Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Those behind Labour's Blogsite behind Labourgate affair

Who are the people behind the taxpayer funded Labour Party Blog, The Standard who were behind the bugging of the National Party Conference in Christchurch over the weekend?

Do a whois and you find:

www.thestandard.org.nz is hosted on a server at 202.74.226.119
A WHOIS on that IP address gives us:


inetnum: 202.74.226.112 - 202.74.226.127netname:
LABOURPARTY1-2DAY-NZdescr:
New Zealand Labour Partycountry: NZ

From Kiwi Blog an incriminating email:

From: xxxxxxx xxxxxxxDate: 11 June 2008 12:24:42 PMTo: labourmembersofparliament@parliament.govt.nzCc: pm@ministers.govt.nz, mike.williams@labour.org.nz Subject: The Standard Blog

Dear all

I have a serious issue to raise with you all. It has come to my attention that two Ministerial staffers - Chris Elder and Andrew Kirton, both political employees - are blogging anonymously at the Labour-hosted, anti-John Key blog the Standard, www.thestandard.org.nz.

Given that a large number of these posts (most notably those by Chris Elder or all_your_base, a communications staffer on the ninth floor) occur during office hours, do you all believe it is appropriate that political employees are spending their time blogging anonymously? Is this approved behaviour?
Kind regards
xxxxxxx xxxxxx


This email is from a parliamentary staffer, reports KiwiBlog and also goes on to say that other posters and managers of thestandard.org.nz are either Labour party insiders, employees or union members.

The Standard claims:

We’re The Standard - a collective who saw a gap in the New Zealand political blogosphere and decided that we should have a go at filling it. We write here in our personal capacities and the opinions that are expressed on the blog are individual.

We come from a variety of backgrounds and our political views don’t always match up but it’d be fair to say that all of us share a commitment to the values and principles that underpin the broad labour movement and we hope that perspective will come through strongly as you read the blog.

They also claim that the "Labour Movement" funds them.

All bizarre claims when one considers their involvement over the bugging of the National Party conference, their connections to the Labour Party and the funding of the blog from the taxpayer.

I loath everything Labour stand for but don't support National.

My blog is free to host, I am an individual, I am funded by nobody, am a member of no political party and never have been, and unlike those at The Standard can speak freely.

They wouldn't post this blog of mine on their comments section because they don't like dissenting opinion from another point of view, unlike this site which clearly trumpets free speech.

Those connected with the bugging of the National party conference are being sneaky, slippery and don't have the balls to stand up and say who they are.

I can, they are those connected with The Standard and are knee deep in this Labourgate scandal.

You are free to comment Steve Pierson from The Standard. Be a man and admit your organistion's involvement.


Related Political Animal reading

Sub-Standard Political attack backfires
Who is the deep throat?
Dirty, Filthy Politicians

c Political Animal 2008

5 comments:

  1. Hi Darren,

    Not sure why I'm bothering to post this, from what I've read here you have no interest in actual answers - just slinging mud and criticism with seemingly no research.

    Have you actually WHOIS'd The Standard? I take it not, because what you've posted is not what is on-record.

    The Standard is hosted by one Lynn Prentice who has no problem putting his real name out there. He owns the domain (and labour.co.nz I think), is politically active but is not employed by the Labour party or any affiliate.

    I, obviously, can not speak for the other posters. Clinton Smith (Steve Pierson) has "come out" from his nom de plume and is the official media contact for The Standard

    All "evidence" provided by Whaleoil (which is I guess where you got your whois info from) has been easily refuted or explained. There has been no evidence, no smoking gun, just speculation and slander from the big boys and reverberated around the right-wing echo chamber as we see here.

    I'm not a huge fan of The Standard although when they put their mind to it and stop bashing National and John Key for a minute they come out with some fairly decent analysis and fisking.

    So I suggest that until you have some proof or evidence (and anything DPF says on Kiwiblog is not evidence) you should keep your attacks to a minimum to avoid embarrassing yourself as you have done over your last few posts.

    Oh, and regarding your post? I'm concerned that you seem to be falling for the "We are the victim because we're being bugged" misdirection. It is a very, very poor rehash of their "Hagar stole our emails". They called in the police then and nothing came from it, by following it they'll set themselves up for another failure.

    Treat the recorded conversations as any other leak, it's very possible it came from within and is perfectly legal.

    What about the MP's publicly embarrassed for actually being sneaky, slippery and not having the balls to stand up and say what they are actually going to do with this country when they, in all likelihood, take the reins?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for replying Chris. Apparently I have been banned from the Standard because of my dissenting views?

    The Standard is funded by the Labour Party and has close connections. To say otherwise is to stretch the point to Winston Peters proportions.

    As far as the bugging is concerned it is not something I would expect from any political party. It is low and shows how low Labour, and those at the Standard, will stoop to get back into power.

    The contents of the "secret conversations" is nothing of consequence and they were twisted by the likes of your buddies for a political edge.

    The info is already well known. National shouldn't be apologising for anything.

    The real scandal is the bugging and secret machinations of the Labour party and its stooges at places like The Standard.

    Cheers, Darren

    ReplyDelete
  3. The Standard is funded by the Labour Party and has close connections.

    Did you even listen to a word I said? You need evidence before you can make those claims.

    Clinton Smith is politically active. Part of that is writing for The Standard. Part of that is protesting National Party conferences. He was the only one there from The Standard. Just because he was there for some amount of time doesn't mean he was responsible for anything. I guess we'll see when the security footage comes out, eh?

    Will you apologise to The Standard for your libel?

    Also, will you publish an apology to Labour when they are cleared?

    Although, I don't think any evidence or proof will be enough for your and your twisted mind. Your post yesterday was enough - I won't be back here.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Chris, the president of the Labour Youth said there were two people down at the conference with connections to his party. You say one of them was from The Standard.

    Isn't young Labour affiliated with its big sister?

    What of the tip off from The Standard of my writing yesterday to a Labour Party person who visited through your site from Parliament to mine.

    Coincidence?

    I think not.

    You and your Labour Party member's from The Standard and those that financially support you from The Labour Party, need to get your ducks in a row lest you get hung from your own morally superior petard.

    You need to come out and be truthful about your blog's connections to the National Party tape leak.

    Libel is only that if there is no truth to my accusation.

    Didn't you publish the tapes?

    Sue me, I would revel in it.

    Regards, Darren Rickard,

    Political Animal Blog

    ReplyDelete
  5. How do you explain Chris why there are so many visitors to this site through yours that are from the Labour Party or Government Departments?

    Coincidence. No way.

    ReplyDelete

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