0 Quote of the Day - 18 July 2014

Toby Manhire isn't buying Kim Dotcom's latest conspiracy theory; he opines:

But while many will struggle to believe the Prime Minister didn't know about Kim Dotcom, it is not at all implausible. The case against him is built on inference and circumstance. Moreover, he has repeatedly given his word that he didn't know. He has staked his reputation on it. If Dotcom has evidence that he did know, it will automatically become a resignation matter.
And that is why, for all the theatrical appeal, it is unreasonable and wrong for Dotcom to withhold this supposed evidence for a climactic campaign spectacular. A big reveal in the final week of the campaign doesn't only lend weight to perceptions the internet-Mana hydra is a Dotcom plaything, that the political party and the Dotcom defence are two sides of the same bitcoin. It also denies New Zealanders information they deserve to know.
If Dotcom can prove that the Prime Minister has bare-faced lied, over and over, the democratic imperative is that he do so now. If Key is not fit for office on September 15, then he is not fit for office today. Dotcom should cut to the chase. Otherwise, the assumption has to be that the great Dotcom bombshell is an enormous political bluff.

Let's not forget that it was only a matter of just over a month ago that Dotcom was offering a $5m reward for anyone who could concoct come up with evidence against John Key. He didn't have the evidence then, despite having claimed to for two years, and we don't reckon he has it now.

But if he DOES have the evidence, he should reveal it up immediately, not wait until a large number of early votes have been cast in the General Election. Voters deserve to have any information BEFORE they cast their votes.

So our message to Dotcom is simple; put up, or shut up.

0 The most sincere form of flattery

"Weird Al" Yankovich has been parodying hit songs for many years. Some work, and some don't.

But we love what he's done to Lorde's Royals; check this out:

The latter part of the song is especially pertinent, with all the conspiracy theories doing the rounds at the moment out of the Kim Dotcom camp. Perhaps Weird Al could make a hat for the Large German Gentleman to wear as he plays out his bizarre fantasies about conspiracies which apparently go all the way to the Oval Office.

But anyway Lorde shouldn't be too unhappy. They say that imitation is the most sincere form of flattery!

0 Conspiracy 101; Dotcom channels Peters

We know that Winston Peters visited Kim Dotcom's rental house in Coatesville last year. We now know the reason; Peters was taking the Large German Gentleman through a crash course in Conspiracy 101.

The Herald reports on Dotcom's latest fantasy:

Kim Dotcom is challenging government minister Jonathan Coleman to explain why he didn't block his application for residency after learning of an FBI investigation into him.
Dotcom claims Immigration officials broke their own rules to grant him residency in a ploy to lure him to New Zealand so the FBI would have an easier time of extraditing him on criminal copyright charges.
There were denials from the Government yesterday of interference in Dotcom's residency after emails between SIS agents in 2010 cited "political pressure to process this case". The claim was made 90 minutes before the spy agency lifted its objection to the tycoon's residency.
Dotcom said it was hard to believe then-Immigration Minister Jonathan Coleman was told of the FBI investigation on October 28, 2010 - the day his residency was decided - and then didn't move to block it.
"Why in the world with that knowledge would the Minister of Immigration not intervene and say this is going to be a bad look for us knowing there is an investigation and a desire to extradite.

[They would say] we can't give this guy residency just because of the money ..."
He claims a decision to work with the US to get him into New Zealand for easier extradition was behind the decision.
Dotcom said his bid for residency should have failed because of Immigration NZ rules which automatically put applications on hold for six months if those seeking entry are under "investigation".

This is fanciful stuff from Dotcom, and from his biographer David Fisher who moonlights as an "independent" NZ Herald journalist. 

It was Dotcom who applied for New Zealand residence, via his agent David Cooper from Malcolm Pacific, the country's leading immigration consultancy. 

And it was Mr Cooper who convinced Immigration New Zealand to overlook pending convictions for share-trading offences in Hong Kong.

But most significantly, it was Mr Cooper delivering ultimatums to Immigration New Zealand on behalf of his client as 3News reported on 14 March 2012:

Internet tycoon Kim Dotcom threatened to withdraw his residency application and take his money elsewhere unless New Zealand immigration authorities met his deadline, new documents reveal.

Dotcom, who faces internet piracy charges in the United States over his file-sharing website Megaupload, was granted New Zealand residency in 2010 in exchange for investing $10 million in New Zealand under the Immigration Plus category.

Documents released to the Associated Press show Dotcom set a deadline for immigration officials to approve his application, with a threat that he would otherwise move to Australia or Canada.

On October 26, immigration manager Gareth Grigg sent a memo to a colleague, saying he had been advised by Dotcom's immigration agent David Cooper that "Mr Dotcom wants a decision on his application by 1 November 2010 or he will walk away".

Despite Mr Grigg's warning that "Mr Dotcom may be seen to be controlling the processing of his application" or receiving special treatment, Dotcom's residency was approved on November 1.

For Dotcom to now claim that he was lured here under false pretences is so bizarre it defies belief. And he is essentially arguing that he ought not have been approved for residence in the first place; a point with which we find agreement!

