My blogging has been sporadic for some time now due to the amount of time I'm spending working. 7 day weeks 60-70 hours is the norm. The good news is in another month things will be getting back to normal and I can spend more time on the blog.
As you can imagine, home time is important to me as I'm spending so much time at the office. Saturday I arrived home, prepared a quick meal, and two bites in the door bell rang. I'm not impressed. Opening the door I'm greeted by one of the morons selling natural gas contracts. I point out the No Solicitors sign on the door and he says he doesn't know what that means.
I then tell him I'm not interested, and regardless he goes into his selling spiel. This happens three times. Finally I tell him I'm not interested, sorry, and shut the door. And what do I hear? Him calling me a F#$@ing idiot. So out the door I go, telling him to watch his mouth and get off my property. His reaction? He shoves me. Big mistake! Despite the fact I'm coming up on 50 years of age and he's in his early twenties, and six inches taller, he quickly finds himself crumpled on the ground.
I again tell him to leave. Now a smarter person would have taken the hint. But him? Nope. Calls me a F%#@ing C!@#sucker and comes at me again. Kick to the chest, knee to the jaw, a few strikes, and he's flat out on the ground.
The moral of the story? Never judge a book by it's cover. While I look far from menacing, 5-foot-6 with grey hair and glasses, I did spend some years doing martial arts fighting long before anyone ever heard of the UFC.
I'm guessing he won't come back.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Jack Layton Gets An A+, Ralph Goodale F
Jack Layton deserves credit for his remarks on Powerplay yesterday with Jane Taber. When discussing the Haiti tragedy, Jane Taber asked about the effect the House being prorogued on relief efforts for the earthquake. Rather than try and score cheap partisan political points, Layton took the high road and stated that the important issue was helping Haitians in the relief effort and assisting the PM in said cause. He also went on to state that regardless of the HoC being prorogued, that the House would not have been sitting until January 25th so it had no effect on the governments ability to provide relief.
Contrast that with Liberal Ralph Goodale, who somehow managed to link proroguement of the House as damaging to relief efforts. Couple that with John "Chevy" McCallum's recent rants throwing Paul Martin under the bus as knowingly handing Afghan detainees over to be abused.
http://thealbertaardvark.blogspot.com/2010/01/john-mccallum-blames-martin-and-graham.html
Peter Donolo must be so proud!!
Contrast that with Liberal Ralph Goodale, who somehow managed to link proroguement of the House as damaging to relief efforts. Couple that with John "Chevy" McCallum's recent rants throwing Paul Martin under the bus as knowingly handing Afghan detainees over to be abused.
http://thealbertaardvark.blogspot.com/2010/01/john-mccallum-blames-martin-and-graham.html
Peter Donolo must be so proud!!
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Opposition Parties Were Against Working For Canadians Not That Long Ago.
It's really kind of pathetic when you think about it. The opposition parties crying about the house not sitting for 28 days. The MSM also frothing at the bit about how Canadians are up in arms about MP's not working (completely omitting the fact they should be in their constituency offices working).
What's really ironic is that when presented with chances to extend hours before, the opposition parties decided to vote against extended sitting hours for two weeks prior to summer shutdown.
"OTTAWA – All three Opposition parties have joined together to defeat a traditional government motion to extend the working hours of parliament for the final two weeks of the session, putting important legislation at risk.
“It’s clear the Opposition are not interested in the hard work necessary to address priorities that matter to my constituents and to all Canadians,” says Battlefords-Lloydminster, MP, Hon. Gerry Ritz. The Conservative government moved to ask parliament to extend the hours of parliamentary business to 11 p.m. for the next two weeks, as is the long-standing practise of the House of Commons. It was defeated Monday evening by a vote of 139 to 114 with all Opposition members voting against.
“Canadians elect Members of Parliament to work on their behalf and they expect them to put in the time required, to show up to vote and to be prepared to attend for longer hours as necessary,” says Ritz. Extended sitting hours were officially formalized by parliament in 1982 as a way to complete or advance business prior to summer break. On 11 previous occasions, the motion has never before been defeated.
Now correct me if I'm wrong, and I'll search for the link, but I'm pretty sure the opposition parties voted against extended hours last year as well. Even more surprising is I think a certain CBC blogger, previously employed by Macleans, blogged that this was embarrassing for the Conservative government because it was the first time that motion had been defeated by opposition parties. And I don't recall her screaming how it was undemocratic, let alone starting a facebook page to protest the lazy actions of the opposition parties.
