SCOOP.CO.NZ archive pages provide PLAIN FULL TEXT search access to the Scoop archives divided into CATEGORIES. The database indexes approximately 4 months of Scoop items and is updated each night. You can search Scoop's complete 8 years of data at Knowledge Basket.
The petroleum industry arrived in the Lake Kutubu area, around 20 years ago with Chevron and BP and soon the delicate ecological balance often in play in remote areas began to shift. More >>
We've told you it's happening, some of you have already bought the books, but here it is -- the omnibus round-up of Public Address Books launch detail. If you would like to help David Haywood celebrate the launch of The New Zealand Reserve Bank Annual ... More >>
A long-awaited Justice Department watchdog report that is said to be highly critical of the legal work three attorneys who worked at the agency's powerful Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) conducted for the Bush administration will be released at the end of ... More >>
In 1987, the conservative author Midge Decter described her association with Israel and those willing to place it above conventional judgment. ‘We know ourselves to be bound by ties so deep, so essential, so unconditional, that they are beyond daylight ... More >>
John Minto writes: None of this should need to be said but the reaction of so many to Harawira's angry email resembles the deeply embedded racism which Don Brash tapped into so successfully a few years back at Orewa. More >>
EMAIL US REVIEW E-MAIL UPDATES REVIEW INDEX UNDERNEWS XML FEED Control + Click on date for permanent link, on Comments to make or read comments, and on the envelope to email story to someone GLOBAL TEMPS SET TO RISE OVER TEN DEGREES BY 2100 Independent, ... More >>
Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics are not in the troubled financial straits that the Minister of Education has suggested, according to data released yesterday by her Ministry. More >>
A Muslim family sits across of me in café, in a largely Muslim Asia country. An older woman shyly hunches over and desperately trying to avoid eye contact with the giant plasma screen TV, blazing loud music on the popular music video channel, MTV. ... More >>
For years, human rights advocates have argued that terrorism is essentially criminal behaviour, and terrorists should therefore be tried under the rules of due process that democratic states have developed over centuries for dealing fairly with crime, ... More >>
A Word From Afar: Paul Buchanan writes: One of the axioms of counter-terrorism is that the nastiness of the atrocity is inversely proportional to the terrorist’s chances of success. That is to say, the worse the act, then less likely that terrorist ... More >>
Witi Ihimaera, after being awarded an Arts Laureate, has offered to buy back the warehouse stock of The Trowenna Sea, and Penguin is offering to purchase remaining bookshop stocks of the novel. So is this what they mean when they say "pulp fiction"? ... More >>
One is so accustomed to seeing the gray squirrels in the parkland leap from branch to branch with perfect dexterity that it came as quite a shock to see one miss his mark and fall into the creek. More >>
As the world awaits Barack Obama's decision on Afghanistan, a lethal myth has spread. It says that standing up to the military will doom him to be a single-term president. More >>
As most of us are preparing for the holidays a small clique in the Senate, with their collaborators in the Washington punditry, are planning for a dramatic hostage-taking event. Their target of opportunity is a bill to increase the nation's debt limit. ... More >>
All the presidents in my lifetime share one common characteristic: each one aged rapidly, visibly and dramatically over the course of their administrations. Nixon appeared to be melting by the time he boarded that last helicopter. Ford's stay was ... More >>
"When he bolted her the first time, she didn't die. She just stood there looking stunned as blood trickled from her forehead. She then got her bearings and tried to turn and run." More >>
"Not only does one country account for the overwhelming plurality of world military expenditures, but that nation also has troops and bases on all six habitable continents (as well as a 54-year military mission in Antarctica, Operation Deep Freeze) and ... More >>
You may have seen Cactus Kate's self-proclaimed "humdinger of a story" claiming that APN has issued new "guidelines from Sydney" to its editors, which are "all to do with NO budget allocated for legal action or defence so the editors have basically ... More >>
Last May, the Republican National Committee condemned Obama and the Democratic Congress for leading America towards socialism. Since then the line has been picked up by numerous others on the right including the tea baggers, a group that believes it ... More >>
During his trip to Asia, President Obama called for the government of Burma to release Aung San Suu Kyi, a noted dissident who has spent years under house arrest. It made headlines, a fact which tells us more about the role of media as an outlet for government ... More >>
They say a week in politics is a long time, and they’re right. Last week I made a public apology about an email I’d written. Firstly, I readily apologise for the poor choice of words. I suspect that if I’d said something like: “European colonisers ... More >>
This means that no war has broken out, no suicide bomb has exploded, no Qassam rocket has been launched at Sderot. Ahmadinejad has not test-fired a new missile that can reach Tel Aviv. Just another murder. Not that Israel is the world’s murder capital. ... More >>
Specific regional wine tastings are a wine professional's 'American Idol early rounds'. The bulk of the evaluation is unmemorable. Some wines sing. Other wines are the equivalent of a shuffling, toothless tone-death witch desperately seeking attention (or perhaps ... More >>