Perhaps the easiest way forward now would be for the Immigration New Zealand to admit that Dotcom ought not have been granted residence, revoke his residence permit, and serve him with a removal notice. If Dotcom doesn't think that he should have been given residence in the first place, then he would have no grounds to appeal the revocation!

In the meantime, Dotcom should leave the conspiracy theories to Winston Peters. And David Fisher should stick to writing Dotcom's publicity material, instead of pretending to present a neutral, accurate version of events to readers.

0 The Herald; playing games again

The Herald's Dotcom correspondent David Fisher joined a few dots this morning and decided there was "political pressure" to approve Kim Dotcom's New Zealand residence application.

The Herald has published a number of documents, and one of them completely contradicts that line of attack. It is a statement from Immigration New Zealand dated 8 July 2014, just one week ago. Here it is, snipped from the Herald story, and with the addition of highlighting to key passages.

We presume David Fisher has read all the documents his story this morning relied on. Unfortunately for him, the INZ statement blows his, Dotcom's and Labour's argument clean out of the water. Immigration New Zealand is emphatic the decision was made by senior INZ staff, and the Minister was only informed (on a no surprises basis) AFTER the decision was made. Equally, INZ is adamant there was NO political pressure brought to bear by the Government.

That the Herald went ahead and ran the "political pressure" line anyway, despite a categorical denial from those accused of bending to political pressure suggests there is an agenda at play here. Kim Dotcom has made no secret of his desire to bring down the New Zealand Government. He has a willing media plant in the form of David Fisher, and Labour Party politicians who, despite a pledge to campaign cleanly, are happy to participate in spreading serious but incorrect allegations. 

However the Herald does itself no credit by publishing as fact allegations which have already been unequivocally denied. Granny Herald was once New Zealand's foremost newspaper. Those who made it that must turn in their graves on days like this.

0 "A bad but wealthy man"

There's yet another revelation about Kim Dotcom in the Herald this morning. And former Immigration Minister Jonathon Coleman must be wishing he'd never heard of the Large German Gentleman.

With the benefit of 20/20 hindsight (what a wonderful gift that would be for politicians!), we reckon Dr Coleman now wishes that he had instructed his Immigration New Zealand officials to treat Dotcom's residence application strictly according to Hoyle. But he cannot turn back the clock, and New Zealand is stuck with Dotcom until the US application to extradite him is heard.

Probably the most interesting aspect of the Herald story however is Laila Harre's reaction to her boss. The Herald reports:

Last night the leader of the Dotcom-funded Internet Party, Laila Harre, said she "wouldn't have been comfortable" granting the tycoon residency if she had been the Minister of Immigration.

We wonder if Ms Harre is also uncomfortable receiving her weekly pay-cheque from Dotcom, now that she has been made aware of all the background information. Will she reconsider leading the Internet Party, given what she now knows about her boss?

Neither National nor Labour has a good record with regard to rich immigrants. Labour is dogged by two men named Liu, and National has Dotcom to not boast about. Whilst the investment that wealthy immigrants bring is welcome, perhaps it's time for cross-party consensus that it is not so welcome that essential elements of immigration policy can be waived.

0 MegaMana steals more Green policy

Yesterday the clean rivers policy Laila Harre had written for the Greens became Internet Party policy. And today, Ms Harre is sounding like Gareth Hughes; the Herald reports:

The Internet Party wants a moratorium on what it calls "risky energy and mining industry practices" such as fracking, dumping of oil wastes and deep-sea and undersea extraction.
In its final environment policy released today the internet Party also sought to restore the "absolute right" of New Zealanders to protest at sea against deep-sea oil exploration.
"National has been pushing New Zealand towards a greater dependence on the extractive industries at a time when climate change and land and water protection demand the opposite," said internet Party leader Laila Harre.
"We will place moratoria on the hydraulic fracturing of oil and gas wells, and deep-sea drilling. The direct safety risks of these industries have not been adequately investigated or managed.
"Their impact on climate change would also have to be countered before any resumption of these activities would be considered. In the case of deep sea drilling we do not see any likelihood that benefits to New Zealand will be shown to outweigh the risks."

The cost of an accident to New Zealand's marine and coastal environment would be simply too high, she said.

We wonder if Ms Harre has ever discussed these policies with her paymaster, the Large German Gentleman. After all, all those computers that Herr Dotcom has must have consumed a good slice of mineral resources in their construction.

And just think of Dotcom's transport habits. He's definitely more fond of helicopters and Hummers than he is of hybrids, so how is mimicking Green Party policy on fracking, even if it was drafted by Laila Harre consistent with Dotcom's fossil fuel excesses?

Quite why MegaMana is targetting Green voters with its policies is anyone's bet. The Green vote is not a huge slice of the market, and two into one doesn't go, so someone is going to be disappointed.

It's little wonder that Danyl from the Dim-Post described Ms Harre's provocative actions as "Political biohazard watch". We don't think it's going to be long before Gareth Hughes is going to be calling for a moratorium on MegaMana!

