Friday, October 3, 2008

FULL VIDEO: Sara Palin/ Joe Biden Vice Presidential Debate-Oct 2 2008





There was much pre debate discussion about Palin making a fool of herself from the liberal loser media but it wasn't to be the case in this debate.

While it wasn't a debate that blew away the audience, Palin acquitted herself well and at times managed to beat the pants right off Biden.

Palin was measured, answered questions under pressure and graceful to her opponent.

The debate covers everything from Iraq, Global Warming, Pakistan, Gay Marriage, Abortion and more.

Biden managed his part with due competence.
Visitors to Political Animal, comment on the debate here if you have strong or otherwise opinion.

Your comments will appear at the bottom of this article.



Consecutive parts of the Palin/Biden debate below

VIDEO & TRANSCRIPT OF DEAL: Senate passes $700 billion bailout



President Bush statement on the ammended plan:

Play Video  Video (Windows)
RSS Feed  White House News
         Transcript


The following is a transcript of the $700 billion plus deal that passed its first reading Wednesday October 1.

It outlines the basic principles and key points of the bailout.

It is important not only to the American economy but to the world and clearly the New Zealand economy as well.

I have my doubts as to its effectiveness because it doesnt seem large enough.



Congress Announces Bipartisan Agreement On Emergency Economic Stabilization Plan To Restore Stability In The Financial Markets, While Protecting Taxpayers On Main Street

Congressional leaders announced an agreement on a bipartisan compromise to address the Nation's financial crisis. The Administration worked closely with Congressional leaders from both sides of the aisle to reach an agreement quickly on legislation approving the government's purchase of difficult-to-sell assets, such as troubled mortgage-backed securities, from banks and other financial institutions.This agreement is a decisive step that will address underlying problems in our financial system. It will help take pressure off the balance sheets of banks and other financial institutions, and it will allow them to resume lending and get our financial system moving again. Further stress on our financial markets would likely lead to massive job losses, devastated retirement accounts, further erosion of housing values, and reduced availability of loans for new homes, cars, and college tuitions. This new proposal will entail risk, but the risk of not acting would have been far greater.

  • The President and his Administration agree that this is the right course to take. The agreed-upon legislation is robust and will allow us to get to the source of the problem – the troubled mortgage-related assets. This agreement is big enough to be effective, which will help ensure that credit is available for the benefit of American families and businesses.

  • President Bush appreciates the work of Congress and his Administration to come to an agreement quickly and effectively. The spirit of cooperation between Democrats and Republicans in Congress has made this proposal stronger. This bipartisan proposal provides the flexibility we need to stabilize our financial systems by giving the Treasury Secretary the authority to purchase and provide guarantees for troubled assets.

The Emergency Economic Stabilization Plan Includes Important Provisions Providing Strong Oversight To Protect American Taxpayers And Strengthen Our Financial System

  • This legislation places limits on executive compensation. When Treasury buys assets directly, the financial institution must observe standards limiting incentives and prohibiting golden parachutes. When the Treasury Department buys assets at auction, an institution that sells more than $300 million in assets is subject to penalties for golden parachute payments triggered by events other than retirement and compensation above $500,000 will not be tax-deductible.

  • The Treasury Department will receive non-voting warrants from participating financial institutions, in order to cover losses and administrative costs while allowing taxpayers to benefit from equity appreciation.

  • Under this bipartisan agreement, the Treasury Secretary must purchase troubled assets in stages. Initially, the Treasury Secretary will have the ability to immediately purchase up to $250 billion. In order to access the next $100 billion, the President must certify the need for the authority and report to Congress. For the final $350 billion; the President must request the authority through a written report to Congress. The Treasury Secretary will then have the authority unless Congress passes a joint resolution of disapproval within 15 days. The President will have the power to veto the resolution.

It is expected that much, if not all, of the tax dollars invested by the Federal government into these troubled financial institutions will be paid back over time. Under the purchase program, the government would sell the acquired assets, with the proceeds going back to the Treasury, to offset much, if not all, of the initial cost, and under the program to guarantee troubled assets, the Treasury Department would charge risk-based premiums to cover any anticipated claims.

