Open mike 18/08/2014
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step up to the mike …
TVNZ’s Vote Compass
TVNZ has launched a new interactive online tool, to encourage voters to match their priorities with those of political parties. TV NZ aims to use the data from the responses for their election coverage. [Updated]
Metiria Turei’s speech at the Green launch
Metiria Turei’s speech at the Green’s launch. There is a lot of interesting material in there that I will write on later.
Greens launch billion dollar plan to reduce child poverty
Billion dollar family plan to reduce child poverty paid for by a change in top tax rate for high incomes to 40% at and above $140,000 per year. MPs will help with child poverty.
What is the bet that Slater gets it wrong?
Apparently Cameron Slater is going to “out” the identity of who got the emails off his system. What is the bet that he has it wrong – again? Hopefully the gibbering idiot has someone else helping him. It’d be good if he got it right for a change. Updated: Blustering about a txt that looks like it was related to court cases. Cameron is a moran….
Green’s campaign launch
I’m heading off to get some lunch before going to the Green’s campaign launch. It is (for those like me who forgot) at The […]
Rob Gilchrist On Nicky Hager
Unmasked by Hager, former activist and police spy Rob Gilchrist says “It may come as a surprise but I have the utmost respect for Mr Hager, He doesn’t write ’baseless allegations’, ’what-ifs and fanciful speculation’ Mr Hager is also not a ‘conspiracy theorist‘, he’s just extremely good at finding conspiracies.”
Was a crime committed when Slater accessed Labour’s computer system?
Occasionally erudite disagrees with one part of rocky’s analysis of the legality of Cameron Slater and Jason Ede’s accessing and copying the data from the Labour party’s computer. However he still thinks it is likely to be criminal.
Open mike 17/08/2014
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step up to the mike …
The Left on policies and values
In spite of what John Key & some of the media claim, Labour & the Greens have continued to campaign positively on policies and values throughout the week. The Greens officially launch their campaign tomorrow.
Naming and Shaming
Judith Collins naming the eponymous Simon Pleasants to Cameron Slater as the suspect in a document leak is unconscionable. She cannot remain a Minister, otherwise Key’s claim to a high standard when it comes to Ministerial behaviour is in tatters. This time the John Banks defence “I haven’t read it” and “I have taken his/her word” will not do.
John Key’s defence to Hager’s book starts to unwind
The Herald is reporting that the first of Key’s denials about the allegations in Dirty Politics has been refuted. National did hack Labour’s crippled server in 2011 and even apologised for it but Key claims National had no involvement.
Helen Kelly on Vote Chat: Questions for PoA & Key?
Helen Kelly is interviewed on Vote Chat. Kelly raises questions about the Ports of Auckland & Key’s role in Dirty Politics. She has read some of Dirty Politics, & was axed from today’s the Nation Panel, then replaced by Josie Pagani.[Updated]
Some confirmation about Collins and Slater
Over at The Ruminator there is a post corroborates the Judith Collins and Cameron Slater mutual back-scratching in private vendettas. It appears to me that there has been rather a lot of fiddling of the OIAs in recent years. In particular I’m thinking about the OIA requests on Liu for TV3.
Shadow play: Key’s 2-track politics
Nicky Hager’s Dirty Politics tells of the “two track strategy” of John Key’s leadership of the National Party & the country: a smiley nice front, & vicious, covert black ops behind the scenes. Key has overseen one of the darkest, nastiest periods in NZ politics. Vote Left for necessary, democratic change, for people-centred governance.
Who took Slater’s emails?
Some interesting comments on Hager’s book by John Armstrong and Danyl McLaughlan and the nagging question of who is responsible remains …
Open mike 16/08/2014
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step up to the mike …
Pagani and the Straw People
I don’t like listening to talkback radio, it’s not my thing. But I was prompted to listen today to a clip of Josie […]
Freedom for Palestine – National day of action
Nationwide protests in support of Palestine are planned for this weekend.