Every time the young stick-up man tugged at my companion’s purse with his left hand, she would pull back, causing the muzzle of the pistol he held in his right hand to swing back and forth. Its line of fire each time was directed across my chest ... More >>
If those in Lebanon watching the news on 11/12/09 blinked they might have missed an interesting news item. It appeared at approximately 4:20 pm on Narharnet.com , the pro-US/Saudi news website. More >>
"WASHINGTON -- The United States ambassador to Afghanistan, who once served as the top American military commander there, has expressed in writing his reservations about deploying additional troops to the country, three senior American officials ... More >>
On the eve of the International Energy Agency’s release of its annual World Energy Outlook (WEO), a whistleblower at the IEA claims the agency “has been deliberately underplaying a looming [oil] shortage for fear of triggering panic buying” in the ... More >>
Reportedly, Big Day Out organizers have backed down from their original intention to include the Jamaican dancehall musician Beenie Man in the next BDO festival line-up in January. The reason has been the public pressure from gay activists who have been ... More >>
I still have the June 11 texts on my phone. The first was blunt and alarming: "Chris Knox has had a stroke," and then later, " … prognosis not good". What has happened since has been a story of trauma and love and friendship and, now, a remarkable recording ... More >>
Nov 13 (BusinessWire) - As a cub reporter on the Manukau Courier back in 1983, it was my duty to report the monthly deliberations of the Papatoetoe City Council. More >>
A group of New Zealand websites has decided to get together and encourage discussion of the positive side to climate change mitigation. Afterall - how many of us really believe that the way the world is currently run is optimal - both for our personal ... More >>
It's tempting to see the confrontation between the entertainment industry and the Internet as some kind of moral issue; a clash of the heavyweights with only one possible outcome: a triumph of good over evil. In the red corner we have the people who bring ... More >>
Sixteen-year old Jenny (Carey Mulligan) is predictably impressionable. Intelligence and the odd cutting remark might equip her for the classroom joust and parents in suburban Twickenham. But she has much growing up to do, something which is given ... More >>
Italians discuss Delany selection Cartoon comment from Adrian Maidment: Click for big version ENDS More >>
On the bus on the way home from the movie I went to this afternoon, I asked the person sitting next to me if there was an LP by Boston among all the records I could see in his shopping bag, and which he had been trying to unsuccessfully sell to a second-hand ... More >>
The dead man living next door cut down the three finest trees on the block soon after moving in. It’s difficult to fathom, but the living have to fathom the dead, for they are destroying the earth and humanity. More >>
Treasury is advising that government’s investment in education may have to decline from its current 6.4 percent of GDP to less than 4 percent by 2050. It wants government to achieve that cut in funding by shifting more of the cost of education services ... More >>
There's a wonderful column by Rosemary McLeod in the Dom-Post this morning (12 November). She skewers the grotesqueries of Rodney Hide's apparently bizarre behaviour beautifully. But even Rosemary has missed something important about this whole affair. More >>
It’s the second week of the month. That means I am headed over to see Franklin Sanders of The Moneychanger at Top of the World Farm in Westpoint, Tennessee. I will be working out of The Moneychanger offices on Wednesday and Thursday. After our usual ... More >>
Mistakes were made, and apologies have been tendered. So what now? In the NZ Herald article rather impertinently headlined "How Witi Was Found Out," Geoff Walker of Penguin Books says, of The Trowenna Sea, "It deserves to be read and it's a terrible ... More >>
President Barack Obama’s single most important foreign policy decision during 2009 has been his recent backdown over requiring Israel to abandon the building of settlements in the occupied territories. Beforehand, this was to be a precondition for peace ... More >>
At the end of my last article about the future of humankind as either being a Utopia or an Idiocracy, I stated that if we do not in parallel of those who are in power build our own institutions for humankind, we will never even get a glimpse of what ... More >>
Twenty years have passed since a vision collapsed. For it was not just the Berlin Wall that fell in November 1989, but a social and political project that began with Vladimir Lenin at the Finland Station. The novelist Günter Grass’ version of two ... More >>
Confusion, sadness, loneliness, fear, a view of humanity from a totally different angle -- just a typical day of the life of a Wellington twentysomething in Leo Gene Peters' latest directorial project "Death and the Dream Life of Elephants". While ... More >>
The most notable change brought about by this bill would be giving polluters, to 2050, one hundred billion dollars. I am right behind that idea, but the proposed system for delivering the money is unnecessarily complicated. More >>
All Apologies | Nov 11, 2009 09:11 Graham Reid's many things An apology means nothing if you do it on Facebook or You Tube. Or Twitter or e-mail or txt. Or a talk show. An apology by an actor who cries probably doesn't mean much. These people are actors, ... More >>
I had an aunt that was a nun in the Catholic Church. Even as a kid, I never saw her as religious person however. She was a career woman in a black habit, at a time when there were two choices for Catholic women: marry a man and have kids; or marry Jesus ... More >>
NBC news correspondent Jenna Bush Hager had a news exclusive. And, like news exclusives in the Era of Infotainment TV, this one was broadcast by the entertainment division. Specifically, Jenna Bush interviewed her mother, Laura Bush, on 38th episode of "The ... More >>
