Funny... Dalton's "Theme Song"

Funny video, a new album of the McGuinty Liberals "Greatest Hits"... my personal pick for their theme song is "Don't Forget Me When I'm Gone", by Glass Tiger.

ON Liberals on Private Education

Looks like Ontario Liberal Finance Minister Greg Sorbara has also been caught in hypocrisy, just like his boss Premier Dalton McGuinty, regarding his stand against John Tory's faith based school funding proposal... all six of his kids went to a private Waldorf school.

Oops...

h/t to Joanne

New Liberal Party Logo... the Puffin!

Loved the idea Iggy, so I followed your lead...


LEGAL NOTICE: The above logo has not been authorized by the Liberal Party of Canada, and if it becomes popular, I'll probably get some legal "cease and desist" notice in the mail from the Liberal Party... but I think it's funny, so I posted it anyway. Feel free to reproduce, modify, and re-distribute before the Liberals attempt to shut me down!!!

Iggy: "Puffin should be Liberal symbol"

With statements like this, part of me still wishes he had won the Liberal leadership...

Excrement-hiding bird championed as Liberal symbol
Updated Thu. Aug. 30 2007 1:18 PM ET
Canadian Press

ST. JOHN'S, N.L. -- The beaver is one of Canada's national symbols and now a senior Liberal wants to make the puffin the symbol of the country's self-proclaimed natural governing party.

Liberal deputy leader Michael Ignatieff says the industrious little seabird -- with its black and white plumage, distinctive striped beak and orange feet -- is a "noble" creature that exemplifies Liberal values.

"It's a noble bird because it has good family values. They stay together for 30 years," Ignatieff said Thursday outside a Liberal caucus retreat in the Newfoundland capital.

"They lay one egg (each year). They put their excrement in one place. They hide their excrement. ... They flap their wings very hard and they work like hell.

"This seems to me a symbol for what our party should be."

Ignatieff was charmed by the birds during what was supposed to be a whale-watching tour for Liberal caucus members Tuesday. The MPs and senators saw no whales but did get a close up view of a colony of puffins nesting on a rocky offshore island.

A bird that tries to hide it's poop... yup, sounds like the Liberal Party to me! LOL! The quote from CTV... "With the Liberals hoping voters will forget the Sponsorship scandal, the last thing that Liberals need is a symbol that's known for hiding it's mess."

If you don't believe it, enjoy the video!

Please, please, PLEASE, somebody get a capture of this and put it up on YouTube before CTV archives it, or the Liberals try to get a court injunction to get it pulled offline, like they do with most of these kinds of things!

(and if you don't like the spin on the story, you can blame CTV!)

A well deserved hat tip goes to Warren on this one... glad he's on my daily reading list, or I'd have missed this one!


UPDATE: I'm sorry, spending five minutes in Microsoft Paint was just too much to resist...



LEGAL NOTICE: The above logo is not authorized by the Liberal Party of Canada... but I think it's darn funny, so there!

In keeping with my comments...

...regarding disgraced Senator Larry Craig, I'll offer this comment on today's news story...

Activists arrested in coal plant protest
Last Updated: Thursday, August 30, 2007 | 4:16 PM ET
CBC News

Three Greenpeace activists were arrested Thursday afternoon during an attempt to stop the delivery of nearly 30,000 tonnes of coal to the Nanticoke power plant on the shore of Lake Erie, south of Hamilton.

BOOK'EM... charge them with trespassing, vandalism, piracy perhaps?

Hey, you wouldn't want me to inconsistant now, would you? In my view, the law is the law... and it applies to Larry Craig and the Greenpeace activists equally.

(But I will give them this credit though... cudos to them for keeping Dalton's broken coal promise in the news!)

Larry Craig... "book him"

Mr. Erl has commented on this already, thinking that he'd be "breaking with the right" in condemning US Senator Larry Craig.

No breaking of ranks Erl, I'm with you... anyone who breaks the law, regardless of political stripe, oughta get the book thrown at them.

Then add to that the hypocrisy of his former stances on issues of morality, and you get a politician I'd never support... Republican, Democrat, Liberal, NDP, or Conservative.