Update: Yes, my memory was correct. Here is what former ITQ girl Kady thought about the opposition parties refusing to work extended hours in 2009 to pass legislation before summer recess. Perhaps someone could point out where she implies it's undemocratic or unfair for opposition MP's not to follow parliamentry tradition.
"By Kady O'Malley - Tuesday, June 9, 2009 at 12:29 PM
So, do y’all remember what happened last year, when Peter Van Loan achieved the dubious notoriety of becoming the first government house leader in Canadian parliamentary history to lose a vote on a routine motion to extend sitting hours before the summer recess? Well, I’m watching CPAC right now, and it looks like Jay Hill may be about to become the second. I’ll let you know what happens after the vote.
UPDATE: Still voting, but all three opposition parties appear to be voting against the motion, which means that it will come down to which side was able to get more MPs in the House on short (well, fifteen minutes) notice.
FINAL UPDATE: Yup, that’s one dead motion. Expect a snarlingly self-righteous press release from Hill’s office within the hour.
AFTERTHOUGHTDATE: As I just noted to a friend via email, “To lose a routine motion to extend the sitting hours once is a tragedy; twice looks like carelessness.” (On the off".
What's really ironic is that when presented with chances to extend hours before, the opposition parties decided to vote against extended sitting hours for two weeks prior to summer shutdown.
"OTTAWA – All three Opposition parties have joined together to defeat a traditional government motion to extend the working hours of parliament for the final two weeks of the session, putting important legislation at risk.
“It’s clear the Opposition are not interested in the hard work necessary to address priorities that matter to my constituents and to all Canadians,” says Battlefords-Lloydminster, MP, Hon. Gerry Ritz. The Conservative government moved to ask parliament to extend the hours of parliamentary business to 11 p.m. for the next two weeks, as is the long-standing practise of the House of Commons. It was defeated Monday evening by a vote of 139 to 114 with all Opposition members voting against.
“Canadians elect Members of Parliament to work on their behalf and they expect them to put in the time required, to show up to vote and to be prepared to attend for longer hours as necessary,” says Ritz. Extended sitting hours were officially formalized by parliament in 1982 as a way to complete or advance business prior to summer break. On 11 previous occasions, the motion has never before been defeated.
Now correct me if I'm wrong, and I'll search for the link, but I'm pretty sure the opposition parties voted against extended hours last year as well. Even more surprising is I think a certain CBC blogger, previously employed by Macleans, blogged that this was embarrassing for the Conservative government because it was the first time that motion had been defeated by opposition parties. And I don't recall her screaming how it was undemocratic, let alone starting a facebook page to protest the lazy actions of the opposition parties.
Update: Yes, my memory was correct. Here is what former ITQ girl Kady thought about the opposition parties refusing to work extended hours in 2009 to pass legislation before summer recess. Perhaps someone could point out where she implies it's undemocratic or unfair for opposition MP's not to follow parliamentry tradition.
"By Kady O'Malley - Tuesday, June 9, 2009 at 12:29 PM
So, do y’all remember what happened last year, when Peter Van Loan achieved the dubious notoriety of becoming the first government house leader in Canadian parliamentary history to lose a vote on a routine motion to extend sitting hours before the summer recess? Well, I’m watching CPAC right now, and it looks like Jay Hill may be about to become the second. I’ll let you know what happens after the vote.
UPDATE: Still voting, but all three opposition parties appear to be voting against the motion, which means that it will come down to which side was able to get more MPs in the House on short (well, fifteen minutes) notice.
FINAL UPDATE: Yup, that’s one dead motion. Expect a snarlingly self-righteous press release from Hill’s office within the hour.
AFTERTHOUGHTDATE: As I just noted to a friend via email, “To lose a routine motion to extend the sitting hours once is a tragedy; twice looks like carelessness.” (On the off".
Kady O'Malley Is The Rose Of Canadian Journalism
No not the flower. I'm talking about the whack-job character Rose from the TV sitcom Two And A Half Men. Kady's obsession with all things prorogue and anti-Harper seems to be getting to the point of worrisome. Much like the Rose character from the show, Kady seems to have developed tunnel vision in all her editorials and posts.
