Kiwiblog

Bruce Bartlett writes on why he thinks the (US) Libertarian Party is bad for the cause of libertarianism. He believes that libertarian-leaning activists have been drawn away from the Republican Party and the Democratic Party by the LP, leaving the major parties with fewer libertarians.

He also calls the Libertarian Party essentially a debating club where only one question is ever debated — who is the purest libertarian and what is the purest libertarian position?

His solution is to wind up the Libertarian Party and replace it with a lobby group, which would hire lobbyists, run advertisements and donate contributions to candidates supporting libertarian ideas

I know of quite a few US libertarians who would agree and don’t think having a Libertarian Party helps their cause. Likewise in the UK, the Libertarian Alliance has a long standing policy of not contesting elections but being a society where libertarians of all strands can discuss and promote ideas.

Something that would be useful in NZ (regardless of whether the Libertarianz stand or not – a decision purely up to them) would be a libertarian guide to candidates and parties, perhaps giving each of them an average libertarian score. Rodney would probably be 9/10, Don Brash 7/10 etc and at the other end Jim Anderton 0/10, Winston 1/10, Helen Clark 3/10 etc.

On an entirely selfish front I enjoy having the Libertarianz stand candidates. In Wellington Central hearing Bernard Darnton advocate for the total removal of the state from health in response to a question on how to reduce waiting lists was wonderful to hear the audience gasp. He got the best response in Aro Valley where the dozens of anarchists there were very supportive of some Libertarianz policies.

I’d be interested to hear views especially from Libertarianz members and candidates about whether they have recently debated whether they think they can achieve more by being a party or just being a lobby group, and what they see as the pros and cons.

Hat Tip: The Volokh Conspiracy

Tim Blair reviews the last century of environmental panic:

* In 1902, the Los Angeles Times reported that the great glaciers were undergoing “their final annihilation” due to rising temperatures.

* “Scientist says Arctic ice will wipe out Canada,” the Chicago Tribune declared on Page 1 in 1923

* In 1953, The New York Times announced that “nearly all the great ice sheets are in retreat.”

* “The rapid advance of some glaciers,” wrote Lowell Ponte in “The Cooling,” his 1976 bestseller, “has threatened human settlements in Alaska, Iceland, Canada, China, and the Soviet Union.”

“Arctic Ice Is Melting at Record Level, Scientists Say,” the Times reported in 2002.

Blair concludes:

Over the years, the alarmists have veered from an obsession with lethal global cooling around the turn of the 20th century to lethal global warming a generation later, back to cooling in the 1970s and now to warming once again. You don’t have to be a scientist to realize that all these competing narratives of doom can’t be true.

The Dominion Post laments the demise of the Basin Reserve Boxing Day Test. I couldn’t agree more and was chatting about this last week with friends. They were the perfect way to spend a couple of days between Christmas and New Year.

JibJab delivers the goods as usual, with its year in review. Go enjoy.

Heh enjoy this US-style political attack ad on Santa by the Committee to Elevate the Holiday Status of Frosty the Snowman!

My favourite Christmas song.

I’m sure that at least 48% of my readers, will especially appreciate this merry christmas message from Sweden!

I just love this photo I saw over on Jacqueline’s blog. It seems to be from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and sums up perfectly what we’ll do to keep our pets safe. I reckon the container with three cats in it would have got pretty damn heavy, and it looks to be a long walk.

Some people believe that ownership doesn’t matter with companies and for example whether a company is publicly or privately owned won’t affect its performance.

The recent problems with Vector are a good example of why this is not true, and that ownership does matter. Former director Tony Gibbs has called for the trust which owns 75% of Vector to be disbanded and shares handed over directly to consumers,

Tim Hunter in the SST also calls for the trust to quite Vector, pointing out it no longer represents all consumers or all shareholders, and that its majority ownership is the underlying factor which caused three highly experienced directors to resign.

The Herald on Sunday has a profile of Georgina Beyer who will be resigning from Parliament in February 2007.

I can’t say the Georgina has had a stellar parliamentary career. Having twice previously announced she is retiring, and then having changed her mind, she isn’t regarded as a serious player. Her biggest achievement in fact was getting into Parliament, more than anything she did once there.

Now I actually think it reflects well on New Zealand that Beyer got elected by a rural electorate such as Wairarapa, despite being transsexual and a former male prostitute. It was a wonderful display of tolerance and how people should be judged on the totality of their achievements.

