Kiwiblog

1. Jenna Raeburn blogs her submission to the Law Commission’s alcohol law review. I like her opening point “We would add to this that “getting drunk” is not harmful in and of itself, and is almost always a positive experience for young people.”
2. Eric Crampton also blogs his submission with Matt Burgess, focusing on the economic issues.
3. The Dim-Post has a hilarious interveiw with John Key.
4. Clare Curran talks about how the Internet is changing the world.
5. Whale Oil has audit reports and spending details for Te Reo Marama – a Maori anti-smoking group. The audit details are to come, but the travel details alone are staggering. Journalists should be asking questions.
6. Cactus Kate is campaigning for Lisa Lewis to be on The Apprentice.
7. Infometrics blog on the benefits of bilateral FTAs
8. Russel Brown praises John Key saying “the sometimes inarticulate and politically unworldly Leader of the Opposition has offered real management talent now that he’s actually in charge.”

1. MacDoctor highlights how the stories of complaints about ACC are ceasing funding a “world-leading” programme is only half as effective and six times as expensive as the replacement course. So the headline should really be about how the new ACC programme is 12 times as effective for the cost.
2. Colin Espiner thinks the Prime Minister should have his own plane.
3. Cactus Kate admonishes Rodney Hide for his air travel, but also points out the media have not reported the costs correctly.
4. Whale Oil shows up a recent smear by Eddie at The Standard, purporting to be concern.
5. Iain Dale blogs on how parents in Watford can no longer enter a playground with their children, but have to “wait outside the railings whilst council-employed “play facilitators” assist the children”. Political Correctness gone mad,
6. Andrew Bolt responds to a left columnist who stated “It takes a certain person to rejoice in the suffering of others. In the real world they’re called sociopaths – in politics, they’re called conservatives.”

1. Scrubone blogs that the Obama Administration have now actively tried to ban Fox News reporters from a press poll interview. Who would have thought Muldoon’s tactics against Tom Scott would be emulated by the US Democratic Party.
2. Whale Oil blogs a 2008 invitation to a fund-raising dinner with a Labour Cabinet Minister, and highlights their hypocrisy in attacking ACT for doing the same thing.
3. Stephen Franks blogs on his experiences with ACC reform.
4. Aaron Bhatnagar blogs in favour of Rodney Hide’s plan to force local Councils to do the equivalent of the Government’s PREFU, or pre-election fiscal update. I agree.
5. Homepaddock covers the Wanaka “perfect woman” contest. They have to open a bottle of Speights without a bottle opener, change a tyre, back a truck, clear 10 balls from a pool table, sky dive, swing a gate, shear a sheep, shoot clay birds, and hit a target with water from a fire hose. The winner was Melissa Brewster, a helicopter engineer!

1. Nandor Tancos says Keith Locke’s Head of State bill should go to a select committee to generate debate, but does not want it passed without an exploration of wider constitutional issues.
2. Bryce Edwards has a comprehensive piece on the splintering of the Greens, and how the Greens have become more centrist with their mission being to “save capitalism” as Russel Norman put it.
3. Tim Watkin blogs on the significance of what US Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said on Q&A. The media all missed that he effectively said Obama will announce his position on trade at APEC.
4. Cactus Kate has fun at my expense.
5. Liberty Scott blogs on how Geert Wilders was greeted in the UK with chants of “burn in hell”, “Sharia for UK” and a banner saying “Sharia is the solution, freedom go to hell”.
6. Busted Blonde is abused by Bob Jones.
7. Whale Oil finds look a like logos for Telecom.

1. Cactus Kate thinks appointing Michael Stiassny as the receiver for Crafer Farms is having the punishment fit the crime
2. Phil Twyford blogs on war, peace and pacifism.
3. Richard Long writes on how the history of NZ and Samoa has not always been so cosy.
4. Colin James covers the recent Blue-Greens conference noting in 2002 Three National MPs were members, and now there are 18.
5. Bryce Edwards blogs on the growing professionalism of party campaigning
6. No Right Turn has the good news that all select committees can now accept submissions electronically. Excellent.
7. Trevor Mallard blogs his denial of an alleged rumour, as a way to ensure the rumour gets plenty of notice. Propaganda 101.
8. Tim Selwyn at Tumeke covers the sentence of Taito Phillip Field, noting “With Mike Williams as President of the party, with Helen as PM, with Cullen as the deputy, and with Margaret Wilson as the Speaker the government had become so sleazed up that an MP as corrupt as Field was tolerated for as long as they possibly could. It’s not a pleasant passage in the annals of the NZ Labour Party.”
9. Cactus Kate (again) has a thoughtful piece on har far is too far when attacking someone.
10. Whale Oil solves two problems at once by suggesting the Palmerston North be turned into a quarantine station for Gingas
11. Liberty Scott muses on whether the TPK funding of the Maori TV bid breaches our WTO obligations.
12. MacDoctor has the worrying news that the US Federal Trade Commission is now trying to regulate bloggers.
13. Roarprawn defends the Maori TV bid for the RWC coverage and says people should get over it.