0 Trouble at t'mill

Danyl from the Dim-Post blogs on tensions on the Left of the political spectrum:

In the hypothetical Labour/Green/New Zealand First/Mana/Internet Party coalition that voters are being asked to put in charge of the country this election year, its hard to figure out which inter-party relationship is the most poisonous, or who would like to destroy whom the most. But now that Laila Harre’s gone and started pre-releasing Green Party policy on the same day as the Greens and justified it on the basis that she worked for the Green Party for fifteen months, and therefore owns all their intellectual property, somehow, I’m gonna nominate the Green/Internet Mana relationship as, from here on in, probably the most toxic.
What’s the strategy here? The original vision for the Internet Party was that it would be a, y’know, Internet Party, focused on digital issues and changing the government by turning out young non-voters. My guess is that Dotcom’s money has paid for some market research which has found that the number of non-voters passionate about copyright restrictions is close to zero, and that the demographic most sympathetic towards the Internet Party are current Green voters. Harre doesn’t share Dotcom’s interest in digital rights, or his legal problems, so her focus – like any other political leader – is purely on maximising her party vote. Which explains why the Internet Party is now a tiny cannibalistic version of the Green Party.

This of course illustrates the dilemma that the Internet Party, or any other single-issue party for that matter faces. That's one of the reasons why we would never support a Christian political party; political parties need to represent a wide sphere of policy positions. 

And it is indeed bad form for Laila Harre to have flogged policies she developed for the Green Party, then pass them off as her own. That of course is the danger when people flit around between parties like a moth flitting between lightbulbs. Loyalty now seems to be a romantic notion from days gone by.

Readers will remember that some months ago, Russel Norman jetted to Auckland, then took a taxi all the way to Coatesville to urge Herr Dotcom not to start a political party lest he leech votes from the Greens. It would seem that Dr Norman's fears may have been well founded as that's exactly what is happening now as the Greens and MegaMana fight for the same constituency.

Danyl calls it "political biohazard watch". We must all be alert less the toxicity between the Greens and MegaMana leaks out.

0 Tweet of the Day - 30 June 2014

You'd think that the Internet Party, its founder Kim Dotcom and its leader Laila Harre would stand for openness and free speech on the internet. But despite their name, it seems they don't:

Free speech and all that nice sounding stuff is apparently for other people. But not for the Internet Party, it's founder and visionary, and its leader. They are far too important to worry about that kind of thing!

0 Quote of the Day - 28 June 2014

OK; it's a fair cop. This is yesterday's post. But we were so wrapped up in the Hurricanes' gutsy win over the Crusaders last night that we clean forgot to post it.

But Steven Joyce takes the coveted Quote of the Day for this effort:

Campaign chairman Steven Joyce warned delegates that the campaign was "still a little puppy" and that anything at all could happen in the next 84 days before the election - the wackiest thing imaginable, he said.
"A retired Maori activist who has become an MP working with a hard left unionist and let's just throw in a wealthy German millionaire right-winger, they could form a political party," said.

"That's the sort of wacky thing that could happen between now and September 20.
"If Laila Harre, Hone Harawira, Pam Corkery, Kim Dotcom, Russel Norman, Metiria Turei, David Cunliffe, Matt McCarten, and John Minto are the answer, can we please have another look at the question?"

It's an oldie, but in 2014, it's a goodie, and a very relevant goodie at that. 

0 Eat your Greens Kim!

Rod Emmerson's been reading the Herald. In particular, he's read the bit in the Herald-DigiPoll about MegaMana eating into the Green Party vote:

This is great stuff from our favourite cartoonist. But before eating too many Greens, Dotcom ought to make sure that there's no organic "residue" on the leaves.

0 Jones on Dotcom's "pretend party"

Bob Jones is in fine form this morning in his weekly NZ Herald column. Under the headline Dotcom, your no-hopers won't save you Jones opines:

My urging John Minto to shut up and acquire a hobby induced his response claiming he once thrashed me in a Victoria University debate (I've never debated him or indeed anyone at Vic) and challenging me to debate with him publicly on any of a wide range of subjects.
As I, like everyone else, want him to shut up, I'd hardly provide him more oxygen by doing that. Minto repeated this in a letter to me. I replied by helpfully suggesting he could satisfy his pathetic craving for attention by putting on a one-man black and white minstrel show and suggested he start practising singing Swanee River.
And given his life-long socialist belief in spending others' money, I offered to buy him his banjo and face-paint. He would have gone down a treat in old folk's homes, but acting altruistically in a meaningful way is alien to him, aside from which there's the awkward need to smile, so instead he's shamelessly joined Dotcom's pretend party.

Dangle money before hardened lefties and they'll sit up and purr every time.

Bob Jones hits the nail on the head here (sorry Rex). The political Left loves money, especially when it belongs to the long-suffering Someone Else. That is the only reason why the Mana Party has agreed to the MegaMana rort deal; Dotcom's money.

