Posts by Craig Ranapia
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
And while I'm link-whoring, I see no reason to downgrade my intense dislike of Cameron Slater - and believe you me, the antipathy is entirely mutual. (And while Minto may be a fatuous windbag, I don't see how he's be any less of one if he lived in a kitset garage with a dirt floor in Ruatoki.)
But having said that, I can't really say Idiot/Savant's little essay in Argumentum ad Nazium is any more impressive.
And if any nutbag wants to get my hone address from the North Shore electoral roll and come take pictures, at least give me some warning so I can do the windows and trim the hedge.
I'll also give you fair warning that one of out neighbours - who, shall we say, has some issues with a persistent ex- -- might not be too friendly towards strangers with a camera taking snaps of her place.
-
Many people said fine things about the late Sir Ed while I was away from connectivity (apart from John Key, who said something vacuous)
Oh, give it a fucking rest Russell. If there was anything 'fine' about the Sunday News patting June Hilary on the head for appropriate 'staunchness', I can't see it. I guess you say 'fine things', I say 'vacuous cant', you say 'tomato', I say 'toe-may-toe'. Let's call the whole thing off.
Think I'll be spending all day Tuesday in the garden, and avoiding television and radio until the ghoul-a-rama abates a little. Sincere condolences to Sir Ednumd's family, friends and associates in the many causes he supported over the last half century. Recognise his considerable echievements - climbing Everest was the least of them, in a sense. But can we just get a little proportion (and even some of Sir Ed's own laconic understatement) back in the room?
-
Its a slightly humbling thing for an author or artist to stumble across a signed copy of their work in a second hand bin somewhere.
I always thought it would be depressing to find great piles of your book on a dollar remainder table. Though, as Clive James once put it, there is an upside:
**The book of my enemy has been remaindered
And I am pleased.
In vast quantities it has been remaindered
Like a van-load of counterfeit that has been seized
And sits in piles in a police warehouse,
My enemy's much-prized effort sits in piles
In the kind of bookshop where remaindering occurs.
Great, square stacks of rejected books and, between them, aisles
One passes down reflecting on life's vanities,
Pausing to remember all those thoughtful reviews
Lavished to no avail upon one's enemy's book --
For behold, here is that book
Among these ranks and banks of duds,
These ponderous and seeminly irreducible cairns
Of complete stiffs.[...]
Soon now a book of mine could be remaindered also,
Though not to the monumental extent
In which the chastisement of remaindering has been meted out
To the book of my enemy,
Since in the case of my own book it will be due
To a miscalculated print run, a marketing error--
Nothing to do with merit.
But just supposing that such an event should hold
Some slight element of sadness, it will be offset
By the memory of this sweet moment.
Chill the champagne and polish the crystal goblets!
The book of my enemy has been remaindered
And I am glad.**Ouch...
-
It's not exactly good campaigning advice is it. When running against a significant candidate of part-African descent, running down MLK's achievements, and running up the flag for the crusty white guy who agreed to sign the actual laws, ain't the best plan.
To be fair to Johnson, 'the crusty white guy' does deserve full credit for playing the biggest game of political chicken in his career - and that's saying quite a lot. But yes, I sure think there were less loaded ways to for Clinton to play the 'experience' card which, IMO, is problematic enough for her without stumbling into that minefield.
-
WH:
With all due respect to Mr. Califano, I don't think he's caught the central fatuity in HIlary Clinton's 'it takes a President' comments.
Well, yes, Hilary you do actually have to be President to sign bills into law. Nice to see you stayed awake during grade school civics.
Lyndon Baynes Johnson was not only a senator, but the youngest caucus leader ever on Capitol Hill. And how did he do that? Well, if you've got a lot of time to spare I'd pick up Robert Caro's three volume (with a fourth to come) biography of the man -- and he was someone who (to put it mildly) was pragmatic to a fault and to put it politely did not like to lose.
I don't think it's a put down to say LBJ supported the Civil Rights Act as much out of a recognition that civil rights had a broader constituency than Jew York intellectuals and uppity niggers, as high principle. And, yes, I don't think that would have happened - or LBJ would have been interested in expending a penny of political capital -- if it wasn't for folks like Dr. King and so many others keeping the heat on for many years, often at considerable risk. (If you have even more time to spare, check out Taylor Branch's equally stout trilogy 'America in the King Years'.)
