kim dotcom

IF: A day in the life of Matthew Hooton

Written By: notices and features
Date published: - 32 comments

[Satire]  I has a dream… Winston retired from politics and went on to set up a bird rescue centre in a remote spot in the Raukumura Range, but the centre was burned down after two teenagers high on glue broke in and set it alight. The delicious smells of hundreds of roasted native birds attracted the attentions of the poor for miles around… desperate and hungry people tore at each other to get into the still-burning sanctuary…  I awoke in a fever and ran to my computer, and in seconds flat I had my NBR column finished.

Dotcom’s extradition and the 2014 general election

Written By: mickysavage
Date published: - 94 comments

In further news about Dotcom he has said that if the Internet Party has not reached 5% in the polls before the printing of the ballot papers he will endorse another party.  An endorsement could be the difference between the left winning and losing the next election.  And the Greens have raised the prospect of a Ministerial Veto of any extradition order.

Polity: Kim Dotcom’s 5% gambit

Written By: notices and features
Date published: - 92 comments

Rob Salmond looks at the implications of the Internet party failing to poll 5% and DotCom throws his support behind another party. A bidding war from competing parties? For the left this would be being both hypocritical and a bit icky. One of the reasons they worked hard to make election funding fairer in the late 2000s was to limit the ability of individuals seeking to buy government policy for cash. The right disagreed but is now caught by their own logic that it couldn’t happen.

Scoop and Whaleoil, a tale of two websites

Written By: mickysavage
Date published: - 134 comments

Kim Dotcom has previously caused havoc amongst the ranks of ACT and National and now has caused significant disruption to the proudly independent Scoop media organisation.  And Cameron Slater has jumped on the bandwagon claiming that the payment of money was an anathema to any political blogsite because it distorted their independence.  The sense of irony is strong here …

The Internet Party

Written By: mickysavage
Date published: - 304 comments

Kim Dotcom’s Internet Party appears to be ready to take off.  And if the rumours are true he has some heavyweight advisers and a strategy that may threaten National more than any other party.

The puppet party, the Mega party and the pro assault party

Written By: mickysavage
Date published: - 201 comments

Politics for the year is shaping up to be very interesting.  In news today ACT puppet master Steven Joyce has failed to persuade Rodney Hide to stand again for Epsom, the Conservatives are aiming to legitimise the use of violence by parents against children and Kim Dotcom is said to be ready to announce his new political party this month.

John Banks to stand trial

Written By: mickysavage
Date published: - 120 comments

John Banks is to stand trial for allegedly filing a false electoral return for his failed 2010 Auckland super-city mayoralty bid. It appears that the issue will be did he intend to treat the Dotcom donation as anonymous when clearly it was not. And John Key needs to reconsider Banks’ presence in cabinet as it is becoming increasingly untenable.
Update: Banks has stood down from his Ministerial portfolios.

Wrap of the Week

Written By: Bunji
Date published: - 3 comments

Things I didn’t get to this week, from Christchurch earthquake anniversary to Kim Dotcom.

88 flavours of bullshit

Written By: Anthony R0bins
Date published: - 31 comments

Presumably there is some tiny but “real” risk of terrorist action in NZ. But it doesn’t justify the broad powers of the Key-Dunne spying Bill. Recent experience and the government’s own protocols show that these spying powers will be used on activists and journalists that the government of the day doesn’t like. The 88 who have been illegally spied on already call bullshit.

Dotcom developments

Written By: Anthony R0bins
Date published: - 104 comments

The public trusts Kim Dotcom more than John Key (no surprise), and Journalist Selwyn Manning describes “some breaking news from Dotcom” on what Key knew, and when…

GCSB is watching you? Won’t ‘confirm or deny’

Written By: karol
Date published: - 37 comments

The GCSB won’t “confirm or deny” if they spied on individual Kiwis. Concerned citizens might contact the Privacy Commissioner or start a class action. John Key’s rushed GCSB Bill won’t prevent mission creep, surveillance to support international corporate interests or inadequate oversight of the GCSB. [Update]: link to Waitakere News

Epsom by election?

