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Righties rise in revolution re: retrospective law

Written By: - Date published: 10:30 am, March 25th, 2009 - 13 comments

No, wait, they didn’t. Idiot/Savant from No Right Turn explains: Back in 2006, the (then-Labour) government passed the Appropriation (Parliamentary Expenditure Validation) Bill, which retrospectively validated Parliamentary Services expenditure in the wake of a nonsensical, retrospective reinterpretation by the Auditor-General. The rabids in the sewer (and some supposedly outside it) preached revolution. Today, the (now-National) […]

Strawman

Written By: - Date published: 5:38 pm, March 11th, 2009 - 56 comments

I’m always amazed at the intellectual hoops the neoliberal right will jump through to try and deny low income workers minimum wage increases. David Farrar has a piece up today highlighting the case of Honduras, where they’ve apparently raised the minimum wage by 60% in one go, causing higher unemployment. This, he says, highlights the […]

A sign of the times?

Written By: - Date published: 7:30 pm, February 20th, 2009 - 5 comments

This item in the Brisbane Times caught my eye as to how the whole nature of campaigning is changing – and the mixed blessing of Facebook: A senior Liberal National Party staffer has been reprimanded over comments she made on a website attacking Premier Anna Bligh. Katherine Smith, a media adviser for LNP deputy leader […]

That’s strange

Written By: - Date published: 2:49 pm, February 17th, 2009 - 13 comments

An hour ago No Right Turn posted a piece citing what was apparently a Ministry of Social Development press release, which he says was “confirmation that the government is planning to slash 500 to 1000 people from the Ministry of Social Development”. He gives a link to scoop for the presser. But Scoop has since taken it down […]

Micropartywatch

Written By: - Date published: 9:30 am, February 17th, 2009 - 3 comments

Wondering about the latest on New Zealand First’s leadership? Curious as to the prospects for a RAM/Workers’ Party union? The new blog Micro Party Watch promises to keep us up to date on the latest developments for the little extra-parliamentary parties.

Control group

Written By: - Date published: 5:04 pm, February 9th, 2009 - 38 comments

I’ve got to admit there are days I wonder whether the National Party really have swung leftward. I mean I know they are a party of spin and I know they have enacted some nasty rightwing legislation but when I see them putting the minimum wage up, dancing with drag queens and hobnobbing with iwi […]

Just a little respect

Written By: - Date published: 11:33 am, February 9th, 2009 - 7 comments

David Farrar has a wee post where he laments that he is rarely credited when he breaks stories that are then picked up by the media. We have the same thing happen to us. We broke the story on the minimum wage – that National/ACT was planning a freeze, despite the Department of Labour recommending […]

DPF and Whale make me happy!1!

Written By: - Date published: 12:57 pm, February 4th, 2009 - 26 comments

There’s been a story that I have been dreading having to respond to because it is so low, dishonest, and despicable. Truth be told, I expected to see it by now on Whaleoil or Kiwiblog. And I have to say I’m pleasantly surprised. In not touching this story, they’ve proven themselves a step above The Truth*, […]

New Left blog

Written By: - Date published: 10:50 am, February 2nd, 2009 - Comments Off on New Left blog

Dread Times, a new blog by former Green MP Nandor Tanczos. Hat tip: No Right Turn.

Blogger ethics

Written By: - Date published: 12:18 pm, January 30th, 2009 - 57 comments

I see that over at Kiwiblog DPF is hawking an Air New Zealand viral advertisement. Now DPF has had at least one junket from Air NZ and the airline is well known for its gifts to journalists and media outlets (mostly in terms of free flight). Given this situation I’d say the chances are quite […]

Just Left becomes group blog

Written By: - Date published: 9:50 am, January 29th, 2009 - 11 comments

Jordan Carter’s long-running Just Left has become a group blog with several new contributors. Jordan explains: The logic is simple. Some of the best blogs and spots of political writing out there now (Hand Mirror, Pundit, PublicAddress, The Standard) are sites with more than one author. They usually share a point of view, but they […]

Worrying, or what I did with my holidays

Written By: - Date published: 12:47 pm, January 26th, 2009 - 59 comments

I’ve meaning to write a wee post thanking Young Labour for inviting me along to speak at their Summer School the other weekend. I’m told it’s a bit of a tradition at these summer schools to have some speakers from outside the party to give a different perspective, which is a bloody good idea. Falling […]

Standard writer in shock agreement with KBR!

Written By: - Date published: 10:57 am, January 25th, 2009 - 35 comments

Over at Kiwiblog David and his rabid followers are screaming over the HoS’s treatment of National’s Social Development Minister Paula Bennett and the fact she has a defacto son in law who is a gang-member and who she took in while he was on bail. Shockingly, I think the Kiwiblog Right are right on this […]

KiwiPolitico started

Written By: - Date published: 8:07 am, January 6th, 2009 - 16 comments

Pablo, Anita, and Jafapete have (finally) started their new KiwiPolitico blog site. I don’t know Pablo* (at least under that psuedonym), but the post on Key and McCully at APEC was amusing. Anita has already annoyed David over at Kiwiblog. She tends to do with her myth-busting ways. Who can forget her persistent requests of […]

Playing with rankings

Written By: - Date published: 2:32 am, December 8th, 2008 - 10 comments

Since the 16th of November, I’ve been running an experiment with the Alexa ranking system to look at the site sensitivity in rankings from what is hopefully a single new person using it. This is one of the factors used by Tumeke and Halfdone‘s rankings. So I was interested in how much it would affect […]

Farrar back on the PS payroll?