President Bush Looks Forward To Working With Congress To Stabilize Our Financial System In The Long Term

For many years the President and his Administration have not only warned of the systemic consequences of financial turmoil at a housing government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) but also put forward thoughtful plans to reduce the risk that either Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac would encounter such difficulties. President Bush will continue working with Congress on measures to bring greater long-term transparency and reliability to the financial system. This includes those measures laid out in the regulatory blueprint submitted earlier this year by Secretary Paulson.

Many of the regulations governing America's markets were written in a different era, patched together over the last 75 years in response to market conditions that may no longer exist. It is vital that we update them to meet the realities of today's global financial system.

  • The Blueprint recommends creating a new objectives-based approach to regulation that includes a market stability regulator, a prudential regulator, and a business conduct regulator that focuses on consumer protection. 

c Political Animal & The Whitehouse 2008

FREAKY FRIDAY FUNNY: Helen gets elected



I have trawled my way through the Internet so you don't have to, to find the quirkiest little videos so you can watch them inn the comfort of your easy chair.

This one by the folks at the 42 Below Vodka company takes a poke at Helen Clark (from a long distance away metaphorically speaking) on how she might have been elected Prime Minister.

Hate the vodka, love the video.


Thursday, October 2, 2008

NZ Election 2008: Leader's debate





An interesting premise, a political debate on YouTube.

In this TV One production YouTube users can put video questions to politicians to be answered in the debate which screens on TV One and YouTube on October 14 2008.

The debate is between John Key and Helen Clark and you can watch it here on Political Animal.

Here are a couple of questions from YouTube submitters:




c Political Animal 2008




Johnny Rocks! Dude

Kudos to Johnny boy for supporting good Kiwi music, there is sadly some that is only played and taxpayer subsidised because the participant was born somewhere in godzone.  


The lobby at the Stamford Plaza hotel disappeared last night at the Juice TV awards...

The Opshop boys were a surprise to see, largely because they'd only jetted back into the country from London three hours earlier. National party leader John Key was another pleasantly surprising presence and the musos loved it. He posed for photos with some, like the gorgeous Hollie Smith. No other politician even bothered to show up, which screams volumes about how they view the Kiwi music scene in GodZone doesn't it? Though I suspect Key will be joined by other politicos next week at the Vodafone NZ Music Awards when the cameras are out and the election is right round the corner. Hels loves a red carpet entry.

The yoof vote is something that the Johnster needs and shame on our trout faced leader for not holding her end of the bar up.

Nice gossip blog too Rachel Glucina from the Herald.


c Political Animal 2008

Google Politics

There have been some interesting recent Google searches to reach the Political Animal Blog.


Here are a few:

www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=labour losing

A nice thought

www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Phil Goff age of consent&btnG=Google Search&aq=f&oq=

Phil wanted to have sex between "consenting" 12 year olds made legal

www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en-us&q=%22My view is that tax cuts are largely offered as a political bribe, not because of beneficial economic or social effects%22&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

Michael Cullen, the taxman, must have been on his office computer that night

www.google.com/search?hl=en&rls=DAUS,DAUS:2006-08,DAUS:en&q=new zealand ETS bill impacts on transportation&start=10&sa=N

The Emissions Tax Scam will have a disastrous effect on New Zealand's economic well being

www.google.co.za/search?hl=en&q=Political meaning of alice in wonderland&btnG=Search&meta=

Winston Peters exploits have gone the world over

www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1B3GGGL_enGB177GB222&q=nz labour party policies 2008&btnG=Search

I don't recall any Labour 2008 election policy that has thus far been released 

www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=THE PRICK WHO BANNED BULLRUSH&meta=

I agree with the "prick part", but Labours PPTA might have something to do with it

www.google.co.nz/search?hl=en&q=competitors for kiwirail&btnG=Google Search&meta=