But in Parliament the achievements have been few, compared to say Tim Barnett. Certainly she has been effective at countering the nonsense of Brian Tamaki and crew, but not much more than that.

Her expressed ambition to be Mayor of Wellington is one her record does not suggest she should achieve. In small towns a high profile Mayor with some character is arguably the most important characteristic. But in cities like Wellington with annual budgets of half a billion or so, one needs a competent Mayors who can help develop strategy, lead a team, consider policy and be a respected advocate. Beyer on the basis of her performance as an MP is not qualified.

Barnett is a credible contender for Mayor of Christchurch. Likewise Fran Wilde was an MP who became an excellent Mayor of Wellington. But Beyer is not in their league.

The Snowden vs Radio NZ court case has been dragging on for longer than most TV series. I’m sure it is into year five or close to that.

Anyway it looks like it might finally be at an end. God knows how much taxpayer money has been wasted on what appears to be a personality clash between Snowden and then CEO Sharon Crosbie.

Matt McCarten rates the leaders and deputies over 2006. Their scores in order:

Bill Engligh 9
Michael Cullen 9
Pita Sharples 8
Tariana Turia 7
John Key 6
Helen Clark 6
Jeanette Fitzsimons 6
Winston Peters 5
Jim Anderton 5
Peter Dunne 4
Rodney Hide 4
Russell Norman 3

And one quote I can’t resist copying:

“The real Foreign Minister is Clark. Peters’ job is to have tea with the Americans and Pacific Island despots.”

David Irving is out of jail and showing his true colours as an anti-semite. Now I actually agree that don’t think holocaust denial should be an offence (yet understand why Austria especially feels it needed to) but Irving shows his motivation is dislike or hatred of Jews, not history.

He says “Mel Gibson was right”, concurring that Jews were responsible for causing all the wars of the world and then goes on to imply that Jews are responsible for 3,000 years of hatred and pogroms against them.

So now Irving is almost suggesting the Jews deserved the Holocaust.

Finally got around to seeing the Borat movie last night. Thank God it was the 9.30 pm session and the theatre mainly empty as the two of us were laughing so loudly we needed the space. Some scenes were so hilarious that you almost fall out of your seats.

Highlights in terms of quotes:

“Quick smash and crush the Jew egg before it hatches”

“Why have you called the Police, has the retard escaped?”

There’s also one scene which almost has you felling sorry for mortgage brokers!

I don’t know how Cohen managed to produce the film without getting arrested several times during production.

It’s nice of you to try and personalise the Google pages for Xmas, but you know kangaroos for google.co.nz just isn’t fair dinkum!

Someone should send Google Head Office a copy of Google Earth so they can tell the difference between New Zealand and Australia.

UPDATE: Seems those kangaroos have taken over the planet, not just New Zealand. So we presume it is deliberate

The decision by David Benson-Pope to not ban fireworks, but reduce the number of days they are available, and also increase the age of purchase to 18 is sensible and definitely preferable over a total ban. The NZ Herald editorial concurs.

In fact hopefully this might be the start of Government and Parliament backing away from bans as a solution for everything, and a more balanced approach.

Almost every activity in society can be found to have some negative elements to it. Cellphone use in cars, party pills, fizzy drinks, fireworks etc. But so often lawmakers do not look at the other side of the equation. That hundreds of thosuands of NZers gain considerable benefit and enjoyment from all the above activities. And enjoyment may be hard to measure, but it’s pretty damn important in life.

Bernard Darnton points out that the wonderful photo of astronauts working on the International Space Station with Canterbury, Marlborough and Wellington in the background is available for free from NASA as they have waived copyright.

Good God it has taken twelve months of denial for Helen Clark to now state the obvious – that Taito Phillip Field’s behaviour was at least unethical and possibly illegal also.

At first she defended him of being guilty of nothing more than wanting to help constituents. Then it was he has been cleared. Then it was he may have made errors of judgement.

It has been documented for some months that Field gave false evidence to the Ingram Inquiry. That by itself should have been enough to lead to disciplinary action, regardless of the police inquiry.

ACT showed how this can be done with Awatere-Huata. They booted her from Caucus within a few months. And not on the basis of the criminal charges she was facing, but on the basis that regardless of those her behaviour had been unethical, that she had lied to her colleagues and they could not trust here anymore.

With Field there are strong grounds for suspension from Caucus. He was heavily criticised by the Ingram Inquiry, and since then it has been clear his evidence was false (Ingram himself casts great doubt on it also).