Virginia-born Major Nidal Malik Hasan, in a ten-minute orgy of killing at the Texas military base of Fort Hood last week, is now in custody recovering from his wounds. Thirteen people (twelve soldiers and a civilian) were killed, and thirty injured. ... More >>
When British Foreign Secretary David Miliband uttered a few words regarding the illegality of the Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, many wanted to believe that London was taking a sharp stance against Israel’s continued violations of international ... More >>
Rodney Hide at the Airport Cartoon comment from Adrian Maidment: Click for big version ENDS More >>
Voting News: US Troops as Internet Voting guinea pigs, Texas let voters eat cake, CO, NJ, NY, PA, TX, UT, VA and WA glitch snag reports More >>
Washington has been negotiating secret and “highly sensitive understandings” to “provide added security for the Pakistani arsenal in case of a crisis,” investigative journalist Seymour Hersh reports. More >>
This year’s Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) takes place in the 60th anniversary year of the Commonwealth. For the past six decades, notably since the 1970s, every CHOGM has seen the Commonwealth taking progressive stands on human ... More >>
Does the Search and Surveillance Bill, as the NZ Herald has recently maintained, really give a web of state agencies ‘sweeping powers to spy, bug conversations and hack into private computers’ ? Or is this all based on a ‘remarkable misunderstanding’ ... More >>
I first encountered Dave Berman after the 2004 Presidential election. He had been writing about election integrity - and the lack of it - for years. I've invited him to talk about what he's up to now. Welcome to OpEdNews, Dave. More >>
Is there any word that more trippingly trips off the lips than “Kalamazoo”? I think not. This city in SW Michigan began life as Bronson, named after the settler who first claimed the land and built a hut there in 1829, Titus Bronson . He wasn’t ... More >>
MAHMOUD ABBAS is fed up. The day before yesterday he withdrew his candidacy for the coming presidential election in the Palestinian Authority. I understand him. He feels betrayed. And the traitor is Barack Obama. More >>
Fort Hood Texas has suffered one of the worst tragedies in its turbulent history. An Army psychiatrist opened fire, killing at least 13 other soldiers until he was shot multiple times. At this writing, he is said to be in stable condition. He also ... More >>
John Chuckman Cartoon: Netanyahu's Puppet Cartoon comment By John Chuckman ENDS More >>
It has been Charles Darwin’s year since his 200th birthday in February and on Thursday night before the fireworks on the harbour, we saw Downstage’s biographical tribute. More >>
The United States and Israel have just completed the largest joint interceptor missile exercises ever conducted by the two nations and, in terms of scope and sophistication, possibly the most comprehensive joint live-fire anti-ballistic missile drills held ... More >>
Twenty years ago tomorrow, the Communist government of East Germany resigned. Two days later, the checkpoints in the Berlin Wall were opened, and East German citizens were allowed to pass freely to the West for the first time in decades. Within a fortnight, ... More >>
A few years back, the FBI mistakenly linked an American lawyer's fingerprint to one found near the scene of a horrific terrorist bombing in Madrid, Spain. In the tragedy of errors that followed, the lawyer was jailed in Oregon as a "material witness" ... More >>
I haven't written for a while. My father died in August, and all my pretty words flew away. Actually, if only they had. Instead, they swooped and soared in my brain, coalescing into ominous shapes. They landed in musical lines on telephone wires, ... More >>
How do I find myself down here in New Orleans, on a volunteer mission more than four years after Katrina? My friend Mindy did this more than a year ago and couldn't stop raving about it. I had a hard time grasping how such a short trip could leave such ... More >>
The recent murders at Ft. Hood recall Pascal's observation that "Men never do evil so cheerfully and so completely as when they do so from religious conviction." More >>
On September 11, 2001, my office building, the World Trade Center, was attacked by al Qaeda, a murder cult of Saudi Arabians, funded by Saudi Arabians. And so, in response to the Saudis' attack, America invaded ... Afghanistan. Like, HUH? More >>
The Supreme Court of the United States will soon announce a major decision on our lightly controlled system of campaign funding. Will it retain some limitations on corporate influence or will the court blow the lid off and cause a perpetual flood ... More >>
Word is that the full House will vote on national single-payer Medicare for All on Friday. This vote is a cover for the removal of an amendment that was in the House "healthcare" bill until Pelosi stripped it out. That amendment would have made it ... More >>
Ever watch "SportsCenter" on ESPN? Pound for pound, it's pretty much the most consistently entertaining program on television, but if you watch enough of it, you really get a sense of the similarities shared between sports reporters and political reporters. ... More >>
I'm not telling Foreign Affairs how to do their job, but having spent today being blown around Wellington in increasingly deteriorating conditions, I can only imagine how the conversation must have gone yesterday: MFAT: I'm sorry, you have to leave ... More >>
Question: How many countries do you have to be at war with to be disqualified from receiving the Nobel Peace Prize? Answer: Five. Barack Obama has waged war against only Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia. He's holding off on Iran until he actually ... More >>
Sam Smith, Progressive Review - Having lived most of my life in the gay friendly city of Washington, I wasn't prepared from some of the nastiness involved in the Maine gay marriage debate. Especially the sick video that claimed that the state's ... More >>
