Says it all really

Comments

[Idiot/Savant]

While Brash likes to make much of the fact that his partner is from Signapore, I don't think its the sort of thing he should be attacked over. It is, bluntly, pretty vile.

[Neil Morrison]

Winston must be doing Labour's PR now.

It also has a streak of isolationism about it.

[Jordan]

I got a few in the mail and that was the one that caught my eye. None of them were perfect.

[Red]

mine are here

http://www.redletter.dreamhosters.com/2006/05/22/national-kicks-off-next-election-campaign%e2%80%a6/

(sorry for the shameless double post but it seems more apprioate here)

[tim barclay]

Brash's point is the Labour Government is allowing an unacceptable gap in living standards to open up between us and Australia which could be partially dealt with through easily afforded tax cuts. He wants people to stay here, the Labour Government is saying we don't care go to Australia, if you like. The EXACT opposite of what they are saying about Brash. Their argument including the one posted above is childish and rascist about his wife.

[Red]

funny how this gap in living standards never botherd brash in 1990 when the gaps widended signifcantly as australia took a much slower route to economic libralisation.

Yes NZ had a higher standard of living pre 1984 those golden years you treasure Tim were the ones that really widend that gap.

[Craig Ranapia]

Jordan:

If you're going to swim in the gutter, at least have the balls to stand up and take some editorial responsibility for what YOU CHOOSE to publish on this blog. Hell, I've had some pretty vile stuff through my inbox about Helen Clark over the years - none of which I've chosen to blog.

[Clint]

Bottom feeders unite!Look at all the lefties swarm to these bilboards like blowflies to shit.

The gutter is too good for you. Harrassing Brash for his foreign wife is pretty sick.....especially with the well known facts about Helens 'marriage' flying round.

[Red]

thanks Clint another entry for the vile File.

It always makes me laugh that people like you have no sense of irony, your complaing about poor taste by using swear words and innuendo.

Fantastic!

[Oliver]

Hahaha, I am loving the hypcorisy of the right wing bloggers who froth at the mouth in a very PC manner when they're on the receiving end!

Next time a National Party supporter says that the above joke poster is racist, just say 'Iwi vs Kiwi' aloud and tell them they're a total hypocrite.

[Clint]

Iwi vs Kiwi isn't racist. Only precious minded people like yourself twisted it to sound like that. How you can call all National members and MPs rascist is beyond me.

Red...do your worst! :)

[Singapore Sling]

Ah, wasnt it Brash that went around telling EVERYONE AND ANYONE that his wife was from Singapore?

[Neil Morrison]

From some of the above comments I'm starting to think maybe Winston has found his home.

An informative billboard that certainly does catch ones eye.

I'm also left wondering exactly which countries Labour would have us be friends with. But with such attitudes maybe we won't get to choose.

[GeniusNZ]

call me sensitive - but I'm finding the first sentance pretty offensive...

[tim barclay]

I have no doubt the Labour Party will pull out all the stops when it comes to the gutter. They will be rascist and homophobic and all the rest. I bet Jordan will say this Billboard is NOT mine. But he posted it and therefore he is a racist pig just like all the rest. I thought he was not.

[dave]

Jordan, this billboard says more about the type of person you are than about Don Brash.
It's gutter politics and quite frankly(to use a Brash phrase) its vile.
Is this blog now about life and Labour in the gutter?

[Rodney Grub]

Haven't you heard? Those stupid Aussies don't want their taxes back. The ACNielsen/Age poll published in today's Melbourne Age said "more than two-thirds (68 per cent) said the priority should be spending on services and infrastructure; only 29 per cent put reducing taxes and charges before more money for services."

Maybe we should all go over there and they can come and have their socialist heaven here.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/alp-vote-up-as-beazley-lifts/2006/05/21/1148150124416.html

[Craig Ranapia]

Rodney:

Well, I'll look forward to the ATO reporting a flood of voluntary tax overpayments from 68% of Australian taxpayers.

[Idiot/Savant]

Oliver: National's "iwi / kiwi" billboard was about as vile and divisive as you can get - but I don't see any reason why we should sink to their level. Leave the sewer-wallowing to the folk from Sir Humphries.

