Canadian Conservatives Could Clobber "AdScam"-tainted Liberals this spring...

The Toronto Sun is reporting that a recent poll shows eroding support for the Paul Martin-led Liberal party.

"The election unease in Ottawa comes as a new poll shows the Liberal free fall continuing and support moving to the Conservatives. A Leger survey conducted April 8-11 showed the Tories in front with 34% support, the Liberals at 31%, NDP 18% and Bloc 13%."

Speculation is running rampant that Canadians could be heading to the polls for a Parliamentary election as early as June.

I did a little checking on the Tories in Canada and found their website. I didn't realize that the current Canadian Conservative party is the result of a 2003 merger between two former rival parties - the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservatives. Here's where they "officially" stand on the issues:

• More accountable government/use of public funds
• Control of spending
• Tax relief
• Support for the Armed Forces

So far so good. Ah, but then here's the rub: "Access to Health Care." A noble idea indeed but unless they are for pulling the government's meat hooks out of the system they're going to be stuck with waiting lists and sub-standard care. I guess even Canadian Conservatives have a socialist bent when it comes to this issue. I also fail to see how they would expect to achieve the first three - accountability, spending control and tax relief with this last issue mucking things up.

Oh well, good luck to the Tories. The US hasn't had a Canadian PM they could identify with since Brian Mulroney.

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I have updated the FAQs section...

I revised it a little bit and added a "blogroll policy". Here.

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I Don't Think I've Talked Enough About Lincoln Chafee Today...

Yeah, right. But The Hill has an article about the importance of Chafee in the Bolton fight, and the importance of GOP party dollars to Chafee's re-election campaign.

It seems we're approaching one of those rare times when Chafee actually needs the support of his fellow Republicans and knows that he needs to act at least somewhat like them instead of constantly criticizing them and hanging out with the Democrats.

"To win in a state that Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry carried by a greater margin than any state but his home state of Massachusetts, Chafee will have to maintain his independent reputation. But he also needs to remain in the good graces of conservative party leaders to raise the money to run a competitive race.

The Bolton nomination has been a particularly difficult test for Chafee, who expressed his surprise at President Bush’s pick almost as soon as it was announced. The Boston Globe reported last week that Chafee said his constituency was “overwhelmingly” opposed to the nomination."

The Rhode Island Senator has been getting financial support from PACs organized by Majority Leader Bill Frist and Majority Whip Mitch McConnell. Despite efforts by Chafee to appear "independent" to his constituents, it seems he understands where his bread gets buttered.

"Chafee needs the resources of his party more than ever to withstand an escalating barrage of attacks from Democrats, who consider Chafee to be one of their prime targets this election cycle."

Funny how the Democrats, who are normally so buddy-buddy with Chafee become such fair-weathered friends when the rubber meets the road. I'm sure if he is re-elected, he'll once again forget who brought him to the dance and go back to being a thorn in the side of the GOP. But for now, it's up to the Republican leadership to squeeze as much as they can get out of him.

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Massachusetts versus New Hampshire...

This post from Weekend Pundit will both inform and entertain New Englanders and Non-New Englanders alike. It compares life in two very different States: MA and NH. It also illustrates why if I ever moved to another part of New England, it would definitely be to New Hampshire.

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Exclusive "Pro-Assassination" Products from the Left...

Michelle Malkin shows the kind of "hate-filled, liberal knick-knacks and apparel items" being sold by the lovely folks who brought you the T-Shirt calling for Rep. Tom Delay to kill himself (which has since been removed from their site). Nice.

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PG-13 Rating for "Revenge of the Sith"

Ain't It Cool News reports that "Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith" has been given a rating PG-13 for "sci-fi violence and some intense images". Breaking with the tradition of the other five Star Wars installments, apparently Lucas just didn't have the heart to cut any of the stuff that would be required to keep it at PG.

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New "Featured Timewaster"...

I call it “eBubble Wrap”. Click the bubbles to make them go pop. If you select “manic mode” you only need to mouse-over.

ItÂ’s not going to waste a lot of your time but it makes a nice filler activity while you wait for your PC to process or download other stuff.

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New Burger King Ad...

John Hawkins at Right-Wing News shares his feelings about the new Burger King TV ad - it gives him the heebie-jeebies. And frankly, I agree.