1. Lindsay Mitchell has some kittens looking for a good home.
2. Cactus Kate blogs on the Lisa Lewis vs Steve Crow match on TV3 last night.
3. Alastair Campbell blogs on why Angela Merkel will be re-elected.
4. Phil Twyford blogs on Republicanism

One of the particular aspects of blogging which really sets it apart from more traditional forms of media is the instant feedback generated through reader comments.  I was delighted the first comment (FIRST!) on my first post (FIRST!) was a rather clever reference to the origins of my blog name.  Kudos to dog_eat_dog.

However, phil u felt obliged to imply that my first post was actually rather boring.  As a regular reader of quality political blogs, I naturally had no idea who he was.  Thanks to the wonders of Google I eventually found his site which appears to consist of him posting media articles seven times a day.  He doesn’t even make little editorial comments like David P Farrar does (“Pleased to see Lady Thatcher agrees with the post I made last week on this very subject…” or “I said the exact same thing to my good friend the Dalai Lama at the gym.”)

Burrowing through phil u’s archives, I came across one of his earliest posts entitled “apologies to readers.”  I expect he has produced a similarly-worded post every week since 2005 but I could not be bothered checking.  He wrote:

any readers(?) of this site should be aware that this is the bare bones/ first days of [this website].

Points for honesty on the readership levels if nothing else.

being technical luddites we are reliant on those who know how to do that stuff to do it for us.  they are otherwise engaged at the moment but i have been told i could get hopeful this weekend, or soon after.

Next on the technical to-do list – install a computer with a Shift key to enable use of capital letters.

so bells, whistles, and more links than you can shake a stick at, (all our stories/reports will link to our sources; this in the cultivation of a culture of transperancy), are just part of the upcoming menu.

It would seem that phil u, not Al Gore as previously thought, invented the concept of linking articles on the internet.  Spell-checking does not seem to have appeared at any stage on the upcoming menu.

whoar.co.nz will, among other things, become an apolitical (as in editorial stance) forum for (we hope) reasoned political/social debate, with lashings of humour. so, bear with us. all this and more, (as they say), will be revealed soon.

I guess the reference to being apolitical could broadly be considered humorous (if unintentionally) but the claims to “lashings of humour” surely need examined by the Advertising Standards Authority.  At least the ( and ) key work on his keyboard…

Given it is just the Internet after all, I have decided to simply continue to aggravate phil u in my own way by using capitals and punctuation appropriately.  I belief his unique writing style is based on a horribly misguided political philosophy – I think he honestly believes that you can’t have capitalism without capitals.

1. Bryce Edwards summarises a study of the television coverage of the 2008 election. It’s disappointing how little focus on policy there was.
2. Claire Trevett’s unofficial John Key’s Pacific Diary is a great read.
3. The Dim-Post suggests Phil Goff needs to give a speech repudiating their nanny state legacy. I hope Goff doesn’t take his advice.
4. Trevor Loudon reveals the new President of the NDU used to be a Young National!
5. Toad thinks private income protection insurance is the same as being on the dole. He gets savaged in his comments section, and Whale responds here.
6. Tony Milne ponders opposition politics.
7. MacDoctor blogs on obesity and how an obese parent makes a child six to ten times more likely to be obese. So regulating school tuck shops is not the answer. An excellent post.

1. MacDoctor laughs at Jetstar blaming their bad press on Air New Zealand. I agree with MacDoctor that the wounds seem to be all self inflicted. Their attitude seems to have been the opposite of Ansett when they first started in NZ – which was to go overboard to make customers feel valued.
2. Matthew Flannagan examines the claims that the Bible teaches that a rape victim has to marry her rapist, and does a very good rebuttal of the claim.
3. Gonzo blogs that the first series of Mr Gormsby is now available at NZ on Screen. Great.
4. Whale Oil blogs that Pearl Going has tried to involve the Police with regards to her claims of defamatory statements on websites about her. If correct, this is disturbing behaviour. One should not be using the Police to try and silence criticism of you. If the criticism is false there are civil remedies available.