Perhaps now that she is at CBC she has already had the required leftist-lobotomy required to be a member of that organization. Maybe all that hair coloring or whatever it is she uses has caused permanent damage. Whatever the cause, Kady exhibits all the same character traits as Rose, a very bright and smart mind and yet still mentally unstable at the same time.
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Liberal Woes Are Self-Inflicted
Paul Wells has a new post up linking to Steve at Far and Wide and his blog posting criticising the Liberal war rooms slow response time and linking it to Ignatieff's poor polling numbers.
While I agree with Steve's assessment of poor responses from the Liberal war room, the fact is both Ignatieff and the Liberal Party have far deeper problems than just news scrums. Those problems started back when Jean Chretien was still PM and leader of the party. Throwing Adscam aside, which in my opinion still affects voters intentions towards the Liberals, the biggest problem the Liberals have is they are just plain old wishy-washy. And it just gets more exasperated with each new faux scandal or threat to bring down the government. Here's my take on some of the things killing the Liberals.
1. The Coalition. Canadians saw the coalition not as a democratic attempt at change in government, but as a sore loser mentality that they thought only they deserved to rule the country. Mark my words, come next election Iggy will need to take a stand either for or against a possible coalition, and if for Conservatives get their majority.
2. Drawing a line and then erasing it. The most glaring example of this was Iggy demanding EI reforms, including a country-wide standard for qualifying, and falure of the PM to do so would force an election. Iggy then accepted a blue ribbon panel. There are other examples of the party quickly backtracking on issues they claim to own.
3. Failure to learn from past mistakes. This began shortly after Dion became leader. Thumping his chest it was time for an election, than backtracking with his tail between his legs. Apparently Iggy was oblivious to all this, as his "your time is up Harper" line was probably the biggest single issue to precipitate the steep fall in polling numbers. Calling the HST the Harper Sales Tax and then voting to pass the legislation is also just plain stupid.
4. Arrogance. Many Liberals feel it is their god-given right to have power over the country. While they have done a better job hiding it lately, you still get blowhards like Hedy Fry and Ken Dryden opening their mouth from time to time to refresh voters memories.
5. This is the biggie. Lack of policy. Sorry guys, but whining you can't release any policies or platforms because mean old Stephen Harper might steal it or mislead Canadians on it is pathetically weak. Conservatives release policy and do so confident in what they stand for. Your refusal to release policy just doesn't sit well with the average Canadian. And don't be surprised next election when Iggy is featured in a Tory ad with his it's not my job to come up with ideas attitude during the onset of the recession.
6. This ties in with most of the points already mentioned. No attempt at articulating a position on a wide array of issues. An example is to this day I have no ideas if the Liberals were for or against the auto bailouts. Voters in southern Ontario might be asking during local debates next election.
7. Trying to play both sides of an argument to pander to a bigger base. Was there too much stimulus or not enough? Because depending on the day and the Liberal talking, we were told it was both.
Liberals need to accept the reality of today. They are a spent force politically. One look at leader approval ratings tells you all you need to know about both the PM and Ignatieff. We were told Liberal polling numbers would change once they got to know Dion, and they sure did. Same with Iggy. And rumors of Bob Rae becoming the next leader when Iggy leaves or gets the boot brings a smile to my face as I know that the unions who paid a hefty price during Rae's tenure as Ontario Premier haven't forgotten, and just as they got Miller and McGuinty elected, so too will they prevent Rae from ever winning an election.
While I agree with Steve's assessment of poor responses from the Liberal war room, the fact is both Ignatieff and the Liberal Party have far deeper problems than just news scrums. Those problems started back when Jean Chretien was still PM and leader of the party. Throwing Adscam aside, which in my opinion still affects voters intentions towards the Liberals, the biggest problem the Liberals have is they are just plain old wishy-washy. And it just gets more exasperated with each new faux scandal or threat to bring down the government. Here's my take on some of the things killing the Liberals.
1. The Coalition. Canadians saw the coalition not as a democratic attempt at change in government, but as a sore loser mentality that they thought only they deserved to rule the country. Mark my words, come next election Iggy will need to take a stand either for or against a possible coalition, and if for Conservatives get their majority.
2. Drawing a line and then erasing it. The most glaring example of this was Iggy demanding EI reforms, including a country-wide standard for qualifying, and falure of the PM to do so would force an election. Iggy then accepted a blue ribbon panel. There are other examples of the party quickly backtracking on issues they claim to own.
