Good evening ladies and gentlemen, welcome to SDA Late Nite Radio. Tonight, for your delectation and pursuant to our Tuesday night vintage music show, here are Harry Reser and his Syncopaters performing Shaking the Blues Away (1927, 2:49).
Your Reader Tips are, as always, welcome in the comments.
(Put it in an op-ed.) |
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I don’t believe the evidence will support any accusation that Barack Obama was involved with Blagojevich’s alleged seat-for-sale scheme, but Obama is doing himself NO favors by lying about any element of this matter. There would be nothing wrong with Obama having spoken with the governor, and that’s what Obama should have said today – that he discussed possible candidates with Blagojevich, but had no idea that the governor was making plans to auction off the Senate seat to the highest bidder.
Lying is never a good idea. It’s an especially bad idea when the person who has just been arrested apparently hates you, and would likely love to see you taken down with him. Plus, this sort of pointless lie just fuels the flames for those who are looking for reasons to discredit you and shame you. It makes their job awfully easy.
I received these charts by “Rod B.” via email – It just makes me wonder why CBC and CTV (Mr Craig Oliver) keep referring to the “Western Conservatives”, or the “Alberta Conservatives” … and in their next breath say that Harper is the one causing division in this country?
Why? For the same reason they’re studiously ignoring their own polling results indicating the Liberals have been hit hard by the coalition scheme – the facts don’t fit the narrative.
Illinois Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich and his Chief of Staff, John Harris, were arrested today by FBI agents on federal corruption charges alleging that they and others are engaging in ongoing criminal activity: conspiring to obtain personal financial benefits for Blagojevich by leveraging his sole authority to appoint a United States Senator; threatening to withhold substantial state assistance to the Tribune Company in connection with the sale of Wrigley Field to induce the firing of Chicago Tribune editorial board members sharply critical of Blagojevich; and to obtain campaign contributions in exchange for official actions – both historically and now in a push before a new state ethics law takes effect January 1, 2009..
Lots of links at Drudge, where the headline reads “Grand Jury subpeonas issued on Rezko/Obama land deal.”
Chicago Tribune;
In one charge related to the appointment of a senator to replace Barack Obama, prosecutors allege that Blagojevich sought appointment for himself as Secretary of Health and Human Services in the new Obama administration…
The criminal complaint filed today against Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich contains a remarkable section detailing the Democratic politician’s alleged attempt to cash in on his ability to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama. Attached to the U.S. District Court complaint is an FBI affidavit, excerpted below, alleging that Blagojevich was caught on wiretaps noting that the Senate seat “is a f***ing valuable thing, you just don’t give it away for nothing.” He was also recorded saying that unless “I get something real good,” he would appoint himself to the vacancy. “I’m going to keep this Senate option for me a real possibility, you know, and therefore I can drive a hard bargain. You hear what I’m saying. And if I don’t get what I want and I’m not satisfied with it, then I’ll just take the Senate seat myself.” According to the surreptitiously recorded conversations, Blagojevich spoke with associates about the possibility of trading the Senate post for either an ambassadorship or a Cabinet post. The Democratic politician, according to the affidavit sworn by FBI Agent Daniel Cain, “analogized his situation to that of a sports agent shopping a potential free agent to various teams.” Blagojevich, 51, and his chief of staff, John Harris, were arrested this morning on political corruption charges.”
Watch how quickly the cheerleaders on Fitzgerald’s Plame and Conrad Black investigations turn…
Media watch side note – as per the usual pattern, the word “Democrat” remains conspicuously absent…
Indeed – “by arresting Blagojevich before Inauguration Day, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald has done the one thing that absolutely prevents Barack Obama from removing him from his position.”
Which is what I meant by “strikes fast”.
According to CTV News….
Michael Ignatieff makes history, becoming the first American to lead the Liberal Party of Canada!
Update – Reader Mike W. writes with a reminder – “Have the Liberals forgotten how it worked last time they let one Mr. Paul Martin scare the rest of the pack out of the race?”
Probably.
Mississauga Matt is unhappy. “I should get a say as to who leads the LPC. After all, I’m part of the majority that never voted for them.”
“… than held in the U.S. oil repository at Cushing, Oklahoma.”
Really. Why does anyone watch CBC, when they can have me?
SDA post-convention analysis from Dec.2, 2007;Post Mortem – in the final analysis, here is what happened. Despite a determined campaign to present a positive face to the nation, the Liberal Party’s decision boiled down to a selection determined by negatives.
The campaign of Michael Ignatieff gained early support, but eventually stumbled because a significant number of delegates were determined to vote for “anybody but”.
The campaign of Bob Rae gained later momentum, but eventually stalled because a significant number of delegates were also determined to vote for “anybody but”.
In the end they settled on the candidate who had staked out the highly coveted political ground known as “least offensive”.
So, there we have it.
The new leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, leader of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition, and citizen of France…
Mr. Anybody But.
I have never believed that there is a secret United Nations plot to take over the US. I have never seen black helicopters hovering in the sky above Montana. But, for the first time in my life, I think the formation of some sort of world government is plausible.
