Search Results » farrar
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The right’s weird obsession with Darien Fenton
Darien Fenton makes a mean comment about a celebrity butcher on facebook and then apologises for it and offers to shout him a drink to make up for it.
No big deal? Well according to some hysterical righties that makes Fenton worse than Hitler.
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Diverse hypocrites
National is the party of middle aged white guys, but according to their chief spinster we shouldn’t care…
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Jackel: NBR’s hack job on Hone lambasted
The establishment elite know Hone Harawira is their greatest foe. That’s why they try to besmirch him again and again, including by claiming he called Osama Bin Laden a freedom fighter and mourned his death? Now, the Press Council has ruled that the NBR’s Bin Laden article purposely misrepresented and maligned Hone.
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Envy or greed? – follow the money.
At National’s conference John Key accused Labour of the “politics of envy”. Peter Goodfellow told delegates they had more money for this campaign than ever before. National’s coffers will be bulging because of their assets sales policy. Labour wanting to keep assets publicly owned for everyone’s benefit is not at all about envy.
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Compassionate conservatism
Fran O’Sullivan reveals her softer side today. No, she’s not against National’s benefit cuts for the unemployed, the sick, and invalids. Nor against cutting the wages of the 103,000 working 15-19 year olds on the half-baked premise that will create more jobs. But leave single mums alone, she says, because she had one. It reminds me of something I saw on the Daily Show.
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In search of a justification
Farrar and others of the Right push for ever lower taxes, but their arguments are laughably flimsy. Tax cuts don’t raise revenue. Tax cuts don’t cause growth. In search of their “superior moral justification for selfishness” the Right are going to have to do a lot better than that…
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No debate for Hampden
National pollster David Farrar wants scientists to debate a fake Lord climate change denier saying “Why should anyone listen to people unwilling to debate?”. Well, David, next time you’re giving your polling report to the Kitchen Cabinet, tell them that. Because National is refusing to participate in coming debate on their asset sales policy.
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The violent right
The kind of racist right wing opinions held by the Norway shooter are shared by quite a few New Zealand bloggers and commenters. Many of the same bloggers are now claiming the massacre is somehow the Left’s fault. We should be concerned that there are people with such hatred and self-delusion among us.
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Yet more dodgy Nat numbers
If you’re a blogosphere regular, you’ll have noticed that recently every monkey with a copy of the Fountainhead and a crush on John Key has been spouting the line that the top 10% of taxpayers pay 71% of net tax. Sounds incredible, eh? That’s because it’s not credible. It’s more cheap tricks from the Nats.
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Labour capital gains tax rumours
The buzz around the traps is that Labour will be announcing a capital gains tax next week. The journos are already calling it a bold move and John Key is ranting hysterically. That Labour’s winning the media battle is great but, more importantly, this is a much needed policy: it is fair, it is good for the economy, and it will pay for good policies.
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Case for capital gains tax builds
In the Herald today, Mark Lister says the lack of investment in the productive economy is due to the favourable tax treatment of housing. On Thursday, Brian Fallow wrote how Kiwis are being shut out of home ownership by investors who see capital gain from housing as an easy win, and workers’ taxes effectively subsidise property investors who pay none.
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Bait and Switch – to SM
Good piece in today’s Herald by John Armstrong focussing on Vote for Change declaring that they are not in favour of any particular form of electoral system at this stage. He doesn’t find it believable, and nor do I. His take is that “Vote for Change looks very much like the National Party Preservation Society in drag.” I agree. I think they have a classic bait and switch strategy, it involves Key, and we should not take it lightly.
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(Another) Tory astroturf fail
The latest anti-MMP outfit is already unraveling with Pundit’s Rob Salmond uncovering the fact it’s basically the Peter Shirtcliffe club.
It’s a surprisingly clumsy effort. Especially given David Farrar provided strategic advice.
I guess he’s not learned any lessons from his previous PR fiascos…
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Labour to entrench SOEs
Phil Goff has just announced that Labour is putting up a private members’ bill to entrench SOEs. This would mean they could only be sold either with 75% support of Parliament, or with majority support in a referendum. Great Stuff. These are our assets. They should not be sold without our permission.
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Scaremongering on credit cards
The Nats’ blogging poodles are still trying to spread disinformation about credit card details (we have the proof). Are they just stupid, or do they know they’re spreading lies? Either way it amounts to the same thing, they are deliberately trying to upset innocent members of the public. The usual scummy tactics.
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The silence of the poodles
National’s first dirty tricks operation of the 2011 election campaign has ended in an embarrassing own goal. But they’ll be back with more of the same. Because the last thing National wants is an election campaign focused on the issues.
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Broadcasting allocations
No Right Turn asks an interesting set of questions about the state allocation of broadcast media time.
“..if we think TV and radio broadcasting is so influential that it must be restricted to produce a level playing field between parties – which I agree with – why do we allocate it so it produces the opposite?”
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Anti-MMP cabal rumbled
National Party pollster David Farrar is to be campaign strategist for an anti-MMP campaign. He’s joined by Nat ‘campaign manager for hire’ Simon Lusk who did the work on the Brash coup, and Jordan Williams a former Young Nat also involved in the Brash coup. I assume the campaign material will have National Party logos on it.