Of course, it matters not to Hone, Laila, Annette and John where the money came from; Jones continues:

Kim Dotcom was granted residency in November 2010 under the "investor plus" category, despite his past offending in Germany, his persona-non-grata status in Thailand and his minor securities conviction in Hong Kong, the Immigration Service making a marginal judgment call given his expressed investing commitment.
This decision was thereafter supported by his generosity to a range of causes, and he quickly became a larger-than-life, jolly-jumbo figure who brightened our lives. But today, three years later, his world has collapsed and, flailing in desperation, he's become politically involved, something I'm sure he never anticipated given his background of frivolous excess. He's now best described as the Milan Brych of New Zealand politics.
So what went wrong? That's simple: specifically the revelation of his wealth source, namely the large-scale copyright theft of Hollywood movies, which has led to the extradition order by the FBI. Due to preposterously idiotic behaviour of the police, who, instead of knocking on his door and handing Dotcom a summons, mounted a scandalously infantile raid by 76 armed police and two helicopters, then wrongly threw him into prison, the public reaction became hugely sympathetic, more so when it was revealed he had been illegally spied on by the GCSB clowns.
Dotcom's loveable maverick reputation collapsed, despite his vigorous legal efforts to prevent it, once details of the FBI's claim became public. Hitherto he had presented his business as that of an innocent bystander, akin to a taxi driver delivering a passenger to a bank, then subsequently being charged with aiding and abetting a crime after it was found his fare had robbed the bank.
But the FBI claims he had the means to control his Megaupload site's content, but far from doing so, actively incentivised the placement of movies on his site.
In rebuttal, Dotcom points to the terms service users were obliged to agree to, which included an undertaking not to post copyrighted material. He further argues that the sheer volume of material was such as to prevent practical policing.
The user copyright undertaking won't wash in any court and he knows it. It was his primary income source, arising from many tens of thousands of downloading users exploiting his site's stolen movies, but Dotcom, the site owner, implausibly claims this was all unknown to him.
Anyone wrongly charged with a serious crime should be ultra-eager to get into a court and argue their innocence. Instead, Dotcom has wasted millions trying to avoid doing so.
So he has resorted to a final desperation measure, namely to spend millions attempting to buy a change of government, which he hopes will override a court-backed extradition order, an inevitable outcome once he's used up all of his legal ploys.

Dotcom's money is not "clean" money, despite one of the serious criminal charges he is facing in the USA being Conspiracy to commit money laundering. But that won't stop Hone Harawira and his whanau. Their loathing of "rich prick" John Key means that the end justifies the means in getting rid of him, in their eyes. 

Of course that ignores the obvious hypocrisy of taking money from another rich prick, but Dotcom gets a free pass because he despises John Key too. Principles disappear out the window when the cheque book comes out.

Jones closes, with final digs at Dotcom, Harre and Minto:

He's wasting his money as no government will do that, regardless of any undertakings from the soul-selling abysmal no-hopers he has garnered together to fund as a political party. If anything, his efforts will hugely harm the Opposition cause in Balkanising and confusing its message, thus presenting an electoral option with, on one side, a rabble of dissimilar, mutually antagonistic parties, all with unpopular leaders and wildly different messages, set against a stable governing party with the most popular leader in our history.
This is the fifth party Dotcom's new leader, Laila Harre, has belonged to, which speaks volumes. Laila will always be remembered for the funniest political gaffe in our history when she explained her 2002 defeat by lamenting on television that voters had voted with their heads rather than their hearts.
If she wants hearts, then far better she assists Minto with a one-man black and white minstrel act which will pull the punters in droves, but when it comes to heads, like Dotcom, she's history.

Jones is once again quite right. The Herald-DiigiPoll released this morning shows a small rise in support for MegaMana at the Green Party's expense. A congested hard-Left is hardly going to filch votes from the centre, or the centre-right. All that will happen is that the same volume of votes on the Left will be distributed among more parties.

Of course, we're not going to complain about that outcome. It'll be a nice farewell gift to New Zealand from Dotcom as he is jetted off the the USA to face the trial he has tried so hard to avoid. 

0 More poll agony and ecstacy

In three months and three days, New Zealand goes to the polls to elect its 51st Parliament. And if the Labour Party wasn't already worried enough about poll trends, the Herald has heaped more misery on this morning.

The latest Herald-DigiPoll is out, and like other polls in the last couple of months, it's pretty emphatic. Herald deputy political editor Claire Trevett has the details:

The Internet-Mana Party would get two seats in Parliament based on the first major poll since the two parties cut a deal to stand together.
But, three months shy of the election, Labour is still struggling and the left bloc is well adrift from National, which could easily govern alone based on the Herald-DigiPoll survey.
The results for the Mana Party, Internet Party and Internet-Mana Party totalled 1.4 per cent in the survey - a modest start for the newly launched party which was the centre of attention in the lead-up to the polling period.
That is enough to get new Internet Party leader Laila Harre into Parliament if Mana leader Hone Harawira holds his Te Tai Tokerau electorate.
But the votes appear to have been at the expense of the Green Party which dropped to 11 per cent, down 2.5 points since the last Herald-DigiPoll survey in March.

