Hard News: Now It's On
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There's argument, there's discussion and there's point scoring. Craig, It think you're brilliant and witty, but sometimes you can be a political Trekkie and I like neither Kirk nor Picard (Adama on the other hand...).
I think I'd take that as a compliment, though I'm rather short of nuclear weapons and unstable but hot people willing to die at my command. But sorry, for all the screaming of bias about that lengthy profile of John Key -- all it seemed to prove was that John Key is... well, every bit as dull as Helen Clark. A happy childhood, a period at university that was hardly Brideshead Revisited and an adult life tediously free of scandal. I don't actually think that's such an awful thing.
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John Key on the other hand has come from pretty much no where in political terms. Giving that he's looking fairly likely to be our next PM, it's not unreasonable to be asking who he is. I'd have to hope that the media would take a role in providing that information for us.
And I've never said anything different. Sacha might be disappointed that The Herald didn't adopt the "tone" and "slant" of Ian Wishart's rather squalid hit piece on Helen Clark. I'm not.
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WH,
Sorry for being off topic, but the WaPo and NY Times are doing Palin's record this weekend. There are feature articles about parts of her record in each and opinion pieces by Thomas Friedman and David Ignatius about McCain's choice. You can only hope it reverses on McCain as much as it seems to deserve to.
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WH:
Absa-fragging-loutely. And, once again, David Frum brings the reality to the right:
John McCain caught Sarah Palin at the rising part of her career arc. She had been governor for not two years. She dusted away a lot of incumbents who needed to be dusted. Her original proposals for revising Alaska's severance tax look reasonable and prudent. (What emerged from the legislative process on the other hand looks dangerously confiscatory - and also exposes Alaska to greater downside risk in the event of an oil price drop.)
What comes next for her? How would she deal with adversity - and the criticism that accompanies adversity? How strong are those dark aspects of the reformer personality that the Times' article depicted?
It might have been better to wait to learn the answers to those questions before putting her at the top of a party ticket. But the decision is made - and the answers will come.
I'll say that I'm not quite as impressed by the substance of Palin's record as Frum, but he's spot on in the rest of the post. I've always said I'd be a lousy politician, because I've got the kind of personality that has "does not play well with others" on a lot of school reports. But as John Key said about his visit to the Otara Markets: No politician is ever going to have everyone agree with them all the time. That's democracy.
Too much of this, makes me wonder how the hell a Palin-McCain Administration would react to a rough couple of news cycles, or a disobliging Democratic Congress. Not pretty.
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And, I'd want to be wearing my beige, retro, polyester suit, in acknowledgment of Lovelock's Gaia theory.
Now that *is* a reasonable example of pseudo-religious environmentalism. Which isn't to say that those of us who prefer a more rationalist worldview haven't borrowed the good parts and called it Earth Systems Science, but the sentient-organism-Earth stuff is excessively silly.
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It's the Greens environmental policies, I find a tad questionable at times rather than there social justice philosophy.
I like one of David Haywood's early guest posts in which he discovers to his surprise that "The Green's energy policy is by far the most detailed, comprehensive, and well-considered of any political party." (2005).
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Too much of this, makes me wonder how the hell a Palin-McCain Administration would react to a rough couple of news cycles, or a disobliging Democratic Congress. Not pretty.
There's some golden "couldn't make this shit up" stuff in that article that Craig linked to:
So when there was a vacancy at the top of the State Division of Agriculture, she appointed a high school classmate, Franci Havemeister, to the $95,000-a-year directorship. A former real estate agent, Ms. Havemeister cited her childhood love of cows as a qualification for running the roughly $2 million agency.
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Rick Steiner, a University of Alaska professor, sought the e-mail messages of state scientists who had examined the effect of global warming on polar bears. (Ms. Palin said the scientists had found no ill effects, and she has sued the federal government to block the listing of the bears as endangered.) An administration official told Mr. Steiner that his request would cost $468,784 to process.
When Mr. Steiner finally obtained the e-mail messages — through a federal records request — he discovered that state scientists had in fact agreed that the bears were in danger, records show.
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Not deeply versed in policy, Ms. Palin skipped some candidate forums; at others, she flipped through hand-written, color-coded index cards strategically placed behind her nameplate.
Before one forum, Mr. Halcro said he saw aides shovel reports at Ms. Palin as she crammed. Her showman’s instincts rarely failed. She put the pile of reports on the lectern. Asked what she would do about health care policy, she patted the stack and said she would find an answer in the pile of solutions.
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The Wasilla High School yearbook archive now doubles as a veritable directory of state government. Ms. Palin appointed Mr. Bitney, her former junior high school band-mate, as her legislative director and chose another classmate, Joe Austerman, to manage the economic development office for $82,908 a year. Mr. Austerman had established an Alaska franchise for Mailboxes Etc.
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Many lawmakers contend that Ms. Palin is overly reliant on a small inner circle that leaves her isolated. Democrats and Republicans alike describe her as often missing in action. Since taking office in 2007, Ms. Palin has spent 312 nights at her Wasilla home, some 600 miles to the north of the governor’s mansion in Juneau, records show.
During the last legislative session, some lawmakers became so frustrated with her absences that they took to wearing “Where’s Sarah?” pins.
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Craig, Craig, Craig. You have complained about other people distorting your positions, and here you go doing it to me.
I don't want the Herald to reflect Wishart's extremism. Never said that, and putting words in my mouth makes you look more than a little desperate. You can do so much better, as others have noted.
I do want the Herald to either be honest about their bias or to simply stop seeking the most favourable interpretation for only one side of the argument - that's what I mean by slant. Look at the choice of adjectives and framing in that Key piece (heck, just examine the headlines and pictures on the front page). Now imagine a proper comparative content analysis that does the same over many editions for stories about National and Labour. I'm not the only one who would bet on that result. Go ahead and be contrary if you like, but it's beyond worth arguing about from what I've heard, read, etc. Better things to discuss.