I say "book him".

?!?!?! Was this all a part of Tory's plan?

Oh my goodness... I've been decrying John Tory's faith based funding idea for a long time now, but all of a sudden I'm thinking to myself that this is just a stroke of political genius, sprung on Mr. McGunity, BY Mr. McGuinty himself, just over a week before heading into a campaign...

"It's a matter of fairness, in today's National Post, from a friend and former supporter of Mr. McGuinty

"JEWISH LEADER DECRIES MCGUINTY'S 'ABOUT-FACE'"

"McGuinty's schools hypocrisy"

"Faiths unite to back Tory plan to fund their schools"

I'm thinking about that line from James Earl Jones in Tom Clancy's "Clear and Present Danger"... "You just walked right into that big'ol bear trap"

For the record... I still don't support the idea, but I can respect Mr. Tory for his political genius... kinda like how I have respect for guys like Warren... whom I'm guessing will not be having a particularly good day today... ;-)

NDP and the Taliban

Well, my agreement with the NDP on issues only goes so far.

It looks like I was right... "Hostage deal fuels Taliban legitimacy".

Waiting for the press release from Jack... "See! We can negotiate with the cold-blooded-killers!"

Dion on SPP... a flip...

... and a flop.

Man, what a weird kinda day... I'm actually agreeing with the NDP.

My view on the SQ posing as protesters

Now that the Quebec police have come out and admitted their men were there posing as protesters, I think the whole way everything went down actually makes more sense... at least to me. All you have to do is just think about it logically for a minute...

Various protests in recent years have gotten violent, and its sometimes hard for police to control the situation, get accurate intel, and determine who should be charged and such after the fact. So, it makes sense to have your own men amongst the crowd.

However, a kink was thrown into the works this time... the union folks who decided to show up and form their own buffer line, seperating the police and the protesters. By setting up their own buffer line (with good intent I think), they were cutting off the officers from their own lines! Of COURSE, when your in a hostile situation, you're going to want to keep within eyes and arms reach of your collegues! However, these union guys were continually forcing the officers back, away from the positions they had taken up at the front of the protest line, nearest to the police.

It's my view that the union folks did help in preventing any violence... and cudos to them for that. However, I disagree with the union accusing the officers of trying to incite a riot. Like I said, from the video, it looks to me like they wanted to keep within arms length of the police line, at the front of the protesters line... a line that was being pushed further back by the union folks.

As for the cop who was holding a rock... perhaps in his mind, it was just a prop to help him blend in. (so long as he was only copying what he saw others doing, and not starting the trend amongst the protesters)

Bottom line is, it all makes logical sense to me. I haven't seen any video that leads me to believe the cops were trying to incite anything. Of course, I'm always more likely to give the legitimate authorities the benefit of the doubt when it comes to accusations against them made by union and protester types, but that's just me. ;-)

Alright Canadian Cynic... have at me.

"workingfamilies.ca"

I am absolutely appaled by the lies, mistruths, and slanderous garbage that is being peddled by these arms length agencies of the Ontario Liberal Party.

Just saw another one on the TV this evening. Disgusting. And it looks like there's not a darn thing that can be done about it, because the writ hasn't been dropped yet... therefore, third party advertisers are allowed to fill the airwaves with their biased spin.

Fear, mistruths, mudslinging, and scaremongering... the same old ploys that are being consistantly used by the Liberal Party... both Provincial and Federal. I didn't think that our "democratic process" could stoop so low... looks like I was wrong.

For shame.

Blogging from the inside...

This is Christian Conservative, coming to you live from a pre-election announcement near you! ;-)

ClimateForChange.ca - BUSTED

Humm... could this be an underhanded (and potentially illegal, perhaps?) attempt by the Liberal Party of Canada to smear the Conservative Party?

I'm sorry, but as an IT guy, something like this is unexplainable, unless this is tied right back to the Liberal Party...

IP Information for 64.26.141.35
IP Location: Canada Canada Ottawa Peter Pundy Consulting Inc
Resolve Host: lp1.campaigngear.net
IP Address: 64.26.141.35 [Whois] [Reverse-Ip] [Ping] [DNS Lookup] [Traceroute]
SSL Cert: stephanedion.ca SSL Certificate has expired.

