Let me be clear on one issue I believe to be an obvious fact  but others disagree. N.Z First is Winston Peters and Winston Peters is N.Z First. Without Winston N.Z First would rapidly fade away. It may have been possible for Andrew Williams to be his appointed successor, but petty personality politics within N.Z First have put an end to that idea. Since Winston had his messy, public split with Brendan Horan, there has been no obvious choice to take over the leadership of N.Z First. To successfully lead a political party a person needs at least some charisma and public recognition factor.  (Something ACT seems to have struggled with now that John Banks is political history.) Winston Peters has these qualities in bucket-loads and very few others and has been a successful career politician. I don’t have any insight into how N.Z First operates internally but I would guess that Winston is the boss and what he says goes. I assume Winston gave the thumbs-up to blind-siding  Andrew Williams. Williams obviously believed his previous experience in politics, his high ranking on the party list at the last election, and his public profile would safeguard him. Winston probably saw all those things as reasons to get rid of him. Williams has now been completely exorcised from N.Z First, no mention of him at all on the N.Z First website. Winston considers his public tantrum after being demoted out of parliament proves he’s not a team player. True I guess. But you can imagine the public tantrum Peters himself would resort to in similar circumstances. It has always been all about him. Now with Horan and Williams out, Winston drags another bunch of names with no public recognition factor into parliament with him.  He doesn’t care. He knows it’s all about him. To make it worse both National and Labour are fluttering their eyelashes at him as a potential coalition partner. As the major parties attack the fine details of each others economic policy, they seem relaxed about N.Z First having no details at all to explain the costs of their policies. They try to unravel the complicated money-go-round each of the main players uses to explain how they intend to pay for the promises they made to the electorate. Winston doesn’t bother with that stuff. He knows he doesn’t need to. Human beings vote with the heart, not the head. Winston doesn’t need to explain anything to anybody. He knows that the people that will vote for him don’t care about fiscal realities, they prefer blind faith. He knows he just needs to get peoples attention and then say something borderline offensive, most likely an incitement to the instinctive urge to distrust that which is different to yourself. Every election year Winston plays the race card. I don’t believe he dislikes Asian people. He should love them. The more Chinese people settling in N.Z, the easier it is for him to stir up discontent about them. If they show they have more wealth than their neighbours, it becomes easier still. When Winston Peters thought gratitude for the Super Gold Card would get him over the line in 2008 he didn’t bother doing  much immigrant bashing. He has learnt his lesson. Mention the Super Gold Card, (really crappy name for a pensioners I.D) and the oldies say “But what have you done for us lately?”  Criticise Asian immigration and they’ll form an orderly queue to join the mob to demonstrate their agreement. Not just Asians, I think Winston Peters will have a go at anyone if he thinks there’s a few votes to be gained. The idea of Winston and his nameless cronies holding the balance of power should terrify New Zealanders. Have we forgotten last time? Or the time before that? He was such a jerk, playing off Labour against National and seeing which would offer him the most, while soaking up the attention of the same media he so resents when it reports his foul ups. It would be three years of ecstasy for the media. Winston loves to blame the media and have a go at them every time he mucks up, and as Foreign Minister, (I know, it’s unbelievable) he had many opportunities to muck up and pretty much took them all. The media loves his tirades against the media and reports them diligently. I don’t dislike Winston, but I don’t believe his brand of political opportunism is good for New Zealand. Winston Peters is all about himself. I think our representatives should be all about all of us. The thought of Winston back in government almost makes me hope National get an outright majority. God help me. Still, the good news is he can’t go on forever, and he has made sure his party will go when he does.

First of all I will say that I think Kim Dotcom is the victim of a politically and economically inspired witch hunt. What he did is no more than what you tube does constantly. The case against him is driven by Hollywood producers and money men who think they need more millions of dollars to cover the expense of producing their mega budget flops. The way I see it is it’s as if they want to prosecute the postal service because someone posted something that they own the copyright on.  Forget for a moment the obvious fact that when they sell a dvd of something they own, they themselves are putting it in the public domain. Instead wonder what sort of storage or delivery company could or would examine the contents of packages they are storing and delivering. Any company that violated the privacy of it’s customers in such a way would soon have no customers.  They would probably also have many lawsuits. If what Dotcom did was illegal in N.Z and he was here when he did it he should be prosecuted here. The F.B.I and Hollywood don’t want that because they know he might get a fair trial here. Well, slightly fairer than in the U.S anyway. It comes down to this. If mega-upload’s customers violated their agreed terms and conditions by distributing copyrighted material, they should be prosecuted, not the company.

