THE BEST AND WORST OF 2008

BEST POLITICAL PLAY - John Key for his decision to say "f" off to Winston .
WORST POLITICAL PLAY - Winston for lying about helicopters
BEST NEWS STORY - Phil Kitchins' helicopter expose.
BEST ROGERING - Rodney Hide for not letting up on Winston in the house.
BEST STORY STILL TO HAVE AN IMPACT - Investigate piece on immigration. passports , Shane Jones and Bill Liu
BEST JOURNALIST - Kitchin by a country mile but we also liked Ben Thomas's work.
BEST NEW MP - Amy Adams solid, lives in the south, knows rural affairs and knows shit from clay.
BEST POLITICAL BLOG - Still Kiwiblog, David Farrar is a maestro at explaining complex stuff to simply blondes like us
FUNNIEST BLOG - Whaleoil - smart, sassy, un pc, and actually a really good bastard.
BEST RURAL BLOG - Home paddock lovely writer.
BEST MINISTER - Tim Groser - he will do good things for our country
BEST POLITICAL APPOINTMENT - John Key for elevating Paula Bennett.
BEST MASH UP - The Hitler ones Whale oil did.
MOST INCISIVE BLOG - Hooton of course
BEST FEMALE BLOGGER - Its Cactus Cate - tits down.
WORST POLITICAL JOURNALIST - Brent Edwards on RNZ
BEST POLITICAL INTERVIEW - Sean Plunkett and his interview of Winston
SADDEST BLOG DEPARTURE - Wellington Hive - it rocked.
MOST VENAL BLOG - The Standard - sad little panty sniffers.
MOST MASTERLY BUT UNDER APPRECIATED POLITICAL PLAY - Velas donations to Winston and Helen ten days out from the election. Thank you big guy.
BIGGEST POLITICAL WANKER - Mike Williams
SADDEST DAY - The death of Mike Claudatos. He was a good bastard, and he loathed the scampi crooks and Winston.
BIGGEST EYE OPENER - discovering the hoki spy scandal
BEST POLITICAL DAY - The election
BEST BUNCH OF MATES - all those in the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy
BEST DAY - The day the son and heir got his commercial helicopter pilots licence.
BEST PERSON - Eumenides - thank you for being brave.
BEST DINING EXPERIENCE - My uncles wiltshire hogget cooked by my mum.
BEST HOLIDAY - Canada
BEST PLACE ON HOLIDAY - Lunenberg
BEST PLACE IN NZ - its a toss up between a littel muttonbird island outside Pegasus on Stewart Island and my hammock on the banks of the river at our place in the Wairarapa

MIKE WILLIAMS RESIGNS OFF BOARDS

Or so RNZ is reporting - bloody fantastic. But he should have done it the day after the election. The wanker has the morals of a sewer rat And there should be more Labourites who warm the seats of many SOE's who should also be considering resigning.

TRANSTASMAN HAS A GOOD TAKE ON SOME OF THE WEEKS BIGGER ISSUES

Transtasman

Winston Peters claims he has been “cleared” by three separate, independent investigations. But, let’s face it, NZ First filed false returns in 2005, 2007, and probably 2006, Peters filed false pecuniary interests returns in 2006, and 2007, he was found not to have told the truth, and personally benefited by $140,000 through private donations, and may have sold policy for cash. So is that vindication?…

We agree - its not vindication - we still say he is a corrupt prick.

…

TV3 was being disingenuous this week when it tried to justify running new excerpts from conversations covertly taped at a National party social function in August. It said the tapes had been passed to it “exclusively,” and it had a duty to publish them. But did it test whether the tapes were authentic or doctored, give the context, or even name the source, which has been all over the blogs? Media’s claim to objectivity is undermined when it’s seen to be acting as a tool of political interests trying to damage their opponents. If something was obtained under false pretences, doesn’t re-broadcasting it extend the false pretence? No wonder people distrust this kind of shoddy journalism…

Yip - it was very lame journalism and we expected more from TV3 - we were deeply disappointed in the way they handled this story. It has been the blogs who have gone the extra mile to find out who the taper was.
…

And was the PM being just as disingenuous when she described the latest tape as a “cracker,” and then later said she had no knowledge of how it was obtained……The normally garrulous Labour Party President Mike Williams who trawled through Court documents in Melbourne to uncover what was going to the neutron bomb demolishing National’s John Key has been remarkably silent this week. Has he been gagged, or just lost his cell-phone? There’s been speculation in Wellington about how lo

ng he will retain his various lucrative Govt appointments if there is a change of Govt……
not long - not long at all - but then he's old and tired so retirement probably looks good.

HELEN CAUGHT OUT - WILLIAMS IN THE GUN

Williams should be very afraid - Helen Clark is starting the heap the shit, from the neutron fizzer onto him to deflect the blame. '

No so quickly Helen - you are in charge - the bomb rests with you.

We also want to know who paid for Eugene Bingham to go to Melbourne to look at the documents?

The Herald has the story here

LABOUR BITTEN IN BUM BY DIRTY TRICKS

The Herald and the Press both condemn Labour this morning for the Neutron bomb about John Key's past that has bitten them on the bum.
the Dominion here says that the "anonymous source" rang the paper yesterday to say that he was not Labour and that he worked with the traders involved in the scandal.
Wow - first rule of the Dark Arts - when things go to hell, deflect the blame. We suspect if the Dominion had caller ID that call would have had been a direct link to the Labour Party research unit..
And the Press also uncovers that our taxpayers dollars were used to fund this muck raking campaign.
We reckon that a few airfares and and associated figures will mean that Labour will have spent the equivalent of another course of Herceptin on this debacle.

STORY LEADS FOR JOURNOS

Kiwiblog has made it easy for the journos today - he has 12 good questions that need answers.

We agree.