Hard News by Russell Brown

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Hard News: Word of the Year 2014: #dirtypolitics

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  • Russell Brown, in reply to Sacha,

    the natives are revolting

    OMG the Pete George discussion! I'm actually warming to that Kimbo chap. Pete's an unstoppable zombie.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Grant McDougall, in reply to mark taslov,

    #dirtypolitic’s legacy...

    At the end of the day

    Ho-ho, very clever !

    Dunedin • Since Dec 2006 • 760 posts Report Reply

  • BenWilson, in reply to Sacha,

    How long was it ever going to be before they'd turn on each other when others began to ignore them? It's the ACT party of blogs.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 10657 posts Report Reply

  • Kumara Republic, in reply to Sacha,

    the natives are revolting

    Why don't they just settle it with a pistol duel already? With live bullets too.

    The southernmost capital … • Since Nov 2006 • 5446 posts Report Reply

  • Ian Dalziel, in reply to Russell Brown,

    Jeremiah was a bullhorn…

    OMG the Pete George discussion!

    I admit it, I went and had a read, I almost signed up just so I could try and explain the one underpinning / overarching PA ethos – Don’t be a dick – which was (IIRC) the real reason PG was ostracized, actually ostracized is too strong, there was no real persecution – maybe the ‘ostra-’ bit implies a ‘head in the sand’ …
    and he really did like PA’s sandpit, for whatever reasons, he obviously misses it.
    But what is it about ‘doesn’t play well with others’ that those ‘players’ can’t understand?
    Hell is other people, eh…
    The inability to put ‘two and too together to get to therefore’ must be a rising evolutionary meme it is so prevalent these days….

    Christchurch • Since Dec 2006 • 7953 posts Report Reply

  • Ian Dalziel,

    Gorge us....
    Ya learn something every day!
    I never knew that a carnivorously edible fowl-based equivalent of Matryoshka dolls existed - perhaps a name change is in order - Nested MeatRusky Dollops - covers it nicely, it doesn't quite roll off the tongue as well though I guess?

    Though I do remember Tremalchio's ultimate stuff up!

    NSFW or Vegetarians!

    Christchurch • Since Dec 2006 • 7953 posts Report Reply

  • Joe Wylie, in reply to Ian Dalziel,

    he really did like PA’s sandpit, for whatever reasons, he obviously misses it.
    But what is it about ‘doesn’t play well with others’ that those ‘players’ can’t understand?
    Hell is other people, eh…

    Perhaps he still misses the DimPost, where his stultifyingly stolid antics once clogged the place like a rampant quagga mussel infestation. While it doesn't take a qualified professional to spot that something's amiss in the cognitive department, he's now village idiot in absentia at disability-friendly PAS.

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report Reply

  • Tamsin6,

    For the bird within a bird enthusiasts, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall has some helpful boning tips...http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2005/dec/11/foodanddrink.recipes

    London • Since Dec 2007 • 133 posts Report Reply

  • Kumara Republic,

    This just in: Rodney MP Mark Mitchell wants to sue Nicky Hager for defamation. With friends like Mitchell, the #dirtypolitics guilty parties don't need enemies.

    The southernmost capital … • Since Nov 2006 • 5446 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha, in reply to Kumara Republic,

    This just in

    from August. Not a peep since. Another blowhard.

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • BenWilson, in reply to Sacha,

    Not a peep since.

    Someone probably explained to him that it's not defamation if it's true.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 10657 posts Report Reply

  • giovanni tiso, in reply to BenWilson,

    Someone probably explained to him that it's not defamation if it's true

    They're terrified of discovery.

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report Reply

  • Don Christie,

    James Keating, also won a hamper by having his name drawn from the list of Word of the Year voters.

    Recount...

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 1645 posts Report Reply

  • Katita,

    WOTY ... I do like a silly acronym.

    Thanks for being a beacon of sanity in an essentially mental year Russell. Too often PAS was the only place I could go that felt like home :-)

    So what are readers predictions for the year ahead? Surely there's something in the Whaleoil, John Key, Judith Collins turduken we haven't seen the last of?

    Or some new scandal - Bill English invested us in heavily roubles on the recommendation of a mate down the pub?

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 67 posts Report Reply

  • mark taslov, in reply to Katita,

    It is our dearest wish that 2015 will see the global adoption of one very logical universal shoe size system.

    Te Ika-a-Māui • Since Mar 2008 • 2281 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown, in reply to Don Christie,

    Recount…

    Take it up with http://www.random.org/ , Public Address’s chosen provider of true randomness :-)

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown, in reply to Sacha,

    from August. Not a peep since. Another blowhard.

    Yes. That's a deafening silence right there.

    A defamation action would inevitably lead to a discovery process and that could/would get very, very messy.

    It still might be fun for a journalist to ask him about it though.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Ross Mason,

    This is appalling. Andrew Little comes out swinging. Admits he is a hacker behind John Key.

    "I'm a hacker."

    Upper Hutt • Since Jun 2007 • 1590 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia, in reply to Russell Brown,

    Yes. That’s a deafening silence right there.