1. The Dim-Post on how John Key will use Gandalf the Grey to save the economy.
2. Tracy Watkins expresses concern that some Ministers are already using the “It’s operational” excuse to avoid comment.
3. Iain Lees-Galloway at Red Alert is blogging his trip to the UK Parliament. This is a very smart thing to do, and other MPs should consider similiar when they are on taxpayer funded overseas travel – let the public get live updates of what you are doing.
4. Aaron Bhatnagar blogs the Auckland City Council submission on the new Auckland Council.
5. Blaise Drinkwater blogs some recent Electoral Commission decisions. The most significant is that Laboru declared a major donor (over $20,000) six months later. But they escape prosecution as the time limit for prosecution expired.

1. The Lumiere is campaigning for censorship reform, contrasting the costs for DVDs to be classified against the ease for films on TV to be shown. It’s a very interesting post.
2. Tim Blair focuses on the verbal incontinence of Joe Biden.
3. Jim Donovan looks at Government spending.
4. Cactus Kate warns people off investing in Cynotech Holdingss, in her normal subtle way:
   May I say that letting Allan Hawkins near your hard-earned money is as stupid as letting a paedophile babysit your children, an alcoholic work as a taster in a brewery and a drug addict run a pharmacy. He’s a convicted fraudster.
5. Michael Ellis points out to Russel Norman, that the Greens have a more European caucus than National.
6. Guido Fawkes compares the possibility of Gordon Brown appointing Ed Balls as Chancellor of the Exchequer,  to Caligula trying to make his Horse a Consul.

1. Cactus Kate blogs on her pity for journalists and her dealings with Fairfax. She also has some insights into how women journalists are pushed into writing fluff rather than harder news and analysis
2. David Cohen quotes Popper to Jon Johansson re the Brash e-mails.
3. Steven Price blogs that John Campbell may be compelled to give evidence against his will.
4. Gordon Campbell writes on loan sharks and the Chauvel bill.
5. Paul Walker argues against eminent domain and points out private developers manage to negotiate land sucessfully without having coercive powers.
6. Dave at Big News quotes a radio report that Christine Rankin was not dancing with her future husband on election night, that in fact he was not there. Media have cited this as fact, so I hope someone has checked if it is true.
7. Guyon Espiner blogs five examples of National MPs not communicating with each other. His  blog should be read out at Caucus!
8. Client Heine blogs on how it has emerged that 13 year old Alfie in the Uk is not the father of the then 15 year old Chantelle’s baby – that in fact there are 11 potential fathers, one of whom has been confirmed as the father. I’m one of the least moralistic people around on sex, but really 11 different sexual partners by 15 is umm, well rather slappierish to put it mildly. And yes I would be equally appalled at a 15 year old boy who has had 11 sexual partners.

1. Aaron Bhatnagar lashes Bob Harvey for his demented idea to transfer all the assets of Waitakere City from public control into a private trust.
2. Ian Wishart asks why an alleged affair of a mere Families Commissioner is deemed highly newsworthy, yet alleged involvement in b&d schoolboy fantasies by the then Minister of Education was deemed not relevant. My position is that neither are relevant to the jobs, but the media has been highly inconsistent.
3. Idiot/Savant at No Right Turn also says Rankin’s private life is not relevant – that Commissioners are not “moral exemplars” but “advocates for the interests of families generally”
4. Blair Mulholland is now the father of twin daughters. Congratulations and good luck!

1. Conservative Home blogs a UK poll that has Labour at 20%, and even lower at 17% for European elections – equal to the UK Independence Party.
2. Lew blogs at Kiwi Politico that he left should stop treating the Maori Party as their enemy.
3. Aaron Bhatnagar blogs that the $20,000 limit for contracts that can be signed without approval from the Transition Authority is a bit low. I agree $100,000 or so would be more sensible.
4. Adam Smith has discovered the Obameter – tracking Obama’s campaign promises. To date of the 500 promises 29 have been implemented, seven compromised, six broken, seven stalled, 63 underway and 404 yet to start. We should have such a tool here.
5. Eric Crampton is impressed that Wolfram Alpha knows the answer to “What is the meaning of life” is 42. I’m not surprised – after all geeks programmed it!
6. No Right Turn supports a bill drafted by Charles Chauvel, in Lianne Dalziel’s name, that will end provocation as a defence. After the McNee case, I also support it ending.
7. Farmgirl responds to the Mike King piece on sow crating, and says pig farmers don’t like doing it, but it is the only way to compete with overseas farmers who do.
8. Iain Dale blogs a sign seen in a window in a Notting hill store – “No more than one Member of Parliament in this shop at any given time. — The Management.” – Heh I love it.

