Firstly, the Attorney-General has ministerial jurisdiction over the Crown Law Office, the Parliamentary Counsel Office, and the Serious Fraud Office. Secondly, the Attorney-General is the principal law officer of the Crown, responsible for supervising the state's administration of the law and for providing legal advice to the government… watch this guy.

Felloffasofa

The irony. The National Party have been caught up in a copyright lawsuit over using the opening chords of an Eminem song on probably what is the main National 2014 election TV Commercial. You know, the one with a bunch of young, fit athletes in a canoe powering down the "8 Mile" creek to an unknown destination.

A "picture" of stable, decisive government in action right?

But hang on! Let's get a little more realistic about the stability of the current government. What we need to remember is there are actual National Party members rowing this boat. 

Let's announce the team...

John Key as the cox barking orders at a sweated out Gerry Brownlee who's experienced in rocking the boat in the Avon, Maurice Williams quits after being caught influencing the race officials, Tony Ryall bails out into retirement, Paula Bennet is busy knocking the heads of the poor fish, Hekia Parata has her oars tangled up in Novopay, Nick "the DOCtator" Smith dropping Big Oil exploration rigs into endangered Dolphin sanctuaries and Bill English as Head of the O.I.O. is busy christening the creek the Yangste. Then to top it all off during the last mile Judith Collins is finally shoved out because at the other end of the boat she has been steering the boat deep into dirty waters with the help of a slimy little Blogger Whale!

Powering ahead or floundering in the mud? Maybe there's a picture here?

Anyway back to the story - the Nats are pleading innocent and that the song's license as been purchased legitimately. I suppose the artist's representatives are so uncomfortable with being connected artistically to this Political campaign or this Political Group that they feel within their rights to object to the association.

So if ever there is an outcome of a court case or if anything comes of the lawsuit and the campaign promo is found to have breached copyright laws then we'd expect a suitable penalty.

A substantial fine maybe? Nah, how about we show some consistency and raid their homes with a 70-odd, heavily armed force, seize there business assets, take their personal possessions, put them in holding cells for 2 months, break up their families and serve them with pending extradition orders. It was ok to do this to Kim Dotcom - a New Zealand Resident by using an admittedly and illegally obtained warrant. Fair is fair!

But let us and the Media focus too much on this - "It's just not the same" the honorable John Shady will lyricise.

He would know... Operation Speargun Phase One is complete.

Felloffasofa

I was going to post strictly about the new CCTV program the National Party is about to roll out in New Zealand, and the implications again, of more government invasion of our privacy. But as "The Automaton" image above progressed my thoughts on its design focused on something bigger. The image evolved to encompass a collection of issues of which I believe, are leading this country somewhere we all should know that we shouldn't really be going.

Us Kiwis are aware of the accelerating encroachment of government into our private lives. It's called Totalitarianism. And when these issues are brought up in conversation amongst ourselves I find that most Kiwis are eager to quickly shut them down or dismiss the importance. It's a little disheartening to witness your friends and family acting like mini Automatons themselves, when they run and hide their eyes and hope it all might go away.

But you can't run and hide forever - you are being surrounded. And CCTV will see to that soon as it logs your face, your location and the time you were there into a national database every second that you are walking down the city street. The funny thing is we will be paying for this spy system! 

As I see it if the rights and interests of the New Zealand People are being overridden by our own Prime Minister then he is nothing but an agent for foreign interests. A clue to who this may be is in the US and the UK because these oppressive programs are running there already - and look at the sorry state of the society in those countries.

Thankfully I do have a little grin on my face as I come away thinking that at least people are aware of the issues. Because while John Key and the National Party "roll the dice" and edge us towards what looks like the point of no return I know there will always be another point.

Kiwis are aware of how you and your cronies operate Mr Automaton. So let's hope it is a turning point that comes at the end of this year with a new Government.

Felloffasofa

How long will our Government ignore the New Zealand People's wishes while stripping away our rights to privacy. There are some rotten eggs representing us and herding us into a "Darker" Future. Not Brighter.

I was amazed that our Minister of Defence's only comment about the United States spying on it's Allies' Leaders and Citizen's was that New Zealand has nothing to worry about because we're so insignificant and there's nothing going on here - New Zealand is boring.... he may be right but you don't look good kissing American butt JC - plain and simple.

What Jonathan didn't say is what he thought of the accused actions of the U.S. intelligence agency's activities. What would his answer be "Spying on Allies is bad - bad form USA!" but no his lips were busy somewhere else.

No fear!
Felloffasofa.

Guess who's holding the the "Hands Off Our Privacy Parts!" Sign at the Auckland GCSB Protest?

This pic was part of a NZ Herald Article yesterday. See the link below for the full story:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11112152

The GCSB bill is about to pass into law in the next few hours. The raid on our Privacy by the Dread Privateer John Key is almost complete.

It'll only be stopped in the House by some miracle.

Enjoy our last days to be somewhat free online.

Felloffasofa

Rodney Harrison: Wholesale spy power is precisely what GCSB bill means for Kiwis describes fairly clearly where John Key either doesn't understand his own legislation or is lying to New Zealanders about his legislation.

I know that nothing we do online is private. I've always assumed this was the case. But there were laws in place restricting wholesale data collecting, individual privacy, and that quaint little thing known as the Bill of Rights. There had been some protection.

Not any more.

New Zealand is turning a corner it doesn't need to and shouldn't.