I'll take political appointments that suck for $400 Alex

A:He's a unilingual Anglophone who runs a wheat farm in Albert and has just been named Parliamentary Secretary for La Francophonie

Q:Who is Ted Menzies

Stageleft:. Life on the left side has the best take with " And Harper's Hits Just Keep On Comin'!"

Calling all lawyers
I'm curious and seeking a free legal opinion. David Emerson ran as a Liberal in the riding of Vancouver Kingsway. He begged NDP supporters to vote for him in order to keep the Conservatives from winning the seat. He said the day before the election that if elected he would be "Stephen Harper's worst enemy" and was elected to Parliament. The Conservatives came a distant third with 18% of the vote. Two weeks later, at the opening of Parliament, Mr. Emerson defects and joins the Conservative Cabinet. Much screeching, shouting and gnashing of teeth ensues on both sides of the floor.

My questions: Can voters in the riding, the Liberal riding association or the federal Liberal party sue David Emerson for breach of promise? Can he be forced to return campaign contribution for acting in bad faith?

Just curious...

Let the disaster begin
Well it has finally happened, the lunatics have taken over the asylum
Fear and Loathing in Canada (both the excellent blog and the sentiment) outlines Harper's Agenda as the new Prime Minister is sworn in (and around here, sworn at)

This round up of the new cabinet gives more than the benifit of the doubt to some of Harper's choices.

Let's take a less rose-coloured look at few over the next few days, starting with Peter MacKay, the new Foreign Affairs Minister and former almost Mr. Belinda Stronach (and possibly the new almost Mr. Sophie Demaris?). He also led the Progressive Conservative Party for about 15 minutes before someone noticed the party had died and was starting to smell worse than usual. Apparently MacKay is regularly voted the sexist male MP by Commons staff - clearly an important qualification since romancing rich and powerful women seems to be what he is chiefly known for. As foreign affairs minister, it couldn't hurt if MacKay had a fling with a President Condeleezza Rice or a President Hillary Clinton - though I'd prefer if the breakup didn't include sending the 82nd Airborne to get back the jilted president's toothbrush, favorite t-shirt and White House coffee mug.

Hopefully MacKay will stick to his knitting and do his sucking up in Washington through his yet-to-be-named ambassador. Who will it be? After all Canada's ambassador to Washington will be a vital playing in the Harper effort to get back on side with Dubya's neocons without looking like they've actually donned kneepads.
Names being mentioned include Brian Mulroney, Mike Harris and Preston Manning. Surely there will be Senate seats at least for purveyor of "Common Sense" and old time Injun Fighter Mike "better dead than red" Harris, Brian "the Chin that walks like a man" Mulroney and Parson Manning. I think MacKay should at least consider Joe Clark. Just imagine the stammering, the polite "excuse me, uhh wait just a second now, aww c'mon guys" kind of Jimmy-Stewart-in-the-first-half of "The Man Who Shot Liberty Vallance" kind of standing up for Canada we'd get then!
Our new foreign policy: Whatever Dubya says it is. Move over Tony Blair.


Other, far superior examinations of the start of the slide downhill can be found at Galloping Beaver, who puts the hurt on turncoat David Emerson, who is no Belinda Stronach. Canadian Cynic also smells a rat concerning the man who begged NDP voters to vote Liberal to stop the Conservatives and then two weeks later joined the Tory Cabinet. Doubtless Emerson's new collegues will be as harsh on him as they were on Stronach, who served a year with the Tories and had public conflicts with the leadership before she jumped ship. I'm no fan, but lets just see if new immigration minister Monte Solburg calls Emerson "a dipstick"

Later this week we will look at:

• Justice Minister Vic Toews, who want Parliament to tell the Supreme Court to go pound sand and outlaw gay marriage. He pleaded guilty to breaking campaign laws in 1999 too.
• Public Security Minister Stockwell "Doris" Day who is bound to come up with his own patriot act by the end of the year, probably by taking the one in effect in der Fatherland, I mean "the Homeland" to the south and swapping proper nouns around.
• Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, late of Mike Harris nonsense revolution

Blogworld roundup
Both The General and Dave Neiwert have been looking for donations, so cough up - bandwidth isn't free. The General appears to have raised the desired amount nearly overnight, and I'm sure Dave will too, but paying for what you get out of a lot of the professional blogs is always a good way of making sure the good guys win. You could also trying clicking through on their advertising links.

Majikthise has a very scary post about the real reason several female U.S. soldiers died of dehydration in Iraq. It seems they refused to drink anything late in the day because they were afraid of being raped by their brothers in arms if they went out to the latrine at night.

Half of my blogroll seems to be nominated for a Koufax award this year for blogs most deserving of wider recognition. Personally, I already think of Rising Hegemon, The Talent Show and Sisyphus Shrugged as major leaguers with Happy Furry Puppy Storytime and Lawyers, Guns and Money not far behind them in terms of notoriety. Axis of Evel Kneival and the newly discovered and much appreciated Galloping Beaver are both lesser known, newer blogs - and both link here. Hard to say which to vote for, though I do get more traffic from Galloping Beaver. We will forgive Wampum for overlooking us again this year (sniff) and hope that one of the aformentioned nominees gets some love from the voters. See the blogroll for links and check them all out and vote early and often for your favorite when the polls finally open.

Oh, and Cathie from Canada had a car accident but wisely resists the temptation to curse about the moron that totalled her car.
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Death to the extremists!


