Posts by Craig Ranapia
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It was all brilliantly organised, even if I did feel really quite shabby the next day.
Do you thing there's a direct causal relationship there, Russell? :)
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Riddley:
Jonkey? Have you been learning to spell from the mouth-breathers on the far-right who habitually call the Prime Minister 'Klark' and her party 'Liarbore'?
Hey, I'll take that as a gracious admission you can't actually rebut anything I've said, so it's time to get down to not very punny name-calling. Nice way to go into a weekend, I think.
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Ridley wrote:
Is that the one where King foolishly took the word of someone recommended by a National Party politician?Somehow, I don't think you're going to put the words clear conflict of interest in a letter if you're engaged in blatant cronyism.
As far as I can tell, even Tony Bierre's worse enemies grant that he was a more than competent clinician - something Hutchinson was happy to point out, considering they both worked at National Women's. Then again, I keep forgetting everyone in the National Party must be a liar and all-round scum bag, right?
Now if anyone was being 'spurious', I think it was Hodgson and his little proxies trying to trump up charges of cronyism against Dr. Hutchinson to change the subject. Unlike Kyle Matthews, apparently, I happen to think when you accept a ministerial warrant it doesn't mean you front up for the photo ops and patsy questions then duck for cover when there's legitimate questions to be answered.
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Riddley:
What evidence? FFS, I've lived the majority of my life in a city where the current mayor was once a National Party candidate for Ohariu-Belmont, and her deputy was a Labour Party candidate for Wellington Central. Somehow, I don't think they're spending a lot of time getting their marching orders from party HQ.
You'd have to be functionally brain-dead not to realise that Citizens and Ratepayers Now is made up of folks who politically are right-of-center, and (clutch my pearls, girls!), that means they're more likely to support National or ACT.
But I don't think that's what you're really driving at, is it Riddley? Look, if you - or Annette King or Pete Hodgson - has any evidence that there's some vast right-wing conspiracy at play here, show us what you've got.
What I'd really prefer is the damn Health Minister doing his job instead of playing hide and don't seek with the Opposition and media. Sorry for finding all the Parliamentary wankage tiresome, but there are people out there who need medical advice based on timely and accurate lab results. That seems to have gotten lost in the posturing from the Government front benches.
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Giuliani and McCain (who is trying to cynically reinvent himself as a moral conservative) also have the problem that they're on record holding views on issues like abortion that are anathema to the crazies in the Republican base.
Well, it's also going to be interesting to see if HIlary Clinton can equally cynically 'triangulate' her way into the White House as adrotly as her husband. (And her bet each way response to DADT/Gen. Peter Prace's extraordinary brain fart about the 'morality' of homosexuality while defending the policy to the editorial board of the Chicago Tribune shows she's got a way to go.)
But doesn't that say more about how thoroughly fucked up the primary process is, full stop - it's the 'crazies' on both sides who actually turn out to vote in primaries, and it's nauseating (if hardly surprising) watching candidates transparently pandering to their nutroots - and then wondering why a majority of the electorate are voting with their feet?
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Ridley Walker wrote:
oh riiiiight, so there is no association between the National Party and Citizens and Ratepayers. good one CraigAs I've said, the National Party doesn't formally run or endorse local body tickets and any National Party member who stands for a local body or a DHB doesn't require a permission slip from party HQ. (Just as I'm sure Wellington Deputy Mayor Alick Shaw isn't any less of a Labour supporter because he's not on WCC under a Labour ticket.)
I don't take kindly to being called a liar, Ridley, and I'm bored to sobs by paranoid conspiracy theorists of any complexion. Take that any way you please.
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BTW, on the whole Labtest tender farce, I'm happy to take my default position of 'cock-up trumps conspiracy in 99.999% of cases' - but I'm quite happy to be proved wrong.
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Thank you, Neil. When the Republican primary begins to get really nasty (and I think it's safe to say there are elements on the far-right of the GOP who'd rather see Osama Bin Laden in the White House than either McCain or Giuliani) I'm sure 'longtime liberal hitmen' will fastidiously look the other way.
I'm pretty sure Drudge won't bei hanging back either.
And back to the top of the item:
Until he stood down in December - after the tender had been granted to Labtests, the company in which he had a substantial private financial interest - Dr Bierre was a Citizens and Ratepayers member of the district health board.Simple statement of fact from Russell. So how did it mutate in the House yesterday into 'Tony Bierre's National Party stooge, so it's time for Paul Hutchinson to STFU'. Talk about desperately trying to muddy the waters...
AFAIK, ever since I've been involved the National Party has a clear policy that it doesn't run or endorse local body tickets. (Labour does, which is their business. But I'll note there are plenty of Labour-affiliated folks in local government who don't stand or serve under the party banner.) Nor are National Party members who stand for local bodies required to get a signed permission slip from John Key or Judy Kirk. Unless, Mr. Hodgson and Mrs. King really know something I don't, I don't think that's the tack they should be taking to make this debacle go away.
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Ah, nice it went well. I don't know about anyone else, but I've been involved in a few fundraisers that didn't quite live up to expectations despite a worthy cause and an incredible amount of good will and hard work. It's pretty hard to just shrug your shoulder and say 'shit happens, move on' under circumstances like that.
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hadyn:
Sorry, I munged your name too - iz nut that God at the speling an poof-weeding. :) And I should be because getting someone's name right is a small but significant courtesy.
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