In the wake of another $120 million taxpayer dollars down the tube for Labour's billion dollar trainset

www.google.co.nz/search?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=1G1GGLQ_ENNZ293&q=nz nuclear option&meta=

A solution to our politically engineered energy crises

www.google.com/ie?q=Winstone Peters Photo&hl=en&start=10&sa=N

Winnie looking for the latest photo of himself

www.google.co.nz/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4GFRC_enNZ205NZ205&q=pumphouse helen clark young lover

Does the googler know something we don't?

www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=safari&rls=en&q=finance bill voting 2008&btnG=Search

Kiwi voters want to know who voted against free speech last year

www.google.com/search?q=new zealand labour party blog&rls=com.microsoft:en-nz:IE-SearchBox&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&rlz=1I7PCTA

Not here, this is Political Animal a semi-respectable organ of the internet press, the official Labour Party blog is The Standard

www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=smacking referendum numbers&btnG=Search

One of the most popular Google searches to reach this site

www.google.co.nz/search?client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&channel=s&hl=en&q=funny helen clarke sound&meta=&btnG=Google Search

Its about trust?

www.google.co.nz/search?hl=en&q=honesty in nz politics&meta=&btnG=Google Search&aq=t

That would be nice

www.google.com/search?q=south auckland unemployment&hl=en&sa=2

Its quite disproportionally higher than most other parts of the country


I think these little Googles show that New Zealand voters, at least those that are motivated to search and find out more about politics, want to be aware of what is going on politically and are not as stupid as politicians from the left think they are.

They want to find out the substance of the
politician before they use their valuable vote and that really is important when these people are going to be reaching into your pockets for the next 3 years.

Your vote is important. 


c Political Animal 2008






Senate will vote to pass $700 billion bailout on Oct 1

I just cant get enough of the political situation in regards to the US$700 billion bailout by the taxpayer of the US financial sector.


The vote for the bailout failed on Monday in the lower house with a disastrous consequence for world markets and then President Bush made multiple statements [1 2] to the American people to calm the nervous and mogadon the sheep participating in the stockmarket.

Wednesday evening there will be a vote in the Senate-bizarrely after a break for a Jewish holiday- for a "modified" version of the bailout Bill. 

I am sure this version will pass after much lobbying from Republican and Democratic whips in the interim.

It is dubious as to whether the bailout will have any affect at all on the financial sector they are trying to "fix" because as we know politicians don't usually possess the insight to solve problems that they have created in the first place.

Watch here for video and audio of the deal latter on Wednesday.

c Political Animal 2008 

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

An alternative report on crime

Labours much talked about 1% overall drop in crime released today leads me to discuss another type of report on crime, that of unreported crime and the rise of this phenomenon.


In the last nine years of Labour's 3 terms I have been the victim of crime a number of times:

1. Car broken into - 3 times

2. Assaulted

3. prowlers around the house

4. minor theft - 3 times

5. cyber crime 

6. telephone abuse

7. Fraud

I must point out, I have no beef with the police as a whole, it is their political masters that are to blame for the high unreported crime rates

None of these crimes I have reported to police because I have learnt on previous occasions that police in general are not interested in these sorts of crimes and the victim is wasting their time because police have been directed politically to collect tax on behalf of government through vehicle infringement fines instead.

Police time is also taken up with politically correct mumbo jumbo such as police "cultural beliefs" and "diversity".

My friends and acquaintances can tell similar stories.

This is why the official reported crime stats are highly inaccurate and don't tell the full picture at all. Official crime stats are not too clever either. Violent crime is up by 11% for the year and 47% for Labour's 9 years.

The causes of the high crime rates are clear and related directly to the record numbers on welfare, the associated breakdown in families, the lax attitude to personal responsibility placed on doing wrong, that is taught through schools and government social agencies, and the inadequate sentences for the whole range of crime.

