Archive for the ‘Politics’ Category
Read this and tell me it doesn’t remind you (just a little bit) of John Key’s SkyCity Casinos convention centre deal for extra pokie machines
Dave Pell’s Next Draft recommended weekend read was Matt Taibbi’s The Scam Wall Street Learned From the Mafia in Rolling Stone magazine. I agree. It’s a fascinating read, but kind of sickening too. USA v. Carollo marks the first time we actually got incontrovertible evidence that Wall Street has moved into this cartel-type brand of criminality. […]
The dignity of the office
There are roles the political leader of a country plays that are non-political. They are a task of the office rather than the office-holder. A prime minister responding to a national emergency, for instance, or representing our country in times of grief or alarm. John Key does these well, in my opinion. His everyman, guy-next-door […]
What a strange coincidence [Updated]
Let’s just put a pin in this and come back to it later … Ms Boag, as well as all recipients of the email – including Ms Collins, ACC chief executive Ralph Stewart and Mr Judge – have denied leaking the email. But Ms Collins told the Herald last night that the email from Ms […]
John Banks ‘absolutely’ supports campaign donation law reform. With a straight face!
Following up on Laughing all the way to the Banks …
The Simon Lusk stigma?
In defence of the National Party’s right to determine WHO holds positions of influence in the Party, and to exclude those it sees as ‘negative’… It seems the judgement by those in the National Party higher echelons that Hawkes Bay’s Simon Lusk is a Danger To The Party persists. I mentioned earlier that leaked National […]
Laughing all the way to the Banks
‘Insufficient evidence’ From one Banksy to another — Police have decided they won’t prosecute ACT Party leader and sole MP John Banks for [alleged] electoral law offences relating to him improperly declaring tens of thousands of dollars of campaign donations as ‘anonymous’ when he’d personally solicited those very donations … because they can’t prove he […]
Corrosion
Two unrelated (except that they’re comments about American poltiicians) excerpts from articles that jumped out at me recently. As they do. First, from What if he’d made it earlier? David Runciman’s (London Review of Books) review of the latest instalment in Robert Caro’s epic record of LBJ The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Vol. IV: The […]
Trust us …
No further comment necessary. – P
Deploying his establishment charms
Andrew Gimson, writing in The Guardian, displays a decent, honourable amount of cynicism (in my opinion) describing the efforts British Tory PM David Cameron exerted to try to ‘hose down’ his obviously-cosy-to-the-point-of-symbiotic relationship with News International’s Rebekah Brooks standing in for Murdoch. Her text (SMS message) with words to the effect of ‘professionally we’re in […]
Blind trust? Hang on, isn’t that a ruse?
I was part of a brief Twitter conversation about the use of trusts to keep assets out of the clutches of creditors which included this … @badtom “I want to slap their tax-dodging babyboomer snobfaces.” Fine epithet. There are less foul reasons to establish a trust @keith_ng — Peter Aranyi (@onThePaepae) June 11, 2012 “I […]
Two good US politics reads
Steve Schmidt (former McCain campaign manager) A Career Resurrected After McCain and Palin – New York Times 8 June 2012 Woodward and Bernstein: 40 years after Watergate, Nixon was far worse than we thought – The Washington Post 9 June 2012 Worth reading, and if you’re like me, worth archiving. I’ll fold some of the […]
Nicky Hager – The Hollow Men under the covers
By coincidence, I saw this brief interview between Nicky Hager and Finlay Macdonald on TVNZ7’s The Good Word today. Having just referred to the book (see Hollow Man Matthew Hooton recites his creed), I found it interesting, as well as the revelation that defensive PR tactics (‘leaked material’ vs ‘stolen material’) were quite effective, judging […]
Ambition, self-selection and brainless tribalism. Bleurgh!
I’ve been thinking about the subject of deceit in politics and the sad idea that the voting public ‘expects’ a certain amount of spin and marketing (BS) in its political diet. I posted this comment in discussion about my musings about tribalism ‘National’s desperados get perfervid about Peters‘ before last year’s election: I usually enjoy […]
‘Earning’ your enemies
Earlier, I quoted from Margaret Pope’s elegant book At The Turning Point: My political life with David Lange. I heard the author interviewed by Radio NZ National’s erudite Kathyrn Ryan when the book was published 1 where Ms Pope answered (beautifully) a query about the enmity she’d attracted from Michael Bassett: …There are some things […]
Hollow Man Matthew Hooton recites his creed
Featuring extensive quotes from National Party sources, Nicky Hager’s The Hollow Men: A study in the politics of deception exposed and excoriated a cynical, deceptive team of politicians, spin doctors, professional deceivers and behind-the-scenes, shadowy political donors seeking political influence and ‘policy for sale’ — some of whom, judging by results, are still very much […]
