Search Results

  1. Video: Nats wave goodbye to blue sky

    Written By:  Dancer -  Date published: 2:01 pm, September 4th, 2008 -  14 comments
    Categories: election 2008, national, youtube
    Tags:

    Newly up from 08wire There’s something very powerful about that music and image combination….

  2. Video: Key’s crush on Obama

    Written By:  Dancer -  Date published: 3:19 pm, September 2nd, 2008 -  1 comment
    Categories: humour, youtube
    Tags:

    More creative hi-jinks from No8Wire

  3. Key: “I just followed what was in my diary”

    Written By:  all_your_base -  Date published: 11:26 am, September 2nd, 2008 -  38 comments
    Categories: election funding, john key, slippery
    Tags:

    TV3 revealed last night that John Key has recently met with billionaire Tory donor Lord Michael Ashcroft. Lord Ashcroft clearly preferred that the meeting be kept secret and only a glimpse of him was caught as he departed Auckland airport in his private jet.  Garner: “Has anyone in the National Party met Lord Ashcroft in […]

  4. The polls are weird

    Written By:  lprent -  Date published: 11:04 am, September 2nd, 2008 -  10 comments
    Categories: polls
    Tags: , , , ,

    Dave at Big News has a good post up on a vagaries of the polls. It expands on something that Idiot Savant noticed at No Right Turn in his post Priceless. I/S observed:- I don’t normally poll blog, but this I can’t resist: according to the graphic for the latest Herald digipoll, the Christian Heritage […]

  5. Aussie Invasion – a video with an agenda

    Written By:  Dancer -  Date published: 9:37 am, August 31st, 2008 -  4 comments
    Categories: humour, International
    Tags:

    We’re used to hearing opposition parties talk about people rushing to Australia. But let’s remember we’re attractive to Australia too – where could that lead? Here’s an alternative view! In case you are wondering there’s a series of these on different topics from the Gruen Transfer….

  6. Franks: “grumpy Christians and whining gays”

    Written By:  all_your_base -  Date published: 3:16 pm, August 29th, 2008 -  58 comments
    Categories: national, youtube
    Tags: , , ,

    Here’s National’s Wellington Central candidate Stephen Franks giving his view on Civil Unions. I’m not even really sure what to say about it. It might just be best to let Stephen Franks speak for himself…

  7. Clark cuts the thread

    Written By:  Steve Pierson -  Date published: 1:43 pm, August 28th, 2008 -  192 comments
    Categories: election 2008, election funding, nz first
    Tags:

    Winston Peters’ stories around the Owen Glenn donation to his legal fund are dangerously convoluted and have stretched everyone’s credulity but without real evidence either way it has been impossible to fairly condemn him. Glenn’s letter yesterday provided strong evidence and left Peters ‘hanging by a thread’, as every hack in the country wrote. Now, Helen Clark […]

  8. The more things change…

    Written By:  Steve Pierson -  Date published: 6:18 am, August 28th, 2008 -  18 comments
    Categories: election 2008, history
    Tags:

    70 years ago (more or less) and The Standard was correctly predicting a Labour victory as the ‘Nationalists’ ramped up a hollow election campaign. In true Standard-style, there’s even some stats. Click on the image for the full article.

  9. Cullen on Nat apologies

    Written By:  all_your_base -  Date published: 1:51 pm, August 27th, 2008 -  41 comments
    Categories: humour, john key, national, spin
    Tags:

    Say what you will about his politics, you can’t beat Cullen for wit. Here he is on the similarities between Labour and National following Williamson’s enthusiastic statements of National policy:  The full clip is here. Listen to Key plead to his caucus, and listen what he’s pleading for them to do – “If National wants to win an […]

  10. Nearly half of voters think Nats have secret agenda

    Written By:  all_your_base -  Date published: 4:53 pm, August 26th, 2008 -  21 comments
    Categories: youtube
    Tags: , , ,

    Here’s TV3’s coverage from last night. They’ve just completed a poll in which 45.7% of those surveyed think National has a secret agenda.