That will worry the Greens, especially if Internet-Mana, bankrolled with $3 million from Kim Dotcom, starts to pick up more momentum.
Polling began on June 6, soon after Mana and Internet agreed to stand as a joint force to try to maximise the number of MPs Mr Harawira could take into Parliament under the "coat-tailing" provisions of MMP.
Although the deal was criticised by many commentators and rival political parties, 39 per cent of those polled said the Internet-Mana arrangement was a legitimate use of MMP while 43 per cent said it was an unprincipled rort.

That MegaMana is starting to cut into the Green vote is no surprise. Readers will remember that when Russel Norman visited Dotcom's rental property at Coatesville last year, he urged the Large German Gentleman to consider not starting a party for that very reason.

But the Greens' worries are small compared to those of Labour; Trevett continues:

With a party vote based on the poll of 50.4 per cent, National maintains a strong lead and is 20 points ahead of Labour which is up one to 30.5 per cent. National would have 64 seats, enough to govern without any support partners and 10 more seats than the left bloc of Labour, the Greens and Internet-Mana.
Labour leader David Cunliffe has rallied slightly, although Labour's efforts to beat the anti-immigration drum just before the poll began do not appear to have had much traction. Labour inched back over the 30 per cent mark and Mr Cunliffe's personal ratings as preferred Prime Minister have nudged up from 11 to 13 per cent since March.
He is still adrift of his high of 17 per cent immediately after his election last September and continues to poll lower than former leader David Shearer did. NZ First was steady on 3.6 per cent - not enough to return to Parliament though its support tends to lift during the campaign.
The poll indicates Prime Minister John Key has escaped the fallout from the trial and resignation of former Act MP John Banks, which broke the day before the poll began. Mr Key held steady at 66 per cent as preferred Prime Minister. Those who believed the Government was heading in the right direction lifted to 56 per cent - the highest since just before the 2011 election.
The poll of 750 eligible voters was taken from June 6 to June 15 and has a margin of error of +/- 3.6 per cent. There were 12.2 per cent undecided voters on the party vote.

This must be terribly discouraging for Mr Cunliffe and his Labour colleagues. They've thrown everything but the kitchen sink at National and Judith Collins in particular, and it's barely made a blind bit of difference. John Key remains the preferred Prime Minister for two thirds of those surveyed, whilst David Cunliffe is the preferred choice of less than one in seven New Zealanders.

And when Parliament resumes this afternoon after a two-week recess, sans John Banks, Labour will be on the defensive again. Instead of being able to attack the Government, Labour has its own donation woes, and if what we were hearing yesterday from a variety of unrelated people is true, yesterday's story is only the tip of the iceberg.

The clock is ticking on Labour. After Friday (i.e. three months out from the election), Labour can change leaders without going to the membership for another Labour's Got Talent tour. Have the polls yet reached the point where they might do a Mike Moore (1990), or will they stick with Mr Cunliffe then cut him adrift after what is looking likely to be a third successive defeat at the polls?

These are interesting times indeed, and the Herald-DigiPoll has just made them a whole lot more interesting!

0 Hide on MegaMana

Our favourite commenter Rex made this observation earlier this morning:

Next job, cut and paste Rodney Hide's rant!

At that point, we hadn't made it as far as the Herald on Sunday's website yet; we were still working through e-mails sent to us overnight bringing things to our attention. And the frequency of that has increased in recent weeks.

But naturally, we went straight off in search of Hide's latest opinion-piece. And we found that he does indeed rip in to all those involved in MegaMana; under the headline Hilarious Dotcom drama is riveting Hide opines:

I used to think politics was all about achieving good government. That proved invariably disappointing. These days, politics is no longer my responsibility. I'm happy if it just proves interesting.
That's why I am for the Internet-Mana Party. They're the best entertainment in years. If they were a parody they would be too improbable to be believed.
Maori nationalist Hone Harawira calls Pakeha the rudest of names and the wrong colour to date his daughter. But he's jumped into bed with whiter-than-white Kim Dotcom.
Harawira trumpets Mana and His People but that's not stopping him using his electorate to coat-tail Dotcom's party into Parliament. His price? $3 million.
It's easy to accuse Harawira of hypocrisy but he has a ready reply: it's a lot of money. At $3m his double standard is good and high.
Laila Harre wasn't elected leader of the Internet Party. She was hired. She's been selected and paid for by Dotcom. The former coffee picker for the Sandinistas is New Zealand's first corporate-hire political leader.
A mate rang after Harre's appointment splitting his sides, "All they need now is Pam Corkery". Corkery was appointed press secretary that day.
Willie Jackson considered standing but wanted $250,000. That's his price for standing up for his principles.

We're grateful to Judge Holden, Edward the Confessor, Rex or whatever else he calls himself for pointing us in the direction of Hide's column, although we would have found it at some point in any event. And we make no apologies for copying and pasting a story that tells the truth of the MegaMana rort in the manner that Hide does.

That's because the rort would be funny, almost beyond belief in fact, if it wasn't such an affront to democracy. 

