Feeding the monkeys

Welcome back Agenda, and a special Nice to See Ya to Jane Clifton, who begins a new column called Political Animals. Today's stream well and truly takes the piss.

Remember Iraq?

Bill Maher gets his Bring the Troops Home kite shot down by CNN reporter in Baghdad, Michael Ware:

4:20 News

Image from Scoop

NZ soldiers face court martial over alleged hashish use. So much for when in Rome... And I dispute the statistic at the bottom of the article, which says "The NZDF has a low level of drug abuse. Only one percent test positive in random drug tests." Can't find a link, but a Victoria University thesis last year put the Defence Force's illicit drug use as much higher than one percent.

In that bastion of liberal drug laws, Texas, a defendant has successfully argued that smoking pot is a medical necessity: "[B]reaking the law was necessary to prevent a harm worse than the one the law is aimed at preventing."

After accusations that the Executive Director of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs was treating Civil Society with tokenism, the man has since stated that the international drug control system is not ‘fit for purpose:’

“Looking back over the last century, we can see that the control system and its application have had several unintended consequences - they may or may not have been unexpected but they were certainly unintended.” (p.10)

“The first unintended consequence is a huge criminal black market that thrives in order to get prohibited substances from producers to consumers, whether driven by a 'supply push’ or a 'demand pull', the financial incentives to enter this market are enormous. There is no shortage of criminals competing to claw out a share of a market in which hundred fold increases in price from production to retail are not uncommon”. (p.10)

“The second unintended consequence is what one night call policy displacement. Public health, which is clearly the first principle of drug control…was displaced into the background”. (p.10)

“The third unintended consequence is geographical displacement. lt is often called the balloon effect because squeezing (by tighter controls) one place produces a swelling (namely an increase)in another place…” (p.10)

“A system appears to have been created in which those who fall into the web of addiction find themselves excluded and marginalized from the social mainstream, tainted with a moral stigma, and often unable to find treatment even when they may be motivated to want it.” (p.11)

“The concept of harm reduction is often made into an unnecessarily controversial issue as if there were a contradiction between (i) prevention and treatment on one hand and (ii) reducing the adverse health and social consequences of drug use on the other hand. This is a false dichotomy. These policies are complementary. (p.18)

“It stands to reason, then, that drug control, and the implementation of the drug Conventions, must proceed with due regard to health and human rights.” (p.19)

Better late than never, eh.

Spotless Mind

New Scientist highlights a form of anaesthetics that erases painful memories.

No. No no no no no no. Whew.

Pawn Show

TVNZ7 launches this Sunday with a High Noon Debate between the minor party leaders. Hat Tip I/S.

Dear John (Ansell)

Dear John (Key)

Eternal Sunshine of the Ideologically Freehold

Well bugger me, I've gone and joined the Act party again. Ever since my membership with the Labour Party lapsed over a year ago, I was quite enjoying the self-sanctimonious everyman's land of no party affiliation. But there's a very interesting election on its way, and it's time to choose sides. Here's how it went:

Gudday Roger,

It is with great interest that I read of your return to the Act party, on both personal and national interest levels.

On a personal level, I voted Act in 2005, but I cannot honestly say that Act is going to get it this year, way things are going. Key is gonna hoover up that vote. I don't want to vote Nat, as there are too many philosophical differences between me and their leader. That is, I haven't been able to spot a philosophical bone in that man's body. Everyone believes in something, for Dagg's sake.

I have issues with both the current president and vice-president of Act. Mallett's a wingnut and Loudon is somewhere to the right of Hitler. Rodney is the right man for the leadership, and a salesman. I re-joined Act when the leadership vote to replace Richard Prebble began. I voted for Rodney then, and I voted for the right man. He just needs someone to slap him back into the concise anger of the status quo. If it is necessary to re-join Act to make you president again and, say, Priscilla Tate for vice-president, so be it.

In the public interest, Act has provided an invaluable brains trust and policy-setter for parliament. e.g. Treaty Settlements Deadline. It's a shame Act got culled last election, losing much of its research and policy analysis funding as a result. Heather has been giving it a good belt with what she has. But without the backup, there's only enough power being generated to light a dim bulb in the whole of Parliament.

Here's hoping your return to the fold returns Act to the vigorous potential it had back in the 90's. Here's hoping Act is known once more as the party party, the party of new ideas, the party of freedom. Here's hoping it's not just the 80's policies in new togs.

Cheers,

Will de Cleene

Roger sez,"Thanks for your email. I'll look forward to seeing you at an Act event soon." That's it, I'm off to the Act conference in Panmure. Once again, I end up crashing at RRB's house on the North Shore. His missus says gudday and calls me a political whore. "Not true", I reply. "Whores get paid."

Next day, I'm giving Auckland's bus service a blat. Take a 757 from Britomart to Panmure Basin. Takes the good part of an hour, even with the few stops it made to let passengers on and off. Pity the poor buggers doing the rush hour trip. My Wellington tan still made me the whitest person on the bus for the whole ride.

It was fun watching the suburbs change along the bus route. Wow, those Scene apartments are new. Vector Arena advertising Duran Duran. All along the waterfront to Mission Bay and beyond, not a single passenger on or off. Travelling along the black road between sand and glass. Heat haze on the harbour, glad I brought my water bottle.