Annette King deserves a big mother of a slap across her well upholstered chops for her poor record and so does her party.


c Politcal Animal 2008




Helen is right

That Helen Clark instigated the disposal of the minor parties in the proposed TV3 political debate is no surprise to most. She has a long history of clamping down on free speech with the passing of the Electoral Finance Act and constant threats to media to stifle press freedoms.


Mark Jennings from TV3 said the Labour leader did not want to share the stage with the smaller parties, and talked National leader John Key into joining the boycott.

"Clark told me two months ago that it has always been her view there are too many people in the debates."

"She [Helen Clark] said to me: 'Oh, it does get messy, doesn't it'."

NZ Herald

I have to agree with the Prime Minister though. The minor parties will be a major distraction. The debates are not long enough to get any substance from the two leaders. Either two will be Prime Minister and we need to know from them what their vision for the country is.

For minor parties to be morally outraged at Clark's proposal is laughable at best.

Minor parties are there to support the major party that they go with after the election and have plenty of opportunity to get media attention from their policies.


c Political Animal 2008



Tuesday, September 30, 2008

VIDEO & AUDIO: George W. Bush Address to the Nation, Sept 30 2008

President George W. Bush delivers a statement at the White House Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2008, regarding the economic rescue plan. Said the President, "We're at a critical moment for our economy, and we need legislation that decisively address the troubled assets now clogging the financial system, helps lenders resume the flow of credit to consumers and businesses, and allows the American economy to get moving again." White House photo by Chris <span class= 
Sept. 30, 2008

President Bush Discusses Economic Rescue Plan

     Play Video Video        Play Audio Audio

     Fact sheet In Focus: Economy




George W. Bush spoke the United States (and world) at 7:45 am EST Tuesday morning September 30, 2008.

He again addressed the case for the US$700 billion bailout which failed to pass in the lower house on Monday.

His speech was be important because it is being made to restore faith in global markets and persuade Americans that the $700 billion bailout is going to do what it is intended to do.

Markets hate nasty surprises and uncertainty and his speech will have to be a good one to pull it all off.

While not a spectacular speech by any stretch of the imagination, it was nevertheless competent enough to restore some positivity into the DOW this morning.

As at 7.45 am (NZ time) the DOW was up 379 points.

In my opinion it is unlikely to be a sustained upswing because there is more bad financial news to come.



Related Links

President George W. Bush delivers a statement at the White House Monday, Sept. 29, 2008, on Financial Rescue Legislation. Said the President, "This legislation deals with complex issues, and negotiators were asked to address them in a very short period of time. I appreciate the leadership of members on both sides of the aisle, who came together when our nation was counting on them. Negotiations are sometimes difficult, but their hard work and cooperation paid off."  White House photo by Chris <span class= 
Sept. 29, 2008

President Bush Discusses Financial Rescue Legislation

     Play Video Video        Play Audio Audio

     Fact sheet Fact Sheet: A Strong Bipartisan Proposal to Stabilize Our Financial System

     Fact sheet In Focus: Economy

 

c Political Animal 2008



Falwasser should be out for the count

http://media.apn.co.nz/webcontent/image/jpg/Falwasserfamily230.jpg

The Falwasser family



I haven't seen the full video of Rawiri Falwasser resisting police officers in a Tauranga police cell in 2006 and neither do I have to to make up my mind that Falwasser was being a violent fruitcake on the day he was injured.

Falwasser was resistant to police from the get go, mentally disturbed and once in his cell refused to leave when he was told to.

He received the bulk of his serious injuries from whacking his head against the cell walls and other minor injuries sustained from cops trying to restrain him-from hurting himself if nothing else.

Once again the perpetrator of a crime gets all the sympathy and the cops get critiqued and undermined in public for merely doing their job.

The flimsy case against the police for "beating" the nascent thief was lost but now the Falwasser family want to sue police.

A typical victim mentality that Labour has bred in certain sectors of Kiwi society over the last 9 years that makes individuals think that as criminals they have more rights than victims.

