Posts Tagged ‘International’

YouTube Republican debate

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:

Labor set to win in Australia

Written By: - Date published: 3:36 am, November 25th, 2007 - 37 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 […]

Libs’ dirty tricks in Oz

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. […]

Giving thanks for turducken

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 […]

International flip-floppery

Written By: - Date published: 12:02 pm, November 11th, 2007 - 8 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 […]

Jon Stewart on torture

Written By: - Date published: 5:35 pm, November 10th, 2007 - 5 comments

Via onegoodmove

Kerik indictment likely to tarnish Guiliani

Written By: - Date published: 10:28 am, November 10th, 2007 - 4 comments

Bloomberg reports that Bernard Kerik, the former police commissioner under New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani who withdrew his nomination to head the Department of Homeland Security, has been charged with fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy. Kerik once led the largest U.S. police department. Giuliani – who’s currently seeking the Republican nomination for president – […]

The power of the web

Written By: - Date published: 1:11 pm, November 9th, 2007 - 1 comment

All election addicts are casting their eyes to what is happening in other countries & especially over in Australia and in the States. The US political teams lead the way on the integration (and spend power) of web resources & but as this article points out, much of the firepower is pointed at Hilliary Clinton: […]

Reclaiming the high ground of morality and economics

Written By: - Date published: 8:57 am, November 9th, 2007 - 20 comments

Evan Thornley is a member of the Upper House of the Victorian State Labor govt. He spoke recently at the NZ Labour Party conference about Labour values. He helped set up the internet based campaigning organisation GetUp! which now has over 200,000 members. He’s big on ideas. He started the Australian Fabians and was the […]

UK cannabis reclassification causes decline in use

Written By: - Date published: 8:47 am, October 29th, 2007 - 1 comment

The Guardian reports that: Cannabis use among young people has fallen significantly since its controversial reclassification in 2004, according to the latest British Crime Survey figures published today. The Home Office figures showed the proportion of 16 to 24-year-olds who had used cannabis in the past year fell from 25% when the change in the […]

Growing poverty across the Tasman

Written By: - Date published: 9:27 am, October 26th, 2007 - 6 comments

The Australian Council of Social Services has highlighted an update on the numbers living in poverty. New figures released by Australia Fair show that the number of Australians in poverty increased from 9.8% to 11.1% of the population between 2003-04 and 2005-06. This is based on the standard measure used extensively in OECD countries, 50% […]

Wish we’d had the Silver Bodgie in 1984

Written By: - Date published: 9:06 am, October 26th, 2007 - 2 comments

Bob Hawke still tells it like it is; watch his devastating rebuttal of the Liberals’ attempts to demonise unions here. He points out how the union movement was crucial to Australia’s successful economic transformation in the 1980’s. Labour in Australia in 1983 and New Zealand in 1984 both faced the need to modernise their economies […]

Katine

Written By: - Date published: 3:29 pm, October 25th, 2007 - Comments Off on Katine

The Guardian has launched a three year aid project with the objective of ‘together, lifting one village out of the middle ages’. The village is Katine, located in northern Uganda. The challenge is to see whether a newspaper, its readership, a bank and an NGO can make a significant and lasting difference to the lives […]

Union bogey blunder backfires

Written By: - Date published: 1:30 pm, October 25th, 2007 - 7 comments

Liberal Party advertising in the Australian election looks desperate, and judging by the polls is ineffective. Witness this effort, using the old demon-union-official smear. It’s a Tory hoary, and while it might have worked for Muldoon in 1975 with the dancing cossacks, it looks dreadfully out of date in the 21st century. Aussie voters are […]

US right vs 12-year-old

Written By: - Date published: 11:11 am, October 13th, 2007 - 14 comments

A week or so ago President Bush vetoed a bipartisan bill that would have dramatically expanded children’s health insurance in the US. He claimed the bill was too costly, took the program too far from its original intent of helping the poor, and would entice people now covered in the private sector to switch to […]

Trans Tasman on Clark

Written By: - Date published: 9:33 am, October 12th, 2007 - 5 comments

Articles like this – particularly in international media – must worry Key and National. How do you even begin to challenge a leader like Clark? We can see from Keenan’s email to Brash (p131) from The Hollow Men that National’s strategy at the last election was the Rovian “attack your opponent’s strengths” – this explains […]