Written By: - Date published: 12:12 pm, December 6th, 2008 - 135 comments

A mate just pointed out that the metadata of David Farrar’s election analysis document suggests it was authored on a Parliamentary Service computer. With the document open in Microsoft Word go to the ‘File’ menu then down to ‘Properties’. You’ll see something like the image below: Of course you’ll notice that the document title looks […]

Ad-men

Written By: - Date published: 10:56 am, December 5th, 2008 - 46 comments

What would you guys think about us taking on advertising? A few months ago, I saw Public Address’s advertising rates card and it turns out there’s a fair, but not by any means huge, amount of money in advertising for a blog of our size. Now, we wouldn’t want that money for its own sake […]

Godwinin’

Written By: - Date published: 9:55 am, December 3rd, 2008 - 3 comments

More gold from Lyndon Hood: Blogger Still Maintains Clark Just Like Mugabe The power-sharing arrangement Helen Clark has permitted after the opposition National party’s election victory may dissolve into violence at any time, reports an anonymous blogger who continues to insist New Zealand has become exactly like Zimbabwe. There is increasing concern for the blogger, […]

All the facts

Written By: - Date published: 11:52 am, November 25th, 2008 - 81 comments

National’s David Farrar has been running a series for some time trying to paint NZ Labour as out of step with Labour Parties around the world when it comes to their attitude on tax cuts. His intention, of course, is to portray Labour as extreme left and his mates in National as centrist and middle […]

2000th post

Written By: - Date published: 5:57 pm, November 20th, 2008 - 28 comments

Happy 2000th post everyone. I’ve brought you all your favourite present – statistics! Our first 1000 posts took nine months, the latest 1000 took six. We’ve had 67,000 comments all up, 41,000 since we hit 1000 posts, and 10,000 in the last month. It wouldn’t happen without all of you commentators (well, most of you […]

NZ Labour supporters site launched

Written By: - Date published: 10:15 am, November 20th, 2008 - 32 comments

NZ Labour Supporters has been launched as an unofficial online hub for Labour supporters. It looks like a good wee site. Along the lines of g.blog for Greens supporters, any registered user can write blog posts. Looks like there are forums and the ability to contribute to a multi-media library too. They’ve started off with […]

Trotter back blogging

Written By: - Date published: 10:31 am, November 18th, 2008 - 16 comments

Chris Trotter has a new blog. Good to see he’s left those creeps over at policy.net and gone out on his own. I don’t always agree with Trotter, in fact at times I find him infuriating, but he’s a smart guy and always worth a read. Welcome back, Chris. Hat tip: Jafapete

08wire signs off

Written By: - Date published: 2:55 pm, November 10th, 2008 - 8 comments

As a kid at a decile two high school in under National in the nineties, the one thing I did get a good education in was heavy metal. So, I appreciate 08wire setting their final video to the great Metallica ballad ‘Nothing Else Matters’. You’ve done fantastic work, see you in 2011, if not before.

National Spinners

Written By: - Date published: 3:30 pm, November 9th, 2008 - 91 comments

David Farrar wrote… “Funniest moment was talking to a few of John’s staff, and one of them asked whether their imminent transfer to the 9th floor meant they would get to take over The Standard. It was hilarious as they started fighting over who would be all-your-base and who would be Irish Bill etc” Wow! […]

Ramshackle PR fiasco

Written By: - Date published: 1:35 pm, October 23rd, 2008 - 27 comments

It seems DPF, Cameron Slater and John Ansell have pooled their collective genius and come up with a new campaign. Apparently they had some money left over from their earlier ramshackle PR fiasco so they’re putting up more anti-Labour billboards as the Free Speech Coalition: I have some advice for them: 1. Pick an issue […]

Insulting

Written By: - Date published: 4:58 pm, October 1st, 2008 - 139 comments

David Farrar really is a disgusting person at times. He writes that we shouldn’t look at overall crime rates (although he made a big fuss when the overall recorded crime rate went up because of changes in recording practice in 2006). Instead we should just look at violent crime, after all “having 1,000 less [sic] […]

Small beer

Written By: - Date published: 6:48 pm, September 21st, 2008 - 43 comments

3 News tonight: “the Government wants less pupils per teacher..” Is TV3 employing National’s billboard genius to write the tele-prompter? Also, my inside sources reveal that Matthew Hooten has no inside sources. Think about it, who in the Beehive would talk to Hooten? If you did want to leak, wouldn’t you leak to someone credible? It’s […]

Hooton hits rock bottom

Written By: - Date published: 4:25 pm, September 17th, 2008 - 130 comments

Matthew Hooton lies for a living. He was one of the architects of Don Brash’s deceptive, racist campaign in 2005, he has told lies about me personally in his SST column, and he lies endlessly on his new paid blog. The latest lie is that a small rightwing blog called ‘No Minister‘ has been blocked […]

Nats’ dirty tricks exposed?

Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, September 16th, 2008 - 53 comments

Cameron Slater, aka Whaleoil, is a nasty piece of work. If you’re a leftie and you get into the media, he’ll dig whatever dirt he can find on you from the ‘net and what he can’t find he’ll make up in an attempt to intimidate you and others into silence. But the intertubes flow both […]

Rochelle, that was pretty good.

Written By: - Date published: 11:32 am, September 15th, 2008 - 78 comments

Well it turns out my niece has been having fun and done an effective google bomb on John Key. I’ve just been watching her TV3 clip when I wrote this post. Rochelle shows her experience with the media in expressing her opinion. This is something that belongs in the Tips on campaigning. I’ve had something […]

Nats, Farrar fail again in attempt to muzzle Kiwis

Written By: - Date published: 11:05 am, August 29th, 2008 - 26 comments

For the third time, National’s attempt to get a legal decision to block the EPMU and its sister unions from participating in the election campaign as registered third parties as failed. So pathetic were National’s arguments that they lost their last case even though the EMPU submitted no arguments of its own to the Court. […]

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