Tweet of the Day - 6 September 2013

Andy Murray has been beaten in the quarter-finals of the US Open Tennis Championships. His title defence is over.

So will this tweet be prophetic?

The British were quick to adopt the Scotsman when he won at Flushing Meadow last year, and even moreso when he broke Britain's long drought at Wimbledon a couple of months ago. But when we heard the result , we had exactly the same thought as Marcus did above; they'll drop Wee Andy like a hot potato.

What odds now on a Nadal versus Djokovic final?


UPDATE: We couldn't resist posting this photo we saw of Andy Murray during this morning's match:

Tweet of the Day - 5 September 2013

Patrick Gower from 3News tweets about some fence-sitting from on of the #Labour'sGotTalent contestants:

Come on Mr Cunliffe; either Labour will buy the sold shareholdings back, or they won't. How about a definitive statement one way of the other.

If David Cunliffe wants the Labour Party leadership that badly, he needs to remove his backside from the top strand of fence-wire, and state unequivocally whether a Labour Party led by him will make a solid commitment to buy back any shares sold to investors.

Tweet of the Day - 2 September 2013

Duncan Garner takes a swipe at the pork-barrel politics emerging from the Labour Party leadership contest:

He's left out something else; the double garage, complete with two state-funded cars!

Tweet of the Day - 30 August 2013

Wellington playwright and columnist Dave Armstrong orivides this rather irreverent offering in the wake of the Fonterra "notulism" saga:

Very well done Dave. All is well that ends well; those pipes at Hautapu have some explaining to do!

Tweet(s) of the Day - 28 August 2013

Paddy Gower reports on a difficult day for the Three Amigos, the candidates for the Labour Party leadership. The tweets should be read from bottom to top, for the correct chronological order:

So here's the basic chronology of events. Instead of being in Parliament this afternoon, the Three Amigos waived the chance to ask questions of Ministers, and decided (singularly or individually) to go to a union protest in Auckland; at the taxpayer's expense, of course.

However the EPMU thwarted that plan, and told the Three Amigos to go whistle. The Three Amigos became two, when Shane Jones broke ranks, and went to the union meeting anyway. Waitakere Man will be delighted with the defiance showed by Matua Shane.

In the meantime, David Cunliffe and Grant Robertson are left with egg on their respective faces. They have squandered a chance to score a hit on the PM, and they have been turned away by Labour's largest affiliated trade union.

Oh dear; how sad; never mind.

Tweet of the Day - 27 August 2013

Journalist Laura McQuillan has noticed a certain similarity between the social media announcements of the Labour leadership candidacies of Grant Robertson and David Cunliffe; check this out:

The similarity between to two announcements is striking. In fact it's more than striking; they are to all intents and purposes identical.

There are many possible explanations, but we reckon that this could be one of them; Francesca Mold did them as a job lot before exiting her job, hence the cut 'n' paste similarities. Can anyone think of a better explanation for this ineptitude?

Tweet of the Day; Dotcom special - 26 August 2013

Kim Dotcom is at it again on Twitter.

The Large German Gentleman seems to have a bizarre sense of humour. Not only does he share his fantasies over the PM's daughter, but last year he showed a very injudicious side to his character making jokes about rape on social media, and an anti-semetic reference to John Key.

The media fawns over Kim Dotcom, but there is a dark side to the Large German Gentleman's character. Smart-arse references to the children of MP's in an attempt to score political points will do nothing for his public image.

Tweet of the Day - 23 August 2013

We always make a point of listening to Mike Hosking's weekly chat with Steven Joyce and Annette King. They join Hosking every Wednesday morning just after the 8am news, and although they are political opposites, there is an element of mutual respect between them.

So it's no great surprise that the sensitive, gentlemanly side of Steven Joyce came out yesterday when he tweeted this:

Now with all those blokes lining up to be Labour's leader (Andrew Little, David Cunliffe, Shane Jones and Grant Robertson), you'd think Annette would have a great chance if Labour wants to appeal to female voters. 

Steven Joyce is just too kind in offering to be her campaign manager!

Tweet of the Day - 20 August 2013

What is Trevor Mallard up to with this tweet?

So why would Mr Mallard be describing a group including Grant Robertson, David Cunliffe and Andrew Little as Labour's "B team"? Has David Shearer fought off the challengers?

Or is the long-serving Hutt South MP having a senior moment? So many questions...

Tweet of the Day - 14 August 2013

Labour leadership aspirant Andrew Little had a little problem at Auckland Airport's Koru Lounge last night, about which he made the mistake of tweeting:

Now Andrew Little may have only been an MP for a little short of two years, but he should know what a SMOG is; a Social Media Own Goal. And he should also know that slagging off workers via social media when you are an MP traveling around the country on the taxpayer's dime isn't a great look.

