Election Day Blogburst

"I am a Canadian,
a free Canadian,
free to speak without fear,
free to worship God in my own way,
free to stand for what I think right,
free to oppose what I believe wrong,
free to choose those who shall govern my country.
This heritage of freedom I pledge to uphold
for myself and for all mankind."

These words of Canadian Prime Minister John George Diefenbaker from the Canadian Bill of Rights have been on the sidebar of this blog since day 1. They are worth repeating on this day when we exercise our hard earned right to elect a government of our choice.

Other blogs bursting with these words today include Blazing Cat Fur, Blue Like You, Covenant Zone, Dust my Broom, Damian Penny, Five Feet of Fury, Halls of Macademia, Just Right, Kitchener Conservative, Political Staples, Right Girl, small dead animals, stubble jumping redneck, The Great Pumpkin and Wonder Woman.

Now get out there and VOTE!

The red-green pact

Could those rumours be true that the red red Liberals and the green Greens are making "secret deals"? Well, better take a look at this CPAC video of Green Party candidate Larissa Shasko and Liberal candidate Cal Johnston discussing a "coalition" in Saskatchewan.



Via Climbing out of the Dark

The Greens and Liberals (with Carolyn Bennett present) try to form a coalition in the riding, but the NDP will have none of it. All this, just to stop those scary Conservatives. They never stop to think that people might actually like the Conservative platform and think that lefties are wrong. It never even enters their carbon riddled brains, that they just might be the ones who are off track.

Let's give the NDP candidate credit for having the good sense of not allowing himself to be drawn in to this sorry mess.

h/t: SDA

Green Party in chaos over May's "secret deal" with Dion

As the Canadian Federal election enters its final days, news is emerging of a possible "secret deal" between Green Party leader Elizabeth May and Liberal Party leader Stephane Dion. Via Bourque Newswatch, a top Liberal organizer "fears a secret deal has been cooked between Dion and Elizabeth May":

...which may explain why she has been meeting with "key Liberal organizers" and is now actively telling Green Party supporters to vote Liberal, of all things.

This, according to our Liberal insider, in exchange for a possible Senate seat and a place as Environment Minister in a Dion-led government. To be clear, Ms May's curious strategy of backing Dion is creating ill-will within her own party to the point that "a lot of Green candidates are upset", according to one national news report this morning. Add to that the fact Dion himself is urging Greenies to go red and join the Liberals.

There's more...

In recent hours, Bourque has heard from a number of senior political operatives, notably senior Green Party standard bearer David Chernushenko, who told Bourque that

"Integrity is when you make your actions consistent with your words and your promises. We all look for leaders with integrity. Too bad they are so hard to find. Green Party candidates should expect nothing but full and unwavering support from their leader. They have not received it. She has failed utterly in this one and most important obligation. To back them all to the end. In our 2006 leadership race, only when pushed by me, she promised Green Party members that of course she would back GP candidates 100 percent. Alas, the facts speak for themselves. If I were a candidate, I would be furious. I would feel let down by my leader when I needed her most. I wanted to stay out of this campaign entirely, but when I saw Green Party candidates, voters and donors being sideswiped, I could not stay silent. My friends and family deserve more respect. The Green Party is is not a "flag of convenience" to be raised and lowered on a whim."

Elizabeth May and the Green Party: politics as usual. Stephane Dion and the Liberal Party: desperation.

Update:

He [Dion] characterized Ms. May as “courageous”, saying that “for the sake of Canada she wants me as prime minister of Canada.”

Mr. Dion was speaking to a small but enthusiastic crowd of about 75 Liberals at a rally in the Ottawa area riding of Ottawa Orleans

OK, so we are in the final days of the election and all Dion can do is muster the support of 75 Liberals? in the nation's capital? Holy shit.

Election sign courtesy of Katewerk.com.

Updater: Blue Like You asks, "why isn’t this situation being investigated by Elections Canada?"

