Archive for the ‘Politics’ Category
A voice in the wilderness? Or reclaiming the Grey Power mantle?
‘Peters launches his comeback with punchlines’ — Dominion Post 16 April 2011 Read Kay Blundell’s article and tell me one other contemporary Kiwi politician who would talked about this way. This man has come back from the dead before. (Just sayin’.) Don’t underestimate his political instincts and populism. How much traction he gets in the media […]
That was ‘not intended to be a factual statement’
Spin doctors for this nincompoop junior senator from Arizona Jon Kyl afterwards excused his blatantly false statement (Abortions are ‘90%’ of what Planned Parenthood does — actually 3%) on the Senate floor with a line: ‘That was not intended to be a factual statement’. Oh boy. Nutty. Which, of course, rightly, is like candy to […]
Secret? Er…
Does anyone else have a bad feeling about this? It reminds me of ‘Joe Wilson’s War’ in Afghanistan, Ronald (‘I don’t recall’) Reagan/Oliver North’s Iran-Contra deal … and, WikiLeaks or not, how is THIS supposed to stay ‘secret’? Huh?
Overcome the past by FACING it
This article (below) from The Guardian‘s ‘Comment is free’ site reminded me of the wonderful, uplifting movie The Lives of Others which featured the late Ulrich Mühe in the role of a world-worn East German secret policeman whose job it was to bug a playwright’s apartment and report on the goings on. I won’t spoil […]
Lowest form of life?
Not a bad column from Michael Laws in the Sunday Star Times today. He’s worth reading when he writes about things he knows about… and there’s no question he knows about political ambition. Not that the game isn’t intoxicating. We both know that it is. Parliament and politics is its own world. And the only […]
Speaking what seems to be true re CNN & Tea Party Express
Impressive and worth watching — Rachel Maddow on CNN’s decision to air what they (CNN) described as the ‘OFFICIAL Tea Party response’ to Obama’s State of the Nation speech: CNN presented an alternate reality of their own making, one in which their debate partner officially speaks for the Tea Party and in which the Tea Party […]
The glitch
I mentioned in a comment the news that Rahm Emanuel’s bid for his ‘dream job’ of Mayor of Chicago had hit a snag. Of course the split decision by the Appellate Court to boot him off the ballot for the election is being appealed. (Who wouldn’t?) But now, it appears the narrative is undergoing a […]
There’s consequences to that action …
As I see it, Gabrielle Giffords (‘whom the authorities called the target of the attack‘) is a victim of the partisan climate of hate engendered by political differences and the hateful abuse by some Republican ‘leaders’ of their opponents (‘The Left’) as enemies — like, in war! Some use that rhetoric and emotional energy for electoral […]
Mow-tee-vay-shuns – ‘It gets a ratings spike’
In, once again (remember the full page ad?), dismissing talk of her jumping the fence and running for office, journalist, Rhodes Scholar and doctorate in politics from Oxford, my hero Rachel Maddow gave an insight into what she called ‘opinion-driven news’, and the motivation of, let’s call it ‘erratic’ behaviour. (Think talkback radio hosts, and […]
Political pressure
On the giving end… Tom Scott nails it on the relationship between the Reserve Bank Governor and the Government of the Day. On the receiving end … pressure is mounting on Mr Popularity to pay the price of his coalition … … or not. Has John Key got sufficient political capital? Or has he been […]
Character, not rhetoric or ‘celebrity’: what we SHOULD demand of our politicians
Here are the last few paragraphs of a very good column in the Wall Street Journal (wsj.com) from former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan. She’s writing about the US midterms elections, and does it with insight and verve, and her point goes wider … Conservatives talked a lot about Ronald Reagan this year, but they have […]
A fork in the road
Written with different events in mind (i.e. Rick Sanchez’s anti-semitic rant – since apologised for – and Juan Williams being axed from NPR following his revealing ‘When I see muslims on airplanes I get nervous’ gaff) this e-postcard made me chuckle about a local situation. It’s true: no one likes being labelled a racist — […]
Your tax dollars at work
This is how democracy should work. Sunlight is the best disinfectant. Good on the Labour and Green MPS for pushing the issue. [NZ Parliament’s] Speaker Lockwood Smith has caved in to pressure to release MPs spending on their travel perks after political parties rebelled against his initial stance by releasing their own expenses. Today Dr […]