1. Whale Oil has eye witness accounts of what appears to be highly inappropriate behaviour from former Labour MP and City Vision Councillor Richard Northey
2. No Right Turn points out National has rolled over the interim definition of funding for parliamentary purposes, or the pledge card legalisation law. Most of what NRT says in his post is hysterical nonsense (especially his disgusting attacks on the Auditor-General) but he does have a point over rolling the definition over. This is undesirable. It is rolled over until end of 2010, purportably to then allow it to be reviewed in light of new electoral finance laws. I hope it will not survive beyond 2010, as election pledge cards released days before an election should not be funded from parliamentary budgets. I will follow this closely in 2010.
3. Roger Kerr writes on how privatising SOEs could boost GDP by 1%. I hope National will campaign in 2011 on considering the merits of SOEs that are competitive businesses having at least partial floats.
4. Chris Trotter is enthused by Bob McChesney’s prescription for the media. Personally it horrifies me – I prefer media not to be owned by the Government.
5. Busted Blonde blogs on all those trying to get free power due to the post-Muliaga guidelines.
6. Andrew Bolt has a list of top 10 global warming myths. The World Meteorological Organisation disagrees.
7. Alastair Campbell blogs that Gordon Brown should take up David Cameron’s invitation for the UK party leaders to meet to agree on some principles for MPs expenses. I’m going to blog separately on this topic.
8. Throng has critical comment on the Napier siege coverage.

1. Rob Hosking at NBR looks at Mt Albert. He also makes some astute observations that almost all of the issues Labour is pushing are beltway issues of concern to few people. He concludes the seat is Labour’s to lose.
2. Gooner at no Minister is concerned for David Bain’s poor memory.
3. Roarprawn approves of Murray MCcully giving $5.6 million to help treat blindness in the Pacific via the Fred Hollows Foundation.
4. Whale Oil has a Twitter screen shot of Labour MP Clare Curran saying “rodney hide gives me the creeps”. Pretty pathethic.
5. Editing the Herald reports on a nastygram from the Herald’s lawyers over their banner. While the Herald has every right to protect its trademarks, I must say a polite request to stop would go down far better than immediate threats to sue.
6. Chris Keall at NBR looks at the Vodafone vs Telecom lawsuit

1. Trainee journalist Sandra Dickson blogs on why she is not going to become a journalist.
2. Tumeke celebrate their 4th birthday. Congratulations. They even managed to keep going while the founder was in jail for sedition
3. Big News has an economic study of female circumcision done by one of the Labour candidates for Mt Albert. Is actually an interesting study.
4. Bryce Edwards has a review of the 2008 election for the European Journal of Political Research.
5. Not PC calls Greg Mankiwi illiterate for advocating a negative interest rate.
6. A guest post at The Standard calls Perez Hilton illiberal for his attack on Miss California’s response to a question on gay marriage.
7. Keeping Stock blogs on a Bobbitt
8. Paul Walker fisks The Standard on Zimbabwe
9. Adam Smith highlights what Labour’s friends say about being in the trenches with them.
10. Whale Oil has a poster for “The Haliburton Candidate”
11. The Standard doesn’t think it is a good idea for Phil Goff to criticise National for cancelling tax cuts, when everyone in Labour thinks they should be cancelled.
12. No Right Turn lashes Kevin Rudd fo ruling out civil unions in Australia.

1. Twitter fans in the UK can use TweetMinister to follows Ministers and MPs.
2. Andrew Geddis blogs on collective responsibility and Pita Sharples. He is from the school of thought that it is a pragmatic practice, not a constitutional convention.
3. Eric Crampton blogs an excellent example of how a tax credit for alternative fuels led to massive rorts by the paper industry. He concludes: “It’s kinda the point of the price system that nobody has to know all of the alternative uses to which resources can be put. When markets set prices, nobody in Congress has to know that the paper industry uses a byproduct biofuel which readily could be adulterated with taxable fuels to harvest a subsidy. When Congressmen instead set prices, there will always be consequences they hasn’t thought of, no matter how well-intentioned or careful they’ve been.”
4. MacDoctor shines more light on why ACC is costing us so much.
5. The Tailor of Panama Street regrets that no media organisation (except NZPA with a subsidy from the Asia NZ Foundtion) went with the PM to Thailand. He notes that when the summit got cancelled due to protests, the only “journalists” available was John Key who did a phone report on what had been happening.  Key makes a good foreign correspondent, but you know best not to get into the practice of having the PM moonight as a reporter.