Updaterer: Angry explains about Section 481 of the Canada Elections Act.

Earliest snowfall on record

2008 is already shaping up to be one of the coolest years in a long, long while. Now this: Boise gets earliest snow on record:

Big snow flakes fell early Friday evening, turning Downtown Boise into a giant snow globe for people on their way home from work. The snow caught many people off guard, including this bicyclist heading down Idaho Street between 8th and 9th around 5:45 p.m. Across the Treasure Valley, tree branches heavy with wet, snow-covered leaves fell on power lines, causing scattered power outages.

This is the earliest measurable snowfall in Boise since recordkeeping began in 1898, according to the National Weather Service. At 10 p.m., the Weather Service said 1.7 inches of snow had fallen. The previous earliest recorded snowfall was Oct. 12, 1969, when a little more than an inch fell.

Does this disprove global warming? Does this mean we're headed into a period of global cooling. Of course not. It's just an isolated incident. But on the other hand, if this were a heatwave, it would be all over the mainstream media.

Update: Winter has arrived in Saskatchewan too:

REGINA — Although autumn officially began just three weeks ago, winter is making an appearance in southern Saskatchewan.

Forecasters predict Estevan will get up to 15-centimetres of snow by tonight.

The Red Star reports:

Environment Canada reported as much as 12 centimetres of snow had fallen and another 10 centimetres was forecast for overnight, along with a slight chance of freezing rain.

Updater: It was exactly 2 years ago this weekend that an early winter storm shut down the city of Buffalo, NY.

NoCarbonTaxes.com

McCain hits back about Freddie and Fannie

Perhaps this is a preview of tomorrow's Presidential debate.



Senator McCain should challenge all the major news media during the debate on national TV to fact check the record. Dare them to report who pushed for greater regulation of Fannie and Freddie. Dare them to report who fought against those regulations.

Dare them to do some journalism.

The pot calling the kettle....

It would appear as though over a quarter of Stephane Dion’s speech at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in 2005 was plagiarized directly from a 2004 speech given to the U.S. Senate committee chaired by none other than…..John McCain.

Read all the gory details at Return of the Tory.

Update: Link fixed.

$700 Billion: What just happened?

Obiden's lies

I have updated an earlier post about the VP debates where I said that Joe Obiden had uttered a number of falsehoods which should provide McCain with some good ammunition for new commercials going into the home stretch of the campaign and added a link to American Thinker's Biden's Big Lies All 14 of Them.

That's all well and good, but here is the full list from JohnMcCain.com:

1. TAX VOTE: Biden said McCain voted “the exact same way” as Obama to increase taxes on Americans earning just $42,000, but McCain DID NOT VOTE THAT WAY.

2. AHMEDINIJAD MEETING: Joe Biden lied when he said that Barack Obama never said that he would sit down unconditionally with Mahmoud Ahmedinijad of Iran. Barack Obama did say specifically, and Joe Biden attacked him for it.

3. OFFSHORE OIL DRILLING: Biden said, “Drill we must.” But Biden has opposed offshore drilling and even compared offshore drilling to “raping” the Outer Continental Shelf.”

4. TROOP FUNDING: Joe Biden lied when he indicated that John McCain and Barack Obama voted the same way against funding the troops in the field. John McCain opposed a bill that included a timeline, that the President of the United States had already said he would veto regardless of it’s passage.

5. OPPOSING CLEAN COAL: Biden says he’s always been for clean coal, but he just told a voter that he is against clean coal and any new coal plants in America and has a record of voting against clean coal and coal in the U.S. Senate.

6. ALERNATIVE ENERGY VOTES: According to FactCheck.org, Biden is exaggerating and overstating John McCain’s record voting for alternative energy when he says he voted against it 23 times.

7. HEALTH INSURANCE: Biden falsely said McCain will raise taxes on people's health insurance coverage -- they get a tax credit to offset any tax hike. Independent fact checkers have confirmed this attack is false

8. OIL TAXES: Biden falsely said Palin supported a windfall profits tax in Alaska -- she reformed the state tax and revenue system, it's not a windfall profits tax.

