This Week In Politics

It has been one week since I decided to give up blogging while getting my personal affairs in order, and it has been very difficult to refrain from sharing my opinion. I have some thoughts to share after this week which I may as well vent all at once instead of in many smaller pieces. Once my personal life is in order, I will be returning to the blogosphere. On that note...

1) Jobs: To my fellow Canadians looking for work, I have to say that there are quite a lot of jobs on the market right now. Some industries are doing better than others, but if you are open to new possibilities there are numerous employment opportunities. Negative economic indicators out of the United States have dragged down international stock markets during the past two weeks, but the situation for the unemployed in Canada is a hec of a lot better than it could be.

2) Liberal Attacks: I saw this past week that the Liberal Party blasted the Prime Minister for not making a speaking stop in Quebec during the two weeks since he returned from vacation. The charge, as published by Jane Taber who sets the agenda at the Globe and Mail, is that the Prime Minister is "shunning" La Belle Province. He doesn't care, he is avoiding Quebec; after spending his vacation where...in f**king Quebec, that's where! The attack doesn't make any sense unless the Liberals are concerned about their own dismal performance in the Province and were grasping for straws.

3) Tamil Migrants: I found myself scratching my head after reading a Don Martin rant that this Tamil boat gave the Tories exactly what they needed. Pardon me? A large majority of Canadians supported turning the boat around at sea, but after inspection showed women and children on board, the government had little choice but to pull the boat into shore. They were forced into doing something that upset their base and went against bipartisan public opinion. How is this great for the Tories? How is this exactly what they needed, being forced to do something Canadians generally oppose? Also when I was in school I worked with a Tamil immigrant, who was very friendly and one of the hardest working people that I have ever worked with. He admitted that his wages were being garnished by a Tamil "organization" and that there were threats of harm if he did not pay. So these impoverished refugees supposedly paid $50,000 per head to get on this boat? That makes me wonder who bankrolled these boat tickets, and what will be expected in exchange if these people are allowed to stay. This very well could be sanctioned extortion.

4) CBC Propaganda: How many time has the George Strombolopolis WWII documentary aired on the CBC in the past 6 months? 500? For a station that is supposed to be 24 news, they sure devote a lot of airtime to the 1940s. The world doesn't have enough WWII documentaries, what we really needed was "Strombo" to share his opinion on "extreme right wing ideology". By the way, if you play the Love, Hate, and Propaganda drinking game where you take a shot each time George says "right wing ideology", you are unlikely to be conscious by the end of the show. I know how anxious Stombo and friends are to compare our Prime Minister to Adolf Hitler, but I remind you that monster was as much left as right. National Socialism is still socialism but by a different name. What Strombo likely does not know is that North American Liberals praised both Hitler and Mussolini for their policies prior to WWII. It wasn’t until after the Holocaust that academics tried to paint Fascism as right wing.

5) Obama 9/11 Mosque: This past week I witnessed what was arguably one of the dumbest political moves I have seen in my entire life, when Obama endorsed the building of a large Mosque near the rubble of the World Trade Centers. Having a debate about property rights and freedom of religion is all fine and dandy in a University lecture hall, but when at least 70% of Americans are emotionally against this initiative, it is incredibly stupid to take the other side publicly as President months before mid-term elections. Guaranteed a number of Democratic candidates are pissed off at the Democratic President's stupidity.

6) Poll Dancing: And finally, it is nice to see the Tories rebounding in the polls. Even Liberal donor Frank Graves has acknowledged as much; though he has tried to spin it as the Liberals opening up a larger lead with smart people and the Tories gaining ground with stupid people. Thanks for that analysis Frank; that's what the CBC pays you for. Frank also tried to point out regional differences without mentioning that when doing regional analysis of a national poll, the error rate increases substantially. I find it amusing that despite all the controversies manufactured by the Liberals and their friends in the media, they can't make anything stick in the polls. There is a song that I think does a magnificent job of describing Stephen Harper's ability to rebound from Liberal contrived controversy...



Until next time, whenever that might be...