Note I'm not talking about all media and I'm not talking about the history of capitalist ownership. Just the Herald, and just the last couple of years.
I'd say the right have an equally reasonable gripe about Radio NZ - though funnily enough that has been given a public airing already.
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I just find it hilarious reading right-wing blogs complaing about how the Herald has such a liberal bias, then reading left-wing blogs complaining that it has such a conservative bias...
If you ask me, it has nothing but a populist bias -- people like to bitch about the Gummint, and the Herald gives tham what they want.
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Many lawmakers contend that Ms. Palin is overly reliant on a small inner circle that leaves her isolated. Democrats and Republicans alike describe her as often missing in action. Since taking office in 2007, Ms. Palin has spent 312 nights at her Wasilla home, some 600 miles to the north of the governor’s mansion in Juneau, records show.
Compared to Dubya and his extended vacations at Crawford, Palin sounds to pretty hands-on.
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Process wonkiness put in plain speaking from Fairfax in case anyone's interested...
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As she assembled her cabinet and made other state appointments ... a new pattern became clear. She surrounded herself with people she has known since grade school and members of her church.
I'm painting with a broad brush here, but sometimes I feel like American government completely missed out on the nineteenth century. Using a position of authority to fill places with your friends and family members is so ... so pre-modern. It's like there's no real concept of an impartial, credentialed, professional bureaucracy over there. You know, like that new-fangled British civil service thingy.
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on behalf of Grannies other braindead, asswupped, drones, can I just say...
bwahahahahahahah.
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on behalf of Grannies other braindead, asswupped, drones, can I just say...
bwahahahahahahah.
Shut up, Agent 69 or I'm going to put ten thousand volts through your VRWC mind control chip. You have been warned - now get back to work on that hard hitting investigation into John Key visiting Starship and healing sick kiddies.
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The MP who makes me loathe to vote Greens is Keith Locke. I consider the man to be the worst kind of oxygen thief. I admire his willingness to stand up for his principles, but after the Wallace shooting I just cannot respect him.
Sadly he's also the only MP who's spoken out against the evil rewrite of the Immigration Act, and that draft law is sufficiently sickening that I'm very nearly prepared to get over disliking Locke for the duration of my trip to the polling booth. -
The problem with the Greens for me is their absolute intellectual rigidity, their failure to acknowledge that the choices are between the worst worst and the least worst, not Heaven and Hell.
yeah but,na but,.....oh...ya know. Wasn't that exactly what they did do when voting on the Transport Bill? Were against it initially then compromised as they saw it as a good start, and therefore better than nothing.(blown bubble splatters on face, gets stuck in hair)
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In an early sign the campaign could focus on personal attacks, Cullen lost no time in attacking Key, appearing to blame him for the worldwide collapse of his former bank, Merrill Lynch.
"Given his background and the fact that Merrill Lynch has just gone belly up, I would have thought New Zealanders should draw the conclusion that you wouldn't put a man like that in charge of the New Zealand economy," Cullen said.
Would it be churlish to mention three words: Fourth Labour Government? And three more: Bank of New Zealand?
If Key has Sith powers (and Machiavellian patience) to throw the world's largest economies into chaos, just to cluster-fuck an organisation he hasn't worked for for eight years, why are we having an election at all? Surely a couple of judiciously applied Darth Vader choke-holds, and the Treasury benches are his!
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And three more: Bank of New Zealand?
1, 2, 3... 4. I'm just saying Craig.
But yes, sounds like Cullen is drawing a ridiculously long bow.
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1, 2, 3... 4. I'm just saying Craig.
Hey, next you'll be telling me a thumb is a finger. But I'm generally doing OK if I can reconcile my bank statement with the wad of receipts in the wallet, so what do you want! :)
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Meanwhile...
As I've said elsewhere you could perhaps argue that all those acolytes who claim that "Key has run a global finance operation so can run the economy" should perhaps consider the very different risk profiles and implications between the global finance world and a political economy - as evidenced by the current blood on the marble floors.
But Cullen's just rubbish at the "tenuous link for political points" - leave it to others mate. Oh, and Merrill wasn't a Lehman; it was still relatively strong and BOA actually paid a serious premium to get it.
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Oh, I see he said:
"You don't want a gambler and short-term money market player who will risk billions and billions of dollars. We are seeing in the United States the consequences of that kind of mentality unfolding right now"
Which is still absurd political OTTness but a little more rational.
Were both the comments part of the same speech? And people are just cherry picking the lines they want? Or were they given seperately?
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As I've said elsewhere you could perhaps argue that all those acolytes who claim that "Key has run a global finance operation so can run the economy" should perhaps consider the very different risk profiles and implications between the global finance world and a political economy - as evidenced by the current blood on the marble floors.
That's a worthwhile argument to have, Gareth. But I think over the next couple of months both Cullen and English are going to have some more pertinent and immediate credibility questions to answer. And I'm certainly going to be interested how Cullen intends to pay for all these major new policies Helen's promising -- along with whacking great tax cuts --, out of an "empty kitty". And much the same questions should be put to Bill English.
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I'm certainly going to be interested how Cullen intends to pay for all these major new policies Helen's promising -- along with whacking great tax cuts --, out of an "empty kitty". And much the same questions should be put to Bill English.
Agreed - I'd like to think that those "fiscal constraints" will see an election that can't be run on buying the vote (beyond Labour's preemptive spendathon from this Budget and National;s insistence on a nice big number for tax cuts). Not so sure that we will unfortunately...
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