October 2011

The 1968 ad “Laughter” – Hubert Humprhey’s attack ad on Spiro Agnew.

Spiro Agnew was unknown on the national stage when Richard Nixon selected him as his running mate in 1968. Just six years earlier, Agnew won his first political office, as Baltimore County supervisor. He became the governor of Maryland in 1966. During a floor fight over his nomination at the Republican convention, some delegates ridiculed him, yelling “Spiro Who?” This ad also makes fun of Agnew, but suggests that his election would be no laughing matter. The ad was created by Tony Schwartz, best known for his work on the “Daisy Girl” commercial for Lyndon Johnson in 1964. Schwartz, who created more than 20,000 radio and TV commercials, was also a sound recordist and archivist, known as “The Wizard of Sound.” In the memorable soundtrack to this ad, the uncontrollable laughter at the notion of Agnew as vice president turns into a painful cough, which serves as witty punctuation. This is one of the rare examples of humor in a presidential campaign ad.

You have to laugh at a Labour party and a leader so desperate for relevance they ignore the previous 12 years of their party:

However Mr Goff told Radio New Zealand’s Morning Report programme the decision not to feature him “was recognition that I’m not into the cult of the personality”.

Yeah, so how about all those photoshopped images of Helen Clark, the ultimate politician who created a cult of personality.

More likely the decision to not feature Phil Goff was because of the internal focus groups that showed that even Labour voters hate Phil Goff and think John Key is the man.

Phil Goff has tried to remove personality from the campaign, mainly because he lacks one, instead however people now pick up on his photo absence and comment on the very opposite of what he and labour wanted.

from NBR: Private Bin on 28 October

Labour doesn’t want to extend the mixed ownership model any further. They call it Asset Sales and they actually lie when they say in their ads that “you can’t buy them back”. They bought back two assets in their last term in office. Air New Zealand and Kiwirail.

Air New Zealand is already in the mixed ownership model and is working well.

On the opther hand they are also going to compel compulsory superannuation. Personally I think this is a good thing. However in compelling compulsory super they are also creating a massive amount of investment money over time.

Where is that money going to go? The NZX? I doubt it. More likely under their combined policies of No Asset Sales and Compulsory Super we care going to have these massive super funds invest Kiwi workers savings in offshore companies.

By preventing the partial listing of great infrastructure assets like power companies and the like they are forcing those super funds to invest in other countries power companies.

I could be wrong here, but that is how I see it panning out. Labour is actually planning to export our savings.

Proverbs 31

⁸ Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves;
ensure justice for those being crushed.
⁹ Yes, speak up for the poor and helpless,
and see that they get justice.

Could Labour say Gay in a Foreign Aid Policy?

David Cameron can.

“Britain is now one of the premier aid givers in the world. We want to see countries that receive our aid adhering to proper human rights, and that includes how people treat gay and lesbian people,” Cameron told the BBC.

He added: “British aid should have more strings attached, in terms of do you persecute people for their faith or their Christianity, or do you persecute people for their sexuality. We don’t think that’s acceptable.”

Robertson and Chauvel can’t even say gay marriage and gay adoption. So they probably can’t say Gay Aid.

As predicted Labour and Len Brown have done a sneaky and furtive deal so Len can buy a trainset:

Labour would scrap the so-called “holiday highway” to fund the Auckland city rail link.

Announcing the party’s transport policy today, Labour leader Phil Goff said it would cancel the $1.69 billion Puhoi to Wellsford highway and dedicate $1.2b from the Land Transport Fund to the city rail link.

That funding would cover half the $2.4b cost of the rail link, with the other half to be funded by Auckland Council.

Nice one boys. With that one policy launch Labour has committed Aucklanders to massive rates rises, tolls and congestion pricing and decided to focus on passenger transport rather than clearing bottlenecks in the road transport network north of the bridge.

With Whangarei and Marsden point set to expand as the only viable deep water port near Auckland, Labour has condemned growth int he North at the expense of about 5% of Aucklanders who take the train.

Labour likes to call the Puhoi to Wellsford extension the “holiday highway”. Way to go on winning over provincial voters.

For the record, Wellsford, Whangarei, the Ports of Northland, the Bay of Islands and the Far North are important sectors for NZ. Likewise, the North of Auckland is an important growth area, if not the fastest growth area in NZs biggest city. Giving a superior connection to the Northern provinces of NZ and our biggest city and their growth areas strikes me as a good idea.

But then, such a policy wouldn’t make Jacinda Ardern electorally competitive in Auckland Central. (You may recall she stood in rural Waikato in 2008, or nowhere as Labour call it.)

No wonder that there isn’t a red seat north of the bridge.

Winston Raymond Peters, 65, pensioner of St Mary’s Bay wants to give even bigger discounts to the greedy oldies that support him:

He also told Super Gold Card holders that they would be in line for discounted power bills, cheaper doctor fees and cheaper car registration under NZ First policies.

