Archive for the ‘Politics’ Category
Let’s be reasonable…
Here’s a sign from the San Francisco satellite rally of Jon Stewart’s Rally to Restore Sanity, inspired, I think, by a line he delivered on The Daily Show. I think it’s just brilliant. In my dealings with those with whom I strongly disagree about things that are important to me, I make a real effort […]
Jon Stewart’s closing remarks at the ‘Rally to Restore Sanity’
I was impressed with this (I’ve left it out of blockquote to help readability. It’s all Jon Stewart, including his description of the media as a “24-hour, political pundit perpetual panic conflictinator”): “And now I thought we might have a moment, however brief, for some sincerity. If that’s okay — I know that there are […]
Rahm Emanuel
Well, the mediagasm was right. He’s outta there … Too bad. “Rahm Emanuel, Barack Obama’s White House Chief of Staff, was given a dead Asian carp as a farewell gift from colleagues before the former presidential aide resigned in order to run for mayor in his home town Chicago.” — Telegraph.co.uk “The mantra in the West […]
BBC – ‘The Interview’: Tony Blair
I listened to this interview twice last night (as a podcast). I was impressed with Blair and his argument, I have to say. I always thought he was a great communicator, but didn’t expect to be struck, even inspired by his reasoned resoluteness and his thoughts about the challenge of radical Islam and Iran’s […]
Agree or disagree?
A Member of Parliament admits he has a criminal past. But he does it very badly, slowly, and destroys his own credibility in the process. I agree with this comment from my old Press Gallery colleague John Armstrong: When he was asked on Tuesday if there was anything else in his past which warranted mention, […]
Cameron Brewer — a fresh face
I had the pleasure of Cameron Brewer‘s company at a looong lunch at the Auckland Club a while back — a gaggle organised by David McEwen. (Thanks again, David.) He’s an ebullient, engaging guy — and pretty clean-cut, it seemed to me. Just like his well-designed billboards, one of which I spotted yesterday. I may […]
Te Radar’s Eating the Dog — well done
Last night I was packed into a school hall with a bunch of my neighbours — not because we’d been evacuated from earthquake-damaged homes like the afflicted of Canterbury, although they were on our minds — as part of the audience of a very clever, well-written and well-delivered ‘romp through the pages of our history’. […]
The worst stuff isn’t even in there?
Wow, I thought the ‘It came from Wasilia’ profile on Sarah Palin by Todd Purdue was eye-opening. She also came off pretty badly in that book I hoovered up over a wet weekend Race of a Lifetime … but read this piece from the current Vanity Fair – ‘Sarah Palin: the Sound and the Fury’. […]
OK. I’ve heard of selling your grandmother …
Oh boy! The first ever ‘All-Conservative Email Service Provider’! YOUR NAME@Reagan.com Don’t miss out! [snort] Send Michael Reagan $35, get a Reagan.com e-mail address! by ALEX PAREENE Salon.com 30 Jul 2010 For the low, low price of $35 a year, you can trade in your tired old “free” Gmail or Yahoo or Hotmail e-mail address […]
Questionable news value
I can’t see what, exactly, makes this six-month-old story worthy of a front-page splash… Nonsense. Last line of the ‘lead story’: News of his daughter’s arrest has come at an unwelcome time for Phil Goff, who replaced former prime minister Helen Clark as Labour leader when she stood down in 2008. Polls have had him […]
More ‘straight talking’ … but is that what it is?
America: the land of free speech. And ad hominem political attacks. Watch this campaign ad (below the fold to stop the YouTube script slowing this page load), and count the bald, slanderous, (defamatory?) statements. Pretty robust stuff. I wouldn’t dream of saying things like that unless I had evidence (even nailed-tight proof) for the statements. […]
Bloomberg calls Fox News on its uppityness
Remember Helen Thomas ‘retired’ after her ‘Jews should go home (to Poland and Germany) comments? Now the argy-bargy about which news organisation should get her front-row seat at the White House media briefing room is getting interesting. Fox News (bleurgh) thinks they should because they gracefully conceded CNN should get one in 2007. They’ve dissed […]
What a book!
Well. I’ve just spent much of the holiday weekend devouring this book: Race of a Lifetime: How Obama Won the White House (Mark Halperin and John Heilemann) The review extracts on the jacket promised me ‘Absolutely gripping’ and ‘Fantastically detailed …incendiary’ and ‘Sleazy, personal, intrusive, shocking — and compulsive.” All true. If you’re interested in […]
Keeping things in perspective
A nice bit of (historical) perspective, and reminder just how truly corrupt the Nixon administration was … No, this isn’t “Watergate” (and never will be) Republicans have fantasized about a Democratic “Watergate” for decades. Can they still remember the real thing? by Joe Conason | Salon.com As Conason points out, shallow comparisons are often trotted […]
