Stewart vs. Fox
When will conservative commentators stop picking fights with Jon Stewart? It never ends well for them.
International
us politics
If smiles equaled FTAs Key wouldn’t be a do nothing PM
Journos. Obama didn’t meet Key before dinner on a big stage in front of the media because it was just practical. The leaders didn’t stand with awkward grins for the group photo because it was a crucial step in the diplomatic process. This is being done for you. Only you. It is meaningless apart from the fact they know the media will lap it up. They think you’re saps. And you keep proving them right.
NZ should be a proud world leader on nukes
How wonderful it is to have a US President that rejects the evil of nuclear weapons. Finally the world is catching up with us. While the powers were locked in the stand-off of Mutually Assured Destruction, New Zealand rejected the madness of that logic and we declared ourselves nuclear-free. Our Prime Minister should be celebrating that fact and pointing to our achievement as a model for the whole world.
Nuke free US ships already welcome
Geoffrey Palmer needs a holiday. It’s bad enough that he’s acting as the mouthpiece for John Key’s pro-whaling policy that has the Japanese applauding and our allies shaking their heads in dismay. Now, he’s saying we should allow visits by US naval vessels. If the US wants to send navy ships for a visit then all it has to do is what other nuclear powers like the UK do: confirm that the vessels it sends don’t breach our country’s laws. Is that too much to ask?
The Waihopai spy base
The Waihopai spy base is very much in the news. Last month the Waihopai Three were acquitted of charges, provoking a storm of controversy (and congratulations). Yesterday came the news that the Government is considering further action against the three. There was also a “very unusual” statement about the role of Waihopai from the GCSB. Who to believe?
Obama delivers change
It has taken nearly a year and cost President Obama a lot of his popularity, thanks to the spineless behaviour of many House […]
Crossbreed a dumb mistake with wingnuts
An amusing tale of how Rush Limbaugh screws up, and a pile of wingnuts immediately jump to the wrong conclusions.
American wingnuts at their most ridiculous. But we have the angry and irrational breed here as well.
Financial regulation in USA?
The recent recession represented a spectacular failure of unfettered capitalism. One of the main causes in America was a picking apart of financial regulations. This allowed the “innovative” products and practices that brought the system down. Perhaps America has learned the lesson. A new Democratic proposal outlines “the biggest overhaul of regulations since the New Deal”.
Corporation to run for US Congress
Following the recent Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission to allow unlimited corporate funding of federal campaigns, Murray Hill […]
Obama’s State of the Nation
I suspect more than one reader of the Standard would have been glued to the live stream yesterday of Obama’s state of the […]
Massachusetts not about health care
I’m getting a bit sick of commentary suggesting Republican Scott Brown’s victory in the Massachusetts Senate race was a thumbs down for Obama’s […]
A fighting Left
This live performance on CNN by Congressman Alan Grayson gives me some hope for the American Left. Unlike nearly every other Democrat I […]
Political debate done right
The last video I posted had Democratic Congressman Barney Frank taking the fight to a woman in the audience of a townhall meeting […]
The F word
It probably isn’t possible to have rational discussion about the F word. It has been trivialised by overuse as a meaningless term of […]
Truly ambitious for America
America faces a hell of a lot of problems at the moment, but if there’s one man with the ability to inspire and […]
Go the Yanks!
So we’ve got a government of incompetents, ideologues, and sloths. At least things are going better in America. The Democrats now have a […]
Imagine
I grew up in the long shadow of the Cuban Missile Crisis (you youngsters can go look it up). I have never quite […]
Obama makes world safer, already
In response to U.S. President Barack Obama’s review of the proposed U.S. missile defence system in Eastern Europe, Russia is scrapping plans to […]
Hanging up on Barack
According to the BBC: US Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen thought she was being hoaxed when a man who sounded a lot like Barack Obama […]
Obama launches weekly YouTube address
US election thread
Ok, so all the action can be followed on the US sites but I’ll set up this post for comments you might like […]
Daily Show on Fox
Jon Stewart looks at some recent clips from Fox News on the American presidential race. Just incredible.
No one likes McCain
Ever wondered what would happen if the whole world could vote for the President of the United States? According to The Economist’s online […]
Video: Why vote? Watch this
We’ve seen the work of Declare Yourself before. Their message is aimed at voters in the US but the call to engage and […]
Jessica Alba says “Declare Yourself”
Some commentators have pondered whether an election in NZ so close to the election in the States should be a concern for Labour. […]
On grounds of race or trust?
Regular Standard readers will know I like to keep an eye out on what’s happening in the States (where the arte of politic$s […]
Daily Show on Baracknophobia
Hat tip: onegoodmove.org
Obama clinches nomination
Thank God that’s over.
Scott McClellan on the Daily Show
Last night on the Daily Show Jon Stewart interviewed Scott McClellan, the former White House press secretary who has come out and accused […]
Too stupid for words
I’m not usually big on the Bush-bashing, but this is classic: Say what you like about Reagan, at least the dude could read […]
Viva Obama
Following a_y_b’s post about the deliciously punny Yes, Pecan! ice cream, we’ve found some more Obama-flavoured silliness which is also, incidentally, the best […]