One British Muslim who either has a subversive sense of humor or needs to spend more time reading his Koran and less time reading Danish newspapers. As do these people - seriously folks, get a grip, remember Islam is supposed to be the religion of peace.

Yelling fire in a crowded mosque

I like the one of him losing his touque, but you can choose the Mohammed cartoon you like best from the Only Canadian News Source to Publish Mohammed Cartoons.

I think the faithful need to learn a little more tolerance for the sacreligious acts of us nonbelievers, but really, what the hell was the Danish newspaper thinking? Even flattering images of the prophet are forbidden - did they think running a drawing of him with a bomb for a turban was going to go unanswered?

In the words of a Great American (tm)
Shut up! Just Shut UP!
AMERICAblog: Because a great nation deserves the truth has the scoop on the Pentagon's attempt to intimidate the Washington Post over a cartoon that shows Rumsfeld in a bad light.

Which movie are you?

just to show that this blog is about more than politics...

What Classic Movie Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

Freedom goosestepping forward




Cindy Sheehan, attending the State of the Union address as the guest of a congresswoman, was arrested just before the speech for wearing a t-shirt with a number on it. The number just happened to be the same as the number of Americans killed in Iraq. Did those people die to ensure Americans' right to be jailed for wearing T-Shirts that might embarrass Dick Cheney? Is that what Cindy Sheehan's son died for?

Billy (Dennis Hopper): "All we represent to them is somebody who needs a haircut."

George Hansen (Jack Nicholson): "Oh, no. What you represent to them......is freedom. Freedom's what it's all about. Oh yeah, that's right. That's what it's all about. But talking about it and being it, that's two different things. lt's real hard to be free when you're bought and sold in the marketplace. Don't tell anybody that they're not free, because they'll get busy killing and maiming to prove to you that they are.

They're going to talk to you and talk to you about individual freedom. But they see a free individual, it's going to scare them."

Billy: "Well, it don't make them running scared. "

George: "No, it don't make them running scared. lt makes them dangerous."

Additional reading from the Washington Post - A night in Ostrichville, Utah. My only complaint about this article is that it doesn't include any photos of the pods these people came in.

Radio stardom beckons
My neighbour the magician and future partner in musical crimes against good taste has managed to get some of his stuff played on Dr. Demento's radio show, which for comedy songs is kind of like making the billboard charts. Check it out at Steve's Stuff: Dr. Demento

Freedom on the march - can't you hear the jackboots ringing?

George W. Bush claims the enemies of America hate his country for its "freedoms," so in an effort to make the USA universally loved again, he and his fellow Republicans are doing their best to get rid of those freedoms.

Come down from the cross
My mother chastized me the other day via telephone for harshing on former Promise Keepers president David Sweet who was just elected as MP in her riding. "There are worse people than Christians to have in office" she told me. And I suppose she's right - I guess I'd rather have someone in office who thought the bible told them that the government should control reproduction and sexual conduct between consenting adults and that children should be beaten. I suppose I'd rather have that than someone whose religious beliefs called for human sacrifice and 95% tithing or insisted that we all wear burkas, but I don't see Charlie Manson or the Taliban running for office in Canada at the moment, just the first gang of pushy, intolerant regressives who insist we all think like them.

Dave at the Galloping Beaver has been watching Stephen Harpers involvement with the Christian fundementalist right and has some good words.The Galloping Beaver says: Take strength from the Flying Spaghetti Monster in the battle against those who would infringe on our freedom from religion.

I am not opposed to Christianity, I am not opposed to any religion (well, okay maybe the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Mormons --how would they like it if I went around to their door to explain atheism to them at 10 am on a Sunday morning? "Hi, I'm here to share the bad news! The stuff you believe is nonsense and you're wasting your life! Would you like some literature? Have a nice day!") But I don't think they have the right to tell me or anyone else what to believe or to make laws based on whatever holy scripture they think is the word of word of Yahweh, Allah, Moroni or even the Flying Spagetti Monster (may his noodly appendage be upon you). Not wanting to let any religious group run the government and insisting on an official doctrine of tolerance is NOT an attack on Christianity, it is an attack on theocracy and if you as a Christian think I am attacking you by saying you don't have the right to subject non-believers to what you think is the word of god, maybe you should be asking yourself why it so important that your beliefs be pushed in schools and by government - aren't they strong enough to stand by themselves?

Recommended viewing: Kissing Hank's Ass (see the links)

"We have met the enemy and he is us"
Jesus' General has the best post on the latest appalling revelations from Iraq. Read it and weep - in a manly way of course.

So that's where the research comes into this
Japan invents super-harpoon to kill whales - Sunday Times - Times Online

Mmmmmm, brains...
Yooha! News - Speuters Photo

Ned Flanders MP part 2
Recursivity: Local Bigot Headed for Ottawa

Properly diagnosed at last




Get well soon Michelle!



(Sometime Google just throws you a frickin' bone.)

Ned Flanders MP
“There's a particular reason why Jesus called men only. It's not that women aren't co-participators. It's because Jesus knew women would naturally follow. Men, on the other hand, had to be called.”
- Conservative MP David Sweet
former President & CEO of Promise Keepers Canada (though he'd rather you didn't know about that)

Who's really running the country?
The Galloping Beaver: The Calgary School - The Voices In Harper's Head

The greatest political divide of our time
and probably the greatest political story ever told