Blog Bits
July 4th, 2008 at 9:07 am by David FarrarThe Hive quotes from the Wall Street Journal on how Obama is adopting Bush’s policies. He’s gone to the centre on gun cuntrol, on wiretappaing and now embraced faith-based initiatives. He’s also defended General Petraeus, started to embrace free trade and welfare reform.
We await Obama’s announcement to stay in Iraq and invade Iran.
Frog Blog has a copy of Labour’s script for responding to questions in the House from National:
- Attack National for hidden agenda
- Talk about how bad things were in the 1990s and how most problems today stem from that
- Comment on the questioner’s intelligence or physical appearance
- Shake with outrage at having one’s authority questioned (Some minsters can pull of this act better than others)
- Change the topic
- Insult Gerry Brownlee
- Await a patsy from the back benches where you get to laugh at something stupid a National Party MP said at some point in their history.
- Try a little bit more outraged shaking.
Therese Arseneau at TVNZ asks and answers the question of how reliable are opinion polls:
Tags: Barack Obama, Frog Blog, Labour, Polls, Satire, The Hive, Therese ArseneauLabour says a 95% confidence interval means one poll in 20 may be a “rogue poll”. This term is misleading. A 95% confidence interval simply means one poll in 20 may produce a result outside the stated margin of error – and it could be just 0.1% outside. But the chance of all three polls being outside at the same time is more like 1 in 8,000 – statistically possible but highly improbable. …
July 4th, 2008 at 9:12 am
This from the Heraldic Tribune (USA) today http://www.iht.com/
“Hot on the heels of the latest scandal to rock New Zealander John Key’s Prime Ministerial ambitions, is the breaking news that he has admitted (in code) to being in the pay of American Right Wing Evangelists. One only has to scan the email (http://www.trademe.co.nz/Antiques-collectables/Documents-maps/Documents/auction-138196321.htm) he is alleged to have written to the Exclusive Brethren during the last election to see the pieces of the puzzle fall together. Using the ‘Beale Cipher’ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beale_ciphers which it is almost impossible to crack unless you have the code for it, it has been asserted that Key’s messages to the EB were in fact coded messages to Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, a far-Right American Organisation who regularly advises the Bush Administration. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Perkins_(politician) Aspects of the broken code indicate that Key has instructed Bush, through Perkins to “End the War in Iraq, so that I’ll look clever.”
John Minto has suggested that ‘Key first was courted by Jimmy Swaggart while he was in New York in teh nineties, so that proves he’s corrupted by shadowy big-business figures.’
The email also attempts to interfere with other aspects of US foreign Policy by telling Condaleeza Rice ‘Not to talk to Winston – he’s an alcho…’ but here the message tails off.
Here are some excerpts from the Brethren email:
For the purposes of all future correspondence (I) shall be referred to as ‘John The Baptist’ and you guys as ‘The Man Upstairs’. Any reference to the Government will be under the obliquely coded cipher ‘The Romans’ cash will henceforth be referred to as ‘manna (sic). The National Party as ‘The Messiah’. The election shall be referred to as ‘Armageddon Time’. Voters will be referred to as ‘souls’ and ticks in boxes as ‘pops’….’
It is thought that the final sentence indicates that Key has already signed a secret treaty with Bush to allow nuclear warplanes to be stationed at Whenuapai Airport, which would explain his recent interference with the airport’s restructuring. This latest damning link to the American Right can only further serve to embarrass Key who is already on the ropes over the receipt of ‘manna’ during the last election.”
Lee – Monkey with Typewriter
Vote:July 4th, 2008 at 9:13 am
(http://www.trademe.co.nz/Antiques-collectables/Documents-maps/Documents/auction-138196321.htm)
Her’s the damning evidence! John Key is evil [click] John Key is Evil [click]…
sorry
Vote:July 4th, 2008 at 9:16 am
I haven’t heard Labour answer an oral question in years. And NZs worst ever Madam Speaker does nothing. Zip. Waste of space, waste of air. Out they all go. Chop chop.
Vote:July 4th, 2008 at 9:21 am
It was all too predictable he’d change his language on NAFTA once he had the nomination. I do recall the outrage at the time over Hillary’s supposed “pandering” on that issue. He’s also adopting her health reform policies.
It’s not quite accurate to say he’s “embraced” Bush’s faith-based initiatives – he’s looking at making some important tweaking. But his religiousness is pretty genuine.
But there does seem to be a great deal of fretting in some quarters over Obama’s apparent repositioning towards the centre. I think that shows a complete misunderstanding of his policies, they were always typical of the mainstream centre-left whatever the nutroots thought.
Although I disagree with Robert Dreyfuss’s views on Obama’s foreign policy, his article in The Nation is well-informed. His presidency will most likely look a lot like that of Bill Clinton’s in this area – which would be great – even without a comparison with GWB.
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080721/dreyfuss
Vote:July 4th, 2008 at 9:49 am
I wonder if some of our self-professed Green voters will cite this post as evidence that Frogblog is part of the ‘Kiwiblog Right’?
Vote:July 4th, 2008 at 9:59 am
Look- pulling out of Iraq is such a dumb idea for so many reasons that even dipshit Obama will have to concede its is the wrong course of action. The rest of the left?? Too dumb. They’ll probably never concede it.
Vote:July 4th, 2008 at 10:00 am
“gun CUNTrol?” Wow, Freudian or what???
Vote:July 4th, 2008 at 10:40 am
How could frogblog be part of a bunch of kiwibloggers?
Vote:July 4th, 2008 at 10:44 am
stephen – just saying that on past form any criticism of Labour, no matter how slight or well-intentioned has teended to be dismissed as part of a right-wing conspiracy -s ometimes labelled ‘Farrar’s kiwiblog right’ but now even FrogBlog appears to be asking questions of Labour. So are they, by their own prior definition, now part of the ‘Kiwiblog right’?.
Vote:July 4th, 2008 at 11:00 am
Hope people read the “when a question comes from another party that Labour sees as a coalition partner or potential coalition partner” list too.
Seems to me that Frogblog dumps on Labour often enough, but mostly for being too ‘pragmatic’ on a lot of issues (esp environmental ones), and for basically being too similar to the Nats, hence the sometimes-use of ‘LabNats’. I’m sure frog would have a bit more to say on this if he/she turns up on this one though…
I think the ‘Kiwiblog Right’ is more of a catch-all for the group of more rabid right-wing posters who also use ‘Klark’, who think everything they don’t like is a socialist conspiracy, who are correct whether they have an argument or not, make violent threats against socialists/hippies etc etc more than anyone who is simply ‘right wing’. Sonic, roger et al who just come out swinging on everything might be deserving of a nickname one day too…
Vote:July 4th, 2008 at 11:23 am
There’s a distinction between the right and the kiwiblog right, I gather.
Vote: