Posts by Pete George
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Hard News: Not doing justice, in reply to Matt Crawford,
You’re paranoid, delusional and I’m more than a little embarrassed for Peter Dunne that his party’s biggest supporter is such a weird crackpot.
You're the one who's delusional. I'm not a supporter at all of Dunne or his party.
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Hard News: Not doing justice, in reply to Russell Brown,
Much as Laila Harre was eventually given an opportunity to respond to John Key’s baseless allegation that her party was behind the burning-in-effigy video.
I think more likely she demanded an opportunity. And so she should have.
She disassociated her party from taking or distributing the video (and Key accepted this and admitted making a mistake) but Harre made no comment about the content as far as I'm aware, despite it's similarity (chant) with the Internet Party promoted video.
This was odd - she supports at least some of the content type of the video, strongly defended promotion of a similar video but took strong offense at being linked to distribution of the other. Seems like some opportunistic attention seeking faux outrage.
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Hard News: Not doing justice, in reply to Matt Crawford,
Internet-Mana don’t need to front up and decry this antisemitic graffiti.
No, they don’t need to. It’s their choice.
David Cunliffe has chosen to condemn it.
Labour leader David Cunliffe says he has no time for dirty campaign tactics and billboard vandals.
“I don’t know who’s doing it,” he said.
“I’d say the same thing whether it’s Labour billboards being nicked or defaced, or National billboard being nicked or defaced. Whoever’s doing it, please stop."
http://news.msn.co.nz/nationalnews/8889569/both-sides-fed-up-with-billboard-vandals
It’s not difficult to condemn dirty politics. Cunliffe knows that if any maverick supporter was caught involved in highly offensive vandalism it would very embarrassing for Labour. Good on him for sending a clear signal that he condemns the practice.
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Hard News: Not doing justice, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
a rogue member took it upon themselves
A singular and a plural don't go together. A don't think one member managed to do the country on their own. And you missed quoting this bit:
"I have been advised this morning that a Green Party member Jolyon White, who is also the partner of my Executive Assistant, has co-ordinated the defacing of the National Party billboards," said Green Party Co-leader Dr Russel Norman.
It was embarrassing for Norman in particular.
And on the recent incident in Dunedin:
''While some online correspondents are apparently connected with the Green Party, I don't think one can conclude there is official Green Party involvement.''
That was confirmed by Green Party co-leader Metiria Turei.
''We don't want people defacing ours, and we don't approve others defacing other parties'.
"They are expensive and they are part of the democratic process to allow parties to put forward their policies,'' she said.
She confirmed she knew one of the Facebook posters, but reiterated the party ''does not endorse the defacement of billboards''.
''A lot of effort goes into political campaigns, a lot of money is spent and a lot of volunteers spent hours putting up these billboards and taking care of them, and that work needs to be respected,'' she said.
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/311068/mp-slams-sign-taggers
That billboard was defaced with "casual facists". Another incident in Dunedin was at least linked to Greens by proximity - http://yournz.org/2014/08/04/love-new-zealand-and-hoarding-hate/
DeepRed's question remains unaddressed while diversions abound.
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Hard News: Not doing justice, in reply to andin,
? who’s that.
Kim Dotcom promotes himself as founder and visionary of the Internet Party and holds a special position of 'Visionary' in their party organisation as per their published party rules.
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Hard News: Not doing justice, in reply to Kumara Republic,
So why has overt anti-Semitism only surfaced in the 2014 election, and not the 2011 one?
Good question. I don't see it as related to what's happening in Gaza much if at all. One significant difference in this election is a new party combination that is campaigning on being disruptive with a primary aim of taking down Key and National.
I haven't seen any evidence this party is involved in organised billboard defacement, but two things it is doing may have at least contributed to a significant increase in damage.
- deliberately provoking and using a higher level of political hate
- activating a new breed of party supporterOld party activists (Labour and National) may dabble in billboard attacks but will know from experience what a costly and time consuming pain checking and repairing damage is so are likely to avoid all out graffiti war.
Greens were embarrassed last campaign when caught doing a nationwide hit job on National billboards so will either have warning off their activists or will be doing it more carefully. Some Greens were caught defacing billboards in Dunedin a couple of weeks ago but I think the party leaders and campaign team would be horrified if any maverick activists were found to be involved in Jewish and Nazi attacks.
So what's new this campaign? The Internet Party obviously, targeting new demographics of the young, disaffected and angry. And they have teamed up with Mana giving a small radical party much more coverage - but the socialist core of Mana are old school union activists who should be aware of the disgrace and dangers of indulging in the more extreme attacks that are evident.
The introduction of Nazi and Jewish symbolism in attacks is a very bad look, and may be counter-productive for parties on left regardless of whether they are directly involved or not.
Have the visionary or the leader of the new party made any statements disassociating themselves from any of this?
Related to this they have disassociated themselves from one chanting video but promoted and defended another which was an odd contradiction. Were they disassociating themselves from responsibility for the content of the second video or just the distribution of it?
They have a potential problem in that having promoted and owned anti-Key rhetoric and actions they may now be perceived as associated with the actions of people who are independent of the party organisation.
Whether they deserve it or not they may reap what revolutionary behaviour and discontent they sow.
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Hard News: Media Take and Godwin's Election, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
Basically, Radio Live and Newstalk ZB are allowed to run 24/7 right-wingery, so long as they don’t actually use the words “Vote National”.
Funny. I see right wingers complaining about their left-wingeryness.
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The big news from the electorate meeting in Kumeu last night was that, despite all the talking up in advance by media, there were "no fireworks", it was "disappointing" to k=mainly talk about local electorate issues etc etc.
Last election media pushed and pushed before Key made his big mistake and had a cup of tea, and the media were happy with what they had conjured out of the campaign.
It's just a matter of time before one of their provocations reaps headline rewards and another election will have been hijacked by an out of control media that no one can hold to account in any effective time frame.
We have a democracy that is increasingly ruled by celebrity dominated headlines, sound bites and competing egos - of journalists.
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Hard News: The silence of the public square, in reply to Sofie Bribiesca,
Fact is, Internet Mana are politicians and you didn’t make it. Simple really,
I didn't make what? I've learnt a lot and had a lot of fun. Do you know what my objectives have been and are? It doesn't sound like it.
Fact is that Hone Harawira is a politician whose effectiveness so far is questionable, especially compared say the Maori Party that enabled him to become a politician in the first place.
Laila Harre is an ex politician who had some success and failures - fairly typical in politics. It's not clear who successful her her current attempt at being a politician will be.
Is Kim Dotcom a politician? He's a showman and a political party "founder and visionary". It's yet to be seen how successful his brand of politics will be.
They are more effective than you.
We geddit .You hope they fail.
Who's 'we'? Whoever you are you're wrong. I don't "hope they fail". I wish we had a more democratic MMP where they could win as many seats in Parliament as their proportion of support got them without having to resort to compromising deals with other parties.
A curious thing about political forums is how many participants seem unable or unwilling to discuss issues and only seem intent on trying to piss on people they disagree with or don't like. This is a cross spectrum phenomenon. It doesn't seem to be a very successful way to do politics, seeming to reflect frustration and impotence.
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Hard News: The silence of the public square, in reply to ,
And that doesn’t bother me, because Kim Dot Com is not a politician.
Despite claims at various times that he would leave the politicians to run his party he remains the centre of attraction in the promotion of a political party he owns.
One could quibble over whether he is 'a politician' or not but he continues to be very political, and the success or failure of the Internet Party will be largely due to his massive presence.