NCAA Mens Basketball Pick 'Em Pool – Free To Enter

Mulder

Well I am going to give this another crack. Last year turn out was slim pickins so hopefully this year we get a bit more hype going.

The NCAA Men’s Basketball final 64 tournament is probably one of the most exciting tournaments in sports and we are going to once again run an open AND FREE basketball pool using Yahoo’s pool tracking system.

Signing up is easy.

Picking your teams is easy.

Picking the winners??? That’s a whole different story.

The link below goes directly to the sign up page for our league with the password already plugged in.

We encourage you to take advantage of Yahoo’s email notifier upon sign up which tells you when the final 64 teams are closed. At that time you can log in and pick your teams. But don’t wait long. The teams are selected on Sunday March 16th, and the first rounds begin on the Thursday Marcy 20th at NOON!!! (with the preliminary game on Tuesday March 18th.

This year I am digging deep into my pocket and willing to send the winner of the pool an OfficiallyScrewed.com coffee mug. I know I know, I’m breaking the bank on this one. But heck, it’s not like there is a cost to play. This is FREE!!!!

So good luck, have fun and enjoy the tourney.

Sign up Link Below

OfficiallyScrewed.com Basketball Pool Sign up Link

Straight From Battling A Lion Into The Jaws Of The Media

Mulder

An MP is driving by the zoo, when he sees a little girl leaning into the lion’s cage. Suddenly, the lion grabs her by the cuff of her jacket and tries to pull her inside to slaughter her, under the eyes of her screaming parents.

The MP jumps off his bike, runs to the cage and hits the lion square on the nose with a powerful punch.

Whimpering from the pain the lion jumps back letting go of the girl, and the MP brings her back to her terrified parents, who thank him endlessly.

A reporter has seen the whole scene, and addressing the MP, says: “Sir, this was the most gallant and brave thing I saw a man do in my whole life. What do you do for a living?”

“Well, I’m a Member of Parliament. And, it was nothing, really. I just saw this little kid in danger and acted as I felt right.”

“Well, I’ll make sure this won’t go unnoticed. I’m a journalist, you know, and tomorrow’s papers will have this on the first page. What party are you with?”

“The Conservative Party of Canada.”

The journalist leaves. The following morning, the MP buys the paper to see if it indeed brings news of his actions, and reads, on the front page:

HARPER’S THUG MP ASSAULTS AFRICAN IMMIGRANT AND STEALS HIS LUNCH!

Recipe For Librano Style Sugo A La Dion

Mulder

I have been watching the Federal Liberals smearing lately and it made me decide to share my recipe for Sugo A La Dion.

A really good recipe for Sugo A La Dion starts out with some really fresh allegationions. If you don’t have some really fresh allegationions you can always use some that were picked a year or so ago, provided they were kept in the dark until needed. This allows you to bring them out just as you start making your sauce.

You take the allegationions and chop them up until no one has any clue what they originally looked like. This is important. The average citizen doesn’t need to know that the recipe contains allegationions. If Sugo A La Dion is made just right, people get the full flavour of the allegationions without knowing it. In fact, I have often heard Canadians who taste this recipe say things like “We need to get our troops out of Iraq”, or “That Mulroney stole our money, Stephen Harper is truly evil.” When you hear that from someone who has tasted your Sugo A La Dion, you know you made the recipe right.

Continuing on, you mix in some fresh tomatoes squeezed in a manner Jean Chretien squeezes the throats of someone who gets in his way. This is important as the fresh Liberal red in the tomato needs to be present. Another good thing to do is to put the fresh tomatoes through a “press”. This is actually the preferred method. If you can’t find some fresh tomatoes, you can always get some CannedWest ones.

Once you mix the tomatoes, the allegationions a few sprinkles of various herbs and spices, you let the whole thing simmer for awhile. Once the mixture is really thick you pour it over some very thin noodles and mix.

Once thoroughly mixed, you simply start throwing this slop at the wall and watch the horrendous stain that it leaves. Notice that because you used the allegationions not a single piece of pasta sticks, but thanks to a great “Press” your Sugo A La Dion made a fantastic stain.

Oh, I forgot to point out that Sugo A La Dion NEVER EVER EVER contains any meat.

The Manning Centre Puts On a Great Show

Mulder

The past three days, I had the honour of attending the Manning Centre for Building Democracy’s Networking 2008 Conference here in Ottawa.