Hide continues, making a mockery of the notion that MegaMana is going to be some kind of new, visionary force:

The recycled 1990s Alliance Party is promising a digital future. But they're technophobes and Luddites. Harre declares herself well-qualified because her children are the internet generation and her husband uses a computer at work.
She also believes Dotcom is funding her to help the poor and downtrodden with 1970s socialism. It's nothing to do with his extradition to face criminal charges. The left don't talk about truth. Rather, it's the narrative. Harre is the only person buying her narrative.
Next up, Annette Sykes. Her driving force? The Treaty and economic equality. Nothing about Dotcom's over-the-top lifestyle and opulence suggests Treaty concerns or a share-the-wealth mentality.
Someone isn't being upfront about their political aims and aspirations. The gulf between Dotcom and his politicians is altogether too yawning.
Then we have veteran campaigner John Minto. His promise? That Mana is coming after the rich. Capital gains taxes, financial transaction taxes, inheritance taxes and a more progressive tax system are all part of his campaign.
He's targeting the "parasites" and their "unearned income". In the meantime, he's more than happy taking the fat cat's money. That's the money the FBI are accusing Dotcom of not earning.

The Occupy movement in 2011 protested about the "1%"; the parasites and fat cats referred to by Hide. If his repeated boasts about his personal wealth are to be believed, Dotcom is not only part of the 1%, but quite likely in the top 0.25%. 

He is the very kind of person that the likes of Laila Harre, Annette Sykes, Hone Harawira and John Minto have spent their lives condemning, yet when the cheque book comes out, they gladly take his money, and climb into bed with him. Their hypocrisy is breathtaking.

Rodney Hide isn't done yet; he has one final go at Dotcom:

 

Dotcom set out to destroy Banks for not rushing to rescue him from Mt Eden Prison. He expected a minister to jump for a $50,000 political donation. That's his character. Imagine what he expects for $3m.
And imagine how he will perform when he doesn't get it. Pure entertainment.

The day is fast approaching when the REAL Kim Dotcom is going to be unmasked. When that happens, watch for those who have taken his filthy lucre to be unmasked with him for selling their principles for the promise of big bucks.

Hide's final two words are right on the money; it will indeed be "pure entertainment". There are going to be some extremely red faces on the left-hand side of the political divide and we can't wait to see the squirming!

0 Dalton's audition for a Tui ad

This morning's Herald has a follow-up story on Team New Zealand. And we laughed out loud when we read this:

With the minister effectively calling Team NZ's bluff, Dalton late last night moved to offer further reassurance that he was still chasing funds from private and commercial sources.
Dalton declined to reveal how much Team NZ needed to tide them over until February.
"We have raised a significant amount of money to help us out in the interim. If the minister is telling us we need to find more money then my answer is that is what I'm doing every second of every day."
Dalton told the Weekend Herald his intention in calling yesterday's press briefing was never to try and back Joyce into a corner. He wanted to clear up some of the "hysteria" and "rhetoric" around last week's protocol announcement, which he believed was negatively influencing the public's appetite for another challenge. Throwing public funds into the America's Cup has always been a hard sell for the Kiwi public, but with Cup defenders Oracle Team USA widely criticised for tabling rules for the next event that appeared stacked in their favour, Dalton's task of trying to convince New Zealanders that challenging again is a worthwhile endeavour became all the tougher. The general reaction from Team NZ fans was "tell Oracle to go and get stuffed". That approach won't hurt Oracle, it will only hurt Team NZ, said Dalton.

Sorry Grant; we don't buy that. Backing the Government into a corner was exactly what yesterday's hastily-convened media conference was about.If ever there was a statement worthy of a Tui billboard, it's "I'm not holding the Government to ransom"!

There was talk last year of Kim Dotcom coming on board as a sponsor. We use the term "on board" in a general sense; Dotcom physically getting on board an AC boat would have a severe effect on the power to weight ratio!

But the Large German Gentleman has been splashing the loot around lately, despite his assets supposedly being frozen. If he's got $4 million to buy an election, and $5 million for anyone who concocts uncovers evidence of some vast global conspiracy to send him to the Big Hose, surely he'd have the chump change that Grant Dalton wants.

Instead of holding a presser yesterday, Mr Dalton should have visited Coatesville. One could almost say that the now-farcical America's Cup and Kim Dotcom are a marriage made in heaven!

0 What the 2014 General Election is all about...

Mike Treen is the national director of the Unite union. In 2011, he was one of the organisers of a group of unionists supporting the Mana Party. It's safe to say that he is one the far Left of New Zealand politics.

Mr Treen also blogs at Martyn Bradbury's union-funded Daily Blog. And our attention has been drawn by a reader to this paragraph in a lengthy blog-post written by Mike Treen and published yesterday. In one paragraph, he tells readers what the 2014 General Election is all about:

That's right Dear Readers. This election isn't about the economy, about health, education, crime or poverty. It's not even about the trade unions' hoary chestnut of a living wage. Mike Treen has declared that this year's General Election is about Kim Dotcom getting his revenge on the Government.