And Senator Clinton might actually like to dial the hubris back a little. One significant difference between her and LBJ. He was actually on a winning ticket in a general election (and became President under the most tragic of circumstances) before he was in a position to sign any civil rights legislation. Someone's getting a little ahead of herself, isn't she?
-
I'm not sure if the Bugle counts as media. In fact, I just listened to episode 11, and it's the opposite end of the scale from serious.
Indeed, and I thought it was mildly funny (though The Daily Show is obviously getting John Oliver's best work). I just think, with all due respect, the Brits don't really have the moral high ground when it comes to gonzo politics - least of all when Peter Hain is dragging the Government even deeper into the kind of funny money 'sleaze' allegations Brown needs like a spare arsehole in the middle of his forehead.
-
Perhaps Clinton's team thinks the same thing. They seem to say some really dumb things at time
Oy, talk about good Kiwi understatement... I know this comparison really upsets some folks, but Carl Rove really should start invoicing the Clinton campaign. Seriously, why doesn't someone just come out of the closet and say "If you want to see this flaky coke-head become Mitt Romney's bitch come November, go ahead."
"The caucus is like selecting your leader with a tea party, amazing it hasn't caught on"
Personally, I find the whole primary process hella-weird, but perhaps the British media shouldn't get their sneer on too loudly while they're living in a country with an unelected upper house, the peculiar distortions of an FPP electoral system and a hereditary head of state.
I also think it's fair comment to point out that the only mandate Gordon Brown currently has to occupy Number Ten is... well, basically a caucus process that saw him effectively appointed leader of the Labour Party.
-
I'm not so sure that's really so accurate. National's breaches of the intent of the 1992 Electoral Act via the use of anonymous trusts, and the parallel EB campaign are clearly established. I'm much less convinced that O'Brady's rulings that caught out ALL the other parties seems were reasonable and fair interpretations of Parliament's intent at all.
Well, Philip, that's the problem isn't it - " Parliament's intent" sure seems to have a hell of a lot of, shall we say, useful strategic ambiguity to it. Seems a little rich for the people who designed the framework to bitch and whinge when the Auditor-General (who happens to be an Officer of Parliament, BTW) comes up with an interpretation they find politically inconvenient.
And with all due respect to the hardly disinterested reading of some parties, if Kevin Brady really is such an incompetent Tory hack (as some have alleged) you've got to ask these questions:
1) Why the fuck was he appointed Controller and Auditor-General in 2002, in the first place?
2) Why has there been no legal or Parliamentary challenge made to the report or Brady continuing in the post? Don't know about you, but I actually take very seriously indeed any allegation that the Auditor-General shows any degree of partiality.
If the EFB is shown to have shortcomings, they do apply equally to all the Parties, and with experience a future Parliament can always amend it.
I'm sure it will, and I'll be keeping a very close eye on the next National-led government to make sure the urge to deliver some righteous payback Old Testament-stylee is resisted. But if it isn't, lets just say I'm going to be a little short of sympathy for any complaints from the Opposition benches. As they like to say in Texas political circles: You dance with the one who brung you.
-
And I take your point too Craig, but is it really a 'back room deal' when everyone seemingly knows about it and is resigned to it?
Well, I/O, I think Blair and Brown will go to their graves saying the 'Granita Pact' never happened, and they sure didn't go to the hustings in 1997 with their little time-share arrangement attached to the manifesto.
-
Yes, take a seat at the back of the bus Mr Obama, it's not your turn yet. I think Peter Costello serves as a good example of why anyone with leadership aspirations shouldn't politely wait their turn.
Well, IO, I'm a little short of sympathy for folks like Costello or Gordon Brown who do back room deals where they expected the highest political office to be handed over like a toy truck in a sandpit. Yes, I know there was no legal or constitutional obstacle to Blair and Howard quitting whenever they damn please, for whatever reason, without calling a general election. But it still gets my fur up.
Last ←Newer Page 1 … 1099 1100 1101 1102 1103 … 1235 Older→ First