Some good tidbits:

1. The Finsec Union backs Bill English! It is over his comments that as the Government is now guaranteeing some of their risk, their margins should be lowered.
2. The Tailor of Panama Street has a rare piece of good news from the UN Human Rights Council. The investigator into Gaza allegations is not an anti-semitic nutter like some of their previous investigators. That means any findings will have some credibility.
3. Andrew Sullivan blogs on being a green conservative. He reviews the issues around climate change really well, and the big difference between what the IPCC says and what Al Gore says. His conclusion is to favour carbon and petrol taxes over the bureaucracy of a trade and cap scheme such as an ETS.
4. Andrew Geddis at Pundit gives National two and a half ticks for their process for reviewing electoral law.
5. The above named Tailor also looks at whether John Hood will be the next Secretary of Foreign Affairs. He comments “One suspects that Murray McCully will see five years of doing battle with the dons to try and overhaul 900 years of Oxford tradition as a fairly useful apprenticeship for dealing with the much larger challenge of reforming MFAT.” Hood is certainly a possibility, but I understand he may be a bit too political for the Government. The name I have heard as the appointee is NZ Post CEO John Allen.  As the Tailor says though – can he afford the pay cut?

1. Denis Welch thinks the next Labour Prime Minister is not yet in Parliament, and that based on the Q&A interview it will be Andrew Little
2. Fairfacts Media is now on his own blog.
3. Adam Smith looks at the $70 million planned revamp for the National Library and whether it is well directed.
4. Rob Hosking covers issues over ACC.
5. The Dim-Post covers John Key’s plans to privatise Treasury so advice is contestable and that Sensing Murder psychics have expressed interest in doing the budget forecasting services
6. Bernard Hickey disagrees with Westpac that house prices now represent fair value and that they need to drop 30% from their November 2007 peak
7. Whale Oil is scared of a teeny weeny spider in his home.
8. David Cohen looks at the claim that the death of newspapers is due to managerial incompetence.

1. Paul Walker looks at whether the Commerce Commission is needed or not.
2. Whale Oil covers the story of “Canadian journalist Beverly Giesbrecht, who converted to Islam following 9/11 and launched the website Jihad Unspun seven years ago, faces beheading after being kidnapped by jihadists in Pakistan”. Maybe this will make people realise the nature of the extremists.
3. Blaise Drinkwater quotes Antonin Scalia on the US Bill of Rights: “The rights were selected not because of their importance—some of them are very important, some aren’t—, but they were selected on the basis of, “what rights would a tyrant want to move against?”
4. Andrew Bolt covers the retraction and apology over the fake photos of her that News Corp papers published. As a co-publisher I apologise also (but doubt I am on the radar) but note that of course I was stupidly assuming the Sunday Telegraph had actually verified the photos.
5. The BayBuzz interviews Rodney Hide.
6. UK Labour are introducing a hike in the top tax rate to 45%. The Conservatives are not committed to repealing it, and Iain Dale comes out backing Boris Johnson who has called for it to go.

1. Liberty Scott responds to No Right Turn on why the regional fuel tax was a bad idea.
2. Kiwi Pundit blogs a BBC poll from Iraq where “Eighty-four percent of Iraqis now rate security in their own area positively, nearly double its August 2007 level. Seventy-eight percent say their protection from crime is good, more than double its low. Three-quarters say they can go where they want safely – triple what it’s been.” I seem to recall Obama arguing against the surge saying it would not work.
3. David Beatson blogs at Pundit on the latest woes in Corrections.
4. Steven Price lambasts the same Corrections Department for their failure to be able to provide basic information under the OIA. They could not even answer the question “How many positive drug tests were there at Auckland prison in the last year” claiming that answering this would require substantial collation or research. This suggests they are either incompetent or lying.
5. Not a blog item, but Pauline Hanson’s ex husband has confirmed the photos published are not of her. Hanson may now win the by-election in a sympathy vote.
6. Annie Fox proposes a monthly Bloggers Bar Bash in Auckland – the first Thursday of every month starting at 6.30 pm at Galbraiths.
7. Stephen Franks proposes that shareholders not Directors should approve Directors Fees.
8. Barnsley Bill is suspicious that 11% of The Standard’s Alexa traffic comes from India. I’m not – it is probably just all the call centre staff there who work for NZ companies!