When the first Arab Human Development Report (AHDR) was published in 2002, a star glistened in a vast, gloomy sky. The fact that a UN-sponsored report, authored by independent Arab scholars would receive so much attention in Arab media, was in itself ... More >>
This is the first year anniversary of the election of Barack Obama. It is not the happiest of times, but he has had a good year. He and his family bought a dynamic, glamorous, multi racial aspect to the White House. They appear to be enjoying the ... More >>
Just a quick note to say that in this week's Media7 show we're looking at the media and body image. It's been a hot topic across the Tasman, where Australia's Next Top Model host Sarah Murdoch appeared on the cover of the Australian Women's Weekly without ... More >>
My oldest sister’s daughter—the eldest granddaughter—is getting married the week before Christmas in the lakeside, snowy, storybook province of northwestern Michigan. No rotting institutions and degenerating traditions embody the sorry state ... More >>
At least the coalition government has shown itself to be united this week – it seems intent on junketing at taxpayer expense across a broad and unified front. Hone Harawira of the Maori Party, Rodney Hide of the Act and the deputy leader of the ... More >>
Niki Caro's new film, The Vintner's Luck is much like a wine in its successes and shortcomings; it looks beautiful as it unfolds, has great visual promise and boasts a lovely rich colour but, unfortunately, lacks deeper supporting flavours. Though ... More >>
Scotland has adopted a 42% climate change target. That, and a wee rumour of free whisky, encouraged me to attend a side event organised by the Scottish Government. More >>
Political activist Noam Chomsky says that although President Obama views the Iraq invasion merely as “a mistake” or “strategic blunder,” it is, in fact, a “major crime” designed to enable America to control the Middle East oil reserves. More >>
The thrift in me allowed me to wait until Michael Moore’s “Capitalism - A Love Story” came out on second run theatres - it was well worth the wait. The powerful effect that Moore has on his audience derives from the personal stories he relates ... More >>
NEW YORK (with Gary Baumgarten and Abbie Wasserman) – Music history has been made with two uniquely powerful nights of performances at Madison Square Garden in celebration of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame---and the educational foundation it supports. More >>
The debate over the Goldstone Report is a huge distraction from the real problem: the Report's inadequacy and the futility of bringing the case to the International Criminal Court. The Report itself, written by a Zionist Jew, is extremely flawed ... More >>
Even if agribusiness could shut Michael Pollan up, the outspoken author of Omnivore's Dilemma and a journalism professor at University of California, Berkeley, it still has the Los Angeles Times to contend with. Last month, the Times blasted California ... More >>
A local Lutheran church, which is considered one of the more progressive faiths in this town and country, has an astounding declaration on its home page. More >>
The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out. --Thomas Babington Macaulay More >>
The thrift in me allowed me to wait until Michael Moore’s “Capitalism - A Love Story” came out on second run theatres - it was well worth the wait. The powerful effect that Moore has on his audience derives from the personal stories he relates ... More >>
NZ’s creaking infrastructure and our attitude to health and safety was cruelly exposed last month when a forklift in Auckland hit a high voltage power line. The driver was lucky to escape with his life. Thousands of homes and businesses were ... More >>
Someone in the loop ticked me off yesterday for an unduly flip assessment of reform prospects for foreshore and seabed rights, based on the Maori Party's strike rate so far. Well, fair enough: I do want a lasting solution, and I believe that such ... More >>
By some coincidence in the last three days I read Men Like Gods of H. G. Wells and watch the films Idiocracy, City of Ember and WALL-E. They all deal with humankind’s future, a very bleak future that could possibly become the ultimate Utopia or perfect ... More >>
You had to hand it to John Key, said my colleague over dinner last week: he's very good. But some of the people around him, "not so much". I couldn't disagree-- the sometimes inarticulate and politically unworldly Leader of the Opposition has offered ... More >>
Most of what has happened in Honduras since the shock of the coup d'etat on June 28th has confounded traditional regional clichés and stereotypes about the country. On the other hand, events have reinforced longstanding and widely held opinions In ... More >>
For the last decade, we have lived through a historical period in which the United States relinquished its tenuous claim to democracy. More >>
Everyone expects to see and hear some strange stuff whenever Halloween comes around. The costumes, the parties, the old ghost stories that always make the rounds and that ever-present breed of individual who takes the season a little too seriously ... More >>
In a speech about New Zealand’s accident compensation scheme in 1996 I said, “The country was sold a pup which has turned into a pitbull terrier that mauls everyone it comes in contact with – accident victims, employers and politicians alike.” ... More >>
UNDERNEWS Since 1964, the news while there's still time to do something about it More >>
A book about the future published in 2008, with information preceding the publishing date, could well be considered out of date - or at worst in error - after a couple of years of passing current events. Eamonn Fingleton’s ‘old’ work - In the ... More >>
So today, the government formally agrees to dump the foreshore and seabed legislation. On one level, this means karma retribution for National, which made so much of the iwi vs kiwi billboards in 2005 – since it will now fall to a National-led government ... More >>
