Written By: - Date published: 10:33 pm, November 22nd, 2014 - 38 comments
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.
Written By: - Date published: 12:43 pm, November 21st, 2014 - 17 comments
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.
Written By: - Date published: 6:46 am, October 24th, 2014 - 71 comments
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.
Written By: - Date published: 12:06 am, October 19th, 2014 - 35 comments
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.
Written By: - Date published: 2:00 pm, October 3rd, 2014 - 43 comments
David Farrar is wrong. We don’t have abortion on request in New Zealand. Not literally, and not “effectively.”
Written By: - Date published: 8:39 pm, September 28th, 2014 - 114 comments
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?
Written By: - Date published: 9:49 am, September 27th, 2014 - 78 comments
David Farrar continues the Dirty Politics strategy of trying to intimidate critics of the government into silence.
Written By: - Date published: 6:40 am, September 26th, 2014 - 148 comments
Dr Jarrod Gilbert was the victim of a typical dirty politics smear campaign via Kiwiblog. In the last couple of days he has done some interesting posts on the subject. Expect dirty politics, and personal attacks on critics of the government, to escalate even further over the next three years.
Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, September 23rd, 2014 - 70 comments
Action Station has a full page ad in today’s NZ Herald, asking to clean up dirty politics. Dirty Politics is not any isolated attack politics or criticism of those in power. It is a relentless two track strategy, an orchestrated smear machine, aimed at moving politics rightwards & disengaging (left wing) voters. Update: Hager comments on the election.
Written By: - Date published: 8:35 pm, September 14th, 2014 - 29 comments
They’re at it again. David Farrar has a guest post from fellow VRWC member Charles Finny about FiveEyes, arguing that it’s kept us safe in foreign wars and Labour did it too. Which of course is not the point of the current debate about massive government surveillance of innocent citizens. Farrar then gets himself tangled in knots – if Dotcom is right Labour did it too – but he’s not of course says Farrar.
Written By: - Date published: 6:10 pm, September 9th, 2014 - 72 comments
A new series on happy mischief and paying back double.
Written By: - Date published: 11:10 am, September 8th, 2014 - 138 comments
Cameron Slater, National’s attack blogger has written a sleaze post on Martyn Bradbury. This shows far too much intelligence for the ever lazy Cameron to have researched it. Has National’s research unit (into dirt) resumed using that sock puppet again? We should be able to look and find out which blackmailed journalists they touch up as this story progresses. Time to follow the dots.
Written By: - Date published: 10:54 am, September 8th, 2014 - 19 comments
Jason Ede’s disappearance from public view suggests a cover up in response to Hager’s Dirty Politics. The book implicates Ede (past PM staffer) in a coordinated black ops smear machine working with blogs like Whale Oil. Key may need to come clean soon about some of Ede’s activities.
Written By: - Date published: 10:10 am, September 7th, 2014 - 111 comments
In today’s Sunday Star Times, is an article on a Matthew Hooton & the VRWC (Vast Right Wing Conspiracy). Hooton criticises John Key, does a couple of mea culpas, but ultimately, airbrushes the whole disgusting mess of dirty politics. [Updated: comment from Bill]
Written By: - Date published: 12:30 pm, September 5th, 2014 - 13 comments
This morning Rob Salmond did a great post about the “big lie” – the spin coming from the Right that Labour hasn’t concentrated on policy, just dirty politics.
Like clockwork, David Farrar has a post up about the latest polls, suggesting “Their focus on hacked e-mails instead of policy is backfiring.”
Written By: - Date published: 11:48 am, August 30th, 2014 - 18 comments
There is a self-appointed “Vast Right Wing Conspiracy” in New Zealand. Odgers and Slater are key members. Search VRWC on Slater’s website and you’ll find their activities. After Pansy Wong’s forced resignation from Cabinet for misuse of her travel perk the VRWC thought the National Cabinet needed “some serious steel going forward.” You can read the minutes of their virtual white-board session on post-it cards – the rifts at the top are deep and nasty.
Written By: - Date published: 12:46 am, August 27th, 2014 - 143 comments
Of course I (and other Standard authors) condemn lyrics that incite violence, and any and all threats to the children of politicians (who are completely out of bounds). Does this even need saying? But – Farrar, his little fan club, and the moral high ground? – it is beyond hypocrisy. There is no equivalence between the actions of a disenfranchised, angry few and the systematic abuse of democracy and decency undertaken by National’s dirty politics.
