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via Juha Saarinen @juhasaarinen
You’re doing ‘hit-pieces’ on government critics, now David? Seriously?
Perhaps David Farrar has been hanging around with internet bully-boys too much? Now he’s acting like one of them. Oo-er. [Psst: I added the bits in red.]
- David Farrar showing WhaleOil how it’s done
- Negative credibility sux, eh @whaleoil? eh @dpfdpf?
- I’d double-check if they told me what day it was
- A study in spin. And Farrar lends a hand …
- Wailing about death threats, forgetting what they’ve written themselves
Yeah, we all know David is a National Party spin doctor, and has been employed for polling/advice/propaganda/pep-talks/training/driving lessons. (‘Gums for hire’, I call people like him, although they may do some of that stuff purely as a hobby.) He’s performed no doubt highly valuable work in various National Party leaders’ offices (Bolger, Shipley, English, Brash). No problem.
And I’ve always found David Farrar a far more likeable media manipulator than, say, that foaming RWNJ [redacted]. (Least-said-soonest-mended).
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‘…the classic kind of despotic manoeuvre Muldoon would have tried to pull off at his most power-drunk.’
NZ Herald columnist Deborah Hill Cone lets John Key and Steven Joyce have it with both barrels in her piece today: Govt’s event-veto powers in SkyCity deal bizarre relating to a ‘bizarre‘ clause in the just-inked SkyCity convention-centre-for-casino-licence-extension-and-hundreds-of-extra-poker-machines deal with the National-led government.
‘GURU FOR THE UNSOPHISTICATED’
I’m a fan of Hill Cone’s writing, as we have discussed before. When she was writing for The National Business Review, she certainly saw Richmastery spruiker Phil Jones for what he was straight away. (That’s her exposé, right.)
Deborah Hill Cone doesn’t suit all tastes. (So what?) It’s worth reading her whole column. But here’s her [scathing] conclusion, if you’re pressed for time:
Just to recap: the Government did a backroom deal with a private casino operator and is now demanding the right to tell the private operator what events it can run there. Talk about the worst of both worlds. You can’t really blame profit-driven SkyCity for trying to get as much as they can out of the Government in this deal – although it was quite absurd for the major listed corporation to describe itself as being “victimised” by the process, the poor petal.
But you can expect the Government to abide by broad principles of transparency and freedom of expression. Sneer all you like at the left-wing devotion to notions of consultation and hand-holding, but that is starting to sound downright appealing in contrast to the Orwellian arrogance of Big Brother, oops Steven Joyce.
Key and Joyce seem to have started to believe their own hype and think they have a divine cult-like power invested in them which they are entitled to exercise without restraint.
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A manifesto
I don’t offer this as a ‘prescription’. Pick and mix … whatever you you find of value. From Holstee (click)
See also James Taylor’s wonderful advice: ‘The secret of life is enjoying the passage of time…’
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Winston Peters — no stars in his eyes about John Key’s GCSB Bill
Voice of experience. Winston Peters talking about John Key’s spy agency bill on TVNZ’s Q&A programme today. (click)
New Zealand First Party leader Winston Peters is one of the current NZ Parliament’s most experienced MPs, a lawyer, and someone who (whether you agree with him or not) has thought and spoken about NZ’s constitutional issues for decades.
Here’s his interview on TVNZ’s Q&A programme this morning about John Key’s controversial proposed expansion of the powers of the state spy agency, the Government Communications Security Bureau.
Asked directly whether he believes the Prime Minister’s overt claim that the bill does not NOT actually seek to expand the powers of the GCSB, Mr Peters described John Key thus:
[He’s] a sharemarket trader who likes to get a deal done as fast as possible, and is not a lawyer.
[MP3 file here.]
As Peters points out in this interview with TVNZ political editor Corin Dann, the Prime Minister failed to seek the NZ First leader’s expertise on the Intelligence and Security committee which is considering the proposed spying law changes — under urgency — and failed to even seek NZ First’s support “until he got desperate”.
Watch the full interview (8’37”) at TVNZondemand.co.nz
– P
Another day in paradise
Howick Golf Club this morning. That’s my boy swinging his iron.
Life is pretty good. I know I’m lucky. I appreciate it, too.