There appear to be two teams in Washington playing under the banners of elephants and donkeys. They have different platforms, use different rhetoric, call each other bad names, and (in the case of the elephants) filibuster bills and impeach and prosecute ... More >>
So, possums, I’ve been back in California for three weeks now and have finally returned to my normal US state of curmudgeonliness. (Yes, spellcheck, I know it’s not a word, but neither are you by your very own lights!) Of course, it’s debatable ... More >>
After nine months of political extremism - bankrolling huge banks, escalating the Afghan war, treating local public schools like they were just another federal agency and finding new ways to subsidize the health insurance industry - it may finally ... More >>
The police will be able to take DNA samples from people they "intend" to arrest, even though the Attorney General himself thinks it's incompatible with the Bill of Rights. A range of agencies have new search and surveillance powers. And a new asset ... More >>
Global Research Feature Article www.GlobalResearch.ca Mind Your Tweets: The CIA Social Networking Surveillance System by Tom Burghardt Global Research , October 27, 2009 Antifascist Calling... - 2009-10-24 More >>
In one of Hollywood’s latest in the perennial series of TV cop shows (e.g. Hill Street Blues, CSI, Criminal Intent, and now “Criminal Minds”) there is a very telling and theological opening line. More >>
Honduran de facto President Roberto Micheletti apparently has succumbed to international pressure, spearheaded by the OAS and episodically echoed by U.S. diplomacy. Despite repeated remarks adamantly insisting that he would not sign any agreement with ousted ... More >>
Nine months after President Barack Obama took office, Washington still lacks two of its key Latin America policy-makers. Obama’s nominations for Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Arturo Valenzuela, and Ambassador to Brazil, ... More >>
LEAD STORY Outages: North Auckland, Northland Power Now Back To Usual Levels NZ POLITICS Legislation: Immigration Bill Passes Third Reading Teachers Day: Minister Does Not Bring Presents Scoop's "Meet The MPs" Project Religion: Destiny Church Response ... More >>
BANGKOK, Thailand -- Thailand and Cambodia have descended into a loud political feud about Bangkok's 2006 coup, and Thailand's current threat to demand the extradition of its fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. The rift between the two ... More >>
Bomber's Blog - The War on News - ep 16 part 1 & 2 Martyn "Bomber" Bradbury. Bomber's Blog - the war on news. Weekly TV show on Triangle/Stratos. Bomber also posts on the Tumeke! blog: www.tumeke.blogspot.com More >>
The Iraq war's chief New York Times cheerleader has reversed field on Afghanistan. Does it mean there will be no escalation? In early 1968, after the devastating Tet Offense, CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite pronounced the Vietnam War unwinnable. Lyndon ... More >>
Amidst the terror and debauchery of the Old Testament are some passages of striking intrigue and beauty. Among these is Psalm 79 - a passage I was drawn to ponder during a recent visit to a ‘Miracle Faith Healing’ service held by one of our country’s ... More >>
Ramzy Baroud is a veteran Palestinian-American journalist and former Al-Jazeera producer. He also taught Mass Communication at Australia 's Curtin University of Technology, is a frequent speaker, a regular media guest, and is the founder and Editor-in-Chief ... More >>
There appear to be two teams in Washington playing under the banners of elephants and donkeys. They have different platforms, use different rhetoric, call each other bad names, and (in the case of the elephants) filibuster bills and impeach and prosecute ... More >>
a href="http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA0910/S00452.htm"> Burden Of Proof: New Unit To Hunt Assets Of Organised Crime NZ POLITICS Horn Of Plenty: 'Purchase Advisor' Gets Job He Recommended Creating Local Government: Rodney Romances Rates Rules General ... More >>
The only woman convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia has returned to Serbia. Biljana Plavsic, former Bosnian Serb President (1996-8), had spent two-thirds of her 11-year sentence in a Swedish prison after being convicted ... More >>
The bombing of a kosher café; a protest over reports that the Quran had been desecrated at an American prison camp; a bomb explosion outside a mosque; a tight security cordon to facilitate a Hindu festival: a snapshot of world news today. More >>
SLOW PROGRESS FOR WOMEN PROFESSORS The proportion of professors and associate professors who are women grew from 17 percent in 2003 to 21 percent in 2008 according to the Ministry of Education’s just released Profiles and Trends Report 2008. Overall ... More >>
Cartoon: Sports Coaching Cartoon Comment from Adrian Maidment: Click for big version ENDS More >>
Many themes of global importance inter-relate when discussing events in Central America. An apparently simple discussion of local developments in the Nicaraguan economy ends up covering global issues. One has to look at the role of the dollar, the price of ... More >>
Most Washington journalists graduated with degrees in the humanities or social sciences. As a result they are easily conned by the numbers that buzz like mosquitoes around the capital or just don't bother to question them. More >>
The Audit Bureau of Circulation, a company that measures how many read US daily newspapers, has released its September 2009 six-month report that shows nearly every major daily in the US is losing readership at a faster rate than expected. More >>
Finlay Macdonald had a lash at "the national pastime of taking offence" in his Star Times column on Sunday. And at the "pious, bullying scolds" in the news media and the "purse-lipped professional offence-takers" and "bleating pantywaists" who stoke ... More >>