Written By: - Date published: 11:16 pm, August 25th, 2014 - 32 comments
Dirty Politics shows why we urgently need a revitalised public service broadcasting & online media. The domination by corporate media is poisoning democracy, providing openings for ruthless manipulators like Cameron Slater. An article by David Fisher provides some insights.
Written By: - Date published: 1:10 pm, August 19th, 2014 - 26 comments
How slippery is John Key? Part one of transcript of Key’s press standup last Thursday. On accessing Labour’s website private details, OIAs to the SIS, Dirty Politics, Nicky Hager and Mr Slater. [Updated]
Written By: - Date published: 9:34 am, August 19th, 2014 - 112 comments
David “Princess Parties” Farrar at Kiwiblog is trying to wash off some of the stench of Dirty Politics. Turns out it’s after the election (of course) – and so heavily qualified as to be meaningless. Expect business as usual at the sewer.
Written By: - Date published: 3:00 pm, August 18th, 2014 - 45 comments
Revulsion. That’s what’s coming out from a range of people who have ploughed through the inner thoughts of Slater, Farrar, Ede, Collins, Lusk, Odgers, Jordan Williams – they’re all repulsive. It’s the strength of that gut feeling in response that will sink their plot. Despite all John Key’s efforts to move as quickly as possible to the end of the day, …it’s still not ok. Key’s try at cover up is pathetic, and doomed to be futile. But what it shows is that he has chosen the moral low ground with the rest of them. TeamKey indeed.
Written By: - Date published: 5:00 am, August 15th, 2014 - 277 comments
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.
Written By: - Date published: 9:17 pm, August 13th, 2014 - 57 comments
I do so want to read this book right now. I can hardly wait. The preface is online… http://dirtypoliticsnz.com Nicky Hager is way way more of a gentleperson than I am. Explaining the material that is not in the book – “The fact that Slater and his associates have made a career of exposing the very private details of other people’s lives does not make it right to do that to them.”
Written By: - Date published: 7:11 pm, August 13th, 2014 - 138 comments
I haven’t read the Nicky Hager’s book “Dirty Politics” yet. But I’m not surprised that Cameron Slater is up to his neck in dirt provided by John Key’s dirt merchant Jason Ede. That he has been given information sourced from the SIS is extremely surprising. I had not thought that John Key was quite that stupid.
Written By: - Date published: 12:21 pm, August 12th, 2014 - 97 comments
Sociologist Dr Jarrod Gilbert takes everybody’s favourite right-wing spinster to task for misrepresentation and spin on gangs.
Written By: - Date published: 10:27 am, July 11th, 2014 - 14 comments
Rob Salmond presents the David Farrar / Steven Joyce / John Key argument that 2011 non voters are a National-leaning bunch. Then he shows that a better look at their own data undermines their claim. This matters because it helps us understand which bloc has more to gain from voter mobilization efforts in 2014. This means the left has a lot more to gain than the right from mobilization in 2014.
Written By: - Date published: 6:00 pm, July 10th, 2014 - 224 comments
It’s headline news again: Labour is trying to take away men’s rights and exile you all to a desert island. If you believe David Farrar, that is.
Written By: - Date published: 5:56 pm, June 16th, 2014 - 34 comments
Poor David Farrar, he can’t write a post without getting accused of hypocrisy these days. It must have to do with that rancid stench he emanates whenever he gets on his high horse to lecture others. There’s only one political leader out there saying: “Tactical voting is a good idea for my supporters, and long may it continue, but it is a dreadful crime by others.” That leader is John Key.
Written By: - Date published: 2:10 pm, June 12th, 2014 - 116 comments
David Farrar in his usual burst of hypocrisy and curious selectiveness about detailed numbers is proclaiming a headline rise in manufacturing. As is usual he is only interested in the top level numbers and doesn’t provide a link to even the summary data. I guess that is because they are rather depressing for his 9th floor of the Beehive view of employment and wage packets, which is what most voters expect from growth. There has been a slight decline in manufacturing jobs while we have a 11% growth in “manufacturing”.
Written By: - Date published: 9:13 am, June 12th, 2014 - 204 comments
Four alleged murders out west in the past month have caused a great deal of soul searching. What is going wrong? What can we do to prevent any further tragic loss of life?
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