– P
See also: A great way to spend a Sunday morning
and Rain, followed by an earthquake. Hello Auckland.
Shearer on Shearer — on Radio NZ’s Focus on Politics
I listen to a couple of Radio NZ podcasts fairly religiously each week: Mediawatch and Focus on Politics.
The latest (Friday’s) helping of Focus on Politics featured a good-length interview with Labour Party leader David Shearer by RNZ political editor Brent Edwards.
I found it interesting, and noted it was far from the um-er stammering performance Shearer is so often accused of by partisans who seek to reflexively discredit him, and will stoop to anything to do so.
Have a listen if you’re interested…
Hard to argue with his point about a differential in the way his statements and veracity are regarded/treated by some news media ‘players’ versus how they treat the Prime Minister. But, having worked in the fish bowl that is the Press Gallery, my view of these things is that most journos do the best they can to be fair … and shrieks of ‘bloody biased!’ tend to be emitted on a fairly universal distribution.
Joh Bjelke-Petersen, famously corrupt Queensland Premier, used to call dealing with reporters ‘Feeding the chooks’ … which always struck me as a funny, and woefully accurate description of the relationship between politicians and the political press. (See: The Press Gallery thinks it’s sooo #badass …)
– P
Related: When you can’t trust the Night Watchman. @MediawatchNZ on Duncan Garner’s spasm
Spotted in comments on Fran O’Sullivan’s double-minded article on the SkyCity casino licence extension deal with John Key
I used to think of gambling as ‘a tax on stupidity’. Now I see it as a cynical & predatory addiction industry. (pic: theepochtimes.com)
Fran O’Sullivan is a smart person. I do sometimes wish she’d be more forthright, however.
Her article ‘Too soon to say if SkyCity deal is buy of the century‘ seems a brave attempt to couch mild criticism of the John Key/Steven Joyce/SkyCity ‘negotiation’ (cough) with a semblance of evenhandedness by dredging up the former Labour government’s 2008 ‘lemon’ buying back Tranzrail from Toll Holdings.
With all due respect to Fran, I didn’t find her comparison particularly compelling — resembling, as it does, shadowboxing. But, hey, her article is still worth a read. See what you think, it’s here.
Fran reinforces her point: that ego-driven politicians who wannadoadeal (and ditch Treasury/economic advice as an unwelcome hand brake) are an expense we taxpayers can’t really afford. That, and her documentation/reference to the shameful deceit (my word. Too strong? Maybe, maybe not) that was deployed by the National-led government against the other so-called bidders or tenderers for the convention centre deal. Fran’s clear that the deal was always SkyCity’s.
She says:
The problem is the deal created an uneven playing field and reinforces the impression that the Key Government will opt for backroom deals over due process.
As we’ve discussed before, it seems pretty clear the dubious ‘tender process’ was gerrymandered and shaped for SkyCity, who, I’ve seen reported were at one stage at the bottom of the list of preferred bidders and, (surprise!) ended up ‘winning’ it.
It appears the other so-called ‘bidders’ (scare quotes in Fran’s article) were not much more than window-dressing. The other bidders apparently weren’t told that hundreds of poker machine licences (and what else?) were ‘on the table’ so to speak.
It seems they were, as the old saying goes, treated like mushrooms: Kept in the dark and fed bullshit.
William Shakespeare’s ‘Star Wars’ {snort}
Quirk Books (click)
Watch the trailer: Continue reading →
Two comedians speak up against animal testing
Pic: Fairfax/stuff.co.nz
The ACT Party’s sole MP John Banks faced mockery and disrespect for his stand against animal testing in recent Parliamentary debate about amendments to the Psychoactive Substances Bill. Some people questioned his sanity or his social policy ‘priorities’. That’s a pretty harsh assessment, I thought when I heard it, but fair enough. Fair comment. A lot of people are suffering in our lingering economic recession. Not just the jobless.
I personally don’t agree with John Banks or ACT Party policy on a number of issues. (So what?) I also think the ‘free market’ ginger group is past its use-by date, on artificial life support, and it has been a hard-right trojan horse in John Key’s administration, e.g. Charter Schools. (But again, so what?)
