Hard News: Need to Know
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I see there are reports that Mike Williams wanted a job working for Glenn.
As if Glenn would want to get rid of that Laura Ede…
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... shaking my faith in a Labour-led government would first require the Opposition to publish a coherent and meaningful set of alternative policies...
Sometimes a coherent and meaningful sentence appears to be beyond them.
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As if Glenn would want to get rid of that Laura Ede…
Now that you mention it, I am getting tired of checking my own messages. An executive assistant or two wouldn't go astray.
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Emma, don't you dare!
It's alright, Paul, all you have to do is put your name on the 'yes I'd like some kiddieporn' list.
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So if she knew about it and watched Winston publicly declaring that it did not exist (ie. she knew he was lying) and then does nothing about it - what does that say about her ethics?
Perhaps I've got it wrong Rik, but I thought the issue wasn't that Peters denied there had been a donation, but rather that he claimed to have no knowledge of a donation.
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Sometimes a coherent and meaningful sentence appears to be beyond them.
And Clark seems to have put a little too much faith in a monosyllable.
Perhaps I've got it wrong Rik, but I thought the issue wasn't that Peters denied there had been a donation, but rather that he claimed to have no knowledge of a donation.
Um, I think you have. While hypocrisy isn't a criminal offence (and thank whatever Gods you do or don't believe in for that), Winston has strenuously denied every talking as much as a copper penny from evil rich picks who've brought everyone else with their filthy lucre.
And unless Peters comes up with convincing proof that Glenn isn't only a liar, but got Audrey Young to forge a phone bill and various e-mails, and somehow managed to coerce the Labour junior whip's brother to make out a false affidavit... Well, there might be evidence of a little more than hypocrisy on the table however the Committee (operating under pretty narrow terms of reference) comes down.
As I said on another thread, you've really got to ask when 'plausible deniability' just stops being plausible. Who knows there might really be an innocent and credible explanation: Peters is a hypocrite, and both he and his consigliere Henry are suffering from some eccentric neurological disorder that causes intermittent (and highly convenient) memory loss. New Zealand First has repeatedly filed nil donations returns with the Electoral Commission, and if they're inaccurate it might well be because the party organisation is run by utter incompetents who couldn't organise an orgy at a sex addict's convention held in a brothel.
Perhaps everyone does it, so none of it really matters.
I'd sure like to know one way or another.
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__if Winston won the Tauranga seat then Labour's nemesis - the Nats - would have lost a seat in Parliament.__
Under MMP?
No. It would've been their next list candidate in, rather than Bob Clarkson.
Graeme?!
Sorry - I was in a meeting :-)
There would have been a by-election. Clarkson is an electorate candidate, he'd have lost his electorate seat. National would be one person down while waiting for the by-election, and would have stayed one-person if they'd lost the by-election.
If Winston had one a by-election, he'd presumably resign his list seat before taking it up, and New Zealand First would have picked up an extra list member.
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Does anyone else have a sneaking suspicion that Ron Mark will be the leader of NZF by the end of the week?
No. Any ordinary party, yes, but NZ First is a personalist party, and Winston is very much in control. Without him, they're nothing.
Still, sometimes it is better to be nothign and have a clean conscience than crawl into bed with that particular demon.
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first require the Opposition to publish a coherent and meaningful set of alternative policies
But Paul, surely that's what Mallard is for? :)
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So if she knew about it and watched Winston publicly declaring that it did not exist (ie. she knew he was lying) and then does nothing about it - what does that say about her ethics?
Prime Minister Helen Clark has consistently said on being advised of said money from Owen Glenn, she queried its truth with Winston Peters by phone(in SA). He denied , she accepted the Ministers answer. Because of public interest (media?) Margaret Wilson sent to Privileges committee to__ investigate.__ The Prime Minister then consistently said she believes both Owen Glenn and Winston Peters are Honourable men the committee should be allowed due process and to not prejudge before the committee is allowed to rule (unlike other Parties). That is ethical.She is answerable to Winston's Portfolio but, not his Party and accountants and Lawyers and advisers and the lunch menu and who drinks how much etc. It is a Matrix and large amounts of money move through it. Lords also get forgotten about even when we think __that __should be easy to remember. I guess Mt Roskill shipping tycoons can be forgotten too:)
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Mt Roskill shipping tycoons
Is that one of them ambitious yoof gangs?
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Rik: The privileges committee is considering what the NZ First leader knew about the Mr Glenn's 2005 donation of $100,000.