So forget all the bullshit and rhetoric about the digital economy, and about better access to the internet for everyone; that's just a front. MegaMana is all about a rich convicted criminal, wanted in the USA trying to escape justice, and trying to get his pound of flesh from the Government who allowed US authorities to try and extradite Dotcom.

We suppose we should be grateful to Mike Treen; at least he has called it as it actually is, rather than feeding us sugar-coated bullshit as Dotcom, Hone Harawira and Laila Harre have done. But as the countdown to the election continues, let's not lose sight of the fact that Dotcom is trying to subvert New Zealand's electoral system for his own ends. 

There's a word for that.

Kim Dotcom wants to take his revenge on this government. This is perfectly understandable. He has every reason to do so. In fact, given his treatment, he has more reasons than most. The most effective way for that to happen is for this government to be defeated in the coming election. The Mana-Internet party alliance is the best way to make that happen. He was smart enough to see that. - See more at: http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2014/06/12/why-the-mana-internet-alliance-is-a-potential-game-breaker/#sthash.hjSfLLzz.dpuf

Kim Dotcom wants to take his revenge on this government. This is perfectly understandable. He has every reason to do so. In fact, given his treatment, he has more reasons than most. The most effective way for that to happen is for this government to be defeated in the coming election. The Mana-Internet party alliance is the best way to make that happen. He was smart enough to see that. - See more at: http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2014/06/12/why-the-mana-internet-alliance-is-a-potential-game-breaker/#sthash.hjSfLLzz.dpuf

Kim Dotcom wants to take his revenge on this government. This is perfectly understandable. He has every reason to do so. In fact, given his treatment, he has more reasons than most. The most effective way for that to happen is for this government to be defeated in the coming election. The Mana-Internet party alliance is the best way to make that happen. He was smart enough to see that. - See more at: http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2014/06/12/why-the-mana-internet-alliance-is-a-potential-game-breaker/#sthash.hjSfLLzz.dpuf

Kim Dotcom wants to take his revenge on this government. This is perfectly understandable. He has every reason to do so. In fact, given his treatment, he has more reasons than most. The most effective way for that to happen is for this government to be defeated in the coming election. The Mana-Internet party alliance is the best way to make that happen. He was smart enough to see that. - See more at: http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2014/06/12/why-the-mana-internet-alliance-is-a-potential-game-breaker/#sthash.hjSfLLzz.dpuf

0 100 days to go

UPDATE: There seems to be a glitch in the system, so we've taken the poll down for a wee while. Like the Labour Party with all its promises, the system doesn't seem to be counting at the moment...

*************************

The Herald notes that there are just 100 days to go before New Zealand goes to the polls on 20 September 2014.

To mark the occasion, we've kicked off our June political poll a day early. We've also combined the Internet and Mana Party, given Kim Dotcom's recent purchase of Hone Harawira's party.

As usual, the poll will close on the 20th of the month at 7pm. It will then be three months to the minute to when the polls close for the 2014 General Election.

We realise that this poll is completely unscientific; we don't need to be told that! But it's our blog, and we decide what gets published here, so polling it is!!

Thanks in advance for taking part. We'll report back when the polls close.

0 Rudman on coat-tailing

Brian Rudman doesn't hide his contempt for coat-tailing in his latest Herald column. But under the headline Cut off the coat-tails and end MMP rorts he's not exactly kind to the Labour Party and David Cunliffe either; he opines:

Labour is promising to abolish within 100 days of taking office the MMP coat-tail rule that enables a minor party electorate MP to bring party list mates into Parliament regardless of the 5 per cent entry threshold.
The joke is that, barring a miracle, there seems little chance of Labour leader David Cunliffe and his Green allies forming a government without the aid of the Mana-Internet "party", whose existence depends on gaming the coat-tail provisions.
And having exploited the system for all it is worth - and spent more than $3 million of internet millionaire Kim Dotcom's cash - to get back into Parliament, it seems unlikely that Hone Harawira and Laila Harre will turn around and vote to end the fun.
The stitch-up between embattled Mana Party leader Mr Harawira and Mr Dotcom, the millionaire refugee from American law enforcement agencies, is not the first attempt to game the MMP rules. It's just the most egregious.

Rudman is dead right. The deal between Dotcom and Harawira is the rort to end all rorts, and everyone knows it. John Key may invite minor party leaders for a cup of tea, but on the rort scale, the MegaMana one is a five course dinner with wine matches, and port and cigars to follow.

Of course, that won't stop David Cunliffe, if that is what it takes. Faced with a choice of governing and reaching some sort of deal with MegaMana, and facing another three years in opposition, we all know what David Cunliffe will do.

And we all know that Labour has form; read on:

In 1999, in the second MMP election, Labour leader Helen Clark encouraged Labour supporters in Coromandel to support Green candidate Jeanette Fitzsimons to ensure the defeat of the National incumbent and bring in several Green list candidates on her coat-tails.
Ms Fitzsimons narrowly won - but in the end the Greens' party vote just sneaked over the 5 per cent threshhold, entitling them to six seats anyway.

