5 Minutes to Maher!

Woo hoo! Finally I get to see Real Time with Bill Maher live! For all you fellow Lefty Canucks that have never seen it tune in to the new HBO Caanda channel (would be one of the TMN channels) and watch!

Enjoy the Canadian Environment While You Can

The Prime Minister announced his cabinet today...



You might want to print out these pictures for posterity.









I'm going to miss wildlife.

Barack Obama: Cool In a Crisis

Just a little while ago a person fainted at an Obama rally. Barack cares about people, and he made sure the EMTs knew there was someone who needed help.



Apparently according to his statement this isn't the first time this has happened.

Our guy is cool under pressure, he showed it during the financial crisis and he showed it again in the video above.

6 days left to make him Commander in Chief.

Music to My Ears

Because I like to see how the other side is faring I sometimes check out electionprojection.com which is sort of like a Conservative version of the far superior Electoral-Vote.com

Today I read something that was music to my ears. When speaking of the anticipated ass kicking Barack Obama and friends are about to give Conservatism in the states The Blogging Caesar (That's really what he calls himself) has this to say:

Note to my fellow conservatives out there: I know, I know - I hate reporting all this bad news as much as you hate reading it!

Hopefully he'll be borderline manic depressive on November 5th!

Hat Tip to Red Tory

Just wanted to give a hat tip to Red Tory for saying something about Liberal 4 Ever.

I think this guy is a troll, but he's an embarrassment to all of us (i.e. me) that have "Liberal 4/For" in their blog name.

He mentions in his rebuttal that English is not his first language, I think he needs to learn what the word "Liberal" means.

Personally I think he's just a troll/shit disturber.

If Obama Really Were a Terrorist, the U.S. Would Already be Screwed.

Of course the notion that Barack Obama is a terrorist is absurd, but even if it were true it would already be too late to stop him from doing irreparable damage to the U.S.

You see, he knows everything they know, he has since September.

Obama gets first intelligence briefing.

Barack Obama and John McCain get the same intelligence briefings the President of the United States gets. It starts when they become officially nominated. So if Obama really were a terrorist he would know everything the U.S. knows, including undercover agents, what they do and don't know about their enemies, etc. He'd no doubt be passing this info on to his terrorist handlers.

Barack Obama is not a terrorist. And even if he were he still couldn't do any worse than Bush.

On Joe The Plumber...

Murray the Stock Seller (Me) Wishes they'd shut the Hell up about Joe the Plumber and Sally the Banker and all this the

Anyone else?

Very Good News out of Alaska

Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK) has been found guilty on all 7 counts he was facing. Basically what this means is his Senate seat which up until now has been a nailbiter might finally start heading in the direction of the Democrats. Really his biggest hope, that of being acquitted before the election has now gone crashing down in flames.

This means that the Democrats have a better chance of getting to the magical 60 (I'd actually like to see them get to 61 so they can give Joe Lieberman the boot) seats they'd need in the Senate to keep the Republicans from filibustering every single piece of progressive legislation they try to put forward.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

We're ALREADY gaining on the Conservatives!

Ok, so it's only because of a Judicial recount in our favor, but still we now have 77 seats, gaining one at the expense of the BQ in Brossard-La Prairie.

Wooo Hooo! Too bad we couldn't have gotten back Egmont too and kept PEI all red, still we'll get it back next time around, along with a lot more.

Liberal 308

I kinda don't like the name just because it'll probably have to change the next time we do a redistribution (remember there used to be only 301 seats in the house?) but for now it sounds good.

Basically the Liberal 308 strategy is akin to Howard Dean's 50 state strategy in the states that has Barack Obama and a lot of his down ticket Democrats on the cusp of a historic victory. (Please God, let the polls hold for another 12 days!!!)

The whole point of the strategy is to build up each and every one of our 308 riding associations so that we can try to compete everywhere in the country and not just in places we think we'll win. Who knows, maybe we don't win in some places because we don't ever speak to the people in these ridings? At the very least having a good ground game and a good base of financial support is key to rebuilding our party. Also as we've seen South of the border this strategy can take time and money away from our opponents as it sometimes means they have to defend areas they're used to relying on.

If we're truly going to put our party back in to power we must adopt this strategy.

Click the pic and Join the Facebook group today.

Real Time with Bill Maher comes to CANADA!!!

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO No more downloading episodes hours after they air from bittorrent! Um, not that I ever did that cuz I kow it's illegal and all. *nervous laughter* but a guy I know did, you know, um his name? Oh, it's um, Joey JoJo Shabbadoo Jr. Yeah, that's the ticket.