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Chafee on Bolton: Dems Have Not Made Their Case...

Despite the goading of Sen. John "Gigolo" Kerry, RI Senator Lincoln Chafee is not convinced at this point to oppose John Bolton as UN Ambassador.

Kerry spokeswoman Katharine Lister said this is the first time the senator has gone after an individual colleague in ads. She said Kerry chose to target Chafee because he is considered a key swing vote on the committee.

On Monday, Chafee said he didn't think Democrats had made their case against Bolton, and he indicated he is still leaning toward voting for his nomination.

If there is one weak link for the GOP on the Foreign Relations committee, this is it. Looks like it should hold.

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In Defense of Delay...

Ben Stein's column in The American Spectator takes to task the allegations against the House Majority Leader.

1.) Tom DeLay is morally probably the highest level public servant I have ever met. With virtually no political gain to be had from so doing, he has been the most enthusiastic supporter of Israel in the U.S. Congress. He has stood with Israel against terrorism and international anti-Semitism without reservation or fear. This is a man with more moral decency in his little finger than his detractors have in their whole bodies.

2.) The attack against him in the Texas courts are an outrageous -- but sadly emblematic -- Democrat attempt to use the judicial system to defeat the electoral process. The DA who is tormenting him is the same one who made up an indictment of Kay Bailey Hutchison out of whole cloth to try to reverse the results of a solid electoral victory by the Republican party in Texas.If this kind of deviltry works, we can expect local Democrat district attorneys to routinely indict any Republican who is successfully turning out the electorate for the Republican Party. No elected official, no bureaucrat, is more unaccountable than an out of control, hatchet job prosecutor, and this is just what we are seeing at work against Tom DeLay.

3.) The very fact that the Mainstream Media are so desperately struggling to smear Tom DeLay is proof positive of what a good job he is doing at leveling the electoral playing field.

4.) If we throw him to the wolves, we are betraying a dear friend of the party, and a good man -- and allowing a vicious dirty trick
through the judicial system to subvert the Constitution.

5.) Tom DeLay's comments about a judiciary that sanctioned the torture murder of Terri Schiavo and how it has to be brought to account was a brave and entirely sensible approach to an
issue that dismays and frightens many Americans. His comments are yet another sign of what a fine patriot this man is.

6.) He has been there for us, and we need to be there for him.

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Despite Democrat Opposition, Bolton Confirmation Expected...

Despite all the whining, pissing, moaning and character assassination on the part of Senate Democrats seated on the Foreign Relations Commitee, it looks like the nomination of John Bolton as UN Ambassador will be OK'd for a vote by the full Senate. Of course the committee's vote will go along party lines: 10-8.

Democrats had hoped to sway Rhode Island Republican (ahem) Lincoln Chafee, but the hope is all but dead.

Sen. Lincoln Chafee from Rhode Island, considered a possible swing vote, praised Bolton because he "said all the right things" in his opening statement.

Most Republicans backed Bolton, saying they wanted a strong reformer to make the organization more accountable after revelations of corruption in the U.N. oil-for-food program in Iraq.

So - barring some kind of bullsh*t bombshell dropping - it looks like it'll be a done deal, despite the best efforts of the opposition. Tough Noogies, guys. Sucks to be in the minority, doesn't it?

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Mets Manage 2nd Win!!!!!

Glavine pitches a beauty, giving up one run. 8-4 final score over the Astros. Whew. Suicide watch has been suspended for the time being. (just kidding folks)

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The Pie-Throwing Goon Squads of Academia...

As of late, I've had my fun with the food-throwing Lefties that have been attacking Conservatives speaking at colleges and universities. Honestly, I find these stories to be pretty indicative of the level of gutlessness and intolerance that some Liberals are capable of. I find it amazing that many of the same people who claim to be champions of free speech seem to desperately want to shut down this right when the speech in question hurts their little ears.

However, there is an underlying dark side to these incidents that has been overlooked by the MSM. An editorial in the Washington Times considers the potential escalation of such attacks. The column gives the example of Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn. On the verge of an electoral victory in 2002, Fortuyn was also hit by pies from left-wing protesters. Not long after, he was shot to death.