[Idiot/Savant]

Singapore Sling: indeed it was. but I don't think that's any excuse.

We have a nice informal truce in NZ politics of not bringing people's families or private lives into it. And I quite like it that way. The above is as vile as attacking Helen Clark over not taking her husband's name.

[STC]

I look forward to all those right wingers that got precious about the billboard bombarding Gen XY with complaints about their own images - the one Jordan posted frankly is frankly not even close to being as offensive as some of the tripe they've inflicted on the NZ blog scene.

[Craig Ranapia]

Singapore Sling:

And Chris Finlayson is openly gay - so, would that justify Jordan posting a little bit of fag-baiting in the name of political "satire"?

And, STC, I really look forward to the day some people actually take responsibility for their own conduct without wailing "But mummy, they did it first". That's a class of moral reasoning I find tiresome in children, let alone from alleged adults. You want to drag politician's spouses and children into politics in this manner, get ready to open that door all the way.

[tim barclay]

There will be more much more from the racist Labour cup as the political pressure comes on. Their investment budget has flopped because the Government is hoarding a vast amount of wealth which has been accumulated at the expense of private individuals making their own investment decisions. The Labour Party do not get it, they think the Government can do EVERYTHING but they do not mind pinching the private wealth of others to finance it.

[Tom S]

Ah, the sweet sound of the right squealing.

[Craig Ranapia]

Well, Tom, the disappointing thing is this is the level you operate on. Jordan's smarter and better than this.

[What A Real National Member Would Say]

I think I might be a preaching hypocrite. I simultaneously argue that Labour are racists when I myself exploit racial tensions to win elecotral votes, play to populist fears about immigration numbers and threaten the disenfranchisement of Maori voters.

Yeah, I really do think I'm a hypocrite.

[tim barclay]

Maori are very enfranchised, I say over-enfranchised. But it is the Labour Party that puts labels on people pink triangles on gays, feminist badges on women, brown dots on maori, the borax on the rich (anyone over $60,000 pa.). But heaven help if gays/maori/women do not vote Labour. All the ugliness comes out then and don't those groups know it.

[Craig Ranapia]

Real:

You're not a hypocrite, but I would seek professional advice for the advanced psychotic delusions. If you want to be taken seriously, try being a serious person.

[Carl Anderson]

I've seen a number of these things, and I would have to say I dislike them on two counts:

First they are rather offensive, not to mention grubby, and reeking of reactionary xenophobia; and second they aren't even clever or funny.

Sure there have been similarly lame and gutter-dwelling things produced about Labour, but that hardly excuses it.

[Spam]

No, Real, you're a troll - and a particulary poor one. 3/10.

[Aj]

It's sharp, and it hits the target, by the read of the comments here.

The first part is tame. It might not be so if Don had not made such a deal about her last election.
Hardly in the 'gutter', really.

[Ross Browne]

Jordon did you have to practice to learn to be so witty or did it come naturally?

[Mark]

National's election billboard campiagn in the 2005 election was differentiating Labour and National policies with some easy concepts, i.e. Labour (Iwi) National (Kiwi).

This highlighted Labour's race based policies against National's one law for all.

Now National set to repeat the billboards highlighting National wants tax cuts for all NZders.

Jordan's billboard just shows that they have no policy, no vision and no ideas.

Also Jordan has hit the nail on the head with his failed attempt that more and more NZders including Maori are releasing that 'My future's in Austrialia'.

[Craig Ranapia]

Aj:

Well, Georgina Beyer has "made a great deal" of her past history of prostitution & drug use - as well as her transexuality. (I call it admirable candour myself, but we'll split the difference.) Does that mean she's asking for any cheap shot the next Density Church or Minim Institution drone cares to take?

[ZenTiger]

Idiot/Savant, I'm wondering how deep the scars must be for you to never miss an opportunity for slurring Sir Humphreys.

Back to the topic at hand, I'll add my two cents worth: Jordan, you picked a pretty lame example. The first line is unnecessarily racist. A similar comment led to the resignation of an Australian MP - they obviously have standards there. The second line is outright lies, or labour spin at best. And the third is very much indicative of Labour's Ostrich economics. Brash has made frequent comment on Australia in the past precisely because of the vital role our closest trading partner has on our economy.