That's the matter under consideration - not whether there was a donation.
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I don't think we'd call John Armstrong a journo prone to wild lynchin rants would we?
A meeting away from disgrace
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/466/story.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10531367Winston Peters is teetering on the brink. His three long decades in politics are just one short meeting of Parliament's privileges committee away from ending in abject disgrace and utter humiliation.
That may sound extreme, but things are that serious.
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Is that one of them ambitious yoof gangs?
Anything's poss in tha hood.We are a diverse bunch:)
And apropos, the issue is to establish if said money was used for what it was intended and declared appropriately. Which has been suggested, it was .
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Isn't there also a matter of misleading the house wiht previous statements? Genuine question.
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Sacha, I read Armstrong's piece also and thought it was pretty fair. I think his career is over and it was always going to be a train-wreck. The collateral damage is likely to be significant.
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@Paul Campbell
Speaking of the LHC - here is a technical site that is monitoring the powerup of the LHC and will indicate problems as they develop
That was brilliant! I had a quick squizz at the code and found these comments:
<!-- the first person to ask for an RSS feed gets a free black hole in their junk
ok FINE here --><!-- oh shit bears -->
<!--
[ddrucker@scatter ~]$ host -t txt freon.3e.org
freon.3e.org descriptive text "Anesthetized monkeys exposed to 25,000 ppm or 50,000 ppm [of freon] for 5 minutes had [cardiac] [arrhythmia]s including [tachycardia] and decreased contractility (U.S. EPA 1983)" -->Buggered if I know what the lat one means
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Sacha, I read Armstrong's piece also and thought it was pretty fair. I think his career is over and it was always going to be a train-wreck. The collateral damage is likely to be significant.
I agree, this started out a grubby affair but is about to turn really ugly. A cluster bomb.
Winnie is about to be have his ballbles surgically removed. It won't be pretty. I can't envisage any sentence that has both "honourable" and "Winnie" in it.
But, there is still just the tiniest smidgeon of me that is thinking - Winnie, rabbit, hat.
nah.
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freon.3e.org descriptive text "Anesthetized monkeys exposed to 25,000 ppm or 50,000 ppm [of freon] for 5 minutes had [cardiac] [arrhythmia]s including [tachycardia] and decreased contractility (U.S. EPA 1983)" -->
Buggered if I know what the lat one means
It's all about freon
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Meanwhile, looking away from the sideshow, National has just set itself up to claim a financial crisis if elected as a way around Labour's fiscal poison pill. So, we'll get 1990 all over again - marvellous. I guess we'll get to see whether MMP is any safeguard against this sort of behaviour...
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"and at the end of the day it seems that it boils down to a politician being a shade to economical with the truth. Given how out there in talkback land all politicians are assumed to be compulsive liars, what is all this fuss all about? "
word
"sir it's dogs"
"and what are they doing?"
"it appears that one of them is lifting its hind leg..."
"yes?"
"and passing water..."
"yes?"
"against a lamp post!"
"o my G@d! all hands on deck! man the lifeboats!" -
Meanwhile, looking away from the sideshow, National has just set itself up to claim a financial crisis if elected as a way around Labour's fiscal poison pill.
Gee, you mean Doctor Crippen... I mean, Cullen wasn't going to get away with poisoning quite as easily as he thought? Funny that...
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Mr Glenn denied meeting anyone from the Maori Party and said an allegation he'd offered it $250,000 was an "absolute fabrication".
OK, that's clear. But Tariana Turia's allegations 2 years ago were very serious. This was an attempt to persuade the Maori Party to go with Labour. So either she was wrong, or there's some other expat with a yacht offering money to political parties. Or Glenn is wrong.
A diligent media would be asking about this complete contradiction between Glenn and the Maori Party, and asking Turia to explain.
In fact, this story is potentially bigger than the Peters one, because it's about money being used (unsuccessfully) to influence a party's position before the election, and before any negotiations. If true that is of course, corruption.
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I thought Owen Glenn's press conference veered towards the self-aggrandizing (with some delusion thrown in: "I'm just an average kiwi bloke") ... and his credibility was rather strained at the end in claiming Mike Williams was on hand-and-foot (almost) asking for a job, and assuring Glenn he's "articulate".
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Tariana Turia's allegations 2 years ago were very serious. This was an attempt to persuade the Maori Party to go with Labour. So either she was wrong, or there's some other expat with a yacht offering money to political parties.
We have not seen much of TT since she made this allegation. How would one say "the first Mrs Rochester" in Te Reo?
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