Written By: - Date published: 10:09 pm, February 19th, 2008 - 30 comments
The BBC reports that Fidel Castro has retired as Cuban leader. Castro has survived a US-backed invasion, numerous assassination attempts and the fall of the Soviet Union, but after nearly 50 years in power his ailing health finally got the better of him. His legacy will be a mixed one. Authoritarian rule, human rights abuses …
Written By: - Date published: 12:52 pm, February 14th, 2008 - 5 comments
Written By: - Date published: 4:48 pm, February 13th, 2008 - 24 comments
Howard couldn’t bring himself to do it, instead expressing “regret”. Today, Labor’s Kevin Rudd said sorry in a formal statement to the stolen generations of Aboriginal people of Australia. For the pain, suffering and hurt of these Stolen Generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry. To the mothers and the …
Written By: - Date published: 3:44 pm, February 12th, 2008 - 2 comments
Australian Treasurer Wayne Swan has announced that he intends to lift the target for the budget surplus, so that fiscal policy can help ease upward pressure on interest rates. He will proceed with tax cuts announced in the election campaign, but according to The Australian newspaper his comments signal that there is unlikely to be …
Written By: - Date published: 8:07 pm, February 9th, 2008 - 2 comments
From CNN earlier in the week – Jeanne Moos presents her very own Super Tuesday Political Video Awards. A good summary of some of the hottest and some of the most cringe inducing items on the download circuit. What will be our NZ equivalent? Meantime fresh controversy is set to rage with the news that …
Written By: - Date published: 4:19 pm, February 2nd, 2008 - 10 comments
MoveOn.org is a progressive political community, organised predominantly online, with over 3 million members. For the first time they’ve endorsed a Democratic candidate, lending their weight and organising skills to that person’s campaign. Obama took the endorsement over Clinton 70-30, with around 300,000 votes cast in total. Obama has said of the endorsement: “In just …
Written By: - Date published: 1:59 pm, January 31st, 2008 - 70 comments
Jacinda Ardern, former Young Labour president and political advisor, has just been elected president of the International Union of Socialist Youth – a group encompassing socialist, social democratic and Labour Party youth organisations from more than 100 countries. IUSY is a massive organisiation and holds consultative status with the United Nations. This is a huge …
Written By: - Date published: 5:08 pm, January 25th, 2008 - 15 comments
The Dom reports today that the Japanese whaling fleet has ben “spotted steaming towards the Ross Sea” – part of our territorial waters. They’re presumably coming here having had their activities in Australian waters declared illegal last week. The Greens have just just called for the government to get involved. Labour’s Steve Chadwick has said …
Written By: - Date published: 3:00 pm, January 25th, 2008 - 13 comments
Jon Stewart had a good piece last night on why we shouldn’t just trust the economic and financial “experts”. People deserve better from the media than the dehumanising econo-speak about ‘soft labour markets’ and housing ‘corrections’ that dominates our Business pages, so it’s good to see Jon poking a bit of fun. Fox News also …
Written By: - Date published: 9:40 am, January 22nd, 2008 - 31 comments
Armando Iannucci from The Observer wonders whether he’s the only person to find Barack Obama dull: Like Will Smith, who in the new film I Am Legend wakes up to find himself the last man alive in a world of zombies, am I now the only person left on the planet who finds Barack Obama …
Written By: - Date published: 3:15 pm, January 18th, 2008 - 6 comments
Today’s Age gives a few insights into “constituency matters” the Brethren discussed with John Howard from 2003 to 2006, the last about the same time they were commissioning private investigators to dig dirt on our Helen. Support for George Bush and the war in Iraq featured highly, as according to the Brethren “God has clearly …
Written By: - Date published: 11:57 am, January 18th, 2008 - 8 comments
From Time: A lot is riding on the the world’s cheapest car. In the words of Ratan Tata, chairman of the company behind the upstart econobox, India’s “People’s Car” will be a “safe, affordable, all weather vehicle for a family which is today traveling on a two wheeler.” The entry level model is ticketed at …
Written By: - Date published: 11:09 pm, January 10th, 2008 - 3 comments
Spotted in the NY Times (6 Jan 2008) this new gadget looks like it takes the concept of open source one step further (article has some photos too). “HACKERS, welcome! Here are detailed circuit diagrams of our products — modify them as you wish.” That’s not an announcement you’ll find on the Web sites of …
Written By: - Date published: 10:49 pm, January 10th, 2008 - 8 comments
For those of you following the presidential primaries this opinion piece by Dan Balz in the Washington Post (9 Jan) provides some interesting observations on the Clinton/Obama result which flew in the face of polls and political pundits: “Hillary Clinton’s stunning victory here on Tuesday night was another powerful reminder of something that is taught …
Written By: - Date published: 12:27 pm, December 21st, 2007 - 60 comments
Yesterday we saw a report from Police Deputy Commissioner Rob Pope saying claims that the repeal of section 59 would lead to the prosecution of parents and the removal of children from their homes have been proven wrong. This follows another report which indicates that the law change has not led to a big rise …
Written By: - Date published: 3:50 pm, December 19th, 2007 - 3 comments