The three days started off with a wonderful reception at the National Arts Centre on Thursday evening at which I got to run into fellow blogger Dr. Roy Eappan and BT co-founder Stephen Taylor in addition to getting to share a few words with our Prime Minister. Throughout the evening I managed to say hello and talk to about a dozen MPs who were all gracious and open to some good political banter.

Friday and Saturday were day long sessions with some fantastic speakers.

The sessions included an introduction to rising Conservative Stars presented by Ralph Klein and Bernard Lord, A strategy session on winning close elections presented by Tony Clement, a panel session on what the Conservative movement should do about healthcare featuring past Ontario premiere Mike Harris, Dr. Brian Day (CMA president) and Joanne Marcotte of the ADQ. (Mike Harris kicked some ass here with his views). Friday ended with a discussion on the subject of Euthanasia presented by Dr. Margaret Somerville.

Saturday was simply a great day . It started with a wonderfully lighthearted view of politics from New Zealand perspective from Richard Prebble. During his question and answer period he had everyone in stitches when asked how New Zealand got rid of the sacred cow of farm subsidies and he replied “The best way to kill a sacred cow is to simply shoot it.” This session was in conjunction with a speech from Aussie strategist and pollster Mark Textor.

The late morning session saw BT co-founder Stephen Taylor talk on blogging and social networking and how useful blogs are becoming. Mr. Taylor managed to boost my ego BIGtime by showing a clip of my Peter Van Loan score on Ken Dryden. It was especially nice to have the crowd laugh in unison at the appearance of the name OfficiallyScrewed.com. (Thanks Stephen!!)

The next to last session was one I had seen much of before at the Leadership Institute sessions but it was full of great ideas on campaigning from some key minds in the conservative movement in Canada. Michael Davis, head of RMG, Richard Ciano of the Conservative Campaign University, Devin Iverson, veteran campaigner and Mark Spiro, principal with Crestview Public Affairs all had great insight which someone like me absorbed like a sponge.

The final session was simply a wonderful speech by past Nova Scotia premiere John Hamm. Mr. Hamm is promoting the 250th anniversary (this year) of democracy in North America. The very first of which was in Nova Scota in 1758. The goal is to engage as many young people to take part in politics and I encourage you to share politics with the youth of today. You can find out more via the website www.democracy250.ca .

The Manning Centre and their co-ordinators did a great job. The event was well scheduled, not rushed, very educational and the food at the Congress Centre was great for a conference. Kudos to everyone involved. I will most certainly be attending future events.

ADDENDUM: I was also lucky enough to get a photo taken of myself with the Prime Minister and autographed copies of Tom Flanagan’s book “Harper’s Team” and Preston Manning’s “Think Big”.

MUST READ: Justice for Mahmoud Jaballah

Mulder

Below is a snippit from Darcey’s first piece on the five Security Certificate detainees. The MSM has not covered these new stories with any great detail and this is truly an injustice. I highly urge everyone to go read the whole thing. Darcey has done a great job on this and deserves full credit and full exposure.

Egyptian-born Mahmoud Jaballah came to Canada in 1996 on a false Saudi passport and claimed refugee status. Along with is wife Husnah Al-Mashtoul they founded and ran the Um Al-Qura Islamic school located in Scarborough, Ontario which still remains open and is apparently approved by the Ontario Ministry of Education as a private school.

He was detained in February 2001 under charges from the federal government that he was a member of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad under Ayman al Zawahiri and was alleged to have been the communications person for the 1998 bombings of U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 213 people. In two days Mahmoud Jaballah made 20 calls to the United Kingdom, Yemen, Azerbaijan, and Pakistan and Mahmoud continues to evade explanation.

He was released seven months later but was arrested again under a new security certificate because it was found that his fingerprints matched those of Egyptian Islamic Jihad leader Mahmoud Said that were released by Interpol . Jaballah’s middle name is Said and it is assumed that he was using an alias while in Egypt.

And it goes on and on with full text from CSIS on what this man is tied to and what he has done. Do NOT let “human rights” activists persuade you that these men should be set free within the borders of Canada…EVER.

Smackdown: Spanking Scott Brison

Mulder

Why do the Liberals let floor crossers ask questions during Oral Questions?

The only answer I can think of is to provide OfficiallyScrewed.com with fodder for more Smackdown videos.

I’ll thank Scott Brison for this one. If you want to rate the video (and I hope you do) click the link below the video and watch it on YouTube where you can rate it. Otherwise, click the video below once to start watching.

If you cannot view the video above, click the link below.