It is quite unacceptable for Field to be drawing a MPs salary for doing nothing for month after month. Labour need to at a minimum get him out of their Caucus or they will continue to be seen as unconcerned over his activities.

There are also some huge questions still unresolved over the role of Field’s ministerial colleagues who gave so many Ministerial decisions in his favour. The evidence that the Associate Minister had been warned of Field’s activities yet took no action is extremely strong.

I don’t think I can recall a major company CEO being so scathing about his own company, as this outburst from TelstraClear CEO Allan Freeth. Some highlights:

* TelstraClear is on a “trajectory to disaster”
* The company was being “out-marketed, out-smarted and out-gunned” in the marketplace
* We are not Uma Thurman in Kill Bill, we are more like Captain Feathersword in The Wiggles, all bluster and no action
* Based on our current forecast, we will be anorexic and starving by the end of the this financial year.
* Our Chairman last week accused me of running a company that ‘was out of control’
* We are slowly and gradually losing customers
* We still work in silos and talk about them and us
* People still continue to be focused on their pet projects or the fact they want this or that done regardless of what’s happening around them, the context has changed, its like petulant teenagers throwing a tantrum against the real world.

TelstraClear do need to lift their game in my opinion. I think we are seeing some great innovation from the small to medium ISPs such as Orcon, Callplus, Ihug, Inspire, Woosh etc. plus of course Vodafone. It’s no longer just Telecom vs TelstraClear.

Oh yesterday was a fun day. Finally Wellington has some decent weather so the day started with a BBQ at a law firm at midday. That went on until around 4 pm with much good wine, and then headed down to Leuven with Nikki who is over from the UK for a few days. Ended up at Leuven for six hours or so with friends of Nikki, but also as I saw familiar faces walk past on Lampton Quay, texted them to join me. Over the six hours there were a dozen or so people.

Then a bit after 10 pm a couple of journos rang, and they were in Cuba Street, so six of us then headed down to Fidels on Cuba Street where we celebrated Kate’s new job. A bit after midnight as things were slowing down, we then headed back to the Quest Apartments where Nikki was staying and made our way through a couple more bottles. Got home a bit after 1 am.

Despite what was a very enjoyable 13 hour wine drinking session, no ill effects today because regular food throughout. That is the golden rule – no drinking without food!

I always say the most enjoyable events are the unplanned ones. I had figured getting home from the BBQ around 2 pm and carrying on working. Never thought we would still be going at 1 am!

Book Seven has a name. It would be unfortunate if J K Rowling died before she finished the book. There would probably be a spate of suicides in despair!

Most people will be finishing work for the year today or tomorrow, so this is as good a time as any for a personal year in review.

At year’s end, one instinctively thinks the year has gone by really quickly, but when I look back I’m amazed how much has happened this year, and in fact stuff I did in early 2006 seems like it happened years ago.

It has been, for me personally, a very good year. Lots and lots of highlights and few regrets. The year started for me in -30C in Canada and will end on a hopefully very hot beach in Golden Bay in ten days time. Highlights have been:

1) Canada. I had a great start to the year with a fun New Year Eve’s party in Canada, and all that time spent outdoors in -30C temperatures and feet of snow was made worthwhile with my mate defeating a Cabinet Minister to win his seat. Was a terrifiic experience.

2) Friends. So few of my friends live in Wellington now, it can be hard to catch up, but really pleased that I have had time to go to Taupo, Hamilton, Auckland, London etc and catch up with mates.

3) ICANN. Hosting the ICANN meeting in Wellington was a huge challenge with 700 delegates from 90+ countries, but it went superbly well. On top of chairing the organising committee I had the fun job of being the MC in the bar every night running quiz nights, insulting Australians etc. The feedback from participants was that we put on a great conference. As part of the original bid committee in 2004, it was nice to have got it all behind us.

4) Port Douglas. The perfect way to spend winter in NZ is to escape it for a bit. The week or so in Port Douglas was lovely. Great weather, great activities, great hotel and great companionship.

5) Reagan & Thatcher. Politically it doesn’t get better than going to the Reagan Ranch in July and then meeting Mrs Thatcher in November. Both incredibly rare events. But equally good was the time with friends before and after the events. The Las Vegas holiday afterwards was first class. Only downside of these international political events is my constant falling for people who live 10,000+ kms away.

6) Curia. It has been a real year of growth for my polling company. The diversity of work we do has expanded, as has the diversity of clients. Now got a good mixture of clients both domestically and internationally, and domestically they range from political to lobby and industry groups to outright commercial. Going to need to do a big hiring binge early 2007.

