Archive for November, 2008

Pigs in muck

Written By: - Date published: 10:29 am, November 6th, 2008 - 137 comments

Yesterday, John Key was telling journalists that he knew the secret agenda taper, Kees Keizer, was a Labour Party activist. In fact, he knew that wasn’t true, which is why he refused to name him. The Herald has. And what it’s also reveled is a close relationship between Cameron Slater and the National Party research […]

Shock revelation: Taper is Wellington Leftie

Written By: - Date published: 8:25 am, November 6th, 2008 - 99 comments

The secret taper has revealed himself as Kees Keizer, a leftie from Wellington. I spent quite a bit of time yesterday encouraging Keizer to tell his story, preferably to The Standard or the Herald (more credible), and he steadfastly refused. So imagine my surprise when I see a three page article of him talking to […]

Context

Written By: - Date published: 6:43 am, November 6th, 2008 - 10 comments

Yesterday morning on Sunrise, John Key was moaning that there is no context to the latest secret agenda tape, where Bill English praises the war in Iraq and criticises Bill English’s ‘moralistic’ approach to international relations. Key is right, context helps us undestand information better. Luckily, Scoop’s library keeps every media release, so we can […]

Clark makes it 2 from 3

Written By: - Date published: 8:46 pm, November 5th, 2008 - 79 comments

The debate was Clark’s. The format and tone suited her. Her softer approach, which showed us the person behind the role was very good. In fact, I would say that was the best I have ever seen her. At times, Key seemed tacked on to a Clark interview (be interesting to she if she actually […]

Fact checkin’ 3

Written By: - Date published: 7:18 pm, November 5th, 2008 - 87 comments

Good debate so far, addressing the issues and the policies, rather than the politics, which the other two debates have been focused on. From looking at Key so far it seems he might drop the lies. oops. spoke too soon. Key: People are leaving for Australia in absolutely record numbers Lie. For the third time […]

Another politician caught in taping sting

Written By: - Date published: 4:00 pm, November 5th, 2008 - 6 comments

US election thread

Written By: - Date published: 3:26 pm, November 5th, 2008 - 72 comments

Ok, so all the action can be followed on the US sites but I’ll set up this post for comments you might like to make and any updates any of the Standardistas want to add. Like this just to hand: ‘Key rules out cabinet post for Obama – too many morals, hands too big, says […]

Democracy under attack

Written By: - Date published: 1:44 pm, November 5th, 2008 - 67 comments

From Both Eyes Open: National Party candidate Stephen Franks’ campaign team has been systematically tearing down political posters put up by his opponents despite Franks recently describing people defacing his election hoardings as ‘political thugs who don’t like free speech or opinions different from their own’. The group Both Eyes Open which has been distributing posters, […]

The Nats on Iraq

Written By: - Date published: 11:55 am, November 5th, 2008 - 34 comments

The Nats have had two responses to English’s “pull the trigger” comments revealed last night: first the taping itself was branded a “dirty trick” and now we have Key claiming on Sunrise this morning that the comments may have been taken out of context. Well here’s a view of his own, straight from Hansard, with […]

Where are the polls?

Written By: - Date published: 10:31 am, November 5th, 2008 - 36 comments

I know, they’re inaccurate and out of date. And it’s only three days until the only poll that counts. But I’m curious! It’s now been ten days since the last public poll, which strikes me as a bizarre gap at the high of the electoral campaign. I guess they’re all saving up their final poll […]

Pork barrelling from the Nats

Written By: - Date published: 9:26 am, November 5th, 2008 - 26 comments

One of the virtues of New Zealand government has long been that we avoid US-style pork barrel politics. The Government sets the direction of policy and priorities but doesn’t interfere with specific projects. The principle is that the experts, not the elected officials, should decide the details of specific projects. For instance, the Government might […]

Key, still telling lies

Written By: - Date published: 7:59 am, November 5th, 2008 - 34 comments

Ahead of the final leaders’ debate tonight, 08wire has produced a video on John Key’s lies in the second debate. What strikes me about these lies is how they are, for the most part, of the ‘New Zealand sucks’ ilk and that they are quite petty. I guess telling lots of smaller lies lessens the […]

Guest Post: QoT – Mmm, delicious linear time

Written By: - Date published: 10:12 pm, November 4th, 2008 - 28 comments

I loved this post for QoT so much that I asked to reproduce it in full here. It resonated with me after reading the comment stream today. So, from Ideologically Impure, an observation on the patently ridiculous… Lynn This comment over at The Standard cites one of my favourite (or, really, least-favourite) bits of political […]

English “worried” about Obama

Written By: - Date published: 8:10 pm, November 4th, 2008 - 97 comments

More from 3News tonight on the secret recordings taken at the Naitonal Party conference in August. This time it’s Bill English expressing concern over Barack Obama’s “moralistic” stance to international relations: I’m a bit worried about this whole Obama and Europe thing, just because there’s a limited effectiveness in being moralistic about international relations… and the […]

Look! Over there!