Anyway, the Movie Network is switching their MMore Channel to HBO Canada starting October 31 (Sounds Spooky! -Ed) and for me that's fantabulous news because it means I'll be able to watch Real Time with Bill Maher. For those of you who haven't seen it it's hilarious, as evidenced by this clip here (well until HBO has it taken down anyway)



I'm a huge fan of Bill Maher, and it's about damn time we have HBO up here.

Someone's Lying at CTV

Not that that's all that surprising considering CTV now stands for Conservative TeleVision as seen here by their new logo.



Please feel free to spread this article around as much as you can, this needs to get out.

But now instead of just suspecting that they're being less than honest I have proof. Exhibit A is the video of ATV's Steve Murphy explaining their thought process before airing the Dion smear.



At 47 Seconds in Murphy says

"And the Liberal campaign was anxious that this exchange not be broadcast, and initially we indicated that it would not be."

P.S. to CTV, don't worry I've downloaded that video so if you get it removed from YouTube I'll just put it up somewhere else.

Now Exhibit B, an article in Yesterday's (Monday, October 20) Halifax version of the Metro (Page 8) by Vice President and General Manager of CTV Atlantic Michael Elgie which I scanned so you can all see. First, here's the whole article for context.



And now the pertinent part zoomed in.



And finally the highlighted text for those of you who may be image challenged due to being at work or something.

"Contrary to widely circulated reports, Steve Murphy did not make a promise to M. Dion to not broadcast the false starts, nor was there a commitment to M. Dion or representatives of the Liberal Party that what happened before or after the interview was "off the record."

So here we have Steve Murphy saying "initially we indicated that it (the interview's false starts) would not be. (broadcast)" and then we have Michael Elgie of CTV saying "nor was there a commitment to M. Dion or representatives of the Liberal Party that what happened before or after the interview was "off the record."

Oops.

The biggest problem with lying is keeping track of the lies and truths you've told so that you don't end up contradicting yourself.

Which one of them is lying? Does it really matter? If I had to guess I would say it's Elgie, but either way CTV is trying to cover their ass. It's too bad we don't have a Canadian version of Keith Olbermann to bring this to the light of day, hopefully enough Liberal bloggers will care about this story to get the attention of someone in the media. Also I think I'll email it to the Toronto Star since they're on the good side.

We Need to Learn How to Fundraise

I seriously think the Liberal Party should take a look at Barack Obama's playbook when it comes to fundraising and copy it as much as possible. Of course there are differences between our campaign finance laws but not so much that it would be impossible.

Over the next little while I'm going to delve in to the fundraising laws to see what I can do to help the party, and I suggest all of you out there who get sick every time you heard the words "Prime Minister Harper" do the same.

L4L on the Leadership

Last time there was a Liberal leadership race which was what, 4 minutes ago? I jumped first on Frank McKenna, and then when he didn't want to run I settled on Scott Brison.

This time I'm going to sit back and wait and see who offers and then read up on each contestant, what they stand for, what their policy positions are, whether they're fluent in both English and French, and then make a decision.

Of course with my massive appeal of like 4 readers (Hey Goldie!) once I make my decision the race will be all over, as for Brison, well the reason he didn't win after I endorsed him was obviously a clerical error. :)

There was a Liberal Blogger, I can't remember who it was, CalgaryGrit? Bowie? I'm not sure, but whoever it was they suggested instead of having one big convention that we have a bunch of smaller conventions networked together, and then have the one main convention in Vancouver where all the candidates are. I'd love that idea, it'd never happen but it would be a great idea because #1 then I could attend, and #2 it would spread the Liberal message out across the country. You know how in the states the parties pick a state where they need help to hold their convention (or in the Republican's case they hold it in New York so they can milk 9/11 for all it's worth) Well we should do that here, only on a larger scale. Hold a bunch of different mini conventions in places where we're weak like the Western Provinces, Quebec City, etc.

Dion Attacks CTV (W/ Video)

How long it stays up until the scumbags at Conservative TeleVision file a copyright request is anyone's guess. But here it is for now.



I'm glad he did it. I hate networks who are biased purport to be unbiased, at least Fox news makes it so blindingly obvious that everyone knows they're a puppet. The CTV and Global hide it which is garbage.

I See the Electoral Reform Nuts Are Out in Full Force

Everywhere you go today the small but vocal cadre of Electoral Reform nuts are out there trying to drum up support for their flawed system to replace the flawed system we have now.

