Posts by Craig Ranapia

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  • Hard News: There's Always One,

    The RNZ reporter did well to point out that Blenheim was a smaller centre but you could be excused if you thought all Australian airports are Fort Knox...

    Ugh... I'd be more worried about security at train stattions -- some of the stations in central Sydney are already disasters begging to happen, that were never designed for the kind of traffic they already carry. I shudder to think what Sydney's version of the bombings in Madrid and London would look like.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report

  • Hard News: There's Always One,

    Instead, since these actions are 'imported cultural baggage', we need to think harder about allowing Muslims into the country.

    But we keep letting the French in and there's not been a wave of assassinations and bomb attacks on thGreenpeace assets, beyond that one act of state-sponsored terrorism we've all got over. :)

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report

  • Hard News: There's Always One,

    Another example of why membership of any of the forces automatically disqualifies you from managing policy

    I've little time for Mark, but what a silly comment. How exactly did you get from A to B, slarty?

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report

  • Hard News: Another Big Day,

    A Republican President would wield signifiance influence on the national agenda and retain the ability to veto and discredit Democratic legislative initiatives.

    So, instead you want a single party with a lock on the executive and legislative branches of the federal government. Remind me how well those checks and balances worked the last time that scenario played out.

    Because I've got a sneaking suspicion most Democrats would say "not at all".

    and it is likely that a Democratic President will be subjected to a sustained and well coordinated hate campaign of the type deployed against Clinton.

    While a McCain Administration would be showered with rose petals on a daily basis by a Democrat-controlled Congress? The usual suspects among the left-wingnutterati and on talk radio would suddenly decide he's not such a bad chap after all?

    Hum... "Wouldn't it be nice..."

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report

  • Hard News: Another Big Day,

    So Obama not quite the Saint, he didn't follow the rules - or at least he didn't follow the spirit of the rules.

    Um... I don't recall anyone signing up to a pledge to stop campaigning. (Otherwise, I guess both Obama and Clinton "didn't follow the spirit" of the decision by campaigning in any way that was reported in a newspaper or made the network news.)

    Hillary got the vote even though no one campained. And she's always going to do well there because of the demographics.

    Really? Even Obama himself has said that 'Hilary Clinton' started off with enormous name recognition -- and while I think that's equally open to over-statement (after all, I wouldn't think that's entirely a positive), it's not pure spin either.

    I heard no complaints from the Obama camp that with 65,000 fewer votes than HRC on Super Tuesday Obama got a handful more delegates.

    And I don't hear anyone in the Clinton campaign muttering that the delegate allocation formulas 'disenfranchise' voters, or should be over-turned. So, let's call that one a draw.

    Internal Democat feuding means the Florida vote doesn't count a present but there is no reason that the party can't reconsider that.

    And who said that wasn't the case? But unless the Democrats are planning to throw the media out of the convention, by my understanding of the recondite convention rules the Michigan and Florida delegations are only going to be 'seated' with a very public, and heated, floor vote. I'm sorry, Neil, but stating the bleeding obvious -- that it has the potential to turn into a shitstorm that splatters everyone -- isn't buying into the "Saint Obama vs Evil Hillary meme".

    If Florida had gone for Obama he would be arguing that those delegates be included.

    Perhaps, then again someone might have pointed out that such a move stunk of hypocrisy and if he had any problem with the DNC's call he should have made the argument when it was strategically and politically inconvenient to do so. You know, unlike Clinton's issues with caucuses 'disenfranchising' voters in the days leading up to the Nevada vote evaporating when she won.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report

  • Hard News: Another Big Day,

    However, like a couple of posters here, he does leave me a bit cold – the charisma thing slightly misses me.

    Well, I always found the charms of JFK, Princess Di and Winston Peters rather opaque. So I don't think its 'charisma' I respond to in Obama. "Behaves like a gown-up" and "talks in complete, complex sentences that haven't been focus-grouped into pap" -- two qualities I don't regard as irrefutable evidence of vacuity or insincerity.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report

  • Hard News: Another Big Day,

    (I think Ann Coulter said she would vote for Satan before McCain.)

    Satan, meanwhile was unavailable for comment, as, despite the heavy snow, he's been busy door-knocking for John 'Anti-Christ McCain in the Ninth Circle.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report

  • Hard News: There's Always One,

    I thought Don Brash did eat babies?

    Kittens and puppies, Cormack. Cute puppies and kittens that belong to adorable (and now heavily medicated) small children. If you're not going to bother reading the memos...

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report

  • Hard News: There's Always One,

    the diabolical (and diabolically expensive) baby-on-a-string campaign, but there's no doubt that National's advertising was a cut above.

    Hey, I'm the last person who would argue with you on that point. :) But the caveat is always it doesn't matter how slick (or expensive) your advertising campaign is, if you're pimping a crap product nobody wants. Thankfully for the advertising industry, movie studios, politicians and Telecom aren't cashing that reality check in this lifetime. :)

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report

  • Hard News: There's Always One,

    The Fundy Post wonders why John Key led the prayer at Waitangi when he doesn't really believe in that stuff...

    And a week from Saturday, I'm going to be standing in the backyard of two close friends who are getting married in a non-denominational service conducted by a celebrant who happens to be a Methodist lay preacher on the side.

    I think my delicate Papist sensibilities can just STFU for the day...

    And with all due (and perfectly sincere respect to Paul, I get his point -- insincere displays of religiosity for political purposes fuck me off too. (Just look at the States, where it seems obligatory to name-check God at every campaign rally and awards show.)

    But the outrage seems about as contrived as the usual suspects at Kiwiblog frothing about Helen Clark's supposed "hypocrisy" in delivering the eulogy at Sir Ed's funeral -- which was held in a real, live Anglican church. I guess atheists -- or 'agnostics' for public consumption -- can cross the theshold without being reduced to smoking piles of ash.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report

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