1. No Right Turn labels the TV3 story on extra staff for larger electorates a “total beat-up” and says “While some might quibble at them spending – gasp! – $400,000 a year on it, people in large rural seats have an equal right to participate in our democracy, and it is money well spent. Unfortunately, it seems TV3 would rather engage in shallow hatemongering against politicians rather than recognise this.”
2. Whale Oil quotes from Matthew Hooton’s NBR column on Labour. He points out the left are polling lower currently than the centre-right achieved in the disastrous 2002 election.
3. Gonzo blogs on how the Obama administration is refusing to release documents about the secretive Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, a super-maximal copyright treaty, as disclosing the details of this secret copyright law would endanger “national security.”
4. MacDoctor blogs some facts on ACC.
5. Adam Smith asks if Jim Anderton is our own Denny Crane after a bizarre press release from him?
6. Keith Ng fisks the Herald over school violence
7. Whale Oil examines Kordia’s books and discovers it paid almost $25m goodwill for Orcon, despite Orcon losing money.
8. Bernard Hickey cautions about the Government investing $500 million in trains for Auckland, and plugs for buses.

1. Paul Walker looks at the case for private prisons from an economist view.  He concludes “So there is a case to be made for private prisons, but it may not be as strong as for other services currently provided by the government, and it is at its weakest for the case of maximum security prisons.”
2. Stephen Franks offers a solution to s92A – “compensate the customer whose ISP is obliged to interfere without adequate reason, and compensate the ISP for any reasonable costs of investigating copyright claims that prove to be unjustified”
3. Juha Saarinen writes that Brendan Battles is spamming again – text spam.
4. No Right Turn covers the appointment of Tariana Turia and Russel Norman onto the Intelligence and Security Committee. John Key had to agree to Norman’s appointment, so this combined with his ordering of a review into the monitoring of Keith Locke suggests he is acting far more openly on these issues than some of his predecessors including the immediate one.
5. Whoar blogs on a Swedish music model where you can “legally isten to a vast, growing catalogue of streamed tracks for free as long as you are prepared to endure around a minute of advertising per hour” or go for “a premium version, costing £9.99 per month, that suppresses the ads and offers exclusive content”.
6. Eric Crampton blogs for overseas readers on what New Zealand is up to  in terms of the recession. His conclusion: On the whole, Key’s National government has so far done a lot less harm than have others. Let’s hope it continues.”
7. Vic Law School has set up a blog – 15 Lambton Quay.
8. Green MP Metira Turei blogs on TelstraClear killing off the TCF s92A code and calls for s29A to be amdned to a notice and notice regime. I agree – and 92c should be notice and notice also.
9. Andrew Geddis at Pundit praises Steve Crow for his defence of free speech, comparing him to Larry Flynt noting “Anyone who has seen the movie The People vs. Larry Flynt will know that society doesn’t always get the heroes it might want. Specifically, those who push the boundaries and advocate strongest for the freedoms we all enjoy often are not the sort of folks we’d like to pop by our house for a beer and a BBQ.”
10. Bernard Darnton guest blogs at Not PC to propose we solve the recession by having a none-day fortnight!

1. Homepaddock provides a round-up of reaction from the right blogs to the possibility of Michael Cullen being appointed to chair an SOE. It is universally negative (unlike supporting Clark’s UN bid) and ranges from disbelief to anger.
2. Liberty Scott fisks The Standard on rails and roads.
3. No Right turn lashes the Catholic Church for excommunicating the mother and doctor who performed an abortion on a nine year old girl in Brazil who was raped by her stepfather and was pregnant with twins.  Lawyers for the church threatened the mother with homicide charges for agreeing to the abortion.
4. Chris Trotter blogs on the Labour Party presidency, and how Labour has less than 2,000 members in Auckland.
5. Aaron Bhatnagar blogs on elephants.
6. Save the Humans questions the effectiveness of random checkpoints for drunk drivers.
7. un-PC Lesbian has found a way to avoid the robots on the IRD phone system.
8. Geekzone has a Q&A with Campbell Smith of RIANZ
9. Karl du Fresne blogs a wonderful speech he gave on press freedom