There is no way that an SSL Certificate connected to "stephanedion.ca" would be connected with this site, unless somehow this was site was directly linked to the Liberal Party of Canada, the owners of "stephandion.ca"... you don't just throw around your SSL Certificates willy-nilly!

Somebody really goofed on this one... and there may be legal remifications related to a "non-profit" being directly linked to a political party.

Great catch there Janke. I think it can be best summed up with the word, "BUSTED".

Put in my order today

If you're a political junkie who wants to think like a winner, you should seriously think about pre-ordering your copy too.

I just hope it ships before the next Federal Election...

Back from Algonquin

I'll let the photos do most of the talking...
Here's a Trudeau-esque panaramic canoe shot of me paddling my canoe... Algonquin really is a beautiful place.

The campsite.

We didn't spend as much time on the water as we'd hoped, but got a bunch of shots in while out there. My wife took this great shot of me, might use it for my new MSN/Facebook pic.

My wife took this great shot "accidentally"... it wasn't what we were going for, but it turned out really cool!

Beautiful shot of my wife out on the water in our canoe.

Another cool shot my wife took. (I'm typically critical of photos of myself, so I'm glad she got some good ones)

Some experimentation with colours, really brought out the wood... another ode to Trudeau. (he came here often, so I hear) It was a Trudeau themed week, as I was reading "Trudeau and our Times, Volume II: The Heroic Delusion"... finished the whole thing too, all 400+ pages.

As I said, Algonquin is a beautiful place. Here's the view from one of the trails off Highway 60.

Had a great week. Glad to be back though, will have some posts based on this weeks thoughts over the next little while. (nothing more today, I have a funeral to attend)

An open letter to Backseat Blogger

Hey there Backseat Blogger,

I've commented before about some of your posts, and I'd just like to ask that you not paint all of us "Christians" with the same brush. Your obvious hatred of all things "Christian" (and I use the term lightly) is clear, and, in my opinion, misguided.

For example, one of your posts today was a direct attack on the Catholic Church, however, you tarred all of us together, once again. Don't forget, there was that rather nasty little incident in 1517 (some obscure guy named Luther) that began a clear division between various branches of the faith, as well as that other split between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches some centruies earlier. Please ensure that you clarify when you direct such attacks. (of course, one of my highschool English teachers couldn't make that distinction either... then again, she was a post-modernist feminist man-hater, so what do you expect?)

As for the church that cancelled the funeral because the veteran was gay, I don't think that was the right decision... though I do understand the delemna that the church officials were going through, as they would not want to appear to support a lifestyle that they viewed as sinful. (for full disclosure, I'm in a similar situation myself presently, as I am not attending a wedding of someone close to me because I do not want to show support of a sinful decision)

Yes, I am a "Christian"... but what does that really mean? It means I am a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, a believer in His Name, and one who has turned to Him for the salvation of my soul through His shed and precious redeeming blood... blood that was shed for me (and for you too, should you accept His offer of forgiveness) on the cross of Calvary, some 2000 years ago. (actually, it was 1974 years and a couple months ago, if you want to get technical...) What all that means is that I am someone who reads the Bible and takes what it has to say seriously, and try to live my life in accordance with the principles found within its pages. Do I do it well? Not a chance! And there are a great many of us who struggle with the truths contained within its pages, but are seeking to do what is right in His eyes. Please don't just our Master by our mistakes... judge Him for who He is alone! The Lord Jesus is the loving and merciful God who paid such a great price to restore the broken relationship between Himself and His greatest creation... you and I.

Of course, these truths are something that the evil one Satan hates, so obviously he wants to do everything he can to make people like yourself hate all things related to the Lord Jesus Christ. I'd just like to appeal to you today to think twice before making such broad sweeping accusations, and rejecting all things related to Christ because of a few who claim the Lord's Name, and act in ways that don't honour Him as their Lord and Saviour.

Anyway, I won't be able to respond because I'm headed off into the bush for a week... please try to behave everyone, and I look forward to some positive dialouge next week.

If anyone cares...