9. AFGHANISTAN / GEN. MCKIERNAN COMMENTS: Biden said that top military commander in Iraq said the principles of the surge could not be applied to Afghanistan, but the commander of NATO's International Security Assistance Force Gen. David D. McKiernan said that there were principles of the surge strategy, including working with tribes, that could be applied in Afghanistan.

10. REGULATION: Biden falsely said McCain weakened regulation -- he actually called for more regulation on Fannie and Freddie.

11. IRAQ: When Joe Biden lied when he said that John McCain was “dead wrong on Iraq”, because Joe Biden shared the same vote to authorize the war and differed on the surge strategy where they John McCain has been proven right.

12. TAX INCREASES: Biden said Americans earning less than $250,000 wouldn’t see higher taxes, but the Obama-Biden tax plan would raise taxes on individuals making $200,000 or more.

13. BAILOUT: Biden said the economic rescue legislation matches the four principles that Obama laid out, but in reality it doesn’t meet two of the four principles that Obama outlined on Sept. 19, which were that it include an emergency economic stimulus package, and that it be part of “part of a globally coordinated effort with our partners in the G-20.”

14. REAGAN TAX RATES: Biden is wrong in saying that under Obama, Americans won't pay any more in taxes then they did under Reagan.

Haven't heard about these from the mainstream media? What a surprise!

Now National Review has the list too with some extras:

Below, you’ll find a list of 14 “lies” Biden told last night, distributed by the McCain campaign. I’d just note two observations: first, when you tell stories of things that didn’t happen with the frequency of Joe Biden, coupled with his fervent belief of these untrue and inaccurate statements, I don’t think “lie” is the appropriate term. “Hallucinations” seems more accurate, I think. Second, they missed a bunch, so Biden’s list of li- er, hallucinations is well beyond 14.

Worth the read.

Harper Government Record

A compilation by Crux of the Matter:

There are “62″ accomplishments on this list. They are only examples of the many Harper government achievements.

h/t: Newsbeat1

Rae: Let's hold on to 2nd place

Bob Rae, former NDP Premier of Ontario and now federal Liberal MP and leadership contender, was in Saskatoon yesterday to give his party some strategic advice for the closing days of this election campaign.

"In the last 10 days, we've really got to focus on what are the real choices. And I honestly believe the NDP is not a viable choice anymore," Rae said after rallying about 40 supporters.

This man, who came close to becoming the leader of the Liberal Party in 2006, drew a crowd of only 40 supporters to a rally during the election campaign! That says something about the sorry state of the Liberal Party.

That plus the fact that Rae is effectively recommending that, by shifting their focus against the NDP, the Grits should give up on winning this election and try to hold on to second place.

He even urged "the anti-Conservative electorate to avoid splitting their votes between the Liberals and New Democrats". That sounds a lot like strategic voting to me. Not a tactic usually employed by a party intent on winning.

The real battle in this election is going to be who forms the Official Opposition, the Liberals of the NDP.

The knockout punch of the debates

Too many debates to watch last night, if you can call that attempted ambush and gang rape of Canadian PM Stephen Harper a debate. The VP candidates in the US were much more civilized and interesting.

I'm not going to analyze either of them, other than to say that 1) Harper clearly won by not lowering himself to the level of "the gang of three and a half" opponents and that 2) Governor Palin delivered very nicely thank you against Senator "Papa Joe" O'Biden, who for his part uttered a number of falsehoods which should provide McCain with some good ammunition for new commercials going into the home stretch of the campaign.

There was really only one knockout punch delivered in the entire evening. It begins at the 2:05 mark of this interview of former Clinton advisor Dick Morris on Fox News Hannity and Colmes.



Ouch! It must hurt to be Alan Colmes.

Update: American Thinker has the list of Biden's Big Lies All 14 of Them