"This is not to suggest that those who have attacked conservatives here will one day swap their pies for guns. But someone else with less conscience might. That's because once violence, however harmless it at first appears, is accepted as an appropriate means of protest, it tends to escalate.

The media should highlight these cases not as the jokes they are perhaps intended to be, but as unacceptable perversions of the First Amendment. So far, however, the mainstream media has failed to do so. It also gave scant attention to last year's election-oriented violence directed almost solely against Republicans. Perpetrators shot at Bush-Cheney campaign headquarters and attacked volunteers and destroyed campaign offices across the country, to cite a few examples. But news organizations such as the New York Times instead provided a platform to those making dubious charges of voter intimidation committed by the Republicans."

It goes without saying that it would be front page news if the recipient of a pie-throwing attack was someone on the Left, say Ward Churchill for example. Liberals always have a double-standard when it comes to freedom of speech. As the Times observes:

"It is ironic that college campuses -- which typically style themselves as bastions of free speech and tolerance -- are increasingly the scene of intolerant, thuggish behavior. These days it is being directed at folks who don't subscribe to the prevailing liberal orthodoxies."

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Democrats and the "Parent Gap"

A new report from the Progressive Policy Institute, a "centrist" Democrat think tank, takes a look at the problem their party has attracting votes from the "married w/children" demographic. The basic conclusion of the author, Barbara Dafoe Whitehead:

"Democrats will not do better with married parents until they recognize one simple truth: Parents have a beef with popular culture. As they see it, the culture is getting ever more violent, materialistic, and misogynistic, and they are losing their ability to protect their kids from morally corrosive images and messages. To be credible, Democrats must acknowledge the legitimacy of parents' beef and make it unmistakably clear that they are on parents' side."

In other words, the healthy development of their children takes precedent over the premise "if it feels good, do it." The .pdf for the full report is here.

This item was linked by James Taranto of the WSJ, who takes a look at the study in his "Best of the Web" column from Friday. He argues that the problem is likely far worse for Democrats than even this report says.

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Big "Hillary" Book Controversy...

Drudge reports that this expose on Hillary Clinton is so scorching to the NY Senator that the big mucky-mucks at Penguin Books are arguing amongst themselves about the future of its publication.

The Amazon link for the book: "The Truth About Hillary: What She Knew, When She Knew It, And How Far She'll Go To Become President".

A modest proposal:
1) Go to the link
2) Ad it to your "wishlist"
3) If you don't already have an Amazon account, create one & go to steps 1 & 2

Drive this book up the Amazon rankings and put the pressure on Penguin. Don't let this be another "Swift Vets" situation where the powers that be try to surpress free speech.

UPDATE: 11:49am
HOLD OFF ON THAT IDEA a minute. After reading Stephen Green, I'm not so sure that isn't exactly what Penguin books and even Hillary wants. More machinations by the Sith Lord?

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Yet Another Reason Why We Need John Bolton As UN Ambassador...

My asshat Senator - Christopher Dodd (D) of CT - hates him. Quoted in a WSJ piece today, Dodd made a baseless charge against Bolton that there is "credible evidence" that Bolton attempted to arrange the firing of two intelligence analysts because they raised objections to a speech he made on Cuba at the Heritage Foundation.

But the article notes:

As it happens, the Senate has also investigated these allegations. The Intelligence Committee issued a report last July exonerating Mr. Bolton and other government officials of trying to manipulate intelligence for political purposes. None of the intelligence analysts it interviewed, the report says, "provided any information to the Committee which showed that policymakers had attempted to coerce, influence or pressure analysts to change their analysis or that any intelligence analysts had changed their intelligence judgments as a result of political pressure."

So Senate Democrats, led by a man with a penchant for coddling Latin American dictators, will try to use the old allegation in an attempt to smear Bolton at his confirmation hearing today. Dodd is nothing more than a partisan hack. But his actions hardly surprise me at this point.

Here's the nut of the opposition to John Bolton:

All of this, in short, is political smoke designed to disguise what is really a policy dispute. Mr. Bolton's opponents don't want to promote a blunt-spoken supporter of Mr. Bush's foreign policy to help reform an obviously dysfunctional United Nations. They prefer someone who'll subjugate U.S. interests to the "multilateralism" that is their, and the U.N.'s, dominant ethic. Democrats who vote against Mr. Bolton will be saying they want an Ambassador to the U.N. who represents Kofi Annan, not America.