Fittingly, when you click on the official button for United Nations Day (October 24) it takes an inordinate amount of time for Ban Ki Moon’s brief message to load up. Most people give up; a few look elsewhere. More >>
Known simply as “ the General” Michel Naim Aoun was born in a peaceful mixed Christian-Shia area of Haret Hreik, now a core Hezbollah area. He rose from poverty to become the head of Lebanon’s newly created Eighth army following the September ... More >>
The Pentagon has paid anti-war activist Noam Chomsky the highest honor any totalitarian entity can bestow upon an author: they’ve banned his book “Interventions” at Guantanamo Bay prison. They won’t say precisely why they “honored” Chomsky, ... More >>
ACCORDING TO a Chinese saying, if someone in the street tells you that you are drunk, you can laugh. If a second person tells you that you are drunk, start to think about it. If a third one tells you the same, go home and sleep it off. More >>
Pope Benedict XVI is nothing if not wily. The Catholic Church issued a call last week stating that it would enable Anglicans to convert to Roman Catholicism, thereby undermining an already conflicted Church amounting to 77 million followers. Disaffected ... More >>
Paul Buchanan writes whether or not the so-called “war” between the White House & Fox TV is a carefully crafted plan by Obama’s advisors to expose divisions within the Republican Party, it still highlights a case of disloyal opposition in a democracy. More >>
I had fun this morning meeting the children at Glen Taylor School in Auckland with Education Minister Anne Tolley. We were there to launch National Education Standards in reading, writing, and maths. More >>
Here's an irony: in the same month that it becomes clear that educational funding will be diverted from arts and sciences into the narrow curriculum embodied in the government's national standards policy, we can read a major report that doesn't merely ... More >>
Martyn "Bomber" Bradbury. Bomber's Blog - the war on news. Weekly TV show on Triangle/Stratos. Bomber also posts on the Tumeke! blog: www.tumeke.blogspot.com More >>
A Muslim writer begins an article with, “who says the campaign for animal rights was started in the West ..” She goes on to argue that Islam provided the original treatise on the humane treatment of animals. Her case was poorly constructed, inadequately ... More >>
As I tried, for about the seventeenth time, to make sense of the healthcare negotiations, I suddenly realized that I wasn't watching a political debate at all; rather it was one of those conflicts you read about in other countries that are so hard to understand ... More >>
Is a Fair Election in Afghanistan Possible?...Tuscon wants hand count audit, Pima County says NO...9000 absentee ballots undeliverable in El Paso County Colorado... Indiana Secy of State gives up on criminalizing use of election data...Nevada is ... More >>
Time, not truth, is of the essence in "Live at Six", a satire documenting the rivalry between two New Zealand television news stations, TV One and TV 3. After video of a TV One news anchor looking to be under the influence of an illegal substance is ... More >>
The Nobel Prize awarded to the United States President is a sarcastic joke ; they say he received it for his work in favour of a New World Order and for his “move towards multilateralism”. But if anyone has worked hard for that New World Order ... More >>
The photo looks like John Travolta or Divine playing Edna Turnblad in Hairspray. Under the bangs of a Dynel doll wig a "floozy" with nasolabial folds, male facial features and leathery skin mugs for the camera--coquettish hair bow, mod sunglasses ... More >>
You could hear the arm twisting from Kabul, Afghanistan to New Zealand. Hamid Kharzi was presented with an offer he could not refuse. He suddenly saw the light, and agreed to run- off Presidential elections for November the 7th. Of course, they could be ... More >>
Aspen Colorado citizen wins effort to stop destruction of May 5 ballots..New Jersey's anti-exit polling law...Election Defense Alliance has election databases from Riverside County that Sequoia insisted on "redacting" first, Sequoia Voting Systems inadvertently ... More >>
VICE-CHANCELLORS TOLD TO PAY FOR QUALITY ASSURANCE An independent review of the New Zealand Universities Academic Audit Unit (AAU) recommends that the Unit have greater independence from the New Zealand Vice Chancellors’ Committee (NZVCC). More >>
The subtitle to this text carries an interesting choice of active verb, “confronts”. It signifies “coming face to face in hostility or defiance.” That alone brings to question the U.S. perspective, generally expressed in most U.S. media that U.S. ... More >>
Nationals from nearly one-third of the 192 member states of the United Nations met in Damascus last week to discuss the Return/Liberation of the Golan Heights. An estimated 5000 researchers, Lawyers, politicians, activists, victims of Israel’s 42 years ... More >>
On one of the last days of the year before winter sets in in the mountains, I drive up to Lassen Volcanic National Park, the entrance of which is only about an hour and a half from here. Lassen is one of the least visited national parks in America, ... More >>
Muriwhenua has 5 different iwi, 50,000 people, a land base which you could drop into the Cook Strait and still have plenty of fishing room, and a total budget that I’d like to tell you about but Margaret Mutu would box my ears so I better not. And we’ve ... More >>
Of swine and cows | Oct 20, 2009 14:21 Russell Brown's Hard News In this week's Media7 we're looking at conspiracy theories -- for which it has been a vintage media year. All the action right now is around swine flu and the vaccine against it. In ... More >>
In August 2008, while British resident Binyam Mohamed still languished in a prison cell in Guantánamo, two British High Court judges attempted to inform the public about what, in May 2002, the CIA had told their British counterparts about how they ... More >>
