Posts by Kracklite
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<rant, meaning it can safely be discounted as such>
Government and opposition being what they are – that is, about the here and the now with a view to the future – I consider any attempt to excuse the Labour Party resting on its laurels utterly irrelevant to the discussion, if not disingenuous. History really is bunk when you try to trade on it.
OK, they’ve done some nice things, but the Brides of Douglas, Goff and King, did some shitty things, and no, you can’t say that they were innocents during the 80s – they were far too prominent, far too enthusiastic hucksters of Douglas’ policies – even after the 1990 loss (Oh, so it wasn’t “communicated” so well to me. “Communication” apparently matters more than actual experience. Oh dear… and fuck you too).
All I see from Goff’s Labour Party (note that I do not call it The Labour Party) is a mish-mash of gutter populism and platitudes and downright incompetence. So Michael Joseph Savage certainly did some very nice things. Then. What now? “Nationhood”? Lovely. Winston Peters and Don Brash must love it, or be furious with jealousy… but at least Chris Trotter should be happy.
What are they doing now, what will they do? “The many, not the few”? Nice… but who are the “many” – clearly not the aggregate of minorities you’ve thrown under the bus to appease Chris Trotter, I take it. Police beat up a suspect and some handwringing appears on the Beige Alert, but questions to the sanctimonious MP about substantive action go unanswered.
All I see is vague, meaningless, uncosted bullshit. More detailed answers in a brown paper bag behind the water pipes at the men’s loo in the Wellington railway station please. That will be less obscure than any of their current policy and communication of that policy.
If Goff’s Labour Party does not seem worthy of a vote, it’s time to stop blaming the voters and start asking why it isn’t connecting with them. In politics, the customer is always right.
</rant, meaning it can safely be discounted as such>
Yes, I'm furious, obviously, and have been for some time... and it's because Phil Goff has almost certainly ensured that the government after November this year will be National-led.
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In that case, the Chimera, fire-spitting, lion-bodied, snake-tailed monster with a goat’s head stuck on it somewhere, to which I referred, is much more agreeable than Trotter/Goff’s imaginary object. I’m glad to know that it is imaginary. Or depressed because they chose to worship it. Whichever.
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Hard News: Limping Onwards, in reply to Islander,
Snap.
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Hard News: Limping Onwards, in reply to Jacqui Dunn,
“Watermelon” – green on the outside, red on the inside. A common sneer used against Greens, supposing that they’re Marxists disguised as environmentalists, or that there is really no difference. Apparently reappropriated here (hoorah) to suggest that real social justice and environmentalism are one and the same.
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Oh, by the way, I always find it hard to suppress a giggle when T' Standard publishes a post about Goff with a stock image of Important-man-strides-down-corridor-with-attendants. That was sooo well parodied by Kubrick with his shots of the Minster in A Clockwork Orange.
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Hard News: Limping Onwards, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
While I have my issues with Clark... which I can put aside in consideration of her (in retrospect, increasingly obvious) competence and general drift, I do feet that that was her serious fault - a hesitation in preparing a succeeding generation.
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Hard News: Limping Onwards, in reply to Sacha,
Meanwhile in Standardland, Mr Lprent says nothing to see here, move along.
Put the mouse down and step away from the keyboard!
Really, what did you expect? There is no signal-to-noise ratio to consider wit’ T’ Standard. It’s all noise, sometimes simulating signal. When they’re not repulsively allowing all the worst bigotry “for a good cause”, they’re floating down a river in Africa.
As a number of people have been saying here, I too am a “tribal” Labour voter, but I will admit my bias against Goff since the Douglas, er, sorry, Lange administration when he and King were the Blessed Brides of Our Saviour the Lord Roger in the 80's (remember them?). I hoped for some pragmatism, an ability to move with the times, but his authoritarian streak was all too painfully obvious in Clark’s government and while finally I expected him to be a prick, I never expected him to be such a bumbling embarrassment as well.
I suspect that a lot of the uproar on the left over the Hughes affair is not specifically about that matter in particular, but represents a dam of frustration finally bursting. Goff has not performed well, he has apparently betrayed the inclusive social democratic ideals of Labour in pursuit of the chimerical “Waitakere Man” and in doing so – and even, amazingly, alienating Chris frakkin’ Trotter, which is truly incredible (to wit: IT’S STAGGERING, the unabashed cynicism of so many of Labour’s defenders... blah blah)
The wider blame belongs with the Labour Party too, however. I can haz opposition nao? Despite the Moustache’s suggestion that allowing a National victory by default is a bad thing, I really don’t see anything in the present Goff/King Labour party that I can support… and I really don’t think that I’m the only one thinking that.
You might say that the Hughes affair is a beat-up, but perhaps a lot of the reaction from the left is really the release of frustration that been building for quite some time now?
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OK, ignore all the "killer" hype. Really, they're cute (but then I like spiders too):
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http://www.bleedingcool.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/cat.jpg
I like cats, really.
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As I wrote under another pseudonym for another set of friends in response to another comment about another person:
As many may know, the area about Aro Valley is very cold and damp and many organic objects may behave oddly instead of decaying in the usual manner. There was once, for instance, a dog turd that for many months did not desiccate and disintegrate, but instead grew a thick coat of white fungal fur. Eventually, some graffitist came along, and very neatly, painted a dashed circle about it and the caption “Very Interesting Phenomenon”. I believe that the detachment exhibited by the anonymous artiste is the appropriate stance that one should take towards Mister Westfold (and Micael Lhaws too, for that matter).
I have to say, Brian Edwards displays restraint that I find truly incredible - I do not necessarily expect him to become angry (as I would), but I do expect him to succumb to hysterical laughter.