Posts by Craig Ranapia
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Hard News: Last Words, in reply to ,
I think Craig got it right when he described The Greens leaders as impersonating competent adults.They seem to have painted a glossy picture.
OK, Steve, I do get that nothing less than Russell Norman taking a live shit on a photo of John Key is going to satisfy some people. I’ve certainly heard various Labour proxies running the “a vote for the Greens is a vote for National” line with bugger all cut through.
Back on planet Earth, I’m a lot more comfortable with the possibility of the Greens acting as a moderating influence on National than Labour hoping Winston and Hone are both in a good mood at any given moment.
Despite the lowest turnout in decades, National gets enough votes to govern alone. This gives them a ‘mandate’, ‘political capital’ and ‘full-on boners’ and they’ll proceed to fuck the country for the next three years.
FFS, James - so you're going to try using turn out to delegitimate any National-led government? Well, fine - if the turnout is more than 50% and National secures more than 49% of that, you will accept that Key is more legit than Len Brown?
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Craig you are a complex man…Green party vote as they are the stable coalition party that National need?
I'm not 100% down with the policy agenda, but Russell Norman and Metiria Turei are doing better impersonations of competent grown-ups (and the idea of being an effective check and balance) than Doctor No and his ghost chips front bench.
And, frankly, it's been disturbing watching people who should know a lot better swooning over Winston Peters like a pack of Twi-twits trapped in a lift with Taylor Lautner.
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Good Lord, if DPF’s latest hysterical attack on Winston Peters isn’t proof NZ First is over the 5% threshold according to National’s internal polling I don’t know what is.
It could also be a very reliably indication that Peters has a blindingly obvious track record of being a divisive, toxic and unreliable presence in every government he's been a part of. Just to throw a crazy idea out there.
We need to seriously address issues of real, organic democracy in this country, from how to re-create mass-participation political parties to reform of the media, party funding and lobbying laws. Otherwise, we will are on a path to revist the 1930s when democracy was seen as discredited in the light of economic crisis and political failure and people will seek other political structures to replace it.
Since I doubt Russell wants to have to charge up the cattle prod of loving correction today, I'll just say I find your analogy fundamentally flawed.
The Nats have gone pretty hard on trying to roll Lees-Galloway but it has been so long between drinks for them that you have to wonder about how much real chance they have but they got to within 1,000 vote last time.
As I understand it, boundary changes have made Palmerston North more marginal on paper - but I think National would be pretty pleased if Leonie Hapeta shaved Lees-Galloway's majority back to three figures and won the party vote.
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Hard News: Last Words, in reply to Russell Brown,
Well, I think some policies aren’t well-considered. The Broadcasting policy is a missed opportunity,
And the Arts, Culture and Heritage policy seemed to think us arty-farties are a pack of size queens who'd be too impressed by twelve pages to notice that there wasn't an actual hard commitment in the damn thing. Think I'm just biased? Hamish Keith wasn't whelmed either; and we both thought Chris Finlayson fronted an equally no-weight policy from National.
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Hard News: Last Words, in reply to Tom Semmens,
The day after Goff was made leader of the Labour Party the media decided Labour was going to be humiliated in 2011,
You know what, Tom, I’m not going to slap you around for buying into that bullshit because I was every bit as deep in the river denial the day before the 2002 election. It’s not pretty to watch, but will pass.
What isn’t going to be pretty, I suspect, is certain elements in Labour who going to try and build a Dolchstoßlegende around those awful Greens and Maori Party supporters (**FULL DISCLOSURE**: The Greens got my party vote. Got a problem with that? Tell someone who gives a shit - that ain't me.) and any left-leaning person who dared criticise Labour on any front. Heretics are always more contemptible than infidels, I guess.
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Testy
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Hard News: The Solemnity of the Day, in reply to Russell Brown,
The EC is feeling its way and it needs to rethink the way it frames its message – which deep down is basically that we should observe the spirit of the law – but people there genuinely are trying to apply the law with which they are presented.
Sure - and I think try to apply legislation to new media that didn't exist when it was framed is always going to be the proverbial square peg, round hole deal. But crapping on civil servants who have to work with what they've got, as best they can, is out of order.
FFS, people, your guy’s gonna win – try and show at least a scrap of grace.
Hard to argue with - as I've often said, little worse than a sore winner. But there's also the element of respecting democracy even - especially - when the outcome is not to your liking. Chris Trotter's sour, patronising "fuck you, loser National-voters" post-election tantrum in the SST three years back was unedifying. To put it politely.
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Muse: Indecision '11: Fighting the Grey, in reply to Kumara Republic,
I’m nominally a model minority in the eyes of reactionary elements, yet I’ve never personally identified with the stereotype.
I've also heard “model minority” from alleged progressives who are far too enlightened to let 'Uncle Tom' or 'house nigger' pass their lips, but still want to slap down people who don't meet their standards of ethnic correctness. Screw that – lacking the courage of your nastiness doesn’t make you nice.
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Just for a laugh, The Standard is already trying to undermine any result not to their liking - along with a epically classy attack on the Electoral Commission
And finally we have an Electoral Commission that really seems to be losing the plot a bit. Apparently (this just in from comments) even discussing the weather on election day could get you in to trouble if there is any link (implied link?) to voter behaviour. An election under a cloud indeed.
Perhaps The Standardistas could try not pissing on the people whose job it is to apply legislation (and do a damn good job, IMNSHO) and direct their bile at the people who write it? Just sayin'...
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Muse: Indecision '11: Fighting the Grey, in reply to Rich Lock,
There is a follow-up story in this weeks Aucklander.
Very welcome it is too, for the most part. Still, would have been responsible of The Aucklander to provide a more balanced, fact-based story in the first place. And this still is as depressing as it is unsurprising.
Grey Power's national president, Roy Reid, says that as long as Mr Rayner consulted the association, he had the right to make the submission.
"Bill was highlighting that in 30 years Auckland is going to be an Asian town. All he's asking for is a discussion, there's no harm in that."
Well, Roy, there's plenty of harm to the credibility of your organisation when submissions are made in its name that contain fundamental factual inaccuracies, and racist sentiments many of your own members want to publicly disassociate themselves from. Just ask the EMA...
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