"Pull The Troops Rally" Gets 500 In Toronto. Support The Troops Rally Gets Thousands In Kingston.

Mulder

I watched on and off this weekend as various news agencies reported on the numerous rallys across the country which were to raise awareness by moonbats to pull the troops out of Afghanistan. But one thing I noticed is that Toronto, the nation’s most populous city, could only muster about 500 protesters. Considering Toronto has a population of 4 Million or so and with the surrounding areas you can bump that up to 6 or 7 Million, I would have to say that the rally was a failure.

Meanwhile, there was a rally in Kingston where the Kingston Battalion marched into the city after being granted the key to the city. In the rain, there were thousands there watching.

I think when you compare the two rallys, it is quite obvious that there is a big difference in the amount of support.

I realize one was a rally against a mission and the other was one in support of troops. But the ratio of support was ridiculous. 1 in 8000 showed up for the Afghanistan pullout rally and at least 1 in 60 showed up to support the troops in Kingston. Considering Red Friday in Ottawa had 30,000 out of a million you can say that 1 in 35 or so showed up to support the troops in Ottawa.

I think the leftoid protesters need to toss in the towel.

ADDENDUM: I guess Toronto isn’t the only city with a crappy turnout for the leftoid protesters. Kate at SDA has a CBC post (yes I was shocked the CBC reported it too) that indicates in Edmonton only 100 or so protesters turned out.

ADDENDUM:  As BBS points out in the comments, the anti war rally in Windsor had a meager 50 or 60 people.  That had to take the wind from their sails!!  A city of over 210,000 people and they could only drag out 1 in 3500.  I wonder how many of those were Americans who made the trip across the river.

Red Friday Rally In Edmonton

Mulder

Natacha has kindly let me know that Edmonton is planning a big Red Friday rally. Details are as follows:

Date: Friday, November 3, 2006
Location: Sir Winston Churchill Square
Time: 11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.

Rally Details:

The rally will include speeches, musical performances by Shawn Hlookoff, the sale of Red Friday’s merchandise and Yellow Ribbon products sold through the MFRC and Canex Retail Outlet, face painting and much more.

I Can't Sing

Mulder

I can carry a tune, I just don’t have the voice for it. In grade school, when the teachers walked around the gym listening for good singers for the school choir, I was inevitably tapped on the shoulder to go sit down. Some years I purposely made my voice go south when a listening teacher (or Mrs. Pilkey, the singing Librarian) walked by, but most years it was just my terrible voice that got me dumped.

But last night, for some reason that will probably befuddle me for decades, I was asked to kick off the singing of the national anthem at a dinner hosted by our EDA for our MP and Minister of Defence, the Hon. Gordon O’Connor.

My nerves were pretty shot. I found myself simply focussing on the words while I stared at the ground for most of it. I would hate to goof up and look like one of those singers at a baseball game who doesn’t do their homework on the lyrics.

Surprisingly, once I got going the whole room joined in and I think (or hope) that I was just another voice out of the 125 who sang along.

I do remember looking up at one point and seeing Minister O’Connor turn to face the flag that was behind me and I remember thinking “do I keep singing while I face the room or should I turn my back on everyone and face the flag two feet behind me?”. I probably made the wrong choice and just kept singing into the mic while I faced the room.

I am still not sure what the official protocol is for someone at the podium, but if I was wrong I sure picked a good time to be wrong. Sitting beside the Minister of Defence was Laureen Harper, the Minister’s wife Carol, the Minister of Finance (Jim Flaherty), the Minister of Heritage and Status for Women (Bev Oda), the Parliamentary Secretary for HRSDC (Lynne Yelich) and my ridings MPP (Norm Sterling).

Jeff Skilling Will Rightfully Die In Shackles

Mulder

After bilking the shareholders out of billions, Jeff Skilling, ex CEO of Enron, will die in jail. The 52 year old got sentenced to 24 years and four months in jail for his part in the Enron scandal. It feels good knowing he will be some prisoner’s beeatch for the rest of his years.

Considering Andy Fastow, the CFO (Chief FUBAR Officer in this case), only got 6 years and probably has millions sitting in an offshore trust or Swiss Bank Account and Ken Lay died of a heart attack pending sentencing, I think Skilling got the toughest sentence out of the big three.

Fastow got of lucky for turning over on how inept he was. If you have read Kurt Eichenwald’s book on the subject, you would know that Fastow was the driving force in the financial scandal that rocked the markets. But Skilling was the man in charge so rightfully deserves a harsh sentence for letting it happen on his watch.

So ends the Enron affair as far as the major players go.

Good riddance.

Yellow Belly McShifty Hides Behind Federal Skirts

Mulder

Today I am appauled appalled. I am disgusted. I am angry. I am upset.

Dalton Yellow Bellied McShifty is passing the Caledonia buck to the feds. DustMyBroom has the whole scoop and I wouldn’t do this justice other than to say that this shows poor judgement, poor leadership and poor representation on behalf of the citizens of Ontario by Mr. McGuinty.

An ongoing aboriginal occupation in southern Ontario has worn out the patience of the province’s taxpayers, Premier Dalton McGuinty says — and he’s urging Ottawa to pick up its fair share of the cost and settle the eight-month dispute with Six Nations protesters.