Pass me a bucket.

c Political Animal 2008

New Generation

The moral outrage by David "Fartman" Parker,Lianne Dalzeil and the Labour Party over Contact Energy today announcing power prices rises leaves me more than a little confused:


"However we will be asking Cabinet on Monday to consider whether a broader inquiry is needed into whether these price increases are evidence of a lack of competition and market power being used to ratchet up prices," the ministers said.

Ms Dalziel said she could not see how the increases could be justified.

"The latest price increases, especially for residential consumers, follow a worrying trend of price rises in excess of general inflation, and I intend to ensure that the market is not being manipulated by electricity retailers."

NZ Herald

The facts are that Contact is putting up power prices because Labour have not allowed enough new generation to be built because of the global warming myth and are set to pile more cost on to consumers power bills through their dodgy climate change policies. David Parker has got his sticky little socialist fingerprints all over the mess.

Restrict generation, ipso facto power prices rise-well duh!

Contact Energy had to run a diesel power station at full blast for most of 2008 because of the lack of power generation for goodness sake.

Parker's inexperience shows in this quote from him today:

"The gap between residential and industrial charges was difficult to understand"

What the fuck?!

David if you are a industrial power user you generally use more power and like any other product or service you will be able to negotiate a lower price for bulk usage.

That is the way any market works and is general practice with power companies. Perhaps you could talk to a couple instead of grandstanding weeks before an election.

This collective is overseeing the energy portfolio and the Carbon Credit tax scam.

We should be worried.

Related reading

Carbon Credit trading puts markets at extreme risk

Contact Energy looks bright during dark times

c Political Animal 2008



VIDEO: Sept 29 Debate of $700 billion bailout in Congress




Part of the debate in the lower house on the US$ 700 million bailout of the US financial sector that led to its eventual failure on first reading


Interesting to see that politics are still being played at a time of financial crises and more interesting still that the dodgy Democrats voted for the bailout while the considered Republicans rejected it.


I am against the bailout because it is chucking good money after bad and it probably wont work anyway.


Interesting also to see Warren Buffett's involvement in the bailout as well. A staunch Democrat himself, he would benefit greatly from an Obama led Presidency.


A live DOW ticker plummets on-screen while the Republican senator gives his speech.


Arrrrr me bucko!

With all the seriousness surrounding us with a meltdown on the Dow this morning and a hopeless collection of toss pots up for the 2008 election, I just don't feel the need to be serious lately.


With that in mind lets have a look at some attempts at livening up the advertising during the election race. From Radio Live

Pirate pimping your Prime Minister
 
We want a fun election, so if you see any billboards that have been 'bad-touched in a good way', then we want to see them. The best will go on the website, just like the beauty above.
 
During last year's Mayoral Elections, Sideshow Bob Parker won the public vote. Look and see why.
 
  
 

I like the Simpson's related billboard myself, it is the level of mentality of most pollies and lest face it you can probably trust Homer Simpson above Helen Clark any day.

Helen Clark's modified billboard looks more like her than her real one.

c Political Animal 2008

700 Billion bailout fails to pass in lower house

From Share Investor Blog

News just in that the 700 billion bailout has just failed a vote in the House:

The fate of a controversial $700 billion financial bailout plan was in doubt Monday as a House vote turned against it.

The next steps were not immediately clear but supporters were scrambling to put it up for another vote.

What was supposed to be a 15-minute vote stretched past the half-hour mark as leadership scrambled for support. Investors who had been counting on the rescue plan sent the Dow Jones industrial average down as much as 700 points while watching the measure come up short of the necessary support, before rebounding slightly. The key stock reading was down more than 500 points.

The measure needs 218 votes for passage. Democrats voted 141 to 94 in favor of the plan, while Republicans voted 65 to 133 against. That left the measure with 206 votes for and 227 against.

CNN Money

It doesn't mean the rescue package is necessarily over, it will probably go back to the house in a modified way but it does mean that markets are reacting badly and are in a worse position than they would if a rescue package wasn't announced.

This is because if anything else, apart from the actual dire situation the financial sector is in, markets hate uncertainty.

