Posts by Paul Rowe
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have a friend who in Oz who had that experience with PJ Harvey -- caught her set, hated it, but couldn't quite get it out of her head.
Unfortunately I had a similar experience at the weekend. My kids were playing a Wiggles DVD and I haven't been able to get that out of my head. Culture? I wish :)
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The screaming & bitching from KB is because of the success of Kiwiblogblog & The Standard at exposing Farrar's links to the Nats and exposing (in their opinion) the hyprocrisy of the Right in the same way that Farrar et al has exposed the "hypocrisy" of the government.
Part of the problem is that both sides are preaching to the choir, I'd be surprised if either side wins any new converts, so shrill is their tone. The only interesting outcome is when the MSM picks up on a point made by one side or another, IMHO that is the success of the Standard.
I'd have thought that the screaming & bitching is really restricted to a relatively small group of political weirdos from either side (most us a weirdos!) and it won't have much impact in the real world (am free to be corrected though).
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And, come to think of it, why would we absolve a Republican president? The Republicans didn't have the South to lose (as LBJ put it) and it may have shored their support in the liberal eastern states.
Just conjecture, but fascinating.
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I think that's a fair point Kyle, but if you add (say) Nixon into the mix you couldn't say the same thing (I know you specifically point to Democrat presidents, fair play).
King is clearly the catalyst, and I don't mean to imply that LBJ is a colossus on the same level, he clearly isn't, merely that to say presidential power rests solely with the veto is incorrect.
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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.
LBJ had to do more than just sign the Bill into law, he had to ensure that it had the numbers in the House & in the Senate. Not a foregone conclusion apparently, esp when reading the description of the passing of the Housing law after MLK's death.
With the Whip being less important in American politics than it is in the Westminster system, I would have thought LBJ's moral authority was as essential in mobilising the political apparatus as MLK's was in mobilising the grassroots. GWB used his moral authority to do some abhorrent things to his country, I'd hope that future presidents don't follow his path [circuitous route back to your links to the Roosevelts, Craig].
O/T I really like the American tradition of referring to presidents by their initials :)
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Thanks the Wiki:
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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.
I don't recall it being common knowledge before the 1997 election, it came out in a book published about Brown in the early 2000s I think?
Anyway, my main objection to Clinton is that surely in a country of 300million the USA can do better than continually handing the presidency to the same friggin families.
Perhaps Clinton's team thinks the same thing. They seem to say some really dumb things at times: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/us_elections/article3187389.ece
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Waiheke was described this morning on George as the Ibiza of Auckland
Well you might as well enjoy it. The locals here in the Bridge refer to Mangere Bridge as the Mission Bay of South Auckland
I prefer Le Pont Paresseux when I am feeling suitably Continental.
My word of the year: McGehanesque to describe an embarrassing local eyesore that could be the Key to riches. -
Reading Simon's AK79 story I also flicked to the Bigger Than Both Of Us story as well, and it's difficult to say how important that compilation was to me in the late 80s, being too young for that music the first time round (being from Hawkes Bay didn't help). In 1989 I moved to Palmy North to go to Massey. the first record I bought was the Toy Love one and the second, on recommendation from the guy in the shop, was BTBOU. It was like Stranded in Paradise had come to life.
I would consider my three greatest musical influences outside my family, to be the Split Enz gig in 1984, Stranded in Paradise and Bigger Than Both Of Us. Great days, those Uni Days. I might have even heard the Velvets for the first time that year too.
Hearing Tally Ho for the first time, and Rebel, was a revelation, but I really fell for a couple of songs that were less well known: Essential Services, Suicide 2, Feels So Good, just as a start. I go back to those all the time. (I had to buy the CDs too, now they are on the ipod) The whole compilation was an eye-opener (although I never was a fan of the two "electronic" songs by Danse Macabre or The Body Electric). Cheers Simon.
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Et tu Brutus, you rat-fuck
That sentence on its own is laugh out loud funny