  11. Greens call for public input on ETS

    Written By:  Steve Pierson -  Date published: 11:10 am, August 22nd, 2008 -  22 comments
    Categories: climate change, election 2008, Environment, greens
    Tags:

    One thing you can always say for the Greens, they’re democratic to their core. Currently, they find themselves facing a tough choice – whether or not to support Labour’s Emissions Trading Scheme – and, true to their democratic principles, they’re asking for advice from the public on their decision. Jeanette Fitzsimmons outlines the following pros […]

  12. Mythbusting: Half of new generation is thermal

    Written By:  Steve Pierson -  Date published: 9:54 am, August 22nd, 2008 -  16 comments
    Categories: climate change, economy, election 2008, national
    Tags:

    Reading National’s energy policy last week I was surprised to learn that of 1942MW of new generation that has come online since 2000 1073MW of that has been thermal*. Sure enough, John Key is going around using that as a ground for National’s policy of building more gas power plants and giving up on the […]

  13. Reflections on the war in Georgia

    Written By:  Steve Pierson -  Date published: 10:21 am, August 19th, 2008 -  79 comments
    Categories: International
    Tags:

    What can we learn from the war in Georgia? Without going into the rights and wrongs of the combatants, what I’m interested in is the geo-strategic implications, specifically the future of the democratisation project. And it’s not a pretty picture. See, for a while everything seemed to be going well with democratisation. The two great counter-ideologies […]

  14. Policy by focus group

    Written By:  all_your_base -  Date published: 1:19 pm, August 15th, 2008 -  13 comments
    Categories: youtube
    Tags: ,

    Colin Espiner on the Nats’ energy policy: …National’s energy policy is conservative and lacking in new ideas… What it has delivered is a short-term, pragmatic policy lacking in vision. But unlike Labour, it is probably a policy in step with current public opinion. Maybe these kinds of flaccid policy statements are inevitable when you: (a) painstakingly sterilise […]

  15. The Standard turns one

    Written By:  all_your_base -  Date published: 8:31 am, August 15th, 2008 -  26 comments
    Categories: notices, youtube
    Tags: , , ,

    Today’s our first birthday. A year ago I had the privilege of the first post. It was on John Key’s contradictory statements about whether or not he wanted New Zealand troops sent to Iraq. The video’s below. Since then there have been another 1440 posts. Over the course of the day I imagine that some […]

  16. Excel magic

    Written By:  Dancer -  Date published: 4:46 pm, August 13th, 2008 -  12 comments
    Categories: crosby textor, election 2008, inoculation, john key
    Tags:

    Insight into Mr Key costing his tax policy (lots of clever bits, best viewed in fullscreen) – hosted by 08wire

  17. Should the sins of the father be visited upon the children?

    Written By:  Guest post -  Date published: 8:30 am, August 13th, 2008 -  91 comments
    Categories: benefits, national
    Tags: ,

    When the DPB was first proposed it had a very simple purpose, to allow mothers to leave abusive relationships, to allow them to protect their children from beatings, alcoholism and psychological abuse. It was intended to ensure that those children would have a real chance at a healthy and happy life. It did not, and could […]

  18. I do a lot of work for charity, but I don’t like to talk about it

    Written By:  Steve Pierson -  Date published: 9:19 am, August 12th, 2008 -  57 comments
    Categories: john key, Social issues
    Tags:

    Many New Zealand politicians give away a large portion of their salaries to needy causes but they don’t make a song and dance about it because a) lots of MPs do it b) boasting about charity donations is a rich man’s game, and the reason we have decent salaries for MPs is to prevent politics […]

  19. When you smile….

    Written By:  Dancer -  Date published: 2:30 pm, August 8th, 2008 -  8 comments
    Categories: bill english, john key, national, slippery, youtube
    Tags:

    Hitting the email circuit is a video on the leaks within the National party over the Hollow Men.

  20. It’s about principle

    Written By:  Steve Pierson -  Date published: 9:09 am, August 8th, 2008 -  54 comments
    Categories: national
    Tags:

    The clamour for ‘policy’ from National is actually a slight misnomer. What Kiwis want to know is the principles that National stands for as much as specific policies. We know what the Greens stand for, we know what the Maori Party stands for, we know what Labour, NZF, UnitedFuture, and ACT stand for. But we […]

  21. Academic, youse are paid too much

    Written By:  Steve Pierson -  Date published: 3:30 pm, August 7th, 2008 -  42 comments
    Categories: articles, public services, wages, workers' rights
    Tags:

    Professor John Gibson from Waikato University says public servants should be paid less because they get paid more than their private sector equivalents and they enjoy their work. First, I would be highly suspicious the methodology of any study that claims to compare like with like between the public and private sector. How many police […]

  22. Honeymoon. Over.

    Written By:  all_your_base -  Date published: 11:38 am, August 7th, 2008 -  48 comments
    Categories: john key, Media, youtube
    Tags: , ,

