blogging it real

Hola folks, there's been a few things really getting on my tits lately and it's about time I got them off my chest!

Firstly, he may be an ignorance-spreading self-righteous cock, but can't help but agree with ol' Peter Dunne's comments in the Herald this morning about politicians/the Prime Minister trying to score some political brownie points by being seen grieving with the family of the lady who died following power being cut to her house.

"I do think that politicians in these situations have to be very, very careful about not milking an awful situation for their own opportunity."

Yip, I couldn't help noticing that over the last few days Helen Clark has been everywhere that the family have.

Call me cynical, but I can't help but wonder if her compassion is directly a product of Labour's and her dismal poll ratings that have been reported over the last few weeks?

Hmmm speaking of these polls how the fuck can a party (National) that has said nothing, done nothing, achieved nothing in recent months suddenly rocket up in the polls?

Can anyone say "fickle public" three times fast?

Anyways, on to another pet hate of mine - cheerleading masquerading as journalism:

This article titled:

"One cup down, one to go for Team NZ" includes the following '2,4,6,8 aren't team NZ great' analysis:

Team New Zealand lost the America's Cup to Alinghi in 2003. For four years they have planned and plotted their revenge. Today's win now lets them step back into the ring with their vanquisher.

....sounds like Rocky dialogue but it gets better....

It is the second time Team New Zealand has won the Louis Vuitton Cup. They won it in San Diego in 1995 and went on to beat Dennis Connor 5-0 in the America's Cup match. Let's hope it's an omen. Bring on the Swiss.

It reminds me of the last rugby world cup where the Herald ran the following impartial analysis:

Smart money on All Blacks, By ALAN PERROTT
Bookmakers in all major rugby nations have ignored the bluster from the English and Australian camps to establish the All Blacks as universal World Cup favourites. But keen punters will have to bet huge amounts to make an income out of John Mitchell's men, as the prices on New Zealand range from a minuscule R$1.10 in South Africa to a piffling A$2.40 in Australia.In New Zealand, the TAB has gradually dropped the All Blacks from NZ$2.85 to NZ$2 to avoid serious losses on the flood of money being laid on them.

You see, the problem is that when journalists start uncritically gunning for their home team, they forget to do their job - which is to impartially assess the facts.

Which is why at the last America's Cup the New Zealand public were being screamed at to be loyal from every concievable angle while everyone forgot to mention our boat could barely fucking float.

Opinion number 447:

Boy racers - yeah we've jumped on the bandwagon at bloggingitreal and shared our thoughts on society's number one ill - boy racing!

The menace, the horror, we need to crack down on these lawless, authority-spurning hooligans!

And it seems as a country we are: new bylaws popping up everywhere, manslaughter charges against drivers involved in fatal accidents here:

Yet it seems that when the police are directly implicated by impartial witnesses in fatal accidents in incredibly similar circumstances - then shit, they don't even carry out interviews.

The family of a teenager killed in a high-speed crash want to know if a police car was pursuing the vehicle before the accident after claims by two passengers and an independent witness.
Police say they were not chasing a Subaru WRX carrying four teenagers when it left the road at Dairy Flat, north of Auckland, on Easter Monday.
Front seat passenger Jamie Lance McElrea, 17, died the next day after he was thrown through the rear window and hit a lamp-post.
....
A police spokesman said the fatal crash was not being treated as a pursuit but the Police Complaints Authority had been notified.
"My understanding is that at the time of the crash there was no police pursuit in progress and in fact there had not been an actual pursuit taking place," said spokesman Kevin Loughlin.
He refused to go into detail, but said the Subaru had "attracted the attention" of a police officer in an unmarked car.
Mr Loughlin would not say what action was taken by the police officer but "he eventually came upon the scene and alerted the Serious Crash Unit".
Backseat passengers Kayla Hewison and Matthew Anderson, who were also thrown from the car, claim a police car was pursuing them before the crash - and Ms Hewison alleges the vehicles came into contact.
In a signed statement Ms Hewison, 18, said a police car was "right up our butts". She said "the cop pulled out of a street and started following us".

Gee, doesn't that sound familiar?

We weren't chasing them at the time of the accident, we "chanced upon it" later.

Miss Burgess died from multiple injuries including severe head injuries after the car she was driving was hit by motorcyclist Kuran William Brunton, 29, 10km south of Whangarei on the night of May 12 (2003).Police initially claimed after the accident that they had abandoned their pursuit of Brunton, which reached speeds of up to 190kmph. But the inquest heard that this was not strictly true -- a police car with sirens and flashing lights operating had followed Brunton right up to the time he crashed.

Not strictly true?

Errr, how about the police were fucking lying?

Anyways, back to the original story:

"Then the cops caught up to us, we had stopped at the intersection [of Pine Valley Rd and Kahikatea Flat Rd] then the cops were right up our butts. We went left, boosted it, cops were up our butts again. We felt a bang, we all went forward a bit then I remember sliding and then I remember starting to flip."......
Jamie's father Mark McElrea had also spoken to an independent witness who was passed by the speeding Subaru and a police car just before the crash.
Mr McElrea said a Dairy Flat resident travelling on Kahikatea Flat Rd told him the Subaru overtook him and his partner on a dangerous corner. He was overtaken about 50m further along the road by a police car with lights flashing.
"Less than a kilometre later he comes across the crash," Mr McElrea said.

Where's the consistency?

If a boy racer had rear-ended another in a race causing a fatal accident imagine the how many indignant newspaper column inches would have been devoted to the topic!

And imagine how quick the police would have been to charge the driver with manslaughter.





















There fuck it I've said it.