Explore the archive
Find articles and conversations by date, subject or search expression.
Searching: posts Sorted by: newest Results: 4,051–4,080 of 4,429
Post
Wow, so that's John Key's announcement: he's ambitious. I know I said he'd be short on substance, but maybe that was giving him too much credit. I also couldn't help noticing Key's production crew used some footage from his ill-fated expedition to the Porirua Markets.…
Post
John Key has now been leader of the National Party for a year. But while his salesman's smile and general novelty factor have pulled him through to date, talk around the gallery is that he's gone off the boil a bit lately. His profile has…
Post
Just came across this video on YouTube from last week's rally in Wellington against the Electoral Finance Bill. This clip has one of the counter-protesters giving an impressive off-the-cuff speech on why the Bill is needed. Given the anti-EFB crowd's only line of attack was…
Post
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…
Post
It's a bit late, but a reader who was at yesterday's anti-EFB march has mailed us through some pics from the rally. As David Farrar has noted, the protest march was joined by a small group of activists in John Key and Mr Burns masks…
Post
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…
Post
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…
Post
The Dom reports that "A father who spanked his eight-year-old son... for misbehaving... is one of the first to be convicted of assault under the law against smacking". As expected, all the usual suspects are up in arms, including Family First national director Bob McCroskrie,…
Post
From Kiwiblog: Okay just got back from the march. Didn't quite go as I envisioned. You see while I have promoted the march here, I'm not one of the organisers and my involvement was purely to stroll along at the back, and see how it…
Post
The Hysteria- with a capital H- over at Kiwiblog around the Electoral Finance Bill has been mystifying for many of us in blogland. Sure David Farrar is a key National Party figure, and is no doubt worried that the Bill will mean his party will…
Post
There's a new new Roy Morgan poll out and it's not good news for Labour. Gary Morgan says: "The recent plunge in support for the Labour Party follows the mishandling of the domestic terrorism case with the October 15 arrests of Maori activists in Ruatoki.…
Post
From Boing Boing: Furries get no respect. Usually, when you hear about people who dress up like life-sized stuffed animals, it's in the context of an unfriendly internet joke, a sex gag on Entourage, or an insult that ends with "yiff in hell." But Brooklyn-based…
Post
Miro - a free, opensource video platform has recently been released. It's a piece of software that allows you to download, manage, and watch video content and it runs on Microsoft Window, Mac OS X and Linux. Their pitch is "Miro: turn your computer into…
Post
Someone just sent me this blog readability test. It cl/aims to tell you what level of education is required to read your blog/website/myspace page. Here at The Standard we scored "College (undergrad)", as did Kiwiblog. The real interest was the Party sites though. Depending on…
Post
The reason for National Party Kiwiblogger David Farrar's obsession with megaphones is now clear. It's about electioneering speech, and the logic goes like this. The Electoral Finance Bill prohibits election advertising "in any form of words" unless published with a name and address. So if…
Post
Fortunately we have a government that's prepared to act on climate change rather than gamble with the future. Nevertheless here's an interesting take on the importance of a meaningful response to climate change based on everybody's favourite PHIL101 poser: Pascal's Wager. He's also done a…
Post
Stuff reports that "Key non-political critics have welcomed changes to the Government's electoral finance reforms." Both the Human Rights Commission and Coalition for Open Government are pleased with the revisions to the Electoral Finance Bill. Coalition spokesman Steven Price said the changes were a great…
Post
Now we know why Kiwiblog wants the Electoral Finance Bill killed - it could cost Farrar money! Kiwiblog "has some significant advertising lined up" which may be "at serious risk". Certainly, Kiwiblog is a dyed-in-blue-wool National Party supporter. Kiwiblog also goes on a rave about…
Post
The Electoral Finance Bill is back from Select Committee and can be downloaded here [PDF, 500k]. It's huge and will take a bit of time to digest, but it doesn't look like there are any major surprises. The overly broad definition of election advertising has…
Post
It's interesting to see National is attacking Peter Davis, the PM's husband, over a letter he wrote to the NZ Herald about the Electoral Finance Bill. Apparently Peter Davis - a respected university professor - is not entitled to views of his own and is…
Post
Granny's campaign against the Electoral Finance Bill started with a bang and ended with a whimper. On Monday there was a banner headline "Democracy under attack", complete with a front page editorial, a fuzzy picture of a masked woman, and a serpent cartoon. By Friday…
Post
The Dom Post reports that: National's support slid from 50 to 45 per cent in a Fairfax Media-Nielsen poll released today. Labour jumped four to 40 per cent from Fairfax's September poll, close to the 41 per cent it scored in the 2005 election. There…
Post
If we needed any more reason not to let National take us back to the 90s, I think this might be it. Via nznationalparty on flickr.
Post
Spotted yesterday in the Westin Hotel in Auckland's Viaduct Basin by our orbiting surveillance satellite & Don Brash in a job interview line. Could it be he's going for the now vacant National Party general manager's job? Steven Joyce and Jo de Joux, also of…
Post
Dodgy online polls seem to be becoming a staple of political reporting here in New Zealand. The story earlier this week on poll "hacking" sent me in search of an insightful opinion I'd heard previously. So today, we have a guest author on The Standard…
Post
In perhaps his strongest signal yet to potential coalition partners, John Key has set his Facebook 'Looking for' status to "Whatever I can get". Puzzled by the phrase "Whatver I can get" I looked it up in the urban dictionary: "A phrase popularly used on…
Post
Esteemed Tory Brit-econ-pop-enviro-guru Nigel Lawson, Lord of Blaby, dad of Nigella, is not bonkers. Lord Blaby (Ed: shurely not? Wot? It is true?), who is visiting New Zealand, allegedly to attend a Business Roundtable party, told TVNZ's Breakfast that the world could adjust to global…
Post
How's this for small-minded prejudice from National Party backbencher Kate Wilkinson in a press release today complaining about the $84,000 dollars for a Labour Dept to help provide health and safety training for Chinese coal miners: Ms Wilkinson says Kiwi taxpayers will clearly be surprised…
Post
Paris Hilton doesn't help drunk elephants I haven't read the article yet, and I don't think I will. With a headline like that who needs to?
Post
Granny Herald wants to run a campaign against the Electoral Finance Bill when it doesn't understand the Electoral Act. Worse, because it doesn't understand the Act it makes assertions that are neither true to the law or in line with the facts. So it keeps…