Written By: - Date published: 7:53 pm, November 4th, 2008 - 40 comments

The latest secret tape has come out and it’s a classic example of the face of the National Party that John Key doesn’t want you to see. Pro-war and anti-Obama. National’s response? The classic “dirty tricks” misdirection. This is all about Labour apparently. Not that there’s any proof however. And not that it’s even likely […]

Vote smart: Winnie cleared but too late

Written By: - Date published: 5:39 pm, November 4th, 2008 - 33 comments

New Zealand First has now been cleared by the Police or any illegal behaviour. That’s three from three but too late. I’ve never had a lot of love for Peters. Yes, economically NZF is left-wing and they were an important bulwark against the neoliberal revolution. Yes, he’s a cheeky bugger and often hilarious, and its […]

Last days to get active

Written By: - Date published: 4:22 pm, November 4th, 2008 - 10 comments

It’s great to see people still downloading materials from the Campaign Hub. With just over three days of campaigning to go, you’re running out of time to communicate the issues you care about and make sure people vote Left. So, be sure to take the opportunity. On the same note, Both Eyes Open has released […]

Another Nat secret agenda tape

Written By: - Date published: 3:19 pm, November 4th, 2008 - 121 comments

The Herald campaign updates reports that Clark has just had a private interview with TV3, appearently getting her response to the latest secret agenda tape. Guess that means it will be on TV3 tonight. According to the Herald, a reporter at the conference asked the PM if she thinks the public is sick of having […]

Fresh ideas

Written By: - Date published: 2:34 pm, November 4th, 2008 - 10 comments

Part 3 in the CTU’s series of election vids. The best yet You can see the other two here

Economy healthier than expected

Written By: - Date published: 11:42 am, November 4th, 2008 - 34 comments

The latest government accounts show the economy is in better condition than was expected. Tax take was $500 million higher than expected due to higher-than-expected income tax revenue. That means more money was being earned from wages and salaries than Treasury had forecast; in other words, unemployment is not rising as fast as Treasury had […]

More vids from the campaign trail

Written By: - Date published: 10:42 am, November 4th, 2008 - 43 comments

We’ve just received these. The first is from Hollowman productions, who brought us the famous Porirua markets video. The second is a video a reader took when he was stopped by a plain-clothes cop after asking a leftwing question to John Key at a campaign event. The question he asked is here

Mythbusting: Largest party must govern

Written By: - Date published: 9:58 am, November 4th, 2008 - 46 comments

Because the polls are showing a Labour, Greens, Progressives, Maori alliance could govern, National is crying that the largest party has some kind of ‘moral mandate’ to govern. Much as the cricket team which has the highest individual run scorer has the moral mandate to win the game, I guess. Back in the real world, […]

Hypocrite

Written By: - Date published: 9:45 pm, November 3rd, 2008 - 47 comments

Watching Key tour Progressive Enterprises today was bad enough but watching him claim to support those workers in the leaders debate was sickening considering his party’s stance in 2006 when those same workers were locked out of their employment for daring to ask for a decent pay rise. At the time National’s employment spokesperson (who […]

Clark takes round 2

Written By: - Date published: 8:36 pm, November 3rd, 2008 - 149 comments

A much better performance from Clark saw her best Key in tonight’s debate. As well as being on top of all the issues, as always, she took the fight to Key, calling him up on his lies. After not doing as well as she had expected in the first debate, Clark had adapted. Key was […]

Fact checkin’ round 2

Written By: - Date published: 7:27 pm, November 3rd, 2008 - 44 comments

It’s really good to see Clark taking Key to task on his lies this time: Key: productivity has halved under Labour. Lie. The same lie he made last time Key: interest rates have doubled under Labour. Lie. Which he also said last time, and Clark called him on it this time. Key is also relying […]

Text polls

Written By: - Date published: 7:15 pm, November 3rd, 2008 - 25 comments

Watching the TV3 debate and it seems they’re running another text poll. It’s too early yet to tell who’s going to win, but what’s the bet the text poll favours the party whose voters are wealthy enough to: a) be at home on a weekday evening, b) own a cellphone, and c) be in a […]

Election Quiz

Written By: - Date published: 3:48 pm, November 3rd, 2008 - 26 comments

If you haven’t seen Pundit’s New Zealand election quiz you should head on over and take a look. It’s based on the award-winning US version and provides a pretty quick and accurate measure on how your views line up with each parliamentary party. I got Greens 84, Prog 77, Labour 74, NZ First 62, United […]

Wages still growing strongly

Written By: - Date published: 1:48 pm, November 3rd, 2008 - 31 comments

Despite the recession, wages have continued to grow at a record rate and, crucially, faster than inflation. The average hourly rate was up 5.5% over the past year. The percentage of the economy that goes to workers (rather than to the capital owners) continues to increase. This is the outcome of running a low unemployment […]

Nats will only cut Kiwisaver by 44-49% -cries ASA

Written By: - Date published: 1:16 pm, November 3rd, 2008 - 17 comments

The Advertising Standards Authority’s decision that Labour’s Kiwisaver ad is inaccurate is ridiculous. 08wire’s vid shows why. The ASA admits in its decision that is has no power over TV, radio, or Youtube ads so what gives them the right to cast judgment on an ad that only appeared in those media? In fact, it […]

Advertising, getting it right and getting it wrong

Written By: - Date published: 10:56 am, November 3rd, 2008 - 62 comments

Labour’s new ad is one of the best political ads I’ve seen. It’s just a really well written script: acknowledging the success of the Right’s ‘time for a change’ meme and undercutting it, getting in some positive points on Labour that are forward-looking, and getting in the sting on Key. ‘Mary’ is what National calls […]

How does ACT fit in?

Written By: - Date published: 10:54 am, November 3rd, 2008 - 10 comments

I have my doubts about the veracity of Meurant’s statements as he is well known for bigging himself up as a hard man and all of this “politicians in our pockets” stuff certainly fits that description. But the media is treating them as potentially damning and so are many rightwing commentators so I guess there […]