I wish someone would come up with a system that allocates power (read: not seats, power) according to how many votes they got nationally. I've tried to figure one out but my brother got all the math in the family and he couldn't care less about politics, I have to remind him to vote.

Basically my biggest worry when it comes to an electoral reform is, and always has been, the nightmare scenario of a small party like the NDP or a fringe party like the Greens holding the balance of power in Parliament.

While it is fun to try to see the supporters of reform, who by and large are usually supporters of these parties (gee, I wonder why) try to twist themselves in to knots trying to explain how it's unfair that a party that gets %40 of the vote getting absolute power is unfair but a party getting %2.5 getting essentially the same thing is a-ok. It's not so fun that I actually want to do it.

Really the problem that we have isn't electoral reform, it's Parliamentary reform. Giving seats based on percentage is fine, but in our current system seats can either be completely meaningless or one seat can change the course of Canadian history. (See Chuck Cadman)

So electoral reformers, put up a system that allocates power and not seats in proportion to the vote and I'll be on board, until then whether you want to admit it to yourselves or not, you're advocating replacing one unfair system with another. It's just unfair to different people.

Wow, Go Dion

I want him out as leader, but I was happy to hear him tell CTV to basically eff off.

I was just watching CTV because CBC had a Conservative on, and the reporter for CTV was being an idiot, trying to get in his face so he says something like "The last place I want to talk to is CTV."

The Scoreboard

Here are the results of my wish list and my reaction.

Expected
- I hope we hold the Conservatives to at least a Minority.

Check. Although I must admit I was scared there for a moment. I'll be talking more about this later, but I hope all of the people who vote split realize just how close we came to a disaster tonight. Right now the Conservatives are at 143, that's 12 seats away from destroying Canada. As much as I hate the NDP and the Greens we need to do something, we need to work this out somehow some way, because if we don't we're going to have a permanent Conservative government. And that's not just on the other side, people like me need to make sacrifices too, and I admit that.

- I hope Mike Savage wins my home riding (I live in Halifax now, but Dartmouth will always be my home)

Check, once again this one was close for a while but in the end he pulled away nicely. Thank God my home didn't go to the Orange Menace, although the riding I currently live in did. But Dartmouth will always be my home.

- I hope Siobhan Coady wins St. John's South-Mount Pearl.

Check, and I'm VERY happy to see her in, I first heard about her last election when CPAC did a profile of her riding and I was very impressed. I'm glad to see we'll have another strong Liberal voice in Parliament.

- I hope the Conservatives get shut out in Newfoundland.

Check, I never thought I'd be happy about anything Danny Williams did, but I am happy tonight, especially since those 3 seats coupled with a few shifts here and there could have meant disaster.

- I hope the Conservatives lose seats in Quebec.

Right now it's not clear whether they will or not, it's looking like I hold, but at least they didn't make huge inroads. The Bloc saved Canada tonight.

- I hope the Greens don't win a seat.

Check, This one was never really in doubt, but the scary thing is if their leader wasn't such an airhead and ran in a good Green seat she may well have won and that would have spelled disaster for the left vote in Canada. Unless we can come to some sort of agreement we're going to fall in to the same trap the Right was in for a long time.

Toss-Up
- I hope that like the last election we do better in Ontario than expected.

Epic Fail, not only did we not do better we got blown away in Ontario. I guess a new cloak and forcing his MPs to keep quiet foold Ontarians.

- I hope we see some Conservative cabinet ministers go down in flames tonight.

Can I count Michael Fortier? :D

- I hope the Greens don't finish any better than 2nd anywhere.

I meant to say I hope they don't finish at 2nd, but I forgot about Elizabeth May, so I'm happy that they didn't finish 2nd anywhere else, or so it seems at the moment.

Long Shot
- I hope we win Government.

As Maxwell Smart would say: Missed it by that much.

- I hope the Liberals can somehow overcome the Orange wave of ignorance in Halifax and elect Catherine Meade. It sucks living in a freakin Orange cesspool. (P.S. just so you're clear dippers, a vote for the NDP is a vote for a 2nd Stephen Harper term, don't delude yourself in to thinking otherwise.)

Not even Close. Sigh, maybe one day...

- I hope the Greens don't win enough votes to get federal funding. (I'm not normally Conservative on taxes, but why the Hell should my tax dollars go to support ANY political party? Particularly ones I wouldn't support if my life depended on it.)