If you guys think this is scoring points, you are slipping.

[Aj]

Craig,
I've seen the Beyer/"Bishop" Tamaki debates and he's fired all the cheap shots he can.
So, I don't get your point at all.
Must be the time of night.

[tim barclay]

Talking of the Destiny church I thought it was funny the Maori Queen had Brian Tamaki sitting with her and not some Labour Party person. That symbolism would have been noted by Helen Clark and the others who turned up. I think Labour is getting the message from Maori that there are other players in town and there are many many thinks about the Clark Labour Party maori do not like.

[Craig Ranapia]

AJ:

A very simple flip test. I can understand why you wouldn't want to wake up and smell the double standards, but still...

[Aj]

Craig,

If there was a reference, for example, to infidelity and marriage-breaking I'd be in 100% agreement with you.

It looks like a case for Wayne Mapp to me. One can't mention certain things even in satire and comedy.

[err...]

"The first line is unnecessarily racist."

Was it racist when Don said it?

[bobrien]

I read with interest Helens comments that a family on $50,000 can afford to buy basic groceries without Government Assistance (Working for Families).

If this is true (and it certainly seems to be) how can she justify calling people on incomes over %60,000 rich?

[bobrien]

Oops, I meant 'can't'

[Jordan]

God, the level of sanctimony here is remarkable.

The billboard, which I did not write, is not racist. That's the most ridiculous response it's possible to imagine.

The only reason it is even relevant is because it's simply a country to add to the list.

It's short snappy and --- proved beyond doubt by the frothing responses here --- extremely good at doing what was intended: making a counterpoint to Brash's inane and endless drivel about Australia.

Brash's wife is from Singapore. Great. Who cares? If he hadn't talked about it so much during the election none of us would even know. How referring to a boring fact can be construed as racist is a bit beyond me.

[tim barclay]

Jordan if you do not think the reference to Don Brash's wife is not racist in the overall context of the poster then you do not know what racism is. But I guess you think racism is something the National Party does. But minority groups all think the Labour Party is fundamentally separist and racist.

[Craig Ranapia]

Jordan:

That would actually be credible if I thought you were too stupid, and politically naive, to understand what context and connotation mean. It's sad to see a return to your little habit during the campaign of going for knee-cap personal attacks, then not quite having the courage of your own nastiness. Fine, but please don't use the word sanctimonious unless you're looking in a mirror.

[GeniusNZ]

Jordan,
the image is using a tool which tries to share the associations of each word with the other two cumulating in a position on the third point.

Being a charitable person Ill explain it

policy from America is (fill in the gap), people with wives from Singapore are (fill in the gap) and as a result the (fill in the gap) have a future in Australia [as opposed to NZ].

[or you could use americans, women from asia and australian policy makers as the subjects of (fill in the gap)]

besides if I/S finds a left leaning piece offensive - it is a good sign it is.

[Dean]

If you people keep calling Jordan to task over this post you do realise he'll be forced to declare it an experiment, don't you?

Just like the last time.

[Tom S]

I am constantly astonished at the volume and stream of thin skinned whining from a bunch of right wingers who appear to be able to dish it out but not take it when it comes to a political fight.

I suppose its just another manifestation of the right wing whine machine.

[Spam]

Aside from the debate whether its offensive - it is an ad hominem attack.

Remember - don't let the issues get in the way of the message.

[SPC]

What's the worst thing about National is the attempt to link Enzed patriotism to being pro Oz/pro American
(like dependent children of a wider family).

Some go so far as to link the political divide here to an identity of being pro or anti-American.

Yet even Bush has recanted being too simplistic on such matters (us and them confrontation) at his recent press conference with Blair.

The proper form of diplomacy for "democratic nations" - is the attempt to maintain the bi-partisanship on foreign policy.

However National's whole attitude reeks of crawling up into the USA or Oz embrace.

Have they no national self honour? They in fact show nothing like the patriotism of Americans and Australians towards their own country.