UPDATE: 10:40am
Peter Brookes in the NY Post has an editorial making the case for John Bolton.

The United Nations is a mess, rocked by scandals and failure. The president picked Bolton because America needs a firm, outspoken statesman at Turtle Bay — someone who can advance American interests and drive U.N. reform.

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Oh, and by the way. The Mets finally won...

A sweet 6-1 victory too, over the hated Atlanta Braves. Avoiding yet another sweep. Nice going guys. Now let's see if you can make this a habit.

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Even More AL TV...

Raven at "And Rightly So" has a terrific faux-TV guide cover graphic that goofs on Al Gore and his new venture "Current", the new Independant "Public Access" Network. Check it out here.

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Will The Left Start Calling Bush "The Emperor"?

I just finished the novelization of the upcoming "Star Wars" movie, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. First let me say that the movie is going to be awesome. And the people who bitched about the last two won't be disappointed again. But that is the subject for another post.

I'm going under the assumption that most of the dialog in the novel is pretty much verbatim as it will be in the film. And if this is the case, there will be lots of material for the moonbat, conspiracy-theory, "Bush Lied" crew to use as analogy for the current President. Stay with me on this one. Here's a couple of examples:

• "[His] constant, cynical, ruthless maneuvering for power - he carves away chunks of our freedom and bandages the wounds with tiny scraps of security. And for what?"
• "All I know is that things are going wrong here. Our government is headed in exactly the wrong direction."

Sounds like something you'd read at DemocraticUnderground. And here's a good one:

• "...a new day has begun! It is morning in the Republic!"

A not-so-subtle dig at Reagan? Who knows? I know Lucas is a San Fran liberal but I'm not sure if the whole "dark power manipulating things according to a grand plan" thing is pointed at current events or if it's just a general warning against complacency in a democray.

But mark my words, I guaranty that when this movie comes out, there will be people on the Left who will seize upon some of its themes and try to concoct an analogy for the War on Terror, the Patriot Act and the popularity of Bush among the "dopes" in fly-over country - as well as the current "evil" Republican majority in the "Senate".

It's kind of funny considering the Left's inability to decide whether the President is a dope being used by a Karl Rove and Dick Cheney led cabal of power brokers or an actual mad genius creating profits for his oil buddies. In the coming months, they might just lean toward the latter. It wouldn't surprise me if some Liberal columnist actually took the plunge and started referring to Bush as "Darth Sidious". I'm serious.

The real irony is that when you really read about the political manipulation and subterfuge in the story, it sounds a lot more like a certain Senator we all know. Someone who puts on one false face to the public and the media, all the while acting as a "puppet master" within her party to create the ideal situation for her ascending to power and using loyal supporters as her proxies to do most of her dirty work.

And on that topic, apparently there is a controversy brewing over at Penguin Books regarding a book about that same Senator. Drudge has the scoop. Will this book - if released - implicate her as a kind of Sith Lord (or Lady, I guess)? Stay tuned.

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Democrat Party Leaving the Faithful Behind...

History Professor Kevin Starr (no relation to Kenneth that I am aware of) posts an editorial in the LA Times pointing out how the modern Democrat Party is leaving behind its roots of Judeo-Christian values.

"Something most of us on the Right noticed a long time ago. Baffled by such rejection, an ostracized faith community shows every sign of realigning itself politically. Although a few astute politicians such as Hillary Clinton are trying to find a way out of this breach, there is no clear path. Democrats should be reading Jacques Maritain — a social democrat and cultural moderate — or even studying the progressive policies and programs of the Eisenhower and (yes!) the Nixon years. Instead, social democrats, once anchored in the deepest imperatives of religion and culture, substitute sloganeering and sound bites for thought — as when party Chairman Howard Dean describes Republican Americans as pure evil, no two ways about it.

Faith and traditional values get shred in the ideological crossfire, and the sustaining, healing power of American culture is lost."

Today's Democrat leadership is leading the party away from mainstream America at their own electoral peril.

Hat Tip: RealClearPolitics

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