Through Grey Lynn Glen Innes and the clapped-out clapboard working class housing estates. Beauty passes eyes lowered, a tidy section the best one can hope for. Through the industrial warehouse and manufacturing plants decorated with dull concrete lawns and wire hedges. Naked tit of Mt Wellington the lone landmark. Everyone off at Panmure. My own public private touring bus! The excellent chauffeur drops me at the right spot, a cigarette's length from the conference venue.

Straight to the bar, order a pint. "Nice weather we're having," I say to the barman as he pours, just as it starts raining on the balcony. The Black Caps are not doing well, and the beer goes quickly.

Go to the registration desk and Act president Gary Mallett introduces himself. Yeah, gudday. Gary Mallett used to be a Hamilton city councillor. Turns out he worked with my brother back in the 90's on a marketing scheme to move Hamilton away from its moo-cow image to a research and technology brand. The idea was dumped on by the then-mayor, a loon who wanted the main street lined with cow mannequins.

Maybe this Mallett guy is not so much of a wingnut after all. My opinion was largely based on the one time time I had heard Mallett speak in public at the Political Funding symposium last year. He gave a one-dimensional "freedom, freedom, freedom" argument which did not go down well. Time for a re-appraisal.

Have a word to an Act member, who spins the yarn about the Act on Campus stunt, where membership came with a packet of party pills. Well done, I say. Anything that makes Jim Anderton grumpy can't be wrong. I missed a scoop, but discretion comes at a high price, eh.

Shake hands with vice-president Trevor Loudon. While his dedicated hatred of socialists has its uses, it is a distraction that does not need to hang around the Act leadership. Rodney has done well at purging the spirit of Donna. Last thing Act needs is to be portrayed as a far-right gestapo party. In a closed session of Act's AGM, Trevor Loudon was replaced and Gary Mallett was re-selected as president. Good.

My brother, Randy Gonzales, turns up. Haven't seen him in, what, four years. Traditional greeting; firm handshake and bland pleasantries. Time for a screening of We're Here to Help. Not a bad little movie, although I reckon Michael Hurst is miscast as Rodney Hide.

Adjourn to the bar with Fairfacts Media from No Minister, Priscilla and Randy. We are off the record, Fairfacts! Priscilla Tate, like Brian Nicolle and many others in Act, comes from the activist branch of the Labour party. It's a fact easily forgotten by the MSM, although Roger Douglas was a Labour Minister under the Kirk and Rowling governments, as well as the Lange one.

The former Labour party supporters are there the following day. The hippy from Huntly, the artist from Eastbourne, the woman who helps disabled people become self-employed. We stand in stark contrast to Muriel Newman, who gets up on stage and declares that climate change is a fraud. When will we be rid of this turbulent prig? I thought that the last election had made it crystal clear that the people didn't want Muriel near the levers of power ever again. Sure, attack the carbon emissions trading scheme, but don't pretend to be a climate change denier. That's just flaky.

If the government can miscalculate our carbon bill by a billion dollars, and screw up the provisional tax calculation by $600 million, there's a fairly good chance we'll be pwned by prime minister Putin in no time by the proposed carbon credit scheme. Likewise, I have a nagging feeling that a new government is going to find a nasty surprise hidden in the numbers when they open the books post-election. Roger Douglas may be the right man at the right time once more.

John Key's dissing of Douglas makes the last taxi on the rank comment by Clark look lame in comparison. Which, coming from a man who had no comment on the Auckland Airport sale until he had consulted his minders, seems vastly out of character. As Chris Trotter observes, Key is That Girl.

What "right wing agenda" is John Key referring to? Ditching Working For Families and swapping with the first $30,000 income tax-free? Maybe John Key prefers people to be addicted to the public tit. De-institutionalised education? I'm sure such a thing could be sold to Russell Brown, given the right pitch. Decriminalise cannabis? Hell, I'm sure DPF would go along with that, as opposed to the Nat ban on BZP.

Y'see, I see Act as a bridge between party political differences, not the far-right tag that the MSM are keen on reinforcing. As long as Act can provide a path to economic prosperity while assuring the rights of people to have different goals, ensuring that no-one is worse off than before, then I'm in.

If Roger Douglas, Richard Prebble and Rodney Hide can put aside their differnces for the public good, then there is a chance that some good can come out of this MMP environment. Otherwise, we might as well be damned and go back to FPP and the two-horse race.

UPDATE: Roger Douglas also has a go at the "hard right" label in today's Herald.

Thorndon Ghost World

Jesus, what's up with Thorndon Village? Deserted restaurants shut up and for sale, empty shops and cafes making a toothless grin along the street. It's bad enough that Lambton Quay through to Molesworth has a range of vacant or derelict space. Now the gentrified suburb of Thorndon is getting squeezed, where will it all end?

BSG IV 4/4/08

Who is the last cylon? John Key Helen Clark Roger Douglas Winston Peters view results

If you haven't watched Battlestar Gallactica but want to see what the fuss is about, here's the official eight minute recap, What the Frak?

Unfortunate Juxtaposition

Super High Me

In the spirit of Morgan Spurlock's Super Size Me, Doug Benson has made Super High Me. Wired has the story, but here's the short for it:

The Diary of A. Universe, Aged 13 and Three-quarters

2008 is a humdinger of a year for science projects. As well as the Large Hadron Collider warming up, the WMAP has reported back on its findings. This is what your universe looks like:



Hat Tip Bad Astronomer, via /.

38 times around the sun

Cork count time. Annual domestic consumption for a single male. Mostly stevlins but a few corks too:





What's the frequency, DPF?