GCSB, privacy & Facebook messaging
How private are communications on social media platforms such as Facebook? It is claimed that the GCSB law’s definition of “privacy” leaves a loophole for warrantless surveillance of messaging by Kiwis on platforms like Facebook.
The Credibility Stakes: John Key vs Nicky Hager
BLip comments on John Armstrong’s article yesterday. Then he updates his “Honest Man” list about John Key and his limited understanding of the truth.
Hi Guyon!
In which I glow in the fame of being mentioned on Morning Report (and answer most of Guyon’s questions) and also encourage turnout in the wake of Dirty Politics.
Well-known conspiracy theorist
It’s John Key. In a wide-ranging interview, he tried to explain how “the left” conspired to ensure over the last three days that they burnt an effigy of him, used a few swear words about him on You-Tube, ran a satirical video, and Nicky Hager launched a book at the normal after-work time! No wonder his minders would rather he didn’t do stand-ups.
The Hager Book – National fights back
Two days after Nicky Hager’s book has been released and National’s response has been interesting. They are doing everything from attacking the author to the means of obtaining the information, to saying that it is politics as usual and Labour does it too. But John Key’s recent response to TV3 looked desperate. And the veracity of what he said needs to be checked.
Open mike 15/08/2014
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step up to the mike …
But the door was open…
The intention of this post is to examine the similarities and differences between the hacking of Cameron Slater’s communications on the one hand, and the hacking of the Labour Party donor database on the other. There are two important issues to determine in both cases and I will cover them separately. The first is the legality of the hacking and the second is the ethics of using the resulting information regardless of whether the obtaining of the information in the first instance was unlawful.
Irritated and up early
There has been a bit of pestering of authors by media in the last few days and some inadvisable waffling by fools ignorant of the blogging world about this site. I’ve had to bestir myself to talk about it. I’m not too happy about the time wasting. But on a happier note, the site is performing superbly under load..
Join the dates
According to John Key, allegations about Jason Ede’s muckspreading activities in cahoots with Cameron Slater are nothing to do with him because Ede now does not work any more on the 9th floor of the Beehive for the “Office of the Leader of the National Party.” The National Party employs him apparently. I would like to know exactly when Ede changed employers and email dates should establish exactly who paying for and managing him when the comments were made. Leader or Office – it’s the National Party spreading dirt – and many good people who are members will not be happy.
Slater and Christchurch – your thoughts?
Cameron Slater expresses his thoughts on Christchurch and the effects of the second Christchurch Earthquake. John Key thinks that he is a “pretty colourful character”. What do you think?
New Zealand women, first to vote
New Zealand was the first country to give women the vote – and this year all New Zealand women have an opportunity to honour that achievement by voting in the general election.
ImperatorFish: A message from the CEO of the Taxpayers’ Onion
Scott brings us this important info on how to set up your totally independent lobby group successfully.
Last night at the beehive
Usually all lights are off. But not last night. I wonder what they were talking about on the 9th floor of the Beehive last night? That is John Keys office.
National Response
National’s standard response is to ridicule – other political parties, Jon Stephenson, scientists etc have all had it. It slots nicely with Cameron Slater’s style. Now they’re ridiculing Nicky Hager, but they need to be taken up on each allegation.
Polity: Dirty politics: My 2c
The use of clandestine SIS files as a weapon of partisan politics is needs to be investigated. John Key or his office discovered classified SIS files that were embarrassing to Phil Goff, got them declassified, then immediately told a right-wing blogger to seek those same newly-declassified files under the OIA, all as a means of smearing a political opponent.
Dirty Politics: The Brestapo
I have foolishly never taken Cameron Slater very seriously except when his attacks have been obviously for the benefit of the National Party. I actually believed that the misinformed and bigoted viewpoints that prevail in his posts were his genuine opinions. It fits his character to drone on about “The Breastapo” “Sucking on the Taxpayers’ Tit”. To discover that such posts were actually written and paid for on behalf of Fonterra actually shocked me.
Open mike 14/08/2014
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step up to the mike …