Written By: Anthony R0bins
Date published: - 73 comments

John Banks is in court to answer allegations over his Dotcom donations and electoral returns. If convicted he loses his seat. How would an Epsom by election play out?

‘That politician got amnesia again’

Written By: karol
Date published: - 21 comments

Today’s anonymous Dominion Post editorial points to the beginning of John Key’s fall from grace.  It centres on Key’s personal qualities, continues to support the MSM’s support of personality politics, glosses over the serious issues masked by Key’s (alleged) amnesia, and uses a false equivalence with Helen Clark.

Seeking a wormald to the truth

Written By: karol
Date published: - 33 comments

Dotcom has promised some significant revelations from this week’s court proceedings.  This morning his lawyer focused on Grant Wormald, the role of the police Special Tactics Group, and the truth.  Is the GCSB is off the hook? Meanwhile, Key has been claiming he is “honest and upfront”. [Update – Key’s announced changes to the GCSB outrageous & undemocratic]

Key’s Nixon moment

Written By: Anthony R0bins
Date published: - 55 comments

Nixon famously said: “When the president does it, that means that it is not illegal”. John Key would have you believe the same thing, that when his agency, the GCSB, has been breaking the law, the problem lies with the law. No – the problem lies with the GCSB and its oversight. Watergate here we come…

Billy Big Stepper

Written By: Eddie
Date published: - 27 comments

Our wee James Bond wannabes had a code name for Kim Dotcom (you know, in case their comms were intercepted by the bad guys). They called him Billy Big Stepper. So witty! But Labour’s uncovered something more serious too. It seems that the GCSB was aware in February that they may have broken the law and went into a quite a tizz, before covering it up.

Mega overloads

Written By: lprent
Date published: - 72 comments

In the continuing saga of Kim Dotcom against the forces of blind, silly, and technically illiterate conservatism, amongst whom John Key (our Minister of International Embarrassment) fits pretty well. Kim Dotcom has launched a new file storage service. Although that is not strictly correct – rather people associated with him did. It is the “Mega” and is accessible at present only using the https://mega.co.nz. And it is a bit bogged down with mega demand…

Think Mega

Written By: Anthony R0bins
Date published: - 138 comments

Kim Dotcom is promising ultra-cheap broadband for NZ. If he pulls it off, he is going to put our local entrepreneurs to shame – not to mention our government.

A trip down faulty memory lane

Written By: Eddie
Date published: - 69 comments

One of the fishy elements of the GCSB-Dotcom-Key saga is Key’s suddenly very faulty memory. It’s unbelievable what he’s forgotten about such a major issue. Here’s a partial list of things Key can’t recall, isn’t sure about, or doesn’t know – just from his answers in the House and just the last 3 days of questions. Update: got to tip my hat to Te Reo Putake’s name for the PM: ‘DunnoKeyo’

None so blind

Written By: Eddie
Date published: - 43 comments

Yesterday, John Key told Parliament in endless detail exactly what the GCSB did trying to check if there is any video of him talking about Dotcom. He knew all of that front to back. But, when it came to a simple question: ‘when did the GCSB realise they had broken the law in spying on Dotcom’. He had no idea. It’s incredible that he hasn’t bothered to learn such a basic fact.

Banks suppressed Police statement

Written By: Eddie
Date published: - 48 comments

Remember how Banks’ Police report came out and the statement he gave to the Police was blanked out? And remember how Banks said it was the Police’s choice, not his? Yeah, well that was a lie. Even on the most generous reading of Banks’ words, he was trying to mislead the media. What’s Key’s rule? “A Minister who lies or misleads about his actions would lose his confidence”

Oversight

Written By: Bunji
Date published: - 10 comments

There are only 2 people protecting us from illegal spying: the Inspector-General with his staff of 1, and the Prime Minister.  Therefore it is vital that the Prime Minister knows the law they are meant to be enforcing.  They can’t know what they aren’t told, but when the GCSB tells him they were spying on a famous NZ resident, the PM should know that that’s illegal and act on it.  Not wait to be briefed on the affair 7 months later.