3. Failure to learn from past mistakes. This began shortly after Dion became leader. Thumping his chest it was time for an election, than backtracking with his tail between his legs. Apparently Iggy was oblivious to all this, as his "your time is up Harper" line was probably the biggest single issue to precipitate the steep fall in polling numbers. Calling the HST the Harper Sales Tax and then voting to pass the legislation is also just plain stupid.
4. Arrogance. Many Liberals feel it is their god-given right to have power over the country. While they have done a better job hiding it lately, you still get blowhards like Hedy Fry and Ken Dryden opening their mouth from time to time to refresh voters memories.
5. This is the biggie. Lack of policy. Sorry guys, but whining you can't release any policies or platforms because mean old Stephen Harper might steal it or mislead Canadians on it is pathetically weak. Conservatives release policy and do so confident in what they stand for. Your refusal to release policy just doesn't sit well with the average Canadian. And don't be surprised next election when Iggy is featured in a Tory ad with his it's not my job to come up with ideas attitude during the onset of the recession.
6. This ties in with most of the points already mentioned. No attempt at articulating a position on a wide array of issues. An example is to this day I have no ideas if the Liberals were for or against the auto bailouts. Voters in southern Ontario might be asking during local debates next election.
7. Trying to play both sides of an argument to pander to a bigger base. Was there too much stimulus or not enough? Because depending on the day and the Liberal talking, we were told it was both.
Liberals need to accept the reality of today. They are a spent force politically. One look at leader approval ratings tells you all you need to know about both the PM and Ignatieff. We were told Liberal polling numbers would change once they got to know Dion, and they sure did. Same with Iggy. And rumors of Bob Rae becoming the next leader when Iggy leaves or gets the boot brings a smile to my face as I know that the unions who paid a hefty price during Rae's tenure as Ontario Premier haven't forgotten, and just as they got Miller and McGuinty elected, so too will they prevent Rae from ever winning an election.
Friday, January 1, 2010
Heather Malick Reinforces The Fact She Is An Idiot
I won't bother linking to her pathetic editorial, but this one paragraph shows all one needs to know of her apparent ignorance of our federal government and how it works.
"Look, I can't even call my federal MP, a Liberal member of the opposition, because she's effectively out of commission for the next two months. All that's left to me is to tell you what it's like here and why you should care."
The problem Ms. Malick, is that all MP's have what is called a constituency office located in their riding. While Parliament is prorogued, MP's spend time in their office talking to their constituents, helping with an array of issues or problems they may be experiencing. EI and Immigration to name a few.
Then there is that whole pathetic argument about Parliament being shut down for three months. FYI, Parliament shuts down yearly for the Christmas holidays, and was set to reopen January 25th, 2010. The Pm's proroguing of Parliament added less than a month of actual sitting days.
Oh, and I'll be sure to mention this particular paragraph to my American friends and relatives:
"Harper, that strange vengeful man you will see in February clapping awkwardly as Olympians leap off mountains and shoot past in the luge, has been on a mission since his youth to turn Canada into a pale, watery version of the United States of America. Even then, the US was well into its identity-switch into the undereducated, paranoid, self-destructively aggressive overspent mess we watch now with grim fascination."
"Look, I can't even call my federal MP, a Liberal member of the opposition, because she's effectively out of commission for the next two months. All that's left to me is to tell you what it's like here and why you should care."
The problem Ms. Malick, is that all MP's have what is called a constituency office located in their riding. While Parliament is prorogued, MP's spend time in their office talking to their constituents, helping with an array of issues or problems they may be experiencing. EI and Immigration to name a few.
Then there is that whole pathetic argument about Parliament being shut down for three months. FYI, Parliament shuts down yearly for the Christmas holidays, and was set to reopen January 25th, 2010. The Pm's proroguing of Parliament added less than a month of actual sitting days.
Oh, and I'll be sure to mention this particular paragraph to my American friends and relatives:
"Harper, that strange vengeful man you will see in February clapping awkwardly as Olympians leap off mountains and shoot past in the luge, has been on a mission since his youth to turn Canada into a pale, watery version of the United States of America. Even then, the US was well into its identity-switch into the undereducated, paranoid, self-destructively aggressive overspent mess we watch now with grim fascination."
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