    Here’s Close Up from last and Mike Hosking giving John Key an absolute bollocking. Key tries to run Crosby Textor’s new lines: “dirty tricks campaign” and “entrapment”. Hosking doesn’t give him an inch. Definitely worth a watch – if you’re in a hurry fast forward to about the 2:50 mark… UPDATE: commenters have asked for […]

  23. TV3 on the leaks from National’s conference

    Written By:  all_your_base -  Date published: 2:06 pm, August 6th, 2008 -  4 comments
    Categories: election 2008, youtube
    Tags: , , , , ,

    Here’s the recent coverage from TV3 and political reporter Duncan Garner. On Bill English’s comments regarding the sale of Kiwibank (aired August 4, 2008): On Lockwood Smith’s hints at a secret agenda (aired August 5, 2008): [Apologies for errors in the previous videos, have re-uploaded fresh copies, AYB]

  24. Déjà vu

    Written By:  all_your_base -  Date published: 10:58 am, August 6th, 2008 -  6 comments
    Categories: same old national, slippery, youtube
    Tags: ,

    If you didn’t already have enough doubts about whether to trust John Key, Bill English and Lockwood Smith by virtue of the recent revelations here’s another one to ponder. A promise to resign over future policy isn’t new territory for the Nats. Neither is failing to keep it (click image for larger version).

  25. 08wire on Nats’ Kiwibank secret agenda

    Written By:  Steve Pierson -  Date published: 9:48 am, August 6th, 2008 -  Comments Off on 08wire on Nats’ Kiwibank secret agenda
    Categories: assets, bill english, blogs, flip-flop, national, privatisation
    Tags:

    08wire.org, your videos make me smile.

  26. News coverage of English revelations

    Written By:  all_your_base -  Date published: 11:59 am, August 5th, 2008 -  9 comments
    Categories: news, same old national
    Tags: , , ,

    Here’s the segment on the English meltdown from TV One last night. [I wanted to put up TV3’s as well – it’s good coverage, including interviews with KiwiBank customers – but I just can’t seem to deal with their flaky video stream (anyone else have problems with it?)]

  27. Spin-busting: ‘A growth problem, not a debt problem’

    Written By:  Steve Pierson -  Date published: 10:42 am, August 4th, 2008 -  28 comments
    Categories: economy, national, spin
    Tags:

    To justify borrowing for tax cuts, National’s new line is that New Zealand has ‘a growth problem, not a debt problem’. Untrue. (source) New Zealand’s growth has been faster in recent years than trend, faster than it was under National, and faster than growth in our major trade partners. We are in a shallow recession […]

  28. Multiple orgasms

    Written By:  Tane -  Date published: 12:31 pm, August 1st, 2008 -  28 comments
    Categories: humour, youtube
    Tags: ,

    If John Key’s feeling a little nervous about repeating his “under a Labour Government I lead” gaffe at this weekend’s National Party conference, perhaps he should spare a thought for Aussie Liberal MP Jason Wood…

  29. Controversial advertising

    Written By:  all_your_base -  Date published: 11:35 am, July 31st, 2008 -  10 comments
    Categories: youtube
    Tags: , , , , , ,

    Stuff reports that “a British commercial for a chocolate bar featuringThe A Team star Mr T has been pulled over concerns it could cause offence to homosexuals”.  Here’s one airing locally that’s likely to cause some controversy too. It’s from a campaign by athletic gear manufacturer Skins called (perhaps tellingly) “Beyond reason”.

  30. Flip-flops, it’s a matter of trust

    Written By:  Steve Pierson -  Date published: 6:12 am, July 31st, 2008 -  56 comments
    Categories: flip-flop, john key, national, slippery
    Tags:

    I believe there are three core criteria on which a politician or party needs to be judged: (in no particular order) – policy, competency, trustworthiness – Do they have a good plan, are they capable of implementing such a plan, can we trust them to carry out the plan if we vote for them. National’s […]

  31. Freedom Week

    Written By:  Tane -  Date published: 6:28 pm, July 30th, 2008 -  9 comments
    Categories: activism, human rights, youtube
    Tags: , ,

    Amnesty International does some great campaigning and human rights work around the globe and this week is Freedom Week, their annual fundraising and awareness drive. Most people will be familiar with Amnesty’s work, especially with the spotlight they’ve helped to shine on China’s appalling human rights record in the leadup to the Olympics. What’s often […]

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