The incredibly incurious and forgetful Mr Key

Written By: Eddie
Date published: - 144 comments

“So what?” says Key as allegations emerge from within GCSB that Key cracked jokes about the spooks’ (illegal) involvement in the Dotcom raid when he was briefed by them on February 29th. It either means you realised their spying and are incompetent for not questioning its legality or that you knew all about the illegal spying and didn’t care – that’s what.

Does Key give a damn any more?

Written By: Zetetic
Date published: - 29 comments

My old man, a casual observer of politics, said the other day: “John boy doesn’t look like he wants to be there anymore”. I reckon he’s right. Except when he’s doing photo-ops, Key looks ever more grumpy and aloof. No wonder he’s spending so much time overseas. No wonder he’s making such bad decisions like betraying his promise to the Pike River families.

Key’s growing Dotcom problem

Written By: Eddie
Date published: - 29 comments

People don’t just vote for politicians because they like their policies. Just as important are trust and perceived competence. Key’s policies were never popular. He won on the other two – particularly trust. That’s why the Dotcom saga is so ruining for him. As more details of what Key knew or should have known come out day by day, perceptions of Key’s competence and trust in him plummet.

From cock-up to cover-up

Written By: Eddie
Date published: - 49 comments

The narrative that the Government has tried to sell, and which has been largely accepted to date, is that the GCSB’s illegal spying on Dotcom was a cock-up. They claimed that Key wasn’t briefed, when he was. The Nats also claimed only a change in immigration law in 2009 protected Dotcom. Now, we know that’s rubbish. Cover-up it is.

A red herring?

Written By: Eddie
Date published: - 23 comments

Call me cynical but I just don’t think it’s credible that it took over two weeks after Key supposedly learned of the GCSB’s involvement in the Dotcom raid before they realised he given a presentation featuring Dotcom by GCSB a month after the raid. They’re amateur, they’re not that amateur. No, I think the ‘presentation on a laptop screen’ is a red herring.

One video exposes Key, GCSB’s & Banks’ Dotcom lies

Written By: Eddie
Date published: - 115 comments

Watch this video of John Key being interviewed by the media on January 24th. 1: Key is clearly well-briefed on Dotcom. 2: he knows that Dotcom is a resident, so why didn’t he raise that a month later with GCSB? 3: How did Key know that Dotcom was a resident and GCSB didn’t? 4: Banks has told media he had dined at the mansion with Dotcom – months before denying remembering that meeting.

NRT: Convenient amnesia

Written By: notices and features
Date published: - 115 comments

What can one say to the latest. No Right Turn says…..
“So, having told everyone that he wasn’t briefed about the Kim Dotcom spying fiasco until September, it now turns out that John Key was told about it back in February. ” … “That whistling noise is the PM’s credibility shrinking even further. His amnesia is just too convenient here to be believed”

Updated: Added links to his next two posts.

Key changes tune, orders GCSB review

Written By: Zetetic
Date published: - 71 comments

Last week, Key tried to tell us that the illegal spying on Kim Dotcom – which he, the minister, we’re supposed to believe wasn’t told about for 8 months – was down to one agent’s ‘brain fade’. Uh huh. So, why has he now appointed a senior public servant to review and reform GCSB? You don’t do that when the problem was one person’s human error.

[Update: Lol at Key. Police are launching a high powered inquiry after he said there was no need for one]

Where are the resignations?

Written By: James Henderson
Date published: - 87 comments

John Key refuses to accept any responsibility for what his spies get up to. The only point of democratic responsibility for our spies doesn’t monitor them and won’t take the blame for failing to do so. He won’t fire a corrupt, lying minister, either. The rot is spreading to the public service. There has been not one resignation, not a single one, due to the Dotcom debacle.