Understatement of the Month

"Wafergate does not reflect well on media."

Canadians face a myriad of daily concerns: our children's education, our elderly parents' care, the state of our health, maintaining our marriages, jobs and homes. On top of it all we are currently in the midst of a worldwide economic downturn.

On any given day there is literally an infinite number of things going on in the world that impact these concerns in varying degrees.

Yet what did the gatekeepers of information determine to be one of the most important and pressing events for all Canadians, worthy of capturing the headlines and lead-ins across the country?

Whether or not Harper ate a communion wafer.
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Iggy Set to Attack Harper on (insert headline of the day here)

It looks like this week it's swine flu preparedness.

Formulating and defending a comprehensive policy on how to better run the country than the folks in charge: hard

Pointing fingers from the sidelines about the latest issue to grab the headlines: as easy as pie
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A Huge Scandal...If Conservatives Did It

Imagine if in the last election Bush won ("stole" so says the far left) members of a skinhead group wearing paramilitaristic uniforms and wielding clubs, were caught intimidating voters at a polling station in order to ensure they made the "right" vote.

Imagine further that career prosecutors advanced the case, and after the case was essentially won, a high level Bush DOJ political appointee intervened and overruled the career prosecutors, dropping the case against the skinhead thugs.

I suspect it would be a scandal of epic proportions in which every daily, every network, and every major political commentator in the media would cite the far reaching ramifications of the politicization of prosecutions and how this base corruption goes to the core of our democracy, akin to actions of tin pot banana republics.

But this is happened in the Obama Administration, regarding the Black Panthers. So you'll see it in the Washington Times, some conservative blogs, and then you'll see it no more.

BC's Heat Wave: Mother Nature's Rope-a-Dope

Perusing the blogs tonight, I noticed a comment or two in some threads, noting the BC heat wave as counter-anecdotal evidence of the cold summer experienced elsewhere.

Last I recalled, it is supposed to get hot in the summer, and very hot, here and there for a spell, but that's not really the point I'm trying to make. We used to hear a lot of anecdotal "proof" that it was getting warmer: glaciers crashing into the ocean, heat waves etc. We don't hear a lot of that anymore, mostly because the anecdotal evidence is following the statistical evidence. The Earth has been cooling for the last ten years, and particularly dramatically over the last year and a half, and many of us are feeling it in the cool summers, and brutally cold winters.

So by all means, let's talk about the weather we're experiencing right now. In my neck of the woods we have consistently had colder than normal temperatures for months and months. Not a "wave" mind you, but one steady low.

Liberals on the Ropes

This is why many on the left were so defeated at Iggy's willingness to ignore his own line in the sand:

retail sales in Canada sharply rise.

Taking down the CPC this past spring was probably a bit of a long shot, but if you can't take down a sitting PM in the middle of one of the worst economic downturn's in a generation, with a leader who was so purportedly right for the new job he was anointed without a party vote, and with a hostile press willing to jump on any government issue and declare it a "scandal!!!", then when?

And if your party is refraining from trying to take power at the obviously best time, you know its gotta have some deep institutionally based problems.
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Say it Ain't So: The EI Crisis Wasn't Real?

Paul Wells notices there's not a lot of desire to actually push EI reform. Mr. Wells points the finger at both parties, but the fact of the matter this was a "crisis" created entirely by Iggy. My comment at his site:

It was always nothing but a pretext to do some chest thumping by Iggy-show the country he's not some wimp like Dion was perceived to be. Harper called his bluff which created a twofer for the CPC: in the immediate term it forced Iggy to back down, thus doing the precise opposite the faux machismo was supposed to accomplish.

But it also forced Iggy to "put up" something tangible down the road. Iggy's tried to stay as far away from concrete positions as possible, content instead to hurl criticism from the sidelines. Without a firm policy (on anything) he's not willing to take a stand, even on the only trigger issue he's identified since taking on the opp leadership.

Well we're now down that road, and his original bluster is looking even worse than when he first backed down. Perhaps tackling real life issues in a political meat grinder in an atmosphere of intense political animosity, is a tad more difficult than wowing wide eyed recent high school grads on the latest abstract theory du jour in a completely controlled academic cocoon.
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Iggy: "They" (We) Have "Disgusting" and "Entirely Bogus" Views, "Bitch" Instead of Paying our Fair Share

Iggy on Canadians and peacekeeping.

It's a good thing Iggy's been telling us how much he loves to be a Canadian now that he wants to be PM. Otherwise one might get the impression he thinks we're just a bunch of lowly "bitch"[ing], freeloading Canadians with "disgusting" views of ourselves on matters going to the heart of our self-identity.

His carefully scripted campaign style speeches show the true Iggy, I'm sure.
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Darn, More Carbon Isn't Working

The boys at Powerline post about their year "without summer". In the Canadian prairies we're experiencing the same thing. Mostly cool or even cold days. Not a single hot period. At the same time more revelations about how very unsettled this whole global warming debate is.

Ace of Spades commenter puts just the right snark in for good measure:

"If only there were some... natural mechanism by which to explain variations in global temperature. It would have to be massive, though. On the scale of our own Sun."
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The Audacity of Hope Indeed

The excitement surrounding Obama's soaring rhetoric seems so far away. The spread between those who approve of his presidency and those who disapprove was a whopping 45% when he was first elected. In a few short months it has steadily dropped to below 18%.

The reason can be summed up in this crushing video put out by the GOP. Not only has Obama failed to transcend "politics as usual" as he continually promised on the campaign trail, as the video shows, he has turned out to be far more cynical, opportunistic, and yes, disingenuous than the "usual" politician. That we are now supposed to believe the stimulus wasn't really meant to stimulate in the near term is Orwellian in scope and gives a new perspective to the "audacity" of Obama's hope.
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Biff's Back

The perfect storm of factors kept me from blogging for a few weeks. I won't bore you with the personal details but suffice it to say you'll be hearing more from me in the next days and weeks.