Helen Clark gives good head

A lovely little piece from Ana Samway's Sideswipe, indicating that people would rather have their dogs chew the head off Helen Clark than they would themselves vote for her:

Pete Couchman from Masterpets sheds some light on the popularity of the Helen Clark Election '08 dog toy. "The fact that Helen is selling out may have little to do with popularity. Masterpets' 'Dog-tucker' poll is a reverse poll, where it pays not to be ahead. The old saying of being 'fed to the dogs' is rather poignant when being chewed by dogs up and down the country ... "

The head girl is ahead in the popularity stakes for getting her head-toy head chewed off by 59% of New Zealand's mongrel owners-this is on top of Winston Peters clearly doing the same.

The 59% for Helen Clark's head rating mirrors National's voter support in the Political Animal Blog poll and I am picking the Masterpet poll to be more accurate than some of our official ones, even though there is overwhelming support for the National Party in the majority of them as well.

c Political Animal 2008

"L" is for loser

There is some interesting video being shot currently by amateur political pundits.

Some of them very funny, some of them almost getting there and others just very sad.

Watch the man in red in the background of this latest video.

c Political Animal 2008

Labour losing the race

"The time is right for a change".

You can hear it when you speak to friends, work colleagues and in social situations.

In recent times ,the moral outrage at the present state of our representation in the beehive follows the Labour Government and its supporters in Parliament imploding, more recently over donations to Labour's support party Winston Peter's NZ First and his pathetic slap on the hand by his political mates for his corrupt pratices.

Labour's high handed attitude to Winston Peter's lies and a cover up by Helen Clark over what she knew about the Owen Glenn donations is compounded by interference, criticism and bullying by her ministers over the Privileges Committee process.

The latest scandal comes on top of 9 long years of economic mis-management by Michael Cullen, a long list of political crimes foisted on New Zealanders to stifle free speech, an even longer list of social interference in our everyday lives, crumbling government "services", out of control crime,record welfare stats and an attitude from Helen Clark and her political allies that nothing is wrong, they are born to rule and it seems they will do anything to retain the reigns of power.

An underlying support and need from the New Zealand community for commonsense, humility, integrity, a hopeful vision for the future and above all honesty from our politicians is very clear and Kiwis know after 9 years of Labour they are not getting that.

Even die hard Labour voters are turning their backs on Helen Clark and her politics of envy.

It is difficult most of the time to get that from politicians from any political colour but the overwhelming feeling from the community is that New Zealanders want a change.

c Political Animal 2008

Paul Newman's death the end of an era

The death of Paul Newman today at the age of 83 brings back memories for me of a more innocent, uncomplicated and PC free world.

I remember seeing Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid on the TV as a young boy and thinking at the time, why couldn't my Dad be more like him?

Onscreen Paul Newman often played the hero or gruff outsider. The irascible chief in Towering Inferno, the irrepressible conman in The Sting, or the reprise of his role as "Fast Eddie" Felson in The Hustler in 1961 and all those years latter in the 1986 film The Color of Money.

I grew up watching all Newman's movies and tried not to miss anything he was in. 

To me his on screen persona was the epitome of cool wrapped in an American flag.

 

I most identified with the independent, "outsider" characters that he often played.

As a watcher of his movies I also knew little of his personal life, his star seemed to shine from the screen through his performances and talent rather than what foibles he might have had in is private one.

Only when I got older did one hear snippets of what he achieved behind the cameras and in one of his last interviews on the David Letterman Show the twinkle in his eyes was still apparent.

Paul Newman was a devoted husband to Joanne Woodward and his children for 50 years, not only long in Hollywood but long for any marriage and a selfless charitable individual who raised millions through his Newman's Own brand of salad dressing and oils.

He did this all under the radar, with humility, care, kindness and an obvious love for his profession and those close to him.

An answer to the question of why wasn't he attracted to the beautiful woman he often starred alongside really sums Paul Newman up for me:

"Why go out for a hamburger when you can have steak at home".

His old fashioned sensibility, manners, talent and sense of loyalty are sadly lacking, in Hollywood especially, but also in the wider community(some of our politicians in New Zealand could learn a thing or two from him, especially about honesty) and his passing, sadly seems to leave alot of those positive characteristics dead with him with some notable Hollywood exceptions.

He was above all a gentleman.

He will be sadly missed by millions and one big fan of his down in New Zealand.

Related Link

VIDEO-Coolhand Luke Famous egg eating scene

c Political Animal 2008