the party this year.

The annual conference will be in Christchurch in late October.

Speculation about Mr Laws has focused on the Whanganui seat, held by National’s Chester Borrows with a majority of 6333.

But he has also been linked with Dunedin North, held by Labour’s Pete Hodgson, who is retiring.

Please, please, Lord let it be true that the most corrupt politician in New Zealand, ever, will run again, please I beg this of you. The first question every half decent repeater or churnalist should have for both men is:

When is NZ First going to repay the taxpayer the $158,000 they stole to campaign illegally.

In fact i am of the opinion that until it is repaid they should be shunned, except to answer that question. If Peters stands I will ensure that I am at as many of his public meetings as possibly to ask that question as often as necessary.

The Police, at the behest of the Solicitor-General, who is trying to make a point that he is the toughest guy in the land, have been pursuing me for breaching name suppression. I have to say I don’t think that their heart is in it, and certainly I don’t think the Crown prosecutor’s heart is in it either from the standard of disclosure of evidence presented thus far.

Nevertheless, no matter how stupid the law is I guess they must up hold it. Which then begs the question, Are they going to charge themselves?

A 51-year-old Pacific Island man has been awarded $6000 after police handed a list of his criminal record to the lawyer of his former partner.

The Human Rights Review Tribunal ruled that in handing over the charge sheet, police breached the man’s privacy.

The tribunal heard in Auckland that the man was involved in a Family Court proceeding involving access to his 14 month-old daughter in December 2008.

All parties have name suppression to protect the identity of the child and other children.

The mother’s lawyer had written to police asking for details of any domestic violence relating to the man.

But according to the tribunal, police provided much more besides.

They included a complete list of relatively minor criminal matters with which the man had been charged even though all but four had occurred more than nine years earlier and in some cases the offences were more than 17 years old.

In addition many had ended when the proceedings were discontinued, dismissed for want of prosecution, withdrawn, or after the plaintiff had been convicted but then discharged.

The tribunal noted that there were only six convictions for common assault or assault on a female, the last in 1999.

By a two to one majority, the tribunal agreed that the man’s privacy had been breached.

Seems a clear cut case….goose, gander and all that.

The Christchurch mayoralty has become a “through the looking glass” campaign with Mad Hatters everywhere standing. None are more mad than Jim Anderton.

Directors’ fees and other payments of up to $61,000 are being paid to the Mayor and other Christchurch city councillors for Council sponsored meetings or Council owned companies, on top of their council salaries, mayoral candidate Jim Anderton says.

“These payments are not, in my view, justifiable. I won’t be taking director fees for running council companies and I will be asking councillors not to do so as well,” Jim Anderton says.

He says Mayor Bob Parker is paid $153,700 to be mayor, and gets another $61,289 in Council income and director’s fees.

Councillor Bob Shearing is paid $45,565 on top of his $83,500 council salary, and Councillor Gail Sheriff receives $52,400.

In total, elected councillors get paid $301,547 in fees and council income on top of their salaries. Directors are appointed to the boards of Christchurch-owned companies like Christchurch Airport, Lyttelton Port Company, Orion Energy etc.

“The mayor and councillors get paid a good salary to do their job. They shouldn’t get extra for being directors of council organisations,” Jim Anderton says.

This from the man who masquerades as a party leader in order to get extra funding on top of his MP salary, who has said that he will remain as an MP if he is elected as Christchurch Mayor, also receives NZ Superannuation, and Parliamentary Superannuation.

If Christchurch people elect this mad dipper to lead them then they deserve everything that could occur in Jim’s Wonderland. At least Lewis Carrol had an excuse, he was a regular abuser of opiates. Jim Anderton is simply an abuser of the taxpayers purse.

I got this email overnight, I’m so worried, what do you think I should do?

I mean surely they couldn’t delete my account?

Useless phishing tossers

Oh wait, now I understand it is for my costume account…phew!

In 1972 Dean Wickliffe entered a jewellery store with a Luger pistol to rob it. The gun went off and killed Paul Miet. Wickliffe always claimed hat he didn’t mean to shoot Paul Miet, he was originally convicted of murder and sent to prison for a life sentence, the charge was reduced to manslaughter at a re-trial 12 years later. He was finally paroled for that crime in 1987.

Now move forward to New Zealand in 2010.

A teenager has had an attempted murder charge against him dropped after a patron was shot during the armed of a robbery of a Christchurch tavern.

Ryan Randall Vlietstra, unemployed, of Beckenham, Christchurch, pleaded guilty in Christchurch District Court today to robbery while armed with a firearm, firing a sawn-off rifle so as to endanger a man, and unlawful possession of a firearm, the Christchurch Court News website reported.

Charges of attempted murder, assaulting a woman with intent to rob her, and having a firearm while he committed an assault with intent to rob were withdrawn.

Police said a man was injured when Vlietstra’s gun went off as patrons wrestled with during the robbery of the Glenbyre Tavern in suburb Bromley at closing time on July 7.

He was detained until the arrival of police.

