Archive for the ‘Politics’ Category
Wow. What an image …
This is one of the slides illustrating a story about the oil spill affecting the Louisiana wetlands and the environment in the Gulf of Mexico and beyond … The damaged beauty of the image speaks to me. God knows we really need to protect the natural environment — for our kids, and their kids. This […]
Sarah Palin: cashing in on the brand
Very interesting article by Gabriel Sherman: “The Revolution Will Be Commercialized” on how Sarah Palin became a national industry and built her wealth, quickly, by seeing that there was money to be made … but serving out her term as Alaska’s governor wasn’t the way to get it. Nowadays, for both poles of the political […]
What can he possibly mean?
Chicago Mayor Richard Daley making a point about the limits of his relationship with Obama’s chief of staff Rahm Emanuel … “Sure I talked to him, I talk to him. Sure, I know about it,” Daley said. But Daley said he hasn’t offered Emanuel any advice about a mayoral run. “I don’t give any advice, […]
So what do we think?
New Auckland Super City logo … . The logo for the new Auckland Council will be a red Pohutakawa encircled by a green koru circle. Not bad at all. It’ll get criticised, but personally, I like it and appreciate the elements of traditional native motif. (As you might expect with a blog called The Paepae.com) […]
Critical? Who, me? Naaaah!
Some people might think my canine love story or Shaun Stenning: Monkey or Organ Grinder or Dean Letfus claims DEFAMATION! comments have been a bit harsh… but look at this recent campaign ad from Arizona… Imagine if I used language like that! (Roll on Friday, eh boys?)
Godwin’s law
Sometimes falsely truncated to: ‘The first person to mention Hitler in an online argument loses’, Godwin’s law actually states (well, according to, gulp, Wikipedia): As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1. I saw the misinterpretation of Godwin’s law: “first person to mention Hitler, Nazis, or […]
I heart Rachel Maddow … trying to increase the cost of lying
Remember the full page ad she took out to say it wasn’t true? He’s apparently still saying it is. So, Rachel Maddow let Scott Brown have it straight … You [Senator Brown] made something up that’s not true. You have such a lack of respect for your conservative donor base around the country that you […]
David Frum’s ‘Waterloo’ blog post
— that got him sacked. www.frumforum.com/waterloo Just so we can find it easily…. oh, and it’s worth reading! Telling the truth about the ‘divergent interests’ of the Republican leadership and the ‘conservative entertainment industry’ I’ve been on a soapbox for months now about the harm that our overheated talk is doing to us. Yes it […]
Nice writing on a smear campaign
MSNBC took out a full-page ad in Friday’s Boston Globe for a ‘letter’ from their talk show host Rachel Maddow to her fellow Massachusetts citizens. This was a response to Senator Scott Brown’s claims (in an effort to raise money, apparently) that she is planning a run against him in 2012. Her letter contains some […]
Now Attack ads?
This fantastic spoof of a political attack ad just works. Excellent! Like Fake Steve Jobs, it’s brilliant satire — all with the ‘aim’ of getting 37Signals’ new book REWORK ahead of Karl Rove’s Courage and Consequence: My Life as a Conservative in the Fight on the best-seller lists. I love the sunrise and the uplifting music […]
Erring on the side of ‘simple’
A police investigation into ‘stolen’ or ‘leaked’ emails from the Leader of the Opposition’s office reveals just how slack so-called computer security can be… until we have reason to beef it up. I bet they’re more security-conscious now! “While it is accepted by the experts interviewed that external hacking can never be fully eliminated, ‘hacking’ […]
When propaganda turns into ‘demonizing’ …
Sometimes a zealot can go ‘too far’ …. even for his/her own supporters. I’ve seen it in political debate. I’ve seen it in business. The ‘object’ of the exercise — the debate, the contest of ideas — becomes somehow personal, and the ‘campaign’ can start to lose focus. It can be like a blood lust […]
Quite a good quiz
Quiz: prime ministers v the media From The Guardian… Prime ministers and journalists have often had a difficult relationship. As Lance Price reveals in a new book, Where Power Lies: Prime Ministers v the Media (from which these quotes are taken), the two sides have been criticising each other, in similar terms, for years. This […]
The very best you can afford …
Apropos of my earlier post ‘More unintended consequences?‘ … Tom Scott nails it. (via Stuff.co.nz)
Mark Withers on John Key’s ‘Tax Direction’ speech
“3 bullets dodged but there’s still a round in the breech!” I had a chat with specialist property accountant Mark Withers this morning — ‘the morning after’ NZ Prime Minister John Key’s speech at the opening of Parliament. Here’s a free 13 minute audio interview (mp3) hosted by Empower Education. And here’s a link to […]