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=XO2dC5jX_rA

A Little Bird Told Me…

Mulder

Everyone asks me if we are going to have an election. I think it has to do with my interest in politics. And to every person I answer the same way. I tell them to go ask Stephane Dion since it is the Liberals who will decide whether to prop up the Tory government via the old “Sit and Spin”. i.e. they sit on the hands when the bell tolls and they spin the stories to the press hoping to swing the polls….

Well tonight I had the luxury of sitting in some choice seats at the hockey game featuring the Leafs vs. the Senators. (Yeah!! My Leafs kicked butt 5-0). And not two rows back and two or three seats over is sitting Steve MacKinnon, the past president of the Liberal Party and someone who regularly appears on the Mike Duffy Live show doing much of the aforementioned spinning.

So at the first intermission, I turn and yell out “Hey Steve!”

He looks around until he spots who is calling him and I ask “Are we going to an Election soon?”

In a friendly manner, he replies “I don’t think so. What do you think?”

I tell him I don’t think so either and I let him go back to eating his hot dog with his two friends.

So there ya have it. Someone far closer to the fray saying he doesn’t think we will be having a spring election not 24 hours before the budget comes down.

Steve MacKinnon eating a hot dog at a Leavs vs Sens game
(That’s him on the left in the brown leather bomber jacket)

CBC Bias Rears It's Ugly Head … Again

Mulder

I just finished watching Marketplace on CBC this Sunday afternoon. That’s what happens when CTV cancels this weeks edition of Question Period.

The last 10 minutes of Marketplace was dedicated to seeing if consumers were really seeing the GST cut that the Tories have brought in.

They start off with a Tim Horton’s coffee and confirm that Tim’s is, indeed, passing on the GST cut by cutting the cost of coffee. I can confirm this because the price of an XL coffee used to be $1.59 and after the 2 point cut it is now $1.56. Yay Timmy’s!!!

But every other price they looked at was for a set price item. i.e. prices that have traditionally been rounded to a dollar (or half dollar).

They start off with a Saturday Toronto Star. $2.00 before and $2.00 after. Since a large portion of newspaper sales are via the box on the street corner, this one is a given as an item that would not change in price. Who the heck is going to want to put $1.98 into a newspaper box slot?

They then proceeded with Parking machines, parking meters, Live Theatre tickets, taxi cab fares and movie tickets. All of which have stayed the same with the base rate of the product going up meaning no cost savings to the consumer.

I don’t know about you, but I have noticed the tax saving on restaurant food, where the tax is added in AFTER the cost of the meal. I have noticed the tax savings in my grocery bill which far outweighs any money I put into movies, cabs, or parking. I have also noticed it anywhere the price of the item is set with the tax being added after the fact. Store owners did NOT go around the store bumping that $3.99 box of cereal to $4.03.

This was simply a poor reporting job by the CBC. The sad part about something like this is that most of the items they looked at were items that lower income Canadians do not typically use.

Lower income earners ride the bus over taking a taxi or paying for parking. The Conservatives put in a tax credit for the bus riders. Lower income earners might go to the movies occasionally, but more often than not they do not go see a $120 show at the Royal Alex in Toronto as the Marketplace segment showed. In fact, video rentals add tax AFTER the fact so that $3.99 rental that cost $4.59 after tax is now only $4.51. Thank you for my 8 cents!!!

Chalk this one up to that left wing bias our publicly funded network is known for.

Smackdown – Peter Van Loan Scores on Ken Dryden

Mulder

From the “When will the Liberals ever learn?” file comes this video. Ken Dryden tries to play martyr by complaining that the Conservatives do not listen to the common man and are more in bed with corporations.

What amazes me is that Liberal Dryden asks these questions on the day the Liberal Party is attempting to hold an illegal fundraiser which skirts Elections Canada donation procedures by not providing tax receipts in an auction where “The Sky’s the limit” and one that encourages corporations and associations to bid on the prizes.

One of those prizes happens to be attending a Canadiens/Senators hockey game in the company of…you guessed it…Ken Dryden.

In a world where corporations do not care about tax receipts and are more interested in “what politician is in their pocket?” this type of fundraiser flies in the face of the new donation laws that limit donations to individuals and set that limit at $1100 to a national party and $1100 to riding associations.

Stephen Taylor caught the fundraising scandal but Peter Van Loan provides the Smackdown.

Click the video above once to begin play. If the video does not play properly, you can click the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6jScLmT3y4