Posts by Craig Ranapia
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Hard News: The Letter, in reply to Russell Brown,
Andrew Geddis has written a useful blog post in response to the latest news
So, no offense was committed against laws as porous as a Swiss cheese done over with a shotgun so nothing to see here? Don't recall Geddis, the Labour Party or very many people hereabouts being particularly sympathetic to that line coming from National when those money laundry trusts started getting media play.
Damn it! you could have bought the whole river for that back in ’07. Where do these people go to make up those numbers?
I don't know about you Steve, but I'd like to know what seasoning they use in Chinese cookery that induces amnesia in foreign politicians. It could become a serious little earner for China.
Yes. It’s been interesting today that people still seem really keen to pin the new donation story on him too.
It's the downside of sitting at the head of the top table. You also end up getting held responsible for all the skeletons rattling around in the cloakroom -- it's not always fair, but it is what it is.
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Hard News: The Letter, in reply to Russell Brown,
Dude. You’re the Prime Minister and the Minister with responsibility for the GCSB. Could you please stop pretending you can’t remember anything at all?
Bloody oath. How hard would it be to follow the script Helen Clark stuck to religiously for her Prime Ministership: “It wouldn’t be appropriate for me to comment on this, so I won’t.” Which you might dislike for many many mostly sound reasons, but it’s terse and avoids being too damn cute for words.
There are ways that it may be hidden. Elections info
Yeah, Sofie, I don’t think anyone’s missed there’s many many ways of hiding your big ticket donor list from public scrutiny. (Let's not go crazy and hold our breaths waiting for National and Labour to come together and speed through a campaign finance reform bill with full public first-dollar disclosure. They just can't afford it, or the situation in the UK where both Labour and the Conservatives borrow millions of pounds every election year. Yes, we're talking about political parties literally indebted to donors.) But it just beggars belief that Liu could write out a cheque to any political party without someone knowing about it.
No matter how much people would like it to be otherwise, it’s not “dirty tricks” to report when politicians and political parties are simply being two-faced. That applies to the New Zealand Labour Party and it’s finances, every bit as much as it does to right-wing sleazebags who preach “family values” and “the sanctity of traditional marriage” while textually harassing interns with dick selfies.
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Hard News: Friday Music: F**kYouTube, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
If they try this one on in Europe, I suspect the EU will have something to say on competition grounds.
You don't have to be a corporate CEO to see that coming, and I can't a reason for all this needless drama beyond (as Billy Bragg put it in the OP) "corporate hubris." It makes as much sense to me as Amazon's latest round of outraged pearl-clutching at the very idea that publishers like Hachette aren't that interested in fluffing Amazon's bottom line.
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Hard News: The Letter, in reply to Henry Barnard,
Muppetry? Really? Not remembering a letter you signed off on (probably with a very cursory reading) 11 years ago? Your standards must be awfully high.
Yeah, my standards for politicians are just as high as those they’re happy to impose on immigrants, the self-employed and small business owners and absofuckingloutely everyone who claims a benefit. Try saying “I just forgot, get the fuck over it” to the IRD or WINZ and don't hold your breath waiting for a sympathetic hearing. If politicians and political parties want to play that game, I can’t stop them. But they really shouldn’t be surprised when they’re viewed with cynicism and contempt.
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And what makes the result even more pleasing is the way he went about his work, which he explains here:
And it’s really nice to get a peek behind that curtain, because in my not all humble opinion film editors have a massive influence on how, or even if, films work and it’s one of those things you shouldn't notice unless it’s done really badly.
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Hard News: The Letter, in reply to Russell Brown,
This seems unusually pervasive partisan gossip and the fact that some of it apparently comes from information obtained with the powers of a ministerial office is a bit creepy.
Let's hold fire on the second part until there's some documentary evidence on the table, but where "pervasive partisan gossip" is concerned? To quote Mrs Marcellus Wallace: When those scamps get together, they're like a sewing circle.
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Hard News: The Letter, in reply to Alex Coleman,
The ‘no dirty tricks who us?’ theory doesn’t explain how frequent WO flunkies were all up on the story before it broke though.
Back on this planet, people gossip in Wellington too. I certainly know a few Labour folks who (very quietly) thought it was a matter of when not if someone dug up evidence that Liu was spreading himself around, so to speak.
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Hard News: The Letter, in reply to Chris Waugh,
I think the question is more about Woodhouse’s motives in asking for that particular letter than the department’s speed in fulfilling his request.
Gee, what kind of minister would possibly want to find out about any more potential Liu-shaped turds in the punch bowl before he heard about them on Morning Report? A competent one, Mr Waugh -- who might just have got lucky. I know that's not as much fun as the "Tory Dirty Tricks" conspiracy theory, but it's no more or less plausible.
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Hard News: The Letter, in reply to Russell Brown,
But we seem to have a situation where the government gets the information immediately and can make use of it while a journalist is made to wait nearly a month before being refused.
Um, wait a minute Russell you're saying there's something somehow untoward about a department promptly responding to a ministerial request?
And, yeah, too many people in local and central government think the provisions of the Official Information Act are suggestions rather than statutory obligations. That's not exactly new, and a separate issue.
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Hard News: The Letter, in reply to Hilary Stace,
Calling your allies scabs is not helpful.
Yeah, communing with my inner Olivia Pope for a moment, I thought the Campbell Live interview was going pretty well until... that. Even an hardcore Tory like me knows that's not an insult to throw around lightly in union or Labour Party circles.
He couldn't have better kicked off another round of "caucus and party divided" stories if he'd written them himself.