Judge Emma Smith remanded Vlietstra in custody for sentencing on October 29, and ordered a pre-sentence report and a report on his suitability for home detention.

Similar crime, but Wickliffe got life and has spent more than 30 years behind bars for all of his crimes, this snot-nosed kid is contemplating home detention with the X-Box. This is why our country is so riddled with crime. No consequences.

hat tip Keeping Stock

This robber won’t be doing any more robbing after digesting a fatal dose of lead.

A would-be robber was shot dead in a bungled robbery of a security van at Dee Why on Sydney’s northern beaches today.

The armed man was shot in the chest after he and another man tried to rob three security guards after they picked up cash from the RSL in Pittwater Road just after 1.30pm today.

Police tried to revive the man but he was pronounced dead after being taken to Royal North Shore Hospital.

Shame, that’ll teach him for trying to rob three security guard who were armed. The other robber is on the run.

Now you can see why I say people should be able to bear arms, it stops robbers dead.

I nearly forgot the Monday Mullet. This one is definitely creepy plus, sent in via email from a loyal reader.

If you are a mullet fan and feeling a little deprived then I have found the site for you. The 10 Most Awesome Mullets in Baseball History. It is true after all, the Yankees really do suck.

And finally a musical interlude for you. Billy Ray Cyrus – I want my mullet back

Monday Mullets - Creepy

A commenter today suggested that the following core values/prinicples make a party that lives and breathes them unelectable.

• Loyalty to our country, its democratic principles and our Sovereign  as Head of State
• National and personal security
• Equal citizenship and equal opportunity
• Individual freedom and choice
• Personal responsibility
• Competitive enterprise and rewards for achievement
• Limited government
• Strong families and caring communities
• Sustainable development of our environment

I think my commenter is wrong. I’ll go further and suggest that if National returned to its core values people just might start believing that not all politicians are expedient troughers, intent on filling their pockets with as much money from the taxpayer as possible.

It used to be the National party lived and breathed those principles, now as my commenter says they should be ignored, treated as expedient, bargained down, so that the party can remain in power. If that is the case they shouldn’t be called principles, or even values, they should be called bargaining chips.

Principles and values are what makes you stand out from the great unwashed morass of society. They aren’t something that can be compromised for the expediency of power.

Should National return to its core principles, then it may see me as a member again, until then they can forget it. People and parties that stand for nothing will fall for anything.

I think for once the government has got it right on drink driving.

They have announced today that there is to be a zero alcohol limit for driver under 20 and for repeat offenders of drink driving.

Government changes creating a zero drink-drive limit for under 20 and recidivist drink drivers found widespread support this afternoon, but both the Labour Party and an alcohol watchdog say the moves don’t go far enough.

Transport Minister Steven Joyce today announced a zero drink drive limit for recidivist drink drivers and drivers aged under 20 from early next year.

It will be imposed on drivers after their second drink driving conviction and is likely to last three years after their disqualification period ends.

But the Government didn’t lower the legal adult blood-alcohol limit from 80 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood to 50 milligrams.

Mr Joyce said that the Government will first do some New Zealand-specific research on the level of risk posed by drivers with a blood alcohol limit between 0.05 and 0.08.

I think they have got the balance right here. I’m not convinced on the general limit being lowered, but then I don’t drink and drive at all. If I am driving then i don’t touch a drop. Having a zero limit for recidivists is a brilliant move, though i suspect the drunks will still roll out thinking they can run the gauntlet…they have already proven their mental incapacity by driving drunk in the first place.

It seems that the public agree with the changes as well, especially for under 20 drivers. The Herald poll that goes with the story shows that 91% of respondents agree with the government. Labour of course disagrees, like the idiots they are.

But Labour said the Government had attempted to kick the issue of drink driving into touch by postponing a decision.

Labour’s transport safety spokeswoman Darien Fenton said the Government had failed to act decisively over the issue.

“Anything that will save lives on our roads is worth doing,” he said.

Darien Fenton is a miserable wench. She has a perpetual smack bum look about her that even the most talented photoshopper would have trouble fixing. Glad to see she is advocating the removal of all vehicles from the road, I hope Labour takes that position into the election, after all having no vehicles would definitely save lives and Darien Fenton thinks that is worth doing.

In other road related matters I had an email from an expert in roading matters who suggested, in relation to doddery old fools driving the wrong way down motorways, that the matter could be solved easily.

Surely the way would be to ban all traffic on motorways unless it is travelling on the wrong side.

This would deal with the difficulties 83 year old unlicenced drivers have, and would also allow us to import left hand drive cars to capitalise on the change.

In one quick move we could legalise Chevy Suburbans and Cadillac Escalades to allow more greens to be carried in one vehicle.

Then we could be like Samoa.

Yesterday was the the day that was 1 month till my court date for the 10 charges I have.

Today I got back in the gym. I am going to be training hard for the 25th August. I am treating it as a boxing match and I have 4 weeks left to prepare.

You can help me pay my legal bills by buying some Whaleoil merchandise, plus the added benefit of having an army of supporters all turn up in uniform on court day.

Shop for a personalized gift at Zazzle.