Natasha is a young mother living with HIV in Zambia. Her newborn son Fanwick was born HIV-negative, thanks to medicines Natasha received while pregnant and during birth to stop the transmission of the virus. Unemployed and alone, Natasha lives ... More >>
Restructuring is contagious. Polytechnic councils have spent years presiding over the restructuring of their institutions, but now Government is doing it to them, in decisive style. The result will be governance by the few, so we should look hard ... More >>
W e have set up a swine flu page to cover the various issues concrening the flu and the vaccine. At this stage, the only report we have found on the actual effects of the swine flu vaccine is this from the NY Times: "China began its swine flu vaccinations ... More >>
One of the joys of Halloween is to dress in scary costumes and pretend to frighten others, who pretend to be frightened. But with less than two weeks until an evening of trick-or-treating, it's possible there won't be anything scarier than what's already ... More >>
The US flag atop the new drilling rig next to the road to my birthplace was in tatters by the time I left town a week later, shredded by the south wind that had brought unseasonal snowfalls early in the week of my visit and dressing my beloved mountain ... More >>
BANGKOK, Thailand -- Newly obtained documents, prepared by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), portray an elaborate sting operation to capture alleged weapons trafficker Viktor Bout in Bangkok, and America's current appeal to extradite him ... More >>
Since taking office, President Obama has sanctioned at least 41 Central Intelligence Agency(C.I.A.) drone strikes in Pakistan that have killed between 326 and 538 people, many of them, critics say, “innocent bystanders, including children,” according ... More >>
As a free fire exercise in which anything at all can be raised, the Prime Minister’s post Cabinet press conference should be a rewarding experience – and it commonly does set the political agenda for the next 48 hours. Yesterday though was a prime ... More >>
At the Maori Party annual general meeting in Auckland at the weekend, I was asked by the 200-strong supporters in attendance about whether or not I would be retiring at the end of this term. More >>
It's a time-honored Washington tradition. If you want to bully the government into doing something unpopular and the public into accepting it, manufacture a false emergency. Iraq war? If you don't approve it, mushroom cloud. Banker or IMF bailout? If you ... More >>
I'm delighted to learn that the visionary proposal for a grand span seems to be being taken seriously as an option for a new harbour crossing for Auckland. Its latest incarnation -- as an ANZAC centenary project, due for delivery 2015 -- offers a ready ... More >>
WARNING: Voters in jurisdictions that use the newer Diebold/Premier optical scanners OSX with 1.0.2 firmware should use black ink to mark their ballots. The machines may not read markings made with blue ink. The OSC also has trouble reading markings ... More >>
The fraudulent Afghan election of last August 20th has delayed the possibility of a new regime taking over promptly to replace the corrupt rule of the discredited, U.S. hand-picked President Hamid Karzai. More >>
IT IS, of course, all the fault of Judge Richard Goldstone. He is to blame for it, as he is to blame for all the other ills that are befalling us now. He is to blame for the trouble we are having at the UN, both in New York and in Geneva. For the ... More >>
Farewell to HMNZS Canterbury; Preparing for a Natural Disaster; Milford Centre; Out And About More >>
The ousting of Labour from Government in November was perceived by many as the end of the 'Nanny State' that told New Zealanders how to live their lives for nine long years. Recent developments, however, indicate that we may have simply traded a red ... More >>
The recent tsunami ; As Minister of Veteran’s affairs, I represented New Zealand in Poland ; Over the past few months you’ve noticed there are more police on our streets; Recently, I took part in the Supercity Pub Debate More >>
Health care Rx from my socialist fire department. Tell me where it hurts, Mr. President. What's killing you, Barack, is what's killing us all: an evil germ called "Medical Loss Ratio." "Medical Loss Ratio" [MLR] is the fancy term used by health insurance ... More >>
As Israeli bombs fell on the Gaza Strip during its one-sided war between December 27, 2008 and January 18, 2009, millions around the world took to the streets in complete and uncompromising outrage. The level of barbarity in that war, especially as it ... More >>
Is the Climate Bill morphing into an excuse to promote fossil fuels and new nuclear power plants? Sen. John Kerry's (D-MA) recent promotion of a pro-nuke/pro-drilling/pro-coal agenda in the name of Climate Protection has been highlighted in a New York Times ... More >>
As understanding of the full effects of the massive tsunami early in October on the Samoas and Tonga comes through, aid has been pouring in from many sources, especially New Zealand with its strong ethnic family ties. NZ Minister of health Tony Ryall ... More >>
Fans on their way to the Eagles/Buccaneers game on Sunday were not happy to see Michael Vick protestors with "Power to the Puppies" and "Stop. Think. Boycott." signs outside Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia. More >>
Who is Dr. Larry James? A man who in his biography claims responsibility for "Fixing Hell." Whose hell did he fix? Or did he look the other way while the Devil’s work was done? More >>
So it turns out that I didn't come to a sticky end in Sumatra, in case you were wondering. I did see my first shark while diving, but it scarpered before I could so much as get my camera out. There was an earthquake, but it was about 500 or... More >>
