When the lid blew off the Bill Clinton/Monica Lewinsky affair, I supported Clinton. I believe that where he sticks his dick is between him, Hillary and other willing partners. Sure, cheating on a spouse is never a good thing, but it doesn't invalidate his presidential skills. Curiously, I'm not so forgiving towards Don Brash.

In 1776, the American people became so fed up with the injustices of their ruler, King George, that they decided to become independent and tell him to sod off. They felt it was a good idea to set out in writing their reasoning for this act, and so Thomas Jefferson drafted up a Declaration of Independence.

"We are pressing Iraq's leaders to take bold measures to save their country. We're making it clear that America's patience is not unlimited," Mr Bush said (in the Herald today).

Not long to go now until the mid-term elections. Here's some predictions from Electoral Vote Predictor:

These are just some of the patriotic posters brought to you by whitehouse.org.

A while back, Ebs posted about how he used to be an American fanboy. I wouldn't put my feelings that strongly, but I've had a great respect for the principles on which America was founded. I suspect that this respect for America comes mainly from reading way too many Louis L'Amour cowboy books.

I am ultimately in favour of allowing gay people to marry. I can't see any reason to prohibit marriage to a group of people based on the shape of their partner's genitals. It seems as arbitrary to me as banning mixed-race marriage. I just think gay activists should focus on civil union first, then gay marriage after. It's a difference of opinion on tactics, not goals.

Corrections Minister Phil Goff announced today that he'd keep an eye on the South Australian trial of banning gang membership. He said that if it works, "then I'm 100 per cent in favour of it".

My grandmother always said that voting was our duty as citizens. If we couldn't be bothered making the minimal effort to choose our representatives for the next three years, then we had no right to complain about anything the politicians did.

It was inevitable that Edward Snowden's leaked document would eventually reveal that New Zealand too is involved in mass spying on civilians. As more and more came to light about the extent of spying by the NSA and their UK counterpart GCHQ, it would have been very surprising if as one of the 'five eyes' nations, we hadn't also joined in.

A few years ago I decided I should become better informed about NZ politics, and so I started following a number of New Zealand blogs, both right wing and left wing. I think I managed about three days of reading Whale Oil before I couldn't stand it anymore. There was no information, no analysis, no insight: it read like playground bully hurling insults at all and sundry when the teacher was out of earshot. There were insults directed at people's names, looks, clothes, mannerisms but almost no mention of any policies or ideas. And the comment section was even worse. It looked very much like naked tribalism - much like some sports fans will demonize and even attack supporters of opposing teams for no other reason than the arbitrary choice of a team to cheer for.