    A defamation action would inevitably lead to a discovery process and that could/would get very, very messy.

    To be fair, Russell, it's also entirely possible that someone calmed Mitchell down and reminded him of the rather sad case of David Lange who got rather litigious towards the end. If you're going to be spraying around defamation suits, it helps if your pockets are as a deep as Colin Craig's not a backbench MPs.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha, in reply to Craig Ranapia,

    or you could tap whichever sympathetic donor paid for Slater's QC.

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia, in reply to Sacha,

    or you could tap whichever sympathetic donor paid for Slater’s QC.

    Or I guess you could have duelling Kickstarter pages with Hager, and you know what? I think the commie pinko tool would win that one and keep winning it for as long as it would take.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Bart Janssen, in reply to Ken Sparks,

    I’d like to think that investigations into the revelations of dirty politics are far from resolved.

    I'd like to think that too

    and then my brain identifies the fallacy of such thinking

    stupid brain

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 4461 posts Report Reply

  • Hilary Stace,

    Good interview with Nicky Hager on Radio NZ just now.

    Wgtn • Since Jun 2008 • 3229 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha, in reply to Hilary Stace,

    Nicky Hager on Radio NZ

    31 minutes, listening options

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • mark taslov, in reply to Sacha,

    Thanks for posting that Sacha. That was fascinating. On my initial listen I was taken by Kathryn Ryan’s (I assume she was the interviewer)insistance on categorizing Hager’s account as patronising:

    "Is it patronising to say look at you silly voters, you don’t see or understand this stuff, when actually what is more important to them may well be – politicians are politicians – but this is what matters most to me or my family or this is what matters most to the country…I’m not saying don’t write the book Nicky, I’m just saying, the perception that everyone out there is all fooled by all this and is ignorant of all this is arguably slightly patronising?"

    I guess that raised a couple of questions for me here outside the bubble, namely, is this a revelation about the New Zealand condition, do New Zealanders suffer an acute sensitivity to being patronised, perhaps an inferiority complex of sorts whereby receiving information necessitates an impulsive sense of subordination? Is this a national concern?

    Secondly, what is not patronising about conflating all voters, minimising our concerns, and insinuating that Hager’s work does not meet the criteria for ‘what matters most to the country’?

    Despite appearances to the contrary, it was largely a sympathetic interview, and I thought Nicky Hager channeled a vein and hit the nail on the head:

    "…I think that people are hungry for real information and not for spin…"

    On my second listen, what grabbed me was the very very slight shift with regards to Rawshark. Firstly, as context, this:

    Campbell Live (August):

    Earlier this year I was leaked a very large number of communications from the blogger Cameron Slater.

    And this:

    Media Take (S01E08-August 19th-10:30):

    …Suddenly in March this year I got approached with a remarkable piece of information which could allow that story to be told and I spoke to the person who was offering it to me and said would you trust me to make this into not just news for a day, but something of value, of lasting value, which means a book, which means you will be patient and leave me for months and months to try and do it…

    Now it may just be a matter of semantics, bias, assumptions, but for me there was an overriding sense in these August statements that not only was Nicky’s role in acquiring the information largely passive, but that Rawshark was some noble creature, dredging the depths, seeking only a medium for her/his truths of righteousness.

    Big Year Interview (December 19th-7:20):

    I had this utterly unexpected and serendipitous breakthrough when I heard about someone who was claiming to have some of Cameron Slater’s staff and I tracked them down as fast as I could and discovered that they indeed did […]I heard a rumour in the IT circles that someone was making idle boasts and normally those rumours don’t come to anything and if I hadn’t been already thinking about this subject I wouldn’t have even followed it up, but I did because I was already on that subject and I was interested.

    Obviously with litigation looming this very small shift in the narrative/ elaboration is not unexpected or unreasonable, but it casts a bright light on that elephant in the room that is the idle boasting hacker, that are the complicit New Zealand IT circles, that is the New Zealand authorities inability to identify Rawshark months later compared to Sony’s hackers being identified within days, that is New Zealanders’ vulnerability not just to one hacker but to full IT circles unwilling to break ranks. That in itself is as big if not bigger than the Dirty Politics revelations themselves, again thanks to Nicky.

    There is the lingering implication that in our digital lives, our Government is unwilling through contrivance, or feasibly unable to provide any sense of protection or justice whatsoever, further strengthening the argument that our digital conversations do not qualify as that which ’one ought reasonably to expect that the communication may not be intercepted’. Post election, our digital safety was certainly not deemed as high a priority as policy changes prompted by alleged terrorist threats, justified in the name of not letting terrorist threats dictate policy.

    Having gone there. I agree 100% that Nicky has handled his role appropriately and with utmost care, and most importantly that his work was done in the public interest, but with both eyes pried open, the vigilante hacker Rawshark remains at large, four months later, in a population the size of a metropolitan district.

    Te Ika-a-Māui • Since Mar 2008 • 2281 posts Report Reply

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