Schwarzenegger Vetoes Election Integrity Bills...Absentee Ballot Blues: Santa Barbara Mayor warns of lost ballots in Vote-by-Mail election, and 800 Franklin County OH voters told to redo absentee ballot requests... Panel to evaluate Hawaii elections ... More >>
MINISTER SAYS BE SELECTIVE ABOUT STUDENTS TVNZ has drawn attention to significant underfunding in the tertiary education sector, questioning whether it can continue to perform as funding cuts start to take effect. Chief Executive of WITT (Western ... More >>
New Zealand has given up on the dream of the Great Society, in the interests of all, and settled for mediocrity compensating by being overly concerned with ‘looking good’ i.e. image as a substitute for substance and truth. Many of New Zealand’s ... More >>
Mts Bids for the Rugby … Taito Gets Jail … And I Get to Go Overseas More >>
Let’s say my normal practice is to grab take-out on the way home from work or hit the grocery store at high speed to buy food processed by strangers thousands of miles away. More >>
Sibel Edmonds has a story to tell. She went to work as a Turkish and Farsi translator for the FBI five days after 9/11. Part of her job was to translate and transcribe recordings of conversations between suspected Turkish intelligence agents and their ... More >>
Well four weeks or so with our Freeview recorder and I really love it. I have managed to watch all sorts of programs when I get a minute, rather than having to be 'on the spot'. I can't rave enough about the recording features and just Freeview itself. ... More >>
Last Friday I joined a protest by Auckland bus drivers locked out by their employer, the Infratil-owned NZ Bus company. It was a lively, spirited protest by some 400 drivers and supporters. Many are from the Pacific and an entertaining feast of singing ... More >>
Nowhere in the world is Shariah more contested ( yet seldom debated) than in war-weary Somalia where each of the entities competing for power claims to have embraced it while condemning its detractor, or rather, its enemy, as a dangerous imposter. More >>
In tertiary education, the Government means business, and not much else. The draft Tertiary Education Strategy starts by firmly bolting education to work and the economy, and never wavers in its focus. It does have some passing references to profile items ... More >>
No sooner had the 25th state been admitted to the Union in 1836 than controversy erupted over the spelling and pronunciation of its name. One of its US Senators demanded to be introduced as the Gentleman from AR-kan-SAW and the other wanted to be introduced ... More >>
This week Scoop’s Jackie Little casts an eye over the American adventures of one of her great heroes, Stephen Fry , while son Callum offers his opinion on the Robot Chicken Star Wars parody . More >>
The All Blacks can rest easy. As incoherent as some of their team play has been this year, it looks orderly and disciplined in comparison to their government's handling of 2011 Rugby World Cup TV rights. The news today, presaged in this morning's Herald, ... More >>
Undernews For October 11, 2009 Since 1964, the news while there's still time to do something about it More >>
I didn't know Van Jones. I didn't know Van Jones was a friend of mine -- at least not until the stench billowing from the Fox Hate Channel became so foul I was forced to take a closer look at this terrifying creature. No -- not Jones, whom President ... More >>
A week after the International Olympic Committee made a goat of Barack Obama for traveling to Copenhagen with Michelle and Oprah in his bid to plant the world’s flags in Chicago in 2016, the Nobel Committee restored him to god-like status by ... More >>
It was some 110 years ago that the Boer War commenced, a nasty conflict with a miscellany of atrocities befitting a classic colonial engagement. It was waged in the true imperialist mould, revealing an unvarnished desire on the part of an insatiable Britain to acquire ... More >>
This past week has been an extremely busy one for New Zealand – related matters in the Nation’s Capitol. We like such busy weeks, and want more of them. Events included the visit of NZ Foreign Minister Murray McCully; the US-NZ Partnership Forum; ... More >>
When I first saw the headline, in Rob Kall’s OpEd News, I thought “This is a joke.” However on further checking the joke on the web - through sites as diverse as al-Jazeera, the Globe and Mail, the Christian Science Monitor, Reuters and others ... More >>
YESTERDAY, OUR table celebrated with Ada Yonath. This “table” just had its 50th anniversary. It started by accident in “ California ”, the Café established at the time by Abie Nathan, who later became famous as the Peace Pilot. Afterwards, ... More >>
Is Osama bin Laden still alive? I have dealt with this question in a recent little book entitled Osama bin Laden: Dead or Alive? The present essay summarizes the main points of this book. More >>
First we're told that our health care is only worth the time and effort if the remedy has no negative impact on the budget. No deficits allowed. The deficit risk defines your chances for health and longevity. More >>
The Harcourt family are a Wellington institution. They are gracious, charming talented, warm and inclusive and they were all there at Downstage for Biography of My Skin: Peter, Gordon, Kate and the star of the night Miranda. More >>
One thing that might not be apparent to TV viewers of the New Zealand Music Awards is that it's sometimes quite hard to follow what's going on from the tables on the show floor. The presenters don't always project, and from the back half of the room, ... More >>
Can President Obama be serious when he says he accepts the Nobel Peace Prize as “an affirmation of American leadership on behalf of aspirations held by people of all nations”? More >>
Above the din, the Nobel message screams: "U.S. OUT OF AFGHANISTAN, & GO FOR SOLARTOPIA!" It's now up to US to use that Nobel to win that dual prize. This award never went to two of the most critical peacemakers of the 20th Century: Mahatma Gandhi, who ... More >>
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