...you can see a photo of my chiropracter's 1975 Pacer on Page DT14 of today's National Post.

Funny how it got noticed... his wife was going through today's paper, saw the photo, and said, "Hey, there's a photo of a Pacer here that looks just like ours... hang on a sec, that's our license plate!"

Yea, didn't think you cared... but just put that out there anyway.

Inuit to protect Arctic sovereignty?

I, for one, am all for this idea, and hope that our Party moves quickly on it.

Leader says the Inuit key to Arctic sovereignty
Updated Sun. Aug. 5 2007 12:49 PM ET
CTV.ca News Staff

An Inuit leader says the federal government needs to actively engage the people of the Canadian North on the issue of Arctic sovereignty in order to dispel Russian claims to the area.

Mary Simon, president of national organization Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, told CTV's Question Period that her people are ready to get involved in surveillennce of the region.

"We are Canadians, we are full taxpayers, we hold Canadian passports and are permanently Canadian residents," Simon said of the Inuit people.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is set to visit the North next week where he is expected to discuss sovereignty and security with northern leaders.

Earlier this week, a Russian atomic icebreaker ploughed a route to the North Pole through a sheet of multi-year ice, paving the path for the Akademik Fedorov research ship to follow.

In a symbolic gesture, a Russian flag was dropped onto the seabed, in an attempt to bolster claims to about 1.2 million square kilometres of the Arctic shelf.

How the MSM really feels

Oh yes, my dear readers in the MSM... we know how you really feel. Please just stop pretending, and let the general public see the fact that you genuinely hate all things Conservative in this country.

Then maybe we'll get some balanced reporting for once.

This from SDA:

Richard Ball writes from Charlottetown;

Like all meetings of its kind, last night's Conservative Party meeting on the Charlottetown waterfront began with the singing of the national anthem. The national anthem is not a Liberal anthem or a Conservative anthem, it is the anthem of Canada, for all Canadians.

Everyone in the room rose and sang, with one apparent exception: the Canadian media.

I didn't notice this directly as I was busy singing, but we were seated right beside the media area, and the person next to me did notice and told me about it afterwards, saying she felt like asking them if they didn't know the words.

I had noticed something. When the national anthem was announced, one of the young women in the media group broke into the first line of the American national anthem. At the time I dismissed this as a juvenile attempt at being clever, but, given the media's left-wing bias and working assumption that Stephen Harper is a puppet of E. A. (Evil American) George Bush, I suspect she was making an in-joke for her media brothers and sisters that she knew would be well received.

In defense of the media, I suppose they consider themselves "not there" as participants in the event; they are there as outsiders, as objective observers. But if that is so, the fact that one of them broke the media oath of silence and sang the American anthem when the Canadian national anthem was announced is a stain on their claims to journalistic integrity.

Or, maybe they just can't sing.

I'm with SDA... I'd love to know who the joker was.

UPDATE: Thanks to reader "KC" who tracked down the original post

Iggy sharpening the knives?

The Montreal Gazette's Don MacPherson seems to be implying just that.

I'll agree with him on one point, and then make a comment based on it...

"When the Liberal leader trails an Albertan Tory, a Toronto NDPer and a separatist on the best-PM measure," SES Research pollster Nik Nanos recently wrote for Sun Media, "it has to be pretty grim."

And a defeat in the Sept. 17 by-election in the Liberal stronghold of Outremont for Dion's handpicked candidate, Jocelyn Coulon, would probably be interpreted as a rejection of the Liberal leader himself.

Despite Ignatieff's gracious concession speech at the convention, it soon became apparent neither he nor some of his supporters, especially in Quebec, had given up hope for a second chance at the prize.

If Dion loses Outremont on September 17, and any move is made on Dion's leadership... then you can bet your bottom dollar that there will be some sort of confidence measure in the House this fall.

This week's movie event

Bourne. Go see it. Sweet flick.

But you do have to wonder how much of it is reality, and how much of it is Hollywood...

President Thompson... I like the sound of it

Oh man... this guy just keeps getting better... enjoy this little audio clip on Global Warming from the (hopefully) next President of the United States of America!