Although McGuinty has consistently called for patience in the aboriginal standoff in Caledonia, south of Hamilton, his own forbearance appeared at an end as he reminded the Conservatives in Ottawa that aboriginal land claims are a federal responsibility.

“It is costing the people of Ontario a lot of money,” McGuinty said after a weekend speech in Niagara Falls.

“We intend to claim for compensation from the federal government and we would encourage the federal government to fully assume its proper responsibility and begin to bring some real vigour to the negotiations and to bring them to some conclusion.”

Go Read It All!!!

ADDENDUM:I added the words “by Mr. McGuinty” to the second paragraph to clarify that it is his actions I am disgusted with. The way it read before may have been misconstrued as me being disgusted with Lisa’s post at DustMyBroom, which is not the case. DustMyBroom is a GREAT blog I urge you all to bookmark and read regularly.

Smackdown – Minister Oda Discredits Stronach's Feminism

Mulder

Last Wednesday in Question Period, there was an exchange between MP Belinda Stronach and the Minister of Heritage, Bev Oda. It starts out with Stronach giving a bit of a low blow to Minister of the Environment, Rona Ambrose, and it ends with Minister Oda laying the smackdown on Stronach.

Hon. Belinda Stronach (Newmarket—Aurora, Lib.)
Mr. Speaker, the Minister of the Environment drives a car with a bumper sticker which says, “A woman’s place is in the house, the senate and the oval office”. That is a great sentiment if we were all Americans, but it is too bad that she did not advocate for rights and equality for Canadian women within her own cabinet.

In fact, the six women in cabinet sat back, said and did nothing, while equality was dropped as part of this government’s mandate.

…

Hon. Bev Oda (Minister of Canadian Heritage and Status of Women, CPC)

Mr. Speaker, I shared with you an experience this morning of honouring some very significant women and in fact these women are with us today.

I would suggest that the member opposite who had the opportunities, at one time being recognized as the most powerful businesswoman in Canada, did very little about it. Consequently, when we look at her board at Magna, there is no female representation on that board.

Ouch!!!!

Bravo to the Minister from Durham for pulling this one out. Considering the statement, I find it hard to take any comment on women’s issues seriously when it comes from the mouth of Stronach.

We've Been Jynxed!!

Mulder
Jynx 9 weeks 2
Jynx 9 weeks 1

The above pictures are of our newest family member. We named him Jynx and he is the cutest little dachsund/shih-tzu cross. No nasty overbite of the shih-tzu and no long body of the dachsund. He actually looks like a black lhasa apso to some extent.

His 4.1 lb frame has a nice little white beard on his chinny chin chin, a white ascot and a white spot on his belly that makes him look like he is wearing a little tuxedo.

The vet check last Monday came out clean and the vet thinks he is pretty darn healthy and that he already has a great personality and demeanour. The personality really shows through when he is romping around the floor with T-Bone and Cookie.

This story has no nasty political dog remarks. It’s just a peek into my personal life.

Media Bias Blatant In Coverage Of Polls

Mulder

A few days ago, a poll came out announcing that the federal Liberals and federal Conservatives were neck and neck in the eyes of Canadian voters.  The press coverage of this poll was in every newspaper and on every news station I turned on.

Two days ago, Environics released a poll that indicates the Tories are 9 points ahead of the Liberals yet no one covered it.

This morning I heard about this poll on Lowell Green’s show and was simply shocked that no one covered this poll in the press.  Apparently this poll was over a three week period and the poll indicating a tie was over a two day period at the tail end of the Environics poll. I agree that two polls can have different results depending on the period of time and length of polling time, but for two polls so close together to have such different results is rare (albeit possible).

My main beef is that the press chose to cover the one that that puts the Liberals in a better light and ignore the one that has the Tories a full 3 percentage points better off than on election day last January!!

Environics Poll

Can't Get Sex Out Of Your Television? Stop Watching Those Cheese Commercials

Mulder

I just saw a commercial that really got my goat.

A young lady, sort of trashy looking, reorganizing a bathroom medicine chest to add her own products which then cut to that annoying old lady from the cheese commercials talking to a guy in boxers in the doorway of his bedroom and she says:

Can’t get your one night stands to STAY one night stands? Stop cooking with cheese!! Don’t put Canadian Swiss in her grilled cheese. Next she’ll have you buying a minivan!.

Call me a prude, but does this need to be in a commercial? I mean really. It’s a cheese commercial that is tying in one night stands. I can understand it if they had a couple of pieces of cheese talking about relationships going bad or getting old and moldy, but one night stands??

Come on folks. Stop using sex to sell things.

Say Goodnight Garthy … Goodnight Garthy

Mulder

What many had predicted has come to pass. Garth Turner was suspended from the Conservative Caucus today and will sit as an independent.

I know I have had a few different views than Garth and made them clear on my site.

Ironically, Stephen Taylor has located a changed blog post that may be the key to what caused the break up. Apparently it had to do with broken party confidences (i.e. the camel’s back). But considering it refers to the billions of unauditable dollars going to Indian Affairs, one has to wonder if this being public is really a bad thing. I, for one, am appauled that this money from the public purse for IA cannot be audited.

One might put Indian Affairs in with a group of Senators milking our tax dollars to the tune of $150,000 for a week long vacation in the middle east.

In any case, I am very curious what is going to happen with the Halton nomination.