Leadership is a quality that everyone can recognise but a whole suite of academic debate has emerged over its definition. For an example check out these Q&As from the NZ Leadership institute. Here, between the leaders of our two major parties we see the positioning between the experienced Helen Clark, and the untested John Key …
Written By: - Date published: 1:41 pm, December 12th, 2007 - 15 comments
Oprah is a global brand, so when she went public with her campaign to support Barack Obama it was part of our news cycle. But we haven’t seen much follow-up on what it means for the Democrats and impact on the African American vote as they primaries beckon. For those taking an interest in US …
Written By: - Date published: 12:28 pm, December 12th, 2007 - 10 comments
Talking Points Memo have put together a great compilation of Republican presidential candidates’ campaign ads stripped back to nothing but key lines. It’s certainly a time-saver to have all the bullshit taken out for you. Top marks go to Tom Tancredo for managing to come across as a deranged reactionary even amongst a field of …
Written By: - Date published: 1:09 pm, December 11th, 2007 - 13 comments
We’ve been writing about Jenny Shipley and Helen Clark (btw – yesterday was the 8th anniversary of signing Ministerial warrants for the first term Labour ministers). Now Argentina has an interesting twist – Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, the first woman to be elected president in Argentina, succeeded her husband, Nestor Kirchner. From the NY Times: …
Written By: - Date published: 9:55 am, December 11th, 2007 - 7 comments
Somehow I missed this when it was originally posted. In case you did too…
Written By: - Date published: 9:41 am, December 10th, 2007 - 47 comments
From Scoop: “Clark first in Rudd queue” Kevin Rudd has pledged to broaden relations with New Zealand after a flying visit by Helen Clark to put “Kiwi issues” on the new Australian prime minister’s radar. In a sign of the importance placed on relations with the new Australian government, the New Zealand prime minister flew …
Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, December 6th, 2007 - 8 comments
This is very cool. USA Today’s put together a candidate match game to help voters work out which US presidential hopefuls best share their views on the key issues. Here’s how it works: Polls suggest Americans are concerned primarily with a few key issues in the 2008 presidential election. USA TODAY researched candidate positions on …
Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, December 5th, 2007 - 4 comments
USA Today reports that Mike Huckabee and Barack Obama are the leaders for their respective parties in Iowa with the caucuses now only a month away. Huckabee’s a real danger to the Democrats. He’s a folksy ex-Baptist minister who’s timing his run well. The UK Independent has a story (also today in The Herald) on …
Written By: - Date published: 11:22 am, November 30th, 2007 - 15 comments
Watch this clip from yesterday’s Republican YouTube debate and spare a thought for our progressive mates in the USA. I like the idea of users submitting their own questions but I’m troubled by the fact that CNN gets to choose the ones that air. The debate tended to be light on issues like healthcare, education …
Written By: - Date published: 11:51 pm, November 29th, 2007 - 61 comments
This looks interesting. Fox Attacks: Iran is a new short film from Robert Greenwald, director of the excellent Outfoxed. The film focuses on the parallels between Fox’s drumbeat for war with Iraq and what’s being said now about Iran. It’s also a plea to other networks not to fall in behind Fox like they did …
Written By: - Date published: 6:26 am, November 29th, 2007 - 3 comments
Should be on around 2pm our time. Time has a good background piece. The YouTube debate site has currently received around 5000 user-submitted video questions for the Republican candidates. The “winning” questions will be chosen shortly. Here’s one of the latest to Rudy Giuliani:
Written By: - Date published: 3:36 am, November 25th, 2007 - 36 comments
After 11 years of conservative rule, it looks like Kevin Rudd has led the Australian Labour Party to victory in Australia’s elections. All the networks have called it for Rudd and Labor. Howard has just conceded (watch the video). Howard may well lose his own seat of Bennelong – he’s trailing with over 75 per …
Written By: - Date published: 3:11 pm, November 22nd, 2007 - 19 comments
The husband of retiring Liberal MP Jackie Kelly and a state Liberal official have been caught distributing fake pamphlets in Western Sydney. The bogus pamphlets purport to come from a militant Islamic group – praising the ALP’s supposed support for the Bali bombers. The pamphlets have been referred to the Australian Electoral Commission by the ALP. …
Written By: - Date published: 8:15 am, November 22nd, 2007 - 43 comments
We at The Standard would like to wish our US counterparts a very happy Thanksgiving tomorrow. Of course we’d hate to think that just because it’s not a traditional holiday here in NZ we should be in any way deterred from eating till we can’t move as is the tradition in the US – gluttony …
Written By: - Date published: 12:02 pm, November 11th, 2007 - 7 comments
Thought that we had a worldwide monopoly here in NZ on right wing flip-floppers with Don Brash, John Key et al? Think again. Turns out the right wing flip-flopper isn’t as rare as you might have thought – they’re found in other continents too. The US Democrats are running an auction of a Mitt Romney …
Written By: - Date published: 5:35 pm, November 10th, 2007 - 5 comments
Via onegoodmove
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