Archive for: October 2006

Here we have it, yet more judicial asshattery. And here we have yet another frazzled cop sounding off what everyone with two brain cells to rub together has known for years: courts coddle criminals. As some of you might remember, I wrote a while ago about a scumbag named Ahmed Moalin-Mohamed who was caught after shooting four (count ’em: FOUR) people in downtown London less than three weeks ago. And guess what? Even though he faces 13 charges, including attempted murder, Moalin-Mohamed (of NO FIXED ADDRESS, no less. No, I’m not making that up.) strolled out of court, free as a bird, on bail.

London police Chief Murray Faulkner, however, summed it up by saying what was pretty much on everybody’s minds:

Faulkner said he wasn’t surprised Ahmed Moalin-Mohamed was released Tuesday to live with his mother in Toronto. “I see this time and time again,” he said.

The justice system too often releases people on bail awaiting trial despite long records or alleged participation in a violent crime, he said.

Click here for the full article in the Freeps.

Well, this is differnent. After years and years of hysterically villifying anyone who dared to disagree with them, it seems that someone out there has decided to give the radical treehugger crowd a dose of their own medicine. Conversations with environmentalists have often reminded me that Churchill was right when he observed that a fanatic was someone who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject. Granted, this vid is equally thickheaded, just in the opposite direction. As usual, the truth is somewhere in the middle, but it should be entertaining to see how the Gaia goons respond to the kind of villifying ravings that they’ve been flinging themselves for years.

Let the fun begin… 😆

This is good. I mean, really good. Hat’s off to Dave (again) for dropping this in my email box. I have to admit, I havent heard about “diggers” since the war stories that my uncles told me as a kid, and I’d never heard of Beccy Cole at all. For those of you as ignorant as I was, Beccy Cole is an Australian lass with quite the set of pipes (knock it off; I said pipes) who has been getting a lot of crap lately for her support of the Aussie troops in the war on terror.

Well, Beccy doesn’t seem to be the kind of girl who just sits back and takes guff like that. Although she doesn’t exactly put it the way I would (i.e.: ), she manages to get her point across pretty darned well. So turn up yer speakers, ladies and gents, and enjoy…

(Oh, yeah…  The song’s called “Poster Girl” and, gee whiz will ya look at that, it’s made the top of the CMR charts)

Well, yesterday was kind of interesting. We got a candidate, the Dippers kept on dawdling, the Greens geared up and the Grits… Well, the Librano$ still haven’t been able to find any poor slob dumb enough to want to hang their sleazy brand on his c.v., although that might be changing tomorrow. Or not. Who the hell knows? You know, I’d almost feel sorry for them if it hadn’t sucked so much being one of the millions of taxpayers that they screwed over for more than a decade. So sympathy’s pretty much out the window, I guess.

Well, enough o’ that. Time to get on with what I’ve been burying my nose in so far today. Some good, some bad, some just there (whaddaya gonna do, eh?). Here goes:

The Freeps
Haskett, Burghardt again?
Green leader to run in London byelection

Canada.com
Controversial priest wants Bloc Repentigny nomination

TO Star
PM uses by-election to weigh Ontario support

Green Party Media Release

My Take?

Well, it was nice to see good news for a change. No, not directly related to the byelections, but it does show something. According to the pollsters at Angus Reid, the Tories are currently sitting nine points to the god across Canada. Sure, the Grits are up by 3 points, but what do you suppose is going to happen to that number after they drop the Rae-bomb on themselves in December (as many think they will)? I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Bob Rae could very well turn out to be the best friend Stephen Harper ever had. For the time being, however, we have these two little byelections to worry about first.

I really do have to hand it to Lorrie Goldstein over at the TO Sun sometimes. While I don’t agree with everything he writes (come to think of it, I don’t agree with everything that anybody says, Harper included), I do enjoy his wry observations of the assorted idiocies perpetrated against the Canadian public, whether they be by politicians, pundits, celebrities or whoever. In his column today, he takes aim at the soap-opera atmosphere that pervades the national political discourse of late. Hey, everybody needs a good chuckle every now and then, right?

On today’s episode of The Days of Our Dingbats:

Will Peter apologize to Belinda?

Will Belinda forgive Peter?

Will Peter’s dog forgive Peter and Belinda?

Will Tie confront Peter about Belinda?

Will Condoleezza confront Peter about Belinda?

Will Belinda tell Bill about Peter and Tie?

Will Jack forgive Peter if he apologizes to Belinda?

Will Canadians forgive Jack, Peter and Belinda for acting like a bunch of !@#?! idiots?

Will Garth and Stephen reconcile?

Will Garth find happiness with Elizabeth?

Will Stephen find happiness with … uh … Stephen?

Will Stephen and the Parliamentary Press Gallery eventually reconcile?

Will anyone care if Stephen and the press gallery reconcile?

Will Stephen and George continue to be friends?

Will Rona ever clear the air?

Will Michael and Bob ever be friends again?

Will Michael figure out what a “war crime” is?

Will Bob reveal his troubled past?

Will Rick and Bob ever go skinny-dipping again?

Will Bob ever play kissy-face with Rick again?

Will Canadians ever be able to look at either Rick or Bob again without losing their lunch?

Will Scott discover what happened to his leadership campaign by looking at his BlackBerry?

Will Jean and Paul reconcile at the Liberal leadership convention?

Will anyone care if Jean and Paul reconcile at the Liberal leadership convention?

Yup, we did.

Well, it’s official, folks. London North Centre has its Conservative candidate for the upcoming November 27 byelection. Although I wasn’t able go get my hands on the final count before I left, one fellow from Tom Weihmayr’s camp, who didn’t want his name used, oversaw the counting (and was downing himself a stiff one afterwards) and admitted bluntly that “it wasn’t even close.”

I admit that I went to tonight’s meeting leaning strongly in favour of Haskett to begin with but it was still close for me, right up till the last few minutes. While I like Haskett as a social conservative, Tom Weihmayr has spent years in Canada’s military and I have always believed that it is good for someone to have served their country before playing a hand in leading it. I was actually beginning to have trouble making up my mind until the last minute or so of his speech.

Tom spoke well, with a confidence and an ease that Haskett didn’t put forward so well (she seemed a bit out of practice and stumbled a few times), and a lot of what he was saying was striking all the right notes with me. He pointed out, rightly so, that in the coming campaign, the Liberals will stoop to any dirty trick, “throw as much mud as they can; dig up old quotes to embarrass the candidate, the party and the Prime Minister; do and say anything to discredit their opponent” no matter how low it may be. And he was bang-on right.

Then, when he was doing so well and I was starting to think that I might have been leaning the wrong way, he shot himself in the foot. Saying that, if he were sent to the House and Iggy were in charge of the Librano$, he would “vigorously challenge Michael Ignatieff on his long absence from this country. How can he pretend to know the concerns of Canadians when he hasn’t even been here?” Clearly a barely concealed swipe at Haskett’s 6 year hiatus from the London area.

If Tom ever decides to try again, and I think he should because he seemed a damned decent guy when I spoke with him, foot in mouth notwithstanding, I’d like to give him a little free advice (bearing in mind that you get what you pay for, of course):

1. Don’t complain about Hypogrit mudslinging and then scoop up and fling a handful of your own and
2. If you are going to take a swipe at your opponent (and hey, politics is a rough sport), come right out and do it up front.

You almost had me, Tom. You were that damned close. And I’m not just saying that. As it was winding down, you said to me “don’t worry, I’ll be back.”

I hope so, Tom. I really do.