They blew that out of the water, they're still a fringe party. They got their precious leader in the debate and didn't even win a single seat. That's the definition of Fringe Party.

- I hope the number of NDP MPs goes down.

Egh.... I hate the NDP, almost as much as I hate Conservatives.

- I hope Olivia Chow loses.

Nope.

- I Hope Gerard Kennedy wins, we're going to need someone as a viable alternative to Iggy and Rae.

Check, and this right here might have saved the Liberal party. Now I'll have someone to support who I won't be forced to hold my nose for. I hope we get some old Chretien people to run too, I'd have a hard time deciding between Brian Tobin and Gerard Kennedy.

So, all in all, a bad night for Canada, a bad night for progress, but not as bad as it could have been. We've got a lot of rebuilding to do.

My Wishes For the Election

I did this last election and although it wasn't particularly successful I figured I'd do it again. This time I'm going to break my wishes down in to three categories: Expected, Toss-Up, and Long Shot. All three are pretty much self explanatory.

Expected
- I hope we hold the Conservatives to at least a Minority.

- I hope Mike Savage wins my home riding (I live in Halifax now, but Dartmouth will always be my home)

- I hope Siobhan Coady wins St. John's South-Mount Pearl.

- I hope the Conservatives get shut out in Newfoundland.

- I hope the Conservatives lose seats in Quebec.

- I hope the Greens don't win a seat.

Toss-Up
- I hope that like the last election we do better in Ontario than expected.

- I hope we see some Conservative cabinet ministers go down in flames tonight.

- I hope the Greens don't finish any better than 2nd anywhere.

Long Shot
- I hope we win Government.

- I hope the Liberals can somehow overcome the Orange wave of ignorance in Halifax and elect Catherine Meade. It sucks living in a freakin Orange cesspool. (P.S. just so you're clear dippers, a vote for the NDP is a vote for a 2nd Stephen Harper term, don't delude yourself in to thinking otherwise.)

- I hope the Greens don't win enough votes to get federal funding. (I'm not normally Conservative on taxes, but why the Hell should my tax dollars go to support ANY political party? Particularly ones I wouldn't support if my life depended on it.)

- I hope the number of NDP MPs goes down.

- I hope Olivia Chow loses.

- I Hope Gerard Kennedy wins, we're going to need someone as a viable alternative to Iggy and Rae.

So, there we have it. I hope most of all that we can at least keep Harper to a minority again, it looks good but the latest Nanos poll showed a 3% rise in people making a terrible choice (a.k.a. Voting Conservative) over the Thanksgiving weekend.

Please Vote

No matter who you vote for, please vote. People fought and died so that we could live in a country where we are free to determine our own destiny, please honor their sacrifice.

I Just Gained Some Respect for Elizabeth May

Which isn't really that notable considering the very low level I had for her before.

But I must say she did speak the truth yesterday when it comes to The Mustache (a.k.a. Jack Layton)

"I think she’s muddying the waters," Valerie Powell said. "I think she’s the best prime minister, and we have to keep working hard as Greens to make sure we have as many MPs as possible." Asked if she is muddying the waters, May responded, "It’s true I am." "I love Valerie and I read her full quotes and they weren’t harsh or unfair. She’s right, life would be simpler if I acted like (NDP Leader) Jack Layton and didn’t care if Stephen Harper formed government again. "Life would be simpler if I were a complete hypocrite like Jack Layton and pretended I cared about the climate when all of his strategy makes his own personal success more important than survival of the climate and decent climate policy. "I’m just not that person."

This is exactly how I feel about Jack Layton, especially after the whole Afghanistan war fiasco, I don't agree with the Conservatives on this one but he was all "we need to get out now, blah blah blah." And he didn't give a shit about the troops, anyone with half a brain could see that, all he cared about was getting more votes. His unfitness to be in any position of leadership was made blindingly clear when he and Harper caved in on allowing the Greens in to the debate in the first place.

As for May, one of the advantages of knowing there's no chance in Hell you'll ever win a seat in Parliament, EVER is that you can say whatever you want and not have to worry about electoral consequences. I'm happy that she's advocating strategic voting. Of course if all the center/left people in the country voted Liberal we'd never have to worry about a Conservative government again. I wish someone would start a viable right wing party to split the Conservative votes some. If the thought of Conservatism didn't make me want to puke I'd do it myself.

Elizabeth May should join the Liberal party and put her talents to good use and stop wasting them with this fringe party. But hey, Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven I guess.