(or here's the text if you prefer)

h/t to Dr. Roy

"Replacements" for Afghanistan

Just heard on the radio that the same debate we're having about pulling out in 2009 is occuring in Holland... with a pullout date of August 2008.

How is that going to affect the debate here? Mr. Dion has said that we need to be talking to our NATO partners now to find replacements. How is that going to occur when other nations are also considering a pullout?

How can we consider pulling out when we know that the repressive forces of the Taliban will just move back in to occupy the vaccum? How can we conduct other humanitarian works there when the Taliban has free reign to plant all the roadside bombs, and kill all the schoolteachers, doctors, well diggers, etc. they want?

I just don't get how the left expects to continue their other non-military roles without the security required... ie., boots on the ground. Can anyone help me out here?

Could Ontario become a "Have-not" province?

According to a report in today's National Post, it's a real possibility.

Ontario could lose its 'have' status
Provincial Rankings; Saskatchewan Set To Overtake B.C., Analysis Finds
Paul Vieira, National Post
Published: Thursday, August 02, 2007

OTTAWA - Ontario is in danger of losing its status as a "have" province while Saskatchewan is set to overtake British Columbia in terms of economic rankings, says an analysis by economic forecaster Global Insight Canada.

As a result, the forecaster said, Canada has gone from three "have" provinces in the early 1980s -- Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario -- to 1 "have" provinces, with Alberta representing the economic engine and Ontario only a fraction of its former self.

The analysis, released yesterday, further strengthens the argument that there are two economies in the country: one in the West, which is strong and vibrant, and another in the East, which is struggling under a stronger dollar and higher energy prices.

Perhaps the most startling element of the report, written by Global Insight managing director Dale Orr, is how far Ontario has fallen in terms of economic growth per capita, which is how standards of living are measured. This may not bode well for the province's Liberal government, which faces an election in October. Premier Dalton McGuinty's government has been under attack from economists who say the province's tax regime is not competitive in terms of attracting business investment and, as a result, its economy has suffered.

My bet on "negotiations"

Here's what I'm betting... representitives from the South Korean government will sit down with the Taliban, and the Taliban will jump at whatever offer will be made and release the hostages.

Why? It's simple, really... by releasing the hostages, the Taliban will play the left in the West like a fiddle, as cries will be heard from far and wide, including from the NDP here in Canada, "See? Negotitating with the Taliban works!"

This will serve to further errode Western support for the mission, assisting in speeding up the withdrawl of Western forces, including Canada. Once removed, the Taliban will turn their counter-insergency against the fledgeling Afghan government, and may end up successfully restoring their repressive and authoritarian rule over the nation.

Call me a pessimist...

I hope for the sakes of the Korean hostages that I'm right, and they'll be free shortly... and I hope I'm wrong about the errosion of Western support due to the Taliban's schemes.

How the mighty have fallen

Warren posted this because he thought it was good campaign material...

...but while watching it, I just couldn't shake the thought, "Oh how the mighty have fallen."

Poll: "Liberals like pork"

Hey, I didn't write the headline! "Barbecue survey shows Liberal fondness for pork".

Looks like Angus Reid did a poll on the BBQ preferences of people who identified themselves as supporting various political parties... and the results were rather funny!

To sum things up... Liberals favoured pork, Conservatives favoured beef (no duh, since Alberta's a Tory stronghold), and NDPers favour, get this, CHICKEN! A quote from the article... "He [Conservative MP Gary Lunn] also wouldn't comment on New Democrats' preference of chicken. Is this a reflection of their call for troop withdrawals from Afghanistan?"

Also of note was that the Greens preferences didn't register in the poll! Perhaps this comment tells us why... "Adrienne Carr, B.C. Green party leader, said the Conservatives' lead in barbecue ownership shows "they aren't taking climate change seriously."" Oh man... give it a rest already!

At least their national leader has a sense of humour... "But Elizabeth May, national leader for the Green party, wouldn't touch the survey result.

"That's too easy. It's like shooting fish in a barrel,""

Just to show you how nuts some of these ecofacists are, this is actually the third anti-BBQ due to climate change report I've seen in the last week.

I like the Harvey's slogan... "LONG LIVE THE GRILL!"