Of course, that's not Labour's only coat-tail rort. From the first MMP election in 1996 to his retirement at the 2011 General Election, Labour stood a series of Neville Nobodies against former Labour Party president and MP Jim Anderton in Wigram. By the time he retired, Anderton was back to being a Labour MP in every way except his self-named political party.

So Labour knows all about coat-tail rorts. But make no mistake; David Cunliffe, for all his pontificating now will reach out to Dotcom and Harawira if that's what it takes after 20 September. Then he will ask the MegaMana MP's to close their eyes, block their noses, and like turkeys, vote for an early Christmas. Labour's hypocrisy is galling. 

0 Photo of the Day - 11 June 2014

This arrived unsolicited in our inbox a short while ago:

They say that many a true word is spoken in jest. This is living proof of that saying, even if Hone Harawira hasn't yet cottoned on to the fact that he is now Dotcom's puppet.

0 Quelle surprise...

As regular readers will be aware, Martyn Bradbury is paid by several unions to run the Daily Blog. He's also paid by his bestie Kim, and the reason for that is now apparent.

The Daily Blog is, like us, running unscientific election polls. Here's the latest one, sent to us by a reader who took one for the team and ventured over there:

It's interesting that Martyn Bradbury's blog is the only place that has MegaMana featuring prominently in a poll. Perhaps Martyn has been spending his days voting, deleting the cookie, voting, deleting the cookie, voting etc etc.

But it's also interesting that at a blog funded by the union movement, with many of said unions affiliated to the Labour Party, Labour is trailing both MegaMana and the Greens, with a mere 20% of the vote. 

If Labour can only register 20% of the vote on a blog which should be friendly towards it, the party is going to be in big trouble when it goes to the country in September.


Footnote: The latest Keeping Stock political poll will go up on Friday morning, and will remain open until 7pm on Friday 20th June; exactly three months from the moment when the polls close in the 2014 General Election.

0 Cash for credibility

Having purchased himself a political party, Kim Dotcom is now looking to buy his way out of extradition; Stuff reports:

Kim Dotcom is offering $5 million to anyone who can help him with his extradition case.
The US is seeking to extradite Dotcom to face charges of copyright conspiracy, racketeering and money-laundering allegedly carried out by his file-sharing company, Megaupload.
Earlier this year Dotcom lost his final bid in the Supreme Court, to gain access to evidence the US government had against him in his case.
The matter of disclosure had already been ruled on in three courts. Two judges - one each in the District Court and one in the High Court - ruled that Dotcom should be allowed to see all the information, but this year the Court of Appeal ruled against him.
The German internet mogul and founder of the Internet Party is now offering $5 million to anyone who can prove government corruption over the handling of his case. 
"We are asking for information that proves unlawful or corrupt conduct by the US government, the New Zealand government, spy agencies, law enforcement and Hollywood", Dotcom told website Torrentfreak.com.
"It is the opinion of my legal team that disclosure of such information would be lawful. I would also guarantee that any whistleblower coming forward would have the best legal representation at zero cost."
Dotcom said he was talking with his lawyers about the logistics of such a payment. It would most likely be paid to a trust, with terms and conditions to anyone who submitted information. 

For the last two years there have been plenty of bullish tweets from Dotcom saying that he will prove his innocence, and prove that governments conspired against him. He claims to have evidence that will bring down John Key and his government.

It would seem that Dotcom has been talking up the "evidence" he has, and that it simply doesn't stack up. Why else would he be prepared to shell out a small fortune to save himself a US government-funded trip to the Land of the Free?

And even if said evidence can be found (or concocted), will he or can he pay the ransom? 3News suggests not:

Music and movie giants have joined forces to freeze Kim Dotcom's assets, but they'll have to negotiate conditions first.

Lawyers appeared at the High Court in Auckland on Monday on behalf of four music industry companies and six Hollywood film studios seeking to have Dotcom's assets frozen ahead of their claim against him.

The record labels are understood to be Warner Music, UMG Recordings, Sony Music and Capitol Records, while the film companies are 20th Century Fox, Disney, Paramount, Universal, Columbia Pictures and Warner Brothers.

The companies say the now defunct file sharing website Megaupload and its key operators, including Dotcom, facilitated, encouraged and profited from massive copyright infringement and want Dotcom's New Zealand assets to remain frozen while their case is under way.

Lawyers appearing for Dotcom and his wife Mona said the estranged pair were prepared to maintain the current freeze, but the companies needed to offer security first.

Dotcom's lawyer Robert Gapes said the companies should put up NZ$250,000 (AU$232,742) for Dotcom, and a further NZ$250,000 for Ms Dotcom.

If Dotcom's assets are frozen, but he is having to demand cash security from those who are suing him, where is all the cash coming from? He has already shelled out up to $4 million on his political game-show, his legal bills both here and in the US are mounting, he still has staff owed wages, but suddenly he has $5 million for someone who saves his not-insignifcant posterior.

 

Dotcom's date with destiny in the form of his extradition hearing is now less than four weeks ago. As the reality kicks in, it seems that he is falling back to his default setting; splashing cash around. But no amount of money can buy evidence that doesn't exist, and you can't buy credibility.