So why does this matter to us and our election? It matters because Kim Dotcom is financing Hone Harawira’s Mana Party election campaign on the understanding that if he holds onto his Te Tai Tokerau electorate and if they get enough support in the party vote Mana may be able to take an Internet Party representative into parliament with him. Of course Hone Harawira might not get re-elected in Te Tai Tokerau, which is easily the best sounding electorate name. Or Mana /Internet might get 5% of the party vote, so might not need Harawira’s to hold his seat.

I sincerely hope neither of those things happens. Let’s go back a few years to before the shit hit the fan for Kim Dotcom. He was driving round Auckland in very expensive cars with personalised plates proclaiming that he was god, the devil, and every stomach turning thing in between. He spent a small fortune on a fireworks display for Auckland celebrating himself and his bought and paid for N.Z residency. He also made sure everybody knew who was paying for it, and why. Which makes John Key’s claim that he didn’t know of Dotcom or his residency as farcical. He behaved like rich, German, self obsessed  wanker, which shoudn’t surprise anyone, because that is what he is. Then when things went bad for him, he turned to John Banks, the mega-rat for help. He thought the $50k he had given John Banks would buy him some loyalty. Fat chance, John Banks screwed the people of Auckland for much more than that, but we knew he was a rat and we weren’t surprised at his running for cover and trying to cover his own arse because we knew he didn’t give a crap about anything but himself . Dotcom showed an outstanding lack common sense by having faith in John Banks in the first place. Other things about Dotcom also raise questions about his judgement and astounding lack of self awareness. He publicly proclaims he owns a signed copy of Adolph Hitler’s book, but tries to tell us he’s not a Nazi. In my opinion if you are an adult German and you think it’s acceptable to invest in Nazi memorabilia you have got serious judgement issues. It would make much more sense if he was a Nazi, which also wouldn’t surprise me.  A toothbrush moustache and wehrmacht helmet and he would be the spitting image of Sgt. Shultz. Look at the friends he made when he first arrived in Auckland. Now he goes to Mana party gatherings and tries to convince people he was under-privileged. Look at him, it’s extremely hard to believe he was ever malnourished. He has exactly as much credibility as his ex-friend John Banks, none.

His new friend Hone Harawira also is severely lacking in credibility. Dotcom should expect exactly the same loyalty he got from John Banks, none. Hone Harawira will take Dotcom’s money, spend it, and then blame Dotcom for the poor showing in the election. Blaming others is the thing Harawira does best. Nothing is ever his fault. Colonialism is to blame for everything, from high crime rates among Maori, to Harawira’s own character flaws. I think he is the most overtly racist individual in parliament. He is a clown who just repeats the same unfunny rubbish endlessly. It makes me sad.

Next time I will talk about another clown in parliament that repeats himself like a stuck record. He would have us believe he is racist because it gets him votes. That makes me even sadder.

I think I despise Labour even more than I hate National. They somehow failed to realise the method to overcome a populist, nationalist, politician who is overly popular is to show the voters that he is not a man they should have faith in, he is not an honest trader, that he is not a man who values the truth,  and he sure as sugar doesn’t give a crap about them.

As I see it. Here is how things developed.

John Key is so obviously dodgier than a front-yard used car salesman. His face has a twisted grin that appears whenever he is twisting the truth or trying to divert media attention.

So Labour looks at all the negative aspects of John Keys character and decides David Cunliffe has all those same faults in his character too. And in abundance. Since the positive aspects of John Key’s character were considered phoney anyway, they thought David Cunliffe could fake them too. Make everyone think he was a normal bloke too.  It seemed as if he was trying to be a light-red version of John Key. It looks like he’s trying position himself as a coalition partner for National.  I’m sorry to be so blunt but as I see things his bad haircut plus weak chin equals lack of charisma.  Less votes for Labour.

Labour seems to avoid being too critical of John Key, maybe they think it will make them look bad if they upset John Key’s fans.

They are trying to ride his coattails as flunky parties,  ACT, United Future, and Maori. Not forgetting wannabe flunkies, the Conservatives. Labour may as well have a John Key picture on their billboards.

Labour deserves all our contempt. They have already surrendered.

Only Mana/Internet is interested in showing voters the real John Key. They are being paid to do it too. It would be beneficial for obese German rich guy Kim Dotcom and his businesses if the voters could see that John Key had been complicit in the illegal raid on his mansion and then lied to try to cover up his involvement. I don’t know why he’s bothering. I would guess that when he’s confronted by evidence that he didn’t tell the truth, John  Key will use his wry, crooked grin and question the validity of the evidence, then, start to talk about human recall not being perfect, and the importance of strong U.S ties. All the while sending out the message “So What, what can you do about it? Nothing”. John Key has changed the law in the past to get his own way. With the help of his flunkies of course. So no chance he will let himself be held accountable for telling porkies to  people.  Next time. Why I really can’t Stand Mana/Internet..or is that Internet/Mana