Is there nothing that this man won’t do to get back into power? I wonder who is brown bagging him this year…we won;t know of course because Winston doesn’t declare illegal donations.

What would be good is if he could arrange the repayment of the $158,000 he nicked from parliamentary services.

• @patrickgowernz russel Norman even #
• Hippie of the Day http://t.co/qGQOuy27 #
• Someone is touchy http://t.co/FAdy0icP #
• Backwards reporting http://t.co/7bdKGx8q #
• Why do MMP supporters lie? http://t.co/xqF4lKHX #
• Winston promises the Super Super Gold card http://t.co/QL29U3Sc #
• @clarecurranmp wonder if Labour will stop using Blue State Digital lines? #
• Labour hates the provinces http://t.co/JtqmTdAL #
• Posts from Whale Oil Beef Hooked | A blog by Cameron Slater for 31/10/2011 – http://t.co/WPCW7Fd2 #
• Could Labour say Gay in a Foreign Aid Policy? http://t.co/UiEsR69T #
• Daily Proverb http://t.co/dJD8UfvG #
• Asset Sales and Compulsory Super http://t.co/Pi0wvwBz #
• Desperate Absurdity http://t.co/Adq1Ks1C #
• The Kiwi Bloggers Daily is out! http://t.co/maQDgdne ▸ Top stories today via @peter_cresswell @dpfdpf @cactuskate2 @eleludemann #
• @CactusKate2 those live chats are a farce and waste of time. Good on @johnkeypm for focussing on the things that matter. #labourishistory #
• @CactusKate2 Clark neva would have stooped to do a live chat with the plebs #
• @TrevorMallard ignoring your focus groups again. 6 years attacking Key has got you where? Oh that's right #nowhere #
• @_Antipodes_ #labourisnasty #
• @CactusKate2 #labouristhenastyparty @phil_goff said they weren't going to focus on personality and yet @TrevorMallard does nothing but #
• @TrevorMallard you are just using your Blue State Digital lines #lame #
• @TrevorMallard doesn't mean it is effective, but hey keep focusing on personality instead of policy #working #not #
• @TrevorMallard yeah so dated you keep on harping on about it, focusing on personality again #
• @Inventory2 more than $9 billion, no politician in parliament has sold more assets than Phil Goff #
• @Inventory2 @TrevorMallard @CactusKate2 no politicians in parliament has sold more assets than @phil_goff $9 billion #
• @TrevorMallard you'd borrow more #
• @TrevorMallard you can talk #hypocrite #
• @TrevorMallard only peeping toms look thru #keyholes #
• @TrevorMallard proving labour is the nasty party #
• @Inventory2 @TrevorMallard @phil_goff isn't matching the hype #
• @TrevorMallard @johnkeypm Trevor wouldn't know the truth if it hit him the face #
• @TrevorMallard @johnkeypm Clare Robinson says key slaying goff #keyholes #
• @neonw33d converstions in phone booths #
• @TrevorMallard @johnkeypm so labour would borrow more for ece? Of course you would #
• @TrevorMallard @johnkeypm labour minister spent the clean up money #
• Johanssen says key calm and assured, goff negative and losing #keyholes #
• @Inventory2 @TrevorMallard @johnkeypm or step anyone out in the corridor #
• @Inventory2 @TrevorMallard @johnkeypm or step anyone out into the corridor #
• @TrevorMallard @johnkeypm nice to see a leader that talks like us and can have a laugh #
• @TrevorMallard smile winning #keyholes #
• @TrevorMallard what would you have done? Posed for a photo in shiny shoes? #
• @phil_goff looks like a thunderbird puppet #
• @TrevorMallard @_jjw_ hope so will add some levity to proceedings #
• @TrevorMallard god you are a heartless prick #
• @Spudlabour @phil_goff his own #
• @TrevorMallard @RPamatatau labour the nasty party going after people who disagree with them, just like mad butcher #
• @phil_goff says he hasn't lied, so how about that SIS briefing? #
• @TrevorMallard all finished now has it? #
• @scottmansellnz @trevormallard @rpamatatau the list of people labour hates on is very long #
• @scottmansellnz @trevormallard @rpamatatau awful politicizing death of brave soldiers #
• @phil_goff looks like a sad, angry irrelevant man #
• @phil_goff says he made mistakes, what about his tv interview when he said he never makes mistakes, never stuffed up? #
• @TrevorMallard great finish? scored 31% #loser #
• @Inventory2 but @phil_goff said he would stop using them…did he misspeak? #
• @TrevorMallard the public didn't 31-69 #shame #
• @PrincesStLabour waaaah waaaah waaaah #
• @jhartevelt if a fan boy like you thinks he won by a nose then he lost comprehensively #onenews #votenz #