A “world government” would involve much more than co-operation between nations. It would be an entity with state-like characteristics, backed by a body of laws. The European Union has already set up a continental government for 27 countries, which could be a model. The EU has a supreme court, a currency, thousands of pages of law, a large civil service and the ability to deploy military force.
So could the European model go global? There are three reasons for thinking that it might.
Good evening ladies and gentlemen, welcome to SDA Late Nite Radio. Tonight, for your delectation and pursuant to our Monday night jazz show, here are Larry Hooper and Pete Fountain performing Nobody’s Sweetheart on the Lawrence Welk show (1958, 2:06).
Your Reader Tips are, as always, welcome in the comments.
Big problems today with the server, as you’ve likely noticed. I’m told it’s due to a variety of issues, most of them generated by the way MT handles comments, combined with the heavy traffic of recent days. It looks like a site upgrade is in the cards in the near future.
Until that’s been completed (and it’s going to be a few days), please refrain from engaging in idle chit-chat, debates, and one-liners in the comments. Before posting, double-check that your comment is on topic, brings something new to the conversation, and don’t hit post a second or third time.
Otherwise, I may be forced to shut down the comments in their entirety to relieve the demand on server resources. I don’t want to do that, but I may be forced to if the site keeps going down as a result.
Thanks for your patience. It’s been a frustrating day on this end, too.
(This chart by Vitruvius should help to illustrate the problem).
Andrew Breitbart;
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Brontausaurus tipping…. The New York Times mortgages the company headquarters to raise cash, while Tribune Co., owner of the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times, files for bankruptcy.
Glenn Reynolds – “Notice how little blame the declining quality of the news-media product is getting, as compared to discussions of the auto industry’s problems.”
More – a Canadian angle…
The 2008 timeline.
A very long one.
Of course, this is precisely the type of vehicle that the government restructurists would have Detroit phase out in favour of the greener, cleaner, teenier product lines that are currently losing money. Via Tim Blair
“Ford’s newly-redesigned F-150 is selling well enough right now that the Blue Oval has added an extra shift of production at its assembly plant in Kansas City, MO, along with approval for scheduled overtime. An extra shift is also being planned for the Dearborn assembly plant. These are the types of “problems” that automakers don’t mind dealing with after a successful new product launch.”
Meanwhile, Prius sales have fallen in half, Tesla is begging for handouts, and Brits are rejecting electric cars, perhaps out of concern for the lights staying on.
(The things they don’t tell you on the CBC!)
What’s good enough for the country is good enough for the Liber… oh, wait.
Noting that only two Liberal MP’s were elected between North Bay, Ontario and Vancouver, Rae argues a simple vote of the Commons caucus would exclude Liberals in huge chunks of the country from participating in the selection of the party’s next leader.
Greg Staples notes the irony as well;
We are supposed to believe that Mr Rae is comfortable with being one who would anoint themselves to pick a new leader, of the country no less, but is uncomfortable in doing that within his own party.
[…]
Check out ProgressiveBloggers.ca for people who favour the coaliton going batty over Ignatieff being installed as the interim leader of the Liberals …
Liblogs are a barrel of fun this morning, too.
Good evening ladies and gentlemen, welcome to SDA Late Nite Radio. Tonight, for your delectation and pursuant to our Sunday night classical music show, and since it’s that time of year and we won’t have a chance to get to this on the solstice because we’ll be in the middle of our Twelve Days of Christmas shows, here are the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra performing the fourth concerto from Antonio Lucio Vivaldi‘s The Four Seasons: Winter, with violin soloist Anne-Sophie Mutter, and one of my favourites, Herbert von Karajan conducting (9:15).
I have updated my Vitruvius’s Experimental Election Predictor essay to include the data from the most recent Ipsos, Ekos, Strategic, and COMPAS polls. The current value of ΣVe/n, based on those four polls, is 14.85, which historically translates into 207 seats. Clearly, the Right Honourable Steven Harper, Prime Minister, and the Conservative Party of Canada, have not lost the confidence of the Canadian electorate, ergo there is no reason to replace him as Prime Minister or as leader of the Conservative Party of Canada.
Your Reader Tips are, as always, welcome in the comments.
Michael Ignatieff today on CTV’s Question Period;
“I think I’ve never lacked the capacity to make decisions, but a decisive person knows when he has to make decisions, then makes the decisions he has to make, when he has to make them. I’ve made it very clear I would not hesitate to make decisions, if the party gives me the honour of electing me leader.”
Now is the time for action – call his office.
Contact the Party.
Reach out to his supporters, let us lend our voices and our courage!
Stay Stephane Stay!
But, whatever the fate of the man who’s come to be known as the best Liberal Party leader in the history of Canadian conservativism, let us be grateful in the knowledge that Stephane has left us with a gift even greater than himself…
So now is the moment for action – call your Liberal and NDP MP’s!
Tell them they must not waver.. they must not give in to doubt and partisan accusation – that they must fight, fight, fight the forces that would tear their Coalition apart!
Tell them their parties deserve no less!
Good evening ladies and gentlemen, welcome to SDA Late Nite Radio. Tonight, for your delectation and pursuant to our Saturday night contemporary music show, here are The Four Tops performing Still Waters Run Deep (1970, 3:08).
Your Reader Tips are, as always, welcome in the comments.
