The prince and the pea

I have pointed out before that Bomber Bradbury is wee bit unsuited to the two way dialogue of the blogs. A fragile prima donna who doesn’t like to be contradicted by the people he gallantly slags off in his routine piques of bitchy ranting. Updated with Bomber proving the point as his manufactured myths fall apart.

Where is Cameron Slater?

Yesterday I got contacted about Cameron Slater’s current address. Apparently the arsehole of the kiwi blogosphere hasn’t been paying his court ordered judgements against him that have been incurred in recent years. The person who contacted me wanted to serve a notice to bankrupt him.

TV3, Cameron Brewer and more of the same

TV3 recently interviewed Cameron Brewer to provide adverse commentary on a story about Labour seeded by David Farrar and Cameron Slater.  And they did not even mention Brewer’s links to the National Party.

Free Raif Badawi

Saudi Arabian blogger Raif Badawi has been sentenced to 1000 lashes. The international outrage is growing.

The difference between the left and the right

The recent handling of Charlie Hebdo by the Standard and by Kiwiblog provides a startling contrast.  And neatly underlies the reality that the left wing blogs are in no way just the same as the right wing blogs despite what John Key may say.

The Failed Estate: Body of the Host

The failed estate is a blogsite run by veteran Australian Journalist Jim Parker.  He writes occasional but perceptive posts primarily on media issues.  This current post, reprinted with permission, provides a damning critique of main stream media coverage of the Sydney Siege.

Bill Gates on Piketty and inequality

Thomas Piketty in his book Capital in the Twenty-First Century came to the strong conclusion that capitalism left by itself will increase inequality and cause increased risk of social, economic and democratic upheaval.  He has an unlikely supporter, albeit critical, in Bill Gates, one of the richest men in the world.

Rushing in to Freed?

Herald journo John Drinnan seems all excited about Freed. That’s the dirty politics model that you’re celebrating John. You really want journalists to become pawns to paid attack politics? WTF?

Poor (and rather pathetic) Bomber

Martyn Bradbury is still ‘leading’ the left from the behind. My focus on this site is how to reduce all the costs. One of those costs over the last year has been complaints about us from inside the NZLP. That is why I decided last month to drop my membership. Bomber snarkily whining up his ego looks like another wasteful cost.

NZ Media and blogs vs blogs

Snippets from a detailed and interesting report on the ownership of NZ media, media trends and issues, and the role of blogs post dirty politics. One major quibble – not all blogs are created equal, no more than all TV is game shows, than all radio is talkback, or than all websites are porn.

National’s campaign of false equivalences

John Key has been advertising us in parliament. But he has a problem distinguishing how his right puppet blogs operate compared to the volunteer blogs of the left. It says more about how John Key thinks than it does about us. Key prefers sites that recruit prostitutes in order to blackmail reporters.

Blowing smoke

Is David Farrar being paid to attack plain packaging? His latest post quotes research described by the Melbourne Age  as “pushed by the smoking lobby.” He also  misrepresents New Zealand researchers’ views. The Age says “a co-ordinated assault just ahead of the review of plain packaging laws is emerging.” Looks to me like Farrar has  joined it.

Scott Campbell: Liar on The Nation

Scott Campbell made a statement on The Nation this weekend about this site being used to attack him as a journalist in 2007/8. After having a good look around for evidence on site, I have concluded that Scott Campbell simply lied. Quite why this comms specialist for the right made this lie I don’t know. But I’m quite pissed off about it.

Two guilty approaches after Dirty Politics

There are two approaches to being a star of dirty politics and not wanting to answer questions about it. Both were displayed on Campbell Live last night by Jason Ede and Cameron Slater. And Andrea Vance has details on taxpayers paying for Slaters legal bills.

Dirty political money – why isn’t it illegal?

The Greens have released information that shows National having 77% of their donations in the last 3 years ($3.375 million) funnelled to them in non-public quite large donations. What are they providing for that? Well amongst other things it pays for sleazeballs like Jason Ede. But what legislation?

A Breakdown.

There’s a lot of smash flying around concerning the SIS, the PM’s office, OIA requests, Judith Collin’s and what not. So here’s a simple, stripped back, breakdown

Key in for the long term?

John Key’s election as chair of the International Democratic Union is significant. Key succeeds John Howard who has led the IDU for the past 12 years. Key’s acceptance signals that like  four-time winner Howard, Key plans a long career as Prime Minister of New Zealand. This news should be a wake-up call for the Labour Party’s review of its election organisation and party structure.

Polity: Income mobility

David Farrar seldom seems to actually read the reports fully before he starts inventing meaningless canards. A theoretical equality of opportunity is irrelevant when your parent’s lack of disposable income is the major determinant of your own education and opportunities. We waste the opportunities from peoples abilities because of income inequalities.

Moving away from the politics of fear

Politics from a position of fear is never going to be successful. Politics based on conviction and the ability to put forward a sound argument is a much better strategy. Yes, anyone selected is going to be subject to attack. But there’s no point in allowing that to cloud our judgement.

The bad blogger

It looks like Cameron Slater has finally woken up to the costs of walking over legal boundaries. Rather than dealing with the numbers of people who don’t like him or his actions. He instead has concocted a paranoid conspiracy theory. Oh, and he wants others to pay for his mistakes. Typical.

Hager vs police – suppressing debate

The police and Hager are in the process of initiating legal proceedings against each other. The police action against Hager was and is designed to intimidate, to suppress debate. Rod Oram calls shame on dirty politics and the people who perpetrate it.

New Blog: On The Left

“OTL was born when a couple of lefty comms people got together for coffee and decided that the NZ blogosphere was lacking an accessible, well-written, interesting and above all fun group blog which provided a space for discussing and propagating left-wing ideas.”

Let them go to war

Back when I was a teenager, a mate of mine decided that he was going to give up on school and would get in some combat. So he worked his way into the Rhodesian Light Infantry. A few years later I heard that he’d been killed in action. Other young men going overseas with similar excitement issues have came back a lot less interested in excitement. Sounds safer to me than letting them have a car.

How Slater manufactures smears

Unusually the IPCA chair Judge Sir David Carruthers has written a letter to Matthew Blomfield clarifying that “perjury” is a illusion of the rogue “journalist” and fantasy blogger Cameron Slater. Plus news on the theft of Blomfield’s hard disk. Another judge destroys Slater’s carefully inflated memes with facts.

Progressive social media

Now that the dust is settling on the 2014 general election it is a good time for progressives to review our and our opponents’ use of social media and what can be done better.  And how do we respond effectively to the approach of the right which is now thanks to Nicky Hager painstakingly clear.

Cosgrove, the whining MP

Clayton Cosgrove has been acting like a real old fossil this morning about Karen Price’s tweeting. It sounds like his wife must live in purdah. But many modern men live with women who actually have their own mind and use it. Apparently he also thinks bloggers are all like the sockpuppet Cameron Slater as well.. Whining fool. I have news for him. We’re independent too…

Jackal: The truth will out

Cameron Slater is a complete arsehole. He gets paid to exercise these talents as was exposed in Dirty Politics. So the question is who is paying him to attack researchers in public health? Do we have a National Minister of Health yet? Or is it the junk food industry or the tobacco lobby? And does he declare his earnings to the IRD?