The DOW is down 710 points as a result as at 8.33 am(NZ Time)

I expected a bigger plunge but the market still has 27 minutes of trading before close.

Winston limbos even lower


From an increasingly paranoid and deluded Winston Peters and his blog comes the following:

One of our supporters sent this in, we thought you might like it!

 

Which of these two spent $20,000 on his teeth?

Infantile, nasty, rude and desperate stuff, just like some of the content on this site or on BarnsleyBill -David Benson Pope, and Assult with a deadly fart- but we are not running for office.

I will have a go at a comparison of my own.

What is the difference between these two men and the way they operate politically?

http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/0gTy5737bXfch/340x.jpg


http://geoconger.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/robert-mugabe-2.jpg

Answer?

Sadly, very little at all.


c Political Animal 2008

OneSteel makes cheeky bid for minority shareholders

Crikey mate! They are at it again.

Those cheapskate Aussies are trying to steal (pun intended) Steel and Tube [STU.NZX] off shareholders for the measly price of NZ$4 a share.

OneSteel [OST.ASX] has today launched a bid for the 49.73% of Steel and Tube they don't already own.

It has shades of the Contact Energy[CEN.NZX] takeover bid last year about it when Origin Energy attempted to buy the approximately half of Contact they didn't already own, for a knock down bargain basement price and the board of Contact, which had a number of Origin aligned directors on it approved the bid.

It wasn't until an independent report came back that the bid by Origin was seen as the highway robbery it clearly was and Origin was rightly sent packing.

I assume that OneSteel have a number of directors on the Steel and Tube board sympathetic to Origin's charms, so it doesn't take an Einstein to figure out that they will probably want to rubber stamp their parent company's bid without so much as a "hold your horses mate" (insert Australian twang here).

Apart from the cheek of the bid, it once again highlights the major gaps in New Zealand's financial regulatory and takeover laws, where a majority holder in a listed company thinks they can dupe the remaining shareholders simply because they have board control and therefore the controlling votes.

Of course this is where Steel and Tube shareholders are crucial in this scenario. If they are dumb enough to sell for 4 bucks well you just cant help some people.

Seriously though, times are tight so investors could be forgiven for folding but the company is worth more than $NZ4(at today's AU/NZ exchange rate cross only AU$3.28 )

Steel and Tube is a cyclical company. Currently the building and construction sector is experiencing a slowdown and raw materials are getting more expensive to buy to make their products. The current credit crunch and market jitters isn't helping either and as a consequence the share price is trading at multi year lows.

This will change, there will be a construction upswing, market turmoil will abate and raw steel is going drop in price.

Guess what, that means profit and the share price will rise.

OneSteel's bid is therefore very opportunistic. I don't blame them, it is a smart move.

But and it is a big but (insert OZ accent again) it is up to shareholders to have some steely resolve and and just say no to those aggressive little buggers across the ditch.

I have been an unwilling participant in a cheapskate takeover before. The Transpacific Industries [TPI.ASX] "merger" of Waste Management NZ a few years back left me with a bitter taste in my mouth.

The CEO of Transpacific made what he called a "fair bid' for an almost monopoly company that had been growing profit at 20% per annum for over 5 years and shareholders fell all over themselves to take the cash.

A made a large profit on a large number of shares but I didn't want to sell. Waste Management was going to be a good long term company in my portfolio.

As I am a small shareholder in Steel and Tube, my advice to shareholders is to hang on tight for the independent directors report on the OneSteel bid.

See what they have to say and if they approve tell OneSteel and the directors where to get off.


Steel & Tube @ Share Investor

Long Term View: Steel & Tube Ltd
NZX's Top 10 Dividend Returns

Discuss STU @ Share Investor Forum

Download STU Company Reports


Buy Toughen Up: What I've Learned About Surviving Tough Times

Toughen Up: What I've Learned About Surviving Tough Times

Toughen Up - Fishpond.co.nz



c Share Investor 2008

Monday, September 29, 2008

National to officially ditch the EFA

National announced yesterday that they are going to ditch the anti-free speech Electoral Finance Act which thousands of Kiwis protested over, including yours truly:

National Party Deputy Leader Bill English says all New Zealanders with an interest in free speech will welcome John Key's confirmation today that a National-led Government will repeal the oppressive Electoral Finance Act.

