This is a big blow for Obama. The Democrat candidate Martha Coakley has conceded to Republican Scott Browne. When I was in the USA in September/October last year I went to a candidate forum during the Democratic primary. There was not even a thought at that time that the Democrats would not win the seat. There has not been a Republican Senator from Massachusetts since 1972.
According to people I have spoken to in the US there were some local issues at play, but this be will seen as a referendum on the Obama administration thus far, and on healthcare in particular. Browne has stated he will vote against the healthcare plan, and that means the Democrats can not exercise the “super-majority” that would push the Bill through the Senate. As the linked article above notes there is a cruel irony in that healthcare was the “cause of my life” for Senator Ted Kennedy whose death led to the election.
It will be interesting to see the flow-on effect. If the Democrats suffer a similar fate in the House races later this year, it will severely dent Obama. He is going to need every inch of his political acumen to come through this, and who knows if there will now be the changes to healthcare that are so desperately needed by the millions of Americans without insurance.
Posted in Republicans, Politics and Foreign Affairs. |
Rush Limbaugh is the chief cheerleader of the Republican Right in the USA. Think Fox News, but on talkback and more angry. Here is a link to a story about his comments on why Americans should not donate to appeals for Haiti.
“This [the earthquake] will play right into Obama’s hands,” said Limbaugh. “He’s humanitarian, compassionate. They’ll use this to burnish their, shall we say, credibility with the black community – both light-skinned and dark-skinned black community in this country. This is made to order for them.” Limbaugh also warned Americans against donating money. “Besides, we’ve already donated to Haiti. It’s called the US income tax,” he said.
Absolutely disgusting.
A reminder of Trevor’s earlier post that includes links to where you can donate.
(Hat Tip: Dorothy)
Posted in Uncategorized. |
When 20/20 cricket first arrived, I “decided” to have nothing to do with it. A life-long cricket tragic I had always preferred the longer forms of the game, and had come to 50 over games through the beige tinted glasses of the early 1980s. But 20/20 looked like too much of a slog fest for me. Technique and tenacity make way for hitting and hoping. But it is time for me, and anyone else who feels the same way to face the facts. This is where cricket is going.
This summer New Zealand Cricket have poured their marketing money into the underwhelmingly named HRV Cup, having seen the format go off in India and England. The marketing has paid off. Big crowds- bigger than I would suggest have ever attended domestic cricket have been heading along. There have been a number of close games, the Black Caps are mostly playing, and the weather has pretty much played its part. It is also the only domestic cricket competition that actually is set up to work. It starts and goes until it finishes. The 50 over competition started in December, is currently having a break and gets going again in February. The 4- day competition started in November, has multiple breaks and finishes at the end of March, snow flurries permitting.
I went to one of the games at the Basin Reserve recently, and despite myself enjoyed it very much. The truth is the 20/20 format suits our modern lifestyles. The crowd wandered down to the Basin on a summer evening after work, had three hours relaxing in the sun and were home in time for a suitably timed summer dinner (or an excursion down Courtenay Place). It did not take a whole day. It probably pays not to analyse this too much as it is reflective of the decrease of our collective attention span and stupidly busy lives, but it is reality. And, of course, it works really well for Rupert and the TV people.
I do still despair for what it means for the cricket. Test cricket provides the ultimate forum for showcasing talent, both batting and bowling. It has multiple battles within battles, twists and turns. It requires patience, knowing when to attack and when to defend. It is a game of skill. I am still not convinced that much of that is on show in 20/20. But it is pulsating, exciting, innovative and cut-throat.
Continue reading ‘Saturday Sport: 20/20 Vision’
Posted in Cricket and Sport, Music and other time wasting activities. |
I am not sure about the title of the series of articles that the NZ Herald is running in response to the Brash Taskforce, but the first from Auckland University Vice-Chancellor Stuart McCutcheon is a good one. I don’t agree with McCutcheon in terms of his comments re interest free student loans and student support, but his overall view that we must increase funding for research and education is undoubtedly true, and the real lack of doing this is one of the great shames of New Zealand’s response to the recession. The full article is worth a read, but this paragraph probably sums it up
I would invest in education, valuing our teachers – from pre-school to professors – as the professionals they truly are. I would focus on supporting our most able students to continue on to postgraduate study and research careers, rather than terminating the very scholarships that keep our best doctoral students in New Zealand, as the government has recently done.
Posted in Economy, Science and Education. |
There is not a lot of variety in the New Zealand media, given our size and the domination of a couple of key players. But today we have an interesting divide between the NZ Herald and the Dom Post on just what is on the agenda for discussions between Hilary Clinton and Murray McCully. Bear with me here, but it all started with the Herald’s in-depth coverage of the Clinton visit on Saturday, which included the cringe-making headline in the print edition ” They like us again”. That story tells us that military exercises between NZ and US are all set to resume and all will be revealed very soon.
The Weekend Herald understands it is likely to be announced next week when Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and the Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and the Pacific, Kurt Campbell, visit New Zealand.
Continue reading ‘A tale of two cities newspapers’
Posted in Defence and Foreign Affairs. |