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John Key’s shakey government
The Nats have ‘soft-launched’ via Kiwiblog and Whaleoil that Rodney Hide and John Boscawen will both lose their portfolios and ACT will have no ministers. Farrar points out this will benefit ACT’s taxpayer funding to the tune of $130,000, which is somehow sweet while spending $500,000 on a by-election to get a mandate is a serious crime.
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ACT: bought by the Nats for a song
The Left are rubbing our hands with glee at the prospect of taking on BrashKey, but make no mistake, Key wanted this coup too. Think about it: former Nat Leader Don Brash, former Nat Minister John Banks, Nat money man Alan Gibbs, former Nat President Michelle Boag – and it goes down while John Key is far away playing smile and wave in Europe.
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Nats try to warn off Brash
Tweedledum and Tweedledee were a bit slow off the mark responding to the news that Don Brash is looking to take over ACT. Took the Nats a while to get their lines together but have decided, on balance, they want ACT dead. And that will be a lot easier to achieve if Brash isn’t in charge.
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What is important to voters?
DPF reckons “that issues of policy are less important to voters than issues of competence”. What an impoverished view of democracy! Perhaps he should look a little deeper than last week’s poll…
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“Politics of envy”
National Party blogger David Farrar is whining about the “politics of envy”.
He seems to think we shouldn’t be mean to Key because he’s rich and making us poor.
Cry me a river.
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Whambulance needed for P North Nats
National’s Palmerston North candidate, Leonie Hapeta, is having a cry because the Labour MP, Iain Lees-Galloway, and supporters had an anti-asset sales demonstration that happened to be outside her hotel. It’s one thing for a n00b like Hapeta to cry about politics but surprising that Farwhaa and Wail-oil joined her.
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Elitist Nats divorced from everyday Kiwis
National pollster David Farrar reckons that its sweet for the elite to spend $100 a head on meals at the taxpayer’s expense. Same time as he’s sneering at a woman struggling to get by feeding four people on $200 a week. This is National’s New Zealand. The best for the elite. Cat food for the rest.
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Even DPF attacking government’s urgency
The Herald reports that National party blogger David Farrar and Grant Robertson have spoken out against the government’s misuse of urgency and its bypassing of the select committee process.
Ironically the call comes as the government jams more bad legislation through under the cover of urgency.
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Leadership rumours: Foreshore Bill passed
The latest media frenzy about a Phil Goff coup is rapidly dying down. The Government passed some controversial legislation in double-quick time with little coverage and somebody made a killing on iPredict. Coincidence?
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Hughes stood down
Darren Hughes has been suspended from his shadow portfolios due to the continuing police investigation. Goff probably should have done this earlier, despite the understandable wariness of a leader can’t punish an MP on the strength of a complaint alone. As Key did with Wong and Worth, Goff has waited until the media issue became too big.
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Truly Stranded
One of the names that the self-inflated blogs who consider themselves to be the “taste police” give us is the unimaginative juvenile name of The Stranded. Typically this is when they are writing a silly post trying to tell us why we should think like them (I guess everyone is entitled to a unrealistic dream). Anyway I thought I’d give them some real bad taste to moan about in a Friday Fun post (warning – written in the Cactus Kate style).
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Football news
New Zealand has won the rights to host the U20 Football World Cup in 2015.
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Anarchy to the rescue in Chch
Farrar says it’s ‘ghastly’ to discuss how to pay for rebuilding Christchurch, since the obvious answer is by reversing the tax cuts rich people like him have pocketed. Well, I think how the poor eastern suburbs of Christchurch have been ignored is ghastly. Fortunately, resilient communities are organising themselves, without government.
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Trends good for Left, much work to do
It can be depressing to see a week of the government on the ropes and then polls showing National with an apparently commanding lead. But lets go beyond the shallow analysis offered by the talking heads and look at the trends. The Left has more than halved the Right’s lead since its peak. The question is: can the Left close the remaining gap in time?
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Re-imagining Danyl’s special theory of Key
Over at Dimpost, Danyl wrote an interesting piece after seeing the video of John Key in the House saying that if Kiwi families find themselves needing to go to foodbanks it is their fault. That nasty moment, Danyl thought, explained the disconnect between how the political Left and the general public perceives Key. Actually, it’s just the surface.
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Davey’s dodgy polling
There’s long been doubt over the quality of David Farrar’s Curia polling company. Now, Tim Watkin has produced a first-hand report of Curia’s questioning. The tone of the questions is biased, which is really dumb if you’re trying to get useful data. It’s not really push polling, it’s Farrar delivering what the Nats want to hear to maintain his standing in the party.
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The amazing disappearing blog
Wednesday, Farrar posts a link to a new blog, ‘Whowuddathort‘, running Goff smears and Key-love. – That evening, ‘someone’ posts a comment: “National Research Unit material, anyone?” – Thursday, another comment: “is fisking the standard parliamentary business? – Minutes later: Whowuddathort’ blog disappears.