"This is a self-serving law, passed in haste, and designed to silence Labour's critics in election year.  National will end the farce."

Mr English is commenting after the release of the National Party's electoral law policy was released today. 

"The Electoral Commission and the Law Society have expressed serious reservations about the impact of the EFA on free speech and freedom of expression.  Labour has belittled these concerns.

"The Electoral Finance Act has been a total shambles and those parties who supported it are now all regretting they did so.  We do hope they embrace the chance to fix it."

National will move to repeal the Electoral Finance Act 2007 immediately after the election, but retain the provisions around the transparency of donations.

The old sections from the Electoral Act 1993 will be reinstated, and the Electoral Finance Act sections relating to donations, will be inserted into the Electoral Act 1993.

"National concluded long ago that there needed to be more transparency around donations.  We were genuinely surprised when Labour failed to put in any controls around donations when the law was initially drafted.

"We will retain those provisions from the EFA, and reform electoral law through a process that involves all parliamentary parties and the public in a fair and timely manner.

"When electoral watchdogs say they can't understand the rules, when the law society says the Act is stifling free speech, when MPs have no clear steer on what is an election advertisement – that is banana republic time.  This law should never have been passed and will be repealed by National."

A good clear policy for a confused badly drafted law.


Related Political Animal reading

Electoral Finance Act March Mar 9, 2008
Electoral Finance Bill Vote
NZ losses democratic freedom
Mike Moore turns the knife
List of MPs who voted for Act
Cartoon and comment
Auckland Protest against EFB
The purpose of the Bill is clear


To view National's electoral law summary visit: http://national.org.nz/files/2008/electoral_law.pdf

c Political Animal 2008

Labour's election bribe could be a whopper

I have written in the past about the fact that Labour are going to try and buy the election, and they will. They did it in 2005 and they will do it in 2008.


The only thing now is since Labour are so far behind National in the polls and have been consistently for well over a year, and there is an overwhelming feeling for change in the country, that vote buy is going to have to pretty bloody big.

Considering Cullen has mismanaged us into a big debt position through 9 years of wasteful spending, and there have been mutterings lately of cutbacks in cash election promises from National and Labour, one rumour that is going around-thanks Matthew Hooten for the tip off- and sounds plausible is writing off all student debt.

When I heard that of course I felt my bile forming into a future cancer because I paid off the frigging loan in full ten years ago, and so I should, I should have had to pay something for my education.

Writing off the billions owed in loans to the taxpayer of course its a nutso idea, but it would probably be a matter of an "accounting charge" on the balance sheet with no effect of the country's cash deficit, so acceptable to Cullen and politically acceptable for allot of the left voters. 

Having said that, if such an inherently silly idea is proposed by Labour there could be a backlash from people like me who have already paid their loans off and other taxpayers who think Uni students are elitist oiks whose wealthy parents should pay for their own education.




Sunday, September 28, 2008

POLL: TV3 TNS Poll, 28 Septr 2008

The latest TV 3 poll out today continues the year long trend of a very healthy lead for the National Party:


(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - The governing Labour party will likely lose its re-election bid in next month’s legislative ballot, according to a poll by TNS released by TV3. 36 per cent of respondents would vote for Labour in the next election to the House of Representatives, while 49 per cent would support the opposition National party.

The Greens are third with five per cent, followed by New Zealand First with three per cent, and the Maori Party with two per cent.

Labour leader Helen Clark has acted as New Zealand’s prime minister since December 1999. In November 2006, Don Brash—who had served as National’s leader since October 2003—announced his resignation and was substituted by finance spokesman John Key. 

Continued

Labour will have to pull the biggest bribe in New Zealand political history to get the electorate to vote for them.


c Political Animal 2008

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