Obama stops wearing flag pin

Written By: - Date published: 5:19 pm, October 6th, 2007 - 2 comments

The big political news in the US in the last couple of days seems to have been Barack Obama’s decision to stop wearing a flag pin on his lapel. The pins have become more or less standard political attire since 9/11. Barack apparently believes the pin has become a “substitute” for true patriotism. “I decided […]

“100% Pure NZ” kicks off in Paris

Written By: - Date published: 5:01 pm, October 6th, 2007 - 3 comments

The Prime Minister yesterday officially opened Tourism New Zealand’s giant walk-in rugby ball, situated in front of the Eiffel tower in the Champs de Mars. The interior of the 25 metre long, 12 metre high ball is built to showcase New Zealand – with video projected on the internal surfaces. The ball structure is inflatable […]

Conservative humour

Written By: - Date published: 11:15 am, October 6th, 2007 - 1 comment

Paul Krugman of the New York Times reports that “On Wednesday, President Bush vetoed legislation that would have expanded S-chip, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, providing health insurance to an estimated 3.8 million children who would otherwise lack coverage.” He goes on to cite numerous instances where Republicans appear to think that if people […]

Burma protests

Written By: - Date published: 10:10 am, October 5th, 2007 - Comments Off on Burma protests

With the Burmese junta continuing its crackdown on democracy protesters, Amnesty International has organised a Global Day of Action for Burma this Saturday (that’s tomorrow), including protests in Christchurch, Wellington, Dunedin and Palmerston North. Details are: Christchurch: 12:00 – 15:00, Saturday 6 October, Victoria Square (cnr Colombo and Armagh Sts). Wellington: 12:00 – 14:00, Saturday […]

Burma rally pics

Written By: - Date published: 10:51 am, October 1st, 2007 - Comments Off on Burma rally pics

Some pics from Saturday’s rally for Burmese democracy: More at Auckland’s Burning and Indymedia.

Support the Burmese uprising

Written By: - Date published: 11:52 am, September 28th, 2007 - 1 comment

If you’re in Auckland make sure you get along to tomorrow’s rally supporting the Burmese people in their courageous struggle for democracy. These people are standing unarmed against a vicious dictatorship that has a history of massacring its own people – the least we can do is stand with them to show our support. When: […]

Hillary Nutcracker

Written By: - Date published: 10:45 am, September 22nd, 2007 - Comments Off on Hillary Nutcracker

Here’s the product page (via Gizmodo)

Congratulations Canada

Written By: - Date published: 1:47 pm, September 21st, 2007 - Comments Off on Congratulations Canada

TORONTO (AP) — The Canadian dollar reached parity with the U.S. dollar on Thursday for the first time since November 1976. Known as the loonie because of the bird pictured on the one-dollar coin, the Canadian dollar has been gaining ground on its American counterpart since hitting an all-time low of 61.79 U.S. cents on […]

Land of the free?

Written By: - Date published: 11:18 am, September 21st, 2007 - 3 comments

WTF? I might be a bit behind the times on this one but I’ve just come across the tasering of US journalism student Andrew Meyer on youtube and I can’t believe what I’ve seen. For those of you who don’t know, Meyer asked a question about election theft during a Q&A with John Kerry at […]

Cameron least popular UK party leader

Written By: - Date published: 4:54 pm, September 20th, 2007 - Comments Off on Cameron least popular UK party leader

David Cameron is now Britain’s least popular party leader, according to the latest Guardian/ICM poll published today. It suggests Mr Cameron’s efforts to revive Conservative fortunes are suffering in the face of recovering respect for Labour as a party of government. I wonder if this is a sign of things to come for John Key […]

George W Key on Iraq

Written By: - Date published: 8:43 am, August 25th, 2007 - Comments Off on George W Key on Iraq

This blog offers up many opinions, but here’s a fact. John Key said in 2003 to the Rodney Times “New Zealand troops should be alongside their British and United States allies as they continue their invasion of Iraq”. Here’s another fact. George W Bush would agree with Key. Like Key, George has trouble with the […]

Cheney shoots himself in the face

Written By: - Date published: 6:15 pm, August 22nd, 2007 - Comments Off on Cheney shoots himself in the face

Seems John Key’s not the only politician who’s had his previous statements on Iraq come back to bite him recently. Here’s Dick Cheney in 1994 explaining why the invasion and occupation of Iraq would not be the smartest course of action and would quickly become, in his own words, “a quagmire”. Interestingly, even in 2000 […]