At the last election ACT attracted a scant 1.1% of the vote — less than the polls predicted — and Mr Banks is only in Parliament (as a ‘Party leader’!) because of the deal struck with National in Epsom. Judging by ACT’s disintegration in the political opinion polls since the last election, not many other New Zealanders agree with their ‘recipe’ either. But that’s how democracy works — put up an idea or a point of view or ‘team’ … and see how it rates. See: ACT: ‘Zero backing. Zilch, nil, nothing at all.’
Next year it’s possible (likely?) we’ll see a Colin Crag Christian Conservative MP. Dunno.
Anyway, John Banks is, in my experience, a person who compartmentalizes his thinking … and his life. He is, as we have discussed, somewhat of a split personality (see: Three faces of Eve … er, John Banks). He sometimes appears capable of massive, unselfconscious hypocrisy to observers not from his galaxy. e.g. speaking in favour of ‘cleaning up’ electoral laws within months of his own dubious ‘anonymous’ campaign donations scandal which has, no doubt, so degraded the ACT Party’s public reputation. Nail, meet coffin.
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Misplaced trust (‘I’m telling you this in strictest confidence.’)
Yeah, this happens …
JK Rowling on the leak that saw her ‘secret’ pen name John Galbraith leaked to the world (turns out lawyer Chris Gossage, sworn to secrecy, blabbed to his wife’s best friend who tweeted it):
Rowling said that “only a tiny number of people knew my pseudonym and it has not been pleasant to wonder for days how a woman whom I had never heard of prior to Sunday night could have found out something that many of my oldest friends did not know.”
“To say that I am disappointed is an understatement.
“I had assumed that I could expect total confidentiality from Russells, a reputable professional [law] firm, and I feel very angry that my trust turned out to be misplaced.” – AP via NZ Herald
I recently wrote about the burden one can create when asking someone to keep a secret for you (see: Sir Robert Muldoon: ‘Always On the Record’). I understand something of this issue.
But it’s hard to see ANY justification for Chris Gossage spilling his guts the beans to Judith Callegari (who then tweeted about it!)
As it turns out, one of The Sunday Times’ writers had read The Cuckoo’s Calling recently and tweeted her appreciation of the book. Shortly after, an anonymous person replied to her on Twitter and told her that J.K. Rowling was the real author.
When the editor replied to the Twitter user asking “How do you know for sure?” the user said “I just know,” and then proceeded to delete all of their tweets as well as the account. – hypable.com
While superficially an ‘explanation’, the law firm’s sober “the disclosure was made in confidence to someone he trusted implicitly” just doesn’t wash. Maybe it speaks to Chris Gossage being a poor judge of character.
Or is that just The Thing about secrets?
Tricky, eh?
– P
Celebrating cartoonists. Art and politics.
Ah, the power of creating an immersive imaginary world. And yeah, it’s ART alright. No question.
Garry Trudeau’s very sharp Doonesbury is still my all-time-favourite for all kinds of reasons. Locally (New Zealand) I like Tom Scott (see this & this) with honourable mentions (gee, I cite them here at The Paepae frequently enough!) to Emmerson, Body, Slane and Hodgson. Giants. Far sharper than I am.
But, like millions of others, I also love Bill Watterson’s Calvin & Hobbes and Gary Larson’s Far Side.
Oh, what riches! Wonderful.
– P
from Scott Beggs via Andrew Sullivan
A old joke with a new twist cites @PeterDunneMP
Spotted in East Tamaki today:
Nice reference to United Future Party’s re-registration woes and Peter Dunne’s recent … er … elevated public profile.
Smart advertising.
– P
PS the reverse side is a reference to Tony Soprano! Continue reading →
Simon Bridges #PantsOnFire poster for the record
Simon Bridges may pretend to be ‘chuffed’ about this. I don’t think so.
Click to enlargepic Greenpeace NZ via @Elipsister
Susan Sontag on writing
Someday (today’s not the day) I will try to express how much I have been inspired by the writing, or better put: the thoughtful reflections of Susan Sontag. She is one of my heroes. I felt lucky to have found her, with her book On Photography. It touched me. Changed my consciousness.
Maria Popova, another treasure, has compiled this: Susan Sontag on Writing. I recommend it.
– P
Thanks to Jolisa Gracewood @nzdodo (What a honey.)