And we have no idea whatsoever who the chap that replied to Mr Little is, but we suspect that his reply to the Labour MP was fair dripping with sarcasm; so much so that Andrew Little didn't notice it.

There's at least one thing we should be grateful for however; Little didn't ask the Koru Lounge staff if they knew who he was. But he really does need to consult with a physician (or at the very least, a PR consultant) before he is fully beset by an incurable case of Entitleitis.

Tweet of the Day - 9 August 2013

He takes aim; he shoots; he scores!

It's a classic SMOG (Social Media Own Goal) from Trevor Mallard as he tells New Zealand exactly what electing a Labour government would mean, and gets pwned for his efforts by Cameron Slater:

Give it up Trevor; you're the gift that just keeps on giving!

Tweet of the Day - 6 August 2013

We saw the headline on Stuff when we did our early-morning round of the newspaper sites this morning - Shearer thought he was 'trained assassin'. We filed it away for future reference.

It didn't take long for the headline to re-emerge; someone else out there has a warped sense of humour:

Thus far, it could easily be argued that all Labour's Shearer has managed to assassinate is Labour's poll ratings. After all, he's taken aim at John Key and National quite a lot, fired, and either missed, or shot himself in the foot.

Carlos the Jackal he ain't!

Tweet of the Day - 5 August 2013

CTU leader and Labour Party aspirant Helen Kelly jumps the shark and makes the Fonterra contamination situation a political issue. And her dog-whistle brought out a couple of supporters:

This is, of course, not an issue caused by the Government, but that won't stop the likes of Helen Kelly having a crack. In fact thus far the response from Ministers and their officials has been exemplary, with a huge amount of work having been done over the weekend to reassure our trading partners that this is very much an isolated issue. Both veteran business journalist Rod Oram and TVNZ's Corin Dann, both of whom lean to the left by varying amounts acknowledged that last night.

It does make you wonder what Helen Kelly's agenda is though, given that this is a serious issue for New Zealand. Her opportunism contrasts strongly with the dignified silence maintained to date by Opposition politicians.

Tweet(s) of the Day - 3 August 2013

Steven Joyce and Russel Norman indulged in a very public spat last night. The Green Party co-leader was making claims via social media that simply didn't stack up, and was called on it by Mr Joyce; here's the exchange:

Whether or not it's a good thing for our politicians to be going at one another in such a public forum is open to debate. But on the other hand, it's good to see that they are human.

Tweet of the Day - 30 August 2013

Columnist and playwright Dave Armstrong takes a slightly different and irreverent view of the Fonterra "notulism crisis":

Great stuff!
 

Tweet of the Day - 1 August 2013

Fairfax journalist Andrea Vance has vented her spleen this morning over the release of her phone records. You can read her piece here.

But this tweet raises an interesting perspective:

It's rather like Nicky Hager's outrage at journalists being declared subversives by the military when the Helen Clark government was in power in 2003, having himself profited significantly from a book based on e-mails gained by nefarious means. 

Things are not always as black and white as they seem. And what about Winston Peters' role in all of this, given his boast of having phone records? The Privileges Committee hearing later in the month might have all sorts of surprises.

Tweet of the Day - 29 July 2013

Have you heard of the Law of Unintended Consequences? David Shearer has, this morning at least; check this out:

This is potentially a colossal own goal for Labour and for David Shearer. Wouldn't you think that they would have checked on the downstream effects before announcing this bold, new, recycled policy?

Especially when it breaches something which Labour itself signed off. You can check out Stephen Franks' opinion here.

**************************************

UPDATE: But wait; it gets worse:

Oh dear; the Chan-Ban is dead in the water, we think.

Tweet of the Day - 27 July 2013

Zimbabwe goes to the polls next week, prompting this somewhat cynical offering:

The chances are that Grant will be right; we doubt that Robert Mugabe will ever lose an election. Even after he finally succumbs and goes to meet his maker, there are likely to be enough hi-jinks to ensure his post-houmous election of President of what used to be the Food-basket of Africa, but in now merely a basket-case.

Tweet of the Day - 23 July 2013

In a segue between the Ashes and the Royal baby, this one was doing the rounds before the news from St Mary's Hospital:

Much more of this, and we could almost feel sorry for the Australian cricket team, about which we'll have more later in the day.

Almost...

Ashes Tweet of the Day - 22 July 2013

England has taken a vice-like grip on the Ashes after a crushing defeat of Australia at Lord's. And it has prompted this delightful tweet and photograph:

Australia now must win the final three tests to win back the Ashes urn. It's highly likely that at some point in one of the three remaining tests that rain will intervene, which makes the Australians' task even more difficult. 

Then again, the dominance of England at Lord's was such that rain might be the only thing that saves Australia from a 5-nil series defeat!