Jacob Burris, campaign manager for Arkansas Democratic congressional candidate Ken Aden, came home Sunday night to find his family cat dead on the front porch with the word “LIBERAL” written on the carcass. For some bizarre reason, CNN won’t allow your presumably delicate sensibilities to be offended by the pic
Continue readingTag: US politics
Canadian Soapbox: Mitt Romney…Can a Mormon become President of the U.S?
The Canadian political scene is relatively quiet now that Stephen Harper and his Conservatives have finally attained majority status. For a political junkie that means looking south of the 49th for a fix, and let’s face it…no country does politics like the United States. The Republican race is heating up
Continue readingwmtc: belafonte on obama: "a dagger in our sense of justice"
On a recommendation from a friend, I watched Harry Belafonte interviewed by Charlie Rose in New York City. Belafonte – musician, actor, social-justice activist, radical – is a joy to hear, and his life story is a march through history. Here’s one terrific thing I learned. Belafonte was still searching
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: The N-Party Problem
There is a famous problem in classical mechanics, a branch of physics, called the n-body problem. While interesting in its own right, the problem can be used as an analogy that is illustrative towards politics; in particular, the issue of predicting long term trends of political systems with two or
Continue readingwmtc: sweet victories! ford budget defeated, tarsands pipeline dead for now
If Rob Ford and Stephen Harper are both unhappy, this must be a good day! Yesterday the voices of reason on the Toronto City Council united to defeat Rob Ford‘s most dangerous budget cuts. There will still be cutbacks, and layoffs, and there is still a fight. But note this:
Continue readingRed Tory v.3.0.3: New Rules: 01/13/2012
And in other good news… Real Time with Bill Maher is back from hiatus! In case you missed it, the entire show can be watched here.
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: The SuperPAC charade is getting tiresome
Can we please drop this SuperPAC ruse already? It is the first election season post Citizens United and so these new political groups are allowed to collect unlimited, undisclosed amounts of money from people and corporations alike and spend it in the elections. Only there is a technical catch: they
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: The appeal, and vacuousness, of sports team politics
Last Tuesday, the second game of the playoffs took place in New Hampshire with front runner Massachusetts Mitt leading the pack going into game three in South Carolina. For six months of the regular season the candidates squares off again and again and again, jostling for position in the rankings going into the playoffs. It
Continue readingCanadian Soapbox: Why is Ron Paul the Rodney Dangerfield of the GOP race?
For those following the Republican Party’s nomination proceedings it must be at least somewhat curious how the second place finisher in New Hampshire gets ‘no respect’. While I’ve heard the Texas congressman described by some as a ‘wacko’ for his Libertarian views, I would welcome a Presidential election in November
Continue readingRed Tory v.3.0.3: Better Know a Flake
Give it up to the good folks in New Hampshire who last month actually staged a serious 2 hour-long C-SPAN forum for “lesser known candidates” running for President of the United States to broadcast their pitches to hundreds of viewers and answer legitimate questions from the press about government relations,
Continue readingRed Tory v.3.0.3: The Evolution of Negative Advertising
The absurdly hypocritical “Pot v. Kettle” sniping towards the end of yesterday’s MTP debate between Newt Gringrich and Mitt Romney over the legitimacy and moral superiority of the viciously negative ad campaigns being waged by their respective Super-PACs reminded me of this classic bit of satire from the wonderful HBO
Continue readingwmtc: the canada party: "our oil sands are so dirty, it makes texas look like a greenpeace retreat"
And while I’m at it, I might as well post this. And now back to Quebec.
Continue readingwmtc: memo to progressives and liberals: ron paul is not your friend
Can it be? Are progressive people supporting right-wing libertarian Ron Paul for the US Presidency? In 2008 I wrote on supposedly liberal people supporting hillary clinton. I didn’t agree with that choice, but I understood it. This… this is just insane. So Ron Paul opposes foreign wars and the federal
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: The Left and Ron Paul
There is an ongoing debate amoung the left on how to view Ron Paul. Should we like him or hate him, support him or reject him? The fundamental distinction in my mind is between viewing Ron Paul as sometimes useful in the propagation of certain ideas in the larger political discussion, and between finding Ron
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: The biggest loser in Iowa: the Tea Party
Among the Iowa winners were Mitt Romney (establishment candidate), with Rick Santorum (Evangelical candidate) trailing by 8 votes, then Ron Paul (Libertarian candidate). Trailing significantly was Newt Gingrich, an old guard brand all to himself. Where then was the Tea Party candidate? For several decades, there has been an establishment
Continue readingWise Law Blog: Scary, Dumb Republicans
Texas Governor and Republican presidential wannabe, Rick Perry: “Every barrel of oil that comes out of those sands in Canada is a barrel of oil that we don’t have to buy from a foreign source,” Mr. Perry said in Clarinda, earning a loud round of enthusiastic applause. (Via New York
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Perry doesn’t know how to shut his big mouth
Less than a week to go before the Iowa caucuses. And Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) has chosen to fan the flames. First, by associating with the most unscrupulous of televangelists (which I wrote about a few months back). Now he has come out (pardon the expression) against an
Continue readingwmtc: barney frank’s radical homosexual agenda and other greatest hits
We can say two things about Congress in the wake of the news that Rep. Barney Frank is retiring after this term: It’s about to get a little dumber, and a lot duller. So here, in appreciation for his years of service and entertainment, are some of Frank’s best YouTube-accessible
Continue readingwmtc: old warriors seeing with clear eyes: bill moyers interview with andrew bacevich
I found this in a massive pile of un-read links. It’s a conversation between progressive journalist Bill Moyers and Andrew Bacevich, author of The New American Militarism: How Americans Are Seduced by War, Washington Rules: America’s Path to Permanent War and The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism.
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: North Korea: Moving the doomsday clock closer to midnight
It’s been a little over thirty six hours since North Korea revealed that Kim Jong Il died from an apparent heart attack on Saturday. It was well known that Kim was in ill health for years but his passing poses a huge risk for the West. Having dealt with Libya
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