7) Media. The year started with me on TV One talking about telco issues from Taupo and this week also on TV One talking about digital copyright. But not just on Internet issues. I’ve been on radio as a defender of Southpark, a commentator on Agenda and The Panel and of course in NBR as a favourite target I no longer keep count but guess 15 or so TV spots, several dozen radio and scores of print. Just as importantly I don’t think I screwed up majorly on any by saying something incredibly stupid or wrong!
Kiwiblog. Huge relief to find a new host for the blog (thanks Inspire Net) and to have some of the performance issues resolved. The ever increasing readership continues to startle me, and the positive feedback from many media and MPs on it helps keep the motivation going. The blog profile has also led to numerous speaking engagements at rotary clubs etc, and also an increasing amount of consulting work with corporates etc on their online communications programme. Plus there is work in progress on enhanced advertising revenues from the blog, and also a couple of other things I can’t yet reveal. Most of all I still enjoy doing it.

9) Family. Having a niece is very cool. You get to do the fun stuff. She is now three.

10) Legislation. I’ve had fairly major engagement with three bills this year, and minor engagement with a fourth, All have gone the way I wanted it, and I enjoy greatly being able to influence policy and laws, without actually having to put up with the crap which comes with standing for Parliament. As part of the InternetNZ team (and it is very much a team) I’ve appeared at select committees on the anti-spam bill and the telecommunication amendment bill. In both cases the select committee recommendations were incredibly close to what we were asking for, and significant changes from the draft bill. Also had great fun with the Keepit18 campaign which also proved somewhat influential.

So looking back on the year, there has been a hell of a lot of activity, so really my resolutions for 2007 will probably just be to have as much fun as in 2006, which again has been a very good year indeed!

The Government has accidentially given away $143 million in student loans writeoffs, in breach of the law and policy. They are going to seek most of that back from borrowers.

What amazes me though in the stories, is that there isn’t a single question about accountability and resignations or sackings. It’s just taken for granted that no-one will be held accountable.

Coudl you imagine if this was a private sector company and someone fucked up and made a $143 million error. There would be no question at all that people would be sacked for this. The only question would be how many, and does it include the Chief Executive.

An interesting article from 2002 on Phil Verry, the man who claims Richard Prebble was referring to him as a suspect in the Brash stolen e-mails:

“BNZ went into crisis mode last year when managing director Peter Thodey received threatening letters and phone calls from Maori separatist organisation New Zealand Armed Intervention Force (NZAIF), claiming to be acting for a customer with a grievance.

Internal BNZ documents NBR obtained show Mr Thodey was approached by disgruntled BNZ customer Phillip Verry, a Christchurch accountant who has a high profile as an outspoken critic of the Wool Board, and his self-styled “negotiator” Kelvyn Alp, a Maori who set up the NZAIF.

Mr Verry, a conspiracy theorist who blames BNZ for many of New Zealand’s problems, claimed BNZ owed him and his business associates $8.3 million after his import company, Khaya Holdings, failed and the family was forced to sell its 1600ha family farm…

…Mr Thodey appealed to the police for help last February after receiving the series of intimidating letters from Mr Verry and night-time visits from Mr Alp and other members of the NZAIF dressed in military garb at his home in Remuera, Auckland.

“These events have significantly impacted on my family and myself, and… I believe my statement shows a very threatening escalation by Messrs Verry and Alp. I firmly believe from their comments (written and verbal) that these men feel that they are above the law,” Mr Thodey said.

A rather interesting character, to put it mildly.

Hat Tip: Mulholland Drive

Peter Dunne has produced his annual list of the worst behaving MPs. This is based just on getting ejected from the House or forced to withdraw and apologise. It doesn’t cover things like giving the fingers repeatedly to other MPs as Ron Mark did.

Nick Smith tops the list with five expulsions and six apologies for 21 points. Nats also come in 2nd and 3rd with Tau Henare on 14 points and Gerry Brownlee on 12. Gerry shows great cunning having had to do 12 withdrawals but not been expelled once. He knows just how far he can push the Speaker!

The next ones are Winston Peters (11), Trevor Mallard 9), Dover Samuels (9), Bill English (9) and David Bennett (9).

Peters of course has been absent a lot and Mallard doesn’t get points for muck-raking unless it resulted in a warning in the House.

Most improved is Rodney Hide who won it in 2005 and doesn’t feature this year.